The Recension of the Confessio Amantis in the Plimpton Gower.
- Author/Editor
- Gardiner, Eileen.
- Title
- The Recension of the Confessio Amantis in the Plimpton Gower.
- Published
- Gardiner, Eileen. "The Recension of the Confessio Amantis in the Plimpton Gower." Manuscripta 25.2 (1981): 107-112.
- Review
- Gardiner broaches an interesting logical puzzle: how does one identify the recension of a copy of the CA that lacks the passages in the Prologue and Book VIII that are usually used for that purpose? The manuscript in question, Columbia University Library Plimpton MS 265 (referred to by Gardiner as the "Plimpton Gower"), is "defective at both ends" (107), and so the dedication in the Prologue and the Chaucer material in Book VIII usually relied upon to diagnose recensions are unavailable. Her approach in the absence of these passages is to delve into secondary passages associated with the different recensions. Extended comparison of a number of passages in Book V lead her to conclude that that portion of the poem cannot be second recension, and she sees similar evidence that this manuscript "does not transpose lines 556-965" of Book VI (109), or include three variant passages of Book VII, further ruling out the second recension. The absence of lines commonly found in third recension manuscripts, but not in Plimpton (110), eliminates that recension as well. Overall, her logic is direct and sound, and her argument quite detailed. That said, her argument entirely accepts the concept of three distinct recensions, and thus may not be as useful to scholars who share more recent questions about that model of organizing the manuscript history of the CA. [RAL. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 39.1]
- Date
- 1981
- Gower Subjects
- Manuscripts and Textual Studies
Confessio Amantis