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Melville@200

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Front matter

Front board

Front pastedown

Front free endpaper

Front free endpaper verso

Middle leaf] institutional pencil inscription:
"Spec Coll.
Amer.
1839.1 77-2196".

Frontispiece recto

Frontispiece (annotated)

Bottom left corner] pencil annotation:
"Born about 1770.
French R 1789."

Commentary

Frontispiece (annotated)

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In dating the frontispiece, Melville calculated Wordsworth's age at the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Title with clipping

Clipping

Outside margin] collector's or bookseller's pencil inscription:
"This copy of Wordsworth, belonged to Herman Melville, the author".

Commentary

Clipping

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Based on the volume's price, this publisher's advertisement is for the Dana Estes & Co. edition of White-Jacket (1900).

Clipping verso

Title (autographed)

Top right margin] pencil autograph lost to trimming:
"[?H.Melville.]"
1-2] Collector's or bookseller's pencil inscription:
"(Autograph!)".

Printer's imprint (inscribed)

Upper leaf] pencil inscriptions:
"'A profound, a sagatious, a harmonious,
a most interminable proser.'—Edinburgh Rev"
"— Witty, and of that kind of wit which is not
without truth; but it leaves unassailable the excellence
of nearly all the earlier Poems, the fruit of
W.'s virgin inspiration, using that word in
its antique meaning."
Lower leaf] pencil inscription:
"Pacific Ocean, Sep. 14^th 1860
5^o 60" N. L."
Pencil inscription:
"Gulf of Mexico Nov 6^th 1860
Steamer 'North Star'".

Commentary

Printer's imprint (inscribed)

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Melville misattributes this characterization of Wordsworth as "an interminable proser" to the Edinburgh Review, perhaps conflating it with Francis Jeffrey's criticisms of Wordsworth in that journal (see Melville's comment on Jeffrey below, 379). The passage quoted is from William C. Roscoe's review of the Life and Poems of the Rev. George Crabbe (London: John Murray, 1853), first printed in the National Review, January 1859 (No. xv., p. 28), and later reprinted in Littell's Living Age, 26 February, 1859 (Vol. 60. Issue 770). (See Sealts No. 327.2 for a surviving number of Littell's Living Age inscribed "Capt Melville 'Meteor' 1860").

As shown in this image, Melville's inscription includes the following revisions:

Line 6: that word in] that ~~wod~~ word in

Line 10: Mexico Nov. 6^th] Mexico <Oct.> Nov. 6^th

Editor's Preface (pp. iii-iv)

[iii]

Dedication Pages (pp. v-viii)

Preface (pp. ix-xvi)

Contents (pp. xvii-xxiv)

[xvii] (marked)

1:12] pencil line.
1:16] pencil line.
1:17] pencil line.
1:18] pencil line.
1:30] pencil question mark.
1:32] pencil line.
1:40] pencil line.
1:46] pencil line.
2:4] pencil checkmark.
2:12] pencil question mark.
2:15] pencil checkmark.
2:16] pencil line.
2:23] pencil line.
2:28] pencil line.
2:29] pencil line.
2:38] pencil line.
2:39] pencil checkmark at right margin cropped from trimming.
2:40] pencil line.
2:42] pencil line.
2:43] pencil x.

xviii (marked and annotated)

1:2] pencil line.
1:10] pencil line.
1:13] pencil line.
1:14] pencil line.
1:16] pencil question mark.
1:17] pencil annotation at left margin cropped from trimming:
"[Daf]fodills".
1:18] pencil line.
1:19] pencil question mark.
1:20] pencil question mark.
1:25] pencil question mark.
1:28] pencil line.
1:33] pencil question mark and pencil checkmark.
1:34] pencil line.
1:43] pencil checkmark.
1:47-49] red pencil marks and blue pencil double cross-checks superimposed over a pencil x.
1:51] pencil checkmark.
2:13-14] pencil x.
2:31] pencil checkmark.
2:32] pencil checkmark in the right margin struck through by a diagonal line.

xix (marked)

2:4] pencil cross-checks cropped from trimming.

