The Early English Text Society, present, past and future
Anyone who reads Old and Middle English literary texts will be
familiar with the mid-brown volumes of the EETS, with the symbol of
Alfred's jewel embossed on the front cover. Most of the works attributed
to King Alfred or to Aelfric, along with some of those by bishop
Wulfstan and much anonymous prose and verse from the pre-Conquest
period, are to be found within the Society's three series; all of the
surviving medieval drama, most of the Middle English romances, much
religious and secular prose and verse including the English works of
John Gower, Thomas Hoccleve and most of Caxton's prints all find their
place in the publications. Without EETS editions, study of medieval
English texts would hardly be possible.
As its name states, EETS was begun as a 'club', and it retains
certain features of that even now. It has no physical location, or even
office, no paid staff or editors, but books in the Original Series are
published in the first place to satisfy subscriptions paid by
individuals or institutions. This means that there is need for a regular
sequence of new editions, normally one or two per year; achieving that
sequence can pose problems for the Editorial Secretary, who may have too
few or too many texts ready for publication at any one time. Details on
a separate sheet explain how individual (but not institutional) members
can choose to take certain back volumes in place of the newly published
volumes against their subscriptions. On the same sheet are given
details about the very advantageous discount available to individual
members on all back numbers. In 1970 a Supplementary Series was begun, a
series which only appears occasionally (it currently has 24 volumes
within it); some of these are new editions of texts earlier appearing in
the main series. Again these volumes are available at publication and
later at a substantial discount to members. All these advantages can
only be obtained through the Membership Secretary (the books are sent by
post); they are not available through bookshops, and such bookstores as
carry EETS books have only a very limited selection of the many
published.
Editors, who receive no royalties or expenses and who are only very
rarely commissioned by the Society, are encouraged to approach the
Editorial Secretary with a detailed proposal of the text they wish to
suggest to the Society early in their work; interest may be expressed at
that point, but before any text is accepted for publication the final
typescript must be approved by the Council (a body of some twenty
scholars), and then assigned a place in the printing schedule. The
Society now has a stylesheet to guide editors in the layout and
conventions acceptable within its series. No prescriptive set of
editorial principles is laid down, but it is usually expected that the
evidence of all relevant medieval copies of the text(s) in question will
have been considered, and that the texts edited will be complete
whatever their length. Editions are directed at a scholarly readership
rather than a popular one; though they normally provide a glossary and
notes, no translation is provided.
EETS was founded in 1864 by Frederick James Furnivall, with the help
of Richard Morris, Walter Skeat, and others, to bring the mass of
unprinted Early English literature within the reach of students. It was
also intended to provide accurate texts from which the New (later
Oxford) English Dictionary could quote; the ongoing work on the revision
of that Dictionary is still heavily dependent on the Society's
editions, as are the Middle English Dictionary and the Toronto
Dictionary of Old English. In 1867 an Extra Series was started, intended
to contain texts already printed but not in satisfactory or readily
obtainable editions; this series was discontinued in 1921, and from then
on all the Society's editions, apart from the handful in the
Supplementary Series described above, were listed and numbered as part
of the Original Series