by T. S. Eliot
[V] 377–78 = 623–24] see So through the evening, through the violet air 13–16.
[V] 379 = 625 faces] faces, ms6, ts5 light] air ms6 1st reading ‖ light, ms6
[V] 381–84 = 627–30] see So through the evening, through the violet air 19–22.
[V] 381 = 627 And crawled head] A man crawled ms6 1st reading ‖ A form crawled ms6, ts5 1st reading
[V] 383 = 629 Tolling] Telling Criterion (corrected TSE in Clarabut’s Criterion) bells] bell T/W hours] hours. ms6
[V] 384 = 630 wells.] wells T 1st reading, W, US 1963
[V] 384 ^ 385 = 630 ^ 631] line space, then:
The infant hydrocephalous, who sat
By a bridge end, by a dried up water course
And fiddled (with a knot tied in one string)
We come
ms6 (with By emended to At) all del, end of leaf
[Poem I 69–70, 344–45 · Commentary I 693–98]
[V] 387 = 633 chapel] chapel, ms6
[V] 388 = 634 home.] home, ms6, ts5, Q, T/W, Dial, Hogarth ‖ home Criterion
[V] 389 = 635 It has] There are ms6 1st reading door swings,] door’s swing; ms6 1st reading (perhaps doors swing; as given in WLFacs)
[V] 391 = 637 Only] Only, ms6 2nd reading. The comma, subsequently rescinded, would have indicated that the sense was not OED “only” A. 1. “nothing more or else than”, but B. 1b. “with the exception that”. Three lines prior to this, “only the wind’s home” could be either A., “home of the wind and nothing else” or B., “with the exception that the wind is at home”. (An example of A. is “Only the wind moves | Over empty fields”, Choruses from “The Rock” I 99–100. An example of B. is “Only | There is shadow”, The Waste Land [I] 25–26. See also Ash-Wednesday II 22–23: “the wind only for only | The wind”.) cock] black cock ms6, ts5 with black boxed by Pound rooftree] roof treee ts5 1st reading (roof trees WLFacs in error) ‖ roof tree ts5 2nd reading ‖ roof-tree Dial, Criterion, Hogarth
[V] 392 = 638 extra word spacing (“Co co rico co co rico”)] Q, Boni, Dial, 1925, Faber Bk Mod V, 1936 (very slight) ‖ some extra spacing and extra capital (“Co co rico Co co rico”) ms6 ‖ no extra spacing ts5, Criterion, Hogarth, Sesame, Penguin, Mardersteig, 1963, 1969, 1971B
[V] 393 = 639 lightning. Then] lightning, then ms6
[V] 394 = 640 rain] rain … ms6
[V] 394 ^ 395 = 640 ^ 641] new leaf so line spacing indeterminate Q ‖ no line space Boni
[V] 396 = 642 Waited] Writhed ms6 1st reading rain] the rain ms6 (the second word perhaps over a previous uncertain word)
[V] 398 = 644 silence.] silence”. ts5 (quotation marks and full stop superimposed with quotation marks del)
[V] 399 = 645 Then] The T 1st reading, W
[V] 400 = 646] indent ts5
[V] 400 as also 417 = 646, 663 DA] DA ms6, ts5, Q, T/W, Criterion
[V] 401 as also 411, 418 = 647, 657, 664] typewriter tab space between first and second words ts5, Q, T/W
[V] 401 = 647 Datta:] Q, Boni, Dial, 1925+ ‖ DATTA. well then ms6 (with a blot over the last two words, where WLFacs suggests we brother as a “very doubtful reading”) ‖ Datta: (roman colon) ts5, T/W, Criterion, Hogarth, Mardersteig, 1971B what] What Q, T/W, Criterion
[V] 402 = 648 blood shaking] my friend, beating in ms6 1st reading ‖ my blood shaking within ms6 heart] heart, ms6, ts5
[V] 404 = 650 can never] cannot ms6 1st reading retract] retract— ms6
[V] 405 = 651 existed] existed, ms6, ts5
[V] 406 = 652 obituaries] obituary. ms6 1st reading ‖ obituaries. ms6
[V] 407 = 653 Or] Nor ms6 memories] ms6 final reading+ ‖ that which ms6 1st reading ‖ those treasures ms6 2nd reading draped by] ms6 final reading+ ‖ will busy ms6 1st reading ‖ over which creeps ms6 2nd reading ‖ shrouded by ms6 3rd reading the beneficent] ms6 final reading ‖ beneficent ms6 1st reading ‖ the beneficent / kindly / industrious ms6 2nd reading alts spider] spiders ms6 1st reading
