VOLUME II

This page was last updated on 16 September 2006. It is a complete list of all corrections and additions to date

Insert an editorial footnote to "351 What is Life? A Metrical Experiment 978" as follows:

The correct date of this poem is 16 Aug 1805 and its correct position is following 369 Lines Connected with the Grasmere Circle.

Emend title-component in 356 Fragment: "What never is, but only is to be" 987 to:

Emend title-component in 539 To a Young Lady Complaining of a Corn 1151 to:

653 A Somnulent Extempore, Eyes half-closed and the Head Nodding Time: To an American Lady 1300

Insert an editorial footnote to "667 Phantom or Fact? A Dialogue in Verse 1321" as follows:

The correct date of this poem is 1826-8? and its correct position is following 652 The Garden of Boccaccio.

John Logan, editor of the posthumous 1770 volume, had been accused by Bruce's relatives of issuing some of Bruce's manuscript poems entrusted to his care under his own name in 1781 -- an accusation strenuously denied by Logan, but which led to bitter controversy -- and C

An Essay on Epic Poetry; in Five Epistles (1782) iv 247; Horace Walpole's comments in

(b) in seventh line [new numbering] correct "LIII" to "LII" (viz. should be volume 52)

C's note adapts the preface to Edward Rushton's Neglected Genius: or, Tributary Stanzas to the Memory of the Unfortunate Chatterton (1787), and see

University College London Library, Special Collections: G. B. Greenough Papers 29/1. A loose leaf removed from a notebook, numbered [pages] 19 and 20, filled with brief verses by various authors on both sides, transcribed by George Bellas Greenough. Transcript in ink in Greenough's hand on p 20, signed "Coleridge." The leaf measures 12.0 x 18.4 cm; no wm; chain-lines 2.8 cm. It is loosely inserted into one of three large copybooks containing verse transcribed by Greenough, this one with paper wm "J RUMP | 1817" and chain lines 2.6 cm. While other verses on the same loose leaf are struck through, signifying that they were re-copied into a larger book, these verses are not struck through.

Though Greenough attributed the lines to STC in exactly the same fashion as he did STC originals, I suppose these came from (were not composed by) STC for the reason that it is a rare bird that fouls its own nest. They are of a kind that visitors to a college leave behind and, while STC did not find undergraduate company in his own college congenial, he appears to have ignored rather than deplored it. The lines might have been recalled in Greenough's company during a discussion of German student graffiti, for example, or at the time STC composed Epigram on the Goslar Ale (201) that is, in May 1799.

The lines are positioned here because, if STC was the author, he was most detached from college society in the period Sept-Dec 1794.

title] Greenough transcribes in the form, "Written in the necessary house at Jesus College".

The following text should be interpolated between MS 1 and PR 1, and also incorporated into the collation. It omits stress-marks and differs from PR 1 only in punctuation. Most important, it proves that revision followed on composition directly during the month of May.

2. Cornell WORDSWORTH Bd. Cottle = Joseph Cottle's Album f 1^r (the first item to be inscribed). Fair copy in RS's hand, signed and dated 25 May 1795.

The following text should be interpolated between PR 1 and 2, and also incorporated into the collation. It includes many but not all the PR 2 revisions and a full version of the prefatory note that C wrote into his annotated copy, as well as an additional prose note. It has the same number of lines as all other known versions, and is divided into (unnumbered) stanzas in the same way; a couple of readings are unique. Note that the transcript below differs in several particulars from the one printed by Dennis R. Dean (ed) Coleridge and Geology (Ann Arbor 2004) 44-8.

1. University College London Library, Special Collections: G. B. Greenough Papers 29/1. Unnumbered (conjoined) leaves torn from a notebook, each page measuring 11.7 x 18.8 cm; wm PIETER DE VRIES | & | COMP beneath ?shield. The transcript in C's hand, signed "S. T. Coleridge", fills ff 1^v-5^r: f 5^v and subsequent pages contain a transcript in Greenough's hand of Henry Smedley's song, "The Cousins", dated 1799. The leaves are loosely inserted inside the front covers of Greenough's larger copybook titled "MS. Poems" (wm J RUMP | 1817; chain lines 2.6 cm).

