Glossing Gower: In Latin, in English, and in absentia: The Case of Bodleian Ashmole 35.
- Author/Editor
- Echard, Siân
- Title
- Glossing Gower: In Latin, in English, and in absentia: The Case of Bodleian Ashmole 35.
- Published
- Echard, Siân. "Glossing Gower: In Latin, in English, and in absentia: The Case of Bodleian Ashmole 35." In Re-visioning Gower. Ed. Yeager, R.F.. Charlotte, NC: Pegasus Press, 1998, pp. 237-256.
- Review
- Echard adds another valuable chapter to her on-going series of studies of the MSS of CA. Here she examines the presentation of the Latin apparatus in Bodleian MS Ashmole 35, with glances for comparison at Manchester, Chetham's Library MS A.7.38, both of Macaulay's "recension one." Chetham retains the Latin verses, but replaces the Latin glosses with an abbreviated mix of Latin and English. Ashmole omits the Latin altogether. The verses, the portion of the apparatus that is most resistent to loss in other copies, are simply omitted; and the glosses, while still in red to mark them off from the rest of the text, are entirely in English, and while often based on the Latin that they replace, they also draw from the English text of the poem, as can be seen in the numerous instances in which the gloss and the poem differ. Echard makes some fascinating deductions from the Ashmole glossator's many additions and revisions. Overall, she concludes, where the original Latin apparatus was intended to present an alternative voice in confrontation with the English text, the glossator has eliminated the confrontation, and he has opted for the English. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 18.1]
- Date
- 1998
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
- Manuscripts and Textual Studies