Saturday, May 11, 2013

Lacunae

We discussed Chaucer's retraction yesterday, and it got me thinking about the Book of the Lion it mentions, but which modern scholars, at least, don't know.  I wonder if it's a version of Ywain, the Knight of the Lion?  Or something?

And then I got to thinking about other famous unknown texts.  There's Cardenio and Love's Labours Found.

How about it?  What other famous unknown texts are there?


And then, of course, that brings us to the unfinished projects, like Spenser's last 6 books of The Faerie Queene.  I'm not sure I really regret that Spenser didn't finish the project (or the projected next 12 books, either). 

I'm not sure if The Canterbury Tales is finished or not.  I'd love a few more tales.  But I'm not sure that a whole trip's back worth of tales wouldn't be just too overwhelming.

So, finished or unfinished?  Other unfinised projects?

1 comment:

  1. I thought scholars assumed Chaucer's Lion was a version of Yvain. There's a whole book on the Lost Literature of the Middle Ages.

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