Chapter XXXIII: Canto THE SEVENTH (7)

In the present instance, ’tis a _Song at a Banquet_; in the
latter, ’tis a _Song in a Boat_. ’Tis merely the difference
betwixt wine and water. The vassals on both occasions
express their attachment to their Chief, and their ardour
for his _Crest_; one being an _Evergreen Pine_, the other a
_Potato_.

[41] _Jokeby_ was said to have been written by an Amateur of
Fashion.

[42] The indefatigable researches of my friend, Mr. Francis
Douce, have at last enabled him to procure me one of these
celebrated banners. It is quartered according to the most
received military practices, and in the midst appears a
portrait, which I at first mistook for the effigy of a goose
and trimmings; but now find to compose the head and wig of
my friend Robert Warren. On either side are blazoned two
blacking brushes rampant, armed and langued gules, with a
pair of top boots argent. The whole forms a striking
heraldic curiosity, and is now deposited in the British
Museum.

[43] _Major Yelverton._

[44] The deeds of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, as commander
of the Baltic Fleet in the Russian War, bore a very
insignificant relation to his boasts before he assumed the
command.

[45] Sir Edmund Henderson, formerly Chief of the
Metropolitan Police.

[46] Much comment was made upon the fact that the Duchess of
Kent and her daughter, the Princess Victoria (heiress to the
throne), were not present at the coronation of William IV.

[47] [The Marquis of Salisbury, Sir Stafford Northcote, and
Mr. James Lowther.]

[48] Sunderland Times, 7th Jan., 1876, &c.

[49] Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council on
the Smallpox Epidemic of 1871-2.

[50] [_The Happy Land_ by F. Tomline and Gilbert A’Beckett
was a burlesque of The _Wicked World_. It was produced at
the Court Theatre on March 3, 1873, and prohibited by the
Lord Chamberlain on March 7, principally because three of
the actors were made up to represent Mr. Gladstone, Mr.
Ayrton, and Mr. Robert Lowe. It was afterwards reproduced
with sundry alterations and omissions.]

[51] Old Pensioners of Sutton’s hospital――so called by the
boys.

[52] For the Glendoveer, and the rest of the _dramatis
personæ_ of this imitation, the reader is referred to the
“Curse of Kehama.”

[53] Midnight, and yet no eye
Through all the Imperial City closed in sleep!
Behold her streets a blaze
With light that seems to kindle the red sky,
Her myriads swarming through the crowded ways!
Master and slave, old age and infancy,
All, all abroad to gaze;
House-top and balcony
Clustered with women, who throw back their veils,
With unimpeded and insatiate sight
To view the funeral pomp which passes by,
As if the mournful rite
Were but to them a scene of joyance and delight.

From Southey’s _The Curse of Kehama_.

[54] This couplet was introduced by the authors by way of
bravado, in answer to some one who alleged that the English
language contained no rhyme to chimney.

[55] Apollo. A gigantic wooden figure of this deity was
erected on the roof. The writer (_horrescit referens!_) is
old enough to recollect the time when it was first placed
there. Old Bishop, then one of the masters of Merchant
Taylors’ School, wrote an epigram upon the occasion, which,
referring to the aforesaid figure, concluded thus:

“Above he fills up Shakespeare’s place,
And Shakespeare fills up his below.”

Very antithetical; but quære as to the meaning? The writer,
like Pluto, “long puzzled his brain” to find it out, till he
was immersed “in a lower deep” by hearing Madame de Staël
say, at the table of the late Lord Dillon, “Buonaparte is
not a man, but a system.” Inquiry was made in the course of
the evening of Sir James Mackintosh as to what the lady
meant? He answered, “Mass, I cannot tell.” Madame de Staël
repeats this apophthegm in her work on Germany. It is
probably understood _there_.

