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IV

I shall conclude by returning to the possibility that Speght found all of his heading in Gg. This possibility is of great interest because of the statement that Chaucer wrote the poem for Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, which constitutes, if true, an item in the poet's biography. Nothing, of course, is inherently improbable in Chaucer's having written the A B C for the wife of his long-time associate (and patron) John of Gaunt. Blanche died in 1369; the A B C is agreed to be an early poem. That Chaucer wrote the Book of the Duchess to lament Blanche's death is, although not a certainty, the common belief. Nevertheless Chaucerians have either given very qualified acceptance to Speght's statement or have rejected it — principally, it would seem, because of its late date.[19] If Speght's heading could be shown to have been in so venerable a manuscript as Gg the argument for authenticity would obviously be stronger. And not only because of the earlier date of Gg (1420-40). In the opinion of Manly and Rickert Gg was prepared for "a wealthy patron of literature . . . who knew owners of special texts" (I, 180). Presumably "special texts" may be interpreted to include special traditions.

The fact that the statement about Blanche, and the accompanying French title, must be presumed to have been written at the end of folio 4 (rather than on folio 5 immediately above the text, as would now seem normal) presents only an apparent difficulty. Headings in manuscripts do occasionally appear just so. For example, the Leyden manuscript of Chaucer's Truth (Vossius Germ. Gall.Q.9) has the heading for the poem at the bottom of folio 95b while the poem itself is on 96a. The corresponding folio in Gg is missing. Are there compelling reasons for believing that it had on it the statement about Blanche?

There are, at any rate, reasons.

To begin with, the simplest explanation of Speght's heading is to assume that all of it was in Gg, and if a fact of biography were not involved this reason would doubtless seem sufficient in itself.

Next, the French title is characteristic of Gg. Three of the four short poems which follow the A B C have foreign titles, and one of these is French (Balade de bone conseyl [Truth]). Also, Speght's French title is found in Pepys 2006 (and only found there). Heath's tree (fn. 4 above) shows Gg and Pepys as deriving from a common source, now lost. Making the adjustment made necessary by this paper, showing Speght as derived from Gg, we have the following as the relevant portion of the tree:

A strong textual reason thus exists for believing that Gg once had the French title at least.[20]

Two other arguments apply strictly to the statement about Blanche. The phrasing — "made, as some say" — seems to point to an earlier day. The A B C must have been virtually unknown in the sixteenth century, as Speght

was the first to print it. Finally, a special reason exists for believing that Gg, more than any other manuscript, might well have preserved a tradition about Blanche. Manly and Rickert's study of the early provenance of Gg leads them to conclude (I, 180) that the original owner was probably Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. As they observe, Humphrey was Chaucer's great-nephew (half blood). Even more pertinent to our discussion, Humphrey's grandmother was Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster.[21]

This paper has shown that the version of Chaucer's A B C in the 1602 Speght, the first printed edition of the poem, is essentially a copy of an extant text.[22] The paper has also considered the editorial treatment which Speght gave to his source, and the relevance of the identification of the source for the provenance of the Canterbury Tales manuscript Gg.4.27 and for the authenticity of Speght's assertion that Chaucer wrote the A B C for Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, which it rather strongly supports.