The Excursion
, beginning
... I have seen
A curious child applying to his ear
to enter on a discussion as to the extent of Wordsworth's debt—if any—to the author of
Gebir
. It is quite sufficient to print the relative passage from Landor's poem at the foot of the page.
All the Notes written by Wordsworth himself in his numerous editions will be found in this one, with the date of their first appearance added. Slight textual changes, however, or casual
addenda
, are not indicated, unless they are sufficiently important. Changes in the text of notes have not the same importance to posterity, as changes in the text of poems. In the preface to the Prose Works, reference will be made to Wordsworth's alterations of his text. At present I refer only to his own notes to his Poems. When they were written as footnotes to the page, they remain footnotes still. When they were placed by him as prefaces to his Poems, they retain that place in this edition; but when they were appendix notes—as e.g. in the early editions of "Lyrical Ballads"—they are now made footnotes to the Poems they illustrate. In such a case, however, as the elaborate note to
The Excursion