Commentary

xix (marked)

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The cropped cross-checks at 2:4 may have been triple cross-checks. On page 202, Melville marked the title of "Yarrow Unvisited" with triple cross-checks.

xx (marked)

1:26-27] pencil checkmark.

xxi

xxii

xxiii (marked)

1:10-12] pencil line canceled in pencil.
1:15-17] pencil line.
1:25-26] pencil line.
1:31] pencil question mark.
1:32] pencil question mark.
1:33-34] pencil line.
1:37] pencil line.
1:50] pencil line.
2:16] pencil checkmark in right margin.
2:19] pencil x.
2:47] pencil lines at interior and right margins.
2:48] pencil question mark.
2:50] pencil lines at interior and right margins.
2:51] pencil question mark.

xxiv

Poems of Childhood (pp. 25-38)

Unmarked pages 25-38

Bottom left margin] unattributed ink inscription.

Juvenile Pieces (pp. 39-56)

Unmarked pages 39-56

Poems Founded on the Affections (pp. 57-106)

Unmarked pages 57-86

087 (marked and annotated)

2:48-50] pencil score and x.
Bottom margin] pencil x and annotation:
"Very fine in its emblematic meaning."

Unmarked pages 88-106

2.43] pencil stray mark.

106

Poems of the Fancy (pp. 107-126)

Unmarked pages 107-114

1:22] pencil checkmark.

Unmarked pages 116-126

2.13-14] pencil stray mark.
2.48-50] pencil stray mark.

Poems of the Imagination (pp. 127-178)

Unmarked pages 127-137

2:13-14] pencil stray mark.
2:31-36] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 139-140

139

140

141 (marked and annotated)

1:43] pencil checkmark.
2:38-39] pencil x and underlines.
Bottom left margin] pencil x and annotation cropped from trimming:
"'Let observation with extensive view
Survey mankind from China to Peru".
Bottom right margin] pencil annotation cropped from trimming:
"Wordsworth's just
[cri]ticism on Johnson's
[?lin]es curiously
[app]ly to his
[o]wn".

Commentary

141 (marked and annotated)

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For the partial first word of line 3, Thomas Heffernan conjectures "lapses" for "lines" (Heffernan 343).Heffernan identifies Melville's source for Wordsworth's commentary on the opening couplet of Samuel Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes" as William Hazlitt's essay on Wordsworth in The Spirit of the Age (1825).

142 (marked and annotated)

Top margin] pencil circled tick and annotation lost from trimming.
2:23] pencil x.
2:24] pencil circled tick.
Bottom margin] pencil x and annotation cropped from trimming:
"This line must have been suggested by the "Antinous"
—or a cast
[bronze?] of it [.] It is [. . . ]".

Commentary

142 (marked and annotated)

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Vestiges of pencil inscription along the top edge of this trimmed leaf are all that remains of an annotation keyed, in all probability, to the line at 2:24 with a corresponding pencil tick. Line 1 of the bottom annotation ends at "cast" with a guideline drawn to line 2, which is cropped from trimming and continued on the following page 143. For the conjectural word "bronze," Heffernan provides "bust" based on similarity in phrasing between Melville's comment and a passage in G. S. Hilliard's Six Months in Italy (Heffernan 341-342).

143 (marked and annotated)

1:34-36] pencil brace.
1:43-49] pencil score.
2:1-4] pencil scores at interior and right margins.
Bottom margin] pencil annotation continued from 142 cropped from trimming:
"[. . .] preeminently Greek, & could not have been
spontaneous to the Northern
[imagination]".

Unmarked pages 144-146

1:1-7] pencil score.
1:8-14] pencil arced score.
2:31-32] pencil checkmark.

148 (marked)

1:40-41] pencil score.
2:4-5] pencil stray mark.

149 (marked and annotated)

Top margin] pencil annotation and stray marks cropped from trimming:
". . . since original [?was published]
in L.B."
1:3-11] pencil score.
1:32] stray pencil mark.
Stray pencil marks at top right margin.
2:36] pencil line.

