[Autobiographical Fragment]

Internal evidence suggests that the material contained in this manuscript fragment was intended to introduce the first of the ‘Lake Reminiscences’, ‘William Wordsworth’, Tait’s (January 1839) (see above, p. 40–65). The fragment opens in such a way as to suggest that it was written as a bridging passage between the ‘Sketches of Life and Manners; from the Autobiography of an English Opium-Eater’ and the new auto/biographical sequence, ‘Lake Reminiscences’. De Quincey refers in the manuscript to his ‘literary experience’, which had, since February 1837, been the main subject of the ‘Sketches’, and which was to be the focus of the ‘Reminiscences’. He mentions that the Oxford phase of his literary life has been ‘regularly sketched’ and that he has made ‘partial inroads’ into his time in the Lakes whilst writing of Lamb and Hannah More. It is likely that these comments refer to ‘Sketches’ published between February–August 1835 (see Vol. 10) and April–September 1838 and to an earlier essay, ‘Mrs Hannah More’, in Tait’s, December 1833 (see Vols 10 and 9). He then goes on to talk of his acquaintance with Wordsworth in terms which link the piece closely with the essays on Wordsworth in the ‘Lake Reminiscences’. The manuscript ends with a phrase which bears resemblances to the first sentence of the published version of ‘William Wordsworth’ (January 1839).