They were
afterwards
incorporated in full in the edition of
1857, issued by Mr.
1857, issued by Mr.
Wordsworth - 1
.
.
Such as they are,
and whatever be their interest or value, you are, as far as I am
concerned, heartily welcome to them; and I shall be glad indeed if
they add in the least degree to make your edition more worthy of the
great man for whom my admiration grows every day I live, and my deep
gratitude to whom will cease only with my life, and my reason. "
This precious copy of the edition of 1836-7 is now the property of Lady
Coleridge. I re-examined it in 1894, and added several readings, which I
had omitted to note twelve years ago, when Lord Coleridge first showed
it to me. I should add that, since the issue of the volumes of 1882-6,
many other MS. copies of individual Poems have come under my notice; and
that every important variation of text in them is incorporated in this
edition.
As it is impossible to discover the precise year in which the suggested
alterations of text were written by Wordsworth, on the margin of the
edition of 1836, they will be indicated, wherever they occur, by the
initial letter C. Comparatively few changes occur in the poems of early
years.
A copy of the 1814 (quarto) edition of 'The Excursion', now in the
possession of a grandson of the poet, the Rev. John Wordsworth, Gosforth
Rectory, Cumberland--which was the copy Wordsworth kept at Rydal Mount
for annotation and correction, much in the same way as he kept the
edition of 1836-7--has also been kindly sent to me by its present owner,
for examination and use in this edition; and, in it, I have found some
additional readings.
FOURTH. In the present edition all the Notes and Memoranda, explanatory
of the Poems, which Wordsworth dictated to Miss Fenwick, are given in
full. Miss Fenwick lived much at Rydal Mount, during the later years of
the Poet's life; and it is to their friendship, and to her inducing
Wordsworth to dictate these Notes, that we owe most of the information
we possess, as to the occasions and circumstances under which his poems
were composed. These notes were first made use of--although only in a
fragmentary manner--by the late Bishop of Lincoln, in the 'Memoirs' of
his uncle.
They were afterwards incorporated in full in the edition of
1857, issued by Mr. Moxon, under the direction of Mr. Carter; and in the
centenary edition. They were subsequently printed in 'The Prose Works of
Wordsworth', edited by Dr. Grosart; and in my edition of 1882-6. I am
uncertain whether it was the original MS. , written by Miss Fenwick, or
the copy of it afterwards taken for Miss Quillinan, to which Dr. Grosart
had access. The text of these Notes, as printed in the edition of 1857,
is certainly (in very many cases) widely different from what is given in
'The Prose Works' of 1876. I have made many corrections--from the MS.
which I have examined with care--of errors which exist in all previously
printed copies of these Notes, including my own.
What appears in this volume is printed from a MS. , which Miss Quillinan
gave me to examine and copy, and which she assured me was the original
one. The proper place for these Fenwick Notes is doubtless that which
was assigned to them by the editor of 1857, viz. before the poems which
they respectively illustrate.
FIFTH.
and whatever be their interest or value, you are, as far as I am
concerned, heartily welcome to them; and I shall be glad indeed if
they add in the least degree to make your edition more worthy of the
great man for whom my admiration grows every day I live, and my deep
gratitude to whom will cease only with my life, and my reason. "
This precious copy of the edition of 1836-7 is now the property of Lady
Coleridge. I re-examined it in 1894, and added several readings, which I
had omitted to note twelve years ago, when Lord Coleridge first showed
it to me. I should add that, since the issue of the volumes of 1882-6,
many other MS. copies of individual Poems have come under my notice; and
that every important variation of text in them is incorporated in this
edition.
As it is impossible to discover the precise year in which the suggested
alterations of text were written by Wordsworth, on the margin of the
edition of 1836, they will be indicated, wherever they occur, by the
initial letter C. Comparatively few changes occur in the poems of early
years.
A copy of the 1814 (quarto) edition of 'The Excursion', now in the
possession of a grandson of the poet, the Rev. John Wordsworth, Gosforth
Rectory, Cumberland--which was the copy Wordsworth kept at Rydal Mount
for annotation and correction, much in the same way as he kept the
edition of 1836-7--has also been kindly sent to me by its present owner,
for examination and use in this edition; and, in it, I have found some
additional readings.
FOURTH. In the present edition all the Notes and Memoranda, explanatory
of the Poems, which Wordsworth dictated to Miss Fenwick, are given in
full. Miss Fenwick lived much at Rydal Mount, during the later years of
the Poet's life; and it is to their friendship, and to her inducing
Wordsworth to dictate these Notes, that we owe most of the information
we possess, as to the occasions and circumstances under which his poems
were composed. These notes were first made use of--although only in a
fragmentary manner--by the late Bishop of Lincoln, in the 'Memoirs' of
his uncle.
They were afterwards incorporated in full in the edition of
1857, issued by Mr. Moxon, under the direction of Mr. Carter; and in the
centenary edition. They were subsequently printed in 'The Prose Works of
Wordsworth', edited by Dr. Grosart; and in my edition of 1882-6. I am
uncertain whether it was the original MS. , written by Miss Fenwick, or
the copy of it afterwards taken for Miss Quillinan, to which Dr. Grosart
had access. The text of these Notes, as printed in the edition of 1857,
is certainly (in very many cases) widely different from what is given in
'The Prose Works' of 1876. I have made many corrections--from the MS.
which I have examined with care--of errors which exist in all previously
printed copies of these Notes, including my own.
What appears in this volume is printed from a MS. , which Miss Quillinan
gave me to examine and copy, and which she assured me was the original
one. The proper place for these Fenwick Notes is doubtless that which
was assigned to them by the editor of 1857, viz. before the poems which
they respectively illustrate.
FIFTH.