One would suppose the lines were copied for Greenough at some point during spring-early summer 1799.

prefatory note. The following Fable was written during the Terror of the Invasion, when Sheridan made that celebrated Anti-gallican Oration, & Tierney voted with M^r Pitt for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. -- At the time all the Ministerial Papers were full of Tierney's & Sheridan's ~~Recan~~ recantation -- & to expose the falsehood of this phrase & the idea implied in it is the end of the Fable. --

17 fn a Smithfield phrase, ~~for~~ when a mob of Blackguards follow a poor animal under pretence that he is mad. -- --

35fn This fine word, like many others very common at that Time, is borrowed from the Pulpit. So the illiterate Blackguards that belonged to the London Corresponding Society constantly used coerced instead of forced/ and every little Pothouse Church & Statist trundled the words "Gallic Scepticism" as fluently over their Tongues, as if they had understood them.

77 fn alluding to the fast sermons &c /-- & a to the popular superstition in Devonshire, according to which if the Devil appears to you, you may either cut him in half with a Straw; or if it happens before you have eat anything, i.e. after midnight, you may spit over his Horns, & he will immediately vanish. -- This superstition was general in the Town where the Poem was written.

35fn. The word "is" in the first sentence may be deleted; and, at the beginning of the second sentence, "So" may have originally been written "so". The solidus following "forced" may have been intended to cancel a period when "and", perhaps, was inserted.

77fn. There is no reason to suppose the poem was written in a town in Devonshire. Was C hinting at his brother James's devotion to King and Country politics -- and therefore fast sermons -- in Ottery?

119, 120. The substitutions are written in a lighter shade of ink than the body of the text.

47.2.4. concént] The stress mark makes clear that C indeed intended to spell the word thus (not "concert", as above in line 47.1.4), meaning harmony, concord of parts; and probably intended an allusion to "That undisturbed Song of pure concent" in Milton's At a solemn Musick 6.

p 329 Written at Shurton Bars (116), fifth line under title (viz for texts 2 3)

p 333 Written at Shurton Bars (116), first line under title (viz. for text 3)

; The Wreath: or, Miscellaneous Poetical Gleanings ed C. Earnshaw (Huddersfield [c 1801]) 56-7. (The same anthology reprints the LB text of WW's Goody Blake and Harry Gill and two poems by RS -- the unattributed WW poem providing the subject of a title-page vignette by Thomas Bewick.)

The PR 2 subtitle (and see above divisional title) might allude to Erasmus Darwin's discussion of reverie in Section XIX of Zoönomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life (2 vols, 1794-6) I 220-6. Or was it applied with specific reference to Darwin's discussion of reverie as mental illness (II 361) by WW, who drew upon the later passage for Goody Blake and Harry Gill at the time C finished his poem (WL --E rev--199, 214-5; WPW IV 439-40)?

Under TEXTS, MS 2, at the end of the first para (following "PW (EHC) II 1050-1") insert:

; photographic reproduction in A. F. Scott The Poet's Craft: A Course in the Critical Appreciation of Poetry (Cambridge 1957) 20

... in TP's copy (Clemens Sale, Parke-Bernet, 8 Jan 1945 lot 180; Chrysler Sale, Parke-Bernet, 26 Feb 1952 lot 80; Vander Poel Sale, Christie's (London), 3 March 2004 lot 84. The Christie's catalogue contains an illustration of II 23 (PR 3 lines 1-19, much revised).

He changed "was" to "is" in line 5; and "Heav'd" to "Heaves" in line 7; and the following two lines to read: "But yonder rock shines brighter far; | The rock is moss'd with moonlight Dew,"

He changed "By" at the beginning of line 10 to "Thro'"; but thereafter, instead of continuing to emend the printed text, he picked up with and developed his revision of line 9 with an alternative version of lines 10-14 in the RH margin, thus:

C changed "a" to "that" in line 15; and wrote, at the foot of the page following line 19: "Here a new paragraph."

