Notes on Editorial Decisions, Vol. 1
Written by Steven Amarnick
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Volume 1 (Chapters 1-26) of The Duke’s Children
The first edition (FE) of The Duke’s Children was published in 1880 by Chapman and Hall in three volumes. In 1879-80 the novel was published in serial form (weekly installments) by All the Year Round (ATYR).
As I also wrote in Editorial Policies, I use the collective “we” to reflect the countless hours of discussion (most of them with Robert F. Wiseman in all phases of the project; many with Susan Lowell Humphreys in earlier phases, and Michael Williamson in later phases) that led to the policies. All the final policies, however, were mine. The same is true for the final decisions that grew out of those policies. For more about the genesis of the project and the various phases, see my Introduction to the Folio Society edition, elsewhere on this website.
The main purpose of the following pages is to explain any decisions that were complicated or difficult or not entirely obvious. Moreover, we use this space to note some fascinating tidbits about the manuscript (MS), such as how Trollope originally used the name Lady Mabel Burgundy before almost immediately changing his mind and switching to Lady Mabel Grex. We note errors in the FE that have never been corrected until now, and we also draw attention to some of the egregious errors that the publisher made in the FE but that were silently corrected in later versions of the novel.
We have made our own silent corrections, mostly involving punctuation, in moving from the Folio Society edition to the Everyman’s Library edition, and now to the Oxford University Press (OUP) edition. When it seemed important, we also explain, below, changes in our thinking that caused us to emend the text.
When we say that Trollope made a change in proofs, we are using shorthand: we don’t know exactly when in the publishing process the changes occurred or whether Trollope himself made them. And when we refer to ways that the FE is different from the MS, we are in many cases referring to changes that had already been made for ATYR. For our purposes, however, it is enough to point to the FE.
Passages from The Duke’s Children in italics are keyed to the OUP edition. When we say that a word “has always been published” erroneously, we refer specifically to previous OUP editions, though in nearly all cases the same errors show up in the Trollope Society, Penguin, and other versions.
Chapter 1
Then they had gone abroad, taking with them their three children.
In the opening pages of the manuscript, Trollope had originally given the Duke four children, with a Lord Maurice added to the family. He changed his mind within a few days, and eliminated references to the fourth child.
The other boy was to go to Cambridge
Originally, when there were three boys, the sentence apparently read The two other boys were to go, one to Oxford, another to Cambridge (or, possibly, one to Oxford and one to Cambridge, with the word and indicated by an ampersand). Though Trollope used a straight line to cut the part about Oxford, the words do not fit with the reduced family size and thus we did not restore them.
The Duke had gone to work at his travels with a full determination to create for himself occupation out of a new kind of life.
Trollope wrote firm determination and create for himself enjoyment in the MS instead. The second change is surely purposeful; it is more characteristic of the Duke to think of occupation rather than enjoyment even when he is travelling, and there is no mistaking at all that the word in the MS is enjoyment. On the other hand, given that full and fair both begin with f and are the same length, it is possible that this change was a compositor error. Still, full seems slightly preferable. One can imagine the Duke being fully, but not quite firmly, determined in this situation. It is hard to believe that Trollope would have slowed down just to change firm to full, but once he had already taken a look at enjoyment/occupation, he might have gone ahead with the other change too.
When she left town the Duchess was complaining of cold, sore throat, and debility.
MS: When she left London, but there are several others uses of London nearby, hence the change to town in proofs.
he had hardly made for himself a single intimate friend in the world,—except that one friend who had now passed away from him
There is a comma-dash in the MS, but only a dash in the FE. Trollope had cut in the world for space. The quick dash, as opposed to the comma-dash, makes a bit more sense with those words deleted. With in the world restored, we also restore the comma-dash.
There were his three children, the youngest of whom was now nineteen, and they surely were links!
Trollope wrote nearly nineteen in the MS, and this has always been printed. Elsewhere in Chapter 1, we are told twice that Mary is already nineteen. This is an obvious discrepancy, one that Trollope would have likely noticed (especially since it comes in the first few pages of the novel), yet he allowed it to be printed in ATYR and in Chapman & Hall—and we reluctantly printed it in the Folio and Everyman editions too, deeming it too aggressive to fix something that Trollope did not care to change himself. What we did not take into account is that Trollope originally wrote the sentence when there were to be four children, and that the child who was nearly nineteen would likely have been Lord Maurice. Since he never intended, when first writing the book, for Mary to be nearly nineteen, we have removed the word for the Oxford edition.
In all their joys and in all their troubles, in all their desires and all their disappointments, they had ever gone to their mother.
The word in before all their troubles is not in the MS and could have been inserted by mistake, as there is only one in not two in the next part of the sentence. Yet the problem, if it is a problem, is not egregious enough to overrule the FE. It just may be possible that Trollope liked the rhythm of the sentence better with in all their troubles.
The father disliked the spirit almost worse than the results
MS: hated the spirit, but Trollope might have felt that hated was a bit too strong.
But she was beautiful, young, and as full of life and energy as her mother had been.
Trollope had inserted in the MS and between beautiful and young, but this was to replace the cut of and as full of life and energy as her mother had been.
it had been almost a thing of course that Mrs. Finn should go with her
We reject the FE comma (it is not in the MS) after of course. The comma disrupts the flow of the sentence and makes it slightly harder to understand.
On the day of the funeral a dozen relatives came, Pallisers and M‘Cluskies
Though this appears as M‘Closkies in the FE, our spelling is the most typical variant in the Palliser series. See Can You Forgive Her? (Chapters 18, 29, and 76) and The Prime Minister (Chapter 37), as well as MacCluskie in The Small House at Allington. Trollope’s handwriting is also ambiguous; he may well have written M‘Cluskies with the u. What is not ambiguous: Trollope’s “reversed comma,” not an apostrophe, in the spelling. This was sometimes used in the nineteenth century to replace what would otherwise be a small c in a name. It appears in both ATYR and the FE.
There had been just a pressure of the hand, just a glance of compassion, just some murmur of deep sorrow,—but there had been no real speech between them.
This could easily be read as murmurs, but if we look elsewhere (MS page 12, line 19) the word her has the same kind of extra loop with the r. The singular murmur is more suitable, aligning with the singular pressure and glance in the sentence.
but now the tailor by his funereal art had added some deeper darkness of blackness to his appearance
This was misread by the compositor as funeral art, but fixed in previous Oxford editions. Notably, the same mistake does not appear in All the Year Round. Most of the errors in the FE first occur in ATYR—making it clear that the compositor was looking not only at Trollope’s messy manuscript but at ATYR when setting the words.
All that was common to him; but now it was so much exaggerated that he who was not yet fifty might have been taken to be over sixty.
The FE colon after him is unusual and does not appear in the MS, which has the semicolon instead. When Trollope’s MS punctuation is transformed into something highly idiosyncratic, we follow Trollope instead.
From a word or two that was said by Lady Mary, Mrs. Finn learned that the father and his eldest son had not parted altogether on pleasant terms with each other.
This was written when there were still three sons, but we keep eldest nonetheless, especially since eldest son (not elder son) appears at the beginning of Chapter 8, long after Lord Maurice had been eliminated, and also in Chapter 14 and elsewhere.
“There will be, probably there have been, some among your friends who have regretted the great intimacy which chance produced between me and my lost friend.”
We leave out the MS comma after friends in this restrictive clause. A comma here would be especially clunky after the two previous commas in the sentence; it does not appear in the FE.
“Who would come? Who is there that I could possibly ask? You will not stay.”
The MS has a question mark rather than period after stay; the FE has a period. We think it is reasonable to assume that Trollope himself might have made the change to a period. Three questions in a row might have seemed slightly awkward; plus, since the Duke is already a bit angry with Mrs. Finn, “You will not stay” as a declaration, not question, comes across as something of an accusation.
This he said with a faint attempt at a most sorry smile.
In this restored sentence, most sorry is not absolutely certain. There was some temptation to leave it out altogether, as we prefer the shorter sentence. However, Trollope’s strokes make a reasonably strong case for most sorry, and we felt it would be too aggressive to go against his (apparent) wishes here.
At last it was decided that Mrs. Finn should discuss the matter with Lady Mary herself, and that she should go to this discussion prepared to recommend a short visit to Lady Cantrip.
This was cut in the published version, perhaps by mistake; there are other places in the book where sentences that appeared between two larger cuts were missed by the compositor. (See Chapter 3, the sentence beginning It was very grievous to him that a Palliser.) Even if Trollope decided that he did not want this sentence to end the chapter in the shortened version, there is no reason to leave it out now that the rest of the passage has been restored.
Chapter 2
She had not in any of her letters connected the two names together.
Trollope had added never in the MS after cutting not in any of her letters. With the restored words, not fits comfortably.
Why should not the girl love the man if he were lovable?
This was mistakenly published with have the man rather than love the man, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. It is slightly possible that Trollope saw the use of love and loved elsewhere nearby and decided to make the change to avoid so much repetition. Yet if so he could have played with those other usages rather than damaging the nifty use of repetition in this sentence.
“I never heard her speak a word of Lady Cantrip that I can remember.”
It is possible that a word replaced the cut of that I can remember, in which case the restored sentence would read “I never heard her speak of Lady Cantrip that I can remember.” We believe, however, that a word was added before the cut, as it provides some relevant tartness to Mary’s remark: Lady Cantrip has been so inconsequential in her life, that even if the Duchess did speak a word about her, it’s a word that Mary has forgotten.
“He feels that it would not be well that you should be here without the companionship of some lady.”
MS: would not be better. In the previous sentence Lady Mary says, “I am sure it would be better that I should stay with him,” and the original repetition of better was likely intentional. However, Mrs. Finn could come across as somewhat mocking, somewhat condescending in tone, when she repeats Mary’s better. And since that does not quite fit her character, Trollope might have decided that well was better than better.
She entertained, too, a conviction in regard to herself, that hard words and hard judgments were to be expected from the world
The FE has a comma after too but not before. The MS is ambiguous; what could be a comma before too looks more like a speck. In any case, the sentence reads too awkwardly without both commas.
But the girl’s manner, and the girl’s speech about her own mother, overcame her.
The MS correctly has a comma after manner though the FE leaves it out. Previous Oxford editions had made the correction.
“Then, my dear, your father ought to know it,” said Mrs. Finn.
MS: said Mrs. Finn at once, which is perhaps preferable as it adds force to Mrs. Finn’s reaction. Still, there is no reason to overrule the FE. The phrase at once turns up a number of times in this chapter (though not near this particular sentence), and Trollope might have wanted to avoid yet another usage.
Mrs. Finn could not but remember that the friend she had lost was not, among women, the one best able to give a girl good counsel in such a crisis, but of that of course she could say nothing to the daughter.
The shortened sentence, with but of that of course she could say nothing to the daughter deleted, begins a new paragraph in the FE, but we follow the MS instead. It is likely that the cut of the last part of the sentence made a difference, as these words emphasize how Mrs. Finn immediately recognizes that she must hold her tongue. To help indicate that immediacy, there was no paragraph break.
“He is a gentleman, highly educated, very clever, of a very old family,—older I believe a great deal than papa’s.”
It is possible that Trollope wrote good rather than great, but the strokes point more to the latter.
“Of course he must be told,—at last.”
It appears that Trollope had a comma-dash before at last that he crossed out with a wavy line—which he often did when cutting for space, since a straight line over a dash would not be visible. In this case, a straight line would have sufficed, as the compositor would not have seen the original dash when the sentence now ended with told. Still, it is reasonable to think that Trollope taught himself to use the wavy line for dashes and that he did not stop to think about whether or not he really needed one here. The comma-dash makes sense in this sentence, as Mary wishes to emphasize how Frank should be told eventually…but not now. Thus, we restore it.
And it did certainly seem to Mrs. Finn as though the mother had assented to this imprudent concealment.
MS: this improper concealment. Though in most cases we assume a compositor error when the FE replacement looks so similar to the MS word, it is also possible that Trollope mixed up some words in the heat of composition and later wanted to change them. Near the end of Chapter 5, the Duke thinks about how the Duchess had been the most imprudent of women. It makes sense, here, to think of her concealment as imprudent rather than improper, though either word would fit.
“You do not mean to say that you will tell?” said the girl, horrified at the idea of such treachery.
There is a comma, rather than a question mark, in the MS after tell, but a question mark in the FE. An exclamation point would have been fine too, but a mere comma does not convey Mary’s heightened emotion.
“The Duke certainly ought to know,—at once!”
The FE change to “The Duke certainly ought to know at once” (with no exclamation point) is perhaps better, as Mrs. Finn is just mouthing the words while she figures out what to do. However, there is not a strong enough reason to overturn our rule about MS punctuation for dialogue. Mrs. Finn is fastidious about her conscience, and she may feel impelled to respond with urgency to Mary even though she is still uncertain about what to do.
Under Mrs. Finn’s directions she wrote a note to her lover, which Mrs. Finn saw and then undertook to send together with a letter from herself, to Mr. Tregear’s address at London.
The MS comma after saw must have confused the compositor, or even Trollope reading the sentence in 1878. The FE keeps that comma and adds it and a comma after send. We restore the more fluid original sentence merely by omitting the comma after saw.
“When he is at home he lives at Polwenning where the Tregears have lived from before the Conquest.”
MS: he lives at Polwhinney. We change the spelling to match later usage in the novel.
Chapter 3
had been carried on without any assistance from Tregear
MS: had been carried on altogether without any assistance from Tregear. It might have been better in proofs to omit any rather than altogether; still, what was printed in the FE improves upon the MS.
Before the Duchess had dreamed what might take place between this young man and her daughter she had been urgent in her congratulations to her son as to the possession of such a friend.
Trollope’s comma in the middle of the sentence after daughter is welcome but was left out of the FE. The sentence still reads smoothly enough, so we follow the FE, as we ordinarily do for narration punctuation.
Young Tregear had his own ideas about the politics of the day, and they were ideas with which she sympathised, though they were antagonistic to the politics of her life.
The word then was cut from proofs before sympathised. Trollope was perhaps afraid of suggesting a recent shift in the Duchess’s opinions—how she then sympathised but did not previously do so.
And Frank was the favourite also with his father, who paid his debts at Oxford with not much grumbling; who was proud of his friendship with a future duke; who did not urge, as he ought to have urged, that vital question of a profession; and who
This semicolon after grumbling is not in the MS or FE (there is a comma instead), but it corresponds with other semicolons in the sentence and is useful to avoid reader confusion. Previous Oxford editions had added it silently.
He was tolerably certain that, should he be able to overcome the parental obstacles which he would no doubt find in his path, money would be forthcoming sufficient for the purposes of matrimonial life.
Trollope wrote He was no doubt tolerably certain that in the MS, and used a straight line to cut no doubt. We assume, however, that this was a regular revision, not a space-saving cut, because no doubt is repeated a few lines down; hence, we do not restore it.
Lord Silverbridge, though he was the weaker of the two and very much subject to the influence of his friend, could on occasion be firm, and he did at first object.
The word who is cut with a straight line before though he, but it doesn’t fit the sentence structure smoothly and was presumably a mistake; we do not restore it. It appears that obstinate was cut with a wavy line, replaced by firm, while enough was cut with a straight line, replaced by and he. Nonetheless, and he is needed in the reconstructed sentence, so we print that rather than enough.
whereas to Lady Mary, down at Matching, there had been nothing over and beyond her love,—except the infinite grief and desolation produced by her mother’s death
The FE prints a plain dash, not a comma-dash, after love. We would not overrule the MS too in this instance, but given that Trollope used a comma-dash, we keep it; the comma-dash is far more typical of Trollope’s style.
He was in truth staying at her own father’s house in Carlton Terrace.
After the cut of the previous sentence, Trollope changed this sentence to Tregear when he received the note from Mrs. Finn was staying at the Duke’s house in Carlton Terrace. With the restoration of that sentence we print the original sentence which followed. Also, in the Folio edition we repeatedly printed Carlton House Terrace instead of Carlton Terrace. In doing so we followed a similar principle that governed our changing Polwhinney to Polwenning in Chapter 2: if we could correct an obvious error with a simple substitution, we would do so. In the case of Carlton Terrace, the obvious error is that there is no such place, whereas there is a Carlton House Terrace. Trollope gives accurate London names in the novel, so why not here too? We came to believe, however, that this was an aggressive mistake on our part, and so we reverted to Carlton Terrace for the Everyman edition. Trollope mentions Carlton Terrace numerous times in the novel, so this isn’t a case where he was inconsistent; and it was not a one-time use of the name that he got wrong. And there are some sentences that become awkward with the addition of House in the name: the one in this chapter, where house is already part of the sentence, or other sentences that become especially bulky with the additional syllable.
The young man was a strong Conservative; and now Silverbridge had declared his purpose of entering the House of Commons, if he did enter it, as one of the Conservative party!
The exclamation point is in the MS but was dropped from the FE. It fits well; we think it possible that the compositor did not see the mark as it was stuck between two loops. It is also possible that, with the cuts, the exclamation point did not seem to fit in as well as it had before, as the outrageousness of Silverbridge’s defection is considerably lessened.
It was very grievous to him that a Palliser, that the future head of the Pallisers, should desert the political creed of the family
This was cut in proofs, but is now restored along with the rest of the passage. It is possible that Trollope did not like the flow of the paragraph with this sentence in the shortened text. More likely, though, the compositor erred by assuming that Trollope meant to cut the entire passage rather than the large chunks before and after this sentence.
That a Tregear should be a Conservative was perhaps natural enough,—at any rate, was not disgraceful
In this case, the compositor might have thought he was following the MS by printing only a dash. However, the comma, though tiny, does seem to be in the MS, and a comma-dash in this sentence would be characteristic of Trollope.
There were those who said that Silverbridge had redeemed himself from contempt,—from that sort of contempt which might be supposed to await a young nobleman who had painted scarlet the residence of the head of his college,—by the very fact of his having chosen such a friend.
The FE has plain dashes, which are entirely uncharacteristic of Trollope; we restore his MS comma-dashes.
“She used to be a great deal with my grandfather.”
