University of Virginia Library

APPENDIX

The Development of the Text

In addition to the published versions of the Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington already discussed, evidence of the development of the text appears in manuscripts, in uncorrected proof for the first edition, a first edition with the author's autograph corrections, and a proof copy for the second edition with autograph corrections.

Among the MSS formerly belonging to Sir Charles Tennyson, now in the Harvard College Library, there is no complete manuscript for the Ode and none that can have provided printer's copy. Those that exist (Tennyson Papers, bMS Eng 952.1:170-173) I have designated 1 through 6.

MS 1, a working draft in Tennyson's autograph, is written on a half leaf of plain blue wove paper, no watermark, 4 1/16" x 6½". The recto bears the earliest variant lines of strophe IV, ll. 28-42. Two of the lines have been inserted in the margin. The verso contains the earliest version of strophe VI, ll. 142-150:

The handwriting is hurried, almost scribbled.

MS 2 in Tennyson's autograph, carefully written on a slip of plain blue wove paper, unwatermarked, 1⅝" x 6½" (the same paper as that of MS 1) carries on the recto a revised state of the passage above:

The verso is blank.

MS 3 is in the hand of Emily Sellwood Tennyson, the poet's wife, but contains his autograph corrections. Written on both recto and verso of two folio leaves of plain blue laid unwatermarked paper, 13⅞" x 7⅞", formed by folding a single sheet which is still partially

joined, this MS runs consecutively from line 1 through the first five lines of strophe VI (l. 84), lacks the rest of this strophe, strophe VII, and the first eight lines of strophe VIII, resumes with line 9 of strophe VIII (1. 200), and continues without omission to the end of the poem.

MS 4 is in Tenynson's hand and has autograph revisions. It is written on a folio leaf and the top one-third of a separate folio leaf of the same plain blue laid unwatermarked paper as that of MS 3. The recto of the first leaf (13⅞" x 7⅞") includes the first four strophes of the poem, and the verso strophes V-VI, l. 90. The recto of the truncated leaf (5¼ x 7⅝") contains strophe VII, ll. 91-120, 122-133; the verso begins with strophe VI, l. 150 and continues through strophe VII, l. 169. MSS 3 and 4 appear originally to have represented identical states of the text; but in the parallel passages that have survived Tennyson's emendations bring MS 4 to a slightly later condition than MS 3. There is one notable exception, however. In the right hand margin of MS 4, f. 1v, the poet drafted and indicated for insertion an early version of present ll. 53-57 (words printed within brackets he wrote initially and excised):

Then he deleted the entire passage and redrafted it: But he inserted in the margin of MS 3, f. 1v, a third and later version that varies only slightly from the text published in the first edition:

MS 5 consists of six autograph lines representing strophe VI, ll. 91-97, written parallel to the long dimension of the paper, on a leaf of plain white laid paper, with part of the watermark design showing in the lower left hand corner, 7⅛" 4¾". This passage replaces l. 91, "His foes were thine: he kept us free," in MS 4 and adds five new lines:

The verso is blank.

MS 6 is an autograph draft on plain white laid paper, watermarked [Jo]hnson/1852, 7 1/16" x 4⅞", of strophe IX, ll. 251-254, which Tennyson inserted, somewhat altered, in his autograph corrections to the Pierpont Morgan copy of the first edition (see below). MS 6 reads as follows:

In the Morgan copy of the first edition Tennyson deleted l. 251, "For solemn, too, this day are we," and substituted the following: This version appears in the printed text of the corrected proof copy for the second edition in the Widener Collection (see below) and in the second edition. The verso of MS 6 is blank.

The uncorrected proof for the first edition is in the Harvard College Library (*fEC 85.T2586.8520a). It prints the Ode in four columns on a single sheet of white wove paper, unwatermarked, 17⅜" x 223/16". Collation shows that this proof cannot have been set from either MS 3 or MS 4 and that it varies by two capitals from MS 5. It is, however, considerably anterior to the text of the first edition and cannot represent a final state of proof. There are several printer's errors —

"ambition's" for "ambitious" (l. 28), "here" for "have" (l. 91), "But" for "But (l. 278); and lines 53-57 follow the emended reading of MS 4 instead of the later reading of MS 3.

The first edition with Tennyson's autograph alterations is in the Pierpont Morgan Library (W27/B copy 1). Most of these changes found their way into the text of the proof copy for the second edition (see below) and the second edition, but Tennyson did not adopt "Bury" for "Let us bury" (l. 1) until 1855. For the first line of strophe II, "Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore?" (l. 8), he substituted

Yet he did not use this version in any subsequent state of the text.

The proof copy for the second edition with author's corrections (erroneously catalogued as a second edition) is in the Widener Collection of the Harvard College Library. There are instances of light inking, and there is some smearing of the impression on the title page. This copy is without covers; the single gathering is not sewed, but it has been opened. It is inscribed on the first page of the text, "Walter White / from / ATennyson." The printed text reveals a new experiment with the first lines of strophe II:

But Tennyson deleted them and returned in autograph to the original reading of MSS and first edition: "Where shall we lay ye man whom we deplore?" Two lines concerning the Duke's character that occur in the letterpress — though unaltered in autograph, and included without modification in the text of 1855, did not appear in the second edition. This example and numerous variants in punctuation, typography, and spelling from the second edition prove that this proof copy as emended was not the state of the text immediately preceding the second edition.