11-24-80 284603-5 PREFACE THE chief want hitherto felt by students of the poetry of Thomson has been a variorum edition of The Seasons. This I have endeavoured to supply in the present edition. The first edition of Winter appeared in March, 1726, and consisted of only 405 lines. The second, published in the following June, contained many variations, and increased the original text by 58 lines. I give a reprint of the first Winter, accompanying it with the variations of the second. Three other editions prior to 1730 were reprints of the second. Summer was published in 1727; and consisted of 1,146 lines. A second edition, which appeared in the same year, was a reprint. Spring came out in 1728, and consisted of 1,082 lines it was followed in 1729 by a reprint. Autumn appeared in 1730 as part of the first edition of the collected Seasons, and consisted of 1,269 lines. The Hymn, numbering 121 lines, appeared at the same time. But in this first edition of the whole Seasons, which was issued in two forms, quarto and octavo, Winter was augmented to 787 lines (781 in the quarto), Summer to 1,206, Spring to 1,087; and there were numerous changes besides in the previous texts which are not indicated by mere increment in the number of lines. Between 1730 and 1738 no change was made in |