Silverbridge is actually talking about his great-uncle. Later in the book, at the beginning of Chapter 62, Lord Chiltern refers to the late Duke of Omnium as Silverbridge’s grandfather, and Silverbridge corrects him. Probably, if he had thought about it and could find it easily, Trollope would have gone back to Chapter 3 and made the correction there too. However, in a novel where Silverbridge matures so much, it is at least slightly possible that whereas he once lazily referred to the old Duke of Omnium—a grandfather figure—as his grandfather, he will now no longer do so. Silverbridge might also have enjoyed the progression of great to grand in this sentence from Chapter 3. Considering all this, we do not change grandfather to great-uncle here.
“Ça va sans dire. Even my mother was afraid to speak to him about it, and I never knew her to be afraid to say anything else to him.”
“Ça va sans dire” was cut in proofs. Did Trollope find it out of character—perhaps too pretentious?—for Silverbridge to speak French here? Or did Trollope forget that he had already established, in the novel’s first paragraph, that Silverbridge and his siblings had perhaps perfected their French while abroad? Or is it even possible that the compositor did not understand the French sentence—especially since the first word looks more like Ç’la than Ça—and, whether intentionally or by mistake, moved on to the next sentence? We think it likely that some kind of error occurred here, and thus are restoring Ça va sans dire.
Chapter 4
But in this affair he knew that very much persistence would be required of him
Although that is in the MS, it was taken out of the FE. However, there is potentially a slight reader stumble without the word (as if there should be commas around he knew), and so we have restored it. Another that later in the paragraph was also taken out in the FE (right before he had done so), but there is no stumble there.
and that then he might go to the Duke as though this love of his had arisen from, or at any rate had been confirmed by, the sweetness of those meetings in London
or at any rate been confirmed by was dropped out of the FE; we put it back. The cut risks giving the impression that Frank was prepared to pretend that he and Mary hadn’t met at all in Italy, or that if they did, there wasn’t even a hint of romance—which would be too much of a lie given the pride he has in his rectitude. It is far better for him to say that he and Mary were drawn to each other in Italy, but that their love did not blossom until London. Is there any explanation, then, for the cut in proofs? It is intriguing that Trollope first wrote, in 1876, that Frank indeed wished to pretend that their love had arisen definitely from the sweetness of those meetings in London. Trollope used a wavy line to change this to had arisen from, or at any rate been confirmed by, the sweetness of those meetings in London. Trollope in 1878 may have had an understanding of Frank’s character that was less fine-tuned than his understanding in 1876, and so he reverted to his initial sense that Frank would construct a more extreme lie. The fact that he had bothered to make an editorial change in 1876 to lessen the lie is significant. Given our strong belief that Trollope knew what he was doing when he originally made the change—that he was far closer to the characters when writing the novel, as opposed to when he was editing it two years later—we restore these missing words.
He would find no other friend so generous, so romantic, so unworldly as the Duchess had been.
There are two cross-outs in the MS before unworldly, which in both cases may be the word unworldly too; Trollope might have had a hard time figuring out what he wanted to do here. If it’s a different word, it seems to have been deleted with a wavy line regardless, though this is a case where the difference between wavy lines and straight lines is hard to decipher.
and that Mrs. Finn had not, as yet, told it to the Duke
The words at any rate before as yet were crossed out with a thick double line, most likely signifying a regular editing change; the sentence reads better with the cut. Also, we keep the MS commas around as yet, despite the FE. The restored words do make a slight difference, as now Frank in the next sentence is to a certain extent justified rather than merely justified. Frank believes that Mrs. Finn will soon speak to the Duke; she is only holding off momentarily, and so she is only Mary’s friend to a certain extent. The commas around as yet emphasize how tentative Frank is about considering Mrs. Finn an ally.
It was therefore incumbent on him now to do his best to win her good graces, and to induce her to believe in him,—as the Duchess had believed.
There is no punctuation at all in the FE before as the Duchess had believed. We include the MS comma-dash, as the longer restored sentence makes that comma-dash more useful. It is worth noting too that Trollope had inserted a comma-dash above the original line after he had first written the sentence—and that the compositor might well have failed to notice.
and Tregear, when he found himself alone in the drawing-room
MS: her drawing-room, which is somewhat preferable because Frank is thinking here about Mrs. Finn’s specific tastes and belongings. This could well be a compositor error. Or, perhaps because of the drawing-room earlier in the paragraph, Trollope felt that it should be referred to the same way later. Especially given the possibility of the latter, we do not believe there is enough basis to overrule the FE.
He told himself that though she certainly was not a young woman, yet she was very pretty.
MS: certainly was deleted, and very pretty was changed to attractive. It is possible that Trollope changed very pretty to attractive merely to save one space. More likely, though, is that once he deleted certainly earlier in the sentence, he found attractive more suitable—the emphasis on how Mrs. Finn was certainly not young calling forth a more pronounced counter-remark, that she was very pretty and not just attractive. Also, this begins a new paragraph in previous Oxford editions, but the break does not appear in either the MS or the FE.
“You have just come up from Matching?” he said.
We use the FE question mark rather than the MS period. Frank is attempting ordinary politeness, and his question is a variation of “how are you?”
“You had been intimate with them, Mr. Tregear?”
Again we use the FE question mark instead of the MS period. A statement rather than a question here by Mrs. Finn would come off as too accusatory. There are missing question marks throughout the MS, but we can see how on certain days, Trollope was more likely to leave them out than others.
“Lady Mary used to ride?”
Again we use the FE question mark rather than the MS period. Mrs. Finn is clearly asking a question here, and Frank answers.
how the boys were astounded by the feeling of their loss
This has always been published with astonished rather than astounded, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. It is easy to see why the compositor wrote astonished. But a careful look leaves no doubt that astounded is the word. Either would do, but astounded more suitably conveys just how shocked they were.
“And I suppose that generally the mother would tell the father.”
MS: “And I suppose that generally the mother would at once tell the father,” which was understandably changed in proofs. Mrs. Finn might expect that the Duchess should have told her husband very soon—perhaps after a day or two—but not necessarily immediately.
She paused for his reply,—but as he said nothing she continued. “Either you must tell the Duke, or she must do so,—or I must do so.”
There is no colon in the MS, but one was added to the FE after continued. This is not characteristic of Trollope’s style; we use his MS period.
“I don’t quite see why,” said Tregear, who had now assumed a tone almost of anger.
FE: “I can’t quite see why,” said Tregear. With the restoration of who had now assumed a tone almost of anger, the word don’t more adequately conveys Frank’s anger, or near anger, than can’t.
“For her sake—whom I suppose you love.”
The MS has a dash, the FE a comma-dash. Trollope from time to time, though not often, uses a plain dash rather than comma-dash in dialogue. It fits here, as it gives a tiny bit more indication that Mrs. Finn’s anger is building too. The plain dash makes it seem as if it has just occurred to her that Frank might love Mary—that he has not convincingly made the case previously. Certainly this is very subtle, but there is little reason to believe that Trollope’s missing comma here is an error.
“I have no sister, as it happens.”
Frank does have a sister, but she doesn’t appear until Chapter 55. There is no way to fix this error without making a radical alteration in Trollope’s dialogue—something we were unwilling to do. For us to make the change would involve too much editorial intrusion, since it’s not a matter of merely replacing one word with another or leaving out a word. Also, one could perhaps argue that Frank does not wish to have a sister at this moment, as he is annoyed by Mrs. Finn’s line of questioning, and so finds it easier to deny having one. Regardless, there is no justification for correcting this part of the text—even if Trollope most likely would have made corrections himself if the problem had been brought to his attention.
But the conference was at last ended by an assertion on his part that he was not afraid of the Duke
In the MS cut that Trollope made to this sentence, he kept at last; however, these two words appear between long cuts both before and after, so it is likely that the compositor missed them. Had it appeared that Trollope cut at last for editorial reasons, we would not restore the words. But the compositor error is consistent with similar errors throughout the novel.
“However—as your father is coming to London I need not go down to Matching.”
Though more frequently Trollope forgot to put in a question mark when he needed one, there are occasions in the MS where a question mark mistakenly appears rather than a period. This is one such example. Frank is clearly telling Silverbridge about his decision, not asking his opinion.
“You don’t mean to say that you were going to Matching?”
The question mark does not appear in the MS or FE, but it is awkward to read the sentence without it. Silverbridge is genuinely surprised, which should be conveyed by a question mark or exclamation point. We choose the former, especially given how many other missing question marks there are in this chapter.
Then Tregear wrote a most chilly note to Mrs. Finn
This has always been published with chilling rather than chilly, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Frank is very cold to Mrs. Finn, but he is not trying to scare her: chilly, not chilling.
Chapter 5
and when they were together there was no feeling of mutual confidence between them
There is some temptation to leave out mutual, which Trollope cut with a straight line, given that between them means the same thing. Yet the phrase mutual confidence between them is not entirely uncommon. Perhaps there’s a subtle distinction: it’s not merely confidence but an extra level of mutual confidence between the two. In any case, we do not see enough justification to override the straight-line cut.
and was advised in the same letter not to endeavour to see her lover on that occasion,—at any rate until after his interview with her father; and then in the second letter she was informed that this interview was to be sought not at Matching but in London
We use the MS, not FE, punctuation in omitting the comma after then. The restored words in the sentence—the comma-dash and the words that follow until the semicolon—create a different rhythm. A pause after then becomes more awkward than it would be otherwise.
From this latter letter there was of course some disappointment, though also some feeling of relief.
The word also is in the MS and ATYR, but somehow was omitted from the FE. The sentence is clearly improved by its inclusion; the word must have dropped out by mistake.
She would not be called on to meet him after the first blow had fallen upon him;—not at once, nor till time and consideration should have restored to him the habitual tenderness of his manner.
Trollope had originally written after the first blow, crossing out after with a straight line and replacing it with just when. This was likely a cutting adjustment, necessitated by the space-saving cut of not at once, as Trollope wanted to convey that Mary would not immediately see her father when he first heard the news. With the restoration of not at once, we print after rather than just when.
She was quite sure that he would disapprove of the thing.
With all the restored sentences, the MS paragraph break is especially useful.
The fact was not announced in the papers with his Lordship’s name, but his father was aware of it
Trollope had first written but his father was aware of the fact, crossing out the fact and replacing it with it. We consider this an editorial rather than space-saving decision, as he had already used the fact at the beginning of the sentence and the repetition in this case sounds clumsy.
“I do not wish you to feel it, nor would you do so when you had had other people around you for a short time.”
The repetition of had had sounds a bit fussy, but the first had seems to have been cut with a straight line and there is not a strong enough reason to leave it out.
“I wish you would be persuaded to go to Lady Cantrip.”
Trollope first wrote “I wish you would make up your mind to go to Lady Cantrip” and used a wavy line to change it to “I wish you would be persuaded to go to Lady Cantrip,” before crossing out the entire sentence with a straight line. Perhaps, in his initial editing, Trollope forgot to change would to the superior could. Still, as we restore the sentence, there is not enough cause to overrule what he did write in the MS.
Frank Tregear was fully possessed of that courage which induces a man who knows that he must be thrown over a precipice to choose the first possible moment for his fall.
We ignore the MS and FE comma before to choose, as it causes slight confusion; which induces a man…to choose should be kept together without a pause.
“If your Grace can spare me a moment, I think you will feel that what I have to say will justify the intrusion.”
We follow the MS here in printing spare me rather than spare, and feel rather than find. The compositor might have thought that me was a wavy-line cross-out or a false start, and he could have misread feel as find. It is easier to believe that the compositor erred than that Trollope tinkered with this sentence in proofs—though it’s a close call.
There was but one idea in his head.
Trollope had added as to what was coming after in his head, but the previous sentence, now restored, conveys this idea.
“Sir,” he said, speaking quite at once, as soon as the door was closed behind him, but still speaking very slowly, looking beautiful as Apollo as he stood upright before his wished-for father-in-law,—“Sir, I have come to you to ask you to give me the hand of your daughter.”
We keep the MS comma-dash, rather than the FE dash. It would not be typical for Trollope to use a plain dash here.
“She! What she?”
“Lady Mary.”
“She think you worthy!”
The MS has an exclamation point after Lady Mary. But the FE period is more suitable, especially with the exclamation point just above and just below. We find it unlikely that Frank would “shout” his response to the Duke at this point—and believe that Trollope felt the same when looking at this sentence in proofs.
This he asked wishing to ascertain whether Lord Silverbridge had disgraced himself by lending his hand to such a disposition of his sister.
This has always been published with added, wishing to ascertain rather than asked wishing to ascertain, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Though added is acceptable, asked fits more smoothly.
He was forced to do now that which he had just declared that he had never done in his life,—driven by the desire of his heart to acquit the wife he had just lost of the terrible imprudence,—worse than imprudence,—of which she was now accused.
In the FE, there are commas around worse than imprudence. There are comma-dashes in the MS, but it’s easy to see how the compositor might have missed them, as the first comes at the beginning of the line and the second is inserted with a caret above the line. It is possible, on the other hand, that Trollope worried about the reader being confused by this pair of dashes after there had been a single usage of dashes earlier in the sentence before driven. Yet we see little chance of such confusion. Comma-dashes rather than commas are entirely characteristic of Trollope’s style in this instance, and they are indeed what he wrote (though he might have left out the second comma; it is hard to tell underneath the caret).
“When I have said that, I do not think there is any more to be said.”
The comma is not in the MS but is useful; otherwise, it might seem to some readers at first that the Duke claims he does not think.
“Never,” said the Duke. “Never. I shall never believe that my daughter’s happiness can be assured by a step which I should regard as disgraceful to her.”
The FE exclamation points after both uses of Never are appropriate, and could well have been added by Trollope, but there is not enough reason to overrule the MS. We are told a page earlier that the Duke is beside himself with emotion and grief. Though he speaks with exclamation points when Frank first comes to him, he is now too stunned to raise his voice in this way as the reality of Mary’s engagement sinks in. Certainly he might raise his voice now, but we think Trollope knew better when he put in periods rather than exclamation points here.
“Nor can the withdrawal of your countenance condemn her before the world, if she does that with herself which any other lady might do and remain a lady.”
There is an exclamation point in the MS, but once again in this chapter we think it unlikely that Frank would “shout”; we follow the FE in using a period instead.
But not on that account was he the less determined to make the young man feel that his paternal opposition would be invincible.
FE: parental opposition. This is a close call, as parental opposition is a more common expression than paternal opposition. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with the latter, and it is what Trollope wrote; plus, there are numerous examples of the compositor mistaking one word for another that looks similar. With all that in mind, we print paternal opposition.
“It is quite impossible, sir. I do not think that I need say anything more.” Then, while Tregear was meditating whether he would make any reply, whether on the whole he had not better submit now
This begins a new paragraph in previous Oxford editions, but not in the MS or FE. Trollope was correct; since this is the Duke continuing to speak, a paragraph break would be confusing, suggesting at first that Tregear was now speaking. Also, in the MS Trollope wrote Then, while Tregear was meditating whether he would say anything more. This change in proofs avoids the repetition of say anything more. Finally, submit is not certain and not ideal. It is possible that Trollope wrote silent and left out the be before it, which would make the passage whether on the whole he had not better be silent now. But submit does work in a way, as Frank submits to the Duke’s desire to end the conversation now.
And now, in this last act of her life, she had allowed herself to be persuaded to give up her daughter by the baneful wiles of this most pernicious woman.
We reject the FE comma after And which is not in the MS and was also silently removed in previous Oxford editions. The commas around now give too much prominence to the word.
and yet now, in that very access of tenderness which her death would be sure to occasion
This has always been published with excess of tenderness rather than access of tenderness, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. The phrase access of tenderness, unfamiliar nowadays, was still in use in Trollope’s time.
he did believe the statement made to him as to her cognisance and encouragement
Cutting for space, Trollope amended this to he did believe Tregear’s statement as to her encouragement. It is tempting to leave in Tregear’s, as Frank is not otherwise mentioned by name in the paragraph. But the statement made to him is fluid in a way that Tregear’s statement made to him is not. We accept, then, that the straight-line cuts were all made for space-saving reasons, and we restore those cuts.
And now she had engaged herself, behind his back, to the younger son of a little country squire!
This has always been published with county squire rather than country squire, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
Chapter 6
It was believed, by those who had made some inquiry into the matter, that the Major had really served a campaign as a volunteer in the Carlist army in the north of Spain
Though it is hard to see in the MS—since Trollope’s replacement for the cut takes up all the available space between the first paragraph and the second in Chapter 6—these words do begin a new paragraph. Also, Trollope used a straight line to cut Tifto as he added the before Major. We consider this an editorial change; the words Major Tifto had appeared in the previous sentence and Trollope probably felt that he didn’t want to repeat the full name so soon. Certainly there are other places in the book where he allowed similar repetitions to stand, but Trollope was inconsistent about what he noticed and didn’t notice in his hasty editing/proofreading.
Soon after his return from Spain, he was chosen as Master of the Runnymede Foxhounds, and was thus enabled to write the letters M.F.H. after his name. The gentlemen who rode with the Runnymede were not very liberal in their terms, and had lately been compelled to change their Master rather more frequently than was good for that quasi-suburban hunt; but now they had fitted themselves well. How he was to hunt the country five days a fortnight, finding servants and horses, and feeding the hounds, for eight hundred pounds a year, no one could understand. But Major Tifto not only undertook to do it, but did it. And he actually succeeded in obtaining for the Runnymede a degree of popularity which for many years previous it had not possessed.
Trollope crossed out a substantial part of the paragraph with straight lines and replaced them with the words above. However, the replacement is as long or longer than the original; surely this was an editorial and not space-saving change.
though no one had ever heard him speak of a brother or a sister or a family friend
Originally Trollope wrote a brother or sister or family friend. He changed this to a brother or a sister or a family friend before cutting a family friend for space. We restore the sentence, then, with all three articles.
Under the mild rules of the club, three would have been necessary to exclude him
FE: Under the mild rule of the club. The plural rules is clear in the MS. We restore it; the club has more than one rule.
He was a well-made little man, and good-looking too for those who like such good looks.
