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Some Additions to Phyllis B. Bartlett's Edition of The Poems of George Meredith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

William Baker
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Extract

Three holograph manuscript George Meredith poems and various holograph drafts now in the Sir Hugh Walpole Collection at the King's School, Canterbury, provide additions to Phyllis B. Bartlett's edition of The Poems of George Meredith, 2 vols. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978). Bartlett's editorial methodology is based upon a comparison of printed texts and extant manuscripts, and “much of the hitherto unpublished material included” in the edition “is taken from two notebooks now in the Beinecke Library at Yale” belonging to Meredith's early creative period (I, xxviii). The three poems, whose manuscripts are bound in half green morocco binding at the King's School, were published in the second posthumous book of Meredith's poems to appear in 1909, Last Poems (London: Constable). They are: “The years had worn their season's belt,” with several early drafts of the poem; “The Wild Rose,” with revisions; and “OnComo,” with revisions in which the last three lines differ from those published.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 9 , Spring 1981 , pp. 105 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

NOTES

1. I should wish to thank the Headmaster of the King's School, Canterbury, and David Goodes of the Walpole Collection, for kindness and permission to publish this material. For details of Sir Hugh Walpole's book and manuscript buying, see Hart-Davis, R., Hugh Walpole: A Biography (London: Macmillan, 1952)Google Scholar, and Muir, P. H., “Bibliomanes II: Sir Hugh Walpole,” The Book Collector, 4–5(1955–1956), 217–28, 299–307, 338–47.Google Scholar

2. Henceforth in the text referred to as B. followed by volume number and page.

3. There are no variants between B. ll. 33–36 and the holograph version.

4. The square brackets indicate material I have been unable to read; between them are conjectural readings. In this instance Meredith has deleted the last four words of the line and written five words above them, the first, third, and fifth of which read “with”, “young”, and “forth”.

5. [growth?] has been erased and above it Meredith has written “sun”. The “?” within the square brackets is mine and represents a very uncertain conjectural reading.

6. B. l. 39: “live”.

7. B. l. 1: “The years had worn their seasons' belt,”.

8. Ms. “taught” erased, and above it Meredith has written “helped”.

9. Ms. two erased words: [without?] [from?], erased, and above Meredith has written “beyond a”.

10. The formation of “b” in the final word “burn” in the holograph provides a good example of the shakiness of Meredith's hand as exhibited in these holographs: it could all too easily be mistaken for a “t”.

11. Bartlett footnote records a variant in Last Poems: “season's”(see II, 815).

12. Ms. “some” erased, and above it Meredith has written “a”.

13. Ms. last two letters of “that” erased, and replaced with “e” to read “the”.

14. Ms. the first word I have had difficulty in reading [“not”?] has been erased. Above Meredith has written “by alike”, “by” is erased, and written after “alike” to read “alike by”.

15. Ms. “Alike” erased, and above it Meredith has written “were shared, her laugh”.

16. Ms. [words?] erased, above it “speech”; above line between “maids since” is “laughing word” to read “& maids laughing word since”.

17. Ms. a possible alternative reading for “give.” would be “give,”.

18. Ms. [hardly] erased, above it “only”; B. n. 24 “only] barely MS.” The erasure and MS. change from “[hardly]” to “only” indicates perhaps that the Canterbury Meredith holograph is a later draft than the “poem, written in GM'S elderly, shaky hand” (B.II, 792, headnote) now at Yale, upon which Bartlett based her observations.

19. Ms. “[resulting in]” erased: above it “descending to”. B. n. 29 “descending to] resulting in Ms” – cf. ibid. B. n. 30 “die in ] fade ere Ms” – not present in Canterbury MS.

20. Ms. “y” in “yore” unclear.

21. Ms. erasures between “flash,” and “the”, also after “abyss,”.

22. Ms. “a” erased.

23. B. l.16: “The lips to lips and the breast to breast;” MS. “The lips to lips & the breast to breast;”. MS. erasure at end of line above final “breast”. B. l. 17: MS. erasure at start of “ecstasy,”.

24. B. l. 18: “As an eagle at prey, and pure as the prayer”. Ms. mark following “prey,”. B. ll. 19–20. Ms erasure following first two letters of “uplift” (l. 19). L. 20 squeezed between ll. 19 and 21.

25. Ms. erasure in pagination indication.

26. Ms. erasure “swung.”

27. Ms. above “mirrored” an erased word.

28. Ms. erasure by first letter of “witnessed”.

29. Ms. [mainstorm?] erased: “muteness” written above.

30. Ms. “x” above pointing following “glassed.”