‘Nor do thou go to work without my Key’

A full reading of John Bunyan’s works demands that attention be paid not only to the central text, but also to the marginal notes. This chapter reviews the history of critical and editorial attention given to Bunyan’s marginal notes, and considers what is known regarding their import for Bunyan and for his seventeenth-century readers. In assessing the ongoing significance of the marginal notes for critical readings of Bunyan’s texts, this chapter also examines taxonomies of the functions and effects of these, as well as current theories of margination. Possible future directions for further work on the marginal notes are also considered as offering potentially enriching readings of Bunyan, in terms of the mimetic and dialogic aspects of the notes.

Dialogic · Economics · Epistemology · Key (lock) · Linguistics · Positive economics · Reading (process) · Thou · Work (physics) · Computer Science · Engineering · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · Philosophy