Trollope may have originally written He was a well-made little man—and good-looking too for those who like such good looks. He crossed out and along with too, both of which we restore. What’s uncertain is the dash. If this is indeed a dash, he would ordinarily have crossed it out with a wavy line so as to make the change visible. On the other hand, the supposed dash is fairly dark, perhaps indicating that in this case Trollope did use a straight line. But is it actually a dash? Trollope would have ordinarily used a comma-dash, not a plain dash, in this type of construction. If we were convinced that Trollope had indeed written a dash, we would have printed one—but with a comma before it. Since we are not convinced, we use the FE comma.
He had small, well-trimmed, glossy whiskers, with the best-kept moustache and the best-kept tuft on his chin which were to be seen anywhere.
We follow the MS and not the FE by leaving out a comma after moustache. That comma makes it seem as if only the chin (ungrammatically) were to be seen anywhere.
No doubt, when, on close inspection, you came to look close into his eyes, you could see something of the hand of time.
Trollope crossed out the second close with a straight line. It may well have been a regular edit; on the other hand, he may have originally been attempting to convey an extra level of close inspection by also referring to that second close look. Though we prefer the sentence without the repetition, there is not enough of a reason to disregard the straight-line cut.
yet the paint on his cheeks would not enable him to move with the marvellous elasticity which seemed to belong to all his limbs
MS: alacrity which seemed to belong to all his limbs. In this case, Trollope originally meant elasticity but wrote alacrity instead. In most cases when two words look somewhat alike, the MS is correct and the FE incorrect. Here, though, the change for the FE was a wise one.
At the same time, even when wrong, he could be very positive if he had the flower of his company with him.
This usage of flower is unusual, though it fits in the metaphorical sense (see OED, where Macaulay is cited with the flower of their profession). Though there is room for doubt, it is fairly certain that Trollope indeed wrote flower here.
It was the special pride of his life to be held to be a favourite with the sex. With a certain portion of the sex it was believed that he did prevail. But his desire for glory in that direction knew no bounds, and he would sometimes mention names, and bring himself into trouble.
The words in that direction were inserted with a caret soon after the cut of It was the special pride…he did prevail. Usually this would indicate a replacement for the cut. In this case, however, we find that the words are useful, even with the restored passage; otherwise, readers might be momentarily uncertain about why Trollope suddenly mentions a desire for glory. Thus, we believe Trollope added in that direction before he cut the text.
It was told of him that at one period of his life, when misfortune had almost overcome him, when sorrow had produced prostration
MS: misfortunes, but the change was probably made in proofs to match the singular sorrow and prostration.
But we know that the drunkard, though he hates drunkenness, cannot but drink,—that the gambler cannot keep from the dice, or the opium-taker from his laudanum.
Trollope wrote laudanum opium-taker, but laudanum seems to be cut with a wavy line after the first few letters.
If he had made up his mind to ride Lord Pottlepot’s horse for the Great Leamington handicap
FE: great Leamington handicap. Trollope clearly capitalized Great in the MS, and it seems likely that he intended to refer to the title of the race rather than to its greatness. He could have easily cut out the word and referred to the actual Leamington handicap, or he could have changed Great to another word. Since he kept the word, we believe that it should be capitalized as Trollope originally intended.
This he would do even when there was no possible turn in the betting to be effected by such falsehood.
This has always been published with affected rather than effected, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
No one at any rate grumbled at him because he did so
Trollope apparently wrote at rate rather than at any rate before crossing out the phrase in a space-saving cut.
When a man has perhaps made fifty pounds by using a “straight tip” as to a horse at Newmarket, in doing which he had of course encountered some risk
We follow the MS here and print risk rather than the FE risks. Trollope clearly used the singular, and we see no reason why the plural would be preferable.
Of course he was anxious, when preying upon his acquaintances, to spare those who were really useful friends to him. Now and again he would sell a serviceable animal at a fair price
Trollope used a straight line to cross out really before useful friends and to cross out really before a serviceable animal. We restore only the first really, as we believe Trollope would not have kept both of them had he seen the original sentence in proofs. Unlike with the repetition of close earlier in the chapter, the repetition of really seems too awkward to keep.
He was Master of the Runnymede Hounds; he was partner with the eldest son of a duke in the possession of a colt and of a filly, Prime Minister and Coalition, both of which stood high in the betting, one for the Derby and the other for the Oaks; and he was a member of the Beargarden.
The shortened sentence in the FE uses only commas, no semicolons, but with the restored words the semicolons are useful to keep the reader from stumbling. Trollope supplied one of those semicolons in his original sentence (after the Oaks); we add the semicolon after Runnymede Hounds too.
In addition, Trollope apparently made a straight-line cut and replacement, then changed his mind about some of the replacement and cut that too. First, he edited the sentence to:
He was Master of the Runnymede Hounds, he was partner with the eldest son of a duke in the possession of that magnificent colt the Prime Minister, an animal which at the moment was standing very well in the betting for the Derby, and he was a member of the Beargarden.
He then cut that to:
He was Master of the Runnymede Hounds, he was partner with the eldest son of a duke in the possession of that magnificent colt the Prime Minister, and he was a member of the Beargarden.
We believe that Trollope first cut Coalition for space, but then realized he could save even more space by cutting the reference to betting for the Derby. We restore the original passage. As Silverbridge says in Chapter 17, “We have a horse or two in common.” Coalition is the second horse.
“Perhaps they are a little afraid of you, you know.”
The first you is worked over; it’s possible that Trollope wrote something else, then changed it to you after he cut you know. But we can’t decipher what that word might be, so you, you know remains.
“I’m the worst hand at cards, I suppose, in England.”
There are no commas in the MS, but we add them; otherwise, some readers might potentially stumble as they wonder if the sentence is supposed to read “I’m the worst hand at cards, I suppose in (all of) England.” Our policy is to follow Trollope’s MS punctuation for dialogue, but in cases like this we can readily believe that he himself would have made the change in proofs.
“I know I drop a good deal more than I pick up at the card-table.”
Trollope apparently wrote more than I pick up, up at the card-table, before cutting up at the card-table for space. The second up is awkward and we believe that Trollope would have cut it had he seen it in proofs. Also, while he only cut good for space and left in deal, both words are gone in the FE—rightly so, as a deal more rather than a good deal more is awkward.
But then the young nobleman was quite aware that the Major was a friend for club purposes, and sporting purposes, and not for home use.
Though we prefer the MS punctuation, with no comma before and sporting purposes, there is no reason to go against the FE.
With Lord Silverbridge, to whom it was essentially necessary that he should make himself agreeable at all times, he was somewhat overweighted as it were.
Trollope seems to have written overmated rather than overweighted, but the correction was made for the FE.
With Dolly Longstaffe he felt that he might be quite comfortable,—not, perhaps, quite understanding that gentleman’s character.
MS: not perhaps quite understanding that young gentleman’s character. Since Dolly is not particularly young, it is understandable that the word was taken out in proofs. Also, while Trollope wrote quite twice in the sentence, cutting both for space, we restore both usages; the repetition works in a way that the repetition of really earlier in the chapter does not. In addition, Trollope spelled the name Longestaffe, not Longstaff, in the MS. We choose a third way, Longstaffe—a common spelling in many editions and in many critical works on Trollope, though previous Oxford editions use Longstaff for The Duke’s Children and Longestaffe for The Way We Live Now. We think it possible, even likely, that the change to Longstaff for the FE was made for reasons of space. Even though only two characters were saved each time, the name appears often, so that there are opportunities for those saved spaces to add up and make a difference. We also think it likely that Trollope wanted the (phallic) humor of this bumbling man evoking a long staff. The spelling of Longestaffe, however, makes it more difficult to pronounce the first syllable as long. Longstaffe, we think, is a happy compromise, as we get the right pronunciation and the longer name, though not as long as in the MS.
So as he sipped his whiskey he became confidential—and comfortable.
There is no dash in the FE. However, the MS dash comes at the beginning of a line, making it easier to miss than if it had been in the middle of a line. The dash works, as Trollope is drawing extra attention to just how comfortable Tifto has become. We restore it, then, as we assume that the compositor erred.
Chapter 7
The people of Silverbridge declared that they would prefer to have a Conservative member, as indeed they had had one for the last session.
FE: lower-case conservative. We believe, however, that Trollope is talking about a Conservative party member who would hold conservative political views. Trollope appears to have reconsidered this himself in the MS as he overwrote a small c. Previous Oxford editions have capitalized Conservative.
but they had returned him as part and parcel of the Omnium appanages
This has always been published with appendages rather than appanages, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Trollope uses the word in other works, such as Lady Anna (the appanages of her rank, in Chapter 1) and The Warden (The patronage was a valuable appanage of the bishopric, Chapter 3).
They might send up to Parliament the most antediluvian old Tory they could find in England if they wished, only not his son, not a Palliser as a Tory or Conservative!
The exclamation point is in the MS but not the FE. The passage reads oddly without it, as the Duke is very worked up when he thinks about the situation.
Though he should have to take her away into some furthest corner of the world, he would stamp it out.
This has always been published with further corner of the world, but the MS furthest is more suitable, as the Duke hyperbolically believes at this moment that he would go as far away as possible to prevent Mary from marrying Frank.
He struggled gallantly to acquit the memory of his wife,—or at any rate to make excuse for her. And he found that he could best do so by leaning with the full weight of his mind on the presumed iniquity of Mrs. Finn.
MS: leaning with the whole weight of his mind. It is hard to see why Trollope would object to whole and change it to full. However, the two words do not look alike, thus lessening (though not eliminating; see the example immediately below) the possibility that the compositor made an error. We assume, however, that the change was made intentionally. In addition, Trollope cut, with a straight line, or at any rate to make excuse for her. And he found that he could best do so by leaning, then realized he had cut too much, and so wrote in He could best do so by leaning. In proofs, so was replaced with that. Perhaps Trollope thought the second sentence sounded less abrupt with that instead of so. Regardless, with the restoration of And he found that we replace the second that with so, to avoid the word repetition.
And how should he treat this matter in his coming interview with his son;—or should he make no allusion to it?
FE: or should he make an allusion to it? Trollope had originally written or should he make any allusion to it and crossed out any with a wavy line, replacing it with no. That no is quite clear, so it makes sense to consider the change in proofs to an as a purposeful one. Yet why not then revert to any, which fits better? Or why fuss with no at all? We believe an is the weakest of the three possibilities. Though it didn’t happen often, the compositor sometimes misread even words that are not easily mistaken for other words. We consider this a compositor error, and use no not an.
without regard to any suffering that he might be enduring
FE: without regard to personal suffering. The word personal is a replacement for the cut, and is no longer needed with the restoration of that he might be enduring.
“You are still very young, and I do not suppose that you have thought much about politics.”
Trollope had mistakenly written You are still are very young in the MS. The FE printed You are still young. We believe that in getting rid of the extra are, the compositor erred and omitted the next word, very, as well. The Duke believes that young people should be able to think about politics; those who are very young, however, may perhaps be forgiven. (See Chapter 65, when the Duke extols the virtues of young Lord Buttercup, who is only a few months older than Silverbridge.)
“To his own interests,” said the young man with decision.
This has always been published with the singular interest. Trollope, however, wrote interests, which fits with the Duke’s use of interests twice in the sentence above.
“Therefore a fool ought to be a Conservative. Therefore I’m a Conservative.”
The words a Conservative in the second sentence are cut with a thicker-than-usual line, but this appears to be a smudge and not a wavy-line cross-out. And with the restoration of this entire sentence, we restore Therefore from the previous sentence; it had been changed to Then in proofs. It’s unclear why Trollope would have preferred Then to Therefore after the cuts, but with the restored sentence the repetition of Therefore is effective, as Silverbridge tries to be clever in arguing why he’s a fool.
to threaten him as to money, as to his amusements, as to the general tenor of his life
Trollope did write tenure instead of tenor, and the former has always been printed. Clearly, though, he meant tenor. We make the correction.
To be a Conservative,—to become a Conservative when the path to liberalism was so fairly open,—might be the part of a fool, but could not fairly be imputed as a crime.
Trollope had inserted a comma-dash in the MS after to become a Conservative. With the first four words of the sentence cut for space, the comma-dash no longer fit in the FE, and a comma was used instead. Ordinarily in this situation we would revert to Trollope’s MS punctuation; however, the sentence is easier to follow with the comma-dash moved after open.
This made it worse. It became now still more difficult for him to scold the young man.
Trollope originally wrote This made it worse. This made it made it still more difficult for him to scold the young man. He crossed out This made it made it and replaced it with It became now. Though this was done with a straight line, we consider it to be an editorial, not space-saving, change. Perhaps Trollope was trying to write a sentence beginning with This made it that would effectively repeat This made it from the previous sentence. When he failed, he wrote It became now instead.
“Of course you are aware that I should not meddle in any way.”
In previous Oxford editions, this sentence begins a new paragraph. Yet the MS and FE are superior, as first the Duke thinks, then he speaks, all in one paragraph.
If Silverbridge had been a sinner in this matter, then justice would not require the father to refrain from anger.
Trollope had mistakenly written then would justice not require. We change the word order for clarity in this restored sentence.
When the Duke had got so far as this he paused
MS: When the Duke had got as far as this. The original sentence sounds fine, but Trollope might have objected to the repetition of as, and thus changed it to so. There is certainly no basis to overrule the FE and assume compositor error.
Chapter 8
He wrote to this effect to his agent, Mr. Moreton
We use the MS spelling, Moreton, not the FE spelling, Morton. Trollope is consistent with this spelling throughout the MS, and it is the spelling that is used in published versions of The Prime Minister, the previous Palliser novel. As with the shortening of Dolly Longstaffe’s name (or, actually, Longestaffe in the MS; see our explanation in Chapter 6), the slimmer Morton might have been created to save space.
feeling it to be his duty as a father to do so much for his son
MS: feeling it to be his duty as a father to do as much as that for his son. Trollope probably did not like three uses of as so close to one another; his FE sentence has only one as.
But he was conscious of his own hardness of manner, and was aware that he had never quite succeeded in establishing confidence between himself and his daughter.
MS: quite is crossed out with a double line, which often would indicate an editing rather than space-saving change. On the other hand, there is, in the line below, a thick line, or perhaps a blot, over the word It at the beginning of the sentence (It was a thing for which he had longed…), and obviously that word was not meant to be cut. We restore quite, as it helps to emphasize how the Duke wished to succeed but could never manage to make it happen. Without the word, his lack of success is more absolute, with his hardness of manner highlighted.
Though he was angry with her, how willingly would he take her into his arms and assure her of his forgiveness!
The FE mistakenly creates a new paragraph with these words. Because of the previous words cut for space, it might appear that Though is indented and is beginning a new paragraph. It does not; we ignore the FE break.
But he felt of himself that he would not know how to begin to be tender and caressing and forgiving.
FE: But he knew of himself that he would not know how to begin to be tender and forgiving. In the MS, Trollope had crossed out knew with a wavy line and replaced it with felt. It is possible that he changed his mind again in proofs, and brought back knew, to create a parallel with the repetition of knew and know in the next sentence (He knew that he would not know how not to be stern and hard.) We believe, however, that the progression from felt in the first sentence to knew in the second sentence is effective, as it depicts an extra level of certainty when the Duke considers his inability to be stern and hard. It is notable too that the replacement word felt is very far on the right side of the MS and not immediately above knew. It is possible then that the compositor missed it. Considering all this, we overrule the FE and print felt.
and he really did think that Tregear had told him that that lady had been concerned with the matter from the beginning
Trollope cut really did think with a straight line and replaced it with thought; the word he before really did think/thought might have been added when Trollope was revising in 1876 rather than cutting in 1878. Or he thought might have been a cutting replacement for really did think. Regardless, we restore he, as it makes the sentence easier to read. Without it, some readers might at first stumble and wonder if it is Mrs. Finn who really did think.
Very shortly after he had sat down a message was brought to Lady Mary, saying that her father wished to see her.
The straight line over sat down is especially thick, so our reading is likely but not certain. Trollope probably used sat down as a shorter form of sat down to dinner. He is trying to convey that the Duke ate his flimsy meal very, very quickly.
He not only was alone, but had not even a pamphlet or newspaper in his hand, or a book lying open near him
In the FE, or a book lying open near him is cut. In the line above, the comma after hand looks as if it could be overwritten with a period. Perhaps the compositor saw this and thought that Trollope intended to cut the words following this? Actually, though, we believe the opposite occurred: Trollope originally intended to end with hand, but changed his mind, turning the period into a comma and adding or a book lying open near him. We can think of no plausible editorial reason for him wanting these words out of the proofs, and so are assuming a compositor error.
If it were so, then Tregear must have told the story.
FE: After the cuts, this sentence became Then she knew that Tregear must have told the story. Once again, the compositor mistakenly created a paragraph break, as Then she knew are the first words that remain on the MS page, after the deleted words.
“He came to me in London yesterday, and told me;—oh, Mary, can it be true?”
There seems to be a word after me that we can’t decipher. Yet that word, if it is one, is flat, with no loops other than one at the beginning. It is possible too that this loop was part of a semicolon and that Trollope used a straight line in this case to cross out what was already a straight line. In other words, he may have deleted a semicolon-dash only to change his mind and put the semicolon-dash back in.
As she sat there she resolved that under no pressure would she give up her lover
This has always been published with pretence rather than pressure, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Because of Trollope’s handwriting, pretence is not a terrible reading, but a careful look shows that pressure is indeed the right word. And it fits better: it is the pressure that Mary is worrying about, and resisting.
Then she sat silent.
The FE creates a paragraph break here, but it is slightly confusing, since the Duke is the speaker before this sentence and then immediately after. Once again the compositor was tripped up because of the cut. In this case, there was more space than usual between the end of the previous sentence and the new one. Once the straight-line cut appeared, the new sentence might appear to stand alone, beginning a new paragraph. It doesn’t, however, and so we ignore the FE paragraph break.
and though, I think, the arrow is never so blunted but that it leaves something of a wound behind, there is in most cases, if not a perfect salve, still an ample consolation
The word still was cut with a straight line before there, but we don’t let it stand with the repetition of still later in the sentence.
