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Modern Love and Poems of the English Roadside, with Poems and Ballads

Page 36

by George Meredith


  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.”

 

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