[1] The name is spelled thus in the MSS of _Mathilda_ and _The Fields of Fancy_, though in the printed _Journal_ (taken from _Shelley and Mary_) and in the _Letters_ it is spelled _Matilda_. In the MS of the journal, however, it is spelled first _Matilda_, later _Mathilda_. [2] Mary has here added detail and contrast to the description in _F of F--A_, in which the passage “save a few black patches ... on the plain ground” does not appear. [3] The addition of “I am alone ... withered me” motivates Mathilda’s state of mind and her resolve to write her history. [4] Mathilda too is the unwitting victim in a story of incest. Like Oedipus, she has lost her parent-lover by suicide; like him she leaves the scene of the revelation overwhelmed by a sense of her own guilt, “a sacred horror”; like him, she finds a measure of peace as she is about to die. [5] The addition of “the precious memorials ... gratitude towards you,” by its suggestion of the relationship between Mathilda and Woodville, serves to justify the detailed narration. [6] At this point two sheets have been removed from the notebook. There is no break in continuity, however. [7] The descriptions of Mathilda’s father and mother and the account of their marriage in the next few pages are greatly expanded from _F of F--A_, where there is only one brief paragraph. The process of expansion can be followed in _S-R fr_ and in _F of F--B_. The development of the character of Diana (who represents Mary’s own mother, Mary Wollstonecraft) gave Mary the most trouble. For the identifications with Mary’s father and mother, see Nitchie, _Mary Shelley_, pp. 11, 90-93, 96-97. [8] The passage “There was a gentleman ... school & college vacations” is on a slip of paper pasted on page 11 of the MS. In the margin are two fragments, crossed out, evidently parts of what is supplanted by the substituted passage: “an angelic disposition and a quick, penetrating understanding” and “her visits ... to ... his house were long & frequent & there.” In _F of F--B_ Mary wrote of Diana’s understanding “that often receives the name of masculine from its firmness and strength.” This adjective had often been applied to Mary Wollstonecraft’s mind. Mary Shelley’s own understanding had been called masculine by Leigh Hunt in 1817 in the _Examiner_. The word was used also by a reviewer of her last published work, _Rambles in Germany and Italy, 1844_. (See Nitchie, _Mary Shelley_, p. 178.) [9] The account of Diana in _Mathilda_ is much better ordered and more coherent than that in _F of F--B_. [10] The description of the effect of Diana’s death on her husband is largely new in _Mathilda_. _F of F--B_ is frankly incomplete; _F of F--A_ contains some of this material; _Mathilda_ puts it in order and fills in the gaps. [11] This paragraph is an elaboration of the description of her aunt’s coldness as found in _F of F--B_. There is only one sentence in _F of F--A_.