Ashley MS 1866, A1866, 1867, 1868, A1873, 5261

'Bothwell': a verse tragedy by A. C. Swinburne; [1868]-[1874]. Autograph drafts, and trial printings with autograph corrections and revisions. Included are a trial printing of Act I and the first half of Act II, Scene I, and fragments of a revise, the draft of the first two scenes of Act I from which the earlier of the trial printings was set up, a draft of the dedicatory sonnet to Victor Hugo, an autograph synopsis of Act V, Scene III, and a letter from Frederick Locker to Swinburne concerning the trial printing. The first three items reveal that Swinburne did not, as T. J. Wise claims in his Bibliography of Swinburne, 1919, pp. 205-209, completely rewrite the first act, but that the final version as found in the First Edition grew out of the MS. version by a process of addition, deletion and revision which can be traced in the intermediate stages. Ashley Library Catalogue, vi, pp. 91-93, 106-107. In chronological order.