No More Learning

XIV. W. Wordsworth, by Edward C. Wyon. Blea Tarn.

XV. " " by Thomas Woolner. Peele Castle.


THE LIFE.

XVI. " " by Frederick Thrupp. Grasmere Church and Churchyard.

" " by Samuel Laurence.

" " by Benjamin R. Haydon.
All the etchings will be prepared by H. Manesse. The portraits, with
many others, will be described in detail in a subsequent volume.

In all editorial notes the titles given by Wordsworth to his Poems are
invariably printed in italics, not with inverted commas before and
after, as Wordsworth himself so often printed them: and when he gave no
title to a poem, its first line will be invariably placed within
inverted commas. This plan of using Italics, and not Roman letters,
applies also to the title of any book referred to by Wordsworth, or by
his sister in her Journals. Whether they put the title in italics, or
within commas, it is always italicised in this edition.

A subsidiary matter such as this becomes important when one finds that
many editors of parts of the Works of Wordsworth, or of Selections from
them, have invented titles of their own; and have sent their volumes to
press without the slightest indication to their readers that the titles
were not Wordsworth's; mixing up their own notion of what best described
the contents of the Poem, or the Letter, with those of the writer. Some
have suppressed Wordsworth's, and put their own title in its place!
Others have contented themselves (more modestly) with inventing a title
when Wordsworth gave none. I do not object to these titles in
themselves. Several, such as those by Archbishop Trench, are suggestive
and valuable. What I object to is that any editor--no matter who--should
mingle his own titles with those of the Poet, and give no indication to
the reader as to which is which. Dr. Grosart has been so devoted a
student of Wordsworth, and we owe him so much, that one regrets to find
in "The Prose Works of Wordsworth" (1876) the following title given to
his letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, 'Apology for the French
Revolution'. It is interesting to know that Dr. Grosart thought this a
useful description of the letter: but a clear indication should have
been given that it was not Wordsworth's.