ABSTRACT
Date and publication. The poem was probably written and presented to Lady Castlemaine in 1663, when D .’s first play The Wild Gallant was performed at court, perhaps through her influence (see ‘Prologue and Epilogue to The Wild Gallant’ and nn). The MSS which say that the poem was occasioned by her help in getting the play printed (see note on the title) must be wrong, because the play was not printed until 1669, and these verses were known in London literary circles in 1664, when they are mentioned in The Session of the Poets (see PO A S i 331; but that edition’s dating o f the Session to 1668 has been challenged by Gillian Brown in R E C T R xiii (1974) 19-26, who argues convincingly for a date o f 1664). The text in EP describes the occasion as ‘Her incouraging his first Play’ . The poem was first printed in John Bulteel’s A New Collection of Poems and Songs (1674), and was circulating in MS in the early 1670s: it survives in BodL MSS Eng. Poet, e 4 (transcribed 1672; siglum: ‘E ’) and Top. Oxon. e 202 (‘ 7”); BL MS Burney 390 (‘B ’); Nott ingham UL MS Portland PwV 30 (‘P ’); and Society o f Antiquaries MS 330 (‘ 4^’). It was subsequently printed in E P (1693) in a revised text. The two printed texts and the first four o f the five MSS are collated and discussed by Paul Hammond in PBS A lxxviii (1984) 81-90. He argues that 1674 and the MSS preserve the text o f the poem as it was first written, and that this original text can be reconstructed by following those readings where (i) 1674 and M SS agree against 1693, or (ii) at least one witness from among 1674 and MSS agrees with 1693. The best witness to the original text turns out to be P (A, not collated by Hammond, is close to E). Since the poem is an occasional piece which was originally made public in manuscript, this edition recon structs the text which belongs to that occasion by following P, emending it at 11. 26, 32, 39, 43, 47, 48, 50 and 51, where other witnesses seem closer to the original text. The revisions which D. made for 1693 are recorded in the notes to 11. 6, 10, 35, 37-8, 40, 51, 52 and 55-8. There is an element o f doubt about the original readings at 11. 47 and 51. D .’s revisions, made some thirty years after the poem was first written, generally smooth out awkward phrasing and remove some embarrassing hyperbole. The textual notes given here record only this edition’s departures from P, and D .’s revisions in 1693 to the original text.