15-27. The author of the Vander Poel Sale catalogue reports that C changed the tense of the verbs from past to present in TP's copy of PR 3--as in the revision of paragraph 1.

42-52. The author of the Vander Poel Sale catalogue reports that C changed the tense of the verbs from past to present in TP's copy of PR 3--as in the revision of paragraphs 1 and 2.

(a) In close of first paragraph of B.TEXTS PR 1, replace comma following "advertising" with a period and emend remainder as follows:

Murray was not entirely happy with the book and the business arrangement Byron's enthusiasm led him into, although the book eventually made a modest profit (BL&J V 108, 208; Ledger B, f 118, preserved at the Murray Archives, records a figure of £120-12-6.)

in The Examiner (2 Jun 1816) 384-9; the equally negative review in Ed Rev XXVII (Sept 1816) 58-67, which C believed was also by Hazlitt but might have been written by Thomas Moore, or by either reviewer in conjunction with the editor, Francis Jeffrey.

p 670 Kubla Khan (178)

Under A.DATE: the paragraph beginning "Thirdly, the poem might have been written . . ." should be substituted as follows:

The suggestion by Elizabeth Schneider Coleridge, Opium and "Kubla Khan" (Chicago 1953) ch IV and nn, that the poem might have been written in Oct 1799 or (less likely) May-Jun 1800, depends upon references to C's quarrel with Lloyd and coincidences with his reading in 1799. However, it is much less plausible in the light of C's quotation of two lines from the poem in May 1799: see additional note on lines 10-11 below.

In the first line of the paragraph following this substitution, emend "three" to "two".

p 678 Kubla Khan (178)

Insert into the notes following the apparatus:

10-11] Charles H. Parry, in a long journal-letter headed "Göttingen May 4, 1799" contained in his MS copybook entitled Journal: Letters, 1796-1799 (Bodleian MS Eng. misc.d.608 f 181^r), notes that C "quoted from a Poem of his own" when the walking group halted at a clearing in the woods between Scharzfeld and Neuhof on the morning of 12 May. Parry records only two lines:

"And here were Forests, ancient as the Hills,

Enclosing Sunny Spots of greenery."

The lines are quoted by Dean Coleridge and Geology 133, but note that Dean's reading of the other Charles Parry versions added below differs in particulars.

The following text should be inserted between MSS 1 and 2, the latter to be renumbered 3, and should also be incorporated into the collation:

2. Bodleian MS Eng.misc.d.608 f 187^v. Quoted by Charles H. Parry in a long journal-letter headed "Göttingen May 4, 1799", under the date 13 May specifically, contained in his MS copybook entitled Journal: Letters, 1796-1799.

The following text should be inserted between MSS 1 and 2, the latter to be renumbered 3, and should also be incorporated into the collation:

2. Bodleian MS Eng. misc.d.608 f 177^r. Quoted by Charles H. Parry in a long journal-letter headed "Göttingen May 4, 1799", specifically under the date 11 May, contained in his MS copybook entitled Journal: Letters, 1796-1799.

(a) The following text should be inserted before MS 1, the present MSS to be to be renumbered 2 and 3, and should also be incorporated into the collation:

1. Bodleian MS Eng. misc.d.608 f 190^v-91^r Quoted by Charles H. Parry in a long journal-letter headed "Göttingen May 4, 1799", specifically under the date 13 May, contained in his MS copybook entitled Journal: Letters, 1796-1799.

I stood on Brockens soverign height, & saw

Woods crowding over woods, Hills over hills,

A perfect wild, & only limited

By the blue distance. Wearily my way,

Downward, I dragg'd thro' Fir woods evermore,

Where bright green Moss heaps, speckled by the Sun,

Heav'd in sepulchral shapes, & seldom heard,

The sweet birds song became a hollow sound --

And the gales, murmuring like a far off sea,

Preserv'd ~~its~~ ~~their~~ solemn music, most distinct

From the Brooks petulant Clamour. I had found,

That grandest scenes have but imperfect charms,

Where the sight vainly wanders, nor beholds

One spot, with which the heart associates

Holy remembrances of Child, or friend,

Or gentle Maid, our first & only Love,

Or Father, or the venerable name

Of our adored Country.-- Oh thou Queen!

