and paths round Grasmere and Rydal, especially the old upper road between them, under Nab Scar, his favourite walk during his later years, where he "composed hundreds of verses." There is scarcely a rock or mountain summit, a stream or tarn, or even a well, a grove, or a forest-side in all that neighbourhood, which is not imperishably identified with this poet, who at once interpreted them as they had never been interpreted before, and added the gleam, The light that never was on sea or land, It may be added that, while we are now able to localise the poems in which Wordsworth idealized the localities, he himself sanctioned the principle of doing so, both by dictating the Fenwick notes, and by republishing his Essay on the topography of the Lakes, along with the Duddon Sonnets, in 1820 and also, by itself, in 1822-" from a belief that it would tend materially to illustrate" his poems. The topographical notes will, in this edition, usually follow the poems to which they refer. But in the case of the longer poems, such as The Prelude, The Excursion, and others, it will be more convenient to print them at the foot of the page, than to oblige the reader to turn to the end of the volume, guided by an index letter. A sixth feature of the edition will be the publication of several poems, and fragments of poems, hitherto unpublished. In addition to those of which the copyright has expired, and The Prelude-of which the copyright still exists a few poems which have been discovered, and which cast some light on the characteristics of Wordsworth's genius, will be printed in full. There are only two fragments known to me which it seems undesirable to reproduce. One of these appeared in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads the now scarce edition of 1798-and is entitled The Convict. The reproduction of that poem is neither necessary nor expedient. The other has never been published. It was written during the Alfoxden days, and is called “"A Somersetshire Tragedy." It is the chronicle of a revolting crime, with nothing in the poem to merit its being rescued from oblivion. The only curious thing about it is that Wordsworth could have written it. With these exceptions, there is no reason why the fragments which he did not himself republish, and others which he published but afterwards suppressed, should not find a place in this edition. The suppression of some of these by the poet himself is as unaccountable as is his omission of certain stanzas in the earlier poems from their later versions; while the Cambridge "Installation Ode," which is so feeble, was retained. Such a fragment as The Glowworm, for example, which only appeared in the edition of 1807, must be republished in full. Andrew Jones, also suppressed after appearing in Lyrical Ballads of 1798, 1800, 1802, and 1804,-will be replaced in like manner. The youthful School Exercise written at Hawkshead, the translation from the Georgics of Virgil, the Poem addressed to the Queen in 1846, will appear in their chronological place. There are also a translation of some French stanzas by Francis Wrangham on The Birth of Love-a poem entitled The Eagle and the Dove, which was privately printed in a volume, consisting chiefly of French fragments, and called La petite Chounannerie, ou Histoire d'un College Breton sous l'Empire— a Sonnet on the rebuilding of a church at Cardiff-an Election Squib written during the Lowther and Brougham contest for the representation of the county of Cumberland in 1818 and some stanzas written in the Visitors' Book at the Ferry, Windermere. Then, as Wordsworth published some verses by his sister Dorothy in his own volumes, some other 1How much of this poem was Wordsworth's own has not been definitely ascertained. fragments by Miss Wordsworth may find a place in this edition. I do not attach much importance, however, to the recovery of these unpublished poems. The truth is, as Sir Henry Taylor-himself a poet and critic of no mean order -has remarked,1 “In these days, when a great man's path to posterity is likely to be more and more crowded, there is a tendency to create an obstruction in the desire to give an impulse. To gather about a man's work all the details that can be found out about it is, in my opinion, to put a drag upon it; and, as of the Works, so of the Life, &c." The industrious labour of some editors in disinterring the trivial works of great men is not a commendable industry. All great writers have occasionally written trifles-this is true even of Shakespere-and if they wished them to perish, why should we seek to resuscitate them? Besides, this labour-whether due to the industry of admiring friends, or to the ambition of the literary resurrectionist-is futile; because the verdict of Time is sure, and posterity will doubtless soon consign the recovered trivialities to kindly oblivion. The question which should invariably present itself to the editor of the fragments of a great writer is, "Can these bones. live?" If they cannot, they had better never see the light. Indeed the only good reason for reprinting the fragments which have