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John D. Baird and Charles Ryskamp (eds), The Poems of William Cowper, Vol. 3: 1785–1800
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Editor’s NoteCritical ApparatusEditor’s NoteCritical ApparatusA TALE
- Critical Apparatus1In Scotland's realm, where trees are few,
- 2 Nor even shrubs abound,
- 3But where, however bleak the view,
- 4 Some better things are found,
- pg 1965For Husband there, and Wife may boast
- 6 Their union undefil'd,
- Critical Apparatus7And false ones are as rare almost
- 8 As hedge-rows in the wild.
- Critical Apparatus9In Scotland's realm forlorn and bare
- Critical Apparatus10 The hist'ry chanced of late—
- 11This hist'ry of a wedded Pair,
- 12 A Chaff-finch and his mate.
- 13The Spring drew near, each felt a breast
- 14 With genial instinct fill'd,
- 15They pair'd, and only wish'd a nest,
- 16 But found not where to build.
- 17The heaths uncover'd and the moors
- 18 Except with snow and sleet,
- 19Sea-beaten rocks and naked shores
- 20 Could yield them no retreat.
- 21Long time a breeding-place they sought
- 22 'Till both grew vext and tir'd;
- 23At length a ship arriving brought
- 24 The Good so long desir'd.
- Critical Apparatus25A ship?—could such a restless thing
- Critical Apparatus26 Afford them place of rest?
- 27Or was the merchant charged to bring
- 28 The homeless birds a nest?
- 29Hush—silent hearers profit most—
- 30 This racer of the sea
- 31Prov'd kinder to them than the coast,
- 32 It serv'd them with a Tree.
- pg 19733But such a Tree!—'twas shaven deal,
- 34 The tree they call a Mast,
- 35And had a hollow with a wheel
- 36 Through which the tackle pass'd.
- 37Within that cavity aloft
- 38 Their roofless home they fix'd,
- 39Form'd with materials neat and soft,
- Editor’s Note40 Bents, wool, and feathers mixt.
- Editor’s Note41Four iv'ry eggs soon pave its floor
- 42 With russet specks bedight—
- 43The vessel weighs, forsakes the shore
- 44 And lessens to the sight.
- 45The Mother-bird is gone to sea
- 46 As she had chang'd her kind.
- 47But goes the Male? Far wiser he
- Critical Apparatus48 Is doubtless left behind?
- Critical Apparatus49No—soon as from ashore he saw
- Critical Apparatus50 The winged mansion move,
- 51He flew to reach it by a law
- 52 Of never-failing love,
- 53Then perching at his consort's side
- 54 Was briskly borne along,
- Critical Apparatus55The billows and the blasts defied,
- 56 And cheer'd her with a song.
- Critical Apparatus57The seaman with sincere delight,
- 58 His feather'd shipmates eyes,
- 59Scarce less exulting in the sight
- 60 Than when he tows a prize.
- pg 198Critical Apparatus61For seamen much believe in signs,
- 62 And from a chance so new
- Critical Apparatus63Each some approaching good divines,
- Critical Apparatus64 And may his hopes be true!
- Critical Apparatus65Hail honour'd land! a desart where
- 66 Not even birds can hide,
- 67Yet parent of this loving pair
- 68 Whom nothing could divide.
- Critical Apparatus69And ye, who rather than resign
- 70 Your matrimonial plan
- 71Were not afraid to plow the brine
- 72 In company with Man,
- pg 199Critical Apparatus73For whose lean country much disdain
- 74 We English often show,
- 75Yet from a richer nothing gain
- 76 But wantonness and woe,
- Critical Apparatus77Be it your fortune, year by year,
- 78 The same ressource to prove,
- 79And may ye, sometimes landing here,
- 80 Instruct us how to love!
Editor’s NoteEditor’s Note*A Tale
*This tale is founded on an article of intelligence which the Author found in the Buckinghamshire herald for Saturday June 1. 1793. and which was as follows—
Glasgow May 23.
In a block, or pully, near the head of a mast of a gabert now lying at the Broomielaw, there is a chaffinch's nest and four eggs. The nest was built while the vessel lay at Greenock, and was followed hither by both birds. Though the block is occasionally lowered for the inspection of the curious, the birds have not forsaken the nest. The cock, however, visits the nest but seldom, while the hen never leaves it but when she descends to the hulk for food.
Critical Apparatus
1–7 June 1793.
copy-text: O. Collated: E (John Johnson's hand). First printed by Hayley, 1803, ii. 299–302.
Editor’s Note
Written between the appearance of the newspaper item on 1 June and Cowper's letter to John Johnson of 7 June in which he announces this new composition.
Cowper's draft (O) is written on a single sheet of paper, folded to make four pages. Title and ll. 1–28 are on p. 1; ll. 29–54 are on p. 2, with a partially erased and wholly illegible deleted stanza between ll. 48 and 49. The remainder of the poem appears on p. 3, and Cowper's explanatory note on p. 4. But the present p. 3 is not the original p. 3, but a half-sheet pasted over the original p. 3. This half-sheet has been detached, and it is possible to follow in detail the composition of the last third of the poem. The MS. is numbered 'No. 33' in John Johnson's hand. Hayley seems to have printed the poem from O, but he made a number of small changes, and introduced further changes in later editions, all tending towards greater smoothness. The text in Johnson, 1815, follows that of Hayley's 1812 edition of the Life, but introduces one new reading (l. 15: 'would have built' for 'only wish'd').
