The course with the translator was, no doubt, this: he first printed his book as the stanza appears under the pasted slip; this version he saw reason to dislike, and then he had the slip printed with the variation, and pasted over some copies not yet issued. Again he was dissatisfied, and thinking he could improve, not only upon the first stanza, but upon "The Argument" by which it was preceded, he procured the two pages to be reprinted. It is, however, by no means clear to me that, after all, Fairfax liked his third experiment better than his two others: had he liked it better, we should, most probably, have found it in more copies than the single one I have pointed out.
As your readers and contributors may wish to see "The Argument" and first stanza as they are given in Mr. Wordsworth's exemplar, I transcribe them from my note-book, because, before I gave the book away, I took care to copy them exactly:—
THE ARGUMENT.
"God sends his angell to Tortosa downe:
Godfrey to counsell cals the Christian Peeres,
Where all the Lords and Princes of renowne
Chuse him their general: he straight appeeres
Mustring his royall hoast, and in that stowne
Sends them to Sion, and their hearts upcheeres.
The aged tyrant, Judaies land that guides,