Versioning Wordsworth's "Nutting" from Manuscript to Modern Publication
MS Diplomatic Transcriptions
While collating all of the printed publications of "Nutting" proved to be challenging, nothing compared to the time and energy spent transcribing the manuscript copies of the poem; particularly those in the poet's hand. I will add the succeeding diplomatic transcriptions as time becomes available. In the meantime, I've listed the manuscripts of record and I've also given an example of a transcription with its digitized manuscript-counterpart using DCMS 15.10 (one of the only full manuscript copies of the poem that includes a good number of lines which never made it into print). Check back regularly for additions to this page!
Collated Manuscripts in Order of Creation:
​
*DCMS stands for Dove Cottage Manuscript.
DCMS 15.10
Date 1798–1799
Notes In William Wordsworth's hand. The version in this MS. includes various revisions, and the introductory poem. Composed 1798; transcribed between December 1798 and April 1799.
(DCMS 15 is also known as “The Christabel Notebook.”)
DCMS 16.25
Date 1798–1799
In the hand of Dorothy Wordsworth. Work towards ‘Nutting’ that ends in mid-sentence before leaf 83, which is a stub.
​
DCMS 19.7
Date 1798–1799
In William Wordsworth's hand. Lines towards the draft of ‘Nutting’ in DCMS 15 and 16.
Leaves 79v-89v. of MS JJ/DCMS 19 (“The Goslar Notebook”)
​
DCMS 24.1
Date 1798–1800
Contains introductory poem and lines 1-14 of ‘Nutting’. Fair copy by Mary Hutchinson, with revisions by William Wordsworth. Original version composed between October and December 1798, revisions and additions made between 1799 and 1800; transcribed sometime between April 1799 and June 1800.
​
Letter to STC from Goslar
Dated December 14 or 21, 1798. Contains early draft versions of two 'Lucy' poems by William Wordsworth with the first lines 'She dwelt among the untrodden ways...' and 'Strange fits of passion have I known:...' (cf. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, 5 volumes, ed. E. de Selincourt, II, 29, 30). Also the latter part of ‘Nutting’ and parts of the 1799 'Prelude' (The Prelude 1798-99, edited by Stephen Parrish): the Skating Scene (150-185) and Boat-stealing Scene (81-129). No. 105 in The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, 1787-1805, ed. E. de Selincourt, revised by Chester L. Shaver.
