The parlament of foules, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed., with introduction, notes, and glossary, by T. R. Lounsbury.

36

INTR OD UCTION.

I give here the original form of the words and the lines in which
they occur. They are langelere (457), langelynge (345), lay
(346), lelous (342), Ielosye (252), Ioie (49, 208, 669), Iolyte (226),
Ion (45I), luge (496, 629). In line I75,joye is not in this manuscript.
In the present state of our knowledge, it has seemed advisable
not to make any general alteration in the spelling, or to attempt
to reduce it to any thing like a uniform standard. Especially is
this true of the final e, which I have concluded to let remain as
found in the manuscript, with very few exceptions, though
sorely tempted to make changes which might easily be justified.
But the difficulties which these irregularities present, especially in
the metre, are difficulties which the student should learn to overcome, at least until a wide-reaching investigation has brought
about, among those best qualified to judge, a general agreement
as to the use of the final e. The text, therefore, represents
in this particular the manuscript. The same statement is true
in the case of all words where the variation is not noted at the
bottom of the page, with the following exceptions:Wherever my and thy are found in the text, myn and thyn
occur in the manuscript.
Where wil or nil (nyl) occurs in the text, wele or nele is
found in the manuscript. The ohly exception is in line 222,
where nyl is the original form.
With respect to the readings, I have felt under no such obligation to regard the authority of the manuscript as binding.
The first aim must be, of course, to get a text which shall
recommend itself on the score both of sense and of metre; and
to do this I have compared every line in all the manuscripts, or
parts of manuscripts, which have been printed by the Chaucer
Society. No reading has been adopted which cannot be justified on the authority of one or more manuscripts, with the
exception of the following instances. Of the alterations made,
and of the value of the text adopted, every one must judge for
himself.
Lines I67, i68,And there if thow hast cunnyng for tendite
I shal the shewe mater of to write.