the harley ms displays a different tale order to that of other significant manuscripts of the "tales", such as the ellesmere and hengwrt manuscripts. as well as the "tale of gamelyn", now thought not to be by chaucer, it also contains many peculiar variant readings which were, in the nineteenth century, considered to represent either a first or second draft by the author himself. modern opinion is that the manuscript's scribe, in common with the practice of the time, would have felt it acceptable to expand or edit the author's text as they felt appropriate. in general, modern editors have agreed with the opinion of stephen knight, who noted that while harley 7334 "seems so handsome and authoritative [...] it is in fact heavily and even whimsically edited". however, scribe d was, in his gower manuscripts, known to have proceeded in a manner similar to "a photocopier [and] often copied simply what was before him", so it remains possible that the idiosyncratic variant readings might have some other source.