[56] O.P. This personage, who is alleged to have growled
like a bull-dog, requires rather a lengthened note for the
edification of the rising generation. The “horns, rattles,
drums,” with which he is accompanied, are no inventions of
the poet. The new Covent Garden Theatre opened on the 18th
September, 1809, when a cry of “Old Prices” (afterwards
diminished to O.P.) burst out from every part of the house.
This continued and increased in violence till the 23rd, when
rattles, drums, whistles, and cat-calls, having completely
drowned the voices of the actors, Mr. Kemble, the stage
manager, came forward and said that a committee of gentlemen
had undertaken to examine the finances of the concern, and
that until they were prepared with their report the theatre
would continue closed. “Name them!” was shouted from all
sides. The names were declared, viz., Sir Charles Price, the
Solicitor-General, the Recorder of London, the Governor of
the Bank, and Mr. Angerstein. “All shareholders!” bawled a
wag from the gallery. In a few days the theatre re-opened:
the public paid no attention to the report of the referees,
and the tumult was renewed for several weeks, with even
increased violence. The proprietors now sent in hired
bruisers, to _mill_ the refractory into subjection. This
irritated most of their former friends, and, amongst the
rest, the annotator, who accordingly wrote the song of
“Heigh-ho, says Kemble,” which was caught up by the
ballad-singers, and sung under Mr. Kemble’s house windows in
Great Russell Street. A dinner was given at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern in the Strand, to celebrate the victory
obtained by W. Clifford in his action against Brandon, the
box-keeper, for assaulting him for wearing the letters O.P.
in his hat. At this dinner, Mr. Kemble attended, and matters
were compromised by allowing the advanced price (seven
shillings) to the boxes. The writer remembers a former riot
of a similar sort at the same theatre (in the year 1792),
when the price to the boxes was raised from five shillings
to six. That tumult, however, only lasted three nights.

[57] “From the knobb’d bludgeon to the taper switch.” This
image is not the creation of the poets: it sprang from
reality. The authors happened to be at the Royal Circus when
“God save the King” was called for, accompanied by a cry of
“stand up!” and “hats off!” An inebriated naval lieutenant,
perceiving a gentleman in an adjoining box slow to obey the
call, struck his hat off with his stick, exclaiming, “Take
off your hat, sir!” The other thus assaulted proved to be,
unluckily for the lieutenant, Lord Camelford, the celebrated
bruiser and duellist. A set-to in the lobby was the
consequence, where his lordship quickly proved victorious.
“The devil is not so black as he is painted,” said one of
the authors to the other; “let us call upon Lord Camelford,
and tell him that we were witnesses of his being first
assaulted.” The visit was paid on the ensuing morning at
Lord Camelford’s lodgings, in Bond Street. Over the
fire-place in the drawing-room were ornaments strongly
expressive of the pugnacity of the peer. A long thick
bludgeon lay horizontally supported by two brass hooks.
Above this was placed parallel one of lesser dimensions,
until a pyramid of weapons gradually arose, tapering to a
horsewhip.

“Thus all below was strength, and all above was grace.”

Lord Camelford received his visitants with great civility,
and thanked them warmly for the call; adding, that their
evidence would be material, it being his intention to indict
the lieutenant for an assault. “All I can say in return is
this,” exclaimed the peer with great cordiality, “if ever I
see you engaged in a row, upon my soul I’ll stand by you.”
The authors expressed themselves thankful for so potent an
ally, and departed. In about a fortnight afterwards (March
7, 1804), Lord Camelford was shot in a duel with Mr. Best.

[58] Veeshno. The late Mr. Samuel Whitbread, M.P., who
committed suicide in 1815 during a fit of insanity supposed
to have been occasioned by overwork, and anxiety in
connection with the involved financial affairs of Drury Lane
Theatre.

[59] Levy. An insolvent Israelite who threw himself from the
top of the Monument a short time before. An inhabitant of
Monument-yard informed the writer, that he happened to be
standing at his door talking to a neighbour; and looking up
at the top of the pillar, exclaimed, “Why, here’s the flag
coming down.” “Flag!” answered the other, “it’s a man.” The
words were hardly uttered when the suicide fell within ten
feet of the speakers.

[60] Rembling――shifting;

[61] Raving――tearing up;

[62] Tewing――troubling oneself;

[63] Taving――fidgeting;

[64] Clatting――dirtying;

[65] Scratting――scratching.

[66] Ruddle――red chalk for tiled floor.

[67] An affectionate term applied to Mr. Montagu Corry, (now
Lord Rowton,) Secretary to Lord Beaconsfield.

[68] The “Friend of Humanity” was intended for a satire on
Mr. Tierney, M.P., for Southwark, who in early times was
amongst the most zealous of the Reformers. He was an active
member of the _Society of Friends of the People_, and drew
up the justly celebrated Petition in which that useful body
laid before the House of Commons all the more striking
particulars of its defective title to be a body truly
representing the people, which that house then, as now, but
with far less reason, assumed.

