Another Lucy 369 ANOTHER LUCY Between Lucy Gray ("Comp. 1799 Pub. 1800") and Christopher Anstey's moralizing ballad called The Farmer's Daughter (Bath, 1795), 1 there are several points of similarity. Concerning the origin of Lucy Gray, Wordsworth said, in the Fen wick note: "It was founded on a circumstance told me by my sister, of a little girl, who not far from Halifax in Yorkshire, was bewildered in a snow storm." But it is not impossible that Dorothy had read Anstey's poem and, perhaps uncon- sciously, borrowed some details of her story from it. 2 The brief preface to The Farmer's Daughter begins with these words: "This little piece is founded upon a circumstance which really happened in the course of the late very severe winter, in which many persons were frozen to death; amongst whom was the unfortunate young Woman who is the subject of the following lines." The first quatrain of the forty-five which make up the rambling narrative is as follows: Keen was the blast, and bleak the morn, When Lucy took her way, To seek the wretch, whose perjur'd vows, Had led her youth astray. Another typical stanza runs: Such were the days that Lucy knew, Such harmless nights as these Calm'd ev'ry scene, made labour light, And ev'ry object please. Wide as are the differences, the reader must see a superficial similarity between these lines and Wordsworth's: No mate, no comrade Lucy knew; She dwelt on a wide moor, The sweetest thing that ever grew Beside a human door! 1 Reprinted in The Poetical Works of the late Christopher Anstey, Esq., with some account of the life and writings of the author by his son, John Anstey, Esq. (London, 1808), pp. 338-348. 2 Several entries in the Grasmere journal for the period from May 14 to December 21, 1800, testify to her fondness for reading ballads. See Journals of
Dorothy Wordsworth (London, 1904), vol. I, pp. 32, 35, 36.
