The Text of "Miss Mackenzie"

Abstract

I OFFER some guesses. I make no apology for publishing conjectures without reference to the MS, which in this case almost certainly survives (though it is not listed in Number One, p. 47).1 My reason is that only by subsequent reference to the MS can the pretensions of textual criticism, or of an individual critic, be tested. This has been done for me, in respect of Phineas Redux (see Professor Tinker's report from the MS in his possession, Review of English Studies, January, I942) and of Phineas Finn (see Professor R. L. Purdy's report from the MS in Professor Tinker's possession, Times Literary Supplement, July 29, I944); in each case I have scored about 50 per cent of hits. References are to the World's Classics reprint, which I have to confess I have not collated with the first edition. Serious errors in W. C. are improbable.2