ABSTRACT
These lines are roughly drafted in ink on the top half of f. 24r rev. in Nbk 10. Forman (Huntington Nbks ii 110) took them to be ‘a rejected sketch for’ the Sonnet: Lift not the painted veil (no. 173). It may be so: the rhyme-scheme of ll. 1–4 occurs in both the sestet and the octave of the sonnet—which, like the fragment, warns against the dangers of contemplating directly the desolating reality that lies behind the deceptive appearances of things. The association offers no firm basis for determining a date of composition for the fragment, however, as the sonnet itself cannot be accurately dated with confidence. Textual variations in the MSS and early printed versions indicate that S. revised it over a fairly lengthy period and commentators have differed in assigning a date to the first draft within the range summer 1818–late 1820: see headnote to no. 173; BSM xviii 22–3, 281; MYRS v pp. xxii–iv; Reiman (2002) 327. As for the fragment, judging solely from its position in Nbk 10, late 1819 would be a reasonable inference. In proximity to the draft are: (on one side) drafts for the Dedication to The Cenci (no. 209; August/September 1819), for MA (no. 231; mid-September) and for A daughter, mother and a grandmother (no. 242; late October); and (on the other) drafts for the final five paragraphs of the Preface to PU (mid-October—mid-December). Though such evidence is not in itself conclusive, a date of November—December 1819 would be consistent with this MS environment. Likely sources for the image of the veil as it appears here and in Lift not the painted veil are given in the headnote to the latter.