Though delegated Goddess of this Earth!

Oh dear, dear Britain! how my longing eye

Turn'd Westward, shaping, in the vacant Clouds,

Thy Sands, & high white Cliffs.-- Dear native Land!

My Heart was proud -- yea -- mine eyes swam with Tears,

To think of Thee -- & all the goodly view

From Sovreign Brocken, woods & woody Hills,

Floated away, like a departing dream,

Feeble & Faint.-- Stranger!-- these impulses,

Blame thou not lightly; nor will I profane,

With hasty Spirit, & injurious doubt,

That Mans sublimer Spirit, who can feel

That God is every where -- that God who made

Mankind to be one mighty Brotherhood --

Himself our Father -- & the world our Home.

(b) Revise second sentence of PR 2 description to read:

TP's copy--Clemens Sale, Parke-Bernet 8 Jan 1945 lot 180; Chrysler Sale, Parke-Bernet 26 Feb 1952 lot 80; Vander Poel Sale, Christie's (London), 3 March 2004 lot 84--also contains C's autograph corrections to this poem, made some time after Feb 1803 (cf CL II 924: to RS 15 Feb 1803).

10. ] Parry first wrote a comma at the end of the line, then deleted it.

(b) In the last band of editorial material, add to the close of the note on line 5:

28a-b. C transposed phrases in TP's copy of PR 2, so as to read (according to the author of the Vander Poel Sale catalogue):

pp 719-20 etc Epigram on a Reader of his Own Verses, Inspired by Wernicke (208)

The surname "Wernike" should be spelled thus -- without a "c" -- here and with respect to the following thirteen poems: nos. 230, 305-06, 308-312, 314, 316-9.

Insert an editorial footnote to "351 What is Life? A Metrical Experiment 978" as follows:

The correct date of this poem is 16 Aug 1805 and its correct position is following 369 Lines Connected with the Grasmere Circle.

Emend title-component in 356 Fragment: "What never is, but only is to be" 987 to:

Emend title-component in 539 To a Young Lady Complaining of a Corn 1151 to:

653 A Somnulent Extempore, Eyes half-closed and the Head Nodding Time: To an American Lady 1300

Insert an editorial footnote to "667 Phantom or Fact? A Dialogue in Verse 1321" as follows:

The correct date of this poem is 1826-8? and its correct position is following 652 The Garden of Boccaccio.

pp 780-1 Epigram on the Speed with Which Jack Writes Verses, after von Halem (240)

The following text should be interpolated between MSS 1 and 2, and also incorporated into the collation:

University College London Library, Special Collections: G. B. Greenough Papers 29/1. A loose leaf removed from a notebook, unnumbered, filled with brief verses by various authors on both sides, transcribed by George Bellas Greenough. Transcript in ink in Greenough's hand, signed "Coleridge."; the transcript struck through, signifying that it was copied again into a larger book. The leaf measures 11.6 x 18.6 cm; no wm; chain-lines 2.6 cm. It is loosely inserted into one of three large copybooks containing verse transcribed by Greenough, this one with paper wm "J RUMP | 1817" and chain lines 2.6 cm. Greenough copied the verses onto f 20^r of a larger book of "Miscellaneous Poetry" -- same shelfmark: the same that also contained his transcript of Fancy in Nubibus (540) --, again signing them "Coleridge".

The Selector [ed Susanna Watts?] (Royston 1823) 90-6 (= PR 6); Beauties of the English Poets ed F. Campbell (2 vols 1824) I 293-6 (=PR 6);

Cancelled. Mrs C's attribution is incorrect and the author is SC. There is an autograph copy in SC's hand at HRC, subjoined "August 3^d. | 1819 | Translated by S.C.": MS | (Coleridge, S) | Works. "Sonnet from Petrarch [1 page]". Incidentally, the HRC also has a second Petrarch sonnet in signed holograph translation by SC ("When the fair star that marks the flying hours") dated 4 Aug 1819.

