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Thanks, Colin. I didn't expect sphere-shaking, of course, but I'll be interested to see it anyway; the film is cheap. In the case of manuscripts of Complaints would there be a possibility that such copies are a response to its calling-in or whatever we call the fuss it produced? I mean, if it became hard to get hold of, one could have it copied? I continue to be vaguely surprised by the sheer labor of copying out a printed text (Harvard also has one of Elizabeth's translation of Marguerite de Navarre)--like typing up an e-mail attachment instead of printing it. Yes, there were many reasons to do so. Also yes--the thought of Peter Beal being wrong does strain the imagination. Again, thanks. Anne. >===== Original Message From Sidney-Spenser Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> ===== >Beal refers to Harvard MS Eng. 266 as a 'transcript of Complaints probably >made from the edition of 1591', and he is not very often wrong (he tends to >use 'probably' where lesser mortals might just assert things in my >experience). I haven't looked at it, but one does sometimes come across >careful transcriptions from printed texts, some of which even transcribe the >colophons and so on. This is a dim memory, but I have a feeling BL Harley >6910 does this kind of thing (certainly I've seen a Spenser MS in the BL at >some point in my travels which is clearly a transcription from print, but >these things melt from the mind so readily). Sadly one can't claim much for >this sort of MS, though it might be significant as an indicator of the >price/scarcity/value of the volume if there were two roughly contemporary MS >transcriptions of the printed text. Also they're a useful way of picking out >the mannerism of a particular scribe (you can see what kinds of things he >likes to do if you can be sure you have the copy from which he was working). >As for illustrations by Hillyard, well you can hope... There is the Bodleian >Harington MS which lovingly pastes in engravings from Italian eds of >Ariosto, and there are also some curiously perfect MS emblem books complete >with illustrations out there; so you never know what you might find. Scribes >do sometimes want to make books. But I guess that the Harvard MS won't shake >the spheres. > >Happy nearly new year. > >Colin Burrow, Fellow and Tutor, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge CB2 >1TA >tel: 01223 332483 >web: http://www.english.cam.ac.uk > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] >On Behalf Of aprescot >Sent: 26 December 2002 19:55 >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: MS of Complaints > >By the way, does anybody know anything about a MS of Spenser's *Complaints* >at >the Houghton Library in Cambridge? I have ordered a microfilm and Joe >Loewenstein will be there next term (year?) and can deal with it better than >I >can but in the meantime, aside from waiting for the microfilm to arrive I >thought maybe somebody has information about it. I assume it's not *very* >exciting or there would have been comments to that effect on it in the >scholarship. Perhaps it is premature to make this inquiry before I've seen >the >thing (or its filmy double), but I don't want to waste much time thinking >about it if a lot of people out there have seen it and determined that >despite >Houghton's date of "c. 1591) it's really a 19th c. copy of Upton's version. >In >my dreams, of course, it's signed "Edmund Spenser" and has instructions to >the >printer and illustrations by Hillyard. Ho ho. Just kidding. David Miller, >Patrick Cheney, and Joe himself say they don't know much about it so I can >go >on dreaming for a few more days. Anne Prescott. > >>===== Original Message From Sidney-Spenser Discussion List ><[log in to unmask]> ===== >>Be sure the Edmund Spenser Home Page >><http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenser/main.htm> gets a heads-up to link >>you in. Congratulations on a fine project. >> >>Richard Bear <[log in to unmask]> >>Renascence Editions >><http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ren.htm> > >anne prescott >english, barnard college anne prescott english, barnard college