PREFATORY NOTE

My ideal in attempting to prepare a Bibliography of Wordsworth in America was high. I hoped to see each edition, or at least to identify the editions hinted at in the various catalogues. I determined to read every article, in criticism, or review; and to know if the many references, given by Poole and other authorities, were correct. As is usually the case, the reality has fallen far short of the ideal. But, while the results are not what were desired, there have been many fortunate discoveries.

Two things were learned to begin with. First, that astonishingly little care had been taken to preserve the history of the early American Editions, or to preserve, even, the earlier American Periodicals. Most of our larger libraries are amazingly deficient in these works. Second, it was found that existing Catalogues or Lists are not only far from complete, but full of gross blunders. Roorbach (the Addenda, Supplements, etc.) was found to be a mere rehash of the old trade sales Catalogues, swarming with blunders. In the matter of dates, imprints, the particular editions, the size of books, Roorbach is utterly untrustworthy. Allibone (so far as Wordsworth is concerned) is also confusing and incomplete. I did not find much in the various Public or College Library Catalogues.

I wrote to the librarians of some of the older libraries, after I had made out a preliminary list, to ascertain if they could add thereto any editions, from their cards or manuscript catalogues. From these sources I was enabled several times to solve seemingly insolvable problems.

I had assistance from, and in some instances visited, the following libraries: Cornell University, Boston Public Library, Boston Athenæum, Harvard College, Philadelphia Public Library, the Library College of Philadelphia, Mercantile Library College, Philadelphia; the Public Library, St. Louis; that of Lennox and Astor, the University of Virginia, the State Library, Richmond, Va., and one or two other Southern libraries. I have written more than one hundred letters to publishers, editors, authors, the descendants of early American Wordsworthians, Professors of Literature, and professed Wordsworthians in Seminaries and Colleges. I have examined, or employed others to examine, the following works for editions of Wordsworth: the New York Literary World, Norton’s Literary Gazette, American Publishers’ Circular, Publishers’ Weekly, Catalogues of Congress Library, The Port Folio, American Quarterly Review, Knickerbocker Magazine, New York Quarterly Review, American Review, North American Review. And this is but half of my story.

Poole’s “Index,” of course, was a great assistance. But I did not rely altogether on him, after I had discovered several mistakes in titles and numbering—mistakes which were confusing in the extreme. I have consulted all other Indexes and Reference Lists that I could procure, and have carefully examined the periodicals in which it was possible that such articles could be found.

My greatest light, however, came from responses to personal appeals, to those in the North, South, East, and West of the Country, who enlightened me in particular directions. I needed assistance, not only to discover the articles, but more particularly to secure the articles to read, or to procure proper persons to read the few articles that I could not obtain. When valuable books were sent me, by express, from distant College Libraries, that I might read for myself, I realised the bond there is between Wordsworthians.

I cannot begin to speak of the delight that I have had in this work, delight because of the response I have met with, and in opening up unknown and rich veins of criticism. I have learned too, that Wordsworth has many enthusiastic followers in America.

I have included in the Bibliography the accounts of visits paid to Wordsworth by certain well-known Americans, a half-dozen poems on Wordsworth, and three or four unpublished Lectures.

I am exceedingly grateful to the many who (to my surprise) have answered my questions, and have given me of their valuable time. I am especially indebted to Mr. George P. Philes, of Philadelphia, and also to Mr. F. Saunders of the Astor Library, New York. Dean Murray of Princeton rendered me exceedingly gracious service, and but for Mr. Edwin H. Woodruff of Stanford University, California, I should not have known how or where to begin my investigations.

In all probability my work is not perfect. I would that it were. I only know that I have been enabled, by enthusiasm alone, to lay a foundation for Wordsworth Bibliography in America, that may be an assistance to future scholars, and will aid the next Wordsworthian who is brave enough to build enduringly.

C. M. St. John.

I
AMERICAN EDITIONS OF WORDSWORTH

INCLUDING A FEW WORKS WHICH ARE NOT STRICTLY EDITIONS OF WORDSWORTH

I have endeavoured to include in this list every distinctive American edition of Wordsworth, published during the poet’s lifetime, and since his death. There are many others, issued with the imprints of honourable publishers; which, upon investigation, were found to be English reprints; to say nothing of those editions made from worn-out plates, and issued by houses of less reputation for honourableness. I was puzzled to account for so many editions of Matthew Arnold’s Selections, some of them bearing the imprint of Harper Brothers, some of Macmillan, and several of Crowell. The Harpers wrote me that these various publications were possible in view of the fact that there was no copyright of the work, and that all of them might properly be called American Editions. I have not placed those bearing the Macmillan imprint, of course, among purely American editions. Nor have I included the several cheap ones of Crowell. The one of Crowell, given in the list, is copyrighted by the Crowell Company.

The fact that the introduction of Wordsworth’s poetry into America is so easily authenticated, and that the history of it is so concise, is my apology for deviating from ordinary bibliographical rule in including among the regular editions certain numbers of America’s first Literary Journal, and two or three other volumes.

I have confined myself to a simple chronological arrangement of the Editions, with place of imprint, name of publisher, number, and size of volumes. This makes the most convenient list for easy reference, especially as I have tried to mention technical points of difference.

C. M. St. John.

1

1801. The Port Folio. (Edited by Joseph Dennie.) Philadelphia. 4to.

The following poems appeared in “The Port Folio,” vol. i., before the publication of the First American Edition of “Lyrical Ballads”—

2

1801. Introduction to the English Reader. By Lindley Murray. Philadelphia: Johnson and Warner. 12mo.[479]

3

1802. Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems. In two volumes. By W. Wordsworth.

Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum!

From the London second edition. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by James Humphreys. 2 vols. in one. 12mo.[480]

4

1823. The American First Class Book. By John Pierpont. Boston: William B. Fowle. 1 vol. 12mo.[481]

5

1824. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Boston: published by Cummings, Hilliard and Co. 4 vols. 12mo.[482]

6

1833. Sketch of the Genius and Character of William Wordsworth. With Selections from his “Lyrical Ballads.”[483] Philadelphia: Greenbak’s Periodical Library. Vol. ii. pp. 181-202.

7

1835. Yarrow Revisited, and Other Poems. New York: R. Bartlett and S. Raynor. 16mo. pp. 17-244.

1835. Same Title. Boston: R. Bartlett and S. Raynor. 16mo; also, Boston: James Munroe and Co. 16mo.

1835. Same Title. Philadelphia. 12mo.

8

1836. Yarrow Revisited. Second Edition. Boston: William D. Ticknor. 16mo.

9

1836. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. The first complete American, from the last London, edition. New Haven: Peck and Newton. In 1 vol. Royal 8vo.[484]

10

1836. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, together with a Description of the Country of the Lakes, etc. Edited by Henry Reed. With Portrait. Philadelphia: Kay and Brother. Royal 8vo; also, by James Kay and Brother.[485]

1839. Same Title. Philadelphia: Kay and Brother. Boston: Munroe and Co. Pittsburg: Kay and Co.

1844. Same Title. Philadelphia: James Kay jun.[486]

11

1842. Wordsworth’s Poems. In “The New World,” vol. iv. No. 16. New York: Park Benjamin, Editor. Sat. April 9, Sonnet Written at Florence; April 16, Address to the Clouds, Suggested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise; Maternal Grief (“New Poems, never before published”). May 7, Guilt and Sorrow (“From proof sheets received in advance”).[487]

12

1843. Poems from the Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Selected by Henry Reed.

Go forth, my little Book; pursue thy way;

Go forth, and please the gentle and the good.

Philadelphia: John Locken. 32mo.

(Entered according to the Act of Congress in 1841.)

1846. Same Title. Philadelphia: Uriah Hunt and Son. 32mo.

Same Title. New York: Leavitt and Co.[488]

1853. Same Title. New York: Leavitt and Allen. 24mo.

1856. Same Title.[489] New York: Leavitt and Allen.

13

1847. Wordsworth’s Complete Poetical and Prose Works.[490] In 5 vols. (In Press.) Philadelphia: Kay and Troutman. 12mo.

14

1849. Poems of William Wordsworth: with an Introductory Essay on his Life and Writings. By H. T. Tuckerman. New York: C. S. Francis and Co. 12mo. pp. 21-356; also, Boston: J. H. Francis.[491]

15

1849. The Excursion: a Poem. New York: C. S. Francis and Co. 12mo.

1850. The Excursion, etc. New York: C. S. Francis and Co. 12mo.

1852-55. The above was again republished.

16

1850. The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet’s Mind. New York: Appleton and Co. 12mo.

1850. The Prelude, etc. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton and Co. 12mo.

17

1850. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Co. 12mo. Reprinted in 1857 and 1859.

1859. Same Title. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Co. 16mo.

18

1851. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Edited by Henry Reed. Royal 8vo. Philadelphia: James Kay jun. and Brother. Also, Kay and Troutman. Also, Troutman and Hayes. Also, Hayes and Zell. Also, Porter and Coates.[492]

1852. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Edited by Henry Reed. 8vo. Philadelphia: Troutman and Hayes.

