Don't Know Whether I'm Swimming or Dreaming

Before I dive into the second stanza, I actually have another comment to make about the first one which I left out of the last posting. If you've read only the OMACL text, based on Skeat's 1900 edition, the last line that I reproduced must have been a bit of a surprise. In Skeat's text, instead of floating or sinking, the narrator is unsure of whether he is asleep or awake ("that I wake or wynke").

So, I'm going to take this opportunity to say a quick word about the text of the poem. There are 13 different complete early editions (12 manuscripts and Congreve's 1478 Folio) still extent. These are grouped into groups A and B based on broad similarities that they share. Skeat preferred group B (with its "wake or wynke," but most modern editors favor group A. Of course, we don't actually know what Chaucer wrote; they two different versions could be a first draft and a revision or a correct version and a corruption (or they could even both be corruptions, however unlikely that may be).

Let's look at how the two different texts differ as poetry:

Skeat (after text A) The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne, Thassay so hard, so sharp the conquering, The dredful Ioy, that alwey slit so yerne, Al this mene I by love, that my feling Astonyeth with his wonderful worching So sore y-wis, that whan I on him thinke, Nat wot I wel wher that I wake or winke.

Riverside (after Text B) The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne, Th'assay so hard, so sharp the conquerynge, The dredful joye alwey that slit so yerne, Al this mene I by Love, that my felynge Astonyeth with his wonderful workynge So sore, iwis, that whan I on hym thynke, Nat wot I wel wher that I flete or synke.

Setting aside spelling and punctuation (which didn't exist in the 15th century the way they do now), the chief difference is the last line. One could argue that A seems thematically superior as representing a state of confusion in a poem about a man who will fall asleep while reading. Alternatively, we could have it backwards; some scribe could have decided that a metaphor about swimming or drowning has no place in such a poem and changed it. (Chaucer was actually worried about his scribes making both mistakes and intentional changes.) Either is possible. I personally think that "wake or winke" tips Chaucer's hand a little too early, so will stick with "flete or synke." (As much as I'd just love to side with Fairfax 16, the only Medieval manuscript I've ever actually handled and read from, I just prefer "flete or synke.")

As the previous paragraph suggests, I am consulting three different editions and textual notes prior to posting the text, and making whatever decisions based on my preference (which is a way to not admit that it's probably just arbitrary).