Poems and Extracts/Notes
NOTES
1 Composed Dec. 21, 1819 : published 1820. Probably sent with the Album as a Christmas gift. Collated with ed. 1828 (Galignaui) :
1. 9 resigned;
1. 10 Work !—
1. 10 bright [om.—]
1. 11 taint;
1. 12 though [as originally written and then erased in MS. here].
1. 13 Or if
1. 14 musing,undated.
2 Miscellany Poems, by a Lady, 1713, types identical (but new title-page) with Poems of Anne Countess of Winchelsea, 1714, p. 92. An excerpt from ' The Spleen. A Pindarick Poem' of 150 lines. This passage begins (1. 81) :
Whilst in the Muses Paths I stray,
Whilst in their groves, and by their secret Springs
1. 6 th' inimitable Wordsworth_cuts out one line; or paint on glass
The Sov'reign's blurr'd and undistiuguish'd Face,
The threatniug Angel, &c.
The excision invites comment!
3 Miscellany Poems, by a Lady, 1713, Poems of Anne Countess of Winchelsea, 1714, p. 33: 'The Petition for an absolute Retreat. Inscribed to the Right Honble Catherine Countess of Thanet, mentioned in the Poem under the name of Arminda.' Out of 293 lines, W. selects 11. 1-2.5 ; 32-47 ;
104-125.
1. 11 glass,
1. 12 News, . . . Ears ;
4 1. 15 shop,
1. 16 spread,
1. 18 thither
1. 25 it's Art,
1. 26 Fate,
1. 31 coveted
5 1. 33 the native Cup ;
6 1. 69 Man,
1. 60 Jealousie,
1. 63 Windings,
7. Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 263 : ' Moral Song.' Not divided into quatrains.
1. 2 here;
1. 6 Pride;
1. 9 Youth,
1. 12 in,
8 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 24: 'The Mussulman's Dream of the Vizier and Dervis,' thirty-nine lines, of which W. takes the first ten. In his dream, the Mussulman sees a Vizier in Paradise and a Dervish in torment. The Turk asks a phantom how it happens that life in courts has broug'ht the Vizier to bliss, while the ascetic is in misery; and is answered that the general rule holds good, but the Vizier sought retirement, while ' Th' ambitious Dervis would frequent the court.'
An early instance of the oriental apologues, once so popular. 1. 9 Sorrow,
9 Miscellany Poems, 1713; Poems, 1714, p. 291 : 'A Nocturnal Reverie,' fifty lines. W. omits four lines.
1. 4 sings;
1. 13 Woodbind,
1. 16 [dusky brakes :] W. omits
When scatter'd Glow-worms, but in Twilight fine.
Shew trivial Beauties watch their Hour to shine;
Whil'st Salisb'ry stands the Test of every Light,
In perfect charms, and perfect Virtue bright:
1. 28 torn up
11 1. 34 whilst
1. 44 breaks,
1. 46 Or Pleasures,
12 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 164: ' Enquiry after Peace. A Fragment' ; forty-one lines, of which AV. gives the first sixteen. The remaining lines describe the disturbing effects of Pleasure, Sovereign Power, Thirst of Wealth, War, Love, Poetry!
(Poetry 's the feav'rish Fit,
Th' o'erflowing of unbounded Wit,' &c., 1. 41.
1. 10 remain.
1. 11 pass,
13 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 280: 'Fragment,' thirty-nine lines. Ardelia is Lady Winchelsea's poetical name.
This is the fragment that W. means to refer to on p. 31 as proving that 'she was attached to James the second and suffered by the Revolution.'
1. 10 rest,
1. 11 appear'd,
1. 12 she rever'd,
No doubt we should read Adher'd to in 1. 13.
14 1. 15 ground,
1. 20 Pray'rs,
On 1. 23 Lady W. notes:' Wye Colledge in Kent, formerly a Priory.'
1. 24 distance,
15 1. 34 th' immortal
16 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 143: A poem of seventy-six lines, out of which W. takes 11. 37-62. 'Tis fit Serena should be sung'—Serena being Lady Catharine Tufton, daughter of ' Arminda,' the Countess of 'Thanet.
1. 6 T' express
1. 7 mind [om. ,]
1. 9 alt' ring
17 1. 19 T explain,
1. 23 how All, that's
18 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 259: 'Life's Progress,' a poem of nine stanzas. W. selects stanzas 1, 4, 6,6.
1. 1 is at first begun
1. 9 do 's that
19 1. 12 April-drops
1. 18 gently rising
20 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 289.
1. 14 Chaplets
21 W. omits the last four lines:
Who then their Ev'ning-Dews may spare.
