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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4695-h.zip b/4695-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0419d7a --- /dev/null +++ b/4695-h.zip diff --git a/4695-h/4695-h.htm b/4695-h/4695-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa1348f --- /dev/null +++ b/4695-h/4695-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3308 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Notes to the Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, +by Mary W. Shelley +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to the Complete Poetical Works of +Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Mary W. Shelley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes to the Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley + +Author: Mary W. Shelley + +Posting Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #4695] +Release Date: November, 2003 +First Posted: March 3, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO WORKS OF SHELLEY *** + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +NOTES TO +</H2> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS<BR> OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +MARY W. SHELLEY. +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY +<BR> +TO FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, 1839. +</H3> + +<P> +Obstacles have long existed to my presenting the public with a perfect +edition of Shelley's Poems. These being at last happily removed, I +hasten to fulfil an important duty,—that of giving the productions of a +sublime genius to the world, with all the correctness possible, and of, +at the same time, detailing the history of those productions, as they +sprang, living and warm, from his heart and brain. I abstain from any +remark on the occurrences of his private life, except inasmuch as the +passions which they engendered inspired his poetry. This is not the time +to relate the truth; and I should reject any colouring of the truth. No +account of these events has ever been given at all approaching reality +in their details, either as regards himself or others; nor shall I +further allude to them than to remark that the errors of action +committed by a man as noble and generous as Shelley, may, as far as he +only is concerned, be fearlessly avowed by those who loved him, in the +firm conviction that, were they judged impartially, his character would +stand in fairer and brighter light than that of any contemporary. +Whatever faults he had ought to find extenuation among his fellows, +since they prove him to be human; without them, the exalted nature of +his soul would have raised him into something divine. +</P> + +<P> +The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley +were,—First, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his +intercourse with warm affection and helpful sympathy. The other, the +eagerness and ardour with which he was attached to the cause of human +happiness and improvement; and the fervent eloquence with which he +discussed such subjects. His conversation was marked by its happy +abundance, and the beautiful language in which he clothed his poetic +ideas and philosophical notions. To defecate life of its misery and its +evil was the ruling passion of his soul; he dedicated to it every power +of his mind, every pulsation of his heart. He looked on political +freedom as the direct agent to effect the happiness of mankind; and thus +any new-sprung hope of liberty inspired a joy and an exultation more +intense and wild than he could have felt for any personal advantage. +Those who have never experienced the workings of passion on general and +unselfish subjects cannot understand this; and it must be difficult of +comprehension to the younger generation rising around, since they cannot +remember the scorn and hatred with which the partisans of reform were +regarded some few years ago, nor the persecutions to which they were +exposed. He had been from youth the victim of the state of feeling +inspired by the reaction of the French Revolution; and believing firmly +in the justice and excellence of his views, it cannot be wondered that a +nature as sensitive, as impetuous, and as generous as his, should put +its whole force into the attempt to alleviate for others the evils of +those systems from which he had himself suffered. Many advantages +attended his birth; he spurned them all when balanced with what he +considered his duties. He was generous to imprudence, devoted to +heroism. +</P> + +<P> +These characteristics breathe throughout his poetry. The struggle for +human weal; the resolution firm to martyrdom; the impetuous pursuit, the +glad triumph in good; the determination not to despair;—such were the +features that marked those of his works which he regarded with most +complacency, as sustained by a lofty subject and useful aim. +</P> + +<P> +In addition to these, his poems may be divided into two classes,—the +purely imaginative, and those which sprang from the emotions of his +heart. Among the former may be classed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", +and his latest composition, left imperfect, the "Triumph of Life". In +the first of these particularly he gave the reins to his fancy, and +luxuriated in every idea as it rose; in all there is that sense of +mystery which formed an essential portion of his perception of life—a +clinging to the subtler inner spirit, rather than to the outward form—a +curious and metaphysical anatomy of human passion and perception. +</P> + +<P> +The second class is, of course, the more popular, as appealing at once +to emotions common to us all; some of these rest on the passion of love; +others on grief and despondency; others on the sentiments inspired by +natural objects. Shelley's conception of love was exalted, absorbing, +allied to all that is purest and noblest in our nature, and warmed by +earnest passion; such it appears when he gave it a voice in verse. Yet +he was usually averse to expressing these feelings, except when highly +idealized; and many of his more beautiful effusions he had cast aside +unfinished, and they were never seen by me till after I had lost him. +Others, as for instance "Rosalind and Helen" and "Lines written among +the Euganean Hills", I found among his papers by chance; and with some +difficulty urged him to complete them. There are others, such as the +"Ode to the Skylark and The Cloud", which, in the opinion of many +critics, bear a purer poetical stamp than any other of his productions. +They were written as his mind prompted: listening to the carolling of +the bird, aloft in the azure sky of Italy; or marking the cloud as it +sped across the heavens, while he floated in his boat on the Thames. +</P> + +<P> +No poet was ever warmed by a more genuine and unforced inspiration. His +extreme sensibility gave the intensity of passion to his intellectual +pursuits; and rendered his mind keenly alive to every perception of +outward objects, as well as to his internal sensations. Such a gift is, +among the sad vicissitudes of human life, the disappointments we meet, +and the galling sense of our own mistakes and errors, fraught with pain; +to escape from such, he delivered up his soul to poetry, and felt happy +when he sheltered himself, from the influence of human sympathies, in +the wildest regions of fancy. His imagination has been termed too +brilliant, his thoughts too subtle. He loved to idealize reality; and +this is a taste shared by few. We are willing to have our passing whims +exalted into passions, for this gratifies our vanity; but few of us +understand or sympathize with the endeavour to ally the love of abstract +beauty, and adoration of abstract good, the to agathon kai to kalon of +the Socratic philosophers, with our sympathies with our kind. In this, +Shelley resembled Plato; both taking more delight in the abstract and +the ideal than in the special and tangible. This did not result from +imitation; for it was not till Shelley resided in Italy that he made +Plato his study. He then translated his "Symposium" and his "Ion"; and +the English language boasts of no more brilliant composition than +Plato's Praise of Love translated by Shelley. To return to his own +poetry. The luxury of imagination, which sought nothing beyond itself +(as a child burdens itself with spring flowers, thinking of no use +beyond the enjoyment of gathering them), often showed itself in his +verses: they will be only appreciated by minds which have resemblance to +his own; and the mystic subtlety of many of his thoughts will share the +same fate. The metaphysical strain that characterizes much of what he +has written was, indeed, the portion of his works to which, apart from +those whose scope was to awaken mankind to aspirations for what he +considered the true and good, he was himself particularly attached. +There is much, however, that speaks to the many. When he would consent +to dismiss these huntings after the obscure (which, entwined with his +nature as they were, he did with difficulty), no poet ever expressed in +sweeter, more heart-reaching, or more passionate verse, the gentler or +more forcible emotions of the soul. +</P> + +<P> +A wise friend once wrote to Shelley: 'You are still very young, and in +certain essential respects you do not yet sufficiently perceive that you +are so.' It is seldom that the young know what youth is, till they have +got beyond its period; and time was not given him to attain this +knowledge. It must be remembered that there is the stamp of such +inexperience on all he wrote; he had not completed his +nine-and-twentieth year when he died. The calm of middle life did not +add the seal of the virtues which adorn maturity to those generated by +the vehement spirit of youth. Through life also he was a martyr to +ill-health, and constant pain wound up his nerves to a pitch of +susceptibility that rendered his views of life different from those of a +man in the enjoyment of healthy sensations. Perfectly gentle and +forbearing in manner, he suffered a good deal of internal irritability, +or rather excitement, and his fortitude to bear was almost always on the +stretch; and thus, during a short life, he had gone through more +experience of sensation than many whose existence is protracted. 'If I +die to-morrow,' he said, on the eve of his unanticipated death, 'I have +lived to be older than my father.' The weight of thought and feeling +burdened him heavily; you read his sufferings in his attenuated frame, +while you perceived the mastery he held over them in his animated +countenance and brilliant eyes. +</P> + +<P> +He died, and the world showed no outward sign. But his influence over +mankind, though slow in growth, is fast augmenting; and, in the +ameliorations that have taken place in the political state of his +country, we may trace in part the operation of his arduous struggles. +His spirit gathers peace in its new state from the sense that, though +late, his exertions were not made in vain, and in the progress of the +liberty he so fondly loved. +</P> + +<P> +He died, and his place, among those who knew him intimately, has never +been filled up. He walked beside them like a spirit of good to comfort +and benefit—to enlighten the darkness of life with irradiations of +genius, to cheer it with his sympathy and love. Any one, once attached +to Shelley, must feel all other affections, however true and fond, as +wasted on barren soil in comparison. It is our best consolation to know +that such a pure-minded and exalted being was once among us, and now +exists where we hope one day to join him;—although the intolerant, in +their blindness, poured down anathemas, the Spirit of Good, who can +judge the heart, never rejected him. +</P> + +<P> +In the notes appended to the poems I have endeavoured to narrate the +origin and history of each. The loss of nearly all letters and papers +which refer to his early life renders the execution more imperfect than +it would otherwise have been. I have, however, the liveliest +recollection of all that was done and said during the period of my +knowing him. Every impression is as clear as if stamped yesterday, and I +have no apprehension of any mistake in my statements as far as they go. +In other respects I am indeed incompetent: but I feel the importance of +the task, and regard it as my most sacred duty. I endeavour to fulfil it +in a manner he would himself approve; and hope, in this publication, to +lay the first stone of a monument due to Shelley's genius, his +sufferings, and his virtues:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Se al seguir son tarda,<BR> + Forse avverra che 'l bel nome gentile<BR> + Consacrero con questa stanca penna.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839. +</H3> + +<P> +In revising this new edition, and carefully consulting Shelley's +scattered and confused papers, I found a few fragments which had +hitherto escaped me, and was enabled to complete a few poems hitherto +left unfinished. What at one time escapes the searching eye, dimmed by +its own earnestness, becomes clear at a future period. By the aid of a +friend, I also present some poems complete and correct which hitherto +have been defaced by various mistakes and omissions. It was suggested +that the poem "To the Queen of my Heart" was falsely attributed to +Shelley. I certainly find no trace of it among his papers; and, as those +of his intimate friends whom I have consulted never heard of it, I omit +it. +</P> + +<P> +Two poems are added of some length, "Swellfoot the Tyrant" and "Peter +Bell the Third". I have mentioned the circumstances under which they +were written in the notes; and need only add that they are conceived in +a very different spirit from Shelley's usual compositions. They are +specimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but, although they adopt a +familiar style and homely imagery, there shine through the radiance of +the poet's imagination the earnest views and opinions of the politician +and the moralist. +</P> + +<P> +At my request the publisher has restored the omitted passages of "Queen +Mab". I now present this edition as a complete collection of my +husband's poetical works, and I do not foresee that I can hereafter add +to or take away a word or line. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Putney, November 6, 1839. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO THE VOLUME OF POSTHUMOUS POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1824. +</H3> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + In nobil sangue vita umile e queta,<BR> + Ed in alto intelletto un puro core<BR> + Frutto senile in sul giovenil fibre,<BR> + E in aspetto pensoso anima lieta.—PETRARCA.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +It had been my wish, on presenting the public with the Posthumous Poems +of Mr. Shelley, to have accompanied them by a biographical notice; as it +appeared to me that at this moment a narration of the events of my +husband's life would come more gracefully from other hands than mine, I +applied to Mr. Leigh Hunt. The distinguished friendship that Mr. Shelley +felt for him, and the enthusiastic affection with which Mr. Leigh Hunt +clings to his friend's memory, seemed to point him out as the person +best calculated for such an undertaking. His absence from this country, +which prevented our mutual explanation, has unfortunately rendered my +scheme abortive. I do not doubt but that on some other occasion he will +pay this tribute to his lost friend, and sincerely regret that the +volume which I edit has not been honoured by its insertion. +</P> + +<P> +The comparative solitude in which Mr. Shelley lived was the occasion +that he was personally known to few; and his fearless enthusiasm in the +cause which he considered the most sacred upon earth, the improvement of +the moral and physical state of mankind, was the chief reason why he, +like other illustrious reformers, was pursued by hatred and calumny. No +man was ever more devoted than he to the endeavour of making those +around him happy; no man ever possessed friends more unfeignedly +attached to him. The ungrateful world did not feel his loss, and the gap +it made seemed to close as quickly over his memory as the murderous sea +above his living frame. Hereafter men will lament that his transcendent +powers of intellect were extinguished before they had bestowed on them +their choicest treasures. To his friends his loss is irremediable: the +wise, the brave, the gentle, is gone for ever! He is to them as a bright +vision, whose radiant track, left behind in the memory, is worth all the +realities that society can afford. Before the critics contradict me, let +them appeal to any one who had ever known him. To see him was to love +him: and his presence, like Ithuriel's spear, was alone sufficient to +disclose the falsehood of the tale which his enemies whispered in the +ear of the ignorant world. +</P> + +<P> +His life was spent in the contemplation of Nature, in arduous study, or +in acts of kindness and affection. He was an elegant scholar and a +profound metaphysician; without possessing much scientific knowledge, he +was unrivalled in the justness and extent of his observations on natural +objects; he knew every plant by its name, and was familiar with the +history and habits of every production of the earth; he could interpret +without a fault each appearance in the sky; and the varied phenomena of +heaven and earth filled him with deep emotion. He made his study and +reading-room of the shadowed copse, the stream, the lake, and the +waterfall. Ill health and continual pain preyed upon his powers; and the +solitude in which we lived, particularly on our first arrival in Italy, +although congenial to his feelings, must frequently have weighed upon +his spirits; those beautiful and affecting "Lines written in Dejection +near Naples" were composed at such an interval; but, when in health, his +spirits were buoyant and youthful to an extraordinary degree. +</P> + +<P> +Such was his love for Nature that every page of his poetry is +associated, in the minds of his friends, with the loveliest scenes of +the countries which he inhabited. In early life he visited the most +beautiful parts of this country and Ireland. Afterwards the Alps of +Switzerland became his inspirers. "Prometheus Unbound" was written among +the deserted and flower-grown ruins of Rome; and, when he made his home +under the Pisan hills, their roofless recesses harboured him as he +composed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", and "Hellas". In the wild but +beautiful Bay of Spezzia, the winds and waves which he loved became his +playmates. His days were chiefly spent on the water; the management of +his boat, its alterations and improvements, were his principal +occupation. At night, when the unclouded moon shone on the calm sea, he +often went alone in his little shallop to the rocky caves that bordered +it, and, sitting beneath their shelter, wrote the "Triumph of Life", the +last of his productions. The beauty but strangeness of this lonely +place, the refined pleasure which he felt in the companionship of a few +selected friends, our entire sequestration from the rest of the world, +all contributed to render this period of his life one of continued +enjoyment. I am convinced that the two months we passed there were the +happiest which he had ever known: his health even rapidly improved, and +he was never better than when I last saw him, full of spirits and joy, +embark for Leghorn, that he might there welcome Leigh Hunt to Italy. I +was to have accompanied him; but illness confined me to my room, and +thus put the seal on my misfortune. His vessel bore out of sight with a +favourable wind, and I remained awaiting his return by the breakers of +that sea which was about to engulf him. +</P> + +<P> +He spent a week at Pisa, employed in kind offices toward his friend, and +enjoying with keen delight the renewal of their intercourse. He then +embarked with Mr. Williams, the chosen and beloved sharer of his +pleasures and of his fate, to return to us. We waited for them in vain; +the sea by its restless moaning seemed to desire to inform us of what we +would not learn:—but a veil may well be drawn over such misery. The +real anguish of those moments transcended all the fictions that the most +glowing imagination ever portrayed; our seclusion, the savage nature of +the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, and our immediate vicinity +to the troubled sea, combined to imbue with strange horror our days of +uncertainty. The truth was at last known,—a truth that made our loved +and lovely Italy appear a tomb, its sky a pall. Every heart echoed the +deep lament, and my only consolation was in the praise and earnest love +that each voice bestowed and each countenance demonstrated for him we +had lost,—not, I fondly hope, for ever; his unearthly and elevated +nature is a pledge of the continuation of his being, although in an +altered form. Rome received his ashes; they are deposited beneath its +weed-grown wall, and 'the world's sole monument' is enriched by his +remains. +</P> + +<P> +I must add a few words concerning the contents of this volume. "Julian +and Maddalo", the "Witch of Atlas", and most of the "Translations", were +written some years ago; and, with the exception of the "Cyclops", and +the Scenes from the "Magico Prodigioso", may be considered as having +received the author's ultimate corrections. The "Triumph of Life" was +his last work, and was left in so unfinished a state that I arranged it +in its present form with great difficulty. All his poems which were +scattered in periodical works are collected in this volume, and I have +added a reprint of "Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude": the difficulty +with which a copy can be obtained is the cause of its republication. +Many of the Miscellaneous Poems, written on the spur of the occasion, +and never retouched, I found among his manuscript books, and have +carefully copied. I have subjoined, whenever I have been able, the date +of their composition. +</P> + +<P> +I do not know whether the critics will reprehend the insertion of some +of the most imperfect among them; but I frankly own that I have been +more actuated by the fear lest any monument of his genius should escape +me than the wish of presenting nothing but what was complete to the +fastidious reader. I feel secure that the lovers of Shelley's poetry +(who know how, more than any poet of the present day, every line and +word he wrote is instinct with peculiar beauty) will pardon and thank +me: I consecrate this volume to them. +</P> + +<P> +The size of this collection has prevented the insertion of any prose +pieces. They will hereafter appear in a separate publication. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +MARY W. SHELLEY. +<BR> +London, June 1, 1824. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON QUEEN MAB, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +Shelley was eighteen when he wrote "Queen Mab"; he never published it. +When it was written, he had come to the decision that he was too young +to be a 'judge of controversies'; and he was desirous of acquiring 'that +sobriety of spirit which is the characteristic of true heroism.' But he +never doubted the truth or utility of his opinions; and, in printing and +privately distributing "Queen Mab", he believed that he should further +their dissemination, without occasioning the mischief either to others +or himself that might arise from publication. It is doubtful whether he +would himself have admitted it into a collection of his works. His +severe classical taste, refined by the constant study of the Greek +poets, might have discovered defects that escape the ordinary reader; +and the change his opinions underwent in many points would have +prevented him from putting forth the speculations of his boyish days. +But the poem is too beautiful in itself, and far too remarkable as the +production of a boy of eighteen, to allow of its being passed over: +besides that, having been frequently reprinted, the omission would be +vain. In the former edition certain portions were left out, as shocking +the general reader from the violence of their attack on religion. I +myself had a painful feeling that such erasures might be looked upon as +a mark of disrespect towards the author, and am glad to have the +opportunity of restoring them. The notes also are reprinted entire—not +because they are models of reasoning or lessons of truth, but because +Shelley wrote them, and that all that a man at once so distinguished and +so excellent ever did deserves to be preserved. The alterations his +opinions underwent ought to be recorded, for they form his history. +</P> + +<P> +A series of articles was published in the "New Monthly Magazine" during +the autumn of the year 1832, written by a man of great talent, a +fellow-collegian and warm friend of Shelley: they describe admirably the +state of his mind during his collegiate life. Inspired with ardour for +the acquisition of knowledge, endowed with the keenest sensibility and +with the fortitude of a martyr, Shelley came among his fellow-creatures, +congregated for the purposes of education, like a spirit from another +sphere; too delicately organized for the rough treatment man uses +towards man, especially in the season of youth, and too resolute in +carrying out his own sense of good and justice, not to become a victim. +To a devoted attachment to those he loved he added a determined +resistance to oppression. Refusing to fag at Eton, he was treated with +revolting cruelty by masters and boys: this roused instead of taming his +spirit, and he rejected the duty of obedience when it was enforced by +menaces and punishment. To aversion to the society of his +fellow-creatures, such as he found them when collected together in +societies, where one egged on the other to acts of tyranny, was joined +the deepest sympathy and compassion; while the attachment he felt for +individuals, and the admiration with which he regarded their powers and +their virtues, led him to entertain a high opinion of the perfectibility +of human nature; and he believed that all could reach the highest grade +of moral improvement, did not the customs and prejudices of society +foster evil passions and excuse evil actions. +</P> + +<P> +The oppression which, trembling at every nerve yet resolute to heroism, +it was his ill-fortune to encounter at school and at college, led him to +dissent in all things from those whose arguments were blows, whose faith +appeared to engender blame and hatred. 'During my existence,' he wrote +to a friend in 1812, 'I have incessantly speculated, thought, and read.' +His readings were not always well chosen; among them were the works of +the French philosophers: as far as metaphysical argument went, he +temporarily became a convert. At the same time, it was the cardinal +article of his faith that, if men were but taught and induced to treat +their fellows with love, charity, and equal rights, this earth would +realize paradise. He looked upon religion, as it is professed, and above +all practised, as hostile instead of friendly to the cultivation of +those virtues which would make men brothers. +</P> + +<P> +Can this be wondered at? At the age of seventeen, fragile in health and +frame, of the purest habits in morals, full of devoted generosity and +universal kindness, glowing with ardour to attain wisdom, resolved at +every personal sacrifice to do right, burning with a desire for +affection and sympathy,—he was treated as a reprobate, cast forth as a +criminal. +</P> + +<P> +The cause was that he was sincere; that he believed the opinions which +he entertained to be true. And he loved truth with a martyr's love; he +was ready to sacrifice station and fortune, and his dearest affections, +at its shrine. The sacrifice was demanded from, and made by, a youth of +seventeen. It is a singular fact in the history of society in the +civilized nations of modern times that no false step is so irretrievable +as one made in early youth. Older men, it is true, when they oppose +their fellows and transgress ordinary rules, carry a certain prudence or +hypocrisy as a shield along with them. But youth is rash; nor can it +imagine, while asserting what it believes to be true, and doing what it +believes to be right, that it should be denounced as vicious, and +pursued as a criminal. +</P> + +<P> +Shelley possessed a quality of mind which experience has shown me to be +of the rarest occurrence among human beings: this was his UNWORLDLINESS. +The usual motives that rule men, prospects of present or future +advantage, the rank and fortune of those around, the taunts and +censures, or the praise, of those who were hostile to him, had no +influence whatever over his actions, and apparently none over his +thoughts. It is difficult even to express the simplicity and directness +of purpose that adorned him. Some few might be found in the history of +mankind, and some one at least among his own friends, equally +disinterested and scornful, even to severe personal sacrifices, of every +baser motive. But no one, I believe, ever joined this noble but passive +virtue to equal active endeavours for the benefit of his friends and +mankind in general, and to equal power to produce the advantages he +desired. The world's brightest gauds and its most solid advantages were +of no worth in his eyes, when compared to the cause of what he +considered truth, and the good of his fellow-creatures. Born in a +position which, to his inexperienced mind, afforded the greatest +facilities to practise the tenets he espoused, he boldly declared the +use he would make of fortune and station, and enjoyed the belief that he +should materially benefit his fellow-creatures by his actions; while, +conscious of surpassing powers of reason and imagination, it is not +strange that he should, even while so young, have believed that his +written thoughts would tend to disseminate opinions which he believed +conducive to the happiness of the human race. +</P> + +<P> +If man were a creature devoid of passion, he might have said and done +all this with quietness. But he was too enthusiastic, and too full of +hatred of all the ills he witnessed, not to scorn danger. Various +disappointments tortured, but could not tame, his soul. The more enmity +he met, the more earnestly he became attached to his peculiar views, and +hostile to those of the men who persecuted him. +</P> + +<P> +He was animated to greater zeal by compassion for his fellow-creatures. +His sympathy was excited by the misery with which the world is burning. +He witnessed the sufferings of the poor, and was aware of the evils of +ignorance. He desired to induce every rich man to despoil himself of +superfluity, and to create a brotherhood of property and service, and +was ready to be the first to lay down the advantages of his birth. He +was of too uncompromising a disposition to join any party. He did not in +his youth look forward to gradual improvement: nay, in those days of +intolerance, now almost forgotten, it seemed as easy to look forward to +the sort of millennium of freedom and brotherhood which he thought the +proper state of mankind as to the present reign of moderation and +improvement. Ill-health made him believe that his race would soon be +run; that a year or two was all he had of life. He desired that these +years should be useful and illustrious. He saw, in a fervent call on his +fellow-creatures to share alike the blessings of the creation, to love +and serve each other, the noblest work that life and time permitted him. +In this spirit he composed "Queen Mab". +</P> + +<P> +He was a lover of the wonderful and wild in literature, but had not +fostered these tastes at their genuine sources—the romances and +chivalry of the middle ages—but in the perusal of such German works as +were current in those days. Under the influence of these he, at the age +of fifteen, wrote two short prose romances of slender merit. The +sentiments and language were exaggerated, the composition imitative and +poor. He wrote also a poem on the subject of Ahasuerus—being led to it +by a German fragment he picked up, dirty and torn, in Lincoln's Inn +Fields. This fell afterwards into other hands, and was considerably +altered before it was printed. Our earlier English poetry was almost +unknown to him. The love and knowledge of Nature developed by +Wordsworth—the lofty melody and mysterious beauty of Coleridge's +poetry—and the wild fantastic machinery and gorgeous scenery adopted by +Southey—composed his favourite reading; the rhythm of "Queen Mab" was +founded on that of "Thalaba", and the first few lines bear a striking +resemblance in spirit, though not in idea, to the opening of that poem. +His fertile imagination, and ear tuned to the finest sense of harmony, +preserved him from imitation. Another of his favourite books was the +poem of "Gebir" by Walter Savage Landor. From his boyhood he had a +wonderful facility of versification, which he carried into another +language; and his Latin school-verses were composed with an ease and +correctness that procured for him prizes, and caused him to be resorted +to by all his friends for help. He was, at the period of writing "Queen +Mab", a great traveller within the limits of England, Scotland, and +Ireland. His time was spent among the loveliest scenes of these +countries. Mountain and lake and forest were his home; the phenomena of +Nature were his favourite study. He loved to inquire into their causes, +and was addicted to pursuits of natural philosophy and chemistry, as far +as they could be carried on as an amusement. These tastes gave truth and +vivacity to his descriptions, and warmed his soul with that deep +admiration for the wonders of Nature which constant association with her +inspired. +</P> + +<P> +He never intended to publish "Queen Mab" as it stands; but a few years +after, when printing "Alastor", he extracted a small portion which he +entitled "The Daemon of the World". In this he changed somewhat the +versification, and made other alterations scarcely to be called +improvements. +</P> + +<P> +Some years after, when in Italy, a bookseller published an edition of +"Queen Mab" as it originally stood. Shelley was hastily written to by +his friends, under the idea that, deeply injurious as the mere +distribution of the poem had proved, the publication might awaken fresh +persecutions. At the suggestion of these friends he wrote a letter on +the subject, printed in the "Examiner" newspaper—with which I close +this history of his earliest work. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'EXAMINER.' +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +'Sir, +</P> + +<P> +'Having heard that a poem entitled "Queen Mab" has been surreptitiously +published in London, and that legal proceedings have been instituted +against the publisher, I request the favour of your insertion of the +following explanation of the affair, as it relates to me. +</P> + +<P> +'A poem entitled "Queen Mab" was written by me at the age of eighteen, I +daresay in a sufficiently intemperate spirit—but even then was not +intended for publication, and a few copies only were struck off, to be +distributed among my personal friends. I have not seen this production +for several years. I doubt not but that it is perfectly worthless in +point of literary composition; and that, in all that concerns moral and +political speculation, as well as in the subtler discriminations of +metaphysical and religious doctrine, it is still more crude and +immature. I am a devoted enemy to religious, political, and domestic +oppression; and I regret this publication, not so much from literary +vanity, as because I fear it is better fitted to injure than to serve +the sacred cause of freedom. I have directed my solicitor to apply to +Chancery for an injunction to restrain the sale; but, after the +precedent of Mr. Southey's "Wat Tyler" (a poem written, I believe, at +the same age, and with the same unreflecting enthusiasm), with little +hope of success. +</P> + +<P> +'Whilst I exonerate myself from all share in having divulged opinions +hostile to existing sanctions, under the form, whatever it may be, which +they assume in this poem, it is scarcely necessary for me to protest +against the system of inculcating the truth of Christianity or the +excellence of Monarchy, however true or however excellent they may be, +by such equivocal arguments as confiscation and imprisonment, and +invective and slander, and the insolent violation of the most sacred +ties of Nature and society. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +'SIR, +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +'I am your obliged and obedient servant, +<BR> +'PERCY B. SHELLEY. +<BR> +'Pisa, June 22, 1821.' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON "ALASTOR", BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +"Alastor" is written in a very different tone from "Queen Mab". In the +latter, Shelley poured out all the cherished speculations of his +youth—all the irrepressible emotions of sympathy, censure, and hope, to +which the present suffering, and what he considers the proper destiny of +his fellow-creatures, gave birth. "Alastor", on the contrary, contains +an individual interest only. A very few years, with their attendant +events, had checked the ardour of Shelley's hopes, though he still +thought them well-grounded, and that to advance their fulfilment was the +noblest task man could achieve. +</P> + +<P> +This is neither the time nor place to speak of the misfortunes that +chequered his life. It will be sufficient to say that, in all he did, he +at the time of doing it believed himself justified to his own +conscience; while the various ills of poverty and loss of friends +brought home to him the sad realities of life. Physical suffering had +also considerable influence in causing him to turn his eyes inward; +inclining him rather to brood over the thoughts and emotions of his own +soul than to glance abroad, and to make, as in "Queen Mab", the whole +universe the object and subject of his song. In the Spring of +1815, an eminent physician pronounced that he was dying rapidly of a +consumption; abscesses were formed on his lungs, and he suffered acute +spasms. Suddenly a complete change took place; and though through life +he was a martyr to pain and debility, every symptom of pulmonary disease +vanished. His nerves, which nature had formed sensitive to an unexampled +degree, were rendered still more susceptible by the state of his health. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as the peace of 1814 had opened the Continent, he went abroad. +He visited some of the more magnificent scenes of Switzerland, and +returned to England from Lucerne, by the Reuss and the Rhine. The +river-navigation enchanted him. In his favourite poem of "Thalaba", his +imagination had been excited by a description of such a voyage. In the +summer of 1815, after a tour along the southern coast of Devonshire and +a visit to Clifton, he rented a house on Bishopsgate Heath, on the +borders of Windsor Forest, where he enjoyed several months of +comparative health and tranquil happiness. The later summer months were +warm and dry. Accompanied by a few friends, he visited the source of the +Thames, making a voyage in a wherry from Windsor to Crichlade. His +beautiful stanzas in the churchyard of Lechlade were written on that +occasion. "Alastor" was composed on his return. He spent his days under +the oak-shades of Windsor Great Park; and the magnificent woodland was a +fitting study to inspire the various descriptions of forest scenery we +find in the poem. +</P> + +<P> +None of Shelley's poems is more characteristic than this. The solemn +spirit that reigns throughout, the worship of the majesty of nature, the +broodings of a poet's heart in solitude—the mingling of the exulting +joy which the various aspects of the visible universe inspires with the +sad and struggling pangs which human passion imparts—give a touching +interest to the whole. The death which he had often contemplated during +the last months as certain and near he here represented in such colours +as had, in his lonely musings, soothed his soul to peace. The +versification sustains the solemn spirit which breathes throughout: it +is peculiarly melodious. The poem ought rather to be considered didactic +than narrative: it was the outpouring of his own emotions, embodied in +the purest form he could conceive, painted in the ideal hues which his +brilliant imagination inspired, and softened by the recent anticipation +of death. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON THE "REVOLT OF ISLAM", BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +Shelley possessed two remarkable qualities of intellect—a brilliant +imagination, and a logical exactness of reason. His inclinations led him +(he fancied) almost alike to poetry and metaphysical discussions. I say +'he fancied,' because I believe the former to have been paramount, and +that it would have gained the mastery even had he struggled against it. +However, he said that he deliberated at one time whether he should +dedicate himself to poetry or metaphysics; and, resolving on the former, +he educated himself for it, discarding in a great measure his +philosophical pursuits, and engaging himself in the study of the poets +of Greece, Italy, and England. To these may be added a constant perusal +of portions of the old Testament—the Psalms, the Book of Job, the +Prophet Isaiah, and others, the sublime poetry of which filled him with +delight. +</P> + +<P> +As a poet, his intellect and compositions were powerfully influenced by +exterior circumstances, and especially by his place of abode. He was +very fond of travelling, and ill-health increased this restlessness. The +sufferings occasioned by a cold English winter made him pine, especially +when our colder spring arrived, for a more genial climate. In 1816 he +again visited Switzerland, and rented a house on the banks of the Lake +of Geneva; and many a day, in cloud or sunshine, was passed alone in his +boat—sailing as the wind listed, or weltering on the calm waters. The +majestic aspect of Nature ministered such thoughts as he afterwards +enwove in verse. His lines on the Bridge of the Arve, and his "Hymn to +Intellectual Beauty", were written at this time. Perhaps during this +summer his genius was checked by association with another poet whose +nature was utterly dissimilar to his own, yet who, in the poem he wrote +at that time, gave tokens that he shared for a period the more abstract +and etherealised inspiration of Shelley. The saddest events awaited his +return to England; but such was his fear to wound the feelings of others +that he never expressed the anguish he felt, and seldom gave vent to the +indignation roused by the persecutions he underwent; while the course of +deep unexpressed passion, and the sense of injury, engendered the desire +to embody themselves in forms defecated of all the weakness and evil +which cling to real life. +</P> + +<P> +He chose therefore for his hero a youth nourished in dreams of liberty, +some of whose actions are in direct opposition to the opinions of the +world; but who is animated throughout by an ardent love of virtue, and a +resolution to confer the boons of political and intellectual freedom on +his fellow-creatures. He created for this youth a woman such as he +delighted to imagine—full of enthusiasm for the same objects; and they +both, with will unvanquished, and the deepest sense of the justice of +their cause, met adversity and death. There exists in this poem a +memorial of a friend of his youth. The character of the old man who +liberates Laon from his tower prison, and tends on him in sickness, is +founded on that of Doctor Lind, who, when Shelley was at Eton, had often +stood by to befriend and support him, and whose name he never mentioned +without love and veneration. +</P> + +<P> +During the year 1817 we were established at Marlow in Buckinghamshire. +Shelley's choice of abode was fixed chiefly by this town being at no +great distance from London, and its neighbourhood to the Thames. The +poem was written in his boat, as it floated under the beech groves of +Bisham, or during wanderings in the neighbouring country, which is +distinguished for peculiar beauty. The chalk hills break into cliffs +that overhang the Thames, or form valleys clothed with beech; the wilder +portion of the country is rendered beautiful by exuberant vegetation; +and the cultivated part is peculiarly fertile. With all this wealth of +Nature which, either in the form of gentlemen's parks or soil dedicated +to agriculture, flourishes around, Marlow was inhabited (I hope it is +altered now) by a very poor population. The women are lacemakers, and +lose their health by sedentary labour, for which they were very ill +paid. The Poor-laws ground to the dust not only the paupers, but those +who had risen just above that state, and were obliged to pay poor-rates. +The changes produced by peace following a long war, and a bad harvest, +brought with them the most heart-rending evils to the poor. Shelley +afforded what alleviation he could. In the winter, while bringing out +his poem, he had a severe attack of ophthalmia, caught while visiting +the poor cottages. I mention these things,—for this minute and active +sympathy with his fellow-creatures gives a thousandfold interest to +his speculations, and stamps with reality his pleadings for the human +race. +</P> + +<P> +The poem, bold in its opinions and uncompromising in their expression, +met with many censurers, not only among those who allow of no virtue but +such as supports the cause they espouse, but even among those whose +opinions were similar to his own. I extract a portion of a letter +written in answer to one of these friends. It best details the impulses +of Shelley's mind, and his motives: it was written with entire +unreserve; and is therefore a precious monument of his own opinion of +his powers, of the purity of his designs, and the ardour with which he +clung, in adversity and through the valley of the shadow of death, to +views from which he believed the permanent happiness of mankind must +eventually spring. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +'Marlowe, December 11, 1817. +</P> + +<P> +'I have read and considered all that you say about my general powers, +and the particular instance of the poem in which I have attempted to +develop them. Nothing can be more satisfactory to me than the interest +which your admonitions express. But I think you are mistaken in some +points with regard to the peculiar nature of my powers, whatever be +their amount. I listened with deference and self-suspicion to your +censures of "The Revolt of Islam"; but the productions of mine which you +commend hold a very low place in my own esteem; and this reassures me, +in some degree at least. The poem was produced by a series of thoughts +which filled my mind with unbounded and sustained enthusiasm. I felt the +precariousness of my life, and I engaged in this task, resolved to leave +some record of myself. Much of what the volume contains was written with +the same feeling—as real, though not so prophetic—as the +communications of a dying man. I never presumed indeed to consider it +anything approaching to faultless; but, when I consider contemporary +productions of the same apparent pretensions, I own I was filled with +confidence. I felt that it was in many respects a genuine picture of my +own mind. I felt that the sentiments were true, not assumed. And in this +have I long believed that my power consists; in sympathy, and that part +of the imagination which relates to sentiment and contemplation. I am +formed, if for anything not in common with the herd of mankind, to +apprehend minute and remote distinctions of feeling, whether relative to +external nature or the living beings which surround us, and to +communicate the conceptions which result from considering either the +moral or the material universe as a whole. Of course, I believe these +faculties, which perhaps comprehend all that is sublime in man, to exist +very imperfectly in my own mind. But, when you advert to my +Chancery-paper, a cold, forced, unimpassioned, insignificant piece of +cramped and cautious argument, and to the little scrap about +"Mandeville", which expressed my feelings indeed, but cost scarcely two +minutes' thought to express, as specimens of my powers more favourable +than that which grew as it were from "the agony and bloody sweat" of +intellectual travail; surely I must feel that, in some manner, either I +am mistaken in believing that I have any talent at all, or you in the +selection of the specimens of it. Yet, after all, I cannot but be +conscious, in much of what I write, of an absence of that tranquillity +which is the attribute and accompaniment of power. This feeling alone +would make your most kind and wise admonitions, on the subject of the +economy of intellectual force, valuable to me. And, if I live, or if I +see any trust in coming years, doubt not but that I shall do something, +whatever it may be, which a serious and earnest estimate of my powers +will suggest to me, and which will be in every respect accommodated to +their utmost limits. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +[Shelley to Godwin.] +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON ROSALIND AND HELEN BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +"Rosalind and Helen" was begun at Marlow, and thrown aside—till I found +it; and, at my request, it was completed. Shelley had no care for any of +his poems that did not emanate from the depths of his mind, and develop +some high or abstruse truth. When he does touch on human life and the +human heart, no pictures can be more faithful, more delicate, more +subtle, or more pathetic. He never mentioned Love but he shed a grace +borrowed from his own nature, that scarcely any other poet has bestowed +on that passion. When he spoke of it as the law of life, which inasmuch +as we rebel against we err and injure ourselves and others, he +promulgated that which he considered an irrefragable truth. In his eyes +it was the essence of our being, and all woe and pain arose from the war +made against it by selfishness, or insensibility, or mistake. By +reverting in his mind to this first principle, he discovered the source +of many emotions, and could disclose the secrets of all hearts, and his +delineations of passion and emotion touch the finest chords of our +nature. +</P> + +<P> +"Rosalind and Helen" was finished during the summer of 1818, while we +were at the Baths of Lucca. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +From the Baths of Lucca, in 1818, Shelley visited Venice; and, +circumstances rendering it eligible that we should remain a few weeks in +the neighbourhood of that city, he accepted the offer of Lord Byron, who +lent him the use of a villa he rented near Este; and he sent for his +family from Lucca to join him. +</P> + +<P> +I Capuccini was a villa built on the site of a Capuchin convent, +demolished when the French suppressed religious houses; it was situated +on the very overhanging brow of a low hill at the foot of a range of +higher ones. The house was cheerful and pleasant; a vine-trellised walk, +a pergola, as it is called in Italian, led from the hall-door to a +summer-house at the end of the garden, which Shelley made his study, and +in which he began the "Prometheus"; and here also, as he mentions in a +letter, he wrote "Julian and Maddalo". A slight ravine, with a road in +its depth, divided the garden from the hill, on which stood the ruins of +the ancient castle of Este, whose dark massive wall gave forth an echo, +and from whose ruined crevices owls and bats flitted forth at night, as +the crescent moon sunk behind the black and heavy battlements. We looked +from the garden over the wide plain of Lombardy, bounded to the west by +the far Apennines, while to the east the horizon was lost in misty +distance. After the picturesque but limited view of mountain, ravine, +and chestnut-wood, at the Baths of Lucca, there was something infinitely +gratifying to the eye in the wide range of prospect commanded by our new +abode. +</P> + +<P> +Our first misfortune, of the kind from which we soon suffered even more +severely, happened here. Our little girl, an infant in whose small +features I fancied that I traced great resemblance to her father, showed +symptoms of suffering from the heat of the climate. Teething increased +her illness and danger. We were at Este, and when we became alarmed, +hastened to Venice for the best advice. When we arrived at Fusina, we +found that we had forgotten our passport, and the soldiers on duty +attempted to prevent our crossing the laguna; but they could not resist +Shelley's impetuosity at such a moment. We had scarcely arrived at +Venice before life fled from the little sufferer, and we returned to +Este to weep her loss. +</P> + +<P> +After a few weeks spent in this retreat, which was interspersed by +visits to Venice, we proceeded southward. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON "PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +On the 12th of March, 1818, Shelley quitted England, never to return. +His principal motive was the hope that his health would be improved by a +milder climate; he suffered very much during the winter previous to his +emigration, and this decided his vacillating purpose. In December, 1817, +he had written from Marlow to a friend, saying: +</P> + +<P> +'My health has been materially worse. My feelings at intervals are of a +deadly and torpid kind, or awakened to such a state of unnatural and +keen excitement that, only to instance the organ of sight, I find the +very blades of grass and the boughs of distant trees present themselves +to me with microscopic distinctness. Towards evening I sink into a state +of lethargy and inanimation, and often remain for hours on the sofa +between sleep and waking, a prey to the most painful irritability of +thought. Such, with little intermission, is my condition. The hours +devoted to study are selected with vigilant caution from among these +periods of endurance. It is not for this that I think of travelling to +Italy, even if I knew that Italy would relieve me. But I have +experienced a decisive pulmonary attack; and although at present it has +passed away without any considerable vestige of its existence, yet this +symptom sufficiently shows the true nature of my disease to be +consumptive. It is to my advantage that this malady is in its nature +slow, and, if one is sufficiently alive to its advances, is susceptible +of cure from a warm climate. In the event of its assuming any decided +shape, IT WOULD BE MY DUTY to go to Italy without delay. It is not mere +health, but life, that I should seek, and that not for my own sake—I +feel I am capable of trampling on all such weakness; but for the sake of +those to whom my life may be a source of happiness, utility, security, +and honour, and to some of whom my death might be all that is the +reverse.' +</P> + +<P> +In almost every respect his journey to Italy was advantageous. He left +behind friends to whom he was attached; but cares of a thousand kinds, +many springing from his lavish generosity, crowded round him in his +native country, and, except the society of one or two friends, he had no +compensation. The climate caused him to consume half his existence in +helpless suffering. His dearest pleasure, the free enjoyment of the +scenes of Nature, was marred by the same circumstance. +</P> + +<P> +He went direct to Italy, avoiding even Paris, and did not make any pause +till he arrived at Milan. The first aspect of Italy enchanted Shelley; +it seemed a garden of delight placed beneath a clearer and brighter +heaven than any he had lived under before. He wrote long descriptive +letters during the first year of his residence in Italy, which, as +compositions, are the most beautiful in the world, and show how truly he +appreciated and studied the wonders of Nature and Art in that divine +land. +</P> + +<P> +The poetical spirit within him speedily revived with all the power and +with more than all the beauty of his first attempts. He meditated three +subjects as the groundwork for lyrical dramas. One was the story of +Tasso; of this a slight fragment of a song of Tasso remains. The other +was one founded on the Book of Job, which he never abandoned in idea, +but of which no trace remains among his papers. The third was the +"Prometheus Unbound". The Greek tragedians were now his most familiar +companions in his wanderings, and the sublime majesty of Aeschylus +filled him with wonder and delight. The father of Greek tragedy does not +possess the pathos of Sophocles, nor the variety and tenderness of +Euripides; the interest on which he founds his dramas is often elevated +above human vicissitudes into the mighty passions and throes of gods and +demi-gods: such fascinated the abstract imagination of Shelley. +</P> + +<P> +We spent a month at Milan, visiting the Lake of Como during that +interval. Thence we passed in succession to Pisa, Leghorn, the Baths of +Lucca, Venice, Este, Rome, Naples, and back again to Rome, whither we +returned early in March, 1819. During all this time Shelley meditated +the subject of his drama, and wrote portions of it. Other poems were +composed during this interval, and while at the Bagni di Lucca he +translated Plato's "Symposium". But, though he diversified his studies, +his thoughts centred in the Prometheus. At last, when at Rome, during a +bright and beautiful Spring, he gave up his whole time to the +composition. The spot selected for his study was, as he mentions in his +preface, the mountainous ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. These are +little known to the ordinary visitor at Rome. He describes them in a +letter, with that poetry and delicacy and truth of description which +render his narrated impressions of scenery of unequalled beauty and +interest. +</P> + +<P> +At first he completed the drama in three acts. It was not till several +months after, when at Florence, that he conceived that a fourth act, a +sort of hymn of rejoicing in the fulfilment of the prophecies with +regard to Prometheus, ought to be added to complete the composition. +</P> + +<P> +The prominent feature of Shelley's theory of the destiny of the human +species was that evil is not inherent in the system of the creation, but +an accident that might be expelled. This also forms a portion of +Christianity: God made earth and man perfect, till he, by his fall, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Brought death into the world and all our woe.'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Shelley believed that mankind had only to will that there should be no +evil, and there would be none. It is not my part in these Notes to +notice the arguments that have been urged against this opinion, but to +mention the fact that he entertained it, and was indeed attached to it +with fervent enthusiasm. That man could be so perfectionized as to be +able to expel evil from his own nature, and from the greater part of the +creation, was the cardinal point of his system. And the subject he loved +best to dwell on was the image of One warring with the Evil Principle, +oppressed not only by it, but by all—even the good, who were deluded +into considering evil a necessary portion of humanity; a victim full of +fortitude and hope and the spirit of triumph emanating from a reliance +in the ultimate omnipotence of Good. Such he had depicted in his last +poem, when he made Laon the enemy and the victim of tyrants. He now took +a more idealized image of the same subject. He followed certain +classical authorities in figuring Saturn as the good principle, Jupiter +the usurping evil one, and Prometheus as the regenerator, who, unable to +bring mankind back to primitive innocence, used knowledge as a weapon to +defeat evil, by leading mankind, beyond the state wherein they are +sinless through ignorance, to that in which they are virtuous through +wisdom. Jupiter punished the temerity of the Titan by chaining him to a +rock of Caucasus, and causing a vulture to devour his still-renewed +heart. There was a prophecy afloat in heaven portending the fall of +Jove, the secret of averting which was known only to Prometheus; and the +god offered freedom from torture on condition of its being communicated +to him. According to the mythological story, this referred to the +offspring of Thetis, who was destined to be greater than his father. +Prometheus at last bought pardon for his crime of enriching mankind with +his gifts, by revealing the prophecy. Hercules killed the vulture, and +set him free; and Thetis was married to Peleus, the father of Achilles. +</P> + +<P> +Shelley adapted the catastrophe of this story to his peculiar views. The +son greater than his father, born of the nuptials of Jupiter and Thetis, +was to dethrone Evil, and bring back a happier reign than that of +Saturn. Prometheus defies the power of his enemy, and endures centuries +of torture; till the hour arrives when Jove, blind to the real event, +but darkly guessing that some great good to himself will flow, espouses +Thetis. At the moment, the Primal Power of the world drives him from his +usurped throne, and Strength, in the person of Hercules, liberates +Humanity, typified in Prometheus, from the tortures generated by evil +done or suffered. Asia, one of the Oceanides, is the wife of +Prometheus—she was, according to other mythological interpretations, +the same as Venus and Nature. When the benefactor of mankind is +liberated, Nature resumes the beauty of her prime, and is united to her +husband, the emblem of the human race, in perfect and happy union. In +the Fourth Act, the Poet gives further scope to his imagination, and +idealizes the forms of creation—such as we know them, instead of such +as they appeared to the Greeks. Maternal Earth, the mighty parent, is +superseded by the Spirit of the Earth, the guide of our planet through +the realms of sky; while his fair and weaker companion and attendant, +the Spirit of the Moon, receives bliss from the annihilation of Evil in +the superior sphere. +</P> + +<P> +Shelley develops, more particularly in the lyrics of this drama, his +abstruse and imaginative theories with regard to the Creation. It +requires a mind as subtle and penetrating as his own to understand the +mystic meanings scattered throughout the poem. They elude the ordinary +reader by their abstraction and delicacy of distinction, but they are +far from vague. It was his design to write prose metaphysical essays on +the nature of Man, which would have served to explain much of what is +obscure in his poetry; a few scattered fragments of observations and +remarks alone remain. He considered these philosophical views of Mind +and Nature to be instinct with the intensest spirit of poetry. +</P> + +<P> +More popular poets clothe the ideal with familiar and sensible imagery. +Shelley loved to idealize the real—to gift the mechanism of the +material universe with a soul and a voice, and to bestow such also on +the most delicate and abstract emotions and thoughts of the mind. +Sophocles was his great master in this species of imagery. +</P> + +<P> +I find in one of his manuscript books some remarks on a line in the +"Oedipus Tyrannus", which show at once the critical subtlety of +Shelley's mind, and explain his apprehension of those 'minute and remote +distinctions of feeling, whether relative to external nature or the +living beings which surround us,' which he pronounces, in the letter +quoted in the note to the "Revolt of Islam", to comprehend all that is +sublime in man. +</P> + +<P> +'In the Greek Shakespeare, Sophocles, we find the image, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Pollas d' odous elthonta phrontidos planois:<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +a line of almost unfathomable depth of poetry; yet how simple are the +images in which it is arrayed! +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Coming to many ways in the wanderings of careful thought."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +If the words odous and planois had not been used, the line might have +been explained in a metaphorical instead of an absolute sense, as we say +"WAYS and means," and "wanderings" for error and confusion. But they +meant literally paths or roads, such as we tread with our feet; and +wanderings, such as a man makes when he loses himself in a desert, or +roams from city to city—as Oedipus, the speaker of this verse, was +destined to wander, blind and asking charity. What a picture does this +line suggest of the mind as a wilderness of intricate paths, wide as the +universe, which is here made its symbol; a world within a world which he +who seeks some knowledge with respect to what he ought to do searches +throughout, as he would search the external universe for some valued +thing which was hidden from him upon its surface.' +</P> + +<P> +In reading Shelley's poetry, we often find similar verses, resembling, +but not imitating the Greek in this species of imagery; for, though he +adopted the style, he gifted it with that originality of form and +colouring which sprung from his own genius. +</P> + +<P> +In the "Prometheus Unbound", Shelley fulfils the promise quoted from a +letter in the Note on the "Revolt of Islam". (While correcting the +proof-sheets of that poem, it struck me that the poet had indulged in an +exaggerated view of the evils of restored despotism; which, however +injurious and degrading, were less openly sanguinary than the triumph of +anarchy, such as it appeared in France at the close of the last century. +But at this time a book, "Scenes of Spanish Life", translated by +Lieutenant Crawford from the German of Dr. Huber, of Rostock, fell into +my hands. The account of the triumph of the priests and the serviles, +after the French invasion of Spain in 1823, bears a strong and frightful +resemblance to some of the descriptions of the massacre of the patriots +in the "Revolt of Islam".) The tone of the composition is calmer and +more majestic, the poetry more perfect as a whole, and the imagination +displayed at once more pleasingly beautiful and more varied and daring. +The description of the Hours, as they are seen in the cave of +Demogorgon, is an instance of this—it fills the mind as the most +charming picture—we long to see an artist at work to bring to our view +the +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'cars drawn by rainbow-winged steeds<BR> + Which trample the dim winds: in each there stands<BR> + A wild-eyed charioteer urging their flight.<BR> + Some look behind, as fiends pursued them there,<BR> + And yet I see no shapes but the keen stars:<BR> + Others, with burning eyes, lean forth, and drink<BR> + With eager lips the wind of their own speed,<BR> + As if the thing they loved fled on before,<BR> + And now, even now, they clasped it. Their bright locks<BR> + Stream like a comet's flashing hair: they all<BR> + Sweep onward.'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Through the whole poem there reigns a sort of calm and holy spirit of +love; it soothes the tortured, and is hope to the expectant, till the +prophecy is fulfilled, and Love, untainted by any evil, becomes the law +of the world. +</P> + +<P> +England had been rendered a painful residence to Shelley, as much by the +sort of persecution with which in those days all men of liberal opinions +were visited, and by the injustice he had lately endured in the Court of +Chancery, as by the symptoms of disease which made him regard a visit to +Italy as necessary to prolong his life. An exile, and strongly impressed +with the feeling that the majority of his countrymen regarded him with +sentiments of aversion such as his own heart could experience towards +none, he sheltered himself from such disgusting and painful thoughts in +the calm retreats of poetry, and built up a world of his own—with the +more pleasure, since he hoped to induce some one or two to believe that +the earth might become such, did mankind themselves consent. The charm +of the Roman climate helped to clothe his thoughts in greater beauty +than they had ever worn before. And, as he wandered among the ruins made +one with Nature in their decay, or gazed on the Praxitelean shapes that +throng the Vatican, the Capitol, and the palaces of Rome, his soul +imbibed forms of loveliness which became a portion of itself. There are +many passages in the "Prometheus" which show the intense delight he +received from such studies, and give back the impression with a beauty +of poetical description peculiarly his own. He felt this, as a poet must +feel when he satisfies himself by the result of his labours; and he +wrote from Rome, 'My "Prometheus Unbound" is just finished, and in a +month or two I shall send it. It is a drama, with characters and +mechanism of a kind yet unattempted; and I think the execution is better +than any of my former attempts.' +</P> + +<P> +I may mention, for the information of the more critical reader, that the +verbal alterations in this edition of "Prometheus" are made from a list +of errata written by Shelley himself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON THE CENCI, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +The sort of mistake that Shelley made as to the extent of his own genius +and powers, which led him deviously at first, but lastly into the direct +track that enabled him fully to develop them, is a curious instance of +his modesty of feeling, and of the methods which the human mind uses at +once to deceive itself, and yet, in its very delusion, to make its way +out of error into the path which Nature has marked out as its right one. +He often incited me to attempt the writing a tragedy: he conceived that +I possessed some dramatic talent, and he was always most earnest and +energetic in his exhortations that I should cultivate any talent I +possessed, to the utmost. I entertained a truer estimate of my powers; +and above all (though at that time not exactly aware of the fact) I was +far too young to have any chance of succeeding, even moderately, in a +species of composition that requires a greater scope of experience in, +and sympathy with, human passion than could then have fallen to my +lot,—or than any perhaps, except Shelley, ever possessed, even at the +age of twenty-six, at which he wrote The Cenci. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, Shelley most erroneously conceived himself to be +destitute of this talent. He believed that one of the first requisites +was the capacity of forming and following-up a story or plot. He fancied +himself to be defective in this portion of imagination: it was that +which gave him least pleasure in the writings of others, though he laid +great store by it as the proper framework to support the sublimest +efforts of poetry. He asserted that he was too metaphysical and +abstract, too fond of the theoretical and the ideal, to succeed as a +tragedian. It perhaps is not strange that I shared this opinion with +himself; for he had hitherto shown no inclination for, nor given any +specimen of his powers in framing and supporting the interest of a +story, either in prose or verse. Once or twice, when he attempted such, +he had speedily thrown it aside, as being even disagreeable to him as an +occupation. +</P> + +<P> +The subject he had suggested for a tragedy was Charles I: and he had +written to me: 'Remember, remember Charles I. I have been already +imagining how you would conduct some scenes. The second volume of "St. +Leon" begins with this proud and true sentiment: "There is nothing which +the human mind can conceive which it may not execute." Shakespeare was +only a human being.' These words were written in 1818, while we were in +Lombardy, when he little thought how soon a work of his own would prove +a proud comment on the passage he quoted. When in Rome, in 1819, a +friend put into our hands the old manuscript account of the story of the +Cenci. We visited the Colonna and Doria palaces, where the portraits of +Beatrice were to be found; and her beauty cast the reflection of its own +grace over her appalling story. Shelley's imagination became strongly +excited, and he urged the subject to me as one fitted for a tragedy. +More than ever I felt my incompetence; but I entreated him to write it +instead; and he began, and proceeded swiftly, urged on by intense +sympathy with the sufferings of the human beings whose passions, so long +cold in the tomb, he revived, and gifted with poetic language. This +tragedy is the only one of his works that he communicated to me during +its progress. We talked over the arrangement of the scenes together. I +speedily saw the great mistake we had made, and triumphed in the +discovery of the new talent brought to light from that mine of wealth +(never, alas, through his untimely death, worked to its depths)—his +richly gifted mind. +</P> + +<P> +We suffered a severe affliction in Rome by the loss of our eldest child, +who was of such beauty and promise as to cause him deservedly to be the +idol of our hearts. We left the capital of the world, anxious for a time +to escape a spot associated too intimately with his presence and loss. +(Such feelings haunted him when, in "The Cenci", he makes Beatrice speak +to Cardinal Camillo of +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'that fair blue-eyed child<BR> + Who was the lodestar of your life:'—and say—<BR> + All see, since his most swift and piteous death,<BR> + That day and night, and heaven and earth, and time,<BR> + And all the things hoped for or done therein<BR> + Are changed to you, through your exceeding grief.')<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Some friends of ours were residing in the neighbourhood of Leghorn, and +we took a small house, Villa Valsovano, about half-way between the town +and Monte Nero, where we remained during the summer. Our villa was +situated in the midst of a podere; the peasants sang as they worked +beneath our windows, during the heats of a very hot season, and in the +evening the water-wheel creaked as the process of irrigation went on, +and the fireflies flashed from among the myrtle hedges: Nature was +bright, sunshiny, and cheerful, or diversified by storms of a majestic +terror, such as we had never before witnessed. +</P> + +<P> +At the top of the house there was a sort of terrace. There is often such +in Italy, generally roofed: this one was very small, yet not only roofed +but glazed. This Shelley made his study; it looked out on a wide +prospect of fertile country, and commanded a view of the near sea. The +storms that sometimes varied our day showed themselves most +picturesquely as they were driven across the ocean; sometimes the dark +lurid clouds dipped towards the waves, and became water-spouts that +churned up the waters beneath, as they were chased onward and scattered +by the tempest. At other times the dazzling sunlight and heat made it +almost intolerable to every other; but Shelley basked in both, and his +health and spirits revived under their influence. In this airy cell he +wrote the principal part of "The Cenci". He was making a study of +Calderon at the time, reading his best tragedies with an accomplished +lady living near us, to whom his letter from Leghorn was addressed +during the following year. He admired Calderon, both for his poetry and +his dramatic genius; but it shows his judgement and originality that, +though greatly struck by his first acquaintance with the Spanish poet, +none of his peculiarities crept into the composition of "The Cenci"; and +there is no trace of his new studies, except in that passage to which he +himself alludes as suggested by one in "El Purgatorio de San Patricio". +</P> + +<P> +Shelley wished "The Cenci" to be acted. He was not a playgoer, being of +such fastidious taste that he was easily disgusted by the bad filling-up +of the inferior parts. While preparing for our departure from England, +however, he saw Miss O'Neil several times. She was then in the zenith of +her glory; and Shelley was deeply moved by her impersonation of several +parts, and by the graceful sweetness, the intense pathos, the sublime +vehemence of passion she displayed. She was often in his thoughts as he +wrote: and, when he had finished, he became anxious that his tragedy +should be acted, and receive the advantage of having this accomplished +actress to fill the part of the heroine. With this view he wrote the +following letter to a friend in London: +</P> + +<P> +'The object of the present letter us to ask a favour of you. I have +written a tragedy on a story well known in Italy, and, in my conception, +eminently dramatic. I have taken some pains to make my play fit for +representation, and those who have already seen it judge favourably. It +is written without any of the peculiar feelings and opinions which +characterize my other compositions; I have attended simply to the +impartial development of such characters as it is probable the persons +represented really were, together with the greatest degree of popular +effect to be produced by such a development. I send you a translation of +the Italian manuscript on which my play is founded; the chief +circumstance of which I have touched very delicately; for my principal +doubt as to whether it would succeed as an acting play hangs entirely on +the question as to whether any such a thing as incest in this shape, +however treated, would be admitted on the stage. I think, however, it +will form no objection; considering, first, that the facts are matter of +history, and, secondly, the peculiar delicacy with which I have treated +it. (In speaking of his mode of treating this main incident, Shelley +said that it might be remarked that, in the course of the play, he had +never mentioned expressly Cenci's worst crime. Every one knew what it +must be, but it was never imaged in words—the nearest allusion to it +being that portion of Cenci's curse beginning—"That, if she have a +child," etc.) +</P> + +<P> +'I am exceedingly interested in the question of whether this attempt of +mine will succeed or not. I am strongly inclined to the affirmative at +present; founding my hopes on this—that, as a composition, it is +certainly not inferior to any of the modern plays that have been acted, +with the exception of "Remorse"; that the interest of the plot is +incredibly greater and more real; and that there is nothing beyond what +the multitude are contented to believe that they can understand, either +in imagery, opinion, or sentiment. I wish to preserve a complete +incognito, and can trust to you that, whatever else you do, you will at +least favour me on this point. Indeed, this is essential, deeply +essential, to its success. After it had been acted, and successfully +(could I hope for such a thing), I would own it if I pleased, and use +the celebrity it might acquire to my own purposes. +</P> + +<P> +'What I want you to do is to procure for me its presentation at Covent +Garden. The principal character, Beatrice, is precisely fitted for Miss +O'Neil, and it might even seem to have been written for her (God forbid +that I should see her play it—it would tear my nerves to pieces); and +in all respects it is fitted only for Covent Garden. The chief male +character I confess I should be very unwilling that any one but Kean +should play. That is impossible, and I must be contented with an +inferior actor.' +</P> + +<P> +The play was accordingly sent to Mr. Harris. He pronounced the subject +to be so objectionable that he could not even submit the part to Miss +O'Neil for perusal, but expressed his desire that the author would write +a tragedy on some other subject, which he would gladly accept. Shelley +printed a small edition at Leghorn, to ensure its correctness; as he was +much annoyed by the many mistakes that crept into his text when distance +prevented him from correcting the press. +</P> + +<P> +Universal approbation soon stamped "The Cenci" as the best tragedy of +modern times. Writing concerning it, Shelley said: 'I have been cautious +to avoid the introducing faults of youthful composition; diffuseness, a +profusion of inapplicable imagery, vagueness, generality, and, as Hamlet +says, "words, words".' There is nothing that is not purely dramatic +throughout; and the character of Beatrice, proceeding, from vehement +struggle, to horror, to deadly resolution, and lastly to the elevated +dignity of calm suffering, joined to passionate tenderness and pathos, +is touched with hues so vivid and so beautiful that the poet seems to +have read intimately the secrets of the noble heart imaged in the lovely +countenance of the unfortunate girl. The Fifth Act is a masterpiece. It +is the finest thing he ever wrote, and may claim proud comparison not +only with any contemporary, but preceding, poet. The varying feelings of +Beatrice are expressed with passionate, heart-reaching eloquence. Every +character has a voice that echoes truth in its tones. It is curious, to +one acquainted with the written story, to mark the success with which +the poet has inwoven the real incidents of the tragedy into his scenes, +and yet, through the power of poetry, has obliterated all that would +otherwise have shown too harsh or too hideous in the picture. His +success was a double triumph; and often after he was earnestly entreated +to write again in a style that commanded popular favour, while it was +not less instinct with truth and genius. But the bent of his mind went +the other way; and, even when employed on subjects whose interest +depended on character and incident, he would start off in another +direction, and leave the delineations of human passion, which he could +depict in so able a manner, for fantastic creations of his fancy, or the +expression of those opinions and sentiments, with regard to human nature +and its destiny, a desire to diffuse which was the master passion of his +soul. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON THE MASK OF ANARCHY, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +Though Shelley's first eager desire to excite his countrymen to resist +openly the oppressions existent during 'the good old times' had faded +with early youth, still his warmest sympathies were for the people. He +was a republican, and loved a democracy. He looked on all human beings +as inheriting an equal right to possess the dearest privileges of our +nature; the necessaries of life when fairly earned by labour, and +intellectual instruction. His hatred of any despotism that looked upon +the people as not to be consulted, or protected from want and ignorance, +was intense. He was residing near Leghorn, at Villa Valsovano, writing +"The Cenci", when the news of the Manchester Massacre reached us; it +roused in him violent emotions of indignation and compassion. The great +truth that the many, if accordant and resolute, could control the few, +as was shown some years after, made him long to teach his injured +countrymen how to resist. Inspired by these feelings, he wrote the "Mask +of Anarchy", which he sent to his friend Leigh Hunt, to be inserted in +the Examiner, of which he was then the Editor. +</P> + +<P> +'I did not insert it,' Leigh Hunt writes in his valuable and interesting +preface to this poem, when he printed it in 1832, 'because I thought +that the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do +justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked +in this flaming robe of verse.' Days of outrage have passed away, and +with them the exasperation that would cause such an appeal to the many +to be injurious. Without being aware of them, they at one time acted on +his suggestions, and gained the day. But they rose when human life was +respected by the Minister in power; such was not the case during the +Administration which excited Shelley's abhorrence. +</P> + +<P> +The poem was written for the people, and is therefore in a more popular +tone than usual: portions strike as abrupt and unpolished, but many +stanzas are all his own. I heard him repeat, and admired, those +beginning +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'My Father Time is old and gray,'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +before I knew to what poem they were to belong. But the most touching +passage is that which describes the blessed effects of liberty; it might +make a patriot of any man whose heart was not wholly closed against his +humbler fellow-creatures. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON PETER BELL THE THIRD, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +In this new edition I have added "Peter Bell the Third". A critique on +Wordsworth's "Peter Bell" reached us at Leghorn, which amused Shelley +exceedingly, and suggested this poem. +</P> + +<P> +I need scarcely observe that nothing personal to the author of "Peter +Bell" is intended in this poem. No man ever admired Wordsworth's poetry +more;—he read it perpetually, and taught others to appreciate its +beauties. This poem is, like all others written by Shelley, ideal. He +conceived the idealism of a poet—a man of lofty and creative +genius—quitting the glorious calling of discovering and announcing the +beautiful and good, to support and propagate ignorant prejudices and +pernicious errors; imparting to the unenlightened, not that ardour for +truth and spirit of toleration which Shelley looked on as the sources of +the moral improvement and happiness of mankind, but false and injurious +opinions, that evil was good, and that ignorance and force were the best +allies of purity and virtue. His idea was that a man gifted, even as +transcendently as the author of "Peter Bell", with the highest qualities +of genius, must, if he fostered such errors, be infected with dulness. +This poem was written as a warning—not as a narration of the reality. +He was unacquainted personally with Wordsworth, or with Coleridge (to +whom he alludes in the fifth part of the poem), and therefore, I repeat, +his poem is purely ideal;—it contains something of criticism on the +compositions of those great poets, but nothing injurious to the men +themselves. +</P> + +<P> +No poem contains more of Shelley's peculiar views with regard to the +errors into which many of the wisest have fallen, and the pernicious +effects of certain opinions on society. Much of it is beautifully +written: and, though, like the burlesque drama of "Swellfoot", it must +be looked on as a plaything, it has so much merit and poetry—so much of +HIMSELF in it—that it cannot fail to interest greatly, and by right +belongs to the world for whose instruction and benefit it was written. +</P> + +<P> +NOTE ON THE WITCH OF ATLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</P> + +<P> +We spent the summer of 1820 at the Baths of San Giuliano, four miles +from Pisa. These baths were of great use to Shelley in soothing his +nervous irritability. We made several excursions in the neighbourhood. +The country around is fertile, and diversified and rendered picturesque +by ranges of near hills and more distant mountains. The peasantry are a +handsome intelligent race; and there was a gladsome sunny heaven spread +over us, that rendered home and every scene we visited cheerful and +bright. During some of the hottest days of August, Shelley made a +solitary journey on foot to the summit of Monte San Pellegrino—a +mountain of some height, on the top of which there is a chapel, the +object, during certain days of the year, of many pilgrimages. The +excursion delighted him while it lasted; though he exerted himself too +much, and the effect was considerable lassitude and weakness on his +return. During the expedition he conceived the idea, and wrote, in the +three days immediately succeeding to his return, the "Witch of Atlas". +This poem is peculiarly characteristic of his tastes—wildly fanciful, +full of brilliant imagery, and discarding human interest and passion, to +revel in the fantastic ideas that his imagination suggested. +</P> + +<P> +The surpassing excellence of "The Cenci" had made me greatly desire that +Shelley should increase his popularity by adopting subjects that would +more suit the popular taste than a poem conceived in the abstract and +dreamy spirit of the "Witch of Atlas". It was not only that I wished him +to acquire popularity as redounding to his fame; but I believed that he +would obtain a greater mastery over his own powers, and greater +happiness in his mind, if public applause crowned his endeavours. The +few stanzas that precede the poem were addressed to me on my +representing these ideas to him. Even now I believe that I was in the +right. Shelley did not expect sympathy and approbation from the public; +but the want of it took away a portion of the ardour that ought to have +sustained him while writing. He was thrown on his own resources, and on +the inspiration of his own soul; and wrote because his mind overflowed, +without the hope of being appreciated. I had not the most distant wish +that he should truckle in opinion, or submit his lofty aspirations for +the human race to the low ambition and pride of the many; but I felt +sure that, if his poems were more addressed to the common feelings of +men, his proper rank among the writers of the day would be acknowledged, +and that popularity as a poet would enable his countrymen to do justice +to his character and virtues, which in those days it was the mode to +attack with the most flagitious calumnies and insulting abuse. That he +felt these things deeply cannot be doubted, though he armed himself with +the consciousness of acting from a lofty and heroic sense of right. The +truth burst from his heart sometimes in solitude, and he would write a +few unfinished verses that showed that he felt the sting; among such I +find the following:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Alas! this is not what I thought Life was.<BR> + I knew that there were crimes and evil men,<BR> + Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass<BR> + Untouched by suffering through the rugged glen.<BR> + In mine own heart I saw as in a glass<BR> + The hearts of others...And, when<BR> + I went among my kind, with triple brass<BR> + Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed,<BR> + To bear scorn, fear, and hate—a woful mass!'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +I believed that all this morbid feeling would vanish if the chord of +sympathy between him and his countrymen were touched. But my persuasions +were vain, the mind could not be bent from its natural inclination. +Shelley shrunk instinctively from portraying human passion, with its +mixture of good and evil, of disappointment and disquiet. Such opened +again the wounds of his own heart; and he loved to shelter himself +rather in the airiest flights of fancy, forgetting love and hate, and +regret and lost hope, in such imaginations as borrowed their hues from +sunrise or sunset, from the yellow moonshine or paly twilight, from the +aspect of the far ocean or the shadows of the woods,—which celebrated +the singing of the winds among the pines, the flow of a murmuring +stream, and the thousand harmonious sounds which Nature creates in her +solitudes. These are the materials which form the "Witch of Atlas": it +is a brilliant congregation of ideas such as his senses gathered, and +his fancy coloured, during his rambles in the sunny land he so much +loved. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON OEDIPUS TYRANNUS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +In the brief journal I kept in those days, I find recorded, in August, +1820, Shelley 'begins "Swellfoot the Tyrant", suggested by the pigs at +the fair of San Giuliano.' This was the period of Queen Caroline's +landing in England, and the struggles made by George IV to get rid of +her claims; which failing, Lord Castlereagh placed the "Green Bag" on +the table of the House of Commons, demanding in the King's name that an +enquiry should be instituted into his wife's conduct. These +circumstances were the theme of all conversation among the English. We +were then at the Baths of San Giuliano. A friend came to visit us on the +day when a fair was held in the square, beneath our windows: Shelley +read to us his "Ode to Liberty"; and was riotously accompanied by the +grunting of a quantity of pigs brought for sale to the fair. He compared +it to the 'chorus of frogs' in the satiric drama of Aristophanes; and, +it being an hour of merriment, and one ludicrous association suggesting +another, he imagined a political-satirical drama on the circumstances of +the day, to which the pigs would serve as chorus—and "Swellfoot" was +begun. When finished, it was transmitted to England, printed, and +published anonymously; but stifled at the very dawn of its existence by +the Society for the Suppression of Vice, who threatened to prosecute it, +if not immediately withdrawn. The friend who had taken the trouble of +bringing it out, of course did not think it worth the annoyance and +expense of a contest, and it was laid aside. +</P> + +<P> +Hesitation of whether it would do honour to Shelley prevented my +publishing it at first. But I cannot bring myself to keep back anything +he ever wrote; for each word is fraught with the peculiar views and +sentiments which he believed to be beneficial to the human race, and the +bright light of poetry irradiates every thought. The world has a right +to the entire compositions of such a man; for it does not live and +thrive by the outworn lesson of the dullard or the hypocrite, but by the +original free thoughts of men of genius, who aspire to pluck bright +truth +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'from the pale-faced moon;<BR> + Or dive into the bottom of the deep<BR> + Where fathom-line would never touch the ground,<BR> + And pluck up drowned'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +truth. Even those who may dissent from his opinions will consider that +he was a man of genius, and that the world will take more interest in +his slightest word than in the waters of Lethe which are so eagerly +prescribed as medicinal for all its wrongs and woe. This drama, however, +must not be judged for more than was meant. It is a mere plaything of +the imagination; which even may not excite smiles among many, who will +not see wit in those combinations of thought which were full of the +ridiculous to the author. But, like everything he wrote, it breathes +that deep sympathy for the sorrows of humanity, and indignation against +its oppressors, which make it worthy of his name. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON HELLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +The South of Europe was in a state of great political excitement at the +beginning of the year 1821. The Spanish Revolution had been a signal to +Italy; secrete societies were formed; and, when Naples rose to declare +the Constitution, the call was responded to from Brundusium to the foot +of the Alps. To crush these attempts to obtain liberty, early in 1821 +the Austrians poured their armies into the Peninsula: at first their +coming rather seemed to add energy and resolution to a people long +enslaved. The Piedmontese asserted their freedom; Genoa threw off the +yoke of the King of Sardinia; and, as if in playful imitation, the +people of the little state of Massa and Carrara gave the conge to their +sovereign, and set up a republic. +</P> + +<P> +Tuscany alone was perfectly tranquil. It was said that the Austrian +minister presented a list of sixty Carbonari to the Grand Duke, urging +their imprisonment; and the Grand Duke replied, 'I do not know whether +these sixty men are Carbonari, but I know, if I imprison them, I shall +directly have sixty thousand start up.' But, though the Tuscans had no +desire to disturb the paternal government beneath whose shelter they +slumbered, they regarded the progress of the various Italian revolutions +with intense interest, and hatred for the Austrian was warm in every +bosom. But they had slender hopes; they knew that the Neapolitans would +offer no fit resistance to the regular German troops, and that the +overthrow of the constitution in Naples would act as a decisive blow +against all struggles for liberty in Italy. +</P> + +<P> +We have seen the rise and progress of reform. But the Holy Alliance was +alive and active in those days, and few could dream of the peaceful +triumph of liberty. It seemed then that the armed assertion of freedom +in the South of Europe was the only hope of the liberals, as, if it +prevailed, the nations of the north would imitate the example. Happily +the reverse has proved the fact. The countries accustomed to the +exercise of the privileges of freemen, to a limited extent, have +extended, and are extending, these limits. Freedom and knowledge have +now a chance of proceeding hand in hand; and, if it continue thus, we +may hope for the durability of both. Then, as I have said—in +1821—Shelley, as well as every other lover of liberty, looked upon the +struggles in Spain and Italy as decisive of the destinies of the world, +probably for centuries to come. The interest he took in the progress of +affairs was intense. When Genoa declared itself free, his hopes were at +their highest. Day after day he read the bulletins of the Austrian army, +and sought eagerly to gather tokens of its defeat. He heard of the +revolt of Genoa with emotions of transport. His whole heart and soul +were in the triumph of the cause. We were living at Pisa at that time; +and several well-informed Italians, at the head of whom we may place the +celebrated Vacca, were accustomed to seek for sympathy in their hopes +from Shelley: they did not find such for the despair they too generally +experienced, founded on contempt for their southern countrymen. +</P> + +<P> +While the fate of the progress of the Austrian armies then invading +Naples was yet in suspense, the news of another revolution filled him +with exultation. We had formed the acquaintance at Pisa of several +Constantinopolitan Greeks, of the family of Prince Caradja, formerly +Hospodar of Wallachia; who, hearing that the bowstring, the accustomed +finale of his viceroyalty, was on the road to him, escaped with his +treasures, and took up his abode in Tuscany. Among these was the +gentleman to whom the drama of "Hellas" is dedicated. Prince +Mavrocordato was warmed by those aspirations for the independence of his +country which filled the hearts of many of his countrymen. He often +intimated the possibility of an insurrection in Greece; but we had no +idea of its being so near at hand, when, on the 1st of April 1821, he +called on Shelley, bringing the proclamation of his cousin, Prince +Ypsilanti, and, radiant with exultation and delight, declared that +henceforth Greece would be free. +</P> + +<P> +Shelley had hymned the dawn of liberty in Spain and Naples, in two odes +dictated by the warmest enthusiasm; he felt himself naturally impelled +to decorate with poetry the uprise of the descendants of that people +whose works he regarded with deep admiration, and to adopt the +vaticinatory character in prophesying their success. "Hellas" was +written in a moment of enthusiasm. It is curious to remark how well he +overcomes the difficulty of forming a drama out of such scant materials. +His prophecies, indeed, came true in their general, not their +particular, purport. He did not foresee the death of Lord Londonderry, +which was to be the epoch of a change in English politics, particularly +as regarded foreign affairs; nor that the navy of his country would +fight for instead of against the Greeks, and by the battle of Navarino +secure their enfranchisement from the Turks. Almost against reason, as +it appeared to him, he resolved to believe that Greece would prove +triumphant; and in this spirit, auguring ultimate good, yet grieving +over the vicissitudes to be endured in the interval, he composed his +drama. +</P> + +<P> +"Hellas" was among the last of his compositions, and is among the most +beautiful. The choruses are singularly imaginative, and melodious in +their versification. There are some stanzas that beautifully exemplify +Shelley's peculiar style; as, for instance, the assertion of the +intellectual empire which must be for ever the inheritance of the +country of Homer, Sophocles, and Plato:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'But Greece and her foundations are<BR> + Built below the tide of war,<BR> + Based on the crystalline sea<BR> + Of thought and its eternity.'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +And again, that philosophical truth felicitously imaged forth— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Revenge and Wrong bring forth their kind,<BR> + The foul cubs like their parents are,<BR> + Their den is in the guilty mind,<BR> + And Conscience feeds them with despair.'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The conclusion of the last chorus is among the most beautiful of his +lyrics. The imagery is distinct and majestic; the prophecy, such as +poets love to dwell upon, the Regeneration of Mankind—and that +regeneration reflecting back splendour on the foregone time, from which +it inherits so much of intellectual wealth, and memory of past virtuous +deeds, as must render the possession of happiness and peace of tenfold +value. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +The remainder of Shelley's Poems will be arranged in the order in which +they were written. Of course, mistakes will occur in placing some of the +shorter ones; for, as I have said, many of these were thrown aside, and +I never saw them till I had the misery of looking over his writings +after the hand that traced them was dust; and some were in the hands of +others, and I never saw them till now. The subjects of the poems are +often to me an unerring guide; but on other occasions I can only guess, +by finding them in the pages of the same manuscript book that contains +poems with the date of whose composition I am fully conversant. In the +present arrangement all his poetical translations will be placed +together at the end. +</P> + +<P> +The loss of his early papers prevents my being able to give any of the +poetry of his boyhood. Of the few I give as "Early Poems", the greater +part were published with "Alastor"; some of them were written +previously, some at the same period. The poem beginning 'Oh, there are +spirits in the air' was addressed in idea to Coleridge, whom he never +knew; and at whose character he could only guess imperfectly, through +his writings, and accounts he heard of him from some who knew him well. +He regarded his change of opinions as rather an act of will than +conviction, and believed that in his inner heart he would be haunted by +what Shelley considered the better and holier aspirations of his youth. +The summer evening that suggested to him the poem written in the +churchyard of Lechlade occurred during his voyage up the Thames in 1815. +He had been advised by a physician to live as much as possible in the +open air; and a fortnight of a bright warm July was spent in tracing the +Thames to its source. He never spent a season more tranquilly than the +summer of 1815. He had just recovered from a severe pulmonary attack; +the weather was warm and pleasant. He lived near Windsor Forest; and his +life was spent under its shades or on the water, meditating subjects for +verse. Hitherto, he had chiefly aimed at extending his political +doctrines, and attempted so to do by appeals in prose essays to the +people, exhorting them to claim their rights; but he had now begun to +feel that the time for action was not ripe in England, and that the pen +was the only instrument wherewith to prepare the way for better things. +</P> + +<P> +In the scanty journals kept during those years I find a record of the +books that Shelley read during several years. During the years of 1814 +and 1815 the list is extensive. It includes, in Greek, Homer, Hesiod, +Theocritus, the histories of Thucydides and Herodotus, and Diogenes +Laertius. In Latin, Petronius, Suetonius, some of the works of Cicero, a +large proportion of those of Seneca and Livy. In English, Milton's +poems, Wordsworth's "Excursion", Southey's "Madoc" and "Thalaba", Locke +"On the Human Understanding", Bacon's "Novum Organum". In Italian, +Ariosto, Tasso, and Alfieri. In French, the "Reveries d'un Solitaire" of +Rousseau. To these may be added several modern books of travel. He read +few novels. