Introduction

Introduction

The Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript is extremely valuable to the Chaucer canon and the Medieval era. Chaucer was the most prominent author in the history of English Literature, before William Shakespeare was established as a writer. The Canterbury Tales is considered to be the best work written by Chaucer and it is the best work that represents the Medieval period. The Canterbury Tales is placed among the world greatest literacy achievements for this reason.

There are two manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that have survived since the 1400s.The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is known as Ellesmere 26.C.9, and it is housed inside the beautiful Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. Copied after Chaucer's death, the Ellesmere is one of the earliest and most authoritative of extant manuscripts, produced by the same scribe as the Hengwrt manuscript: "Slightly earlier than the Ellesmere, the Hengwrt has a much less acceptable ordering of the parts, although individual words and spellings are often more authoritative than those in the Ellesmere" (Fisher, p. 1).

Ellesmere Chaucer

Ellesmere Chaucer

Although, the Hengwrt was written earlier, most scholars prefer the order of the tales in the Ellesmere and this is interesting because it has been discovered that the Hengwrt was written by the same scribe as the Ellesmere. The same scribe used two different language formats for each of the manuscripts. This also shows that the order of the tales was manipulated by the scribe. The scribe had the creative authority to place the tales in a different order, which could disrupt the meaning of the work as a whole. Chaucer died before he finished writing the tales, so it is not certain how he would have placed the tales. Chaucer did provide a General Prologue, which was meant to be an outline of how the tales would be told. However, Chaucer never finished writing all of the tales. In the General Prologue, thirty pilgrims are described, which also introduces the work's structure, that each pilgrim is expected to narrate two stories on their way to Canterbury and another two on their return journey. The best storyteller would be rewarded with a free supper (Hengwrt). Since the outline provides some guidance from Chaucer, as to the structure of tales, it should be clear to the scribe what order the tales should be placed. It is not clear why the scribe chose to change the language and the order of the tales. However, the Ellesmere is the best arrangement of all the manuscripts.

In addition, there may not have been an Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript if he had finished the work. There would only be one story told, in this way the unfinished work allows readers to read the tales in different orders to read different perspectives of how a work can be read. There is on one correct way to read a story.

Hengwrt Chaucer

The Hengwrt manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is housed inside he National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth, where it is known as MS Peniarth 392D. Hengwrt Chaucer is the earliest and most authoritative manuscript of the Canterbury Tales (Fisher, 1). The main difference between the two manuscripts is the arrangement of tales. The tales are not placed in the same order in the two manuscripts.

The Ellesmere and the Hengwrt are the only two, among 50 manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales to survive before the printing press by William Caxton in 1476-77 (Fisher, 2). The interesting part about the manuscripts is the idea that so many were written and none of the versions were exactly the same. In each manuscript there is a reconstructed, or edited version of the tales. This idea of having multiple interpretations of the text allows readers to be their own editors, and make meaning out of an uncompleted text.

There are three distinctive features of the Ellesmere manuscript:

1.) Elaborate boarders, and the 23 paintings depicting the Canterbury Pilgrims

2.) Completeness of the text. Only 14 of the 82 manuscripts are complete and undamaged. By complete, meaning the text is written and most of the pages are intact.

3.) Language of the text: Middle English