PREFACE In this volume is given a fuller collection of the poetical writings of Thomas Hood than has hitherto been published; many as have been the editions they have varied in the way in which pieces have been overlooked or omitted from considerations of space or carelessness. Besides bringing together all that is available from earlier collections, the Editor has recovered from the periodicals for which Hood wrote a few poems which have hitherto escaped notice; in such cases, however, he has only taken pieces that were indubitably Hood's-resisting the temptation to swell their numbers by others for which the only evidence for ascription is internal. In addition he has had the good fortune to obtain half a dozen new poems from manuscript—one of these, it is true, had been given before, but only in an incomplete form. A few words should be said about the arrangement of the poems in this edition, an arrangement which has been the result of careful consideration consequent upon the inconsistencies met with in other collections. It has for sixty years been the custom to divide Hood's poetical writings into 'comic' and 'serious', or into 'serious poems' and ' poems of wit and humour'. This was done in Moxon's editions shortly after Hood's death, it was done by Samuel Lucas twenty years later, and the arbitrary differentiation was maintained by Canon Ainger in the two volumes of selections which he issued in the Eversley Series in 1897. That it is an arbitrary form of classification may be seen by comparing some of those earlier editions, in which we find that one editor includes poems in the 'serious' section which another allots to the comic', and vice versa. Lucas, to cite but one example, puts 'Miss Kilmansegg' in the latter, while Ainger puts it in the former. Certain of Hood's poems are definitely comic and others are definitely serious in both thought and treatment, but many of them while deeply serious in intent are presented with all the machinery of wit and humour at his command. It has seemed therefore best to break away from this traditional and unsatisfactory method of classification, and to give the poems in a certain chronological order. That order is as follows: those poems which the author issued in collected forms are given first, and are given in the order of publication of the various volumes, ranging from the Odes and Addresses to Great People of 1825 to the Whimsicalities of 1844. These are followed by the miscellaneous poems published from time to time, but which were not reprinted in any collection during his lifetime; these pieces are arranged chronologically in the order of their publication or of their writing, so far as that can be ascertained with certainty, and range from July 1821, when the poet joined the staff of the London Magazine, to the time when he lay on his deathbed. After these are given the few poems the original appearance of which has not been traced, those which are now printed from manuscript for the first time, and those published posthumously, including the poetical play of Lamia, which is probably an early work. In the supplementary pages devoted to Juvenile work is given for the first time in any collection of Hood's poems his youthful romance in verse 'The Bandit', and in this section there should be the few existing 'Guide to Dundee' written in the manner of passages from a boyish Anstey's New Bath Guide, and portions of two addresses written for a Literary Society to which he belonged-those passages however, first published in the revised edition of The Memorials of Thomas Hood by his son and daughter, are still copyright. In the appendix are given those portions of the Odes and Addresses to Great People which were written by John Hamilton Reynolds and another piece by the same writer. The texts followed in preparing these poems have been wherever possible those as printed by the poet himself; where he reprinted pieces with any alterations the latter text is given with the changes noted. The only alterations made have been in correcting occasional obvious errors of the press. In the 'Notes' an attempt has been made to give elucidatory information which many readers might need and which they would not find in ordinary works of reference. In conclusion very cordial and sincere thanks are due, and are hereby rendered, to Mr. Alex. Elliot for his ready permission to include in this collection The Bandit', first given to the world in 1885 in his very interesting volume Hood in Scotland; to Mr. John Fulleylove, R.I., for his kindness in permitting the use of manuscript poems of Hood's included among the papers of the late Townley Green, R.I.; and to Mr. W. A. Longmore, nephew of Mrs. Hood's, for allowing reference to his copies of the first edition of the Odes and Addresses to Great People in which Hood and Reynolds had respectively initialled their own contributions. W. J. |