“Well; not now, because he has gone.”
It is possible that there is a semicolon after now rather than a comma, but if so the top part is covered by the straight-line cross-out. We print what we are able to see: the comma.
“The curate of the parish is a gentleman, and the medical man who comes here from Bridstock.”
This has always been published with Bradstock, not Bridstock, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. The word is published correctly, later, in Chapter 52. We also see Bridstock in a restored sentence from Chapter 64.
“That as I love Mr. Tregear, and as I have told him so, and as I have promised him that I will be true to him, I cannot let there be an end to it.”
The compositor must have misread the tiny loop after promised him as a comma, prompting the repunctuation that appears in the FE and the omission of that after promised him. We restore the original that and punctuation.
“You would not wish me so to guard you that you should have no power of sending a letter but by permission?”
Trollope left out the question mark, but we follow the FE in using it. The Duke is attempting to coax and negotiate; a flat-out statement without the question mark would come across as more threatening.
Chapter 9
But there is this drawback in the in medias res system
The words in medias res were cut for space, and on was written over another word, probably in, leaving But there is this drawback on the system in the MS. In the FE, the drawback was printed instead of this drawback. Did Trollope originally change in to on because of the repetition of in as part of in medias res? This hardly seems like a problem, but if he thought it was, it is hard to see why he wouldn’t have changed in to to instead. It is also hard to see why he would prefer the drawback to this drawback. We believe the original sentence most clearly conveys Trollope’s intentions, and so we restore But there is this drawback in the in medias res system. (See Phineas Finn, Chapter 74, But there had been, as he had well known from the first, this drawback in the new profession which he had chosen, that nothing in it could be permanent.)
“And so poor Frank has been turned out of heaven,” said Lady Mabel Grex to young Lord Silverbridge
Originally, Mabel’s full name was Lady Mabel Burgundy. Trollope changed his mind very quickly. Beginning with Earl Grex was a nobleman later in the chapter, Trollope used Grex instead; he replaced the earlier Burgundy usages with a wavy line.
I am aware that, in the word “beauty,” and perhaps, also, in the word “young,” a little bit of the horse is appearing
There are five commas in the passage above, but none of them are in the MS. This is an example, we believe, of the FE over-punctuating and Trollope under-punctuating, but there is not enough of a reason to go against our policy of using FE punctuation for narration. In this case, actually, ATYR is best: I am aware that, in the word beauty, and also perhaps in the word young, a little bit of the horse is appearing. (Note: for easier readability, we decided to put quotation marks around a word when it follows the word.)
Lord Percival was the Earl’s son;—and the Earl lived in Belgrave Square.
Originally, the house was in Berkeley Square, crossed out with a wavy line. It is clear from the MS that Trollope made the change immediately, as he was first writing, whereas the previous change to Grex from Burgundy was probably made when Trollope read the previous day’s work.
“Have you seen him there?”
FE: “Have you seen him, then?” Trollope’s dot over the i in him is far to the right and slightly curved. The compositor must have read this as a comma, the inclusion of which necessitated the change from there to then. We restore Trollope’s sentence.
There was no Lady Grex alive, but there lived with the Earl a certain elderly lady, reputed also to be in some distant way a cousin of the family
This has always been published with reported rather than reputed, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Also, the FE mistakenly added a comma after Earl. It was removed in previous Oxford editions.
“and you can arrange the politics of the nation with Miss Cass”
Originally: and you can settle the politics of the nation with Miss Cass. Trollope made the space-saving cut to and you can arrange your politics with Miss Cass, though his straight line mistakenly extended also to with. In restoring the sentence, we print arrange and not settle, as settled appears in the next sentence.
“but I don’t see why that young Tregear is to dine here every night of his life”
MS: “dine here every day of his life.” It is hard to see why Trollope would have objected to the original day—though it is eight o’clock and therefore night when the Earl speaks. We leave in night, as there is not enough justification to overturn what is in the FE.
“Who does ‘we’ mean?” asked the Earl.
The FE and previous Oxford editions use upper-case We. Trollope had used upper case too, but only because he was writing over another word and thus making we easier to distinguish. The capitalization is awkward; we choose lower case instead.
“But, of course, you would want to get it back again.”
Though the second comma cannot be seen under the straight-line cross-out of of course, the first one is just visible.
Chapter 10
“Why Not Like a Romeo, if I Feel Like a Romeo?”
We match the chapter title to the exact dialogue that appears later in the chapter, replacing the FE and MS “Why Not Like Romeo, if I Feel Like Romeo?” Though it is entirely characteristic of Trollope to not check for consistency, we cannot see any reason why he would prefer a discrepancy between the title and the dialogue.
“At any rate we are two paupers, and though we are the best friends in the world, we can’t afford to be anything else.”
In the MS, Trollope cut for space all the words after paupers. In the FE, At any rate became And. With And at the beginning of the sentence, Mabel is completing a thought, whereas with At any rate she is inviting further explanation. Moreover, And we are two paupers, and… would be awkward.
“If you know what my Lord approves of and what he disapproves you understand him a great deal better than I do.”
There is no of after approves in the MS. The previous sentence says, “My Lord would not approve of it,” so perhaps Trollope thought it sounded odd not to repeat approve[s] of. A second of after disapproves may seem called for, but the sentence sounds a bit clunky when it is added.
“No, I’m not;—not in the least.”
Though the comma after no is not visible, it could well be hidden by the straight-line cross-out; sometimes Trollope’s punctuation marks are larger than normal (see He swore that it was impossible just above), and sometimes they are smaller than normal. In an uncertain case like this, we choose what seems superior. A comma in this usage is more common; also, without the pause that it creates, Mabel might sound a bit too insistent, and thus a bit too defensive—as if she is very much afraid of her father.
“It wouldn’t suit for her,—whose comforts and happiness are now much more to me than my own”
MS, comfort, not comforts. The former is perhaps preferable; however, there is no ambiguity in the MS—no reason why the compositor might have seen an s that wasn’t there. Since comforts is acceptable too, we follow the FE.
“He swore that it was impossible. Of course I knew all that before. It was a form which it was necessary to go through.”
The compositor, trying to be faithful, in this case, to Trollope’s punctuation, misread the period after impossible as a dash. But since Trollope was clearly beginning a new sentence with Of course, the compositor also added a period, creating a period-dash, which would be highly idiosyncratic. Trollope’s pen sometimes strayed, so that periods could from time to time look more like dashes. We print the period only. Also, in the MS Trollope inserted before while also cutting the next sentence for space. It is possible that before was a replacement for the cut, but it’s hard to see how the cut makes a difference in this case. On the other hand, before does add something substantive to the sentence: it is not only that Mabel knew at the time; she even knew it before.
“And to love him after a fashion?”
“Yes;—to love him—after a very sterling fashion.”
Trollope had changed the first sentence above to “And you will love him,—after a fashion?” This is longer than the original sentence, but is a replacement for the larger cut; once Trollope omitted to love him in the next sentence, Mabel was no longer purposely repeating Frank’s words. It is worth noting too that the FE printed the altered sentence without a comma-dash: “And you will love him after a fashion?”—indicative of many such changes that flattened Trollope’s dialogue.
“his home my home, his ambition my ambition,—his heaven my heaven”
This has always been published with his honour my honour rather than his heaven my heaven, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Mabel has built up to a climax here; heaven sums up what she aspires to.
“He has the choice of us all, does he not?”
It is possible that Trollope wrote “Does he not?” as a new sentence. If so, though, the d would be smaller than usual. Plus, after cutting does he not he appears to have put a semi-vertical line over a semi-horizontal line—which could be a period over a comma. We think it more likely that Trollope intended there to be one sentence here before he cut part of it.
Had he said unfortunate, his meaning would have been the same, and his expression not a whit more clear.
Trollope cut this entire sentence for space. He happened to write less clear rather than more clear. But he clearly meant more not less, and we make the correction.
And it was expedient, nay, almost necessary that she should marry someone.
This has always been published with expected rather than expedient. A close look at the handwriting strokes shows that the MS word is expedient, which better fits the meaning. Mabel isn’t worried about what others expect of her; she is worried about time running out.
Chapter 11
“Cruel”
In the MS, the chapter title is Cruel!—with an exclamation point and no quotation marks. In the FE (and ATYR before the FE), it is Cruel—no exclamation point and no quotation marks. We follow previous Oxford editions in printing “Cruel”—no exclamation point, but with quotation marks. The title quotes from numerous uses of the word cruel in the chapter, most of the time within dialogue, and so the quotation marks seem relevant. On the other hand, there is only one usage of cruel with the exclamation point. It is possible that Trollope did not want to give too much extra weight to that one usage and that he purposely removed the exclamation point.
She had said at any rate that she would not write to him without telling her father
Trollope had cut at any rate for space; he kept that afterward, but this word was cut in proofs. In restoring the passage we include that, as the sentence flows more smoothly with it.
Not only would her own idea of duty prevent her from writing to her lover,—although she had stipulated for the right to do so in some possible emergency,—but, carried far beyond that in her sense of what was right and wrong
The FE had mistakenly used just a comma, not a comma-dash, after lover. We follow the MS in supplying the first comma-dash to balance the second.
But as to marriage, that would not be possible till her father had assented.
The MS comma after But is perhaps preferable, but there is not enough cause to overrule the FE here.
And as to seeing the man,—ah, yes, if she could do so with her father’s assent!
The FE leaves out the MS comma after yes. We follow the MS; the sentence reads awkwardly without a pause after this word.
The first word spoken between them on the subject,—the first word after that first discussion,—began with him and was caused by his feeling that her present life at Matching must be sad and lonely.
The second dash is not in the MS or FE, but to leave it out becomes needlessly distracting. It was silently added to previous Oxford editions.
Lady Cantrip would be delighted to take her;—but Lady Cantrip was in London and must be in London, at any rate when Parliament should again be sitting.
After a long cut in the paragraph, Trollope had added Lady Cantrip had again written before Lady Cantrip would be delighted to take her, which in the FE became that she would be delighted to take her. Those added words replaced the cut—in particular, Then there had been some discussion between them. It is implied that after the discussion, Lady Cantrip would write.
Then a plan was proposed between them which might be convenient.
Trollope cut this to Then a plan had been proposed which might be convenient. We restore the original sentence, but also note that prepared has always been printed rather than proposed. Most likely this was a compositor error, though it’s also possible that without between them, Trollope found proposed to be awkward in proofs and changed it to prepared.
But as yet Lady Mary knew nothing of the arrangement.
MS: But as yet Lady Mary knew nothing of the settlement. Trollope presumably made the change from settlement to arrangement since he had written settled in the previous sentence. That repetition, actually, was fairly effective in emphasizing how they are all trying, not just to arrange Mary’s future, but to settle it. However, there is no reason to reject the FE change.
“It must be put an end to,” said the Duke very decisively.
This has always been published with decidedly rather than decisively, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Trollope had originally written solemnly, but he cut it with a wavy line and replaced it with decisively.
particularly of those last words, “till someone else has made himself agreeable to her”
The MS has what could be a dash, or something in between a dash and a period, after words, followed by a lower-case till. The FE change to a period and capital t is awkward; clearly the quoted words should be in the same sentence as those last words. However, a change to a dash, or a comma-dash, would be awkward here too, given the previous semicolon-dash in the sentence. We therefore use a comma.
but a misfortune in that no such cunning extraction on his part had won for him the woman to whose hands had been confided the strings of his heart
Trollope put a comma in the MS after a misfortune, which can be seen to match the commas after a misfortune twice earlier in the sentence. Also, because of the way these words are written, with a misfortune inserted above the line and the comma remaining where the original words (crossed out with a wavy line) had been, the compositor might easily have missed the comma. On the other hand, the earlier part of the sentence is choppy; there is some reason to avoid any more pauses. Given that possibility, we do not think there is enough justification to overrule the FE punctuation.
There was a feeling that in doing so she must lose something of the freshness of the bloom of her innocence. How was this transfer of her love to be effected?
MS: in between these two sentences, there is another: Would not the aroma of her feminine purity be dissipated? The entire sentence was cut in proofs. Is there any justification for restoring it? Perhaps there is, as the next to last word in the previous sentence has what might at first seem to be a partial wavy line only, and no cross-out over the last few letters (though in fact what we are calling the last few letters are actually more of the wavy cut, extended beyond the word purity). Might the compositor have gone back to puzzle over this word and then lost his place? On the other hand, the sentence is not one of Trollope’s finest, and he might well have found it overwrought when reading it again in 1878. This is a close call, but although we printed the sentence in the Folio and Everyman editions, we leave it out now.
There was an absence in it of that romance which
MS: There was an absence in it of “bloom,” of “aroma,“ of that romance which. If indeed Trollope found the aroma of her feminine purity to be overwrought, it makes sense that he would cut the bloom and aroma here as well.
This has always been published with feeling rather than finding, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Seek—or in this case look—and ye shall find, not feel. Trollope had also written looking into a man heart, but this was fixed for publication. Finally, Trollope wrote live only in the MS, which became only live in print. The former is perhaps preferable, but there is not enough cause to overturn the FE.
and then come forth, cleansed as it were by such quarantine from the impurity to which she had been subjected by her contact with this man
This has always been published with cleaned rather than cleansed, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
“And of course I should not think of—of marrying, without your leave——”
It is not certain that Trollope put a dash after leave, but he wrote something there that is crossed out with a heavy line and that does not seem to have been a word. A dash makes sense here, as the Duke interrupts her with his “No, Mary.”
When he heard this he turned angrily from her, almost stamping his foot upon the ground, while she quietly left the room.
This has always been published with when rather than while, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
She had told him that he would be cruel, if he opposed her love.
There is a temptation to ignore the comma, especially since it does not appear in the MS. However, there is not sufficient reason to overrule the FE.
But such a line could not be made palpable to any eyes but his own.
MS: such line, but we assume Trollope would have added a had he seen the sentence in proofs.
Chapter 12
The younger about a year since had become the wife of Lord Nidderdale,—a middle-aged young man who had been long about town, a cousin of the late Duchess, the heir to a marquisate, and a member of Parliament.
The FE uses a comma rather than a comma-dash. Given how many other commas are in the sentence, and that Trollope uses a comma-dash himself, we follow the MS instead, as the sentence is easier to read with it.
“Who? Tregear?”
The second question mark is in the FE but not the MS, and perhaps an argument could be made that Nidderdale is answering the question with a statement. It is much more likely, however, that Trollope simply forgot to put in a question mark—as often occurred.
“Not much, I should say.”
The comma is not in the MS but is needed to avoid a potential reader stumble, as some might first take the sentence to mean “There is not much I should say about it.”
“So I thought. I wonder what sort of a young man he is. He is a good deal with Lord Silverbridge.”
After “So I thought,” the MS originally had “He is so very much with Lord Silverbridge” crossed out with a straight line. Yet we can consider this a regular editing decision, as Trollope had added “He is a good deal with Lord Silverbridge” after “I wonder what sort of a young man he is.” The revised sentence is one character shorter than the original; it would have been too time-consuming a change for only one space.
“I don’t know London at all, hardly.”
Trollope seems to have written “I don’t know London at all hardly,” then added the period after all when he cut hardly for space. Regardless, the comma is useful, as Mary pauses slightly to revise herself: first she knows nothing about London, then she says she hardly knows it.
A greatcoat cannot be endured, and without a greatcoat who can endure a May wind and live?
There is a tiny mark in the MS after wind that is probably a comma—and the compositor would probably have included it had he seen it. Still, the sentence reads fine without it.
And here, along the bank, was a row of flowering ashes, the drooping boughs of which in places touched the water.
There is no comma in the MS or FE after ashes, but we follow previous Oxford editions in putting one in, as the sentence becomes more difficult to read without it.
At the end of the first week there came a visitor to see Lady Mary.
FE: At the end of the week there came a visitor to see Lady Mary. The reference to a first week didn’t make as much sense with the cut of the previous sentence about Lady Cantrip’s boredom before a week was over. With the cut restored, we restore first as well.
had not mentioned this lady’s name when delivering up the charge of his daughter to Lady Cantrip
Though it is hard to tell for sure, it is more likely that Trollope wrote the instead of this. The latter is possible too, however, so there is no sufficient reason to overturn what has always been printed.
to a house which was now in the occupation of a lady with whom she was not on visiting terms
This has always been published with inviting rather than visiting, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
“But she left the house without telling him, my dear.”
But is not in the MS and could well be a compositor error, especially since another But starts both the previous and the next sentence. We keep it, however, since there is a chance that Trollope put it in to add a touch of humor.
Lady Mary wrote to her father, declaring that she was most “particularly anxious to see him and talk to him about Mrs. Finn.”
These quotation marks are in the MS but not the FE; we restore them, as Trollope did intend to convey the flavor of Mary’s word choice.
Chapter 13
and when in his heat he declared that it should have been Mrs. Finn’s first care to save him from disgrace
This has always been published with heart rather than heat, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. The entire paragraph describes the heat of the Duke’s anger. As it says early on, he could hardly refrain himself from anger.
“but, if you communicate with Mrs. Finn at all you must make her understand that as I regard her conduct as inexcusable, I cannot apologise for what she thinks is the severity of my letter to her”
The FE punctuation is preferable, as the comma is omitted after but. However, there is not sufficient reason to go against the MS punctuation.
“It seems to me that that would have been a cruel thing to do”
It is understandable how the compositor would have read seems as occurs instead, as the m looks as if it could be a ur. However, a comparison to other usages of seems in the MS shows that this is indeed the word that Trollope wrote. And it fits better than occurs, which makes Mary sound as if she believes she is being especially clever.
“As I had told mamma, of course it was right that he should tell papa.”
The comma may possibly not be there in the MS (it could just be a tiny stray mark), but we follow the FE in including it. Otherwise some readers might stumble with of course, thinking at first that this is what Mary said to her mother.
Her husband, who had to look after his seat in the House of Commons, was down in the North of England canvassing.
The word canvassing was removed in proofs. Now that we have restored who had to look after his seat in the House of Commons earlier in the sentence, canvassing again fits smoothly, as it explains how Mr. Finn would attempt to keep his seat.
