Ashley MS 4407

'A Channel Passage and Other Poems'. 'Burns: An Ode'; 1895. Fair copy, with revisions, written on one side only of five large quarto leaves of blue wove paper (ff. 3-7). No watermark. The MS. is entitled 'Burns' in Swinburne's hand, and signed at the end 'Algernon Charles Swinburne'. The third and fifth leaves ff. 5 and 7 are also entitled 'Burns' by him. Opposite l. 66 is the autograph date 'Nov. 8. 95'.

The leaves are numbered 1-5; '2' and '4' were written after the other numbers, and do not appear to be autograph. '3' has been altered from '2', while '5' has been written over erased [?'3']. This, together with the titles, seems to suggest that stanzas 5-8 (f. 4) and 13-16 (f. 6) were added later. The last line on f. 4, l. 48, is written over a deleted inverted part line, apparently an early version of l. 1. Stanza 5 has been cancelled in pencil, and the pencil note 'Dele' added by another hand. This stanza was omitted in the Nineteenth Century. The final text found in the MS. is identical with that printed on pp. 106-112. The poem was first published in the Nineteenth Century for Feb. 1896.

Bound up with the MS. is a copy of Wise's pirated pamphlet (ff. 1, 2, 8-11), as follows: ―

Printed pamphlet: Robert Burns. / A Poem. / Algernon Charles Swinburne. / Edinburgh: Printed for the Members of the Burns / Centenary Cub: 1896. No imprint.

Collation: Demy octavo (199 x 120); unsigned, [?16]; 6 leaves; pp. 1-5, 6-11, 12.

Contents: p. 1 Robert Burns. p. 2 blank. p. 3 title. p. 4 blank. p. 5 dropped title Robert Burns. and text. pp. 6-11 text. p. 12 blank.

Running title: Robert Burns. on pp. 6-11.

Paper: cream wove unwatermarked.

Binding: missing.

Notes: The text of the pamphlet follows that of the Nineteenth Century, except that the pamphlet omits two commas. This copy has been broken up, and the leaves inlaid in quarto leaves, thus destroying the evidence as to the gathering or gatherings. The pamphlet is a piracy (see John Carter and Graham Pollard, An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets, 1934, p. 290, and William B. Todd, ed., Thomas J. Wise Centenary Studies, 1959, p. 106). The type used in the pamphlet appears to be Carter and Pollard's fount (G). Other copies of the pamphlet are Ashley Library Nos. 4405 and 4406 in the Department of Printed Books.

Large quarto; ff. i+11.

Poetry ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: A Channel Passage and Other Poems by Algernon Charles Swinburne: 1904: Autogr. drafts and fair copies of poems included in.

includes:

• ff. 1, 2, 8-11 Poetry ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Thomas James Wise, book collector: Pirated printed pamphlet of A. C. Swinburne's 'Burns: An Ode', entitled 'Robert Burns. A poem.' by Thomas James Wise: 1896.
• ff. 3-7 Poetry ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Poem, 'Burns : An Ode', by Algernon Charles Swinburne: 1895: Autogr. fair copy.