The Prose Works of William Wordsworth Part 139

P. 78, l. 6. 'Armstrong;' _i.e._ Dr. John Armstrong, whose 'Art of Preserving Health,' under an unpromising t.i.tle, really contains splendid things. His portrait in the 'Castle of Indolence' is his most certain pa.s.sport to immortality.

P. 80, l. 21. 'The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci.' A reproduction of the head of our Blessed Lord, taken from the fresco (photograph), is given in the quarto edition of Southwell's complete Poems in the Fuller Worthies' Library--none the less precious that it pathetically reveals the marks of Time's 'effacing fingers.' No engraving approaches the 'power' of this autotype of the supreme original.

P. 88, l. 32. 'Faber.' Among the treasures (unpublished) of the Wordsworth Correspondence are various remarkable letters of Faber--one, very singular, announcing his going over to the Church of Rome.

P. 90, l. 34. 'Mr. Robinson.' Cf. 'Reminiscences' onward.

P. 97, ll. 9-10, &c. 'Dyer.' Cf. note, Vol. II., on p. 296, l. 35.

P. 97, l. 18. 'Mr. Crowe;' _i.e._ Rev. William Crowe, Public Orator of Oxford. His poem was originally published in 1786 (4to); reprinted 1804 (12mo).

P. 98, l. 19. 'Armstrong.' See on p. 78, l. 6.

P. 98, l. 20. 'Burns.' Verse-Epistle to William Simpson, st. 13; but for 'nae' read 'na,' and for 'na' read 'no.'

P. 101, l. 9. 'Rev. Joseph Sympson.' This poet, so pleasantly noticed by Wordsworth, appears in none of the usual bibliographical authorities.

Curiously enough, his 'Vision of Alfred' was republished in the United States--Philadelphia.

P. 116, ll. 33-34. Quotation, Shakspeare, 'Henry VIII.' iii. 2.

P. 120, l. 22. Quotation from Milton, 'Paradise Lost,' viii. l. 282.

P. 125, l. 4. 'Mr. Hazlitt quoted,' &c. See Index, _s.n._ for Wordsworth's estimate of Hazlitt; also our Preface.

P. 130, l. 17. Hill at St. Alban's. See 'Eccl. Hist.' _s.n._

P. 130, l. 31. 'Germa.n.u.s.' Bede, 'Eccl. Hist.' b. ii. c. xvi.

P. 131, l. 10. 'Fuller;' viz. his 'Church History.'

P. 131, l. 16. 'Turner.' The late laborious Sharon Turner, whose 'Histories' are still kept in print (apparently).

P. 131, l. 21. 'Paulinus.' Bede, 'Eccl. Hist.' b. ii. c. xvi.

P. 131, l. 26. 'King Edwin.' Bede, 'Eccl. Hist.' b. ii. c. xiii.

P. 136, l. 28. 'An old and much-valued friend in Oxfordshire;' viz. Rev.

Robert Jones, as before.

P. 137, l. 10. 'Dyer's History of Cambridge,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1814.

P. 137, l. 14. 'Burnet,' in his 'History of the Reformation;' many editions.

P. 119, ll. 4-5. Latin verse-quotation, Ovid, 'Metam.' viii. 163, 164.

P. 151, l. 11. 'Charlotte Smith.' It seems a pity that the Poems of this genuine Singer should have gone out of sight.

P. 155, l. 31. 'Russel.' Should be Russell. Some very beautiful Sonnets of his appear in Dyce's well-known collection, and to it doubtless Wordsworth was indebted for his knowledge of Russell. He has cruelly pa.s.sed out of memory.

P. 165, ll. 7-9. 'Is not the first stanza of Gray's,' etc. Gray himself prefixed these lines from Aeschylus, 'Agam.' 181:

[Greek: Zena

ton phronein brotous hodo- santa, ton pathos thenta kurios echein.]

He seems to have been rather indebted to Dionysius' Ode to Nemesis, v.

Aratus.

P. 182, l. 9. 'Dr. Darwin's _Zoonomia_;' _i.e._ 'The Laws of Organic Life,' 1794-96, 2 vols. 4to.

P. 182, l. 24. 'Peter Henry Bruce ... entertaining Memoirs.' Published 1782, 4to.

P. 185, ll. 2-3. Verse-quotation, from Milton, 'Il Penseroso,' ll.

109-110.

