by T. S. Eliot
1944 author’s proof (b) (untraced): unbound page proofs date-stamped by the printer 26 May 1944 on the half-title, where TSE has added “Corrected | TSE | 2. 6. 44”. Sold by the executors of the Faber designer Berthold Wolpe, Bloomsbury Book Auctions, 6 Sept 1990, to Bernard Quaritch Ltd, whose catalogue 1160 (1993) confirms that TSE’s changes were identical to those of the proofs now at King’s.
1979, prepared under Valerie Eliot’s supervision, appears to have been set from US 1963, leading to the omission of the stop in East Coker II 21. While 1979 avoids the errors of US 1963 at East Coker III 26 and V 32, it erroneously omits line spaces at East Coker I 23 and Little Gidding III 16–17. Reference may have been made to Mardersteig, the only edition before 1979 to remove the brackets around the note preceding The Dry Salvages.
[Poems I 177–209]
The immediate source of 1963 and US 1963 is uncertain. For instance, their settings of Little Gidding III 16–17 are different; 1963 has an error at East Coker III 3 not made by US 1963; US 1963 has an error at East Coker III 26 not made by 1963, and the two disagree at Burnt Norton II 23–24.
The type from Faber’s original settings of the four poems, used in Four Quartets since 1944, was melted down in 1968, on the advice of the printer, Stephen Easton, after 72,000 copies had been printed from it (Easton to David Bland, 19 Jan 1968); even more copies had been taken from the Burnt Norton pages (see below).
Proposed readings by others are attributed:
[2] change] change, Hayward ts3
Likewise comments:
II 80, 81] transposed with “?” Hayward ts10b
VOLUME VARIANTS
Section-title page Four Quartets] collected eds of TSE from US 1952, 1963+ ‖ Burnt Norton with epigraphs beneath 1936, Later Poems. (Within US 1952 section titles were afforded only to Collected Poems 1909–1935 plus the subsequent separate volumes, Four Quartets, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion and The Cocktail Party.)
Acknowledgement] present in editions entitled Four Quartets, but omitted from editions also containing other poems (US 1952 and subsequent US eds, 1963+). American editions read:
I wish to acknowledge a particular debt to Mr. John Hayward for general criticism and specific suggestions during the composition of these poems. | TSE.
on the recto of a page before Contents, US 1943.
British editions read:
I wish to acknowledge my obligation to friends for their criticism, and particularly to Mr John Hayward for improvements of phrase and construction
on Contents page 1944 ‖ on verso of epigraphs (i.e. following them) 1979, Rampant Lions ‖ on recto page between Contents and section-title 1959 pbk, Folio (all capitals).
TSE to Frank Morley, 20 Feb 1943: “I wonder how you feel about a preliminary note of acknowledgement. The only person concerned is John Hayward, but he gave me so much and such valuable help, both of criticism and of suggestion of alternative words & phrases a number of which I accepted, that I should like to say: ‘I wish to acknowledge a particular debt to Mr. John Hayward, both for general criticism of these poems during their composition, and for suggesting words and phrases which have found their way into the final text.’ I prefer to leave this to your decision, knowing that you will accept it unless you are forcibly struck by some objection of a kind unlikely to have occurred to my own mind.”
[Poems I 177–209]
Paragraphing Following the practice of 1959 pbk (the first paperback Four Quartets), 1963 indents the first line of second and subsequent paragraphs in several sections, and it does the same with the first line of two of the four poems (East Coker and The Dry Salvages). Yet while there are indents for “Where is there an end of it” and “Lady, whose shrine stands on the promontory” (The Dry Salvages II and IV), there are none for “The wounded surgeon plies the steel” (East Coker IV) or “Ash on an old man’s sleeve” or “The dove descending” (Little Gidding II and IV). The practice was abandoned in the resetting of the paperback by Jarrold, and by 1979. The present edition therefore follows the pamphlets (and US 1943 and 1944) in not indenting. (See “This Edition”, and Composition FQ 97.) When the discrepancy was brought to Valerie Eliot’s attention during the proofing of the Folio Society edition, she confirmed that she preferred the text without indents (Peter du Sautoy to Brian Rawson of the Folio Society, 5 Mar 1968). The indents remained, however, in 1974. Mardersteig insets sections of text according to visual balance on each individual page, with the depth of insetting varying when paragraphs turn onto new pages.
