The Minor Poems, Part One. A Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer ed. by George B. Pace, Alfred David (review)

REVIEWS significatio, as when a fox were to be depicted as Sloth (in what might be termed "vertical" incongruity). But for Leonard what determines whether an allegory is comic is its tone, which is controlled by the letter. Thus humor arises if an element on the literal level is found sufficiently in­ congruent with another on the same plane-"horizontal" incongruity-as when Sir Guyon inadvertently beheads his opponent's horse. But this action will be funny (or not) depending on its congruency with other elements in its literal context, and irrespective ofwhether we acknowledge an ulterior significance to the literal event. Surely this means that the humor ofthe action in an allegorical poem is fundamentally nonrelevant to allegory as a mode of referentiality (except in the case of "vertical" in­ congruity, as above). Comedy reinforces the relation of figura to sig­ nificatio, to be sure, but does so by making the literal action perspicuous, not by rendering the relation itselfincongruous. Seen this way, the prob­ lem ofwhether comedy and allegory can coexist and cooperate seems less of an issue than this book makes of it, and what we learn about comedy in allegory finally comes from the author's sensitive close readings of indi­ vidual poems rather than from a successful theoretical synthesis ofthe two. JOHN BUGGE Emory University GEORGE B. PACE and ALFRED DAVID, eds., The Minor Poems, Part One. A Variorum Edition ofthe Works ofGeoffrey Chaucer, vol. 5. Norman: University ofOklahoma Press, 1982. Pp. xxviii, 223. $38.50. The Variorum Chaucer, a collaborative project of some forty-two Chau­ cerians, was originally planned as commentary upon the entire canon of Chaucer's works. In 1979 it was expanded to include a series of facsimiles with the publication of the inaugural volume of the Variorum, The Canterbury Tales: A Facsimile and Transcription ofthe Hengwrt Manu­ script with Variants from the Ellesmere Manuscript, edited by Paul G. Ruggiers. The facsimile series is designed to represent the tradition upon which subsequent editors have based their texts. The commentary series is designed to provide newly established texts, collations of the manuscripts 179 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER and of the printed editions, explanatory and textual notes, critical and textual introductions, and bibliography. Its purpose is to provide a sum­ mary of600 years ofthe textual and critical commentary. The Minor Poems, Part One, is the secondvolume to be published in the Variorum Edition. The texts and collations, textual essays, and textual notes for this edition are the lifework ofGeorge B. Pace, who prepared and submitted them in 1978, before his untimely death. The critical introduc­ tions and general explanatory notes to the poeins are the work of Alfred David, who also saw the volume through press. The year 1975, when George Pace had essentially completed his research on the text of the poems, is the formal "cutoff" date for references to recent publications. In citing references and abbreviations for the titles of Chaucer's writings, the editors follow the guidelines for the Variorum Chaucer. Instead of using the sigils for the manuscripts in Robinson's edition, the editors of this volume have assigned each manuscript a unique sigil. This sigillation of the manuscripts is reasonable but may at first cause some confusion. References to other works cite the last name ofthe author, the date ofthe work, and line, volume or page numbers. Full refer�nces are given in the BibliographicalIndex, from which there are a fewomissions. For the Bible, Dante, Ovid, and Virgil no editions are cited. Although Chaucer's twenty-one minor poems have generally been con­ sidered together, Pace and David have divided them, mainly for reasons of economy, into two distinct groups. Part One presents fourteen poems: Truth, Genttlesse, Lak ofStedfostnesse, The Former Age, Fortune, The Complaint ofChaucer to His Purse, Adam Scriveyn, The Envoy to Bukton, The Envoy to Scogan, To Rosemounde, Merciless Beaute, Womanly Noblesse, Against Women Unconstant, and Proverbs. This heterogeneous group includes five moral and didactic poems often designated the Boethian Group, four somewhat humorous poems addressed to indi­ viduals, four short love poems, and the gnomicverses called Proverbs. The poems are arranged not chronologically but according to form and subject. There is no...