1. Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition, edited by Paul G. Ruggiers
This book has chapters covering each of the major Chaucer editors, analyzing their editorial practices and editions of Chaucer’s texts. The chapters which cover Chaucer editors preceding Urry (Caxton, Thynne, Stow, and Speght) were helpful in allowing me to learn the editing precedents set by the time Urry’s volume was published. For example, Speght’s 1598 and 1602 editions, the last major editions of Chaucer until Urry’s 1721 publication, were relied upon heavily by Urry during his own editing process: the “arguments” Speght introduced for each work were published virtually unchanged in the Urry edition.
It will also be important to understand the influence of the Urry edition on later editions of Chaucer. Although many scholars have asserted that the Urry edition was a complete failure, it appears upon cursory inspection that Urry’s edition may have been the first to introduce modern punctuation usage to Chaucer’s works. To assert that the Urry edition had a lasting influence on the punctuation of Chaucer (in particular, that of Troilus), I must examine whether the punctuation in later editions is similar to that of Urry’s, as well as look for evidence that later editions relied upon Urry as a source text. The Ruggiers text will allow me to search for this evidence.
2. Chaucer and Augustan Scholarship by William L. Alderson
This book focuses specifically on the editing of Chaucer during the 18th century. Unfortunately, it was published unfinished, as Alderson died before he could complete his research. It is from this book that the information about Urry was taken for Ruggiers’ chapter on Urry’s edition. Alderson’s book, therefore, covers much of the same information about the 1721 Chaucer. More intriguing (and hopefully more fruitful) to examine will be Alderson’s personal notes, written when he was working on this book, and currently possessed by my mentor, Dr. Sprunger.
