The 1807 edition of The Book of the Duchess

This article presents a textual analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Book of the Duchess, from the 1807 edition of The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. The anonymous editor has attempted to present an edition of the text that is an improvement on all previous editions, in terms of quality and the selection of texts. The extent to which this has been achieved is difficult to determine, however. The editor is strongly influenced by Thomas Tyrwhitt’s edition of The Canterbury Tales, but the care and intellect behind Tyrwhitt’s edition is not found to the same degree in the 1807 edition.