If she is prest by want of food, 235
  She from her dwelling in the wood
  Repairs to a road-side;
  And there she begs at one steep place
  Where up and down with easy pace
  The horsemen-travellers ride. 240

  That oaten pipe of hers is mute,
  Or thrown away; but with a flute
  Her loneliness she cheers: 
  This flute, made of a hemlock stalk,
  At evening in his homeward walk 245
  The Quantock woodman hears.

  I, too, have passed her on the hills
  Setting her little water-mills
  By spouts and fountains wild—­
  Such small machinery as she turned 250
  Ere she had wept, ere she had mourned,
  A young and happy Child!

  Farewell! and when thy days are told,
  Ill-fated Ruth, in hallowed mould
  Thy corpse shall buried be, 255
  For thee a funeral bell shall ring,
  And all the congregation sing
  A Christian psalm for thee.

The following extract from Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal gives the date of the stanzas added to ‘Ruth’ in subsequent editions: 

  “Sunday, March 8th, 1802.—­I stitched up ‘The Pedlar,’ wrote out
  ‘Ruth’, read it with the alterations....  William brought two new
  stanzas of ’Ruth’.”

The transpositions of stanzas, and their omission from certain editions and their subsequent re-introduction, in altered form, in later ones, make it extremely difficult to give the textual history of ‘Ruth’ in footnotes.  They are even more bewildering than the changes introduced into ’Simon Lee’.—­Ed.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1802.

  And so, not seven years old,
  The slighted Child ... 1800.]

[Variant 2: 

1836.

  And from that oaten pipe could draw
  All sounds ... 1800.]

[Variant 3:  This stanza was added in the edition of 1802.]

[Variant 4: 

1827.

  She pass’d her time; and in this way
  Grew up to Woman’s height. 1802.]

[Variant 5: 

1836.

  Ah no! ... 1800.]

[Variant 6: 

1805.

  ... bare ... 1800.]

[Variant 7: 

1836.

  He spake of plants divine and strange
  That ev’ry day their blossoms change,
  Ten thousand lovely hues! 1800.

  ... every hour ... 1802.]

[Variant 8: 

  Of march and ambush, siege and fight,
  Then did he tell; and with delight
  The heart of Ruth would ache;
  Wild histories they were, and dear: 
  But ’twas a thing of heaven to hear
  When of himself he spake!

Only in the editions of 1802 and 1805.