XIX: (labeled 20 in ms)
XIX.3: ms reads “she who”; 1862 reads “but she who wounds”; GM revised “she” to “her” in BEIN MSS 7 and BEIN 862.6; EdL reads “her”; editors corrected here per Meredith’s corrections
XIX.5: ms reads “her?—Heaven and Hell!”; EdL reads “heaven and hell”
XIX.6: ms reads “her cruelly! can I let”
XIX.8: ms reads “forever” (single word)
XIX.9: ms reads “one way they Love drifts”
XIX.10: ms reads “I am [illegible] see not plain:—”
XIX.12: ms reads “gambler stakes throws his”
XIX.13: ms reads “If any state be enviable [,illegible] on earth,”
XIX.14: ms reads “Yon village ’Tis yon born”; “[illegible] as days go by,”
XIX. 15: ms reads “[illegible] Still”; EdL reads “before him, like”
XIX.16: ms reads “In a strange queer sort of meditative glee mirth”
XX: (labeled 21 in ms)
XX.2: EdL reads “at vice and, daring”
XX.3: EdL reads “hope for heaven.”
XX.9: ms has no comma after “coward”
XX.10: ms reads “With that which comes of what ensues from his”
XX.12: ms reads “In an old drawer put by desk dusty for”
XX.14: no deletion in ms (PB notes deletion); EdL reads “That, like some aged star, gleam”
XX.15: EdL reads “If for those times”
XXI: (labeled 22 in ms)
XXI.1: ms reads “We [illegible] are sitting on the Summer three are on the cedar-shadow’d lawn;”
XXI.4: ms reads “Struck thro’, &”; EdL reads “Struck through, and”
XXI.6: ms reads “went ‘thus’:”; 1862 reads “went ‘thus:’”; editors corrected punctuation order
XXI.7: EdL reads “encountering: that we”
XXI.12: ms reads “We laughed [illegible] and pat him, neither And pat him, with light laugh. We have not winced.”
XXI.14: ms reads “happy things in marriage wedlock. When”; EdL line ends with comma
XXI.16: ms reads “Her [illegible] lost hand”
XXII: (labeled 23 in ms)
XXII.1: EdL reads “may the woman”
XXII.4: EdL reads “of hell in”
XXII.6: ms line ends with colon
XXII.7: EdL reads “What sight in view?”
XXII.9: ms reads “hastily, & tost steals”
XXII.10: ms reads “Irresolute, [illegible] steals shadow-like to”
XXII.13: ms reads “I must will not ask.”
XXII.16: EdL reads “lower, and a happier”
XXIII: (labeled 24 in ms)
XXIII.9: ms reads “Passing, I saw caught the”; EdL reads “coverlet’s”
XXIII.11: EdL reads “tortured me, enchain!”
XXIII.13: ms reads “The small birds stiffens in the great low starlight.”
XXIII.14: EdL reads “not how, but shuddering”
XXIV: (labeled 25 in ms)
XXIV.5: ms reads “tho’”
XXIV.8: ms has no punctuation at line end
XXIV.9: ms inserts extra line before printed line 9, omitted from other editions, which reads “The lowing voices charm’d the troubled seas.”
XXIV.10: ms reads “The loathing soul The soul that still would loathe The shrinking soul, Madam, ’tis understood”
XXIV.15: EdL reads “eyes of pride!”
XXIV.16: ms reads “Never! tho’ I die thirsting.”
XXV: (labeled 26 in ms)
XXV.2: EdL reads “think it quite unnatural.”
XXV.3: ms reads “The actors are, methinks it seems, the”
XXV.5: ms reads “In England we’ll not [illegible] hear of it. Edmond,”
XXV.6: ms reads “The lover, is most [illegible] penitent her devout chagrin doth share;”
XXV.7: ms reads “are his nourishment penitent fare.”
XXV.8: EdL reads “her over-fond:”
XXV.11: ms reads “ere one tear is used.”
XXV.12: ms reads “Now doth all hang Then hangeth all on one”
XXV.14: ms reads “like a worthy proper wife”; EdL reads “husband, like a”
XXV.16: EdL reads “And life, some think, is”
XXVI: (labeled 27 in ms)
XXVI.6: ms reads “his [illegible] blood spent pain;”
XXVI.8: EdL reads “ground, with narrow”
XXVI.10 EdL line ends with colon
XXVI.16: ms reads “Yea, in a kiss take venom from his tooth! You must bear all the venom of his tooth!”