1860. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Edited by Henry Reed. Royal 8vo. pp. 727.[493]

19

1854. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, with a Memoir.[494] Boston: Little, Brown and Co. Also, New York: Evans and Dickenson. Also, Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grant and Co. 18mo. 7 vols.

20

1855. Poetical Works of W. Wordsworth. Portrait. Boston: Crosby and Nichols(?) 12mo.

21

1855. The Prelude. New York: Appleton and Co. 12mo. Second Edition.

22

1860. Poetical Works of Wordsworth.[495] 2 vols. New York: 12mo.

23

1863. Selections From Wordsworth, with an Essay by H. T. Tuckerman. Philadelphia. 32mo.[496]

1863. Same Title. Boston.

24

1865. Poems of Nature and Sentiment. By William Wordsworth. Elegantly illustrated. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler and Co.[497]

25

The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth.[498] A new edition. Boston: Crosby and Nichols. 12mo.

1867. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. A new edition. Boston: Crosby and Ainsworth. New York: Oliver S. Felt. 16mo. pp. 539.[499]

26

1870. The Excursion: a Poem. A new edition. New York: J. Miller. 16mo.

27

1871-75. The Howe Memorial Primer, in raised letters for the Blind. Wordsworth’s Poetical Works, with a Memoir. Boston. 7 vols. 16mo. Portrait.

28

1876. Wordsworth’s Poems. Selected and Prepared for Schools. Edited by H. N. Hudson. Boston: Ginn and Co. 12mo. “Text-book of Prose and Poetry Series.”

1882. Same Title. In paper. Hudson’s Pamphlet Selections of Poetry. (No. VI. Wordsworth.)

29

1877. Favorite Poems. Vest-pocket Series. Boston: Osgood. Illustrated. 32mo.

1877. Favorite Poems. Illustrated. Boston, Massachusetts. (Printed at Cambridge.) 16mo.

30

1877. The Poetical Works. New edition. Boston: Hurd and Houghton. 8vo. 3 vols.

31

1878. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, with Memoir. 7 vols. in 3. Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Co. Riverside Press. 8vo; also,

1880. Same Title.[500]

32

1879. Wordsworth’s Poems. Chosen and Edited by Matthew Arnold. Franklin Square Library. New York: Harper and Brother. Paper 4to.

1880. Another Edition.

1891. Another Edition.

33

1881. The Excursion, with a Biographical Sketch. English Classic Series. New York: Clark and Maynard. 16mo.

1889. Same Title. With Explanatory Notes. New York: Effingham, Maynard and Co.

34

1881-82. Favorite Poems. By William Wordsworth. In Modern Classics, No. VII. Illustrated. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 32mo.

35

1884. Ode, Intimations of Immortality. By William Wordsworth. Illustrated. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Small 4to. Copyright by D. Lothrop.

36

1884. Poems by William Wordsworth. Selected and Prepared for use in Schools. (From Hudson’s Text-Book of Poetry.) Section I. Boston: Ginn, Heath and Co. 12mo.

37

1888. Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet’s Mind. With Notes by A. J. George. Boston: D. C. Heath and Co. 12mo.

38

1888. Bits of Burnished Gold, from William Wordsworth. Compiled by Rose Porter. New York: A. D. F. Randolph and Co. 12mo.

39

1889. Selections From Wordsworth. With Notes by A. J. George. Boston: D. C. Heath and Co. 12mo.

40

1889. Melodies From Nature. (From Wordsworth.) Illustrated. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. 4to.

41

1889. Select Poems of William Wordsworth.[501] Edited, with Notes, by W. J. Rolfe. With Engravings. New York: Harper Brothers. Square 16mo.

42

1889. Poems by William Wordsworth. Selected and Prepared for use in School. Paper. (From Hudson’s Text-Book of Poetry.) Section II. 12mo. Boston: Ginn and Co.

43

1890. Select Poems From Wordsworth, with Explanatory Notes. Edited by James H. Dillard. New York: Effingham, Maynard and Co. 12mo.

44

1890. Pastorals, Lyrics and Sonnets from the Poetic Works of William Wordsworth. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 16mo. White and Gold Series.

45

1891. A Selection of the Sonnets of William Wordsworth.[502] With numerous Illustrations. By A. Parsons. New York: Harper Brothers. 4to.

46

1891. Wordsworth for the Young. Selections. Illustrated. With an Introduction for parents and teachers by Cynthia Morgan St. John. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Small 4to. 153 pp.

47

1892. Wordsworth’s Prefaces and Essays on Poetry. Edited by A. J. George. (Heath’s English Classics.) Boston: D. C. Heath and Co. 12mo.

48

1892. Poems of Wordsworth. Chosen and Edited by Matthew Arnold. Illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Co. (Copyright 1892 by T. Y. Crowell.)

[478] Simon Lee was probably the first poem of Wordsworth’s published in a Literary Journal in America, and is the beginning of Wordsworth’s Bibliography in U.S.A. A note in “The Port Folio” (vol. i. p. 24) is as follows: “The public may remember reading in some of the newspapers the interesting little ballads, We are Seven, and Goody Blake and Harry Gill. They were extracted from the ‘Lyrical Ballads,’ a collection remarkable for originality, simplicity, and nature.… The following, Simon Lee, is from the same work.”

It is evident from this that two, at least, of Wordsworth’s poems were copied into American newspapers as early as 1800, and that Joseph Dennie, the founder, as well as editor, of “The Port Folio”—the first purely Literary Journal established in this country—was the first American champion of Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[479] The Pet Lamb appeared in this Book almost immediately after its publication in England. It was the first poem of Wordsworth’s published in a book in America. It was also the first instance of the introduction of a poem of Wordsworth’s into a School Book.

C. M. St. John.

[480] The first American edition, and the first work by Wordsworth, printed in America. It looks as if the Poet found appreciative readers in America sooner than in England; the first edition of “Lyrical Ballads,” which had fallen dead in his own country in 1798, being published in Philadelphia in 1802. The American edition was delayed in the press, in order to include certain pieces which first appeared in the second (English) edition of 1802. See Humphreys’ Preface.

A copy of “Lyrical Ballads,” 1802, is in the possession of Judge Henry Reed, with exactly the same title-page as the above, except that it reads—

“Printed by James Humphreys for Joseph Groff.”

It is believed that the work was printed at the joint expense of Humphreys and Groff, each bookseller taking a certain number of copies upon which was placed his individual imprint. Both book-sellers advertised the volumes almost simultaneously. I know of another copy of (1802) “Lyrical Ballads,” of which the first volume contains the imprint of Humphreys, and the second volume that of Groff. The two volumes are bound together, and are identical in type, paper, etc.

C. M. St. John.

[481] Amongst the contents there are four long extracts from The Excursion, with titles attributed to W.W. Goody Blake and Harry Gill is amongst the extracts from “Lyrical Ballads,” and there is a long note to the former poem by Joseph Dennie.

C. M. St. John.

[482] The first collected edition of Wordsworth’s Poems printed in America.

C. M. St. John.

[483] The sketch is by R. H. Home. The poems are The Last of the Flock, The Dungeon, The Mad Mother, Anecdote for Fathers, We are Seven, Lines Written in Early Spring, The Female Vagrant, Goody Blake and Harry Gill, The Waterfall and the Eglantine, The Oak and the Broom, Lucy Gray, Hart-Leap Well, Lucy, Nutling, Ruth.

C. M. St. John.

[484] Printed and published by Peck and Newton.

C. M. St. John.

[485] First double-column edition of the poems, adopted by Moxon in 1845 edition.

C. M. St. John.

[486] The Boxall portrait was engraved for the above. I could not find the 1844 imprint, but presume that it is the same as that of 1837 and 1839.

C. M. St. John.

[487] In an editorial of April 16 of “The New World” is the following: “We are enabled by the purchase of the printed sheets considerably in advance of their publication in England to present the first and only American Editions of new poems by William Wordsworth.”

C. M. St. John.

[488] This is spoken of in Ellis Yarnall’s Reminiscences as having no date. When John Locken—the first publisher—failed, the plates passed into the possession of Messrs. Uriah Hunt and Son. They retired from business, and Messrs. Leavitt and Co. took the plates. It is possible that there was an edition earlier than 1843.

C. M. St. John.

[489] The last two named are exactly as in 1843, except that they are printed on larger paper. Why one is put down 32mo and the other 24mo is a mystery!

C. M. St. John.

[490] If this edition was published, it seems to have disappeared. It is advertised in A. V. Blake’s American Booksellers’ Complete Trade List, published at Claremont, N.H., 1847.

C. M. St. John.

[491] Copyright in 1848. It contains about one-fifth of all Wordsworth’s poems. The Essay, which occupies ten pages, is taken “by permission” from Tuckerman’s Thoughts on Poets.