[69] Evidently Giles now reads his newspaper.

[70] This stanza was supplied by S. T. Coleridge.

[71] George Canning, of the _Anti-Jacobin_.

[72] Mrs. Fitzherbert and Mary Robinson, the one the wife,
the other the mistress of George, Prince Regent.

[73] State Lotteries were then permitted, but were abolished
in 1826.

[74] Alluding to a coarse skit published by Sir John
Stoddart, in _The New Times_.

[75] The Bishop of Osnaburgh’s _Doxy_. The Duke of York was
Bishop of Osnaburgh, but the _Doxy_ here mentioned alludes
neither to Orthodoxy nor to Heterodoxy, but simply to Mrs.
Mary Anne Clarke, the wife of a stonemason. She became the
mistress of this reverend Bishop, who was also Commander of
the Forces, and to whose memory a column was erected――Heaven
only knows why――at the junction of Waterloo-place and St.
James’s-park. The Duke got into debt, and Mrs. Clarke had to
find money by the sale of commissions in the Army――it is
said, indeed, that she had also applications for bishoprics
and deaneries. The Duke of York had control of the Army, and
as the regulation price of a majority was £2,600 and of a
captaincy £1,500 while Mrs. Clarke only charged £900 and
£700 respectively, she drove, for awhile, a thriving trade;
but at last Colonel Wardle brought the scandal before the
House of Commons, and the Duke was obliged to resign his
post.

[76] Two Boots, an allusion to George IV., and the next few
lines refer to his ill-used wife, Caroline of Brunswick, who
died in August, 1821, shortly after his coronation.

[77] A favourite phrase of the worthy Poet Laureate.

[78] “Dilworth and Dyche are both mad at thy quantities.”
See Mr. Canning’s Parody on Mr. Southey’s Dactylics.

[79] Not only in “Seditious Sapphics,” but in divers kinds
of verse “without a name,” happily unknown to English
Poetry, before Mr. Southey.

[80] “Botany Bay Eclogues,” written in the Laureate’s youth,
full of thefts and theories worthy of the _Bay_, though the
poetry certainly is not.

[81] “Joan of Arc,” Mr. S. says, was written in six weeks,
It may be so――it is easier to _write_ than to _read_ such an
epic.

[82] “Thalaba, the destroyer,” a hotch-potch of all the
measures in the English (and a few more) without rhyme. The
catastrophe is precisely that of Tom Thumb.

[83] “Madoc,” a moral quarto, in which whatever is good for
anything is stolen without acknowledgment from Robertson’s
History of America, whose elegant prose Mr. Southey has
_traduced_ into barbarous blank, in applying all the
striking incidents in the story of Columbus, to a
buccaneering Welsh Chieftain of the 12th century.

[84] “Roderick the last of the Goths.”

[85] “Wat Tyler” was republished about the time Mr. S.
suffered the Laurel――which gave rise to some edifying and
curious contrasts of his new and old opinions.

[86] Mr. S. is guilty of sundry odes to the Holy Alliance,
&c., &c.

[87] “Letter to W. Smith, M.P., from R. Southey, Esq.” of
the contents of which most of our readers are in a state of
happy ignorance――for the publisher, Mr. Murray, is the only
person who suffered from Mr. S.’s “branding iron.” It was
said of Joe Manton’s guns, that they were not _sold_ but
_given away_. As much might Mr. Murray say of this famous
Letter, except that nothing of the Laureate’s resembles the
said Joe’s in readiness _to go off_.

[88] “A Poet’s Pilgrimage to Waterloo,” in which Mr. S.
clearly explains Dryden’s bull――“twice he slew the slain.”

[89] A right melancholy “Lay of the Laureate,” inflicted on
the occasion of the nuptials of the late Princess Charlotte
and Prince Leopold.

[90] The author here alludes to that class of noble or
opulent students, who at Oxford are called _Gentlemen
Commoners_, and at Cambridge _Fellow Commoners_.

[91] A few of the names, indicated only by initials, are now
difficult to identify, but most of them refer to well-known
individuals.

[92] John Borthwick Gilchrist, L.L.D., an eminent oriental
scholar, died in 1841.

[93] Samuel Rogers, Poet and Banker, died in 1855.

