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Letter from E.H. Cradock, West Malvern, to William Angus Knight, 1880 July 12 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
418339
Accession number
MA 9909.18
Creator
Cradock, Edward Hartopp, 1810-1886.
Display Date
West Malvern, England, 1880 July 12.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1908.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 18.0 x 11.2 cm
Notes
Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from William Angus Knight, 1908.
Summary
Suggesting that Knight use the original text in his proposed edition of Wordsworth; saying "I should decidedly prefer the use of the original text in your proposed edition of Wordsworth - not only because in the great majority of cases it is the best, but also because in presenting a new Edition it is desirable to have a distinctive feature as a raison d'être - All admirers of Wordsworth may be supposed to possess one of the later complete copies of his works with the revised text but probably not one in 20 possesses or has ever seen the first issue of any of the poems except posthumous ones, and those who wish to see the original text would surely prefer reading it in a continuous form to the trouble and distraction of constant reference to footnotes. With regard however to the 'Descriptive Sketches' and the 'Evening Walk' I see no real inconsistency in a deviation from your general practice - the text of 1793 is so much revised in later Editions as almost to amount to a cancel, on the part of the Author, at all events of considerable portions, so that you would be really carrying out the principle of your role, by giving not the crude original but the earliest text not repudiated by the Author. Of course in reprinting the original text you would correct any manifest slips or printer's errors if such there be - Apropos, what is the meaning of the date at the head of the Poet's Epitaph in your proof, p. 15. I fully expect to be at Grasmere at the end of September and shall be very glad to meet you; " adding, in a postscript, I have not Matt. Arnold's book with me, but if I recollect rightly he says something decisive for the early text - and mostly uses it. In one case I think to the loss of beauty - viz. in the 'After-Thought' still glides the stream & shall not cease to glide. I prefer the later reading - 'shall for ever."