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Article: What the manuscripts tell us about the Parson's Tale. (in Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales')
- Article from:
- Medium Aevum
- Article date:
- September 22, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A consensus has long existed that the Parson's Tale and the Retraction were intended by Chaucer to bring The Canterbury Tales to an end. A superficial reading of the manuscripts would tend to confirm this consensus, and only one modern edition, the Manly--Rickert Text, has raised the issue of its validity. The statistics, as we shall see, are impressive. A closer look, however, will show an uneasiness with the Parson's Tale, expressed mainly at its juncture with the Retraction, but also in its intentional omission from some collections of the Tales. This uneasiness begins with what is probably the second extant manuscript, London, British Library, MS Harley 7334, which has ...