Preface (continued 2)

Finally, I wish to express the great debt I owe to the late Mr. J. Dykes Campbell, for many suggestions, and for his unwearied interest in this work,— which I think was second only to his interest in Coleridge—and also to Mr. W. B. Kinghorn for his valuable assistance in the revision of proof sheets.

If there are any desiderata, in reference to Wordsworth —in addition to a new Life, a critical Essay, and such a Bibliography of Criticism as will be adequate for posterity—a 'Concordance' to his works is one of them. A correspondent once offered to prepare this for me, if I found a publisher: and another has undertaken to compile a volume of 'parallel passages' from the earlier poets of England, and of the world. A Concordance might very well form part of a volume of 'Wordsworthiana', and be a real service to future students of the poet.

William Knight.

Footnote 1:

In addition to my own detection of errors in the text and notes to the editions 1882-9, I acknowledge special obligation to the late Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria University, Principal Greenwood, who went over every volume with laborious care, and sent me the result. To the late Mr. J. Dykes Campbell, to Mr. J. R. Tutin, to the Rev. Thomas Hutchinson of Kimbolton, and to many others, I am similarly indebted.

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Footnote 2:

See

Memoirs of William Wordsworth

, ii. pp. 113, 114.

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Footnote 3:

It is however different with the fragments which were published in all the editions issued in the poet's lifetime, and afterwards in

The Prelude

, such as the lines on "the immortal boy" of Windermere. These are printed in their chronological place, and also in the posthumous poem.

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Footnote 4:

Poems of Wordsworth selected and arranged by Matthew Arnold

. London: Macmillan and Co.

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Footnote 5:

See the

Life of Sir W. Rowan Hamilton

, vol. ii. pp, 132, 135.

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Footnote 6:

See the Preface to the American edition of 1837.

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Footnote 7:

It need hardly be explained that, in the case of a modern poet, these various readings are not like the conjectural guesses of critics and commentators as to what the original text was (as in the case of the Greek Poets, or of Dante, or even of Shakespeare). They are the actual alterations, introduced deliberately as improvements, by the hand of the poet himself.

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Footnote 8:

The collection in the British Museum, and those in all the University Libraries of the country, are incomplete.

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Footnote 9:

The publication of this edition was superintended by Mr. Carter, who acted as Wordsworth's secretary for thirty-seven years, and was appointed one of his literary executors.

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Footnote 10:

Let the indiscriminate admirer of "first editions" turn to this quarto, and perhaps even he may wonder why it has been rescued from oblivion. I am only aware of the existence of five copies of the edition of 1793; and although it has a certain autobiographic value, I do not think that many who read it once will return to it again, except as a literary curiosity. Here—and not in "Lyrical Ballads" or

The Excursion

—was the quarry where Jeffrey or Gifford might have found abundant material for criticism.

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Footnote 11:

It is unfortunate that the

Memoirs

do not tell us to what poem the remark applies, or to whom the letter containing it was addressed.

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Footnote 12:

It is important to note that the printed text in several of the editions is occasionally cancelled in the list of

errata

, at the beginning or the end of the volume: also that many copies of the early editions (notably those of 1800), were bound up without the full

errata

list. In this edition there were two such lists, one of them very brief. But the cancelled words in these

errata

lists, must be taken into account, in determining the text of each edition.

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Footnote 13:

I. F. note. See vol. i. p. 5.

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Footnote 14:

I. F. note. See vol. i. p. 32.

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Footnote 15:

Advertisement. See vol. i. p. 78.

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Footnote 16:

How much of this poem was Wordsworth's own has not been definitely ascertained. I am of opinion that very little, if any of it, was his. It has been said that his nephew, the late Bishop of Lincoln, wrote most of it; but more recent evidence tends to show that it was the work of his son-in-law, Edward Quillinan.

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Footnote 17:

In a letter to the writer in 1882.

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Footnote 18:

The Poetry of Byron, chosen and arranged by Matthew Arnold

. London: Macmillan and Co.

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Footnote 19:

It may not be too trivial a fact to mention that Wordsworth numbered the lines of his earliest publication, 'An Evening Walk, in l793.—Ed.

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Footnote 20:

Another fact, not too trivial to mention, is that in the original MS. of the 'Lines composed at Grasmere', etc., Wordsworth sent it to the printer "Lines written," but changed it in proof to "Lines composed."—Ed.

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