But expiation, will I wander on--
A Man by pain and thought compelled to live,
Yet loathing life--till anger is appeased
In Heaven, and Mercy gives me leave to die.

* * * * *

In June 1797 Coleridge wrote to his friend Cottle:

"W. has written a tragedy himself. I speak with heart-felt sincerity,
and, I think, unblinded judgment, when I tell you that I feel myself a
little man by his side, and yet I do not think myself a less man than
I formerly thought myself. His drama is absolutely wonderful. You know
I do not commonly speak in such abrupt and unmingled phrases, and
therefore will the more readily believe me. There are in the piece
those profound touches of the human heart which I find three or four
times in the 'Robbers' of Schiller, and often in Shakspeare; but in W.
there are no inequalities."

On August 6, 1800, Charles Lamb wrote to Coleridge:

"I would pay five-and-forty thousand carriages to read W.'s tragedy,
of which I have heard so much and seen so little." Shortly afterwards,
August 26, he wrote to Coleridge: "I have a sort of a recollection
that somebody, I think _you_, promised me a sight of Wordsworth's
tragedy. I shall be very glad of it just now, for I have got Manning
with me, and should like to read it _with him_. But this, I confess,
is a refinement. Under any circumstances, alone, in Cold-Bath Prison,
or in the desert island, just when Prospero and his crew had set off,
with Caliban in a cage, to Milan, it would be a treat to me to read
that play. Manning has read it, so has Lloyd, and all Lloyd's family;
but I could not get him to betray his trust by giving me a sight of
it. Lloyd is sadly deficient in some of those virtuous vices."--Ed.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1845.

... female ... 1842.]

[Variant 2:

1845.

Ha! ... 1842.]

[Variant 3:

1849.

With whom you parted? 1842.]

[Variant 4:

1845.

... o'er ... 1842.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: He doubtless refers to the lines (Act iii. l. 405) "Action
is transitory--a step, a blow," etc., which followed the Dedication of
'The White Doe of Rylstone' in the edition of 1836.--Ed.]

[Footnote B: Note prefixed to the edition of