An edition of 'Contemplations of the dread and love of God'

[摘要] This thesis presents an edition of Contemplations of the Dread andLove of God, a late Middle English devotional prose text for whichno critical edition is currently available. I have transcribedand collated the text from all sixteen extant manuscripts and the1506 printed edition. An investigation of the errors and variantsaccording to the classical method of textual criticism has yieldedlittle in the way of conclusive results, and it has therefore notproved possible to construct a stemma of manuscripts from thecorpus of evidence as it now exists. My edition therefore usesone manuscript (Maidstone MS Museum 6) as a base; I emend the textof Maidstone where necessary, and cite variants from all the otherwitnesses to show all differences of substance. A full criticalapparatus is provided, comprising: the text with variants, textualnotes and glossary. The introduction includes a full descriptionof all the manuscripts and the two early printed editions, anoutline of the methods of textual criticism applied and theirresults, and an explanation of the choice of base manuscript;information about the language of the Maidstone manuscript and thedate of the text are also provided, as is an outline of myeditorial principles. The thesis also contains two appendices.The first of these deals briefly with the twenty-two instanceswhere individual chapters of Contemplations appear in othermanuscript compilations; the second discusses the English andLatin prayers which follow the full text in some manuscripts.

[发布机构] University:University of St Andrews;Department:English (School of)

[效力级别] Bible--History of Biblical events--Poetry

[关键词] Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Translations into English;Bible--History of Biblical events--Poetry