Towards a Poetics of Titles: The Prehistory Victoria Louise Gibbons BA Hons. (Cardiff University), MA (Cardiff University) A Thesis Submitted in Candidature for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cardiff University July 2010 UMI Number: U516664 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U516664 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed...........................................................(candidate) D ate.............................. STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of .................................... (insert MCh, MD, MPhil, PhD etc, as appropriate) Signed (candidate) D.................................... ate STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. Signed............................................................. (candidate) D ate..................................... STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed............................................................. (candidate) Date..................................... STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loansafter expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Graduate Development Committee. Signed (candidate) Date Abstract This thesis initiates a diachronic reconsideration of the English literary title. Unlike previous critical studies of titling practices, which focus almost exclusively on modem printed works, the thesis turns to the titling practices of manuscripts, addressing the different forms, functions and meanings of premodem titling. The overlapping of theoretical and material concerns in this under-researched area of book history necessitates a new form of multidisciplinary approach which combines critical theories of titology with codicological and bibliographical modes of enquiry. The introductory chapter contrasts and analyses the different titling practices of contemporary and premodem literary cultures. Chapter two identifies a number of shortcomings in current titological theories and goes on to explore previously overlooked premodem attitudes to titling. The third chapter opens with a consideration of the meanings and uses of the word title specific to the premodem era and the possible influences that ancient and early medieval approaches to identifying and defining texts may have had on later medieval titling. Chapter four considers the growth in external and internal forms of vernacular titling practice evident in selected manuscripts of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The fifth chapter moves the discussion into the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as witnessed by three important codices from this time: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 86; Scotland, National Library, Advocates 19. 2. 1 (Auchinleck); and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. a. 1 (Vernon). The conclusion affirms that titling practices did have currency in premodemity, though the identification of texts was a practice that exhibits great diversity, and in that feature, as well as in many others, what may appear superficially to be recognisable as titling stands a significant distance apart from modem concepts of the title and involves many other contemporary assumptions, about (para)texts, authors and readers, which are essential to an understanding of what medieval authors and scribes meant when they identified texts. Acknowledgements This research has been made possible by a Doctoral Studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2006-09) and a grant from the British Federation of Women Graduates: Funds for Women Graduates (2009-10). There are many people I need to thank for their help with this project. At the very top of the list is my supervisor Helen Phillips who has helped me through over seven years of university education with constant advice, encouragement and understanding. For this I am grateful beyond words. I would also like to thank Nicola Bassett, Martha W. Driver, A. S. G. Edwards, Susanna Fein, Elizabeth Ford, Ruth Kennedy, Roberta Magnani, Anthony Mandal, Haley Miles, Catherine Phelps, Carl Phelpstead, Wendy Scase, Alexandra Smith, Kara Tennant, Kate Watson, Jessica Webb and Heather Worthington for their help, advice and encouragement at various points during this project. I want to thank Martin Coyle and Stephen Knight in particular for their help with the original proposal and with several other research proposals I have submitted more recently. Rob Gossedge and Katie Gamer have proofread various parts of the thesis: thanks to you both for seeing me through the final stages. Throughout the PhD - during its various stages of research, pondering, extended pondering, writing and eventual completion - I have had the constant love and patient support of my friends and family. Boo, Wiz, and Nikkie deserve special thanks. Mum and Dad: you are my inspiration. Steven Rogan: my a ’th kar. I dedicate this research to the memory of my best friend Sarah Chinn, my friend and colleague Alexandra Smith, and my grandmother Elsie Gibbons. Where words otherwise fail me, this should stand instead. We must rest content with the admission that the knowledge of things is not to be derived from names [...] and no man will like to put himself or the education of his mind in the power of names. Plato, Cratylus, 439b-440c Contents Declarations Abstract Acknowledgements 1 Literary Titles: Now and Then 1 1.1 Now: Modem Titles 1 1.2 Then: Premodem Titling Practice 7 1.3 The Title’s Prehistory: Theory and Practice 12 2 Modern Titology and Its Premodern Gap 23 2.1 Modem Theories of Title 23 2.2 The Title in Premodem Literary Criticism 53 3 Early Titling: Meanings, Uses and Practices 74 3.1 Meanings and Uses 75 3.2 Early Practices 103 4 Medieval Titling: Post-Conquest into the Thirteenth Century 131 4.1 External Titling: Continuity and Disruption 134 4.2 Internal Titling: Early Textual Identities 148 5 Later Medieval Titling: Into the Fourteenth Century 179 5.1 Case Study I: Manuscripts of the Thirteenth Century 181 5.2 Case Study II: The Auchinleck Manuscript 198 5.3 Case Study III: The Vernon Manuscript 214 6 Afterword: Towards a Poetics of Literary Titles 229 Bibliography 231 1 1 Titles: Now and Then 1.1 Now: Modern Titles We think we know what a title is, notably the title of a work. It is placed in a specific position, highly determined and regulated by conventional laws: at the beginning of and at a set distance above the body of the text, but in any case before it. The title is generally chosen by the author or by his or her editorial representatives whose property it is. The title names and guarantees the identity, the unity and the boundaries of the original work which it entitles. (Jacques Derrida)1 It is very difficult for us today to forget our preconceptions as to the necessity or appropriateness of using a title in every instance. (Lloyd Daly)2 In the last forty years, the titles attached to texts, literary or otherwise, have been the subject of a small but sustained amount of critical attention.3 In spite of continuing academic interest, the title is regularly overlooked as an aspect of general reading experiences. Twenty-first century readers perhaps more than at any other time have come to expect and accept, without question, the titles that identify the texts - whether these texts are novels, paintings, museum exhibits, films, songs or other - they read or otherwise encounter. If asked to think about literary titles specifically, it is likely that a list of favourite, memorable, and/or familiar titles will spring readily to mind: Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights , Gone with the Wind , or The Great Gatsby. But what exactly is meant or rather what is understood by the noun title when used in its exclusively literary context? The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) sets out the recognized definition of title in its literary sense as 1 Jacques Derrida, ‘Before the Law’, in Acts of Literature, ed. Derek Attridge (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 181-220 (p. 188). 2 Lloyd W. Daly, ‘The Entitulature of Pre-Ciceronian Writings’, in Classical Studies in Honor of William Abbott Oldfather (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1943), pp. 20-38 (p. 30). 3 This introductory chapter expands research completed as part of the MA dissertation in English Literature at Cardiff University and published after: see Victoria Louise Gibbons, ‘The Manuscript Titles of Truth: Titology and the M edieval Gap’, Journal of the Early Book Society,