Observation on the Language of Chaucer's Legend of Good Women

by John Matthews Manly

A scholarly, language-centered study of Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women, grounded in manuscript evidence and philology.

This reprint collects a detailed analysis of Chaucer’s language in the Legend of Good Women. The work presents a careful account of final -e usage and related forms, drawing on a single Cambridge manuscript and parallel studies from related Chaucer texts. It offers cross-references to readings in other versions and situates findings within the broader field of medieval English philology.

Originally prepared as a Harvard dissertation, the study blends historical linguistics with textual notes. It is written for readers who value precise philological observation, manuscript comparison, and thoughtful explanation of how Chaucer’s language shapes interpretation of the poem.

Close examination of noun and adjective forms across Middle English usage Discussion of dialect, manuscript variants, and glossing implications Notes on Chaucer’s treatment of final -e and related spellings Cross-references to parallel work on Chaucer’s Troilus for context Ideal for students, teachers, and readers with an interest in Chaucer, Middle English linguistics, and textual criticism.


" Observations on the Language of Chaucer's Legend of Good Women"

126 pages, Hardcover

Published September 12, 2018

About the author

John Matthews Manly (September 2, 1865 — April 2, 1940) was an American professor of English literature and philology at the University of Chicago. Manly specialized in the study of the works of William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer. His eight-volume work, The Text of the Canterbury Tales (1940), written in collaboration with his former student Edith Rickert, has been cited as a definitive study of Chaucer's works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ma...