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +Shelley wrote little during this year. The poem entitled "The Sunset" +was written in the spring of the year, while still residing at +Bishopsgate. He spent the summer on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. +The "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was conceived during his voyage round +the lake with Lord Byron. He occupied himself during this voyage by +reading the "Nouvelle Heloise" for the first time. The reading it on the +very spot where the scenes are laid added to the interest; and he was at +once surprised and charmed by the passionate eloquence and earnest +enthralling interest that pervade this work. There was something in the +character of Saint-Preux, in his abnegation of self, and in the worship +he paid to Love, that coincided with Shelley's own disposition; and, +though differing in many of the views and shocked by others, yet the +effect of the whole was fascinating and delightful. +</P> + +<P> +"Mont Blanc" was inspired by a view of that mountain and its surrounding +peaks and valleys, as he lingered on the Bridge of Arve on his way +through the Valley of Chamouni. Shelley makes the following mention of +this poem in his publication of the "History of a Six Weeks' Tour, and +Letters from Switzerland": 'The poem entitled "Mont Blanc" is written by +the author of the two letters from Chamouni and Vevai. It was composed +under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful feelings excited +by the objects which it attempts to describe; and, as an undisciplined +overflowing of the soul, rests its claim to approbation on an attempt to +imitate the untamable wildness and inaccessible solemnity from which +those feelings sprang.' +</P> + +<P> +This was an eventful year, and less time was given to study than usual. +In the list of his reading I find, in Greek, Theocritus, the +"Prometheus" of Aeschylus, several of Plutarch's "Lives", and the works +of Lucian. In Latin, Lucretius, Pliny's "Letters", the "Annals" and +"Germany" of Tacitus. In French, the "History of the French Revolution" +by Lacretelle. He read for the first time, this year, Montaigne's +"Essays", and regarded them ever after as one of the most delightful and +instructive books in the world. The list is scanty in English works: +Locke's "Essay", "Political Justice", and Coleridge's "Lay Sermon", form +nearly the whole. It was his frequent habit to read aloud to me in the +evening; in this way we read, this year, the New Testament, "Paradise +Lost", Spenser's "Faery Queen", and "Don Quixote". +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +The very illness that oppressed, and the aspect of death which had +approached so near Shelley, appear to have kindled to yet keener life +the Spirit of Poetry in his heart. The restless thoughts kept awake by +pain clothed themselves in verse. Much was composed during this year. +The "Revolt of Islam", written and printed, was a great +effort—"Rosalind and Helen" was begun—and the fragments and poems I +can trace to the same period show how full of passion and reflection +were his solitary hours. +</P> + +<P> +In addition to such poems as have an intelligible aim and shape, many a +stray idea and transitory emotion found imperfect and abrupt expression, +and then again lost themselves in silence. As he never wandered without +a book and without implements of writing, I find many such, in his +manuscript books, that scarcely bear record; while some of them, broken +and vague as they are, will appear valuable to those who love Shelley's +mind, and desire to trace its workings. +</P> + +<P> +He projected also translating the "Hymns" of Homer; his version of +several of the shorter ones remains, as well as that to Mercury already +published in the "Posthumous Poems". His readings this year were chiefly +Greek. Besides the "Hymns" of Homer and the "Iliad", he read the dramas +of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the "Symposium" of Plato, and Arrian's +"Historia Indica". In Latin, Apuleius alone is named. In English, the +Bible was his constant study; he read a great portion of it aloud in the +evening. Among these evening readings I find also mentioned the "Faerie +Queen"; and other modern works, the production of his contemporaries, +Coleridge, Wordsworth, Moore and Byron. +</P> + +<P> +His life was now spent more in thought than action—he had lost the +eager spirit which believed it could achieve what it projected for the +benefit of mankind. And yet in the converse of daily life Shelley was +far from being a melancholy man. He was eloquent when philosophy or +politics or taste were the subjects of conversation. He was playful; and +indulged in the wild spirit that mocked itself and others—not in +bitterness, but in sport. The author of "Nightmare Abbey" seized on some +points of his character and some habits of his life when he painted +Scythrop. He was not addicted to 'port or madeira,' but in youth he had +read of 'Illuminati and Eleutherarchs,' and believed that he possessed +the power of operating an immediate change in the minds of men and the +state of society. These wild dreams had faded; sorrow and adversity had +struck home; but he struggled with despondency as he did with physical +pain. There are few who remember him sailing paper boats, and watching +the navigation of his tiny craft with eagerness—or repeating with wild +energy "The Ancient Mariner", and Southey's "Old Woman of Berkeley"; but +those who do will recollect that it was in such, and in the creations of +his own fancy when that was most daring and ideal, that he sheltered +himself from the storms and disappointments, the pain and sorrow, that +beset his life. +</P> + +<P> +No words can express the anguish he felt when his elder children were +torn from him. In his first resentment against the Chancellor, on the +passing of the decree, he had written a curse, in which there breathes, +besides haughty indignation, all the tenderness of a father's love, +which could imagine and fondly dwell upon its loss and the consequences. +</P> + +<P> +At one time, while the question was still pending, the Chancellor had +said some words that seemed to intimate that Shelley should not be +permitted the care of any of his children, and for a moment he feared +that our infant son would be torn from us. He did not hesitate to +resolve, if such were menaced, to abandon country, fortune, everything, +and to escape with his child; and I find some unfinished stanzas +addressed to this son, whom afterwards we lost at Rome, written under +the idea that we might suddenly be forced to cross the sea, so to +preserve him. This poem, as well as the one previously quoted, were not +written to exhibit the pangs of distress to the public; they were the +spontaneous outbursts of a man who brooded over his wrongs and woes, and +was impelled to shed the grace of his genius over the uncontrollable +emotions of his heart. I ought to observe that the fourth verse of this +effusion is introduced in "Rosalind and Helen". When afterwards this +child died at Rome, he wrote, a propos of the English burying-ground in +that city: 'This spot is the repository of a sacred loss, of which the +yearnings of a parent's heart are now prophetic; he is rendered immortal +by love, as his memory is by death. My beloved child lies buried here. I +envy death the body far less than the oppressors the minds of those whom +they have torn from me. The one can only kill the body, the other +crushes the affections.' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +We often hear of persons disappointed by a first visit to Italy. This +was not Shelley's case. The aspect of its nature, its sunny sky, its +majestic storms, of the luxuriant vegetation of the country, and the +noble marble-built cities, enchanted him. The sight of the works of art +was full enjoyment and wonder. He had not studied pictures or statues +before; he now did so with the eye of taste, that referred not to the +rules of schools, but to those of Nature and truth. The first entrance +to Rome opened to him a scene of remains of antique grandeur that far +surpassed his expectations; and the unspeakable beauty of Naples and its +environs added to the impression he received of the transcendent and +glorious beauty of Italy. +</P> + +<P> +Our winter was spent at Naples. Here he wrote the fragments of +"Marenghi" and "The Woodman and the Nightingale", which he afterwards +threw aside. At this time, Shelley suffered greatly in health. He put +himself under the care of a medical man, who promised great things, and +made him endure severe bodily pain, without any good results. Constant +and poignant physical suffering exhausted him; and though he preserved +the appearance of cheerfulness, and often greatly enjoyed our wanderings +in the environs of Naples, and our excursions on its sunny sea, yet many +hours were passed when his thoughts, shadowed by illness, became +gloomy,—and then he escaped to solitude, and in verses, which he hid +from fear of wounding me, poured forth morbid but too natural bursts of +discontent and sadness. One looks back with unspeakable regret and +gnawing remorse to such periods; fancying that, had one been more alive +to the nature of his feelings, and more attentive to soothe them, such +would not have existed. And yet, enjoying as he appeared to do every +sight or influence of earth or sky, it was difficult to imagine that any +melancholy he showed was aught but the effect of the constant pain to +which he was a martyr. +</P> + +<P> +We lived in utter solitude. And such is often not the nurse of +cheerfulness; for then, at least with those who have been exposed to +adversity, the mind broods over its sorrows too intently; while the +society of the enlightened, the witty, and the wise, enables us to +forget ourselves by making us the sharers of the thoughts of others, +which is a portion of the philosophy of happiness. Shelley never liked +society in numbers,—it harassed and wearied him; but neither did he +like loneliness, and usually, when alone, sheltered himself against +memory and reflection in a book. But, with one or two whom he loved, he +gave way to wild and joyous spirits, or in more serious conversation +expounded his opinions with vivacity and eloquence. If an argument +arose, no man ever argued better. He was clear, logical, and earnest, in +supporting his own views; attentive, patient, and impartial, while +listening to those on the adverse side. Had not a wall of prejudice been +raised at this time between him and his countrymen, how many would have +sought the acquaintance of one whom to know was to love and to revere! +How many of the more enlightened of his contemporaries have since +regretted that they did not seek him! how very few knew his worth while +he lived! and, of those few, several were withheld by timidity or envy +from declaring their sense of it. But no man was ever more +enthusiastically loved—more looked up to, as one superior to his +fellows in intellectual endowments and moral worth, by the few who knew +him well, and had sufficient nobleness of soul to appreciate his +superiority. His excellence is now acknowledged; but, even while +admitted, not duly appreciated. For who, except those who were +acquainted with him, can imagine his unwearied benevolence, his +generosity, his systematic forbearance? And still less is his vast +superiority in intellectual attainments sufficiently understood—his +sagacity, his clear understanding, his learning, his prodigious memory. +All these as displayed in conversation, were known to few while he +lived, and are now silent in the tomb: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Ahi orbo mondo ingrato!<BR> + Gran cagion hai di dever pianger meco;<BR> + Che quel ben ch' era in te, perdut' hai seco.'<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1819, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +Shelley loved the People; and respected them as often more virtuous, as +always more suffering, and therefore more deserving of sympathy, than +the great. He believed that a clash between the two classes of society +was inevitable, and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side. He +had an idea of publishing a series of poems adapted expressly to +commemorate their circumstances and wrongs. He wrote a few; but, in +those days of prosecution for libel, they could not be printed. They are +not among the best of his productions, a writer being always shackled +when he endeavours to write down to the comprehension of those who could +not understand or feel a highly imaginative style; but they show his +earnestness, and with what heart-felt compassion he went home to the +direct point of injury—that oppression is detestable as being the +parent of starvation, nakedness, and ignorance. Besides these +outpourings of compassion and indignation, he had meant to adorn the +cause he loved with loftier poetry of glory and triumph: such is the +scope of the "Ode to the Assertors of Liberty". He sketched also a new +version of our national anthem, as addressed to Liberty. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +We spent the latter part of the year 1819 in Florence, where Shelley +passed several hours daily in the Gallery, and made various notes on its +ancient works of art. His thoughts were a good deal taken up also by the +project of a steamboat, undertaken by a friend, an engineer, to ply +between Leghorn and Marseilles, for which he supplied a sum of money. +This was a sort of plan to delight Shelley, and he was greatly +disappointed when it was thrown aside. +</P> + +<P> +There was something in Florence that disagreed excessively with his +health, and he suffered far more pain than usual; so much so that we +left it sooner than we intended, and removed to Pisa, where we had some +friends, and, above all, where we could consult the celebrated Vacca as +to the cause of Shelley's sufferings. He, like every other medical man, +could only guess at that, and gave little hope of immediate relief; he +enjoined him to abstain from all physicians and medicine, and to leave +his complaint to Nature. As he had vainly consulted medical men of the +highest repute in England, he was easily persuaded to adopt this advice. +Pain and ill-health followed him to the end; but the residence at Pisa +agreed with him better than any other, and there in consequence we +remained. +</P> + +<P> +In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn, borrowing the house +of some friends who were absent on a journey to England. It was on a +beautiful summer evening, while wandering among the lanes whose +myrtle-hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the +carolling of the skylark which inspired one of the most beautiful of his +poems. He addressed the letter to Mrs. Gisborne from this house, which +was hers: he had made his study of the workshop of her son, who was an +engineer. Mrs. Gisborne had been a friend of my father in her younger +days. She was a lady of great accomplishments, and charming from her +frank and affectionate nature. She had the most intense love of +knowledge, a delicate and trembling sensibility, and preserved freshness +of mind after a life of considerable adversity. As a favourite friend of +my father, we had sought her with eagerness; and the most open and +cordial friendship was established between us. +</P> + +<P> +Our stay at the Baths of San Giuliano was shortened by an accident. At +the foot of our garden ran the canal that communicated between the +Serchio and the Arno. The Serchio overflowed its banks, and, breaking +its bounds, this canal also overflowed; all this part of the country is +below the level of its rivers, and the consequence was that it was +speedily flooded. The rising waters filled the Square of the Baths, in +the lower part of which our house was situated. The canal overflowed in +the garden behind; the rising waters on either side at last burst open +the doors, and, meeting in the house, rose to the height of six feet. It +was a picturesque sight at night to see the peasants driving the cattle +from the plains below to the hills above the Baths. A fire was kept up +to guide them across the ford; and the forms of the men and the animals +showed in dark relief against the red glare of the flame, which was +reflected again in the waters that filled the Square. +</P> + +<P> +We then removed to Pisa, and took up our abode there for the winter. The +extreme mildness of the climate suited Shelley, and his solitude was +enlivened by an intercourse with several intimate friends. Chance cast +us strangely enough on this quiet half-unpeopled town; but its very +peace suited Shelley. Its river, the near mountains, and not distant +sea, added to its attractions, and were the objects of many delightful +excursions. We feared the south of Italy, and a hotter climate, on +account of our child; our former bereavement inspiring us with terror. +We seemed to take root here, and moved little afterwards; often, indeed, +entertaining projects for visiting other parts of Italy, but still +delaying. But for our fears on account of our child, I believe we should +have wandered over the world, both being passionately fond of +travelling. But human life, besides its great unalterable necessities, +is ruled by a thousand lilliputian ties that shackle at the time, +although it is difficult to account afterwards for their influence over +our destiny. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P> +My task becomes inexpressibly painful as the year draws near that which +sealed our earthly fate, and each poem, and each event it records, has a +real or mysterious connection with the fatal catastrophe. I feel that I +am incapable of putting on paper the history of those times. The heart +of the man, abhorred of the poet, who could +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'peep and botanize<BR> + Upon his mother's grave,'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +does not appear to me more inexplicably framed than that of one who can +dissect and probe past woes, and repeat to the public ear the groans +drawn from them in the throes of their agony. +</P> + +<P> +The year 1821 was spent in Pisa, or at the Baths of San Giuliano. We +were not, as our wont had been, alone; friends had gathered round us. +Nearly all are dead, and, when Memory recurs to the past, she wanders +among tombs. The genius, with all his blighting errors and mighty +powers; the companion of Shelley's ocean-wanderings, and the sharer of +his fate, than whom no man ever existed more gentle, generous, and +fearless; and others, who found in Shelley's society, and in his great +knowledge and warm sympathy, delight, instruction, and solace; have +joined him beyond the grave. A few survive who have felt life a desert +since he left it. What misfortune can equal death? Change can convert +every other into a blessing, or heal its sting—death alone has no cure. +It shakes the foundations of the earth on which we tread; it destroys +its beauty; it casts down our shelter; it exposes us bare to desolation. +When those we love have passed into eternity, 'life is the desert and +the solitude' in which we are forced to linger—but never find comfort +more. +</P> + +<P> +There is much in the "Adonais" which seems now more applicable to +Shelley himself than to the young and gifted poet whom he mourned. The +poetic view he takes of death, and the lofty scorn he displays towards +his calumniators, are as a prophecy on his own destiny when received +among immortal names, and the poisonous breath of critics has vanished +into emptiness before the fame he inherits. +</P> + +<P> +Shelley's favourite taste was boating; when living near the Thames or by +the Lake of Geneva, much of his life was spent on the water. On the +shore of every lake or stream or sea near which he dwelt, he had a boat +moored. He had latterly enjoyed this pleasure again. There are no +pleasure-boats on the Arno; and the shallowness of its waters (except in +winter-time, when the stream is too turbid and impetuous for boating) +rendered it difficult to get any skiff light enough to float. Shelley, +however, overcame the difficulty; he, together with a friend, contrived +a boat such as the huntsmen carry about with them in the Maremma, to +cross the sluggish but deep streams that intersect the forests,—a boat +of laths and pitched canvas. It held three persons; and he was often +seen on the Arno in it, to the horror of the Italians, who remonstrated +on the danger, and could not understand how anyone could take pleasure +in an exercise that risked life. 'Ma va per la vita!' they exclaimed. I +little thought how true their words would prove. He once ventured, with +a friend, on the glassy sea of a calm day, down the Arno and round the +coast to Leghorn, which, by keeping close in shore, was very +practicable. They returned to Pisa by the canal, when, missing the +direct cut, they got entangled among weeds, and the boat upset; a +wetting was all the harm done, except that the intense cold of his +drenched clothes made Shelley faint. Once I went down with him to the +mouth of the Arno, where the stream, then high and swift, met the +tideless sea, and disturbed its sluggish waters. It was a waste and +dreary scene; the desert sand stretched into a point surrounded by waves +that broke idly though perpetually around; it was a scene very similar +to Lido, of which he had said— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'I love all waste<BR> + And solitary places; where we taste<BR> + The pleasure of believing what we see<BR> + Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be:<BR> + And such was this wide ocean, and this shore<BR> + More barren than its billows.'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Our little boat was of greater use, unaccompanied by any danger, when we +removed to the Baths. Some friends lived at the village of Pugnano, four +miles off, and we went to and fro to see them, in our boat, by the +canal; which, fed by the Serchio, was, though an artificial, a full and +picturesque stream, making its way under verdant banks, sheltered by +trees that dipped their boughs into the murmuring waters. By day, +multitudes of Ephemera darted to and fro on the surface; at night, the +fireflies came out among the shrubs on the banks; the cicale at noon-day +kept up their hum; the aziola cooed in the quiet evening. It was a +pleasant summer, bright in all but Shelley's health and inconstant +spirits; yet he enjoyed himself greatly, and became more and more +attached to the part of the country were chance appeared to cast us. +Sometimes he projected taking a farm situated on the height of one of +the near hills, surrounded by chestnut and pine woods, and overlooking a +wide extent of country: or settling still farther in the maritime +Apennines, at Massa. Several of his slighter and unfinished poems were +inspired by these scenes, and by the companions around us. It is the +nature of that poetry, however, which overflows from the soul oftener to +express sorrow and regret than joy; for it is when oppressed by the +weight of life, and away from those he loves, that the poet has recourse +to the solace of expression in verse. +</P> + +<P> +Still, Shelley's passion was the ocean; and he wished that our summers, +instead of being passed among the hills near Pisa, should be spent on +the shores of the sea. It was very difficult to find a spot. We shrank +from Naples from a fear that the heats would disagree with Percy: +Leghorn had lost its only attraction, since our friends who had resided +there were returned to England; and, Monte Nero being the resort of many +English, we did not wish to find ourselves in the midst of a colony of +chance travellers. No one then thought it possible to reside at Via +Reggio, which latterly has become a summer resort. The low lands and bad +air of Maremma stretch the whole length of the western shores of the +Mediterranean, till broken by the rocks and hills of Spezia. It was a +vague idea, but Shelley suggested an excursion to Spezia, to see whether +it would be feasible to spend a summer there. The beauty of the bay +enchanted him. We saw no house to suit us; but the notion took root, and +many circumstances, enchained as by fatality, occurred to urge him to +execute it. +</P> + +<P> +He looked forward this autumn with great pleasure to the prospect of a +visit from Leigh Hunt. When Shelley visited Lord Byron at Ravenna, the +latter had suggested his coming out, together with the plan of a +periodical work in which they should all join. Shelley saw a prospect of +good for the fortunes of his friend, and pleasure in his society; and +instantly exerted himself to have the plan executed. He did not intend +himself joining in the work: partly from pride, not wishing to have the +air of acquiring readers for his poetry by associating it with the +compositions of more popular writers; and also because he might feel +shackled in the free expression of his opinions, if any friends were to +be compromised. By those opinions, carried even to their outermost +extent, he wished to live and die, as being in his conviction not only +true, but such as alone would conduce to the moral improvement and +happiness of mankind. The sale of the work might meanwhile, either +really or supposedly, be injured by the free expression of his thoughts; +and this evil he resolved to avoid. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. +</H3> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + This morn thy gallant bark<BR> + Sailed on a sunny sea:<BR> + 'Tis noon, and tempests dark<BR> + Have wrecked it on the lee.<BR> + Ah woe! ah woe!<BR> + By Spirits of the deep<BR> + Thou'rt cradled on the billow<BR> + To thy eternal sleep.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Thou sleep'st upon the shore<BR> + Beside the knelling surge,<BR> + And Sea-nymphs evermore<BR> + Shall sadly chant thy dirge.<BR> + They come, they come,<BR> + The Spirits of the deep,—<BR> + While near thy seaweed pillow<BR> + My lonely watch I keep.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + From far across the sea<BR> + I hear a loud lament,<BR> + By Echo's voice for thee<BR> + From Ocean's caverns sent.<BR> + O list! O list!<BR> + The Spirits of the deep!<BR> + They raise a wail of sorrow,<BR> + While I forever weep.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +With this last year of the life of Shelley these Notes end. They are not +what I intended them to be. I began with energy, and a burning desire to +impart to the world, in worthy language, the sense I have of the virtues +and genius of the beloved and the lost; my strength has failed under the +task. Recurrence to the past, full of its own deep and unforgotten joys +and sorrows, contrasted with succeeding years of painful and solitary +struggle, has shaken my health. Days of great suffering have followed my +attempts to write, and these again produced a weakness and languor that +spread their sinister influence over these notes. I dislike speaking of +myself, but cannot help apologizing to the dead, and to the public, for +not having executed in the manner I desired the history I engaged to +give of Shelley's writings. (I at one time feared that the correction of +the press might be less exact through my illness; but I believe that it +is nearly free from error. Some asterisks occur in a few pages, as they +did in the volume of "Posthumous Poems", either because they refer to +private concerns, or because the original manuscript was left imperfect. +Did any one see the papers from which I drew that volume, the wonder +would be how any eyes or patience were capable of extracting it from so +confused a mass, interlined and broken into fragments, so that the sense +could only be deciphered and joined by guesses which might seem rather +intuitive than founded on reasoning. Yet I believe no mistake was made.) +</P> + +<P> +The winter of 1822 was passed in Pisa, if we might call that season +winter in which autumn merged into spring after the interval of but few +days of bleaker weather. Spring sprang up early, and with extreme +beauty. Shelley had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the +subject of Charles I. It was one that he believed adapted for a drama; +full of intense interest, contrasted character, and busy passion. He had +recommended it long before, when he encouraged me to attempt a play. +Whether the subject proved more difficult than he anticipated, or +whether in fact he could not bend his mind away from the broodings and +wanderings of thought, divested from human interest, which he best +loved, I cannot tell; but he proceeded slowly, and threw it aside for +one of the most mystical of his poems, the "Triumph of Life", on which +he was employed at the last. +</P> + +<P> +His passion for boating was fostered at this time by having among our +friends several sailors. His favourite companion, Edward Ellerker +Williams, of the 8th Light Dragoons, had begun his life in the navy, and +had afterwards entered the army; he had spent several years in India, +and his love for adventure and manly exercises accorded with Shelley's +taste. It was their favourite plan to build a boat such as they could +manage themselves, and, living on the sea-coast, to enjoy at every hour +and season the pleasure they loved best. Captain Roberts, R.N., +undertook to build the boat at Genoa, where he was also occupied in +building the "Bolivar" for Lord Byron. Ours was to be an open boat, on a +model taken from one of the royal dockyards. I have since heard that +there was a defect in this model, and that it was never seaworthy. In +the month of February, Shelley and his friend went to Spezia to seek for +houses for us. Only one was to be found at all suitable; however, a +trifle such as not finding a house could not stop Shelley; the one found +was to serve for all. It was unfurnished; we sent our furniture by sea, +and with a good deal of precipitation, arising from his impatience, made +our removal. We left Pisa on the 26th of April. +</P> + +<P> +The Bay of Spezia is of considerable extent, and divided by a rocky +promontory into a larger and smaller one. The town of Lerici is situated +on the eastern point, and in the depth of the smaller bay, which bears +the name of this town, is the village of San Terenzo. Our house, Casa +Magni, was close to this village; the sea came up to the door, a steep +hill sheltered it behind. The proprietor of the estate on which it was +situated was insane; he had begun to erect a large house at the summit +of the hill behind, but his malady prevented its being finished, and it +was falling into ruin. He had (and this to the Italians had seemed a +glaring symptom of very decided madness) rooted up the olives on the +hillside, and planted forest trees. These were mostly young, but the +plantation was more in English taste than I ever elsewhere saw in Italy; +some fine walnut and ilex trees intermingled their dark massy foliage, +and formed groups which still haunt my memory, as then they satiated the +eye with a sense of loveliness. The scene was indeed of unimaginable +beauty. The blue extent of waters, the almost landlocked bay, the near +castle of Lerici shutting it in to the east, and distant Porto Venere to +the west; the varied forms of the precipitous rocks that bound in the +beach, over which there was only a winding rugged footpath towards +Lerici, and none on the other side; the tideless sea leaving no sands +nor shingle, formed a picture such as one sees in Salvator Rosa's +landscapes only. Sometimes the sunshine vanished when the sirocco +raged—the 'ponente' the wind was called on that shore. The gales and +squalls that hailed our first arrival surrounded the bay with foam; the +howling wind swept round our exposed house, and the sea roared +unremittingly, so that we almost fancied ourselves on board ship. At +other times sunshine and calm invested sea and sky, and the rich tints +of Italian heaven bathed the scene in bright and ever-varying tints. +</P> + +<P> +The natives were wilder than the place. Our near neighbours of San +Terenzo were more like savages than any people I ever before lived +among. Many a night they passed on the beach, singing, or rather +howling; the women dancing about among the waves that broke at their +feet, the men leaning against the rocks and joining in their loud wild +chorus. We could get no provisions nearer than Sarzana, at a distance of +three miles and a half off, with the torrent of the Magra between; and +even there the supply was very deficient. Had we been wrecked on an +island of the South Seas, we could scarcely have felt ourselves farther +from civilisation and comfort; but, where the sun shines, the latter +becomes an unnecessary luxury, and we had enough society among +ourselves. Yet I confess housekeeping became rather a toilsome task, +especially as I was suffering in my health, and could not exert myself +actively. +</P> + +<P> +At first the fatal boat had not arrived, and was expected with great +impatience. On Monday, 12th May, it came. Williams records the +long-wished-for fact in his journal: 'Cloudy and threatening weather. M. +Maglian called; and after dinner, and while walking with him on the +terrace, we discovered a strange sail coming round the point of Porto +Venere, which proved at length to be Shelley's boat. She had left Genoa +on Thursday last, but had been driven back by the prevailing bad winds. +A Mr. Heslop and two English seamen brought her round, and they speak +most highly of her performances. She does indeed excite my surprise and +admiration. Shelley and I walked to Lerici, and made a stretch off the +land to try her: and I find she fetches whatever she looks at. In short, +we have now a perfect plaything for the summer.'—It was thus that +short-sighted mortals welcomed Death, he having disguised his grim form +in a pleasing mask! The time of the friends was now spent on the sea; +the weather became fine, and our whole party often passed the evenings +on the water when the wind promised pleasant sailing. Shelley and +Williams made longer excursions; they sailed several times to Massa. +They had engaged one of the seamen who brought her round, a boy, by name +Charles Vivian; and they had not the slightest apprehension of danger. +When the weather was unfavourable, they employed themselves with +alterations in the rigging, and by building a boat of canvas and reeds, +as light as possible, to have on board the other for the convenience of +landing in waters too shallow for the larger vessel. When Shelley was on +board, he had his papers with him; and much of the "Triumph of Life" was +written as he sailed or weltered on that sea which was soon to engulf +him. +</P> + +<P> +The heats set in in the middle of June; the days became excessively hot. +But the sea-breeze cooled the air at noon, and extreme heat always put +Shelley in spirits. A long drought had preceded the heat; and prayers +for rain were being put up in the churches, and processions of relics +for the same effect took place in every town. At this time we received +letters announcing the arrival of Leigh Hunt at Genoa. Shelley was very +eager to see him. I was confined to my room by severe illness, and could +not move; it was agreed that Shelley and Williams should go to Leghorn +in the boat. Strange that no fear of danger crossed our minds! Living on +the sea-shore, the ocean became as a plaything: as a child may sport +with a lighted stick, till a spark inflames a forest, and spreads +destruction over all, so did we fearlessly and blindly tamper with +danger, and make a game of the terrors of the ocean. Our Italian +neighbours, even, trusted themselves as far as Massa in the skiff; and +the running down the line of coast to Leghorn gave no more notion of +peril than a fair-weather inland navigation would have done to those who +had never seen the sea. Once, some months before, Trelawny had raised a +warning voice as to the difference of our calm bay and the open sea +beyond; but Shelley and his friend, with their one sailor-boy, thought +themselves a match for the storms of the Mediterranean, in a boat which +they looked upon as equal to all it was put to do. +</P> + +<P> +On the 1st of July they left us. If ever shadow of future ill darkened +the present hour, such was over my mind when they went. During the whole +of our stay at Lerici, an intense presentiment of coming evil brooded +over my mind, and covered this beautiful place and genial summer with +the shadow of coming misery. I had vainly struggled with these +emotions—they seemed accounted for by my illness; but at this hour of +separation they recurred with renewed violence. I did not anticipate +danger for them, but a vague expectation of evil shook me to agony, and +I could scarcely bring myself to let them go. The day was calm and +clear; and, a fine breeze rising at twelve, they weighed for Leghorn. +They made the run of about fifty miles in seven hours and a half. The +"Bolivar" was in port; and, the regulations of the Health-office not +permitting them to go on shore after sunset, they borrowed cushions from +the larger vessel, and slept on board their boat. +</P> + +<P> +They spent a week at Pisa and Leghorn. The want of rain was severely +felt in the country. The weather continued sultry and fine. I have heard +that Shelley all this time was in brilliant spirits. Not long before, +talking of presentiment, he had said the only one that he ever found +infallible was the certain advent of some evil fortune when he felt +peculiarly joyous. Yet, if ever fate whispered of coming disaster, such +inaudible but not unfelt prognostics hovered around us. The beauty of +the place seemed unearthly in its excess: the distance we were at from +all signs of civilization, the sea at our feet, its murmurs or its +roaring for ever in our ears,—all these things led the mind to brood +over strange thoughts, and, lifting it from everyday life, caused it to +be familiar with the unreal. A sort of spell surrounded us; and each +day, as the voyagers did not return, we grew restless and disquieted, +and yet, strange to say, we were not fearful of the most apparent +danger. +</P> + +<P> +The spell snapped; it was all over; an interval of agonizing doubt—of +days passed in miserable journeys to gain tidings, of hopes that took +firmer root even as they were more baseless—was changed to the +certainty of the death that eclipsed all happiness for the survivors for +evermore. +</P> + +<P> +There was something in our fate peculiarly harrowing. The remains of +those we lost were cast on shore; but, by the quarantine-laws of the +coast, we were not permitted to have possession of them—the law with +respect to everything cast on land by the sea being that such should be +burned, to prevent the possibility of any remnant bringing the plague +into Italy; and no representation could alter the law. At length, +through the kind and unwearied exertions of Mr. Dawkins, our Charge +d'Affaires at Florence, we gained permission to receive the ashes after +the bodies were consumed. Nothing could equal the zeal of Trelawny in +carrying our wishes into effect. He was indefatigable in his exertions, +and full of forethought and sagacity in his arrangements. It was a +fearful task; he stood before us at last, his hands scorched and +blistered by the flames of the funeral-pyre, and by touching the burnt +relics as he placed them in the receptacles prepared for the purpose. +And there, in compass of that small case, was gathered all that remained +on earth of him whose genius and virtue were a crown of glory to the +world—whose love had been the source of happiness, peace, and good,—to +be buried with him! +</P> + +<P> +The concluding stanzas of the "Adonais" pointed out where the remains +ought to be deposited; in addition to which our beloved child lay buried +in the cemetery at Rome. Thither Shelley's ashes were conveyed; and they +rest beneath one of the antique weed-grown towers that recur at +intervals in the circuit of the massy ancient wall of Rome. He selected +the hallowed place himself; there is +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'the sepulchre,<BR> + Oh, not of him, but of our joy!—<BR> + ...<BR> + And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time<BR> + Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand;<BR> + And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime,<BR> + Pavilioning the dust of him who planned<BR> + This refuge for his memory, doth stand<BR> + Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath,<BR> + A field is spread, on which a newer band<BR> + Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death,<BR> + Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath.'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Could sorrow for the lost, and shuddering anguish at the vacancy left +behind, be soothed by poetic imaginations, there was something in +Shelley's fate to mitigate pangs which yet, alas! could not be so +mitigated; for hard reality brings too miserably home to the mourner all +that is lost of happiness, all of lonely unsolaced struggle that +remains. Still, though dreams and hues of poetry cannot blunt grief, it +invests his fate with a sublime fitness, which those less nearly allied +may regard with complacency. A year before he had poured into verse all +such ideas about death as give it a glory of its own. He had, as it now +seems, almost anticipated his own destiny; and, when the mind figures +his skiff wrapped from sight by the thunder-storm, as it was last seen +upon the purple sea, and then, as the cloud of the tempest passed away, +no sign remained of where it had been (Captain Roberts watched the +vessel with his glass from the top of the lighthouse of Leghorn, on its +homeward track. They were off Via Reggio, at some distance from shore, +when a storm was driven over the sea. It enveloped them and several +larger vessels in darkness. When the cloud passed onwards, Roberts +looked again, and saw every other vessel sailing on the ocean except +their little schooner, which had vanished. From that time he could +scarcely doubt the fatal truth; yet we fancied that they might have been +driven towards Elba or Corsica, and so be saved. The observation made as +to the spot where the boat disappeared caused it to be found, through +the exertions of Trelawny for that effect. It had gone down in ten +fathom water; it had not capsized, and, except such things as had +floated from her, everything was found on board exactly as it had been +placed when they sailed. The boat itself was uninjured. Roberts +possessed himself of her, and decked her; but she proved not seaworthy, +and her shattered planks now lie rotting on the shore of one of the +Ionian islands, on which she was wrecked.)—who but will regard as a +prophecy the last stanza of the "Adonais"? +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'The breath whose might I have invoked in song<BR> + Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven,<BR> + Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng<BR> + Whose sails were never to the tempest given;<BR> + The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!<BR> + I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;<BR> + Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,<BR> + The soul of Adonais, like a star,<BR> + Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Putney, May 1, 1839. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to the Complete Poetical Works +of Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Mary W. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes to the Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley + +Author: Mary W. Shelley + +Posting Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #4695] +Release Date: November, 2003 +First Posted: March 3, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO WORKS OF SHELLEY *** + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +NOTES TO + +THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + + +BY + +MARY W. SHELLEY. + + + + +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY + +TO FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, 1839. + +Obstacles have long existed to my presenting the public with a perfect +edition of Shelley's Poems. These being at last happily removed, I +hasten to fulfil an important duty,--that of giving the productions of a +sublime genius to the world, with all the correctness possible, and of, +at the same time, detailing the history of those productions, as they +sprang, living and warm, from his heart and brain. I abstain from any +remark on the occurrences of his private life, except inasmuch as the +passions which they engendered inspired his poetry. This is not the time +to relate the truth; and I should reject any colouring of the truth. No +account of these events has ever been given at all approaching reality +in their details, either as regards himself or others; nor shall I +further allude to them than to remark that the errors of action +committed by a man as noble and generous as Shelley, may, as far as he +only is concerned, be fearlessly avowed by those who loved him, in the +firm conviction that, were they judged impartially, his character would +stand in fairer and brighter light than that of any contemporary. +Whatever faults he had ought to find extenuation among his fellows, +since they prove him to be human; without them, the exalted nature of +his soul would have raised him into something divine. + +The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley +were,--First, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his +intercourse with warm affection and helpful sympathy. The other, the +eagerness and ardour with which he was attached to the cause of human +happiness and improvement; and the fervent eloquence with which he +discussed such subjects. His conversation was marked by its happy +abundance, and the beautiful language in which he clothed his poetic +ideas and philosophical notions. To defecate life of its misery and its +evil was the ruling passion of his soul; he dedicated to it every power +of his mind, every pulsation of his heart. He looked on political +freedom as the direct agent to effect the happiness of mankind; and thus +any new-sprung hope of liberty inspired a joy and an exultation more +intense and wild than he could have felt for any personal advantage. +Those who have never experienced the workings of passion on general and +unselfish subjects cannot understand this; and it must be difficult of +comprehension to the younger generation rising around, since they cannot +remember the scorn and hatred with which the partisans of reform were +regarded some few years ago, nor the persecutions to which they were +exposed. He had been from youth the victim of the state of feeling +inspired by the reaction of the French Revolution; and believing firmly +in the justice and excellence of his views, it cannot be wondered that a +nature as sensitive, as impetuous, and as generous as his, should put +its whole force into the attempt to alleviate for others the evils of +those systems from which he had himself suffered. Many advantages +attended his birth; he spurned them all when balanced with what he +considered his duties. He was generous to imprudence, devoted to +heroism. + +These characteristics breathe throughout his poetry. The struggle for +human weal; the resolution firm to martyrdom; the impetuous pursuit, the +glad triumph in good; the determination not to despair;--such were the +features that marked those of his works which he regarded with most +complacency, as sustained by a lofty subject and useful aim. + +In addition to these, his poems may be divided into two classes,--the +purely imaginative, and those which sprang from the emotions of his +heart. Among the former may be classed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", +and his latest composition, left imperfect, the "Triumph of Life". In +the first of these particularly he gave the reins to his fancy, and +luxuriated in every idea as it rose; in all there is that sense of +mystery which formed an essential portion of his perception of life--a +clinging to the subtler inner spirit, rather than to the outward form--a +curious and metaphysical anatomy of human passion and perception. + +The second class is, of course, the more popular, as appealing at once +to emotions common to us all; some of these rest on the passion of love; +others on grief and despondency; others on the sentiments inspired by +natural objects. Shelley's conception of love was exalted, absorbing, +allied to all that is purest and noblest in our nature, and warmed by +earnest passion; such it appears when he gave it a voice in verse. Yet +he was usually averse to expressing these feelings, except when highly +idealized; and many of his more beautiful effusions he had cast aside +unfinished, and they were never seen by me till after I had lost him. +Others, as for instance "Rosalind and Helen" and "Lines written among +the Euganean Hills", I found among his papers by chance; and with some +difficulty urged him to complete them. There are others, such as the +"Ode to the Skylark and The Cloud", which, in the opinion of many +critics, bear a purer poetical stamp than any other of his productions. +They were written as his mind prompted: listening to the carolling of +the bird, aloft in the azure sky of Italy; or marking the cloud as it +sped across the heavens, while he floated in his boat on the Thames. + +No poet was ever warmed by a more genuine and unforced inspiration. His +extreme sensibility gave the intensity of passion to his intellectual +pursuits; and rendered his mind keenly alive to every perception of +outward objects, as well as to his internal sensations. Such a gift is, +among the sad vicissitudes of human life, the disappointments we meet, +and the galling sense of our own mistakes and errors, fraught with pain; +to escape from such, he delivered up his soul to poetry, and felt happy +when he sheltered himself, from the influence of human sympathies, in +the wildest regions of fancy. His imagination has been termed too +brilliant, his thoughts too subtle. He loved to idealize reality; and +this is a taste shared by few. We are willing to have our passing whims +exalted into passions, for this gratifies our vanity; but few of us +understand or sympathize with the endeavour to ally the love of abstract +beauty, and adoration of abstract good, the to agathon kai to kalon of +the Socratic philosophers, with our sympathies with our kind. In this, +Shelley resembled Plato; both taking more delight in the abstract and +the ideal than in the special and tangible. This did not result from +imitation; for it was not till Shelley resided in Italy that he made +Plato his study. He then translated his "Symposium" and his "Ion"; and +the English language boasts of no more brilliant composition than +Plato's Praise of Love translated by Shelley. To return to his own +poetry. The luxury of imagination, which sought nothing beyond itself +(as a child burdens itself with spring flowers, thinking of no use +beyond the enjoyment of gathering them), often showed itself in his +verses: they will be only appreciated by minds which have resemblance to +his own; and the mystic subtlety of many of his thoughts will share the +same fate. The metaphysical strain that characterizes much of what he +has written was, indeed, the portion of his works to which, apart from +those whose scope was to awaken mankind to aspirations for what he +considered the true and good, he was himself particularly attached. +There is much, however, that speaks to the many. When he would consent +to dismiss these huntings after the obscure (which, entwined with his +nature as they were, he did with difficulty), no poet ever expressed in +sweeter, more heart-reaching, or more passionate verse, the gentler or +more forcible emotions of the soul. + +A wise friend once wrote to Shelley: 'You are still very young, and in +certain essential respects you do not yet sufficiently perceive that you +are so.' It is seldom that the young know what youth is, till they have +got beyond its period; and time was not given him to attain this +knowledge. It must be remembered that there is the stamp of such +inexperience on all he wrote; he had not completed his +nine-and-twentieth year when he died. The calm of middle life did not +add the seal of the virtues which adorn maturity to those generated by +the vehement spirit of youth. Through life also he was a martyr to +ill-health, and constant pain wound up his nerves to a pitch of +susceptibility that rendered his views of life different from those of a +man in the enjoyment of healthy sensations. Perfectly gentle and +forbearing in manner, he suffered a good deal of internal irritability, +or rather excitement, and his fortitude to bear was almost always on the +stretch; and thus, during a short life, he had gone through more +experience of sensation than many whose existence is protracted. 'If I +die to-morrow,' he said, on the eve of his unanticipated death, 'I have +lived to be older than my father.' The weight of thought and feeling +burdened him heavily; you read his sufferings in his attenuated frame, +while you perceived the mastery he held over them in his animated +countenance and brilliant eyes. + +He died, and the world showed no outward sign. But his influence over +mankind, though slow in growth, is fast augmenting; and, in the +ameliorations that have taken place in the political state of his +country, we may trace in part the operation of his arduous struggles. +His spirit gathers peace in its new state from the sense that, though +late, his exertions were not made in vain, and in the progress of the +liberty he so fondly loved. + +He died, and his place, among those who knew him intimately, has never +been filled up. He walked beside them like a spirit of good to comfort +and benefit--to enlighten the darkness of life with irradiations of +genius, to cheer it with his sympathy and love. Any one, once attached +to Shelley, must feel all other affections, however true and fond, as +wasted on barren soil in comparison. It is our best consolation to know +that such a pure-minded and exalted being was once among us, and now +exists where we hope one day to join him;--although the intolerant, in +their blindness, poured down anathemas, the Spirit of Good, who can +judge the heart, never rejected him. + +In the notes appended to the poems I have endeavoured to narrate the +origin and history of each. The loss of nearly all letters and papers +which refer to his early life renders the execution more imperfect than +it would otherwise have been. I have, however, the liveliest +recollection of all that was done and said during the period of my +knowing him. Every impression is as clear as if stamped yesterday, and I +have no apprehension of any mistake in my statements as far as they go. +In other respects I am indeed incompetent: but I feel the importance of +the task, and regard it as my most sacred duty. I endeavour to fulfil it +in a manner he would himself approve; and hope, in this publication, to +lay the first stone of a monument due to Shelley's genius, his +sufferings, and his virtues:-- + + Se al seguir son tarda, + Forse avverra che 'l bel nome gentile + Consacrero con questa stanca penna. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839. + +In revising this new edition, and carefully consulting Shelley's +scattered and confused papers, I found a few fragments which had +hitherto escaped me, and was enabled to complete a few poems hitherto +left unfinished. What at one time escapes the searching eye, dimmed by +its own earnestness, becomes clear at a future period. By the aid of a +friend, I also present some poems complete and correct which hitherto +have been defaced by various mistakes and omissions. It was suggested +that the poem "To the Queen of my Heart" was falsely attributed to +Shelley. I certainly find no trace of it among his papers; and, as those +of his intimate friends whom I have consulted never heard of it, I omit +it. + +Two poems are added of some length, "Swellfoot the Tyrant" and "Peter +Bell the Third". I have mentioned the circumstances under which they +were written in the notes; and need only add that they are conceived in +a very different spirit from Shelley's usual compositions. They are +specimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but, although they adopt a +familiar style and homely imagery, there shine through the radiance of +the poet's imagination the earnest views and opinions of the politician +and the moralist. + +At my request the publisher has restored the omitted passages of "Queen +Mab". I now present this edition as a complete collection of my +husband's poetical works, and I do not foresee that I can hereafter add +to or take away a word or line. + +Putney, November 6, 1839. + + + + +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY + +TO THE VOLUME OF POSTHUMOUS POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1824. + + In nobil sangue vita umile e queta, + Ed in alto intelletto un puro core + Frutto senile in sul giovenil fibre, + E in aspetto pensoso anima lieta.--PETRARCA. + +It had been my wish, on presenting the public with the Posthumous Poems +of Mr. Shelley, to have accompanied them by a biographical notice; as it +appeared to me that at this moment a narration of the events of my +husband's life would come more gracefully from other hands than mine, I +applied to Mr. Leigh Hunt. The distinguished friendship that Mr. Shelley +felt for him, and the enthusiastic affection with which Mr. Leigh Hunt +clings to his friend's memory, seemed to point him out as the person +best calculated for such an undertaking. His absence from this country, +which prevented our mutual explanation, has unfortunately rendered my +scheme abortive. I do not doubt but that on some other occasion he will +pay this tribute to his lost friend, and sincerely regret that the +volume which I edit has not been honoured by its insertion. + +The comparative solitude in which Mr. Shelley lived was the occasion +that he was personally known to few; and his fearless enthusiasm in the +cause which he considered the most sacred upon earth, the improvement of +the moral and physical state of mankind, was the chief reason why he, +like other illustrious reformers, was pursued by hatred and calumny. No +man was ever more devoted than he to the endeavour of making those +around him happy; no man ever possessed friends more unfeignedly +attached to him. The ungrateful world did not feel his loss, and the gap +it made seemed to close as quickly over his memory as the murderous sea +above his living frame. Hereafter men will lament that his transcendent +powers of intellect were extinguished before they had bestowed on them +their choicest treasures. To his friends his loss is irremediable: the +wise, the brave, the gentle, is gone for ever! He is to them as a bright +vision, whose radiant track, left behind in the memory, is worth all the +realities that society can afford. Before the critics contradict me, let +them appeal to any one who had ever known him. To see him was to love +him: and his presence, like Ithuriel's spear, was alone sufficient to +disclose the falsehood of the tale which his enemies whispered in the +ear of the ignorant world. + +His life was spent in the contemplation of Nature, in arduous study, or +in acts of kindness and affection. He was an elegant scholar and a +profound metaphysician; without possessing much scientific knowledge, he +was unrivalled in the justness and extent of his observations on natural +objects; he knew every plant by its name, and was familiar with the +history and habits of every production of the earth; he could interpret +without a fault each appearance in the sky; and the varied phenomena of +heaven and earth filled him with deep emotion. He made his study and +reading-room of the shadowed copse, the stream, the lake, and the +waterfall. Ill health and continual pain preyed upon his powers; and the +solitude in which we lived, particularly on our first arrival in Italy, +although congenial to his feelings, must frequently have weighed upon +his spirits; those beautiful and affecting "Lines written in Dejection +near Naples" were composed at such an interval; but, when in health, his +spirits were buoyant and youthful to an extraordinary degree. + +Such was his love for Nature that every page of his poetry is +associated, in the minds of his friends, with the loveliest scenes of +the countries which he inhabited. In early life he visited the most +beautiful parts of this country and Ireland. Afterwards the Alps of +Switzerland became his inspirers. "Prometheus Unbound" was written among +the deserted and flower-grown ruins of Rome; and, when he made his home +under the Pisan hills, their roofless recesses harboured him as he +composed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", and "Hellas". In the wild but +beautiful Bay of Spezzia, the winds and waves which he loved became his +playmates. His days were chiefly spent on the water; the management of +his boat, its alterations and improvements, were his principal +occupation. At night, when the unclouded moon shone on the calm sea, he +often went alone in his little shallop to the rocky caves that bordered +it, and, sitting beneath their shelter, wrote the "Triumph of Life", the +last of his productions. The beauty but strangeness of this lonely +place, the refined pleasure which he felt in the companionship of a few +selected friends, our entire sequestration from the rest of the world, +all contributed to render this period of his life one of continued +enjoyment. I am convinced that the two months we passed there were the +happiest which he had ever known: his health even rapidly improved, and +he was never better than when I last saw him, full of spirits and joy, +embark for Leghorn, that he might there welcome Leigh Hunt to Italy. I +was to have accompanied him; but illness confined me to my room, and +thus put the seal on my misfortune. His vessel bore out of sight with a +favourable wind, and I remained awaiting his return by the breakers of +that sea which was about to engulf him. + +He spent a week at Pisa, employed in kind offices toward his friend, and +enjoying with keen delight the renewal of their intercourse. He then +embarked with Mr. Williams, the chosen and beloved sharer of his +pleasures and of his fate, to return to us. We waited for them in vain; +the sea by its restless moaning seemed to desire to inform us of what we +would not learn:--but a veil may well be drawn over such misery. The +real anguish of those moments transcended all the fictions that the most +glowing imagination ever portrayed; our seclusion, the savage nature of +the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, and our immediate vicinity +to the troubled sea, combined to imbue with strange horror our days of +uncertainty. The truth was at last known,--a truth that made our loved +and lovely Italy appear a tomb, its sky a pall. Every heart echoed the +deep lament, and my only consolation was in the praise and earnest love +that each voice bestowed and each countenance demonstrated for him we +had lost,--not, I fondly hope, for ever; his unearthly and elevated +nature is a pledge of the continuation of his being, although in an +altered form. Rome received his ashes; they are deposited beneath its +weed-grown wall, and 'the world's sole monument' is enriched by his +remains. + +I must add a few words concerning the contents of this volume. "Julian +and Maddalo", the "Witch of Atlas", and most of the "Translations", were +written some years ago; and, with the exception of the "Cyclops", and +the Scenes from the "Magico Prodigioso", may be considered as having +received the author's ultimate corrections. The "Triumph of Life" was +his last work, and was left in so unfinished a state that I arranged it +in its present form with great difficulty. All his poems which were +scattered in periodical works are collected in this volume, and I have +added a reprint of "Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude": the difficulty +with which a copy can be obtained is the cause of its republication. +Many of the Miscellaneous Poems, written on the spur of the occasion, +and never retouched, I found among his manuscript books, and have +carefully copied. I have subjoined, whenever I have been able, the date +of their composition. + +I do not know whether the critics will reprehend the insertion of some +of the most imperfect among them; but I frankly own that I have been +more actuated by the fear lest any monument of his genius should escape +me than the wish of presenting nothing but what was complete to the +fastidious reader. I feel secure that the lovers of Shelley's poetry +(who know how, more than any poet of the present day, every line and +word he wrote is instinct with peculiar beauty) will pardon and thank +me: I consecrate this volume to them. + +The size of this collection has prevented the insertion of any prose +pieces. They will hereafter appear in a separate publication. + +MARY W. SHELLEY. + +London, June 1, 1824. + + + + +NOTE ON QUEEN MAB, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley was eighteen when he wrote "Queen Mab"; he never published it. +When it was written, he had come to the decision that he was too young +to be a 'judge of controversies'; and he was desirous of acquiring 'that +sobriety of spirit which is the characteristic of true heroism.' But he +never doubted the truth or utility of his opinions; and, in printing and +privately distributing "Queen Mab", he believed that he should further +their dissemination, without occasioning the mischief either to others +or himself that might arise from publication. It is doubtful whether he +would himself have admitted it into a collection of his works. His +severe classical taste, refined by the constant study of the Greek +poets, might have discovered defects that escape the ordinary reader; +and the change his opinions underwent in many points would have +prevented him from putting forth the speculations of his boyish days. +But the poem is too beautiful in itself, and far too remarkable as the +production of a boy of eighteen, to allow of its being passed over: +besides that, having been frequently reprinted, the omission would be +vain. In the former edition certain portions were left out, as shocking +the general reader from the violence of their attack on religion. I +myself had a painful feeling that such erasures might be looked upon as +a mark of disrespect towards the author, and am glad to have the +opportunity of restoring them. The notes also are reprinted entire--not +because they are models of reasoning or lessons of truth, but because +Shelley wrote them, and that all that a man at once so distinguished and +so excellent ever did deserves to be preserved. The alterations his +opinions underwent ought to be recorded, for they form his history. + +A series of articles was published in the "New Monthly Magazine" during +the autumn of the year 1832, written by a man of great talent, a +fellow-collegian and warm friend of Shelley: they describe admirably the +state of his mind during his collegiate life. Inspired with ardour for +the acquisition of knowledge, endowed with the keenest sensibility and +with the fortitude of a martyr, Shelley came among his fellow-creatures, +congregated for the purposes of education, like a spirit from another +sphere; too delicately organized for the rough treatment man uses +towards man, especially in the season of youth, and too resolute in +carrying out his own sense of good and justice, not to become a victim. +To a devoted attachment to those he loved he added a determined +resistance to oppression. Refusing to fag at Eton, he was treated with +revolting cruelty by masters and boys: this roused instead of taming his +spirit, and he rejected the duty of obedience when it was enforced by +menaces and punishment. To aversion to the society of his +fellow-creatures, such as he found them when collected together in +societies, where one egged on the other to acts of tyranny, was joined +the deepest sympathy and compassion; while the attachment he felt for +individuals, and the admiration with which he regarded their powers and +their virtues, led him to entertain a high opinion of the perfectibility +of human nature; and he believed that all could reach the highest grade +of moral improvement, did not the customs and prejudices of society +foster evil passions and excuse evil actions. + +The oppression which, trembling at every nerve yet resolute to heroism, +it was his ill-fortune to encounter at school and at college, led him to +dissent in all things from those whose arguments were blows, whose faith +appeared to engender blame and hatred. 'During my existence,' he wrote +to a friend in 1812, 'I have incessantly speculated, thought, and read.' +His readings were not always well chosen; among them were the works of +the French philosophers: as far as metaphysical argument went, he +temporarily became a convert. At the same time, it was the cardinal +article of his faith that, if men were but taught and induced to treat +their fellows with love, charity, and equal rights, this earth would +realize paradise. He looked upon religion, as it is professed, and above +all practised, as hostile instead of friendly to the cultivation of +those virtues which would make men brothers. + +Can this be wondered at? At the age of seventeen, fragile in health and +frame, of the purest habits in morals, full of devoted generosity and +universal kindness, glowing with ardour to attain wisdom, resolved at +every personal sacrifice to do right, burning with a desire for +affection and sympathy,--he was treated as a reprobate, cast forth as a +criminal. + +The cause was that he was sincere; that he believed the opinions which +he entertained to be true. And he loved truth with a martyr's love; he +was ready to sacrifice station and fortune, and his dearest affections, +at its shrine. The sacrifice was demanded from, and made by, a youth of +seventeen. It is a singular fact in the history of society in the +civilized nations of modern times that no false step is so irretrievable +as one made in early youth. Older men, it is true, when they oppose +their fellows and transgress ordinary rules, carry a certain prudence or +hypocrisy as a shield along with them. But youth is rash; nor can it +imagine, while asserting what it believes to be true, and doing what it +believes to be right, that it should be denounced as vicious, and +pursued as a criminal. + +Shelley possessed a quality of mind which experience has shown me to be +of the rarest occurrence among human beings: this was his UNWORLDLINESS. +The usual motives that rule men, prospects of present or future +advantage, the rank and fortune of those around, the taunts and +censures, or the praise, of those who were hostile to him, had no +influence whatever over his actions, and apparently none over his +thoughts. It is difficult even to express the simplicity and directness +of purpose that adorned him. Some few might be found in the history of +mankind, and some one at least among his own friends, equally +disinterested and scornful, even to severe personal sacrifices, of every +baser motive. But no one, I believe, ever joined this noble but passive +virtue to equal active endeavours for the benefit of his friends and +mankind in general, and to equal power to produce the advantages he +desired. The world's brightest gauds and its most solid advantages were +of no worth in his eyes, when compared to the cause of what he +considered truth, and the good of his fellow-creatures. Born in a +position which, to his inexperienced mind, afforded the greatest +facilities to practise the tenets he espoused, he boldly declared the +use he would make of fortune and station, and enjoyed the belief that he +should materially benefit his fellow-creatures by his actions; while, +conscious of surpassing powers of reason and imagination, it is not +strange that he should, even while so young, have believed that his +written thoughts would tend to disseminate opinions which he believed +conducive to the happiness of the human race. + +If man were a creature devoid of passion, he might have said and done +all this with quietness. But he was too enthusiastic, and too full of +hatred of all the ills he witnessed, not to scorn danger. Various +disappointments tortured, but could not tame, his soul. The more enmity +he met, the more earnestly he became attached to his peculiar views, and +hostile to those of the men who persecuted him. + +He was animated to greater zeal by compassion for his fellow-creatures. +His sympathy was excited by the misery with which the world is burning. +He witnessed the sufferings of the poor, and was aware of the evils of +ignorance. He desired to induce every rich man to despoil himself of +superfluity, and to create a brotherhood of property and service, and +was ready to be the first to lay down the advantages of his birth. He +was of too uncompromising a disposition to join any party. He did not in +his youth look forward to gradual improvement: nay, in those days of +intolerance, now almost forgotten, it seemed as easy to look forward to +the sort of millennium of freedom and brotherhood which he thought the +proper state of mankind as to the present reign of moderation and +improvement. Ill-health made him believe that his race would soon be +run; that a year or two was all he had of life. He desired that these +years should be useful and illustrious. He saw, in a fervent call on his +fellow-creatures to share alike the blessings of the creation, to love +and serve each other, the noblest work that life and time permitted him. +In this spirit he composed "Queen Mab". + +He was a lover of the wonderful and wild in literature, but had not +fostered these tastes at their genuine sources--the romances and +chivalry of the middle ages--but in the perusal of such German works as +were current in those days. Under the influence of these he, at the age +of fifteen, wrote two short prose romances of slender merit. The +sentiments and language were exaggerated, the composition imitative and +poor. He wrote also a poem on the subject of Ahasuerus--being led to it +by a German fragment he picked up, dirty and torn, in Lincoln's Inn +Fields. This fell afterwards into other hands, and was considerably +altered before it was printed. Our earlier English poetry was almost +unknown to him. The love and knowledge of Nature developed by +Wordsworth--the lofty melody and mysterious beauty of Coleridge's +poetry--and the wild fantastic machinery and gorgeous scenery adopted by +Southey--composed his favourite reading; the rhythm of "Queen Mab" was +founded on that of "Thalaba", and the first few lines bear a striking +resemblance in spirit, though not in idea, to the opening of that poem. +His fertile imagination, and ear tuned to the finest sense of harmony, +preserved him from imitation. Another of his favourite books was the +poem of "Gebir" by Walter Savage Landor. From his boyhood he had a +wonderful facility of versification, which he carried into another +language; and his Latin school-verses were composed with an ease and +correctness that procured for him prizes, and caused him to be resorted +to by all his friends for help. He was, at the period of writing "Queen +Mab", a great traveller within the limits of England, Scotland, and +Ireland. His time was spent among the loveliest scenes of these +countries. Mountain and lake and forest were his home; the phenomena of +Nature were his favourite study. He loved to inquire into their causes, +and was addicted to pursuits of natural philosophy and chemistry, as far +as they could be carried on as an amusement. These tastes gave truth and +vivacity to his descriptions, and warmed his soul with that deep +admiration for the wonders of Nature which constant association with her +inspired. + +He never intended to publish "Queen Mab" as it stands; but a few years +after, when printing "Alastor", he extracted a small portion which he +entitled "The Daemon of the World". In this he changed somewhat the +versification, and made other alterations scarcely to be called +improvements. + +Some years after, when in Italy, a bookseller published an edition of +"Queen Mab" as it originally stood. Shelley was hastily written to by +his friends, under the idea that, deeply injurious as the mere +distribution of the poem had proved, the publication might awaken fresh +persecutions. At the suggestion of these friends he wrote a letter on +the subject, printed in the "Examiner" newspaper--with which I close +this history of his earliest work. + +TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'EXAMINER.' + +'Sir, + +'Having heard that a poem entitled "Queen Mab" has been surreptitiously +published in London, and that legal proceedings have been instituted +against the publisher, I request the favour of your insertion of the +following explanation of the affair, as it relates to me. + +'A poem entitled "Queen Mab" was written by me at the age of eighteen, I +daresay in a sufficiently intemperate spirit--but even then was not +intended for publication, and a few copies only were struck off, to be +distributed among my personal friends. I have not seen this production +for several years. I doubt not but that it is perfectly worthless in +point of literary composition; and that, in all that concerns moral and +political speculation, as well as in the subtler discriminations of +metaphysical and religious doctrine, it is still more crude and +immature. I am a devoted enemy to religious, political, and domestic +oppression; and I regret this publication, not so much from literary +vanity, as because I fear it is better fitted to injure than to serve +the sacred cause of freedom. I have directed my solicitor to apply to +Chancery for an injunction to restrain the sale; but, after the +precedent of Mr. Southey's "Wat Tyler" (a poem written, I believe, at +the same age, and with the same unreflecting enthusiasm), with little +hope of success. + +'Whilst I exonerate myself from all share in having divulged opinions +hostile to existing sanctions, under the form, whatever it may be, which +they assume in this poem, it is scarcely necessary for me to protest +against the system of inculcating the truth of Christianity or the +excellence of Monarchy, however true or however excellent they may be, +by such equivocal arguments as confiscation and imprisonment, and +invective and slander, and the insolent violation of the most sacred +ties of Nature and society. + +'SIR, + +'I am your obliged and obedient servant, + +'PERCY B. SHELLEY. + +'Pisa, June 22, 1821.' + + + + +NOTE ON "ALASTOR", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +"Alastor" is written in a very different tone from "Queen Mab". In the +latter, Shelley poured out all the cherished speculations of his +youth--all the irrepressible emotions of sympathy, censure, and hope, to +which the present suffering, and what he considers the proper destiny of +his fellow-creatures, gave birth. "Alastor", on the contrary, contains +an individual interest only. A very few years, with their attendant +events, had checked the ardour of Shelley's hopes, though he still +thought them well-grounded, and that to advance their fulfilment was the +noblest task man could achieve. + +This is neither the time nor place to speak of the misfortunes that +chequered his life. It will be sufficient to say that, in all he did, he +at the time of doing it believed himself justified to his own +conscience; while the various ills of poverty and loss of friends +brought home to him the sad realities of life. Physical suffering had +also considerable influence in causing him to turn his eyes inward; +inclining him rather to brood over the thoughts and emotions of his own +soul than to glance abroad, and to make, as in "Queen Mab", the whole +universe the object and subject of his song. In the Spring of +1815, an eminent physician pronounced that he was dying rapidly of a +consumption; abscesses were formed on his lungs, and he suffered acute +spasms. Suddenly a complete change took place; and though through life +he was a martyr to pain and debility, every symptom of pulmonary disease +vanished. His nerves, which nature had formed sensitive to an unexampled +degree, were rendered still more susceptible by the state of his health. + +As soon as the peace of 1814 had opened the Continent, he went abroad. +He visited some of the more magnificent scenes of Switzerland, and +returned to England from Lucerne, by the Reuss and the Rhine. The +river-navigation enchanted him. In his favourite poem of "Thalaba", his +imagination had been excited by a description of such a voyage. In the +summer of 1815, after a tour along the southern coast of Devonshire and +a visit to Clifton, he rented a house on Bishopsgate Heath, on the +borders of Windsor Forest, where he enjoyed several months of +comparative health and tranquil happiness. The later summer months were +warm and dry. Accompanied by a few friends, he visited the source of the +Thames, making a voyage in a wherry from Windsor to Crichlade. His +beautiful stanzas in the churchyard of Lechlade were written on that +occasion. "Alastor" was composed on his return. He spent his days under +the oak-shades of Windsor Great Park; and the magnificent woodland was a +fitting study to inspire the various descriptions of forest scenery we +find in the poem. + +None of Shelley's poems is more characteristic than this. The solemn +spirit that reigns throughout, the worship of the majesty of nature, the +broodings of a poet's heart in solitude--the mingling of the exulting +joy which the various aspects of the visible universe inspires with the +sad and struggling pangs which human passion imparts--give a touching +interest to the whole. The death which he had often contemplated during +the last months as certain and near he here represented in such colours +as had, in his lonely musings, soothed his soul to peace. The +versification sustains the solemn spirit which breathes throughout: it +is peculiarly melodious. The poem ought rather to be considered didactic +than narrative: it was the outpouring of his own emotions, embodied in +the purest form he could conceive, painted in the ideal hues which his +brilliant imagination inspired, and softened by the recent anticipation +of death. + + + + +NOTE ON THE "REVOLT OF ISLAM", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley possessed two remarkable qualities of intellect--a brilliant +imagination, and a logical exactness of reason. His inclinations led him +(he fancied) almost alike to poetry and metaphysical discussions. I say +'he fancied,' because I believe the former to have been paramount, and +that it would have gained the mastery even had he struggled against it. +However, he said that he deliberated at one time whether he should +dedicate himself to poetry or metaphysics; and, resolving on the former, +he educated himself for it, discarding in a great measure his +philosophical pursuits, and engaging himself in the study of the poets +of Greece, Italy, and England. To these may be added a constant perusal +of portions of the old Testament--the Psalms, the Book of Job, the +Prophet Isaiah, and others, the sublime poetry of which filled him with +delight. + +As a poet, his intellect and compositions were powerfully influenced by +exterior circumstances, and especially by his place of abode. He was +very fond of travelling, and ill-health increased this restlessness. The +sufferings occasioned by a cold English winter made him pine, especially +when our colder spring arrived, for a more genial climate. In 1816 he +again visited Switzerland, and rented a house on the banks of the Lake +of Geneva; and many a day, in cloud or sunshine, was passed alone in his +boat--sailing as the wind listed, or weltering on the calm waters. The +majestic aspect of Nature ministered such thoughts as he afterwards +enwove in verse. His lines on the Bridge of the Arve, and his "Hymn to +Intellectual Beauty", were written at this time. Perhaps during this +summer his genius was checked by association with another poet whose +nature was utterly dissimilar to his own, yet who, in the poem he wrote +at that time, gave tokens that he shared for a period the more abstract +and etherealised inspiration of Shelley. The saddest events awaited his +return to England; but such was his fear to wound the feelings of others +that he never expressed the anguish he felt, and seldom gave vent to the +indignation roused by the persecutions he underwent; while the course of +deep unexpressed passion, and the sense of injury, engendered the desire +to embody themselves in forms defecated of all the weakness and evil +which cling to real life. + +He chose therefore for his hero a youth nourished in dreams of liberty, +some of whose actions are in direct opposition to the opinions of the +world; but who is animated throughout by an ardent love of virtue, and a +resolution to confer the boons of political and intellectual freedom on +his fellow-creatures. He created for this youth a woman such as he +delighted to imagine--full of enthusiasm for the same objects; and they +both, with will unvanquished, and the deepest sense of the justice of +their cause, met adversity and death. There exists in this poem a +memorial of a friend of his youth. The character of the old man who +liberates Laon from his tower prison, and tends on him in sickness, is +founded on that of Doctor Lind, who, when Shelley was at Eton, had often +stood by to befriend and support him, and whose name he never mentioned +without love and veneration. + +During the year 1817 we were established at Marlow in Buckinghamshire. +Shelley's choice of abode was fixed chiefly by this town being at no +great distance from London, and its neighbourhood to the Thames. The +poem was written in his boat, as it floated under the beech groves of +Bisham, or during wanderings in the neighbouring country, which is +distinguished for peculiar beauty. The chalk hills break into cliffs +that overhang the Thames, or form valleys clothed with beech; the wilder +portion of the country is rendered beautiful by exuberant vegetation; +and the cultivated part is peculiarly fertile. With all this wealth of +Nature which, either in the form of gentlemen's parks or soil dedicated +to agriculture, flourishes around, Marlow was inhabited (I hope it is +altered now) by a very poor population. The women are lacemakers, and +lose their health by sedentary labour, for which they were very ill +paid. The Poor-laws ground to the dust not only the paupers, but those +who had risen just above that state, and were obliged to pay poor-rates. +The changes produced by peace following a long war, and a bad harvest, +brought with them the most heart-rending evils to the poor. Shelley +afforded what alleviation he could. In the winter, while bringing out +his poem, he had a severe attack of ophthalmia, caught while visiting +the poor cottages. I mention these things,--for this minute and active +sympathy with his fellow-creatures gives a thousandfold interest to +his speculations, and stamps with reality his pleadings for the human +race. + +The poem, bold in its opinions and uncompromising in their expression, +met with many censurers, not only among those who allow of no virtue but +such as supports the cause they espouse, but even among those whose +opinions were similar to his own. I extract a portion of a letter +written in answer to one of these friends. It best details the impulses +of Shelley's mind, and his motives: it was written with entire +unreserve; and is therefore a precious monument of his own opinion of +his powers, of the purity of his designs, and the ardour with which he +clung, in adversity and through the valley of the shadow of death, to +views from which he believed the permanent happiness of mankind must +eventually spring. + + +'Marlowe, December 11, 1817. + +'I have read and considered all that you say about my general powers, +and the particular instance of the poem in which I have attempted to +develop them. Nothing can be more satisfactory to me than the interest +which your admonitions express. But I think you are mistaken in some +points with regard to the peculiar nature of my powers, whatever be +their amount. I listened with deference and self-suspicion to your +censures of "The Revolt of Islam"; but the productions of mine which you +commend hold a very low place in my own esteem; and this reassures me, +in some degree at least. The poem was produced by a series of thoughts +which filled my mind with unbounded and sustained enthusiasm. I felt the +precariousness of my life, and I engaged in this task, resolved to leave +some record of myself. Much of what the volume contains was written with +the same feeling--as real, though not so prophetic--as the +communications of a dying man. I never presumed indeed to consider it +anything approaching to faultless; but, when I consider contemporary +productions of the same apparent pretensions, I own I was filled with +confidence. I felt that it was in many respects a genuine picture of my +own mind. I felt that the sentiments were true, not assumed. And in this +have I long believed that my power consists; in sympathy, and that part +of the imagination which relates to sentiment and contemplation. I am +formed, if for anything not in common with the herd of mankind, to +apprehend minute and remote distinctions of feeling, whether relative to +external nature or the living beings which surround us, and to +communicate the conceptions which result from considering either the +moral or the material universe as a whole. Of course, I believe these +faculties, which perhaps comprehend all that is sublime in man, to exist +very imperfectly in my own mind. But, when you advert to my +Chancery-paper, a cold, forced, unimpassioned, insignificant piece of +cramped and cautious argument, and to the little scrap about +"Mandeville", which expressed my feelings indeed, but cost scarcely two +minutes' thought to express, as specimens of my powers more favourable +than that which grew as it were from "the agony and bloody sweat" of +intellectual travail; surely I must feel that, in some manner, either I +am mistaken in believing that I have any talent at all, or you in the +selection of the specimens of it. Yet, after all, I cannot but be +conscious, in much of what I write, of an absence of that tranquillity +which is the attribute and accompaniment of power. This feeling alone +would make your most kind and wise admonitions, on the subject of the +economy of intellectual force, valuable to me. And, if I live, or if I +see any trust in coming years, doubt not but that I shall do something, +whatever it may be, which a serious and earnest estimate of my powers +will suggest to me, and which will be in every respect accommodated to +their utmost limits. + +[Shelley to Godwin.] + + + + +NOTE ON ROSALIND AND HELEN BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +"Rosalind and Helen" was begun at Marlow, and thrown aside--till I found +it; and, at my request, it was completed. Shelley had no care for any of +his poems that did not emanate from the depths of his mind, and develop +some high or abstruse truth. When he does touch on human life and the +human heart, no pictures can be more faithful, more delicate, more +subtle, or more pathetic. He never mentioned Love but he shed a grace +borrowed from his own nature, that scarcely any other poet has bestowed +on that passion. When he spoke of it as the law of life, which inasmuch +as we rebel against we err and injure ourselves and others, he +promulgated that which he considered an irrefragable truth. In his eyes +it was the essence of our being, and all woe and pain arose from the war +made against it by selfishness, or insensibility, or mistake. By +reverting in his mind to this first principle, he discovered the source +of many emotions, and could disclose the secrets of all hearts, and his +delineations of passion and emotion touch the finest chords of our +nature. + +"Rosalind and Helen" was finished during the summer of 1818, while we +were at the Baths of Lucca. + + + + +NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +From the Baths of Lucca, in 1818, Shelley visited Venice; and, +circumstances rendering it eligible that we should remain a few weeks in +the neighbourhood of that city, he accepted the offer of Lord Byron, who +lent him the use of a villa he rented near Este; and he sent for his +family from Lucca to join him. + +I Capuccini was a villa built on the site of a Capuchin convent, +demolished when the French suppressed religious houses; it was situated +on the very overhanging brow of a low hill at the foot of a range of +higher ones. The house was cheerful and pleasant; a vine-trellised walk, +a pergola, as it is called in Italian, led from the hall-door to a +summer-house at the end of the garden, which Shelley made his study, and +in which he began the "Prometheus"; and here also, as he mentions in a +letter, he wrote "Julian and Maddalo". A slight ravine, with a road in +its depth, divided the garden from the hill, on which stood the ruins of +the ancient castle of Este, whose dark massive wall gave forth an echo, +and from whose ruined crevices owls and bats flitted forth at night, as +the crescent moon sunk behind the black and heavy battlements. We looked +from the garden over the wide plain of Lombardy, bounded to the west by +the far Apennines, while to the east the horizon was lost in misty +distance. After the picturesque but limited view of mountain, ravine, +and chestnut-wood, at the Baths of Lucca, there was something infinitely +gratifying to the eye in the wide range of prospect commanded by our new +abode. + +Our first misfortune, of the kind from which we soon suffered even more +severely, happened here. Our little girl, an infant in whose small +features I fancied that I traced great resemblance to her father, showed +symptoms of suffering from the heat of the climate. Teething increased +her illness and danger. We were at Este, and when we became alarmed, +hastened to Venice for the best advice. When we arrived at Fusina, we +found that we had forgotten our passport, and the soldiers on duty +attempted to prevent our crossing the laguna; but they could not resist +Shelley's impetuosity at such a moment. We had scarcely arrived at +Venice before life fled from the little sufferer, and we returned to +Este to weep her loss. + +After a few weeks spent in this retreat, which was interspersed by +visits to Venice, we proceeded southward. + + + + +NOTE ON "PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +On the 12th of March, 1818, Shelley quitted England, never to return. +His principal motive was the hope that his health would be improved by a +milder climate; he suffered very much during the winter previous to his +emigration, and this decided his vacillating purpose. In December, 1817, +he had written from Marlow to a friend, saying: + +'My health has been materially worse. My feelings at intervals are of a +deadly and torpid kind, or awakened to such a state of unnatural and +keen excitement that, only to instance the organ of sight, I find the +very blades of grass and the boughs of distant trees present themselves +to me with microscopic distinctness. Towards evening I sink into a state +of lethargy and inanimation, and often remain for hours on the sofa +between sleep and waking, a prey to the most painful irritability of +thought. Such, with little intermission, is my condition. The hours +devoted to study are selected with vigilant caution from among these +periods of endurance. It is not for this that I think of travelling to +Italy, even if I knew that Italy would relieve me. But I have +experienced a decisive pulmonary attack; and although at present it has +passed away without any considerable vestige of its existence, yet this +symptom sufficiently shows the true nature of my disease to be +consumptive. It is to my advantage that this malady is in its nature +slow, and, if one is sufficiently alive to its advances, is susceptible +of cure from a warm climate. In the event of its assuming any decided +shape, IT WOULD BE MY DUTY to go to Italy without delay. It is not mere +health, but life, that I should seek, and that not for my own sake--I +feel I am capable of trampling on all such weakness; but for the sake of +those to whom my life may be a source of happiness, utility, security, +and honour, and to some of whom my death might be all that is the +reverse.' + +In almost every respect his journey to Italy was advantageous. He left +behind friends to whom he was attached; but cares of a thousand kinds, +many springing from his lavish generosity, crowded round him in his +native country, and, except the society of one or two friends, he had no +compensation. The climate caused him to consume half his existence in +helpless suffering. His dearest pleasure, the free enjoyment of the +scenes of Nature, was marred by the same circumstance. + +He went direct to Italy, avoiding even Paris, and did not make any pause +till he arrived at Milan. The first aspect of Italy enchanted Shelley; +it seemed a garden of delight placed beneath a clearer and brighter +heaven than any he had lived under before. He wrote long descriptive +letters during the first year of his residence in Italy, which, as +compositions, are the most beautiful in the world, and show how truly he +appreciated and studied the wonders of Nature and Art in that divine +land. + +The poetical spirit within him speedily revived with all the power and +with more than all the beauty of his first attempts. He meditated three +subjects as the groundwork for lyrical dramas. One was the story of +Tasso; of this a slight fragment of a song of Tasso remains. The other +was one founded on the Book of Job, which he never abandoned in idea, +but of which no trace remains among his papers. The third was the +"Prometheus Unbound". The Greek tragedians were now his most familiar +companions in his wanderings, and the sublime majesty of Aeschylus +filled him with wonder and delight. The father of Greek tragedy does not +possess the pathos of Sophocles, nor the variety and tenderness of +Euripides; the interest on which he founds his dramas is often elevated +above human vicissitudes into the mighty passions and throes of gods and +demi-gods: such fascinated the abstract imagination of Shelley. + +We spent a month at Milan, visiting the Lake of Como during that +interval. Thence we passed in succession to Pisa, Leghorn, the Baths of +Lucca, Venice, Este, Rome, Naples, and back again to Rome, whither we +returned early in March, 1819. During all this time Shelley meditated +the subject of his drama, and wrote portions of it. Other poems were +composed during this interval, and while at the Bagni di Lucca he +translated Plato's "Symposium". But, though he diversified his studies, +his thoughts centred in the Prometheus. At last, when at Rome, during a +bright and beautiful Spring, he gave up his whole time to the +composition. The spot selected for his study was, as he mentions in his +preface, the mountainous ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. These are +little known to the ordinary visitor at Rome. He describes them in a +letter, with that poetry and delicacy and truth of description which +render his narrated impressions of scenery of unequalled beauty and +interest. + +At first he completed the drama in three acts. It was not till several +months after, when at Florence, that he conceived that a fourth act, a +sort of hymn of rejoicing in the fulfilment of the prophecies with +regard to Prometheus, ought to be added to complete the composition. + +The prominent feature of Shelley's theory of the destiny of the human +species was that evil is not inherent in the system of the creation, but +an accident that might be expelled. This also forms a portion of +Christianity: God made earth and man perfect, till he, by his fall, + + 'Brought death into the world and all our woe.' + +Shelley believed that mankind had only to will that there should be no +evil, and there would be none. It is not my part in these Notes to +notice the arguments that have been urged against this opinion, but to +mention the fact that he entertained it, and was indeed attached to it +with fervent enthusiasm. That man could be so perfectionized as to be +able to expel evil from his own nature, and from the greater part of the +creation, was the cardinal point of his system. And the subject he loved +best to dwell on was the image of One warring with the Evil Principle, +oppressed not only by it, but by all--even the good, who were deluded +into considering evil a necessary portion of humanity; a victim full of +fortitude and hope and the spirit of triumph emanating from a reliance +in the ultimate omnipotence of Good. Such he had depicted in his last +poem, when he made Laon the enemy and the victim of tyrants. He now took +a more idealized image of the same subject. He followed certain +classical authorities in figuring Saturn as the good principle, Jupiter +the usurping evil one, and Prometheus as the regenerator, who, unable to +bring mankind back to primitive innocence, used knowledge as a weapon to +defeat evil, by leading mankind, beyond the state wherein they are +sinless through ignorance, to that in which they are virtuous through +wisdom. Jupiter punished the temerity of the Titan by chaining him to a +rock of Caucasus, and causing a vulture to devour his still-renewed +heart. There was a prophecy afloat in heaven portending the fall of +Jove, the secret of averting which was known only to Prometheus; and the +god offered freedom from torture on condition of its being communicated +to him. According to the mythological story, this referred to the +offspring of Thetis, who was destined to be greater than his father. +Prometheus at last bought pardon for his crime of enriching mankind with +his gifts, by revealing the prophecy. Hercules killed the vulture, and +set him free; and Thetis was married to Peleus, the father of Achilles. + +Shelley adapted the catastrophe of this story to his peculiar views. The +son greater than his father, born of the nuptials of Jupiter and Thetis, +was to dethrone Evil, and bring back a happier reign than that of +Saturn. Prometheus defies the power of his enemy, and endures centuries +of torture; till the hour arrives when Jove, blind to the real event, +but darkly guessing that some great good to himself will flow, espouses +Thetis. At the moment, the Primal Power of the world drives him from his +usurped throne, and Strength, in the person of Hercules, liberates +Humanity, typified in Prometheus, from the tortures generated by evil +done or suffered. Asia, one of the Oceanides, is the wife of +Prometheus--she was, according to other mythological interpretations, +the same as Venus and Nature. When the benefactor of mankind is +liberated, Nature resumes the beauty of her prime, and is united to her +husband, the emblem of the human race, in perfect and happy union. In +the Fourth Act, the Poet gives further scope to his imagination, and +idealizes the forms of creation--such as we know them, instead of such +as they appeared to the Greeks. Maternal Earth, the mighty parent, is +superseded by the Spirit of the Earth, the guide of our planet through +the realms of sky; while his fair and weaker companion and attendant, +the Spirit of the Moon, receives bliss from the annihilation of Evil in +the superior sphere. + +Shelley develops, more particularly in the lyrics of this drama, his +abstruse and imaginative theories with regard to the Creation. It +requires a mind as subtle and penetrating as his own to understand the +mystic meanings scattered throughout the poem. They elude the ordinary +reader by their abstraction and delicacy of distinction, but they are +far from vague. It was his design to write prose metaphysical essays on +the nature of Man, which would have served to explain much of what is +obscure in his poetry; a few scattered fragments of observations and +remarks alone remain. He considered these philosophical views of Mind +and Nature to be instinct with the intensest spirit of poetry. + +More popular poets clothe the ideal with familiar and sensible imagery. +Shelley loved to idealize the real--to gift the mechanism of the +material universe with a soul and a voice, and to bestow such also on +the most delicate and abstract emotions and thoughts of the mind. +Sophocles was his great master in this species of imagery. + +I find in one of his manuscript books some remarks on a line in the +"Oedipus Tyrannus", which show at once the critical subtlety of +Shelley's mind, and explain his apprehension of those 'minute and remote +distinctions of feeling, whether relative to external nature or the +living beings which surround us,' which he pronounces, in the letter +quoted in the note to the "Revolt of Islam", to comprehend all that is +sublime in man. + +'In the Greek Shakespeare, Sophocles, we find the image, + + Pollas d' odous elthonta phrontidos planois: + +a line of almost unfathomable depth of poetry; yet how simple are the +images in which it is arrayed! + + "Coming to many ways in the wanderings of careful thought." + +If the words odous and planois had not been used, the line might have +been explained in a metaphorical instead of an absolute sense, as we say +"WAYS and means," and "wanderings" for error and confusion. But they +meant literally paths or roads, such as we tread with our feet; and +wanderings, such as a man makes when he loses himself in a desert, or +roams from city to city--as Oedipus, the speaker of this verse, was +destined to wander, blind and asking charity. What a picture does this +line suggest of the mind as a wilderness of intricate paths, wide as the +universe, which is here made its symbol; a world within a world which he +who seeks some knowledge with respect to what he ought to do searches +throughout, as he would search the external universe for some valued +thing which was hidden from him upon its surface.' + +In reading Shelley's poetry, we often find similar verses, resembling, +but not imitating the Greek in this species of imagery; for, though he +adopted the style, he gifted it with that originality of form and +colouring which sprung from his own genius. + +In the "Prometheus Unbound", Shelley fulfils the promise quoted from a +letter in the Note on the "Revolt of Islam". (While correcting the +proof-sheets of that poem, it struck me that the poet had indulged in an +exaggerated view of the evils of restored despotism; which, however +injurious and degrading, were less openly sanguinary than the triumph of +anarchy, such as it appeared in France at the close of the last century. +But at this time a book, "Scenes of Spanish Life", translated by +Lieutenant Crawford from the German of Dr. Huber, of Rostock, fell into +my hands. The account of the triumph of the priests and the serviles, +after the French invasion of Spain in 1823, bears a strong and frightful +resemblance to some of the descriptions of the massacre of the patriots +in the "Revolt of Islam".) The tone of the composition is calmer and +more majestic, the poetry more perfect as a whole, and the imagination +displayed at once more pleasingly beautiful and more varied and daring. +The description of the Hours, as they are seen in the cave of +Demogorgon, is an instance of this--it fills the mind as the most +charming picture--we long to see an artist at work to bring to our view +the + + 'cars drawn by rainbow-winged steeds + Which trample the dim winds: in each there stands + A wild-eyed charioteer urging their flight. + Some look behind, as fiends pursued them there, + And yet I see no shapes but the keen stars: + Others, with burning eyes, lean forth, and drink + With eager lips the wind of their own speed, + As if the thing they loved fled on before, + And now, even now, they clasped it. Their bright locks + Stream like a comet's flashing hair: they all + Sweep onward.' + +Through the whole poem there reigns a sort of calm and holy spirit of +love; it soothes the tortured, and is hope to the expectant, till the +prophecy is fulfilled, and Love, untainted by any evil, becomes the law +of the world. + +England had