The mystical philology of J. R. R. Tolkien and Sir Israel Gollancz: monsters and critics
December 2017
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Journal article
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Tolkien Studies
F. J. Furnivall’s six of the best: The six-text Canterbury tales and the Chaucer society
February 2015
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Journal article
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Review of English Studies
F. J. Furnivall founded the Chaucer Society in 1868 to print unpublished manuscripts of Chaucer and forward philological work on the poet. It promoted better understanding of the works, especially the Canterbury Tales, by allowing readers to be their own editors through access to the raw data (the manuscripts’ variant readings). Thanks to his background in Christian Socialism (he taught the Tales to students at Maurice’s Working Men’s College), his intentions in founding the Society were essentially democratic. The Society’s, and Furnivall’s, great monument was his parallel text edition of the Tales in six manuscripts: the Six-Text (first part published in 1868), later followed by two further manuscripts to make, in effect, an ‘eight-text’. It was a radically important publication, and had far-reaching consequences for the later editing of Chaucer. Furnivall was in the thick of discussions, with Henry Bradshaw, Walter Skeat and others, about which were the most ‘valuable’ manuscripts of the Tales and the Tales’ order. The consequences of this appraisal (if not its underlying assumptions) are still with us. At this time, important manuscripts in private ownership, including Ellesmere and Hengwrt, were becoming more accessible. Furnivall and his associates made these manuscripts household names among Chaucer students. The Six- [eight] Text’s legacy has been contradictory in prophetic ways. It democratized the editing process, yet it made possible Skeat’s more authoritarian standard edition. It brought Ellesmere into prominence, but asserted the claims of other early manuscripts, notably Harley 7334. It strikingly anticipates recent trends in Chaucer criticism.
SBTMR
F. J. Furnivall’s last fling: The Wyclif Society and Anglo-German scholarly relations, 1882–1922
January 2014
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Journal article
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Review of English Studies
The Wyclif Society (1882) was the last of F. J. Furnivall’s text societies, prompted by the approaching quincentenary of Wyclif’s death (1384), and by celebrations commemorating Luther’s birth (1483); moreover, the Bohemian reformer, Jan Hus, was thought to have been heavily influenced by Wyclif’s writings. Luther’s works were published in authoritative editions to coincide with the anniversary. Protestant religious sentiment was indissolubly mixed with patriotism, and, in central Europe, with nationalist aspirations in the German states before and after unification in 1871, and among Czech patriots seeking independence. The Society concentrated on Wyclif’s Latin works, of which many of the best manuscripts were in libraries in the historic Bohemian lands, and also Vienna. Though English-run, the Society necessarily relied heavily on German-speaking editors who could gain access to the manuscripts. They brought to the task the familiarity with critical text editing and philological methods for which German scholarship was famed. Its publications were ground-breaking in applying methods of text editing devised for classical texts to medieval Latin, while also offering practical demonstrations of how to prepare critical editions for the benefit of English scholars more familiar with parallel texts and diplomatic transcription. The Society testifies to remarkable cultural exchanges and friendship between English- and German-speaking scholars at a time of rising Anglo-German political tension, as well as pressures within the German-speaking and Slav communities in central Europe, Catholic and Protestant. The Society was even briefly revived in 1918 to complete work in progress before war broke out.
SBTMR
Contemporary Kantian Metaphysics
January 2012
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Chapter
The Early English Text Society 1930-1950: Wartime and Reconstruction
January 2012
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Chapter
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Editing Medieval Texts in the Twenty-First Century
Pearl: 'God’s Law' and 'Man’s Law'
January 2008
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Journal article
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Review of English Studies
Friar Richard “Of Both Sexes"
January 2005
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Chapter
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Text and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale Essays in Honour of Anne Hudson
The volume significantly redefines our understanding of texts, history, and controversies from Wyclif to Bale.
History
Sermon Literature
January 2004
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Chapter
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A Companion to Middle English Prose
Survey of and guide to all the major authors and genres in Middle English prose.