The Works of Charlotte Smith Volume 14 the Pickering Masters

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THE PICKERING MASTERS

THE WORKS OF CHARLOTTE SMITH VOLUME 14 THE PICKERING MASTERS

THE WORKS OF CHARLOTTE SMITH Volumes 11–14

General Editor: Stuart Curran Volume Editors: Elizabeth A. Dolan Jacqueline M. Labbe David Lorne Macdonald Judith Pascoe

THE WORKS OF CHARLOTTE SMITH

VOLUME 14 Elegiac Sonnets, Volumes I and II The Emigrants Beachy Head: With Other Poems Uncollected Poems

Edited by Jacqueline M. Labbe First published 2007 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

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BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Smith, Charlotte Turner, 1749–1806 The works of Charlotte Smith Vols 11–14 – (The Pickering masters) 1. Smith, Charlotte Turner, 1749–1806 – Criticism and interpretation I. Title II. Curran, Stuart 823.6

ISBN-13: 978-1-85196-795-7 (set)

Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited CONTENTS

Acknowledgements vi Introduction vii References and Further Reading xxi

Elegiac Sonnets, Volume I 5 Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II 63 The Emigrants 117 Beachy Head: With Other Poems 149 Uncollected Poems 211

Explanatory notes 217 Textual notes 261 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As ever, my deep gratitude to Stuart Curran for his guidance and example. My thanks to Michael Gamer, Roger Meyenberg, Judith Pascoe, and Judith Stanton for their generous assistance; to the University of Birmingham (UK) Special Collections for permission to use their copy of The Emigrants; and to the Huntingdon Library, San Marino, California, for permission to reprint Smith’s ‘Prologue’ to William Godwin’s play Antonio. As ever, I am most grateful to my family – Rod Jones, and Indie and Nathan Labbe- Jones – for their support and ongoing interest.

For Nathan Guy INTRODUCTION

How do we read a poet like Charlotte Smith? In print from 1784 until after her death; in demand throughout the 1790s before any of the more familiar Romantic voices were audible; in decline just as those voices began to echo the sentiments she had initiated in their early youth; nearly forgotten, according to her most indebted reader, William Wordsworth, in 1833: the trajectory of her career reminds us that a combination of a fickle audience and an engrained gender bias can overcome the most compelling poetry. What do we make of a poet like Smith, who shows throughout her career a devotion to the artistry of her poetry, yet who also constantly assesses the market value of each composition: ‘I believe I could add three or more other Sonnets, Songs, etc. – but as I am compelled to deal, like any dealer in coin or cattle – I own I am willing to know how much my application may be paid for’.1 Regretting to the end of her life the necessity she was continually under ‘to appear in the mortifying character of a distrest Author’2, yet contextualizing almost all of her poetry as written under the duress of her financial and emotional needs, she creates a poetics of sorrow that chimed with the late eighteenth-century interest in public displays of sensibility. How do we read a poet like Smith, who, while appealing to a sympathetic public to perform their duty as consumers, explored the viability of solitude and the nature of her own identity; who wrote revolutionary politics into her contemplative poetry; who not only repopularized a genre but revitalized and reinvented its very structure; who, from first (Sonnet I) to last (‘To my Lyre’) wrote about her talents and her muse as the balm of suffering, and suffering as the enabler of the purest poetry? Charlotte Smith wrote some of the most significant and important poetry of Romanticism under some of the most trying and difficult circumstances: how do we read a poet for whom poetry is as much a job of hard physical labour as it is a reflection of powerful feeling, whose life contained virtu-

1 Letter to Thomas Cadell, Charles Thomas-Stanford archive, Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton & Hove, on deposit in the East Sussex Record Office: ACC 8997 (letter L/AE/60, 25 March 1792). 2 See letter to Thomas Cadell, Jr, and William Davies, 10 February 1795, in The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith, ed. by Judith Phillips Stanton (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 190. viii Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14 ally no tranquillity, who had no coterie of devoted amanuenses to ease the work of composition? It is hard to know exactly when Smith began writing. By 1782 she was publishing her poetry; earlier versions of six of her poems appear in the European Magazine for that year under the signature of S. C., an interesting inversion that is matched by Smith’s transformation of her gender, alluding to herself in a note as ‘he’ (p. 218). Smith herself refers in the Preface to the first and second editions of the Elegiac Sonnets to the ‘mutilated state’ of those of her ‘attempts’ that have ‘found their way into the prints of the day’ with her typical disarming misdirection (p. 11); ‘S. C.’ certainly seems as much in control of the publication of ‘his’ poems as ever Smith is. The circumstances surrounding the 1784 publication of Elegiac Sonnets and Other Essays are well known, and from the outset associate Smith’s art with the financial need that dogged her for the rest of her life. And this raises one of the paradoxes of her authorship: if she ‘live[s] only to write and write[s] only to live’, why did she take such care with her poetry?1 Why did she exercise such originality? Why, if sonnets of sorrow met such readerly approval, did she continually experiment with and develop her approach? Why write The Emigrants, a poem almost certain not to make money? Why struggle, at the end of her life, with the ‘local poem’ that became Beachy Head? Why, in other words, work so hard to write poetry that would ‘tell [her] name to distant ages’ (‘To my Lyre’ (p. 215)) rather than simple popular verse that would put food on the table and clothes on the backs of children who never seemed to grow up? Instead of the simple route, Smith took the artist’s; she tested the waters with pseudonymous magazine publications and then plunged into fully named authorship, bypassing both feminine anonymity and genteel dependence. ‘Charlotte Smith’, originating in 1784 in Bignor Park, Sussex, hauled herself and her husband out of the King’s Bench Prison, and although it would be another three years before she secured a separation from him, her career as a professional writer was established. As the previous thirteen volumes of The Works of Charlotte Smith show, Smith wrote prolifically and across all genres. The financial imperative was always there, but so was the artistic one. Stuart Curran remarks that ‘though she soon saw that the means to financial independence lay in prose, Smith’s sense of her genteel heritage and her claims to artistry never allowed her to abandon a commitment to poetry’.2 Literary hierarchy generally placed poetry at the highest level; debates about the relative moral and stylistic merits of different forms of fiction implicitly allowed for the inherent social value of poetry. So to turn to the publication of a book of poetry as the route out of debtor’s prison was perhaps as much about recover- 1 See letter to Dr Thomas Shirley, 22 August 1789 (Collected Letters, p. 23). 2 The Poems of Charlotte Smith, ed. by Stuart Curran (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. xxii–xxiii. Introduction ix ing reputation as restoring her husband’s freedom: poetry overwriting his improvidence. In her letters to her publishers, Smith approaches composition, no matter the genre, as a business, however: she casts herself as an eminent author, and her publishers as in her debt; or she calculates the profit/loss equation of each additional poem, each additional page. Or she becomes anxious that she has lost her influence and attempts to flatter her publisher back into acquiescence. Even in letters to friends she dwells more on her troubles and afflictions than on her sense of herself as Poet. How, then, can we discern a dedication to poetry as an art form – how can we read her silences and interpret her postures? One clue lies in the title of the first and second editions of the sonnets: Elegiac Sonnets and Other Essays. As Daniel Robinson has cogently argued, Smith uses the word ‘essays’ to denote ‘experiments’, and she embeds this at multiple levels.1 From the first, Smith regarded the sonnets as opportunities for innovation, seeing the possibilities that resided in their fourteen lines. This shows itself, for instance, in the frequency with which she departs from the regularity of the Shakespearean rhyme scheme. Although she notes in the Preface to the first and second editions ‘I am told, and I read it as the opinion of very good judges, that the legitimate Sonnet [Petrarchan] is ill calculated for our language’, she also hints at her flexible approach even to the illegitimate, or irregular (the Shakespearean): ‘the little Poems which are here called Sonnets, have, I believe, no very just claim to that title: but they consist of fourteen lines …’ (p. 10). Having settled on as distinctive and easily defined a genre as the sonnet, Smith would certainly know whether or not her specimens could justly claim the title. Instead, she introduces her sonnets by literally stating her belief that many of them are not, strictly speaking, sonnets at all. This poses a specific challenge to her readers, inviting them to reconsider what, exactly, they are reading, and how, moreover, they can tell. What, actually, is a sonnet? Smith wants her poems to be read, and to be read carefully. As much as she gives them a tonal consistency, only to develop elaborate structural subver- sions, so too she offers her ‘little Poems’ as puzzles to be deciphered. Of the thirty-six sonnets that make up the first, second and third editions, nineteen follow a Shakespearean rhyme scheme, and another seven follow a modified Shakespearean rhyme scheme, utilizing near-rhymes or repeated rhymes; in the case of Sonnet XX, this creates a quatrain of virtually identical rhyme: blow/brow/go/now (p. 29). Of the remaining ten, one is fully Petrarchan, while three begin in Petrarchan mode only to transform into Shakespearean sonnets by the end: Sonnet III, with two Petrarchan quatrains followed by a Shakespearean quatrain and a couplet; and Sonnets XII and XIV, with three Petrarchan quatrains and a Shakespearean couplet. 1 Daniel Robinson, ‘Elegiac Sonnets: Charlotte Smith’s Formal Paradoxy’, Papers on Language and Literature 39:2 (2003), pp. 185–220. x Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

Another sonnet is Shakespearean with a Petrarchan sestet; one is Petrarchan with a Shakespearean sestet (efefef). One is Petrarchan with a mixed sestet (cdcddc). One alternates Shakespearean and Petrarchan schemes: abab baab cdcd ee. And two sonnets seem wilfully to reject rhyme schemes altogether: Sonnets VIII and IX rhyme ababaca cdedfff and abab bccd cd efef . If one divides the lines according to punctuation, then another layer of experimen- tation emerges that contests conventions of quatrains and couplets. A version of this is evident in Sonnet IV, where, despite the Shakespearean quatrains, a discernible volta occurs at line 6, inscribing a reversed Petrarchan structure of sestet/octave. Even the four sonnets ‘from Petrarch’ (XIII–XVI) take liberties: none is actually Petrarchan. Sonnet XIII is Shakespearean, and in iambic tetrameter; Sonnet XIV is Petrarchan but organized as three quatrains and a couplet; Sonnets XV and XVI are Shakespearean. Smith takes these sonnets about as far ‘from Petrarch’ as she can. As early as 1786, then, Smith was exploring the parameters of what she calls in the Preface to the third edition the ‘less regular’ (p. 11). Her techniques of fusing forms and unpicking structure lead to a defamiliariza- tion of genre even as the impact of the Elegiac Sonnets as a volume creates a new attention to the sonnet as a serious poetic undertaking. The notice she pays to the details of composition and the ways in which she inter- twines content and structure to open up a sonnet firmly establish Smith as the first Romantic poet to understand the opportunities available if one is willing to experiment with form rather than be bound by it. Such is her interest in and skill with structural innovation that the alert reader begins to notice how, overall, the more ‘perfect’ and seamless a sonnet, the less Smith endorses it. Passive woe, for instance, where the speaker does little more than mourn a situation while remaining physically or emotionally still, is usually written in pure Shakespearean form. Smith encloses the passive speaker in rhyme; she rewards the more active sufferers (those who wander, for instance) with poetic variety. Thus, when John Thelwall praises Sonnet XLIV for its generic completeness (‘Perhaps it is not saying too much to declare, that in the narrow compass of these fourteen lines, are included all the requisites of good poetry: vivid painting, numerous harmony, sublimity of thought and expression, and pathos of sentiment’)1 he is only halfway there; the sonnet is ‘good’ – the genuine article – but it is also too regular and therefore less, rather than more, ‘pleasing’. For Smith, the sonnets are as much about the possibilities of poetry as they are about exploring the ‘depth [and] the duration of … woe’ (Sonnet LXX 14). As she expresses it, ‘I wish to make as much variety of verse in this book as possible – & have studiously varied the measure of the quatrains &c.’2 1 Quoted in Robinson, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Formal Paradoxy’, p. 193, n. 11. 2 Letter to Thomas Cadell Jr and William Davies, 28 April 1797 (Collected Letters, p. 269). Introduction xi

As she innovates at the level of structure, Smith also shows her awareness of the narrative import of her sonnets. She is especially alive to the dramatic arc of the five-sonnet sequence. The Werther sonnets, for instance, grow from their initial truncated sequence of three in the first and second editions to a more dramatically satisfying five by the third edition. Werther, therefore, is permitted a narrative that develops from his realization of hopeless love through a desire for solitude, hopeless reminiscence and preparation for death, culminating at the moment ‘just before his death’ (p. 31). This inscribes a much fuller narrative than the random selection of scenes of the first two editions: hopeless love/desire for solitude/preparation for death. There is, moreover, intriguing internal evidence that Smith appreciated the five-part structure of the Werther sonnets. The later Sonnet LXX (the ‘Lunatic’ sonnet) replays the scene cited in Sonnet XXI: ‘like the poor maniac I linger here’ (p. 29). Smith quotes Goethe: ‘Is this the destiny of man? Is he only happy before he possesses his reason, or after he has lost it?’ (p. 29). That Sonnet LXX could so easily be a Werther sonnet, but is not, indicates that preserving the five-part arc of the sequence was more important to Smith than merely aligning linked sonnets. The dramatic framework surfaces again in the five sonnets transplanted from Smith’s novel Celestina, which share with the Werther sonnets a reliance on the word ‘supposed’ for the titles as well as imagistic resonances of bereft and regretful lovers and the gradual annihilation of personality. One of the most striking elements of Smith’s sonnets is how they achieve an overall tonal consistency while simultaneously rejecting mere banal repetition. The sonnets explore alienation, emotional starvation, physical need and imaginative stasis. They also celebrate and even revel in the creative potential of poetry. The care Smith takes with formal variety is as pains- taking as the concern she shows in her letters to her publishers over the practicalities of her volumes: the order the poems take, the form of their titles, the look of the pages, the effect of the plates. The novel-sonnets, for instance, are initially republished with titles like ‘From the novel of ….’: for many, this information is eventually relegated to a note, or even suppressed altogether, so that the sonnet is seemingly absorbed into the Sonnets. Its concurrent existence in a novel, and the conflict of speaker this initiates, however, disables any easy conclusions about purpose or meaning. And this extends to the non-sonnet poems that flesh out the ‘other essays’. Though tonally consistent – with the exception of ‘Thirty-Eight’, a pragmatic yet affectionate portrait of the advantages of ageing – they are as various as the sonnets, a final total of twenty-four poems comprising more transplantations from the novels; slight ‘songs’ translated from the French; politically inflected poems all dated ‘November 1792’;1 botanical poems 1 A poetically as well as politically significant date for Smith, this also dates the first Book of The Emigrants. It is interesting that the three poems so dated are not published until 1797, in Volume II. xii Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14 that are also about enduring one’s fate; and a series of what can only be called lyrical ballads or tales that wholly anticipate, and perhaps provide the model both for Wordsworth and Coleridge, and for Mary Robinson. The Elegiac Sonnets are thoroughly poems of the Romantic period. They herald the introspective, nature- and memory-based poetry of later poets, and lay the groundwork for Smith’s own poetic development. Moreover, without them it is conceivable that there would be no Sappho and Phaon by Robinson, no one hundred ‘regular’ sonnets by Anna Seward, no William Lisle Bowles,1 no sonnets by Williams, Wordsworth, Coleridge or Southey.2 It makes more sense, as well, that Wordsworth first ventures into print with a sonnet, ‘On Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress’ (European Magazine, 1787), if the success and influence of Smith’s sonnets is taken into account. And, nearly twenty years later, when Wordsworth turns more intently to the sonnet as an expressive and forceful genre, it is telling that Dorothy Wordsworth notes ‘beloved William is turning over the leaves of Charlotte Smith’s sonnets’;3 the familiarity this bespeaks is as significant as his much later reminiscence to Isabella Fenwick about the striking impression made by Milton’s sonnets. Smith’s South Downs, so much a part of the landscape of the Sonnets, led Romantic poetry to the Lake District.

Smith briefly broke from the sonnet form in 1793 when she published her two-book political poem in blank verse, The Emigrants. The year 1793 is a turning point for most of those British sympathetic to the French Revolution. Up until the autumn of 1792 it was still possible to support the aims of the Revolution both publicly and in print; indeed, in Desmond (1792) Smith does just that. But the September Massacres of 1792, the execution of the king in January 1793 and the declaration of war on Britain by France in February, and above all the risks associated with the Seditious Libel Act, published in May 1792 but given a new imperative by the actions of the French, rendered the Britain of spring 1793 a very different place. Smith’s understanding of this is plain in the careful chronology she assigns to the poem and her equally meticulous embedding of liberal imagery. 1 Bowles himself indicates as much, albeit indirectly, when he asserts: ‘It having been said that these Pieces were written in imitation of the little Poems of Mrs. Smyth, the Author hopes he may be excused adding, that many of them were written prior to Mrs. Smyth’s publication. He is conscious of their great Inferiority to those beautiful and elegant Compositions; but, such as they are, these were certainly written from his own Feelings’ (Sonnets, Written Chiefly on Picturesque Spots during a Tour (Bath: R. Cruttwell, 1789)). Seward follows much the same path when she conspicuously dates many of her sonnets, published as Original Sonnets in 1799, to the early 1770s. 2 For more information, see Daniel Robinson, ‘Reviving the Sonnet: Women Romantic Poets and the Sonnet Claim’, European Romantic Review 6 (1995), pp. 98–127. 3 24 December 1802, in Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. Mary Moorman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 164. Introduction xiii

Book One, set in November 1792, follows the September Massacres with a sorrowful exploration of the exiled state of French emigrants escaping certain death which leads seamlessly to the hypocrisy and emptiness of lives built on the oppression and exploitation of the less fortunate. Book Two, set in April 1793, follows the king’s death and the onset of war with a thoroughly literary turn to images of compensatory spring, unfolding to a clear condemnation of ‘destructive war’ (p. 142). Meanwhile, in both books, she balances her searching imagery with representations of a sor- rowing selfhood familiar to her readers from the Sonnets. By doing so, Smith eases her way into political rhetoric, a strategy of misdirection that indicates the shift in public acceptance of politicized literature as much as her deflection of attention from the French to the American Revolution in The Old Manor House had done a few months earlier. It seems that this successfully sheltered the poem from an overtly politicized reaction; the majority of reviews focus on Smith’s portrayal of the emigrants, emphasizing her ‘generous’ and ‘minister[ing]’ ‘sympathy’.1 Moreover, extracts that concentrated on Marie Antoinette as (depoliticized) victimized mother appeared in partial form in the Universal Magazine for August 1793 and the Gentleman’s and London Magazine for September 1793, eliding the political almost entirely.2 Clearly, it was possible for Smith’s readers to overlook the poem’s inflammatory elements. This is because Smith embeds the political in a poetics that is both personalized and highly literary. She reinforces the literary pedigree with the Dedication to William Cowper that includes a quotation from Milton situ- ating, by implication, Smith as Adam and Cowper as Raphael: The Angel ended, and in Adam’s ear So charming left his voice, that he awhile Thought him still speaking. (p. 121) Assuming the Adamic power of naming that such an association gives her, Smith also assumes a link with Milton and, in the timing of Book Two, with Chaucer, whose own April by contrast is warmed by ‘showres soote’. The epigraph to Book Two, from Virgil’s Georgics, confirms the literary lineage; not only does Smith invoke Virgil’s despair as ploughshares are beaten into swords, but she also implicitly identifies her poem as an epic. The elevation of genre is mirrored in the physical elevation she grants her speaker: ‘on the cliffs’ in Book One (p. 125) and, more poetically, ‘on an 1 Quoted from the Analytical Review 22 (1793), p. 91. Reviews also appeared in the Monthly Review (December 1793), the European Magazine (July 1793) and the Critical Review (October 1793). 2 British War Poetry in the Age of Romanticism: 1793–1815, ed. by Betty T. Bennett (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1976). Given Marie Antoinette’s iconic status by 1793, however, this concentration misses Smith’s political leanings. See my essay ‘Towards an Ungendered Romanticism: Blake, Robinson and Smith in 1793’, in Women Reading William Blake, ed. by Helen Bruder (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 118–126. xiv Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

Eminence’ in Book Two (p. 137). And, once assured of the prospect view, she explores the physical, social and poetical landscape thus available. The emigrant clergy and aristocracy she turns to in line 94 are reached both via the cliffs and via Smith’s initial exploration of, first, generalized states of woe, and then a more personalized misery. Thus the self-conscious allitera- tion of the opening lines evolves towards a more naturalized, introspective poetics: … doubts, diseases, abject dread of Death, And faithless friends, and fame and fortune lost; Fancied or real wants; and wounded pride … …. How often do I half abjure Society, And sigh for some lone Cottage, deep embower’d In the green woods, that these steep chalky Hills Guard from the strong South West … … There do I wish to hide me … (pp. 125–6) Smith does not engage with the putative theme of her poem until after she has initiated her own alienation (‘Tranquil seclusion I have vainly sought’ (p. 126)), and this she does in poetry that is both generically historicized and, like the sonnets, poetically innovative: ‘the first work … to establish [the] vein of self-conscious filtering of reality in a conversational style’.1 Smith talks to her readers, in other words, as an observer, participant and recorder: the events of 1792/3 ratify the poem, and her experience verifies their relevance. Smith herself tried to deny the poem’s political tone, calling it ‘not a party book but a conciliatory book’ and ‘not on politics’.2 Given the cli- mate of the times, and the desperate pressure she was under at the time for money, this operates more as a feint than a true reflection of the poem. The force of lines like ‘Fortune’s worthless favourites’ or ‘Ye venal, worthless hirelings of a Court! / Ye pamper’d Parasites! whom Britons pay / for forging fetters for them’ (p. 132) carry an explicitly political critique, especially when Smith warns such figures to Study a lesson that concerns ye much; And, trembling, learn, that if oppress’d too long, The raging multitude, to madness stung, Will turn on their oppressors; and, no more By sounding titles and parading forms Bound like tame victims, will redress themselves! (pp. 132–3) 1 Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 132, n. 2 Letter to Joseph Cooper Walker, 20 February 1793; letter to Thomas Cadell Sr, 16 December 1792 (Collected Letters, pp. 62, 54). Introduction xv

When we consider that at the same time she was writing these lines, and others like them, she was begging Thomas Cadell for advances, justify- ing her continued practice of drawing on him for rather large sums, and being thrown out of her lodgings for non-payment of rent, then images of oppression resonate all the more strongly. The undoubted pride in her accomplishment visible in the Dedication finds play, apparently, in only one letter, where she reports to Cadell that ‘Mr. Hayley yesterday sent me back a considerable fraction of the 2nd part of the Poem which he thinks even better than the first – as I believe it is, tho God knows how I have done it…’.1 It would be to underestimate a poet as alive to nuances of language and structure as the Sonnets show Smith to be to view a poem with lines like those quoted and others that refer to the ‘revolution’ of the moon and the ‘vindicat[ion]’ of her reputation as ‘not on politics’. Equally, however, it would be to misunderstand The Emigrants to view it as solely, or even mostly, ‘on politics’. Smith writes a persona whose movement from the cliffs to the embow- ered lone cottage, from a position overlooking the emigrants to one identifying with their exile, from the present day of November 1792 or April 1793 to ‘those hours of simple joy’ (p. 144) of her childhood, allow her to be both poet and subject. This is one reason why the prospect view is so important; the vista it opens up encompasses landscape, history and memory. The poem is mapped by the poet and explored by the speaker. Details matter: the town-directed placement of Book One (‘on the Cliffs to the Eastward of the Town of Brighthelmstone in Sussex’) and its ‘Wintry Morn’ (p. 125) temporality suggest a social focus – the emigrants – and an opening that is both the beginning (of the day) and the end (of the year). Likewise, the enlarged vista of Book Two (‘on an Eminence on one of those Downs, which afford to the South a View of the Sea; to the North of the Weald of Sussex’ (p. 137)) and its reversed temporality (‘an Afternoon in April’ (p. 137)) are suggestive in ways beyond mere parallel- ism. Smith shows a command of imagery and of subjectivity in this poem that establishes a new genre: a self-reflexive investigation of selfhood and the correspondences between the personal past and the political present. The Emigrants fuses the political, the personal and the poetic; it creates a tonal style that impacts directly on the young Wordsworth, himself seek- ing a poetic voice. The famous lines opening ‘Tintern Abbey’, with their emphasis on a merged past and present, direct readers to a point five years before July 1798: that is, sometime in early summer 1793. The Emigrants, published in May 1793, draws readers into Book Two by emphasizing, significantly, a merged past and present: 1 Letter to Thomas Cadell, Charles Thomas-Stanford archive, Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton & Hove, on deposit in the East Sussex Record Office: ACC 8997 (L/AE/67, 18 April 1793). xvi Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

Long wintry months are past; the Moon that now Lights her pale crescent even at noon, has made Four times her revolution, since with step, Mournful and slow, along the wave-worn cliff , Pensive I took my solitary way … (p. 137)

Unusually for Smith, The Emigrants did not go into multiple editions, and she returned to her sonnets after its publication. Her main effort was the production of Volume II of the Elegiac Sonnets, first published in 1797. This contained thirty-two additional sonnets as well as the other poems described above. As Smith slipped deeper into penury, it may be that writing novels for a ready income overtook her poetical efforts.1 And yet, in the years between 1797 and her death in 1806, despite personal tragedies, continuing severe hardship and the loss of friends to death and indiffer- ence, Smith composed some of her most important poetry, culminating in Beachy Head, the first wholly Romantic contemplative poem. Its focus on nature, memory, history and selfhood builds on but surpasses all her previous efforts. Both detailed and abstract, personal and public, scientifi- cally precise and poetically ornamental, it illustrates all that is to be gained by immersing the self and the imagination in nature. Smith’s Nature, in Beachy Head, is botanical, quotidian, nurturing and vital. It is about humanity as well as the non-human. Indeed, for Smith the two are complexly intertwined: the Imagination, whether named as Fancy, Contemplation or Memory, is launched within Nature, even as Nature is enlivened by the Poet’s imaginative energies. Thus, Beachy Head is about display: the beauties and wonders of nature, the comprehensive botanical, geological, and historical knowledge of the author, even her poetical corpus. Smith revisits many of her previous poetic postures in the poem, and not always support- ively; there is a keen sense of what we would now call ‘closure’ operating, as she visibly pulls back from what is, by the early nineteenth century, an over-rehearsed stance of woebegone-ness.2 But even as she does, she pursues a newer, potentially more viable path, developing the picture of an innocent childhood identification with the natural that she initiated in The Emigrants:

An early worshipper at Nature’s shrine, I loved her rudest scenes – warrens, and heaths, And yellow commons, and birch-shaded hollows, 1 The best source on Smith’s income remains Judith Phillips Stanton, ‘Charlotte Smith’s “Literary Business”: Income, Patronage, and Indigence’, The Age of Johnson 1 (1987), pp. 375–401. 2 See Chapter 5 of my Charlotte Smith: Romanticism, Poetry and the Culture of Gender (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003) for a full discussion of this self-referentiality. Introduction xvii

And hedge-rows,1 bordering unfrequented lanes Bowered with wild roses, and the clasping woodbine Where purple tassels of the tangling vetch With bittersweet, and bryony inweave, And the dew fills the silver bindweed’s cups – I loved to trace the brooks whose humid banks Nourish the harebell, and the freckled pagil; And stroll among o’ershadowing woods of beech, Lending in Summer, from the heats of noon A whispering shade … (p. 165)

Smith builds up a picture of a fecund, fertile Nature that is nonetheless ‘unfrequented’ and potentially dangerous for the uninitiated. Likewise, the intimacy that allows her to describe so minutely both Nature’s tangles and its shelters, no matter how unfrequented they are, establishes her deeply meaningful trope of belonging. Whereas in the Sonnets ‘those paint sorrow best who feel it most’ (p. 17), by Beachy Head it is Nature and Memory rather than Sorrow that enable poetry. Beachy Head fulfils Smith’s promise as an original Romantic poet; in addi- tion, as a fragment, ‘not completed according to the original design’ (p. 153), it stands as a prime example of an important Romantic subgenre.2 Nevertheless, its ‘remarkable coherence’3 attests to Smith’s poetic vision, despite her ‘increasing debility’ (p. 153). The remaining poems in Beachy Head: With Other Poems refute any idea that Smith’s debility extended to her poetic faculties. As with the poems that fleshed out the Elegiac Sonnets, they are noteworthy for their sheer variety and innovation, through which Smith addresses some abiding concerns: (in)constancy in love and friendship, the abundance of Nature’s treasures, loss and gain.4 The two fables that immediately follow Beachy Head, for instance, overcome their literary belatedness with a psychological depth that anticipates Victorian narrative poetry.5 While Smith glosses both poems with references to fabulists popular 1 Smith’s imagery indicates that she was a careful reader of Wordsworth, and that by the early 1800s there was significant cross-influence: but where Wordsworth shades his hedge- rows into the abstract ‘little lines / Of sportive wood run wild’ (‘Tintern Abbey’, ll. 16–17), Smith makes the hedgerows, and their constituent parts, visible. 2 The best analysis of this subgenre remains Marjorie Levinson’s The Romantic Fragment Poem: A Critique of a Form (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986). 3 Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. xxvii. 4 The two fables and ‘The Swallow’ are also found in her other posthumous publication, A Natural History of Birds, while ‘Flora’ and ‘Studies by the Sea’ were first published in 1804 in Conversations Introducing Poetry. See Volume 13 of The Works of Charlotte Smith. Posthumous publication means that Smith probably did not exercise her usual control over content. Still, the question of why only two of the bird fables (‘The Swallow’ is not, strictly speaking, a fable) were included in the Beachy Head volume is intriguing. 5 See Thomas Noel, Theories of Fable in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), for discussions of the standing of the fable genre in the late eighteenth century. xviii Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14 in the eighteenth century, La Fontaine and Pilpay (or Bidpai), she also makes the fables her own, rewriting the narratives and the morals. La Fontaine’s and Pilpay’s ‘Les deux Pigeons’, for example, focus on the wanderlust of a male pigeon and his eventual realization that ‘there’s no place like home’, but Smith infuses ‘The Truant Dove’ with betrayal. Her dove, led astray by unsuitable new friends, rejects not his comfortable home life but his devoted wife, committing adultery with a variety of tonish domesticated pigeons. After suffering life-threatening perils not described by either earlier fabulist, he is eventually found, dying, and is nursed back to health by his deserted family, concluding ‘if of domestic peace you are possess’d, / Learn to believe yourself supremely bless’d; /…. / So love your wife, and know when you are well’ (p. 183). Smith bolsters her version with a dark sexuality and emotional valences like lust and envy less the province of birds than an attribute of beasts, and one beast in particular: man. In ‘The Lark’s Nest, A Fable from Esop’, Smith merges Aesop’s tale with La Fontaine’s ‘L’Alouette et ses Petits’. Where both Aesop and La Fontaine describe the female lark only (indeed, La Fontaine ascribes the nestlings’ perilous late birth to the mother’s incautious delay, and dispenses with a father altogether), Smith again includes an errant husband, whose neglect of his nesting wife leads her to ‘leave her nest reluctant, and in haste / But just allo[w] herself to taste / A dewdrop, and a few small seeds’ (p. 185), only to find her nest destroyed by a dog. For Smith, the late nesting is the result not of female giddiness, as in La Fontaine, or even of simple happenstance, as in Aesop: it is the direct result of the male lark’s propensity to fly ‘from his low homested’ (p. 184) and spend his days singing. And even though he temporarily redeems himself with his ‘tender care’ over the second nest, he soon ‘again was on the ramble’ (p. 186). Both of the fables are concerned with themes of infidelity, lost love and untrustworthiness, also the focus in differing ways of ‘A Walk in the Shrubbery’, ‘Hope’, ‘Evening’, ‘Love and Folly’ and ‘On the Aphorism “L’Amitié est l’Amour sans ailes”’. The darkness of these last poems is balanced by a turn to a different kind of Nature in ‘The Swallow’, ‘Studies by the Sea’, ‘The Horologe of the Fields’, ‘Saint Monica’ and especially ‘Flora’. In these poems, the same nature that reminded the embittered speaker(s) in the Sonnets that there was ‘no second spring’ (p. 18) for the afflicted now conveys the opposite message. Nature is all about second springs; its cyclical and ever-changing environment gives hope to the wind-battered ‘Sons of the North’ (‘Studies by the Sea’ (p. 198)), establishes the strength and power of its ‘mysteries’ (‘The Swallow’ (p. 189)), and replaces ‘the works of man’ with ‘immortal Youth, / Unfading Beauty, and eternal Truth’ (‘Saint Monica’ (p. 205)). The longevity of natural history underpins the evanescence of human history, as in ‘Flora’, where Smith populates a world

Remote from scenes, where the o’erwearied mind Shrinks from the crimes and follies of mankind, Introduction xix

From hostile menace, and offensive boast, Peace, and her train of home-born pleasures lost; To Fancy’s reign, who would not gladly turn, And lose a while the miseries they mourn In sweet oblivion? (p. 189)

It is this sense of division, of waste, of grief that elevates ‘Flora’ beyond the satire of a mock epic or the poeticized botany of Erasmus Darwin. We turn to the natural world not as an intellectual exercise or in self-indulgence. It is not even simply a retreat. Nature provides an alternative, living, refresh- ing world, a ‘vision’ to ‘soothe the wearied Pilgrim’s eyes, / [And] afford an antepast of Paradise’ (p. 196). Where the ‘wearied Pilgrims’ of the Sonnets frequently sought a death that nonetheless constantly eluded them, in ‘Flora’ the speaker constructs Nature as a harbinger of human Death and Everlasting Life. As far back as The Emigrants Smith had declared a Nature-based faith: ‘my prayer was made / To him who hears even silence /… / I made my prayer/ In unison with murmuring waves / … / … every leaf / That Spring unfolds, and every simple bud, / More forcibly impresses on my heart / His power and wisdom …’ (p. 196). By Beachy Head: With Other Poems Smith can envisage not only the vitality of Nature but also a divinity within it. And so, how do we read a poet like Smith? How do we reconcile the poetic with the prosaic, the fanciful with the factual, the deceptively simple thematics of need with the complexities of tone, colour, voice and structure that inform her work? Fully occupied with the compositional process, equally concerned with the market; writing difficult poetry in an accessible genre; engaged on all levels with her readers to the extent that her notes are as much a part of the poems as her rhyme schemes, and her prefaces and dedications revelatory: Smith is both a fully professionalized writer who needed to make a living, and a poet who ‘know[s] the Poetry is good’.1 From the beginning Smith’s letters had shown her conviction that she is a sellable asset to her publishers; towards the end we see more and more her desire to be read and remembered: I confess it is my ambition, as the time cannot be far off when my literary career will close, to make the whole as perfect as it will admit of — As it is on the Poetry I have written that I trust for the little reputation I may hereafter have & know that it is not the least likely among the works of modern Poets to reach another period – if Any judgement can be formed from the success it has had in this …2 For Smith, there is little currency – in all senses of this word – in differen- tiating popular success from literary quality. To be read was to be bought;

1 Letter to William Davies, 11 July 1806 (Collected Letters, p. 740). 2 Letter to Thomas Cadell Jr and William Davies, 18 August 1805 (Collected Letters, pp. 705–6). to be bought was to be successful. For Smith, however, who sought perfection, ‘sacrific[ing] quality to quantity & empt[ying] my portfolio’, even to gain readers and income, was not the answer.1 The question, then, of how we read a poet like Smith can only be answered by doing as her contemporaries did, by reading her again and again, but with that same indebted sense of her importance that Wordsworth acknowledged in 1833. For without Smith, where would Romantic poetry be?

