The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth

associated with Wordsworth. The localities are Cockermouth, Hawkshead, Alfoxden, Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Lancrigg, Rydal Mount, and Blea Tarn. These etchings will be from drawings by John M'Whirter, A.R.A., and will form the frontispieces to the successive volumes. A portrait of Wordsworth will be published in the last volume.

NOTE,

EXPLANATORY OF THE VARIOUS READINGS PRINTED IN THIS EDITION.

The text adopted is, for the reasons stated in the foregoing preface, that which was finally sanctioned by Wordsworth himself, in the last edition which he revised. But, as every variation from this final text-occurring in the earlier editions-is given in footnotes, it may be desirable to explain the way in which these are arranged. It will be seen that whenever the text has been changed a date is given in the footnote, before the other readings are added. This date, which accompanies the reference number of the footnote, indicates the year in which the reading finally retained was first adopted by Wordsworth. The earlier readings then follow, in chronological order, with the year to which they belong invariably noted; and it is in every case to be assumed that the last of the changes indicated was continued in all subsequent editions of the works. It will thus be seen that no direct information is given as to how long a particular reading was retained, or through how many editions it ran. It is to be assumed, however, that it was retained in all the intermediate editions till the next change of text is stated. It would encumber the notes with too many figures if, in every instance in which a change had been made, the corresponding state of the text in all the other editions was indicated. But if no new reading follows the text quoted, as belonging

to a particular year, it is to be taken for granted that the reading in question was continued in all subsequent editions, till the text was finally adjusted in 1849-50.

Two illustrations will make this clear. The first is a case in which the text was only altered once, the second an instance in which it was altered six times. In the Evening Walk the following lines occur

The dog loud barking 'mid the glittering rocks,

Hunts, where his master points, the intercepted flocks.

And the footnote is as follows

1836.

That barking busy 'mid the glittering rocks,
Hunts, where he points, the intercepted flocks.

1793.

In the light of what has been said above, and by reference to the preceding bibliography, it will be seen from these two dates that the original text of 1793-given in the footnote —was continued in editions 1820, 1827, and 1832 (it was omitted in the "extract" of 1815); that it was changed in the year 1836; and that this reading was retained in editions 1843, 1845, and 1849.

Again, in Simon Lee, the lines occur

But what to them avails the land

Which he can till no longer?

And the following are the footnotes

From this it will be seen that the text adopted in the Lyrical Ballads of 1798 was retained in editions 1800, 1801, 1805, 1815, and 1820; that it was altered in each of the editions of 1827, 1832, 1836, 1843, in the MS. reading in Lord Coleridge's copy of the works, and in the edition of 1845; and that the version of 1845 was retained in the edition of 1849-50.

Further, when a verse, or stanza, or line, occurring in one or other of the earlier editions, was omitted from that of 1849, the footnote simply contains the extract along with the date of the year or years in which it occurs; and in such cases the date does not follow the reference number of the footnote, but is placed for obvious reasons at the end of the extract.

It may be added that slight changes of spelling which occur in the successive editions, and such alterations as ye for you, are not mentioned. When the change is one of transposition, however, although the text remains unaltered, -as is largely the case in Simon Lee, for example-the change is always indicated.

It will be further observed that, at the beginning of every poem, two dates are given; the first, on the left-hand side, being the date of composition; and the second, on the right-hand side, being the date of the first publication of the poem.

ST ANDREWS, January, 1882.

WILLIAM KNIGHT.

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THE POEMS.

COMPOSED.

1785.

1786.

1786 (probably).

1787-9.

1789.

1791-2.

1793-4.

1795.

1785 to 1797.

FIRST PUBLISHED.

School Exercise at Hawkshead, .
Extract from a Poem on Leaving School,
Sonnet, "Written in very early youth,"
"Calm is all nature as a resting wheel."
An Evening Walk. An Epistle; in verse,
addressed to a young lady, from the lakes
of the North of England,

Lines, written while sailing in a Boat at
evening,

Remembrance of Collins, composed upon the
Thames, near Richmond,

Descriptive Sketches in verse, taken during
a pedestrian tour among the Alps,
Guilt and Sorrow; or, Incidents upon Salis-
bury Plain,

One-third of this poem was published under
the title of "The Female Vagrant," in
Lines, left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, which
stands near the Lake of Esthwaite, on a
desolate part of the shore, commanding a
beautiful prospect,

The Borderers: A Tragedy,