MARGINAL ANNOTATION IN MEDIEVAL ROMANCE MANUSCRIPTS

classified as “Narrative Reading Aids,” subtype “Summation,” 482 the question of what
precisely Cok takes it upon himself to summarize has deep implications for his views on
the meaning and, presumably, the value or pleasure of the text. 483 Cok is, after all, far
from annotating MS 80 comprehensively – itself, perhaps, at least some indication of the
attitude he brought toward annotation. Cok is certainly capable of sustained systems of
annotation. British Library Add. 10392 is remarkable for the thorough consistency both
of Cok’s programs of notae and of his systems of headings, numberings and
organizational subordination. That he does not bring this same comprehensive approach
to CCCC MS 80 may be interpreted either as an indication of the lesser status he affords
this manuscript and its contents of “frivolous,” albeit pious, romance, or alternatively
merely as evidence of a more casual approach taken to a manuscript not his own, in
which he acted primarily as reader rather than scribe. In MS 80, his annotations are
irregular but detailed, reflecting a style of reading in which he lavishes close attention on
stepping through the minutiae of narrative structure within a local context, but in which
such attention is paid only to certain passages and, within a passage, only to certain
aspects of that passage. When Cok does annotate, he does so densely: an stretch of heavy
annotation between ff. 21r-25r totals 25 separate notes in Cok’s hand, in a distribution
ranging from one note on f. 22r to five notes each on ff. 21r and 24v. Following this
passage, however, Cok’s hand does not appear again until another three notes on the recto
482 Grindley, “Reading Piers Plowman,” esp. 82, 86-87. Most romance annotations, when they are
substantive and directly textually-related, are of this Summation type and, as here, tend also to be within
Grindley’s categories of Textually-Gleaned or Paraphrased Marginal Rubrics.
483 Throughout this chapter, I quote – in full or in part – those notes most relevant to the immediate
discussion, for ease of reference. For the complete picture of his contribution to the manuscript, however,
please refer to my a full transcription of all John Cok’s notes in MS 80, which can be found in Appendix C.
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