Preface.

Is this Edition of the Poems of William Wordsworth there will be found-now for the first time within the compass of a single volume of convenient size and dest price-every piece of original verse which we know to have been published the poet himself, or of which he can be shown to have authorised the posthumous liation.

The OXFORD WORDSWORTH comprises (1) the Minor or Miscellaneous Poems, repented from the standard edition of 1849-50,-the last issued during the lifetime and under the direct authority of the poet; (2) a reprint of the original text of the two Poems of 1793, viz. An Evening Walk, and Descriptive Sketches; (3) a Supplest, giving, so far as it has been possible to ascertain, every piece published by Wordsworth on any other occasion whatsoever, but omitted by him from the final jettion of 1849-50; (4) The Prelude1, or Growth of a Poet's Mind; an Autobiograsal Poem; (5) The Excursion (text of ed. 1849–50); (6) all the Author's Notes of et 189-50, together with many notes found in various early editions, but subsegreatly omitted; (7) sundry Prefaces, Postscripts, &c., given at the end of Vol. V. 1849-50; (8) a Chronological Table of the Life of Wordsworth, and (9) some few ellaneous Notes by the Editor, who is also accountable for (10) the Chronological Unia prefixed to the individual poems.

Great pains have been taken to ensure a high degree of accuracy in the text of Edition. The poet's use of capital letters-a sure index to his intentions of stress as been carefully and, it is hoped, in every instance reproduced; but it seemed to preserve with scrupulous exactness certain oddities and inconsistencies of lling-a matter to which Wordsworth, unlike his brother-poet, Walter Savage Lalor, appears never to have given serious attention. The editor has throughout empared the punctuation of the standard text of 1849-50 with that of the Aldine Fordeworth, issued in 1892. In most instances of divergence between them he has lowed the recent authority; but in a few cases a regard-it may be, a superstitious regard-for the metrical design of the poet has compelled him to revert (not without giving) to the pointing of the standard text. Be this as it may, we must always ear in mind the fact that Wordsworth's system of punctuation was no mere logical r intellectual organ, but rather-in the words of the Aldine Editor-"an elaborate

Published, shortly after the poet's death, in 1850.

Edited by Edward Dowden, LL.D., &c., &c., Professor of Oratory and English Literature in the Caversity of Dublin.

and ingenious instrument, intended at once to guide the reader to the meaning an to serve a metrical purpose."

In three places, where a misprint in the text of 1849 50, while not absolutel demonstrable, was yet in the highest degree probable, the Editor has substituted reading of one or more of the earlier editions, taking care to add in a footnote th precise authority attaching to the adopted reading. On behalf of the change thus in troduced into line 3 of Misc. Son., II. XXIV: “a lamp sullenly (vice suddenly) glaring. it will probably suffice to refer the reader to the numerous passages cited in th footnote on page 266; bidding him add thereto, from Eccles. Sonnets, II. xv. line 1 “Ambition.... is no sullen fire;" and also, from Inscriptions, X., lines 27, 28: "t sullen weeds forbidden To resume its native light." In defence of "choral (vice cora fountains" (p. 217) it may be observed, first: that Wordsworth was not a writer nonsense-verses; secondly: that he had a rooted aversion to slipshod grammar, an in particular, to the very solecism exemplified in the phrase (of text 1849-50), “cor: fountains," i.e. to the adjectival misuse of a substantive pur et simple. We may fe confident that the poet-critic who found fault with W. Rowan Hamilton's phrase weariness of that gold sphere, and remonstrated with R. P. Gillies for having writter where the lake gleams beneath the autumn sun; who vehemently advocated the employ ment of vernal and autumnal as being both "unexceptionable words," and declare it to be a matter of regret that Miss Seward's bantling, hybernal, was not in mo familiar use; we may, surely, feel quite satisfied that this severe precisian would neve have condescended to the vile phrase, coral fountains; all the more because, in th words, fountains coralline, he had a phrase ready to his hand which (had it but bee possible on the score of sense) was undeniably "unexceptionable," as well from th metrist's as from the grammarian's point of view. It should be added that th Aldine Editor led the way in adopting both readings-sullenly and choral-into h text. The third instance above referred to (see page 498) calls for no particular com ment in this place.

