Modernizations, adaptations, translations

This list does not include any published after 1900 because of the explosion of modernizations, adaptations, and translations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

_____. Matrimonial Scenes” Consisting of The Seaman’s Tale, The Manciple’s Tale, The Character of the Wife of Bath, The Tale of the Wife of Bath, and Her Five Husbands. All Modernized from Chaucer. London: A. Jackson, T. Payne, W. Shropshire, 1750. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Trade Paperback. Facsimile.

_____. Miller of Trompington: Being an Exercise Upon Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale, The. London: Jonas Brown, 1715. First Edition. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Disbound. Fair / No Jacket. Text block very good. 117(3) pp. 12mo, disbound. First edition. An amusing imitation of Chaucer, in six cantos, composed in rhymed tetrameter couplets. A preliminary note to the reader gives a light-hearted account of the origin of this tale: The author of the following pieces being a young man in an employment that daily called him abroad, used over night to read a portion of Chaucer, the next day work it up on horse-back, and write it out when he came home. 

_____ Muse in Good Humor, The. London: F. Noble, 1766. Seventh. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Full-Leather.

_____. Wanton Wife of Baith, The. Glasgow: Robert Anderson, 1899. First Thus. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Paper Wraps.

Beeton, Samuel Orchart. Beeton’s Christmas Annual-The Thirteenth Season. London: Ward, Look, 1869. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Contains “This Way Out or Modern Pilgrims. After Geoffrey Chaucer.” With adaptations of Palamon and Arcite, The Reve’s Tale, The Wife of Bath, The Pardoner’s Tale, The Parson’s Tale, and The Clerk’s Tale. 

Boyse, Samuel. Cambuscan or the Squire’s Tale. Templeton, CA: William and Geoffrey Press, 2021. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Cloth. Facsimile. Red cloth cover. 

Brereton, Jane. Poems on Several Occasions: By Mrs. Jane Brereton. With Letters to Her Friends, and an account of Her Life. London: Gale Ecco, 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall. Soft Cover. Facsimile of the 1744 edition. Contains “Introduction to the Dream. In Imitation of Chaucer’s Second and Third Book of Fame.” 

Catcott, Alexander Stopford. Court of Love, The: A Vision from Chaucer. Templeton, CA: William and Geoffrey Press, 2021. 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall. Cloth. Facsimile of the 1717 edition printed in London for Anthony Piesley Bookseller. 

Chapman, George. May Day from The Plays and Poems of George Chapman. Templeton, CA: William and Geoffrey Press, 2021. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Cloth. Facsimile. Red cloth cover. Contains only “May Day.” 

Chaucer, Jr. Canterbury Tales. Composed for the entertainment of All Ingenious Young men and Maids. London: Ecco, 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall. Stapled. Facsimile. Originally published in Aldermary Church-Yard, 1770. 

Cooper, Elizabeth. Muses Library. London: J. Wilcox, T. Green, J. Brindley and T. Osborn, 1737. First Edition. 12mo – over 6¾” – 7¾” tall. Three-Quarter Leather.

Copland, Robert. Jyl of Breyntfords Testament. ill. Furnivall, Frederick, Ed. London: 1871. Full-Leather.

Dekker, Thomas, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton. Patient Grissil: A Comedy. London: Shakespeare Society, 1841. First Thus. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Cloth. Reprinted from the Black-Letter Edition of 1603. Foxing on preliminary and end pages. Uncut. 96 pp. 

Dryden, John. Fables Antient and Modern; Translated Into Verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer, with Original Poems. London: J. And R. Tonson, 1713. 12mo – over 6¾” – 7¾” tall. Full-Leather. 550 pp. 

Dryden, John. Original Poems and Translations. London: J. And R. Tonson, 1743. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Full-Leather. Two volumes in brown leather.

Woodfall, Ebsworth, J. Ed. Merry Drollery Compleat Being Jovial Poems, Merry Songs, &c. Boston: Robert Roberts, 1875. First Thus. 12mo – over 6¾” – 7¾” tall. Cloth. Inscribed By Printer. Blue cloth with paper label on spine. Facsimile of the 1691 edition. Hand-written note on ffep. “400 only this size of which this is No. 76. R.R.” 408 pp. 

Furnivall, J. Frederick, Ed. John Lane’s Continuation of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale. London: Chaucer Society / N. Trubner and Co., 1887. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Original Wraps. Green wraps. Two volumes. “Edited from the original MS. version of 1616, Douce 170, Collated with its MS. revision of 1630, Ashmole 53.” 