There were many reasons why there should be no open cause of disruption between them.
Trollope surely meant no cause of open disruption, but no open cause of disruption is what he wrote and what has always been printed. We do not feel that the problem is egregious enough to tamper with the text.
That he was unjust to her,—cruelly unjust,—she was quite sure.
The MS has the first comma-dash but nothing at all after unjust. The FE puts a comma after cruelly unjust, but it seems likely that Trollope intended a second comma-dash; otherwise he would not have used the first one.
It was worse even than if he had called her “Madam” without an epithet.
As in the example right above, we reject both the FE and MS punctuation. The FE inserts a comma after her, which causes an awkward pause in the sentence. The MS also has a comma after her, and another one—though it is small enough to be a stray mark—after without that might have been intended to go after Madam instead. Though ordinarily we would not put quotation marks around a word (unless the word preceded it), we believe here that Trollope’s comma did signal his interest in setting this word apart. The quotation marks added around Madam serve that function.
there would have been no question as to the fitness of the man or men so sent
The FE added a confusing comma after man. It was left out of previous Oxford editions.
Silverbridge had been Liberal as a matter of course,—because the Pallisers were Liberal.
FE: Silverbridge had been supposed to be a Liberal as a matter of course,—because the Pallisers were Liberals. This is a case where Trollope in 1878 might have misunderstood what he had written in 1876. He is referring to Silverbridge the borough, not Silverbridge the person—the borough that had been Liberal, not the young man who had been supposed to be a Liberal. Also, we use the MS because the Pallisers were Liberal, instead of the FE because the Pallisers were Liberals, to maintain the effective parallelism with the singular Liberal earlier in the sentence. Finally, we accept the FE use of one comma-dash after course, rather than the MS use of paired comma-dashes around as a matter of course. Though the FE sentence is different from the MS sentence, we do not see why the change would affect the punctuation. It is possible that Trollope preferred not to emphasize as a matter of course quite as much as the MS punctuation would have done.
then the borough had scratched its head, had bethought itself, and had begun to feel Conservative predilections
Both the MS and FE have conservative instead, but it is needlessly distracting to switch to lower case here, given the upper-case Conservative side earlier in the paragraph and the upper-case we are upon the whole Conservative later.
And so it was settled,—that on the day but one after this conversation Lord Silverbridge and Tregear should go together to Silverbridge.
There is a comma only, not a comma-dash, in the FE. The comma had already existed in the MS; Trollope had added the dash when he added the word that. It is possible that the compositor missed the dash since it was placed high above the comma. It is also possible that Trollope disliked having a comma-dash so soon after the previous comma-dash had appeared in the sentence “I shall hold my tongue and look like a gentleman,—neither of which is in Tifto’s power.” With the restored sentences (“I don’t suppose the Duke could be more offended than he is at present. He has no objection to me, I take it, except in so far as I am a suitor for your sister’s hand”), that first comma-dash is now not so close to the second.
“But nothing that your father can do will turn me.”
A very faint mark in the MS after do could be a comma, but we ignore it, as a pause would be awkward here.
“I never had a sister, but she has been more like a sister to me than anyone else.”
As in Chapter 4, Frank claims to not have a sister that he does eventually have (see Chapter 55). It would be way too aggressive for us to rewrite the passage so that Frank acknowledges the sister or never mentions one at all.
At the station they were met by Mr. Sprugeon and Mr. Sprout, who, with many apologies for the meanness of such entertainment, took them up to the George and Vulture, which was supposed for the nonce to be the Conservative hotel in the town.
The commas around with many apologies for the meanness of such entertainment are not in the MS and cause some choppiness in the sentence. However, the problem is not severe enough to overrule what is in the FE.
probably having in his mind some confusion between magnanimity and unanimity
This has always been published with on rather than in, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
“A father generally has to do that whether he approves of what his son is about or not,” said the caustic old gentleman.
MS: said the caustic old clergyman. Perhaps Trollope did not like the alliterative sound of a caustic old clergyman. It is also possible that the change to gentleman was an error, though if so the compositor would have to have been especially negligent, as clergyman is absolutely clear. Because there is not a strong enough reason to assume an error, and because caustic old gentleman is probably a tad superior anyhow, we follow the FE.
Chapter 15
The Duke, when he received Mrs. Finn’s note demanding an interview, thought much upon the matter before he replied.
Though the FE, following the MS, puts in a comma after note, we leave it out; it is the note demanding the interview, not, directly, the Duke.
“and am so well aware of your perspicuity, that I venture to believe that if you will read this letter I shall convince you”
Mrs. Finn probably means perspicacity; indeed, there are numerous examples in the OED of incorrect uses of perspicuity, including one from Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend. Mrs. Finn’s mistake is likely Trollope’s too. Yet it is at least slightly possible that the error is intentional; as careful as Mrs. Finn is, she is still emotionally devastated, and capable of a tiny error. Trollope did write perspicuity, and this is the word that has always been printed. We leave it in.
“Before I go any further I will confess that the matter is one,—I was going to say almost of life and death to me.”
There is possibly a comma after say in the MS, or it could well be a stray mark. This could go either way, but since the FE did not include the comma we leave it out too.
“Circumstances, certainly not in the first instance of my own seeking, have for some years past”
Trollope had crossed out own with a straight line in the MS, but decided to put it back into the FE.
“not that the matter should be kept any longer from you, for that it should be told to you she was as anxious as I was myself”
Though this matter has always been printed instead of the matter, it is likely that Trollope wrote the, especially when one looks at the way he wrote the in the lines right above. There’s nothing wrong with this here, but the is better, especially in the way it fits with Mrs. Finn’s use of the fact at the end of the previous paragraph.
“It was not for me to raise any question as to Mr. Tregear’s fitness or unfitness,—as to which, indeed, I could know nothing.”
The second comma is in the MS, but the first one (after which) probably is missing, though there is what appears to be a stray mark in the correct general location. The FE has no commas. However, Trollope did seem to want a pause; it makes sense to give him that pause by supplying the first necessary comma to match the second one.
she would revoke that opinion of his honesty which she had already formed
Trollope crossed out that with a wavy line and replaced it with her. We print that regardless; that opinion…which she had formed is superior to the redundant her opinion…which she had formed. It is worth noting that her is shorter than that; possibly this was one of the rare wavy-line cuts that was made for space.
And now this woman wrote to him about her freely, as though there were nothing sacred, no religion in the memory of her!
The FE ends the sentence with a period, not an exclamation point. Trollope’s exclamation point looks a little bit like a question mark here, and the compositor might have just dropped it. We include that exclamation point, as the Duke is especially emotional at this moment.
Heavens and earth, to what was the world coming!
Though it’s hard to say for certain under the straight-line cross-out, Trollope appears to have written heavens and not heaven.
He was asking for the hand of one who was second only to royalty,—who was possessed of everything
There is a dash, not comma-dash, in the FE—probably because the compositor saw only the dash in the MS. In fact, though, the comma is there—just separated from the dash, as the comma appears at the end of one line while the dash starts the new line. We put in the comma-dash, as it is typical of Trollope’s usage.
Fit indeed!
This short sentence was not crossed out in the MS but was taken out of the FE. Perhaps Trollope did not want to end the cut paragraph this way, without the sentences explaining why Mrs. Finn should have been so shocked. Or, even more likely, given other such errors, perhaps the compositor missed these two words in the midst of cuts before and after.
despite the trust placed in her, with an unworthy lover, then, then—all bonds would be rescinded!
There is a comma-dash in the MS. In this case, however, one can see the justification for a dash only, as the Duke can be seen to be fumbling a little before he suddenly decides on this radical solution. With the comma-dash, there is a tiny pause instead. Thus we go along with the FE and print a dash.
Then would his wrath be altogether justified!
FE: Then would his wrath be altogether justified? The compositor mistakenly read this as a question. The correct exclamation point appears in previous Oxford editions.
She had told her story, and had then appealed to Lady Mary for evidence here in her favour.
Trollope apparently wrote for evidence her in here favour, though it is hard to say for sure underneath the straight-line cross-out.
In this way he was enabled, at any rate for a time, to assure himself that there need be no acknowledgment of wrong done on his part.
Trollope had crossed out In this way and replaced it with It was thus, and only thus, that, which was printed in the FE without the commas around and only thus. These additional words were a cutting adjustment, as this way did not make sense without the previous paragraph showing what this way was. With the restoration of that paragraph, we also restore In this way.
Or he might write as she had done,—advocating his own cause with all his strength, using that last one strong argument—”there should not have been a moment.”
The FE put quotation marks around moment only. However, that’s likely because moment starts a new line in the MS, and Trollope typically put quotation marks at the beginning of each new line within a quotation. The compositor missed the beginning of the quotation on the line above. The Duke thinks about how there should not have been a moment three times earlier in the chapter, and is doing so once again here. Thus we follow the MS (and previous Oxford editions) and not the FE.
Such, or of such kind, he thought, must be his answer.
FE: Such, or of such kind, he thought must be his answer. We follow the MS in putting a comma after he thought, which gives added emphasis to how an answer of such kind may be the right one. The sentence works fine without that comma, but given that Trollope used it and that it changes the emphasis slightly, we put it in.
Now they were lying packed in the cellars of certain bankers near Charing Cross,—but still they were in his custody.
In the MS, Trollope crossed out, with a straight line, the in front of bankers and also near Charing Cross after it. It is quite possible that certain was a cutting adjustment, since the bankers does not work without near Charing Cross. On the other hand, the cellars of certain bankers is an improvement over the cellars of the bankers, as it omits the slightly awkward repetition of the. And we know that Trollope did make some straight-line cuts for editorial rather than space-saving reasons. We believe, then, that there is enough justification to go with the superior sentence, rather than Now they were lying packed in the cellars of the bankers near Charing Cross,—but still they were in his custody. We note too that Trollope wrote but still were in his custody; the word they before were was added in proofs.
and she had always responded that it was a charge from which she could never relieve him
This has always been published with repeated rather than responded, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
So he answered the letter as pleasantly as he knew how.
In the MS, this sentence was followed by And this was his pleasant reply. That second sentence was cut in proofs—rightly so, as it basically repeats what we had just been told.
“There was no obligation on you to seek the post;—but having sought it and acquired it ”
This has always been published with in rather than on, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
“It should be your care to sit and listen so that the forms and methods of the House may as it were soak into you gradually.”
Trollope had inserted first with a caret before care, most likely as a replacement for the cut of their very first duty below.
“perhaps that part which he may lay aside altogether with the least strain on his conscience”
The FE printed stain rather than strain; the error was fixed in previous Oxford editions.
Chapter 16
The new member for Silverbridge, when he entered the House to take the oath, was supported on the right and left by Sir Timothy Beeswax and Sir Orlando Drought
The word first is in the MS before entered, but it was taken out in proofs. Though most of the paragraph was cut for space, there is nothing about the restored sentences to suggest that first would now be more appropriate. Instead, Trollope probably found the word redundant, as it is already clear that this is all taking place when Silverbridge (first) entered.
And then they were parted, and the member for Silverbridge was hustled up to the table between the baronet and the law-knight who had been members of the Duke’s government, but had been the Duke’s most bitter opponents.
This has always been printed with bustled rather than hustled, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Also, in the MS Trollope had cut part of the sentence for space, changing it to and the member for Silverbridge was hustled up to the table between the two staunch old Tories. Yet the word the before two wasn’t printed—clearly an error, as those staunch old Tories had already been introduced above.
Of what else was done on that occasion, or on the next day when two middle-aged young politicians in gorgeous apparel moved and seconded the address, nothing shall be said here. For the present we will follow our young member, from whom no political work was required except that of helping for an hour or two to crowd the government benches.
For the first sentence, Trollope made several straight-line cuts, so that it became in the FE Of what else was done on that occasion nothing shall be said here. For the second sentence, Trollope made a wavy-line cut of several words before of helping. However, there were significant changes in proofs, and in the FE it looked like this: No political work was required from him, except that of helping for an hour or two to crowd the Government benches. But we will follow him as he left the House. Those further changes made sense as a response to previous cuts, as For the present no longer worked with the cut of or on the next day. Also, while Trollope actually wrote For the present, we will follow our young member from whom at present no political work was required, we do not print at present, as the repetition of present would be awkward. What we see here then is a passage where Trollope himself—not the compositor this time—was originally inattentive, given that the shortened paragraph as it appeared in the MS had several problems.
There were, however, one or two others quite as anxious as to his political career as Sir Orlando and Sir Timothy,—at any rate one other.
In the MS, Trollope cut Sir Orlando and Sir Timothy and replaced it with any staunch old Tory. Yet any staunch old Liberal has always been printed, which wouldn’t seem to make sense, as the only staunch politicians referred to in the chapter thus far have been Tories. With the restoration of the cuts, those Tories are referred to by name. But we mention this here as another example of how the compositor could lose concentration and badly err.
continued the patriotic old lady, whose sentiments as to the duty of a legislator were almost as high as those conveyed in the letter which our young member at this moment had in his pocket
This has always been printed with positive rather than patriotic, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. It is possible, in this case, that the change was purposely made in proofs; perhaps Trollope felt that patriotic would be puzzling without the rest of the omitted words about Mrs. Cassewary’s ennobled sentiments. It is more likely, however, that this is another compositor error, as positive is far from an ideal replacement and also looks, at least a little bit, like patriotic in the MS.
“I wonder whether I shall ever hear you.”
There is another word before ever that is unreadable. It may well be hear, cut with a wavy line that is then obscured by the straight-line cut that Trollope made in 1878 when he cut the entire sentence for space. Trollope may have originally started to write “I wonder whether I shall hear you,” then immediately changed his mind to cross out hear and continue the sentence with ever hear.
and cautioning her young friend that there was not much time to be lost, as there were people coming to dinner
There is another word before people that is unreadable—cut with a line that appears to be somewhere between straight and wavy. The last three strokes suggest the word many, but the first stroke does not resemble an m. Since the word is so uncertain, and is not needed for the meaning of the sentence to come through, we leave it out.
She had quite realised the duties of life, had had her little romance,—and had acknowledged that it was foolish.
Trollope had written folly rather than romance in the MS. The change in proofs was useful, avoiding the near repetition of folly/foolish.
“No;—he never talks much,—at least with me.”
It is ambiguous in the MS whether there is a comma after much. Most likely, it is obscured by the curved line over it that is apparently meant to draw attention to the words at least with me that had been inserted—though Trollope did use a caret as well. Given how likely it is that the comma is obscured, and how standard a comma-dash would be in this sort of sentence, we use the comma-dash rather than just the plain dash.
“Yes; he is odd. He seems to be fretful when we are with him. A good many things make him unhappy.”
“Your poor mother’s death?”
The question mark after death is in the MS but changed to a period in the FE. That change is understandable, since Mabel would know that the Duchess’s death would be weighing on him and would hardly need to ask it as a question. Yet it is possible that this is yet another (subtle) way that she treats Silverbridge as a boy. He has said that many things make him unhappy, but she asks him if in fact there is only one thing that is the cause. Silverbridge quickly corrects her, as he says his mother’s death is first, but that there are other things too. Ultimately, then, there is not enough cause to overturn Trollope’s dialogue punctuation; we keep the question mark.
“You mean that I mustn’t paint any more houses.”
This has always been published with any man’s house rather than any more houses, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
“If you didn’t care for politics you wouldn’t have taken a line of your own.”
FE: “If you didn’t care for politics you couldn’t have taken a line of your own.” It is possible that Trollope changed wouldn’t to couldn’t in proofs, but it’s hard to think of why he would do so. Silverbridge could have gone his own way in politics for a variety of reasons, but would not have done so unless he actually cared. Most likely, then, this is a compositor error.
“Well;—Miss Cassewary. A man might have a worse friend than Miss Cassewary. And my father.”
In the FE, and my father is joined with the previous sentence after a semicolon-dash. The MS is ambiguous, but what could be taken as a dash (there’s no semicolon) is probably a wider-than-usual period, matching the wider-than-usual one before A man. And while the And before my father could be lower case, it could just as well be upper case, as the a is taller than other lower-case a’s nearby. Given the ambiguity of the MS, there is a temptation to follow the FE. But we find it just a bit more effective, and comedic, to put And my father in a separate sentence, as it forces Silverbridge to come to a full stop before he remembers to say that the Duke can be a good friend too.
but after a little he had fallen into the seat, at the extreme corner
Trollope probably wrote onto not into. But into is fine and we leave what has always been printed.
This lad was in all things pleasant to her.
This has always been printed with last rather than lad, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. On its own the word could easily be read as last, but the context leaves no doubt about lad.
The very way in which he had grasped at her hand and had then blushed ruby-red at his own daring, had gone far with her.
We follow the FE in not putting a comma after hand. There is a great temptation to supply it (as we did in the Folio and Everyman editions). However, Trollope left it out too. Perhaps he wished to convey how instantaneous the blushing was, and thus did not want the pause that the comma would convey.
If she did not put out her bait, would there not be other hooks,—other and worse?
This has always been published with others and worse rather than other and worse, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. He is referring to other hooks, not others hooks.
Would not such a one, so soft, so easy, so prone to be caught and so desirable for the catching, be sure to be made prey of by some snare?
In the MS after prey of there is a straight-line cross-out of a word that is possibly soon. However, since we are uncertain, and since the word is not necessary to the structure of the sentence, we leave it out.
Chapter 17
An attendance at the Newmarket Second Spring Meeting had unfortunately not been compatible with the Silverbridge election.
The FE printed comfortable instead of compatible, but the error has been corrected in previous Oxford editions.
as she was unfitted by her proportions to be a mother of horses, and could never by any chance do anything useful
The word and is not in the MS, but the sentence is too hard to read without it.
But Coalition failed, as coalitions always will do, and Tifto had to report to his noble patron that they had not pulled off the event.
