NOTE: The Old English "yogh" characters have been translated both upper and lower-case yoghs to digit 3's. There are Unicode allocations for these (in HTML Ȝ and ȝ) but at present no font which implements these. Substiting the digit 3 seemed a workable compromise which anybody can read. The linked html ["Old English 'yogh' file"] uses Ȝ and ȝ representations, and is included for users with specialist fonts.
NOTE: The Old English "yogh" characters have been translated both upper and lower-case yoghs to digit 3's. There are Unicode allocations for these (in HTML Ȝ and ȝ) but at present no font which implements these. Substiting the digit 3 seemed a workable compromise which anybody can read. The linked html ["Old English 'yogh' file"] uses Ȝ and ȝ representations, and is included for users with specialist fonts.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
In re-editing the present romance-poem I have been saved all labour of transcription by using the very accurate text contained in Sir F. Madden's "Syr Gawayne."
I have not only read his copy with the manuscript, but also the proof-sheets as they came to hand, hoping by this means to give the reader a text free from any errors of transcription.
The present edition differs from that of the earlier one in having the contractions of the manuscript expanded and side-notes added to the text to enable the reader to follow with some degree of ease the author's pleasant narrative of Sir Gawayne's adventures.
The Glossary is taken from Sir F. Madden's "Syr Gawayne,"1 to which, for the better interpretation of the text, I have made several additions, and have, moreover, glossed nearly all the words previously left unexplained.
For a description of the Manuscript, and particulars relating to the authorship and dialect of the present work, the reader is referred to the preface to Early English Alliterative Poems.
R.M.