DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61385#0064
Iviii
Chapter V.—The Classification of the MSS.
CHAPTER V.
PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE EDITION.
§ 1. The Classification of the MSS.
The younger and less complete representatives of the MSS.
groups classified in the preceding chapter, MSS. Hx and H2 with
texts often diverging from the original and at times independent in
reading, are too imperfect to become the basis of an edition, provided
others better adapted to the relationship are to be found. II.,, a
late MS. offering a complete poem, not merely introduces new read-
ings and an independent conclusion, but is conspicuous through two
unexplained lacunce, comprehending more than half the fundamental
text. MS. Hx has lost its concluding pages. MS. D related to If
in the same branch of the family, an older member of the group, is
deficient through a break of sixty-eight lines in the middle of the
poem and is thus unfitted to become standard for reference. Yet it is
not impossible, that these three younger texts may have obtained
respectively a reading lost in an older and in some ways a more
exact transcript.
MS. R supplying defective portions of the later transcripts pre-
serves also impure readings and dialectical forms not to be reconciled
with the original poem. Moreover it seems to be of inferior value,
in that it represents a development of a more corrupt branch of the
original; cf. MS. Hx most nearly related. A2 though imperfect in
places, shows little trace of emendation and merits high esteem, but
A2 is also unfortunately incomplete. It has lost not only its conclu-
sion but the one hundred and twenty lines preceding, apparently
through no fault of its copyist; cf. chap, iii., 4. MS. Ax on the
other hand deserves in general preference over MSS. A2.D.HX.H2.R.
MS. Ax is the oldest transcript. Without important breaks and
without interpolations, it offers a version approximately correct.
That it is an excellent text, and stands nearest the original in dis-
tinction from the other MSS., is assured in its freedom1 from
copyist’s errors on the testimony of the parchment, and in the
regularity with which it preserves uniform dialectical forms. The
fundamental text then, basis of this edition, must be MS. Ax.
1 Yet it must be borne in mind that a scribe who is too intent on his spell-
ing (cf. MS. H2) and the neatness of his text may give too little attention to his
context and the import of what he is writing.
Chapter V.—The Classification of the MSS.
CHAPTER V.
PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE EDITION.
§ 1. The Classification of the MSS.
The younger and less complete representatives of the MSS.
groups classified in the preceding chapter, MSS. Hx and H2 with
texts often diverging from the original and at times independent in
reading, are too imperfect to become the basis of an edition, provided
others better adapted to the relationship are to be found. II.,, a
late MS. offering a complete poem, not merely introduces new read-
ings and an independent conclusion, but is conspicuous through two
unexplained lacunce, comprehending more than half the fundamental
text. MS. Hx has lost its concluding pages. MS. D related to If
in the same branch of the family, an older member of the group, is
deficient through a break of sixty-eight lines in the middle of the
poem and is thus unfitted to become standard for reference. Yet it is
not impossible, that these three younger texts may have obtained
respectively a reading lost in an older and in some ways a more
exact transcript.
MS. R supplying defective portions of the later transcripts pre-
serves also impure readings and dialectical forms not to be reconciled
with the original poem. Moreover it seems to be of inferior value,
in that it represents a development of a more corrupt branch of the
original; cf. MS. Hx most nearly related. A2 though imperfect in
places, shows little trace of emendation and merits high esteem, but
A2 is also unfortunately incomplete. It has lost not only its conclu-
sion but the one hundred and twenty lines preceding, apparently
through no fault of its copyist; cf. chap, iii., 4. MS. Ax on the
other hand deserves in general preference over MSS. A2.D.HX.H2.R.
MS. Ax is the oldest transcript. Without important breaks and
without interpolations, it offers a version approximately correct.
That it is an excellent text, and stands nearest the original in dis-
tinction from the other MSS., is assured in its freedom1 from
copyist’s errors on the testimony of the parchment, and in the
regularity with which it preserves uniform dialectical forms. The
fundamental text then, basis of this edition, must be MS. Ax.
1 Yet it must be borne in mind that a scribe who is too intent on his spell-
ing (cf. MS. H2) and the neatness of his text may give too little attention to his
context and the import of what he is writing.