Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). [=a] signifies "a with macron"; [)a] "a with breve"; and so forth. [gh] represents yogh, [*e] the schwa. A carat character is used to denote superscription: a single character following the carat is superscripted (example: XIII^e).

In this edition the two versions of the Prologue to the Legend are each assembled for continuous reading. Skeat's commentary on the Astrolabe (mentioned in the text as "Footnotes") has been similarly separated from Chaucer's text.

Project Gutenberg has Volume VI of Skeat's edition, which contains a Glossary covering the texts in this volume. See: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43097

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_Frontispiece***_]

THE COMPLETE WORKS

OF

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

_EDITED, FROM NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS_

BY THE

REV. WALTER W. SKEAT, M.A.

LITT.D., LL.D., D.C.L., PH.D.

ELRINGTON AND BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

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THE HOUSE OF FAME: THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES

'He made the book that hight the Hous of Fame.'
_Legend of Good Women_; 417.

'Who-so that wol his large volume seke
Cleped the Seintes Legende of Cupyde.'
_Canterbury Tales_; B 60.

'His Astrelabie, longinge for his art.'
_Canterbury Tales_; A 3209.

SECOND EDITION

Oxford

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

M DCCCC

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Oxford

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

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CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION TO THE HOUSE OF FAME.--§ 1. Authorship. § 2. Influence
of Dante. § 3. Testimony of Lydgate. § 4. Influence of Ovid.
§ 5. Date of the Poem. § 6. Metre. § 7. Imitations.
§ 8. Authorities. § 9. Some Emendations vii

INTRODUCTION TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN.--§ 1. Date of the Poem.
§ 2. The Two Forms of the Prologue. § 3. Comparison of these.
§ 4. The Subject of the Legend. § 5. The Daisy. § 6. Agaton.
§ 7. Chief Sources of the Legend. § 8. The Prologue; Legends of
(1) Cleopatra; (2) Thisbe; (3) Dido; (4) Hypsipyle and Medea;
(5) Lucretia; (6) Ariadne; (7) Philomela; (8) Phyllis;
(9) Hypermnestra. § 9. Gower's Confessio Amantis. § 10. Metre.
§ 11. 'Clipped' Lines. § 12. Description of the MSS.
§ 13. Description of the Printed Editions. § 14. Some Improvements
in my Edition of 1889. § 15. Conclusion xvi