[Poem I 70, 345 · Commentary I 698–702]
[V] 408 = 654 Or] Nor ms6 under seals broken] in documents eaten ms6 1st reading
[V] 409 = 655 rooms] rooms. ms6, ts5
[V] 410 = 656 DA] DA. ms6 ‖ DA ts5, Q, T/W, Criterion
[V] 411 = 657 Dayadhvam:] Dayadhvam. ms6 ‖ Dayadhvam: (roman colon) ts5, T/W, Criterion, Hogarth, Mardersteig, 1971B ‖ Dayadhvam: Hogarth proof I] friend, my friend I ms6
[V] 412 = 658 once] once, Valerie’s Own Book
[V] 413 = 659 prison] prison, ms6
[V] 414 = 660] not T/W (eye-skip) confirms] has built ms6 1st reading prison] prison. ms6
[V] 415 = 661 aethereal] 1925+ ‖ aetherial ms6, ts5, Q , T/W, Boni, Dial, Hogarth, Valerie’s Own Book, ms1960 ‖ æthereal Criterion rumours] murmurs ms6 1st reading
[V] 416 = 662] Repair the ms6 1st reading ‖ Repair for a moment a broken Coriolanus, ms6 2nd reading ‖ Restore for a moment a broken Coriolanus, ms6 3rd reading ‖ Revive the spirits of a broken Coriolanus, ms6 4th reading ‖ Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus, ms6 final reading Coriolanus] Coriolanus. ts5, Valerie’s Own Book
[V] 418 = 664 Damyata:] Damyata. the wind was fair, and ms6 ‖ Damyata: (roman colon) ts5, Q, Criterion, Hogarth, Mardersteig, 1971B ‖ Demyata: T/W (see also [V] 432) ‖ Damyata. ms1960 The] the ms6
[V] 419 = 665 oar] wheel. ms6 1st reading ‖ rudder. ms6 2nd reading ‖ oar. ms6 final reading, Criterion
[V] 420 = 666 calm,] calm; Criterion your heart would have] and your heart ms6 1st reading
[V] 421 = 667 obedient] responsive ms6 1st reading
[V] 422 = 668 hands] hands. I left without you ms6 1st reading ‖ You over on the shore ms6 2nd reading ‖ There I leave you ms6 final reading
[V] 422 ^ 423 = 668 ^ 669] no line space ms6, Faber Bk Mod V ‖ new page so line spacing indeterminate Q, T/W ‖ two-line space 1974
[V] 423 = 669] indented beyond end of previous line but not ranged right 1936+ ‖ ms6 beginning at left margin ‖ indented to align with end of previous line ts5 (this indent is equivalent to the space occupied by the words deleted in ms6), Q ‖ ranged right T/W, Hogarth, 1925, Faber Bk Mod V ‖ indented to align with end of previous line and also ranged right Dial I sat upon the shore] Clasping empty hands I sit upon the shore ms6 1st reading ‖ Clasping empty hands I sat upon a shore ms6 2nd reading.
[V] 424 = 670 the arid plain] the desolate sunset ms6 1st reading ‖ a desolate sunset ms6 2nd reading
[Poem I 70–71, 345–46 · Commentary I 702–704]
[V] 425 = 671 Shall] Which now at last ms6 1st reading ‖ Can ms6 2nd reading set] see Criterion (corrected TSE in Clarabut’s Criterion) my] the ms6 1st reading lands] kingdom ms6 1st reading ‖ lands ms6 2nd reading ‖ own lands ms6 3rd reading ‖ land ms6 final reading
[V] 425 ^ 426 = 671 ^ 672] line space ts5, T/W, Boni, Dial, Hogarth ‖ new page, although almost half the previous page is blank ms6 ‖ new page so line spacing indeterminate Criterion ‖ no line space 1925+, Valerie’s Own Book, ms1960
[V] 426 = 672 falling down falling down falling down] falling down, falling down, falling down ts5 ‖ falling down falling down T/W
[V] 426 ^ 427] new page so line spacing indeterminate Boni, 1969 ‖ no line space Hogarth, 1925+
[V] 427–29 = 673–75] all roman ms6, ts5, Q, T/W, Criterion
[V] 427 = 673 foco] Boni, Dial, Hogarth+ ‖ fuoco ms6, ts5, Q ‖ foco T/W, Criterion gli] li Mardersteig affina] affina. ms6. For changes in this line see Mardersteig’s letter of 27 June 1961, quoted in the Textual History of the “Notes on The Waste Land” 427.
[V] 428 = 674] Why then Ile fit you. Hieronimo’s mad againe. ms6 1st reading uti] 1936+, emendation by TSE in Clarabut’s Criterion ‖ ceu ms6, ts5, Q, T/W ‖ ceu printings prior to 1936, Faber Bk Mod V ‖ cen Hogarth proof, emended to ceu by TSE. See Commentary.
