P. 294, 1. 467. "Deciduous and when" 1785, 1786, and Southey; "deciduous when" from 1787, and so Bruce and Benham. P. 295, 1. 510. All the editions 1785-1795 read "fomentation," a manifest mistake. P. 297, 1. 585. P. 300, 1. 748. "who" later. All editions (1785-1795) “Caffraia." Here, as elsewhere, e.g., 819, “that had” 1785, 1786; P. 301, 1. 766. Lancelot Brown, known as Capability Brown,” was originally kitchen gardener to Lord Cobham, but made a fortune by his skill in laying-out gardens, in which his object was to bring out "the undulating lines of the natural landscape" (Dictionary of National Biography). He was high sheriff of Huntingdonshire in 1770 and died in 1783. P. 302, 1. 840. “Pleases and yet shocks" 1785-1788, and Southey. "Pleasest and yet shock'st" 1793, an improvement Cowper could not reject. P. 303. In the argument 1785, 1786 have "amusements of a rural," later editions "rural amusements," which is plainly wrong and one of the many indications that these alterations made in 1787 were unauthorised. P. 303. Opening of Book IV. This passage is here printed as in the first edition, 1785; gradual changes of punctuation, a point in which the early editions are never to be trusted, ended in the following in 1795 :— "Hark! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge, That with its wearisome but needless length Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright, He comes," etc. But the first edition is certainly right, as usual. It is the postman, not the horn, who comes o'er the bridge; with the later punctuation the word should be “on” not “o'er.” P. 305, 1. 120. This and the lines on Evening, 243 et seq., are the passages illustrated by Blake in the designs with which we have the good fortune to adorn this edition. P. 308, 1. 221. Most editors have substituted "mace" for "mast given throughout from 1785-1795. as P. 308, 1. 228. "Fit pupils" is given by Bell, and some other editors; but "sit pupils" is the unbroken reading 1785-1795. P. 309, 1. 307. Bell and Benham give "toils," but "toys" is the reading of 1785, and it is still found in 1795. And so Southey and Bruce. P. 309, 1. 308. For a comparison of this passage with Thomson, see Introduction, pp. xlvii. et seq. P. 312, 1. 427. P. 319, 1. 757. Cowper's friend Mr. Thornton. See Charity, line 253. "There too" 1793, 1795; an obvious error. "Grace the wall" 1786; "well," the reading of 1785, was restored in 1787, and remained in the subsequent editions. It is also the reading of Southey, Bell, Bruce, and Benham. P. 323, l. 135. Cf. Virgil, Georg. iv. 363. P. 324, 1. 188. "Should" 1785, 1786; "would" from 1787. Southey as usual follows the earlier editions; Bruce, Benham, and Bell the later. P. 327, 1. 297. Benham prints "philosophic deeds"; but, as Bruce's note shows, this is a mere corruption, which first appears in 1799. P. 327, 1. 331. From the letter of October 20, 1784, it appears that in the original draft of the poem there was here a passage justifying the execution of Charles I. which Cowper calls "a good deed but ill done." Unwin objected to it and it was suppressed and the lines written as they now stand, except that the first words ran we too are friends to royalty." For the pleasure this passage gave to Queen Charlotte see the note to p. 465. P. 329, 11. 383-392. Fox quoted these lines, or some of them, in a speech in the House of Commons. Hayley had the pleasure of bringing the newspaper containing the speech and quotation with him on one of his visits to Weston. See Grimshawe's Life and Works of Cowper, vol. v. 380. P. 329, 1. 393. P. 332, 1. 553. P. 333, 1. 597. acquiescence" from "Who values" from 1787. "This visible" 1785-1788; "the visible" from 1793. "An acquiescence" 1785, 1786, and Southey; "and 1787, and so Bruce and Benham. P. 335, 1. 704. Sir George Trevelyan, speaking of this passage in a note to his Early History of Charles James Fox (ix. 418), expresses the opinion that “in the sweet expression of sympathy with heroic deeds and sufferings," it "yields to very little blank verse in or out of Shakespeare.” P. 344, 1. 151. 'The scented and the scentless" 1785-1788, and so Southey; "the scentless and the scented" from 1793, and so Bell, Benham, and Bruce, without comment. P. 345, 1. 