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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: DESCRIPTIONS OF MANUSCRIPTS AND PROOFS
MS in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. MS1, comprised of nine discrete passages of "Lucretius" in Tennyson's autograph, is at Harvard in a marbled notebook, measuring 6⅞” x 9½” (Call no. MS Eng 952(37)). The spine has been reinforced with orange tape that overlaps approximately 1¾” on both front and back covers. In the center of the inside front cover is the penciled word 'Epigrams'; the inside back cover at the top has a tab pasted in bearing the call number of the Houghton Library and specifying the Amy Lowell fund. This notebook also contains a table headed 'Grimm's Law.', "The Snowdrop," a number of short epigrammatic verses, fragments of "Balin and Balan," "Merlin and Vivien," and "The Passing of Arthur," and five stanzas of "The Northern Farmer: New Style." Some of the leaves of blue laid paper, watermarked 'E Towgood | 1863' and measuring 6⅜” x 9”, have been torn out and only stubs remain. The existing leaves have been numbered in pencil 1-20. The passages of "Lucretius," which are not all in numerical sequence, total 138 lines (some incomplete, including 3 of a single word, and 4 deleted) that correspond to 159 lines of the final text. They appear on fols. 1v-4 and 12-14 as follows: fol. 1v (8 lines for final ll. 47-55); fol. 2 (undeleted first draft of 10 lines for ll. 203-234, superseded by passage on fol. 4); fol 2v (single word 'Venus' [l. 67?], l. 240 deleted, ll. 133-136); fol. 3 (ll. 137-163); fol. 3v blank; fol. 4 (22 lines for ll. 203-235); fol. 12 (21 lines for ll. 26-48); fol. 12v (3 lines for ll. 60-66); fol. 13 (23 lines for ll. 67-97); fol. 13v (ll. 98-102); fol. 14 (13 lines for ll. 103-123).
MS in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. MS2, in the poet's
MS in the Beinecke Library, Yale University. MS3, in the poet's wife's hand with Tennyson's autograph corrections, at Yale, consists of a single gathering, folded once, of eighteen leaves of blue laid paper, watermarked with a design and measuring 6⅜” x 9”. Leaves 1-12, on which the untitled poem appears (the versos are blank) have been numbered in pencil; the remaining six leaves are blank and unnumbered. The MS has been bound in blue laid paper measuring 6⅞” x 9¼”, which is watermarked in the front cover 'Towgood's Extra Super' and in the back cover with a design of the Queen seated, holding a ball in her right hand, and having a spear and shield at her left side. The white thread sewing the gathering is loose but still partly stuck to the cover, which was pasted on. In the top half of the front cover, George Grove, the editor of Macmillan's has written, 'Take great care of this MS. | Set it up in Slip and ['send' deleted] pull one | proof only—which send with the | MS. to Mr. Grove-Lower Sydenham. | Size of type to be that of the ordinary | articles. | Jny 28/68'.
Galley Proof in the Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln. P1, in the Lincoln Research Centre, has the poet's autograph corrections and consists of three columns of letterpress on a single demy sheet of white wove paper, 17½” x 22½”. The upper left-hand corner of the sheet has been torn away, so that the first word of the first and of the second lines ('Lucilia' and 'Her') and the upper part of both letters of the first word in the third line ('Of') are missing. Two columns of letterpress appear vertically on the sheet, with the third column printed horizontally below them. The second and third columns carry the printed numbers '2' and '3' in their respective upper right-hand corners. There are one hundred one lines in the first column, one hundred eight in the second, and sixty-nine in the third. The type is 9-point Scotch Roman, the usual type for articles in Macmillan's Magazine. The lower left-hand corner of the sheet is also torn away. As in the MSS, no title of the poem or author's name precedes the text.
Page Proof Owned by Mr. W. S. G. Macmillan. P2, belonging to Mr. Macmillan, is printed in 9-point Scotch Roman, imposed 41 lines to the page, on white wove paper, measuring (with slight variations) 5¾” x 9” and paginated [351]-358. The first page is headed 'MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE. | MAY, 1868. | [rule] | LUCRETIUS, | By ALFRED TENNYSON, | POET LAUREATE. | [rule]'. 'No. 104.—vol. xvii.' occurs on the bottom left-hand of the page, and the signature 'b' is on the bottom right-hand. The
Page Proofs in the Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Three successive sets of proof—P3-5—and an uncorrected duplicate of P5 are preserved in the Berg Collection in a green morocco slip case by Riviere. The spine reads in gilt letters, 'LUCRETIUS | [short rule] | TENNYSON | WITH | CORRECTIONS | BY THE | AUTHOR'; below there is a tab pasted on, which, reading up vertically with the spine, carries the notation in ink 'Case 1.' In all typographical details, P3, printed on white wove paper approximately 5⅞” x 9⅛”, corresponds to P2 above, and the poet's alterations are even more extensive. The number '3572c' has been penciled on the upper left-hand corner of the first page, the stamped number 179404B stands on the bottom right of p. 357, and 'THE NEW YORK | PUBLIC LIBRARY' within a double-ruled oblong box has been stamped just below the letterpress in the center of p. 358.
