Interstices : Studies in Late Middle English and Anglo-Latin Texts in Honour of A.G. Rigg

Cade's bilious dismissal of Lord Say served as one of several epigraphs to the first of the three publications which have honoured George Rigg during his career. Entitled Studies in Unfinished Scholarship: A Shortschrift in Honour of A.G. Rigg on the Occasion of His Departure from Office, it was assembled by students at the Centre for Medieval Studies in 1978, when George completed a two-year term as acting director of the Centre. Its contents included a proposal for self-exemplifying linguistic terminology ('loss of unstressd finl vowels'), a translation of verses from the early Welsh poem Y Gododdin in the style of William McGonegall, and a Gothic-Latin phrasebook ('Are you entering the Empire for the purpose of immigration or invasion?'). It remains one of George's most prized honours. The second volume, Anglo-Latin and Its Heritage, was edited by two of George's former students, Sian Echard and Gernot Wieland of the University of British Columbia, and was published by Brepols in the series Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin (2001). The festschrift was produced to celebrate George's sixty-fourth birthday, on the understanding that if he got wind of a celebratory volume for his sixtyfifth birthday, he would make himself scarce. This present and third volume does mark George's sixty-fifth year, as well as his retirement from the University of Toronto (mandatory under Ontario law), and whether we will have the opportunity to present it to him in some formal manner will depend very much on whether a large number of people can keep a secret. viii Foreword Jack Cade wouldn't have liked George Rigg very much. For one thing, George is a staunch monarchist, and he does speak Latin, although not as a regular means of communication. I can't imagine what Cade would have made of the Centre's Friday afternoon Latin Scrabble games, at which George is a regular participant, or of his barely concealed alter ego as 'Crucifex,' the author of the Latin crossword puzzles which have long been one of the most popular features of the Centre's annual Newsletter. A.G. Rigg was born in Wigan, Lancashire, on 17 February 1937, the son of George William and Alice Rose Rigg. More than thirty years in Toronto have failed to erase the characteristic vowels of his birthplace. His early schooling was at the Convent of Notre Dame, Wigan, and at Wigan Grammar School, where the school's strength in classics laid a solid foundation for what was to come. Between 1955 and 1959, George was an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he took his BA in the English School. Among his tutors were C.L. Wrenn and Douglas Gray. Upon completion of his degree he immediately began working on a DPhil thesis under the supervision of Norman Davis, a study of the Glastonbury commonplace book, Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.9.38, which would later be published in the Oxford Monographs series under the title A Glastonbury Miscellany (1968). The interest in miscellanies and anthologies born in the research for his dissertation has continued throughout George Rigg's career, notably in a series of long articles (often coauthored with his students and younger colleagues) on medieval poetic anthologies, all appearing in the journal Mediaeval Studies. Work on the Glastonbury manuscript also allowed him to develop and pursue his wide variety of interests, not only in Medieval Latin literature, but also in Middle English literature and philology. This interest in miscellanies, as well as his life-long interest in editing, prompted many of George's most important works: the edition of the poems of the thirteenth-century Walter of Wimborne (1978); the De coniuge non ducenda (1986), which sold, and continues to sell, particularly well under his title 'Gawain on Marriage'; and his most controversial work, the edition with Charlotte Brewer of the Z-text of Piers Plowman (1983). He has focused, in particular, on editorial practice in the volume of conference proceedings, Editing Medieval Texts (1977), deriving from the 1976 Toronto Conference on Editorial Problems, and in his long service as editor of the series Toronto Medieval Latin Texts, in which his own edition of the Harley Epitome (BL MS Harley 3860) and related texts appeared in 2001 under the title A Book of British Kings. His interest in language history has continued as well; his regular courses on the history of the English language have long relied upon The English Language: A Historical Reader (1968), and his research on the influ-Foreword ix ence of vernacular languages (especially English) on Latin prompted our collaboration on Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance (1996). Among his publications, however, it is his two major volumes on Medieval Latin for which George Rigg will be best remembered. The first of these, his comprehensive study of post-Conquest Latin literature, appeared in 1992 as A History of Anglo-Latin Literature, 1066-1422. No attempt had been made at such a work since Thomas Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria (1842-6), which, as Rigg notes, was simply an encyclopedia of authors, with no attempt made to provide a connecting history. The second, Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide (1996), is a massive reference volume assembled in collaboration with Frank Mantello, which has brought Medieval Latin literature to scholars in related and peripheral fields. Over the course of thirty-four years at the University of Toronto, most of the students at the Centre for Medieval Studies have met George in class. His earliest teaching, however, was not in Latin but in the history of the English language. He lectured at Merton College, Oxford, in 1961 and Balliol College in 1963. His first foray into North America came in 1966 with a visiting assistant professorship in the Department of English at Stanford University. Two years later he came to Toronto as associate professor, and was promoted to full professor in 1976. George was co-architect with the late Colin Chase of the Centre's Latin teaching program, and he chaired the Committee for Medieval Latin Studies from his arrival until last year, setting and maintaining the rigorous standard of Latin that has now come to be expected of Centre graduates, and is now required in several other programs in medieval studies around the world. George's honours have not been limited to the University of Toronto. The Canadian Federation for the Humanities has provided subventions for three of his books, and he spent a year at Pembroke College, Oxford, as a visiting fellow in 1979-80. He was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1997, and to the Royal Society of Canada in 1998. Until the mid-1980s, George and his wife, Jennifer, maintained a residence in the Oxford area to which they returned each summer, providing a haven for Bodley-bound students and faculty, as well as access to a comfortable village pub in Black Bourton. Since relinquishing that hold on their roots, they have spent their summers touring Canada, especially in Quebec and Nova Scotia. Locally, they have spent thirty years exploring the Bruce Trail, which follows the Niagara escarpment from the Falls to the northern tip of the Bruce peninsula. Their interest in the outdoors is translated at home into a love of gardening, and late summer is regularly marked at the Centre by the appearance of an x Foreword extra stock of fine tomatoes in the Centre's lounge. George has also taken a strong interest in smokers' rights in the province of Ontario, and his letters on the subject have appeared with some frequency in the Globe and Mail. The inexplicable vagaries of Canadian weather have annually been outlined for new Centre students in a mysterious document that appears on the bulletin board at the start of winter, entitled 'Old George's Almanac of Canadian Weather,' which explains the relevance of such local terminology as 'false spring,' 'fool's spring, ' and 'Indian winter.' In a very real way, George Rigg has been for more than three decades the 'centre of the Centre.' We are all grateful to him, we are the better for knowing him, and we wish him a joyous retirement. ## Preface This volume was compiled in honour of Professor A. George Rigg for presentation at the time of his retirement, at age 65, from the University of Toronto in May 2002. The editors, Richard Firth Green and Linne R. Mooney, were both supervised by Rigg in writing doctoral dissertations at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, where he taught medieval Latin and Middle English literature and philology for thirty-four years. The other contributors were his MA supervisor at Oxford, Douglas Gray; Oxford friends John Burrow and Anne Hudson; Toronto colleague David Klausner; and students supervised by Rigg at Toronto, Alexandra Barratt, Charlotte Brewer,