Commentary

149 (marked and annotated)

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Though lost to trimming of the top margin, the conjectural reading "was published" is here advanced for content immediately preceding Melville's "in L. [B]."—certainly a reference to Lyrical Ballads, in which the present poem first appeared in 1798.

150

151 (marked)

1:4-5] stray pencil marks.
1:5-6] pencil line.

152 (marked)

1:34-36] pencil diagonal score.

153

154 (marked)

Pencil mark cropped from trimming at top left of page
1:4-19] pencil arced score.
1:10-11] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 155-156

155

156

157 (marked)

2:53-54] pencil enclosure.

Unmarked pages 158-159

158

159

160 (marked and annotated)

1:38-43] pencil score and x.
Bottom margin] pencil annotation:
"This is beautiful & touching poetry; but the truth is as
dreary as the
poetry is sweet. —This sister went mad."

Commentary

160 (marked and annotated)

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Melville's knowledge of Wordsworth's sister Dorothy could have been derived from any number of contemporary biographical sources, including Harriet Martineau's essay "Lights of the English Lake District" (1861).

Unmarked pages 161-162

161

162

163 (marked)

2:27-30] pencil diagonal score.

164 (marked)

1:37-40] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 165-168

1:6-15] pencil score.
1:21-25] pencil score.

170

171 (marked)

1:16-20] pencil score.
2:3] pencil underline.

172

173 (marked)

1:16-19] pencil x and score.
1:46-49] pencil checkmark.
2:32-35] pencil stray marks.

174

175 (marked)

2:14-18] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 176-178

176

177

178

Miscellaneous Sonnets (pp. 179-196)

179

180 (marked)

1:6-21] pencil arced score.

Unmarked pages 181-185

186 (marked and annotated)

2:11-16] pencil enclosure and x.
2:11-16] erased pencil x and annotation:
"Wordsworth should be held
partly responsible for Haydon's
suicide, for he encouraged him
in a career which
necessarily
ended
there."

Commentary

186 (marked and annotated)

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Melville's knowledge of Wordsworth's influence on Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) could have been derived from multiple sources. He purchased a copy of Haydon's autobiography Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon (Sealts No. 262) from his publisher Harper and Brothers on 7 April 1854.

(enhanced image)

Unmarked pages 187-188

187

188

189 (marked)

1:26-31] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 190-196

Memorials of a Tour in Scotland, 1803 (pp. 197-206)

Unmarked pages 197-198

197

198

199 (marked)

1:42] pencil triple cross-checks.
2:17-20] pencil score.

200

201 (marked)

2:44-45] pencil line.

202 (marked)

1:33] pencil triple cross-checks.
2:38-40] pencil enclosure.

Unmarked pages 203-206

Memorials of a Tour in Scotland, 1814 (pp. 207-210)

Unmarked pages 207-210

Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty (pp. 211-229)

Unmarked pages 211-212

211

212

213 (marked)

1:35] pencil underline.

Unmarked pages 214-229

Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820 (pp. 230-244)

Unmarked pages 230-244

The River Duddon (pp. 245-251)

Unmarked pages 245-251

Yarrow Revisited, and Other Poems (pp. 252-258)

Unmarked pages 252-258

252

253

2:32-33] pencil stray mark.

Sonnets Composed During a Tour of Scotland, 1833 (pp. 259-269)

259 (marked)

2:29-34] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 260-261

260

261

262 (marked and annotated)

1:47-48] pencil x.
Bottom margin] pencil annotation:
"This sonnet contains a fine thought; but it is preposterously
& irreligiously censorious upon the anonymous person
referred to".

Unmarked pages 263-269

The White Doe of Rylstone (pp. 270-288)

270 (annotated)

Top margin] pencil annotation lost to trimming.

271 (marked)

2:4] pencil underline and checkmark.

Unmarked pages 272-275

272

2.24-25] pencil stray mark.

273

1.24-26] pencil stray mark.

274

275

276 (marked)

1:12-13] pencil score.
1:20-21] pencil score.
1:32-33] pencil score.
2:18-20] pencil arced scores in interior and right margins.