[94] Francis, Lord Jeffrey, a Scotch Judge, chiefly
remembered on account of his long connection with, and
numerous contributions to _The Edinburgh Review_, (the “Blue
and Buff”) of which he was one of the founders. In an
article in that Review (July, 1806) he denounced Tom Moore
as “the most licentious of modern versifiers, and the most
poetical of the propagators of impiety.” On this charge,
which was too true to be answered in any other way, Moore
challenged Jeffrey to fight a duel, and the two met at Chalk
Farm, then a favourite spot with duellists. The proceedings
were stopped by the interference of the police, when it was
found that in loading the pistols, the bullets had been
carefully omitted. This circumstance became the talk of the
town, and Moore, especially, was subjected to much ridicule.
Byron thus alludes to the duel:――

“Health to great Jeffrey; Heaven preserve his life,
To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife,
And guard it sacred in its future wars,
Since authors sometimes seek the field of Mars.
Can none remember that eventful day,
That ever glorious, almost fatal fray,
When Little’s leadless pistol met his eye,
And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by?”
_English Bards and Scotch Reviewers._

When Moore read these lines he was so incensed that he
addressed a challenge to Lord Byron, but by cautiously
confiding it to a discreet friend it somehow never reached
its destination. Moore afterwards became very intimate with
Byron, but he still had his revenge, for he wrote Byron’s
Life.

[95] George Birkbeck, M.D., president of the London
Mechanics’ Institute, and founder of the Birkbeck
Institution in Southampton Buildings, was a physician by
profession, and an ardent advocate for the education of the
people. He died in 1841.

[96] Lord Mayor Waithman, four times elected M.P. for
London, a strenuous advocate for popular rights. He died in
1833, and an obelisk was erected to his memory, in Ludgate
Circus.

[97] Jeremy Bentham, political economist, and father of the
Utilitarian School of writers, died in 1832.

[98] Henry Brougham, Lord Chancellor, who took great
interest in the spread of popular education, and was very
active in the formation of the London University.

[99] Pronounced, “Zo-ee mou sas ag-a-po,” a Romaic
expression of tenderness. It means, “My life, I love you!”
which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much
in fashion in Greece at this day, as, Juvenal tells us, the
first two words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic
expressions were all Hellenized.

[100] The notorious Madame Rachel obtained large sums of
money from a certain foolish woman, on the pretences that
she could be made “_beautiful for ever_” and obtain the hand
of the late Viscount Ranelagh in marriage. Neither Madam
Rachel’s cosmetics, nor her matrimonial schemes succeeded,
and Madame Rachel was sentenced to a long term of
imprisonment for obtaining money under false pretences,
whilst her victim became the laughing stock of London.
Madame Rachel died before her term of imprisonment expired.

[101] R. B. Sheridan.

[102] This would seem to show that poet and prophet are
synonymous, the noble bard having afterwards returned to
England, and again quitted it, under domestic circumstances
painfully notorious. His good-humoured forgiveness of the
Authors has already been alluded to in the preface. Nothing
of this illustrious poet, however trivial, can be otherwise
than interesting. “We knew him well.” At Mr. Murray’s
dinner-table the annotator met him and Sir John Malcolm,
Lord Byron talked of intending to travel in Persia. “What
must I do when I set off?” said he to Sir John. “Cut off
your buttons!” “My buttons! what, these metal ones?” “Yes;
the Persians are in the main very honest fellows; but if you
go thus bedizened, you will infallibly be murdered for your
buttons! “At a dinner at Monk Lewis’s chambers in the
Albany, Lord Byron expressed to the writer his determination
not to go there again, adding, “I never will dine with a
middle-aged man who fills up his table with young ensigns,
and has looking-glass panels to his book-cases.” Lord Byron,
when one of the Drury-lane Committee of Management,
challenged the writer to sing alternately (like the swains
in Virgil) the praises of Mrs. Mardyn, the actress, who,
by-the-bye, was hissed off the stage for an imputed intimacy
of which she was quite innocent.

The contest ran as follows:

“Wake muse of fire, your ardent lyre,
Pour forth your amorous ditty,
But first profound, in duty bound,
Applaud the new committee;
Their scenic art from Thespis’ cart
All jaded nags discarding,
To London drove this queen of love,
Enchanting Mrs. Mardyn.

Though tides of love around her rove,
I fear she’ll choose Pactolus――
In that bright surge bards ne’er immerge,
So I must e’en swim solus.
‘Out, out, alas!’ ill-fated gas,
That shin’st round Govent Garden,
Thy ray how flat, compared with that
From eye of Mrs. Mardyn!”

