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Bound in 17th c. sprinkled calf, the boards framed by a repeating gold tool. Discreetly rebacked preserving most of the original spine, corners bumped; new endpapers. With the full-page engraved portrait of Chaucer bound opposite the title page and a second title page (leaf c1) with a three-quarter page woodcut of Chaucer s arms. A very fine, crisp copy with trivial faults: a burn-hole in blank margin of leaf E4; two small spots on leaf N3; lvs. T2-3 lightly toned, clear dampstain to gathering Uu; occasional rust spots. The contents are: "The Canterbury Tales", together with the "Prologues"; "The Romaunt of the Rose"; "Troilus and Criseyde"; "The Legend of Good Women"; Chaucer s translation of Boethius "Consolation of Philosophy"; "The Dreame of Chaucer"; "The Assemblie of Foules"; The Flower of Courtesie"; "How Pitie is Dead"; "La Belle Dame sans Mercie"; "Annelida and false Arcite"; "The Assembly of Ladies"; The Conclusion of the Astrolaby"; "The Complaint of the Black Knight"; "A Prayse of Women"; The House of Fame"; "The Testament of Love"; "Jake Upland"; John Lydgate s "Siege of Thebes" and a number of other minor works. Thomas Speght: "The schoolmaster and literary editor Thomas Speghtbecame interested inChaucerat Cambridge, an enthusiasm he shared withFrancis Beaumont, who later contributed a prefatory letter toSpeght'sChauceredition. It is possible that they formed part of a circle of Chaucerians at Peterhouse and it is perhaps significant that they overlapped with the Cambridge years of another noted Chaucerian,Edmund Spenser(1569 76). After Cambridge,Speghtappears to have maintained a private interest inChaucer. In October 1592 a reprint ofChaucer'sworks was entered in theStationers'register and by the time this work appeared under the titleThe Workes of our Antient and Lerned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer, Newly Printedearly in 1598,Speghtwas the editor. "In preparing the editionSpeghtcertainly had the help of the antiquaryJohn Stowand the 1598 edition ofChauceris in some ways not much more than a revision ofStow'sown edition of 1561. AlthoughSpeghtlists works ofChaucer'swhich he claims were 'never before imprinted' (Speght,Workes, sig. Aiiiv) most of them in fact appeared inStow'sedition, suggesting the extent to which he saw his task as simply presenting anew whatStowhad done. "Nevertheless,Speght'snotes and introductory material are far more elaborate than in any previous edition and he was the first to provide a substantial glossary. While this suggests thatChaucer'slanguage was becoming difficult to read, it is also part of the process whereby the Chaucerian text was dignified by the kind of extensive apparatus a classical author might receive. Speghtalso contributed new annotations to the text ofChaucer, of which the most famous is his comment on a reference to the legendary hero Wade.Speghtwrote, 'because the matter is long and fabulous, I passe it over' (Speght,Workes, sig. Bbbb.iiiiv), an unfortunate omission as all knowledge of stories of Wade has subsequently been lost. "Also among the introductory material was an extensive biography, which informed all subsequent accounts of the poet's life until the 1840s. Several common beliefs aboutChaucerwere established here, some of them on the basis of texts attributed to the poet, but spurious. Hence,Chaucerwas thought (as supposed author ofThomas Usk'sThe Testament of Love) to have spent time in exile in the 1380s and was claimed as a fellow Cantabrian on the basis ofThe Court of Love.Speghtplayed upChaucer'slinks withJohn of Gauntand enhanced the image of the poet as a man who 'alwaies held in with the Princes, in whose daies he lived' (Speght,Workes, sig. Bviv). He was also the source of the biographical detail thatChaucerwas once fined2s.for beating a Franciscan friar in Fleet Street. The document supposedly recording this was found in the Inner Temple, leadingSpeghtto suggest that the poet studied law there. While the beating of the friar has never been dis.
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