Furnivall, J. Frederick, Edmund Brock, and W. A. Clouston. Eds. Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. London: Oxford U P, 1937. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Original Wraps. Uncut

Gay, John. Poems on Several Occasions. London: J. Tonson and B. Lintot, 1731. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Full-Leather. Contains “An Answer to the Sompner’s Prologue of Chaucer, a Tale.” 

Gibbs, Edmund Heagren. Pilgrimage to Canterbury or Prologues to the Canterbury Tales: Extracted from the Works of Geffrey Chaucer By William Thinne Cheefe Clerke of Ye Kitchen to King Henry Ye Eight and Dedicated By Him to His Majesty. ill. Miles, Jeaffreson. 1820. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Brown leather with blind-stamped diamond, window-pane pattern on front cover. Marbled end papers. Half-title pages reads: “Chaucer’s Pilgrimage to Canterbury. A Specimen of British Poetry and Manners in the Fourteenth Century.” Example of early 19th C. penmanship. 39 pp. 

Gower, John. Chaucer’s Ghoast, or, a piece of Antiquity Containing Twelve Pleasant Fables of Ovid Penn’d After the Ancient Manner of Writing in England, Which Makes Them Prove Mock-Poems to the Present Poetry. Early English Text Society / Oxford U P, 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Soft Cover. Facsimile of original in Harvard University Library. 

Green, Robert. Greene’s Vision: Written at the Instant of His Death. London: William and Geoffrey Press, 2020. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Facsimile.. ISBN: . Originally published in 1592 by Thomas Newman 

Greenwood, James. Virgin Muse. Being a Collection of Poems from Our Most Celebrated English Poets, The. Creative Media Partners/Gale Research, Inc., 2019. 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall. Pictorial Cover. Facsimile of the 1722 second edition . London, printed and sold by J. Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul/s Church-yard. 

Halliwell, James Orchard, Ed. Tarlton’s Jests, and News Out of Purgatory. Templeton, CA: William and Geoffrey Press, 2020. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Facsimile. Originally published by The Shakespeare Society, London. 1844. 

Halliwell, James Orchard, Ed. Tinker of Turvey, The. Templeton, CA: William and Geoffrey Press, 2020. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Facsimile of the 1859 edition published by Thomas Richards, 87 Great Queen Street., London. 

Halliwell, James Orchard, Ed. Torrent of Portugal. An English Metrical Romance. London: John Russell Smith, 1842. First Edition. 12mo – over 6¾” – 7¾” tall. Three-Quarter Leather. Brown leather over marbled boards. Marbled end papers and all three edges marbled. 

Hunt, Leigh. Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer, Modernized, The. London: Whittaker and Co., 1841. First Edition. 12mo – over 6¾” – 7¾” tall. Cloth. Dark green cloth.

Hunt, Leigh. Stories in Verse. London: George Routledge and Co., 1855. First Edition. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Decorative Cloth. Blue cover blind embossed on front can back covers. Gold lettering on spine. Gold floral designs on front cover and spine. Contains Cambus Khan pp.274-98. All edges gilt. Title page says it is illustrated, but except for the frontispiece and the title page no illustrations are present. 

Johnson, R. Brimley. Story of Chanticleer: Re-told from Chaucer, the. ill. Orr, Stewart. London: Gowans and Gray Ltd., 1906. First Edition. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Printer Wrapper. Children’s Bookshelf No. 4. 

Lane, John. John Lane’s Continuation of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale. ill. Furnivall, Frederick, Ed. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1888. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Maroon cloth with gold lettering on spine. 480 pp. 

Lee, Sophia and Harriet. Canterbury Tales. London: G. And J. Robinson, 1803. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather.

Lipscomb, J. Canterbury Tales By Chaucer; Completed in a Modern Version. London: J. Cooke, 1795. First Edition. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Three-Quarter Leather.

Maiden, Thomas and Ann Lemoine; J Roe; S Sharpe; C F Barrett;. Canterbury Tales containing The great devil’s Tale or Castle of Morbano, The Old Abbey Tale, and The British sailor’s tale. London: T. Maiden, Sherbourn-Lane, for Ann Lemoine, White-Rose-Court, Coleman-Street, and J. Roe, no. 90, Houndsditch , 1802. First Edition. 12. Full-Leather.

Markland, John. Three Poems. Viz. Family Duty: Or, the Monk and the Merchant’s Wife. Being the Shipman’s Tale from Chaucer, Moderniz’d. The Curious Wife, a Tale Devised in the Manner of Chaucer; By Mr. Fenton, Moderniz’d. III. Buckingham-House, a Poem, After the Manner . Gale Ecco, 2011. 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall. Soft Cover. Facsimile of the original published in London in 1721 by E. Curll. 

