PREFACE THIS second edition of a reprint of Lyrical Ballads follows in its text the first edition of the original, 1798, page for page. It does not attempt to imitate the type used in that edition. Much care has been taken to ensure accuracy, yet perhaps it would be rash to assert that absolute freedom from error has been attained. The errata at the end are those recorded in the edition of 1798. In some copies, instead of the words on the title-page, "London: Printed for J. & A. Arch, Gracechurch Street," the following imprint is found: "Bristol Printed by Biggs & Cottle, for T. N. Longman, Paternoster Row, Londen. 1798." It is right to remember that this re markable volume of Poems is a Bristol book. In a copy-formerly Southey's-bearing the Lewti; or, the Circassian Love Chant," where "The Nightingale "ordinarily stands. In the text of the same copy "The Nightingale" is given; and after "The Nightingale" appear cancelled leaves (pp. 63-67) which give "Lewti" in its earlier text. Southey has written in the volume: "The Advertisement and the Circassian Love Chant in this volume were cancelled, R.S." I can- not find that the Advertisement was cancelled; it is ordinarily given, though possibly it may be absent from some copies of the book. When "The Nightingale" was substituted for "Lewti” an additional leaf had to be inserted. The reader may notice that signature E, p. 65, is wanting, and from D to F are thirty-four pages instead of thirty-two. A leaf seems to have been inserted, and it will be seen that two pages following p. 69 are not numbered, nor counted in the pagination. In the "Contents" "The Female Vagrant" is said to begin on p. 69; in fact p. 69 gives the end of "The Nightingale." Possibly a copy of "Lyrical Ballads' containing the cancelled "Lewti" alone may hereafter come to light. Lyrical Ballads cannot be said to have lived unnoticed even in its earlier years of existence. In 1800 appeared a second edition (two volumes, the first being in the main a reprint of Lyrical Ballads, 1798), and other editions followed in 1802 and 1805. in the note on The origin of the book is told by Wordsworth "We are Seven" which he dictated as an old man to Miss Fenwick. Coleridge and he agreed to defray the expenses of a tour from Nether Stowey to Lynton by writing a poem to be sent to the New Monthly Magazine. In the course of their walk the "Ancient Mariner" was planned. "We returned by Dulverton to Alfoxden. The 'Ancient Mariner' grew and grew, till it became too important for our first object, which was limited to the expectation of five pounds, and we began to talk of a volume, which was to consist, as Mr. Coleridge has told the world, of poems chiefly on natural subjects taken from common life, but looked at, as much as might be, through an imaginative medium. Accordingly I wrote 'The Idiot Boy,' 'Her eyes are wild,' &c., 'We are Seven,' 'The Thorn,' and some others." |