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Hurrah for cautious old bores! David Kastan at Columbia is leading a movement which pays attention to facts and he calls it"the new boredom".At 06:51 PM 1/1/03 +0000, you wrote: >Well I'm a cautious old bore, so I wasn't going to say as much because I >haven't seen the MS and have no wish to blow my posterior trumpet about >something I haven't looked at, but I think there could be a connection >between the fact that several people seem to have gone through the (labour >intensive) creation of scribal copies of a print artefact and the >controversies surrounding the print edition of Complaints. Of course >sometimes people just did transcribe printed books without a very obvious >reason (someone copied out the duodecimo of Jonson's poems, for instance; >presumably the scribe's friend had a copy and the scribe had more time than >money); but to find two transcriptions of a printed text among a pretty thin >MS tradition would I think be pretty unusual. (Which means I can't think of >another example, but am a cautious old bore). > >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: 31 December 2002 20:59 >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: MS of Complaints > >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