C. M. St. John.

[492] In connection with this edition, I can vouch for the five firms of Publishers in Philadelphia, but I cannot explain it.

C. M. St. John.

[493] “This edition contains some pieces omitted—inadvertently it is believed—from the latest London edition.” Additional poems have been introduced, and the arrangement changed since the 1839 edition.

C. M. St. John.

[494] This edition contains a remarkable “Sketch of Wordsworth’s Life,” by James Russell Lowell, which was afterwards embodied, with additions, in Among my Books. Mr. Ellis Yarnall believed that this edition was an English reprint. I doubt this from the fact that it is “Entered according to the Act of Congress in 1854,” and was “Printed at Cambridge by H.O. Houghton.”

C. M. St. John.

[495] This edition is mentioned in some lists, but I am inclined to doubt if it can be authenticated.

C. M. St. John.

[496] The size is given as 32mo. I have not seen the book.

C. M. St. John.

[497] Edited by Waldron J. Cheney, though not credited to him. C. M. St. John.

[498] No date is given to this edition. The firm-name and place of business according to the Boston Directory would limit the date of the title page at least to 1863-65. It is in the New Haven Library. Allibone notes a volume of “Selections,” Boston, 12mo, 1863, which may be this.

C. M. St. John.

[499] I have placed the two works together, as they are closely related, if not identical. The edition contains The Excursion and fifty-seven other poems.

C. M. St. John.

[500] From plates of the 1854 edition, with changes.

C. M. St. John.

[501] This excellent edition—as to selection, size, paper, binding, and illustrations—is the best handy edition of Wordsworth issued in America.

C. M. St. John.

[502] Eighty-eight of the sonnets are here illustrated with rare skill and artistic effect. The illustrations first appeared in wood-cuts in Harper’s Monthly Magazine.

C. M. St. John.

II
REPRINTS, AND BOOKS, BOTH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN

A Bibliography of Wordsworth in America is not complete without some reference to the many editions of Wordsworth, and of works pertaining to him, which have—for the most part—appeared simultaneously in England and America. These works cannot properly be termed American, but they have been welcomed, and they have also supplied a want, on this side of the Atlantic. The editions are confined, for the most part, to the last twenty years. I have endeavoured to select those which are of most value.

C. M. St. John.

1

1859. Wordsworth’s Pastoral Poems. Illustrated. New York: D. Appleton and Co. 12mo.

1875. Same Title. New York: Putnam. 12mo.

2

1859. Poems by William Wordsworth. Selected and Edited by Robert Aris Willmott. Illustrated with 100 Designs by Birket Foster and others. London and New York: George Routledge and Co. 4to.

1870. The above republished.

3

1869. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Globe Edition. Square 12mo. Philadelphia: Lippincott and Co.

4

1874. Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland. By Dorothy Wordsworth. Edited by J. C. Shairp. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. (Printed at the Edinburgh University Press.) 12mo.

5

1880. Wordsworth’s Poems. Chosen and Edited by Matthew Arnold. Large Paper Edition. London and New York: Macmillan and Co. 8vo.

1892. Same Title. With Steel Portrait. Printed on India paper. London and New York: Macmillan and Co. 8vo.

6

1881. William Wordsworth: a Biography with Selections from Prose and Poetry. By A. J. Symington. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 2 vols. 16mo.

7

1885. Ode on Immortality and Lines on Tintern Abbey. London and New York: Cassell and Co. 12mo. (Popular Illustrated Series.)

8

1886. Pastoral Poems. London and New York: Cassell and Co. 4to.

9

1887. Memorials of Coleorton. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by William Knight. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 12mo. (Printed at the Edinburgh University Press.)

10

1887. Through the Wordsworth Country. By William Knight. London and New York: Scribner and Welford. Engraving. 8vo.

11

1888. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. With an Introduction by John Morley. London and New York: Macmillan and Co. Crown 8vo.

12

1888. The Recluse. London and New York: Macmillan and Co. 16mo.

13

1889. Wordsworthiana. Edited by William Knight. London and New York: Macmillan and Co. 16mo.

14

1889. Poetical Works, with Memoir. Illustrated. 8 vols. New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son. 16mo. (Printed at the University Press, Glasgow.)

15

1889. Selections from Wordsworth. By William Knight, and other Members of the Wordsworth Society. With Preface and Notes. New York: Scribner and Welford. 8vo.

16

1889. Wordsworth’s Poetical Works. Edited by William Knight. New York: Macmillan and Co. 8 vols. 8vo. (First published in Edinburgh 1882-89.)

17

1889. Life of William Wordsworth. By William Knight. New York (and London): Macmillan and Co. 3 vols. 8vo. (First published in Edinburgh, in 1889.)

18

1891. William Wordsworth. By Elizabeth Wordsworth. New York: Scribner. 18mo. (Also London: Percival and Co.)

19

1889. Early Poems by William Wordsworth. Edited by J. R. Tutin. London, etc., and New York: George Routledge and Sons. (Routledge’s Pocket Library.)

20

1890. Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s Home from 1800 to 1808. By Stopford A. Brooke. Small paper. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.

21

1891. Wordsworth’s The White Doe of Rylstone, etc. Edited with Introduction and Notes by William Knight. (Clarendon Press Series.) London and New York: Macmillan and Co.

22

1892. Wordsworth’s Lyrics and Sonnets. Selected and Edited by C. K. Shorter. London: David Stott. New York: Macmillan and Co. 32mo.

23

1892. Wordsworth’s Poetical Works. Edited with Memoir by E. Dowden. 7 vols. 16mo. London: George Bell and Sons. New York: 112 Fourth Avenue.

24

Gleanings from Wordsworth. Edited by J. Robertson. Vest-pocket Edition. New York: White, Stokes and Allen. (Printed at the University Press, Glasgow.)

25

We are Seven. By William Wordsworth.[503] With Drawings by Mary L. Grow. Small 4to. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co.

26

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. With Biographical Sketch and Notes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., “Riverside Literature Series,” No. 76. March 1895.

[503] This was lithographed and printed by Ernest Nister at Nuremberg.

C. M. St. John.

III
BOOKS CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, AND CRITICAL ESSAYS

The Writers are arranged in Alphabetical Order

1

1867. Alger, W. R. The Genius of Solitude. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 16mo. Wordsworth, p. 277.

2

1859-71. Allibone, S. A. Critical Dictionary of English Literature, and British and American Authors. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 3 vols. Imperial 8vo. Wordsworth, vol. iii. pp. 2843-2849.

3

1884. Burroughs, J. “Fresh Fields.” Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 16mo. In the Wordsworth Country, p. 161.[504]

4

1878. Calvert, G. H. Wordsworth; A Biographic, Aesthetic Study. Boston: Lee-Sheperd. 16mo.

5

1863. Calvert, G. H. Scenes and Thoughts in Europe. Boston: 16mo.[505]

6

1873. Channing, W. Ellery. Address before the Mercantile Library Company of Philadelphia, May 11, 1841. Also in his “Complete Works.” Boston.[506]

7

1895. Cheney, John Vance. Thoughts on Poetry and the Poets. Chicago. Chapter X. is on Wordsworth.

8

1879. Deshler, C. D. Afternoons with the Poets. New York: Harper and Brothers. 12mo. Wordsworth.

9

1871. Fields, J. T. Yesterdays with Authors. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.; also,

1889. Wordsworth, A Sketch, p. 253.

10

1838. Frost, John. Select Works of the British Poets, with Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: Thomas Wardle. Wordsworth.

11

1849. Graham, G. F. English Synonyms. New York: D. Appleton and Co. Edited with an Introduction and Illustrative Authorities. By Henry Reed.[507]

12

1854. Giles, H. T. Illustrations of Genius. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 16mo. William Wordsworth, pp. 239-266.

13

1886. Griswold, H. T. Home Life of Great Authors. Chicago. 18mo. William Wordsworth, p. 43.

14

1849. Griswold, R. W. Sacred Poets of England and America. New York. Wordsworth.

15

1842. Griswold, R. W. Poets and Poetry of England. Philadelphia: Carey and Hunt. A Review and Selections.

16

Hodgkins, Louise M. Guide to Nineteenth Century Authors. Boston. Wordsworth Bibliography.

17

1884. Hudson, H. N. Studies in Wordsworth. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.[508]

18

1886. Johnson, C. F. Three Americans and Three Englishmen. New York. Wordsworth.

19

1864. Lowell, J. R. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 4 vols. Vol. 1.—A Sketch of Wordsworth’s Life.

20

1876. Lowell, J. R. Among my Books. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Wordsworth,[509] pp. 201-251.

21

1887. Lowell, J. R. Democracy and other Addresses. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Wordsworth,[510] 22 pp.

22

1885. Mason, E. T. Personal Traits of British Authors. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. William Wordsworth, pp. 7-55.

What follows is due to American Enterprise, but it is, of course, not strictly American.