And so on. The reader has, no doubt, already discovered
“which is the justice, and which is the thief.”

Lord Byron at that time wore a very narrow cravat of white
sarsnet, with the shirt-collar falling over it; a black coat
and waistcoat, and very broad white trousers, to hide his
lame foot. These were of Russia duck in the morning, and
jean in the evening. His watch-chain had a number of small
gold seals appended to it, and was looped up to a button of
his waistcoat. His face was void of colour; he wore no
whiskers. His eyes were gray, fringed with long black
lashes; and his air was imposing, but rather supercilious.
He undervalued David Hume: denying his claim to genius on
account of his bulk, and calling him, from the Heroic
epistle,

“The fattest hog in Epicurus’ sty.”

One of this extraordinary man’s allegations was, that “fat
is an oily dropsy.” To stave off its visitation, he
frequently chewed tobacco in lieu of dinner, alleging that
it absorbed the gastric juice of the stomach, and prevented
hunger. “Pass your hand down my side,” said his lordship to
the writer; “can you count my ribs?” “Every one of them.” “I
am delighted to hear you say so. I called last week on Lady
――――; ‘Ah, Lord Byron,’ said she, ‘how fat you grow!’ But
you know Lady ―――― is fond of saying spiteful things!” Let
this gossip be summed up with the words of Lord
Chesterfield, in his character of Bolingbroke: “Upon the
whole, on a survey of this extraordinary character, what can
we say, but ‘Alas, poor human nature!’”

His favourite Pope’s description of man is applicable to
Byron individually:――

“Chaos of thought and passion all confused,
Still by himself abused or disabused:
Created part to rise and part to fall,
Great lord of all things, yet a slave to all:
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled――
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.”

The writer never heard him allude to his deformed foot
except upon one occasion, when, entering the green-room of
Drury-lane, be found Lord Byron alone, the younger Byrne and
Miss Smith the dancer having just left him, after an angry
conference about a _pas seul_. “Had you been here a minute
sooner,” said Lord B., “you would have heard a question
about dancing referred to me:――me! (looking mournfully
downward) whom fate from my birth has prohibited from taking
a single step.”

[103] “Holland’s edifice.” The late theatre was built by
Holland the architect. The writer visited it on the night of
its opening. The performances were _Macbeth_ and the _Virgin
Unmasked_. Between the play and the farce, an excellent
epilogue, written by George Colman, was excellently spoken
by Miss Farren. It referred to the iron curtain which was,
in the event of fire, to be let down between the stage and
the audience, and which accordingly descended, by way of
experiment, leaving Miss Farren between the lamps and the
curtain. The fair speaker informed the audience, that should
the fire break out on the stage (where it usually
originates), it would thus be kept from the spectators;
adding, with great solemnity――

“No! we assure our generous benefactors
’Twill only burn the scenery and the actors!”

A tank of water was afterwards exhibited, in the course of
the epilogue, in which a wherry was rowed by a real live
man, the band playing――

“And did you not hear of a jolly young waterman?”

Miss Farren reciting――

“Sit still, there’s nothing in it,
We’ll undertake to drown you in a single minute.”

“O vain thought!” as Othello says. Notwithstanding the boast
in the epilogue――

“Blow, wind――come, rack, in ages yet unborn,
Our castle’s strength shall laugh a siege to scorn”――

The theatre fell a victim to the flames within fifteen years
from the prognostic! These preparations against fire always
presuppose presence of mind and promptness in those who are
to put them into action. They remind one of the dialogue in
Morton’s _Speed the Plough_, between Sir Able Handy and his
son Bob:

“_Bob._ Zounds, the castle’s on fire!
_Sir A._ Yes.
_Bob._ Where’s your patent liquid for extinguishing fire?
_Sir A._ It is not fixed.
_Bob._ Then where’s your patent fire-escape?
_Sir A._ It is not fixed.
_Bob._ You are never at a loss?
_Sir A._ Never.
_Bob._ Then what do you mean to do?
_Sir A._ I don’t know.”

[104] A rather obscure mode of expression for _Jew’s_-harp;
which some etymologists allege, by the way, to be a
corruption of _Jaw’s_-harp. No connection, therefore, with
King David.

[105] “A four-in-hand” in early Editions.