been rendered a painful residence to Shelley, as much by the +sort of persecution with which in those days all men of liberal opinions +were visited, and by the injustice he had lately endured in the Court of +Chancery, as by the symptoms of disease which made him regard a visit to +Italy as necessary to prolong his life. An exile, and strongly impressed +with the feeling that the majority of his countrymen regarded him with +sentiments of aversion such as his own heart could experience towards +none, he sheltered himself from such disgusting and painful thoughts in +the calm retreats of poetry, and built up a world of his own--with the +more pleasure, since he hoped to induce some one or two to believe that +the earth might become such, did mankind themselves consent. The charm +of the Roman climate helped to clothe his thoughts in greater beauty +than they had ever worn before. And, as he wandered among the ruins made +one with Nature in their decay, or gazed on the Praxitelean shapes that +throng the Vatican, the Capitol, and the palaces of Rome, his soul +imbibed forms of loveliness which became a portion of itself. There are +many passages in the "Prometheus" which show the intense delight he +received from such studies, and give back the impression with a beauty +of poetical description peculiarly his own. He felt this, as a poet must +feel when he satisfies himself by the result of his labours; and he +wrote from Rome, 'My "Prometheus Unbound" is just finished, and in a +month or two I shall send it. It is a drama, with characters and +mechanism of a kind yet unattempted; and I think the execution is better +than any of my former attempts.' + +I may mention, for the information of the more critical reader, that the +verbal alterations in this edition of "Prometheus" are made from a list +of errata written by Shelley himself. + + + + +NOTE ON THE CENCI, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The sort of mistake that Shelley made as to the extent of his own genius +and powers, which led him deviously at first, but lastly into the direct +track that enabled him fully to develop them, is a curious instance of +his modesty of feeling, and of the methods which the human mind uses at +once to deceive itself, and yet, in its very delusion, to make its way +out of error into the path which Nature has marked out as its right one. +He often incited me to attempt the writing a tragedy: he conceived that +I possessed some dramatic talent, and he was always most earnest and +energetic in his exhortations that I should cultivate any talent I +possessed, to the utmost. I entertained a truer estimate of my powers; +and above all (though at that time not exactly aware of the fact) I was +far too young to have any chance of succeeding, even moderately, in a +species of composition that requires a greater scope of experience in, +and sympathy with, human passion than could then have fallen to my +lot,--or than any perhaps, except Shelley, ever possessed, even at the +age of twenty-six, at which he wrote The Cenci. + +On the other hand, Shelley most erroneously conceived himself to be +destitute of this talent. He believed that one of the first requisites +was the capacity of forming and following-up a story or plot. He fancied +himself to be defective in this portion of imagination: it was that +which gave him least pleasure in the writings of others, though he laid +great store by it as the proper framework to support the sublimest +efforts of poetry. He asserted that he was too metaphysical and +abstract, too fond of the theoretical and the ideal, to succeed as a +tragedian. It perhaps is not strange that I shared this opinion with +himself; for he had hitherto shown no inclination for, nor given any +specimen of his powers in framing and supporting the interest of a +story, either in prose or verse. Once or twice, when he attempted such, +he had speedily thrown it aside, as being even disagreeable to him as an +occupation. + +The subject he had suggested for a tragedy was Charles I: and he had +written to me: 'Remember, remember Charles I. I have been already +imagining how you would conduct some scenes. The second volume of "St. +Leon" begins with this proud and true sentiment: "There is nothing which +the human mind can conceive which it may not execute." Shakespeare was +only a human being.' These words were written in 1818, while we were in +Lombardy, when he little thought how soon a work of his own would prove +a proud comment on the passage he quoted. When in Rome, in 1819, a +friend put into our hands the old manuscript account of the story of the +Cenci. We visited the Colonna and Doria palaces, where the portraits of +Beatrice were to be found; and her beauty cast the reflection of its own +grace over her appalling story. Shelley's imagination became strongly +excited, and he urged the subject to me as one fitted for a tragedy. +More than ever I felt my incompetence; but I entreated him to write it +instead; and he began, and proceeded swiftly, urged on by intense +sympathy with the sufferings of the human beings whose passions, so long +cold in the tomb, he revived, and gifted with poetic language. This +tragedy is the only one of his works that he communicated to me during +its progress. We talked over the arrangement of the scenes together. I +speedily saw the great mistake we had made, and triumphed in the +discovery of the new talent brought to light from that mine of wealth +(never, alas, through his untimely death, worked to its depths)--his +richly gifted mind. + +We suffered a severe affliction in Rome by the loss of our eldest child, +who was of such beauty and promise as to cause him deservedly to be the +idol of our hearts. We left the capital of the world, anxious for a time +to escape a spot associated too intimately with his presence and loss. +(Such feelings haunted him when, in "The Cenci", he makes Beatrice speak +to Cardinal Camillo of + + 'that fair blue-eyed child + Who was the lodestar of your life:'--and say-- + All see, since his most swift and piteous death, + That day and night, and heaven and earth, and time, + And all the things hoped for or done therein + Are changed to you, through your exceeding grief.') + +Some friends of ours were residing in the neighbourhood of Leghorn, and +we took a small house, Villa Valsovano, about half-way between the town +and Monte Nero, where we remained during the summer. Our villa was +situated in the midst of a podere; the peasants sang as they worked +beneath our windows, during the heats of a very hot season, and in the +evening the water-wheel creaked as the process of irrigation went on, +and the fireflies flashed from among the myrtle hedges: Nature was +bright, sunshiny, and cheerful, or diversified by storms of a majestic +terror, such as we had never before witnessed. + +At the top of the house there was a sort of terrace. There is often such +in Italy, generally roofed: this one was very small, yet not only roofed +but glazed. This Shelley made his study; it looked out on a wide +prospect of fertile country, and commanded a view of the near sea. The +storms that sometimes varied our day showed themselves most +picturesquely as they were driven across the ocean; sometimes the dark +lurid clouds dipped towards the waves, and became water-spouts that +churned up the waters beneath, as they were chased onward and scattered +by the tempest. At other times the dazzling sunlight and heat made it +almost intolerable to every other; but Shelley basked in both, and his +health and spirits revived under their influence. In this airy cell he +wrote the principal part of "The Cenci". He was making a study of +Calderon at the time, reading his best tragedies with an accomplished +lady living near us, to whom his letter from Leghorn was addressed +during the following year. He admired Calderon, both for his poetry and +his dramatic genius; but it shows his judgement and originality that, +though greatly struck by his first acquaintance with the Spanish poet, +none of his peculiarities crept into the composition of "The Cenci"; and +there is no trace of his new studies, except in that passage to which he +himself alludes as suggested by one in "El Purgatorio de San Patricio". + +Shelley wished "The Cenci" to be acted. He was not a playgoer, being of +such fastidious taste that he was easily disgusted by the bad filling-up +of the inferior parts. While preparing for our departure from England, +however, he saw Miss O'Neil several times. She was then in the zenith of +her glory; and Shelley was deeply moved by her impersonation of several +parts, and by the graceful sweetness, the intense pathos, the sublime +vehemence of passion she displayed. She was often in his thoughts as he +wrote: and, when he had finished, he became anxious that his tragedy +should be acted, and receive the advantage of having this accomplished +actress to fill the part of the heroine. With this view he wrote the +following letter to a friend in London: + +'The object of the present letter us to ask a favour of you. I have +written a tragedy on a story well known in Italy, and, in my conception, +eminently dramatic. I have taken some pains to make my play fit for +representation, and those who have already seen it judge favourably. It +is written without any of the peculiar feelings and opinions which +characterize my other compositions; I have attended simply to the +impartial development of such characters as it is probable the persons +represented really were, together with the greatest degree of popular +effect to be produced by such a development. I send you a translation of +the Italian manuscript on which my play is founded; the chief +circumstance of which I have touched very delicately; for my principal +doubt as to whether it would succeed as an acting play hangs entirely on +the question as to whether any such a thing as incest in this shape, +however treated, would be admitted on the stage. I think, however, it +will form no objection; considering, first, that the facts are matter of +history, and, secondly, the peculiar delicacy with which I have treated +it. (In speaking of his mode of treating this main incident, Shelley +said that it might be remarked that, in the course of the play, he had +never mentioned expressly Cenci's worst crime. Every one knew what it +must be, but it was never imaged in words--the nearest allusion to it +being that portion of Cenci's curse beginning--"That, if she have a +child," etc.) + +'I am exceedingly interested in the question of whether this attempt of +mine will succeed or not. I am strongly inclined to the affirmative at +present; founding my hopes on this--that, as a composition, it is +certainly not inferior to any of the modern plays that have been acted, +with the exception of "Remorse"; that the interest of the plot is +incredibly greater and more real; and that there is nothing beyond what +the multitude are contented to believe that they can understand, either +in imagery, opinion, or sentiment. I wish to preserve a complete +incognito, and can trust to you that, whatever else you do, you will at +least favour me on this point. Indeed, this is essential, deeply +essential, to its success. After it had been acted, and successfully +(could I hope for such a thing), I would own it if I pleased, and use +the celebrity it might acquire to my own purposes. + +'What I want you to do is to procure for me its presentation at Covent +Garden. The principal character, Beatrice, is precisely fitted for Miss +O'Neil, and it might even seem to have been written for her (God forbid +that I should see her play it--it would tear my nerves to pieces); and +in all respects it is fitted only for Covent Garden. The chief male +character I confess I should be very unwilling that any one but Kean +should play. That is impossible, and I must be contented with an +inferior actor.' + +The play was accordingly sent to Mr. Harris. He pronounced the subject +to be so objectionable that he could not even submit the part to Miss +O'Neil for perusal, but expressed his desire that the author would write +a tragedy on some other subject, which he would gladly accept. Shelley +printed a small edition at Leghorn, to ensure its correctness; as he was +much annoyed by the many mistakes that crept into his text when distance +prevented him from correcting the press. + +Universal approbation soon stamped "The Cenci" as the best tragedy of +modern times. Writing concerning it, Shelley said: 'I have been cautious +to avoid the introducing faults of youthful composition; diffuseness, a +profusion of inapplicable imagery, vagueness, generality, and, as Hamlet +says, "words, words".' There is nothing that is not purely dramatic +throughout; and the character of Beatrice, proceeding, from vehement +struggle, to horror, to deadly resolution, and lastly to the elevated +dignity of calm suffering, joined to passionate tenderness and pathos, +is touched with hues so vivid and so beautiful that the poet seems to +have read intimately the secrets of the noble heart imaged in the lovely +countenance of the unfortunate girl. The Fifth Act is a masterpiece. It +is the finest thing he ever wrote, and may claim proud comparison not +only with any contemporary, but preceding, poet. The varying feelings of +Beatrice are expressed with passionate, heart-reaching eloquence. Every +character has a voice that echoes truth in its tones. It is curious, to +one acquainted with the written story, to mark the success with which +the poet has inwoven the real incidents of the tragedy into his scenes, +and yet, through the power of poetry, has obliterated all that would +otherwise have shown too harsh or too hideous in the picture. His +success was a double triumph; and often after he was earnestly entreated +to write again in a style that commanded popular favour, while it was +not less instinct with truth and genius. But the bent of his mind went +the other way; and, even when employed on subjects whose interest +depended on character and incident, he would start off in another +direction, and leave the delineations of human passion, which he could +depict in so able a manner, for fantastic creations of his fancy, or the +expression of those opinions and sentiments, with regard to human nature +and its destiny, a desire to diffuse which was the master passion of his +soul. + + + + +NOTE ON THE MASK OF ANARCHY, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Though Shelley's first eager desire to excite his countrymen to resist +openly the oppressions existent during 'the good old times' had faded +with early youth, still his warmest sympathies were for the people. He +was a republican, and loved a democracy. He looked on all human beings +as inheriting an equal right to possess the dearest privileges of our +nature; the necessaries of life when fairly earned by labour, and +intellectual instruction. His hatred of any despotism that looked upon +the people as not to be consulted, or protected from want and ignorance, +was intense. He was residing near Leghorn, at Villa Valsovano, writing +"The Cenci", when the news of the Manchester Massacre reached us; it +roused in him violent emotions of indignation and compassion. The great +truth that the many, if accordant and resolute, could control the few, +as was shown some years after, made him long to teach his injured +countrymen how to resist. Inspired by these feelings, he wrote the "Mask +of Anarchy", which he sent to his friend Leigh Hunt, to be inserted in +the Examiner, of which he was then the Editor. + +'I did not insert it,' Leigh Hunt writes in his valuable and interesting +preface to this poem, when he printed it in 1832, 'because I thought +that the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do +justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked +in this flaming robe of verse.' Days of outrage have passed away, and +with them the exasperation that would cause such an appeal to the many +to be injurious. Without being aware of them, they at one time acted on +his suggestions, and gained the day. But they rose when human life was +respected by the Minister in power; such was not the case during the +Administration which excited Shelley's abhorrence. + +The poem was written for the people, and is therefore in a more popular +tone than usual: portions strike as abrupt and unpolished, but many +stanzas are all his own. I heard him repeat, and admired, those +beginning + + 'My Father Time is old and gray,' + +before I knew to what poem they were to belong. But the most touching +passage is that which describes the blessed effects of liberty; it might +make a patriot of any man whose heart was not wholly closed against his +humbler fellow-creatures. + + + + +NOTE ON PETER BELL THE THIRD, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +In this new edition I have added "Peter Bell the Third". A critique on +Wordsworth's "Peter Bell" reached us at Leghorn, which amused Shelley +exceedingly, and suggested this poem. + +I need scarcely observe that nothing personal to the author of "Peter +Bell" is intended in this poem. No man ever admired Wordsworth's poetry +more;--he read it perpetually, and taught others to appreciate its +beauties. This poem is, like all others written by Shelley, ideal. He +conceived the idealism of a poet--a man of lofty and creative +genius--quitting the glorious calling of discovering and announcing the +beautiful and good, to support and propagate ignorant prejudices and +pernicious errors; imparting to the unenlightened, not that ardour for +truth and spirit of toleration which Shelley looked on as the sources of +the moral improvement and happiness of mankind, but false and injurious +opinions, that evil was good, and that ignorance and force were the best +allies of purity and virtue. His idea was that a man gifted, even as +transcendently as the author of "Peter Bell", with the highest qualities +of genius, must, if he fostered such errors, be infected with dulness. +This poem was written as a warning--not as a narration of the reality. +He was unacquainted personally with Wordsworth, or with Coleridge (to +whom he alludes in the fifth part of the poem), and therefore, I repeat, +his poem is purely ideal;--it contains something of criticism on the +compositions of those great poets, but nothing injurious to the men +themselves. + +No poem contains more of Shelley's peculiar views with regard to the +errors into which many of the wisest have fallen, and the pernicious +effects of certain opinions on society. Much of it is beautifully +written: and, though, like the burlesque drama of "Swellfoot", it must +be looked on as a plaything, it has so much merit and poetry--so much of +HIMSELF in it--that it cannot fail to interest greatly, and by right +belongs to the world for whose instruction and benefit it was written. + +NOTE ON THE WITCH OF ATLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the summer of 1820 at the Baths of San Giuliano, four miles +from Pisa. These baths were of great use to Shelley in soothing his +nervous irritability. We made several excursions in the neighbourhood. +The country around is fertile, and diversified and rendered picturesque +by ranges of near hills and more distant mountains. The peasantry are a +handsome intelligent race; and there was a gladsome sunny heaven spread +over us, that rendered home and every scene we visited cheerful and +bright. During some of the hottest days of August, Shelley made a +solitary journey on foot to the summit of Monte San Pellegrino--a +mountain of some height, on the top of which there is a chapel, the +object, during certain days of the year, of many pilgrimages. The +excursion delighted him while it lasted; though he exerted himself too +much, and the effect was considerable lassitude and weakness on his +return. During the expedition he conceived the idea, and wrote, in the +three days immediately succeeding to his return, the "Witch of Atlas". +This poem is peculiarly characteristic of his tastes--wildly fanciful, +full of brilliant imagery, and discarding human interest and passion, to +revel in the fantastic ideas that his imagination suggested. + +The surpassing excellence of "The Cenci" had made me greatly desire that +Shelley should increase his popularity by adopting subjects that would +more suit the popular taste than a poem conceived in the abstract and +dreamy spirit of the "Witch of Atlas". It was not only that I wished him +to acquire popularity as redounding to his fame; but I believed that he +would obtain a greater mastery over his own powers, and greater +happiness in his mind, if public applause crowned his endeavours. The +few stanzas that precede the poem were addressed to me on my +representing these ideas to him. Even now I believe that I was in the +right. Shelley did not expect sympathy and approbation from the public; +but the want of it took away a portion of the ardour that ought to have +sustained him while writing. He was thrown on his own resources, and on +the inspiration of his own soul; and wrote because his mind overflowed, +without the hope of being appreciated. I had not the most distant wish +that he should truckle in opinion, or submit his lofty aspirations for +the human race to the low ambition and pride of the many; but I felt +sure that, if his poems were more addressed to the common feelings of +men, his proper rank among the writers of the day would be acknowledged, +and that popularity as a poet would enable his countrymen to do justice +to his character and virtues, which in those days it was the mode to +attack with the most flagitious calumnies and insulting abuse. That he +felt these things deeply cannot be doubted, though he armed himself with +the consciousness of acting from a lofty and heroic sense of right. The +truth burst from his heart sometimes in solitude, and he would write a +few unfinished verses that showed that he felt the sting; among such I +find the following:-- + + 'Alas! this is not what I thought Life was. + I knew that there were crimes and evil men, + Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass + Untouched by suffering through the rugged glen. + In mine own heart I saw as in a glass + The hearts of others...And, when + I went among my kind, with triple brass + Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed, + To bear scorn, fear, and hate--a woful mass!' + +I believed that all this morbid feeling would vanish if the chord of +sympathy between him and his countrymen were touched. But my persuasions +were vain, the mind could not be bent from its natural inclination. +Shelley shrunk instinctively from portraying human passion, with its +mixture of good and evil, of disappointment and disquiet. Such opened +again the wounds of his own heart; and he loved to shelter himself +rather in the airiest flights of fancy, forgetting love and hate, and +regret and lost hope, in such imaginations as borrowed their hues from +sunrise or sunset, from the yellow moonshine or paly twilight, from the +aspect of the far ocean or the shadows of the woods,--which celebrated +the singing of the winds among the pines, the flow of a murmuring +stream, and the thousand harmonious sounds which Nature creates in her +solitudes. These are the materials which form the "Witch of Atlas": it +is a brilliant congregation of ideas such as his senses gathered, and +his fancy coloured, during his rambles in the sunny land he so much +loved. + + + + +NOTE ON OEDIPUS TYRANNUS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +In the brief journal I kept in those days, I find recorded, in August, +1820, Shelley 'begins "Swellfoot the Tyrant", suggested by the pigs at +the fair of San Giuliano.' This was the period of Queen Caroline's +landing in England, and the struggles made by George IV to get rid of +her claims; which failing, Lord Castlereagh placed the "Green Bag" on +the table of the House of Commons, demanding in the King's name that an +enquiry should be instituted into his wife's conduct. These +circumstances were the theme of all conversation among the English. We +were then at the Baths of San Giuliano. A friend came to visit us on the +day when a fair was held in the square, beneath our windows: Shelley +read to us his "Ode to Liberty"; and was riotously accompanied by the +grunting of a quantity of pigs brought for sale to the fair. He compared +it to the 'chorus of frogs' in the satiric drama of Aristophanes; and, +it being an hour of merriment, and one ludicrous association suggesting +another, he imagined a political-satirical drama on the circumstances of +the day, to which the pigs would serve as chorus--and "Swellfoot" was +begun. When finished, it was transmitted to England, printed, and +published anonymously; but stifled at the very dawn of its existence by +the Society for the Suppression of Vice, who threatened to prosecute it, +if not immediately withdrawn. The friend who had taken the trouble of +bringing it out, of course did not think it worth the annoyance and +expense of a contest, and it was laid aside. + +Hesitation of whether it would do honour to Shelley prevented my +publishing it at first. But I cannot bring myself to keep back anything +he ever wrote; for each word is fraught with the peculiar views and +sentiments which he believed to be beneficial to the human race, and the +bright light of poetry irradiates every thought. The world has a right +to the entire compositions of such a man; for it does not live and +thrive by the outworn lesson of the dullard or the hypocrite, but by the +original free thoughts of men of genius, who aspire to pluck bright +truth + + 'from the pale-faced moon; + Or dive into the bottom of the deep + Where fathom-line would never touch the ground, + And pluck up drowned' + +truth. Even those who may dissent from his opinions will consider that +he was a man of genius, and that the world will take more interest in +his slightest word than in the waters of Lethe which are so eagerly +prescribed as medicinal for all its wrongs and woe. This drama, however, +must not be judged for more than was meant. It is a mere plaything of +the imagination; which even may not excite smiles among many, who will +not see wit in those combinations of thought which were full of the +ridiculous to the author. But, like everything he wrote, it breathes +that deep sympathy for the sorrows of humanity, and indignation against +its oppressors, which make it worthy of his name. + + + + +NOTE ON HELLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The South of Europe was in a state of great political excitement at the +beginning of the year 1821. The Spanish Revolution had been a signal to +Italy; secrete societies were formed; and, when Naples rose to declare +the Constitution, the call was responded to from Brundusium to the foot +of the Alps. To crush these attempts to obtain liberty, early in 1821 +the Austrians poured their armies into the Peninsula: at first their +coming rather seemed to add energy and resolution to a people long +enslaved. The Piedmontese asserted their freedom; Genoa threw off the +yoke of the King of Sardinia; and, as if in playful imitation, the +people of the little state of Massa and Carrara gave the conge to their +sovereign, and set up a republic. + +Tuscany alone was perfectly tranquil. It was said that the Austrian +minister presented a list of sixty Carbonari to the Grand Duke, urging +their imprisonment; and the Grand Duke replied, 'I do not know whether +these sixty men are Carbonari, but I know, if I imprison them, I shall +directly have sixty thousand start up.' But, though the Tuscans had no +desire to disturb the paternal government beneath whose shelter they +slumbered, they regarded the progress of the various Italian revolutions +with intense interest, and hatred for the Austrian was warm in every +bosom. But they had slender hopes; they knew that the Neapolitans would +offer no fit resistance to the regular German troops, and that the +overthrow of the constitution in Naples would act as a decisive blow +against all struggles for liberty in Italy. + +We have seen the rise and progress of reform. But the Holy Alliance was +alive and active in those days, and few could dream of the peaceful +triumph of liberty. It seemed then that the armed assertion of freedom +in the South of Europe was the only hope of the liberals, as, if it +prevailed, the nations of the north would imitate the example. Happily +the reverse has proved the fact. The countries accustomed to the +exercise of the privileges of freemen, to a limited extent, have +extended, and are extending, these limits. Freedom and knowledge have +now a chance of proceeding hand in hand; and, if it continue thus, we +may hope for the durability of both. Then, as I have said--in +1821--Shelley, as well as every other lover of liberty, looked upon the +struggles in Spain and Italy as decisive of the destinies of the world, +probably for centuries to come. The interest he took in the progress of +affairs was intense. When Genoa declared itself free, his hopes were at +their highest. Day after day he read the bulletins of the Austrian army, +and sought eagerly to gather tokens of its defeat. He heard of the +revolt of Genoa with emotions of transport. His whole heart and soul +were in the triumph of the cause. We were living at Pisa at that time; +and several well-informed Italians, at the head of whom we may place the +celebrated Vacca, were accustomed to seek for sympathy in their hopes +from Shelley: they did not find such for the despair they too generally +experienced, founded on contempt for their southern countrymen. + +While the fate of the progress of the Austrian armies then invading +Naples was yet in suspense, the news of another revolution filled him +with exultation. We had formed the acquaintance at Pisa of several +Constantinopolitan Greeks, of the family of Prince Caradja, formerly +Hospodar of Wallachia; who, hearing that the bowstring, the accustomed +finale of his viceroyalty, was on the road to him, escaped with his +treasures, and took up his abode in Tuscany. Among these was the +gentleman to whom the drama of "Hellas" is dedicated. Prince +Mavrocordato was warmed by those aspirations for the independence of his +country which filled the hearts of many of his countrymen. He often +intimated the possibility of an insurrection in Greece; but we had no +idea of its being so near at hand, when, on the 1st of April 1821, he +called on Shelley, bringing the proclamation of his cousin, Prince +Ypsilanti, and, radiant with exultation and delight, declared that +henceforth Greece would be free. + +Shelley had hymned the dawn of liberty in Spain and Naples, in two odes +dictated by the warmest enthusiasm; he felt himself naturally impelled +to decorate with poetry the uprise of the descendants of that people +whose works he regarded with deep admiration, and to adopt the +vaticinatory character in prophesying their success. "Hellas" was +written in a moment of enthusiasm. It is curious to remark how well he +overcomes the difficulty of forming a drama out of such scant materials. +His prophecies, indeed, came true in their general, not their +particular, purport. He did not foresee the death of Lord Londonderry, +which was to be the epoch of a change in English politics, particularly +as regarded foreign affairs; nor that the navy of his country would +fight for instead of against the Greeks, and by the battle of Navarino +secure their enfranchisement from the Turks. Almost against reason, as +it appeared to him, he resolved to believe that Greece would prove +triumphant; and in this spirit, auguring ultimate good, yet grieving +over the vicissitudes to be endured in the interval, he composed his +drama. + +"Hellas" was among the last of his compositions, and is among the most +beautiful. The choruses are singularly imaginative, and melodious in +their versification. There are some stanzas that beautifully exemplify +Shelley's peculiar style; as, for instance, the assertion of the +intellectual empire which must be for ever the inheritance of the +country of Homer, Sophocles, and Plato:-- + + 'But Greece and her foundations are + Built below the tide of war, + Based on the crystalline sea + Of thought and its eternity.' + +And again, that philosophical truth felicitously imaged forth-- + + 'Revenge and Wrong bring forth their kind, + The foul cubs like their parents are, + Their den is in the guilty mind, + And Conscience feeds them with despair.' + +The conclusion of the last chorus is among the most beautiful of his +lyrics. The imagery is distinct and majestic; the prophecy, such as +poets love to dwell upon, the Regeneration of Mankind--and that +regeneration reflecting back splendour on the foregone time, from which +it inherits so much of intellectual wealth, and memory of past virtuous +deeds, as must render the possession of happiness and peace of tenfold +value. + + + + +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The remainder of Shelley's Poems will be arranged in the order in which +they were written. Of course, mistakes will occur in placing some of the +shorter ones; for, as I have said, many of these were thrown aside, and +I never saw them till I had the misery of looking over his writings +after the hand that traced them was dust; and some were in the hands of +others, and I never saw them till now. The subjects of the poems are +often to me an unerring guide; but on other occasions I can only guess, +by finding them in the pages of the same manuscript book that contains +poems with the date of whose composition I am fully conversant. In the +present arrangement all his poetical translations will be placed +together at the end. + +The loss of his early papers prevents my being able to give any of the +poetry of his boyhood. Of the few I give as "Early Poems", the greater +part were published with "Alastor"; some of them were written +previously, some at the same period. The poem beginning 'Oh, there are +spirits in the air' was addressed in idea to Coleridge, whom he never +knew; and at whose character he could only guess imperfectly, through +his writings, and accounts he heard of him from some who knew him well. +He regarded his change of opinions as rather an act of will than +conviction, and believed that in his inner heart he would be haunted by +what Shelley considered the better and holier aspirations of his youth. +The summer evening that suggested to him the poem written in the +churchyard of Lechlade occurred during his voyage up the Thames in 1815. +He had been advised by a physician to live as much as possible in the +open air; and a fortnight of a bright warm July was spent in tracing the +Thames to its source. He never spent a season more tranquilly than the +summer of 1815. He had just recovered from a severe pulmonary attack; +the weather was warm and pleasant. He lived near Windsor Forest; and his +life was spent under its shades or on the water, meditating subjects for +verse. Hitherto, he had chiefly aimed at extending his political +doctrines, and attempted so to do by appeals in prose essays to the +people, exhorting them to claim their rights; but he had now begun to +feel that the time for action was not ripe in England, and that the pen +was the only instrument wherewith to prepare the way for better things. + +In the scanty journals kept during those years I find a record of the +books that Shelley read during several years. During the years of 1814 +and 1815 the list is extensive. It includes, in Greek, Homer, Hesiod, +Theocritus, the histories of Thucydides and Herodotus, and Diogenes +Laertius. In Latin, Petronius, Suetonius, some of the works of Cicero, a +large proportion of those of Seneca and Livy. In English, Milton's +poems, Wordsworth's "Excursion", Southey's "Madoc" and "Thalaba", Locke +"On the Human Understanding", Bacon's "Novum Organum". In Italian, +Ariosto, Tasso, and Alfieri. In French, the "Reveries d'un Solitaire" of +Rousseau. To these may be added several modern books of travel. He read +few novels. + + + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley wrote little during this year. The poem entitled "The Sunset" +was written in the spring of the year, while still residing at +Bishopsgate. He spent the summer on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. +The "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was conceived during his voyage round +the lake with Lord Byron. He occupied himself during this voyage by +reading the "Nouvelle Heloise" for the first time. The reading it on the +very spot where the scenes are laid added to the interest; and he was at +once surprised and charmed by the passionate eloquence and earnest +enthralling interest that pervade this work. There was something in the +character of Saint-Preux, in his abnegation of self, and in the worship +he paid to Love, that coincided with Shelley's own disposition; and, +though differing in many of the views and shocked by others, yet the +effect of the whole was fascinating and delightful. + +"Mont Blanc" was inspired by a view of that mountain and its surrounding +peaks and valleys, as he lingered on the Bridge of Arve on his way +through the Valley of Chamouni. Shelley makes the following mention of +this poem in his publication of the "History of a Six Weeks' Tour, and +Letters from Switzerland": 'The poem entitled "Mont Blanc" is written by +the author of the two letters from Chamouni and Vevai. It was composed +under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful feelings excited +by the objects which it attempts to describe; and, as an undisciplined +overflowing of the soul, rests its claim to approbation on an attempt to +imitate the untamable wildness and inaccessible solemnity from which +those feelings sprang.' + +This was an eventful year, and less time was given to study than usual. +In the list of his reading I find, in Greek, Theocritus, the +"Prometheus" of Aeschylus, several of Plutarch's "Lives", and the works +of Lucian. In Latin, Lucretius, Pliny's "Letters", the "Annals" and +"Germany" of Tacitus. In French, the "History of the French Revolution" +by Lacretelle. He read for the first time, this year, Montaigne's +"Essays", and regarded them ever after as one of the most delightful and +instructive books in the world. The list is scanty in English works: +Locke's "Essay", "Political Justice", and Coleridge's "Lay Sermon", form +nearly the whole. It was his frequent habit to read aloud to me in the +evening; in this way we read, this year, the New Testament, "Paradise +Lost", Spenser's "Faery Queen", and "Don Quixote". + + + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The very illness that oppressed, and the aspect of death which had +approached so near Shelley, appear to have kindled to yet keener life +the Spirit of Poetry in his heart. The restless thoughts kept awake by +pain clothed themselves in verse. Much was composed during this year. +The "Revolt of Islam", written and printed, was a great +effort--"Rosalind and Helen" was begun--and the fragments and poems I +can trace to the same period show how full of passion and reflection +were his solitary hours. + +In addition to such poems as have an intelligible aim and shape, many a +stray idea and transitory emotion found imperfect and abrupt expression, +and then again lost themselves in silence. As he never wandered without +a book and without implements of writing, I find many such, in his +manuscript books, that scarcely bear record; while some of them, broken +and vague as they are, will appear valuable to those who love Shelley's +mind, and desire to trace its workings. + +He projected also translating the "Hymns" of Homer; his version of +several of the shorter ones remains, as well as that to Mercury already +published in the "Posthumous Poems". His readings this year were chiefly +Greek. Besides the "Hymns" of Homer and the "Iliad", he read the dramas +of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the "Symposium" of Plato, and Arrian's +"Historia Indica". In Latin, Apuleius alone is named. In English, the +Bible was his constant study; he read a great portion of it aloud in the +evening. Among these evening readings I find also mentioned the "Faerie +Queen"; and other modern works, the production of his contemporaries, +Coleridge, Wordsworth, Moore and Byron. + +His life was now spent more in thought than action--he had lost the +eager spirit which believed it could achieve what it projected for the +benefit of mankind. And yet in the converse of daily life Shelley was +far from being a melancholy man. He was eloquent when philosophy or +politics or taste were the subjects of conversation. He was playful; and +indulged in the wild spirit that mocked itself and others--not in +bitterness, but in sport. The author of "Nightmare Abbey" seized on some +points of his character and some habits of his life when he painted +Scythrop. He was not addicted to 'port or madeira,' but in youth he had +read of 'Illuminati and Eleutherarchs,' and believed that he possessed +the power of operating an immediate change in the minds of men and the +state of society. These wild dreams had faded; sorrow and adversity had +struck home; but he struggled with despondency as he did with physical +pain. There are few who remember him sailing paper boats, and watching +the navigation of his tiny craft with eagerness--or repeating with wild +energy "The Ancient Mariner", and Southey's "Old Woman of Berkeley"; but +those who do will recollect that it was in such, and in the creations of +his own fancy when that was most daring and ideal, that he sheltered +himself from the storms and disappointments, the pain and sorrow, that +beset his life. + +No words can express the anguish he felt when his elder children were +torn from him. In his first resentment against the Chancellor, on the +passing of the decree, he had written a curse, in which there breathes, +besides haughty indignation, all the tenderness of a father's love, +which could imagine and fondly dwell upon its loss and the consequences. + +At one time, while the question was still pending, the Chancellor had +said some words that seemed to intimate that Shelley should not be +permitted the care of any of his children, and for a moment he feared +that our infant son would be torn from us. He did not hesitate to +resolve, if such were menaced, to abandon country, fortune, everything, +and to escape with his child; and I find some unfinished stanzas +addressed to this son, whom afterwards we lost at Rome, written under +the idea that we might suddenly be forced to cross the sea, so to +preserve him. This poem, as well as the one previously quoted, were not +written to exhibit the pangs of distress to the public; they were the +spontaneous outbursts of a man who brooded over his wrongs and woes, and +was impelled to shed the grace of his genius over the uncontrollable +emotions of his heart. I ought to observe that the fourth verse of this +effusion is introduced in "Rosalind and Helen". When afterwards this +child died at Rome, he wrote, a propos of the English burying-ground in +that city: 'This spot is the repository of a sacred loss, of which the +yearnings of a parent's heart are now prophetic; he is rendered immortal +by love, as his memory is by death. My beloved child lies buried here. I +envy death the body far less than the oppressors the minds of those whom +they have torn from me. The one can only kill the body, the other +crushes the affections.' + + + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We often hear of persons disappointed by a first visit to Italy. This +was not Shelley's case. The aspect of its nature, its sunny sky, its +majestic storms, of the luxuriant vegetation of the country, and the +noble marble-built cities, enchanted him. The sight of the works of art +was full enjoyment and wonder. He had not studied pictures or statues +before; he now did so with the eye of taste, that referred not to the +rules of schools, but to those of Nature and truth. The first entrance +to Rome opened to him a scene of remains of antique grandeur that far +surpassed his expectations; and the unspeakable beauty of Naples and its +environs added to the impression he received of the transcendent and +glorious beauty of Italy. + +Our winter was spent at Naples. Here he wrote the fragments of +"Marenghi" and "The Woodman and the Nightingale", which he afterwards +threw aside. At this time, Shelley suffered greatly in health. He put +himself under the care of a medical man, who promised great things, and +made him endure severe bodily pain, without any good results. Constant +and poignant physical suffering exhausted him; and though he preserved +the appearance of cheerfulness, and often greatly enjoyed our wanderings +in the environs of Naples, and our excursions on its sunny sea, yet many +hours were passed when his thoughts, shadowed by illness, became +gloomy,--and then he escaped to solitude, and in verses, which he hid +from fear of wounding me, poured forth morbid but too natural bursts of +discontent and sadness. One looks back with unspeakable regret and +gnawing remorse to such periods; fancying that, had one been more alive +to the nature of his feelings, and more attentive to soothe them, such +would not have existed. And yet, enjoying as he appeared to do every +sight or influence of earth or sky, it was difficult to imagine that any +melancholy he showed was aught but the effect of the constant pain to +which he was a martyr. + +We lived in utter solitude. And such is often not the nurse of +cheerfulness; for then, at least with those who have been exposed to +adversity, the mind broods over its sorrows too intently; while the +society of the enlightened, the witty, and the wise, enables us to +forget ourselves by making us the sharers of the thoughts of others, +which is a portion of the philosophy of happiness. Shelley never liked +society in numbers,--it harassed and wearied him; but neither did he +like loneliness, and usually, when alone, sheltered himself against +memory and reflection in a book. But, with one or two whom he loved, he +gave way to wild and joyous spirits, or in more serious conversation +expounded his opinions with vivacity and eloquence. If an argument +arose, no man ever argued better. He was clear, logical, and earnest, in +supporting his own views; attentive, patient, and impartial, while +listening to those on the adverse side. Had not a wall of prejudice been +raised at this time between him and his countrymen, how many would have +sought the acquaintance of one whom to know was to love and to revere! +How many of the more enlightened of his contemporaries have since +regretted that they did not seek him! how very few knew his worth while +he lived! and, of those few, several were withheld by timidity or envy +from declaring their sense of it. But no man was ever more +enthusiastically loved--more looked up to, as one superior to his +fellows in intellectual endowments and moral worth, by the few who knew +him well, and had sufficient nobleness of soul to appreciate his +superiority. His excellence is now acknowledged; but, even while +admitted, not duly appreciated. For who, except those who were +acquainted with him, can imagine his unwearied benevolence, his +generosity, his systematic forbearance? And still less is his vast +superiority in intellectual attainments sufficiently understood--his +sagacity, his clear understanding, his learning, his prodigious memory. +All these as displayed in conversation, were known to few while he +lived, and are now silent in the tomb: + + 'Ahi orbo mondo ingrato! + Gran cagion hai di dever pianger meco; + Che quel ben ch' era in te, perdut' hai seco.' + + + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1819, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley loved the People; and respected them as often more virtuous, as +always more suffering, and therefore more deserving of sympathy, than +the great. He believed that a clash between the two classes of society +was inevitable, and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side. He +had an idea of publishing a series of poems adapted expressly to +commemorate their circumstances and wrongs. He wrote a few; but, in +those days of prosecution for libel, they could not be printed. They are +not among the best of his productions, a writer being always shackled +when he endeavours to write down to the comprehension of those who could +not understand or feel a highly imaginative style; but they show his +earnestness, and with what heart-felt compassion he went home to the +direct point of injury--that oppression is detestable as being the +parent of starvation, nakedness, and ignorance. Besides these +outpourings of compassion and indignation, he had meant to adorn the +cause he loved with loftier poetry of glory and triumph: such is the +scope of the "Ode to the Assertors of Liberty". He sketched also a new +version of our national anthem, as addressed to Liberty. + + + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the latter part of the year 1819 in Florence, where Shelley +passed several hours daily in the Gallery, and made various notes on its +ancient works of art. His thoughts were a good deal taken up also by the +project of a steamboat, undertaken by a friend, an engineer, to ply +between Leghorn and Marseilles, for which he supplied a sum of money. +This was a sort of plan to delight Shelley, and he was greatly +disappointed when it was thrown aside. + +There was something in Florence that disagreed excessively with his +health, and he suffered far more pain than usual; so much so that we +left it sooner than we intended, and removed to Pisa, where we had some +friends, and, above all, where we could consult the celebrated Vacca as +to the cause of Shelley's sufferings. He, like every other medical man, +could only guess at that, and gave little hope of immediate relief; he +enjoined him to abstain from all physicians and medicine, and to leave +his complaint to Nature. As he had vainly consulted medical men of the +highest repute in England, he was easily persuaded to adopt this advice. +Pain and ill-health followed him to the end; but the residence at Pisa +agreed with him better than any other, and there in consequence we +remained. + +In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn, borrowing the house +of some friends who were absent on a journey to England. It was on a +beautiful summer evening, while wandering among the lanes whose +myrtle-hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the +carolling of the skylark which inspired one of the most beautiful of his +poems. He addressed the letter to Mrs. Gisborne from this house, which +was hers: he had made his study of the workshop of her son, who was an +engineer. Mrs. Gisborne had been a friend of my father in her younger +days. She was a lady of great accomplishments, and charming from her +frank and affectionate nature. She had the most intense love of +knowledge, a delicate and trembling sensibility, and preserved freshness +of mind after a life of considerable adversity. As a favourite friend of +my father, we had sought her with eagerness; and the most open and +cordial friendship was established between us. + +Our stay at the Baths of San Giuliano was shortened by an accident. At +the foot of our garden ran the canal that communicated between the +Serchio and the Arno. The Serchio overflowed its banks, and, breaking +its bounds, this canal also overflowed; all this part of the country is +below the level of its rivers, and the consequence was that it was +speedily flooded. The rising waters filled the Square of the Baths, in +the lower part of which our house was situated. The canal overflowed in +the garden behind; the rising waters on either side at last burst open +the doors, and, meeting in the house, rose to the height of six feet. It +was a picturesque sight at night to see the peasants driving the cattle +from the plains below to the hills above the Baths. A fire was kept up +to guide them across the ford; and the forms of the men and the animals +showed in dark relief against the red glare of the flame, which was +reflected again in the waters that filled the Square. + +We then removed to Pisa, and took up our abode there for the winter. The +extreme mildness of the climate suited Shelley, and his solitude was +enlivened by an intercourse with several intimate friends. Chance cast +us strangely enough on this quiet half-unpeopled town; but its very +peace suited Shelley. Its river, the near mountains, and not distant +sea, added to its attractions, and were the objects of many delightful +excursions. We feared the south of Italy, and a hotter climate, on +account of our child; our former bereavement inspiring us with terror. +We seemed to take root here, and moved little afterwards; often, indeed, +entertaining projects for visiting other parts of Italy, but still +delaying. But for our fears on account of our child, I believe we should +have wandered over the world, both being passionately fond of +travelling. But human life, besides its great unalterable necessities, +is ruled by a thousand lilliputian ties that shackle at the time, +although it is difficult to account afterwards for their influence over +our destiny. + + + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +My task becomes inexpressibly painful as the year draws near that which +sealed our earthly fate, and each poem, and each event it records, has a +real or mysterious connection with the fatal catastrophe. I feel that I +am incapable of putting on paper the history of those times. The heart +of the man, abhorred of the poet, who could + + 'peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave,' + +does not appear to me more inexplicably framed than that of one who can +dissect and probe past woes, and repeat to the public ear the groans +drawn from them in the throes of their agony. + +The year 1821 was spent in Pisa, or at the Baths of San Giuliano. We +were not, as our wont had been, alone; friends had gathered round us. +Nearly all are dead, and, when Memory recurs to the past, she wanders +among tombs. The genius, with all his blighting errors and mighty +powers; the companion of Shelley's ocean-wanderings, and the sharer of +his fate, than whom no man ever existed more gentle, generous, and +fearless; and others, who found in Shelley's society, and in his great +knowledge and warm sympathy, delight, instruction, and solace; have +joined him beyond the grave. A few survive who have felt life a desert +since he left it. What misfortune can equal death? Change can convert +every other into a blessing, or heal its sting--death alone has no cure. +It shakes the foundations of the earth on which we tread; it destroys +its beauty; it casts down our shelter; it exposes us bare to desolation. +When those we love have passed into eternity, 'life is the desert and +the solitude' in which we are forced to linger--but never find comfort +more. + +There is much in the "Adonais" which seems now more applicable to +Shelley himself than to the young and gifted poet whom he mourned. The +poetic view he takes of death, and the lofty scorn he displays towards +his calumniators, are as a prophecy on his own destiny when received +among immortal names, and the poisonous breath of critics has vanished +into emptiness before the fame he inherits. + +Shelley's favourite taste was boating; when living near the Thames or by +the Lake of Geneva, much of his life was spent on the water. On the +shore of every lake or stream or sea near which he dwelt, he had a boat +moored. He had latterly enjoyed this pleasure again. There are no +pleasure-boats on the Arno; and the shallowness of its waters (except in +winter-time, when the stream is too turbid and impetuous for boating) +rendered it difficult to get any skiff light enough to float. Shelley, +however, overcame the difficulty; he, together with a friend, contrived +a boat such as the huntsmen carry about with them in the Maremma, to +cross the sluggish but deep streams that intersect the forests,--a boat +of laths and pitched canvas. It held three persons; and he was often +seen on the Arno in it, to the horror of the Italians, who remonstrated +on the danger, and could not understand how anyone could take pleasure +in an exercise that risked life. 