KC dates the lines Oct 1804, but they appear to be contemporaneous with surrounding comments twice dated 16 Aug 1805. That is, the present verse-lines and comments were drafted retrospectively at the close of the lengthy sequence, into which numbers were later inserted, that ends two-thirds down f 25^r.

The situation is clarified by inserting the short rules that KC omits on f 25^r-v following "Cavern of the Fountain mutters", "16 Aug -- Malta." and "human Sight?" and also noting that the repetition of "16 Aug.1805" was originally on a separate line below, centred and concluded by a period which C emended to an em rule when he added his comments on the sounds of the Valetta horse-racing.

C's claim in the heading to MS 2 that the lines were written in 1787-8 was intended to mislead.

Cancelled. EHC took the lines from a draft in Notebook 19, the full extent of which is given as Imitations of Du Bartas Etc (416).

Beauties of the British Poets ed F. Campbell (2 vols 1824) II 77-9: "THE CHERUB. | Was it not lovely to behold". 70 lines. Published beneath the name "COLERIDGE."

Reprinted as C's in a 25-line version in The Magazine of the Beau Monde; or, Monthly Journal of Fashion (1 Oct 1837) 34; and A Treasury of Unfamiliar Lyrics ed Norman Ault (1938) 434-5.

In fact, the lines derive from James Hogg's imitation of 178 Kubla Khan, also entitled The Cherub, for which see The Poetic Mirror; or, The Living Bards of Britain (1816) 225-9.

1 [=RT]. Inscribed on the verso of the front wrapper of Mrs Charles Aders's (?) copy of A Lay Sermon (1817), which contains corrections by C on twelve pages of the text. Bound in brown morocco by Zaehnsdorf, preserving the original wrappers. Sold at the Gribbel Sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 16 Apr 1945 (lot 100 for $230); Vander Poel Sale, Christie's (London), 3 Mar 2004 (lot 85 to Ximenes Rare Books for £8,500). LS (CC) 239.

The ms inscription was published by Harry Bache Smith A Sentimental Library (New York 1914) 59, with variations from the other transcriptions.

(b) The author of the Vander Poel Sale catalogue supplies the following transcription of MS 1, which I have not been able to check. Some details corroborate Smith, others--notably, line 4 without a pronoun--might represent mistakes.

title. For a provincial Lady who requested through a common Friend (N.B. from the same Country)

3 [=RT]. HRC MS | (Coleridge, ST) | Works. Verso of the first of two conjoint leaves, each measuring 22.7 x 18.7 cm. No WM or chain lines (wove paper). The first leaf is filled with 653 A Somnulent Extempore, and the present poem, coming next, is introduced as follows: "~~And~~ To diversifyYour and the paper's Vacancy, Ess Teesee has added two flower-buds, Or rather peeping Daisies plucked at the foot of Parnassus by his Juvenile hand for an offering to the Lack-a-daisy Muse." The remaining poems are 658A Lover's Reverie, 658B The Young Tanner: A Shenstoniad and 658C Lines on the Improvement of Verse by Music, and the whole is addressed to "M^rs Aders | Grove | Highgate | 30 Sept^r, 1829". Not franked (viz. collected or delivered by hand).

title. 1 To a Young Lady complaining of a Corn.-- · 2 SENTIMENTAL. · 3 THE TENDER CORN.

1. 3 Rose 2 morn · 3 Morn 2. valleys · 3 Valleys 3 low: 3. 2 corn, ·3 Corn, 4. 3 Toe. 5. 3 Rose 2 thorn · 3 Thorn, 6. 2 woe; · 3 Woe: 7. 2 thou, 2 corn, 8. 2 toe. · 3 Toe.

George Bellas Greenough copied this version into a large copybook headed "Miscellaneous Poetry" (wm JOHN HALL | 1822 and Britannia in oval surmounted by crown; chain lines 2.6 cm), f 22^r (University College London Library, Special Collections: G. B. Greenough Papers 29/1).

Facsimiles in S. Butterworth "Coleridge's "'Marine Sonnet'" The Bookman LVIII (Jul 1920) 134-6 at 135; Vander Poel Sale, Christie's (London), 3 Mar 2004 (lot 88 to a British collector for £6,500).

