New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies

and Reading Practices

© UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Derek Pearsall

© UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

NEW DIRECTIONS in

MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT STUDIES and

READING PRACTICES

Edited by

Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, John J. Thompson,and

Sarah Baechle

u n i v e r s i t y o f n o t r e da m e p r e s s . n o t r e da m e , i n d i a n a

Essays in Honor of

DEREK PEARSALL

© UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Copyright © 2014 by University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

The Press gratefully acknowledges the support of the Institute for Scholarship in

the Liberal Arts, University of Notre Dame, in the publication of this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

New directions in medieval manuscript studies and reading practices :

essays in honor of Derek Pearsall / edited by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton,

John J. Thompson and Sarah Baechle.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-268-03327-9 (hardback) — ISBN 0-268-03327-7 (hardcover)

1. Manuscripts, Medieval—England. 2. English literature—Middle

English, 1100–1500—Manuscripts. 3. Books and reading—England—History—

To 1500. I. Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn, editor. II. Thompson, John J., 1955– editor.

III. Baechle, Sarah, editor. IV. Pearsall, Derek, honouree.

Z106.5.G7N49 2014

091'.0942—dc23

2014022368

∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee

on Production Guidelinesfor Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

KerbyFulton-00FM_Layout 1 9/4/14 4:03 PM Page iv

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New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices

Proceedings of the Robert M. Conway Notre Dame London Center Conferences, I

About the Conway Conferences

As a University of Notre Dame alumnus and trustee, Robert M. Conwayhas long been a generous supporter of the Medieval Institute, not onlyendowing the prestigious Conway lecture series and the director’s posi-tion but also providing funds for programming. He recently also gavea special gift to fund conferences to be held in the Notre Dame Centerin London. Since he lives in London, Bob Conway’s idea was to bringtogether academics from Notre Dame and from British universities totalk about medieval topics. After this gift was announced, two NotreDame faculty members, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton (English) and MargotFassler (Theology), proposed the topics for these Conway London Con-ferences, one on medieval manuscript culture (Conference I) and theother on the musicology of historian-cantors in monastic houses (Con-ference II). These proposals not only fulfill the spirit of the gift, as pro-posed by Bob Conway, but they are interdisciplinary, which is in keepingwith the mission of the Medieval Institute. The more recent conference,the Cantor-Historian Symposium, was held at the Notre Dame LondonCenter on October 20–23, 2013. The first of these conferences, NewDirections in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices inHonour of the 80th Birthday of Derek Pearsall, was held on October20– 22, 2011, and selections from its proceedings are gathered here.

Remie ConstableDirector, Medieval Institute

University of Notre Dame

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© UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Preface xviiKathryn Kerby-Fulton

A Brief Biographical Sketch of Derek Pearsall xxiLinne Mooney

Part I . Celebrating Pearsallian Reading Practices

Foreword to Part I 1Christopher Cannon

1. Narrative and Freedom in Troilus and Criseyde 7A.C. Spearing

2. How Good Is the Outspoken South English Legendary Poet? 34A New Edition of the Prologue to the Conception of MaryOliver Pickering

3. Derek Pearsall, Secret Shakespearean 55Martha W. Driver

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Part II . England and International: Studies in Courtly Verse and Affectivity Inspired by the Work of Elizabeth Salter and Derek Pearsall at York

Foreword to Part II 73William Marx

4. The Tongues of the Nightingale: “hertely redying” 78at English CourtsJocelyn Wogan-Browne

5. Wings, Wingfields, and Wynnere and Wastoure 99Susan Powell

6. The Author of the Italian Meditations on the Life of Christ 119Sarah McNamer

7. Handling The Book of Margery Kempe: The Corrective 138Touches of the Red Ink AnnotatorKatie Ann-Marie Bugyis

Part III. The Making of a Field: York’s 1981Manuscripts and Readers Thirty Years Later

Foreword to Part III 159John J. Thompson

8. Assessing Manuscript Context: Visible and Invisible 165Evidence in a Copy of the Middle English BrutJulia Boffey

9. Books with Marginalia from St. Mark’s Hospital, Bristol 177A.I. Doyle

10. John Colyns, Mercer and Bookseller of London, 192and Cuthbert Tunstall’s Second Monition of 1526Carol M. Meale

11. Selling Lydgate Manuscripts in the Twentieth Century 207A.S.G. Edwards

viii Contents

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Part IV. Newer Directions in Manuscript Studies I : Regional and Scribal Identities

Foreword to Part IV 221Siân Echard

12. “And fer ouer þe French flod”: A Look at Cotton 226Nero A.x from an International PerspectiveHannah Zdansky

13. Langlandian Economics in James Yonge’s Gouernaunce: 251Translation and Ethics in Fifteenth-Century DublinHilary E. Fox

14. Manuscript Creation in Dublin: The Scribe of Bodleian 271e. Museo MS 232 and Longleat MS 29Theresa O’Byrne

Part V. Newer Directions in Manuscript Studies II :Women, Children, and Literacy at Work in LateMedieval and Early Tudor England

Foreword to Part V 293Phillipa Hardman

15. The Romance of History: Lambeth Palace MS 491 and 300Its Young ReadersNicole Eddy

16. Langland in the Early Modern Household: Piers Plowman 324in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 145, and Its Scribe-Annotator DialoguesKarrie Fuller

17. Playing as Literate Practice: Humanism and the Exclusion 342of Women Performers by the London Professional StagesMaura Giles-Watson

Contents ix

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Part VI. Chaucerian and Post-Chaucerian ReadingPractices

Foreword to Part VI 359Edward Wheatley

18. Quoting Chaucer: Textual Authority, the Nun’s Priest, 363and the Making of the Canterbury TalesElizabeth Scala

19. Chaucer, the Continent, and the Characteristics 384of CommentarySarah Baechle

20. Hoccleve in Canterbury 406Peter Brown

21. The Legacy of John Shirley: Revisiting Houghton 425MS Eng 530Stephen Partridge

Part VII. What a Poet Is “Entitled to Be Remembered By”: Editorial Philosophies and the Langlandian Legacy of Derek Pearsall

Foreword to Part VII 447Nicolette Zeeman

22. Was the C-Reviser’s Manuscript Really So Corrupt? 452Jill Mann

23. Emending Oneself: Compilatio and Revisio in Langland, 467Usk, and HigdenMelinda Nielsen

24. Confronting the Scribe-Poet Binary: The Z Text, Writing 489Office Redaction, and the Oxford Reading CirclesKathryn Kerby-Fulton

List of Contributors 516Index of Manuscripts and Incunabula 518General Index 524

x Contents

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