Textual-Critical studies of medieval English literature have primarily focused on practical matters such as transcription, collation, recension, and the identification of scribal hands. But the theory of editing medieval English works remains largely unexplored. Tim William Machan addresses this void by setting out to articulate the textual and cultural factors that distinctively characterize Middle English works as Middle English and to reveal the role these factors play in editing and interpretation of these works.

In revealing how the creation of textual criticism affected the...

Boethius s "De Consolatione Philosophiae" was among the most persistent and extensive influences on Chaucer s writing. Its ideas appear in various works, including the "Knight s Tale" and "Troilus and Criseyde," while the so-called Boethian balades offer poetic renditions of small sections of the Consolation. Around 1380 Chaucer translated the whole of the "Consolation" into English, drawing not only on the Latin Vulgate "Consolatio" but also on Jean de Meun s French translation ("Li Livres de confort de philosophie") and on Nicholas Trevet s Latin commentary on the...