Unmarked pages 277-283

1:24] pencil checkmark.

285 (marked)

2:50-51] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 286-288

286

287

288

Ecclesiastical Sketches (pp. 289-310)

Unmarked pages 289-296

1:7-9] pencil score or checkmark.

Unmarked pages 298-301

2:10] pencil double cross-checks.

Unmarked pages 303-310

Notes to Poems of the Imagination (pp. 311-324)

Unmarked pages 311-323

1:45-48] pencil checkmark.

Poems on the Naming of Places (pp. 325-334)

Unmarked pages 325-334

Poems of Sentiment and Reflection (pp. 335-374)

Unmarked pages 335-337

335

[336]

337

338 (marked and annotated)

2:48] pencil checkmark.
2:51-53] pencil arced score and x.
Bottom margin] pencil annotation cropped from trimming:
"'Keep true to the dream of thy youth'
Schiller".

Commentary

338 (marked and annotated)

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The phrase Melville quotes is derived from Friedrich Schiller's play Don Carlos. In his copy of Mme de Stael-Holstein's Germany (Sealts No. 487), Melville checked and underlined Stael-Holstein's commentary on this phrase (1.277.18-19). According to Melville's granddaughter Eleanor Melville Metcalf (Herman Melville: Cycle and Epicycle 284), in old age Melville kept a slightly altered version, "Keep true to the dreams of thy youth," mounted on an interior wall of his writing desk.

339 (marked)

1:12-13] pencil score.
1:23] pencil underline.
1:36-37] pencil score.
1:50-51] pencil underlines.
2:6-7] pencil checkmark.

2:7] pencil underline.

340

341 (marked)

2:40-43] pencil line or stray mark.

342 (marked)

1:41-44] pencil arced score.

Unmarked pages 343-348

1:32-34] pencil checkmark.

350

351 (marked)

2:26-28] pencil arced score.

Unmarked pages 352-357

1:22-52] pencil score.
2:2-49] pencil score.

359

360 (marked)

2:10-13] pencil double score.

361 (marked)

1:20-23] pencil enclosure.
2:3-6] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 362-371

1:18-29] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 373-374

373

[374]

Poems Referring to Old Age (pp. 375-380)

Unmarked pages 375-377

2:1-2] pencil underlines.

379 (marked and annotated)

Top margin] pencil annotation cropped from trimming:
"[. . .] picture could have been drawn!"
1:1] pencil x.
1:2-5] pencil circled x and enclosure.
1:51] pencil underline and double underline.
Bottom margin] pencil circled x and annotation:
"Had this opening stanza been omitted Jeffrey's criticism might
[?have been suffered]".

Commentary

379 (marked and annotated)

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In line 2, Heffernan provides the conjectural words "have been suffered," the sense being that Melville's comment concluded "Jeffrey's criticism might have been suffered [to stand]" (Heffernan, 348). For the final word, "softened" should also be considered. Melville may simply be observing that the Francis Jeffrey's (1773-1850) excoriations of the Lake School poets might have been provoked by Wordsworth's disdain for "small critics."

380 (marked)

1:26-27] pencil checkmark.
1:45-46] pencil score.

Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems (pp. 381-388)

Unmarked pages 381-387

1:51-56] pencil arced score.
2:1-2] pencil score.

389 (lacking)

As reported in the documentary note for this edition, the leaf for page 389 and 390 of this volume is missing. Damage to the hinges at this point of the volume indicates the page and its unprinted verso were lost or removed rather than omitted in production.

390 (lacking)

The Excursion (pp. 391-482)

391

392 (marked and annotated)

12-14] pencil underlines.
20] pencil annotation:
"44 years old."

393 (marked)

1:1] pencil underline.
1:17] pencil underline.

394 (marked)

1:21-29] pencil double score.
2:17-19] pencil score.

395

396 (marked)

1:12-13] pencil checkmark.
1:15-16 pencil score.
1:18-20] pencil score.
2:1-4] pencil enclosure.

Unmarked pages 397-399

2:44-45] pencil checkmark.

Unmarked pages 401-402

401

402

403 (marked)

2:55] pencil underline.

