The text used is of course the copyright text, which has remained unaltered, I believe, since 1884. The changes made up to that time are noted where they occur, and are also printed in a list at the end of the book. Two of them are important. In the fourth edition, 1851, section LIX., O Sorrow, wilt thou live with me, appeared for the first time. In 1872 section XXXIX., Old warder of these buried bones, was added. Readers who use one of the first three editions, or again an edition later than the third and earlier than 1872, must modify my references accordingly; but they will find it simpler to buy the present text for sixpence.
The purpose of this book is strictly limited. My main object is to be of use to such readers as care to study In Memoriam closely, by showing the bearing of the sections on one another, and by dealing with many of the difficulties of interpretation which I have encountered in my own reading of the poem, in conversation, in teaching,[1] and in books on the subject. The quotations of parallel passages are sometimes meant to serve this latter purpose, sometimes merely to gratify literary
- ↑ The book had its origin in lectures given in 1884 at University College, Liverpool.