P4, of which the pages measure approximately 6” x 8frac1116”, shows the same heading, date, title, and author's name and office as P2 and P3, but the volume number differs, so that the lower left-hand of the first page carries, 'No. 104.—vol. xviii.'; and the signature 'b' appears in the center of the page immediately below the letterpress instead of on the right-hand. The running title 'Lucretius.' duplicates that of the two preceding proofs. Owing to an increase in the size of type from 9 to 10 point, imposed 38 lines to the page, the text of the poem runs one page longer than in P2 and P3, i.e., pp. [351]-359, but p. 359 is wanting. P4 bears corrections by Richard Clay, the printer, and by Grove, but none by the poet. Across the top of p. [351] is the notation in ink. 'A few suggestions in the punctuation | are recommended in this proof | RC'. Slanting strokes of the pen, with a squiggle over 'RC', cancel this comment; and above it in ink, Grove has inserted the direction, '2 Revises to Mr Grove by return Feb. 29'. The upper left-hand corner also has in pencil, '3572a'. The number '179401B' has been stamped at the bottom right of p. 357, and the stamp of the New York Public Library shows on p. 358 below the last line of type (270).
P5, of which the white wove pages measure approximately 6” x 9⅛”, is in all details of heading, date, title, author's name and office, number, volume, signature, running title, size of type, and pagination identical to P4 except that, having p. 359, it contains the complete text of the poem. It bears Tennyson's autograph corrections and, in the upper left-hand corner of the first page, carries the direction in ink (not in Grove's hand) between two slanting horizontal lines, measuring in length ¾” and 1” respectively, '3 Revises | instantly.' Also just below, in the same corner, is the number '3572b' in pencil. The text contains the full description of the Oread; and a slip, on which is printed the expurgated version and the line following, has been tipped in to the margin at the right-hand end to form an overlay (which
The uncorrected duplicate of P5 has pasted on the upper left-hand corner of the first page a printed tab that contains the following: 'Feb. 29, 1868. | From R. Clay's | Printing Office, | Bread Street Hill. 2 A.P. S.711.' ('Feb. 29,', '68' and '2 A.P. S.711.' have been filled in by hand in ink.) Two folded slips, upon each of which is printed the expurgated version of the Oread and the line following, lie between pp. 352 and 353. Page 359 of this proof is missing. The New York Public Library stamp appears at the bottom of p. 358.
P6, the final proof in the Berg Collection, is in a brown cloth folding case, measuring 6¼” x 9”, the spine of which reads vertically from top to bottom in gilt letters, 'LUCRETIUS—TENNYSON—MACMILLAN'S. MAY 1868 (FIRST APPEARANCE SIGNED)'. A pasted tab at the bottom of the spine, reading down, shows in ink '[Cas]e 2'. This proof is an unsewn first octavo gathering for Macmillan's Magazine, in which the text of "Lucretius" covers pp. [1]-9 and is followed on pp. 10-16 by an article entitled "Luxury and the Scholar." The pages measure approximately 6¼” x 9”; all typographical details of the poem correspond to P5 with the following exceptions: the issue number at the bottom left-hand of the first page is 'No. 103.' instead of 'No. 104.', the signature 'b' is to the right below the letter-press instead of in the center, the signature 'b2' appears to the right below the letterpress on p. 3, and the poem has been imposed 37 lines to the page instead of 38. In the center at the bottom of p. [1] there is the penciled number '2983', the stamped number 179405B stands at the bottom right of p. 9, and the New York Public Library stamp appears in the center at the foot of p. 16. On P6 the only proofreading marks (apparently the printer's and not Tennyson's) question whether a period should be substituted for a comma after the title of the poem. The poet's autograph, 'ATennyson', occupies the upper right-hand corner of p. [1].
Proof Copy in the Beinecke Library, Yale University. The text of this uncorrected proof copy (Call no. Rare Book Room | Ip | T258 | 868La), except for a missing exclamation mark at the end of l. 279, is identical with that printed in Macmillan's. The heading of the first page, however, does not have the name and date of the magazine, the number and volume do not appear at the bottom of the page, and the signature is lacking (though as in Macmillan's, the signature b2 appears to the right at the foot of the third page of type). The nine pages of the poem (37 lines to the page) have been printed on the rectos only of nine unnumbered gilt-edged leaves, measuring 5½” x 8½”. Folios [2]-[9] have the running title 'Lucretius.'; the versos are blank. This proof copy, which is bound in purple pebbled boards, measuring 5⅞” x 8¾”, has the title 'LUCRETIUS.' in gilt between rules on the front cover. The inside front and back covers are yellow, as are the end papers. At the top of the inside front cover in pencil is the partially erroneous notation, '1st. Edit | Galley proof of Lucretius as | published in Macmillan's Magazine | May 1868.' Also on the front inside cover is the Yale University Library bookplate, carrying the information 'Gift of | HENRY C.
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