C. M. St. John.

23

1883. Macdonald, George. The Imagination and other Essays (“Wordsworth’s Poetry,” pp. 245-263). Boston: D. Lothrop and Co.

24

1881. Myers, F. W. H. William Wordsworth. (“English Men of Letters Series.”) New York: Harper and Brothers. 12mo.

1884. Same Title. New York: J. W. Lovell. 12mo.

1889. Same Title. New York. Harper and Brothers.

25

1838. Osborn, Laughton. The Vision of Rubeta.[511] Boston: Weeks, Jordan and Co. 8vo.

26

1846. Ossoli, Margaret Fuller. Art, Literature, and the Drama. Boston. Wordsworth.[512]

27

1885. Phillips, Maud Gillette. A Popular Manual of English Literature. New York: Harper and Brothers. Vol. ii. pp. 217-264.

28

1851. Reed, Henry. Memoirs of Wordsworth. By C. Wordsworth. Edited by Henry Reed. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields.[513]

29

1857. Reed, Henry. Lectures on the British Poets. In two vols. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen and Haffelfinger. Vol. ii. pp. 199-231. Lecture XV.—Wordsworth.

30

1870. Reed, Henry. Lectures on the British Poets. Philadelphia: Claxton, Reinsen and Haffelfinger. Essay on the English Sonnet, vol. ii. pp. 235-272.[514]

31

1887. Saunders, Frederick. Story of some Famous Books. New York: Armstrong and Son. William Wordsworth, p. 125.

32

Saunders, Frederick. Evenings with Sacred Poets. New York: Randolph and Co. Wordsworth.[515]

33

1894. Scudder, Horace E. Childhood in Literature and Art. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. In the chapter entitled “In English Literature and Art,” Wordsworth is dealt with (chap. vi. pp. 145-157).[516]

34

1895. Scudder, Vidad. The Life of the Spirit in Modern English Poets. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Crown 8vo.

35

1892. Stedman, C. E. Nature and Elements of Poetry. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.[517]

36

1846. Tuckerman, H. T. Thoughts on the Poets. New York. Genius and Writings of Wordsworth.

37

1882. Welsh, A. H. Development of English Literature and Language. Chicago. Wordsworth, vol. ii. pp. 330-339.

38

1850. Whipple, E. P. Essays and Reviews. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Wordsworth, vol. i. p. 222.[518]

39

1871. Whipple, E. P. Literature and Life. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Wordsworth, p. 253.[519]

40

1854. Willis, N. P. Famous Persons and Places. New York: Charles Scribner.[520]

[504] A reprint of the article was published in The Century Magazine, 1884.

C. M. St. John.

[505] Not of much importance—the author praises Wordsworth and criticises Jeffrey.

C. M. St. John.

[506] About the same in the “Address” as in the “Complete Works.”

C. M. St. John.

[507] Contains four hundred quotations from Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[508] Contains 258 pages on Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[509] The same as above with some corrections, and twenty-three new pages added.

C. M. St. John.

[510] The above was first given as an address to “The Wordsworth Society,” 1884, and appeared in Wordsworthiana in 1889.

C. M. St. John.

[511] In the Appendix are about twenty pages containing a ferocious criticism on “Wordsworth, his Poetry and his Misrepresentations.”

C. M. St. John.

[512] In the Memoirs of M. F. Ossoli (Boston, vol. iii. p. 84) there is a short reference to Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[513] Introduction and Editorial Notes by H. R., interesting and valuable.

C. M. St. John.

[514] In the Lecture on the Sonnet, there are interesting allusions to Wordsworth’s Sonnets.

C. M. St. John.

[515] This book and the previous one have about half a dozen pages each on Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[516] The substance of this chapter on Wordsworth as a revealer of Childhood, first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, October 1885.

C. M. St. John.

[517] In this volume there are many references to Wordsworth of interest—especially at pp. 202, 206, 210 and 263—on Subjective Interpretation, The Pathetic Fallacy, etc.

C. M. St. John.

[518] This essay was also published in The Complete Poetical Works. Philadelphia: James Kay jun. and Brothers, 1837. Also in The North American Review, 1844.

C. M. St. John.

[519] The above appeared first in The North American Review. It was “written when the news came of Wordsworth’s death.” It is not given elsewhere in this list.

C. M. St. John.

[520] Letter V. contains some characteristic remarks on Wordsworth by “Christopher North,” who gave Willis a note of introduction to Wordsworth and Southey. Willis did not write about Wordsworth in this book. As it is inserted in some of the lists, I include it, with this explanation.

C. M. St. John.

IV
REVIEW AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES ON WORDSWORTH PUBLISHED IN AMERICA

From 1801 to 1840

In examining American Reviews and Magazines, for articles on Wordsworth, I find—after much laborious search—only some insignificant notices of his poems, of no critical or literary merit.

I have carefully read each article which appears in this list, and I add brief explanatory notes, indicative of the general tenor of the articles. It was disheartening to find that many of the references to Wordsworth, in Poole’s elaborate Index to Periodical Literature, were inaccurate and misleading; and that nearly all the articles on Wordsworth published in Harper’s Monthly Magazine for 1850 were “conveyed” from contemporary English journals.

1

1801. The Port Folio. Vol. i.

Memoranda regarding the first publication of “Lyrical Ballads” in America.

1801. December, p. 407. The Original Prospectus of “Lyrical Ballads.”[521] (James Humphreys publisher.)

1801. P. 408.[522]

1802. Vol. ii. p. 62.[523]

1803. Vol. iii. p. 288.[524]

1803. P. 320. Note on the poem beginning,

“A whirl-blast from behind the hill.”

1804. Vol. iv. p. 87. Announcement that the editor wishes to obtain a copy of Descriptive Sketches (1798) from some publisher or reader.

1804. P. 96.[525]

2

1802. The Philadelphia Gazette and Daily Advertiser. (Published by Samuel Relf.) Friday, Jan. 15, “Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads.” (The publisher’s advertisement of the First American Edition.)

3

1819. Dana, R. H.[526] North American Review. Vol. xxiii. p. 276. In review of Hazlitt’s English Poets.

4

1824. North American Review. Vol. xviii. p. 356.[527]

5

1824. United States Literary Gazette. Vol. i. p. 245.[528]

6

1825. The Atlantic Magazine, vol. ii. pp. 334-348.

7

1827. Christian Monthly Spectator. Vol. ix. p. 244. (A short article on Wordsworth.)

8

1832. Prescott, W. H. North American Review. Vol. xxxv. pp. 171, 173-176. (In a “Review of English Literature of Nineteenth Century,” is an important reference to Wordsworth.)

9

1836. Edwards, B. B. American Biblical Repository. Vol. vii. pp. 187-204.[529]

10

1836. American Quarterly Review. Vol. xix. p. 66.[530]

11

1836. American Quarterly Review. Vol. xix. pp. 420-442.[531]

12

1836. Felton, C. C. The Christian Examiner. Vol. xix. p. 375.[532]

13

1836. Porter, Noah. Christian Quarterly Spectator.[533] Vol. viii. pp. 127-151.

14

Christian Monthly Spectator. Vol xviii. p. 1.[534]

15

1837. “Waldie’s” Octavo Library. (Edited by John J. Smith.)[535]

16

1837. “Waldie’s” Octavo Library. March 21.[536]

17

1837. Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. iii. p. 705. “By a Virginian.”[537]

18

1837. Whipple, E. P. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth[538] (1837).

19

1839. New York Review. Vol. iv. pp. 1-71.[539]

20

1839. American Biblical Repository.[540] Vol. i. pp. 206-239. (Second edition.)

21

1839. Boston Quarterly Review. Vol. ii. pp. 137-169. (A review of “Wordsworth’s Poetical Works,” London, 1832.)

22

1839. American Methodist Review.[541] Vol. xxi. p. 449.

[521] An enthusiastic announcement.

C. M. St. John.

[522] An appreciatory and critical Introductory Note to The Waterfall and the Eglantine.

C. M. St. John.

[523] Editorial reporting the increasing popularity of “Lyrical Ballads,” and further commendation of the poems.

C. M. St. John.

[524] Note on The Fountain.

C. M. St. John.

[525] An editorial announcement that “Lyrical Ballads” had reached a third edition, and containing one of the most ardent tributes to Wordsworth in the language.

C. M. St. John.

[526] Not long, but of much interest.

C. M. St. John.

[527] An unsigned and excellent review of the 1824 (Boston) edition of the poems. The writer remarks that not a volume of Wordsworth’s poems has been published in America since 1802. Attributed to F.W.P. Greenwood.

C. M. St. John.

[528] Anonymous review of the 1824 (Boston) edition of the poems. One of the very best.

C. M. St. John.

[529] Sectarian in spirit, but on the whole fair to Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[530] Anonymous. A well-written article of about twenty-four pages, reviewing Yarrow Revisited. It was one of the earliest reviews in an American journal that claimed for Wordsworth a high order of genius. It was probably written by Robert Walsh, the editor of the Review.