'Ma va per la vita!' they exclaimed. I +little thought how true their words would prove. He once ventured, with +a friend, on the glassy sea of a calm day, down the Arno and round the +coast to Leghorn, which, by keeping close in shore, was very +practicable. They returned to Pisa by the canal, when, missing the +direct cut, they got entangled among weeds, and the boat upset; a +wetting was all the harm done, except that the intense cold of his +drenched clothes made Shelley faint. Once I went down with him to the +mouth of the Arno, where the stream, then high and swift, met the +tideless sea, and disturbed its sluggish waters. It was a waste and +dreary scene; the desert sand stretched into a point surrounded by waves +that broke idly though perpetually around; it was a scene very similar +to Lido, of which he had said-- + + 'I love all waste + And solitary places; where we taste + The pleasure of believing what we see + Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be: + And such was this wide ocean, and this shore + More barren than its billows.' + +Our little boat was of greater use, unaccompanied by any danger, when we +removed to the Baths. Some friends lived at the village of Pugnano, four +miles off, and we went to and fro to see them, in our boat, by the +canal; which, fed by the Serchio, was, though an artificial, a full and +picturesque stream, making its way under verdant banks, sheltered by +trees that dipped their boughs into the murmuring waters. By day, +multitudes of Ephemera darted to and fro on the surface; at night, the +fireflies came out among the shrubs on the banks; the cicale at noon-day +kept up their hum; the aziola cooed in the quiet evening. It was a +pleasant summer, bright in all but Shelley's health and inconstant +spirits; yet he enjoyed himself greatly, and became more and more +attached to the part of the country were chance appeared to cast us. +Sometimes he projected taking a farm situated on the height of one of +the near hills, surrounded by chestnut and pine woods, and overlooking a +wide extent of country: or settling still farther in the maritime +Apennines, at Massa. Several of his slighter and unfinished poems were +inspired by these scenes, and by the companions around us. It is the +nature of that poetry, however, which overflows from the soul oftener to +express sorrow and regret than joy; for it is when oppressed by the +weight of life, and away from those he loves, that the poet has recourse +to the solace of expression in verse. + +Still, Shelley's passion was the ocean; and he wished that our summers, +instead of being passed among the hills near Pisa, should be spent on +the shores of the sea. It was very difficult to find a spot. We shrank +from Naples from a fear that the heats would disagree with Percy: +Leghorn had lost its only attraction, since our friends who had resided +there were returned to England; and, Monte Nero being the resort of many +English, we did not wish to find ourselves in the midst of a colony of +chance travellers. No one then thought it possible to reside at Via +Reggio, which latterly has become a summer resort. The low lands and bad +air of Maremma stretch the whole length of the western shores of the +Mediterranean, till broken by the rocks and hills of Spezia. It was a +vague idea, but Shelley suggested an excursion to Spezia, to see whether +it would be feasible to spend a summer there. The beauty of the bay +enchanted him. We saw no house to suit us; but the notion took root, and +many circumstances, enchained as by fatality, occurred to urge him to +execute it. + +He looked forward this autumn with great pleasure to the prospect of a +visit from Leigh Hunt. When Shelley visited Lord Byron at Ravenna, the +latter had suggested his coming out, together with the plan of a +periodical work in which they should all join. Shelley saw a prospect of +good for the fortunes of his friend, and pleasure in his society; and +instantly exerted himself to have the plan executed. He did not intend +himself joining in the work: partly from pride, not wishing to have the +air of acquiring readers for his poetry by associating it with the +compositions of more popular writers; and also because he might feel +shackled in the free expression of his opinions, if any friends were to +be compromised. By those opinions, carried even to their outermost +extent, he wished to live and die, as being in his conviction not only +true, but such as alone would conduce to the moral improvement and +happiness of mankind. The sale of the work might meanwhile, either +really or supposedly, be injured by the free expression of his thoughts; +and this evil he resolved to avoid. + + + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + + This morn thy gallant bark + Sailed on a sunny sea: + 'Tis noon, and tempests dark + Have wrecked it on the lee. + Ah woe! ah woe! + By Spirits of the deep + Thou'rt cradled on the billow + To thy eternal sleep. + + Thou sleep'st upon the shore + Beside the knelling surge, + And Sea-nymphs evermore + Shall sadly chant thy dirge. + They come, they come, + The Spirits of the deep,-- + While near thy seaweed pillow + My lonely watch I keep. + + From far across the sea + I hear a loud lament, + By Echo's voice for thee + From Ocean's caverns sent. + O list! O list! + The Spirits of the deep! + They raise a wail of sorrow, + While I forever weep. + +With this last year of the life of Shelley these Notes end. They are not +what I intended them to be. I began with energy, and a burning desire to +impart to the world, in worthy language, the sense I have of the virtues +and genius of the beloved and the lost; my strength has failed under the +task. Recurrence to the past, full of its own deep and unforgotten joys +and sorrows, contrasted with succeeding years of painful and solitary +struggle, has shaken my health. Days of great suffering have followed my +attempts to write, and these again produced a weakness and languor that +spread their sinister influence over these notes. I dislike speaking of +myself, but cannot help apologizing to the dead, and to the public, for +not having executed in the manner I desired the history I engaged to +give of Shelley's writings. (I at one time feared that the correction of +the press might be less exact through my illness; but I believe that it +is nearly free from error. Some asterisks occur in a few pages, as they +did in the volume of "Posthumous Poems", either because they refer to +private concerns, or because the original manuscript was left imperfect. +Did any one see the papers from which I drew that volume, the wonder +would be how any eyes or patience were capable of extracting it from so +confused a mass, interlined and broken into fragments, so that the sense +could only be deciphered and joined by guesses which might seem rather +intuitive than founded on reasoning. Yet I believe no mistake was made.) + +The winter of 1822 was passed in Pisa, if we might call that season +winter in which autumn merged into spring after the interval of but few +days of bleaker weather. Spring sprang up early, and with extreme +beauty. Shelley had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the +subject of Charles I. It was one that he believed adapted for a drama; +full of intense interest, contrasted character, and busy passion. He had +recommended it long before, when he encouraged me to attempt a play. +Whether the subject proved more difficult than he anticipated, or +whether in fact he could not bend his mind away from the broodings and +wanderings of thought, divested from human interest, which he best +loved, I cannot tell; but he proceeded slowly, and threw it aside for +one of the most mystical of his poems, the "Triumph of Life", on which +he was employed at the last. + +His passion for boating was fostered at this time by having among our +friends several sailors. His favourite companion, Edward Ellerker +Williams, of the 8th Light Dragoons, had begun his life in the navy, and +had afterwards entered the army; he had spent several years in India, +and his love for adventure and manly exercises accorded with Shelley's +taste. It was their favourite plan to build a boat such as they could +manage themselves, and, living on the sea-coast, to enjoy at every hour +and season the pleasure they loved best. Captain Roberts, R.N., +undertook to build the boat at Genoa, where he was also occupied in +building the "Bolivar" for Lord Byron. Ours was to be an open boat, on a +model taken from one of the royal dockyards. I have since heard that +there was a defect in this model, and that it was never seaworthy. In +the month of February, Shelley and his friend went to Spezia to seek for +houses for us. Only one was to be found at all suitable; however, a +trifle such as not finding a house could not stop Shelley; the one found +was to serve for all. It was unfurnished; we sent our furniture by sea, +and with a good deal of precipitation, arising from his impatience, made +our removal. We left Pisa on the 26th of April. + +The Bay of Spezia is of considerable extent, and divided by a rocky +promontory into a larger and smaller one. The town of Lerici is situated +on the eastern point, and in the depth of the smaller bay, which bears +the name of this town, is the village of San Terenzo. Our house, Casa +Magni, was close to this village; the sea came up to the door, a steep +hill sheltered it behind. The proprietor of the estate on which it was +situated was insane; he had begun to erect a large house at the summit +of the hill behind, but his malady prevented its being finished, and it +was falling into ruin. He had (and this to the Italians had seemed a +glaring symptom of very decided madness) rooted up the olives on the +hillside, and planted forest trees. These were mostly young, but the +plantation was more in English taste than I ever elsewhere saw in Italy; +some fine walnut and ilex trees intermingled their dark massy foliage, +and formed groups which still haunt my memory, as then they satiated the +eye with a sense of loveliness. The scene was indeed of unimaginable +beauty. The blue extent of waters, the almost landlocked bay, the near +castle of Lerici shutting it in to the east, and distant Porto Venere to +the west; the varied forms of the precipitous rocks that bound in the +beach, over which there was only a winding rugged footpath towards +Lerici, and none on the other side; the tideless sea leaving no sands +nor shingle, formed a picture such as one sees in Salvator Rosa's +landscapes only. Sometimes the sunshine vanished when the sirocco +raged--the 'ponente' the wind was called on that shore. The gales and +squalls that hailed our first arrival surrounded the bay with foam; the +howling wind swept round our exposed house, and the sea roared +unremittingly, so that we almost fancied ourselves on board ship. At +other times sunshine and calm invested sea and sky, and the rich tints +of Italian heaven bathed the scene in bright and ever-varying tints. + +The natives were wilder than the place. Our near neighbours of San +Terenzo were more like savages than any people I ever before lived +among. Many a night they passed on the beach, singing, or rather +howling; the women dancing about among the waves that broke at their +feet, the men leaning against the rocks and joining in their loud wild +chorus. We could get no provisions nearer than Sarzana, at a distance of +three miles and a half off, with the torrent of the Magra between; and +even there the supply was very deficient. Had we been wrecked on an +island of the South Seas, we could scarcely have felt ourselves farther +from civilisation and comfort; but, where the sun shines, the latter +becomes an unnecessary luxury, and we had enough society among +ourselves. Yet I confess housekeeping became rather a toilsome task, +especially as I was suffering in my health, and could not exert myself +actively. + +At first the fatal boat had not arrived, and was expected with great +impatience. On Monday, 12th May, it came. Williams records the +long-wished-for fact in his journal: 'Cloudy and threatening weather. M. +Maglian called; and after dinner, and while walking with him on the +terrace, we discovered a strange sail coming round the point of Porto +Venere, which proved at length to be Shelley's boat. She had left Genoa +on Thursday last, but had been driven back by the prevailing bad winds. +A Mr. Heslop and two English seamen brought her round, and they speak +most highly of her performances. She does indeed excite my surprise and +admiration. Shelley and I walked to Lerici, and made a stretch off the +land to try her: and I find she fetches whatever she looks at. In short, +we have now a perfect plaything for the summer.'--It was thus that +short-sighted mortals welcomed Death, he having disguised his grim form +in a pleasing mask! The time of the friends was now spent on the sea; +the weather became fine, and our whole party often passed the evenings +on the water when the wind promised pleasant sailing. Shelley and +Williams made longer excursions; they sailed several times to Massa. +They had engaged one of the seamen who brought her round, a boy, by name +Charles Vivian; and they had not the slightest apprehension of danger. +When the weather was unfavourable, they employed themselves with +alterations in the rigging, and by building a boat of canvas and reeds, +as light as possible, to have on board the other for the convenience of +landing in waters too shallow for the larger vessel. When Shelley was on +board, he had his papers with him; and much of the "Triumph of Life" was +written as he sailed or weltered on that sea which was soon to engulf +him. + +The heats set in in the middle of June; the days became excessively hot. +But the sea-breeze cooled the air at noon, and extreme heat always put +Shelley in spirits. A long drought had preceded the heat; and prayers +for rain were being put up in the churches, and processions of relics +for the same effect took place in every town. At this time we received +letters announcing the arrival of Leigh Hunt at Genoa. Shelley was very +eager to see him. I was confined to my room by severe illness, and could +not move; it was agreed that Shelley and Williams should go to Leghorn +in the boat. Strange that no fear of danger crossed our minds! Living on +the sea-shore, the ocean became as a plaything: as a child may sport +with a lighted stick, till a spark inflames a forest, and spreads +destruction over all, so did we fearlessly and blindly tamper with +danger, and make a game of the terrors of the ocean. Our Italian +neighbours, even, trusted themselves as far as Massa in the skiff; and +the running down the line of coast to Leghorn gave no more notion of +peril than a fair-weather inland navigation would have done to those who +had never seen the sea. Once, some months before, Trelawny had raised a +warning voice as to the difference of our calm bay and the open sea +beyond; but Shelley and his friend, with their one sailor-boy, thought +themselves a match for the storms of the Mediterranean, in a boat which +they looked upon as equal to all it was put to do. + +On the 1st of July they left us. If ever shadow of future ill darkened +the present hour, such was over my mind when they went. During the whole +of our stay at Lerici, an intense presentiment of coming evil brooded +over my mind, and covered this beautiful place and genial summer with +the shadow of coming misery. I had vainly struggled with these +emotions--they seemed accounted for by my illness; but at this hour of +separation they recurred with renewed violence. I did not anticipate +danger for them, but a vague expectation of evil shook me to agony, and +I could scarcely bring myself to let them go. The day was calm and +clear; and, a fine breeze rising at twelve, they weighed for Leghorn. +They made the run of about fifty miles in seven hours and a half. The +"Bolivar" was in port; and, the regulations of the Health-office not +permitting them to go on shore after sunset, they borrowed cushions from +the larger vessel, and slept on board their boat. + +They spent a week at Pisa and Leghorn. The want of rain was severely +felt in the country. The weather continued sultry and fine. I have heard +that Shelley all this time was in brilliant spirits. Not long before, +talking of presentiment, he had said the only one that he ever found +infallible was the certain advent of some evil fortune when he felt +peculiarly joyous. Yet, if ever fate whispered of coming disaster, such +inaudible but not unfelt prognostics hovered around us. The beauty of +the place seemed unearthly in its excess: the distance we were at from +all signs of civilization, the sea at our feet, its murmurs or its +roaring for ever in our ears,--all these things led the mind to brood +over strange thoughts, and, lifting it from everyday life, caused it to +be familiar with the unreal. A sort of spell surrounded us; and each +day, as the voyagers did not return, we grew restless and disquieted, +and yet, strange to say, we were not fearful of the most apparent +danger. + +The spell snapped; it was all over; an interval of agonizing doubt--of +days passed in miserable journeys to gain tidings, of hopes that took +firmer root even as they were more baseless--was changed to the +certainty of the death that eclipsed all happiness for the survivors for +evermore. + +There was something in our fate peculiarly harrowing. The remains of +those we lost were cast on shore; but, by the quarantine-laws of the +coast, we were not permitted to have possession of them--the law with +respect to everything cast on land by the sea being that such should be +burned, to prevent the possibility of any remnant bringing the plague +into Italy; and no representation could alter the law. At length, +through the kind and unwearied exertions of Mr. Dawkins, our Charge +d'Affaires at Florence, we gained permission to receive the ashes after +the bodies were consumed. Nothing could equal the zeal of Trelawny in +carrying our wishes into effect. He was indefatigable in his exertions, +and full of forethought and sagacity in his arrangements. It was a +fearful task; he stood before us at last, his hands scorched and +blistered by the flames of the funeral-pyre, and by touching the burnt +relics as he placed them in the receptacles prepared for the purpose. +And there, in compass of that small case, was gathered all that remained +on earth of him whose genius and virtue were a crown of glory to the +world--whose love had been the source of happiness, peace, and good,--to +be buried with him! + +The concluding stanzas of the "Adonais" pointed out where the remains +ought to be deposited; in addition to which our beloved child lay buried +in the cemetery at Rome. Thither Shelley's ashes were conveyed; and they +rest beneath one of the antique weed-grown towers that recur at +intervals in the circuit of the massy ancient wall of Rome. He selected +the hallowed place himself; there is + + 'the sepulchre, + Oh, not of him, but of our joy!-- + ... + And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time + Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand; + And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, + Pavilioning the dust of him who planned + This refuge for his memory, doth stand + Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath, + A field is spread, on which a newer band + Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, + Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath.' + +Could sorrow for the lost, and shuddering anguish at the vacancy left +behind, be soothed by poetic imaginations, there was something in +Shelley's fate to mitigate pangs which yet, alas! could not be so +mitigated; for hard reality brings too miserably home to the mourner all +that is lost of happiness, all of lonely unsolaced struggle that +remains. Still, though dreams and hues of poetry cannot blunt grief, it +invests his fate with a sublime fitness, which those less nearly allied +may regard with complacency. A year before he had poured into verse all +such ideas about death as give it a glory of its own. He had, as it now +seems, almost anticipated his own destiny; and, when the mind figures +his skiff wrapped from sight by the thunder-storm, as it was last seen +upon the purple sea, and then, as the cloud of the tempest passed away, +no sign remained of where it had been (Captain Roberts watched the +vessel with his glass from the top of the lighthouse of Leghorn, on its +homeward track. They were off Via Reggio, at some distance from shore, +when a storm was driven over the sea. It enveloped them and several +larger vessels in darkness. When the cloud passed onwards, Roberts +looked again, and saw every other vessel sailing on the ocean except +their little schooner, which had vanished. From that time he could +scarcely doubt the fatal truth; yet we fancied that they might have been +driven towards Elba or Corsica, and so be saved. The observation made as +to the spot where the boat disappeared caused it to be found, through +the exertions of Trelawny for that effect. It had gone down in ten +fathom water; it had not capsized, and, except such things as had +floated from her, everything was found on board exactly as it had been +placed when they sailed. The boat itself was uninjured. Roberts +possessed himself of her, and decked her; but she proved not seaworthy, +and her shattered planks now lie rotting on the shore of one of the +Ionian islands, on which she was wrecked.)--who but will regard as a +prophecy the last stanza of the "Adonais"? + + 'The breath whose might I have invoked in song + Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven, + Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng + Whose sails were never to the tempest given; + The massy earth and sphered skies are riven! + I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; + Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, + The soul of Adonais, like a star, + Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.' + +Putney, May 1, 1839. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to the Complete Poetical Works +of Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Mary W. 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Shelley + +Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4695] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 3, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley +by Mary W. Shelley +This file should be named ntshl10.txt or ntshl10.zip + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ntshl11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ntshl10a.txt + +Produced by Sue Asscher <asschers@dingoblue.net.au> + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + + + + + + + +NOTES TO + +THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + +BY + +MARY W. SHELLEY. + + + + +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY + +TO FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, 1839. + +Obstacles have long existed to my presenting the public with a perfect +edition of Shelley's Poems. These being at last happily removed, I +hasten to fulfil an important duty,--that of giving the productions of a +sublime genius to the world, with all the correctness possible, and of, +at the same time, detailing the history of those productions, as they +sprang, living and warm, from his heart and brain. I abstain from any +remark on the occurrences of his private life, except inasmuch as the +passions which they engendered inspired his poetry. This is not the time +to relate the truth; and I should reject any colouring of the truth. No +account of these events has ever been given at all approaching reality +in their details, either as regards himself or others; nor shall I +further allude to them than to remark that the errors of action +committed by a man as noble and generous as Shelley, may, as far as he +only is concerned, be fearlessly avowed by those who loved him, in the +firm conviction that, were they judged impartially, his character would +stand in fairer and brighter light than that of any contemporary. +Whatever faults he had ought to find extenuation among his fellows, +since they prove him to be human; without them, the exalted nature of +his soul would have raised him into something divine. + +The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley +were,--First, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his +intercourse with warm affection and helpful sympathy. The other, the +eagerness and ardour with which he was attached to the cause of human +happiness and improvement; and the fervent eloquence with which he +discussed such subjects. His conversation was marked by its happy +abundance, and the beautiful language in which he clothed his poetic +ideas and philosophical notions. To defecate life of its misery and its +evil was the ruling passion of his soul; he dedicated to it every power +of his mind, every pulsation of his heart. He looked on political +freedom as the direct agent to effect the happiness of mankind; and thus +any new-sprung hope of liberty inspired a joy and an exultation more +intense and wild than he could have felt for any personal advantage. +Those who have never experienced the workings of passion on general and +unselfish subjects cannot understand this; and it must be difficult of +comprehension to the younger generation rising around, since they cannot +remember the scorn and hatred with which the partisans of reform were +regarded some few years ago, nor the persecutions to which they were +exposed. He had been from youth the victim of the state of feeling +inspired by the reaction of the French Revolution; and believing firmly +in the justice and excellence of his views, it cannot be wondered that a +nature as sensitive, as impetuous, and as generous as his, should put +its whole force into the attempt to alleviate for others the evils of +those systems from which he had himself suffered. Many advantages +attended his birth; he spurned them all when balanced with what he +considered his duties. He was generous to imprudence, devoted to +heroism. + +These characteristics breathe throughout his poetry. The struggle for +human weal; the resolution firm to martyrdom; the impetuous pursuit, the +glad triumph in good; the determination not to despair; --such were the +features that marked those of his works which he regarded with most +complacency, as sustained by a lofty subject and useful aim. + +In addition to these, his poems may be divided into two classes,--the +purely imaginative, and those which sprang from the emotions of his +heart. Among the former may be classed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", +and his latest composition, left imperfect, the "Triumph of Life". In +the first of these particularly he gave the reins to his fancy, and +luxuriated in every idea as it rose; in all there is that sense of +mystery which formed an essential portion of his perception of life--a +clinging to the subtler inner spirit, rather than to the outward form--a +curious and metaphysical anatomy of human passion and perception. + +The second class is, of course, the more popular, as appealing at once +to emotions common to us all; some of these rest on the passion of love; +others on grief and despondency; others on the sentiments inspired by +natural objects. Shelley's conception of love was exalted, absorbing, +allied to all that is purest and noblest in our nature, and warmed by +earnest passion; such it appears when he gave it a voice in verse. Yet +he was usually averse to expressing these feelings, except when highly +idealized; and many of his more beautiful effusions he had cast aside +unfinished, and they were never seen by me till after I had lost him. +Others, as for instance "Rosalind and Helen" and "Lines written among +the Euganean Hills", I found among his papers by chance; and with some +difficulty urged him to complete them. There are others, such as the +"Ode to the Skylark and The Cloud", which, in the opinion of many +critics, bear a purer poetical stamp than any other of his productions. +They were written as his mind prompted: listening to the carolling of +the bird, aloft in the azure sky of Italy; or marking the cloud as it +sped across the heavens, while he floated in his boat on the Thames. + +No poet was ever warmed by a more genuine and unforced inspiration. His +extreme sensibility gave the intensity of passion to his intellectual +pursuits; and rendered his mind keenly alive to every perception of +outward objects, as well as to his internal sensations. Such a gift is, +among the sad vicissitudes of human life, the disappointments we meet, +and the galling sense of our own mistakes and errors, fraught with pain; +to escape from such, he delivered up his soul to poetry, and felt happy +when he sheltered himself, from the influence of human sympathies, in +the wildest regions of fancy. His imagination has been termed too +brilliant, his thoughts too subtle. He loved to idealize reality; and +this is a taste shared by few. We are willing to have our passing whims +exalted into passions, for this gratifies our vanity; but few of us +understand or sympathize with the endeavour to ally the love of abstract +beauty, and adoration of abstract good, the to agathon kai to kalon of +the Socratic philosophers, with our sympathies with our kind. In this, +Shelley resembled Plato; both taking more delight in the abstract and +the ideal than in the special and tangible. This did not result from +imitation; for it was not till Shelley resided in Italy that he made +Plato his study. He then translated his "Symposium" and his "Ion"; and +the English language boasts of no more brilliant composition than +Plato's Praise of Love translated by Shelley. To return to his own +poetry. The luxury of imagination, which sought nothing beyond itself +(as a child burdens itself with spring flowers, thinking of no use +beyond the enjoyment of gathering them), often showed itself in his +verses: they will be only appreciated by minds which have resemblance to +his own; and the mystic subtlety of many of his thoughts will share the +same fate. The metaphysical strain that characterizes much of what he +has written was, indeed, the portion of his works to which, apart from +those whose scope was to awaken mankind to aspirations for what he +considered the true and good, he was himself particularly attached. +There is much, however, that speaks to the many. When he would consent +to dismiss these huntings after the obscure (which, entwined with his +nature as they were, he did with difficulty), no poet ever expressed in +sweeter, more heart-reaching, or more passionate verse, the gentler or +more forcible emotions of the soul. + +A wise friend once wrote to Shelley: 'You are still very young, and in +certain essential respects you do not yet sufficiently perceive that you +are so.' It is seldom that the young know what youth is, till they have +got beyond its period; and time was not given him to attain this +knowledge. It must be remembered that there is the stamp of such +inexperience on all he wrote; he had not completed his +nine-and-twentieth year when he died. The calm of middle life did not +add the seal of the virtues which adorn maturity to those generated by +the vehement spirit of youth. Through life also he was a martyr to +ill-health, and constant pain wound up his nerves to a pitch of +susceptibility that rendered his views of life different from those of a +man in the enjoyment of healthy sensations. Perfectly gentle and +forbearing in manner, he suffered a good deal of internal irritability, +or rather excitement, and his fortitude to bear was almost always on the +stretch; and thus, during a short life, he had gone through more +experience of sensation than many whose existence is protracted. 'If I +die to-morrow,' he said, on the eve of his unanticipated death, 'I have +lived to be older than my father.' The weight of thought and feeling +burdened him heavily; you read his sufferings in his attenuated frame, +while you perceived the mastery he held over them in his animated +countenance and brilliant eyes. + +He died, and the world showed no outward sign. But his influence over +mankind, though slow in growth, is fast augmenting; and, in the +ameliorations that have taken place in the political state of his +country, we may trace in part the operation of his arduous struggles. +His spirit gathers peace in its new state from the sense that, though +late, his exertions were not made in vain, and in the progress of the +liberty he so fondly loved. + +He died, and his place, among those who knew him intimately, has never +been filled up. He walked beside them like a spirit of good to comfort +and benefit--to enlighten the darkness of life with irradiations of +genius, to cheer it with his sympathy and love. Any one, once attached +to Shelley, must feel all other affections, however true and fond, as +wasted on barren soil in comparison. It is our best consolation to know +that such a pure-minded and exalted being was once among us, and now +exists where we hope one day to join him; -- although the intolerant, in +their blindness, poured down anathemas, the Spirit of Good, who can +judge the heart, never rejected him. + +In the notes appended to the poems I have endeavoured to narrate the +origin and history of each. The loss of nearly all letters and papers +which refer to his early life renders the execution more imperfect than +it would otherwise have been. I have, however, the liveliest +recollection of all that was done and said during the period of my +knowing him. Every impression is as clear as if stamped yesterday, and I +have no apprehension of any mistake in my statements as far as they go. +In other respects I am indeed incompetent: but I feel the importance of +the task, and regard it as my most sacred duty. I endeavour to fulfil it +in a manner he would himself approve; and hope, in this publication, to +lay the first stone of a monument due to Shelley's genius, his +sufferings, and his virtues:-- + + Se al seguir son tarda, + Forse avverra che 'l bel nome gentile + Consacrero con questa stanca penna. + +POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839. + +In revising this new edition, and carefully consulting Shelley's +scattered and confused papers, I found a few fragments which had +hitherto escaped me, and was enabled to complete a few poems hitherto +left unfinished. What at one time escapes the searching eye, dimmed by +its own earnestness, becomes clear at a future period. By the aid of a +friend, I also present some poems complete and correct which hitherto +have been defaced by various mistakes and omissions. It was suggested +that the poem "To the Queen of my Heart" was falsely attributed to +Shelley. I certainly find no trace of it among his papers; and, as those +of his intimate friends whom I have consulted never heard of it, I omit +it. + +Two poems are added of some length, "Swellfoot the Tyrant" and "Peter +Bell the Third". I have mentioned the circumstances under which they +were written in the notes; and need only add that they are conceived in +a very different spirit from Shelley's usual compositions. They are +specimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but, although they adopt a +familiar style and homely imagery, there shine through the radiance of +the poet's imagination the earnest views and opinions of the politician +and the moralist. + +At my request the publisher has restored the omitted passages of "Queen +Mab". I now present this edition as a complete collection of my +husband's poetical works, and I do not foresee that I can hereafter add +to or take away a word or line. + +Putney, November 6, 1839. + +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY + +TO THE VOLUME OF POSTHUMOUS POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1824. + + In nobil sangue vita umile e queta, + Ed in alto intelletto un puro core + Frutto senile in sul giovenil fibre, + E in aspetto pensoso anima lieta.--PETRARCA. + +It had been my wish, on presenting the public with the Posthumous Poems +of Mr. Shelley, to have accompanied them by a biographical notice; as it +appeared to me that at this moment a narration of the events of my +husband's life would come more gracefully from other hands than mine, I +applied to Mr. Leigh Hunt. The distinguished friendship that Mr. Shelley +felt for him, and the enthusiastic affection with which Mr. Leigh Hunt +clings to his friend's memory, seemed to point him out as the person +best calculated for such an undertaking. His absence from this country, +which prevented our mutual explanation, has unfortunately rendered my +scheme abortive. I do not doubt but that on some other occasion he will +pay this tribute to his lost friend, and sincerely regret that the +volume which I edit has not been honoured by its insertion. + +The comparative solitude in which Mr. Shelley lived was the occasion +that he was personally known to few; and his fearless enthusiasm in the +cause which he considered the most sacred upon earth, the improvement of +the moral and physical state of mankind, was the chief reason why he, +like other illustrious reformers, was pursued by hatred and calumny. No +man was ever more devoted than he to the endeavour of making those +around him happy; no man ever possessed friends more unfeignedly +attached to him. The ungrateful world did not feel his loss, and the gap +it made seemed to close as quickly over his memory as the murderous sea +above his living frame. Hereafter men will lament that his transcendent +powers of intellect were extinguished before they had bestowed on them +their choicest treasures. To his friends his loss is irremediable: the +wise, the brave, the gentle, is gone for ever! He is to them as a bright +vision, whose radiant track, left behind in the memory, is worth all the +realities that society can afford. Before the critics contradict me, let +them appeal to any one who had ever known him. To see him was to love +him: and his presence, like Ithuriel's spear, was alone sufficient to +disclose the falsehood of the tale which his enemies whispered in the +ear of the ignorant world. + +His life was spent in the contemplation of Nature, in arduous study, or +in acts of kindness and affection. He was an elegant scholar and a +profound metaphysician; without possessing much scientific knowledge, he +was unrivalled in the justness and extent of his observations on natural +objects; he knew every plant by its name, and was familiar with the +history and habits of every production of the earth; he could interpret +without a fault each appearance in the sky; and the varied phenomena of +heaven and earth filled him with deep emotion. He made his study and +reading-room of the shadowed copse, the stream, the lake, and the +waterfall. Ill health and continual pain preyed upon his powers; and the +solitude in which we lived, particularly on our first arrival in Italy, +although congenial to his feelings, must frequently have weighed upon +his spirits; those beautiful and affecting "Lines written in Dejection +near Naples" were composed at such an interval; but, when in health, his +spirits were buoyant and youthful to an extraordinary degree. + +Such was his love for Nature that every page of his poetry is +associated, in the minds of his friends, with the loveliest scenes of +the countries which he inhabited. In early life he visited the most +beautiful parts of this country and Ireland. Afterwards the Alps of +Switzerland became his inspirers. "Prometheus Unbound" was written among +the deserted and flower-grown ruins of Rome; and, when he made his home +under the Pisan hills, their roofless recesses harboured him as he +composed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", and "Hellas". In the wild but +beautiful Bay of Spezzia, the winds and waves which he loved became his +playmates. His days were chiefly spent on the water; the management of +his boat, its alterations and improvements, were his principal +occupation. At night, when the unclouded moon shone on the calm sea, he +often went alone in his little shallop to the rocky caves that bordered +it, and, sitting beneath their shelter, wrote the "Triumph of Life", the +last of his productions. The beauty but strangeness of this lonely +place, the refined pleasure which he felt in the companionship of a few +selected friends, our entire sequestration from the rest of the world, +all contributed to render this period of his life one of continued +enjoyment. I am convinced that the two months we passed there were the +happiest which he had ever known: his health even rapidly improved, and +he was never better than when I last saw him, full of spirits and joy, +embark for Leghorn, that he might there welcome Leigh Hunt to Italy. I +was to have accompanied him; but illness confined me to my room, and +thus put the seal on my misfortune. His vessel bore out of sight with a +favourable wind, and I remained awaiting his return by the breakers of +that sea which was about to engulf him. + +He spent a week at Pisa, employed in kind offices toward his friend, and +enjoying with keen delight the renewal of their intercourse. He then +embarked with Mr. Williams, the chosen and beloved sharer of his +pleasures and of his fate, to return to us. We waited for them in vain; +the sea by its restless moaning seemed to desire to inform us of what we +would not learn:--but a veil may well be drawn over such misery. The +real anguish of those moments transcended all the fictions that the most +glowing imagination ever portrayed; our seclusion, the savage nature of +the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, and our immediate vicinity +to the troubled sea, combined to imbue with strange horror our days of +uncertainty. The truth was at last known,--a truth that made our loved +and lovely Italy appear a tomb, its sky a pall. Every heart echoed the +deep lament, and my only consolation was in the praise and earnest love +that each voice bestowed and each countenance demonstrated for him we +had lost,--not, I fondly hope, for ever; his unearthly and elevated +nature is a pledge of the continuation of his being, although in an +altered form. Rome received his ashes; they are deposited beneath its +weed-grown wall, and 'the world's sole monument' is enriched by his +remains. + +I must add a few words concerning the contents of this volume. "Julian +and Maddalo", the "Witch of Atlas", and most of the "Translations", were +written some years ago; and, with the exception of the "Cyclops", and +the Scenes from the "Magico Prodigioso", may be considered as having +received the author's ultimate corrections. The "Triumph of Life" was +his last work, and was left in so unfinished a state that I arranged it +in its present form with great difficulty. All his poems which were +scattered in periodical works are collected in this volume, and I have +added a reprint of "Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude": the difficulty +with which a copy can be obtained is the cause of its republication. +Many of the Miscellaneous Poems, written on the spur of the occasion, +and never retouched, I found among his manuscript books, and have +carefully copied. I have subjoined, whenever I have been able, the date +of their composition. + +I do not know whether the critics will reprehend the insertion of some +of the most imperfect among them; but I frankly own that I have been +more actuated by the fear lest any monument of his genius should escape +me than the wish of presenting nothing but what was complete to the +fastidious reader. I feel secure that the lovers of Shelley's poetry +(who know how, more than any poet of the present day, every line and +word he wrote is instinct with peculiar beauty) will pardon and thank +me: I consecrate this volume to them. + +The size of this collection has prevented the insertion of any prose +pieces. They will hereafter appear in a separate publication. + +MARY W. SHELLEY. + +London, June 1, 1824. + +NOTE ON "ALASTOR", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +"Alastor" is written in a very different tone from "Queen Mab". In the +latter, Shelley poured out all the cherished speculations of his +youth--all the irrepressible emotions of sympathy, censure, and hope, to +which the present suffering, and what he considers the proper destiny of +his fellow-creatures, gave birth. "Alastor", on the contrary, contains +an individual interest only. A very few years, with their attendant +events, had checked the ardour of Shelley's hopes, though he still +thought them well-grounded, and that to advance their fulfilment was the +noblest task man could achieve. + +This is neither the time nor place to speak of the misfortunes that +chequered his life. It will be sufficient to say that, in all he did, he +at the time of doing it believed himself justified to his own +conscience; while the various ills of poverty and loss of friends +brought home to him the sad realities of life. Physical suffering had +also considerable influence in causing him to turn his eyes inward; +inclining him rather to brood over the thoughts and emotions of his own +soul than to glance abroad, and to make, as in "Queen Mab", the whole +universe the object and subject of his song. In the Spring of 1815, an +eminent physician pronounced that he was dying rapidly of a consumption; +abscesses were formed on his lungs, and he suffered acute spasms. +Suddenly a complete change took place; and though through life he was a +martyr to pain and debility, every symptom of pulmonary disease +vanished. His nerves, which nature had formed sensitive to an unexampled +degree, were rendered still more susceptible by the state of his health. + +As soon as the peace of 1814 had opened the Continent, he went abroad. +He visited some of the more magnificent scenes of Switzerland, and +returned to England from Lucerne, by the Reuss and the Rhine. The +river-navigation enchanted him. In his favourite poem of "Thalaba", his +imagination had been excited by a description of such a voyage. In the +summer of 1815, after a tour along the southern coast of Devonshire and +a visit to Clifton, he rented a house on Bishopsgate Heath, on the +borders of Windsor Forest, where he enjoyed several months of +comparative health and tranquil happiness. The later summer months were +warm and dry. Accompanied by a few friends, he visited the source of the +Thames, making a voyage in a wherry from Windsor to Crichlade. His +beautiful stanzas in the churchyard of Lechlade were written on that +occasion. "Alastor" was composed on his return. He spent his days under +the oak-shades of Windsor Great Park; and the magnificent woodland was a +fitting study to inspire the various descriptions of forest scenery we +find in the poem. + +None of Shelley's poems is more characteristic than this. The solemn +spirit that reigns throughout, the worship of the majesty of nature, the +broodings of a poet's heart in solitude--the mingling of the exulting +joy which the various aspects of the visible universe inspires with the +sad and struggling pangs which human passion imparts--give a touching +interest to the whole. The death which he had often contemplated during +the last months as certain and near he here represented in such colours +as had, in his lonely musings, soothed his soul to peace. The +versification sustains the solemn spirit which breathes throughout: it +is peculiarly melodious. The poem ought rather to be considered didactic +than narrative: it was the outpouring of his own emotions, embodied in +the purest form he could conceive, painted in the ideal hues which his +brilliant imagination inspired, and softened by the recent anticipation +of death. + + +NOTE ON THE "REVOLT OF ISLAM", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley possessed two remarkable qualities of intellect--a brilliant +imagination, and a logical exactness of reason. His inclinations led him +(he fancied) almost alike to poetry and metaphysical discussions. I say +'he fancied,' because I believe the former to have been paramount, and +that it would have gained the mastery even had he struggled against it. +However, he said that he deliberated at one time whether he should +dedicate himself to poetry or metaphysics; and, resolving on the former, +he educated himself for it, discarding in a great measure his +philosophical pursuits, and engaging himself in the study of the poets +of Greece, Italy, and England. To these may be added a constant perusal +of portions of the old Testament--the Psalms, the Book of Job, the +Prophet Isaiah, and others, the sublime poetry of which filled him with +delight. + +As a poet, his intellect and compositions were powerfully influenced by +exterior circumstances, and especially by his place of abode. He was +very fond of travelling, and ill-health increased this restlessness. The +sufferings occasioned by a cold English winter made him pine, especially +when our colder spring arrived, for a more genial climate. In 1816 he +again visited Switzerland, and rented a house on the banks of the Lake +of Geneva; and many a day, in cloud or sunshine, was passed alone in his +boat--sailing as the wind listed, or weltering on the calm waters. The +majestic aspect of Nature ministered such thoughts as he afterwards +enwove in verse. His lines on the Bridge of the Arve, and his "Hymn to +Intellectual Beauty", were written at this time. Perhaps during this +summer his genius was checked by association with another poet whose +nature was utterly dissimilar to his own, yet who, in the poem he wrote +at that time, gave tokens that he shared for a period the more abstract +and etherealised inspiration of Shelley. The saddest events awaited his +return to England; but such was his fear to wound the feelings of others +that he never expressed the anguish he felt, and seldom gave vent to the +indignation roused by the persecutions he underwent; while the course of +deep unexpressed passion, and the sense of injury, engendered the desire +to embody themselves in forms defecated of all the weakness and evil +which cling to real life. + +He chose therefore for his hero a youth nourished in dreams of liberty, +some of whose actions are in direct opposition to the