Trollope wrote partner, not patron. Both noble patron and noble partner appear elsewhere in the book. It’s hard to imagine Trollope fussing with the change from one to the other in proofs; however, noble patron is more from the narrator’s perspective, while noble partner is more from Tifto’s perspective (he much prefers to see Silverbridge as a partner rather than patron), so perhaps there is some justification. And although the Chapman and Hall compositor was especially sloppy several sentences above when he wrote comfortable instead of compatible, an error with patron and partner would not have been his fault. Or, rather, it would have meant he was copying an error that had already appeared in print, since ATYR published patron. The careless error with comfortable/compatible, however, only appears in the FE, not ATYR.
the happy owner of the victorious horse, and debit him, Tifto, with his share of the loss
This has always been published as Tifto, with the share of his loss rather than Tifto, with his share of the loss, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Again, this is an error that first appeared in the FE; ATYR prints the sentence correctly.
Tifto spent, in these few days just before the race, the greatest part of his time in the close vicinity of the horse
The MS commas make the sentence easier to read, and so we include them even though they were left out of the FE. Also, in the MS the word immediate appears before days and is crossed out with a straight line. However, we have trouble believing that Trollope intended the sentence to read in these few immediate days just before the race. We are also reluctant to print in these immediate days just before the race when the replacement, in these few days just before the race, is so much clearer (what exactly are immediate days?). In this case it seems likely that few just happens to be shorter than immediate, and that Trollope did not make the change for space-saving reasons.
Now had come the night before the Derby, and it must be acknowledged that not only the young Lord, but Tifto also, was much fluttered by the greatness of the coming struggle.
In the MS, Trollope had changed the sentence to Now had come the night before the Derby, and it must be acknowledged that the young Lord, as well as Tifto, was much fluttered by the greatness of the coming struggle, saving four spaces. In the FE, as well as Tifto was omitted. It is understandable if, in proofs, Trollope felt it was unnecessary to include Tifto; the mention of the Major being fluttered makes more sense when not only is part of the sentence. We do not believe Trollope would have cut the reference to Tifto if the original sentence had been intact.
Of course the state of the betting in regard to Prime Minister was the subject generally popular for the night.
It is worth noting that the word the was in the MS before Prime Minister but was taken out in proofs. When Trollope noticed—which was most of the time but not always—he wished his narrator to refer to the horse as Prime Minister, not the Prime Minister. At the beginning of Chapter 43, for instance, he wrote in the MS with his eyes fixed upon the Prime Minister, but the was taken out of the FE. The same thing occurs in this sentence from Chapter 17, though here it is also possible that Trollope was bothered by the frequent use of the. Dialogue is different; some characters, like Dolly Longstaffe in Chapter 20, refer to the horse as the Prime Minister.
Lord Glasslough, too, and others joined them, and a good deal was said about the horse.
The first comma is not in the MS or FE but is helpful; there’s a chance of a slight reader stumble without it, as if Lord Glasslough too refers to the previous sentence, with Lord Glasslough also not an encumbrance.
This gave rise to other betting, and before the evening was over Lord Silverbridge had taken three and a half to one against his horse to such an extent that he stood to lose twelve hundred pounds by the bets made then and there in that room; but then he also stood to win over four thousand on an event which at the present moment he conceived to be almost probable.
Trollope had cut for space by the bets made then and there in that room and on an event which at the present moment he conceived to be almost probable. He did not cut but then he also stood to win over four thousand, but these words did not make it into the FE. This may well have been another case where the compositor carelessly left out words that remained between two cuts. Or, Trollope might have decided that with the other cuts, it was no longer important to mention what Silverbridge might have won.
Now, in the midst of his excitement, there came to him a feeling that he was allowing himself to do just that which he had intended to avoid.
There is no comma after excitement in the FE, but the restoration of Now changes the sentence.
The horse was being run in his name.
Trollope cut being for space and replaced it with to. However, that replacement nearly connects to the word of from the line above, and the compositor evidently missed it; thus, The horse was run in his name was printed. We restore the original sentence.
If he could be the winner of a Derby and Leger he thought that Popplecourt and Glasslough and Lupton would snub him no longer, that even Tregear would speak to him, and that his pal, the Duke’s son, would not throw him aside again when once he had invited him to go down into the country.
Trollope had originally written when once he had been invited to London, but then inserted him after invited while forgetting to strike out been. He then cut for space when once he had been invited to London. It is also possible—maybe—that been was cut with a wavy line underneath the straight-line cut. It’s a tricky sentence, because the antecedent of he changes from Tifto to the Duke’s son. In addition, the FE has no commas around the Duke’s son, but the longer restored sentence makes them useful as pauses. The commas are in the MS.
The Duke had said that he would think about it, and then had told Mr. Moreton that he was to pay the bill for this new toy.
This erroneously begins a new paragraph in the FE. Because of the deleted sentence before it, the compositor must have thought that the next sentence was indented.
“We cannot all be statesmen when we are young.”
Earlier in the paragraph the Duke had thought how “We can’t all be statesmen when we are young.” There is no need to make the two sentences match; the Duke can remember it one way, then remember it slightly differently the next time.
Dolly Longstaffe had lost a “pot of money.” Silverbridge would have to draw upon that inexhaustible Mr. Moreton for something over two thousand pounds,—in regard to which he had no doubt as to the certainty with which the money would be forthcoming
Trollope had mistakenly put a comma after money rather than a period; weirdly, the FE followed the MS and printed that comma. A period appears in previous Oxford editions. Trollope also mistakenly crossed out with which the money, but these words were put back into the FE.
Even the poor younger brother had lost a couple of hundred pounds, for which he would have to make his own special application to Mr. Moreton.
Trollope had originally written in regard to which, crossing out in regard with a straight line and writing for over the word to. This was an editorial, not space-saving, change—to avoid repeating in regard to, which appears in the previous sentence.
Fishknife, of whom nobody had known anything, had been favoured by such a series of accidents that the whole affair had been a miracle performed in his favour.
There were several cross-outs and insertions in the MS before Trollope shortened the sentence to Fishknife had been favoured by such a series of accidents that the whole affair had been a miracle. The repetition of favoured/favour in the restored sentence is not ideal, but is not problematic enough to reject. In addition, it is possible that Trollope meant the first part of the original sentence to read Fishknife, of whom he would have known nothing, especially since nobody was cut with what may be a wavy line and was replaced with he would. On the other hand, Trollope apparently changed have known to had known by writing over the original have. Though we could justify including of whom he would have known nothing, we think of whom nobody had known anything is more effective, and so have chosen that.
and in spite of the lunch, which had been very glorious, sat moody and sometimes even silent within his gay apparel
Trollope may have had it right by not including a comma in the MS before which. However, there is not a strong enough reason to go against our policy of following the FE punctuation for narration.
“It was the unfairest start I ever saw,” said Tifto, almost getting up from his seat on the coach so as to address Dolly and Silverbridge on the box, and speaking after an interval of ten minutes.
After a wavy-line cross-out, Trollope originally intended the sentence to read “It was the unfairest start I ever saw,” said Tifto in the coach, speaking after an interval of ten minutes. He made two insertions, so that the sentence now read “It was the unfairest start I ever saw,” said Tifto, almost getting up from his seat on the coach so as to address Dolly and Silverbridge on the box, and speaking after an interval of ten minutes. Then he crossed out with a straight line and speaking after an interval of ten minutes. It is odd for the interval of ten minutes to now appear after so much has been added before it; instead, Trollope could have moved the ten minutes earlier in the sentence, before we learn that Tifto can barely keep himself from getting up. It is more than likely that, in 1878, Trollope recognized the problem and decided to do away with the ten minutes. Still, we are reluctant to disregard a straight-line cut; and it’s also more than possible that Trollope—awkwardly—was trying to convey how Tifto was silently seething for those ten minutes until he finally burst out speaking. We thus restore the cut.
An hour and a half for dinner and a cigar afterwards, and half an hour to get to the railway station would not be more than time enough.
The sentence might make more sense with not removed, but would be more than time enough is not quite right either, as it conveys a sense of plenty of time when, even in the best of circumstances, Gerald would be cutting things close. And Trollope had plenty of chances to look at the sentence; not only does it appear in the MS and ATYR and the FE, but because he left the word time out of the MS, he would have had to spend a little bit of, well, time with the sentence supplying the missing piece. Perhaps Trollope was trying to convey a tight schedule, and meant that there was just enough time, or time enough, but not more. Finally, while we would prefer to put a comma after station, there is no comma in either the FE or MS, and we do not print one either.
When Lord Gerald reached the station the train had started, and he was impeded in the frantic effort he made to jump onto the guard’s brake as the carriages were passing away.
Beginning with guard’s brake It is difficult to decipher the words at the end of the sentence, but we are relatively confident that our reading is correct.
He had taken a good deal of wine, but, nevertheless, he was silenced.
The word silenced is extremely likely but uncertain. Also, while we might prefer to print the sentence without the commas around nevertheless, there is not enough reason to disregard Trollope’s wishes.
Chapter 18
Lord Silverbridge had at one time, just as he was putting himself to bed, made up his mind to tell the whole story to the Duke, but when the morning came his courage failed him.
Trollope’s revised, shortened sentence (Lord Silverbridge, as he was putting himself to bed, had made up his mind to tell the story to the Duke at once, but when the morning came his courage failed him) is a clear improvement. But though we would be glad to do away with the awkward at one time, these words are part of a straight-line cut, and Trollope may have been trying to convey how all at once, without having weighed the pros and cons, Silverbridge made a snap decision.
And then the very altitude of the great statesman whom he was invited to befriend,—the position of this Duke who had made bishops and who might so probably be called on to make them again,—was against any such interference.
In between the comma-dashes, Trollope shortened this passage to the position of this Duke who had been so powerful and might be powerful again. In doing so, he crossed out the second dash with a wavy line (because a straight line over a straight line wouldn’t be visible) but forgot to put in that second dash after he wrote the replacement. We supply that dash, as the sentence becomes difficult to read without it.
but were he to do it, it would be said of him that it had been done because the man was Duke of Omnium and might so probably be again Prime Minister of England
The comma is not in the FE and probably not in the MS (though there is a tiny, misplaced speck). We put it in to avoid a potential reader stumble over the double it it.
“It’s all up,” said he, chucking down his cap and striving to be cheerful as he entered the room.
Trollope cut as he entered the room with a straight line. In the FE, however, the sentence became “It’s all up,” said he, chucking down his cap, striving to be at ease. Perhaps Trollope felt that readers would wonder why Gerald would want to be cheerful. With the restoration of as he entered the room, there is no doubt at all: Gerald wants to make a cheerful entrance.
“Gerald ran up to see the Derby and in the evening missed his train.”
This has always been published with the train rather than his train, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. The compositor might have taken the quotation marks at the beginning of the new line in front of his as the cross for a t instead.
“You ain’t going!” said Dolly, assuming a look of mock-heroic horror.
This has always been published with much heroic horror rather than mock-heroic horror, despite what Trollope wrote in the FE. It has also always been published with aren’t rather than ain’t—a mistake the compositor often made when Trollope neglected to dot his i.
Lady Cantrip had expressed an opinion almost in favour of Tregear,—and had certainly expressed an opinion in favour of Mrs. Finn.
The FE has a dash only, but Trollope’s comma-dash is more typical.
When the Duke, with an energy which was by no means customary with him, had asked that question on the answer to which so much depended,—“Should there have been a moment lost?”—Lady Cantrip had assured him that not a moment had been lost.
The FE has a comma after depended and no punctuation at all before Lady Cantrip. We believe the sentence is easier to read with the MS punctuation, and so use it instead.
This was altogether terrible to the Duke.
Trollope began his long cut mid-sentence with to the Duke, leaving in This was altogether terrible. However, these words were not in the FE. Perhaps Trollope was worried that the reader would become confused and think that the narrator was making a judgment about Lady Cantrip’s terrible remarks. More likely—because it occurred often enough elsewhere—is that the compositor missed these words in looking at the large cut.
Chapter 19
“No, My Lord, I Do Not”
Trollope put a semicolon after No in the title. However, when the sentence appears later in the chapter, he uses a comma. To match the two, we use the more standard comma. It’s possible within the chapter that Trollope puts a period after Lord rather than a comma; however, this is ambiguous, as some of Trollope’s commas do look like periods. There is no ambiguity in the chapter title, with a comma after Lord. Matching the two appearances of these words, we choose “No, my Lord, I do not,” though the FE matches them with “No; my Lord, I do not.”
The place was quite deserted, at any rate so far as his own friends were concerned, the Beargarden world having gone to the races.
Trollope had originally written all of them having gone to the races, crossing out all of them with a partially double and perhaps partially wavy line and replacing it with the longer the Beargarden world. It is certainly possible that the change was instigated by the cut of at any rate so far as his own friends were concerned, with all of them clearly referring to his own friends in a way that the Beargarden world does not. Still, we choose the Beargarden world, which is more vivid. Had there been a regular-looking straight-line cut, we would have had to choose all of them instead.
He would always be in the House soon after four, and would remain there,—for, if possible, as long as the Speaker sat in the chair.
Trollope’s handwriting is difficult here. What the compositor read as or and what we are printing as for actually looks more like oh than either of the two. We think for is correct. It makes sense that Silverbridge would try to remain there…as long as the Speaker sat in the chair, but not that he would either stay or stay while the Speaker was there.
There were men the very sound of whose voices had already become odious to him.
The word very was originally cut for space in the MS but put back in the FE.
Words of some sort were always forthcoming like spiders’ webs
FE: Words of some sort were always forthcoming, like spiders’ webs. We follow the MS instead in leaving out the comma. It is not that the words…were always forthcoming—of course they were—but that they were always forthcoming like spiders’ webs.
Then he told the whole story,—how Gerald had been kept in London, and how he had gone down to Cambridge,—all in vain; how his father had taken the matter to heart, telling him that he had ruined his brother; and how he, in consequence, had determined not to go to the races.
The FE changes the comma-dash after story to a period. We follow the less idiosyncratic MS punctuation instead—less idiosyncratic, at least, in terms of Trollope’s typical style.
“He is one,—and you are the other. You knew that.”
The FE printed know rather than knew, but Trollope appears to have written an epsilon e in this case that the compositor might have mistaken as an o written to replace an e. The past tense gives a more intimate tone, as if the two have long held a secret that they both knew. The epsilon e shows up elsewhere occasionally; see earlier in the chapter, MS page 247, the word degree.
“Indeed she does.”
Trollope crossed out does with what appears to be a wavy line and replaced it with is. However, the change is clearly in response to the other cuts. With the restoration of “When she takes a thing into her head does she stick to it?” the answer must be “Indeed she does,” not “Indeed she is.”
“And yet what is the use?”
The word use is highly likely but not certain.
“It would not suit me to marry a poor man, and so I don’t mean to fall in love with a poor man.”
In the MS, Trollope wrote wouldn’t suit rather than would not suit. The FE would not suit could well be an error, as there is a space between would and n’t which the compositor might have read as would and not instead (see the example right below). With this sentence, however, we accept the FE change; there are contractions later in the sentence (don’t) and in the previous sentence (doesn’t), and Trollope might have been reluctant to include a third.
“I can only think of one other;—but I know you wouldn’t take him.”
The FE printed would not instead of wouldn’t—most likely because the compositor was misled by the space between would and n’t in the MS. It is possible too that the cut of I know changed the rhythm of the sentence enough so that Trollope preferred would not take.
“I was thinking of—myself.”
There is an extra-long dash in the MS, which is picked up as a double dash in the FE. However, Trollope varies the lengths of his dashes. Rather than measuring each one with a particular cut-off point, it seemed prudent to standardize, and so we treated this as a normal case of interrupted speech followed by another word. For interrupted speech that ends a sentence, we use the double dash.
“ ‘Oh, Lord Silverbridge, you do me so much honour! And now I come to think about it, there is no one in the world I am so fond of as you.’ Would that suit you?”
The marks for a quote within a quote are in the MS but were left out of the FE. They are useful in making it clear right away that when Mabel says “Oh, Lord Silverbridge,” she is not speaking in her own voice.
She might, he thought, have accepted him then, had she chosen.
Trollope crossed out then in the MS but put it back in for the published version.
He did believe that we he to press his suit with the usual forms she would accept him.
Trollope wrote formularies, perhaps meaning formalities. The choice of forms for the FE works well enough, even if formalities is probably better.
But it was that there should be such a total absence of trepidation in her words and manner.
MS: But it was that there should be such a total absence of trepidation in her mock refusal. In the previous chapter, the compositor had been unable to decipher the word mock, reading it as much instead. Here mock looks somewhat like words, which would have ended the sentence with the obviously incorrect words refusal. At that point, Trollope might have deleted refusal and added and manner. It is also possible, however, that he didn’t want Silverbridge perceiving Mabel’s refusal as a mock one. Silverbridge believes that he won’t have trouble convincing Mabel to say yes, but he doesn’t necessarily believe that her current rejection of the proposal is fake. Weighing these possibilities, we stick with what the FE printed.
In truth he saw everything as it was only too truly.
MS: In truth he saw everything as it was only too truly,—everything except her love for that other man. The words after truly were cut in proofs. What Silverbridge saw here is not something he can put into words. Perhaps Trollope did not want to suggest that even Silverbridge’s unconscious would detect absolutely nothing about Mabel’s love for Frank. Or perhaps Trollope thought there was no need to mention her love for that other man, as it is obvious that what Silverbridge saw was her lack of true interest in him; he wasn’t considering why she wasn’t interested.
He sat on one of the high seats behind Sir Timothy Beeswax and Sir Orlando Drought
After the two previous sentences were cut for space, the compositor created a new paragraph break with this sentence. The deleted sentences helped to make it even clearer that, when Silverbridge sat on one of the high seats, he was still deep in thought about Mabel. Without those earlier sentences, perhaps Trollope felt that a new paragraph was useful. It is also possible that the compositor once again mistakenly created a new paragraph following a long cut (in this case, nearly four lines). Usually, though, when the compositor erred in this regard it’s because the words after the long cut come in the middle of the line—so that if one forgets about the cross-out, it appears that the new sentence is already indented. Here, the new sentence comes at the very beginning of the line.
Chapter 20
“If you want me to sign anything, I will sign it.” For she had been asked to sign papers, or in other words to surrender rights. “But for that other matter, it must be left to myself.”
