ABSTRACT
Because editing Chaucer depends so largely on our understanding of the meter of his poetry, a treatment of editorial method must grapple with the question of meter. Windeatt wrote an article on the Trot7us meter that resolutely endorses the opinion announced by Puttenham, explained by Tyrwhitt, elaborated by Child, ten Brink, Kittredge, Baum, and Halle and Keyser, and assumed by all modern editors of his texts, and as far as I know by nearly all modern scholars who trouble to argue the point except for J. G. Southworth and I. A. Robinson (Windeatt 1977).1 These auctores do not settle the question by their mere weight, but in fact they are right, and Windeatt presents the argument well. I need not repeat his remarks, abbreviated somewhat in the section on "Metre" in his edition (Windeatt 1984, 55-64), but would emphasize one thing and correct another.