C. M. St. John.

[531] An article on Wordsworth’s sonnets on Capital Punishment, in an article on “The English Sonnet.” Judge Henry Reed found this to have been written by his father, Professor Henry Reed.

C. M. St. John.

[532] An appreciative criticism of eight pages.

C. M. St. John.

[533] Entitled “Wordsworth and his Poetry.” A review of the 1824 edition and of Yarrow Revisited, Boston, 1835. An estimate of Wordsworth’s claims as a poet, and as a man. A more comprehensive, stronger, more inviting criticism (in appealing to those to whom the poetry is unknown) has not been written. It ranks, in my opinion, among the best criticisms on Wordsworth written in America.

C. M. St. John.

[534] H. Tuckerman wrote an article on Wordsworth for his magazine. This may be the article.

C. M. St. John.

[535] The number for 7th March contains a notice of Wordsworth, in a review of Reed’s Complete Poetical Works of Wordsworth (1837).

C. M. St. John.

[536] Another mention of Reed’s edition, and of the discovery that “a fellow-townsman,” Dr. T. C. James, anticipated the fact of Wordsworth’s popularity. A quotation from “Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania” to prove Dr. James’ prophecy.

C. M. St. John.

[537] Writer unknown.

C. M. St. John.

[538] To class this review with others of an early date, I have placed it among Periodical Reviews. It appeared in The North American Review, 1844; and again, in 1850, in Essays and Reviews.

C. M. St. John.

[539] A review of Reed’s 1837 edition of “Wordsworth’s Poetical Works.” Professor Henry Reed’s son—Judge Henry Reed of Philadelphia—informs me that it was written by his father.

C. M. St. John.

[540] This article is entitled “Modern English Poetry—Byron, Shelley, and Wordsworth.”

C. M. St. John.

[541] By an unknown author.

C. M. St. John.

V
CRITICISMS AND REVIEWS IN PERIODICALS FROM 1840 TO 1870

Arranged as far as possible according to merit. It is difficult to distinguish between the first twelve or fifteen. After them I have placed the articles in the Literary World. Most of them have not been noted in other lists, and are especially interesting, as being additional tributes of Wordsworth’s intimate friend, Henry Reed. I am indebted to Judge Henry Reed of Philadelphia, for more carefully examining his father’s papers, and to the Literary World for ascertaining, as far as possible, all that his father wrote on Wordsworth. The criticisms that immediately follow are not without interest. The last half dozen are given, for the most part, because they appear in Poole’s Index, or in other lists. I have omitted two or three which are of no value whatever.

C. M. St. John.

1

1844. Whipple, E. P. North American Review.[542] Vol. lix. pp. 352-384.

2

1857. Haven, Gilbert. Methodist Quarterly Review. Vol. xxxix. p. 362.[543]

3

1851. Passmore, J. C. The Church Review. Vol. iv. pp. 169-188.[544]

4

1866. Alger, W. R. Monthly Religious Magazine. Vol. xxxvi. p. 294.

5

1850. Muzzey, A. B. The Christian Examiner. Vol. xlix. p. 100. (The title of this article is “Wordsworth, the Christian Poet.”)

6

1851. Goodwin, H. M. The New Englander. Vol. xlvii. p. 309. (Title, “Wordsworth as a Spiritual Teacher.”)

7

1851. North American Review. Vol. lxxiii. p. 473.[545]

8

1851. Mountford, W. The Christian Examiner. Vol. li. p. 275.[546]

9

1851. Porter, Noah. The New Englander Magazine. Vol. ix. p. 583.[547]

10

1851. Wight, Orlando Williams. American Whig Review. Vol. xiv. pp. 68-81.[548]

11

1851. Wight, Orlando Williams. American Whig Review. Vol. xiii. pp. 448-458.[549]

12

1854. Presbyterian Quarterly Review. Vol. ii. pp. 643-663.[550] Article 1.

13

1854. Presbyterian Quarterly Review. Vol. iii. pp. 69-88.[551] Article 2.

14

1841. Tuckerman, H. Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. vii. p. 105.

15

1850. Literary World. Vol. vi. p. 485. “William Wordsworth.”[552]

16

1850. Reed, Henry. Literary World. Vol. vi. pp. 581, 582. On Wordsworth.

17

1850. Reed, Henry. Literary World. Vol. vii. pp. 205, 206. A second short article.

18

1850. Literary World. “The Prelude.” Vol. vii. p. 167.[553]

19

1850. Literary World. “Visit to Wordsworth’s Grave.” Vol. vii. p. 225.[554]

20

1850. Spencer, J. A. Literary World. “Visit to Wordsworth.” November 23.[555]

21

1851. Literary World. Vols. viii. ix. (May 24, June 14, July 12, August 2.)[556] Reviews of Christopher Wordsworth’s Memoirs of his uncle.

22

1853. Reed, Henry. Literary World. Vol. xii. June 25.[557]

23

1850. Southern Quarterly Review. Vol. xviii. p. 1. Review of the Poetical Works of Wordsworth. London: Moxon, 1845.

24

1856. United States Democratic Review. Vol. vi. pp. 281-295. (New Series.) Article 1. “Of Wordsworth’s life, beginning at Bristol.”

25

1856. United States Democratic Review. Vol. vi. p. 363. (New Series.) Article 2.

26

1850. Graham Magazine. Vol. i. pp. 105-116. Supposed to be written by Charles J. Peterson. (Signed P.) Review of the life and poetry of Wordsworth, written by one who confessed to an admiration for Wordsworth’s genius bordering on veneration.

C. M. St. John.

27

1878. American Journal of Education. Wordsworth and Cambridge. Vol. xxviii. p. 426.[558]

28

1843. United States Democratic Review. Vol. xii. p. 158.[559]

29

1836-63. Christian Review. Vol. xvi. p. 434. “Wordsworth as a Religious Poet.”

30

1844. Cuyler, T. L. Godey’s Lady’s Book. Vol. xxviii. (January). “On the English Lakes and Wordsworth.”

31

1850. International Magazine. Vol. i. p. 271. “A Review of The Prelude, from The Examiner.”

32

1855. Brownson’s Quarterly Review. Vol. xii. p. 525. “Wordsworth’s Poetical Works.”

33

1850. Graham Magazine. Vol. i. pp. 322, 323.[560]

34

1842. United States Democratic Review. Vol. x. pp. 272-288. (New Series.)[561]

35

1865. North American Review. Vol. c. p. 508. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.

36

1850. Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. xvi. p. 474.[562]

37

1851. Harper’s Monthly Magazine. Vol. iii. p. 502.[563]

38

1845. Bowen, F. North American Review. Vol. lxi. p. 217.[564]

39

1863. Alger, W. R. North American Review. Vol. xcvi. p. 141.[565]

40

1850. Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. xvi. p. 637.[566]

41

1863. Ward, J. H. North American Review. Vol. xcvii. p. 387.

42

1853. The National Magazine. Vol. iii. No. 7, “An Estimate of Wordsworth.”

43

1853. The Christian Observer. Vol. 1. pp. 307-381.[567]

44

1858. “The Genius of Wordsworth,” in the “Editor’s Table” of Russell’s Magazine. Charleston, S.E. Vol. iii. pp. 271-274.

[542] A review of the 1837 edition of Wordsworth’s poems. Perhaps no abler or more comprehensive review of Wordsworth’s life and writings has been written than this, by America’s foremost critic.

C. M. St. John.

[543] One of the best of the early American criticisms.

C. M. St. John.

[544] A review of the 1851 edition. Contains an earnest plea for the study of Wordsworth’s poetry in America. One of the noblest criticisms written.

C. M. St. John.

[545] On the “Life and Poetry of Wordsworth.” A review of The Prelude. Unsigned; but the name is given elsewhere, as T. Chase.

C. M. St. John.

[546] A review of the Memoirs of Wordsworth, by his nephew, the Bishop of Lincoln.

C. M. St. John.

[547] A review of Professor Reed’s edition of the Memoirs of Wordsworth, Boston, 1851.

C. M. St. John.

[548] A review of the Memoirs, signed O. W.W.

C. M. St. John.

[549] A review of The Prelude.

C. M. St. John.

[550] Anonymous. A short review of The Prelude, and, at greater length, of The Life (edited by Reed). An estimate of his work and influence.

C. M. St. John.

[551] Traces the literary life of the poet. Claims for Wordsworth the precedence to Coleridge in the utterance of a spiritual Philosophy.

C. M. St. John.

[552] A notice of Wordsworth’s death, unsigned; but Mr. Wilberforce Eames—of the Lenox Library—informs me, that their library now owns Mr. Evert A. Duyckinck’s copy of the Literary World, and that gentleman’s own initials are appended in pencil to this article. Mr. Duyckinck was editor of the Literary World.

C. M. St. John.

[553] Judge Reed, Professor Henry Reed’s son, does not attribute this article to his father. There is an impression that Professor Reed published an article on The Prelude. His lecture on that poem was never published.