P. 190, l. 27. 'Light will be thrown,' &c. We have still to deplore that the Letters of Lamb are even at this later day either withheld or sorrowfully mutilated; _e.g._ among the Wordsworth Correspondence (unpublished) is a whole sheaf of letters in their finest vein from Lamb and his sister. Some of the former are written in black and red ink in alternate lines, and overflow with all his deepest and quaintest characteristics. His sister's are charming. The same might be said of nearly all Wordsworth's greatest contemporaries. Surely these MSS. will not much longer be kept in this inexplicable and, I venture to say, scarcely pardonable seclusion?

P. 192, foot-note. This deliciously _nave_ note of 'Dora' to her venerated father suggests that it is due similarly to demur--with all respect--to the representation given of Mrs. Hemans (pp. 193-4). Three things it must be permitted me to recall: (_a_) That the 'brevity's sake' hardly condones the fulness of statement of an imagined ignorance of 'housewifery' on the part of Mrs. Hemans. (_b_) That a visitor for a few days in a family could scarcely be expected to set about using her needle in home duties. (_c_) That unquestionable testimony, furnished me by those who knew her intimately, warrant me to state that Wordsworth was mistaken in supposing that Mrs. Hemans 'could as easily have managed the spear of Minerva as her needle.' Her brave and beautiful life, and her single-handed upbringing of her many boys worthily, make one deeply regret that such sweeping generalisation from a narrow and hasty observation should have been indulged in. My profound veneration for Wordsworth does not warrant my suppression of the truth in this matter.

Be it remembered, too, that other expressions of Wordsworth largely qualify the present ungracious judgment.

P. 209, l. 8. 'Lord Ashley.' Now the ill.u.s.trious and honoured Earl of Shaftesbury.

P. 212, l. 17. 'Burnet;' _i.e._ Thomas Burnet, whose Latin treatise was published in 1681 and 1689; in English, 1684 and 1689. Imaginative genius will be found in this uncritical and unscientific book.

P. 214, l. 12. 'The Hurricane,' &c.; viz. 'The Hurricane; a Theosophical and Western Eclogue,' &c. 1797; reprinted 1798.

P. 216, ll. 4-5. Quotation from Coleridge, from 'Sibylline Leaves,'

Inscription for a Fountain on a Heath.

P. 216, l. 29. 'Dr. Bell.' Southey edited the bulky Correspondence of this pioneer of our better education, in 3 vols. 8vo.

P. 233, ll. 34-36. 'They have been treated,' &c. ('Evening Walk,' &c., 1794.)

P. 247, foot-note [A]. De Quincey, in his 'Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey' (Works, vol. ii.

pp. 151-6), gives a very realistic _expose_ of the Lonsdales--abating considerably the glow of Wordsworth's recurring praise and homage.

P. 255, l. 31. 'History of Cleveland.' The book is by the Rev. John Graves, and is ent.i.tled 'The History of Cleveland in the North Riding of the County of York.' Carlisle, 1808. Wordsworth is unjust: it is a deserving work, if o' times inevitably dry.

P. 285, l.1. 'Francis Edgeworth's "Dramatic Fragment."' This was Francis Beaufort Edgeworth, half-brother of Maria Edgeworth.

P. 285, ll. 29-30. 'Spectator.' From No. 46, April 23, 1711, one of Addison's own charming papers in his lighter vein of raillery.

P. 280, ll. 13-16. 'Mr. Page;' viz. Frederick Page, author of (_a_) 'The Principle of the English Poor Laws ill.u.s.trated and defended by an Historical View of Indigence in Civil Society.' Bath, 1822. (_b_) 'Observations on the State of the Indigent Poor in Ireland, and the existing Inst.i.tutions for their Relief.' London, 1830.

P. 290, ll. 25-27. Verse-quotation, from Milton, 'Paradise Regained,' b.

iii. ll. 337-9.

P. 293, l. 1. Letter to Hamilton. The Rev. R.P. Graves, M.A.--Wordsworth's friend--is engaged in preparing a Life of this preeminent mathematician and many-gifted man of genius, than whom there seems to have been no contemporary who so deeply impressed Wordsworth intellectually, or so won his heart. The 'Poems' of Miss Hamilton (1 vol. 1838) sparkle with beauties, often unexpected as the flash of gems.