With regard to the Notes and Commentaries, I have spared no pains to
explain everything which seemed to need explanation. There are, I think,
only two points which I have not been able to clear up, namely, the name
of the friend to whom the 'Palace of Art' was addressed, and the name
of the friend to whom the 'Verses after Reading a Life and Letters'
were addressed. I have consulted every one who would be likely to throw
light on the subject, including the poet's surviving sister, many of his
friends, and the present Lord Tennyson, but without success; so the
names, if they were not those of some imaginary person, appear to be
irrecoverable. The Prize Poem, 'Timbuctoo', as well as the poems which
were temporarily or finally suppressed in the volumes published in 1830
and 1832 have been printed in the Appendix: those which were
subsequently incorporated in his Works, in large type; those which he
never reprinted, in small.

The text here adopted is that of 1857, but Messrs. Macmillan, to whom I
beg to express my hearty thanks, have most generously allowed me to
record all the variants which are still protected by copyright. I have
to thank them, too, for assistance in the Bibliography. I have also to
thank Mr. J. T. Wise for his kindness in lending me the privately
printed volume containing the 'Morte d'Arthur, Dora,' etc.





INTRODUCTION

I