FE: “If you want me to sign anything I will sign it;”—for she had been asked to sign papers, or in other words to surrender rights;—”but for that other matter it must be left to myself.” The FE punctuation, with semicolon-dashes, is more idiosyncratic than the MS punctuation. Unless one is allergic to starting a sentence with But—which Trollope was not—the MS punctuation works well.
“No;—of course. We inferior people may lose our money just as we please. But a man who can look as clever as Mr. Tregear ought to win always.”
“I told you just now that he was a friend of mine.”
“But don’t you think that he does look clever?” There could be no question but that Tregear, when he disliked his company, could show his dislike by his countenance; and it was not improbable that he had done so in the presence of Mr. Adolphus Longstaffe, who was a gentleman quite able to appreciate such signs of disfavour. “Now, tell the truth, Lady Mabel;—does he not look conceited sometimes?”
“He generally looks as if he knew what he was talking about;—which is more than some other people do sometimes.”
“Of course he is a great deal more clever than I am. I know that. But I don’t think even he can be so clever as he looks. ‘Or you so stupid’;—that’s what you ought to say now.”
“Sometimes, Mr. Longstaffe, I deny myself the pleasure of saying what I think.”
Trollope originally wrote “But a man who can look as conceited as Mr. Tregear ought to win always,” then crossed out conceited with a straight line and replaced it with clever. Though clever is shorter, we believe this was an editorial, not space-saving, decision. Both Dolly and Mabel are suffering from fresh wounds to their self-esteem, and both are passing some of their pain along to the nearest available victim. When he starts off by calling Tregear clever, Dolly is still making a token effort to maintain the social mask, expressing his resentment under the cover of irony—but then when Mabel says “I told you just now that he was a friend of mine” (meaning, “You’re being rude”), and then when he insists “But don’t you think that he does look clever?” and gets no response, Dolly stops bothering and says what he really means: conceited. Their exchange gets increasingly edgy as it goes on, to humorous effect. It is significant too that Trollope cut “I don’t allow myself to say all that I think, Mr. Longstaffe,” and replaced it with the longer “Sometimes, Mr. Longstaffe, I deny myself the pleasure of saying what I think.” In this case, Trollope was clearly making an editorial change with a straight-line revision—and thus it is all the more plausible that he was doing the same thing with clever/conceited just a few lines above.
But were he to be precipitated into some bottomless misfortune, then she thought that she could only throw herself after him.
The FE printed misfortunes rather than the MS misfortune, but we can see no justification for the change and assume it must have been done by mistake. The use of misfortunes suggests that Frank would need to have several of them before Mabel would throw herself after him. Also, there is no comma in the FE, but the restoration of she thought that lengthens the sentence and makes the MS comma useful.
and poor Miss Cassewary was dressed ready to go with her as chaperone
MS: chaperon. Trollope’s spelling is certainly acceptable—see Henry James, “The Chaperon.” And ATYR printed chaperon. However, our general policy is to follow the FE spelling if it is feasible and consistent—and the FE used chaperone, the more common spelling.
“And they consider themselves to be fine gentlemen!”
Trollope originally wrote “And then they consider themselves to be fine gentlemen!” The status of then is ambiguous: is the cut thick or wavy? Or maybe it is not a cut at all since the n, and part of the e, are untouched. We do not believe that then adds anything useful to the sentence, and thus are content to leave it out.
“I don’t know how that is to be helped, my dear. I have got to think of it, and you have got to think of it.”
Trollope cut “I have got to think of it” for space, and in proofs changed the remaining it to money. It would certainly be too aggressive for us to change the first it to money, and thus print “I have got to think of money, and you have got to think of money.” And “I have got to think of it, and you have got to think of money” would not make sense. We restore, then, Trollope’s original sentence.
“No;—my dear; you’re a lady.”
MS: “No; my dear; you’re a lady.” This MS punctuation, with no dashes and equal pauses after No and my dear, is odd and also uncharacteristic of Trollope. We follow the FE punctuation instead.
“You may well say, No.”
This is what Trollope wrote and what was printed in the FE too, so we print it as well, even though “You may well say no” is probably better.
“I said to myself, ‘Love your neighbour.’ ”
It is understandable why the compositor chose neighbours instead since there is an extra stroke on the MS word which could be an s. However, the stroke preceding the would-be s is not a fully formed r, and we think it likely instead that Trollope wrote (or at least intended to write) neighbour. Certainly, love thy neighbour or love your neighbour, singular, is the common phrase.
“If I thought that he would get the fresh young girl with the dimples, then I ought to abstain.”
There is no MS (or FE) comma before then, but we put it in for clarity—to link then more closely with I ought to abstain rather than with If I thought that he would get the fresh young girl with the dimples.
“as to whom the idea of marriage seems to be mixed somehow with an idea of suicide”
In proofs, marriage was changed to marrying them, probably in response to the cut in the previous sentence of with whom I could not bear to think that I should be linked for a life. Without those deleted words, readers might be uncertain at first about who Mabel refers to—herself, or the men—when she mentions the idea of marriage.
“I can fancy that his comfort and his success and his name should be everything to me.”
The word feeling appears after fancy in the MS but was cut from the FE. There is some temptation to restore it, as it fits well with Miss Cassewary’s statement in the next sentence about what a wife ought to feel. Perhaps Trollope in his haste thought the repetition was problematic? Still, there is not enough reason to overturn the FE.
Chapter 21
There had lately been a great Conservative reaction in the country
What Trollope wrote in the MS looks more like contrary than country, but the latter word was correctly published in the FE.
And in doing nothing, you can hardly do amiss.
The new sentence that Trollope added to the MS after this one—Let the doers of nothing have something of action forced upon them, and they, too, will blunder and quarrel—was a replacement for the long cut that followed, which uses Roman Catholics to explain what it means to think of nothing.
The wonder is that there should ever be in a reforming party enough of consentaneous action to carry any reform.
This sentence begins a new paragraph in the FE—yet another case where the compositor was tricked by the long cut of the previous sentences and didn’t realize that Trollope was continuing the same paragraph afterward.
when he was simply working his way up to the probability of a seat by making a reputation as an advocate
This has always been published with making rather than working, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
This place he had all but gained,—and it must be acknowledged that he had been moved by a grand and manly ambition.
This has always been published with plan rather than place, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Based on Trollope’s handwriting, plan is plausible, but the use of gained tells us that he wrote place instead. One gains a place, not a plan.
He had no idea as to the necessity or non-necessity of any measure whatsoever in reference to the well-being of the country.
This has always been published with whatever rather than whatsoever, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
should have the power of making dukes and bestowing garters and appointing bishops, he who by attaining the first seat should achieve the right of snubbing all below him
This has always been published with before rather than below, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Also, there is a comma after dukes in the FE (and MS), but it makes the sentence more difficult to read. Had Trollope truly intended to set bestowing garters and appointing bishops apart from making dukes, he would probably have done so with comma-dashes.
Then there is he who seeing the misfortune of that great one, tells himself that patriotism, judgment, industry, and eloquence will not suffice for him unless he himself can be loved.
A comma after who would be preferable, but it’s not in the FE or MS, and the sentence reads smoothly enough without it.
But in all that he does and all that he says, and in every measure by which he strives to serve his country, he must first study his party.
In cutting the text, Trollope had deleted the previous sentence, changed the period to a semicolon, and continued with but in all that he does and all that he says. With the restoration of the cut, we restore the period and the capital But. It’s worth noting that Trollope had originally left out the word in; he added it when making the 1878 changes.
It is well with him for a time;—but he has closed the door of his Elysium too rigidly.
Trollope originally wrote tightly instead of rigidly in the MS, but in making the replacement for the cut, he chose rigidly. It is hard to figure out why he would have made the change, since tightly is better; it makes more sense to close a door tightly than rigidly. But Trollope might have liked the image of rigidity here to convey a certain rigidity of approach that Sir Timothy takes. Given that he did write rigidly, and that we can find nothing about the restored words in the paragraph to argue for restoring tightly as well, we print rigidly.
But when there comes one immoderately, forcibly, violently inimical, then to that man he will open his bosom.
This has always been published with immoderately forcible, violently inimical rather than immoderately, forcibly, violently inimical, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
but these tricks should have nothing to do with either the executive or legislative business of the country
Another sentence, at the bottom of the MS page, was put in after this one as a cutting adjustment: For the executive or legislative business of the country he cared little.
When you see a young woman read a closed book placed on her dorsal vertebrae,—if you do believe that she so reads it,—you think that she is endowed with a very wonderful faculty!
The MS has both dashes, but the FE has only the first. While the FE version is feasible, the MS version is superior, and we restore it. Also, Trollope had originally written wonderful power indeed, then crossed out power indeed with a straight line and changed it to faculty. He had already used power in the previous sentence, and so substituted the longer faculty instead. Finally, the cut of indeed was made for reasons of space—as was the cut of indeed two sentences later. We do not believe Trollope would have kept both indeeds if he had seen them in proofs, and so we had to choose one to delete. We believe the second one is more effective, coming at the very end of the paragraph, and so we restore that indeed and not the other.
There can be no doubt that much of Sir Timothy’s power, much rather of his opportunity, had come from his most praiseworthy industry.
Trollope deleted much rather of his opportunities for space. Had he seen this phrase in proofs, we think it likely that he would have corrected the grammar error of much… opportunities. It is possible, too, that he would have wanted to keep the plural opportunities, and therefore would have changed much to many or rewritten the sentence with more substantial revision. Changing opportunities to opportunity is the least intrusive editorial move we could make.
When the Houses met, the ministers had indeed a majority
We now follow previous Oxford editions in adding a comma here, even though it is missing in the FE (and MS, and our previous Folio and Everyman editions). Otherwise, there could be a slight reader stumble with met the ministers joined together—as if the House as a group met the ministers.
Chapter 22
But when any large number of men act together, the falling friend is apt to be deserted.
Trollope wrote acts in the MS, but we follow the FE in printing act.
The Queen’s government had been carried on for two or three years without difficulty, and without inconvenience to anyone,—except, perhaps, to the poor ministers themselves.
This could easily be read as fine ministers instead of poor ministers, but the latter fits the context better.
and he certainly had suffered so much as to have become utterly ashamed of the coalition
Trollope cut and he certainly with a straight line, replacing it with but, during those years, which is longer. This change, however, was most likely prompted by the earlier cut of without difficulty, and without inconvenience to anyone,—except perhaps to the poor ministers themselves. That cut placed those years close to the mention of the two or three years that The Queen’s government had been carried on. With the distance created by the restored passage, we believe that and he certainly is superior.
All this, I think, must be remembered by readers of our political literature.
This sentence largely repeats the earlier They who are well read in the political literature of their country. However, there is not enough justification to consider this straight-line cut as an editorial rather than space-saving change, as Trollope may have used the repetition for emphasis. He did, after all, want to nudge those who were not well read (or couldn’t remember what they had read) to rectify the problem and immerse themselves in the previous Palliser novels.
That the heir of the family should have become a renegade in politics was supposed greatly to have afflicted the father.
This has always been published with affected rather than afflicted, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
“But I will not trouble the workers with the garrulousness of old age.”
This has always been published with querulousness rather than garrulousness, despite what appears to be in the MS. It is not unreasonable for the compositor to have read the word as querulousness; however, Trollope’s strokes make garrulousness more likely. And we believe that the Duke of St. Bungay would be more likely to apologize for being garrulous than querulous.
“And now, my dear friend, let me, as I go, say a parting word to him with whom in politics I have been for many years more in accord than with any other living man.”
This has always been published with leading man rather than living man, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
“if you permit yourself to be driven from the task which seems to have been appointed for you either by pride or by diffidence”
This has always been published with indifference, rather than diffidence, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. It is hard to imagine the Duke of St. Bungay accusing the Duke of Omnium of indifference.
“I might perhaps express my real feeling better were I to say by pride and diffidence.”
Trollope cut might perhaps for space, replacing it with should. He also cut real for space. The sentence in the FE became I should express my feelings better—with the plural feelings rather than feeling. We assume this change was made to avoid a reader stumble with feeling better, as in “I am feeling better.” Also, there are no italics for and in the MS, but they are needed. The Duke of St. Bungay is making a distinction between the either…or of the previous sentence and the and here. Because the compositor had mistakenly written indifference in that previous sentence, the need for the italics wouldn’t have shown up in proofs.
“But in this political mill of ours in England, a man cannot always find the way open to do things.”
Trollope had written political life, not political mill, in the MS. The two words do not look much alike in the MS; we assume this was a (lively) change made in proofs.
“But when a man, such as you, has shown himself to be necessary, as long as health and age permits, he cannot recede without breach of manifest duty.”
FE: “But when a man such as you has shown himself to be necessary, as long as health and age permits he cannot recede without breach of manifest duty.” The FE punctuation is smoother, but there is not sufficient justification to overrule Trollope’s MS commas.
He would do this till at last he was forced to defend himself against himself, by asking himself whether he could be other than as God had made him.
The comma is not in the FE (or MS) but makes the sentence easier to follow amidst the repetition of himself.
Was it his fault that he was so thin-skinned that all things hurt him, and that he shrank from being hurt?
Trollope originally cut the entire sentence for space, but then put back the first part in the MS, this time correctly moving so before thin-skinned (it had previously been right after thin-skinned). We restore the entire sentence.
All his friends, and all his enemies, knew that;—it was thus that he still discoursed with himself;—a shy, self-conscious, timid, shrinking, thin-skinned man!
Trollope had put a comma in the MS after friends. Though the second comma, after enemies, would appear to be missing, there is a mark after this word that may possibly be a misplaced comma—though it may also be a dot for the i in enemies. We believe that if the possibly misplaced comma had been more legible as a comma, the compositor would likely have followed Trollope’s wishes. We vastly prefer the sentence with commas around and all his enemies, and feel there is just enough justification to include them.
Feeling this, he could not protect himself by pleading to himself that he had neither done or said anything.
Trollope apparently began to write saying but changed his mind and put pleading instead. There is an extra dark loop over the s and then what is likely a wavy line after the y.
She had written as though the matter was almost one of life and death to her.
We ignore the FE paragraph break—another case where the compositor mistakenly created one after a long cut above.
“You tell me that I owe it you to make this acknowledgement to you,—and I make it.”
The FE printed owe it to you rather than owe it you, but only after the cut of to you later in the sentence. That extra to would not fit well with the two restored words.
It was very short, and as being short was infinitely less troublesome at the moment than a fuller epistle; but he was angry with himself, knowing that it was too short, feeling that it was ungenerous.
This has always been published with ungracious rather than ungenerous, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. It is possible that Trollope made the substitution on purpose, but the words look just similar enough to assume that the compositor erred, and it’s hard to see why Trollope would have objected to the original ungenerous enough to change it. In addition, Trollope seems to have first written a semicolon-dash, then changed it to a semicolon only—though it’s hard to know for sure. Usually he would cross out a straight line—a dash—with a wavy line; here, he put a thicker straight line over the original straight line. A semicolon-dash would be more typical in this sentence, but we follow the FE in printing the semicolon only.
Chapter 23
and during that time he had heard not a word about the girl he loved.
MS: and during that time he had heard not a word from or about the girl he loved. The cut in proofs of from or is understandable, as about already covers from.
Six weeks was not a very long period, but it was, perhaps, long enough for evincing that respect and awe which he owed to the young lady’s father.
Trollope had cut he felt with a straight line and replaced it with the equally long perhaps. He put commas around perhaps, but one can see why the compositor might have missed them—especially the second one, which nearly blends in with the s of perhaps. This is a case where the commas change the meaning of the sentence slightly; when it is set apart by commas, perhaps takes on greater weight—suggesting here that Silverbridge himself might be concerned that he has transgressed by not waiting the full amount of time. Given what seems to be Trollope’s strong preference here (he put both commas in the line above the cross-out, even though the second one after the original felt still remained) and the possibility that the compositor erred, we include the commas.
He not only disliked, but distrusted Major Tifto, and had so expressed himself as to give rise to angry words.
Trollope originally wrote distrusted the Major, then deleted the and added the longer Tifto. It is possible that this change was instigated by the cut in the previous sentence of in regard to whom he entertained something like anger on account of the Major, as Trollope found the reference to the Major too informal in what remained of the passage and so changed it to Major Tifto. We think it more likely, however, that this was an editorial decision unrelated to the cuts—a decision made to add linguistic variety, as the Major followed by Major Tifto sounds better than the Major written twice.
In such a state of things it was not possible that there should be any close confidence as to Lady Mary.
MS: In such a state of things it was not possible that there should be between them any close confidence as to Lady Mary. Here again the cut in proofs removed redundancy, as between them is entirely unnecessary.
She had been almost severe with him, but she had not made him understand that she thought the marriage to be impossible. He had during his interview been angry with her, thinking that she was interfering with him;—but after the interview was over, and from that time to the present, he had continued to assure himself that she had acted well and wisely.
With Trollope’s cuts, this passage became in the MS: She had been almost severe with him, and during his interview he had been almost angry with her, thinking that she was interfering with him;—but after the interview was over, he had felt that she had acted well and wisely. Trollope tightened the sentence further in proofs, leaving out the part about how Frank felt during their interview. Perhaps he initially fussed with the sentence because of the awkward repetition of almost—something that is not a problem in the original text, when he wrote He had during his interview been angry with her, rather than and during his interview he had been almost angry with her. Some readers may prefer the leaner sentences that appeared in the FE, but there is no justification for us to disregard the evidence of the straight-line cuts.
She had been honest; he was deficient now even in that honesty for which she had specially given him credit.
Trollope had actually written a semicolon-dash rather than a semicolon, but it was obscured because the semicolon appeared at the end of one line and the dash at the beginning of the next. Or, more precisely, it was not exactly obscured but instead something that the compositor had demonstrated he would often miss. Still, in this case we stick with the FE punctuation. In the previous sentence, Trollope had written She had been generous; he was ungenerous, and he might have felt that there should be parallel semicolons in the two sentences rather than a semicolon and a semicolon-dash.
And she had been unable to obtain any of that consolation which could have come to her from talking of the wrongs she endured.
