Et cetera: Obscenity and Textual Play in the Hengwrt Manuscript

Abstract

In the Hengwrt copy of The Manciple’s Tale, the word swyve has been replaced with the abbreviation for et cetera. Apart from attributing this to scribal prudery, scholars have made no further attempt to understand why et cetera might have been introduced into either Hengwrt or its scribe’s exemplar in the first place, or why it might have been preserved.This article reconsiders the Hengwrt et cetera in the light of its manuscript and literary contexts in order to argue that what has been regularly treated as an example of scribal censorship is more likely an example of authorial play. The Hengwrt et cetera raises important questions regarding how we interpret what may initially appear to be censorship of obscen­ity in fifteenth­ century manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales: How should we read those moments in a manuscript where Chaucer’s bawdier treatments of sex and sexuality, his references to bodily functions, or his scatological language and con­tent seem to have been suppressed? And how should we handle such omissions when producing contemporary editions of Chaucer’s texts?