[V] 429 = 675 Prince] prince ms6 à] Boni, Dial, Hogarth, 1925+ ‖ de ms6, ts5, Q, T (with à added by Watson as alt with “?”), Criterion ‖ á Hogarth proof, corrected TSE tour abolie] Tour Abolie T 1s
t reading, W
[V] 429 ^ 430 = 675 ^ 676] line space Hogarth
[V] 430 = 676 shored against] ms6 alt, ts5+ ‖ spelt into ms6 ruins] ruins. ms6
[V] 431 = 676 ^ 677] not ms6 1st reading (but added when 674 was emended) then] the T/W (with “?” T) Hieronymo’s] Hieronimo’s ms6
[V] 432, 433] italic Dial
[V] 432 = 677 Datta. Dayadhvam.] Datta, dayadhvam, ms6 1st reading ‖ Datta. Dayadhvam, ms6 2nd reading Damyata.] damyata. ms6 ‖ Demyata. T/W (see [V] 418)
[V] 432 ^ 433] no line space 1925+
[V] 433 = 678] widely word-spaced ms6, ts5, Q , T/W, printings prior to 1936, Faber Bk Mod V, US 1936 and later US eds., Valerie’s Own Book, ms1960 ‖ little or no extra word spacing Criterion, 1936+ Shantih shantih shantih] Shantih shantih shantih. ms6 ‖ Shantih , shantih , shantih . WLLetter ‖ Shantih Shantih Shantih T/W
[V] 432–33] For readers without Sanskrit, the effect of the last two lines (the first of three words, the second of one word thrice) depends partly upon their spacing. Boni, Dial, Criterion, Hogarth all have a line space between the two lines, and all indent the last. Each word in 432 has a full stop, but 433 has no stops. Instead, the words of 433 should be widely spaced (compare 392 and 308). The effect is clear in Dial (though it italicises these two lines without apparent authority). But the three other primary texts follow the convention of double spacing after a full stop (as TSE did himself when typing). As a result, in Hogarth the double spacing of 433 is the same as that of 432, changing the visual effect. Boni too has double spaces after stops, but maintains a distinction by triple-spacing 433 (1925 follows this). Criterion is least satisfactory, because it has double spaces as usual after the stops, but has ordinary word-spaces in 433, making this final line actually tighter than the line before. TSE’s two late fair copies, Valerie’s Own Book and ms1960 give:
[Poem I 71, 346 · Commentary I 704–709]
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih shantih shantih
[Poem I 71, 346 · Commentary I 708–709]
Notes on the Waste Land
Line numbers are emended to match those of the poem in the present edition, with variants from previous editions listed (see Textual Note to [V] 345 = 591, 592).
As early as 1928, when the American first edition of the poem was reset, it was realised that TSE had been inconsistent about the italicising of titles, and uniformity was imposed. Yet 1963 still had both “Inferno” and “Inferno”. In the present edition, as in Sesame and US 1963, titles are italicised throughout, always with a comma before book, canto, act, scene and line numbers. Sesame also italicised the names of books of the Bible in the Notes to 20 and 23, but TSE followed standard practice so roman type is preferred here, and no comma is introduced before chapter numbers. Variants from earlier editions are not listed. TSE sometimes wrote “l.” before line numbers but sometimes did not, even in consecutive notes. This is easily mistaken for and was sometimes set as “I.”, and for consistency within his Notes and with the practice elsewhere in the present edition, “l.” has been silently omitted. Many printings have italicised colons and semi-colons following italicised titles. These are silently emended to roman type. TSE’s use of both “V.” (L. vide = see) and “Cf.” (L. confer = compare) is retained.
Verse quotations are all inset and aligned with one another, following Sesame, US 1952 and US 1963. (The failure of other editions to do so was a legacy of the excessive type size on a narrow measure in Boni, where the Notes first appeared.) As elsewhere, Dante’s words and terza rima indents are made to conform to the text of the Temple Classics.
TSE was inconsistent about quotation marks. Some but not all of the extracts from other writers in the Notes are enclosed within quotation marks, even when inset. Within these, speech is sometimes indicated by further quotation marks. In some cases, quotation marks recur at the opening of each line (see Commentary to [I] 69–76 on this convention), although this was not the practice of the Temple Classics Dante.
When the final lifetime edition (1963) was in preparation, TSE marked up a copy of 1936 15th imp. (1954), although this impression was not the most recent. In this copy, Washington copy 1954, typed slips are pasted over each of the inset quotations from Dante except that in the Note to 293. The lines on the slips apparently follow the Mardersteig (1962) both verbally and in the deletion of enclosing quotation marks. The only quotation marks on the slips are in the Note to 427, which quotes four lines of Purgatorio. The first line begins with opening quotation marks, and the third has closing quotation marks before its final full stop, denoting that these three lines are spoken by Arnaut (from a passage italicised in the Temple edition). Both Mardersteig and the typed slip eliminate the quotation marks at the start of the second and third of these lines.