opinions of the +world; but who is animated throughout by an ardent love of virtue, and a +resolution to confer the boons of political and intellectual freedom on +his fellow-creatures. He created for this youth a woman such as he +delighted to imagine--full of enthusiasm for the same objects; and they +both, with will unvanquished, and the deepest sense of the justice of +their cause, met adversity and death. There exists in this poem a +memorial of a friend of his youth. The character of the old man who +liberates Laon from his tower prison, and tends on him in sickness, is +founded on that of Doctor Lind, who, when Shelley was at Eton, had often +stood by to befriend and support him, and whose name he never mentioned +without love and veneration. + +During the year 1817 we were established at Marlow in Buckinghamshire. +Shelley's choice of abode was fixed chiefly by this town being at no +great distance from London, and its neighbourhood to the Thames. The +poem was written in his boat, as it floated under the beech groves of +Bisham, or during wanderings in the neighbouring country, which is +distinguished for peculiar beauty. The chalk hills break into cliffs +that overhang the Thames, or form valleys clothed with beech; the wilder +portion of the country is rendered beautiful by exuberant vegetation; +and the cultivated part is peculiarly fertile. With all this wealth of +Nature which, either in the form of gentlemen's parks or soil dedicated +to agriculture, flourishes around, Marlow was inhabited (I hope it is +altered now) by a very poor population. The women are lacemakers, and +lose their health by sedentary labour, for which they were very ill +paid. The Poor-laws ground to the dust not only the paupers, but those +who had risen just above that state, and were obliged to pay poor-rates. +The changes produced by peace following a long war, and a bad harvest, +brought with them the most heart-rending evils to the poor. Shelley +afforded what alleviation he could. In the winter, while bringing out +his poem, he had a severe attack of ophthalmia, caught while visiting +the poor cottages. I mention these things,--for this minute and active +sympathy with his fellow-creatures gives a thousandfold interest to his +speculations, and stamps with reality his pleadings for the human race. + +The poem, bold in its opinions and uncompromising in their expression, +met with many censurers, not only among those who allow of no virtue but +such as supports the cause they espouse, but even among those whose +opinions were similar to his own. I extract a portion of a letter +written in answer to one of these friends. It best details the impulses +of Shelley's mind, and his motives: it was written with entire +unreserve; and is therefore a precious monument of his own opinion of +his powers, of the purity of his designs, and the ardour with which he +clung, in adversity and through the valley of the shadow of death, to +views from which he believed the permanent happiness of mankind must +eventually spring. + + +'Marlowe, December 11, 1817. + +'I have read and considered all that you say about my general powers, +and the particular instance of the poem in which I have attempted to +develop them. Nothing can be more satisfactory to me than the interest +which your admonitions express. But I think you are mistaken in some +points with regard to the peculiar nature of my powers, whatever be +their amount. I listened with deference and self-suspicion to your +censures of "The Revolt of Islam"; but the productions of mine which you +commend hold a very low place in my own esteem; and this reassures me, +in some degree at least. The poem was produced by a series of thoughts +which filled my mind with unbounded and sustained enthusiasm. I felt the +precariousness of my life, and I engaged in this task, resolved to leave +some record of myself. Much of what the volume contains was written with +the same feeling--as real, though not so prophetic--as the +communications of a dying man. I never presumed indeed to consider it +anything approaching to faultless; but, when I consider contemporary +productions of the same apparent pretensions, I own I was filled with +confidence. I felt that it was in many respects a genuine picture of my +own mind. I felt that the sentiments were true, not assumed. And in this +have I long believed that my power consists; in sympathy, and that part +of the imagination which relates to sentiment and contemplation. I am +formed, if for anything not in common with the herd of mankind, to +apprehend minute and remote distinctions of feeling, whether relative to +external nature or the living beings which surround us, and to +communicate the conceptions which result from considering either the +moral or the material universe as a whole. Of course, I believe these +faculties, which perhaps comprehend all that is sublime in man, to exist +very imperfectly in my own mind. But, when you advert to my +Chancery-paper, a cold, forced, unimpassioned, insignificant piece of +cramped and cautious argument, and to the little scrap about +"Mandeville", which expressed my feelings indeed, but cost scarcely two +minutes' thought to express, as specimens of my powers more favourable +than that which grew as it were from "the agony and bloody sweat" of +intellectual travail; surely I must feel that, in some manner, either I +am mistaken in believing that I have any talent at all, or you in the +selection of the specimens of it. Yet, after all, I cannot but be +conscious, in much of what I write, of an absence of that tranquillity +which is the attribute and accompaniment of power. This feeling alone +would make your most kind and wise admonitions, on the subject of the +economy of intellectual force, valuable to me. And, if I live, or if I +see any trust in coming years, doubt not but that I shall do something, +whatever it may be, which a serious and earnest estimate of my powers +will suggest to me, and which will be in every respect accommodated to +their utmost limits. + +[Shelley to Godwin.] + + +NOTE ON ROSALIND AND HELEN BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +"Rosalind and Helen" was begun at Marlow, and thrown aside--till I found +it; and, at my request, it was completed. Shelley had no care for any of +his poems that did not emanate from the depths of his mind, and develop +some high or abstruse truth. When he does touch on human life and the +human heart, no pictures can be more faithful, more delicate, more +subtle, or more pathetic. He never mentioned Love but he shed a grace +borrowed from his own nature, that scarcely any other poet has bestowed +on that passion. When he spoke of it as the law of life, which inasmuch +as we rebel against we err and injure ourselves and others, he +promulgated that which he considered an irrefragable truth. In his eyes +it was the essence of our being, and all woe and pain arose from the war +made against it by selfishness, or insensibility, or mistake. By +reverting in his mind to this first principle, he discovered the source +of many emotions, and could disclose the secrets of all hearts, and his +delineations of passion and emotion touch the finest chords of our +nature. + +"Rosalind and Helen" was finished during the summer of 1818, while we +were at the Baths of Lucca. + + +NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +From the Baths of Lucca, in 1818, Shelley visited Venice; and, +circumstances rendering it eligible that we should remain a few weeks in +the neighbourhood of that city, he accepted the offer of Lord Byron, who +lent him the use of a villa he rented near Este; and he sent for his +family from Lucca to join him. + +I Capuccini was a villa built on the site of a Capuchin convent, +demolished when the French suppressed religious houses; it was situated +on the very overhanging brow of a low hill at the foot of a range of +higher ones. The house was cheerful and pleasant; a vine-trellised walk, +a pergola, as it is called in Italian, led from the hall-door to a +summer-house at the end of the garden, which Shelley made his study, and +in which he began the "Prometheus"; and here also, as he mentions in a +letter, he wrote "Julian and Maddalo". A slight ravine, with a road in +its depth, divided the garden from the hill, on which stood the ruins of +the ancient castle of Este, whose dark massive wall gave forth an echo, +and from whose ruined crevices owls and bats flitted forth at night, as +the crescent moon sunk behind the black and heavy battlements. We looked +from the garden over the wide plain of Lombardy, bounded to the west by +the far Apennines, while to the east the horizon was lost in misty +distance. After the picturesque but limited view of mountain, ravine, +and chestnut-wood, at the Baths of Lucca, there was something infinitely +gratifying to the eye in the wide range of prospect commanded by our new +abode. + +Our first misfortune, of the kind from which we soon suffered even more +severely, happened here. Our little girl, an infant in whose small +features I fancied that I traced great resemblance to her father, showed +symptoms of suffering from the heat of the climate. Teething increased +her illness and danger. We were at Este, and when we became alarmed, +hastened to Venice for the best advice. When we arrived at Fusina, we +found that we had forgotten our passport, and the soldiers on duty +attempted to prevent our crossing the laguna; but they could not resist +Shelley's impetuosity at such a moment. We had scarcely arrived at +Venice before life fled from the little sufferer, and we returned to +Este to weep her loss. + +After a few weeks spent in this retreat, which was interspersed by +visits to Venice, we proceeded southward. + + +NOTE ON "PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +On the 12th of March, 1818, Shelley quitted England, never to return. +His principal motive was the hope that his health would be improved by a +milder climate; he suffered very much during the winter previous to his +emigration, and this decided his vacillating purpose. In December, 1817, +he had written from Marlow to a friend, saying: + +'My health has been materially worse. My feelings at intervals are of a +deadly and torpid kind, or awakened to such a state of unnatural and +keen excitement that, only to instance the organ of sight, I find the +very blades of grass and the boughs of distant trees present themselves +to me with microscopic distinctness. Towards evening I sink into a state +of lethargy and inanimation, and often remain for hours on the sofa +between sleep and waking, a prey to the most painful irritability of +thought. Such, with little intermission, is my condition. The hours +devoted to study are selected with vigilant caution from among these +periods of endurance. It is not for this that I think of travelling to +Italy, even if I knew that Italy would relieve me. But I have +experienced a decisive pulmonary attack; and although at present it has +passed away without any considerable vestige of its existence, yet this +symptom sufficiently shows the true nature of my disease to be +consumptive. It is to my advantage that this malady is in its nature +slow, and, if one is sufficiently alive to its advances, is susceptible +of cure from a warm climate. In the event of its assuming any decided +shape, IT WOULD BE MY DUTY to go to Italy without delay. It is not mere +health, but life, that I should seek, and that not for my own sake--I +feel I am capable of trampling on all such weakness; but for the sake of +those to whom my life may be a source of happiness, utility, security, +and honour, and to some of whom my death might be all that is the +reverse.' + +In almost every respect his journey to Italy was advantageous. He left +behind friends to whom he was attached; but cares of a thousand kinds, +many springing from his lavish generosity, crowded round him in his +native country, and, except the society of one or two friends, he had no +compensation. The climate caused him to consume half his existence in +helpless suffering. His dearest pleasure, the free enjoyment of the +scenes of Nature, was marred by the same circumstance. + +He went direct to Italy, avoiding even Paris, and did not make any pause +till he arrived at Milan. The first aspect of Italy enchanted Shelley; +it seemed a garden of delight placed beneath a clearer and brighter +heaven than any he had lived under before. He wrote long descriptive +letters during the first year of his residence in Italy, which, as +compositions, are the most beautiful in the world, and show how truly he +appreciated and studied the wonders of Nature and Art in that divine +land. + +The poetical spirit within him speedily revived with all the power and +with more than all the beauty of his first attempts. He meditated three +subjects as the groundwork for lyrical dramas. One was the story of +Tasso; of this a slight fragment of a song of Tasso remains. The other +was one founded on the Book of Job, which he never abandoned in idea, +but of which no trace remains among his papers. The third was the +"Prometheus Unbound". The Greek tragedians were now his most familiar +companions in his wanderings, and the sublime majesty of Aeschylus +filled him with wonder and delight. The father of Greek tragedy does not +possess the pathos of Sophocles, nor the variety and tenderness of +Euripides; the interest on which he founds his dramas is often elevated +above human vicissitudes into the mighty passions and throes of gods and +demi-gods: such fascinated the abstract imagination of Shelley. + +We spent a month at Milan, visiting the Lake of Como during that +interval. Thence we passed in succession to Pisa, Leghorn, the Baths of +Lucca, Venice, Este, Rome, Naples, and back again to Rome, whither we +returned early in March, 1819. During all this time Shelley meditated +the subject of his drama, and wrote portions of it. Other poems were +composed during this interval, and while at the Bagni di Lucca he +translated Plato's "Symposium". But, though he diversified his studies, +his thoughts centred in the Prometheus. At last, when at Rome, during a +bright and beautiful Spring, he gave up his whole time to the +composition. The spot selected for his study was, as he mentions in his +preface, the mountainous ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. These are +little known to the ordinary visitor at Rome. He describes them in a +letter, with that poetry and delicacy and truth of description which +render his narrated impressions of scenery of unequalled beauty and +interest. + +At first he completed the drama in three acts. It was not till several +months after, when at Florence, that he conceived that a fourth act, a +sort of hymn of rejoicing in the fulfilment of the prophecies with +regard to Prometheus, ought to be added to complete the composition. + +The prominent feature of Shelley's theory of the destiny of the human +species was that evil is not inherent in the system of the creation, but +an accident that might be expelled. This also forms a portion of +Christianity: God made earth and man perfect, till he, by his fall, + + 'Brought death into the world and all our woe.' + +Shelley believed that mankind had only to will that there should be no +evil, and there would be none. It is not my part in these Notes to +notice the arguments that have been urged against this opinion, but to +mention the fact that he entertained it, and was indeed attached to it +with fervent enthusiasm. That man could be so perfectionized as to be +able to expel evil from his own nature, and from the greater part of the +creation, was the cardinal point of his system. And the subject he loved +best to dwell on was the image of One warring with the Evil Principle, +oppressed not only by it, but by all--even the good, who were deluded +into considering evil a necessary portion of humanity; a victim full of +fortitude and hope and the spirit of triumph emanating from a reliance +in the ultimate omnipotence of Good. Such he had depicted in his last +poem, when he made Laon the enemy and the victim of tyrants. He now took +a more idealized image of the same subject. He followed certain +classical authorities in figuring Saturn as the good principle, Jupiter +the usurping evil one, and Prometheus as the regenerator, who, unable to +bring mankind back to primitive innocence, used knowledge as a weapon to +defeat evil, by leading mankind, beyond the state wherein they are +sinless through ignorance, to that in which they are virtuous through +wisdom. Jupiter punished the temerity of the Titan by chaining him to a +rock of Caucasus, and causing a vulture to devour his still-renewed +heart. There was a prophecy afloat in heaven portending the fall of +Jove, the secret of averting which was known only to Prometheus; and the +god offered freedom from torture on condition of its being communicated +to him. According to the mythological story, this referred to the +offspring of Thetis, who was destined to be greater than his father. +Prometheus at last bought pardon for his crime of enriching mankind with +his gifts, by revealing the prophecy. Hercules killed the vulture, and +set him free; and Thetis was married to Peleus, the father of Achilles. + +Shelley adapted the catastrophe of this story to his peculiar views. The +son greater than his father, born of the nuptials of Jupiter and Thetis, +was to dethrone Evil, and bring back a happier reign than that of +Saturn. Prometheus defies the power of his enemy, and endures centuries +of torture; till the hour arrives when Jove, blind to the real event, +but darkly guessing that some great good to himself will flow, espouses +Thetis. At the moment, the Primal Power of the world drives him from his +usurped throne, and Strength, in the person of Hercules, liberates +Humanity, typified in Prometheus, from the tortures generated by evil +done or suffered. Asia, one of the Oceanides, is the wife of +Prometheus--she was, according to other mythological interpretations, +the same as Venus and Nature. When the benefactor of mankind is +liberated, Nature resumes the beauty of her prime, and is united to her +husband, the emblem of the human race, in perfect and happy union. In +the Fourth Act, the Poet gives further scope to his imagination, and +idealizes the forms of creation--such as we know them, instead of such +as they appeared to the Greeks. Maternal Earth, the mighty parent, is +superseded by the Spirit of the Earth, the guide of our planet through +the realms of sky; while his fair and weaker companion and attendant, +the Spirit of the Moon, receives bliss from the annihilation of Evil in +the superior sphere. + +Shelley develops, more particularly in the lyrics of this drama, his +abstruse and imaginative theories with regard to the Creation. It +requires a mind as subtle and penetrating as his own to understand the +mystic meanings scattered throughout the poem. They elude the ordinary +reader by their abstraction and delicacy of distinction, but they are +far from vague. It was his design to write prose metaphysical essays on +the nature of Man, which would have served to explain much of what is +obscure in his poetry; a few scattered fragments of observations and +remarks alone remain. He considered these philosophical views of Mind +and Nature to be instinct with the intensest spirit of poetry. + +More popular poets clothe the ideal with familiar and sensible imagery. Shelley loved to idealize the real--to gift the mechanism of the material universe with a soul and a voice, and to bestow such also on the most delicate and abstract emotions and thoughts of the mind. Sophocles was his great master in this species of imagery. + +I find in one of his manuscript books some remarks on a line in the +"Oedipus Tyrannus", which show at once the critical subtlety of +Shelley's mind, and explain his apprehension of those 'minute and remote +distinctions of feeling, whether relative to external nature or the +living beings which surround us,' which he pronounces, in the letter +quoted in the note to the "Revolt of Islam", to comprehend all that is +sublime in man. + +'In the Greek Shakespeare, Sophocles, we find the image, + + Pollas d' odous elthonta phrontidos planois: + +a line of almost unfathomable depth of poetry; yet how simple are the +images in which it is arrayed! + + "Coming to many ways in the wanderings of careful thought." + +If the words odous and planois had not been used, the line might have +been explained in a metaphorical instead of an absolute sense, as we say +"WAYS and means," and "wanderings" for error and confusion. But they +meant literally paths or roads, such as we tread with our feet; and +wanderings, such as a man makes when he loses himself in a desert, or +roams from city to city--as Oedipus, the speaker of this verse, was +destined to wander, blind and asking charity. What a picture does this +line suggest of the mind as a wilderness of intricate paths, wide as the +universe, which is here made its symbol; a world within a world which he +who seeks some knowledge with respect to what he ought to do searches +throughout, as he would search the external universe for some valued +thing which was hidden from him upon its surface.' + +In reading Shelley's poetry, we often find similar verses, resembling, +but not imitating the Greek in this species of imagery; for, though he +adopted the style, he gifted it with that originality of form and +colouring which sprung from his own genius. + +In the "Prometheus Unbound", Shelley fulfils the promise quoted from a +letter in the Note on the "Revolt of Islam". (While correcting the +proof-sheets of that poem, it struck me that the poet had indulged in an +exaggerated view of the evils of restored despotism; which, however +injurious and degrading, were less openly sanguinary than the triumph of +anarchy, such as it appeared in France at the close of the last century. +But at this time a book, "Scenes of Spanish Life", translated by +Lieutenant Crawford from the German of Dr. Huber, of Rostock, fell into +my hands. The account of the triumph of the priests and the serviles, +after the French invasion of Spain in 1823, bears a strong and frightful +resemblance to some of the descriptions of the massacre of the patriots +in the "Revolt of Islam".) The tone of the composition is calmer and +more majestic, the poetry more perfect as a whole, and the imagination +displayed at once more pleasingly beautiful and more varied and daring. +The description of the Hours, as they are seen in the cave of +Demogorgon, is an instance of this--it fills the mind as the most +charming picture--we long to see an artist at work to bring to our view +the + + 'cars drawn by rainbow-winged steeds + Which trample the dim winds: in each there stands + A wild-eyed charioteer urging their flight. + Some look behind, as fiends pursued them there, + And yet I see no shapes but the keen stars: + Others, with burning eyes, lean forth, and drink + With eager lips the wind of their own speed, + As if the thing they loved fled on before, + And now, even now, they clasped it. Their bright locks + Stream like a comet's flashing hair: they all + Sweep onward.' + +Through the whole poem there reigns a sort of calm and holy spirit of +love; it soothes the tortured, and is hope to the expectant, till the +prophecy is fulfilled, and Love, untainted by any evil, becomes the law +of the world. + +England had been rendered a painful residence to Shelley, as much by the +sort of persecution with which in those days all men of liberal opinions +were visited, and by the injustice he had lately endured in the Court of +Chancery, as by the symptoms of disease which made him regard a visit to +Italy as necessary to prolong his life. An exile, and strongly impressed +with the feeling that the majority of his countrymen regarded him with +sentiments of aversion such as his own heart could experience towards +none, he sheltered himself from such disgusting and painful thoughts in +the calm retreats of poetry, and built up a world of his own--with the +more pleasure, since he hoped to induce some one or two to believe that +the earth might become such, did mankind themselves consent. The charm +of the Roman climate helped to clothe his thoughts in greater beauty +than they had ever worn before. And, as he wandered among the ruins made +one with Nature in their decay, or gazed on the Praxitelean shapes that +throng the Vatican, the Capitol, and the palaces of Rome, his soul +imbibed forms of loveliness which became a portion of itself. There are +many passages in the "Prometheus" which show the intense delight he +received from such studies, and give back the impression with a beauty +of poetical description peculiarly his own. He felt this, as a poet must +feel when he satisfies himself by the result of his labours; and he +wrote from Rome, 'My "Prometheus Unbound" is just finished, and in a +month or two I shall send it. It is a drama, with characters and +mechanism of a kind yet unattempted; and I think the execution is better +than any of my former attempts.' + +I may mention, for the information of the more critical reader, that the +verbal alterations in this edition of "Prometheus" are made from a list +of errata written by Shelley himself. + + +NOTE ON THE CENCI, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The sort of mistake that Shelley made as to the extent of his own genius +and powers, which led him deviously at first, but lastly into the direct +track that enabled him fully to develop them, is a curious instance of +his modesty of feeling, and of the methods which the human mind uses at +once to deceive itself, and yet, in its very delusion, to make its way +out of error into the path which Nature has marked out as its right one. +He often incited me to attempt the writing a tragedy: he conceived that +I possessed some dramatic talent, and he was always most earnest and +energetic in his exhortations that I should cultivate any talent I +possessed, to the utmost. I entertained a truer estimate of my powers; +and above all (though at that time not exactly aware of the fact) I was +far too young to have any chance of succeeding, even moderately, in a +species of composition that requires a greater scope of experience in, +and sympathy with, human passion than could then have fallen to my +lot,--or than any perhaps, except Shelley, ever possessed, even at the +age of twenty-six, at which he wrote The Cenci. + +On the other hand, Shelley most erroneously conceived himself to be +destitute of this talent. He believed that one of the first requisites +was the capacity of forming and following-up a story or plot. He fancied +himself to he defective in this portion of imagination: it was that +which gave him least pleasure in the writings of others, though he laid +great store by it as the proper framework to support the sublimest +efforts of poetry. He asserted that he was too metaphysical and +abstract, too fond of the theoretical and the ideal, to succeed as a +tragedian. It perhaps is not strange that I shared this opinion with +himself; for he had hitherto shown no inclination for, nor given any +specimen of his powers in framing and supporting the interest of a +story, either in prose or verse. Once or twice, when he attempted such, +he had speedily thrown it aside, as being even disagreeable to him as an +occupation. + +The subject he had suggested for a tragedy was Charles I: and he had +written to me: 'Remember, remember Charles I. I have been already +imagining how you would conduct some scenes. The second volume of "St. +Leon" begins with this proud and true sentiment: "There is nothing which +the human mind can conceive which it may not execute." Shakespeare was +only a human being.' These words were written in 1818, while we were in +Lombardy, when he little thought how soon a work of his own would prove +a proud comment on the passage he quoted. When in Rome, in 1819, a +friend put into our hands the old manuscript account of the story of the +Cenci. We visited the Colonna and Doria palaces, where the portraits of +Beatrice were to be found; and her beauty cast the reflection of its own +grace over her appalling story. Shelley's imagination became strongly +excited, and he urged the subject to me as one fitted for a tragedy. +More than ever I felt my incompetence; but I entreated him to write it +instead; and he began, and proceeded swiftly, urged on by intense +sympathy with the sufferings of the human beings whose passions, so long +cold in the tomb, he revived, and gifted with poetic language. This +tragedy is the only one of his works that he communicated to me during +its progress. We talked over the arrangement of the scenes together. I +speedily saw the great mistake we had made, and triumphed in the +discovery of the new talent brought to light from that mine of wealth +(never, alas, through his untimely death, worked to its depths)--his +richly gifted mind. + +We suffered a severe affliction in Rome by the loss of our eldest child, +who was of such beauty and promise as to cause him deservedly to be the +idol of our hearts. We left the capital of the world, anxious for a time +to escape a spot associated too intimately with his presence and loss. +(Such feelings haunted him when, in "The Cenci", he makes Beatrice speak +to Cardinal Camillo of + + 'that fair blue-eyed child + Who was the lodestar of your life:'--and say-- + All see, since his most swift and piteous death, + That day and night, and heaven and earth, and time, + And all the things hoped for or done therein + Are changed to you, through your exceeding grief.') + +Some friends of ours were residing in the neighbourhood of Leghorn, and +we took a small house, Villa Valsovano, about half-way between the town +and Monte Nero, where we remained during the summer. Our villa was +situated in the midst of a podere; the peasants sang as they worked +beneath our windows, during the heats of a very hot season, and in the +evening the water-wheel creaked as the process of irrigation went on, +and the fireflies flashed from among the myrtle hedges: Nature was +bright, sunshiny, and cheerful, or diversified by storms of a majestic +terror, such as we had never before witnessed. + +At the top of the house there was a sort of terrace. There is often such +in Italy, generally roofed: this one was very small, yet not only roofed +but glazed. This Shelley made his study; it looked out on a wide +prospect of fertile country, and commanded a view of the near sea. The +storms that sometimes varied our day showed themselves most +picturesquely as they were driven across the ocean; sometimes the dark +lurid clouds dipped towards the waves, and became water-spouts that +churned up the waters beneath, as they were chased onward and scattered +by the tempest. At other times the dazzling sunlight and heat made it +almost intolerable to every other; but Shelley basked in both, and his +health and spirits revived under their influence. In this airy cell he +wrote the principal part of "The Cenci". He was making a study of +Calderon at the time, reading his best tragedies with an accomplished +lady living near us, to whom his letter from Leghorn was addressed +during the following year. He admired Calderon, both for his poetry and +his dramatic genius; but it shows his judgement and originality that, +though greatly struck by his first acquaintance with the Spanish poet, +none of his peculiarities crept into the composition of "The Cenci"; and +there is no trace of his new studies, except in that passage to which he +himself alludes as suggested by one in "El Purgatorio de San Patricio". + +Shelley wished "The Cenci" to be acted. He was not a playgoer, being of +such fastidious taste that he was easily disgusted by the bad filling-up +of the inferior parts. While preparing for our departure from England, +however, he saw Miss O'Neil several times. She was then in the zenith of +her glory; and Shelley was deeply moved by her impersonation of several +parts, and by the graceful sweetness, the intense pathos, the sublime +vehemence of passion she displayed. She was often in his thoughts as he +wrote: and, when he had finished, he became anxious that his tragedy +should be acted, and receive the advantage of having this accomplished +actress to fill the part of the heroine. With this view he wrote the +following letter to a friend in London: + +'The object of the present letter us to ask a favour of you. I have +written a tragedy on a story well known in Italy, and, in my conception, +eminently dramatic. I have taken some pains to make my play fit for +representation, and those who have already seen it judge favourably. It +is written without any of the peculiar feelings and opinions which +characterize my other compositions; I have attended simply to the +impartial development of such characters as it is probable the persons +represented really were, together with the greatest degree of popular +effect to be produced by such a development. I send you a translation of +the Italian manuscript on which my play is founded; the chief +circumstance of which I have touched very delicately; for my principal +doubt as to whether it would succeed as an acting play hangs entirely on +the question as to whether any such a thing as incest in this shape, +however treated, would be admitted on the stage. I think, however, it +will form no objection; considering, first, that the facts are matter of +history, and, secondly, the peculiar delicacy with which I have treated +it. (In speaking of his mode of treating this main incident, Shelley +said that it might be remarked that, in the course of the play, he had +never mentioned expressly Cenci's worst crime. Every one knew what it +must be, but it was never imaged in words--the nearest allusion to it +being that portion of Cenci's curse beginning--"That, if she have a +child," etc.) + +'I am exceedingly interested in the question of whether this attempt of +mine will succeed or not. I am strongly inclined to the affirmative at +present; founding my hopes on this--that, as a composition, it is +certainly not inferior to any of the modern plays that have been acted, +with the exception of "Remorse"; that the interest of the plot is +incredibly greater and more real; and that there is nothing beyond what +the multitude are contented to believe that they can understand, either +in imagery, opinion, or sentiment. I wish to preserve a complete +incognito, and can trust to you that, whatever else you do, you will at +least favour me on this point. Indeed, this is essential, deeply +essential, to its success. After it had been acted, and successfully +(could I hope for such a thing), I would own it if I pleased, and use +the celebrity it might acquire to my own purposes. + +'What I want you to do is to procure for me its presentation at Covent +Garden. The principal character, Beatrice, is precisely fitted for Miss +O'Neil, and it might even seem to have been written for her (God forbid +that I should see her play it--it would tear my nerves to pieces); and +in all respects it is fitted only for Covent Garden. The chief male +character I confess I should be very unwilling that any one but Kean +should play. That is impossible, and I must be contented with an +inferior actor.' + +The play was accordingly sent to Mr. Harris. He pronounced the subject +to be so objectionable that he could not even submit the part to Miss +O'Neil for perusal, but expressed his desire that the author would write +a tragedy on some other subject, which he would gladly accept. Shelley +printed a small edition at Leghorn, to ensure its correctness; as he was +much annoyed by the many mistakes that crept into his text when distance +prevented him from correcting the press. + +Universal approbation soon stamped "The Cenci" as the best tragedy of +modern times. Writing concerning it, Shelley said: 'I have been cautious +to avoid the introducing faults of youthful composition; diffuseness, a +profusion of inapplicable imagery, vagueness, generality, and, as Hamlet +says, "words, words".' There is nothing that is not purely dramatic +throughout; and the character of Beatrice, proceeding, from vehement +struggle, to horror, to deadly resolution, and lastly to the elevated +dignity of calm suffering, joined to passionate tenderness and pathos, +is touched with hues so vivid and so beautiful that the poet seems to +have read intimately the secrets of the noble heart imaged in the lovely +countenance of the unfortunate girl. The Fifth Act is a masterpiece. It +is the finest thing he ever wrote, and may claim proud comparison not +only with any contemporary, but preceding, poet. The varying feelings of +Beatrice are expressed with passionate, heart-reaching eloquence. Every +character has a voice that echoes truth in its tones. It is curious, to +one acquainted with the written story, to mark the success with which +the poet has inwoven the real incidents of the tragedy into his scenes, +and yet, through the power of poetry, has obliterated all that would +otherwise have shown too harsh or too hideous in the picture. His +success was a double triumph; and often after he was earnestly entreated +to write again in a style that commanded popular favour, while it was +not less instinct with truth and genius. But the bent of his mind went +the other way; and, even when employed on subjects whose interest +depended on character and incident, he would start off in another +direction, and leave the delineations of human passion, which he could +depict in so able a manner, for fantastic creations of his fancy, or the +expression of those opinions and sentiments, with regard to human nature +and its destiny, a desire to diffuse which was the master passion of his +soul. + + +NOTE ON THE MASK OF ANARCHY, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Though Shelley's first eager desire to excite his countrymen to resist +openly the oppressions existent during 'the good old times' had faded +with early youth, still his warmest sympathies were for the people. He +was a republican, and loved a democracy. He looked on all human beings +as inheriting an equal right to possess the dearest privileges of our +nature; the necessaries of life when fairly earned by labour, and +intellectual instruction. His hatred of any despotism that looked upon +the people as not to be consulted, or protected from want and ignorance, +was intense. He was residing near Leghorn, at Villa Valsovano, writing +"The Cenci", when the news of the Manchester Massacre reached us; it +roused in him violent emotions of indignation and compassion. The great +truth that the many, if accordant and resolute, could control the few, +as was shown some years after, made him long to teach his injured +countrymen how to resist. Inspired by these feelings, he wrote the "Mask +of Anarchy", which he sent to his friend Leigh Hunt, to be inserted in +the Examiner, of which he was then the Editor. + +'I did not insert it,' Leigh Hunt writes in his valuable and interesting +preface to this poem, when he printed it in 1832, 'because I thought +that the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do +justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked +in this flaming robe of verse.' Days of outrage have passed away, and +with them the exasperation that would cause such an appeal to the many +to be injurious. Without being aware of them, they at one time acted on +his suggestions, and gained the day. But they rose when human life was +respected by the Minister in power; such was not the case during the +Administration which excited Shelley's abhorrence. + +The poem was written for the people, and is therefore in a more popular +tone than usual: portions strike as abrupt and unpolished, but many +stanzas are all his own. I heard him repeat, and admired, those +beginning + + 'My Father Time is old and gray,' + +before I knew to what poem they were to belong. But the most touching +passage is that which describes the blessed effects of liberty; it might +make a patriot of any man whose heart was not wholly closed against his +humbler fellow-creatures. + + +NOTE ON PETER BELL THE THIRD, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +In this new edition I have added "Peter Bell the Third". A critique on +Wordsworth's "Peter Bell" reached us at Leghorn, which amused Shelley +exceedingly, and suggested this poem. + +I need scarcely observe that nothing personal to the author of "Peter +Bell" is intended in this poem. No man ever admired Wordsworth's poetry +more; --he read it perpetually, and taught others to appreciate its +beauties. This poem is, like all others written by Shelley, ideal. He +conceived the idealism of a poet--a man of lofty and creative +genius--quitting the glorious calling of discovering and announcing the +beautiful and good, to support and propagate ignorant prejudices and +pernicious errors; imparting to the unenlightened, not that ardour for +truth and spirit of toleration which Shelley looked on as the sources of +the moral improvement and happiness of mankind, but false and injurious +opinions, that evil was good, and that ignorance and force were the best +allies of purity and virtue. His idea was that a man gifted, even as +transcendently as the author of "Peter Bell", with the highest qualities +of genius, must, if he fostered such errors, be infected with dulness. +This poem was written as a warning--not as a narration of the reality. +He was unacquainted personally with Wordsworth, or with Coleridge (to +whom he alludes in the fifth part of the poem), and therefore, I repeat, +his poem is purely ideal; --it contains something of criticism on the +compositions of those great poets, but nothing injurious to the men +themselves. + +No poem contains more of Shelley's peculiar views with regard to the +errors into which many of the wisest have fallen, and the pernicious +effects of certain opinions on society. Much of it is beautifully +written: and, though, like the burlesque drama of "Swellfoot", it must +be looked on as a plaything, it has so much merit and poetry--so much of +HIMSELF in it--that it cannot fail to interest greatly, and by right +belongs to the world for whose instruction and benefit it was written. + + +NOTE ON THE WITCH OF ATLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the summer of 1820 at the Baths of San Giuliano, four miles +from Pisa. These baths were of great use to Shelley in soothing his +nervous irritability. We made several excursions in the neighbourhood. +The country around is fertile, and diversified and rendered picturesque +by ranges of near hills and more distant mountains. The peasantry are a +handsome intelligent race; and there was a gladsome sunny heaven spread +over us, that rendered home and every scene we visited cheerful and +bright. During some of the hottest days of August, Shelley made a +solitary journey on foot to the summit of Monte San Pellegrino--a +mountain of some height, on the top of which there is a chapel, the +object, during certain days of the year, of many pilgrimages. The +excursion delighted him while it lasted; though he exerted himself too +much, and the effect was considerable lassitude and weakness on his +return. During the expedition he conceived the idea, and wrote, in the +three days immediately succeeding to his return, the "Witch of Atlas". +This poem is peculiarly characteristic of his tastes--wildly fanciful, +full of brilliant imagery, and discarding human interest and passion, to +revel in the fantastic ideas that his imagination suggested. + +The surpassing excellence of "The Cenci" had made me greatly desire that +Shelley should increase his popularity by adopting subjects that would +more suit the popular taste than a poem conceived in the abstract and +dreamy spirit of the "Witch of Atlas". It was not only that I wished him +to acquire popularity as redounding to his fame; but I believed that he +would obtain a greater mastery over his own powers, and greater +happiness in his mind, if public applause crowned his endeavours. The +few stanzas that precede the poem were addressed to me on my +representing these ideas to him. Even now I believe that I was in the +right. Shelley did not expect sympathy and approbation from the public; +but the want of it took away a portion of the ardour that ought to have +sustained him while writing. He was thrown on his own resources, and on +the inspiration of his own soul; and wrote because his mind overflowed, +without the hope of being appreciated. I had not the most distant wish +that he should truckle in opinion, or submit his lofty aspirations for +the human race to the low ambition and pride of the many; but I felt +sure that, if his poems were more addressed to the common feelings of +men, his proper rank among the writers of the day would be acknowledged, +and that popularity as a poet would enable his countrymen to do justice +to his character and virtues, which in those days it was the mode to +attack with the most flagitious calumnies and insulting abuse. That he +felt these things deeply cannot be doubted, though he armed himself with +the consciousness of acting from a lofty and heroic sense of right. The +truth burst from his heart sometimes in solitude, and he would write a +few unfinished verses that showed that he felt the sting; among such I +find the following: -- + + 'Alas! this is not what I thought Life was. + I knew that there were crimes and evil men, + Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass + Untouched by suffering through the rugged glen. + In mine own heart I saw as in a glass + The hearts of others...And, when + I went among my kind, with triple brass + Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed, + To bear scorn, fear, and hate--a woful mass!' + +I believed that all this morbid feeling would vanish if the chord of +sympathy between him and his countrymen were touched. But my persuasions +were vain, the mind could not be bent from its natural inclination. +Shelley shrunk instinctively from portraying human passion, with its +mixture of good and evil, of disappointment and disquiet. Such opened +again the wounds of his own heart; and he loved to shelter himself +rather in the airiest flights of fancy, forgetting love and hate, and +regret and lost hope, in such imaginations as borrowed their hues from +sunrise or sunset, from the yellow moonshine or paly twilight, from the +aspect of the far ocean or the shadows of the woods,--which celebrated +the singing of the winds among the pines, the flow of a murmuring +stream, and the thousand harmonious sounds which Nature creates in her +solitudes. These are the materials which form the "Witch of Atlas": it +is a brilliant congregation of ideas such as his senses gathered, and +his fancy coloured, during his rambles in the sunny land he so much +loved. + + +NOTE ON OEDIPUS TYRANNUS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +In the brief journal I kept in those days, I find recorded, in August, +1820, Shelley 'begins "Swellfoot the Tyrant", suggested by the pigs at +the fair of San Giuliano.' This was the period of Queen Caroline's +landing in England, and the struggles made by George IV to get rid of +her claims; which failing, Lord Castlereagh placed the "Green Bag" on +the table of the House of Commons, demanding in the King's name that an +enquiry should be instituted into his wife's conduct. These +circumstances were the theme of all conversation among the English. We +were then at the Baths of San Giuliano. A friend came to visit us on the +day when a fair was held in the square, beneath our windows: Shelley +read to us his "Ode to Liberty"; and was riotously accompanied by the +grunting of a quantity of pigs brought for sale to the fair. He compared +it to the 'chorus of frogs' in the satiric drama of Aristophanes; and, +it being an hour of merriment, and one ludicrous association suggesting +another, he imagined a political-satirical drama on the circumstances of +the day, to which the pigs would serve as chorus--and "Swellfoot" was +begun. When finished, it was transmitted to England, printed, and +published anonymously; but stifled at the very dawn of its existence by +the Society for the Suppression of Vice, who threatened to prosecute it, +if not immediately withdrawn. The friend who had taken the trouble of +bringing it out, of course did not think it worth the annoyance and +expense of a contest, and it was laid aside. + +Hesitation of whether it would do honour to Shelley prevented my +publishing it at first. But I cannot bring myself to keep back anything +he ever wrote; for each word is fraught with the peculiar views and +sentiments which he believed to be beneficial to the human race, and the +bright light of poetry irradiates every thought. The world has a right +to the entire compositions of such a man; for it does not live and +thrive by the outworn lesson of the dullard or the hypocrite, but by the +original free thoughts of men of genius, who aspire to pluck bright +truth + + 'from the pale-faced moon; + Or dive into the bottom of the deep + Where fathom-line would never touch the ground, + And pluck up drowned' + +truth. Even those who may dissent from his opinions will consider that +he was a man of genius, and that the world will take more interest in +his slightest word than in the waters of Lethe which are so eagerly +prescribed as medicinal for all its wrongs and woe. This drama, however, +must not be judged for more than was meant. It is a mere plaything of +the imagination; which even may not excite smiles among many, who will +not see wit in those combinations of thought which were full of the +ridiculous to the author. But, like everything he wrote, it breathes +that deep sympathy for the sorrows of humanity, and indignation against +its oppressors, which make it worthy of his name. + + +NOTE ON HELLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The South of Europe was in a state of great political excitement at the +beginning of the year 1821. The Spanish Revolution had been a signal to +Italy; secrete societies were formed; and, when Naples rose to declare +the Constitution, the call was responded to from Brundusium to the foot +of the Alps. To crush these attempts to obtain liberty, early in 1821 +the Austrians poured their armies into the Peninsula: at first their +coming rather seemed to add energy and resolution to a people long +enslaved. The Piedmontese asserted their freedom; Genoa threw off the +yoke of the King of Sardinia; and, as if in playful imitation, the +people of the little state of Massa and Carrara gave the conge to their +sovereign, and set up a republic. + +Tuscany alone was perfectly tranquil. It was said that the Austrian +minister presented a list of sixty Carbonari to the Grand Duke, urging +their imprisonment; and the Grand Duke replied, 'I do not know whether +these sixty men are Carbonari, but I know, if I imprison them, I shall +directly have sixty thousand start up.' But, though the Tuscans had no +desire to disturb the paternal government beneath whose shelter they +slumbered, they regarded the progress of the various Italian revolutions +with intense interest, and hatred for the Austrian was warm in every +bosom. But they had slender hopes; they knew that the Neapolitans would +offer no fit resistance to the regular German troops, and that the +overthrow of the constitution in Naples would act as a decisive blow +against all struggles for liberty in Italy. + +We have seen the rise and progress of reform. But the Holy Alliance was +alive and active in those days, and few could dream of the peaceful +triumph of liberty. It seemed then that the armed assertion of freedom +in the South of Europe was the only hope of the liberals, as, if it +prevailed, the nations of the north would imitate the example. Happily +the reverse has proved the fact. The countries accustomed to the +exercise of the privileges of freemen, to a limited extent, have +extended, and are extending, these limits. Freedom and knowledge have +now a chance of proceeding hand in hand; and, if it continue thus, we +may hope for the durability of both. Then, as I have said--in +1821--Shelley, as well as every other lover of liberty, looked upon the +struggles in Spain and Italy as decisive of the destinies of the world, +probably for centuries to come. The interest he took in the progress of +affairs was intense. When Genoa declared itself free, his hopes were at +their highest. Day after day he read the bulletins of the Austrian army, +and sought eagerly to gather tokens of its defeat. He heard of the +revolt of Genoa with emotions of transport. His whole heart and soul +were in the triumph of the cause. We were living at Pisa at that time; +and several well-informed Italians, at the head of whom we may place the +celebrated Vacca, were accustomed to seek for sympathy in their hopes +from Shelley: they did not find such for the despair they too generally +experienced, founded on contempt for their southern countrymen. + +While the fate of the progress of the Austrian armies then invading +Naples was yet in suspense, the news of another revolution filled him +with exultation. We had formed the acquaintance at Pisa of several +Constantinopolitan Greeks, of the family of Prince Caradja, formerly +Hospodar of Wallachia; who, hearing that the bowstring, the