NOTE ON THE TEXT

For this edition I have preserved the punctuation as found in the copy- texts. Smith was a careful editor, and although modern readers might find some usage obscure, none the less it gives us a clearer sense of how poetry ‘spoke’ for her. In the few places where punctuation has been amended, this is marked with square brackets.

1 Letter to Thomas Cadell Jr and William Davies, 18 August 1805 (Collected Letters, pp. 705–6). REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Anderson, John, ‘Beachy Head: The Romantic Fragment Poem as Mosaic’, Huntingdon Library Quarterly 63:4 (2000), pp. 547–74 Brooks, Stella, ‘The Sonnets of Charlotte Smith’, Critical Survey 4:1 (1992), pp. 9–21 Curran, Stuart, ‘The “I” Altered’, in Romanticism and Feminism, ed. by Anne Mellor (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), pp. 279–93 — (ed.), The Poems of Charlotte Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) Dolan, Elizabeth, ‘British Romantic Melancholia: Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Medical Discourse, and the Problem of Sensibility’, Journal of European Studies 33:3–4 (2003), pp. 237–53 Fletcher, Loraine, Charlotte Smith: A Critical Biography (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998) Hawley, Judith, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Losses and Gains’, in Women’s Poetry in the Enlightenment: The Making of a Canon, 1730–1820, ed. by Isobel Armstrong and Virginia Blain (New York: Macmillan/St. Martin’s, 1999), pp. 184–98 Jung, Sandro, ‘Some Notes on the “Single Sentiment” and Romanticism of Charlotte Smith’, Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate 9:3 (1999–2000), pp. 269–84 Kelley, Theresa, ‘Romantic Histories: Charlotte Smith and Beachy Head’, Nineteenth-Century Literature 59:3 (2004), pp. 281–314 Kennedy, Deborah, ‘Thorns and Roses: The Sonnets of Charlotte Smith’, Women’s Writing 2:1 (1995), pp. 43–53 Labbe, Jacqueline M., ‘Selling One’s Sorrows: Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, and the Marketing of Poetry’, The Wordsworth Circle 25:2 (1994), pp. 68–71 —, ‘Every Poet Her Own Drawing Master: Charlotte Smith, Anna Seward, and Ut Pictura Poesis’, in Early Romantics: Perspectives in British Poetry xxii Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

from Pope to Wordsworth, ed. by Thomas Woodman (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998), pp. 200–14 —, Charlotte Smith: Romanticism, Poetry and the Culture of Gender (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003) —, ‘Communities: Mary Robinson, Charlotte Smith, Anna Letitia Barbauld, and Romanticism’, Literature Compass 1:1 (2003–4), www. literature-compass.com —, ‘The Seductions of Form in the Poetry of Ann Batten Cristall and Charlotte Smith’, in Romantic Form, ed. by Alan Rawes (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 154–70 —, ‘Emotion and/as Performance in Charlotte Smith’, in The Early Romantics: Nation, Identity, and Ecology in British Poetry of the Later Eighteenth Century, ed. by Tim Burke, Steve Clark and Katherine Turner (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming) Lokke, Kari, ‘“The Mild Dominion of the Moon”: Charlotte Smith and the Politics of Transcendence’, in Rebellious Hearts: British Women Writers and the French Revolution, ed. by Adriana Craciun and Kari Lokke (Albany: SUNY Press, 2001), pp. 85–106 Manini, Luca, ‘Charlotte Smith and the Voice of Petrarch’, in British Romanticism and Italian Literature: Translating, Reviewing, Rewriting, ed. by Laura Bandiera and Diego Saglia (New York: Rodopi, 2005), pp. 97–108 Mergenthal, Silvia, ‘Charlotte Smith and the Romantic Sonnet Revival’, in Feminist Contributions to the Literary Canon: Setting Standards of Taste, ed. by Susanne Fendler (Lewiston: Mellen, 1997), pp. 65–79 Meyenberg, Roger, ‘Some Comments on the Poems of Charlotte Smith’, unpublished MA thesis (University of York, 1994) Myers, Anne, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Androgynous Sonnets’, European Romantic Review 13:4 (2002), pp. 379–82 Pascoe, Judith, ‘Female Botanists and the Poetry of Charlotte Smith’, in Re-Visioning Romanticism: British Women Writers, 1776–1837, ed. by Carol Shiner Wilson and Joel Haefner (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), pp. 193–209 Pratt, Kathryn, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Melancholia on the Page and Stage’, Studies in English Literature 41:3 (2001), pp. 563–81 Raycroft, Brent, ‘From Charlotte Smith to Nehemiah Higginbottom: Revising the Genealogy of the Early Romantic Sonnet’, European Romantic Review 9:3 (1998), pp. 363–92 References and Further Reading xxiii

Richey, William, ‘The Rhetoric of Sympathy in Smith and Wordsworth’, European Romantic Review 13:4 (2002), pp. 427–43 Robinson, Daniel, ‘Reviving the Sonnet: Women Romantic Poets and the Sonnet Claim’, European Romantic Review 6:1 (1995), pp. 98–127 —, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Formal Paradoxy’, Papers on Language and Literature 39:2 (2003), pp. 185–220 Ruwe, Donelle, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Sublime: Feminine Poetics, Botany, and Beachy Head’, Prism(s): Essays in Romanticism 7 (1999), pp. 117–32 Stanton, Judith Phillips (ed.), The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003) Sussman, Charlotte, ‘The Art of Oblivion: Charlotte Smith and Helen of Troy’, Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 27 (1998), pp. 131–46 Tayebi, Kandi, ‘Charlotte Smith and the Quest for the Romantic Prophetic Voice’, Women’s Writing 11:3 (2004), pp. 421–38 —, ‘Undermining the Eighteenth-Century Pastoral: Rewriting the Poet’s Relationship to Nature in Charlotte Smith’s Poetry’, European Romantic Review 15:1 (2004), pp. 131–50 Thierfelder, Bill, ‘Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets’, Explicator 64:1 (2005), pp. 28–30 Wallace, Anne D., ‘Picturesque Fossils, Sublime Geography? The Crisis of Authority in Charlotte Smith’s Beachy Head’, European Romantic Review 13:1 (2002), pp. 77–93 Weisman, Karen, ‘Form and Loss in Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets’, The Wordsworth Circle 33:1 (2002), pp. 23–7 Wheeler, Maxwell, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Historical Narratives and the English Subject’, Prism(s): Essays in Romanticism 10 (2002), pp. 7–18 Wiley, Michael, ‘The Geography of Displacement and Replacement in Charlotte Smith’s The Emigrants’, European Romantic Review 17:1 (2006), pp. 55–68 Wolfson, Susan, ‘Charlotte Smith’s Emigrants: Forging Connections at the Borders of a Female Tradition’, Huntingdon Library Quarterly 63:4 (2000), pp. 509–46 Zimmerman, Sarah, Romanticism, Lyricism, and History (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999) —, ‘Dost Thou Not Know My Voice?’ in Romanticism and Women Poets: Opening the Doors of Reception, ed. by Harriet Kramer Linkin and Stephen Behrendt (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1999), pp. 101–24

ELEGIAC SONNETS, VOLUMES I AND II

When in 1783 Smith’s husband Benjamin was finally sent to prison for debt, she had already been sounding the poetical waters with her sonnets, albeit in pseudonymous disguise. From at least 1782, perhaps even earlier, Smith had been sending her poems to magazines, but it was not until she gathered the first sixteen sonnets (along with ‘Song. From the French of Cardinal Bernis’ and ‘Origin of Flattery’) into a volume in May 1784 that she came out unambiguously on the title page as ‘Charlotte Smith, of Bignor Park, in Sussex’. Much has been made of her public self-naming, and certainly, given the notoriety achieved by Benjamin Smith, of King’s Bench Prison, in London, her relocation cloaked her in the gentility of her upbringing. Published by James Dodsley, whose publishing house had long been associated with respectable literature, the poems went immediately into a second edition. In February 1786 the third and fourth editions saw ‘Song’ and ‘Origin’ dropped, but twenty new sonnets added, including a fourth ‘from Petrarch’ and the final two ‘supposed to have been written by Werter’. The success of the venture can be measured by the more than 800 names listed as subscribers to the fifth edition, in 1789, when Thomas Cadell took over as publisher. For this edition, Smith supplied twelve new sonnets, reinserted the Bernis poem and ‘Origin’, added ‘Ode to Despair’ and ‘Elegy’, and arranged for the inclusion of plates. The sixth edition, in 1792, contained the first of her lengthy Prefaces, wherein she rehearsed, in quite an unfeminine manner, her trials at the hands of untrustworthy men: her husband, and especially the lawyers handling the lawsuit over her father-in-law’s will. For this edition she added eleven new sonnets, ‘The Peasant of the Alps’, ‘Thirty-Eight’ and ‘Verses … Prefixed to Emmeline’. This provided the final form of what was to become Volume I of the Sonnets. Volume II was being talked about as early as 1794, and probably earlier; in a letter to Joseph Cooper Walker, Smith notes that ‘[s]ome time since it was propos’d to me to publish a second Volume of Poems with Plates of the same size as the first …’1 This volume, however, was delayed until 1797, when it was published with a Preface so inflammatory and intense in its misery that it threatened to overtake the poetry altogether.

1 25 March 1794, in The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith, ed. by Judith Phillips Stanton (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 104. 2 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

For this volume, published by subscription but with many hundred fewer names than in 1789, Smith supplied twenty-four sonnets as well as all but the last four of the ‘other poems’ listed in the contents to the present edition. Finally, in 1800, Volume II reached a second edition and appeared, sans Preface, with eight new sonnets and the final four ‘other poems’. For this edition I have combined the ninth edition of Volume I with the second edition of Volume II, as they appeared together in 1800, but with the suppressed Preface in place. Once Smith began publishing her novels, she often wrote poems into them: the effusions and compositions of her characters, frequently repre- sented as spontaneous overflows of powerful feeling. She then plucked these poems from the novels to flesh out the editions of the Sonnets, with the interesting result that a poem presented in a novel as the distinctive production of a specific character is then absorbed into the more personalized world of trauma of the Sonnets. Smith follows Gray in her understanding that the sonnet allowed for the expression of compressed grief and woe, but her willingness to allow a sonnet to represent, say, the misery of Orlando Somerive in The Old Manor House even as it perpetuates the alienation of the putatively autobiographical speaker of the Sonnets shows unmistakably that Smith comprehended the distance literature allows between author and speaker. And yet, she also used the poems to explore actual states of grief, as the many sonnets and other poems either directly or indirectly about the loss of her daughter Augusta show. What the enlarging contents of the editions disguise is that, for Smith, poetry was art: it was carefully crafted with a skill and concentration that is emphasized by the relatively few alterations she made. While variants exist, of course, they are rarely substantive; Smith knew what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it. Elegiac Sonnets, Volume I reaches maturity in 1792. It is followed by The Emigrants. In the four years before Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II was published, Smith began to explore alternative genres. As noted in the Introduction and in the Explanatory Notes, several of the ‘other poems’ function clearly as lyrical ballads or tales, most especially ‘The Forest Boy’ and ‘Lydia’. The earlier ‘Elegy’ and ‘The Peasant of the Alps’ suggest the form as well. Even, then, as the sonnets rejuvenate an enervated genre, Smith develops from them an awareness of narrative content and style which provides a tem- plate for the lyrical ballad, and which signposts the fables, for instance, that will appear in her late works. By 1800 the Elegiac Sonnets had run aground; there wasn’t another edition of Volume II until 1806, and nothing further until 1812, which saw a fourth edition of Volume II and a tenth of Volume I. The poetry of the last years of Smith’s life turned from the emotionally darkened landscape of the Sonnets to a natural world enlivened by science, as evinced by Beachy Head: With Other Poems. From 1784 onwards, none- Elegiac Sonnets 3 theless, readers can say with John Thelwall: ‘Over the epic field, Milton, of all British bards, triumphs without a rival, Shakespeare in the dramatic, and in the sonnet, Charlotte.’1

This table lists the sonnets according to their rhyme schemes. It reveals how experimental Smith was with rhyme: the ‘irregular/mixed’ column contains sonnets Shakespearean or Petrarchan in structure, but neither in rhyme; sonnets with repeated and near rhymes; sonnets that mix Shakespearean and Petrarchan rhymes; and sonnets that defy any kind of definition. The single Petrarchan sonnet is, interestingly, not one of the sonnets ‘from Petrarch’ but one ‘To Melancholy’. Smith often played with structure as well, mixing and combining quatrains, octaves, sestets and couplets. In her sonnets, form is of paramount importance.

Shakespearean Petrarchan Irregular/mixed I, II, IV–VII, X, XI, XXXII III, VIII, IX, XII, XIV, XIII, XV–XIX, XXI–XXV, XX, XXVII, XXIX, XXXI, XXVIII, XXX, XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVII–XXXIX, XXXV, XXXVI, XL, LIII, XLI–LII, LIV, LVII, LV, LVIII, LX–LXIV, LIX, LXV, LXVI, LXIX, LXVII, LXVIII, LXXI, LXX, LXXII–LXXIV, LXXV, LXXVIII, LXXX LXXVI, LXXVII, LXXIX, LXXXI–XCII

1 Universal Magazine (December 1792), pp. 408–14.

ELEGIAC SONNETS, &C.

VOL. I. Oh! Time has Changed me since you saw me last, And heavy Hours with Time’s deforming Hand, Have written strange Defeatures in my Face. ELEGIAC SONNETS,

AND

OTHER POEMS,

BY CHARLOTTE SMITH.

VOL. I.

THE NINTH EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES, IN THE STRAND. 1800.

R. NOBLE, Printer, Old Bailey.

WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ. 1

SIR, WHILE I ask your protection for these essays, I cannot deny having myself some esteem for them. Yet permit me to say, that did I not trust to your candour and sensibility, and hope they will plead for the errors your judgment must discover, I should never have availed myself of the liberty I have obtained – that of dedicating these simple effusions to the greatest modern Master of that charming talent, in which I can never be more than a distant copyist. I am, SIR, Your most obedient and obliged Servant, CHARLOTTE SMITH.a PREFACE

TO THE

FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS.

THE little Poems which are here called Sonnets, have, I believe, no very just claim to that title; but they consist of fourteen lines, and appear to me no improper vehicle for a single Sentiment. I am told, and I read it as the opinion of very good judges, that the legitimate2 Sonnet is ill calculated for our language. The specimen3 Mr. Hayley has given, though they form a strong exception, prove no more than that the difficulties of the attempt vanish before uncommon powers. Some very melancholy moments have been beguiled by expressing in verse the sensations those moments brought. Some of my friends, with partial indiscretion, have multiplied the copies they procured of several of these attempts, till they found their way into the prints of the day in a mutilated state;4 which, concurring with other circumstances, determined me to put them into their present form. I can hope for readers only among the few, who, to sensibility of heart, join simplicity of taste.a5 PREFACE

TO THE

THIRD AND FOURTH EDITIONS.

THE reception given by the public, as well as my particular friends, to the two first editions of these poems, has induced me to add to the present such other Sonnets as I have written since, or have recovered from my acquaintance, to whom I had given them without thinking well enough of them at the time to preserve any copies myself.6 A few of those last written I have attempted on the Italian model; with what success I know not; but I am persuaded that, to the generality of readers, those which are less regular will be more pleasing.7 As a few notes were necessary, I have added them at the end. I have there quoted such lines as I have borrowed; and even where I am conscious the ideas were not my own, I have restored them to the original possessors.a PREFACE

TO THE

FIFTH EDITION.

IN printing a list of so many noble, literary, and respectable names, it would become me, perhaps, to make my acknowledgments to those friends, to whose exertions in my favor, rather than to any merit of my own, I owe the brilliant assemblage.8 With difficulty I repress what I feel on this subject; but in the conviction that such acknowledgments would be painful to them, I forbear publicly to speak of those particular obligations, the sense of which will ever be deeply impressed on my heart. PREFACE

TO THE

SIXTH EDITION.

WHEN a sixth Edition of these little Poems was lately called for,9 it was pro- posed to me to add such Sonnets, or other pieces, as I might have written since the publication of the fifth — Of these, however, I had only a few; and on shewing them to a friend,10 of whose judgment I had an high opinion, he remarked that some of them, particularly ‘The Sleeping Woodman,’ and ‘The Return of the Nightingale,’ resembled in their subjects, and still more in the plaintive tone in which they are written, the greater part of those in the former Editions – and that, perhaps, some of a more lively cast might be better liked by the Public — ‘Toujours Perdrix,’ said my friend – ‘Toujours Perdrix,’ you know, ‘ne vaut rien.’ – I am far from suppos- ing that your compositions can be neglected or disapproved, on whatever subject: but perhaps ‘toujours Rossignols, toujours des chanson triste,’11 may not be so well received as if you attempted, what you would certainly execute as successfully, a more cheerful style of composition. ‘Alas! replied I, ‘Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?’12 Or can the effect cease, while the cause remains? You know that when in the Beech Woods of Hampshire,13 I first struck the chords of the melancholy lyre, its notes were never intended for the public ear! It was unaffected sorrows drew them forth: I wrote mournfully because I was unhappy – And I have unfortunately no reason yet, though nine years have since elapsed, to change my tone. The time is indeed arrived, when I have been promised by ‘the Honourable Men’ who, nine years ago, undertook to see that my family obtained the provision their grandfather designed for them, – that ‘all should be well, all should be settled.’14 But still I am condemned to feel the ‘hope delayed that maketh the heart sick.’15 Still to receive – not a repetition of promises indeed – but of scorn and insult, when I apply to those gentlemen, who, though they acknowledge that all impediments to a division of the estate they have undertaken to manage, are done away – will neither tell me when they will proceed to divide it, or whether they will ever do so at all. You know the circumstances under which I have now so long been labouring; and you have done me the honor to say, that few Women could 14 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14 so long have contended with them. With these, however, as they are some of them of a domestic and painful nature, I will not trouble the Public now; but while they exist in all their force, that indulgent Public must accept all I am able to achieve – ‘Toujours des Chansons Tristes!’ Thus ended the short dialogue between my friend and me, and I repeat it as an apology for that apparent despondence, which, when it is observed for a long series of years, may look like affectation. I shall be sorry, if on some future occasion, I should feel myself compelled to detail its causes more at length; for, notwithstanding I am thus frequently appearing as an Authoress, and have derived from thence many of the greatest advantages of my life, (since it has procured me friends whose attachment is most invaluable,) I am well aware that for a woman – ‘The Post of Honor is a Private Station.’16

London, May 14, 1792. CONTENTS.

SONNETS. Page I...... 17 II. Written at the close of Spring ...... 17 III. To a Nightingale ...... 18 IV. To the Moon ...... 18 V. To the South Downs ...... 20 VI. To Hope ...... 20 VII. On the Departure of the Nightingale ...... 21 VIII. To Spring ...... 21 IX 22 X. To Mrs. G ...... 22 XI. To Sleep ...... 23 XII. Written on the Sea Shore ...... 23 XIII. From Petrarch ...... 25 XIV. From the same ...... 25 XV. From the same ...... 26 XVI. From Petrarch ...... 26 XVII. From the 13th Cantata of Metastasio ...... 27 XVIII. To the Earl of Egremont ...... 27 XIX. To Mr. Hayley ...... 28 XX. To the Countess of A— ...... 28 XXI. Supposed to be written by Werter ...... 29 XXII. By the same ...... 30 XXIII. By the same ...... 30 XXIV. By the same ...... 31 XXV. By the same ...... 31 XXVI. To the River Arun ...... 32 XXVII ...... 32 XXVIII. To Friendship ...... 34 XXIX. To Miss C— ...... 34 XXX. To the River Arun ...... 35 XXXI. Written in Farm Wood, on the South Downs, May 1784 . 35 XXXII. To Melancholy. Written on the Banks of the Arun . . . . 36 XXXIII. To the Naiad of the Arun ...... 36 XXXIV. To a Friend ...... 37 XXXV. To Fortitude ...... 37 XXXVI...... 38 XXXVII. Sent to the Honorable Mrs. O’Neill, with painted flowers ...... 38 XXXVIII. From the Novel of Emmeline ...... 40 XXXIX. To Night. From the same ...... 40 XL. From the same ...... 41 XLI. To Tranquillity ...... 41 XLII. Composed during a walk on the Downs, in November 1787 ...... 42 XLIII...... 42 XLIV. Written in the church-yard at Middleton in Sussex . . . . . 43 XLV. On leaving a part of Sussex ...... 43 XLVI. Written at Penshurst, in Autumn 1788 ...... 44 XLVII. To Fancy ...... 44 XLVIII. To Mrs. **** ...... 45 XLIX. From the Novel of Celestina ...... 45 L. From the same ...... 46 LI. From the same ...... 46 LII. From the same...... 47 LIII. From the same ...... 47 LIV. The Sleeping Woodman ...... 48 LV. The Return of the Nightingale ...... 48 LVI. The Captive escaped in the Wilds of America ...... 49 LVII. To Dependence ...... 49 LVIII. The Glow-worm ...... 50 LIX. Written Sept. 1791, during a remarkable Thunder Storm . . 50 Ode to Despair. From the Novel of Emmeline ...... 51 Elegy ...... 52 Song. From the French of Cardinal Bernis ...... 55 The Origin of Flattery ...... 55 The Peasant of the Alps ...... 58 Song ...... 60 Thirty-eight ...... 60 Verses intended to have been prefixed to the Novel of Emmeline . 62 ELEGIAC SONNETS.

SONNET I17

THE partial18 Muse has from my earliest hours Smiled on the rugged path I’m doom’d to tread,a And still with sportive hand has snatch’d wild flowers, To weave fantastic garlands for my head: But far,b far happier is the lot of those Who never learn’d her dear delusive art;c Which, while it decks the head with many a rose, Reserves the thorn to fester in the heart. For still she bids soft Pity’sd melting eye Stream o’er the illse she knows not to remove,19 Points every pang, and deepens every sigh Of mourning Friendship,f or unhappyg Love. Ah! then, howh dear the Muse’si favours cost, If those paint sorrow best – who feel it most!*

SONNET II.

WRITTEN AT THE CLOSE OF SPRING.20

THE garlands fade that Spring so lately wove, Each simple flower which she had nursed in dew, Anemonies,j that spangled every grove,† The primrose wan, and hare-bell mildly blue. No more shall violets linger in the dell, Or purple orchisk21 variegate the plain,

* ‘The well-sung woes shall sooth my pensive ghost; He best can paint them who shall feel them most.’ Pope’s Eloisa to Abelard, 366th line. † Anemony Nemeroso. The wood Anemony. 18 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

Till Spring again shall call forth every bell, And dress with humid22 hands her wreaths again.a – Ah! poor Humanity!b so frail, so fair, Are the fond visions of thy early day, Till tyrant Passion,c and corrosive Care,d Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!e Another Mayf new buds and flowers shall bring; Ah! why has happiness — no second Spring?g23

SONNET III.

TO A NIGHTINGALE.

POOR melancholy bird –h that all night long* Tell’st to the Mooni thy tale of tender woe; From what sad cause can such sweet sorrow flow, And whence this mournful melody of song?

Thy poet’s musing fancy would translate What mean the sounds that swell thy little breast, When still at dewy eve thou leavest thy nest, Thus to the listening Night to sing thy fate?j

Pale Sorrow’s victims wert thou once among, Tho’ now released in woodlands wild to rove? Say –k hast thou felt from friends some cruel wrong, Or died’st thoul — martyr of disastrous love? Ah! songstress sad! that such my lot might be, To sigh,m and sing at liberty — like thee!

SONNET IV.

TO THE MOON.

QUEEN of the silver bow!25 – by thy pale beam, Alone and pensive, I delight to stray, And watch thy shadow trembling in the stream, Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way. And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast; And oft I think — fair planet of the night,

* The idea from the 43d Sonnet of Petrarch. Secondo parte. ‘Quel rosigniuol, che si soave piagne.’ 24 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 19

Queen of the Silver Bow, &c. 20 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

That in thy orb the wretched may have rest: The sufferers of the earth perhaps may go, Released by death — to thy benignant sphere; And the sad children of Despair and Woe Forget, in thee, their cup of sorrow here. Oh! that I soon may reach thy world serene, Poor wearied pilgrim — in this toiling scene!

SONNET V.

TO THE SOUTH DOWNS.26

AH! hills belov’d — where once a happya child, Your beechen shades,b ‘your turf, your flowers among,’c* I wove your blue-bells into garlands wild, And woke your echoes with my artless song.d Ah! hills belov’d!e – your turf, your flowers remain;f But can they peace to this sad breast restore;g For one poor momenth soothi the sense of pain, And teach a breaking heart to throb no more? And you, Aruna!j — in the vale below, As to the seak your limpid waves youl bear, Can youm one kind Lethean28 cup bestow, To drink a long oblivion to my care?n Ah, no!o — when all, e’en Hope’sp last ray is gone, There’s no oblivion — but in death alone!

SONNET VI.

TO HOPE.

O HOPE! thou soother sweet of human woes! How shall I lure thee to my haunts forlorn? For me wilt thou renew the wither’d rose, And clear my painful path of pointed thorn? Ah, come, sweet nymph! in smiles and softness drest, Like the young Hours that lead the tender Year; Enchantress!29 come, and charm my cares to rest: — Alas! the flatterer flies, and will not hear! A prey to fear, anxiety, and pain,

* ‘Whose turf, whose shades, whose flowers among.’ Gray.27 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 21

Must I a sad existence still deplore? Lo! – the flowers fade, but all the thorns remain, ‘For me the vernal garland blooms no more.’* Come, then, ‘pale Misery’s love!’† be thou my cure, And I will bless thee, who, tho’ slow, art sure.

SONNET VII.

ON THE DEPARTURE OF THE NIGHTINGALE.32

SWEET poet of the woods!a — a long adieu! Farewel,b soft minstrel of the early year!c Ah! ’twill be long ere thou shalt sing anew, And pour thy music on ‘the Night’s dull ear.’d ‡ Whether on Springe§ thy wandering flights await,f Or whether silent in our groves youg dwell, The pensive Muse shall own thee for her mate,h ¶ And still protect the song she loves so well. With cautious stepi the love-lorn youth shall glide Thro’ the lone brake that shades thy mossy nest;j And shepherd girlsk from eyes profane shall hidel The gentle bird, whom sings of pity best: For still thy voice shall soft affections move, And still be dear to Sorrow, and to Love!n

SONNET VIII.

TO SPRING.

AGAIN the wood, and long-withdrawing35 vale, In many a tint of tender green are drest, Where the young leaves, unfolding, scarce conceal Beneath their early shade, the half-form’d nest Of finch or woodlark; and the primrose pale, And lavish cowslip, wildly scatter’d round, Give their sweet spirits to the sighing gale. Ah! season of delight! — could aught be found

* Pope’s Imit. 1st Ode, 4th Book of Horace.30 † Shakspeare’s King John.31 ‡ Shakspeare.33 § Alludes to the supposed migration of the Nightingale. ¶ ‘Whether the Muse or Love call thee his mate. Both them I serve, and of their train am I.’ Milton’s First Sonnet.34 22 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

To sooth awhile the tortured bosom’sa pain. Of Sorrow’s rankling shaftb to cure the wound, And bring life’s first delusions once again, ’Twere surely met in thee! — thy prospectc fair, Thy soundsd of harmony, thy balmy air, Have power to cure all sadness — but despair.*

SONNET IX.

BLEST is yon shepherd, on the turf reclined, Who on the varied clouds which float above Lies idly gazing — while his vacant mind Pours out some tale antique of rural love! Ah! he has never felt the pangs that move Th’ indignant spirit, when with selfish pride, Friends, on whose faith the trusting heart rely’d, Unkindly shun th’ imploring eye of woe! The ills they ought to sooth, with taunts deride, And laugh at tears themselves have forced to flow.† Nor his rude bosom those fine feelings melt, Children of Sentiment and Knowledge born, Thro’ whom each shaft with cruel force is felt, Empoison’d by deceit — or barb’d with scorn.

SONNET X.

TO MRS. G.

AH! why will Mem’ry with officious care The long-lost visions of my days renew? Why paint the vernal landscape green and fair, When Life’s gay dawn was opening to my view? Ah! wherefore bring those moments of delight, When with my Anna, on the southern shore, I thought the future, as the present, bright? Ye dear delusions! — ye return no more! Alas! how diff ’rent does the truth appear,

* ‘To the heart inspires Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All sadness but despair.’ Paradise Lost, Fourth Book.36 † ‘And hard Unkindness’ alter’d eye, That mocks the tear it forced to flow.’ Gray.37 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 23

From the warm picture youth’s rash hand pourtrays How fades the scene, as we approach it near, And pain and sorrow strike – how many ways! Yet of that tender heart, ah! still retain A share for me — and I will not complain.

SONNET XI.

TO SLEEP.38

COME, balmy Sleep! tired Nature’s soft resort!a39 On these sad temples all thy poppies shed;b And bid gay dreams, from Morpheus’40 airy court, Floatc* in light vision round my aching head!d Secure of all thy blessings, partial Power!e On his hard bed the peasant throws him down;f And the poor sea-boy, in the rudest hour, Enjoys thee more than he who wears a crown.† Clasp’d in her faithful shepherd’s guardian arms, Well many the village-girlg sweet slumbers prove;h And they, O gentle Sleep!i still taste thy charms, Who wake to labour, liberty, and love. But still thy opiate aid dost thou deny To calm the anxious breast;j to close the streaming eye.

SONNET XII.

WRITTEN ON THE SEA SHORE. – OCTOBER, 1784.43

ON some rude fragment of the rocky shore, Where on the fractured cliff the billows break, Musing, my solitary seat44 I take, And listen to the deep and solemn roar.

O’er the dark waves the winds tempestuous howl; The screaming sea-bird quits the troubled sea:

* ‘Float in light vision round the poet’s head.’ Mason.41 † ‘Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast Seal up the ship boy’s eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude impetuous surge?’ &c. Shakspeare’s Henry IV.42 24 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

On Some rude fragment of the rocky shore. Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 25

But the wild gloomy scene has charms for me.a And suits the mournful temper of my soul.*

Already shipwreck’d by the storms of Fate, Like the poor mariner, methinks, I stand, Cast on a rock; who sees the distant land From whence no succour comes – or comes too late. Faint and more faint are heard his feeble cries, ’Till in the rising tide the exhausted sufferer dies.

SONNET XIII.

FROM PETRARCH.

OH! place me where the burning noon† Forbids the wither’d flower to blow; Or place me in the frigid zone, On mountains of eternal snow: Let me pursue the steps of Fame, Or Poverty’s more tranquil road; Let youth’s warm tide my veins inflame, Or sixty winters chill my blood: Tho’ my fond soul to heaven were flown, Or tho’ on earth ’tis doom’d to pine, Prisoner or free – obscure or known, My heart, O Laura! still is thine. Whate’er my destiny may be, That faithful heart still burns for thee!

SONNET XIV.

FROM PETRARCH.

LOOSE to the wind her golden tresses stream’d,‡ Formingb bright waves with amorous Zephyr’sc sighs;48 Andd tho’ averted now, her charming eyes Then with warm love,e and melting pity beam’d. Was I deceived? – Ah! surely, nymph divine! That fine suffusion on thy cheek was love;

* Yo u n g .45 † ‘Pommi ove’l Sol, occide i fiori e l’erba.’ Petrarch, Sonnetto 112. Parte primo.46 ‡ ‘Erano i capei d’oro all aura sparsi.’ Sonnetto 69. Parte primo.47 26 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

What wonder then those beauteousa tints should move, Should fire this heart, this tender heart of mine! Thy soft melodious voice, thy air, thy shape, Were of a goddess — not a mortal maid; Ye t b tho’ thy charms, thy heavenly charms should fade, My heart, my tender heart could not escape; Nor cure for me in time or change be found: The shaft extracted does not cure the wound!c

SONNET XV.

FROM PETRARCH.

