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(16 Dec 1885). Yale. Also a summary on a strip of paper, preserved with her papers at Yale: 496C, series VII, box 103, f.259. The spider’s web cliché is repeated in both sources.

234 inscribed book: EDR.

234 ED’s exchange with Dr Holland: Quoted by ED to SHD. L714.

234 Sue’s visit to ED: ED to Dr Holland. L715.

235 ‘And you alone . . .’: (6 July 1885). Yale. Not in A&M.

235 ‘It seems unfair . . .’: (Feb 1883). A&M, 154.

235 MLT asked WAD for reasons: A&M, 185.

235 MLT in Washington: (early 1884). Ibid.

235 ‘to use as a shield’: WAD to MLT, repeating her plea. Ibid.

236 ‘a lady to the core’: (19 Aug 1887). A&M, 288.

236 Ned’s nerves: To MDB (1 Feb 1885). Hay Library. St Armand, New England Quarterly (1988), 373.

236 ‘storm-centre’; ‘stiffened up’: To MDB (11 Jan and 3 Mar 1885). Ibid.

236 ‘Is it not better . . .’: (early 1884). A&M, 186.

236 ‘my sweet wife’: A&M, 235.

237 ‘wicked’ etc: A&M, 240-1.

237 ‘encumbrances’, ‘annoyances’: (15 Dec 1885). A&M, 244-5.

237 ‘deprivations . . .’: (2 Nov 1885). A&M, 244.

237 ‘one turn of God’s hand’: (15 Dec 1885), op. cit.

237 ‘The World hath not known . . .’: (c. late 1885). L1024.

238 ‘You will not . . .’: A&M, 244-5.

238 ‘star of presentiment . . .’: (2 Nov 1885). A&M, 244.

238 potentially dangerous: Browning’s Porphyria (in the dramatic monologue ‘Porphyria’s Lover’) and Othello’s Desdemona are loved by men who kill them.

239 ‘divine possibilities . . .’: MLT to WAD (7 June 1887). Yale. Not in A&M.

239 ‘of-course feeling . . .’: (c. 10 June 1887). Yale. Not in A&M.

240 ‘unconscious’: Polly Longsworth, A&M, 286.

241 ‘morbid’; ‘hatred . . .’: A&M, 286-7.

241 ‘If any divine visitation . . .’: A&M, 290.

241 ‘my angel wife’: (18 June 1887), when she was en route for Japan. A&M, 270.

242 ‘There is nothing else . . .’: (16 July 1887). A&M, 280-1.

242 ‘the power’ of her love: A&M, 280.

242 Seelye not impressed with DPT: WAD to MLT (3 July 1887). A&M, 273-4.

242 ‘I am pitifully helpless . . .’: (31 July 1887). A&M, 286.

242 ‘turn it over’: A&M, 298.

243 ‘I want to rush away . . .’: (2 Nov 1885). A&M, 244.

243 ‘clearly’: (6 July 1885). Yale. Not in A&M.

243 ‘hoggery . . .’: (13 Nov 1887). DFP. Houghton: bMS Am 1118.95.

244 ‘volume of Emerson . . .’: (16 Nov 1887), from Memphis, Tennessee. A&M, 300.

244 ‘frightened’: WAD to MLT (28 Mar 1888). A&M, 304.

245 SHD to WAD from Maine: (4 Aug 1888). DFP. Houghton: bMS Am 1118.95.

245 MLT’s appearance in 1888: MLT’s photo album. Yale: 496E.

245 ‘thunderbolt’; ‘I was crushed’: A&M, 310.

245 ‘that heavy incubus’ etc: Journals (22 Oct 1888), 33. Yale: microfilm.

246 ‘It almost seems to me . . .’: A&M, 310-12.

247 ‘heart-breaking discourtesies’: MLT to WAD (14 Apr 1889). A&M, 319.

247 MLT and the Handel and Haydn Society: Journals (winter 1990). Yale: microfilm.

247 MLT on her ‘dear men’: Journals, V, 44, 49. Yale: microfilm.

248 ‘face to face with . . . horror’: (30 Nov 1889). A&M, 328.

248 Mrs Coonley: A cousin of Eben Loomis.

249 ‘mentally and spiritually . . .’: (1890). A&M, 296.

249 ‘wonderful effect’: Journals, V (30 Nov 1890), 73. Yale: microfilm.

249 creative offspring: I’m indebted to poet and agent Isobel Dixon for this.

11: MABEL IN EXCELSIS

250 ‘my work . . .’: MDB, Introduction to Further Poems.

250 ‘A Damascus blade . . .’; ‘swift . . .’: Obituary, Springfield Republican (18 May 1886). Copy in AC.

251 SHD sent poem to Gilder: (31 Dec 1886). Century Collection, Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library, cited AB, 88.

251 ‘un-presentable’: SHD to TWH (c. 1890). AC: ED collection: Todd, 110-11.

251 ‘Alcohol’ and ‘pearl’: Cited by Benfey in ‘The Mystery of ED’, NYRB (1999).

251 ‘wayward’: TWH, Preface to Poems (1890).

251 ‘wayward’ stuck: See Charles R. Anderson, Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: Stairway of Surprise (1960; repr. NY: Anchor, 1966).

252 ‘sometimes weary . . .’: LD to Amherst friend, Mrs Dickerman, quoted in her daughter, Elizabeth Dickerman (of Amherst,