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centuries after immortalising British medieval author Geoffrey Chau*cer’s
seminal work The Canterbury Tales, an anonymous scribe has been
unveiled as the long-haired son of an English landowner. Mooney came across his
signature in a London library during a study of medieval scribes, known
as "scriveners’’. She immediately saw it was the same as the
manuscripts. "It took about a second to recognise. I was so
excited,’’ she said. Cambridge University has endorsed the find as
authentic. Stories such as The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the bawdy adventures of a sex-crazed, middle-aged woman, and The Knight’s Tale, partial inspiration for a recent Hollywood film, are a classroom staple and masterful portrayals of medieval ways. But prior to this week, all literary academia knew about the scribe came from a typically blunt Chaucer poem about him. In it, he wishes scabs to appear under the "longe locks" of Adam scrivener if he continues to make transcription errors: "But (unless) after my makinge thou write mor trew, So oft a day I mot (must) thy werke renewe. It to correct, and eke to rubbe and scrape, And all is thorowe thy necligence and rape (haste)." That may have been over-harsh on Pinkhurst. "We’ve never had any complaints about the accuracy of his copying of The Canterbury Tales,’’ Mooney said. "Maybe he was young and after being chastised, he became a better scribe? Maybe Chaucer’s handwriting was awful and he couldn’t help making these mistakes because the scribbled pages were so bad?’’ Pinkhurst was thought to have come from a farming area of Surrey, in southern England, and worked for Chaucer in the last two decades of the 14th century. — Reuters |