WHERE the green leaves exclude the summer beam,* And softly bend as balmy breezes blow, And where, with liquid lapse, the lucid stream Across the fretted50 rock is heard to flow, Pensive I lay: when she whom earth conceals, As if still living to my eyes appears, And pitying Heaven her angel form reveals, To say – ‘Unhappy Petrarch! dry your tears; Ah! why, sad lover! thus before your time, In grief and sadnessd should your life decay, And like a blighted flower, your manly prime In vain and hopeless sorrow fade away? Ah! yield not thus to culpable despair, But raise thine eyes to heaven – and think I wait thee there.’e

SONNET XVI.

FROM PETRARCH.

YE vales and woods! fair scenes of happier hours;† Ye feather’d people! tenants of the grove; And you, bright stream! befringed with shrubs and flowers; Beholdf my grief, ye witnesses of love!

For ye beheld my infant passion rise,52 And saw thro’ years unchang’d my faithful flame;

* ‘Se lamentar augelli o verdi fronde.’ Sonnetto 21. Parte secondo.49 † ‘Valle che de lamenti miei se piena.’ Sonnetto 33. Parte secondo.51 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 27

Now cold, in dust, the beauteous object lies, And you, ye conscious scenes, are still the same!

While busy Memory still delights to dwell On all the charms these bitter tears deplore, And with a trembling hand describes too well The angel form I shall behold no more! To heaven she’s fled! and nought to me remains But the pale ashes which her urn contains.

SONNET XVII.

FROM THE THIRTEENTH CANTATA OF METASTASIO.

ON thy grey bark, in witness of my flame,* I carve Miranda’s cipher — Beauteous tree! Graced with the lovely letters of her name, Henceforth be sacred to my love and me! Tho’ the tall elm, the oak, and darkera pine, With broader arms may noon’s fierce ardors break, To shelter me, and her I love, be thine; And thine to see her smile and hear her speak. No bird, ill-omen’d, round thy graceful head Shall clamour harsh, or wave his heavy wing, But fern and flowers arise beneath thy shade, Where the wild bees their lullabies shall sing. And in thy boughs the murmuring ring-dove rest; And there the nightingale shall build her nest.

SONNET XVIII.

TO THE EARL OF EGREMONT.54

WYNDHAM! ’tis not thy blood, tho’ pure it runs, Thro’ a long line of glorious ancestry, Percys and Seymours,55 Britain’s boasted sons, Who trust the honors of their race to thee:

’Tis not thy splendid domes, where Science56 loves To touch the canvas, and the bust to raise;

* ‘Scrivo in te l’amato nome Di colei, per cui, mi moro.’ This is not meant as a translation; the original is much longer, and full of images, which could not be introduced in a Sonnet. – And some of them, though very beautiful in the Italian, would not appear to advantage in an English dress.53 28 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

Thy rich domains, fair fields, and spreading groves, ’Tis not all these the Muse delights to praise:

In birth, and wealth, and honors, great thou art! But nobler in thy independent mind;57 And in that liberal hand and feeling heart Given thee by Heaven – a blessing to mankind! Unworthy oft may titled fortune be; A soul like thine — is true Nobility!

SONNET XIX.

TO MR. HAYLEY, ON RECEIVING SOME ELEGANT LINES FROM HIM.

FOR me the Muse a simple band design’d Of ‘idle’ flowers that bloom the woods among, Which, with the cypress and the willow58 join’d, A garland form’d as artless as my song. And little dared I hope its transient hours So long would last; composed of buds so brief; ’Till Hayley’s hand among the vagrant flowers Threw from his verdant crown a deathless leaf. For high in Fame’s bright fane has Judgment placed The laurel wreath Serena’s poet won, Which, woven with myrtles by the hands of Taste, The Muse decreed for this her favorite son.59 And those immortal leaves his temples shade, Whose fair, eternal verdure – shall not fade!

SONNET XX.

TO THE COUNTESS OF A—.60 WRITTEN ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HER MARRIAGE.

ON this blest day may no dark cloud, or shower, With envious shade the Sun’s bright influence hide! But all his rays illume the favour’d hour, That saw thee, Mary! – Henry’s lovely bride!

With years revolving may it still arise, Blest with each good approving Heaven can send!a Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 29

And still, with ray serene, shall those blue eyes Enchant the husband, and attach the friend!

For you fair Friendship’s amaranth61 shall blow, And Love’s own thornless roses bind your brow; And when – long hence – to happier worlds you go, Your beauteous race shall be what you are now! And future Nevills thro’ long ages shine, With hearts as good, and forms as fair as thine!

SONNET XXI.

SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY WERTER.

GO, cruel tyrant of the human breast! To other hearts thy burning arrows bear; Go where fond Hope, and fair Illusion rest; Ah! why should Love inhabit with Despair? Like the poor maniac* I linger here, Still haunt the scene where all my treasure lies; Still seek for flowers where only thorns appear, ‘And drink delicious poison from her eyes!’† Tow’rds the deep gulf that opens on my sight I hurry forward, Passion’s helpless slave! And scorning Reason’s mild and sober light, Pursue the path that leads me to the grave! So round the flame the giddy insect flies, And courts the fatal fire by which it dies!

* See the Story of the Lunatic. ‘Is this the destiny of man? Is he only happy before he possesses his reason, or after he has lost it? – Full of hope you go to gather flowers in winter, and are grieved not to find any – and do not know why they cannot be found.’ Sorrows of Werter. Volume Second.62 † ‘And drink delicious poison from thine eye.’ Pope.63 30 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET XXII.

BY THE SAME. TO SOLITUDE.

O SOLITUDE! to thy sequester’d vale* I come to hide my sorrow and my tears, And to thy echos tell the mournful tale Which scarce I trust to pitying Friendship’s ears! Amidst thy wild-woods, and untrodden glades,65 No sounds but those of melancholy move; And the low winds that die among thy shades, Seem like soft Pity’s sighs for hopeless love! And sure some story of despair and pain, In yon deep copse thy murm’ring doves relate; And, hark, methinks in that long plaintive strain, Thine own sweet songstress weeps my wayward fate!a Ah, Nymph! that fate assist me to endure, And bear awhile – what Death alone can cure!

SONNET XXIII.

BY THE SAME. TO THE NORTH STAR.

TOb thy bright beams I turn my swimming eyes,† Fair, fav’rite planet! which in happier days Saw my young hopes, ah, faithless hopes! – arise, And on my passion shed propitious rays! Now nightly wandering ’mid the tempests drear67 That howl the woods and rocky steeps among, I love to see thy sudden light appear Thro’ the swift clouds – driven by the wind along; Or in the turbid water, rude and dark, O’er whose wild stream the gust of Winter raves, Thy trembling light with pleasure still I mark, Gleam in faint radiance on the foaming waves! So o’er my soul short rays of reason fly, Then fade: – and leave me to despair, and die!

* ‘I climb steep rocks, I break my way through copses, among thorns and briars which tear me to pieces, and I feel a little relief.’ Sorrows of Werter. Volume First.64 † ‘The greater Bear, favourite of all the constellations; for when I left you of an evening it used to shine opposite your window.’ Sorrows of Werter. Volume Second.66 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 31

SONNET XXIV.

BY THE SAME.

MAKE there my tomb, beneath the lime-tree’s shade,* Where grass and flowers in wild luxuriance wave; Let no memorial mark where I am laid, Or point to common eyes the lover’s grave! But oft at twilight morn, or closing day, The faithful friend with falt’ring step shall glide, Tributes of fond regret by stealth69 to pay, And sigh o’era the unhappy suicide! And sometimes, when the sun with parting rays Gilds the long grass that hides my silent bed.b The tearsc shall tremble in my CHARLOTTE’S70 eyes; Dear, precious drops! – they shall embalm the dead! Yes – CHARLOTTE o’er the mournful spot shall weep, Where her poor WERTER – and his sorrows sleep!

SONNET XXV.

BY THE SAME. JUST BEFORE HIS DEATH.

WHY should I wish to hold in this low sphere† ‘A frail and Feverish being?’72 Wherefore try Poorly from day to day to linger here, Against the powerful land of Destiny? By those who know the force of hopeless care On the worn heart – I sure shall be forgiven, If to elude dark guilt, and dire despair, I go uncall’d – to mercy and to heaven! O thou! to save whose peace I now depart, Will thy soft mind thy poor lost friend deplore, When worms shall feed on this devoted heart, Where even thy image shall be found no more?‡ Yet may thy pity mingle not with pain, For then thy hapless lover – dies in vain!

* ‘At the corner of the church-yard which looks towards the fields, there are two lime trees – it is there I wish to rest.’ Sorrows of Werter. Volume Second.68 † ‘May my death remove every obstacle to your happiness. – Be at peace, I entreat you be at peace.’ Sorrows of Werter. Volume Second.71 ‡ From a line in Rousseau’s Eloisa.73 32 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET XXVI.

TO THE RIVER ARUN.

ON thy wild banks, by frequent torrents worn, No glittering fanes,74 or marble domes appear, Yet shall the mournful Muse thy course adorn, And still to her thy rustic waves be dear. For with the infant Otway, lingering here,* Of early woes she bade her votary dream, While thy low murmurs sooth’d his pensive ear, And still the poet76 – consecrates the stream. Beneath the oak and birch that fringe thy side, The first-born violets of the year shall spring; And in thy hazles, bending o’er the tide, The earliest nightingale delight to sing: While kindred spirits, pitying, shall relate Thy Otway’s sorrows, and lament his fate!

SONNET XXVII.

SIGHING I see yon little troop at play, By Sorrow yet untouch’d, unhurt by Care; While free and sportive they enjoy to-day, ‘Content and careless of to-morrow’s fare!’† O happy age! when Hope’s unclouded ray Lights their green path, and prompts their simple mirth; Ere yet they feel the thorns78 that lurking lay, To wound the wretched pilgrims79 of the earth; Making them ruea the hour that gave them birth, And threw them on a world so full of pain, Where prosperous folly treads on patient worth, And, to deaf Pride, Misfortune pleads in vain! Ah! – for their future fate how many fears Oppress my heart – and fill mine eyes with tears!

* Otway was born at Trotten, a village in Sussex. Of Woolbeding,75 another village on the banks of the Arun (which runs through them both), his father was rector. Here it was, therefore, that he probably passed many of his early years. The Arun is here an inconsiderable stream, winding in a channel deeply worn, among meadow, heath, and wood. † Thomson.77 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 33

For with the infant Otway lingering here. 34 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET XXVIII.

TO FRIENDSHIP.

O THOU! whose name too often is profaned; Whose charms celestial few have hearts to feel! Unknown to Folly – and by Pride disdain’d! – To thy soft solace may my sorrows steal! Like the fair moon, thy mild and genuine ray Thro’ Life’s long evening shall unclouded last; While Pleasure’s frail attachments fleeta away, As fades the rainbow from the northern blast! ’Tis thine, O Nymph! with ‘balmy hands to bind’* The wounds inflicted in Misfortune’s storm, And blunt severe Affliction’s sharpest dart! – ’Tis thy pure spirit warms my Anna’s81 mind, Beams thro’ the pensive softness of her form, And holds its altar – on her spotless heart!

SONNET XXIX.

TO MISS C— 82 ON BEING DESIRED TO ATTEMPT WRITING A COMEDY.

WOULD’ST thou then have me tempt the comic scene Of gayb Thalia?83 used so long to tread The gloomy paths of Sorrow’s cypress shade; And the lorn lay with sighs and tears to stain? Alas! how much unfit her sprightly vein, Arduous to try! – and seek the sunny mead, And bowers of roses, where she loves to lead The sportive subjects of her golden reign! Enough for me, if still to sooth my days, Her fair and pensive sister84 condescend With tearful smile to bless my simple lays; Enough, if her soft notes she sometimes lend, To gain for me of feeling hearts the praise, And chiefly thine, my ever partial friend!

* Collins.80 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 35

SONNET XXX.

TO THE RIVER ARUN.

BE the proud Thames of trade the busy mart! Arun! to thee will other praise belong; Dear to the lover’s, and the mourner’s heart, And ever sacred to the sons of song!

Thy banks romantic hopeless Love shall seek, Where o’er the rocks the mantling bindwith* flaunts;a And Sorrow’s drooping form and faded cheek Choose on thy willow’d shore her lonely haunts!

Banks! Which inspired thy Otway’s plaintive strain! Wilds! – whose lorn echos learn’d the deeper tone Of Collins’ powerful shell!† 86yet once again Another poet – Hayley is thine own! Thy classic stream anew shall hear a lay, Bright as its waves, and various as its way!

SONNET XXXI.

WRITTEN INC FARM WOOD,87 SOUTH DOWNS, IN MAY 1784.

SPRING’S dewy hand on this fair summit weaves The downy grass with tufts of Alpine flowers:‡ And shades the beechen slopes with tender leaves,

* The plant Clematis, Bindwith, Virgin’s Bower, or Traveller’s Joy, which towards the end of June begins to cover the hedges and sides of rocky hollows with its beautiful foliage, and flowers of a yellowish white of an agreeable fragrance; these are succeeded by seed pods that bear some resemblance to feathers or hair, whence it is sometimes called Old Man’s Beard. † Collins, as well as Otway, was a native of this country, and probablyb at some period of his life an inhabitant of this neighbourhood, since, in his beautiful Ode on the Death of Colonel Ross, he says, The Muse shall still, with social aid, Her gentlest promise keep; E’en humble Harting’s cottag’d vale Shall learn the sad repeated tale, And bid her shepherds weep. And in the Ode to Pity: ‘Wild Arun too has heard thy strains, And Echo, ’midst thy native plains, Been sooth’d with Pity’s lute’.85 ‡ An infinite variety of plants are found on these hills, particularly about this spot: many sorts of Orchis and Cistus of singular beauty, with several others.d 36 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

And leads the shepherd to his upland bowers, Strewn with wild thyme; while slow-descending showers Feed the green ear, and nurse the future sheaves!88 – Ah! blest the hind – whom no sad thought bereaves Of the gay season’s pleasures! – All his hours To wholesome labour given, or thoughtless mirth; No pangs of sorrow past, or coming dread, Bend his unconscious spirit down to earth, Or chase calm slumbers from his careless head! Ah! What to me can those dear days restore, When scenes could charm that now I taste no more!

SONNET XXXII.

TO MELANCHOLY. WRITTEN ON THE BANKS OF THE ARUN, OCTOBER 1785.

WHEN latest Autumn spreads her evening veil, And the grey mists from these dim waves arise, I love to listen89 to the hollow sighs, Thro’ the half-leafless wood that breathes the gale: For at such hours the shadowy phantom pale, Oft seems to fleet before the poet’s eyes; Strange founds are heard, and mournful melodies, As of night-wanderers, who their woes bewail! Here, by his native stream, at such an hour, Pity’s own Otway I methinks could meet, And hear his deep sighs swell the sadden’d wind! O Melancholy! – such thy magic power, That to the soul these dreams are often sweet, And sooth the pensive visionary mind!

SONNET XXXIII.

TO THE NAIAD90 OF THE ARUN.

GO, rural Naiad! wind thy stream along Thro’ woods and wilds: then seek the ocean caves Where sea-nymphs meet their coral rocks among, To boast the various honors of their waves! ’Tis but a little, o’er thy shallow tide, That toiling trade her burden’d vessel leads; But laurels grow luxuriant on thy side, Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 37

And letters live along thy classic meads.91 Lo! where ’mid British bards thy natives shine!* And now another poet helps to raise Thy glory high – the poet of the MINE!92 Whose brilliant talents are his smallest praise: And who, to all that genius can impart, Adds the cool head, and the unblemish’d heart!

SONNET XXXIV.

TO A FRIEND.

CHARM’D by thy suffrage, shall I yet aspire (All inauspicious as my fate appears, By troubles darken’d, that increase with years,) To guide the crayon,93 or to touch the lyre? Ah me! — the sister Muses still require A spirit free from all intrusive fears, Nor will they deign to wipe away the tears Of vain regret, that dim their sacred fire. But when thy envied sanction crowns my lays,a A ray of pleasure lights my languid mind, For well I know the value of thy praise; And to how few the flattering meed confin’d, That thou, – their highly favour’d brows to bind, Wilt weave green myrtle and unfading bays!94

SONNET XXXV.

TO FORTITUDE.

NYMPH of the rock! whose dauntless spirit braves The beating storm, and bitter winds that howl Round thy cold breast; and hear’st the bursting waves And the deep thunder with unshaken soul; Oh come! – and shew how vain the cares that press On my weak bosom – and how little worth Is the false fleeting meteor, Happiness, That still misleads the wanderers of the earth! Strengthen’d by thee, this heart shall cease to melt O’er ills that poor Humanity must bear; Nor friends estranged, or ties dissolved be felt

* Otway, Collins, Hayley. 38 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

To leave regret, and fruitless anguish there: And when at length it heaves its latest sigh, Thou and mild Hope shall teach me how to die!

SONNET XXXVI.

SHOULD the lone Wanderer, fainting on his way, Rest for a moment of the sultry hours, And tho’ his path thro’ thorns and roughness lay, Pluck the wild rose, or woodbine’s gadding95 flowers, Weaving gay wreaths beneath some sheltering tree, The sense of sorrow he awhile may lose;a So have I sought thy flowers, fair Poesy! So charm’d my way with Friendship and the Muse. But darker now grows life’s unhappy day, Dark with new clouds of evil yet to come, Her pencil96 sickening Fancy throws away, And weary Hope reclines upon the tomb; And points my wishes to that tranquil shore, Where the pale spectre Care pursues no more.

SONNET XXXVII.

SENT TO THE HONORABLE MRS. O’NEILL,B 97 WITH PAINTED FLOWERS.

THE poet’s fancy takes from Flora’s98 realm Her buds and leaves to dress fictitious99 powers, With the green olive shades Minerva’s helm,100 And gives to Beauty’s Queen the Queen of flowers.101 But what gay blossoms of luxuriant Spring, With rose, mimosa, amaranth102 entwin’d, Shall fabled Sylphs103 and fairy people bring, As a just emblem of the lovely mind? In vain the mimic pencil tries to blend The glowing dyes that dress the flowery race, Scented and colour’d by an hand divine! Ah! not less vainly would the Muse pretend On her weak lyre, to sing the native grace And native goodness of a soul like thine! Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 39

Her pencil sickening fancy throws away And weary hope reclines upon the tomb 40 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET XXXVIII.

FROM THE NOVEL OF EMMELINE.104

WHEN welcome slumber sets my spirit free, Forth to fictitious happiness it flies, And where Elysian bowers of bliss arise, I seem, my Emmeline – to meet with thee! Ah! Fancy then, dissolving human ties, Gives me the wishes of my soul to see; Tears of fond pity fill thy soften’d eyes: In heavenly harmony – our hearts agree. Alas! these joys are mine in dreams alone, When cruel Reason abdicates her throne! Her harsh return condemns me to complain Thro’ life unpitied, unreliev’d, unknown!a And as the dear delusions leave my brain, She bids the truth recur – with aggravated pain!b

SONNET XXXIX.

TO NIGHT. FROM THE SAME.105

I LOVE thee, mournful,c sober-suited Night! When the faint moon,d yet lingering in her wane, And veil’d in clouds, with pale uncertain light Hangs o’er the waters of the restless main. In deep depression sunk, the enfeebled mind Will to the deafe cold elements complain, And tell the embosom’d grief, however vain, To sullen surges and the viewless wind. Tho’ no repose on thy dark breast I find, I still enjoy thee – cheerless as thou art; For in thy quiet gloom the exhausted heartf Is calm, tho’ wretched; hopeless, yet resign’d. While to the winds and waves itsg sorrows given, May reach – tho’ lost on earth – the ear of Heaven! Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 41

SONNET XL.

FROM THE SAME.106

FAR on the sands, the low, retiring tide, In distant murmurs hardly seems to flow;a And o’er the world of waters, blue and wide,b The sighing summer-windc forgets to blow. As sinks the day-star in the rosy West, The silent wave, with rich reflection glows:d Alas! can tranquil nature give me rest, Or scenes of beauty soothe me to repose? Can the soft lustre of the sleeping main, Yon radiant heaven,f or all creation’s charms, ‘Erase the written troubles of the brain,’107 Which Memory tortures, and which Guilt alarms? Or bid a bosom transient quiet prove, That bleeds with vain remorse and unextinguish’d love!

SONNET XLI.

TO TRANQUILLITY.

IN this tumultuous sphere, for thee unfit, How seldom art thou found – Tranquillity! Unless ’tis when with mild and downcast eye By the low cradles thou delight’st to sit Of sleeping infants108 — watching the soft breath, And bidding the sweet slumberers easy lie; Or sometimes hanging o’er the bed of death, Where the poor languid sufferer — hopes to die. O beauteous sister of the halcyon peace! I sure shall find thee in that heavenly scene Where Care and Anguish shall their power resign; Where hope alike, and vain regret shall cease, And Memory – lost in happiness serene, Repeat no more – that misery has been mine! 42 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET XLII.

COMPOSED DURING A WALK ON THE DOWNS, IN NOVEMBER 1787.

THE dark and pillowy cloud, the sallow trees, Seem o’er the ruins of the year to mourn; And, cold and hollow, the inconstant breeze Sobs thro’ the falling leaves and wither’d fern. O’er the tall brow of yonder chalky bourn, The evening shades their gather’d darkness fling, While, by the lingering light, I scarce discern The shrieking night-jar sail on heavy wing.* Ah! yet a little — and propitious Spring Crown’d with fresh flowers shall wake the woodland strain; But no gay change revolving seasons bring To call forth pleasure from the soul of pain! Bid Syren109 Hope resume her long-lost part, And chase the vulture Care – that feeds upon the heart!110

SONNET XLIII.

THE unhappy exile, whom his fates confine To the bleak coast of some unfriendly isle, Cold, barren, desart, where no harvests smile, But thirst and hunger on the rocks repine; When, from some promontory’s fearful brow, Sun after sun he hopeless sees decline In the broad shipless sea – perhaps may know Such heartless pain, such blank despair as mine! And, if a flattering cloud appears to show The fancied semblance of a distant sail, Then melts away — anew his spirits fail, While the lost hope but aggravates his woe! Ah! so for me delusive111 Fancy toils, Then, from contrasted truth – my feeble soul recoils.

* The night-jar or night-hawk, a dark bird not so big as a rook, which is frequently seen of an evening on the downs. It has a short heavy flight, then rests on the ground, and again, uttering a mournful cry, flits before the traveller, to whom its appearance is supposed by the peasants to portend misfortune. As I have never seen it dead, I know not to what species it belongs. Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 43

SONNET XLIV.

WRITTEN IN THE CHURCH-YARD AT MIDDLETON IN SUSSEX.112

PRESS’D by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides, While the loud equinox its power combines, The sea no more its swelling surge confines, But o’er the shrinking land sublimely rides. The wild blast, rising from the Western cave, Drives the huge billows from their heaving bed; Tears from their grassy tombs the village dead,* And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave! With shells and sea-weed mingled, on the shore Lo! their bones whiten in the frequent wave; But vain to them the winds and waters rave; They hear the warring elements no more: While I am doom’d – by life’s long storm opprest, To gaze with envy on their gloomy rest.

SONNET XLV.

ON LEAVING A PA RT OF SUSSEX.

FAREWEL, Aruna! on whose varied shore My early vows were paid to Nature’s shrine, When thoughtless113 joy, and infant hope were mine, And whose lorn steam has heard me since deplore Too many sorrows! Sighing I resign Thy solitary beauties – and no more Or on thy rocks, or in thy woods recline, Or on the heath, by moonlight lingering, pore On air-drawn phantoms – While in Fancy’s ear As in the evening wind thy murmurs swell, The Enthusiast of the Lyre who wander’d here,† Seems yet to strike his visionary shell, Of power to call forth Pity’s tenderest tear, Or wake wild Phrenzy – from her hideous cell!

* Middleton is a village on the margin of the sea, in Sussex, containing only two or three houses. There were formerly several acres of ground between its small church and the sea, which now, by its continual encroachments, approaches within a few feet of this half- ruined and humble edifice. The wall, which once surrounded the church-yard, is entirely swept away, many of the graves broken up, and the remains of bodies interred washed into the sea; whence human bones are found among the sand and shingles on the shore. † Collins. – See note to Sonnet 30.114 44 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET XLVI.

WRITTEN AT PENSHURST,115 IN AUTUMN 1788.

YE towers sublime! deserted now and drear! Ye woods! deep sighing to the hollow blast, The musing wanderer loves to linger near, While History points to all your glories past: And startling from their haunts the timid deer, To trace the walks obscured by matted fern, Which Waller’s116 soothing lyre were wont to hear, But where now clamours the discordant hern!a* The spoiling hand of Time may overturn These lofty battlements, and quite deface The fading canvass whence we love to learn Sydney’s† 117 keen look, and Sacharissa’s grace; But fame and beauty still defy decay, Saved by the historic page118 — the poet’s tender lay!

SONNET XLVII.

TO FANCY.

THEE, Queen of Shadows! – shall I still invoke, Still love the scenes thy sportive pencil drew, When on mine eyes the early radiance broke Which shew’d the beauteous rather than the true! Alas! long since those glowing tints are dead, And now ’tis thine in darkest hues to dress The spot where pale Experience hangs her head O’er the sad grave of murder’d Happiness! Thro’ thy false medium, then, no longer view’d, May fancied pain and fancied pleasure fly, And I, as from me all thy dreams depart, Be to my wayward destiny subdued: Nor seek perfection with a poet’s eye, Nor suffer anguish with a poet’s heart!

* In the park at Penshurst is an heronry. The house is at present uninhabited, and the windows of the galleries and other rooms, in which there are many invaluable pictures, are never opened but when strangers visit it. † Algernon Sydney. Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 45

SONNET XLVIII.

TO MRS. ****

NO more my wearied soul attempts to stray From sad reality and vain regret, Nor courts enchanting Fiction to allay Sorrows that Sense refuses to forget: For of Calamity so long the prey, Imagination now has lost her powers, Nor will her fairy loom again essay To dress Affliction in a robe of flowers. But if no more the bowers of Fancy bloom, Let one superior scene attract my view, Where Heaven’s pure rays the sacred spot illume, Let thy loved hand with palm119 and amaranth strew The mournful path approaching to the tomb, While Faith’s consoling voice endears the friendly gloom.

SONNET XLIX.

FROM THE NOVEL OF CELESTINA.120 SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN A CHURCH-YARD, OVER THE GRAVE OF A YOUNG WOMAN OF NINETEEN.

O THOU! who sleep’st where hazle-bands entwinea The vernal grass, with paler violets drest;b I would, sweet maid! thy humble bed were mine, And mine thy calm and enviable rest. For never more by human ills opprestc Shall thy soft spirit fruitlessly repine: Thou canst not now thy fondest hopesd resign Even in the hour that should have made thee blest. Light lies the turf upon thy virgin breast; And lingering here, to Love and Sorrowe true, The youth who once thy simple heart possest Shall mingle tears with April’s early dew; While still for him shall faithful Memory save Thy form and virtues from the silent grave.f 46 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET L.

FROM THE NOVEL OF CELESTINA.121

FAREWEL, ye lawns! –a by fond remembrance blest, As witnesses of gay unclouded hours; Where, to maternal Friendship’sb bosom prest, My happy childhood past amid your bowers. Ye wood-walksc wild! – where leaves and fairy flowers By Spring’s luxuriant hand are strewn anew; Rocks! –d whence with shadowy grace rude Nature lours O’er glens and haunted streams! — a long adieu! And you! – O promised Happiness! – whosee voice Deluded Fancyf heard in every grove, Bidding this tender, trusting heart, rejoice In the bright prospect of unfailing love: Tho’ lost to me – still may thyg smile serene Bless the dear lordh of this regretted scene.

SONNET LI.

FROM THE NOVEL OF CELESTINA.122 SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN THE HEBRIDES.

ON this lone island, whose unfruitful breast Feeds but the Summer-shepherd’si little flock With scanty herbage from the half-clothed rock, Where osprays,* cormorants, and sea-mews rest; Even in a scene so desolate and rude I could with thee for months and years be blest; And of thy tenderness and love possest, Find all my world in this wildj solitude! When summerk suns these northern seas illume, With thee admire the light’s reflected charms, And when drear Winter spreads his cheerless gloom, Still find Elysium in thy shelt’ring arms: For thou to me canst sovereign bliss impart, Thy mind my empirel – and my throne thy heart.

* The sea-eagle. Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 47

SONNET LII.

FROM THE NOVEL OF CELESTINA.123 THE PILGRIM.

FALTERING and sad the unhappy Pilgrima roves, Who, on the eve of bleak December’s night, Divided far from all he fondly loves, Journeys alone, along the giddy height124 Of these steep cliffs; and as the sun’s last ray Fades in the west,b sees, from the rocky verge, Dark tempest scowling o’er the shortened day, And hears, with ear appall’d, the impetuous surge Beneath him thunder! – So, with heart oppress’d, Alone, reluctant, desolate, and slow, By Friendship’s cheering radiance now unblest,125 Along Life’sc rudest path I seem to go; Nor see where yet the anxious heart may rest, That, trembling at the past – recoils from future woed.

SONNET LIII.

FROM THE NOVEL OF CELESTINA.126 THE LAPLANDER.

THE shivering native who, by Tenglio’s127 side, Beholds with fond regret the parting light Sink far away, beneath the darkening tide, And leave him to long months of dreary night, Yet knows, that springing from the eastern wave The sun’s glad beams shall re-illume his way, And from the snows secured –e within his cave He waits in patient hope – returning day. Not so the sufferer feels, who, o’er the waste Of joyless life, is destin’d to deplore Fond love forgotten, tender friendship past, Which, once extinguish’d, can revive no more!f O’er the blank void he looks with hopeless pain; For him those beams of heaveng shall never shine again. 48 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET LIV.

THE SLEEPING WOODMAN. WRITTEN IN APRIL 1790.

YE copses wild, where April bids arise The vernal grasses, and the early flowers; My soul depress’d – from human converse128 flies To the lone shelter of your pathless bowers.129

Lo! – Where the Woodman, with his toil oppress’d, His careless head on bark and moss reclined, Lull’d by the song of birds, the murmuring wind, Has sunk to calm tho’ momentary rest.

Ah! would ’twere mine in Spring’s green lap to find Such transient respite from the ills I bear! Would I could taste, like this unthinking hind, A sweet forgetfulness of human care,* Till the last sleep these weary eyes shall close, And Death receive me to his long repose.

SONNET LV.

THE RETURN OF THE NIGHTINGALE. WRITTEN IN MAY 1791.

BORNE on the warm wing of the western gale, How tremulously low is heard to float Thro’ the green, budding thorns that fringe the vale, The early Nightingale’s prelusive131 note.

’Tis Hope’s instinctive power that thro’ the grove Tells how benignant Heaven revives the earth; ’Tis the soft voice of young and timid Love That calls these melting sounds of sweetness forth.

With transport, once, sweet bird! I hail’d thy lay, And bade thee welcome to our shades again, To charm the wandering poet’s pensive way And sooth the solitary lover’s pain; But now! – such evils in my lot combine, As shut my languid sense – to Hope’s dear voice and thine!

* Pope.130 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 49

SONNET LVI.

THE CAPTIVE ESCAPED IN THE WILDS OF AMERICA. ADDRESSED TO THE HON. MRS. O’NEILL.

IF, by his torturing, savage foes untraced, The breathless Captive gain some trackless glade,132 Yet hears the war-whoop howl along the waste, And dreads the reptile-monsters of the shade; The giant reeds that murmur round the flood, Seem to conceal some hideous form beneath; And every hollow blast that shakes the wood, Speaks to his trembling heart of woe and death. With horror fraught, and desolate dismay, On such a wanderer falls the starless night; But if, far streaming, a propitious ray Leads to some amicable fort his sight, He hails the beam benign that guides his way, As I, my Harriet,133 bless thy friendship’s cheering light.

SONNET LVII.

TO DEPENDENCE.

DEPENDENCE! heavy, heavy are thy chains, And happier they who from the dangerous sea, Or the dark mine, procure with ceaseless pains An hard-earn’d pittance – than who trust to thee! More blest the hind, who from his bed of flock134 Starts – when the birds of morn their summons give, And waken’d by the lark – ‘the shepherd’s clock,’* Lives but to labour – labouring but to live. More noble than the sycophant, whose art Must heap with taudry flowers thy hated shrine; I envy not the meed thou canst impart To crown his service – while, tho’ Pride combine With Fraud to crush me – my unfetter’d heart Still to the Mountain Nymph may offer mine.†

* Shakspeare.135 † The mountain-goddess, Liberty. Milton.136 50 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

SONNET LVIII.

THE GLOW-WORM.

WHENa on some balmy-breathing night of Spring The happy child, to whom the world is new, Pursues the evening moth, of mealy wing, Or from the heath-bellb beats the sparkling dew; He sees before his inexperienced eyes The brilliant Glow-worm, like a meteor, shine On the turf-bank; – amazed, and pleased, he cries, ‘Star of the dewy grass! – I make thee mine!’ – * Then, ere he sleep, collects ‘the moisten’d’ flower,† And bids soft leaves his glittering prize enfold, And dreams that Fairy-lamps illume his bower: Yet with the morning shudders to behold His lucid139 treasure, rayless as the dust! – So turnc the world’s bright joys to cold and blank disgust.

SONNET LIX.

WRITTEN SEPT. 1791, DURING A REMARKABLE THUNDER STORM, IN WHICH THE MOON WAS PERFECTLY CLEAR, WHILE THE TEMPEST GATHERED IN VARIOUS DIRECTIONS NEAR THE EARTH.