Morell, Thomas. Canterbury Tales of Chaucer in the Original from the Most Authentic Manuscripts; and as They are Turn’d Into Modern Language By Several Eminent Hands. London: J. Osborn, 1740. Second Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall.

Ogle, George. Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Modernis’d By Several Hands. London: J. And R. Tonson, 1741. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Three volumes. Three-quarter leather over marbled boards. Gilt lettering and designs on spine. 

Ouvry, Frederic. Cobbler of Canterbury: Frederic Ouvry’s edition of 1862. Cambridge, England: D. S. Brewer, 1976. First Thus. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Cloth. ISBN: 0-85991-018-0. 

Phillips, Ambrose. Collection of Old Ballads Corrected Form the best and Most Ancient Copies Extant with Introductions Historical and Critical or Humorous. London: J. Roberts, 1723. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Cloth. Contains “An excellent Ballad of a Noble Marquis and Patient Grissel.” To the Tune of, “The Bride’s Good-morrow.” 

Pittis, William. . Chaucer’s Whims: Being Some Select fables and Tales in Verse, Very Applicable to the present Times. . Gale Ecco, 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall. Stapled. Facsimile. Originally published in 1701 in London by D. Edwards. 

Pittis, William. Canterbury Tales Rendered Into Familiar Verse. London: William Pittis, 1701. First Edition. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall.

Pope, Alexander. Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, By Several Hands. London: Bernard Lintot, 1720. Third Edition. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Full-Leather. Contains “Essay on Criticism,” “Rape of the Lock;” and “Chaucer’s Characters: or, The Introduction to the Canterbury Tales (229-262),” and “The Miller of Trompington: or, The Reve’s Tale from Chaucer (263-277).” 286 pp. 

Pope, Alexander. Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. London: C. Bathhurst, 1776. First Thus. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Full-Leather. Six volume set in brown tree calf. Red labels on spines with gold lettering. Edges rounded and bumped.

Raleigh, Walter. Riddle: A Pleasant Pastoral Comedy Adapted from The Wife of Bath’s Tale as it is Set Forth in the works of Master Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1912. First Edition. 48mo – over 3″ – 4″ tall. Original Wraps. 26pp. Softcover small 4to with a hand coloured frontispiece illustration. 

Smith, Alexander, Ed. Wanton Wife of Baith, the. Glasgow: Alexander Smith, 1899. First Edition. 16mo – over 5¾” – 6¾” tall. Paper Wraps. Private Press. Limited to thirty copies. 

Smith, John. Poems Upon Several Occasions. London: H. Clements, 1713. First Edition. 12mo – over 6¾” – 7¾” tall. Full-Leather. Contains Smith’s modernization of “The Miller’s Tale” pp. 307-323. 

Sterling, Joseph. Cambuscan: Or the Squire’s Tale. Templeton, CA: William and Geoffrey Press, 2020. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Facsimile. Originally published by G.G.J. and J. Robinson. London. 1789. 

Swift, Jonathan. Miscellanies: The Fourth Volume Consisting of Verses By Dr. Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Pope, and Mr. Gay. London: Charles Bathurst, 1742. First Edition. 24mo – over 5″ – 5¾” tall. Full-Leather.291 pp. “A Tale of Chaucer” p. 60. 

Thurlow, Edward Hovel, Lord Thurlow. Arcita and Palamon: After the Excellent Poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. London: William Booth, 1822. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Half-Leather. Half green cloth over marbled boards. Gold lettering on spine. 113 pp. Top edge gilt. 

Thurlow, Edward Hovel, Lord Thurlow. The Knight’s Tale and The Flower and the Leaf. Templeton, CA: William and Geoffrey Press, 2020. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Facsimile. New / No Jacket. Facsimile of 1822 edition published in London by William Booth, 32, Duke Street, Manchester Square. 

Travers, Henry. Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. York: C. Ward and R. Chandler, 1740. 2nd. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Full-Leather. Contains translations of “The Miller of Trompington, or The Reeve’s Tale” and “The Shipman’s Tale.” 

Tytler, Henry William. Miscellanies in Verse Consisting of Poems, Tales, Translations, &c. Calcutta: F. Holcroft, 1828. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Trade Paperback. Facsimile of the original. No indication who published the facsimile. 

Wharton, Richard. Fables” Vol. 2, Containing Cambuscan, an Heroic Poem in Six Books. London: Payne and Mackinlay, 1805. First Edition. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Paper Covered Boards.

Woodfall, J. Ed. Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets. Being a Collection of Divers Excellent Pieces of Poetry, of Several Eminent Authors. Boston: Robert Roberts, 1876. First Thus. 12mo – over 6¾” – 7¾” tall. Maroon cloth with gold lettering on spine. 426 pp.