It may also be mentioned that not only members of his own household, but many of Wordsworth’s friends—­notably Charles Lamb—­expressed a preference for a different arrangement of his Poems from that which he had adopted.

Second The various Readings, or variations of text, made by Wordsworth during his lifetime, or written by him on copies of his Poems, or discovered in Ms. letters, from himself, or his sister, or his wife, are given in footnotes in this edition.  Few English poets changed their text more frequently, or with more fastidiousness, than Wordsworth did.  He did not always alter it for the better.  Every alteration however, which has been discovered by me, whether for the better or for the worse, is here printed in full.  We have thus a record of the fluctuations of his own mind as to the form in which he wished his Poems to appear; and this record casts considerable light on the development of his genius. [7]

A knowledge of these changes of text can only be obtained in one or other of two ways.  Either the reader must have access to all the thirty-two editions of Poems, the publication of which Wordsworth personally supervised; or, he must have all the changes in the successive editions, exhibited in the form of footnotes, and appended to the particular text that is selected and printed in the body of the work.  It is extremely difficult—­in some cases quite impossible—­to obtain the early editions.  The great public libraries of the country do not possess them all.[8] It is therefore necessary to fall back upon the latter plan, which seems the only one by which a knowledge of the changes of the text can be made accessible, either to the general reader, or to the special student of English Poetry.

The text which—­after much consideration—­I have resolved to place throughout, in the body of the work, is Wordsworth’s own final ’textus receptus’, i.e. the text of 1849-50, reproduced in the posthumous edition of 1857; [9] and since opinion will doubtless differ as to the wisdom of this selection, it may be desirable to state at some length the reasons which have led me to adopt it.

There are only three possible courses open to an editor, who wishes to give—­along with the text selected—­all the various readings chronologically arranged as footnotes.  Either, 1st, the earliest text may be taken, or 2nd, the latest may be chosen, or 3rd, the text may be selected from different editions, so as to present each poem in its best state (according to the judgment of the editor), in whatever edition it is found.  A composite text, made up from two or more editions, would be inadmissible.