WHAT awful pageants crowd the evening sky! The low horizon gathering vapours shroud; Sudden, from many a deep-embattled cloud Terrific thunders burst, and lightnings fly – While in serenest azure, beaming high, Night’s regent, of her calm pavilion proud, Gilds the dark shadows that beneath her lie, Unvex’d by all their conflicts fierce and loud. — So, in unsullied dignity elate, A spirit conscious of superior worth, In placid elevation firmly great, Scorns the vain cares that give Contention birth; And blest with peace above the shocks of Fate, Smiles at the tumult of the troubled earth.

* ‘Star of the earth.’ Dr. Darwin.137 † ‘The moisten’d blade – ’ Wolcot’s beautiful Ode to the Glow-worm.138 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 51

ODE TO DESPAIR.

FROM THE NOVEL OF EMMELINE.140

THOU spectre of terrific mien!a Lord of the hopeless heart and hollow eye, In whose fierce train each form is seen That drives sick Reason to insanity! I woo thee with unusual prayer, ‘Grim-visaged, comfortless Despair!’141 Approach –b in me a willing victim find, Who seeks thine iron sway – and calls thee kind!

Ah! hide for ever from my sight The faithless flatterer Hope – whose pencil gay, Pourtrays some vision of delight, Then bids the fairy tablet fade away; While in dire contrastc to mine eyes Thy phantoms, yet more hideous, rise, And Memory drawsd from Pleasure’s wither’d flower, Corrosives for the heart – of fatal power!

I bid the traitor Lovee adieu! Who to this fond believing bosom came A guest insidious and untrue, With Pity’s soothing voice – in Friendship’s name; The wounds hef gave, nor Time shall cure, Nor Reason teach me to endure. And to that breast mild Patience pleads in vain, Which feels the curse – of meriting itsg pain.

Yet not to me, tremendous Power!h Thy worst of spirit-wounding pangs impart, With which, in dark conviction’s hour, Thou strikest the guilty unrepentant heart;i But of Illusion long the sport, That dreary, tranquil gloom I court, Where my past errors I may still deplore, And dream of long-lost happiness no more!

To thee I give this tortured breast, Where Hope arises but to foster Pain; Ah! lull itsj agonies to rest! Ah! let me never be deceived again! But callous, in thy deep repose, Behold, in long array, the woes Of the dread future, calm and undismay’d, Till I may claim the hope – that shall not fade! 52 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

ELEGY*.

‘DARK gathering clouds involve the threatening skies, The sea heaves conscious of the impending gloom, Deep, hollow murmurs from the cliffs arise; They come! – the Spirits of the Tempest come! Oh, may such terrors mark the approaching night As reign’d on that these streaming eyes deplore! Flash, ye red fires of heaven! with fatal light, And with conflicting winds, ye waters! roar. Loud, and more loud, ye foaming billows! burst; Ye warring elements! more fiercely rave, Till the wide waves o’erwhelm the spot accurst. Where ruthless Avarice finds a quiet grave!’ Thus with clasp’d hands, wild looks, and streaming hair, While shrieks of horror broke her trembling speech, A wretched maid – the victim of Despair, Survey’d the threatening storm and desart beech:144 Then to the tomb where now the father slept Whose rugged nature bade her sorrows flow, Frantic she turn’d – and beat her breast and wept, Invoking vengeance on the dust below. ‘Lo! rising there above each humbler heap, Yon cipher’d145 stones his name and wealth relate, Who gave his son – remorseless – to the deep, While I, his living victim, curse my fate. Oh! my lost love! no tomb is placed for thee, That may to strangers eyes thy worth impart! Thou hast no grave but in the stormy sea! And no memorial but this breaking heart! Forth to the world, a widow’d146 wanderer driven, I pour to winds and waves the unheeded tear, Try with vain effort to submit to Heaven, And fruitless call on him – “who cannot hear.”†

* This elegy is written on the supposition that an indigent young woman had been addressed by the son of a wealthy yeoman, who resenting his attachment, had driven him from home, and compelled him to have recourse for subsistence to the occupation of a pilot, in which, in attempting to save a vessel in distress, he perished. The father dying, a tomb is supposed to be erected to his memory in the church-yard mentioned in Sonnet the 44th.142 And while a tempest is gathering, the unfortunate young woman comes thither; and courting the same death as had robbed her of her lover, she awaits its violence, and is at length overwhelmed by the waves. † ‘I fruitless mourn to him who cannot hear, ‘And weep the more because I weep in vain.’ Gray’s exquiste Sonnet: in reading which it is impossible not to regret that he wrote only one.143 Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 53 54 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

Oh! might I fondly clasp him once again, While o’er my head the infuriate billows pour, Forget in death this agonizing pain, And feel his father’s cruelty no more!

Part, raging waters! part, and shew beneath, In your dread caves, his pale and mangled form; Now, while the Demons of Despair and Death Ride on the blast, and urge the howling storm!

Lo! by the lightning’s momentary blaze, I see him rise the whitening waves above, No longer such as when in happier days He gave the enchanted hours – to me and love.

Such, as when daring the enchafed147 sea, And courting dangerous toil, he often said That every peril, one soft smile from me, One sigh of speechless tenderness o’erpaid.

But dead, disfigured, while between the roar Of the loud waves his accents pierce mine ear, And seem to say – Ah, wretch! delay no more, But come, unhappy mourner! – meet me here.

Yet, powerful Fancy! bid the phantom stay, Still let me hear him! — ’Tis already past! Along the waves his shadow glides away, I lose his voice amid the deafening blast!

Ah! wild Illusion, born of frantic Pain! He hears not, comes not from his watery bed! My tears, my anguish, my despair are vain, The insatiate ocean gives not up its dead!

’Tis not his voice! – Hark! the deep thunders roll! Upheaves the ground – the rocky barriers fail! Approach, ye horrors that delight my soul! Despair, and Death, and Desolation, hail!’

The Ocean hears — The embodied waters come – Rise o’er the land, and with resistless sweep Tear from its base the proud aggressor’s tomb, And bear the injured to eternal sleep! Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 55

SONG.

FROM THE FRENCH OF CARDINAL BERNIS.148

I. FRUIT of Aurora’s tears,149 fair Rose!a On whose soft leaves fond Zephyrs150 play,b Oc queen of flowers! thy buds disclose, And give thy fragrance to the day;d Unveil thy transient charms: — ah, no!e A little be thy bloom delay’d, Since the same hour that bids thee blow,151 Shall see thee droop thy languid head!f

II. But go,g and on Themira’s152 breast Find, happy flower! thy throne and tomb!h While,i jealous of a fate so blest, How shall I envy thee thy doom! Should some rude hand approach thee there, Guard the sweet shrine thou wilt adorn; Ah! punish those who rashly dare, And for my rivalsj keep thy thorn.

III. Love shall himself thy boughs compose, And bid thy wanton leaves divide;k He’ll shew thee how,l my lovely Rose,m To deck her bosom, not to hide:n And thou shalt tello the cruel maid How frail are Youth and Beauty’sp charms, And teach her,q ere her own shall fade, To give them to her lover’s arms.

THE ORIGIN OF FLATTERY.*

WHEN Jove, in anger to the sons of Earth, Bid artful Vulcan give Pandora154 birth,

* This little poem was written almost extempore on occasion of a conversation where many pleasant things were said on the subject of flattery; and some French gentlemen who were of the party inquired for a synonime in English to the French word fleurette. The poem was inserted in the two first editions, and having been asked for by very respectable subscribers to the present,153 it is reprinted. The sonnets have been thought too gloomy; and the 56 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

And sent the fatal gift which spread below O’er all the wretched race contagious woe, Unhappy man, by Vice and Folly tost, Found in the storms of life his quiet lost, While Envy, Avarice, and Ambition, hurl’d Discord and death around the warring world; Then the blest peasant left his fields and fold, And barter’d love and peace for power and gold; Left his calm cottage and his native plain, In search of wealth to tempt the faithless main; Or, braving danger, in the battle stood, And bathed his savage hands in human blood! No longer then, his woodland walks among, The shepherd-lad his genuine passion sung, Or sought at early morn his soul’s delight, Or graved her name upon the bark at night; To deck her flowing hair no more he wove The simple wreath, or with ambitious love Bound his own brow with myrtle or with bay,155 But broke his pipe,156 ora threw his crook away. The nymphs157 forsaken other pleasures sought; Then first for gold their venal hearts were bought, And Nature’s blush to sickly Art gave place, And Affectation seized the seat of Grace: No more Simplicity by Sense refined, Or generous Sentiment, possess’d the mind; No more they felt each other’s joy and woe, And Cupid158 fledb and hid his useless bow: But with deep grief propitious Venus159 pined, To see the ills which threaten’d womankind; Ills that she knew her empire would disarm, And rob her subjects of their sweetest charm; Good humour’s potent influence destroy, And change for lowering frowns the smile of joy, Then deeply sighing at the mournful view, She try’d at length what heavenly art could do To bring back Pleasure to her pensive train, And vindicate160 the glories of her reign. A thousand little loves attend the task, And bear from Mars’s head his radiant casque,161 The fair enchantress on its silver bound Weavedc with soft spells her magic cestus round,d162 Then shaking from her hair ambrosial163 dew, Infused fair hope, and expectation new, author has been advised to insert some of a more cheerful cast. This poem may by others be thought too gay, and is indeed so little in unison with the present sentiments and feelings of its author, that it had been wholly omitted but for the respectable approbation of those to whose judgment she owed implicit deference. Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 57

And stifled wishes, and persuasive sighs, And fond belief, and ‘eloquence of eyes,’164 And falt’ring accents, which explain so well What studied speeches vainly try to tell; And more pathetic silence, which imparts Infectious tenderness to feeling hearts; Soft tones of pity; fascinating smiles; And Maia’s son165 assisted her with wiles, And brought gay dreams, fantastic visions brought, And waved his wand o’er the seducing draught. Then Zephyr166 came; to him the goddess cry’d, ‘Go fetch from Flora167 all her flowery pride To fill my charm, each scented bud that blows, And bind my myrtles with her thornless rose; Then speed thy flight to Gallia’s smiling plain, Where rolls the Loire, the Garonne, and the Seine;168 Dip in their waters thy celestial wing, And the soft dew to fill my chalice bring; But chiefly tell thy Flora, that to me She send a bouquet of her fleurs de lys;169 That poignant spirit will complete my spell.’ — ’Tis done: the lovely sorceress says ’tis well. And now Apollo170 lends a ray of fire, The cauldron bubbles, and the flames aspire; The watchful Graces round the circle dance, With arms entwined171 to mark the work’s advance; And with full quiver sportive Cupid came, Temp’ring his fav’rite arrows in the flame. Then Venus speaks; the wavering flames retire, And Zephyr’s breatha extinguishes the fire. At length the goddess in the helmet’s round172 A sweet and subtil spirit duly found, More soft than oil, than aether173 more refined, Of power to cure the woes of womankind, And call’d it Flattery! — balm of female life, It charms alike the widow, maid, and wife; Clears the sad brow of virgins in despair, And smooths the cruel traces left by care; Bids palsied age with youthful spirit glow, And hangs May’s garlands on December’s snow.174 Delicious essence! howsoe’er apply’d, By what rude nature is thy charm deny’d? Some form seducing still thy whisper wears, Stern Wisdom turns to thee her willing ears, And Prudery listens and forgets her fears. The rustic nymph whom rigid aunts restrain, Condemn’d to dress, and practise arts in vain, At thy first summons finds her bosom swell, 58 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

And bids her crabbed gouvernantes175 farewel; While, fired by thee with spirit not her own, She grows a toast, and rises into ton.176 The faded beauty who with secret pain Sees younger charms usurp her envied reign, By thee assisted, can with smiles behold The record where her conquests are enroll’d; And dwelling yet on scenes by Memory nursed, When George the Second reign’d, or George the First;177 She sees the shades of ancient beaux178 arise, Who swear her eyes exceeded modern eyes, When poets sung for her, and lovers bled, And giddy fashion follow’d as she led. Departed modes appear in long array, The flowers and flounces of her happier day; Again her locks the decent fillets bind, The waving lappet179 flutters in the wind, And then comparing with a proud disdain The more fantastic tastes that now obtain, She deems ungraceful, trifling and absurd, The gayer world that moves round George the Third.a180 Nor thy soft influence will the train refuse, Who court in distant shades the modest Muse,181 Tho’ in a form more pure and more refined, Thy soothing spirit meetsb the letter’d mind. Not Death itself thine empire can destroy; Tow’rds thee, even then, we turn the languid eye; Still trust in thee to bid our memory bloom, And scatter roses round the silent tomb.

THE PEASANT OF THE ALPS.

FROM THE NOVEL OF CELESTINA.182

WHERE cliffs arise by winterc crown’d, And thro’ dark groves of pine around, Down the deep chasms the snow-fed torrents foam, Within some hollow, shelter’d from the storms, The PEASANT of the ALPS his cottage forms, And builds his humble, happy home.

Unenvied is the rich domain, That far beneath him on the plaind Waves its wide harvests and its olive groves;e Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 59

More dear to him his hut with plantain183 thatch’d, Where long his unambitious heart attach’d, Finds all he wishes, all he loves.

There dwells the mistress of his heart, And Love,a who teaches every art, Has bid him dress the spot with fondest care; When borrowing from the vale its fertile soil, He climbs the precipice with patient toil, To plant her favorite flowrets there.

With native shrubs, ab hardy race, There the green myrtle finds a place, And roses there the dewy leaves decline; While from the craggs abrupt,c and tangled steeps, With bloom and fruit the Alpine-berry184 peeps, And, blushing, mingles with the vine.

His garden’s simple produce stored, Prepared for him by hands adored, Is all the little luxury he knows: And by the same dear hands are softly spread, The chamois’d velvet spoil that forms the bed, Where in her arms he finds repose.

But absent from the calm abode, Dark thunder gathers round his road;e Wild raves the wind, the arrowy lightnings flash, Returning quick the murmuring rocks among, His faint heart trembling as he winds along; Alarm’d –f he listens to the crash

Of rifted ice! – Og man of woe! O’er his dear cot – a mass of snow, By the storm sever’d from the cliff above, Has fallen – and buried in its marble breast, All that for him – lost wretch! –h the world possest, His home, his happiness, his love!

Aghast the heart-struck mourner stands, Glazed are his eyes – convulsed his hands, O’erwhelming anguish checks his labouring breath; Crush’d by despair’s intolerable weight, Frantic he seeks the mountain’s giddiest height, And headlong seeks relief in death!i

A fate too similar is mine, But I – in lingering pain repine, And still my lost felicity deplore!j 60 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

Cold, cold to me is that dear breast become Where this poor heart had fondly fix’d its home, And love and happiness are mine no more!a

SONG.

DOES Pity give, tho’ Fate denies, And to my wounds her balm impart? Oh speak –b with those expressive eyes! Let one low sigh escape thine heart.

The gazing crowd shall never guess What anxious, watchful Love can see; Nor know what those soft looks express, Nor dream that sigh is meant for me.

Ah! words are useless, words are vain, Thy generous sympathy to prove; And wellc that sigh, those looks explain, That Clara mourns my hapless love.

THIRTY-EIGHT.

ADDRESSED TO MRS. H—Y.185

IN early youth’s unclouded scene, The brilliant morning of eighteen, With health and sprightly joy elate We gazed on life’s enchanting spring, Nor thought how quickly time would bring The mournful period – Thirty-eight.

Then the starch maid, or matron sage,186 Already of that sober age, We view’d with mingled scorn and hate; In whose sharp words, or sharper face, With thoughtless mirth we loved to trace The sad effects of – Thirty-eight.

Till saddening, sickening at the view,187 We learn’d to dread what Time might do; And then preferr’d a prayer to Fate To end our days ere that arrived; When (power and pleasure long survived) We met neglect and – Thirty-eight. Elegiac Sonnets – Volume I 61

But Time, in spite of wishes,a flies, And Fate our simple prayer denies, And bids us Death’s own hour await: The auburn locks are mix’d with grey, The transient roses fade away, But Reason comes at – Thirty-eight.

Her voice the anguish contradicts That dying vanity inflicts; Her hand new pleasures can create, For us she opens to the view Prospects less bright – but far more true, And bids us smile at – Thirty-eight.

No more shall Scandal’s breath destroy The social converse we enjoy With bard or critic tête à tête; – O’er Youth’s bright blooms her blights shall pour, But spare the improving friendly hour That Science gives to – Thirty-eight.

Stripp’d of their gaudy hues by Truth, We view the glitt’ring toys of youth, And blush to think how poor the bait For which to public scenes we ran, And scorn’d of sober Senseb the plan, Which gives content at – Thirty-eight.

Tho’ Time’s inexorable sway Has torn the myrtle bands away, For other wreaths ’tis not too late, The amaranth’s purple glow survives, And still Minerva’s olive188 lives On the calm brow of – Thirty-eight.

With eye more steady we engage To contemplate approaching age, And life more justly estimate; With firmer souls, and stronger powers, With reason, faith, and friendship ours, We’ll not regret the stealing hours That lead from Thirty – even to Forty-eight. 62 Works of Charlotte Smith – Volume 14

VERSES

INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN PREFIXED TO THE NOVEL OF EMMELINE, BUT THEN SUPPRESSED.189

O’ERWHELM’D with sorrow,a and sustaining long ‘The proud man’s contumely, th’ oppressor’s wrong,’190 Languid despondency, and vain regret, Must my exhausted spirit struggle yet? Yes! – Robb’d myself of all that fortuneb gave, Even, of allc hope – but shelter in the grave, Still shall the plaintive lyre essay191 itsd powers To dress the cave of Caree with Fancy’s flowers, Maternal Love the fiend Despair withstand, Still animate the heart and guide the hand. – May you, dear objects of my anxious care,f Escape the evils I was born to bear!g Round myh devoted head while tempests roll, Yet there, where I have treasured up my soul,i May the soft rays of dawning hope impart Reviving patience to my fainting heart; – And when its sharp solicitudesj shall cease, May I be conscious in the realms of peace That every tear which swells my children’s eyes, From sorrows past, not present ills arise.k Then, with some friend who loves to share your pain, For ’tis my boast that some such friends remain,l By filial grief, and fond remembrance prest,192 You’ll seek the spot where all my sorrows rest; Recall my hapless days in sad review, The long calamities I bore193 for you, And – with an happier fate –m resolve to prove How well you merited – your mother’s love.n EXPLANATORY NOTES

Elegiac Sonnets

Volume I

1. TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ.] William Hayley (1745–1820), Sussex poet and patron of, besides Smith, William Cowper and William Blake. He and Smith met in September 1784 when she either felt ill or faked an illness outside his estate’s gates (see Loraine Fletcher, Charlotte Smith: A Critical Biography (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998), pp. 68–9). By the early 1790s he was established as a mentor, corrector and go-between with publishers; by the mid-1790s the friendship had cooled considerably. 2. legitimate] In Smith’s lifetime the only ‘legitimate’ form of the sonnet was the Italian, or Petrarchan. 3. specimen] Hayley includes a sonnet in The Triumphs of Temper (1781). In 1786, he published Poems: Consisting of Odes, Sonnets, Songs, and Occasional Verses (Dublin: W. Wilson). 4. mutilated state;] Several of Smith’s poems appeared in periodicals in the years leading up to 1784, but it is not clear how many did so without her knowledge or approval; see the headnote (p. 1–3). 5. simplicity of taste.] The Miltonic echo of the ‘fit though few’ show Smith’s sense of the epic proportions of her sonnets even at this early date. 6. any copies myself.] Smith uses this conceit again in The Old Manor House (1794) to characterize Orlando’s attitude towards his poetic endeavours. 7. more pleasing.] see the table (p. 3) for a list of the different rhyme schemes Smith pursues in the Sonnets. 8. brilliant assemblage.] Among Smith’s subscribers, in the ‘As’ alone, were thirteen persons of rank. In total there were 817 subscribers to the volume. ‘Brilliant’: glorious, magnificent. 9. lately called for,] In letters throughout the spring of 1792, Smith frequently mentions a new edition of the Sonnets, her tone implying that it was her publisher Cadell who was ‘calling for it’. In February 1792 she writes, ‘I believe I have three, perhaps four unpublish’d Sonnets which I will look at & if I find on consulting my friends, that they will do no discredit to the Volume you propose printing you shall receive them in the course of a fortnight: with any other little Poems, that may also be deem’d worth the collection, for I suppose you do not mean to confine the new edition to Sonnets only …’ 218 Explanatory Notes to pages 13–18

(Charles Thomas-Stanford archive, Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton & Hove, on deposit in the East Sussex Record Office: ACC 8997 (Letter L/AE/60, February 4, 1792)). 10. a friend,] Stuart Curran cites Smith’s sister Catherine Ann Dorset and names the friend as ‘Bryan Edwards (1743–1800), himself a poet’ (Stuart Curran (ed.), The Poems of Charlotte Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 5). 11. ‘Toujours …. chanson triste’] Smith’s ‘friend’ combines a saying attributed to Henri IV of France with stock poetic imagery: ‘toujours perdrix’ implies that a constant diet of even the finest food becomes wearisome, while ‘toujours des chansons tristes’ refers to the constant sadness of Smith’s songs. Interestingly, Henri IV used the feeling described by the saying to excuse his infidelity. 12. figs from thistles?’] Matthew 7:16. 13. Beech Woods of Hampshire,] Lys Farm, in Hinton Ampner near Bramdean, where Smith moved with her young family in late 1774/early 1775. It was her first residence in the country since before her marriage in 1765. 14. settled.’] Smith refers to the lawsuit over her father-in-law’s will, by now in its ninth year. 15. ‘hope … sick.’] Proverbs 13:12: ‘Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life’. Smith often quotes or alludes to the first part of this proverb in her writings. 16. ‘The … Station.’] Smith quotes from Cato (1713), IV:iv:142, a play by Joseph Addison (1672–1719).Cato, a Roman statesman (234–149 BC) delivers this advice to his son; by claiming it for a woman, Smith indirectly enrols herself in the world of public affairs. 17. SONNET I.] When this sonnet appeared in the European Magazine (September 1782), p. 235, it was accompanied by this note: ‘The last line … is very like the last lines of Pope’s Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard; the author is sensible that he [sic] is something of a plagiarist, and mentions it to save others the trouble – should things so inconsiderable attract the harsh eye of the Critic’. 18. partial] an ambiguous usage: Smith could indicate that the speaker is favoured by the Muse, or that the Muse’s favours themselves are only ‘partial’ – temporary, incomplete, even unavailing. 19. she knows not to remove,] that is, she doesn’t know how to remove. 20. SPRING.] This sonnet first appeared in the European Magazine (December 1782), p. 472. 21. orchis] a kind of orchid. See also Smith’s note to Sonnet XXXI (p. 35). 22. humid] containing a great deal of water vapour; watery, drenched. 23. no second Spring?] This phrase seems to originate in Jonathan Swift, ‘Fontinella to Florinda’, ‘Life’s autumn has no second spring’ (l. 24). However, it also appears in The Misscellaneous [sic] Works of the Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1768), ‘Of the True Use of Retirement and Study’: ‘human life has no second spring’ (vol. i, p. 292). In The Bull-finch. Being a Choice Collection of the Newest and Most Favourite English Songs (London: I. Hinton, 1746), ‘Song’ includes the lines Explanatory Notes to pages 18–23 219

‘The Flowers returning Seasons bring, / But Beauty has no second spring’ (p. 130). See also Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, l. 316. 24. piagne’.] ‘The nightingale, who weeps so softly’. In modern editions, this sonnet is numbered 311. Given her source, it is interesting that Smith did not include this poem with the other Petrarch sonnets, XIII–XVI. This sonnet also appeared in the Annual Register (1784), p. 141. 25. bow!] reference to Diana the huntress, goddess of the moon. 26. SOUTH DOWNS.] This poem begins Smith’s long poetic association with the South Downs in Sussex, her childhood landscape and a formative natural influence. The South Downs consist of rolling grassland and softly swelling hills. The sonnet first appeared in the European Magazine (October 1782), p. 311. It appeared again in the Annual Register (1784), p. 142, anonymously. 27. Gray] from Thomas Gray (1716–71), ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’, l. 8. Gray’s ‘Sonnet on the Death of Richard West’ did much to bring the sonnet back into poetical favour; like Smith’s, his sonnet emphasized personalized pain and suffering. 28. Lethean] that is, of the river Lethe, the river of forgetfulness in Hades. 29. nymph! … Enchantress!] Smith sexualises Hope; both ‘nymph’ and ‘enchantress’ were frequently used in novels to describe young and sexually attractive ingénues. 30. Horace.] see Pope, ‘Horace his Ode to Venus’ (London: J. Wright, 1737), l. 32. 31. King John.] III.iv.35. 32. NIGHTINGALE.] This sonnet first appeared in the European Magazine (September, 1782), p. 235. In notes Smith, in the guise of ‘S. C.’, acknowl- edges the quotes from Shakespeare (l. 4) and Milton (l. 7). See also The Natural History of Birds (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume. 13, p. 341). 33. Shakspeare.] Henry V, Prologue to Act IV, l. 11. 34. Milton’s First Sonnet.] As Wordsworth will do later, Smith embeds Milton in her sonnet project. See ‘O Nightingale’, ll. 13–14. 35. long-withdrawing] that is, receding far from the eye. 36. Book.] Milton, Paradise Lost, iv.154–6. 37. Gray.] Gray’s ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’, ll. 76–7. See above, this page, n. 27. 38. SLEEP.] This sonnet first appeared in the European Magazine (December 1782), p. 470. 39. resort!] Curran notes the similarity to Edward Young’s Night Thoughts, ‘Night 1’, l. 1: ‘Tir’d Nature’s sweet restorer, balmy Sleep!’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 19). 40. Morpheus’] Greek and Roman god of dreams, specifically of human forms. 41. Mason.] William Mason’s ‘Elegy V. On the Death of a Lady’ (1760), l. 12. 42. Henry IV.] 2 Henry IV, III.i.18–20. Smith substitutes ‘impetuous’ for Shakespeare’s ‘imperious’. 43. OCTOBER, 1784.] As Loraine Fletcher notes, in October 1784 Smith was in Brighton waiting to embark for Dieppe, thence to rejoin Benjamin who was in France to escape his creditors (Fletcher, Charlotte Smith: A Critical Biography, p. 5). 220 Explanatory Notes to pages 23–8

44. solitary seat] Despite this image, Smith was in Brighton with her nine children as well as a servant. This serves to emphasize that Smith assumes a persona while also drawing on experience. 45. Young.] Curran notes that the allusion is to Edward Young’s 1721 play The Revenge (‘And suit the gloomy habit of my soul’, I.i.7). This theatrical allusion brings Smith’s reference in the previous line to ‘the wild gloomy scene’ into focus (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 20n.). 46. Parte primo.] modern Sonnet 145: ‘Place me where the sun kills the flowers and the grass’. See Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, trans. and ed. by Robert M. Durling (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp. 290–1. All Petrarch translations to follow are from this edition. 47. Parte primo.] modern Sonnet 90: ‘Her golden hair was loosed in the breeze’, Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, pp. 192–3. This sonnet also appeared in the London Magazine (August, 1784), p. 126, where it is printed as ‘By Miss Smith, of Bignor Hall’. 48. Zephyr’s sighs;] Zephyr, the west wind. See below, p. 236, n. 184. 49. Parte secondo.] modern Sonnet 279: ‘If I hear birds lamenting, or green leaves/ [Moving softly in the summer breeze]’, Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, pp. 458–9. 50. fretted] ridged. 51. Parte secondo.] modern Sonnet 301: ‘O valley full of my laments’, Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, pp. 480–1. 52. infant passion rise,] that is, a passion that grew as well as a passion that began in childhood. 53. English dress.] ‘I write on you the beloved name / Of her, for whom, I die’. Pietro Trapassi (1698–1782), also known as Metastasio, was the major Italian Enlightenment poet and a frequent source for Smith. Here, she shows her keen awareness of form, genre and the taste of her audience. 54. EARL OF EGREMONT.] George O’Brien Wyndham, third earl of Egremont (1751–1837), and one of the co-trustees of Richard Smith’s estate (appointed 1797). Although at first he was sympathetic to Smith’s position, they eventually became estranged; however, Smith was still writing to him as late as 1806. 55. Percys and Seymours,] Percy was the family name of the earls of Northumberland, and Seymour was the family name of the dukes of Somerset. Both families had been in and out of royal favour since the sixteenth century. 56. Science] Smith uses this term in the sense of ‘knowledge’, and refers to Egremont’s artistic patronage. 57. independent mind;] Egremont began as a Whig and then eventually switched sides to the Tories, but throughout his life was ‘only moderately active in politics’ (Collected Letters, p. 770). Smith may be referring to party independence here. 58. the cypress and the willow] trees associated with mourning and weeping. 59. laurel … son.] The laurel wreath is awarded to true poets; Hayley’s 1781 poem The Triumphs of Temper featured the exemplary female character Serena. The myrtle is sacred to Venus and is associated with longevity or immortality as well as erotic desire. Explanatory Notes to pages 28–34 221

60. COUNTESS OF A—.] Mary, the daughter of John Robinson, one of the original trustees of Richard Smith’s estate, married Henry Nevill, Earl of Abergavenny, in 1781. See above, p. 218, n. 14. 61. amaranth] a mythical flower whose petals never fade. 62. Volume Second.] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) was an instant best-seller and had been translated into English as The Sorrows of Werter: A German Story by 1779, (2 vols (London: J. Dodsley, 1779)). Here, Smith quotes freely but basically accurately; the original text reads ‘before he possesses his reason, and after he has lost it’ (vol. ii, p. 94). 63. Pope.] Smith quotes from ‘Eloisa to Abelard’, l. 122, but she regenders the figure. Where Pope has Eloisa desire to ‘drink delicious poison from thy eye’, Smith has Werter take the Eloisa position. This interesting inversion introduces the fluidity with gendered identities that becomes a feature of the Sonnets. 64. Volume First.] Goethe, The Sorrows of Werter, vol. i, pp. 153–4. 65. untrodden glades,] This image bears an interesting similarity to Keats, ‘Ode to Psyche’, ‘untrodden region of my mind’ (l. 51). 66. Volume Second.] Goethe, The Sorrows of Werter, vol. ii, p. 169; Smith changes ‘door’ to ‘window’. 67. tempests drear] Smith here introduces another trope to which she returns frequently: solitary wandering. 68. Volume Second.] Goethe, The Sorrows of Werter, vol. ii, p. 165. 69. stealth] Since Werter forecasts his own suicide, any mourning figure could only visit him by stealth. 70. CHARLOTTE’S] Although the translation Smith uses has changed ‘Lotte’ into ‘Charlotte’, by continuing this transformation Smith performs an intriguing subjective manoeuvre in the sonnet, embedding a version of herself in her adaptation of Goethe. 71. Volume Second.] Goethe, The Sorrows of Werter, vol. ii, pp. 168, 162. Smith amends the original ‘let me entreat you’. 72. being?’] Milton, Comus, l. 8. 73. Rousseau’s Eloisa.] Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse (1761) anticipated the despairing sensibility developed by Goethe. 74. fanes,] temples. This usage also seems to inform Keats in ‘Ode to Psyche’; although the word itself is a common poeticism, its association in this poem with the unremarked Otway and the general air of neglected solitude chime strongly with Keats’s image. 75. Woolbeding,] Smith lived in Woolbeding between 1785 and 1787. 76. the poet] Smith conflates her speaker and Otway, thereby promising immortality to both. 77. Thomson.] James Thomson (1700–48), The Seasons, ‘Autumn’, l. 191. 78. thorns] see Sonnet VI for a similar image of the thorny path (p. 20). 79. pilgrims] This, another of Smith’s most common tropes, introduces the idea of pilgrimage and exile. 80. Collins.] William Collins (1721–59), ‘Ode to Pity’, l. 2. Collins is later directly associated with Sussex poetics; see Sonnet XXX and below, p. 222, n. 85. Smith slightly misquotes the line: ‘With balmy Hands his Wounds to bind’. 222 Explanatory Notes to pages 34–8

81. my Anna’s] presumably the same Anna as in Sonnet X, ‘To Mrs. G.’. Since this sonnet was published in the third edition of 1786, when Smith’s daughter Anna Augusta was only twelve, it is unlikely to refer to her. 82. TO MISS C—] possibly Charlotte Collins (b. 1747), who was with Smith when she was taken in by Hayley in September 1784 (see above, p. 217, n. 1). 83. Thalia?] the comic muse. 84. Her fair and pensive sister] Smith could be referring to any one of the following: Calliope, the muse of epic poetry and eloquence; Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry; Erato, the muse of love poetry; or Melpemone, the tragic muse. 85. Collins … lute.’] Collins, linked with Otway, Hayley and, by implication, Smith, contributes to the regional poetic tradition Smith builds. He is most famous for his lyrical poetry. Smith slightly misquotes his lines: for ‘aid’ read ‘grief ’; for ‘thy’ read ‘my’; for ‘with’ read ‘by’. 86. shell!] identified as ‘lyre’ by Curran (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 33). 87. FARM WOOD,] probably a reference to Lys Farm, close to Bignor Park, where her children were staying while Smith lived with Benjamin in King’s Bench Prison. 88. green ear … sheaves!] maize (corn) and wheat. 89. I love to listen] compare Sonnet XXIII, l. 7, ‘I love to see’ (p. 30); and see also Wordsworth, ‘The Discharged Soldier’, l. 1: ‘I love to walk’. 90. NAIAD] in Greek mythology, a nymph of brooks, streams, and fountains. 91. laurels … meads.] Smith characterises the Arun as a river devoted to the arts rather than industry; ‘classic meads’: the meadows alongside the Arun are tinged with the classical arts. See below, p. 238, n. 232. 92. the MINE!] Smith enrols another poet in her pantheon: John Sargent (d. 1831), whose poem The Mine was published in 1785. 93. crayon,] that is, coloured drawing wax, charcoal or chalk. 94. myrtle … bays!] myrtle: see above, p. 220, n. 59; bay: signifying honour. 95. gadding] literally, moving about randomly. Smith implies agency, albeit a passive one, in the woodbine. 96. pencil] pen, or fine artist’s brush. See below, p. 254, n. 186. 97. MRS. O’NEILL,] Henrietta Boyle O’Neill (1758–93), one of Smith’s most loyal friends until her death in 1793. Smith included two of her poems in Volume II of the Elegiac Sonnets: ‘Ode to the Poppy’ and ‘Written by the Same Lady on Seeing her Two Sons at Play’. ‘Ode to the Poppy’ was also included in Desmond (1792); see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 5, pp. 265–6. 98. Flora’s] goddess of flowers; see ‘Flora’, in Beachy Head, pp. 189–96. 99. fictitious] that is, powers drawn from or rendered by the imagination. 100. olive … Minerva’s helm.] Roman goddess of wisdom, the arts and martial skill; ‘helm’: helmet. The olive is the symbol of peace and reconciliation. 101. Beauty’s … flowers.] Beauty’s Queen: Venus; Queen of flowers: the rose. 102. mimosa, amaranth] mimosa: evergreen tropical shrub, the flowers of which are often sensitive to the touch; amaranth: see above, p. 221, n. 61. 103. Sylphs] elemental beings of the air. See below, p. 229, n. 26, and p. 254, n. 197. Explanatory Notes to pages 40–8 223

