Tennyson : Notebook 'XVII'. The devil and the lady

Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892

Tennyson

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This appears to be the earliest notebook in the Trinity collection. It contains a draft of <i>The Devil and the Lady</i> which family tradition dates at Tennyson's fourteenth year, or c. 1824. The notebook is typical in binding and size of the other notebooks representing the period 1823–33. Sir Charles Tennyson suggests that the binding was done by Tennyson's father, but it seems more likely that Doctor Tennyson was responsible for the interpolated leaves which have been sewn in with thick white thread between the original leaves of the notebook. These interpolated leaves occur in the early portion of the notebook, during the draft of <i>The Devil and the Lady</i>. Several hands appear in the notebook. The majority of <i>The Devil and the Lady</i> draft is written by an unidentified scribe. Tennyson added many passages to the draft on the interpolated leaves mentioned above. Hallam Tennyson volunteered some endings for the drama based on Tennyson's other poetry. May Tennyson corrected a misquote of Hallam's in one of these endings. A single word and number was attributed to Doctor Tennyson by Hallam Tennyson (see folio 2). In the summer of 1975 Sidney Cockerell repaired the notebook. His repairs included replacing the spine leather, re-sewing the interpolated leaves, deacidifying the notebook, and tightening the binding.</p>