[106] On the repeal of the Corn-laws Sir Robert Peel
resigned, and was succeeded by Lord John Russell.

[107] On the night previous to the action, a grand ball was
given at Brussels.

[108] In October 1856, the Chinese captured 12 of the crew
of the Lorcha _Arrow_ in Canton river, on the plea that they
were pirates. Commissioner Yeh, the Chinese commander,
released the prisoners but refused to apologise for the
outrage, thereupon Canton was bombarded and other acts of
war committed. In March 1857 the House of Commons, by a
majority of 19, censured Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong
Kong, for the “violent measures” he had pursued. The
Ministry (who took his part) dissolved Parliament, and in
the new one a large majority was returned to support Lord
Palmerston, and the Chinese War. Messrs. Cobden, Bright,
Milner Gibson, Layard and many other leading opponents of
the Chinese policy were left without seats.

[109] Mr. Bright was absent on the continent for the benefit
of his health during the whole of the session, and
telegraphed from Rome his intention to stand again for
Manchester, but he was defeated.

[110] This line was borrowed from Sidney Smith.

[111] The last eight lines parody the first eight lines of
Zelica’s song in Moore’s _Lalla Rookh_.

[112] The _Emma_ Mines.

[113] Sir Louis Cavagnari murdered in Cabul.

[114] The Nelson Column.

[115] The system of the purchase of Commissions in the Army
was not abolished until 1871.

[116] In connection with these burlesques, it may be noted
that this prolific dramatic author and inveterate punster
was remotely connected with Lord Byron, to whom, indeed, he
bore a slight personal resemblance. Admiral John Byron, the
grandfather of the poet, was the great-great uncle of the
author of “Our Boys,” in other words, both the poet and the
dramatist were lineal descendants of William the fourth Lord
Byron.

[117] The Princess Beatrice.

[118] Lord Rowton.

[119] Tara is about six and a half miles south of Navan by
road crossing the Boyne by Kilcarn bridge. “Here, it is
supposed,” writes Seward, “there was anciently a magnificent
royal palace, the residence of the Kings of Ireland, where
triennial parliaments were held, in which all the nobility,
gentry, priests, etc. assembled, and here laws were enacted
and repealed, and the general advantage of the nation
consulted. This place is otherwise called Teagh-mor-Ragh,
the great house of the King, and much celebrated in ancient
Irish history.”

[120] Binns was hangman at this time.

[121] Thomas Moore was a great “Diner-out,” and we have it
on Byron’s authority “that he dearly loved a Lord.”

[122] Seager――a distiller noted for his fine flavoured _Old
Tom_, considered the best in the metropolis: whether tossed
off _short_, or mixed into _grog_.

[123] The plant known as asphodel to the later Greeks used
to be laid tombs as food for the dead.

[124] Daniel O’Connell. M.P.

[125] A possible place of exile for the Ameer, as it was
used for the King of Delhi’s prison.

[126] “_The Living Lustres_ appear to us a very fair
imitation of the fantastic verses which that ingenious
person, Mr. Moore, indites when he is merely gallant, and,
resisting the lures of voluptuousness, is not enough in
earnest to be tender.”――JEFFREY, _Edinburgh Review_.

[127] This alludes to two massive pillars of verd antique
which then flanked the proscenium, but which were afterwards
removed. Their colour reminds the bard of the Emerald Isle,
and this causes him (_more suo_) to fly off at a tangent,
and Hibernicise the rest of the poem.

Transcriber’s Note:

This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated below. Misspelled words were not corrected.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the book. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Unprinted punctuation and final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Commas were changed to stops at ends of sentences and abbreviations. Duplicate words and letters at line endings or page breaks were removed. Quotation marks were adjusted to match as pairs.

Where there was a difference in punctuation, accents, hyphenation, etc. between the index entry and the poem text, the index entry was adjusted to match that of the poem.

Illustrated dropped capital letters are indicated within brackets, thus: efore ...

There are two anchors to Footnote [14]. A word is not printed in Footnote [123]: … used to be laid [in/on] tombs as food …

In the Contents of Parts, Page 187 was changed to Page 137 for Part 31.

In the index for March, March, Make-rags, the page number was changed from 32 to 33.

“THE COMMONEWEAL, A Song for Unionists,” and “THE OLD CAUSE, A Counterblast” were printed as side-by-side columns over three pages. The poems were consolidated so that the stanzas of each poem are sequential.