ABSTRACT
Revising my informal introduction for inclusion among the scholarly papers read at the international Cambridge Conference for the Index of Middle English Prose presents several unique problems. A formal paper, perhaps with added documentation, can be printed more or less as delivered--a finished product not needing further honing, a self-contained unit little affected by occasion or time. But an opening address is different: in the first place, nuances and implications are lost when speech is frozen on page, when the spontaneity and warmth between speaker and audience have been dissipated into cold type. Second, many points which might have been important, amusing, or revelatory at the time are no longer significant. The expressions of good will from the directors of fourteen medieval centers are now a matter of record; personal reminiscences of my years from 1934 to 1937 at Emmanuel College form a topic better suited to a still-to-be-written "Three Score Years and Ten." Third, some of the inside history of the genesis of the Index is of greater interest to those attending the Cambridge Conference than to the academic world at large. 1 Finally, a number of specific suggestions I raised about the theoretical direction as well as practical methodology have now been merged into the general guidelines for the project.
