Chaucer's Works, Volume 6 — Introduction, Glossary, and Indexes

About this book

This volume presents the complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer as edited by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, drawing on a wide range of manuscripts and early prints. The opening pages explain the specialized phonetic symbols used throughout the text, then launch into a scholarly introduction that outlines the editor’s goals: to furnish a sound, manuscript‑based text, to separate Chaucer’s authentic poems from later spurious additions, and to apply the latest advances in Middle‑English grammar and phonetics. Detailed notes, extensive glossaries, and numerous indexes accompany the poems, ranging from the Romaunt of the Rose and the Minor Poems to the Canterbury Tales and the Astrolabe, offering readers both linguistic precision and literary insight.

The work is written in a formal, academic voice characteristic of late‑19th‑century philology, with meticulous attention to dialect, pronunciation, and metrical structure. It will appeal to scholars, graduate students, and serious enthusiasts of Middle English poetry who appreciate rigorous textual criticism and a deep dive into Chaucer’s language, style, and sources.