Trollope had written enjoy rather than obtain in the MS, but the change to obtain must have been purposeful. The two words do not look alike, and enjoy doesn’t accurately convey what Mabel would have felt if she had been able to speak about the wrongs she endured. In addition, when Trollope cut the wrongs she endured and replaced it with her wrongs, he cut the with a line that is more wavy than straight. Still, we print the wrongs she endured rather than the awkward her wrongs she endured.
As she took it into her hand, she recognised the Duke’s writing.
In the MS, Trollope cut As she took it into her hand and added at once after recognised; in proofs, writing became handwriting. We restore the original sentence: As she took it into her hand covers at once, and writing sounds better than handwriting once the word hand reappears.
“You don’t suppose that if she were here I would let her see you in my house without her father’s leave?”
We follow the FE in putting a question mark, rather than the MS period, at the end of the sentence. Frank’s response (“I suppose not”) makes it even more evident that Mrs. Finn has spoken in a questioning tone.
When you call a man Benedick he does not come to you with ecstatic descriptions of the beauty and the wit of his Beatrice. But no one was likely to call him Benedick in reference to Lady Mary.
The character’s name in Much Ado About Nothing is Benedick. The FE follows the MS in printing Benedict not Benedick. Interestingly, ATYR had made the change to Benedick, but this was not carried through to the FE—presumably because the compositor was looking only at the MS in this part of the page where there were no cuts. In more “messy” sections of the book, with lots of changes, he relied heavily on what ATYR had done. Previous Oxford editions have used Benedick.
But this would be possible,—ah, so deliciously possible,—if only her father and mother would assent!
This has always been published with assist rather than assent, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. The compositor, not for the first time, must have been confused by the epsilon e and thought it was a dot on an i. Or perhaps he was put off by the repetition of assent in the next sentence. In this case, though, the repetition is effective.
The mother, imprudent in this as in all things,—in real truth, absolutely delighted with the imprudence,—had assented.
Trollope cut with a straight line in real truth, absolutely delighted with the imprudence. It is possible that what we are printing as in real truth was actually in and truth, with the first two words mistakenly transposed. However, we think in real truth is more likely than and in truth.
Chapter 24
But the letter found its way into Lady Mary’s hands without any delay, and was read in the seclusion of her own bedroom.
There is no comma in the FE, but the restoration of without any delay makes the sentence longer; thus, the MS comma is useful in creating a pause.
“I thought so once. But the more I see her the more I feel how determined she is.”
The MS seems to have an exclamation point after once—though these are possibly closing quotation marks that Trollope added after cutting the next sentence. Especially given how the Countess is speaking sorrowfully, an exclamation point does not fit her tone; we print the FE period instead.
the most charming plaything in the world on the quite fewer occasions in which he had allowed himself to play
The word quite is likely but not certain; there is also the possibility that the cuts of this word and fewer to few were meant as regular revisions, since Trollope’s cross-out is thicker than usual. Still, those cross-outs are done with a straight line, and we believe that quite fewer is the best choice here.
“Can you see her become thin, and ill, and miserable,—absolutely pining away in her misery!”
The cuts in the sentence made a question mark necessary at the end; with the restored words—and especially the comma-dash—Trollope’s MS exclamation point is acceptable.
“Girls, like men, are very different.”
We follow the FE and not the MS in printing commas here. Actually, there may be at least one comma in the MS, after men, though it’s hard to tell for sure. There is a potential reader stumble without the commas, as if the sentence could be “Girls like men [who] are very different” or “Girls [who] like men are very different.”
“Never. She shall never marry him with my sanction.”
Usually, one would expect an exclamation point in this sort of situation after Never—and the FE puts one in. But Trollope may have had it right here; the Duke would not necessarily want to be so melodramatic at this moment.
and had been so asked as though it was thought that he was indifferent to the sufferings of his child.
FE: were indifferent, rather than was indifferent. Trollope had first written were but clearly wrote was over it. Perhaps with the cut of it was thought, he preferred as though he were indifferent. With the restoration of that cut, we print was.
In his indignation he determined,—for a while,—that he would remove her from the custody of Lady Cantrip.
There is a dot in the MS after determined that might have been intended as a comma; the dash begins the next line before for. In this case the compositor was dutifully following what he took to be Trollope’s punctuation by printing a plain dash followed by a comma-dash, but two comma-dashes would be more standard.
But who should be the happy man? Then, though he thoroughly despised himself for what he was doing, he began to count up the requisite attributes. The man must be of high rank, and an eldest son, and the possessor of, or the heir to, a good estate.
Trollope had cut in the MS though he thoroughly despised himself for what he was doing, and in proofs changed The man to He. Perhaps he felt that the repetition of man was awkward when the two appearances of the word came so close together. With the restored words creating some distance, we restore the second man as well.
He was rejecting this other man because he possessed none of these attributes.
This has always been published with ejecting rather than rejecting, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Trollope’s r is smaller than usual, but is nonetheless visible.
But then how should the matter be broken to the young man?
This has always been published with spoken of rather than broken, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS.
Chapter 25
In fact he had made the most prudent book in the world; and had so managed affairs that even now the horse which he and Tifto owned between them was worth more than all he had lost and paid.
Trollope cut in the MS the horse which he and Tifto owned between them and replaced it with the shorter the horse which had been beaten. It is possible that the change was made for editorial reasons; Trollope might have been thinking about the other horse, Coalition, and to avoid any possible misunderstanding that Prime Minister was the only horse which Silverbridge and Tifto owned between them, he decided to change to the horse which had been beaten. Nevertheless, it is easy enough to read about the horse which he and Tifto owned between them in the context of this chapter beginning and to understand that this horse, Prime Minister, is not necessarily the only one the pair own. We do not think, then, that there is enough justification to overrule the straight-line cut, and we restore the original words.
Prime Minister was now one of the favourites for the Leger.
Trollope wrote The Prime Minister in the MS, and The was published in the FE. See our discussion in Chapter 17 on omitting the article before the horse’s name.
If that race were lost, then there should be a settlement,—the settlement to be made by a transfer of the steed to the younger partner.
This has always been published with stud rather than steed, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. Trollope made a point of putting in an epsilon e; otherwise the two e’s together could have been read as a u. Yet the compositor ignored that epsilon e—as he did elsewhere.
It was supposed that Lord Gerald passed his mornings in reading, and some little attempts were made in that direction, chiefly under his brother’s direction.
Trollope cut for space chiefly under his brother’s direction. Actually, he may have written directions, though what appears to be an s could also well be the original period. Since direction fits the context better than directions, we print the former. The restoration of the phrase does create a repetition of direction—something that Trollope might have fixed in proofs had the original sentence remained intact. That revision could have been something like “and some little attempts were made, chiefly under his brother’s direction.” We believe, however, that it would constitute too much interference on our part to print that revised sentence—especially since the repetition of direction is not so problematic if some extra emphasis is given to the word brother’s.
Though the life which they lived as young men was distasteful to him,—though race-horses were an abomination to him, and the driving of coaches a folly, and club-life a manifest waste of time, still he recognised these things as being, if not necessary to them, at any rate unavoidable costs.
This has always been published with evils rather than costs, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. It is understandable how the compositor could have read the first two letters as an e and a v, and the third letter as an undotted i. The crossed t, however, is clear enough—though the cross is less wide than usual and might have been mistaken for a blotch. Also, though a second comma-dash would be useful, it does not appear in either the FE or MS. Because what follows the comma-dash makes up what could be a complete sentence, the lack of a second comma-dash does not cause a reader stumble.
“The worst of it is that he will never let them get anything to eat,” said Gerald.
There is a temptation to change them to us for clarity, but Trollope did write them, and them has always been printed. And there are other places in the novel where third person is used in dialogue when modern conventions would call for first person.
just as the word “but” came from his lips
Trollope had crossed out this phrase with a straight line, then rewrote it all except for the word just. We assume that the omission of just was either an oversight, or a one-word space-saving cut; thus, we restore it.
“And you, both of you, have been born to be rich.”
There is a line under the first you in the MS which could be an attempt to italicize; but the line loops and extends beyond the word, so it’s probably something else. In any case, the FE (and ATYR) printed the word in standard fashion, as do we.
“Does anybody wish to get rid of it,—as Sinbad did of the old man?” asked Gerald pertinaciously.
FE: “Does anybody wish to get rid of it, as Sindbad did of the Old Man?” Trollope inserted the dash with a caret, but it is unusually thick. Did he change his mind? If so, it’s more likely that he would have crossed out both the dash and the caret with a wavy line. We believe instead, then, that this just happens to be a thick dash—especially since Gerald sounds more pertinacious with the comma-dash rather than the comma, as if he has suddenly thought of something clever to say. Though Sindbad is an acceptable spelling, and Old Man acceptably capitalized, Trollope in the MS used the more common Sinbad and the more common lower-case old man. We follow the MS, then, rather than the more idiosyncratic FE.
Chapter 26
The Duke was in the gallery which is devoted to the use of peers, and Silverbridge, having heard that his father was there, had come up to shake hands with him from his own part of the enclosures.
The comma after Silverbridge was added in previous Oxford editions but is not in the FE. It is in the MS, but the compositor perhaps missed it because it is right underneath the h in having and is almost attached to it. Had he seen it, he almost surely would have put it in.
He would never, however, come across into the other House without letting his son know of his coming.
There is a comma in both the FE and MS after House. We omit it; otherwise, some readers might first believe that the Duke never came to the other House at all.
And as the ordinary conversation of everyday society is the arena in which men are most generally seen, then the man of moderate parts will seem to be greater than the man of genius.
In the MS, Trollope cut the first part of the sentence before the comma and capitalized Then, leaving Then the man of moderate parts will seem to be greater than the man of genius. This did not work, and so in proofs he deleted Then and substituted In a debate—which is better but still not as comprehensible as the original version.
No one knew so well as Sir Timothy how to make arrangements for business, so that every detail arranged should be troublesome to his opponents.
What the compositor took to be a comma is more likely a speck. We prefer the sentence without the comma, though an argument could be made that it provides a welcome pause. Regardless, it has always been printed, and there is not sufficient cause to overrule our policy of following FE punctuation for narration.
He knew how to blind the eyes of members to the truth without making any assurance with words of which they could afterwards complain.
Trollope probably meant assertion, but since assurance is feasible in the sentence, we stick with what he did indeed write. Also, he wrote the before words; we have left it out, assuming that Trollope would have done so also had he seen the sentence in proofs. That the is especially awkward coming so soon after the truth.
when, with all their pieces on the board, there should be none which they could move
The comma after when was dropped in the FE. It is in the MS and previous Oxford editions, and we include it too.
That, in his mind, was under this constitution of ours the art most essential for the well-being of the country!
This has always been published with act rather than art, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. It is understandable that the compositor would have seen the r as a c instead—though it still looks more like an r. However, Sir Timothy is thinking about the one art, not the one act, of parliamentary management. Also, we print Trollope’s exclamation point rather than the FE period. The compositor might have read this punctuation mark as a comma after ours in the line above—a comma which he then rightly saw as unnecessary. Though the use of an exclamation point means now that four sentences in a row end with one, it seems clear that Trollope has purposely built a sequence in which those sentences all have the same astonished tone.
His mock indignation, which was of course altogether under control, was perhaps his most powerful weapon.
Trollope cut for space which was of course altogether under control. He also changed the rest of the original sentence from one of his most powerful weapons to perhaps his most powerful weapon. The latter change does not save space, and does not appear to be instigated by the previous cut. It’s a tiny revision, but one that Trollope must have felt was more accurate: not one of, but perhaps his most powerful weapon.
And now Sir Timothy was really angry, and condescended to speak of our old friend Phineas as a bellicose Irishman.
Trollope had cut the reference to Phineas Finn earlier in the paragraph (which had been made on his measure by Phineas Finn) and added who had made the onslaught after our old friend Phineas so as to make it clear why Sir Timothy rails against him. With the restoration of the earlier passage, we do not print who had made the onslaught.
There was an over-true story as to our friend having once been seduced into fighting a duel since he had been a member of Parliament
Trollope cut since he had been a member of Parliament, and his insertion of once might well have been a replacement. Yet the word adds a bit more specificity to the news of Sir Timothy’s duel, and so might have been added independent of the cut.
Sir Timothy had been called to order by some restive Irish members, but the Speaker had ruled that “bellicose Irishman” was not beyond the latitude of parliamentary animadversion. Then Sir Timothy had repeated the phrase with a good deal of emphasis, and the Duke hearing it in the gallery had made his little caustic remark as to the unwonted eloquence of his son’s parliamentary chief.
Simple past tense would have been preferable (called/ruled/repeated/made), but it would be too aggressive for us to change what Trollope wrote here. Also, by some restive Irish members is not a certain line reading. Though members is fairly clear, and Irish somewhat clear, the other words are more questionable. If by some restive is correct, it would mean that there was a wavy-line revision after some.
“You see he never must forget anything. He always must be ready.”
Trollope shortened this to “A man to do it must be always ready.” His reordering of always must be to must be always was probably instigated by the cut, as the rhythm of never must/always must was no longer operative.
Upon the whole the Duke was pleased with what he heard from his son.
Though Trollope did not indicate it in the MS, it is understandable that, for the FE, he would not want to begin a new paragraph with this sentence—better one longer paragraph than the choppiness of two very short ones. With the restoration of various passages, however, we restore the paragraph break.
“You never were at the Beargarden;—were you, sir?” asked Silverbridge suddenly.
The FE begins a new paragraph with this sentence, but it is clear in the MS that it is meant to end the previous paragraph. Either the compositor, once again, erred in automatically creating a new paragraph after a long cut, or the nature of the cut made it more imperative to start a new paragraph. It doesn’t matter which; we include this sentence at the end of the long paragraph that begins with Then the House about half-past seven suddenly became very empty.
“and though, even for the State’s sake, you would not willingly be closely allied with those whom you think dishonest, the outward manners and fashions of life need create no barriers”
Trollope wrote barrier in the MS, so the FE barriers could be an error. But it is also possible that he preferred the plural, as fitting more naturally with manners and fashions. We think it more likely that the compositor erred, but there is not enough cause to overturn what was printed in the FE.
“I certainly should not turn up my nose at the House of Commons because some constituency might send there an illiterate shoemaker”
This has always been published with them rather than there, despite what Trollope wrote in the MS. The word could be taken for then or even thus—neither of which fits the sentence—but not them.
“He has done pretty well I am told.”
Trollope cut am told and replaced it with the shorter hear. The FE, probably erroneously, changed I hear to however. We restore the original sentence.
This was an accident the possibility of which had escaped him.
FE: This was an accident, the possibility of which had not crossed him. It is difficult to believe this was a purposeful change by Trollope. Instead, the compositor must have had trouble reading the word escaped, especially because there is an extra tiny loop before the d and because the s and c look more liked undotted i’s. There is also a tiny smudge over the first e. We are confident, however, that Trollope indeed wrote escaped, and with the restoration of this word, we print the sentence the way it is in the MS—without the FE comma after accident.
Silverbridge was in truth much more anxious to please his father than to gratify himself by smoking; but there was, in truth, a further reason for avoiding the publicity of the smoking-room.
The restored first part of the sentence means that in truth now appears twice. It is more than possible that Trollope would have cut one of them had he seen the sentence in proofs. However, the repetition does not strike us as particularly clunky, and might possibly even be considered purposeful.
but Tregear, having made the assertion on behalf of his friend and his friend’s father, would not allow himself to be enticed into further speech
Trollope cut and his friend’s father for space. He had put in the first comma, after Tregear, but left out the second. Either the second comma had to be added, or the first one removed. The FE chose the latter: but Tregear having made the assertion on behalf of his friend would not allow himself to be enticed into further speech. We believe the sentence is easier to read with the commas inserted—especially since it is now longer with the restored words.
He paused for a moment and then asked a straightforward question, very quickly—“You have never thought of anyone yet, I suppose?”
The compositor followed the MS in putting a period, not question mark, at the end of the sentence. However, given that the earlier part of the sentence tells us that the Duke asked a straightforward question, it is clear that Trollope, not for the first time, forgot to put in the question mark.
“But I have.” Lord Silverbridge as he made the announcement blushed up to the eyes. Then there came over the father something almost of fear.
Trollope had originally created a paragraph break with Then there came over the father something almost of fear, but he then drew a line merging this sentence into the previous paragraph. We think it unlikely that he would purposely do this in the MS and then change his mind again when seeing the paragraph in proofs. It is true that, just above, Trollope had drawn a similar line joining “You have never thought of anyone?” with the previous paragraph. In that case, however, the line actually crosses through the words to his father from the previous sentence, making the revision especially hard to miss. Trollope had good reason not to create a paragraph break after blushed up to the eyes, as it allowed him to keep “But I have” and the later “Yes, I have” in the same paragraph.
Now the Duke would have been very unwilling to say that his son would certainly be accepted by any girl in England to whom he might choose to offer his hand, his coronet, and his fortune,—nor probably did he so think.
Trollope may well have written fortunes, though it’s hard to tell for sure underneath the straight-line cut. Regardless, it is a singular fortune that Silverbridge has to offer.
“You know Lady Mabel Grex.”
The FE ends the sentence with a question mark, but Trollope’s MS period is more than fine. Silverbridge recognizes that his father knows who Mabel is; he doesn’t have to ask.
“But he who gambles because he has none, is,—— Well, let us hope the best of him.”
FE: “But he who gambles because he has none is—well, let us hope the best of him.” Trollope’s MS punctuation is idiosyncratic, but it does convey how the Duke fails to finish his sentence before going on to the new one. Indeed, Trollope puts a period after the comma-dash, but we believe the capitalized Well makes it clear enough that a new sentence is beginning without the extra distraction of a period following a comma-dash.
“I remember to have heard your dear mother say that Lady Mabel had in certain circumstances behaved very well.”
Not far above, we learn that Silverbridge is thinking that she had behaved remarkably well in trying circumstances. It is awkward for the Duke now to repeat the same thing about Mabel’s behavior, but it would be too aggressive on our part to do anything about it.