Poem titles] on individual title pages 1979, 1995, Rampant Lions ‖ on individual title pages and again above poems 1959 pbk
[Poems I 177–209]
Burnt Norton
Burnt Norton was published as the section concluding 1936. It then became a longstanding anomaly, being in print both there and as a pamphlet (BN) in the years 1941–44. After that, it was both the last poem in reprints of 1936 and the first in Four Quartets (1944). The anomaly ended only with the absorption of the other three Quartets into the Collected Poems of 1963.
Although second in the sequence of Quartets, East Coker was the first to appear as a pamphlet, after its first publication in NEW. The pamphlet resembled Auden’s Spain (1937), but the typesetting followed a different model. Richard de la Mare, Faber’s production editor, wrote to the printer, 1 July 1940: “I am sending you copy for a short new book of Eliot’s, a poem called East Coker. I propose to set it up in exactly the same style as was used for his Collected Poems · · · so that later on, if we wanted to, we could include this in that volume.” The intention was to save the expense of re-setting.
East Coker was published in Sept 1940, with two reprints in two months, and the format yielded an unanticipated dividend. As it became clear to the author that Burnt Norton could be the pattern for a sequence of poems, so it became clear to the publishers that East Coker could be the model for a series of pamphlets. Rather than putting the new poem into reprints of 1936, Faber decided to make a shilling pamphlet from Burnt Norton as well. In Nov 1940 de la Mare wrote to the printer that Burnt Norton was the first of “a series of four or five poems that Eliot is writing · · · and the others will also be published separately in pamphlet form”.
The printer took the standing metal type for the Burnt Norton pages from 1936 and rearranged it slightly, adding the title to the top of the first page, to match the format of East Coker. This meant moving the poem down by five lines and turning lines from one page to the next. The last page had originally had only ten short lines, which for visual harmony had been inset by half an inch. Now five more lines were brought over to the head of this page, and they too were inset. The first impression of 4,000 copies of Burnt Norton sold promptly and 4,000 more were printed in 1942. There were five impressions in all, to Nov 1943. The Dry Salvages (pub. Sept 1941) and Little Gidding (pub. Dec 1942) were also commercially very successful.
For the first collected British edition of Four Quartets, in 1944, Richard de la Mare asked the printer to re-use standing type from the four pamphlets (to John Easton, 15 Feb). But this was not entirely straightforward, since new pagination would be required, and the epigraphs to Burnt Norton and the note on the title The Dry Salvages had to be moved. Easton to Richard de la Mare, 17 Feb: “The fact that we shall have to alter the folio numbers and also place the notes at the beginning of Burnt Norton and The Dry Salvages on the first page of each of the poems means that there is in fact a good deal of rearrangement of type involved.” Easton therefore suggested “that we should make moulds from the type of the four poems so that they can be reprinted from stereos in future. This will enable us to get the type into its proper shape for the new volume and to keep it standing in that form” (as pamphlets). In the course of rearrangement of the type and its preparation for 1944, the poems were apparently read against the American edition of the four poems, in accordance with which, as 1944 author’s proof shows, “summer” at East Coker I 25
was changed to “Summer” (TSE changed it back).
[Poem I 179–84 · Commentary I 903–24]
Despite the careful planning for future impressions, however, one Quartet, Burnt Norton, was still needed in its original configuration: not that of the pamphlet, but that of its appearance in 1936. When a new impression of that collection was called for in 1941, the standing type of the poem was again re-used. The title was removed again from the head (since Burnt Norton had its own section-title page in 1936), and five lines were taken back from each page to the previous. Unfortunately, the compositor did not remove the quads (blank types) used to inset the five lines moved back from the last page, and these lines appeared puzzlingly inset in 1936 4th imp. (1941). They remained inset until 1961, through fifteen impressions of 1936, though always correct in Four Quartets.