In the extract from Chaucer's Troilus and Cresida, contributed by Wordswort to the volume projected by Thomas Powell in 1840, line 118, as it appears in the or ginal issue of that volume (1841), runs precisely as it runs in Chaucer's original, an as it now runs in the OXFOrd WordswoORTH:

"With a soft voice, he of his Lady dear"

When, however, in the following year, this extract, along with the poet's othe adaptations from Chaucer, was being reprinted for publication amongst his Collecte Poems, the compositor perpetrated the ludicrous and (one would have thought) quit palpable blunder of foisting in the word 'night' (evidently caught from the expres sion 'night by night,' which occurs four lines below), between the words 'soft' an 'voice.' From that day to this, the line has run, in every edition of the Poems:

"With a soft night voice, he of his Lady dear"

an arrangement which obviously yields neither good metre nor common sense. I seems strange that neither Wordsworth himself, nor his clerk and proof-reader Mr. John Carter, should, while revising the several editions of the Poems that appeare between 1842 and 1850, have detected so manifest an error of the press. But we ma

perhaps suppose that their attention on these occasions was wholly given to Wordsworth's original compositions, and that the text of the adaptations from Chaucer, having been settled once for all, was simply left to take care of itself. Professor Dowden, in a paper read to the Wordsworth Society in May, 1882, was the first to gest the possibly intrusive character of 'night;' he has, however, retained that Jei in the text of the Aldine Edition (1892). The Editor of the OXFORD WORDS(7 87H, finding himself unable to conceive the possibility of any difference of opinion to the true character and origin of 'night' in the line under notice, has summarily oved it from the text, without note, comment or apology of any kind whatsoever. In a very few instances-possibly not more than half-a-dozen in all-where a sage either of striking beauty or otherwise interesting had been rejected from text of ed. 1849-50, the Editor has ventured to restore the cancelled lines to their ginal position, placing them within brackets, to indicate that they form no part of e standard text, and adding in a footnote the precise amount of authority which they derive from the numerous earlier editions. The second stanza of Louisa has en replaced after this fashion; so, too, have the opening stanza of Dion, and a anza (originally the sixth) of the Ode to Duty. Thus restored, the passages in question are sure to catch the eye of the reader; whereas, had they been relegated to the Notes and Illustrations" at the end of the volume, they would necessarily have aped the notice of that numerous class who read poetry readily enough, but turn With instant aversion from anything in the shape of a Note.

The Minor Poems are here presented in the order in which they stand in 1349-50. The notion of that order or arrangement was, as is well known, first ceived by Wordsworth in 1812, and, after three years of sedulous elaboration, finally perfected and embodied by him in the Collective Edition of 1815. To it despite much ridicule and hostile criticism, the poet adhered with unwavering faith throughout the rest of his life. On this question of arrangement, the or is fain to confess, his affections are most humble; he has no ambition to goodlier scheme than Wordsworth's. Accordingly, those who purchase the DIFORD WORDSWORTH must needs content themselves with the works of the poet ranged according to an antiquated scheme of his own devising. As to the adtages alleged by some to accompany a chronological arrangement of the poems, I will be time enough to discuss them when the materials for the construction such an arrangement are in our hands. At present, our knowledge of the nology of the poems is very far from complete; and, accordingly, every empt to set the poems in their true chronological order must of necessity be ely tentative and conjectural.

In compiling the Chronological Life-Table, the Editor has, of course, freely availed elf of the two great Sources for the Biography of Wordsworth, viz. the Memoirs the poet, published in 1851 by his nephew Christopher, late Bishop of Lincoln, and Life in three volumes by Professor Knight of St. Andrews, published in 1889.

In this matter of chronology, be it observed, the poet himself is little better than a blind guide. never be attempts to assign dates to his several compositions, he frequently errs, and not seldom radicts himself. Nevertheless, in many instances, Wordsworth's testimony is all we at present e to go upon; and, wherever the date he gives is not discredited by evidence from another , it has been thought best to adopt it in this Edition, as at least provisionally correct