104. EMMELINE.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 2, p. 294. 105. FROM THE SAME.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 2, p. 371. 106. FROM THE SAME.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 2, p. 418. 107. brain,’] see Macbeth, V.iii.44. 108. sleeping infants] compare Coleridge, ‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798), ll. 6–7. 109. Syren] seductively tempting, usually sexually. 110. heart!] Smith ends the poem with an allusion to Prometheus. 111. delusive] see Sonnet I, l. 6, ‘dear delusive art’ (p. 17). 112. MIDDLETON IN SUSSEX.] Despite Smith’s apocalyptic tone, the village of Middleton-on-Sea still survives. 113. thoughtless] that is, carefree. 114. note to Sonnet 30.] see above, p. 222, n. 85. 115. PENSHURST,] family seat of the Sidneys. 116. Waller’s] Edmund Waller (1606–87), who wrote poems addressed ‘To Penshurst’ and also amatory poems to Lady Dorothy Sidney (‘Sacharissa’, l. 12). 117. Sydney’s] During the English Commonwealth period (1650–60), Algernon Sidney (1622–83) was a parliamentarian who opposed Cromwell’s authori- tarian rule; later, he opposed Charles II after the Restoration, and for this he was executed. See below, p. 231, n. 72. 118. historic page] Smith plays on the dual meaning of the word: both the written page containing the poem, and the chivalric page in attendance on a knight. 119. palm] symbol of triumph or victory; also strewn across the path taken by Jesus as he entered Jerusalem to cries of ‘Hosanna’. 120. CELESTINA.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 4, p. 121. As Roger Meyenberg points out, by omitting the information in Celestina that the poem was inspired by Thomas Edwards’s Sonnet XXXVII and Sonnet XLIV, Smith disguises the extent of her borrowing (Meyenberg, ‘Some Comments on the Poems of Charlotte Smith’, unpublished MA thesis (University of York, 1994), pp. 3–4). 121. CELESTINA.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 4, p. 168. 122. CELESTINA.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 4, pp. 212–3. 123. CELESTINA.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 4, p. 218. 124. height] compare Sonnet LXX, l. 9 (p. 76). 125. unblest,] compare Sonnet LXII, l. 1 (p. 72). 126. CELESTINA.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 4, p. 227. 127. Tenglio’s] A river in the Tornionlaakso Valley, at the base of Niemevaara fell, charted by Pierre Louis de Maupertuis in 1736–7 and described in his Relation du voyage fait par Ordre du Roi au cercle polaire pour determiner la figure de la terre (Paris, 1738). In ‘Winter’ (The Seasons), Thomson writes of ‘pure Niemi’s fairy mountains … / And fring’d with roses[,] Tenglio …’ (ll. 875–6). 128. converse] conversation. 129. pathless bowers.] compare Wordsworth, ‘Nutting’, ll. 14–16. 130. Pope.] This citation shows Smith’s increasing sensitivity to charges of plagiarism, as the original lines, as sourced by Curran, bear only a passing resemblance to her own: ‘Divine Oblivion of low-thoughted care’ (‘Eloisa to Abelard’, l. 298) (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 49). For a detailed look at 224 Explanatory Notes to pages 48–55

Smith’s various borrowings in the Sonnets, see Meyenberg,‘Some Comments on the Poems of Charlotte Smith’. 131. prelusive] introductory. 132. trackless glade,] see above, p. 221, n. 65 and p. 223, n. 129. 133. Harriet,] Henrietta O’Neill; ‘Harriet’ was a diminutive of Henrietta. 134. bed of flock] mattress stuffed with waste wool. See below, p. 247, n. 55. 135. Shakspeare.] see Love’s Labours Lost, V.ii.890. 136. Milton.] see L’Allegro, l. 36. 137. Dr. Darwin.] Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802). Smith alludes to The Economy of Vegetation (part I of The Botanic Garden), l. 196 (1791). 138. Glow-worm.] John Wolcot was the penname of Peter Pindar. See Rural Wa l k s (1795; Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 12, pp. 53–4), for the full text of this poem. 139. lucid] transmitting light. See below, p. 233, n. 118. 140. EMMELINE.] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 2, pp. 412–3. 141. Despair!’] see Thomas Gray, ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’, l. 69. See also above, p. 219, n, 27. 142. Sonnet the 44th.] see p. 43. 143. only one.] see Thomas Gray, ‘Sonnet on the Death of Richard West’, ll. 13–14; see also above, p. 219, n. 27. 144. desart beech:] that is, deserted beach. 145. cipher’d] Literally, a cipher is a system of writing, although it usually carries the meaning of coded writing. Smith may mean that the speaker of ‘Elegy’ sees the writing on the tomb as encoding a message not immediately apparent – one to do with parental tyranny, perhaps. 146. widow’d] The speaker sees herself as wedded to her dead love, in a union sanctified by Nature. 147. enchafed] wearing or vexing; see Othello, II.i.17: ‘the enchafed flood’. 148. CARDINAL BERNIS.] Cardinal François Joachim de Pierre de Bernis (1715–94), also politician and diplomat, patronised by Mme de Pompadour (1721–64, royal mistress to King Louis XV), who admired his poetry and epigrams. His complete poems were published in 1767 (Paris). Smith first published this poem in the European Magazine (October, 1782), p. 311, where she was identified by the initials ‘S.C.’ and ‘thank[ed] … for the sonnet [Sonnet V], and the imitation of the French song’; the editors were ‘still more indebted to him [sic] for his promise of further contributions’. (‘Notices’). The ‘Notices’ also referred to the ‘chaste delicacy’ of Sonnets I and VII, which had appeared in September 1782. In 1784, Smith prefaced her translation with the original French: I. Tendre fruit des pleurs de l’Aurore, Objet des baisirs du Zephir, Reine de l’empire de Flore, Hate toi de t’epanouir, Que dis je? – Helas! crains de paraître, Differer un moment de t’ouvrir; L’instant qui doit te faire naître Est celui qui doit te fletrir. Explanatory Notes to pages 55–6 225

II. Va meurs sur le sein de Themire, Qu’il soit ton trône, et ton tombeau; Jaloux de ton sort, je n’aspire Qu’au bonheur d’un trepas si beau. Si quelque main a l’imprudence, D’y venire troubler ton repos; Tu porte avec toi ta defence, Garde une épine à mes rivaux. III. L’Amour aura soin de t’instruire De quel côté tu dois panacher, Eclate à ses yeux sans me nuire, Pare son sein, sans le cacher. Qu’enfin elle rende les armes Au Dieu qui doit former nos liens, Et qu’en voyant fletrir tes charmes, Elle apprend à jouir des siens. 149. Aurora’s tears,] the dew that falls at dawn. 150. Zephyrs] soft, gentle breezes; the west wind (see above, p. 220, n. 48). The poem’s sexual tone is enhanced by the wind’s personification. See also below, p. 236, n. 184. 151. blow,] bloom, open. 152. Themira’s] Themira was a character in The Temple of Gnidus by Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron of Montesquieu, where her beauty is surpassed only by that of Venus, and where her superiority is compared to that of a ‘rose in the midst of flowers that spring from the grass’. The Temple of Gnidus was published in English in 1777: The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777). In natural history, ‘themira’ is a species of fly (named by Linnaeus in 1758). 153. the present,] that is, the fifth edition (1789). 154. Jove … Pandora] Jove: also called Jupiter, the supreme god in Roman mythology; Vulcan: Roman god of fire. In Greek mythology Pandora was the first woman, created by Hephaestus (Greek version of Vulcan). Her ‘fatal gift’ was a box containing all earthly evils as well as hope. When Pandora, endowed with overwhelming curiosity, opened the box, she let out these evils, while hope remained in the box. 155. myrtle … bay,] see above, p. 220, n. 59 and p. 222, n. 94. 156. pipe,] the pan-pipe traditionally associated with the pastoral shepherd. 157. nymphs] in pastoral poetry, the innocent girls loved by shepherd boys. In the late eighteenth century, ‘nymphs’ was also slang for sexually available women. See above, p. 219, n. 29. 158. Cupid] god of love and son of Venus. 159. Ve n u s ] goddess of beauty and, sometimes, chastity. 160. vindicate] here, to justify or defend. 161. Mars’s … casque,] Mars, the Roman god of war, wore a casque or helmet. 162. bound … round,] Venus encases the edge of Mars’s helmet (‘bound’ or bound- ary) with her cestus or girdle, which provokes love but which is also associated 226 Explanatory Notes to pages 56–60

with chastity. The following lines describe how Venus arms women for the battle between the sexes. 163. ambrosial] blissfully delicious; worthy of the gods. 164. eyes,’] see Pope’s translation of the Iliad, xiv.249–52. 165. Maia’s son] Maia was the eldest of the Pleiades; her son was Mercury, the messenger to the gods and associated with commerce and thievery. 166. Zephyr] the west wind; see above, p. 225, n. 150. 167. Flora] the goddess of flowers; see above, p. 222, n. 98. 168. Gallia’s … Seine;’] archaic name for France, and its major central, south-west, and north-west rivers. Given that the poem deals with flattery and is inspired, according to the note, from a conversation with ‘some French gentlemen’, Smith seems to be embedding in her poem the idea that flattery is inherently false and deceitful: Venus’ desire to enhance femininity with French polish only flatters as long as one overlooks the inherently deceitful nature of the femininity she is creating. See below, p. 242, n. 41, and p. 296, n. 38. 169. fleurs de lys;] the national flower of France and symbol of the French monarchy. 170. Apollo] Greek god of poetry and music, associated with the sun. 171. Graces … entwined] The three Graces (joy, charm and beauty) are often depicted with their arms around one another. Here, Smith represents them as witches. 172. helmet’s round] the bowl of Mars’ helmet, which has served as a cauldron. 173. aether] the clear upper air, the element of the gods of Olympus. More specifically, ‘aether’ also denoted purified air or fire, a kind of fifth element, and was even used to describe the substance of the soul. 174. May’s … snow.] May and December are associated with youth and age, respectively. 175. gouvernantes] the ‘rigid aunts’ who have acted as chaperones. 176. She … ton.] She is transformed into a nymph to be toasted – celebrated – by admirers, and is admitted to fashionable society. Women in this position were often considered sexually available. 177. George … First;] George I reigned from 1714 to 1727, while George II reigned from 1727 to 1760. 178. beaux] lovers. 179. modes … lappet] The faded beauty remembers the fashions (‘modes’) of her youth, like ribboned headbands (‘fillets’) and ornamental flaps of material on her dresses and headgear (‘lappets’). 180. George the Third.] George III was crowned 1760. 181. modest Muse,] This reference underscores the sexualised femininity Venus prepared for her human followers. 182. CELESTINA] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 4, pp. 362–4. 183. plantain] common roadside or doorside weed with elliptical leaves. 184. Alpine-berry] any one of several berries that grow at high altitudes, such as the cloudberry. 185. MRS. H—Y.] Eliza Hayley, William’s wife, was one year younger than Smith, who was thirty-eight in 1787. Explanatory Notes to pages 60–6 227

186. starch … sage,] At eighteen, the speaker remembers, she saw the unmarried woman of thirty-eight as stiff and unbending, and the married woman as serious and solemn. 187. view,] compare Sonnet XXXVI, l. 11 (p. 38). 188. myrtle … olive] see above, p. 220, n. 59, p. 222, n. 94 and p. 225, n. 155. 189. SUPPRESSED.] originally entitled ‘To my children’. This poem was printed in the first edition of Emmeline but thereafter suppressed. See Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 2, Appendix, p. 469. 190. wrong,’] see Hamlet III.i.73: ‘Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely’. 191. essay] as in Elegiac Sonnets and Other Essays. 192. prest,] compare Sonnet XLIV; see below, p. 229, n. 41. 193. bore] Smith indirectly associates her ‘calamities’ (such as her failed marriage, legal problems and poverty) with her children, whom she also ‘bore’.

Volume II

1. PETRARCHA.] see Poem 268, ll. 78–82: ‘do not approach where there is laughter and singing, my song, no, but where there is weeping; it is not fitting for you to be among cheerful people, disconsolate widow in black garments’ (Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, pp. 440–1). Smith uses ‘con’ (with) rather than Petrarch’s ‘fra’ (among), which slightly changes the tone. 2. obliged.] Walker (1761–1810) was one of Smith’s most steadfast friends and oversaw much of her Irish publishing. 3. accepted subscriptions.] As she does in her letters, Smith here treats her poems as a commodity to be bought and sold. 4. Of four sons … invalids.] Smith refers to her sons William Towers (1768?– 1826), a civil servant in Bengal; Nicholas Hankey (1771–1837), with the East India Company; Charles Dyer (1773–1801), whose ensigncy was pur- chased in 1793 and who lost his leg at Dunkirk within months of joining up; and Lionel (1777–1842), who was appointed ensign in 1795. 5. The loveliest … ever.] Smith’s daughter Anna Augusta (1774–95), her acknowledged favourite, died in April 1795 from complications following the birth (and death) of her first son in 1794. Smith saw Augusta as ‘the only one [of her children] who had not the remotest resemblance of [Benjamin]’, and her ‘misery’ at Augusta’s death ‘never abated’ (letter to Sarah Rose, 26 April 1806; Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith, ed. by Judith Phillips Stanton (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 729). 6. denied me!] George Augustus Frederick Smith (1785–1806), who joined the army in 1801 at the age of fifteen. 7. listened to;] Smith may be alluding to the steady erosion of personal rights and liberties following the advent of war with France. 8. ‘with querulous egotism,’] Smith follows Coleridge, who uses the phrase in his 1796 Poems on Various Subjects (London: G.G. and J. Robinson), ‘Preface’, p. xiii. 228 Explanatory Notes to pages 67–72

9. sting them,’] see Essays, Historical, Political and Moral; Being a Proper Supplement to Baratariana. By Brutus, and Humphrey Search (Dublin, 1774): Letter XLVII, ‘The History of Patriotism’: ‘Such professed parricides we shall, for the present, leave to the thorns that in their bosom lodge, to goad and sting them’ (p. 285). See also Hamlet, I.iv.86–8. 10. remedy!] Curran identifies these figures as the principal trustees of Richard Smith’s estate, Smith’s son-in-law John Robinson and Anthony Parkyn, a lawyer (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 9). 11. we die,’] see Pope, Essay on Man, Epistle II, ll. 271–4: ‘See some strange comfort ev’ry state attend, / And Pride bestow’d on all, a common friend: / See some fit passion ev’ry age supply, / Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die’. Characteristically, Smith overlooks Pope’s shift from Pride to Hope. 12. party] Smith refers to political parties and affiliations. 13. stuff,’] see Mark Antony’s funeral oration (‘Ambition should be made of sterner stuff ’): Julius Caesar, III.ii.92. 14. 1787.] The subscription edition of the Elegiac Sonnets (Volume I) was published in 1787 with 817 subscribers; that for Volume II had only 283. 15. theatrical taste.] Smith’s play What is She? (1799) is a comedy with darkly tragic undertones. See Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 13, pp. 1–58. 16. world.] By 1797 Napoleon was established as France’s chief military officer and had already captured much of Western Europe. The apocalyptic repre- sentation of Napoleon colours the Preface as a whole, which was suppressed in the second edition of Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II. 17. GIRL.] see Rural Walks, Dialogue V (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 12, p. 41). There, Mrs Woodfield distinguishes ‘mild, generous, unassum- ing’ Miranda from her ‘shewy’ cousin Maria. Where Maria is like the tulip, Miranda is likened to the lily of the valley. Unfortunately, Miranda grows proud of her attractive weakness and becomes ‘affected and ridiculous’. 18. undismay’d,] that is, the Tulip feels no shame, no dismay at being looked at. The tulip, being cultivated (and foreign), was commonly used as a metaphor for shamelessness. 19. that] The referent is the ‘eye of taste’. 20. AMERICA.] see The Old Manor House (Works of Charotte Smith, Volume 6, p. 331). 21. America] see William Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws (Philadelphia: James & Johnson, 1791). Interestingly, this superstition does not seem to be described in the text. 22. dear delusive] compare Sonnet I, l. 1, ‘dear delusive art’(p. 17). 23. SNOW.] see The Old Manor House (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 6, pp. 390–1). Given that the lines are originally meant to be composed by Orlando Somerive on his return from his abortive career as a soldier, it is interesting to compare the sonnet’s sentiments with Wordsworth, ‘The Discharged Soldier’ (1798). 24. dying … cottage;] compare Coleridge, ‘Frost at Midnight’, ll. 1–23. 25. Sonnet lxxvii.] see p. 80. Explanatory Notes to pages 73–5 229

26. Sylphs,] elemental beings of the air. See above, p. 222, n. 103 and below, p. 254, n. 197. 27. thorn!] a bush or tree with sharp, spiny thorns, such as the hawthorn or white-thorn. See below, p. 257, n. 284. 28. Man.’] see The Banished Man (1794; Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 7, p. 444). 29. tepid] therapeutically lukewarm. 30. grave!’] see William Hayley, ‘Epistle to a Friend on the Death of John Thornton’ (1780), l. 190. By 1794 the deep friendship between Smith and Hayley was cooling. 31. romantic] that is, suitable to romance, especially that of native genius, but a prescient application of the term nonetheless. Smith may also be alluding to the mouth of the Bristol Gorge, where the therapeutic waters of the Bristol Hot Wells are located, and which featured frequently in paintings of the area in the late eighteenth century. 32. skill] Smith probably alludes to Thomas Chatterton (1752–70) and Ann Yearsley, the Milkwoman of Bristol (1752–1806). Both were feted as natural geniuses, although as early as 1785 Yearsley had broken with her patron Hannah More and was widely seen as ungrateful by previously enthusiastic, middle-class readers. Smith’s championing of Yearsley in 1794 is therefore all the more interesting. 33. torpid] benumbing. See below, p. 253, n. 181. 34. save!] Smith’s title refers to the eminent physician Caleb Hillier Parry (1755–1822), who had treated her favourite daughter Anna Augusta after her difficult pregnancy in 1794. The baby boy died, aged three days, in July 1794; Augusta herself died on April 23, 1795. Dr Parry’s involvement illustrates Smith’s social, and perhaps financial, standing at the time. Many of the subsequent sonnets in the rest of Elegiac Sonnets, Volume I as well as poems in Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II allude to Augusta’s death: the trope of loss has found a concrete object. 35. evanescent] light as air; transitory. 36. slight] weak, inadequate. 37. Amaranth] see above, p. 221, n. 61 and below, p. 244, n. 81. 38. Montalbert.] see Montalbert (1795; Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 8, p. 236). 39. waves ] compare Sonnet XLIV (p. 43). 40. Mined … tides,] that is, undermined by harsh and abrasive tides. 41. opprest;] compare Sonnet XLIV, where the Moon ‘press’d’ (l. 1) instead of being ‘opprest’. 42. nurse,’] see 2 Henry IV, III.i.6. 43. work.] see Montalbert (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 8, p. 244). 44. tomb,] Although the speaker alludes to the location of the title, the theatrical language (‘scene’) is suggestive. 45. Summer!] Smith alludes to the summer solstice, 21 June. 46. ROCHFORT] Rochefort sur Mer, the location of a French naval prison during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1795, when this poem is written, the war with France had been going on for two years. 230 Explanatory Notes to pages 75–80

47. we] Smith was in Exmouth with her youngest children Harriet, aged fourteen, and George, eleven, in the summer of 1795, in mourning for Anna Augusta. 48. pallid] pale, ghostly: a physically wrecked soldier like Orlando Somerive in the fourth volume of The Old Manor House. 49. fate!] an allusion, perhaps, to Smith’s loss. Since the soldier’s family are all still living, his financial and physical ruin have no import; he still feels blessed. Compare Wordsworth, ‘The Last of the Flock’ (1798). 50. lunatic.] compare the epigraph to Sonnet XXI (p. 29): it is interesting that despite its similar situation, this sonnet is not ‘supposed to be written by Werter’. Indeed, the speaker’s close identification with Smith herself is emphasized by the accompanying plate. 51. brink,] compare Sonnet LII, ll. 4–5 (p. 47). 52. Walpole.] see The Mysterious Mother (wr. 1768, pub. 1791), III.iii, The Works of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. In Five Volumes (London: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1798), vol. i, p. 70. The modern edition of the play, in Five Romantic Plays, ed. by Paul Baines and Edward Burns (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), divides it into five one-scene acts; the lines Smith quotes are found in II.i.306–7 (p. 25). 53. lucid] transmitting light. See above, p. 224, n. 139. 54. Milton.] Smith slightly misquotes from Paradise Lost, ix.50–1: ‘short arbiter / ’Twixt day and night’. 55. doubled.] In Poems and Plays. By Mrs. West (London: Longman & Rees, 1799), Jane West glosses line 195 of ‘Elegy on the Death of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke, first published in 1797’ (‘No more complaining of a folded rose’) with a note: ‘Alluding to the story of the Sybarite, who complained that he could not sleep, because the rose-leaves lay doubled under him’ (p. 133). 56. irritable] open or inclined to irritation. 57. grief;] compare Sonnet LXII, l. 13, ‘sad vicissitudes of care’ (p. 72). 58. grave!] Smith provides a catalogue of the sorrows weighing down the speakers of her sonnets. 59. Shakspeare.] see Macbeth, II.ii.35. 60. Winter] the winter solstice, 21 December. See Sonnet LXVIII (p. 75). 61. Marchmont.] see Marchmont (1796; Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 9, p. 222). The sonnet seems to retell the more personalized grief of the previous poem. 62. pathless] compare Wordsworth, ‘Nutting’, ll. 14–16. 63. darkling] proceeding in the dark. 64. capricious] unsteady, uneven, changeable. 65. noon,] that is, Midnight. 66. visionary Nymphs … sedge;] the imagined, as in a vision (‘visionary’), spirits of the shades and water. It is interesting to compare Keats’s use of the combined image of sedge, maids and visions in ‘La belle dame sans merci’ (1819). 67. purchas’d] As the lines suggest, most public honours could be bought, as Smith also explores in The Old Manor House; there, Orlando Somerive pur- chases first a military office, and at the novel’s end a baronetcy. Explanatory Notes to pages 80–2 231

68. pedant] rigidly insistent on form and rules. 69. life.] Smith’s son Lionel (1777–1842) was at school at Winchester when, in 1793, he led a protest, complete with muskets, against a schoolmate’s unfair treatment. For this, he and his cousin Nicholas Turner were expelled. See Collected Letters, p. 778. 70. proud] prideful, disdainful. 71. Hampden] John Hampden (1653–96) joined with Algernon Sidney (1622– 83) in opposing Charles II. 72. Sydney] see above, p. 223, n. 117. 73. GOSSAMER.] see Conversations Introducing Poetry (1804; Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 13, p. 155). 74. viewless Æronaut,] ‘Aeronaut’ refers specifically to the type of spider Smith describes: ‘a gossamer spider which floats on films’, according to the OED, which records the earliest usage as Darwin in 1879. 75. sculler] one who rows a scull: a small boat. 76. Brit.] The Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in three volumes in 1771 (Edinburgh) and expanded to ten volumes between 1778 and 1783 (also Edinburgh). Neither version lists Dr Lister as a contributor or source, and Smith’s quotation could not be found in either. However, it appears in George Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Natural History of Birds, Fish, Insects, and Reptiles, 5 vols (London: J. S. Barr, 1793), vol. v, p. 157, where de Buffon cites Dr Lister. 77. ray.’] see The Economy of Vegetation, iv.561–2; see also above, p. 224, n. 137, and below, p. 255, n. 223. 78. web.’] Romeo and Juliet, I.iv.61–3. 79. fall – ] Also Romeo and Juliet, II.vi.16–20, although spoken by the Friar to describe Juliet’s arrival. 80. Atom,] minuscule being. 81. Æther] poetic terminology for the upper atmosphere. 82. Swift] A swallow-like bird which feeds on insects. 83. revolve.] Compare Coleridge, ‘Kubla Khan’ (wr. 1798; pub. 1816), ll. 49–54. 84. Zephyrs’] spring breezes. See above, p. 226, n. 166. 85. leafless;] The slow pace of these lines recalls the opening lines of the second book of The Emigrants (p. 137). 86. dew,’] Milton, Il Penseroso, ll. 170–2. 87. sociable!’] Smith slightly misquotes Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, IV.ii.12–13: ‘society is no comfort / To one not sociable’. 88. shades] sheltered areas, but carrying an allusion to death (‘shades’ meaning ghostly presence). 89. peines.’] Jean Jacques Rousseau, Les Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire (1782), Book 7: ‘I delighted in this ocular recreation which in my misfortune relaxes, amuses, distracts the mind, and suspends the troubled feelings.’ See Rousseau, Les Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire, ed. by Michel Raymond (Genève: Librarie Droz, 1948), bk 7, p. 108, and The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, trans. by Charles E. Butterworth (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1992), p. 92. 90. ‘Promenades’] see above, p. 231, n. 89. Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire was published posthumously from notebooks and functions as a continuation 232 Explanatory Notes to pages 82–5

of Les Confessions du John Jacques Rousseau (also published posthumously, 1781–8). 91. fin –’] Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire, p. 112; ‘Forced to abstain from thinking for fear of thinking about my misfortunes in spite of myself, forced to keep in check the remainder of a cheerful but languishing imagination which so much anguish could end up by frightening…’ (Reveries of the Solitary Walker, p. 95). 92. objets!’] Smith leaves out some words in her quotation: see Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire, pp. 115–6; ‘Brilliant flowers, diverse colors of the meadows, fresh shady spots, brooks, thickets, greenery, come purify my imagination sullied by all those hideous objects’(Reveries of the Solitary Walker, p. 97). 93. lead.’] King Lear, IV.v.39–41. 94. dyes’] Smith slightly misquotes Milton, Lycidas, l. 135: ‘bells and flowerets of a thousand hues’. Although this sonnet is dedicated to botany, its crowd of quotations from Milton, Rousseau and Shakespeare suggest a literary dedication as well. 95. Samps. Agon.] Milton, Samson Agonistes, ll. 86–9. 96. Queen,] Compare Sonnets IV and XXXIX (pp. 18 and 40). 97. obscure] dark and dim. 98. martial … hair;] Smith contrasts the silent absence of the usually congenial Moon with the violence of Mars, whose ‘lurid glare’ chimes with the turmoil her speaker feels, as does the portentous comet’s fiery tail. 99. Farther.’] see Rambles Farther (1796; Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 12, p. 208). 100. thymy banks] overgrown with thyme. See John Gay, Fables (London: Darton and Harvey, 1793): Fable XXII: ‘The Goat without a Beard’, l. 11–12: ‘Whene’er a thymy bank he found, / He roll’d upon the fragrant ground’. 101. collection.] see ‘Vacuna’, by Mr D—, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes (London: R. & J. Dodsley, 1758), vol. v, p. 97, l. 52. In this poem, ‘Vacuna’ is defined as ‘the goddess of indolence’ (p. 95). 102. osier-whispering] The long branches of the willow tree create a murmuring, whispering sound; see below, p. 257, n. 274. 103. Poet,] Robert Burns (1759–96). 104. creation,’] see Works of James Thomson, 4 vols (London: A. Millar, 1766), vol. iv, p. 251 (Coriolanus, III.ii: ‘nature’s own creating’). 105. subscription,] Smith, whose Elegiac Sonnets, Volume I (5th edn) and Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II (1st edn) were both published by subscription, feels a kinship with Burns. She detested the servility she felt was inseparable from subscription publishing. 106. Scotia’s] Scotland. 107. rhyme,’] Milton, Lycidas, l. 11. 108. rude,] unrefined, lacking polish. 109. abject … Parasite] Compare The Emigrants, i.329–31 (p. 132). 110. Pope.] ‘Epitaph on Sir William Trumbull’, l. 12: ‘At length enjoys that Liberty he lov’d’. 111. VIEW.] The opening lines of this sonnet anticipate those of Beachy Head (p. 155). 112. MUSE.] compare Sonnets I and XLVII (pp. 17 and 44). Explanatory Notes to pages 85–9 233

113. illusive] illusory. 114. bleeds;] compare Sonnet LXXXII, l. 12 (p. 84). 115. keep,] The speaker echoes the hope expressed by Werter, in Sonnet XXIV (p. 31), that his death shall be mourned. 116. Gray.] Thomas Gray, ‘Epitaph on Sir William Williams’, l. 12. 117. Philosopher.’] see The Young Philosopher (1798; Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 10, pp. 216, 321, and 224. 118. lucid] see above, p. 224, n. 139. 119. fires,] ignis fatuus, a phosphorescent light emitted from decomposing vegetable matter (also called will-o’-the-wisp). 120. Pilgrim ] The Pilgrim is one of Smith’s more frequent motifs; see Sonnets IX, XII, XLIII and LII, for instance (pp. 22, 23, 44, 47). 121. sere,] dry and withered. 122. rooks,] black bird with a rough caw, often thought to presage death. 123. phalanx] a compact body or group; also, a compact body of troops, which informs Smith’s image. 124. furze … thorn] see above, Sonnet LXIII, ll. 1 and 14 (pp. 72–3). 125. returns!] compare Sonnet II, l. 14: ‘Ah! why has happiness – no second spring?’ (p. 18). 126. wife.’] Curran cites a 1796 edition of Pope’s Odyssey (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 75). Smith quotes from iv.301–16, with some liberties. 127. thirst.] Milton, Comus, ll. 672–3, 675–8. L. 677: ‘Is of such power to stir up joy as this’. 128. Polydamna’s] According to Bell’s New Pantheon; or, Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi-gods, Heroes, and Fabulous Personages of Antiquity (London: J. Bell, 1790), she is the ‘wife of Thonis, king of Egypt, who bestowed on Helen a certain specific against care and melancholy. To this Milton, in his Comus, has finely adverted’ (p. 185). 129. Helen] Helen of Troy, infamous for her beauty. 130. thought.] compare Sonnet LXX, l. 13, ‘uncursed with reason’ (p. 76). 131. Milton.] Sonnet 23, l. 14. 132. Morn,’] Milton, Lycidas, l. 26. 133. broidery] embroidery, embroidered covering (figurative). 134. Boothby.] Sonnet XIII: ‘Show Misery living, Hope and Pleasure dead’ (l. 6), from Sorrows. Sacred to the Memory of Penelope (London: Cadell and Davies, 1796), p. 19. 135. Warton.] ‘Ode I. To Sleep’, l. 16. Smith slightly misquotes: ‘Death stands prepar’d, but still delays, to strike’. See The Poems on Various Subjects, of Thomas Warton (London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1791), p. 49. 136. were’] Macbeth, IV.ii.222. This unsourced quotation of Macduff deeply embeds parental grief and bereavement in the sonnet. 137. REFLECTIONS] thoughts, musings or recollections. 138. mimic] copied, drawn. 139. bells … eyes,] possibly bluebells and phloxes, although ‘golden eyes’ also refers to the yellow centres of certain flowers. 140. cloud] colour in. 141. breast,] compare Sonnet LXXXIV, l. 11 (p. 85). 142. paternal] fatherly; also, of the father: Bignor Park was her childhood home but it belonged to her father. 234 Explanatory Notes to pages 90–3