been lost (because the author himself attached no value to them), is that, in a complete collection of the works of a great man, some of them may have a biographic or psychological value. But we have no right to reproduce, from an antiquarian motive, what, in a literary sense, is either trivial, or feeble, or sterile. Here also, however, we ought to distinguish between what is suitable in an edition meant either to popularise an author or to interpret him, and an edition intended to bring 1 In a letter to the editor. together all that is worthy of preservation for posterity. There is great truth in what Mr Arnold has lately said of Byron :1 "I question whether by reading everything which he gives us, we are so likely to acquire an admiring sense, even of his variety and abundance, as by reading what he gives us at his happier moments. Receive him absolutely without omission and compromise, follow his whole outpouring, stanza by stanza, and line by line, from the very commencement to the very end, and he is capable of being tiresome." This is quite true; nevertheless, English literature demands a complete edition of all the works of Byron: and it may be safely predicted that, for weightier reasons and with greater urgency, it will continue to call for the collected works of Wordsworth. A seventh feature of this edition is that a Bibliography of the Works, and of the successive editions through which they passed from 1793 to 1850, will be added, together with a bibliography of criticism, or critical estimates of Wordsworth. The first part of this bibliography may be given now; any editorial notes which seem necessary, being placed within brackets. It will be observed, however, that the Prose Works are not included in this Bibliography, with the exception of the Prefaces and Appendices to the Poems, and the description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the North of England. I. AN EVENING WALK. An Epistle; in verse. Lady, from the Lakes of the North of England. By W. Wordsworth, Addressed to a Young B.A., of St John's, Cambridge. London: printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1793. 4to. II. DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES. In verse. Taken during a pedestrian tour in the Italian, Grison, Swiss, and Savoyard Alps. By W. Wordsworth, B.A., of St John's, Cambridge. 1 The poetry of Byron, chosen and arranged by Matthew Arnold. London: Macmillan & Co. Loca pastorum deserta atque otia dia.-Lucret. Et longe saltus lateque vacantes.- Virgil. London: printed for J. Johnson, St Paul's Church-yard, 1793. 4to. III. LYRICAL BALLADS, with a few other Poems. Joseph Cottle, Bristol 1798. Also, London: printed for J. & A. Arch, Gracechurch Street, 1798. 12mo. [500 copies of the first edition of Lyrical Ballads were printed by Joseph Cottle, Bristol; who wrote thus of the book, "the sale was so slow, and the severity of most of the reviews so great that its progress to oblivion seemed to be certain. I parted with the largest proportion of the 500 at a loss to Mr Arch a London Bookseller." Hence Mr Arch's name appears on the title-page of "the larger proportion" of the copies. Four of the poems in this first edition of Lyrical Ballads were by Coleridge, viz., "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere," "The FosterMother's Tale," "The Nightingale, a conversational Poem,” and “The Dungeon." Another of the poems which Wordsworth never republished, is entitled "The Convict." As already stated (p. xxxvii.), the reproduction of that fragment is neither necessary nor expedient. A part of the poem afterwards named "Guilt and Sorrow" appears in this edition, under the title "The Female Vagrant." The lines called in future editions "Her Eyes are Wild,” are entitled "The Mad Mother." "Animal Tranquillity and Decay" is called "Old Man Travelling," and the Poem "To my Sister" appears under the title "Lines written at a small distance from my house, and sent by my little boy to the person to whom they are addressed."] IV. LYRICAL BALLADS, with other poems. In two volumes. By W. Wordsworth. Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum! Second edition. London, printed for T. N. Longman & O. Rees, PaternosterRow, by Biggs & Co. Bristol, 1800. 12mo. [The first volume of this edition is, in the main, a reprint of the edition of 1798; although the order is different, and the titles of some of the poems are changed. Another fragment by Coleridge, entitled "Love," is introduced; and, in a "Preface," Wordsworth explains the principal object which he proposed to himself in these Poems. This preface, which contains the germ of his poetical theory, was reproduced in an extended form in the subsequent editions of Lyrical Ballads, and in all the collective editions of his works. The poems in the second volume were published in 1800 for the first time. On that account only the first of these two volumes of 1800 appears as "second edition ;" and, for the same reason, the former of the two volumes published in 1802, appears as "third edition," while the latter is printed as second edition. |