Burnt Norton was published in 1936; then in the Faber pamphlet Burnt Norton, 20 Feb 1941 (first separate publication; five impressions to Nov 1943); Later Poems (May 1941); then 1943, 1944+. (TSE was mistaken when he wrote to Frank Morley, 13 Feb 1941, “I do not think this is a very good time for bringing out my Sesame book in New York because it contains Burnt Norton, and we want to save that for the volume” [Four Quartets]. The poem was not in Sesame. He may have been thinking of Later Poems, to be published by Faber in May 1941, in which Burnt Norton does appear.)
tsMinC (Hornbake Library, U. Maryland): draft of Murder in the Cathedral including thirteen lines written for the Second Priest to succeed Thomas’s speech “Temporal power, to build a good world” (30). Not used in the play, the lines became the opening of Burnt Norton (see Composition FQ 15–16, 82). The lines are given in the Commentary to Burnt Norton: headnote, 2. GENESIS.
Lines for an Old Man ts1, ts2 both include Burnt Norton II 1–2.
ts1: ribbon copy and carbon of the printer’s typescript.
ts1a (King’s) = D in Composition FQ: printer’s typescript for 1936 on eight leaves, with emendations by TSE, who has added the Greek epigraphs and references below the title in ink. Endorsed by TSE on a flyleaf of the bound volume: “Burnt Norton printer’s copy from the T. S. Eliot bequest to John Hayward Esq.” At the head of parts II–V, the printer has specified “Not a new page”. Bound together with ts1a add leaf: four typed drafts of V 20–22.
ts1b (Houghton): carbon of ts1a, sent to Frank Morley, with emendations by TSE, who has again added epigraphs and references. Not recorded in Composition FQ.
Printer’s BN 5th imp. (Pierpont Morgan): printer’s marked copy of Burnt Norton (pamphlet), 5th imp., Nov 1943, with one textual emendation at II 18. On the cover are written the print-run and a date: “2,320 copies, 6. 12. 43”. The marks were intended for further impressions of the pamphlet, rather than Four Quartets as a book, but no further impressions were issued.
[Poem I 179–84 · Commentary I 903–24]
Epigraphs] The status of these has long been ambiguous. In the form in which they originally appeared on the section title page to Burnt Norton in 1936 and in Later Poems, and as stationed below the title of that poem in US 1952 and 1963, they applied to it alone. Yet they were omitted from all five impressions of Burnt Norton as a pamphlet (1941–43), despite an instruction to the printer to set them on a preliminary recto. In US 1943, which has a title page for each Quartet, they were printed for the first time on the Burnt Norton title page. Perhaps because of wartime paper shortages, the British Four Quartets (1944) has no title pages for the individual poems. In the Faber proofs, the epigraphs were set below the title Burnt Norton at the head of the text (in a large type), but TSE ringed them for transfer to the facing page (verso of the Contents), adding “and put in smaller type, as in American edition” (1944 author’s proof). In that arrangement, as printed, the epigraphs might still be taken as relating to Burnt Norton alone, but were more naturally to be taken as prefixed to the sequence. Faber introduced individual title pages into Four Quartets in 1959 pbk, where the epigraphs were printed on the verso facing the Burnt Norton title page. The new hardback edition of 1979 also has individual title pages, but here the epigraphs change places with the acknowledgement to John Hayward, and appear first. The epigraphs are prominent on the recto, followed by the acknowledgement (verso), the Burnt Norton title page (recto), a blank (verso) and then the poem (an arrangement followed by the Rampant Lions edition in 1996).
By moving the epigraphs further forward (in two steps), British editions of Four Quartets have given increasing warrant for supposing that they prefix the whole sequence. All the while, however, American editions, beginning with US 1943 and including the collections US 1952 and US 1963, have attached the epigraphs to Burnt Norton alone, and this was the case also when TSE incorporated Four Quartets into his Collected Poems, in the British edition of 1963. There and in 1974, the epigraphs appear beneath the title Burnt Norton at the head of the text, just as they did in 1936. Faber subsequently reset the Collected Poems with the epigraphs below the section-title Four Quartets. Differences of spacing and the use of roman and italic faces are not recorded here.
Epigraph quotations πολλοί] 1944, 1963 ‖ πολλοì ts1, 1936 (although it was queried by the proofreader for Later Poems, that volume and all imps. of 1936 printed the grave accent (ì). Alongside the epigraphs on a proof sheet from US 1952, TSE wrote “Check this!!” and on a memo he added, ambiguously, “Correct Greek” (Faber archive)
Epigraph references I.] 1. 1963 ‖ l. 1969
Epigraph attribution (Herakleitos).] Herakleitos). 1969
I
I 1] all capitals Mardersteig
I 2 time future,] the future. tsMinC ‖ time future 1974
I 3 And time future] Time future is tsMinC
I 4 present] present, tsMinC
I 6 an abstraction] a conjecture tsMinC
I 7 perpetual] permanent tsMinC
I 13] not tsMinC
I 14 My words echo] not tsMinC
I 37 of heart] of the heart Later Poems. Asked to check a list of proof corrections in Later Poems, TSE made no comment here, presumably taking “p.149 fourth line” to refer to the fourth line of verse (the next line, with “in the pool”) rather than the fourth line of type.
