{"id":191,"date":"2015-02-26T06:10:40","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T11:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/?p=191"},"modified":"2017-10-10T10:33:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T14:33:46","slug":"bobbing-for-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/2015\/02\/26\/bobbing-for-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobbing for Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero A.x (pet-named the Gawain<\/em>-Manuscript and at times the Pearl<\/em>-manuscript) contains the only extant copies of some of the most celebrated Middle English literature. As a 14th century Middle English manuscript, and one that survives without any Anglo-Norman or Latin companion pieces, the illuminated initials and the various illustrations, mark it as a unique, multimedia project.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Illustration of the Green Knight ‘s interactions with King Arthur’s Court \u00a9 The British Library Board, Cotton Nero A X (art 3) f. 90v<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This can be taken a step further, as the audience of this manuscript would be twofold, namely those reading and experiencing the literature visually, and those listening and experiencing it aurally.<\/p>\n

One of the most peculiar features of the manuscript may be the placement of the metrical “bob” in the last poem in the manuscript, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight<\/em>. The respective bobs most often appear as many as two or three lines above its accompanying “wheel” directly before which, editors (and indeed most scholars) assume the bob\u00a0would have been read. Despite that all editors from J. R. R. Tolkien<\/a> onward move the bob in order to metrically perfect the poem, sloppiness on the part of the scribe seems doubtful considering the care taken in\u00a0illuminating initials, thus\u00a0the placements of these bobs may well be intentional.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bobs out of Place? \u00a9 The British Library Board, Cotton Nero A X (art 3) f. 111v.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By positioning the bob in such a way, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton<\/a> sees potential for equivocation and the possibility that this\u00a0bob\u00a0might be a floating marginal device resonating with more than one line. Because of the syntactic flexibility of a\u00a0bob, it can in fact (sometimes much more sensibly) be understood in the context of where it actually occurs in the manuscript. For a reader of this text (which is to say a literate, visual audience), such an interpretation is appealing. Kerby-Fulton\u00a0persuasively argues that\u00a0wyth wynne<\/em>, placed between\u00a0lines describing the respective foundings of Rome\u00a0and Britain, could equally apply to both joyful events.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Founding of Rome and Britain wyth wynne \u00a9 The British Library Board, Cotton Nero A X (art 3) f. 91r<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Howell D. Chickering<\/a>\u00a0has an interpretation of the irregular positioning of the bob, which reflects aural reception and considers the performative function of the poem. The audience of such a performance would likely understand the bob in only one place, where it is spoken; however, Chickering argues that the bob often appears preemptively to alert the recitator of the abrupt shift in meter, and almost always is found on the same page as its accompanying wheel. In giving the recitator this warning, Chickering suggests the performance might move more smoothly. These two interpretations both highlight the importance of manuscript context in understanding both the literary texts and their multimodal means of understanding and experiencing the poem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Preemptive bobbing \u00a9 The British Library Board, Cotton Nero A X (art 3) f. 106r.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The manuscript also reveals that a symbol, called a “trefoil”, often accompanies bobs, and if this symbol serves to add emphasis, as Peter J. Lucas<\/a> has demonstrated it does in the work of John Capgrave, the trefoils\u00a0in Sir Gawain<\/em> may similarly indicate\u00a0the importance and\u00a0purposeful placement of bobs. While\u00a0the manuscript’s\u00a0systematic reasons for employing certain symbols\u00a0remains a mystery, it seems likely that there was some premeditated method to the scribal\u00a0adornment of bobs with trefoils.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Trefoil accompanying bob \u00a9 The British Library Board, Cotton Nero A X (art 3) f. 112r.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indeed, analysis of the positioning of bobs in Sir Gawain<\/em>\u00a0demonstrates how close attention to the manuscript presentation of a text contributes to a better\u00a0understanding of how it might have\u00a0been read and performed.<\/p>\n

Richard Fahey
\nPhD Candidate
\nDepartment of English
\nUniversity of Notre Dame<\/p>\n

This post is part of our ongoing series on Medieval and Early Modern Poetics: Theory and Practice<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further Reading:<\/em><\/p>\n

Baugh, Albert C. \u201cImprovisation in the Middle English Romance.\u201d Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society <\/em>103.3 (1959): 418-454.<\/p>\n

Borroff, Marie. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Stylistic and Metrical Study<\/em>. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962.<\/p>\n

Chickering, Howell.\u00a0“Stanzaic Closure and Linkage in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” The Chaucer Review<\/em> 32.1 (1997): 1-31.<\/p>\n

Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn.\u00a0Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary & Visual Approaches.\u00a0<\/em>Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2012.<\/p>\n

Lucas, Peter. \u201cJohn Capgrave: Scribe and Publisher.\u201d Transactions of the British Bibliographical Society <\/em>V (<\/em>1969).<\/p>\n

Pearsall, Derek. \u201cSir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Essay in Enigma.\u201d The Chaucer Review <\/em>46.1-2 (2011): 248-260.<\/p>\n

Putter, Ad. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and French Arthurian Romance<\/em>. Oxford, England: Clarendon University Press, 1995.<\/p>\n

Tolkien, J. R. R. and Gordon E. V. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight<\/em>, 2nd<\/sup> edition. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero A.x (pet-named the Gawain-Manuscript and at times the Pearl-manuscript) contains the only extant copies of some of the most celebrated Middle English literature. As a 14th century Middle English manuscript, and one that survives without any Anglo-Norman or Latin companion pieces, the illuminated initials and the various illustrations, mark … <\/p>\n

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