Line 4, read "696s" -- viz. close up last two characters in the library reference-number, as in ¹1348 and ²1078.

Also, add to the close of the first paragraph: See also Tom Mayberry "S. T. Coleridge, Edwin Atherstone and the Grove Conversazione: Some Newly-Discovered Letters" The Coleridge Bulletin NS No.18 (Winter 2001) 43-52.

3 [=RT]. HRC MS | (Coleridge, ST) | Works. Recto of the first of two conjoint leaves, each measuring 22.7 x 18.7 cm. No WM or chain lines (wove paper). Transcript in C's hand, signed EΣTHΣE. A prose comment by C follows on the verso (quoted here in vol I headnote) and the remaining space is filled with four additional sets of verses (here 539 The Tender Corn, 658A Lover's Reverie, 658B The Young Tanner: A Shenstoniad and 658C Lines on the Improvement of Verse by Music), the whole being addressed to "M^rs Aders | Highgate | 30 Sept^r, 1829". Not franked (viz. collected or delivered by hand).

title. 3 A somnulent Extempore, Eyes half-closed and the Head | nodding time: | to an American Lady.

10. 2 Love · 3 Love; 11. 2 mercy · 3 Mercy, 2 mill drain · 3 Mill-drain,

12. 2 above 13. 2 Lullaby Lullaby · 3 Lullaby! Lullaby! 14. 2 sugar plums &

1826-8? The lines are positioned between 627 Duty, Surviving Self-love and 606 Work without Hope in all three texts, with different thematically-related texts intervening.

The RT reproduces PR 1 exactly, except for the typography of the title. Only accidental variants are given here since the words and spacing are identical in all three texts.

title. □ PHANTOM OR FACT? | A DIALOGUE IN VERSE. 3. 3 love 5. 2 3 ’Twas 3 heaven, 7. 3 yet-- 8. 3 forget! 10. 3 look! 11. 2 3 ’Twas 13. 3 tale,

14. 3 history? 3 vision? 3 song? 16. 3 time 17. 3 moment’s 18. 3 tale’s

HRC MS | (Coleridge, ST) | Works. Verso of the first of two conjoint leaves and recto of the second leaf, each measuring 22.7 x 18.7 cm. No WM or chain lines (wove paper). Transcript in C's hand. The third of five sets of verses (653 A Somnulent Extempore and 539 The Tender Corn before, 658B The Young Tanner and 659C Lines on the Improvement of Verse by Music following), the whole being addressed to "M^rs Aders | Highgate | 30 Sept^r, 1829". Not franked (viz. collected or delivered by hand).

The second sentence in the footnote, beginning "N.B.", appears to have been added as an afterthought

HRC MS | (Coleridge, ST) | Works. Recto and verso of the second of two conjoint leaves, each measuring 22.7 x 18.7 cm. No WM or chain lines (wove paper). Transcript in C's hand. The fourth of five sets of verses (653 A Somnulent Extempore, 539 The Tender Corn and 658A Lover's Reverie before, 659C Lines on the Improvement of Verse by Music following), the whole being addressed to "M^rs Aders | Highgate | 30 Sept^r, 1829". Not franked (viz. collected or delivered by hand).

title. The Young Tanner. | a Shenstoniad. 1. ~~Mother~~ Mama 2. [?~~To remain at home~~] [?~~live~~][?~~sitting upon her chair:~~][?~~Care,~~] For the Stockings to darn was her Care

30 Sept 1829, or before. Of all the jeux d'esprit included in the present package, this is the most likely to have been composed at the time the others were copied down.

HRC MS | (Coleridge, ST) | Works. Verso of the second of two conjoint leaves, each measuring 22.7 x 18.7 cm. No WM or chain lines (wove paper). Transcript in C's hand, signed, as if for the communication as a whole, "S. T. Coleridge." The last of five sets of verses (the others being 653 A Somnulent Extempore, 539 The Tender Corn, 658A Lover's Reverie and 658B The Young Tanner: A Shenstoniad), all together addressed to "M^rs Aders | Highgate | 30 Sept^r, 1829". Not franked (viz. collected or delivered by hand).