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94 interminable stanzas without the hope of worldly gain. But it is certainly neat enough for the work of a professional copyist.

In many instances the Malone MS. corrects misprints and mis-readings in the printed editions; and while it lacks the terrible acrostic preface, it contains three stanzas addressed to the Countess of Devonshire which were omitted on its publication. The omission was assuredly not due to their poor quality—for they are no worse than many others in this immense elegy—but was doubtless dictated merely by motives of prudence; the stanzas were perhaps deemed to be too fervent in their defence of the virtue of the fallen and scandal-smirched lady whom Ford (though only in the MS.) extols for patiently bearing “spleenes unjust disgrace.”

The following are the suppressed stanzas:

Among the minor differences between MS. and printed copy is the name of the poet’s “flint-hearted” mistress, whom he upbraids as “Lucia” in the former, whereas she appears in print as “Lycia.” But it is possible that this lady was introduced merely for fashion’s sake, much as Daniel not many years previously had dragged his cruel “Delia” into the famous Complaint of Rosamond, which was certainly read by Ford.