No More Learning

. . . and man himself, . . . 1798. ]


[Variant 10:

1836.

With mournful joy, to think . . . 1798. ]



* * * * *


FOOTNOTES TO THE TEXT


[Footnote A: Yet commanding, 1798-1805. ]


[Footnote B: The Ferry on Windermere. --Ed.
]



* * * * *


SUB-FOOTNOTES TO THE VARIANTS


[Sub-Footnote i: The final retention of the reading of 1798 was probably
due to a remark of Charles Lamb's, in 1815, in which he objected to the
loss of the "admirable line" in the first edition, "a line quite alive,"
he called it. Future generations may doubt whether the reading of 1798,
or that of 1815, is the better. --Ed. ]


[Sub-Footnote ii: An emendation by S. T. C. --Ed. ]





* * * * *





THE BORDERERS


A TRAGEDY


Composed 1795-6. --Published 1842


Readers already acquainted with my Poems will recognise, in the
following composition, some eight or ten lines, [A] which I have not
scrupled to retain in the places where they originally stood. It is
proper however to add, that they would not have been used elsewhere,
if I had foreseen the time when I might be induced to publish this
Tragedy.

February 28, 1842. [B]


This Dramatic Piece, as noted in its title-page, was composed in
1795-6. It lay nearly from that time till within the last two or three
months unregarded among my papers, without being mentioned even to my
most intimate friends. Having, however, impressions upon my mind which
made me unwilling to destroy the MS. , I determined to undertake the
responsibility of publishing it during my own life, rather than impose
upon my successors the task of deciding its fate. Accordingly it has
been revised with some care; but, as it was at first written, and is
now published, without any view to its exhibition upon the stage, not
the slightest alteration has been made in the conduct of the story, or
the composition of the characters; above all, in respect to the two
leading Persons of the Drama, I felt no inducement to make any change.