ABSTRACT
Wordsworth, Peter Bell (1819); British Critic, 2nd Series, XI (June 1819), 584–603. The reference in the first sentence is, apparently, to the positive review of Lyrical Ballads in the British Critic for October 1799. But the reviewer of Peter Bell, whether or not he wrote that early notice (and that seems unlikely), is the same who reviewed The Excursion (see pp. 585–586). The critic lacks the sense of the ridiculous necessary to appreciate Wordsworth’s humor, but he thrives on Wordsworth’s high seriousness.
