The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation.

Martin M. Stevens and Daniel Woodward, eds. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library Press; Tokyo: Yushodo Company, 1995.57 b/w illus. + xvi + 363 pp. $75. ISBN: 0-8732-8150-0.

This companion volume to The New Ellesmere Chaucer Facsimile is the first collection of essays by leading Chaucerians and historians of the book entirely devoted to the Ellesmere manuscript of the Canterbury Tales. Co-editor Martin Stevens writes: "It is designed to provide the most up-to-date scholarly description of the manuscript and to explore the editorial and critical issues that define its place in Chaucer studies" (15). The collection is remarkably successful at accomplishing both. It offers a range of perspectives on the physical features of the manuscript, its history and influence, and it reflects the intensity of the editorial and critical debate over whether the Ellesmere or the Hengwrt manuscript should be regarded as the "best text" of the Canterbury Tales.

To keep before its readers the beauty of the original Ellesmere manuscript, the collection has as its frontispiece full-size, color reproductions of the Ellesmere portraits of all twenty-three storytellers. Following this frontispiece are two introductory essays by the editors: in the first, Daniel Woodward explains the need for the Ellesmere Chaucer Facsimile and the stages of its production; in the second, Martin Stevens presents a useful guide to the essays in interpretation to follow. To complete this introduction, the editors have included an "editorial summary" for the nonexpert of the technical report by Anthony Cains, director of conservation for the Ellesmere Project. The diagrams and photographs illustrating this summary demonstrate the step-by-step procedures of disbanding, repair, and rebinding of the manuscript and help to deepen the reader's appreciation of the preparation required for the making of the facsimile.

According to Stevens's introduction, the fourteen essays that comprise the body of this volume address three major topics: the manuscript itself, the text of the Canterbury Tales it contains, and the historical and cultural context in which the manuscript and its text can be located. Among the nine essays analyzing features of the manuscript is an in-depth bibliographic study by M.B. Parkes and the most detailed examination to date of the scribal hands of both the Ellesmere and Hengwrt manuscripts by paleographical authority A.I. Doyle. Other essayists arrive at revealing conclusions from their analyses of Ellesmere illumination, portraiture, and marginalia, while essays on the language of the Tales and on the editorial decisions of the Ellesmere workshop add new knowledge to the dating of the work and the ordering of the Tales. Two essays presenting the sides in the "best text" contest are also meant to suggest the major textual dilemmas arising from the Ellesmere Tales. Evaluating the Ellesmere text closely "in light of the Hengwrt manuscript," N.E Blake argues that the Hengwrt matches Chaucer's final plans most closely, despite the nonauthorial ordering of its Tales; on the other hand, Ralph Hanna attempts to prove that editing by the Ellesmere workshop makes its version of the Tales "more Chaucerian, not less" (239). The third topic, the context for the Ellesmere manuscript, is developed in part by two fine essays: one by Derek Pearsall places the work within the London book trade of its time; the second by Laura Kendrick compares it with contemporary vernacular works. Both essays "show what the Canterbury Tales accomplishes, as cultural artifact and an invention in the art of narrative" (24).

The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation succeeds in presenting a new, often-intriguing reevaluation of the manuscript and of such crucial issues as concepts of authorship and the nature of scribal and contemporary editing. Several of these essays also point to new directions for future scholarship. Together with the publication of the Ellesmere Facsimile, this collection marks a significant milestone in Chaucer studies.

PHYLLIS F. MANNOCCHI Colby College