No More Learning

EIGHTH, a new Life of the Poet is given.

These features of the edition of 1882-6 are preserved in that of 1896,
and the following are added:

FIRST, The volumes are published, not in library 8vo size, but--as the
works of every poet should be issued--in one more convenient to handle,
and to carry. Eight volumes are devoted to the Poetical Works, and among
them are included those fragments by his sister Dorothy, and others,
which Wordsworth published in his lifetime among his own Poems. They are
printed in the chronological order of composition, so far as that is
known.

SECOND, In the case of each Poem, any Note written by Wordsworth
himself, as explanatory of it, comes first, and has the initials W. W. ,
with the date of its first insertion placed after it. Next follows the
Fenwick Note, within square brackets, thus [ ], and signed I. F. ; and,
afterwards, any editorial note required. When, however, Wordsworth's own
notes were placed at the end of the Poems, or at the foot of the page,
his plan is adopted, and the date appended. I should have been glad, had
it been possible--the editors of the twentieth century may note this--to
print Wordsworth's own notes, the Fenwick notes, and the Editor's in
different type, and in type of a decreasing size; but the idea occurred
to me too late, i. e. after the first volume had been passed for press.

THIRD, All the Prose Works of Wordsworth are given in full, and follow
the Poems, in two volumes.
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.