C. M. St. John.

[554] Signed by R. F. Correspondence, London Literary Gazette, August 31.

C. M. St. John.

[555] Possibly the same as in that scarce number of the Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. xvi. p. 474.

C. M. St. John.

[556] These articles, in the opinion of Judge Henry Reed, are not by his father, Professor Henry Reed.

C. M. St. John.

[557] Notice to those who wish to subscribe to the Memorial to Wordsworth, signed.

C. M. St. John.

[558] An article on the University of Cambridge, and an account of Wordsworth’s residence at St. John’s College, 1787-1791.

C. M. St. John.

[559] Six pages on Wordsworth’s Sonnet to Liberty.

C. M. St. John.

[560] A brief review of The Prelude and Excursion, and a comparison between the two poems.

C. M. St. John.

[561] On Wordsworth’s sonnets in favour of Capital Punishment.

C. M. St. John.

[562] On the house at Rydal.

C. M. St. John.

[563] An unsigned, four paged article on Wordsworth, Byron Scott, and Shelley.

C. M. St. John.

[564] In a “Review of Longfellow’s Poets and Poetry of Europe,” a page on Wordsworth’s influence.

C. M. St. John.

[565] In “The Origin and Uses of Poetry,” a few lines on Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[566] A notice, with extracts from The Prelude.

C. M. St. John.

[567] “The Religion of Wordsworth’s Poetry.”

C. M. St. John.

VI
CRITICISMS AND REVIEWS IN PERIODICALS FROM 1870 TO 1895

These are not chronologically arranged by Mrs. St. John, but see her note to Section V.—Ed.

1

1882. Dewitt, Dr. John. Presbyterian Review. Vol. iii. p. 241.[568]

2

1884. Burroughs, John. The Century Magazine. Vol. v. p. 418. This is entitled “Wordsworth’s Country.”

3

1880. Cranch, C. P. The Atlantic Monthly. Vol. xlv. p. 241. Entitled “Wordsworth.” A review of the 1880 Poetical Works (Boston). The writer notes what he considers the chief excellency as well as defects of Wordsworth’s poetry.

4

1888. Murray, J. O. The Homiletic Review. Vol. xvi. pp. 295-304. Title, “The Study of Wordsworth’s Poetry.”

5

1890. Pattison, T. H. The Baptist Review. Vol. xii. p. 265. “The Religious Influence of Wordsworth.”

6

1889. Hutton, Lawrence. Harper’s Monthly Magazine. Vol. lxxviii.[569] (in Literary Notes).

7

1880-1. Conway, Moncure D. Harper’s Monthly Magazine. “The English Lakes and their Genii.” Vol. lxii. pp. 7, 161, 339.

8

1883. Pedder, H. C. The Manhattan. Vol. ii. pp. 418-433.[570]

9

1876. Yarnall, Ellis. Lippincott’s Magazine. Vol. xviii. pp. 543-554, 669-683. “Walks and Visits in Wordsworth’s Country.” Written in the summer of 1855 and 1857.

10

1871. Fields, J. T. The Atlantic Monthly. Vol. xxviii. p. 750. On Wordsworth, in an article entitled “Our Whispering Gallery.” The same article is cut down in Yesterdays with Authors.[571]

11

1892. Parsons, Eugene. The Examiner. Vol. lxx. p. 1. On “Tennyson and Wordsworth.”

12

1888. Williams, T. C. Andover Review. Vol. ix. p. 30.

13

1889. Noble, Fred Perry. The Homiletic Review. Vol. xviii. p. 306. “The Value of Wordsworth to the Preacher.”

14

1873. Himes, John A. Lutheran Quarterly Review. Vol. iii. p. 252. “The Religious Faith of Wordsworth and Tennyson as shown in their Poems.”

15

1881. Johnson, E. E. American Church Review. Vol. xxxiii. p. 139. “Influence of Wordsworth’s Poetry.”

16

1886. Coan, T. M. The New Princeton Review. Vol. i. pp. 297-319. “Wordsworth’s Passion.”

17

1889. Vedder, H. C. The New York Examiner, August 28. “The Decline of Wordsworth.”[572]

18

1877. Coan, T. M. The Galaxy. Vol. xxiii. pp. 322-336. “Wordsworth’s Corrections.”[573]

19

1881. Bowen, F. F. The Dial. Vol. i. p. 21. “A Review of Myers’ Wordsworth.”

20

1881. Gerhart, R. L. Reformed Quarterly Review. Vol. xxviii. p. 344. “Wordsworth and his Art.”

21

1887. Woodberry, G. E. The Nation. Vol. xlv. p. 487. “Wordsworth and the Beaumonts.”

22

1881. Brownell, W. C. The Nation. Vol. xxxii. p. 153. “Myers’ Account of Wordsworth.”

23

1872. Croffut, W. A. Lakeside Monthly. Vol. viii. pp. 418-425. “Wordsworth.”

24

1895. Thorpe, F. W. The Philadelphia Call. “The Home of Wordsworth.” Autobiographic and critical.

25

1879. Appleton’s Journal. Vol. xxii. p. 223. “How to Popularise Wordsworth.”

26

1874. De-Vere, A. The Catholic World. Vol. xix. p. 795. “Recollections of Wordsworth.”

27

1875. De-Vere, A. The Catholic World. Vol. xxii. p. 329.

28

1891. Page, H. A. The Century Magazine. No. 1. pp. 453-864. “Wordsworth and De Quincey. With hitherto unpublished letters.”[574]

29

1853. The National Magazine. Vol. iii. pp. 36-40.

30

1853. Brownson’s Quarterly Review. Vol. xii. 525.

31

1896. Theodore W. Hunt in Bibliotheca Sacra. No. 66. “William Wordsworth.”

32

1896. J. W. Bray. The Literary Democracy of Wordsworth in “Poet Love.” Vol. iii. No. 6.

[568] On “The Homiletic Value of Wordsworth’s Poetry.” One of the ablest papers ever written on Wordsworth. It contains the best reply to Matthew Arnold’s estimate of his poetry.

C. M. St. John.

[569] This is a review of Rolf’s Wordsworth’s Selected Poems. It contains one of the most appreciative tributes to Wordsworth’s influence which has appeared in America.

C. M. St. John.

[570] On “Wordsworth and the Modern Age.” Illustrated by W. St. J. Harper, and other artists. It deals with the especial need of Wordsworth’s “calming influence in the exacting competition for success,” and gives a comparison between Virgil and Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

[571] Of interest to Americans.

C. M. St. John.

[572] It aims to give some explanation of the lack of interest in Wordsworth’s poetry in later days.

C. M. St. John.

[573] An attempt, the writer says, to point out the corrections, leaving their interpretation to the reader.

C. M. St. John.

[574] Written by an Englishman, but published first in an American magazine.

C. M. St. John.

VII
VISITS TO WORDSWORTH BY EMINENT AMERICANS

The following books record visits made by eminent Americans to Wordsworth.

C. M. St. John.

1

1863. Hawthorne, N. Our Old Home, and English Note-Books. Vol. ii. pp. 24-56, etc.; also,

1883. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. “A Visit to Wordsworth.”

2

1856. Emerson, R. W. English Traits. Boston: James Munroe and Co. pp. 24-31; also,

1881. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Visit to Wordsworth, in chapter entitled “First Visit to England.”

3

1876. Ticknor, George. Life, Letters, and Journals. Boston: James R. Osgood and Co. 2 vols. Vol. i. pp. 287, 288, etc. Vol. ii. p. 167, etc.

4

1836. Dewey, Orville. The Old World and the New. Boston: 2 vols. pp. 89-96.

5

1884. Bryant, W. C. Prose Works. In a chapter on “Poets and Poetry of the English Language” (New York: D. Appleton and Co.) a few pages deal with Wordsworth.

VIII
A FEW POEMS ON WORDSWORTH

1

1846. Wallace, W. Poem on Wordsworth. New York: 12mo.

2

1850. Field, James T. Graham Magazine (October). “Wordsworth.”

3

1850. Alexander, W. Graham Magazine (November), p. 221. “Wordsworth. (A Sonnet.)”

4

1850. H. M. R. Harpers Magazine. “Sonnet on the Death of Wordsworth.” Vol. i. p. 218.

5

1850. E. A. W. Literary World. “Sonnet on Wordsworth.” Vol. vii. p. 255.

6

1874. Whittier, J. G. Whittier’s Works. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. “Poem on Wordsworth. Written on a blank leaf of Wordsworth’s Memoirs, 1851.” Vol. iv. p. 66.

7

1890. Scollard, Clinton (?) Northern Christian Advocate. “The Poet’s Seat. A Sonnet on Wordsworth. Written at Ambleside, 1890.”

8

1893. “To Wordsworth, after reading his XXX Ecclesiastical Sonnets” in The Echo and the Poet, by William Cushing Bamburgh. N. Y. 1893.

