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

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INTROD UCTION.

In addition to these, two fragmentary manuscripts of the
poem were also printed by the Chaucer Society in 187I,- one
from the Cambridge University Library, containing the first 365
lines; and one from the Bodleian Library, containing the first
142 lines.
COMPARISON OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
There is a general agreement among all the manuscripts, with
the exception of the one in the Northern dialect, which is designated here as J. This not only omits the first two stanzas and
the last one; but, from the eighty-seventh stanza on, there is
no resemblance whatever between it and the others. In addition, the variations throughout the whole poem are so numerous and so peculiar as to forbid the idea that the copy from
which this was taken could have been the same as that from
which the others were transcribed. It seems, indeed, as if it
must have been written down from memory by some one in
whose mind the original had become more or less confused and
forgotten. Words and expressions were, in consequence, often
put into a different order, or new ones had to be supplied; and,
in particular, the latter part of the poem having entirely disappeared from memory, its place was filled by an invention of
the copyist himself, or of some one else.
As J is the poorest of these manuscripts, that of the Cambridge University Library, marked Gg. 4.27, and designated as
A, is much the best, and has been taken as the basis of this
edition. A comparison of it with the others shows in many
instances such variations, that it seems as if it must have been
subjected to a special revision, or to have been made from a
copy differing in some particulars from all the rest. Against
the former supposition it is to be said, that, in several cases,
there are defects both in the words and in the metre of MS. A
which could hardly have passed unnoticed by any careful reviser.
Still its general superiority is very marked, especially if compared with any other individual one, and not with all. This, as
regards the metre, is often secured by the addition or omission
of unimportant words or of grammatical endings. For the