239. “Who bore” 1786, and so Southey; but "who wore " 1785 and again from 1787. P. 347, 1. 318. P. 355, 1. 679. "Cries aloud” 1795 ; “scolds aloud” 1785-1793. Cowper refers, of course, to the Jubilee Celebration at Stratford-on-Avon in 1769, of which Garrick was the principal organiser. P. 359, 1. 881. This passage probably refers to the action of Theophilus Lindsey, Vicar of Catterick in Yorkshire, who, after failing in an effort to get the clergy released from the burden of subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles, resigned his living in 1773, and retired to poverty in London. Sir George Trevelyan tells the story in his Early History of Charles James Fox (ix. 418), and, in doing so, says that, while others who had joined in Lindsey's attempt ultimately became bishops, "the only distinction which fell to his lot consisted in a few lines of grudging, and even sinister, commendation by a poet, who so nobly celebrated the martyrs of faith that he might have had something better than irony to bestow upon the martyr of honesty." He proceeds to quote this passage. P. 361, 1. 952. “And idler ” 1785-1788; “an idler" 1793, 1795. p. 10 and note. Cowper mentions this Epistle in his letter of July 9, 1785, informing Newton that the friends alluded to in line 56 were Thurlow and Colman (see Introduction, p. lv.). In the letter of November 20, 1784, he tells Unwin that the verses were written "on Wednesday last”; and that they form "a tribute so due that I must have disgraced myself had I not paid it. He ever serves me in all that he can, though he has not seen me these twenty years." P. 365. The mottoes for Tirocinium were supplied to Cowper by his friend Bull. See Mr. Josiah Bull's Memorials of William Bull, p. 133. For Tirocinium, see Introduction, p. liii. P. 367, 1. 11. "Hers is" 1785-1793; "here is" 1795. P. 376, 1. 435. Robert Lowth, 1710-1787, was Bishop of London from 1777, and declined the Primacy in 1783. His Lectures on Hebrew Poetry and translation of the prophet Isaiah are still remembered for their learning and poetic feeling. Lewis Bagot, fifth son of Sir Walter Bagot, Bart., and brother of the first Lord Bagot, was successively Bishop of Bristol, Norwich, and St. Asaph. He died in 1802. His mother was a daughter of the first Earl of Dartmouth, and he was therefore a cousin of the pious Earl, the friend of Newton and Cowper. For the other Bagot brothers, see the note to p. 477. P. 380, 1. 637. "Proofs " 1785-1787; "proof" from 1788. P. 387. John Gilpin :-(See Introduction, p. liii.), was first printed anonymously in the Public Advertiser, November 14, 1782, to which it was sent by Unwin. See the letter of February 13, 1783, to Hill (of which only part has been printed) where he says: "I have written nothing, at least finished nothing, since I published-except a certain facetious History of John Gilpin which Mr. Unwin would send to the Public Advertiser." The text in the Public Advertiser is the same as that in the second volume of the Poems, 1785, in which it was included after some hesitation on the part of the publisher Johnson. The poet suggested its appearance, rightly feeling that to make known his authorship of the celebrated ballad would gain him many readers in circles into which he was not otherwise likely to penetrate. Mr. Wright (ii. 13) states that the story of Gilpin was founded on the adventure of John Beyer, a Cheapside linendraper, and (ii. 16) that Cowper got the name John Gilpin from a tombstone in St. Margaret's, Westminster. The version originally sent to Unwin and headed “for P. A.," that is, for the Public Advertiser, is with an undated letter in the British Museum, where it is placed after the letter of November 4, 1782. It differs in the following details, none of them of much interest, from the version afterwards printed which is that given in the text. The title is, "The Entertaining and Facetious History of John Gilpin, showing how he went further than he intended and came safe home at last. To the Tune of Chevy Chase." In the last line on page 387 the MS. reads "which is so bright and clear.” P. 388, 1. 23. "When turning round his face" MS. P. 389, 1. 1. P. 389, 1. 17. P. 389, 1. 21. P. 389, 1. 25. P. 389, 1. 40. P. 390, 1. 20. P. 390, 1. 23. P. 390, 1. 