XXVII: (labeled 28 in ms)
XXVII.2: EdL reads “my oracle of”
XXVII.8: ms reads “Or fair as twilight Heavens widow’d Heaven,”; EdL reads “Or clear as widowed sky,”
XXVII.10: ms reads “And if the devil snare [illegible] me, body and mind”
XXVII.12: ms reads “would [illegible] comfort my”
XXVII.13 EdL reads “world, in which”
XXVIII: (labeled 29 in ms)
XXVIII.4: ms reads “And with you enter with you”; EdL line ends with semicolon
XXVIII.5: “Beauty” capitalized in ms
XXVIII.9: “Beauty” capitalized in ms
XXVIII.12: EdL reads “as a burning sphere;”
XXVIII.13: ms reads “see me, and [illegible] groan”
XXVIII.15: ms reads “I feel the [illegible] promptings of”
XXIX: (labeled 30 in ms)
XXIX.1: ms reads “For” with word capitalized; “For” capitalized in EdL
XXIX.2: ms reads “about this [illegible] head of gold”
XXIX.3: EdL line ends with semicolon
XXX: (labeled 31 in ms)
XXX.1: EdL line ends without punctuation
XXX.3: ms reads “There Pale lies the heavy distant shadow”
XXX.5: EdL reads “Into which state”
XXX.9: EdL reads “But nature says:”
XXX.10: ms reads “When least they know me” with sign to invert “least” and “they”
XXX.11: ms reads “Then Swift doth young Love”
XXX.14: ms reads “but for the day”; EdL ends line with colon
XXX.16: ms reads “this is my love-chant sonnet to your eyes.”; EdL reads “my sonnet to”
XXXI: (labeled 32 in ms)
XXXI.3: ms reads “She rather likes Some women like a”
XXXI.10: ms reads “these are they”
XXXI.11: ms reads “Who win her homage. Know I what I say?”
XXXI.12: ms reads “Yes, certainly. ’Tis for the world’s increase!”
XXXI.13: ms reads “[illegible] Small flattery! Yet has she that rare gift”
XXXI.14: ms reads “To women beauty—”
XXXI.15: EdL line ends with comma
XXXII: (labeled 33 in ms)
XXXII.4: ms reads “Beneath me, while the blue underlids [illegible] uplift,”
XXXII.8: ms reads “That And has so long”
XXXII.10: EdL reads “my heart or head”
XXXII.12: ms reads “Still fumes frets, tho’ Nature”
XXXII.13: ms reads “Woman is not her own cure, It means, that woman is not,”
XXXII.14: ms reads “Its Her sex’s antidote.”
XXXII.15: EdL reads “For serpent’s bites?”; ms reads “calm me [illegible] could I clasp”
XXXII.16: ms line ends with period, not exclamation mark
XXXIII: (labeled 34 in ms)
XXXIII.1: ms reads “at the Louvre, I there have I seen”
XXXIII.8: EdL reads “Of heaven might still”; ms reads “thro’ the fray.”
XXXIII.9: ms reads “the Fiend engage do fight,”
XXXIII.10: ms reads “They do not conquer on conquer not upon such”
XXXIII.12: ms reads “Let’s hope he grows And does he grows half human, from his rage all is right.’”
XXXIII.13: ms reads “This [illegible] to my Lady [illegible] in a distant spot,”
XXXIII.15: ms reads �
��Gross clay invades it.’ [illegible] If the spy you play,”
XXXIII.16: ms reads “My wife, my spy read this! Strange love-talk, is it not? [illegible]”; EdL reads “Strange love talk, is”
XXXIV: (labeled 35 in ms)
XXXIV.2: ms reads “The Deluge, or [illegible] else Fire!”; EdL reads “The Deluge or else”
XXXIV.3: ms reads “Our chain thro’ silence”; EdL reads “Our chain on silence”
XXXIV.4: EdL reads “Time leers between, above his twiddling thumbs.”
XXXIV.8: ms reads “From earth’s hot centre. Niagra is no noisier. Then our eyes By stealth”
XXXIV.9: ms reads “Dart out the Our eyes dart scrutinizing”
XXXIV.15: EdL reads “With commonplace I”
XXXV: (labeled 36 in ms)
XXXV.1: ms reads “This It is”
XXXV.13: ms reads “At Forfeits during snow That night we play’d,”
XXXV.16: ms reads “Save her? What for? To act this wedded two-scorn’d lie!”
