The Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea

STARR WILLARD CUTTING ROLLIN D. SALISBURY

JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL WILLIAM I. THOMAS SHAILER MATHEWS

CARL DARLING BUCK FREDERIC IVES CARPENTER OSKAR BOLZA

JULIUS STIEGLITZ JACQUES LOEB

THIS edition of the Poems of Anne, Countess of Winchilsea, is based on a small volume of verse published by her in 1713, on two unpublished manuscripts, and on poems scattered through various Miscellanies. These sources are more fully described in the Introduction, and the Table of Contents indicates in which of them each poem is found. In preparing the present text for publication the volume of 1713 has been considered authoritative for the poems it includes, but there has been incorporated into the text the list of Errata published in that volume. For poems occurring in both manuscripts the folio has been accepted as the best authority, inasmuch as it is later than the octavo and was apparently revised by the author or under her supervision.

There has been no modernization of the text, except that in some instances titles are not given with the original amplitude and variety of capitalization, and brackets are not used to mark triplets. Beyond these slight changes the various accepted texts are exactly followed. Some of the poems could doubtless have been made more pleasing to the eye and more easily intelligible by a series of editorial changes. It must be admitted that as the poems stand they show an orthography which, though often quaint and a valuable indication of contemporary pronunciation, is also often inconsistent and the outcome of carelessness or possibly of ignorance. The punctuation is sometimes so scanty, sometimes so elaborate, as to obscure the text. And there is an irritating excess of capitals and italics. But in spite of these facts, more seemed to be lost than gained by any attempt to make the poems conform to exact canons or to ​modern taste. Since so many of them are now published for the first time, it seemed best on the whole to follow the original sources exactly. In order to avoid encumbering the poems with references, the Notes are printed in a separate section at the end of the volume.

I cannot bring forward this edition of Lady Winchilsea's poems without an expression of my sense of indebtedness to Mr. Frederic Ives Carpenter, of the Department of English in the University of Chicago, through whose mediation the manuscripts were given to me to edit, and whose aid has been constant throughout the perplexities incident to the production of this volume; to the Earl of Winchilsea, not only for the use of the octavo manuscript in his possession, but for access to other manuscript material valuable in connection with Lady Winchilsea's life, and for introductions whereby it became possible to visit the places most closely associated with her poems; and to Mr. Edmund Gosse for the use of his most important folio manuscript volume of Lady Winchilsea's work, and for many valuable suggestions in connection with the Introduction and the Notes.

[ In the following table are marks showing in which of the original sources each poem is found. The volume of 1713 is indicated by *; the folio MS. by †; the octavo MS. by ‡; Birch's General Dictionary by ‖ ].