34. "Each bottle had two curling ears " MS. "And hung one bottle on each side" MS. "So Fair and softly,' John did cry" MS. "The horse, who never had before Been handled in this kind, "As has been said " MS. "As he had basted been " MS. "For still the bottle necks were left accent on the second Both dangling at his waist." MS. Note the old pronunciation of "balcony" with the syllable. But, ah, his horse " MS. "His neighbour in such a trim" MS. "Make haste and tell me all” MS. P. 391, 1. 1. P. 391, 1. 14. P. 391, 1. 17. "The tidings tell " MS. P. 391, l. 18. P. 391, 1. 24. P. 391, 1. 34. P. 392, 1. 2. P. 392, 1. 6. P. 392, 1. 9. P. 392, 1. 25. P. 392, 1. 33. P. 392, 1. 39. P. 393, 1. 4. P. 393, 1. 11. P. 393, 1. 12. P. 393, 1. 13. P. 393, 1. 15. P. 393. The "A wig that drooped behind MS. He tried to stop John's horse By seizing fast the flowing rein, But only made things worse." MS. "And they and all that passed that way" MS. “But all the turnpike gates again” MS. "The man still thinking as before ” MS. remaining poems of the second volume appear in the order of the edition of 1795, when, for the first time, those given here on pp. 393-406 were added, with the exception of that on p. 399, “ Catharina, The Second Part," which, though not published till after the poet's death, I have placed here because it is best understood as a sequel to its predecessor. John Gilpin retains its original position at the end of the volume both in 1795 and in 1798. P. 393. On the death of Mrs. Throckmorton's Bullfinch :-See the letter of November 11, 1788 (tacked on by Hayley (i. 320) to that of September 25), where Cowper relates the story and says "it will probably employ my versifying passion. Did ever fair lady from the Lesbia of Catullus to the present day lose her bird and find no poet to commemorate the loss? ?" Mrs., afterwards Lady, Throckmorton, the "Mrs. Frog" of Cowper's letters, was Maria Catharine, daughter of Thomas Giffard of Chillington. Her husband, John Courtenay Throckmorton, the owner of Weston Hall, succeeded to his grandfather's baronetcy in 1791. The portrait of Mrs. Throckmorton, reproduced by Mr. Vaughan Johnson's kindness, is by Downman, and was taken in 1783. P. 394, l. 12. first in 1808. "Sweep up all" 1795, 1798, 1800; sweep away' P. 394, l. 14. “To bird" 1795, 1798, 1800, 1806. The common text "of bird" dates from 1808. P. 395, 1. 9. The earlier editions, 1795-1806, give the text as I have printed it. The common text first appears in 1808; and, though it is an improvement, I cannot feel sure that the improvement had the poet's authority. Here it is: "Oh, had he made that too his prey! That beak whence issued many a lay." The correction was perhaps caused by the fact that as originally printed no stop was placed after "ta'en" thus making nonsense of the stanza. This mistake was however corrected before the reading disappeared. P. 395. The Rose:-This piece was sent to Unwin on June 8, 1783, and is in the British Museum. There are no variations of text. The poet calls it " a song if you please, composed last Thursday" and adds, “the incident happened the day before." It was also sent to Bull on June 20th. Sainte-Beuve translated this piece in one of his essays on Cowper (Causeries du Lundi, xi. 168), and calls it "cette délicieuse petite pièce." P. 397. Catharina :-Catharina Stapleton, who married George Throckmorton in 1792. He had then taken the name of Courtenay. They lived at Weston Hall during the later years of Cowper's life. Cowper was from the first very fond of Miss Stapleton; in the letter of October 31, 1791, he says "my Catharina is at the Hall singing and playing like an angel." He was amused and delighted at the fulfilment of the wish he expresses not very obscurely in the last stanza of this piece, which was sent to "Maria,” Mrs. John Throckmorton, with the letter of May 14, 1789. P. 397, 1. 36. P. 398, 1. 39. P. 400, 1. 38. "So lately had witnessed" 1808 and afterwards. "That first" 1808 and afterwards. P. 401. The Faithful Friend:-The original version of this poem, as given in the editions 1795-1805, exhibits the following variations from the text given here which first appeared in 1808 : In the second line of the third stanza :— "Instinct is never quite suppressed"; in the first line of the last stanza : "Who never knew the joys"; |