When thou no longer art their Care;
But shalt, like ancient Heroes, burn,
And some bright Hearth be made thy urn.
22 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 156. A poem of 107 lines. W. selects 11. 48-61 ; 65-83 ; 90-107. The lines excised contain conceits, family history, and common-places.
1. 2 Tears, . . . Nature's
1. 5 that patient
1. 10 tow'rd this
23 1. 18 hadst
1. 20 hadst
1. 23 so Fresh, so Fair:
1. 27 Beams,
1. 28 Confines, lay 1. 31 the Mother's
24 1. 32 seen,
1. 40 pleases, whilst
1. 47 clouds,
25 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 262: "Hope." Lady Winchelsea's first line is: 'The Tree of Knowledge we in Eden prov'd'; that is, in Eden we made trial of the tree of Knowledge. If W.'s alteration be intentional, it must be pronounced a remarkable attempt at a conceit in the style of the metaphysical school: the tree of knowledge proved to be the tree of life, by 'one greater man' restoring us.
1. 7 t' expel
1. 8 wave
26 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 271 : 'A Song.
1. 8 t' explain
27 1. 16 do 's
Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 215: ' To a Friend, in Praise of the Invention of Writing Letters: 'forty lines, of which W. takes the last ten, in which the thought passes from mere fancy to poetic imagination. The poem is worth examining to discover the judgment shown by W. in his choice of passages. In 1. 8 born = borne. 'Happiness' in 1. 9 seems due to W. The original has ' happy Case,' and the MS. shows signs of erasure, the 'y' of 'happy' being clearly discernible.
28 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 118: 'The Cautious Lovers.' Fourteen quatrains, of which W. omits two, after 1. 32, the first being
'Who e'er was mov'd yet to go down,
By such o'er-cautious Fear;
Or for one Lover left the Town,
Who might have numbers here?'
This lacks that 'high and excellent seriousness ' which W. required.
1. 1 let's
29 1. 18 Then in
1. 22 well-chose
30 1. 32 Accidents
1. 36 Conquest
1. 37 Beach
1. 44 And will not trust too far. No ( ).
31 W. seems to spell Winchelsea always, as in the edition of her Poems in 1714 it is spelt. The 'Poems by Eminent Ladies,' 1755, a compilation by G. Colman and B. Thornton, was sold on the third day's sale of the books at Rydal Mount, July 21, 1859: Article No. 600 of the Catalogue. The 'Fragment' is on p. 18 above; see line 12, and note.
32 Miscellany Poems, 1713, Poems, 1714, p. 122: 'To Death.' A note in the American edition of Lady W.'s Poems (1903) says this Poem was 'accidentally misplaced '; by whom it is not told; but it is curious that W. also adds it as an afterthought, if his note on preceding page was originally intended to close the selections from Lady Winchelsea. His good taste is exemplified by its inclusion.
1. 14 My Bus'ness is to
33 All excerpt from part of Philarete's (=Witlier's) speech, in the Fourth Eclogue of 'The Shepherd's Hunting'; p. 427 of Wither's Poems, 1633. (In Browne's Shepherd's Pipe Roget is the name given to Wither, and Philarete denotes Thomas Manwood.) Wither is not included in Anderson's collection (1795) often used by W. In 1802 Wordsworth quotes thirteen lines from this piece (p. 34, 1. 28, to p. 35, 1. 38—including the couplet here dropped out, and 'wiser man') before his poem ' To the Daisy ' (' In youth from rock to rock I went').
1. 8 those sweets
34 1. 13 of all those
1. 21 to,
1. 23 Makes
After 1. 30 this couplet has dropped out,—by accident seemingly, for the thought is essentially Wordsworthian;
And raise pleasure to her height.
Through the meanest objects sight,
35 1. 38 wiser man. [as the rhyme requires.]
1. 47 imbosse
36 1. 64 are borne
37 1. 69 mad' St
1. 76 The speech is thus broken off, by the other shepherd, Willy, interrupting Philarete.
38 From 'Fair Virtue, the Mistress of Phil'areté. Written by George Wither,' 1622: reprinted in Arber's Garner, vol. iv, with which (p. 412) the extract has been collated. The 1633 edition is not paged, but the passage is on p. 63.
1. 1 And sometimes [1633 : sometime].
39 1. 14 thoughts
1. 24 excellencies (1633): excellences (Arber, and C Lamb).
This passage is the first quoted by Lamb in his Essay 'On the Poetical Works of George Wither.'
40 Also from Withers ' Fair V^irtue, the Mistress of Phil'areté; collated with Arber's text (Garner, iv, 416), and with ed. 1633.
