Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/88

 Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION ���from the center of the volume. The title-page with its crude sketch of a cherub's wing-enfolded head, and the table of contents are the work apparently of the same untrained hand employed in copying the last poems. That the table of contents is an after-thought is shown by the fact that the excised poems are omitted, so that we do not even know their titles. There are many slight indications that the octavo is an earlier manuscript than the folio. For example, most of the interlineations and substitutions in the octavo appear in the text of the folio. " Areta," Lady Winchilsea's first-chosen pen-name, is crossed out in the octavo and "Ardelia" is written above, while in the folio, though here also an original "Areta " is sometimes changed to "Ardelia," in by far the greater number of cases, the "Ardelia" is the name first written. Then, jtoo, no poem susceptible_o|_a date in the octavo is later than 1689. excepT~the last one, which is not the work of the original transcriber. This volume likewise is more intimate and personal in its general effect than the folio. The crossed-out poems that do not reappear in the folio were both personal, one being from Anne Kingsmill's maid of honor days, and one being a verse-epistle to her husband in the early days of their married life. Titles in the octavo carry out this personal impression, for they give information as to places and dates which do not reappear in the titles of the folio. For its early date, its beauty as a manuscript, and its personal character, this volume is of unique interest. It is a satisfaction to feel that after un tracked wanderings the little book has at last its natural home in the library of the Earl of Winchilsea. �Of the fifty-two poems in the octavo all but five reap- pear in the folio, to which we therefore turn as the real storehouse of Lady Winchilsea's unpublished work. This folio manuscript is an unusually impressive volume. Its ��� �