404 (marked)

26-29] pencil checkmark.

Unmarked pages 405-413

1:37-49] pencil score.

415 (marked and annotated)

2:55-56] pencil x.
Bottom margin] pencil x and annotation:
"'Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly plea[se']".

Commentary

415 (marked and annotated)

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Melville cites lines from Spenser's The Fairie Queene (Bk.I, Canto IX, 40) that he also marked in the edition of Spenser's Poetical Works (Sealts No. 483a) he had with him during his 1860 voyage aboard The Meteor (2.014.19-20). In this same set, Melville made a second comment on Wordsworth's indebtedness to Spenser, regarding his borrowing from stanza 10 of "Vergil's Gnat" (6.225).

Unmarked pages 416-420

421 (marked and annotated)

1:31-32] pencil underlines.
1:55] pencil underline.
2:15] pencil underline.
2:21-22] pencil underlines, x, and annotation:
"186[?]
&
186[?]".

Commentary

421 (marked and annotated)

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The partial dates in this annotation are likely 1861 and 1865, the start and end dates of the American Civil War.

Unmarked pages 422-423

422

423

424 (marked)

1:10-18] pencil score.
2:22-52] pencil score.

425 (marked)

1:6-8] pencil enclosure.

Unmarked pages 426-431

1:7-12] pencil score.
2:50-54] pencil double score.

Unmarked pages 433-438

2:19-56] pencil broken score.
2:43-45] pencil score.

440 (marked)

1:1-5] pencil score.
1:13-17] pencil score.
1:33-37] pencil score.
1:49-53] pencil diagonal score.
2:49-52] pencil arced score.

441 (marked)

1:10] pencil underline.

442 (marked)

2:14-24] pencil score.

443 (marked)

1:38-49] pencil score.

444

445 (marked)

2:43] pencil underline or stray mark.

446 (marked)

1:29] pencil checkmark.
1:42] pencil checkmark.

Commentary

446 (marked)

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The placement of these checkmarks seem to indicate Melville's intention to bracket the section from line 29 to 42.

Unmarked pages 447-449

2:42-46] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 451-458

1:37-43] pencil double score.

460

461 (marked)

2:23-24] pencil diagonal score.
2:24] pencil underline.

462 (marked)

2:2-3] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 463-477

2:30-32] pencil diagonal score or stray mark.

479 (annotated)

Top margin] pencil inscription:
"110".

Commentary

479 (annotated)

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One hundred and ten is approximately the number of verse lines accommodated by the two column text layout for each page of the "Excursion."

480

481 (marked)

2:24-53] pencil wavy score.

482

Appendix (pp. 483-552)

Unmarked pages 483-484

483

[484]

485 (marked)

1:30-40] pencil arced score.
2:19-21] pencil checkmark cropped from trimming.

486 (marked)

1:55-57] pencil score.
2:1-5] pencil score.

487 (marked)

1:4-6] pencil checkmark.
2:1-13] pencil score.
2:8-13] pencil triple score cropped from trimming.
2:18-56] pencil wavy score.

488 (marked)

1:46-47] pencil stray mark.
1:51-56] pencil score.
2:17-19] pencil arced score.

489 (marked)

2:5-7] pencil checkmark.

490

491 (marked)

1:19-24] pencil score.

492

2:51-53] pencil stray mark.

493 (marked)

2:1-3] pencil double score cropped from trimming.

494 (marked)

2:33-55] pencil score.
2:34-36] pencil stray mark.

495 (marked)

1:1-5] pencil score.
2:13-19] pencil score.

Commentary

495 (marked)

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The pencil score at 1:1-5 has been made bold by repeated inscription for emphasis.

Unmarked pages 496-497

496

497

498 (marked)

1:11-13] pencil score.

499 (marked)

2:51-53] pencil score.

500 (marked)

1:49-57] pencil score.

Unmarked pages 501-550

Bottom left corner] pencil stray mark.

1:19-26] pencil stray mark.

1:39] pencil line.

Back matter

Rear free endpaper verso

Rear pastedown

Rear board

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