FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49  
50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>   >|  
rd (1778) edition, which it follows page for page (except the glossary; see note on p. 291). The reference numbers in text and glossary, which are often wrong in 1778, have been corrected; line-numbers have been corrected when wrong, and added to one or two poems which are without them in 1778, and the text has been collated throughout with that of 1777 and corrected from it in many places where the 1778 printer was at fault. These corrections have been made silently; all other corrections and additions are indicated by footnotes enclosed in square brackets. V. NOTES. 1. _The Tournament_, lines 7-10. Wythe straunge depyctures, Nature maie nott yeelde, &c. 'This is neither sense nor grammar as it stands' says Professor Skeat. But Chatterton is frequently ungrammatical, and the sense of the passage is quite clear if either of the two following possible meanings is attributed to _unryghte_. (1)=to present an intelligible significance otherwise than by writing--as 'rebus'd shields' do (un-write); or (2) = to misrepresent (un-right). With pictures of strange beasts that have no counterpart in Nature and appear to be purely fantastic ('unseemly to all order') yet none the less make known to men good at guessing riddles ('who thyncke and have a spryte') what the strange heraldic forms express-without-use-of-written-words ('unryghte')--or (taking the second meaning of unryghte--misrepresent) present-with-a-disregard-of-truth-to-nature. 2. _Letter to the Dygne Mastre Canynge_, line 15. Seldomm, or never, are armes vyrtues mede, (that is to say, coats of arms) Shee nillynge to take myckle aie dothe hede i.e. 'She unwilling to take much aye doth heed'; 'which is nonsense' says Prof. Skeat. But the sentence is an example of ellipse, a figure which Chatterton affected a good deal, and fully expressed would run 'She--not willing to take much, ever doth heed not to take much', which would of course be intolerably clumsy but perfectly intelligible. 3. _AElla_, line 467. Certis thie wordes maie, thou motest have sayne &c. Prof. Skeat 'can make nothing of this' and reads 'Certes thy wordes mightest thou have sayn'. A simple emendation of _maie_ to _meynte_ would give very good sense. 4. _AElla_, line 489. Tyrwhitt has _sphere_--evidently a mistake in the MS. for _spere_ which he overlooked. It is not included in his errata. In the 1842 edition the meaning 'spear' is given in a footnot
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49  
50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
unryghte
 

corrected

 

present

 
intelligible
 

strange

 

wordes

 
Nature
 

misrepresent

 

corrections

 
glossary

meaning

 

Chatterton

 

numbers

 
edition
 
nonsense
 

sentence

 

unwilling

 

Mastre

 
Canynge
 

Seldomm


Letter

 

nature

 

taking

 

disregard

 

myckle

 

nillynge

 

vyrtues

 

ellipse

 

perfectly

 

Tyrwhitt


sphere

 

evidently

 
mistake
 

simple

 

emendation

 
meynte
 

footnot

 

errata

 

overlooked

 

included


mightest

 

intolerably

 
clumsy
 

affected

 

expressed

 
written
 

Certes

 
Certis
 
motest
 
figure