Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/46

 fall somewhat outside the scope of this edition, but are supplied in an appendix in order that the reader may be enabled to judge of Blake's first volume in its entirety. The 'Poems from the Poetical Sketches ' together with the pieces in the first Appendix give therefore, in their proper order, the whole contents of the book.

In a second Appendix I have placed two short poems, 'Song by a Shepherd' and 'Song by an Old Shepherd.' These songs are not printed among the poems in the Poetical Sketches, but were found in Blake's handwriting on the fly-leaves of a copy which was lent to Mr. Basil Montague Pickering, the publisher, about 1868. They clearly belong to the same period as the Poetical Sketches, though all Blake's editors arrange them among poems written in a different manner and at a much later date. First printed by R. H. Shepherd in Pickering's editions of 1868 and 1874, where they are placed at the end of the poems from the Pickering MS., they were apparently unknown to D. G. Rossetti, and (as Pickering's copyright) could not be included in W. M. Rossetti's Aldine edition.

Selections from the Poetical Sketches were first given by Malkin and Cunningham, the former printing 'How sweet I roam'd from field to field,' and the latter the 'Address to the Muses,' with a few passages from 'King Edward the Third.' D. G. Rossetti, in the selection given in Gilchrist's Life, prints six of the eight songs (excluding the two last), 'To the Muses,' 'To the Evening Star,' ' To Spring,' 'To Summer,' 'Blind-man's Buff,' and selections from scenes i, iii, v, and vi of 'King Edward the Third.' R. H. Shepherd prints the whole book with his customary accuracy, separately in 1868 as a supplementary volume to the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and together with that work in the edition of 1874. W. M. Rossetti and later editors have availed themselves of this excellent text. Shepherd makes a few trifling corrections; he omits Blake's general heading 'Miscellaneous Poems' and inserts a half-title to 'King Edward the Third' which is not in the original. W. M. Rossetti places the pieces in an order of his own and omits the prose, with the exception of the 'Prologue to King John' and 'Samson' which he prints as blank verse. Ellis and Yeats follow the Aldine edition, omitting 'Samson.' W. B. Yeats omits 'Fair Elinor,' 'Gwin of Norway,' the two prologues, 'The Couch of Death,' 'Contemplation,' and 'Samson.' There is an excellent facsimile reproduction of the Poetical Sketches (fifty copies printed by W. Griggs in May, 1890).