The Harleian Manuscripts :: Chaucer Canterbury Tales Essays

The Harleian Manuscripts, Ha2 and Ha3 My research on the Harley manuscript versions of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", Ha2 1758 and Ha3 7333 from the British Library led to the finding of little information except what was to be found in the footnotes of articles and books describing the Ha4 7334. The little information I did find might lead to reasons why the manuscripts, particularly the Ha3 7333, are difficult to research and why they are seldom mentioned. I spent most of my research time on the library's fifth floor and went through the stack of Chaucer books, particularly the publications by the Chaucer Society. I also searched the internet for articles and research pertaining to Chaucer and the many manuscript versions of "The Canterbury Tales", including the library's electronic resources, Infotrac and JSTOR. Most of the descriptions I found on the Ha2 and Ha3, however, came from the footnotes of articles on these electronic resources and from the footnotes of the books I found discussing the textual history of "The Canterbury Tales". One possible explanation as to why the Ha2 and Ha3 are rarely found or mentioned in comparison to the overwhelming supply of information on the Ha4 is that the Ha2 was "mostly used to supply Gg.S. or Cambridge". Similarly, the Ha3 "mostly supplies Lansdowne"(Koch 4). Therefore, maybe what is to be found of these manuscripts, the Ha2 and Ha3, is the combining of these manuscripts with the Cambridge and Lansdowne manuscripts, since it is described that the Harley versions supply these manuscripts. This theory is also supported by the fact that the Harley manuscripts contained many similarities to Shirley. I inferred from my readings that Shirley was a scribe of one of "The Canterbury Tales" manuscripts, since the Harley 7333 is often times mistaken to be his work(Pace 21). This presents another possible explanation that the Harley was combined with another manuscript and was therefore almost completely lost. This is only a possibility though, because the Harley is still referred to, no matter how seldom, as its own manuscript and is not combined in description with the Cambridge or Landsdowne. In lists of the available "The Canterbury Tales" manuscripts, provided by various books, the Harley is still referred to as its own manuscript and is not represented as part of another. The only information I found regarding the Ha2 1758 is that it lacks ten fols.