breaking New Ground In Interdisciplinary Scholarship Of Late Medieval England, This Collection Of Essays Celebrates And Addresses The Work Of Renowned Medieval Scholar A.g. Rigg. George Rigg's Interests Span Medieval Latin, Anglo-norman, And Middle English Literature And Philology; The Contributors To This Volume Are An International Group Of Colleagues, Students, And Friends Of Rigg's, Whose Essays Are As Wide-ranging As Rigg's Own Interests.

the Contributions Include: New Editions Of Middle English Texts; An Overview Of The Editions Of Chaucer From The Nineteenth Century To The Present Which Expounds Editorial Trends Through The Years; Studies Of Major Middle English Writings Which Cross Boundaries Into Social History And The History Of The Book; A Codicological Study Of The Literary And Material Evidence For The Use Of Scientific And Utilitarian Texts In Late Medieval English Manuscripts; And Related Historical Studies. Each Essay Is Anchored In The Textual Realities That Grounded Rigg's Own Scholarship, And Bridge The Boundaries Between Traditional Academic Disciplines—a Crossing Of Interstices In Homage To A Teacher, Friend, And Colleague.

Breaking new ground in interdisciplinary scholarship of late medieval England, this collection of essays celebrates and addresses the work of renowned medieval scholar A.G. Rigg. George Rigg's interests span medieval Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English literature and philology; the contributors to this volume are an international group of colleagues, students, and friends of Rigg's, whose essays are as wide-ranging as Rigg's own interests.

The contributions include: new editions of Middle English texts; an overview of the editions of Chaucer from the nineteenth century to the present which expounds editorial trends through the years; studies of major Middle English writings which cross boundaries into social history and the history of the book; a codicological study of the literary and material evidence for the use of scientific and utilitarian texts in late medieval English manuscripts; and related historical studies. Each essay is anchored in the textual realities that grounded Rigg's own scholarship, and bridge the boundaries between traditional academic disciplines – a crossing of interstices in homage to a teacher, friend, and colleague.

Contents 5 Foreword 7 Preface 11 Tabula Gratulatoria 13 A.G. Rigg's Publications, 1963-2004 15 'Envoluped In Synne': The Bolton Hours and Its Confessional Formula 23 Critical, Scientific, and Eclectic Editing of Chaucer 37 Nonverbal Communication in Medieval England: Some Lexical Problems 66 John of Glastonbury and Borrowings from the Vernacular 77 Greeks in England, 1400 96 Last Words: Latin at the End of the Confessio Amantis 121 'Lat be thyne olde ensaumples' :' Chaucer and Proverbs 144 The Hermit and the Outlaw: An Edition 159 Peter Pateshull: One-Time Friar and Poet? 189 Manuscript Evidence for the Use of Medieval English Scientific and Utilitarian Texts 206 Contributors 225 Index 229