514 NOTES AND QUERIES
Thomas Hoccleve, `My Compleinte' and Other
Poems, ed. Roger Ellis. Pp.ix + 293 (Exeter
Medieval Texts and Studies). Exeter: Uni-
versity of Exeter Press, 2001. Hardbound
£47.50 (ISBN 0-85989-700-1); paperbound
£15.99 (0-85989-701-X).
THIS new edition of a selection of Hoccleve's
works provides complete texts of the Series
plus a number of shorter poems: the `Con-
pleynte paramont', `La male regle', `Balade et
chanceon . . . a mon meistre H. Somer',
`Balade . . . [pour] mon meistre Robert
Chichele', `Item de beata Virgine', and
`L'epistre de Cupide'. Its appearance, together
with that of Charles Blyth's recent TEAMS
edition of the Regiment, means that a high
proportion of Hoccleve's work is now avail-
able unabridged in modern editions. Ellis
bases his texts, where possible, on the holo-
graph manuscripts, but he is also concerned
to examine the evidence of all surviving copies
and the Introduction considers such topics as
scribal response to the texts and Hoccleve's
own possible adaptations of his material. The
manuscripts of Latin sources are discussed, as
is Hoccleve's role as translator. A section is
devoted to interpretation of the Series but
other poems are dealt with less thoroughly,
an inbalance rooted in Ellis's original inten-
tion to produce an edition of the Series alone.
The texts are accompanied by marginal gloss-
ing and each has notes preceded by a brief
introductory paragraph. There are five
Appendices, providing background material
for topics discussed in the Introduction, in-
cluding one recording selected variants from
the non-holograph manuscripts.
Different sections of this edition are likely to
appeal to different readers. For those new to
Hoccleve, parts of the Introduction, with its
detailed discussion of scribal variation, may
well present difficulties. Although Ellis urges
such readers not to skip, much of this material
is, as the cover blurb suggests, more suitable
for those already familiar with Hoccleve's
work. On the other hand, the texts themselves
are clearly designed to be used by beginners,
and it is presumably for this reason that the
variants are banished to an Appendix. Unfor-
tunately, this makes consideration of many of
the Introduction's arguments a somewhat
December 2002
laborious business, and seems to run counter
to Ellis's claims for their importance.
The quality of these arguments is, in any
case, uneven. It is true that the evidence sug-
gests that the non-holograph copies descend
from lost authorial drafts and that this can give
us an insight into authorial variation. How-
ever, to compare Hoccleve's adaptation to his
material to that made by Langland to Piers
Plowman or by Chaucer to the Prologue of the
Legend of Good Women overstates its import-
ance, and there are times when Ellis appears to
make a lot out of very little. Moreover, his
failure to take account of Hoccleve's metrical
rules means that he often presents as possibly
authorial lines which Hoccleve would almost
certainly not have written. The discussion of
variation in word order, for instance, fails to
consider its effect on elision and, as a result, on
the syllable count.
That said, there is much to welcome in this
edition. The texts are clearly presented in a
form which is suitable for students. The gloss-
ing is occasionally careless (there is a slight
tendency to offer the most common meaning of
a word without due regard to context), but it is
detailed, normally helpful, and certainly a great
improvement on that provided by either Sey-
mour or O'Donoghue. The notes concentrate
more on literary matters than on the historical
background (for the latter, the beginner would
often do well to consult either Burrow or
Seymour), but they are scholarly and suggest
much useful further reading. The brief intro-
ductions which precede each set of notes are
clear and helpful and the bibliography is up-to-
date and comprehensive.
Judith A. Jefferson
Bristol
Victor I. Scherb, Staging Faith: East Anglian
Drama in the Later Middle Ages. Pp. iii +
273. Madison and Teaneck: Fairleigh
Dickinson University Press; London: Asso-
ciated University Presses, 2001. Hardbound
£35.00 (0-8386-3878-3).
EAST ANGLIA in the later Middle Ages was,
as a region, both able and evidently willing to
spend money on pious purposes, frequently of
a conspicuous nature, as can be seen in the
surviving art and architecture of the region.