143. Parish,] name given to the administrative area of a region, usually corre- sponding to ecclesiastical boundaries, and also shorthand for the officials of the area. They were responsible for attending to the needs of the indigent within the boundaries, funded by local taxes; the care was usually minimal and grudging (‘cold, reluctant, Parish Charity’, l. 3). This and the following two poems were written while Smith was living in Brighton (‘Brighthelmstone’) and share their date with Book I of ‘The Emigrants’. See below, p. 243, n. 64. 144. persons.] see l. 20: ‘Death vindicates the insulted rights of Man’ (p. 90). The allusions to Paine and Wollstonecraft, and the pro-Revolutionary tone, would have been apparent to many readers. 145. pottage.] a thin boiled lentil soup; see Genesis 25:27–34. 146. Southey.] see Robert Southey, Poems (Bristol: J. Cottle, 1797), pp. 47–8. 147. mold?] also mould: decomposed organic material. 148. sable] black mourning clothes. 149. Leveller,] By using the capital, Smith turns a common image into a specific political reference: the Levellers, in the 1640s, advocated universal male suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance, all key issues in the 1790s. 150. Man.] see above, p. 234, n. 144. 151. trod,] Smith links the dead beggar with her own poetic persona by using this familiar image from the sonnets. 152. boast.] The segment appears as Book I, ll. 200–32 (see below, pp. 129–30). The ‘lady’ is Harriet Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough, whose sister was the Duchess of Devonshire. 153. rock,] that is, rock composed of chalk. 154. passage] migratory birds. Smith returns to this theme in ‘The Swallow’, in Beachy Head: With Other Poems (p. 187). 155. doubt.] Since, as Curran notes, the two birds are of different families, Smith’s doubt is fully justified (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 99). 156. Hebrid-isles.] The Hebrides, to the north of the Scottish mainland. 157. bird-lime … unplum’d,] Bird-lime is a sticky substance that is smeared on branches to catch small birds, who are then ‘unplumed’, that is, their feathers are pulled off. See below, p. 258, n. 302. 158. buskin … season] Actors (players) of Greek and Roman tragedies wore thin- soled, laced half-boots (buskins) while those in other Greek and Roman plays wore light shoes (socks). The reference to Macbeth (V.v.25) adds Shakespeare to the repertoire performed during the season – the summer months. A further layer of play-acting enters the poem as the reader realizes it is being spoken by the distressed player as well as written on his behalf. 159. Thames’s … Tweed:] After leaving Brighton, some actors return to London theatres, while others migrate to Dublin or Edinburgh. 160. imp] grafting new feathers onto damaged wings. 161. vicissitudes] compare Sonnet LXII, l. 13, ‘sad vicissitudes of care’ (p. 72). 162. Hero … Sans Culotte!] The player’s roles are diverse, ranging from the principal male character to one of the mob (the sans-culottes were extreme radical revolutionaries in the French Revolution and often characterized as a mob). Explanatory Notes to pages 93–6 235

163. Falstaff] In this and the next stanza, the player runs through a variety of popular roles as well as revealing some ironic realities behind the perform- ances. Falstaff: a fat and jolly character in 1 and 2 Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Ammon: Alexander the Great as he is styled in Nathaniel Lee’s The Rival Queens (Statira and Roxana). Edgar: doubles as Tom Bedlam in King Lear, which also features the undutiful daughters Goneril and Regan. Edward: Curran speculates that this refers to William Shirley’s Edward the Black Prince, 1750 (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 101). Hotspur: like Falstaff, a character in 1 Henry IV. 164. rent!] a demand for unpaid rent. 165. moon,’] see 1 Henry IV, I.iii.200: ‘pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon’. 166. Fisher,] In this and the next stanza, the player lists the occupations that are more financially and emotionally stable and satisfying than acting. 167. Shakspeare.] 1 Henry IV, III.i.51, 53. 168. Poissarde,] fish-wife; like sans-culotte, a Revolutionary reference (on 5 October 1789 a vast group of poissardes marched from Paris to Versailles). Smith also plays on the association of fishwives with foul speech and a lack of femininity. 169. hop,] that is, hops, a twining vine the dried flowers of which are a principal ingredient in beer. 170. faggots] bundles of sticks and twigs bound together; they take the place of logs for the fire. 171. Gray.] Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, l. 23. See above, p. 224, n. 141. Either Smith or the player reverses the sentiment of the source quote. 172. unanneal’d,’] Hamlet, I.v.77. The player continues his self-reference. 173. squadron!] The player returns to his opening image of the migratory bird, while also possibly making a martial reference. 174. Shakspeare.] The Merchant of Venice, IV.v.185–6. 175. Heaven.] Compare Wordsworth, ‘The Old Cumberland Beggar’ (1798). 176. OLMIUS,] Elizabeth Olmius (1742–97) gathered subscriptions for the first edition of Elegiac Sonnets II (which had begun by late 1794/early 1795) and through this became a friend of Smith’s. 177. Novel.] see Marchmont (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 9, pp. 328–9). This note is the only instance of Smith providing the context for one of her transplanted novel-poems. Given Smith’s frequent references to her own ‘legal toils’ and their debilitating affect on her poetic and emotional energies, it is significant that in this poem she directs her readers to a fictional character’s situation. 178. rifted] split open or broken. 179. graves.] the graves surrounding the ruined church. 180. Desolation] the guiding spirit of the poem: also Fiend (l. 13), Demon (l. 19) and dire Spirit (l. 49). 181. strand,] ‘At the southern tip of the Isle of Portland is a lighthouse’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 104). 182. Monotonous,] that is, their sound is repetitive and unchanging. 183. block,] Portland stone, commonly used in building in England, especially for large and grand houses. 236 Explanatory Notes to pages 96–101

184. Zephyrs’] the winds; Smith is being ironic. See above, p. 231, n. 84 and, p. 226, n. 166. 185. scathed] harmed or injured by fire; see below, p. 252, n. 140. 186. cormorant … awks] all seabirds. A mew is a type of seagull and an awk, or auk, is a diving bird. 187. stray,] From here, the next four stanzas rehearse situations explored throughout Smith’s oeuvre. 188. felon] evil or cruel; the Spirit endows the winds with motivation. 189. Commixing] commingling. 190. rise,] compare Sonnet XII, l. 13, ‘Faint and more faint are heard his feeble cries’ (p. 25). 191. strand.] compare the situation of the mariner in Mary Robinson’s ‘The Haunted Beach’ (1800). 192. spare?] In ‘Beachy Head’, Smith imagines a more benevolent reaction to ship- wrecked sailors; see p. 176, ll. 707–9. 193. Marchmont.] see Marchmont (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 9, p. 335). 194. Oxoniensus] see John Sibthorp, Flora Oxoniensis, exhibens plantas in agro Oxoniensi sponte crescentes (Oxonii: Fletcher et Hanwell, et J. Cooke, 1794), pp. 169–70. 195. sear,] dried and brown. 196. delicious] highly pleasant, delightful. 197. amour?] ‘One day Hortense asked of me / Where one could find tender love?’ 198. turf,] compare the previous poem, ‘Verses’, l. 12. 199. Delicious] Although used more physically here, compare the previous poem, ‘Verses’, l. 19. 200. philosophy] system of knowledge. In this and the following note, Smith adopts an unusually carefree approach towards the need to supply precise botanical details. See also her note to ‘Verses’: ‘I do not mention this by way of exhib- iting botanical knowledge (so easy to possess in appearance) ….’ (p. 98). Throughout the poem Smith combines concrete botanical images with more abstract pictures of human behaviour and motivations. 201. mantling] covering like a mantle. 202. corded fillets] interwoven narrow strips of ribbon; in her notes Smith describes the weed’s ‘cord-like stalks, plaited together’. 203. aweful] awe-inspiring. 204. her] The referent seems to be Luxury. 205. troul’d] to sing lustily; also, to sing the different parts of a song, as in a round. 206. panoply.] the complete arms of a warrior. 207. welfare] Smith echoes the American Declaration of Independence Preamble: ‘promote the general welfare’. 208. sufferer] It was actually Smith’s son Charles who suffered, losing a leg at Dunkirk in 1793. 209. Crowe.] William Crowe (1745–1829). This poem was published anonymously as Verses Intended to have been Addressed to his Grace the Duke of Portland, Chancellor of the University, probably in Oxford in 1792. They then appeared, as Curran notes, without attribution in the European Magazine Explanatory Notes to pages 101–8 237

in June 1795 (no. 27), and were reprinted by Coleridge in The Watchman of 2 April 1796 (no. 5) as being by Crowe. Crowe was a committed paci- fist (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 111). Smith quotes ll. 14–28 with some changes: l. 18, ‘(tho child of peace)’; l. 22, ‘whom Justice’; l. 24, ‘exposed innocent’; l. 26, ‘stand at safe distance’. 210. Mary.’] see ‘Mary’, Southey, Poems, pp. 161–8. 211. hurst] copse or small wood; the OED also supplies ‘wooded eminence’ although this seems less likely given that the spot contains the ruins of Will’s cottage. 212. Arbeal,] possibly a contraction of ‘arboreal’; may also stand for ‘abele’, the white poplar. 213. gain’d.’] William has joined the army, half persuaded and half forced (l. 91), and has sent home his enlistment pay. 214. West,] William seems to be sent to the West Indies. 215. shore.] Like Orlando in The Old Manor House, William succumbs to fever as soon as he lands; unlike Orlando, he dies, his fever exacerbated by a broken heart. 216. waves] The term unites the mother’s grave with William’s sea journey. 217. against] that is, against his return. Compare ‘Elegy’, Elegiac Sonnets, Volume I, pp. 52–4. 218. saloon … hearth,] the wealthy and powerful who plan and direct wars from their drawing rooms. 219. 1794.] see The Banished Man (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 7, pp. 278– 9). Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II, originally contained two poems by O’Neill, directly preceding this one: ‘Ode to the Poppy, Written by a Deceased Friend’ and ‘Written by the Same Lady on Seeing Her Two Sons at Play’. Smith appended the following note to ‘Ode to the Poppy’ This and the following Poem were written (the first of them at my request, for a Novel [Desmond (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 5, pp. 265–6)] by a lady whose death in her thirty-sixth year was a subject of the deepest concern to all who knew her. Would to God the last line which my regret on that loss drew from me, had been prophetic – and that my heart had indeed been cold, instead of having suffered within the next twelve months after that line was written, a deprivation which has rendered my life a living death. Here, Smith refers to the death of her daughter Augusta. 220. rest,] compare Sonnet LXII, l. 3, ‘tranquil sleep’ (p. 72). 221. thine!] Henrietta O’Neill died on 3 September 1793, in Spain. 222. 1793.] see ‘The Emigrants’, ii. 254–81, 292–312 (pp. 143, 143–4). The ellipses disguise the deaths suffered by mother and child, made plain in ‘The Emigrants’. 223. footsteps:] This mountain, in its broken and inhospitable state, acts as a coun- ter-image to that being developed by Wordsworth in the late 1790s. 224. way!] see below, p. 243, n. 68 and n. 70. 225. APRIL.] Smith often focuses on April (and May): see Sonnets II, VIII, LIV and LV, for instance (pp. 17, 21, 48, 48); see also ‘The Emigrants’, vol. ii: 1–35 (p. 138). 238 Explanatory Notes to pages 109–13

226. Laura.] modern Sonnet 310, ll. 1–2, 9: ‘Zephyrus returns and leads back the fine weather and the flowers and the grass, his sweet family … But to me, alas, come back heavier sighs…’ (Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, pp. 488–9). 227. dolente.’] Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538–1612). His Il Pastor Fido (The Faithful Shepherd (1585)), from which these lines are drawn (III.i.1–10), was one of the earliest pastoral dramas, what Guarini called ‘poesia tragicomica’. Curran translates the lines as ‘O Spring, youth of the world, lovely mother of flowers, of new grass, and of new loves: you return surely, but with you do not return my serene and lucky days of joy; you return, you return, but with you nothing returns of my dear lost treasure except the sad and wretched memory’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 119). 228. rack] thin clouds. The more usual meaning of intense anguish doubtless colours the image. 229. stealing] that is, stealing up unawares. 230. half-blown] half-blossomed. 231. Spring!] compare Sonnet II, l. 14, ‘no second Spring’ (p. 18). 232. Aruna!] The river Arun; see above, p. 222, n. 91. 233. sportive] playful; compare Wordsworth, ‘Tintern Abbey’(1798), l. 16. 234. grave!] another allusion to the death of Smith’s daughter Augusta, in April 1795. 235. conscious] self-conscious, conscientious. 236. ‘Death … anticipates it.’] see The Essays of Francis Bacon … on Civil, Moral, Literary, and political subjects, 2 vols (London: J. Walter, 1787), vol. i, ‘Of Death’, p. 314. Where Smith writes ‘Dread of Disgrace’, the actual text has ‘fear of disgrace’. 237. THEMIS] goddess of law, order and justice; here, the British legal system. In this and the following lines, Smith rehearses her most common themes: legal injustice, poverty, the loss of friends’ support, the loss of Augusta. 238. PHILOSOPHER.’] see The Young Philosopher (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 10, pp. 104–5). 239. Caledonia’s] Scotland’s. 240. Liberty] In 1800, still a suspect term for many; even in this context an interesting choice, given the harsh and oppressive treatment meted out to Scottish Highlanders following the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. 241. PHILOSOPHER.’] see The Young Philosopher (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 10, pp. 227–9). A note to the poem in the novel ascribes the lines to ‘a gentleman, now gone to another quarter of the world’. 242. soul-corroding] eating into the soul like acid. 243. Unconscious] without awareness or volition: her shrieks are integral to her being. 244. slow-mining] slow but steady erosion. 245. rest.] The heart comes to a natural stop, having run out of energy (‘vital heat’). 246. delusion] see above, p. 228, n. 22. 247. explore;] compare the Lunatic’s actions in Sonnet LXX (p. 76). 248. SAME.] see The Young Philosopher (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 10, p. 321). ‘Vesper’: the evening star. This poem joins a group that has concen- Explanatory Notes to pages 113–22 239

trated on the moon, the sun and the morning star; see, for instance, Sonnets IV, XXIII, LXXII, LXXX, and LXXXIX (pp. 18, 30, 78, 83, 88). 249. dewy] moist; the speaker personifies Vesper but also embeds an allusion to twilight dewfall. 250. chantress] the nightingale; however, the male of the species sings at night, rather than the female. The speaker chooses a poetic image over a natural one. 251. grave,] see also the speakers of ‘Elegy’ and ‘Sonnet XII’ (pp. 52 and 23). 252. down] the Sussex South Downs; see above, p. 219, n. 26. 253. observers.] This note indicates Smith’s awareness of the power and utility of interpretation. 254. sea-mark’s] that is, vantage-point or viewing point. 255. him.] True to the ballad nature of the poem, Smith’s note also gestures towards the power of hearsay and legend. 256. wild … eye,] That Lydia’s eye is ‘wild yet vacant’ suggests something about the depth and power of wildness. 257. again.’] The poem participates in the revenant soldier tradition of the late eighteenth century. 258. thine!] The strongly Wordsworthian tone of this poem suggests that ‘Lydia’ functions as a lyrical ballad.

The Emigrants

1. TO WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ.] Cowper (1731–1800), whose most famous and influential poem was The Task (1785), may have corrected The Emigrants in manuscript and was one of Smith’s most supportive literary friends during the early 1790s. See the Headnote to The Emigrants (p. 118). 2. Bow of Ulysses.] In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus’ abandoned wife Penelope finally promises to marry the suitor who can draw her husband’s bow. None but the disguised Odysseus himself can do so. 3. speaking.’ – ] Milton, Paradise Lost, viii.1–3. 4. the pressure of evils,] By 1793, the lawsuit over Smith’s father-in-law’s will had been running for twelve years. 5. let me vindicate myself] Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) were widely read and commented on. The word ‘vindicate’ held a strongly political reso- nance, in large part due to Wollstonecraft, and Smith’s usage here and later in ii.384 (p. 145) show her to be attuned to this. 6. Emigrant Clergy,] Catholic priests fled France after the abolition of a state religion and the confiscation of church property. 7. suffrage] tolerance; supportive stance. 8. scenes … summer] In August 1792, the revolutionaries overpowered the royal guards and imprisoned the king and his family. This was followed by the Austro-Prussian invasion (the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II was brother to Marie Antoinette), leading to the September Massacres during 240 Explanatory Notes to pages 122–7

which hundreds of Royalists were murdered. The resultant Terror, which saw the guillotining of many moderate Girondists by the more radical Jacobins, provides the backdrop for The Emigrants. 9. the undistinguishing multitude] Here, Smith follows Burke, who characterized the lower classes as ‘the swinish multitude’ in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Smith, however, reverses the target, aiming squarely at the literate middle and upper classes. 10. the very name of Liberty] As late as 1903 Viscount St Cyres expressed his dismay at Smith’s ‘irresponsible treason’, wondering that she ‘was not pros- ecuted for sedition’, a clear reference to the Seditious Libel Act (Viscount St Cyres, ‘The Sorrows of Mrs. Charlotte Smith’, Cornhill Magazine 15 (1903), pp. 683–96). 11. the eloquence of Fox] Charles James Fox (1749–1806), Whig politician who remained in favour of the ideals of the Revolution. By 1792 he was increasingly marginalized from his own party. Smith again shows her political leanings. 12. Brighthelmstone,] the original name for Brighton. During the 1790s it was becoming increasingly fashionable owing to the patronage of the Prince of Wales, who suggested shortening the name to Brighton; this was not in common usage until the early nineteenth century. It is on the south-east coast of Britain. 13. a Morning in November, 1792.] Following the Massacres (2–4 September), France declared itself a Republic on 22 September. By November Robespierre had taken power. On 19 November the French Convention declared its support for all revolutionary movements in Europe. 14. legal … pleads)] a reference to the ongoing lawsuit. Smith makes plain her frustration and her alienation, as a woman, from the ‘vain boast of equal Law’. 15. Hills … turf! –] Smith contrasts a natural idyll with the culture of ‘proud oppression and legal crimes’. ‘Beach’: the beech tree. 16. Eve] the setting sun. 17. fabled Danaïds … rock,] The Danaïds were the daughters of Danaüs. For the crime of murdering their husbands, they were condemned to an afterlife of trying to draw water in sieves. ‘The wretch’: Sisyphus, doomed continually to push a rock to the top of a hill, only for it to roll to the bottom again. 18. offices] the outbuildings of a manor house where most of the work necessary to maintain the squire’s opulence took place. 19. buildings … trim] Once the Prince of Wales had established himself in Brighton, real-estate speculation quickly followed. 20. refer to it.] This phrase does not appear in Young but rather in a popular hunting song found in a variety of compendiums such as The Lyric Repository: A Selection of Original, Ancient, and Modern Songs … Distinguished for Poetical and Literary Merit (London: J. Johnson, 1788), p. 120, where it is titled ‘Mrs. Herbert’s Song at the Circus’. The phrase is also found in ‘Cards, Pro and Con’, by Samuel Jackson Pratt: ‘He ventures various purses on a card; / … / [He] steals the fresh supply. – Justice pursues, / The game is up – the gallows ends the chace’ (Miscellanies, 4 vols (London: T. Becket, 1785), vol. ii, p. 75, ll. 68, 73–4). Given the popularity of the hunting song, however, Explanatory Notes to pages 127–31 241

it is likely that Pratt and Smith independently make use of the words (with thanks to David Latane for the Pratt reference). 21. A group approach me,] Smith introduces the titular Emigrants, comprising four representatives of the Catholic religious hierarchy and an aristocratic family. She concentrates on a monk (ll. 113–24), a cardinal (ll. 125–46), an abbot (ll. 146–53) and a parish priest (ll. 169–99), then turns to the mother (ll. 200–32) and father (ll. 232–44) of the aristocratic family. The vignette of the mother later appears in revised form in the Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II (see pp. 91–3). 22. German spoilers,] reference to the Austro-Prussian invading force. 23. eleemosynary bread,] food given in charity. 24. Regrets] regrets the loss of. 25. Fleuri, Richelieu, Alberoni,] all politically powerful cardinals. André Hercule de Fleury (1653–1743) was virtually prime minister from 1726 to 1743. Armand Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (1585–1643), served as principal minister to Louis XIII. The Italian Guilio Alberoni (1664–1752) was effec- tively prime minister of Spain from 1716 to 1719 (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 140). 26. Involuntary exile;] From October 1784 until around March 1785 Smith lived in Normandy with her husband and family to avoid debtors. 27. Languedoc,] in south-central France to the west of the Rhône river. 28. page 203.] Dodsley’s Miscellanies, an anthology of poetry that first appeared in three volumes in 1748, expanding to four in 1755 and six in 1758, was a central compilation in the eighteenth century and an important reference work. 29. Lord] both the landowning aristocrat and, potentially, God. 30. Neustria’s] Normandy’s. See below, p. 246, n. 35. 31. chalky bourn,] a small stream running down to the sea, the bed of which is chalk. 32. Happy … Man! — ] Smith returns to this image in ‘Beachy Head’, ll. 259 ff. (p. 162). 33. Versailles] The Palace of Versailles, built by Louis XIV, served as the residence of the kings of France from the mid-seventeenth century. 34. dangerous tendency.] James Thomson adapted Shakespeare’s Coriolanus; the play was published in 1749. Smith quotes III.ii, substituting ‘creation’ for ‘creating’. See above, p. 232, n. 104. 35. Gueslin, Bayard, or De Foix,] Smith balances her trio of cardinals with a reference to French warriors. Bertrand De Guesclin (c. 1320–80) was Constable of France from 1370 to 1380. Pierre Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard (c. 1474– 1524), was a commander in the Italian Wars (1494–1559). Gaston de Foix (1489–1512) was a general in the Italian Wars. 36. ‘Gorgons … dire,’] Milton, Paradise Lost, ii.628. 37. trangled] Curran suggests this is a misprint for ‘tangled’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 145), although it is interesting that the sharp-eyed corrector (see headnote (p. 117)) does not note it for revision. 38. iron bonds,] reference to the collars and shackles worn by slaves. 39. ruinously conducted.] Louis XVI called the Estates General, the French national assembly, in May 1789 to deal with the incipient bankruptcy of the country. 242 Explanatory Notes to pages 131–9

The Third Estate, made up mainly of the wealthy middle classes, demanded a greater share of governing power from the First Estate (the clergy) and the Second Estate (the nobility). The conflict resulted in the secession of the Third Estate from the Estates General and the signing of the Tennis Court Oath, 17 June 1789. 40. while thus … breath! – ] see the opening lines of Wordsworth’s Salisbury Plain (1795) for a similar expression of the contrasting appreciation of hardship. 41. Gallia;] France (archaic). See above, p. 226, n. 168 and below, p. 246, n. 38. 42. Cressy or Poictiers,] the sites of two important battles. Poitiers was also the location for the signing of the Peace of Bergerac, or the Edict of Poitiers, which granted religious freedom to the Huguenots (1577). 43. him …valour!] George Augustus Elliott, first Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar (1717–90). As governor of Gibraltar, he defended the colony against a combined force of the French and Spanish for three and a half years (1779–83). Calpe: Gibraltar, and one of the Pillars of Hercules. Elliott is thus implicitly compared to Hercules. 44. Quippe … orbe.] ‘For here right and wrong are confounded: there are so many wars throughout the world: so many sorts of wickedness: the due honours are not paid to the plough: the husbandmen are carried away, and the fields lie neglected, and the crooked sickles are beaten into cruel swords. There Euphrates, and there Germany, makes war: the neighbouring cities break their leagues, and wage war with each other: impious Mars rages all over the globe’ (Publii Virgilii Maronis Georgicorum libri quatuor. The Georgicks of Virgil, with an English Translation and Notes. By John Martyn (London: R. Reily, 1746), pp. 126–7). 45. an Afternoon in April, 1793.] Thomas Paine was convicted of seditious libel in December 1792; Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793; war was declared between France and Britain in February 1793, and Britain joined the First Coalition comprising Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, the Netherlands and Spain; in France, the Committee for Public Safety was formed in early April 1793. See below, p. 244, n. 77. 46. where Desolation riots:] Smith may be referring specifically to the Vendée revolts. The Vendée region was strongly Catholic and refused to adhere to the new Civil Constitution; it also fought back against conscription. In March 1793 active revolt broke out and led to violent attacks on Republican representatives, with swift reprisals. The first actual battle took place on March 19, 1793. 47. Monarch ] Louis XVI. 48. panoply … distain] impressive array; distain: defile. 49. poor but peaceful hind] This line bears fruitful comparison to i.300–2 (p. 132). 50. SHAKSPEARE.] This note contains the reference to the quotations in i.22 (p. 137) and ii.78–9 (p. 139). ‘Hope … prime’ comes not from Shakespeare but from Edmund Waller’s ‘To My Young Lady Lucy Sidney’, l. 13 (Poems on Several Occasions (Glasgow: R. & A. Foulis, 1770)). ‘Famine … employ- ment’: Henry V, Prologue, ll. 7–8. 51. hecatombs] massive sacrificial slaughter. Explanatory Notes to pages 139–44 243

52. reason of man.] The Wars of the Roses (1455–85) saw the Houses of York (symbolized by the white rose) and Lancaster (the red rose) fighting for the throne of England. 53. SHAKSPEARE.] 2 Henry IV, IV.iii.154. 54. Unfortunate … bound;] Smith again refers to the beheaded Louis XVI. Interestingly, she also, with her image of a crown of thorns, seems to situate the king as a sacrificial victim who died for the sins of his people, even as she also writes of ‘regal crimes’ and ‘uncheck’d’ power (ii:88, 101; p. 139). 55. thy lilies,] the fleur-de-lys, symbol of France’s monarchy. 56. guarded diadem] presumably the crown, but limited in power. 57. School of Adversity.] Henry IV (1553–1610, r. 1589–1610) converted to Catholicism upon becoming king. He signed the Edict of Nantes, granting religious freedoms to Protestants, and his reign was characterized by a desire to ensure religious toleration. He was stabbed to death in May 1610 by François Ravaillac, a Catholic fanatic. 58. wretch,] As Curran notes, probably Jean-Paul Marat, whose inflammatory anti-monarchical writings helped foment the September Massacres and encouraged the imprisonment of the Royal family (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 153). 59. Innocent prisoner! – ] the seven-year-old Dauphin and heir to the throne, Louis, imprisoned with the rest of his family. Smith presents him as a child first, a potential king second. 60. little thoughtless shepherd lad,] see i:300–2 (p. 132). 61. brown fallows] ploughed but unseeded land. 62. wretched Mother,] Marie Antoinette. As she does with the Dauphin, Smith privileges the domestic identity of the French queen. 63. Whate’er … remember’d;] By spring 1793, Marie Antoinette had been accused of sensuality, incest and treason. Smith was one of the earliest writers to por- tray her sympathetically. 64. reluctant … extinction:] At the end of the eighteenth century, destitute inhabitants of a parish were provided for by funds drawn from local property rates. See above, p. 234, n. 143. 65. where no more… resides,] Absentee landlords often failed in their duties of care to their tenants. 66. waste.] In ii:215–38 (p. 142), Smith denounces war in no uncertain terms, and characterizes the fighting in France as a civil war. She takes a risk by speaking so plainly just as Britain has gone to war with France. 67. tell] During 1793, Smith provided a home for several French emigrants. One, Alexandre de Foville, became engaged to her favourite daughter Augusta. 68. That yesterday surrounded her] Smith’s lines echo those of Macduff upon the discovery that his family has been killed: ‘What, all my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?’ (IV.iii.219–20). Although the mother rescues one child, this success is short-lived. 69. dire increase of horrors –] The mother does not want her child to become food for wolves. 70. murder’d in his way! – ] another allusion to Macduff. 71. purple Pestilence,] the plague. 72. Man inflict on Man;] see i:32 ff. (p. 126). 244 Explanatory Notes to pages 144–53

73. Memory come!] The following lines initiate the Romantic trope of memory and childhood intertwined. Smith revisits this scene in ‘Beachy Head’, ll. 260–8 (pp. 162–3), but reassigns the experience to a boy just about to lose his innocent enjoyment of nature. 74. irriguous] pervadingly watery. 75. willow herb of glowing purple spikes, / Or flags,] Willow herb, also called fire- weed, is of the genus Epilobium and features long, terminal, spike-like clusters of pinkish-purple flowers. Flags: wild iris or cattail-like plant. 76. May.] Smith seems to have advanced past April by this point in the poem. The Dedication is dated 10 May. 77. terror] A prescient usage, given that the Reign of Terror began in France in the Autumn of 1793 (although the Committee of Public Safety, which oversaw the violence, was formed in April 1793). 78. chicane] deception. 79. Proteus like,] Proteus was a sea god in Greek mythology who could change his shape at will. 80. plausible] seeming truthful, specious. 81. amaranth] flower that never fades. See above, p. 222, n. 102, and, p. 229, n. 37. 82. MILTON, Sonnet 22d.] Sonnet XXII: ‘To Mr. Cyriack Skinner upon his Blindness’, l. 9. 83. Nymph, / Who, from her adamantine rock,] Smith could have in mind her Muse, the ‘partial Muse’ of Sonnet I. Adamantine: unyielding, unbreakable. 84. Priest or Levite;] interchangeable terms for religious authority characterized by an unbending adherence to rules of faith. 85. vindicate] see above, p. 239, n. 5. 86. GRAY.] From ‘The Epitaph’, which closes ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’: ‘He gave to Misery all he had, a Tear’ (l. 123). 87. commons rude,] undeveloped tract of land held in common by a community. 88. electric fire] possibly the northern lights, or lightning. 89. Declamatory essays] sermons. 90. woes that Man / For Man creates] see i.32 ff. (p. 126) and ii.319 (p. 144). 91. Reason, Liberty, and Peace!] Smith ends on an apocalyptic note similar to that Coleridge will use in ‘Fears in Solitude’ (1798).

