About this Web version of Havelok

This Web version of the English Havelok reproduces the text published by Walter W. Skeat in 1902, in parallel with the original MS version as deduced from Skeat’s footnotes. As a check, the original text was also derived from editions by Holthausen, French & Hale, and Smithers, and the results were compared electronically. After removal of scanning and typing errors, the list of differences is still quite long.

Skeat’s edition is the one reproduced here, because it is out of copyright. Otherwise a more conservative edition (e.g. French & Hale) might have been preferred; sometimes Skeat seems to alter lines to make them fit his metrical theories.

No account is taken here of abbreviations in the MS. Skeat follows the common practice of expanding abbreviations and using italics to mark the letters so added; e.g. where the scribe abbreviates ‘man’ to ‘mā’, the editor will print ‘man’. This Web version simply has ‘man’ in both columns.

Colour coding is used to highlight Skeat's editorial changes, thus:

1674 Hwanne he hauede his wille wat     Hwannẹ þat he his wille quath,

Text on the left marked thus hauede has been deleted by Skeat.
Text on the right marked thus þat has been added by Skeat.
Text on each side marked thus watquath has been amended by Skeat.
Highlighting thus made hehe made shows where Skeat has merely changed the word order.

When the MS was written (c. 1300) final e in English was often sounded. Skeat places a dot under an e that in his opinion should be silent. Also, he occasionally uses an accent to mark the stress where in his opinion it differs from modern English, e.g. Lincólne.

Here are some brief remarks about the MS; see Skeat’s Introduction for a detailed discussion.