XXXVI: (labeled 37 in ms; final sonnet in ms)
XXXVI.5: ms reads “The interview was gracious: [illegible] they anoint”
XXXVI.6: ms reads “Each other subsequently (To me aside) each other”
XXXVI.9: EdL reads “nose of Nature might”
XXXVI.11: EdL reads “large-browed steadfastness.”
XXXVI.15: ms reads “And open gates at love-time Wide gates, at love-time only.”
XXXVII.6 EdL reads “in prae-digestive calm.”
XXXVII.11: EdL reads “the low rosed moon,”
XXXVII.16: EdL reads “Our tragedy, is”
XXXVIII.6: EdL reads “whom we can not”
XXXVIII.10: EdL reads “My soul is arrowy”
XXXVIII.12: EdL line ends without punctuation
XL.2: Editors removed italics from “?” in 1862
XL.4: EdL reads “Commits such folly.”
XL.8 EdL line ends with comma
XL.14 EdL line ends with comma
XLI.10 EdL line ends with period
XLII.2: EdL reads “In woman when”
XLII.5: EdL line ends without punctuation
XLII.7: EdL reads “lit a taper”; 1862 reads ““I’m going;””; editors corrected punctuation order
XLII.16: EdL reads “all on an”
XLIII.11: EdL reads “or failing that,”
XLIV.1: EdL reads “They say, that”
XLIV.13: EdL reads “sees through”
XLIV.14: EdL line ends with colon
XLV.5: EdL reads “evening heaven round” and line ends without punctuation
XLVI.10: EdL reads “Toward her,”
XLVII.2: EdL reads “we heard them noise.”
XLVII.4: EdL line ends with colon
XLVII.11: EdL reads “from the West,”
XLVII.15: EdL reads “Where I have seen across”
XLVIII.1: EdL line ends with comma
XLIX.6: EdL reads “though shadow-like and”
JUGGLING JERRY
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Odes: continued”
In OaW, the title is “The Last Words of Juggling Jerry” and sections are not numbered.
I.8: OaW reads “Long to have me, and has me now.”
III.3: OaW reads “It’s easy to think”
III.4: OaW line ends with period
IV.3: OaW reads “Couldn’t I juggle the bale off the wicket?”
IV.5: OaW reads “I know ’em”
IV.6: OaW reads “They’re old”
IV.5: OaW reads “ale-house. I know ’em”
IV.7: OaW reads “I owe ’em”
IX.4: OaW line ends with period
X.6: OaW reads “Duke might kneel to call you Cook:”
X.8: OaW reads “But old Jerry”
XI.7: OaW reads “makes us to”
XII.3: EdL reads “mortar, brick and putty,”
XII.8: OaW reads “But He is”
XIII.5: EdL reads “Crack, went a gun:”
XIII.8: OaW reads “Give me a kiss”
THE OLD CHARTIST
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Odes: continued.”
In NB B, p. 69, Meredith writes the title “The Old Chartist” with only two lines of verse below it. We include them here, as they suggest the originally conceived animal was not a water rat but an otter:
The flower in the prison-vault is pale!
The otter whistles in the morn
I.4: OaW reads “how to cheat, nor how”
III.2: OaW line ends with period
VIII.2: EdL reads “I could let fly a laugh with all my might.”
X.1: EdL line ends with comma
XIII.5: EdL line has three periods instead of four
XV.2: EdL reads “his dress,—”
XV.8: EdL reads “fellow’s heaven’s neighbor!”
XVI.4: EdL line has no italics
THE BEGGAR’S SOLILOQUY
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Poems from ‘Modern Love’: 1862”
VI.4: OaW reads “To myself I’m in tune. I hope”
VII.4: OaW reads “I once was acquainted with his”
VII.6: OaW reads “And, Lord, Sir! didn’t”
VII.7: OaW reads “softest of raps,”
IX.7 EdL reads “us two, at a”
XI.6: EdL reads “there’s here no pride”; corrected in EdL 1911 errata
XII.1: OaW and 1862 read ““all I’ve got:””; punctuation order corrected by editors
XIII.2 EdL omits italics
THE PATRIOT ENGINEER
Included in EdL XXXIII (Poems IV), under “Poems Written in Youth”; this volume was published after Meredith’s death.