1. 1 But what
After 1. 12, the extractor (Charles Lamb certainly) cuts out thirty-four lines, probably on account of their ingenuities. Lamb does not indicate this excision, and W. follows him in ignoring it.
1. 13 of any eye (Arber and ed. 1633).
1. 15 mind: This is Lamb's second extract from Wither, and W.'s text only differs in minor punctuation.
41 Both these extracts are from 'Fair Virtue' &c. (Arber's Garner, iv. pp. 415 and 413).
1. 3 Sometime (1633), Sometimes (C. Lamb, and Arber).
1. 4 unheard-of (Arber ; ed. 1633 as W.). Lamb separates these four lines from preceding by a row of asterisks. Wordsworth's transcriber has evidently had Lamb's essay before her for all the Wither extracts save the first one.
42 Cornelia's Dirge from 'The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona,' by John Webster. Collated with Dyce's ed.
1. 5 Call unto
1. 9 far thence
C. Lamb, in Specimens, says: I 'never saw anything like the funeral dirge in this play for the death of Marcello, except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in the "Tempest." As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that intensity of feeling, which seems to resolve itself into the element which it contemplates.'
43 Cowper's Poems (Globe ed., p. 165).
44 1. 22 see thee
45 Thomson's Poems (Aldine ed. ii. 202); eighteen lines are omitted after line 6.
46 1. 29 pain
47 This is the seventh stanza of Beattie's poem, 'Retirement,' in ten stanzas {Poems, Aldine ed., p. 63).
48 John Langhorne's Poetical Works, 2 vols., 1766. Collected ed. by his son, 1804. Collated with text in Anderson's British Poets, 1795, vol. xi. p. 233. The poem is dated 1758. W. omits the first and third stanzas. See Knight's W. xi. 273.
1. 5 gales [om.,]
1. 8 repose [,]
1. 11 bread [om.,]
49 Poems, Aldine ed. ii. 226: 'To the Reverend Patrick Murdoch, Rector of Stradishall, in Suffolk, 1738.'Murdoch was the 'little round fat oily man of God ' described in the 'Castle of Indolence,' and Thomson's especial friend.
In 1. 7 'philosopic' is an unusual slip of a very accurate pen.
50 Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, iv. 407. 'Written at about twelve years old.'—Pope. A statement that the editors distrust somewhat, vi. 82 n.
52 Mickle's Sir Martyn, 'in the manner of Spenser (1767, originally called The Concubine), is in Anderson's British Poets, xi. 640-653. W. modernizes the Chattertonian spelling. This first extract is from Canto ii, stanzas 30 and 31. The second extract is from the same Canto, stanzas 3 and 3.
53 1. 19 rock
54 From Armstrong's Art of Preserving Health (1774), Bk. ii, in Anderson's British Poets, x. 972.
1. 3 th' enthusiastic
1. 12 reclin'd,
55 1. 18 th' impending
1. 20 fairy
56 Akenside's Poems (Aldine ed. , p. 274). ' Inscriptions,' no. ix, two stanzas of eight lines each. W. omits the second, which runs:
'Twas then my future fate he weighed,
And this be thy concern, he said.
At once with Passion's keen alarms.
And Beauty's pleasurable charms.
And sacred Truth's eternal light.
To move the various mind of Man;
Till under one unblemished plan.
His Reason, Fancy, and his Heart unite.
57 Another of Akenside's ' Inscriptions,' no. i (Poems, Aldine ed., p. 268 ; Anderson, vol. ix. p. 803).
1. 9 Lull'd by
58 Akenside's Poems (Aldine ed. , p. 160; Anderson, ix), 'Odes,' Bk. i. Ode v, eleven stanzas, of which W. selects the eighth.
1. 1 Thron'd in
1. 2 diffuseth
59 Akenside's Poems, Inscription no. iii (Aldine ed., p. 269; Anderson, ix. 803).
1. 4 Imbosoms.
1. 7 a silent rivulet.
(Rivulets, AV. knew, were never silent, at least in the north countree.)
60 1. 18 tears, with sharp remorse,
61 Akenside's 'Inscriptions,' no. vii (Poems, Aldine ed., p. 272; Anderson, ix. 804), 'The Wood Nymph.'
The opening lines seem to prefigure the poetry of Blake, and of Keats : see Legouis, The Early Life of Wordsworth, p. 459.
62 1. 18 releas'd
63 Sonnet Ixiv, apparently quoted from memory, as the closing couplet should run:
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
In Prelude V. 26, W quotes 'might almost " weep to have" what he may lose.' Similarly Coleridge misquotes
' We cannot choose
But weep to have what we so dread to lose,'
64 Shakespeare, Sonnet xxxi.
65 Shakespeare, Sonnet xxix.
1. 12 sings
In the Essay supplementary to the Preface (ed. 1815, ii. 353) Wordsworth bids us ' for the various merits of thought and language in Shakespeare's Sonnets, see Numbers 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 54, 64, 66, 68, 73, 76, 86, 91, 92, 93, 97, 98, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 113, 114, 116, 117, 129, and many others.'
