No More Learning

The Prose Works were collected by Dr.
Grosart, and published in 1876. Extracts from them have since been
edited by myself and others: but they will now be issued, like the
Poems, in chronological order, under their own titles, and with such
notes as seem desirable.

FOURTH, All the Journals written by Dorothy Wordsworth at Alfoxden, Dove
Cottage, and elsewhere, as well as her record of Tours with her brother
in Scotland, on the Continent, etc. , are published--some of them in
full, others only in part. An explanation of why any Journal is
curtailed will be found in the editorial note preceding it. Much new
material will be found in these Journals.

FIFTH, The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth--with a few from
Mary and Dora Wordsworth--are arranged chronologically, and published by
themselves. Hitherto, these letters have been scattered in many
quarters--in the late Bishop of Lincoln's 'Memoirs' of his uncle, in
'The Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson',
in the 'Memorials of Coleorton' and my own 'Life' of the Poet, in the
'Prose Works', in the 'Transactions of the Wordsworth Society', in the
'Letters of Charles Lamb', in the 'Memorials of Thomas De Quincey', and
other volumes; but many more, both of Wordsworth's and his sister's,
have never before seen the light. More than a hundred and fifty letters
from Dorothy Wordsworth to Mrs. Clarkson, the wife of the great
"slave-liberator," were sent to me some time ago by Mrs. Arthur
Tennyson, a relative of Mrs. Clarkson; and I have recently seen and been
allowed to copy, Wordsworth's letters to his early friend Francis
Wrangham, through the kindness of their late owner, Mr. Mackay of The
Grange, Trowbridge. Many other letters of great interest have recently
reached me.
SIXTH, In addition to a new Bibliography, and a Chronological Table of
the Poems, and the Prose Works, a Bibliography of Wordsworth Criticism
is appended. It includes most of the articles on the Poet, and notices
of his Works, which have appeared in Great Britain, America, and the
Continent of Europe. Under this head I have specially to thank Mrs.
Henry A. St. John of Ithaca, N. Y. , a devoted Transatlantic
Wordsworthian, who has perhaps done more than any one--since Henry
Reed--to promote the study of her favourite poet in America. Mrs. St.
John's Wordsworth collection is unique, and her knowledge and enthusiasm
are as great as her industry has been. Professor E. Legouis of the
University of Lyons--who wrote an interesting book on Wordsworth's
friend, 'Le General Michel Beaupuy' (1891)--has sent me material from
France, which will be found in its proper place. Frau Professor Gothein
of Bonn, who has translated many of Wordsworth's poems into German, and
written his life, 'William Wordsworth: sein Leben, seine Werke, seine
Zeitgenossen', (1893), has similarly helped me in reference to German
criticism.

SEVENTH, As the Poet's Letters, and his sister's Journals, will appear
in earlier volumes, the new 'Life of Wordsworth' will be much shorter
than that which was published in 1889, in three volumes 8vo. It will not
exceed a single volume.