Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/38

 22 NOTES AND QUERIES. [*» 8. iv. j™ s. tion at the end of the second line, some using a comma and others a semicolon; and Mr. Humphry Ward differs from the other an- thologists under notice in writing " sted- fastly " instead of steadfastly in the third line. Apart from spelling, Palgrave and Mr. Ward are in agreement as to the reading of this line, which stands thus in Palgrave's first edition :— But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead. The other four editors whose texts are here being collated are agreed in making the closing words of this line " the face of the dead," which, whether it was the poet's final version or not, is less pathetic and impressive than the other. Miss Woods is alone among these editors in reading the fifth stanza thus :— We thought, as we hollow'd his narrow bed, And smoothed down his lonely pillow, How the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head. And we far away on the billow ! " That" is the initial word of the third line according to the other anthologists. When one editor is thus found to stand alone among six, it may be inferred that there must have been something amiss, if not perverse, in that editor's collation ; at any rate, some reason should be forthcoming for such a peculiar divergence from the view of the majority. In this stanza, as in the previous one, there is a lack of unanimity both in punctuation and spelling. The majority close the stanza with a point of exclamation, the others using a full stop ; three editors print " hollow'd " in the first line, and three give "hollowed," while one—Alaric A. Watts—has not only " hollow'd" in the first line, but also " smooth'd " in the second. In the sixth stanza Miss Martin and Mr. Phillipps read the third line as follows :— But little he 'II reck, if they'll let him sleep on, where the others have simply "they" for they '11. and Watts differs from all in giving " nothing" for little, and making the line stand :— But nothing he '11 reck, if they let him sleep on. The way in which the punctuation of this antithetical stanza has been treated by these editors is of considerable interest. Watts and Miss Woods, going, no doubt, on the well-established assumption that the ad- versative point should mark an antithesis, especially when the separating particle is "but," employ a semicolon in parting the two pairs ot lines; Mr. Phillipps finds a simple comma sufficient for the purpose; Miss Martin uses the serviceable feminine dash; and Palgrave and Mr. Humphry Ward agree in inserting a comma followed by a dash—a composite mark familiar to readers of Scott's poetry. But the question arises in the face of all this, What was the particular anti- thetical sign used in this stanza by the Kev. C. Wolfe T He was not likely to sprinkle four on his page, and leave each editor to choose the one best suited, in his view, to reveal the meaning and the effect of the passage. There is no need to dwell further on the punctuation of the poem, although it may just be remarked that there are differences in the next two stanzas as presented by the various anthologists. In the seventh stanza Watts is alone among the editors under notice in reading thus :— But half of our heavy task was done, When the clock told the hour for retiring, And we heard the distant and random gun Of the enemy sullenly firing. The others agree in having " struck" for told in the second lino, and in giving the last line in this form :— That the foe was sullenly firing. Probably Wolfe wrote the line thus, but Watts must have had some ground for his reading. On the whole, it would surely be well to have a standard text—either that of the version in the Newry Telegraph of 1817 or that in the volume of Wolfe's ' Remains in Prose and Verse,' edited by Archdeacon Kussell—and to abide by that firmly and consistently. To an editor of verse—an editor, e.g., of Shelley's indifferent waywardness—some liberty may occasionally be allowed in settling difficulties as to spelling and punctuation; but there should be no question as to whether the poet or his sponsor is to be the final authority on the subject of diction. A poet either wrote and ultimately preferred a given set of words, or he did not"; what his readers are entitled to get is that which represents his deliberate and final choice. As a closing remark, it may just be noted as curious that such a good judge as the late Henry Morley did not include ' The Burial of Sir John Moore' in his 'Shorter English Poems,' which constitutes the first volume of Cassell's " Library of English Literature." Morley was sometimes head- strong, and even perverse, in his critical attitude, but it is to be hoped that he was not with Wolfe's poem as the Greenock news- paper was with Campbell's ' Hohenlinden': as an editor he surely did not commit himself to the view that the piece was " not up to our standard." Thomas Bayne. Helensburgh, N.B.