24: EdL reads “Dabbling his”
31: EdL reads “he seem’d with”
38: Editors added final quotation mark as per other stanzas and OaW
40: OaW and EdL read “We breath’d again our”
52: EdL reads “despots held her”
107: OaW and EdL read “iron-wallèd lakes”
114: OaW and EdL read “High despot of the place”
CASSANDRA
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Poems from ‘Modern Love’: 1862” (ms in Beinecke, Notebook B, p. 10)
NB B contains only two stanzas.
I.4: EdL reads “Speaks Futurity”
I.5: NB B reads “—Death is busy with her grave”
I: NB B includes the following stanza, not printed in 1862, after stanza I:
Captive, and a thing of scorn,
Under that cold alien sky,
To the death that she must die
Young/Pale Cassandra walks forlorn:
—Shrouded is the golden eye.
III.1: EdL reads “Once to many”
VII.2: EdL line ends with period
VIII.5: EdL line ends with period
IX.1: EdL reads “Once to many”
XI.1: EdL reads “See, toward the”
XIII.2: EdL reads “Shadowing heaven”
XIV.4: EdL reads “unsparing Gods,”
XV.2: EdL line ends with comma (no dash)
XV.3: EdL reads “She, her soaring”
THE YOUNG USURPER
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Poems from ‘Modern Love’: 1862”
MARGARET’S BRIDAL-EVE
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Poems from ‘Modern Love’: 1862”
II.1: In 1862, each numbered section begins on a new page, with the title “Margaret’s Bridal-Eve”
II.9: PB notes variants in GM’s copy to Swinburne: “My mother, but when I am kiss’d!”
II.11: PB notes variants in GM’s copy to Swinburne: “no mouth then knows what’s missed.”
II.13 GM revises to “O mother, but when I awake in the dawn!” in BEIN MSS 7
II. 15 GM revises to “My child, no mouth then knows what’s gone” in BEIN MSS 7
III.7: EdL reads “moonlighted West;”
III.9: EdL reads “the West-clo
ud breaks”
IV.63: EdL reads “lump on the still dead”
IV.65: EdL reads “and loud the wail,”
MARIAN
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Odes: continued”
(ms in Berg)
Titled “Song” in Berg
I.2: Berg line ends with colon
I.4: Berg reads “her husband’s the homely”
I.5: Berg reads “flourish sword staff”
I/II: Berg includes the following stanza between existing stanzas I and II:
Such a she who’ll match with me
Throughout the little island:
When in green she walks between
The barley & rye land?
Match her for her woman’s worth,
And its blushing leaven:
Match her as a thing of Earth,
And a Saint of Heaven.
II.6: Berg reads “High/Swift and”
II.7: Berg reads “Mixing with her/its dove”
III.1–4: Berg reads
Wild and free, and [illegible] fresh with glee,
And tender to/laughing still, her true love:
Let her veer, but never fear
Her old love is her new love.
III.6: Berg reads “Wayward as a maiden:”
THE HEAD OF BRAN
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Poems from ‘Modern Love’: 1862,” and titled “The Head of Bran the Blest.”
(manuscript in Beinecke, Notebook B, p. 47)
NB B includes first four stanzas, with variants from 1862 as noted below
I.5–8: NB B reads:
He with naked fist
Could brain a knight in battle:
Steel could not resist
The weight his blows sword arm would rattle.
I.12: NB B reads “The house he fell’d with slumbers”
I.15: 1862 reads “the head of Bran”
I.16: NB B reads “Shone above/o’er his people.”
II.22: EdL reads “That while I die,”
III.8: EdL reads “in the West!”
IV.8: EdL reads “Gazing out far foamward.”
IV.15: OaW omits comma at line end
BY MORNING TWILIGHT
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Poems from ‘Modern Love’: 1862”
1: EdL reads “Night, like a”
11: EdL omits second stanza
AUTUMN EVEN-SONG
Included in EdL XXXI (Poems III), under “Poems from ‘Modern Love’: 1862”
(manuscript in Berg)
1: Berg reads “The dark cloud”; EdL reads “streaming grey”
2: EdL reads “the West;”
6: Berg reads “Wild music shudders up the air.”
Modern Love and Poems of the English Roadside, with Poems and Ballads Page 36
