Page:The bibliography of Tennyson (1896).pdf/27

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1833.]
OF TENNYSON.
13

mainly at the instigation or by the request of Arthur Hallam, for distribution among the author's college intimates. Richard Milnes (afterwards Lord Houghton) possessed a copy, quoted in his own first volume of poems published in 1834 ("Memorials of a Tour in Greece"); and (as already mentioned) a copy was in the possession of W. H. Thompson, afterwards (1835) enriched with marginal autograph corrections by the author, This, and the copy, the early history of which is not apparent, sold at Sotheby's in June, 1870, and eventually acquired by Mr. Pickering (bound up together with the published volumes of 1830 and 1833, and not separately, like Mr. Thompson's copy), are the only two copies I ever saw of the original edition. I never saw an uncut copy. At the sale of the late Mr. Pickering's Tennyson Collection, at Puttick and Simpson's, in 1879, this copy of his brought £40; and at a later date Mr. Thompson's copy, with autograph corrections, fetched £60, at Sotheby and Wilkinson's, In 1869 "The Lover's Tale," with considerable alterations, and with the addition of a hitherto unprinted section, was sent to the press by the author, to accompany or precede the poem of "The Golden Supper,"

{published in the volume of "The Holy Grail," etc.,) which forms a sequel to it. But it was again suppressed before publication; and "The Golden Supper" (founded on a prose story in the Decameron of Boccaccio) was published alone, on its own merits. Some half-dozen copies of this authorized reprint of 1869 were apparently saved from destruction. One of these was given by