Beachy Head: With Other Poems

1. 28th of October last.] Smith died in Elsted, Surrey, probably from uterine or ovarian cancer, on 28 October 1806. She was buried next to her mother near Stoke Church, Guildford (see Collected Letters, p. 760). 2. altogether removed.] More than anything, the lack of a Smith-authored Preface to this final collection of poetry shows her ‘increasing debility’, although the Notes continue to provide the commentating voice which accompanied all of her poetry (see the headnote to Beachy Head: With Other Poems, p. 150). The biography referred to did not appear until 1821, in Lives of the Novelists Explanatory Notes to pages 153–8 245

by Walter Scott, 10 vols (London, 1821–4). As the title of Scott’s volume shows, Smith was construed primarily as a novelist. 3. Young Persons’;] see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 13, pp. 59–237. 4. Publisher,] Joseph Johnson also published Conversations. 5. first land made.] Smith shows her geographical bias here, since the ‘first land made’, that is, sighted, would follow from which point in France one embarked at. 6. opposite to it.] Smith describes what is now called continental drift or plate tectonics, generally accepted to have been first postulated by Alfred Wegener around 1920. Prior to Wegener, it was thought that the great landmasses were fixed and stationary. Smith’s note alludes to speculation in the eighteenth century anticipating Wegener; see below, p. 248, n. 83. 7. this green isle.] This seems an allusion to Shakespeare’s King Richard II, II.i.40–61, specifically l. 40: ‘this sceptred isle’. 8. resplendent orb.] As the poem opens, the sun rises. 9. flood;] The rising sun is matched by the incoming tide. 10. high meridian] By l. 29 the poem has progressed past midday. 11. cerulean hue;] azure or sky-blue. 12. tide of ebb,] The tide is now going out. 13. sloop,] a small, single-masted sailing boat. 14. arch immense] the horizon. 15. lesser sails;] Curran notes the ships are thus ‘proceed[ing] at half speed drag- ging their nets’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 218). 16. odorous shell,] Smith may refer to nutmeg, cultivated in the East Indies. The ‘shell’ of the nutmeg forms the spice mace. 17. filmy toil,] silk produced by the silkworm. 18. casts.] that is, castes. 19. Ceylon.] Robert Percival, An Account of the Island of Ceylon (1803). 20. violate … man – ] Smith died the year before the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire in 1807. It was still legal to possess slaves, however, until 1833. 21. fretted … science.] Smith’s elaborate diction describes the fingerboard of a stringed instrument, and formal singing. Her speaker prefers the sounds of nature to the sounds of (human) culture. 22. fair star,] the evening star, here probably Venus, prominent in the twilight sky. 23. ethereal canopy.] the sky. Continuing her theme, Smith describes it as an alternative fabric. ‘Ethereal’: heavenly. 24. elysian bowers.] blissful naturalized spaces. 25. blazing crimson;] The sun now sets. 26. trembling tide.] The moon rises and the tide comes in again (compare ‘rip- pling’, l. 19, with ‘trembling’). 27. keel] the backbone of a ship, running lengthwise from bow to stern, from which the ship’s ribs curve vertically. 28. skiff,] a small flat-bottomed open boat, equipped with sail or oars. 29. †] Unusually, this note is appended to a page rather than a line or a word. Within it, Smith rehearses the history of south coast invasions from the Vikings to the Normans. In trying to make sense of this placement, Curran, 246 Explanatory Notes to pages 158–61

in Poems of Charlotte Smith, interrupts line 126 and situates the note at the word ‘Scandinavians’. Duncan Wu, in Romanticism: An Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994), chooses to conclude the verse-paragraph with a note attached to ‘victors’, l. 131. For this edition, I have kept the original non-specific note placement because it illustrates the way in which the note invades the text and attempts to take it over. Across her poetic oeuvre, this is the only time a note is so placed, which suggests some significance. 30. mass of ruin*] This weighty note is introduced through a quotation of ll. 121–5. It is only in her own quotation that Smith references the ‘mass of ruin’ as ‘Pevensey Castle’: a note within a note. 31. Lapland, &c.] Again, Smith inserts a note within a note, further complicat- ing the nature of this reference. 32. Trinacria.] Here, Smith continues the note-within-a-note format, and also anticipates her readers’ need to define ‘Trinacria’, which does not show up in the poem until l. 128 (p. 159). 33. Parthenope.] As with ‘Trinacria’, Smith anticipates the poem-proper’s use of ‘Parthenope’ in l. 130 (p. 159). 34. repeated here.] the Battle of Hastings (1066). 35. Neustria’s] Normandy’s; see above, p. 241, n. 30. 36. the new invaders;] the Vikings. Smith defines and identifies the places and persons described in ll. 121–42 in the long note that begins on p. 158. 37. field of conquest,] Battle Abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. 38. Gallia] see above, p. 226, n. 168 and p. 242, n. 41. 39. a world in arms.] Napoleon had conquered parts of Italy intermittently since 1796, and in 1805 declared himself King of Italy. Meanwhile, Spain (Iberia) had allied itself with Napoleon by 1796. In 1805/6, Napoleon was held at bay only by Nelson’s naval supremacy. 40. the Batavian,] Batavia: archaic name for Holland. 41. vindicate] Whereas in The Emigrants Smith twice uses ‘vindicate’ in a personal reference, here she references Britain. 42. merchandize:] Smith combines the ‘honest toil’ undertaken by the nameless ‘one’ with the criminal activity of smuggling. 43. share their hazard.] compare ll. 100–4 (p. 157). 44. hind,] a rustic, a farm labourer. 45. turbary,] peat bog. 46. waste] uncultivated wilderness. 47. as sorely wounded,] that is, as if sorely wounded. 48. poet’s … Arcady)] see The Emigrants, i.300–2 (p. 132). 49. osiers,] willow trees with long rodlike branches. See above, p. 232, n. 102. 50. the matron wades;] Smith conflates the human and the natural by showing the matron co-existing with the waterbirds. 51. charlock] wild mustard plant, considered a weed; it has yellow flowers. The mother and her children work to clear this pest and the thistle, l. 223, from the fields. Because the seeds of this plant can cause gastroenteritis in sheep, Smith characterizes it as part of the ‘mischief of the ground’ (l. 226). 52. Goldsmith.] from The Deserted Village (1770), l. 194. Explanatory Notes to pages 162–5 247

53. Feast in the desert;] The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles celebrates their deliver- ance by God from starvation when he sent down manna from the heavens to the desert. 54. as angry Heaven] that is, as if angry Heaven. 55. flock bed] mattress filled with waste wool – wool not fit for selling or spin- ning. See above, p. 224, n. 134. 56. car] carriage. 57. chariot;] a light four-wheeled carriage. 58. train] procession of vehicles. 59. false … effluvia] see above, p. 233, n. 119; effluvia: fumes given off by decay- ing vegetable matter. 60. Death is there – ] see The Emigrants, i.204–9 (pp. 129–30). 61. bullrush,] tall cylindrical marsh plant whose seed heads burst at maturity, loosing large amounts of fluffy down. Embedded in the image are the more deadly explosions the boy will experience once he has become a soldier. 62. boll] bole or trunk of a tree. 63. Sunday suit,] ‘Suit’ was generically applied to an outfit, whether worn by a man or a woman; a ‘Sunday suit’ was one’s best set of clothes, reserved to be worn to church. 64. cherry colour’d knots,] decorative bows of ribbon; ‘cherry colour’d’: pink, signifying youth and innocence. 65. yet a while … together.] The girl gives in to the attractions of her lovers’ oaths, the boy to the attractions of his martial fantasies; both find only misery. 66. pencil,] see above, p. 222, n. 96. 67. stifling streets,] Smith remembers her regrets as a young bride in London, contrasting its polluted atmosphere with the freshness of the South Downs. The image bears comparison with Wordsworth, ‘Tintern Abbey’, ll. 22–35. 68. frith,] that is, firth: a long, narrow estuary. 69. Western Waves.’] This reference has not been traced. 70. thorns:] bushes or trees with sharp, woody spines, such as the hawthorn or whitethorn. See above, p. 229, n. 27. 71. labouring wain,] large open farm wagon; it moves up the hill with great effort (Smith transfers the work of the ‘team’ of, probably, oxen to the wagon itself). 72. country] that is, the county of Sussex. Despite Smith’s references to Herefordshire and Worcestershire, traditionally Kent has been called ‘the garden of England’. 73. vermiglia,’] Petrarch, modern Sonnet 310, l. 4: ‘Spring, all white and vermil- lion’ (Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, pp. 488–9; see above, p. 220, n. 46). 74. Norman farms,] farms in Normandy, France. 75. The vine … cheek. – ] Smith creates a domestic floral and herbal idyll, and links it directly to poetry with her image of rosy cheeks. The paradisiacal ideal, rather than the quotidian reality, is emphasized here, as evidenced by the lack of botanical references for the plants she names or alludes to. 76. warrens … woodbine] ‘warrens’: rabbit burrows; ‘hollows’: small sheltered val- leys; ‘woodbine’: honeysuckle. 77. uncultur’d] that is, wild. 78. tumps] grassy mounds or clumps. 248 Explanatory Notes to pages 165–7

79. coral;] Smith anticipates the next verse-paragraph with its images of fossilized sea-shells. 80. authorities,] By the late eighteenth century there were many dictionaries of rhyme, pronunciation and accent, such as Thomas Dyche, The Spelling Dictionary: Or, a Collection of All the Common Words and Proper Names of Persons and Places (London: R. Ware, 1743); John Bentick, The Spelling and Explanatory Dictionary of the English language. In which the Words are Properly Accented and Explained (London: J. Carnan, 1786); Thomas Sheridan, A Pronouncing and Spelling Dictionary, in which are Ascertained both the Sound and the Meaning of every word in the English language (London: T. Gillet, 1800). Both Dyche and Sheridan agree with Smith on ‘anemone’; Bentick does not include stresses. 81. rays like golden studs] Rather than the kind of ray that shoots out lengthwise, Smith uses the term botanically, to mean the corolla (whorl of petals) or umbel (rounded flower cluster) of the plant. ‘Studs’: ornamental buttons. 82. calcareous] chalky. 83. earth,] see, for instance, The Works of the Right Reverend Thomas Newton (London: J., F. and C. Rivington, 1782); John Williams, The Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom (Edinburgh: T. Ruddiman, 1789). 84. bivalves, and inwreathed volutes,] ‘bivalves’: molluscs with a shell composed of two hinged valves; ‘volutes’: spiral-shelled gastropod molluscs. With ‘inwreathed’, Smith renders the scientific poetical. 85. Mr. White.] see Gilbert White, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the county of Southampton (London: T. Bensley, 1789), Letter III, pp. 7–8. 86. calx:] crumbly residue left after a mineral has been subjected to great heat: another scientific, rather than poetic, term. 87. weald.] either a woodland or an open upland. The term was once specific to south-east England – ‘the Weald’ – when it was forested. Smith allows for both meanings by imaging the ‘green level’ (grassland) ‘of the sylvan weald’ (forest). 88. recks] reckons, knows. 89. tumuli] burial mounds or barrows. 90. doubtfully] that is, the evidence cannot lead to firm conclusions. Smith indicates the antiquary’s own dubiousness in l. 409, ‘or fancy he can trace’ (p. 166). 91. and Regni,] all pre-Roman and Roman-era Celtic tribes. The Cantii, or Cantiaci, occupied Kent. The Atrobates were found in Sussex, Berkshire, Hampshire, west Surrey, and north-east Wiltshire. The Regni, as Smith notes, inhabited Sussex, and are thought to be affiliated with the Atrobates. The Irenobates do not appear to feature in modern historical accounts of pre- Roman tribes. 92. rampire, or excavated fossé] ‘rampire’: archaic term for rampart, or defensive fortification; ‘fossé’: ditch or moat, also defensive. 93. Burton in Sussex,] Burton, in West Sussex, the location of Burton Park, owned by the Goring family in Smith’s lifetime. 94. History,] see The History of Britain, Book II: ‘He who waited ready with a huge preparation, as if not safe enough amidst the flower of all his Romans, Explanatory Notes to pages 167–70 249

like a great Eastern king, with armed elephants marches through Gallia.’ The Works of John Milton, Historical, Political and Miscellaneous, 2 vols (London: A Millar, 1753), vol. ii, p. 23. 95. no books to refer to.] Smith alludes to the sale of her library to pay her mount- ing debts, in 1803. 96. but] except. 97. this and the neighbouring county.] Sussex (‘this’) and either Hampshire, Surrey or Kent, depending on direction. 98. Aborigines] Smith uses the term to mean the earliest known inhabitants. 99. herds,] Since the native is ‘savage’, the ‘herds’ are more likely to be wild boar than domestic cattle. 100. Imperial Eagle.] Aquila, from 104 BC the standard of the Roman Empire, carried with the legion. 101. English Botany.] James Edward Smith and James Sowerby, English Botany; or, Coloured Figures of British plants, with their Essential Characters, Synonyms, and Places of Growth, 36 vols (London: J. Davis, 1790–1814), vol. i, p. 64. Smith quotes verbatim from ‘Linnaeus’ to ‘species’, although she does not acknowledge this. 102. Martyn’s Miller.] see Thomas Martyn, The Gardener’s and Botanist’s Dictionary … To Which are Now Added a Complete Enumeration and Description of all Plants (1797–1807); Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 236. 103. hassock of the heaving mole,] a small clump of grass forced up by a burrowing mole; a molehill. 104. corn;] cereal or grain crop, principally (in England) wheat. 105. mistake.] In The History of Selborne, White actually says that ‘none are taken to the westward of Houghton-bridge, which stands on the river Arun’ (p. 166). The river Adur and Beding-Hill are mentioned a few pages earlier, in reference to breeds of sheep. 106. unsought / By Luxury yet,] Whereas the Wheat-ear has become a luxury food for the leisured classes, and thus is trapped by boys to be sold, the Yellow Wagtail has so far escaped this distinction. 107. white load,] threshed grain being brought to the mill to be ground. 108. mole] here, a stone wall enclosing a harbour. 109. telegraph.] a beacon. 110. the nearer park’s old oaks,] Smith seems to be referencing a distinct location, possibly the Gilbert estate which runs from Beachy Head to Pevensey Castle and the Pevensey marshes. 111. Stephen … Matilda.] The battles for the crown of England between Stephen and Matilda lasted from 1135 to 1154, and ended only after Matilda abandoned her claim to the throne. Stephen subsequently named as his heir Matilda’s son Henry, who became Henry II. 112. castellated mansion] ‘castellated’: having turrets and battlements. Smith uses the term ironically, given the ruined and prosaic state of the building. ‘Mansion’ means simply ‘dwelling’ or ‘house’. 113. milldam … team,] ‘milldam’: a dam constructed across a stream allowing the water level to rise sufficiently to turn a mill wheel; ‘team’: of oxen. 114. Poetry,’] As noted by Curran (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 239), in An Essay on the Application of Natural History to Poetry (London, J. Johnson: 1777), John 250 Explanatory Notes to pages 170–5

Aikin ‘compares the usage of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Milton’s “Lycidas”, Gray’s “Elegy…”, and Collins’ “Ode to Evening”’ (pp. 7–8). The ‘one instance in which the … Goatsucker, is mentioned’ seems to be Thomas Gisborne, ‘Walk the Third. Summer – Midnight’: ‘the foe that wastes / The insect train at eve, misnamed of old / The Goatsucker, its whirring note prolongs, / Loud as the sound of busy maiden’s wheel’. Some of the details Smith includes in this note are also found in a note to Gisborne’s lines. See Poems Descriptive of Scenery and Incidents Characteristic of a Forest, at Different Seasons of the Year (London: J. Davis, 1796), p. 47. 115. Alpine height,] that is, high up a mountain, not necessarily the Alps. 116. fair or wake,] Smith moves from life (the fair) to death (the wake or vigil over a corpse). Both are communal activities from which the Shepherd of the Hill excludes himself. 117. rustic form,] a rustic bench or long seat. 118. yellow.] see Love’s Labour’s Lost, V.ii.894: ‘And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue’. 119. paper rind] The bark (‘rind’) of the birch tree peels easily in thin papery layers. 120. Milton.] Sonnet 1, ‘O nightingale’, l. 5. Smith slightly misquotes: ‘Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day’. 121. Sprite … Mushroom.] According to folklore, the Mushroom Sprite is called Clowcina. 122. Amanda] a conventional pastoral name popularised in Restoration drama. It derives from the Latin and means ‘worthy of love’. This name was added on the errata list for the volume. 123. cold policy] rational and shrewd course of action: the social rules that keep the Shepherd from his lover. 124. newly discovered islands,] Curran identifies this as Polynesia, particularly Tahiti (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 245), but it could refer to any of the Pacific islands sighted and named by Captain Cook. Tahiti was discovered by Cook in 1769; the Cook Islands were sighted in 1773, and the Hawaiian Islands were discovered and named the Sandwich Islands in 1778. How ‘newly discovered’ these are is open to debate. 125. Parson Darby … forgotten.] Parson Darby was Jonathan Derby or Darby (d. 1726), Rector of Wilmington and Parson of Friston and East Dean. Rather than living in his cave, which he excavated and which came to be known as ‘Parson Darby’s Hole’, he merely spent stormy nights in it, warning ships from the rocky costs with strategically placed lanterns. In Montalbert, Walsingham tells this history to Rosalie as they walk on the beach below Beachy Head (see Montalbert (Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 8, p. 234). Parson Darby is buried in Friston and his headstone reads ‘He was the sailors’ friend’. By Smith’s time his cave was routinely used by smugglers. Interestingly, given Smith’s evocation of the ‘little careless sheep’ (l. 684), one of the activities apparently common was to attach a lantern to a grazing animal; the wavering light thus looking like another ship, it misled captains to steer directly onto the rocks. A landslide in 1999 buried the cave. 126. suffer life] merely endure life. 127. augur] to predict using signs; Smith credits the hermit with an intuitive scientific appreciation of natural portents. Explanatory Notes to pages 176–7 251

128. sea-wrack] line of seaweed and other material left behind by the outgoing tide. 129. obsequies] funeral rites. In the next verse-paragraph Parson Darby receives his own ‘rites of burial’ (l. 726). 130. La Fontaine,] Jean de la Fontaine (1621–95), prolific fabulist and held to be the master of the form, even though most of his fables are retold from Aesop. In the eighteenth century it was felt that La Fontaine exemplified an elegance and finesse of wit in his writing. 131. Les deux Pigeons,] Book IX, Fable 2 of Fables choisies, mises en vers (1668–94). 132. ‘Toujours … rien;’] Curran translate this as ‘If you always have boiled par- tridge or capon, it is nothing special’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 251). This resonates strongly with Smith’s friend’s complaint in the Preface to the sixth edition of Elegiac Sonnets: “‘Toujours perdrix,” said my friend – “Toujours perdrix,” you know, “ne vaut rien”’ (see above, p. 218, n. 11). 133. Chaucer … Cato,] In 1700 John Dryden (1631–1700) published Fables, Ancient and Modern, in which he re-presented, among others, extracts from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Although Dryden famously described Chaucer as ‘the father of English poetry’ ‘from whom the purity of the English tongue began’, it was nonetheless a commonplace in the eighteenth century that Dryden ‘polished’ Chaucer. Galen (c. AD 130–200): medical philosopher who proved that arteries carry blood instead of air; highly influential until the sixteenth century. For Cato, see above, p. 218, n. 16. 134. liberal arts.’] see Dryden’s Fables (London: J. Tonson, 1713), pp. 258–95, for the ‘Nun’s Priest’s Tale’ (Smith quotes ll. 91–2). 135. Prior and Cowper,] Both Matthew Prior (1664–1721) and William Cowper (1731–1800) wrote fables. Prior created a burlesque riff on ‘The Country Mouse and the City Mouse’ (1689), while Cowper’s ‘A Fable’ muses on the satirical nature of Fate. 136. ‘L’Alouette … credit.’] Book IV, Fable 22, ll. 1–3: The Gods help them who help themselves – you know / The well-tried saw; let Aesop show / Its worth’ (La Fontaine’s Fables, trans. by Sir Edward Marsh (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1952), p. 89). 137. plagiarism.] This was a charge that plagued Smith, especially in the early editions of the Elegiac Sonnets. It is the theme of ‘The jay in masquerade’, which Smith included in The Natural History of Birds but not Beachy Head: with Other Poems; see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 13, pp. 264–6. 138. Poems,’] James Grahame, The Birds of Scotland (1806), later reprinted in Poems, 2 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1807). In vol. ii, Grahame’s lines on the Lark are 24–30; on the Wren, 749–51. 139. PILPAY.] Pilpay (Bidpai) ancient Indian philosopher and author of a collection of Sanskrit animal fables (before c. AD 500), called the Panchatantra. His ‘Name [is] as much honoured [in the Eastern Nations] as that of AESOP [is] in many other Nations’ (Preface, The Instructive and Entertaining Fables of Pilpay (1784)). Although Smith cites from La Fontaine’s ‘Les Deux Pigeons’ in her note, the title references Pilpay’s ‘The Travelling Pigeon’. Smith very freely adapts the fable, adding perils and changing the moral from La Fontaine’s/Pilpay’s emphasis on ‘home sweet home’ to a new celebration of conjugal comforts. 252 Explanatory Notes to pages 178–83

140. scathed] harmed or injured by fire; see above, p. 236. n. 185. 141. ‘Toujours … rien’ – ] see above, p. 218, n. 11, p. 251, n. 132. 142. tares,] discarded grains. Perhaps a reference to the parable of the wheat and the tares: see Matthew 13:24–30. 143. insipid] lacking exciting or stimulating qualities. ‘Insipid’ can also mean lacking in flavour, which, given Smith’s emphasis on pigeon pies, is probably intended. 144. couplets,] twins. 145. ‘beguiled … was,’] Othello II.i.125–6: ‘I am not merry; but I do beguile / The thing I am, by seeming otherwise’ (Desdemona to Iago). 146. cant] the special vocabulary used by, in this case, the demi-monde, but also associated with hypocrisy and pious platitudes. 147. Columbian] as noted by Curran, ‘a pun joining colombe (French for dove) with the urge to explore after the pattern of Christopher Columbus’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 263). 148. “murder’d sleep;”] Macbeth, II.ii.42: ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep.’ 149. tour … discuss –’] The husband-dove’s ‘little tour’ resembles the Grand Tour, made by the English gentleman to finish his education. Crucially, the Grand Tour was usually undertaken by the young man just out of school or university, and not yet married. 150. sand-martin,] the bank swallow, a migrating bird. See ‘The Swallow’ (p. 187). 151. pea … vetch,] varieties of bird food (for ‘tare’, see p. 252, n. 142 above). ‘Pea’: either the green pea or the seed of the sweet-pea; ‘Beechmast’: the beechnut; ‘vetch’: herb with small coloured flowers. 152. spleenwort] an evergreen fern with featherlike fronds. 153. picturesque] One of the three aesthetic categories widely debated in the late eighteenth century, the picturesque was considered the lowest on the hierarchy and was associated with ruins, the irregular and values derived from pictorial art. The wife-dove clearly has in mind a picture of domestic bliss. The husband-dove seeks something more sublime. 154. fledged;] that is, have grown the feathers needed for flight. 155. recreant] faithless and disloyal. 156. tonish,] that is, of the ton, or the current fashion. 157. blades … nymphs] self-consciously fashionable men; equally fashionable women with an undertone of sexual availability. See above, p. 225, n. 157, for instance. 158. nun:] Smith provides a list of types of dove and pigeon, ending ironically with a sexually promiscuous ‘nun’; see her ‘Additional Notes to the Fables’, p. 178. 159. obedient.’] The ‘very dear friend’ cannot be bothered to give the full set phrase: your most obedient servant. As Smith’s letters show, she was very familiar with this formulation. 160. dock;] sorrel leaf; also, in British usage, where the accused stands during a trail. Given the violence the dove encounters, the denotation ‘to clip short or cut off ’ seems relevant as well. 161. languid] lacking vigour, spirit, or animation: the dove is close to death. Explanatory Notes to pages 183–9 253

162. moitie] his other half; his wife. 163. stork-like] The stork is noted for its care and affection for its young; here, Smith reverses the paradigm. 164. biped without plumes:] that is, humans. Smith embeds in her phrase the association of ‘plumes’ with preening self-satisfaction. 165. ESOP.] Smith again merges her sources: both La Fontaine’s ‘L’Alouette et ses Petits’ and Aesop. Where both Aesop and La Fontaine describe the female lark only (indeed, La Fontaine ascribes the nestling’s perilous late birth to the mother’s incautious delay, and dispenses with a father altogether), Smith again includes an errant husband who neglects his nesting wife. 166. tear;] see Smith’s reference to her ‘ci-devant, I was going to say friends, but I … change the word for acquaintance’ in the Preface to Volume II of the Elegiac Sonnets (p. 68). 167. setter huge,] hunting dog, trained to sniff out game (but usually not to eat it). 168. ‘Nil desperandum,’] ‘never despair’. Horace, Odes, I.vii.27. 169. reaper’s moon,] The Harvest Moon is the full moon of the autumn equinox (22–3 September). This moon, ‘a little crescent’, presumably follows the full Harvest Moon. 170. cockle] the corn cockle, a weed. 171. fumitory, pimpernel,] ‘fumitory’: herb with greyish leaves and purple spiky flowers, medicinal; ‘pimpernel’: herb with purple flowers and edible leaves (also called burnet bloodwort). 172. arras] curtain (of petals). 173. teasel … / Corn-marygold,] ‘teasel’: herb with bristly flower head; ‘scabious’: plant with opposing leaves and variously coloured flowers; ‘corn-marygold’: plant with yellow flowers, resembling a chrysanthemum, and considered a field weed. 174. tenant of a mead,] country dweller who rents his or her house and any land from a landlord (‘the lord of a province’); ‘mead’: meadow. 175. THE SWALLOW.] Along with ‘The Truant Dove’ and ‘The Lark’s Nest’, this poem also appeared in A Natural History of Birds (1807); see Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 13, pp. 356–8, 313–18 and 321–4. 176. reed roof] thatched roof. Given the musical denotations of ‘reed’, the phrase also calls to mind a rustic natural instrument complementing the music of the swallow. 177. birds.] A number of Pilpay’s fables cover this topic. 178. Rail,] a small wading marsh bird whose wings are only fit for small journeys; while technically a migrant, it is nonetheless a weak flier. Rails include coots and marsh hens. 179. Ovidian … Garden.] Ovid’s Metamorphoses were widely read in the eighteenth century, mainly through Dryden’s translation of 1700; Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden (1789–91) is marked by its expressive and high-toned diction. See above, p. 224, n. 137. 180. Hirundines] the swallow family. 181. torpid] dormant or hibernating. See above, p. 229, n. 33. 182. Selbourne.’] see above, p. 248, n. 85. 183. ouzy] oozy; moist. The river Ouse flows through the South Downs. 254 Explanatory Notes to pages 184–93

184. FLORA.] Roman goddess of flowers and fertility; her feast was celebrated 28 April–1 May. 185. mankind,] The speaker begins this poem in the same state of mind as that of Beachy Head and The Emigrants. 186. pencil,] see above, p. 247, n. 66; and p. 222, n. 96. 187. native Wey,] The Wey runs through Surrey and is a tributary of the Thames. Surrey borders both East and West Sussex and contains the North Downs. In many of her sonnets Smith references the river Arun as ‘native’; while the Arun and the Wey were joined by a canal in 1813, they flow in different counties. It is not clear in what manner the Wey is ‘native’. 188. Cowper.] see The Task; Smith quotes from i.455–60. 189. humid] see above, p. 218, n. 22. 190. car] see above, p. 247, n. 56. 191. germs,] seed, bud, or spore. 192. hybernacle] winter protective covering. 193. ample Plane,] tree with ball-shaped fruit clusters and flaky bark. 194. mural] wall. 195. Cypripedium] orchid, lady’s slipper. 196. unblown,] unopened. 197. sylphs] see above, p. 222, n. 103 and p. 229, n. 26. 198. polluting] harmful to living things. 199. wilds;’] Smith slightly misquotes from Thomson’s The Seasons, ‘Spring’, l. 114. Thomson describes ‘blights, cankers, lice, [and] vermin’ in ll. 114–36. 200. pigmy] unusually small. 201. casque] helmet-like protuberance. 202. Floscella] embodying the floscule, the individual floret of a flower. 203. cymar;] a long dress or robe, or a scarf. 204. appears.’] Cowper, The Task, vi.165–7. 205. spangling] sparkling. 206. radii] plural of radius: the spoke of a wheel-shaped flower. 207. sylphid’s] diminutive sylph. 208. para-nymph Calyxa] bridesmaid or attendant; the calyx is the outer floral envelope or protective sheath of the flower. 209. ethereal] see above, p. 245, n. 23. 210. Crown imperial] a spring-flowering fritillaria lily, the yellow flowers of which hang down beneath a ‘crown’ of glossy green leaves. 211. Gentian,] plant with smooth leaves and showy blue flowers. 212. fatal fruit … displays;] Smith refers to the Apple of Discord, fought over by Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Paris, called to mediate, awarded the apple to Aphrodite because she promised to help him win Helen of Troy. 213. uncultur’d] natural rather than cultured (forced or hybrid, in botanical terms). 214. giant produce] The timber that is the produce of the oak was used to build ships, specifically the English navy. 215. Filices and Bryum] threaded and tufted mosses. 216. sallows pale,] a type of willow with broad leaves and large catkins. 217. Embarks … flowers.] The Speaker reminds the reader that this is poetry rather than reality. Explanatory Notes to pages 194–9 255

218. umbels] see above, p. 248, n. 81. 219. naiad] water nymph; also the nymph or larva of the dragon fly, mayfly and damsel fly. 220. glaucous] greyish, bluish or whitish waxy coating. 221. half flower, half fish] The sea anemone is a coelenterate, an invertebrate animal. Smith views it as mixed: flower in appearance, ‘fish’ in nature. 222. sea-lace] seaweed with long black fronds. 223. Vegetation.] Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation (1791). This functions as Part 1 of The Botanic Garden (see above, p. 253, n. 179). ‘Note 27th’ expands on shell fish. 224. bladder’d buds] inflated buds. 225. laver] red or green algae, edible when dried. 226. nereids] sea nymphs. 227. umbrageous] shady. 228. green down,] rolling, grassy, treeless upland. 229. broom-clad] covered with broom, a shrub with bright yellow flowers. 230. Fancy’s brightest flowers] The implied link between Flora and the Imagination is here made plain. 231. unknown,’)] see ‘To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison’ (l. 34), The Poetical Works of Thomas Tickell. With the Life of the Author (Edinburgh: Apollo Press, 1781), p. 116 (‘Oft let me range the gloomy aisles alone, / Sad luxury! to vulgar minds unknown’). 232. antepast] foretaste. 233. amethystine] resembling amethyst: greyish purple. 234. small … shrouds,] small ships with three to five masts, here with the sails spread. 235. diamond bow] the ‘modest moon’ (l. 50). 236. Fuego’s] Tierra del Fuego, separated from the tip of South America by the Straits of Magellan. It contains the headland of Cape Horn, notorious for its storms and strong winds. 237. Boreal] northern. The fish colonies follow the tides from the southern to the northern hemispheres. 238. Lapland savage,] Lapland comprises northern Norway, Finland, Sweden and parts of north-west Russia, and is within the Arctic Circle. See above, p. 246, n. 31. 239. sanguine] bloodthirsty. 240. frith,] see above, p. 247, n. 68. 241. Orcades.] The Orkneys, islands to the north-east of mainland Scotland. 242. prow,] In Conversations Introducing Poetry, the errata sheet changes this to ‘proa’, which is a Malaysian sailboat with triangular sail and single outrigger. See Works of Charlotte Smith, Volume 13, p. 389. 243. ice-rocks hoar,] icebergs. 244. Nature.’] Jacques Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Les Etudes de la Nature (1784). It was translated into English as Studies of Nature by Henry Hunter, 5 vols (London: C. Dilly, 1796). See vol. i, p. 11, for Smith’s information. 245. Works … good!] Smith seems to rewrite the story of Noah and the flood here, which was only ‘good’ in that it cleansed the earth and allowed humanity to 256 Explanatory Notes to pages 199–203

begin again. Alternatively, she could refer to Genesis 1:10, an unambiguous image of God’s pleasure. 246. Dictionary.] Colin Milne, Botanical Dictionary: or Elements of Systematic and Philosophical Botany (1770; London: T. Lowndes, 1778), n.p. 247. murder’d time.] see above, p. 252, n. 148. 248. Linnæus.] Carolus Linnaeus, 1707–78, Swedish botanist whose system for classifying plants was based on the number of stamens and pistils and who is considered the founder of the modern binomial system of classification of plants and animals. 249. humid] see above, p. 254, n. 189 above. 250. Hieracium’s various tribe,] perennial hairy-looking herbs, rarely considered ornamental. 251. Withering] William Withering, author of An Arrangement of British Plants; According to the Latest Improvements of the Linnaean System, 4 vols (Birmingham: M. Swiney, 1796). Withering goes into more detail than Smith indicates, but see vol. iii, p. 685, for ‘sabaudum’ and p. 686 for ‘murorum’. 252. radiate flowers,] flowers with petals like rays: for example, daisies. 253. Withering.] An Arrangement of British Plants, vol. iii, p. 672. 254. vesper] evening. 255. Flora Scotica.] John Lightfoot, Flora Scotica: Or, a Systematic Arrangement, in the Linnean Method, of the Native Plants of Scotland and the Hebrides, 2 vols (London: B. White, 1777; 1789), vol. i, pp. 230–1. 256. calyx] see above, p. 254, n. 208. 257. Aurora’s] dawn’s. 258. plaits] pleats. 259. Withering.] An Arrangement of British Plants, vol. iii, p. 693. 260. daisy.] Robert Burns (1759–96). See ‘To a Mountain Daisy’, l. 1: ‘Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow’r’. Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect … In Two Volumes (London: T. Cadell Jr and W. Davies, 1798), vol. ii, p. 41. 261. night drops] dew. 262. Botany.] An Arrangement of British Plants, vol. ii, p. 416. 263. untrodden] undestroyed, not stepped on. 264. winged moments] Smith alludes to Andrew Marvell (1621–78), ‘To His Coy Mistress’ (1652/3): ‘But at my back I always hear / Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near’ (ll. 21–2). 265. SAINT MONICA] mother of St. Augustine, responsible for his conversion to Christianity. She is the patron saint of married women in difficult or abu- sive or unfaithful relationships, sometimes with disappointing children. 266. scite] site. 267. buttery;] the kitchen or larder area of the monastery. 268. hat … pilgrim;] As Curran explains, the cockle shell on the pilgrim’s hat ‘signifie[s] that [he] had visited the shrine of St. James of Campostella in Spain’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 299). ‘Weed’: article of clothing; ‘watchet grey’: pale or light blue and grey. Spenser has a similar usage: ‘They him disarm’d, and spredding on the grownd / Their watchet mantles fring’d with silver rownd’ (The Fairie Queene, iv.40.5); Smith may be wanting to establish a certain tone. Explanatory Notes to pages 203–8 257

269. Reformation] the period after Henry VIII’s break with Rome and his institu- tion of Protestantism as the national religion of Britain. In order to destroy the power of the Catholic hierarchy, he authorized the sacking of the abbeys and monasteries. 270. reft] robbed, plundered, or pillaged. 271. anneal’d;] glass that has been heated and then cooled during the making of stained glass. As a process this is meant to strengthen the glass and make it less brittle, but Smith may be referring obliquely to the destruction of the abbey. 272. refectory] communal dining hall. 273. cotters,] inhabitants of the surrounding cottages (cots) and dwellings. 274. osiers,] see above, p. 246, n. 49. 275. pithy rush,] Rather than being hollow, these rushes are full of pith, the soft, spongy central matter. 276. docks] see above, p. 252, n. 160. 277. obscene] offensive because of its association with the darkness and the dead (in this case Smith works against the usual literary association of the owl with wisdom). 278. Ecl. 3.] Edmund Spenser (?1552–99), most famous for The Fairie Queene (1596). The Shepheardes Calendar appeared in 1579; Eclogue 3 covers the month of March, and Smith quotes from ll. 67–8. A ‘tod’ is a bushy clump of ivy. 279. Circea,] Genus Circaea, enchanter’s nightshade. 280. Hamlet.] Hamlet I.i 106–7 (Q2): ‘the sheeted dead / Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets’. 281. wassail ale,] festive ale. 282. matin peal] the bell ringing Matins, the start of the day. 283. Feasted … Monica.] St Monica’s feast day is 4 May. 284. thorn,] see above, p. 247, n. 70. 285. martin,] swallow. 286. year.’] King Lear III.iv.121–2, 130–1: ‘Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt and the water … But mice and rats, and such small deer, / Have been Tom’s food for seven long year’. 287. time-fretted] worn into ridges by the passage of time. 288. mapped lichen,] Curran glosses this as ‘flat and multicolored, therefore resembling a map’ (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 302). It could also be a misprint for ‘napped’, meaning a soft or fuzzy surface. 289. Heaven-indited] written or dictated by Heaven, that is, by God. 290. detected.] Ladanum or labdanum is in fact an essential oil of the rockrose or cistus. 291. bowery] leafy and shady. 292. ebon] The trunk of the thorn is black. 293. Lord … Love.’] Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, sixth Viscount Strangford. The poem appeared in his Poems, from the Portuguese of Luis de Camoens (1804); see Collected Letters, p. 701, n. 5. 294. vesper] see above, p. 256, n. 254. 295. Even] evening. 258 Explanatory Notes to pages 208–15

296. ‘Quand … l’Amour.’] ‘The public int’rest and the plaintiff ’s need, / With all the facts, were weighed and weighed again, / And sentence was pronounced by Jove: / Folly should serve as guide to Love’ (Book XII, Fable xiv, in La Fontaine’s Fables, p. 303; see above, p. 251, n. 136). 297. play,] gamble. 298. Shakspeare.] In 1766 George Steevens (1736–1800) published Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare. An impressed Samuel Johnson suggested Steevens under- take a complete edition. The final publication, The Works of Shakespeare with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators (10 vols), appeared in 1773, with some slight contributions by Johnson. A new edition (21 vols) with additional notes was published posthumously by Isaac Reed in 1803. 299. quiver’d] refers to Love’s case of darts. 300. rude,] rough, ill-formed. 301. ‘L’Amitié … ailes.’] Friendship is love without wings. 302. unplum’d] unfeathered: Love’s wings have been clipped (l. 7). See also above, p. 234, n. 157.

