MS. Barlow 20
Summary Catalogue no.: 6420
Contents
Skeat describes this as 'A clearly written MS. of the D-type, including Gamelyn; imperfect after Sir Thopas, but contains a portion of the Manciple’s Tale
It contains the somewhat rare lines F. 679-680 (W. W. Skeat, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer [1914], vol. 4, p. xi)
For other peculiarities, see J. Koch, The Pardoner's Tale (Heidelberg, 1901), pp. 56-57; and cf. William McCormick, The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Oxford, 1933), pp. 21-29
Physical Description
Condition
Binding
17th-century English work, rebacked.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
'Per me Iohannem Wekes', on fol. 259v, written in a late sixteenth-century hand. The same hand also wrote an English couplet and a prologue to a legal instrument dated 1591-1592. The couplet is written above the name 'Iohannem Wekes' and reads, 'Thy master's booke doth scorne thy name To scribble therin then cease for shame' ( MWM)
Beneath this, in a different hand is written, 'My masters booke will geve me lefe too scribble therin y ask no lefe' ( MWM)
'per me Thomas Weke' and other 16th century scribblings are on fol. 260v; Thomas Weke' (16th century, fol. 64r)
'Wyllyam Dubledaye' (followed by a 'sequent device, possibly a notary's mark', according to Seymour [1997], pp. 162-165)
On fol. 84r, a crude coat of arms has been drawn: two cross crosslets with space for a third, apparently a chief. According to Manly and Rickert, cross crosslets were used by some branches of the Weeks family (Manly and Rickert [1940], p. 57). On f. 73r, the shield is parted per pale, and only one cross crosslet drawn, with space for two more.
Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1691 by Thomas Barlow (Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2 Part 2, p. 1043)
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-04-14: Description revised to incorporate all the information in the Summary Catalogue (1937)