Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NOTES ON LETTERS Wordsworth's Stanzas Written 1n My Pocket-copy Of Thomson's ' Castle Of Indolence ' " Page 180. The suggestion that William Calvert was " the noticeable man with large grey eyes " was withdrawn by Dowden in 1892 in his note on the poem (Poetical Works of Wordsworth, Vol. I. page 383) : " Wordsworth describes his own character in the first four stanzas, and describes Coleridge's countenance and character in the last four." Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, Sunday, gth May 1802, runs: " After tea he wrote two stanzas in the manner of Thomson's ' Castle of Indolence'"; and on Tuesday 11th May: " William finished the stanzas about C. and himself." [From the context no one but Coleridge can be meant by C.]. Page 185. " The Tail Kenn is a beautiful incredible fairy-king of a saint." Talcend lit. " adze-head," a nickname of St Patrick ; referring to the strange tonsure of the ancient Irish monks. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Limits of space forbid here detailed biographical chronology. Perhaps, for guidance of readers, it may be well to indicate slightly the course of Edward Dowden's life. His birth was in Cork, May 3rd 1843. His childhood under the eye of grave, noble. God-fearing parents, Spartan in their stern strict simplicity of life: munificent both in charities and in the education of their children. Edward, the youngest, being delicate, was much under his mother's care. Three years his senior was John, the only living brother, whose life-long relation with Edward has its record in letters here published. There were two sisters: Margaret, six years older than Edward, and Anna, the eldest of the family. He was educated at home mostly by private tutors—a good deal by himself in the long hours in which he browsed to his heart's content amongst the books in ...