Uncollected Poems

1. Calpe’s straits] the Strait of Gibraltar. 2. invading Moor] The Moors, originally from Mauritania, were converted to Islam in the eighth century, and invaded Spain from North Africa in 711 under the leadership of Tarik ibn Ziyad. By 1085 both Old Castile (La Mancha) and New Castile (Léon) had been reconquered by the Christians under Alfonso VI. Arragon: Aragon, ‘nobler’ because it existed, by 1035, as an independent kingdom. 3. rude Biscayan shore] By 1000 Navarre was united under Sancho III; it had never fallen to the Moors. On Sancho’s death in 1035 the region was divided into the kingdoms of Navarre, Aragon and Castile. 4. Our Poet] William Godwin, author of the play. 5. Of party guiltless,] that is, the play is non-partisan. Godwin, according to Curran, asked friends such as Coleridge and Charles Lamb to read it ahead of production for any party bias (Poems of Charlotte Smith, p. 175). 6. drawbacks … Consols,] Smith incorporates a number of business terms, as she reflects on her days as her father-in-law’s de facto secretary. Drawbacks: discounts on duty or tax on goods designed for export. Bottomry: a con- tract using a ship as collateral for a loan. Samples drawn: samples of goods withdrawn on account. Tare: the deduction of the weight of a container or wrapper to obtain net weight. Tret: an allowance to take into account waste material in calculating net weight. Scrip: a provisional stock certificate or other form of temporary currency. Omnium: the aggregate value of all stocks upon which a loan, usually to the government, is funded. Consols: British government bonds with perpetual interest and no date of maturity. See Charles Jenner, The Placid Man, or Memoirs of Sir C. Belville (1770): ‘Her Explanatory Notes to pages 215–16 259

head was as full with wealth, scrip, omnium, consols, and lord-mayors shews’ (II.vi). 7. Bishopsgate to Temple Bar,] the banking and legal areas of London. 8. ‘wealth of nations’ on their backs,] Smith alludes to Adam Smith’s treatise on economics, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), linking it to the conspicuous consumption of luxuries of the ‘city dames’. 9. Bow-bells’] that is, the sounds of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church, Cheapside, in the City of London, near to where Smith lived in the first years of her marriage. 10. calepash and callipee,] ingredients in turtle soup, popular with City merchants: a greenish gelatinous substance found just under the upper shell, and a light yellowish gelatinous substance found just within the lower shell. 11. ‘Tho’ Mountains … between,’] see James Beattie, The Minstrel, bk iv, xx.4: ‘And mountains rise, and oceans roll between’. 12. ‘My Sons … way.’] untraced. 13. A Mother’s Triumph] see Thomson, The Seasons, ‘Autumn’, ll. 933–4: ‘In thee, with all a mother’s triumph, sees / Her every virtue, every grace combined …’ TEXTUAL NOTES

Elegiac Sonnets, Volumes I and II

Abbreviations: AR: Annual Register BM: The Banished Man C: Celestina CIP: Conversations Introducing Poetry Em: Emmeline EM: European Magazine ESI: Elegiac Sonnets, Volume I, editions specified by number ESII: Elegiac Sonnets, Volume II, editions specified by number LM: London Magazine M: Montalbert Ma: Marchmont OMH: The Old Manor House RF: Rambles Further RW: Rural Walks YP: The Young Philosopher

9a SMITH] BIGNOR PARK,/ May 10, 1784 ESI 2 10a taste.] ¶ The readers of poetry will meet with some lines borrowed from the most popular authors, which I have used only as quotations. Where such acknowledgment is omitted, I am unconscious of the theft. ESI 1–2 11a ] ¶ WOOLBEDING,/ March 2nd, 1786 ESI 3–4 17a tread,] tread; EM 17b far,] far EM 17c art;] art, EM 17d Pity’s] pity’s EM 17e ills] hills ESI 7–8 17f Friendship,] friendship, EM 17g unhappy] despairing EM 17h then, how] then how EM 17i Muse’s] Muses’ EM 262 Textual Notes

17j Anemonies] Anemonys EM 17k orchis] orchis* ‘Long purples; which our old maids do dead men’s fingers call.’ HAMLET EM 18a again. – ] again. EM 18b Humanity!] humanity – EM 18c Passion,] passions, ESI 2 18d Care,] care EM, ESI 2–8 18e away!] away. EM 18f May] May, EM 18g happiness … Spring?] Happiness no second spring! EM happiness no second spring? ESI 2 18h bird – ] bird, AR, ESI 2 18i Moon] moon AR, ESI 2 18j fate?] fate. AR, ESI 2–3 fate! ESI 4 18k Say – ] Or AR, ESI 2 18l thou – ] thou AR, ESI 2 18m sigh,] sigh AR, ESI 2–8 20a Ah … happy] Ah, hills belov’d – where once, a thoughtless EM belov’d! … an happy AR, ESI 2–8 20b shades,] shades – EM 20c ‘your … among’] EM omit quotation marks 20d song.] song. – EM 20e belov’d! – ] belov’d – EM belov’d! AR, ESI 2 20f remain;] remain, EM 20g restore;] restore, EM, ESI 2–8 20h moment] moment, EM 20i sooth] soothe ESI 2–7 20j you, Aruna! –] you Aruna EM you, Aruna! AR, ESI 2 20k sea] sea, EM 20l you] ye EM 20m you] ye EM 20n care?] care? – EM 20o Ah, no! – ] Ah no! EM 20p all, e’en Hope’s] all – even hope’s EM hope’s AR, ESI 2–4 21a woods! – ] woods EM 21b Farewel,] Farewell EM 21c year!] year – EM 21d ‘the … ear.’] night’s ‘dull ear.’ EM ‘The words marked “ “ in the fourth line … are from Shakespeare.’ EM 21e Spring] spring EM, ESI 2–4 21f thy … await,] thy wand’ring flight shall wait, EM 21g you] thou HB 21h own … mate,] ‘own … mate,’ EM ‘The seventh line is almost verbatim from Milton’ EM 21i step] steps ESI 2 21j lone … nest] green brake, that shades thy lonely nest EM 21k shepherd girls] shepherd-girls, EM 21l hide] hide, EM Textual Notes 263

21m bird, who] bird that EM 21n Sorrow … Love!] sadness – and to love. EM sorrow … love. ESI 2 sorrow …love! ESI 3–8 22a tortured bosom’s] torturing bosom ESI 2 22b shaft] shaft, ESI 2 22c prospect] prospects ESI 2 22d sounds] notes ESI 2 23a Come … resort!] Oh! Balmy sleep, tired nature’s soft resort, EM 23b shed;] shed, EM 23c Float] Swim EM 23d head!] head. EM 23e Power!] pow’r, EM 23f down;] down, EM 23g village-girl] village girl EM 23h prove;] prove, EM 23i O … Sleep!] oh! gentle sleep, EM 23j calm … breast;] soothe the throbbing heart, EM breast, ESI 2 25a me.] me, ESI 3–8 25b Forming] And form’d LM, ESI 2 25c Zephyr’s] zephyrs’ LM 25d And] And, LM, ESI 2 25e love,] love LM, ESI 2 26a beauteous] glowing LM lovely ESI 2–4 26b Yet] But LM, ESI 2 26c wound!] wound. LM 26d sadness] anguish ESI 2 26e Ah! … there.] Ah! Wherefore should you mourn, that her you love, / Snatch’d from a world of woe, survives in bliss above? ESI 2 woe – survives in bliss above! ESI 3 26f Behold] Ah! See ESI 2 27a darker] sombre ESI 3 28a send!] lend! ESI 3–7 30a Thine … fate!] Thy own sweet plaintive songstress weeps my fate. ESI 2 fate. ESI 3 30b To] Towards ESI 3–4 31a o’er] for ESI 2 31b bed.] bed, ESI 2–8 31c tears] tear ESI 2–8 32a Making them rue] Bidding them curse RW 34a Pleasure’s … fleet] frail summer-friendship fleets ESI 3 34b gay] laughing ESI 3 35a Thy … flaunts;] Thy shadowy rocks, unhappy love shall seek,/ Where mantling loose, the green clematis flaunts, ESI 3 35b probably] I should imagine ESI 3–4 35c IN] ON ESI 3–8 35d others.] others with which I am but imperfectly acquainted. ESI 3–4 37a But … lays,] But when thy sanction crowns my simple lays, ESI 3 38a lose;] loose; ESI 4 264 Textual Notes

38b O’NEILL,] O’Niell ESI 3, 5 O’Niel ESI 6 40a unknown!] unknown: Em unknown. ESI 6–8 40b pain!] pain. Em, ESI 6–8 40c mournful,] mournful Em, ESI 6–7 40d moon,] Moon, Em, ESI 8 40e deaf] deaf, Em, ESI 6–7 40f gloom … heart] gloom … heart, Em gloom, … heart ESI 6–7 40g While … its] While, …waves, it’s Em While, ESI 6–7 41a flow;] flow, Em 41b wide,] wide Em 41c summer-wind] summer wind Em 41d glows:] glows; Em 41e sooth] soothe Em, ESI 6–7 41f heaven,] heaven; Em 44a hern!] heron! ESI 5–7 45a entwine] entwine, C 45b drest;] drest, C 45c more … opprest] more, … opprest, C 45d hopes] hope C 45e Love and Sorrow] love and sorrow C, ESI 6–8 45f grave.] grave! C 46a lawns! – ] lawns! 46b Friendship’s] friendship’s C, ESI 6–8 46c wood-walks] Wood-walks C 46d Rocks!–] Rocks, C 46e And … whose] – And you! – oh! … Happiness! Whose C happiness! ESI 6–7 46f Fancy] fancy C 46g thy] thy C 46h lord] Lord C 46i Summer-shepherd’s] summer-shepherd’s C, ESI 6–7 46j wild] lone C 46k summer] Summer C, ESI 6–7 46l empire – ] empire, C 47a Pilgrim] pilgrim C 47b west,] West, C 47c Life’s] life’s C 47d woe.] woe! C 47e secured – ] secur’d, C 47f more!] more: C 47g heaven] Heaven C 50a When] If CIP 50b heath-bell] heath flower CIP 50c turn] turns CIP 51a mien!] mien, Em 51b Approach – ] Approach; Em 51c contrast] contrast, Em 51d draws] draws, Em Textual Notes 265

51e Love] Love, Em 51f he] he Em 51g its] it’s Em 51h Power!] power! Em 51i heart;] heart! Em 51j its] it’s Em 55a tears …Rose!] tears – fair Rose, EM, rose ESI 2 55b Zephyrs play,] zephyrs play; EM zephyrs play, ESI 2 55c O] Oh! EM, ESI 2, 6–7 55d day;] day. EM 55e charms: – ah, no!] charms – ah no! EM 55f head!] head. ESI 2, 6–8 55g go,] go! – EM, ESI 2, 6–8 55h tomb!] tomb; EM, ESI 2, 6–8 55i While,] While EM 55j rivals] rivals – EM 55k divide;] divide, EM 55l how,] how – EM 55m Rose,] rose, EM, ESI 2, 6-8 55n bosom … hide:] bosom – …hide. EM 55o tell] teach EM 55p Youth … Beauty’s] youth … beauty’s EM, ESI 2, 6–8 55q her,] her – EM 56a or] and ESI 2, 5–7 56b Cupid fled] Cupid sighing fled ESI 2 56c Weaved] Wreath’d ESI 5–7. 56d Good humour’s … round,] Too surely feeling that the blasts of care Would blight each blooming face, and plough deep wrinkles there, Sore sigh’d the goddess at the mournful view, Then try’d at length what heavenly art could do To bring back pleasure to her pensive train, And vindicate the glories of her reign. From MAR’s head his casque, by CUPID borne, (That which in softer ways the god had worn) She smiling took, and on its silver round Her magic cestus three times thrice she bound; ESI 2 57a Zephyr’s breath] Zephyr’s stronger breath ESI 2 58a She grows a toast … George the Third.] She governs fashion, and becomes the ton. By thee dim-sighted dowagers behold The record where their conquests are enroll’d; They see the shades of ancient beaux arise, Who swear their eyes exceeded modern eyes, And scenes long past, by memory fondly nurs’d, When GEORGE the Second reigned, or GEORGE the First; Compar’d to which, degenerate and absurd Seems the gay world that moves round GEORGE the Third. ESI 2 266 Textual Notes

58b soothing spirit meets] dulcet spirit for ESI 2 58c winter] Winter C, ESI 6–7 58d plain] plain, C, ESI 6–7 58e groves;] groves, C 59a Love,] love, C, ESI 6–7 59b a] an C, ESI 6–8 59c abrupt,] abrupt C, ESI 6–7 59d chamois’] Chamois’ C, ESI 6–8 59e road;] road, C, ESI 6–8 59f Alarm’d –] Alarm’d! – C, ESI 6–7 59g O] Oh, C, ESI 6–8 59h wretch! –] wretch – C, ESI 6–8 59i death!] death. C, ESI 6–8 59j deplore!] deplore; C, ESI 6–8 60a more!] more. C, ESI 6–8 60b speak –] speak! – ESI 6–7 60c well] well, ESI 6–7 61a wishes,] wishes ESI 6–8 61b Sense] sense ESI 6–7 62a sorrow,] sorrow – Em 62b fortune] Fortune Em 62c Even … all] Of every hope Em 62d its] it’s Em 62e To … Care] And … Care, Em Cave of Care ESI 6–7 62f – May … care,] May you … care! Em 62g evils … bear!] evils, … bear: Em 62h my] my Em 62i there … soul,] there – ‘where … soul,’ Em 62j And … solicitudes] And, when it’s sharp anxieties Em 62k sorrows … arise.] evils past, not present sorrows, rise. Em 62l For … remain,] (For … remain,) Em 62m And – …fate – ] And, … fate, Em 62n you … love.] ye merited your … love! Em 71a mark where] mark, where, RW 71b early] morning RW 71c a shadowy] its modest RW 71d bending] bending, RW 71e sooths] soothes RW 71f Tulip,] tulip RW 71g taste;] taste, RW 71h To seek] And seeks RW 71i With such] So, in RW 71j Miranda … child.] Miranda still shall charm – Nature’s ingenuous child. RW 72a soul] soul, OMH 72b fear.] fear – OMH 72c Ah! … fails!] But aid me, Heaven! my real ills to bear, / Nor let my spirit yield to phantoms of despair. OMH Textual Notes 267

72d place] place, OMH 72e that quiet] repose, that OMH 72f now,] now; OMH 72g embers,] embers OMH 72h Moon’s] moon’s OMH 72i O’er] – O’er OMH 72j For … Evening,] For me! pale eye of evening! OMH 72k my] my OMH 72l sad] dark OMH 72m despair!] despair. OMH 73a dews] dreams ESII 1 73b stain’d] dy’d BM 73c Heav’n-taught] heaven-taught BM 73d Fancy] fancy BM 73e Despair,] despair? BM 73f Health … breast;] health … breast? BM 73g soft] sweet BM 73h is – a] – is a ESII 1 74a rakes] rakes M 74b are] lie M 74c prone,] prone; M 74d long-resounding] long resounding M 74e Night;] night. – M 74f Moon … mist] moon by … mists M 74g here … sleep] here, while … labour, sleep M 74h wander – ] wander; – M 74i And … weep!] And flies the wretch, who only ‘wakes to weep!’ M 79a Where … down,] Where with incumbent night the forests frown, The care-worn pilgrim seeks his doubtful way; Till weary on the grass he throws him down, Ma 79b day:] day. Ma 79c Night’s] night’s Ma 79d fountain] fountain’s Ma 79e Fair visionary] Ideal forms of Ma 79f Or] And Ma 79g sedge;] sedge: Ma 79h And,] Then, Ma 79i train:] train … Ma 79j again!] again. Ma 80a Aeronaut,] aeronaut, CIP 80b Atom,] atom, CIP 80c voyage; – with] voyage? With CIP 80d Æther] æther CIP 80e – Alas!] Alas! CIP 81a sail! – ] sail! CIP 81b dissolve!] dissolve. CIP 81c transient] transient, ESII 1 268 Textual Notes

82a Ocean] Ocean’s ESII 1 83a When … green;] Where shadowy forests, and the coppices green, / By summer’s glowing hands are newly drest; RF 83b reposing,] reposing; RF 83c ‘their … flowers;’] their ‘fairy … flowers.’ RF 83d current,] stream, RF 84a bad] vain RF 84b Knows … happiness!] Learns, in retir’d seclusion, to possess,/ With friendship sweeten’d – rural happiness! RF 84c Associate] Associate, ESII 1 85a gone!] gone! – YP 85b day-star’s] Day-star’s YP 85c hedge-row] hedge-rows YP 85d course,] course; YP 86a Hope in youth’s] HOPE, in life’s YP 86b While] When YP 86c Experience withers;] EXPERIENCE withers! YP 86d Reason] reason YP 86e on the Ocean] o’er the ocean YP 86f bell,’] bell.’ YP 86g Pilgrim – Such] pilgrim; such YP 86h Reason] reason YP 86i Love … Pleasure] love … pleasure YP 86j Shepherd] shepherd YP 86k returns!] returns. YP 93a From … doubt.] From an idea that the wheat-ear of the Southern downs is the becca-fica of Italy. I doubt it; but have no books that give one any information on the subject. ESII 1 95a is – to] – is to ESII 1 95b Supposed … PORTLAND.] Written among the Ruins of the Old Church, on the West Side of Portland; above which are Ruins called Bow-and-Arrow, or Rufus’s Castle. Ma 95c Nature’s] nature’s Ma 95d frown’d, thro’] scowl’d through Ma 95e graves.] graves! Ma 95f Sure] Sure, Ma 95g giant] hideous Ma 96a Hears … dead.] He seems to hear the murmurs of the dead. Ma 96b shade] hide Ma 96c And] Hence Ma 96d Zephyrs’ breath,] Zephyr’s breath; Ma 96e Blasting] And blast Ma 96f spring-notes] Spring-notes Ma 96g cormorant] Cormorant Ma 96h mews … awks] Mews, …Awks Ma 96i Perchance … the] Forlorn, among these Ma 96j mourner] Mourner Ma 96k main] main; Ma Textual Notes 269

96l O’er … sail] Through the blue waves … sails Ma 96m On … lone] Long on these Ma 96n may] will Ma 96o ocean, rising] Ocean rising Ma 96p Lights, … reluctant,] Lights her reluctant Ma 96q Hence] Here Ma 97a pilot – ] pilot; – Ma 97b yes!] yes! – Ma 97c rustic] rustic’s Ma 97d SPRING.] Verses Written in Early Spring. CIP Lines, Written in the New Forest in early Spring. Ma 97e lichen] Lichen ESII 1 98a year:] year: – Ma 98b gale;] gale, Ma 98c Jacinths] Jacynth’s ESII 1 98d below;] below: – Ma 98e Love … dress] Love and Friendship dress CIP 98f Summer] summer Ma 98g or] and Ma 98h Louisa] Miranda RF 98i found?’] found; RF 98j Morning’s] morning’s RF 98k When] As RF 99a Summer] summer RF 99b floats.] floats; RF 99c III.] RF omit 99d Autumnal] the autumnal RF 99e Louisa’s] Miranda’s RF 99f Clothing … with] That clothes the bark in ESII 1 99g webs] webbs ESII 1 102a soft] wild ESII 1 103a fast, fast] fast ESII 1 103b their] her ESII 1 103c fell in floods] poured in sheets ESII 1 103d For … roll’d,] And it seem’d as each blast of wind fearfully told, ESII 1 103e faint] cold ESII 1 103f She soon] Soon she ESII 1 104a soon] now ESII 1 104b The] ESII 1 omit 106a By … ponders;] She sits by the river ESII 1 106b Ye … unknowing] Ye statesmen! ne’er dreading ESII 1 106c these] those BM 106d tho’] long BM 106e Harriet!] Harriet, BM 106f But] – But BM 106g sooths] soothes BM 106h spirit] spirit, BM 107a face;] face, BM 270 Textual Notes

107b Fancy’s] fancy’s BM 107c Memory] memory BM 107d that] thy BM 107e This] The BM 108a All! all] All, all ESII 1 111a pain … unrequited] anguish … ungrateful ESII 1 111b resign? – ] resign? YP 111c Ah, no! – ] Ah! no, YP 111d Liberty … mine:] freedom once … mine; YP 111e thine!]thine. YP 111f Amid … thine.] Think! mid the gloomy haunts of gain Reluctant days I pass in pain, And all I once desired resign; Ah! let me then at length obtain One soft, one pitying sigh of thine. YP 111g Fortune] fortune YP 111h will] shall YP 111i combine;] combine, YP 112a Winds!] winds YP 112b Summer] summer YP 112c friend’s--] friend’s, YP 112d Lament] Laments YP 112e Grief] grief YP 112f groans,] groans; YP 112g Death] death YP 112h heart,] heart; YP 112i opprest] oppress’d; YP 112j Memory] memory YP 112k lives,] lives; YP 112l maid … love!] maid, … love; YP 113a rocky] desart YP 113b But] Yet YP 113c Hillario go,] Hillario, go! YP 113d may you] may’st thou YP 113e chantress] chauntress YP 113f tears; … pale.] tears, … pale! YP 113g restless] azure YP 113h cold swoln] cold-swoln YP 113i World’s] world’s YP 113j Love.] love. YP Textual Notes 271

The Emigrants

Unusually, the alterations noted here represent speculative changes rather than published ones. They are based on the marked-up text of the poem found at the University of Sussex Library, as described in the Headnote to this poem. They give some intriguing insights into the, mainly, stylistic directions the poem might have taken.

125a wings away! – Changing] wings away; changing 125b curse his beams.] curse his beams! 125c low murmuring] low murmurs 126a Nothing but good:] Nothing but good. 126b from legal crimes] from legal crimes, 126c more certain ruin] more certain ruin, 126d before his Counsel pleads)] before his Counsel pleads) – 126e half hides] half shades 126f thus shelter’d; or when Eve] thus shelter’d, or, when Eve 126g sinks beneath them;] sinks beneath them. 126h God, unspoil’d by Man] God unspoil’d by Man, 126i And less affected then, by human woes] And, less affected then by human woes 126j I witness’d not;] I witness’d not, 126k duplicity] duplicity, 126l fix on me:] fix on me. 126m Danaïds – ] Danaïds, 126n wood-bine wild,] wood-bine wild 127a well fenced] well fenc’d 127b not these] not these, 127c new and trim] new and trim, 127d Banish’d for ever and for conscience sake] Banish’d for ever, and for conscience sake, 127e yet unhappy Men] yet, unhappy Men 127f never comes;] never comes, 127g Methinks in each expressive face, I see] Methinks, in each expressive face I see 127h Heretics – ] Heretics, 128a silk and down,] silk and down; 128b altars;] altars, 128c Hope;] Hope 128d evils present; — ] evils present. — 128e prejudice (so hard to break)] prejudice, so hard to break 128f exile; and while] exile, and, while 128g for I too have known … We call our own] marginal note suggests this long phrase might ‘be advantageously divided into two?’ 129a not; the Noble] not, (the Noble 129b its close] its close) closing parentheses begun l. 185 272 Textual Notes

129c Liberty] Liberty, 129d amus’d;] amus’d 129e Who pick] They pick 129f they contrive] fabricate (‘they’ omitted) 130a They launch] Launching (‘they’ omitted) 130b seat: – ] seat. – 130c Nobility?] Nobility, 130d creation!’] creation?’ 130e If in this land] If, in this land 130f France?] France, 131a City] Cities 131b sails] sail 131c hides] conceals marginal note suggests change as there is ‘a syllable wanting’ 132a titles; Men] titles; – Men 132b them; – unlamented] them, unlamented 132c for forging fetters for] for underlined forging fetters for underlined 132d long] long underlined 133a stung] stung underlined 133b passions;] passions. 133c Avarice;] Avarice, 133d honour; who resign’d] honour have resign’d 133e hearts,] hearts 133f Moon – ] Moon. 133g height] height, 133h Like … Heaven] line underlined in pencil 137a hand] hand, 140a who] thou 140b stony] underlined 141a for him and for his] for underlined and for double underlined his 143a endure] misplaced endnote cancelled: reference for ‘Right onward,’ II:368 143b To her hard-heaving heart her] all ‘h’s underlined 144a interrupts] intercepts 145a unwearied] underlined 145b wearied] sickening 146a cause thy creatures cease] underlined

Beachy Head: with Other Poems

Abbreviations HB: The Natural History of Birds CIP: Conversations Introducing Poetry Letter 1805: Letter to Sarah Rose, 30 July 1805 (Collected Letters, pp. 698–700) Letter 1806: Letter to Sarah Rose, 26 April 1806 (Collected Letters, p. 731) Textual Notes 273

173a bows] boughs, errata 178a enwreathing,] roots, enwreathing, HB 179a peas] pease HB 179b stock-dove,] Stock Dove HB 179c friend’s] friends’ HB 180a dove;] Dove; HB 180b While me,] While, me HB 180c grotesque] grotesque; HB 180d care. And] care; and HB 181a eyes you] eyes, you HB 181b onyx;] onyx, HB 181c enthral:] enthral, HB 181d repast;] repast, HB 182a fantail’s … cropper’s] Fantail’s … Cropper’s HB 182b powter,] Powter,] HB 182c her;] her! HB 182d carrier’s] Carrier’s HB 182e nun:] Nun: HB 183a him earnest] him, earnest HB 183b zeal, his] zeal his HB 183c And] And, HB 184a prest] press’d HB 185a heaven] Heaven HB 185b tried / From hostile eyes, the] tried, / From hostile eyes the HB 186a even] e’en HB 186b an hand,] a hand, HB 187a The Swallow] To the Swallow HB 187b gorse] Gorse HB 187c Swallow too] Swallow, too, HB 187d summer] Summer HB 187e Hindostani] Hindustani HB 188a came] come HB 188b rapid wing,] rapid flight, HB 188c You sail’d … charioteer.] You sail’d across the Western … charioteer? – HB 188d In Afric … Dove?] Do Afric’s plains, where ev’ry gale Bears odours from the palmy grove, Hear the loud cuckoo’s frequent tale? There did you meet the vagrant rail? Or the low murm’ring dove? HB 188e seem’d in sorrow] seem’d incessant HB 188f sings she] sang she HB 188g vast … pathless] wide and stormy HB 188h come… anew] come anew, to build HB 188i if, as] if, when HB 188j In … brow,] In some tall cliff’s excaved brow, HB 189a Thus … lake?] HB omitted 274 Textual Notes

189b Or … love?] What wondrous instinct bids you know Approaching dearth of insect food? If to the will’wy aits you go, And, crowding on the pliant bough, Sink in the dimpled flood; How there, while cold waves eddying flow Your transitory tomb above, Learn ye when winds more mildly blow, And the propitious moment know, To rise to life and love? HB 189c Him … laws.] Him … Laws. HB 189d oblivion? Come] oblivion? – Come] CIP 189e spring,] Spring, CIP 189f goddess] Goddess CIP 190a suns] Suns CIP 190b car] Car CIP 190c moss] Moss CIP 190d rush,] Rush, CIP 190e convolvuli] Convolvulas CIP 190f Scandix’] Scandix’s CIP 190g graced a shining knot, her] graced, a shining knot, her CIP 190h goddess,] Goddess, CIP 191a sylphs] Sylphs CIP 191b pollen] Pollen CIP 191c ardent,] ardent CIP 191d insect] Insect CIP 191e aphis] Aphis CIP 191f these] the CIP 191g lichen] Lichen CIP 191h foxglove] Foxglove CIP 191i chief] Chief CIP 191j This, with] This with CIP 191k thorn that] Thorn, that CIP 191l earwig] Earwig CIP 191m libellula] Libellula CIP 191n snail;] Snail; CIP 191o ant,] Ant, CIP 191p beetle] Beetle CIP 191q queen,] Queen, CIP 191r fays] Fays CIP 192a bee,] Bee, CIP 192b rose’s] Rose’s CIP 192c cymar;] cymarre; CIP 192d seraphs] Seraphs CIP 192e sylphid’s] Sylphid’s CIP 192f queen] Queen CIP 192h car] Car CIP Textual Notes 275

192h Here,] Here CIP 193a there,] there CIP 193b imperial] Imperial CIP 193c The … rears] High rears the Honeysuck CIP 193d thorn.] Thorn. CIP 193e heaven,] Heaven, CIP 193f There] There, CIP 193g rivals] Rivals CIP 193h summer sun] Summer Sun CIP 193i queen;] Queen; CIP 193j See … rear,] A beauteous pyramid, the Chesnut rears, CIP 193k appear;] appears; CIP 193l world!] World! CIP 193m Bryums] Bryum CIP 193n fern … adder’s-tongue] Fern … Adders-tongue CIP 193o chrystal] crystal CIP 193p soft-gliding] soft gliding CIP 193q reed-bird] Reed-bird CIP 193r sallows] Sallows CIP 193s queen of flowers.] Queen of Flowers – CIP 193t Water lily] water Lily CIP 194a grew,] grow, CIP 194b naiad … goddess] Naid … Year’s … Goddess CIP 194c sea;] Sea; CIP 194d sea-dews] Sea-dews CIP 194e cliff,] clift, CIP 194f surge] Surge CIP 194g Tamarisk.] Tamarisk CIP 194h corals … chrystal] Corals … crystal CIP 195a branch,] branch CIP 195b where,] where CIP 195c sea-lace] Sea-lace CIP 195d impearl’d … coralline,] empearl’d … Coralline CIP 195e Fancy … sea-maids] Fancy, … Sea-maids CIP 195f pinna;] Pinna, CIP 195g submarine,] sub-marine, CIP 195h laver] Laver CIP 195i olive-leaves, depending] Olive leaves depending CIP 195j nereids] Nereids CIP 195k forms!] forms CIP 195l poet’s] Poet’s CIP 195m garden’s] gardens CIP 195n explores,] explores CIP 195o Truth … Nature,] Tr u t h and Nature CIP 195p youth’s] Youth’s CIP 195q hymeneal love.] Hymeneal love; CIP 196a power!] Power, CIP 196b lovely, and] lovely – and CIP 276 Textual Notes

196c pilgrim’s] Pilgrim’s CIP 196d ocean] Ocean CIP 196e summer] Summer CIP 196f land?] land. CIP 196g peacock’s] Paon’s CIP 196h paler,] paler CIP 197a day’s] Day’s CIP 197b virtue] Virtue CIP 197c envy’s] Envy’s CIP 197d sun] Sun CIP 197e glow;] glow, CIP 197f east] East CIP 197g throw,] throw CIP 197h moon,] Moon CIP 197i sufferer’s] sufferers’ CIP 197j These] These, CIP 198a savage,] savage CIP 198b sea-birds] Sea birds CIP 198c spring;] Spring; CIP 198d supplied, – ] supplied, CIP 198e sea-fowl] Sea fowl CIP 199a Devotes,] Devotes; CIP 199b seas,] Seas CIP 199c Want,] want, CIP 199d prow,] proa, CIP errata 199e Walrus’] Walruss’ CIP 199f tropic] Tropic CIP 199g world of water] World of Water CIP 199h moon] Moon CIP 199i repose. – ] repose. CIP 199j life;] life: CIP 199k Beauty … harmony – ] Beauty, … harmony. CIP 199l Supreme,] supreme CIP 199m good!] good. CIP 207a shew] shew, Letter 1805 207b radiance glow,] radience glow; Letter 1805 207c Just like Hope!] – Just Letter 1805 207d pilgrim] Pilgrim Letter 1805 208a Farther and] Farther & Letter 1805 208b view,] view Letter 1805 208c then] – then Letter 1805 208d dew,] dew Letter 1805 208e Just] – Just Letter 1805 208f Ye fade, ethereal hues! For ever,] Ye fade celestial hues, for ever! Letter 1805 208g While, cold Reason, thy] While cold Reason!,[?]—thy Letter 1805 208h never] never, Letter 1805 208i Hope.] Hope! Letter 1805 Textual Notes 277

208j Oh! Soothing hour, when glowing day,] O soothing hour! When gorgeous day— Letter 1805 208k declines,] declines Letter 1805 208l away,] away Letter 1805 208m shines;] shines Letter 1805 208n I love to hear … Even] ‘Tis then I love … even Letter 1805 208o Breathing along the new-leaf ’d copse,] That breaths along the shadowy copse Letter 1805 208p And feel the freshening dew of Heaven,] While And slow the silver dews of Heaven Letter 1805 208q Fall silently in limpid drops.] Descend in light & lucid drops Letter 1805 208r For, like a friend’s consoling sighs,] For like a friends consoling sighs Letter 1805 208s That breeze of night … appears:] That balmy breeze … appears, Letter 1805 208t And, … Pity’s eyes,] While … Pitys eyes Letter 1805 208u Descend … pure …tears.]Seem … cold … tears – Letter 1805 208v Alas! For those … borne,] And Ah! For those, … borne Letter 1805 208w a heart by sorrow riven,] an heart by Sorrow riven; Letter 1805 208x winds, will mourn,] winds will mourn? Letter 1805 208y fall,] fall, – Letter 1805 210a On the Aphorism, ‘L’Amitié est l’Amour sans ailes.’] On reading the Aphorism, friendship is Love witht his wings: Letter 1806 210b Friendship, as some sage poet sings,] Friendship as some One says or sings — Letter 1806 210c Love, depriv’d of wings,] Love deprived of wings Letter 1806 210d Without all wish or power to wander;] Without or power or wish to wander Letter 1806 210e but … tender:] tho … tender Letter 1806 210f ‘Sly and slow] ‘Sly & — Letter 1806 210g go;’] go’ Letter 1806 210h vain,] vain; Letter 1806 210i she, who years beyond fifteen,] whoso, years beyond fifteen, Letter 1806 210j twenty, may] Twenty; may Letter 1806 210k unplum’d … stay;] unplumed … stay Letter 1806 210l coolly … away.] coolly … away Letter 1806