Front matter

This text includes characters that require UTF-8 (Unicode) file encoding:

œ (“oe” ligature) ȝ Ȝ (yogh) ħ ũ (h with bar, u with tilde: both rare)

The Sidenotes include a few Greek phrases:

ἕπου Θεῷ

If any of these characters do not display properly—in particular, if the diacritic does not appear directly above the letter—or if the apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. First, make sure that the browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change your browser’s default font.

Linenotes refer to the Cambridge MS.; see end of Introduction. “H.” in the Linenotes is not explained; Skeat’s edition of Chaucer’s Complete Works says that it refers to MS. Harley 2421.

In the printed book, line numbers were squeezed in wherever there was room. For the e-text, they have been regularized to the EETS-standard multiples of 4. Line divisions and page numbers were retained for use with the Index and linenotes, except that some very short words have been moved up or down to avoid awkward gaps. Headnotes have been moved to the nearest convenient line break.

Italic thorn (þ) and yogh (ȝ) seem to have been unavailable to the printer; both letters have been formatted to match the surrounding text. In the Appendix, decorative final letters are shown with ) or + as sprong+, dar⁾ and similar to approximate the look of the original. The inverted semicolon (rare) is shown as ;.

In the primary text, anomalous spellings with initial “u” or non-initial “v” are not individually noted. Other errors, whether corrected or not, are shown in the text with mouse-hover popups.

For this e-text, Chaucer’s translation of the Consolatio is given twice: first as printed, with all notes and apparatus, and then as text alone.

Introduction Index of First Lines Tabula Libri Boicii (”Table of Contents”) Chaucer’s Translation (with all notes) Appendix (verse) Translation (text only) Glossarial Index

EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY Extra Series, No. 5

1868 (Reprinted 1889, 1894, 1895, etc., 1969)

Price 40s.

EDITED FROM BRITISH MUSEUM ADDITIONAL MS. 10,340 COLLATED WITH CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY MS. Ii.3.21

BY

RICHARD MORRIS

Published for THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY by the OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

FIRST PUBLISHED 1868

REPRINTED 1889, 1894, 1895, ETC., AND 1969

Extra Series, No. 5

ORIGINALLY PRINTED BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS LTD., LONDON AND BUNGAY AND NOW REPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD BY VIVIAN RIDLER PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY