Thomson's Winter : a Reproduction of the Original Edition. With
Introduction by W. Willis, Q.C. (W. H. Bartlett. ls. net.) —Mr. Willis is a collector of editions of Thomson, and is probably unrivalled in his knowledge of the poet, who, indeed, has few readers nowadays. Mr. Willis is severe on the later biographers who have reproduced some gossip which might have been more profitably suffered to perish,—the story of the poet eating the peaches off the wall because he was too lazy to pluck them. The only doubt is whether it was worth while to deny the idle stories. The real interest of the volume lies in the contrast between the first text and that which received Thomson's final corrections. The poem is more than doubled in length, being expanded from 405 lines to 1,069 in the edition before us. The total number of the Four Seasons grew from 3,902 to 5,423, a middle term being fotind in the "Subscription Edition" of 1730, which
contained 4,353. The verbal corrections may fairly be said to be for the better. No one can doubt but that "Congenial Horrors, hail ! " is better than "Wished, wintry, Horrors, hail !" if either is good. And some of the additions are of value, The really charming lines about the redbreast who— "Hopping o'er the floor,
Eyes all the smiling family askance, And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is,"
were an afterthought. But we must own that Thomson does not please when he is compared with the finer taste and keener observation of Tennyson. We can hardly wish success to Mr. Willis in his desire to "increase the study, by our young men and women, of the pure and noble writings of Thomson." His place in the "British poets" is probably secure, but he must be content to remain unread, even when he rises to such heights as his paraphrase of "Consider the Lilies" :—
"Observe the rising lily's snowy grace, Observe the various vegetable race."
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