5. The "Petworth" MS., belonging to Lord Leconfield.

6. The "Lansdowne" MS. in the British Museum. "Not a good MS.,
being certainly the worst of the six; but worth reprinting owing
to the frequent use that has been made of it by editors."

In his Introduction, Professor Skeat enumerates no fewer than
fifty-nine MSS. of the Tales: but of these the above six (and a
seventh to be mentioned presently) are the most important. The most
important of all is the "Ellesmere"--the great "find" of the Six-Text
Edition. "The best in nearly every respect," says Professor Skeat.
"It not only gives good lines and good sense, but is also (usually)
grammatically accurate and thoroughly well spelt. The publication of
it has been a great boon to all Chaucer students, for which Dr.
Furnivall will be ever gratefully remembered.... This splendid MS. has
also the great merit of being complete, requiring no supplement from
any other source, except in a few cases when a line or two has been
missed."

Professor Skeat has therefore chiefly employed the Six-Text Edition,
supplemented by a seventh famous MS., the "Harleian 7334"--printed in
full for the Chaucer Society in 1885--a MS. of great importance,
differing considerably from the "Ellesmere." But the Professor judges
it "a most dangerous MS. to trust to, unless constantly corrected by
others, and not at all fitted to be taken as the basis of a text." For
the basis of his text, then, he takes the Ellesmere MS., correcting it
freely by the other seven MSS. mentioned.

Now, as fate would have it, in the year 1888 Dr. Furnivall invited Mr.
Alfred W. Pollard to collaborate with him in an edition of Chaucer
which he had for many years promised to bring out for Messrs.
Macmillan. The basis of their text of the Tales was almost precisely
that chosen by Professor Skeat, _i.e._ a careful collation of the Six
Texts and the Harleian 7334, due preponderance being given to the
Ellesmere MS., and all variations from it stated in the notes. "A
beginning was made," says Mr. Pollard, "but the giant in the
partnership had been used for a quarter of a century to doing, for
nothing, all the hard work for other people, and could not spare from
his pioneering the time necessary to enter into the fruit of his own
Chaucer labors. Thus the partner who was not a giant was left to go on
pretty much by himself. When I had made some progress, Professor Skeat
informed us that the notes which he had been