The missing E on page 65 indicates that pages in the first printing have been removed, a point that is verified further when one notes the irregular layout, typography, and page numbering for “The Nightingale.” The removal and substitute of a poem while the volume was in press demonstrates the fluid nature of the publication and even the printing process. The two poets made several changes to the composition of the book while it was in press, with the most significant alteration being the replacement of “Lewti” with “The Nightingale.” There is physical evidence that “The Nightingale” was printed and added to Lyrical Ballads at a later date by the absence of printer’s mark E from page 65 where it should appear (the 1798 SFU Lyrical Ballads is printed in octavo, with printer’s marks appearing every 16 pages, or 8 leaves, starting on page 17 with B). William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge articulated specific requirements for the book’s visual presentation, and evidence from their correspondence with Cottle suggests that they closely superintended its printing. The binding of our specific edition, however, seems to have been done later, likely in the mid-nineteenth century, as the stamp on the inside of the front cover states: “bound for George Rutland Newcastle-On-Tyne,” a bookseller active during this later period. Joseph Cottle printed the book during the summer of 1798 in Bristol it was published in London on Octo(the title page in SFU’s copy bears the Arch imprint). For example, we have surmised that the Lloyd family produced the paper for our edition, since the watermark on various pages in the volume reads “LLOYD 1795.” The Lloyd family’s mill was located in in Flaxley, near Bristol, where the book was printed (Harris and Angel 31). This research has allowed us to establish a timeline for the compilation of our edition of Lyrical Ballads, from the production of the paper to the final binding for George Rutland.
We have detailed our findings under specific headings to show the various stages in the creation and circulation of the book, along with historical and authorial influences on the compilation.
The Descriptive Bibliography section of this site explores various bibliographic features of the Lyrical Ballads. Our research into the copy of the 1798 London edition of Lyrical Ballads held by Special Collections at Simon Fraser University seeks to analyze the material aspects of this rare book.
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