At the head of the original p. 3 stand ll. 55–6, just as they appear in the final version. Cowper at first followed these with what became, after some revision, ll. 65–8, 69–72, and 76–80, and there ended his poem. Then, deciding that the conclusion should return to the desert nature of Scotland and contrast with England, he added the first version of the final ll. 73–6. Then, perhaps feeling the transition from narrative to conclusion to be too abrupt, he added the first versions of ll. 57–60 and 61–4. Having done this, and indicated with carets and cue-figures the order of the stanzas, he wrote everything out fair on what was to be the new p. 3. Finally, he rewrote ll. 57–64 on the new p. 3.
Critical Apparatus
1 Scotland's realm, where trees] altered from Scotland, where [the deleted] trees O
realm] realms E
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7 false ones are] [illegible] deleted O
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9 Scotland's realm] altered from Scotland [then deleted] O
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10 hist'ry] altered from history O
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25 ship?] ship! E
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26 them] a deleted O
Editor’s Note
l. 40. Bents. Reedlike grasses; cf. The Task, v. 22 and n.
Editor’s Note
l. 41. Four iv'ry eggs. Chaffinch's eggs are most commonly 'pale purplish-grey suffused with soft clouds of pale rufous', or blue-green with reddish and brown markings; white eggs are extremely rare (D. A. Bannerman, The Birds of the British Isles, Edinburgh, 1953, i. 218–19).
Critical Apparatus
following 48 in O is an illegible deleted stanza
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49 ashore] the land deleted O; the shore E
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50 winged] travlin deleted O
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55–80 written on a half-sheet pasted over earlier version, which follows; line numbers in brackets relate to final version; see Commentary
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[55–6]
- The billows and the blasts defied,
- And cheer'd her with a song.
Critical Apparatus
[57–60]
- To mariners humane as brave
- The passengers afford
- More glee than if they plow'd the wave
- With king and queen on board.
Critical Apparatus
57–60]
- For mariners humane as brave
- The passengers afford
- More glee than if they [plowed deleted] skimm'd the wave
- With king and queen on board, deleted O
Critical Apparatus
[61–4]
- For [[?sailor] folk deleted] mariners deal much in signs,
- And from a chance so new
- Some good to happen each divines—
- And may his hope be true!
Critical Apparatus
61] [illegible] for [illegible] [forth ?] in signs deleted O
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63] Some good to happen each divines deleted O
Critical Apparatus
64 his hopes be true] [his deleted] that [illegible] deleted O
Critical Apparatus
[65–8]
- Hail honour'd land! [too lean and bare deleted] a desart where
- [Thy feather'd mates to deleted] Not even birds can hide,
- Yet parent of this loving pair
- Whom nothing could divide!
Critical Apparatus
[69–72]
- And ye, who[m in these strains of mine deleted] rather than resign
- [I praise the best I can deleted] Your matrimonial plan,
- [Who have not fear'd deleted] to plow the brine
- In company with Man!
Critical Apparatus
[73–6]
- For whose lean country much disdain
- We English often show,
- Yet [nought deleted] from [greater wealth deleted] a richer nought obtain
- But [wickedness deleted] wantonness and woe,
Critical Apparatus
[77–80]
- [Still ever with the vernal year deleted] Be it your fortune year by year
- The same [exper'ment deleted] resource to prove,
- And [may ye over caret] sometimes [kindly deleted] landing [even deleted] here
- Instruct us how to Love.
[four horizontal lines to mark conclusion]
Editor’s Note
First composed in the day or two before 18 June 1793, when a copy was sent in a letter to Rose (Ya), and later revised. The MS. of the revised version was sold at Sotheby's, 23 April 1923, and has since dropped out of sight. It was used by Milford (in his 1926 revision). N. C. Hannay's transcript of this MS., which is identical to Milford's text, adds that it is endorsed in a much later hand: 'Written by the Poet Cowper, about the year 1793.—Given to Mrs. Howard of Corby, by Lady Throckmorton, July the 29th 1823.' The Lady Throckmorton of 1823 was the Mrs. Courtenay ('Catharina') of 1793, so it seems that Cowper presented to his friends at Weston Hall this copy of a sonnet conformable to their liberal opinions which could not be presented to a wider public.
Richard Phillips (1767–1840) was born in London, the son of a Leicester farmer. In 1788 he moved to Leicester, where, after unsuccessful attempts at running a 'commercial academy' and a hosiery shop, he set up in 1790 as a bookseller and vendor of patent medicines (a not uncommon combination at the time). In 1792 he started the Leicester Herald, as an organ of advanced political views. He was imprisoned in January 1793 on the evidence of a paid informer, for selling Tom Paine's Rights of Man; but he was allowed to continue his paper from the Leicester Jail. (The Jail at this time was kept by Daniel Lambert (1770–1809), the celebrated fat man.) In 1795 a fire destroyed Phillips's printing office; he moved to London, and opened a bookseller's business in St. Paul's Churchyard, a few doors away from Joseph Johnson. He started the Monthly Magazine in 1796. He served as a Sheriff of London in 1807–8, and was knighted in 1808. He published chiefly schoolbooks, manuals, and the like. He was a lifelong vegetarian, and died on 2 April 1840. See notes above on 'The Distressed Travellers' and 'The Poplar Field' for his continuing interest in Cowper's poetry.
Phillips first wrote to Cowper on 12 June 1793. His letter, now at Yale, suggests that Cowper should write a song or sonnet in his favour, perhaps something that could be sung in the streets. Cowper sent him a 'civil negative' on 14 June. Phillips, undeterred, wrote a second letter, including copies of the Leicester Herald, with details of his case. This moved Cowper to write the sonnet, sent to Samuel Rose on 18 June, with a request for advice. Rose's advice, relayed to Phillips on 23 June, was negative; a poem would not help Phillips, and might hurt Cowper.
