Margaret, or the Ruined Cottage
, as the title of a poem written in 1795-7, when Wordsworth never once published it under that name? It was an extract from the first book of
The Excursion
—written, it is true, in these early years,—but only issued as part of the latter poem, first published in 1814.
The question of the number, the character, and the length of the Notes, which a wise editor should append to the works of a great poet, (or to any classic), is perhaps still
sub judice
. My own opinion is that, in all editorial work, the notes should be illustrative rather than critical; and that they should only bring out those points, which the ordinary reader of the text would not readily understand, if the poems were not annotated. For this reason, topographical, historical, and antiquarian notes are almost essential. The Notes which Wordsworth himself wrote to his Poems, are of unequal length and merit. It was perhaps necessary for him to write—at all events it is easy to understand, and to sympathise with, his writing—the long note on the revered parson of the Duddon Valley, the Rev. Robert Walker, who will be remembered for many generations as the "Wonderful Walker." The Poet's editors have also been occasionally led to add digressive notes, to clear up points which had been left by himself either dubious, or obscure. I must plead guilty to the charge of doing so: e.g. the identification of "The Muccawiss" (see
The Excursion
, book iii. l. 953) with the Whip-poor-Will involved a great deal of laborious correspondence years ago. It was a question of real difficulty; and, although the result reached could now be put into two or three lines, I have thought it desirable that the opinions of those who wrote about it, and helped toward the solution, should be recorded. What I print is only a small part of the correspondence that took place.
On the other hand, it would be quite out of place, in a note to the famous passage in the 4th book of