66 A. Marvell's Poems (Muses' Library ed., p. 96), 'On a Drop of Dew.' Translated by Marvell from his Latin poem 'Ros.'
1. 6 Round in
67 1. 15 unsecure
1. 16 omit should
1. 17 pity
1. 18 exhale
1. 29 world-excluding
1. 30 receiving in
68 1. 86 upwards
W. judiciously omits these four concluding lines:
{{float center|Such did the manna's sacred dew distil;
White and entire, though congealed and chill;
Congealed on earth; but does, dissolving, run
Into the glories of the almighty sun.
Poems by Mrs. Anne Killegrew, 1686. See Dryden's fine Ode 'To the pious memory of the accomplished young lady, Mrs. Anne Killegrew, excellent in the two sister arts of Poesy and Painting,' 1685. `
69 Dyer's 'Ruins of Rome* in ed. 1807 of Poems. W.'s extract begins at line 16 of the Ruins, which runs thus:
Fall'n, fall'n, a silent heap ! her heroes all
Sunk in their urns; behold the pride of pomp,
but the irrelevant and conventional (not to say Ossianic) bit about the heroes and their urns is struck out.
1. 7 aloft,—upon
1. 14 as th' immense
1. 15 lerne's
70 1. 24 orison
1. 25 Time,—disparting
1. 29 they with
Between 11. 31 and 32 W. omits 284 lines, 1. 332 of Ruins beginning: Time ordains (W. inserts So). Miss Hutchinson sometimes makes a — so short that we have had to print it as a hyphen, thus obscuring the sense, as in 1. 25.
71 1. 42 th'
1. 62 all-devouring
1. 63 sitting on
1. 55 thy diapason, Melancholy!
72 Waller's Poems (Muses' Library ed., p. 128). There is a curious change (it can hardly be intentional) in 1. 7, where Waller reads:
And shuns to have her graces spied,
73 Waller's Poems (Muses' Library ed., p. 67 ; Anderson, V. 479). The change in 11. 11-12 is very remarkable. Waller reads:
And then what wonders shall you do,
A\'hose dawning beauty warms us so?
If Wordsworth made the alteration (and, so far as we can judge, he did), he has greatly strengthened the comparison, while eliminating warms, to which he probably took objection.
1. 17 hand that doth
74 The curious will find a good sketch of Lætitia Pilkington's life in the Dict. Nat. Biog.
76 Thomas Warton the elder (1688?-1745) was Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1718 to 1728, but his chief service to English literature was his being the father of Joseph and Thomas Warton. His Poems on Several Occasions were published in 1748, and 'at the end of the volume are two elegies on the author—one by his daughter Jane, and the other by Joseph Warton, the editor' (Dict. Nat, Biog.). 78 W. gives no clue to the authorship of this epitaph, which will be found in the Poems of Thomas Carew (Muses' Library ed., p. 76; Anderson, iii. 690). She was daughter of Buckingham.
In 1. 3 Anderson (but not the other edition collated) reads 'breath' for 'birth.'
il. 9-10 end : this place, hard case; (the change seems unnecessary ?)
79 From 'Bosworth Field, with a taste of the variety of other Poems, left by Sir John Beaumont, Baronet, deceased,' 1629; p. 165. See Introduction. Only minor changes of punctuation occur.
80 Dr. Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), the Nonconformist divine and hymn-writer. Like Fielding, he lies in the English Cemetery at Lisbon.
81 Captain Thomas James's ' Strange and Dangerous Voyage ... in his intended discovery of the North-west passage unto the south sea,' 1633.
It is interesting to find that ^V. knew this book, as there are reasons for connecting it also with the Ancient Mariner. See Dykes Campbell's ed. of Coleridge's Poems, p. 695. 1. 4 In heart
83 Thomson's Poems (Aldine ed. ii. 208): 'On the death of Mr. Aikman,' forty-two lines, from which W. has taken the last eight.
84 By Samuel (not Wm.) Daniel: in Grosart's ed. of Daniel's Works, i. 203.
1. 8 wildes
85 1. 18 on
87 1. 57 that hath
90 1. 112 peace conceiving
91 1. 124 In th'
92 Anderson, vol. xi. p. 203, gives five 'stanzas, in a song to David,' with these variations from W.'s text (of the last three):
1. 3 strength depends,
1. 6 Commences, reigns, and ends.