Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/15

Rh it should be understood that when these are found in the text they have been added at the discretion of the editor. The detail is not a purely trivial one, since Blake's omission of quotation marks contributes to the difficulty of obscure poems by leaving it questionable to whom particular speeches should be assigned. Instances of possible confusion arising from this cause may be noted in 'The Everlasting Gospel,' in which it is sometimes not apparent where quoted speeches end and Blake resumes the discourse in his own person; or in the poem beginning 'My spectre around me night and day,' where the untabulated persons of the drama are the narrator, his 'spectre,' and his 'emanation,'—characters whose respective parts are not immediately obvious to those who will have no dealings with the visionary writings.

The notes to the poems are of several kinds.

1. In the first place, the source of every poem is stated, with precise reference to the page or folio of the printed, engraved, or manuscript book from which each is taken. I add also, where necessary, the names of the editors or commentators by whom the poem has been printed. The phrase 'all editors' must of course be understood to refer to those only who print some version of a particular poem. In the case of the Rossetti MS., for example, it necessarily excludes Wilkinson and Shepherd, who print no part of this MS.

2. All Blake's earlier or cancelled readings are given in footnotes in the order of composition.

3. These are followed by the variant readings of all editors who have not merely reprinted some existing text. Differences are noted in all cases except where they consist only of trivial variations of spelling, capitals, or punctuation.

4. In every case where a poem has been left in rough draft, or has been subjected to repeated alterations, I have