Description of the Galley Proof in the Tennyson Research Centre,
Lincoln
The Lincoln galley proof with the author's autograph corrections
(Item No. 4164, Tennyson in Lincoln: A Catalogue of the Collection
in the Research Centre, comp. by Nancie Campbell, 2 vols.,
1971-1973, II, 40) is a proof for the first edition of the Ode.
Printed in four parallel columns (numbered in type at the right below each
column '1', '2', '3', '4' respectively) on a single sheet of white wove
unwatermarked paper, 177/16;” x 22½”, this proof
now exists in three separate sheets, with columns 1 and 2 appearing on the
first, column 3 on the second, and column 4 on the third. The first
sheet bears in the upper right hand corner of the recto the pencilled number
'94' and in the centre of the verso in ink, 'G.S. Venables Esq', apparently
not in the poet's hand, though possibly in his wife's. The right edge of
sheet one, both edges of sheet two, and the left edge of sheet three are
slightly jagged, showing where they were torn apart. White cloth gummed
tape is still clinging to the right and left edges of sheet three; and discolored
cellophane tape remains attached to the top, right, and left edges of sheet
four, indicating that the separate sheets, now loose leaves, at one time were
mounted in an album. Collation shows that the text of the Lincoln proof is
identical with that of the uncorrected proof for the first edition at Harvard,
previously described by Shannon (pp. 169-170). Pulled from the same type,
the two proofs appear to have been printed on the same stock, though the
dimensions of the sheets vary slightly.