IX
UNPUBLISHED LECTURES ON WORDSWORTH

Essays of Special Interest

1

1892. Corson, Hiram. “The Divine Immanence in Nature, and the relationship of the human spirit thereto, as presented in Wordsworth’s Poetry.”

2

Winchester, C. T. “The Lake District and Wordsworth.”

3

Prentiss, George L. “Hurstmonceaux Rectory and Rydal Mount.” (Personal Recollections.)

4

Hoyt, A. S. “Wordsworth, the Man and the Poet.” (Imperfectly reported in The Houghton Record.)

III.—FRANCE

WORDSWORTH IN FRANCE

By Émile Legouis, Professeur à la Faculté de Lettres, Université de Lyon, France

I
BIBLIOGRAPHY

There is no separate or whole book on Wordsworth that I know of.

Articles in Magazines, or Chapters in Books

Voyage historique et littéraire en Angleterre et en Écosse, par Amédée Pichot (passim). 3 vols. in 8. Paris, 1829.[575] An English translation was published in London in 1825.

Revue Britannique.

Mai 1827. Wordsworth, Crabbe, and Campbell, pp. 61-79, a criticism translated from the New Monthly Magazine.

Février 1835. Poésie domestique de la grande Bretagne, translated from the New Monthly Magazine.

Janvier 1836, p. 190. Compte-rendu de “Yarrow Revisited and other Poems,” translated from the Repository of Knowledge.

Revue des Deux Mondes. 1er Août 1835. William Wordsworth, par A. Fontaney.[576]

Revue Contemporaine. 15 Décembre 1853. Poètes contemporains de l’Angleterre: William Wordsworth et John Wilson, par L. Étienne.

Littérature anglaise de H. Taine.[577] 1864. Vol. iv. pp. 311-324.

Études sur la Littérature contemporaine, par Éd. Schérer.[578]

Revue critique d’histoire et de littérature. 16 Janvier 1882. Article de James Darmesteter sur la Biographie de Wordsworth, par Myers.[579]

Essais de Littérature anglaise, par James Darmesteter. Paris, 1883.[580]

Histoire de la Littérature anglaise, par M. Léon Boucher. Paris, 1890. pp. 355-363.

La Renaissance de la Poésie anglaise, par Gabriel Sarrazin. 1887.

Études et Portraits, par Paul Bourget. Vol. ii. Études anglaises.[581] 1888.

Étude sur la Vie et les Œuvres de Robert Burns, par Auguste Angellier. Paris, 1892. (Passim, et surtout vol. ii. pp. 362-393, Étude sur le sentiment de la nature dans Wordsworth et autres poètes anglais contemporains.)

Le général Michel Beaupuy, par Georges Bussière et Émile Legouis. Paris, 1891.

[575] Vol. ii. pp. 363-394.—Ed.

[576] This was signed Y, which was Fontaney’s pseudonym.—E.L.

[577] Wordsworth et la poésie moderne de l’Angleterre.—Histoire de la Littérature anglaise, par H. Taine.—Ed.

[578] Vol. vi. pp. 127, 128, and vol. vii. pp. 1-59.—Ed.

[579] pp. 227-236.—Ed.

[580] pp. 227-236.—Ed.

[581] Vol. ii. pp. 83; 126-134.—Ed.

II
TRANSLATIONS

Pas de traduction complète, ni de volume spécial de traductions de Wordsworth.

Une traduction par Fontaney annoncée en 1837 comme devant paraître dans le Bibliothèque anglo-française, n’a pas paru.

En dehors des poèmes ou parties de poèmes traduit par les critiques énumérés plus haut, il n’y a guère de traduction en prose de quelque importance.

Traductions en Vers

Madame Amable Tastu. We are Seven.

Sainte-Beuve. Joseph Delorme. 1829.

Consolations. 1830.

Pensées d’Août. Trois sonnets imités de Wordsworth.

Sainte-Beuve cite en outre dans ses Nouveaux Lundis des 21 et 22 Avril 1862, trois sonnets de Wordsworth traduits en vers, par l’Abbé Roussel. Ces traductions assez pauvres de poésie sont celles des sonnets suivants—

Jean Aicard a traduit We are Seven dans La Chanson de l’Enfant.

Paul Bourget (Études et Portraits, vol. ii. op. cit.) a traduit l’un des sonnets au Duddon.

“What aspect bore the Man …?”

III
INFLUENCE

Wordsworth’s influence on French literature was altogether very slight, nor did it make itself felt till about 1830; when, after a very limited period, it silently died away.

Wordsworth was but little known by his contemporary Châteaubriand, who merely names him among other poets in his Essai sur la Littérature anglaise. Byron, Walter Scott, and in a lesser degree Thomas Moore, were the only writers of Great Britain whose works told on our literature at that time. Villemain, in his criticism of Byron, contemptuously dismisses all the so-called lake-poets to fix on his hero. He calls them: “Des métaphysiciens, raisonneurs sans invention, mélancoliques sans passion, qui, dans l’éternelle rêverie d’une vie étroite et peu agitée, n’avaient produit que des singularités sans puissance sur l’imagination des autres hommes. Tel était Woodsworth (sic) et le subtil mais non touchant Coléridge.”

To Byron also, and to him alone (Ossian being excepted) among the poets of England, was Lamartine indebted. I am not sure that he names Wordsworth once; but still the striking analogy between the ideas and imaginative style of both cannot fail to be noticed by the reader. Without insisting on a parallel that might be drawn between many pages of The Excursion and of Jocelyn, I will only point out two short pieces of Lamartine that bear strong resemblance to two poems of Wordsworth, so much so that they almost read like free imitations—

LamartineWordsworth’s
“A Augusta,” Recueillements Poètiques, xx.Nightingale and Stock-dove.
“Le Fontaine du Foyard,” Nouvelles Confidences.The Fountain.

Victor Hugo, so far as I know, only names Wordsworth once, in L’Âne—

…Young le pleureur des nuits,

Wordsworth l’esprit des lacs …

M. Sully Prudhomme when he wrote A l’Hirondelle (stanzas, la vie intérieure) appears to have borne in mind To a Skylark, “Ethereal minstrel,” etc.

M. Coppée has often been called a French Wordsworth, owing to his poetical collection called Les Humbles, wherein he shows the same partiality as the English Poet does for humble themes and characters, together with a bold attempt to naturalise trivial or ludicrous details in serious poetry; but there is no proof, as far as I know, of Wordsworth’s influence having been strong upon him.

If we except two or three disciples of Wordsworth, neither he, nor the lake-poets taken as a whole, seem to have been much thought of, or even read, by our contemporary verse-writers. The word Lakist has generally been used as a synonym for “weak and doleful mysticism.” Ex.:—

(a) Revue Encyclopédique. 1831. Article de Pierre Leroux, sur la “Poésie de notre Époque.” “L’Angleterre a entendu autour de ses lacs bourdonner comme des ombres plaintives un essaim de poètes abîmés dans une mystique contemplation.”

(b) Journal d’un Poète, par Alfred de Vigny. (Ed. Michel Lévy. 1867. p. 80.) “Barbier vient de publier Il Pianto. Les délices de Capone ont amolli son caractère de poésie et Brizeux a déteint sur lui ses douces couleurs virgiliennes et laquistes (sic) dérivant de Sainte-Beuve.”

(c) Théophile Gautier (Portraits Contemporains, p. 174) almost seems to derive the word Lakiste from Lamartine’s poem called Le Lac. He has just mentioned the poem and goes on: “Il ne faut pas croire que Lamartine, parce qu’il y a toujours chez lui une vibration et une résonnance de harpe éolienne, ne soit qu’un mélodieux lakiste et ne sache que soupirer mollement la mélancolie et l’amour. S’il a le soupir, il a la parole et le cri …” (Journal Officiel, 8 Mars 1869.)

I now come to the man who, first and foremost among our poets and critics, paid due homage to Wordsworth, i.e. Sainte-Beuve. I have already enumerated his several translations in verse from Wordsworth. Strange to say, the voluminous critic has no single article with Wordsworth for its main subject; but, whoever will go through his many volumes will find many judicious and admiring references to the poet.

Moreover, as a poet, Sainte-Beuve has endeavoured to naturalise in France the poetic style that has been associated with the name of Wordsworth. He expressly claims Wordsworth as one of his masters in his Consolations xviii. “A Antony Deschamps.” Among his bosom-poets he reckons—

…Wordsworth peu connu, qui des lacs solitaires

Sait tòus les bleus reflets, les bruits et les mystères,

Et qui, depuis trente ans vivant au même lieu,

En contemplation devant le même Dieu,

A travers les soupirs de la mousse et de l’onde,

Distingue, au soir, des chants venus d’un meilleur monde.

