ABSTRACT
Mary published the first two of these uncompleted ottava rima stanzas under the present title but without date in 1824 and included them among the Poems Written in 1820 in 1839. In neither edition is there any indication that S. left the poem as an unfinished fragment, and it has appeared in later editions as a whole poem. Rossetti's editions of 1870 and 1878 are an exception, grouping the first two stanzas with other fragments as well as conjecturally (and accurately) emending the 1824/ 1839 reading ‘passed’ in l. 8 to pass. Mary's text derives from a fair draft made by S. in pencil on f. 8r–8v of Nbk 12, which is based on a draft in ink on the recto and verso of the immediately preceding leaf. That leaf has been torn from the nbk—perhaps to facilitate transcribing the fair draft by removing the necessity of turning to and from the earlier one—but the beginnings and ends of lines that remain on the stub show clearly that the missing leaf carried a draft of the present text. The recto of the stub shows no trace of the missing sixth line of the first stanza. Neither the fair draft nor Mary's transcription (of the first two stanzas only) in Mary Copybk 1 has a title, so the title An Allegory is probably hers.
