About the Editor
by ericacook14
John Urry
The liberal variations that Urry has imposed upon this edition of Chaucer informs the modern reader of the audience to which Urry was directing his work. Urry has maintained his own notion of the archaic nature of Chaucer’s works. Since, Chaucer was a poet and writer just over 300 years before Urry was compiling his edition. In the meantime, Chaucer has undergone many transformations, one of which was being inducted into the role of The English Poet. Chaucer and his works signified what it was to be English. Taking on this role means that Chaucer was still widely known even 300 years after his initial emergence onto the artistic stage. This edition was initiated by Urry, however he died in the process so its publication was posthumous for Urry. His variants were proposed with the “intent to establish an authoritative text for Chaucer, but he altered the text wherever he thought that he could better achieve the essential mood established by Chaucer” (http://openbook.lib.utah.edu/?p=1506). It has been proposed that for anyone desiring to perform literary analysis of the works of Chaucer, this edition is not recommended.