TSE evidently intended to bring order to the thicket of quotation marks in his Notes. Yet his emendations in Washington copy 1954 were not systematic. Despite the simplified treatment of Arnaut’s lines, recurring quotation marks remained in the speech of la Pia (in the Note that was not retyped, to 293); and a contrary mistake was made in the Note to 411, where all quotation marks were removed from the Inferno passage even though these lines too are spoken (by Ugolino). Both enclosing and recurring quotation marks also remained around passages from other authors.
[Poem I 72–77]
The text of 1963 appears to have been set with reference to Washington copy 1954 but without following it consistently. For instance, it follows TSE’s marks in correcting the lineation and a spelling mistake in the quotation from the Aeneid (92; corrected also in Mardersteig). But in the first line of the passage from Ovid (218), the compositor of 1963 not only followed TSE’s instruction to move the quotation mark from the beginning of the line to its proper place before “maior” (where Jove begins speaking), but changed the spelling to “major”. (Mardersteig has the quotation mark incorrectly at the head of the line.) If TSE had used the latest impression of 1936 for his corrections, no change would have been necessary here, for the position of the quotation mark had been rectified in the 17th impression (1959). The quotations from Dante fared badly too in 1963, which followed the slips pasted into Washington copy 1954 when it removed the enclosing quotation marks from the Notes to 63 and 64, but failed to do so for the Notes to 411 and 427.
The quotation marks in the Notes are therefore unsatisfactory: first, in editions before 1963; second, in Washington copy 1954; and third, in 1963. The present edition aims to fulfil TSE’s impulse to remove unnecessary enclosing quotation marks around inset verse extracts. However, recurring quotation marks at the beginning of successive lines, though not consistently employed, are characteristic of the poem itself (for instance at [I] 35–36 and [I] 69–76). So in the Notes, the present edition chooses to retain them, even if they do not represent speech, as in the quotation from Baudelaire (60). It also retains the quotation marks enclosing Flamineo’s words from The White Devil (407), where TSE’s quotation begins with an ellipsis. Variants in the use of quotation marks are not listed, except in the Note to 218. The Penguin Selected Poems generally put full stops after, rather than before, closing quotation marks, and was followed in this by Faber’s Selected Poems of 1954; later Faber impressions reverted to the previous punctuation, and instances are not listed.
Among the other emendations made by TSE in Washington copy 1954 were three verbal changes in the Note to 427 which were proposed by Giovanni Mardersteig, in the “Ara vos prec” passage quoted from the Purgatorio. Sending proofs of his limited edition to Faber on 27 June 1961, Mardersteig wrote: “Purgatorio XXVI, 148–51—All editions of the last forty years which I have consulted (including that of the Società Dantesca and the Italian edition of The Waste Land translated by Mario Praz) agree as to the spelling of the Provençal words, but differ from that of the English edition · · · To me it seems that it would be better in our edition to conform with standard practice.” The text he proposed and printed in the Notes reads:
“Ara vos prec, pe
r aquella valor
que vos condus al som de l’escalina,
sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor.”
Poi s’ascose nel foco che li affina.
[Poem I 72–77]
That is, as Mardersteig wrote in the margin of the proofs: “condus for guida”, “sovenha for sovenga” (although TSE had the accepted spelling, sovegna), and “li for gli”. Returning the proofs, David Bland wrote that TSE had asked that this be checked because “his edition, that of the Società Dantesca Italiana, gives ‘guida’ and you have altered it to ‘condus’ · · · Mr Eliot is quite prepared to agree with you if you are sure of your reading” (Faber archive). The changes to this Note were adopted in the limited edition and in 1963. For consistency, Mardersteig also changed the quotation in the poem itself at [V] 427, but this was not done in 1963. The change to “sovenha” was also unfortunate, because TSE had quoted “Sovegna vos” again in Ash-Wednesday IV. Subsequent editions and reprints have treated these three verbal changes inconsistently, with “condus” usually remaining, while “sovenha” and “li” have usually been rejected. In a memo of 21 Oct 1969 Valerie Eliot asked that “guida” be reinstated (Faber archive). In the present edition, the words of the Temple Classics edition, long cherished by TSE, have been restored.
Collated:
Boni proof (Princeton): stamped “THE PLIMPTON PRESS | DATE AUG 26 1922 GALS. PP. | AUTHOR’S PROOFS | CONTAINING PROOFREADER’S MARKS | PLEASE RETURN”, and marked in unknown hand. Four galley proofs (headed respectively ZB 15, UP 18, XE 12 and UP 59) cut into fourteen pieces, intended to correspond to final pages. The first three galleys signed off, perhaps by a printer’s reader, “PL/LH”. Half-title leaf (fol. 1) with “Here it is. I have added some notes of my own along the margin—as a result of my researches—” The numbering of the lines was more often wrong than right, but without pattern. Some corrections not marked by the reader were made before Boni was printed.