[Poem I 179–80 · Commentary I 905–12]
II
II 1–2] see Textual History, Lines for an Old Man, following 11
II 1 Garlic] Thunder Lines for an Old Man ts1 1st reading
II 5 Appeasing long] 1936 7th imp. (Dec 1944)+ ‖ And reconciles ts1, 1936 until 6th imp. (Mar 1944), 1944 author’s proof 1st reading (emended to Appeasing long by TSE), BN, Later Poems, US 1943
II 10 above] about recording 1946–47
II 16] indent US 1952, 1958 pbk, 1936 17th imp. (1959) only
II 18 fixity,] 1936 7th imp. (Dec 1944)+ ‖ fixity. ts1, 1936 until 6th imp. (Mar 1944), US 1936, BN (emended Printer’s BN 5th imp.), Later Poems. TSE to Frank Morley, 20 Feb 1943, listing proof corrections for US 1943: “Comma after fixity.”
II 22 where] where ts1 1st reading
II 23 ^ 24] line space ts1, 1936 until 6th imp. (Mar 1944), Later Poems, BN and US 1943, US 1952, US 1963 ‖ new page so line spacing indeterminate 1944 author’s proof ‖ no line space (accidental omission when lines were moved in proof) 1944, 1936 from 7th imp. (Dec 1944), presumably to conform with 1944, Mardersteig (see McCue 2012a, Proposal 9).
II 24] indent US 1952
II 33 Yet the] The ts1 1st reading, ts1b
II 35 Protects] Protect ts1 1st reading
II 37 a little] little Mardersteig
II 39 But only] ts1a 2nd reading, ts1b, 1936+ ‖ Yet it is ts1 1st reading ‖ Yet only ts1a final reading can] that ts1 1st reading
II 42 Be] Can only be ts1 1st reading
III
III 20 ^ 21] Fuddled with images of picture papers, ts1 del
III 22 Campden] “p” underlined with “X?” (probably by the printer) ts1a. See Commentary.
III 30] indent 1958 pbk (starting new page), 1936 17th imp. (1959) only, 1963 (not 1963 proof, US 1963), 1969 Des
iccation] Dessication ts1
IV
IV 5 ^ 6] new page so line spacing indeterminate ts1, BN, 1944 ‖ line space 1958 pbk, Folio
IV 6] indent 1958 pbk, 1936 17th imp. (1959) only. An attempt was made throughout 1958 pbk to clarify by indenting—as though for new paragraphs—the first line of subsections (except those beginning each part). In 1944 a new page begins with IV 6, and 1958 pbk mistook this, and added a line space and indented the line. The text of Burnt Norton in the Collected Poems (1936) was then checked against 1958 pbk. Three new indents were adopted (II 18, III 24, IV 6) in 1936 17th imp. (1959) only, although the line space IV 6 ^ 7 was not adopted, leaving the one-word line “Chill” puzzlingly indented. All three indents were removed in 1936 18th imp. (1961), the final impression.
[Poem I 180–83 · Commentary I 913–21]
IV 6–10] printed as opening lines of V in 1944 9th imp. (1952), Mardersteig. The standing type of 1944 having been disturbed, a compositor apparently looked to see where to replace the roman numeral, but was misled by the different disposition of lines in 1936, where the numeral appeared correctly at the top of the page (because the title Burnt Norton does not appear above the first line of I). He therefore erroneously inserted the numeral at the top of his page. Although half of the 10,000 copies of the 9th imp. were corrected with a cancel leaf, one of the uncorrected copies was followed when Mardersteig was set (see Gallup A43c).
V
V 8 lasts,] lasts. Mardersteig
V 17 stay] say 1979
V 21–22] Crying shadows and disconsolate chimeras. ts1a add leaf 2nd draft