The original attempt of Sainte-Beuve (for he was original in his very choice of Wordsworth as a model at a time when Byron engrossed all the admiration of the French poets) has been ably characterised by Théophile Gautier in his “Portraits Contemporains” (pp. 208, 209), an article reprinted from La Gazette de Paris, 19 Novembre 1871:—

“(Sainte-Beuve) avait été en poésie un inventeur. Il avait donné une note nouvelle et toute moderne, et de tout le cénacle c’était à coup sûr le plus réellement romantique. Dans cette humble poésie qui rappelle par la sincérité du sentiment et la minutie du détail observé sur nature, les vers de Crabbe, de Wordsworth, et de Cowper, Sainte-Beuve s’est frayé de petits sentiers à mi-côte, bordés d’humbles fleurettes, où nul en France n’a passé avant lui. Sa facture un peu laborieuse et compliquée vient de la difficulté de réduire à la forme métrique des idées et des images non exprimées encore ou dédaignées jusque-là, mais que de morceaux merveilleusement venus où l’effort n’est plus sensible!”

Sainte-Beuve’s admiration of Wordsworth is a well-known fact. Less generally known is the influence of this admiration on several poets of that time (circa 1830-40), who, either through Sainte-Beuve’s imitations, or with a direct knowledge of Wordsworth’s poems, to the reading of which they had thus been stimulated, offer great marks of resemblance with Wordsworth. I have quoted a judgment of De Vigny that considers Brizeux and Barbier as having turned laquistes through Sainte-Beuve. I know no other immediate proof of this influence. Perhaps Barbier and Brizeux have consigned it somewhere. Anyhow Brizeux with his glorification of his youthful years and school-time, with his intense love of his native Brittany, his fond attachment to local customs and habits, his lamentations on the death of the poetical poet as embodied in his own province (Élégie de la Bretagne), is to all extent and purposes the most thoroughly Wordsworthian of all our poets. There may be more of Wordsworth’s philosophy in Lamartine, but there is more of his poetry proper in Brizeux.

The influence of Wordsworth on Maurice de Guérin and Hippolyte de la Morvonnais, is more easily ascertained than the preceding. Here, again, Sainte-Beuve appears to have been the intermediate agent.[582]

In 1832-33 Maurice de Guérin, fresh from the reading of the Consolations, and De la Morvonnais, who came to be a direct admirer of the Lake Poets, and chiefly of Wordsworth, set to write short poems which they aspired to make as little different from prose as possible, rejecting all traditional ornaments, and making little of the rhythmical improvements of the Romantiques proper. Some of those pieces were inserted in a local paper as downright prose (no stop intervening at the end of the lines), whereas the said paper would not have made room for verse.[583] This looks like trifling, but the earnestness of this attempted revolution is shown in the interesting poems of Maurice de Guérin. Another outcome of this was an intended publication on Wordsworth, of which it is impossible to say whether it was to be a criticism, or a translation, of the English Poet. It is thus mentioned in a letter of Guérin to De la Morvonnais of June 30, 1836: “Nous avons adressé des circulaires à un grand nombre d’éditeurs pour l’impression Wordsworth. Nous attendons la réponse d’un moment à l’autre.” The answer must have been unfavourable, as nothing more was heard of the intended publication.

The early death of Guérin left it for De la Morvonnais alone to spread the influence of Wordsworth’s poetry in France. Of him we read in Sainte-Beuve’s Étude sur Maurice de Guérin:—

“La Morvonnais, vers ce temps même (1834), en était fort préoccupé (des lakistes et de leur poésie), au point d’aller visiter Wordsworth à sa résidence de Rydal Mount, près des lacs du Westmoreland, et de rester en correspondance avec ce grand et pacifique esprit, avec ce patriarche de la Muse intime. Guérin, sans tant y songer, ressemblait mieux aux Lakistes en ne visant nullement à les imiter.”

Of the supposed correspondence between Wordsworth and De la Morvonnais no trace remains. M. Hippolyte de la Blanchardière, De la Morvonnais’ grandson, has informed me that in the collection of his grandfather’s letters there is no letter of Wordsworth to be found. That at least a Study of Wordsworth existed at the time is proved by the following preface to his poem La Thébaïde des Grèves, written by his friend A. Duquesnel (ed. by Didier, Quai des Augustins. 1864. p. xxvii.)

“Nous avons trouvé dans les Reliquiae du poète de l’Arguenon[584] de précieuses études sur les lakistes. Il s’était passionné pour ces hommes dans les dix dernières années de sa vie (1843-53).[585] Wordsworth lui semblait plus grand que Byron, qu’il trouvait trop emphatique, trop solennel, pas assez près de la nature. L’auteur de l’Excursion a exercé une pénétrante influence sur l’esprit et le cœur de la Morvonnais, nous trouvons dans ses cahiers des traductions en vers de Wordsworth, de Coléridge, de Crabbe, qui, lui, ne faisait pas partie de ce groupe. Nous les publierons peut-être un jour; elles ont d’autant plus d’intérêt que l’on ne connaît guère les lakistes en France, que par de rares extraits. Il s’était livré, comme on le verra, à une étude approfondie de la littérature anglaise. Son admiration pour Walter Scott était inexprimable.”

The study and translations above-mentioned have also been lost, many manuscripts of De la Morvonnais having been destroyed.

It remains for me to point out some allusions to, or imitations of, Wordsworth in the existing verse of De la Morvonnais.

In the Thébaïde des Grèves (1838), “Le Petit Patour” is a close imitation of We are Seven, the conclusion being—

Cet enfant en sait plus que moi sur l’existence;

Savoir vivre est savoir souffrir avec constance.

“Le Vagabond,” a story of a vagrant by whom the poet is taught resignation, is an imitation of Resolution and Independence.

In “A Sainte-Beuve” are found these two lines—

J’ai posé sous mon bras mon penseur solitaire,

Mon Wordsworth tant aimé de l’amant du mystère.

In “Dispersion, à Mistress Hemans,” etc., we read this—

Nous primes un poète, une femme angélique

Dont peu savent chez nous la voix mélancolique,

Disciple de Wordsworth, le sublime penseur,

Des lakistes chéris je la nomme la sœur.

In “Dernières Paroles” we find this praise of Wordsworth—

Or, ce soir-là, je lus un homme de génie;

Celui dont la mystique et profonde harmonie

Sonne pour les élus des poétiques dons,

Et soulève notre âme en ses grands abandons …

…Oh! ne pourrai-je voir

Ces lacs du Westmoreland, mon désir, mon espoir?

…

Cet homme est honoré des puissances secrètes;

Lui mort, à ses beaux lacs, romantiques retraites,

Des pèlerins viendront, penseurs religieux.

Le monde méconnut l’homme mélodieux.

I pass over many sonnets, and divers other poems, in which the influence of Wordsworth is unmistakable, and come to a last quotation which is useful to elucidate an allusion in Wordsworth’s The Poet’s Dream: Sequel to the Norman Boy. In this poem, written in 1842, Wordsworth says—

But oh! that Country-man of thine, whose eye, loved Child, can see

A pledge of endless bliss in acts of early piety,

In verse, which to thy ear might come, would treat this simple theme,

Nor leave untold our happy flight in that adventurous dream.

As Wordsworth read very little French poetry in his old age, I think he here alludes to a poem of his admirer De la Morvonnais, who very likely sent him that Thébaïde des Grèves (1838), in which Wordsworth was so highly praised. The passage alluded to is taken from “Solitude,” and reads thus—

Enfant, Il (Dieu) te promet le domaine de l’ange

Si tu gardes l’amour et la foi des aïeux,

Et sa mère, aujourd’hui loin de l’humaine fange,

Que tu n’as pas connue et qui t’attend aux cieux.

As a whole, De la Morvonnais, though he imitates Wordsworth, is very unlike him. Of course I do not mean to compare the two, but even in like subjects he differs from Wordsworth, owing to a sort of constitutional nervousness and brooding melancholy.[586]

[582] Voir Maurice de Guérin, Journal, Lettres et Poèmes, publiés par J. S. Trébutien avec Préface de Sainte-Beuve (1860).—E.L.

[583] In the above work—Séjour de M. de Guérin en Bretagne; Impressions et Souvenirs de M. François du Breil de Marzan, pp. 434-441.—E.L.

[584] H. de la Morvonnais.—E.L.

[585] A mistake: his admiration of Wordsworth began before 1832.—E.L.

[586] In Voyage historique et littéraire en Angleterre et en Écosse, par Amédée Puchot, Lettre XXIV. there are numerous references to Wordsworth. It begins with a quotation from Tintern Abbey. In Lettre LXV. there is additional critical reference to Wordsworth and Coleridge. In the Album poétique des jeunes personnes, par Mme. Tastu, there is a “Sonnet imité de Wordsworth,” by St. Beuve, pp. 101, 102.

C’est un beau soir, un soir paisible et solennel,

A la fin du saint jour la nature en prière

Le tait, comme Marie à genoux sur la pierre, etc.—Ed.

See also the Nouveaux Lundis of St. Beuve, 21 and 22 Avril 1862, where there are “trois sonnets traduits en vers par l’Abbé Roussel” from Wordsworth.