What John Shirley said about Adam : authorship and attribution in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.20

Abstract

The scribe John Shirley copied many short Middle English poems, including several by Geoffrey Chaucer, and is often either the earliest or the only copyist to provide authorship ascriptions. Cambridge Trinity College MS R.3.20 uniquely preserves the single stanza known as 'Adam Scriveyn'. Since the identification of Adam Pinkhurst as the scribe of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, these seven lines of verse, and Shirley's claim that they are addressed to Chaucer's 'own scribe' have received renewed critical attention, and Shirley's reliability has again been questioned. This essay reassesses Shirley's Chaucerian ascriptions, paying close attention to the Trinity manuscript and its later reception.