University of Virginia Library

The Transcription of the Clerk's Tale

Two different scribes transcribed the text of the Clerk's Tale: scribe 3 copied most of it, from f68 to f83 line 28; scribe 2 completed the tale, including the appended ballad, "Truth," f84 line 11. My own examination confirms Manly's original assessment that the transcription was ". . . a bad copy of a MS of good tradition," and that the writing was much interrupted, with little or no supervision and few corrections (435, 434). The frequent interruptions in the transcription, I think, may account for the many missing lines in the text of the tale. Besides the "Prologue," the two other sections of the Clerk's Tale that others have noted as missing are the seventy-two lines (E189-260) near the beginning of the tale, probably as the result of a lost folio following f69,[14] and, as I have already mentioned, the "Lordynges" and "Wife of Bath" stanzas (E1163-1176). I have found seven other major lacunae, totalling thirteen lines, including a complete stanza, as well as several instances of line transpositions, and one repetition.[15]

In considering the pattern of scribal "error" I am discounting the absent "Prologue" because none of the "independent" versions of the Clerk's Tale has it, and it is external to the tale.[16] I think that it is highly unlikely that folio 68, between the end of St. Albon on f67v and the beginning of the Clerk's Tale on f68v, was left blank for copying the "Prologue" at a later time, because there is insufficient space here to fit its fifty-eight lines. Except for the line transpositions on f83v in scribe 2's stint, all of the other errors were made by scribe 3. The configuration of missing lines and transpositions forms an alternating pattern between folios where there are no mistakes and those where there are, with the alternations increasing in frequency towards the end of the tale.[17]

Comparing the errors in the transcription of quire 5 with those in quire 6 shows even more clearly the decreasing quality control of the scribe's writing.[18] Not only is the frequency of "error" higher in quire 6, but the total

number of missing lines is greater.[19] In addition, the kinds of "errors" made in quire 5, such as the three line transpositions, suggest that the scribe was more attentive to his work here than in quire 6, which has only missing lines.[20]

This points to a conclusion that the quality of scribe 3's work decreased substantially towards the end of his writing stint of the Clerk's Tale.