accustomed +finale of his viceroyalty, was on the road to him, escaped with his +treasures, and took up his abode in Tuscany. Among these was the +gentleman to whom the drama of "Hellas" is dedicated. Prince +Mavrocordato was warmed by those aspirations for the independence of his +country which filled the hearts of many of his countrymen. He often +intimated the possibility of an insurrection in Greece; but we had no +idea of its being so near at hand, when, on the 1st of April 1821, he +called on Shelley, bringing the proclamation of his cousin, Prince +Ypsilanti, and, radiant with exultation and delight, declared that +henceforth Greece would be free. + +Shelley had hymned the dawn of liberty in Spain and Naples, in two odes +dictated by the warmest enthusiasm; he felt himself naturally impelled +to decorate with poetry the uprise of the descendants of that people +whose works he regarded with deep admiration, and to adopt the +vaticinatory character in prophesying their success. "Hellas" was +written in a moment of enthusiasm. It is curious to remark how well he +overcomes the difficulty of forming a drama out of such scant materials. +His prophecies, indeed, came true in their general, not their +particular, purport. He did not foresee the death of Lord Londonderry, +which was to be the epoch of a change in English politics, particularly +as regarded foreign affairs; nor that the navy of his country would +fight for instead of against the Greeks, and by the battle of Navarino +secure their enfranchisement from the Turks. Almost against reason, as +it appeared to him, he resolved to believe that Greece would prove +triumphant; and in this spirit, auguring ultimate good, yet grieving +over the vicissitudes to be endured in the interval, he composed his +drama. + +"Hellas" was among the last of his compositions, and is among the most +beautiful. The choruses are singularly imaginative, and melodious in +their versification. There are some stanzas that beautifully exemplify +Shelley's peculiar style; as, for instance, the assertion of the +intellectual empire which must be for ever the inheritance of the +country of Homer, Sophocles, and Plato:-- + + 'But Greece and her foundations are + Built below the tide of war, + Based on the crystalline sea + Of thought and its eternity.' + +And again, that philosophical truth felicitously imaged forth-- + + 'Revenge and Wrong bring forth their kind, + The foul cubs like their parents are, + Their den is in the guilty mind, + And Conscience feeds them with despair.' + +The conclusion of the last chorus is among the most beautiful of his +lyrics. The imagery is distinct and majestic; the prophecy, such as +poets love to dwell upon, the Regeneration of Mankind--and that +regeneration reflecting back splendour on the foregone time, from which +it inherits so much of intellectual wealth, and memory of past virtuous +deeds, as must render the possession of happiness and peace of tenfold +value. + + +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The remainder of Shelley's Poems will be arranged in the order in which +they were written. Of course, mistakes will occur in placing some of the +shorter ones; for, as I have said, many of these were thrown aside, and +I never saw them till I had the misery of looking over his writings +after the hand that traced them was dust; and some were in the hands of +others, and I never saw them till now. The subjects of the poems are +often to me an unerring guide; but on other occasions I can only guess, +by finding them in the pages of the same manuscript book that contains +poems with the date of whose composition I am fully conversant. In the +present arrangement all his poetical translations will be placed +together at the end. + +The loss of his early papers prevents my being able to give any of the +poetry of his boyhood. Of the few I give as "Early Poems", the greater +part were published with "Alastor"; some of them were written +previously, some at the same period. The poem beginning 'Oh, there are +spirits in the air' was addressed in idea to Coleridge, whom he never +knew; and at whose character he could only guess imperfectly, through +his writings, and accounts he heard of him from some who knew him well. +He regarded his change of opinions as rather an act of will than +conviction, and believed that in his inner heart he would be haunted by +what Shelley considered the better and holier aspirations of his youth. +The summer evening that suggested to him the poem written in the +churchyard of Lechlade occurred during his voyage up the Thames in 1815. +He had been advised by a physician to live as much as possible in the +open air; and a fortnight of a bright warm July was spent in tracing the +Thames to its source. He never spent a season more tranquilly than the +summer of 1815. He had just recovered from a severe pulmonary attack; +the weather was warm and pleasant. He lived near Windsor Forest; and his +life was spent under its shades or on the water, meditating subjects for +verse. Hitherto, he had chiefly aimed at extending his political +doctrines, and attempted so to do by appeals in prose essays to the +people, exhorting them to claim their rights; but he had now begun to +feel that the time for action was not ripe in England, and that the pen +was the only instrument wherewith to prepare the way for better things. + +In the scanty journals kept during those years I find a record of the +books that Shelley read during several years. During the years of 1814 +and 1815 the list is extensive. It includes, in Greek, Homer, Hesiod, +Theocritus, the histories of Thucydides and Herodotus, and Diogenes +Laertius. In Latin, Petronius, Suetonius, some of the works of Cicero, a +large proportion of those of Seneca and Livy. In English, Milton's +poems, Wordsworth's "Excursion", Southey's "Madoc" and "Thalaba", Locke +"On the Human Understanding", Bacon's "Novum Organum". In Italian, +Ariosto, Tasso, and Alfieri. In French, the "Reveries d'un Solitaire" of +Rousseau. To these may be added several modern books of travel. He read +few novels. + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley wrote little during this year. The poem entitled "The Sunset" +was written in the spring of the year, while still residing at +Bishopsgate. He spent the summer on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. +The "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was conceived during his voyage round +the lake with Lord Byron. He occupied himself during this voyage by +reading the "Nouvelle Heloise" for the first time. The reading it on the +very spot where the scenes are laid added to the interest; and he was at +once surprised and charmed by the passionate eloquence and earnest +enthralling interest that pervade this work. There was something in the +character of Saint-Preux, in his abnegation of self, and in the worship +he paid to Love, that coincided with Shelley's own disposition; and, +though differing in many of the views and shocked by others, yet the +effect of the whole was fascinating and delightful. + +"Mont Blanc" was inspired by a view of that mountain and its surrounding +peaks and valleys, as he lingered on the Bridge of Arve on his way +through the Valley of Chamouni. Shelley makes the following mention of +this poem in his publication of the "History of a Six Weeks' Tour, and +Letters from Switzerland": 'The poem entitled "Mont Blanc" is written by +the author of the two letters from Chamouni and Vevai. It was composed +under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful feelings excited +by the objects which it attempts to describe; and, as an undisciplined +overflowing of the soul, rests its claim to approbation on an attempt to +imitate the untamable wildness and inaccessible solemnity from which +those feelings sprang.' + +This was an eventful year, and less time was given to study than usual. +In the list of his reading I find, in Greek, Theocritus, the +"Prometheus" of Aeschylus, several of Plutarch's "Lives", and the works +of Lucian. In Latin, Lucretius, Pliny's "Letters", the "Annals" and +"Germany" of Tacitus. In French, the "History of the French Revolution" +by Lacretelle. He read for the first time, this year, Montaigne's +"Essays", and regarded them ever after as one of the most delightful and +instructive books in the world. The list is scanty in English works: +Locke's "Essay", "Political Justice", and Coleridge's "Lay Sermon", form +nearly the whole. It was his frequent habit to read aloud to me in the +evening; in this way we read, this year, the New Testament, "Paradise +Lost", Spenser's "Faery Queen", and "Don Quixote". + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The very illness that oppressed, and the aspect of death which had +approached so near Shelley, appear to have kindled to yet keener life +the Spirit of Poetry in his heart. The restless thoughts kept awake by +pain clothed themselves in verse. Much was composed during this year. +The "Revolt of Islam", written and printed, was a great +effort--"Rosalind and Helen" was begun--and the fragments and poems I +can trace to the same period show how full of passion and reflection +were his solitary hours. + +In addition to such poems as have an intelligible aim and shape, many a +stray idea and transitory emotion found imperfect and abrupt expression, +and then again lost themselves in silence. As he never wandered without +a book and without implements of writing, I find many such, in his +manuscript books, that scarcely bear record; while some of them, broken +and vague as they are, will appear valuable to those who love Shelley's +mind, and desire to trace its workings. + +He projected also translating the "Hymns" of Homer; his version of +several of the shorter ones remains, as well as that to Mercury already +published in the "Posthumous Poems". His readings this year were chiefly +Greek. Besides the "Hymns" of Homer and the "Iliad", he read the dramas +of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the "Symposium" of Plato, and Arrian's +"Historia Indica". In Latin, Apuleius alone is named. In English, the +Bible was his constant study; he read a great portion of it aloud in the +evening. Among these evening readings I find also mentioned the "Faerie +Queen"; and other modern works, the production of his contemporaries, +Coleridge, Wordsworth, Moore and Byron. + +His life was now spent more in thought than action--he had lost the +eager spirit which believed it could achieve what it projected for the +benefit of mankind. And yet in the converse of daily life Shelley was +far from being a melancholy man. He was eloquent when philosophy or +politics or taste were the subjects of conversation. He was playful; and +indulged in the wild spirit that mocked itself and others--not in +bitterness, but in sport. The author of "Nightmare Abbey" seized on some +points of his character and some habits of his life when he painted +Scythrop. He was not addicted to 'port or madeira,' but in youth he had +read of 'Illuminati and Eleutherarchs,' and believed that he possessed +the power of operating an immediate change in the minds of men and the +state of society. These wild dreams had faded; sorrow and adversity had +struck home; but he struggled with despondency as he did with physical +pain. There are few who remember him sailing paper boats, and watching +the navigation of his tiny craft with eagerness--or repeating with wild +energy "The Ancient Mariner", and Southey's "Old Woman of Berkeley"; but +those who do will recollect that it was in such, and in the creations of +his own fancy when that was most daring and ideal, that he sheltered +himself from the storms and disappointments, the pain and sorrow, that +beset his life. + +No words can express the anguish he felt when his elder children were +torn from him. In his first resentment against the Chancellor, on the +passing of the decree, he had written a curse, in which there breathes, +besides haughty indignation, all the tenderness of a father's love, +which could imagine and fondly dwell upon its loss and the consequences. + +At one time, while the question was still pending, the Chancellor had +said some words that seemed to intimate that Shelley should not be +permitted the care of any of his children, and for a moment he feared +that our infant son would be torn from us. He did not hesitate to +resolve, if such were menaced, to abandon country, fortune, everything, +and to escape with his child; and I find some unfinished stanzas +addressed to this son, whom afterwards we lost at Rome, written under +the idea that we might suddenly be forced to cross the sea, so to +preserve him. This poem, as well as the one previously quoted, were not +written to exhibit the pangs of distress to the public; they were the +spontaneous outbursts of a man who brooded over his wrongs and woes, and +was impelled to shed the grace of his genius over the uncontrollable +emotions of his heart. I ought to observe that the fourth verse of this +effusion is introduced in "Rosalind and Helen". When afterwards this +child died at Rome, he wrote, a propos of the English burying-ground in +that city: 'This spot is the repository of a sacred loss, of which the +yearnings of a parent's heart are now prophetic; he is rendered immortal +by love, as his memory is by death. My beloved child lies buried here. I +envy death the body far less than the oppressors the minds of those whom +they have torn from me. The one can only kill the body, the other +crushes the affections.' + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We often hear of persons disappointed by a first visit to Italy. This +was not Shelley's case. The aspect of its nature, its sunny sky, its +majestic storms, of the luxuriant vegetation of the country, and the +noble marble-built cities, enchanted him. The sight of the works of art +was full enjoyment and wonder. He had not studied pictures or statues +before; he now did so with the eye of taste, that referred not to the +rules of schools, but to those of Nature and truth. The first entrance +to Rome opened to him a scene of remains of antique grandeur that far +surpassed his expectations; and the unspeakable beauty of Naples and its +environs added to the impression he received of the transcendent and +glorious beauty of Italy. + +Our winter was spent at Naples. Here he wrote the fragments of +"Marenghi" and "The Woodman and the Nightingale", which he afterwards +threw aside. At this time, Shelley suffered greatly in health. He put +himself under the care of a medical man, who promised great things, and +made him endure severe bodily pain, without any good results. Constant +and poignant physical suffering exhausted him; and though he preserved +the appearance of cheerfulness, and often greatly enjoyed our wanderings +in the environs of Naples, and our excursions on its sunny sea, yet many +hours were passed when his thoughts, shadowed by illness, became +gloomy,--and then he escaped to solitude, and in verses, which he hid +from fear of wounding me, poured forth morbid but too natural bursts of +discontent and sadness. One looks back with unspeakable regret and +gnawing remorse to such periods; fancying that, had one been more alive +to the nature of his feelings, and more attentive to soothe them, such +would not have existed. And yet, enjoying as he appeared to do every +sight or influence of earth or sky, it was difficult to imagine that any +melancholy he showed was aught but the effect of the constant pain to +which he was a martyr. + +We lived in utter solitude. And such is often not the nurse of +cheerfulness; for then, at least with those who have been exposed to +adversity, the mind broods over its sorrows too intently; while the +society of the enlightened, the witty, and the wise, enables us to +forget ourselves by making us the sharers of the thoughts of others, +which is a portion of the philosophy of happiness. Shelley never liked +society in numbers,--it harassed and wearied him; but neither did he +like loneliness, and usually, when alone, sheltered himself against +memory and reflection in a book. But, with one or two whom he loved, he +gave way to wild and joyous spirits, or in more serious conversation +expounded his opinions with vivacity and eloquence. If an argument +arose, no man ever argued better. He was clear, logical, and earnest, in +supporting his own views; attentive, patient, and impartial, while +listening to those on the adverse side. Had not a wall of prejudice been +raised at this time between him and his countrymen, how many would have +sought the acquaintance of one whom to know was to love and to revere! +How many of the more enlightened of his contemporaries have since +regretted that they did not seek him! how very few knew his worth while +he lived! and, of those few, several were withheld by timidity or envy +from declaring their sense of it. But no man was ever more +enthusiastically loved--more looked up to, as one superior to his +fellows in intellectual endowments and moral worth, by the few who knew +him well, and had sufficient nobleness of soul to appreciate his +superiority. His excellence is now acknowledged; but, even while +admitted, not duly appreciated. For who, except those who were +acquainted with him, can imagine his unwearied benevolence, his +generosity, his systematic forbearance? And still less is his vast +superiority in intellectual attainments sufficiently understood--his +sagacity, his clear understanding, his learning, his prodigious memory. +All these as displayed in conversation, were known to few while he +lived, and are now silent in the tomb: + + 'Ahi orbo mondo ingrato! + Gran cagion hai di dever pianger meco; + Che quel ben ch' era in te, perdut' hai seco.' + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1819, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley loved the People; and respected them as often more virtuous, as +always more suffering, and therefore more deserving of sympathy, than +the great. He believed that a clash between the two classes of society +was inevitable, and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side. He +had an idea of publishing a series of poems adapted expressly to +commemorate their circumstances and wrongs. He wrote a few; but, in +those days of prosecution for libel, they could not be printed. They are +not among the best of his productions, a writer being always shackled +when he endeavours to write down to the comprehension of those who could +not understand or feel a highly imaginative style; but they show his +earnestness, and with what heart-felt compassion he went home to the +direct point of injury--that oppression is detestable as being the +parent of starvation, nakedness, and ignorance. Besides these +outpourings of compassion and indignation, he had meant to adorn the +cause he loved with loftier poetry of glory and triumph: such is the +scope of the "Ode to the Assertors of Liberty". He sketched also a new +version of our national anthem, as addressed to Liberty. + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the latter part of the year 1819 in Florence, where Shelley +passed several hours daily in the Gallery, and made various notes on its +ancient works of art. His thoughts were a good deal taken up also by the +project of a steamboat, undertaken by a friend, an engineer, to ply +between Leghorn and Marseilles, for which he supplied a sum of money. +This was a sort of plan to delight Shelley, and he was greatly +disappointed when it was thrown aside. + +There was something in Florence that disagreed excessively with his +health, and he suffered far more pain than usual; so much so that we +left it sooner than we intended, and removed to Pisa, where we had some +friends, and, above all, where we could consult the celebrated Vacca as +to the cause of Shelley's sufferings. He, like every other medical man, +could only guess at that, and gave little hope of immediate relief; he +enjoined him to abstain from all physicians and medicine, and to leave +his complaint to Nature. As he had vainly consulted medical men of the +highest repute in England, he was easily persuaded to adopt this advice. +Pain and ill-health followed him to the end; but the residence at Pisa +agreed with him better than any other, and there in consequence we +remained. + +In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn, borrowing the house +of some friends who were absent on a journey to England. It was on a +beautiful summer evening, while wandering among the lanes whose +myrtle-hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the +carolling of the skylark which inspired one of the most beautiful of his +poems. He addressed the letter to Mrs. Gisborne from this house, which +was hers: he had made his study of the workshop of her son, who was an +engineer. Mrs. Gisborne had been a friend of my father in her younger +days. She was a lady of great accomplishments, and charming from her +frank and affectionate nature. She had the most intense love of +knowledge, a delicate and trembling sensibility, and preserved freshness +of mind after a life of considerable adversity. As a favourite friend of +my father, we had sought her with eagerness; and the most open and +cordial friendship was established between us. + +Our stay at the Baths of San Giuliano was shortened by an accident. At +the foot of our garden ran the canal that communicated between the +Serchio and the Arno. The Serchio overflowed its banks, and, breaking +its bounds, this canal also overflowed; all this part of the country is +below the level of its rivers, and the consequence was that it was +speedily flooded. The rising waters filled the Square of the Baths, in +the lower part of which our house was situated. The canal overflowed in +the garden behind; the rising waters on either side at last burst open +the doors, and, meeting in the house, rose to the height of six feet. It +was a picturesque sight at night to see the peasants driving the cattle +from the plains below to the hills above the Baths. A fire was kept up +to guide them across the ford; and the forms of the men and the animals +showed in dark relief against the red glare of the flame, which was +reflected again in the waters that filled the Square. + +We then removed to Pisa, and took up our abode there for the winter. The +extreme mildness of the climate suited Shelley, and his solitude was +enlivened by an intercourse with several intimate friends. Chance cast +us strangely enough on this quiet half-unpeopled town; but its very +peace suited Shelley. Its river, the near mountains, and not distant +sea, added to its attractions, and were the objects of many delightful +excursions. We feared the south of Italy, and a hotter climate, on +account of our child; our former bereavement inspiring us with terror. +We seemed to take root here, and moved little afterwards; often, indeed, +entertaining projects for visiting other parts of Italy, but still +delaying. But for our fears on account of our child, I believe we should +have wandered over the world, both being passionately fond of +travelling. But human life, besides its great unalterable necessities, +is ruled by a thousand lilliputian ties that shackle at the time, +although it is difficult to account afterwards for their influence over +our destiny. + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +My task becomes inexpressibly painful as the year draws near that which +sealed our earthly fate, and each poem, and each event it records, has a +real or mysterious connection with the fatal catastrophe. I feel that I +am incapable of putting on paper the history of those times. The heart +of the man, abhorred of the poet, who could + + 'peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave,' + +does not appear to me more inexplicably framed than that of one who can +dissect and probe past woes, and repeat to the public ear the groans +drawn from them in the throes of their agony. + +The year 1821 was spent in Pisa, or at the Baths of San Giuliano. We +were not, as our wont had been, alone; friends had gathered round us. +Nearly all are dead, and, when Memory recurs to the past, she wanders +among tombs. The genius, with all his blighting errors and mighty +powers; the companion of Shelley's ocean-wanderings, and the sharer of +his fate, than whom no man ever existed more gentle, generous, and +fearless; and others, who found in Shelley's society, and in his great +knowledge and warm sympathy, delight, instruction, and solace; have +joined him beyond the grave. A few survive who have felt life a desert +since he left it. What misfortune can equal death? Change can convert +every other into a blessing, or heal its sting--death alone has no cure. +It shakes the foundations of the earth on which we tread; it destroys +its beauty; it casts down our shelter; it exposes us bare to desolation. +When those we love have passed into eternity, 'life is the desert and +the solitude' in which we are forced to linger--but never find comfort +more. + +There is much in the "Adonais" which seems now more applicable to +Shelley himself than to the young and gifted poet whom he mourned. The +poetic view he takes of death, and the lofty scorn he displays towards +his calumniators, are as a prophecy on his own destiny when received +among immortal names, and the poisonous breath of critics has vanished +into emptiness before the fame he inherits. + +Shelley's favourite taste was boating; when living near the Thames or by +the Lake of Geneva, much of his life was spent on the water. On the +shore of every lake or stream or sea near which he dwelt, he had a boat +moored. He had latterly enjoyed this pleasure again. There are no +pleasure-boats on the Arno; and the shallowness of its waters (except in +winter-time, when the stream is too turbid and impetuous for boating) +rendered it difficult to get any skiff light enough to float. Shelley, +however, overcame the difficulty; he, together with a friend, contrived +a boat such as the huntsmen carry about with them in the Maremma, to +cross the sluggish but deep streams that intersect the forests,--a boat +of laths and pitched canvas. It held three persons; and he was often +seen on the Arno in it, to the horror of the Italians, who remonstrated +on the danger, and could not understand how anyone could take pleasure +in an exercise that risked life. 'Ma va per la vita!' they exclaimed. I +little thought how true their words would prove. He once ventured, with +a friend, on the glassy sea of a calm day, down the Arno and round the +coast to Leghorn, which, by keeping close in shore, was very +practicable. They returned to Pisa by the canal, when, missing the +direct cut, they got entangled among weeds, and the boat upset; a +wetting was all the harm done, except that the intense cold of his +drenched clothes made Shelley faint. Once I went down with him to the +mouth of the Arno, where the stream, then high and swift, met the +tideless sea, and disturbed its sluggish waters. It was a waste and +dreary scene; the desert sand stretched into a point surrounded by waves +that broke idly though perpetually around; it was a scene very similar +to Lido, of which he had said-- + + 'I love all waste + And solitary places; where we taste + The pleasure of believing what we see + Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be: + And such was this wide ocean, and this shore + More barren than its billows.' + +Our little boat was of greater use, unaccompanied by any danger, when we +removed to the Baths. Some friends lived at the village of Pugnano, four +miles off, and we went to and fro to see them, in our boat, by the +canal; which, fed by the Serchio, was, though an artificial, a full and +picturesque stream, making its way under verdant banks, sheltered by +trees that dipped their boughs into the murmuring waters. By day, +multitudes of Ephemera darted to and fro on the surface; at night, the +fireflies came out among the shrubs on the banks; the cicale at noon-day +kept up their hum; the aziola cooed in the quiet evening. It was a +pleasant summer, bright in all but Shelley's health and inconstant +spirits; yet he enjoyed himself greatly, and became more and more +attached to the part of the country were chance appeared to cast us. +Sometimes he projected taking a farm situated on the height of one of +the near hills, surrounded by chestnut and pine woods, and overlooking a +wide extent of country: or settling still farther in the maritime +Apennines, at Massa. Several of his slighter and unfinished poems were +inspired by these scenes, and by the companions around us. It is the +nature of that poetry, however, which overflows from the soul oftener to +express sorrow and regret than joy; for it is when oppressed by the +weight of life, and away from those he loves, that the poet has recourse +to the solace of expression in verse. + +Still, Shelley's passion was the ocean; and he wished that our summers, +instead of being passed among the hills near Pisa, should be spent on +the shores of the sea. It was very difficult to find a spot. We shrank +from Naples from a fear that the heats would disagree with Percy: +Leghorn had lost its only attraction, since our friends who had resided +there were returned to England; and, Monte Nero being the resort of many +English, we did not wish to find ourselves in the midst of a colony of +chance travellers. No one then thought it possible to reside at Via +Reggio, which latterly has become a summer resort. The low lands and bad +air of Maremma stretch the whole length of the western shores of the +Mediterranean, till broken by the rocks and hills of Spezia. It was a +vague idea, but Shelley suggested an excursion to Spezia, to see whether +it would be feasible to spend a summer there. The beauty of the bay +enchanted him. We saw no house to suit us; but the notion took root, and +many circumstances, enchained as by fatality, occurred to urge him to +execute it. + +He looked forward this autumn with great pleasure to the prospect of a +visit from Leigh Hunt. When Shelley visited Lord Byron at Ravenna, the +latter had suggested his coming out, together with the plan of a +periodical work in which they should all join. Shelley saw a prospect of +good for the fortunes of his friend, and pleasure in his society; and +instantly exerted himself to have the plan executed. He did not intend +himself joining in the work: partly from pride, not wishing to have the +air of acquiring readers for his poetry by associating it with the +compositions of more popular writers; and also because he might feel +shackled in the free expression of his opinions, if any friends were to +be compromised. By those opinions, carried even to their outermost +extent, he wished to live and die, as being in his conviction not only +true, but such as alone would conduce to the moral improvement and +happiness of mankind. The sale of the work might meanwhile, either +really or supposedly, be injured by the free expression of his thoughts; +and this evil he resolved to avoid. + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + + This morn thy gallant bark + Sailed on a sunny sea: + 'Tis noon, and tempests dark + Have wrecked it on the lee. + Ah woe! ah woe! + By Spirits of the deep + Thou'rt cradled on the billow + To thy eternal sleep. + + Thou sleep'st upon the shore + Beside the knelling surge, + And Sea-nymphs evermore + Shall sadly chant thy dirge. + They come, they come, + The Spirits of the deep,-- + While near thy seaweed pillow + My lonely watch I keep. + + From far across the sea + I hear a loud lament, + By Echo's voice for thee + From Ocean's caverns sent. + O list! O list! + The Spirits of the deep! + They raise a wail of sorrow, + While I forever weep. + +With this last year of the life of Shelley these Notes end. They are not +what I intended them to be. I began with energy, and a burning desire to +impart to the world, in worthy language, the sense I have of the virtues +and genius of the beloved and the lost; my strength has failed under the +task. Recurrence to the past, full of its own deep and unforgotten joys +and sorrows, contrasted with succeeding years of painful and solitary +struggle, has shaken my health. Days of great suffering have followed my +attempts to write, and these again produced a weakness and languor that +spread their sinister influence over these notes. I dislike speaking of +myself, but cannot help apologizing to the dead, and to the public, for +not having executed in the manner I desired the history I engaged to +give of Shelley's writings. (I at one time feared that the correction of +the press might be less exact through my illness; but I believe that it +is nearly free from error. Some asterisks occur in a few pages, as they +did in the volume of "Posthumous Poems", either because they refer to +private concerns, or because the original manuscript was left imperfect. +Did any one see the papers from which I drew that volume, the wonder +would be how any eyes or patience were capable of extracting it from so +confused a mass, interlined and broken into fragments, so that the sense +could only be deciphered and joined by guesses which might seem rather +intuitive than founded on reasoning. Yet I believe no mistake was made. +) + +The winter of 1822 was passed in Pisa, if we might call that season +winter in which autumn merged into spring after the interval of but few +days of bleaker weather. Spring sprang up early, and with extreme +beauty. Shelley had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the +subject of Charles I. It was one that he believed adapted for a drama; +full of intense interest, contrasted character, and busy passion. He had +recommended it long before, when he encouraged me to attempt a play. +Whether the subject proved more difficult than he anticipated, or +whether in fact he could not bend his mind away from the broodings and +wanderings of thought, divested from human interest, which he best +loved, I cannot tell; but he proceeded slowly, and threw it aside for +one of the most mystical of his poems, the "Triumph of Life", on which +he was employed at the last. + +His passion for boating was fostered at this time by having among our +friends several sailors. His favourite companion, Edward Ellerker +Williams, of the 8th Light Dragoons, had begun his life in the navy, and +had afterwards entered the army; he had spent several years in India, +and his love for adventure and manly exercises accorded with Shelley's +taste. It was their favourite plan to build a boat such as they could +manage themselves, and, living on the sea-coast, to enjoy at every hour +and season the pleasure they loved best. Captain Roberts, R.N., +undertook to build the boat at Genoa, where he was also occupied in +building the "Bolivar" for Lord Byron. Ours was to be an open boat, on a +model taken from one of the royal dockyards. I have since heard that +there was a defect in this model, and that it was never seaworthy. In +the month of February, Shelley and his friend went to Spezia to seek for +houses for us. Only one was to be found at all suitable; however, a +trifle such as not finding a house could not stop Shelley; the one found +was to serve for all. It was unfurnished; we sent our furniture by sea, +and with a good deal of precipitation, arising from his impatience, made +our removal. We left Pisa on the 26th of April. + +The Bay of Spezia is of considerable extent, and divided by a rocky +promontory into a larger and smaller one. The town of Lerici is situated +on the eastern point, and in the depth of the smaller bay, which bears +the name of this town, is the village of San Terenzo. Our house, Casa +Magni, was close to this village; the sea came up to the door, a steep +hill sheltered it behind. The proprietor of the estate on which it was +situated was insane; he had begun to erect a large house at the summit +of the hill behind, but his malady prevented its being finished, and it +was falling into ruin. He had (and this to the Italians had seemed a +glaring symptom of very decided madness) rooted up the olives on the +hillside, and planted forest trees. These were mostly young, but the +plantation was more in English taste than I ever elsewhere saw in Italy; +some fine walnut and ilex trees intermingled their dark massy foliage, +and formed groups which still haunt my memory, as then they satiated the +eye with a sense of loveliness. The scene was indeed of unimaginable +beauty. The blue extent of waters, the almost landlocked bay, the near +castle of Lerici shutting it in to the east, and distant Porto Venere to +the west; the varied forms of the precipitous rocks that bound in the +beach, over which there was only a winding rugged footpath towards +Lerici, and none on the other side; the tideless sea leaving no sands +nor shingle, formed a picture such as one sees in Salvator Rosa's +landscapes only. Sometimes the sunshine vanished when the sirocco +raged--the 'ponente' the wind was called on that shore. The gales and +squalls that hailed our first arrival surrounded the bay with foam; the +howling wind swept round our exposed house, and the sea roared +unremittingly, so that we almost fancied ourselves on board ship. At +other times sunshine and calm invested sea and sky, and the rich tints +of Italian heaven bathed the scene in bright and ever-varying tints. + +The natives were wilder than the place. Our near neighbours of San +Terenzo were more like savages than any people I ever before lived +among. Many a night they passed on the beach, singing, or rather +howling; the women dancing about among the waves that broke at their +feet, the men leaning against the rocks and joining in their loud wild +chorus. We could get no provisions nearer than Sarzana, at a distance of +three miles and a half off, with the torrent of the Magra between; and +even there the supply was very deficient. Had we been wrecked on an +island of the South Seas, we could scarcely have felt ourselves farther +from civilisation and comfort; but, where the sun shines, the latter +becomes an unnecessary luxury, and we had enough society among +ourselves. Yet I confess housekeeping became rather a toilsome task, +especially as I was suffering in my health, and could not exert myself +actively. + +At first the fatal boat had not arrived, and was expected with great +impatience. On Monday, 12th May, it came. Williams records the +long-wished-for fact in his journal: 'Cloudy and threatening weather. M. +Maglian called; and after dinner, and while walking with him on the +terrace, we discovered a strange sail coming round the point of Porto +Venere, which proved at length to be Shelley's boat. She had left Genoa +on Thursday last, but had been driven back by the prevailing bad winds. +A Mr. Heslop and two English seamen brought her round, and they speak +most highly of her performances. She does indeed excite my surprise and +admiration. Shelley and I walked to Lerici, and made a stretch off the +land to try her: and I find she fetches whatever she looks at. In short, +we have now a perfect plaything for the summer.'--It was thus that +short-sighted mortals welcomed Death, he having disguised his grim form +in a pleasing mask! The time of the friends was now spent on the sea; +the weather became fine, and our whole party often passed the evenings +on the water when the wind promised pleasant sailing. Shelley and +Williams made longer excursions; they sailed several times to Massa. +They had engaged one of the seamen who brought her round, a boy, by name +Charles Vivian; and they had not the slightest apprehension of danger. +When the weather was unfavourable, they employed themselves with +alterations in the rigging, and by building a boat of canvas and reeds, +as light as possible, to have on board the other for the convenience of +landing in waters too shallow for the larger vessel. When Shelley was on +board, he had his papers with him; and much of the "Triumph of Life" was +written as he sailed or weltered on that sea which was soon to engulf +him. + +The heats set in in the middle of June; the days became excessively hot. +But the sea-breeze cooled the air at noon, and extreme heat always put +Shelley in spirits. A long drought had preceded the heat; and prayers +for rain were being put up in the churches, and processions of relics +for the same effect took place in every town. At this time we received +letters announcing the arrival of Leigh Hunt at Genoa. Shelley was very +eager to see him. I was confined to my room by severe illness, and could +not move; it was agreed that Shelley and Williams should go to Leghorn +in the boat. Strange that no fear of danger crossed our minds! Living on +the sea-shore, the ocean became as a plaything: as a child may sport +with a lighted stick, till a spark inflames a forest, and spreads +destruction over all, so did we fearlessly and blindly tamper with +danger, and make a game of the terrors of the ocean. Our Italian +neighbours, even, trusted themselves as far as Massa in the skiff; and +the running down the line of coast to Leghorn gave no more notion of +peril than a fair-weather inland navigation would have done to those who +had never seen the sea. Once, some months before, Trelawny had raised a +warning voice as to the difference of our calm bay and the open sea +beyond; but Shelley and his friend, with their one sailor-boy, thought +themselves a match for the storms of the Mediterranean, in a boat which +they looked upon as equal to all it was put to do. + +On the 1st of July they left us. If ever shadow of future ill darkened +the present hour, such was over my mind when they went. During the whole +of our stay at Lerici, an intense presentiment of coming evil brooded +over my mind, and covered this beautiful place and genial summer with +the shadow of coming misery. I had vainly struggled with these +emotions--they seemed accounted for by my illness; but at this hour of +separation they recurred with renewed violence. I did not anticipate +danger for them, but a vague expectation of evil shook me to agony, and +I could scarcely bring myself to let them go. The day was calm and +clear; and, a fine breeze rising at twelve, they weighed for Leghorn. +They made the run of about fifty miles in seven hours and a half. The +"Bolivar" was in port; and, the regulations of the Health-office not +permitting them to go on shore after sunset, they borrowed cushions from +the larger vessel, and slept on board their boat. + +They spent a week at Pisa and Leghorn. The want of rain was severely +felt in the country. The weather continued sultry and fine. I have heard +that Shelley all this time was in brilliant spirits. Not long before, +talking of presentiment, he had said the only one that he ever found +infallible was the certain advent of some evil fortune when he felt +peculiarly joyous. Yet, if ever fate whispered of coming disaster, such +inaudible but not unfelt prognostics hovered around us. The beauty of +the place seemed unearthly in its excess: the distance we were at from +all signs of civilization, the sea at our feet, its murmurs or its +roaring for ever in our ears,--all these things led the mind to brood +over strange thoughts, and, lifting it from everyday life, caused it to +be familiar with the unreal. A sort of spell surrounded us; and each +day, as the voyagers did not return, we grew restless and disquieted, +and yet, strange to say, we were not fearful of the most apparent +danger. + +The spell snapped; it was all over; an interval of agonizing doubt--of +days passed in miserable journeys to gain tidings, of hopes that took +firmer root even as they were more baseless--was changed to the +certainty of the death that eclipsed all happiness for the survivors for +evermore. + +There was something in our fate peculiarly harrowing. The remains of +those we lost were cast on shore; but, by the quarantine-laws of the +coast, we were not permitted to have possession of them--the law with +respect to everything cast on land by the sea being that such should be +burned, to prevent the possibility of any remnant bringing the plague +into Italy; and no representation could alter the law. At length, +through the kind and unwearied exertions of Mr. Dawkins, our Charge +d'Affaires at Florence, we gained permission to receive the ashes after +the bodies were consumed. Nothing could equal the zeal of Trelawny in +carrying our wishes into effect. He was indefatigable in his exertions, +and full of forethought and sagacity in his arrangements. It was a +fearful task; he stood before us at last, his hands scorched and +blistered by the flames of the funeral-pyre, and by touching the burnt +relics as he placed them in the receptacles prepared for the purpose. +And there, in compass of that small case, was gathered all that remained +on earth of him whose genius and virtue were a crown of glory to the +world--whose love had been the source of happiness, peace, and good,--to +be buried with him! + +The concluding stanzas of the "Adonais" pointed out where the remains +ought to be deposited; in addition to which our beloved child lay buried +in the cemetery at Rome. Thither Shelley's ashes were conveyed; and they +rest beneath one of the antique weed-grown towers that recur at +intervals in the circuit of the massy ancient wall of Rome. He selected +the hallowed place himself; there is + + 'the sepulchre, + Oh, not of him, but of our joy!-- + ... + And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time + Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand; + And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, + Pavilioning the dust of him who planned + This refuge for his memory, doth stand + Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath, + A field is spread, on which a newer band + Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, + Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath.' + +Could sorrow for the lost, and shuddering anguish at the vacancy left +behind, be soothed by poetic imaginations, there was something in +Shelley's fate to mitigate pangs which yet, alas! could not be so +mitigated; for hard reality brings too miserably home to the mourner all +that is lost of happiness, all of lonely unsolaced struggle that +remains. Still, though dreams and hues of poetry cannot blunt grief, it +invests his fate with a sublime fitness, which those less nearly allied +may regard with complacency. A year before he had poured into verse all +such ideas about death as give it a glory of its own. He had, as it now +seems, almost anticipated his own destiny; and, when the mind figures +his skiff wrapped from sight by the thunder-storm, as it was last seen +upon the purple sea, and then, as the cloud of the tempest passed away, +no sign remained of where it had been (Captain Roberts watched the +vessel with his glass from the top of the lighthouse of Leghorn, on its +homeward track. They were off Via Reggio, at some distance from shore, +when a storm was driven over the sea. It enveloped them and several +larger vessels in darkness. When the cloud passed onwards, Roberts +looked again, and saw every other vessel sailing on the ocean except +their little schooner, which had vanished. From that time he could +scarcely doubt the fatal truth; yet we fancied that they might have been +driven towards Elba or Corsica, and so be saved. The observation made as +to the spot where the boat disappeared caused it to be found, through +the exertions of Trelawny for that effect. It had gone down in ten +fathom water; it had not capsized, and, except such things as had +floated from her, everything was found on board exactly as it had been +placed when they sailed. The boat itself was uninjured. Roberts +possessed himself of her, and decked her; but she proved not seaworthy, +and her shattered planks now lie rotting on the shore of one of the +Ionian islands, on which she was wrecked.)--who but will regard as a +prophecy the last stanza of the "Adonais"? + + 'The breath whose might I have invoked in song + Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven, + Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng + Whose sails were never to the tempest given; + The massy earth and sphered skies are riven! + I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; + Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, + The soul of Adonais, like a star, + Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.' + + Putney, May 1, 1839. + + + + + + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley +by Mary W. 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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley + +Author: Mary W. Shelley + +Release Date: November, 2003 [EBook #4695] +[This file was last updated on April 14, 2002] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO THE COMPLETE *** + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher <asschers@bigpond.com> + + + + +NOTES TO + +THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + +BY + +MARY W. SHELLEY. + + + + +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY + +TO FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, 1839. + +Obstacles have long existed to my presenting the public with a perfect +edition of Shelley's Poems. These being at last happily removed, I +hasten to fulfil an important duty,--that of giving the productions of a +sublime genius to the world, with all the correctness possible, and of, +at the same time, detailing the history of those productions, as they +sprang, living and warm, from his heart and brain. I abstain from any +remark on the occurrences of his private life, except inasmuch as the +passions which they engendered inspired his poetry. This is not the time +to relate the truth; and I should reject any colouring of the truth. No +account of these events has ever been given at all approaching reality +in their details, either as regards himself or others; nor shall I +further allude to them than to remark that the errors of action +committed by a man as noble and generous as Shelley, may, as far as he +only is concerned, be fearlessly avowed by those who loved him, in the +firm conviction that, were they judged impartially, his character would +stand in fairer and brighter light than that of any contemporary. +Whatever faults he had ought to find extenuation among his fellows, +since they prove him to be human; without them, the exalted nature of +his soul would have raised him into something divine. + +The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley +were,--First, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his +intercourse with warm affection and helpful sympathy. The other, the +eagerness and ardour with which he was attached to the cause of human +happiness and improvement; and the fervent eloquence with which he +discussed such subjects. His conversation was marked by its happy +abundance, and the beautiful language in which he clothed his poetic +ideas and philosophical notions. To defecate life of its misery and its +evil was the ruling passion of his soul; he dedicated to it every power +of his mind, every pulsation of his heart. He looked on political +freedom as the direct agent to effect the happiness of mankind; and thus +any new-sprung hope of liberty inspired a joy and an exultation more +intense and wild than he could have felt for any personal advantage. +Those who have never experienced the workings of passion on general and +unselfish subjects cannot understand this; and it must be difficult of +comprehension to the younger generation rising around, since they cannot +remember the scorn and hatred with which the partisans of reform were +regarded some few years ago, nor the persecutions to which they were +exposed. He had been from youth the victim of the state of feeling +inspired by the reaction of the French Revolution; and believing firmly +in the justice and excellence of his views, it cannot be wondered that a +nature as sensitive, as impetuous, and as generous as his, should put +its whole force into the attempt to alleviate for others the evils of +those systems from which he had himself suffered. Many advantages +attended his birth; he spurned them all when balanced with what he +considered his duties. He was generous to imprudence, devoted to +heroism. + +These characteristics breathe throughout his poetry. The struggle for +human weal; the resolution firm to martyrdom; the impetuous pursuit, the +glad triumph in good; the determination not to despair; --such were the +features that marked those of his works which he regarded with most +complacency, as sustained by a lofty subject and useful aim. + +In addition to these, his poems may be divided into two classes,--the +purely imaginative, and those which sprang from the emotions of his +heart. Among the former may be classed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", +and his latest composition, left imperfect, the "Triumph of Life". In +the first of these particularly he gave the reins to his fancy, and +luxuriated in every idea as it rose; in all there is that sense of +mystery which formed an essential portion of his perception of life--a +clinging to the subtler inner spirit, rather than to the outward form--a +curious and metaphysical anatomy of human passion and perception. + +The second class is, of course, the more popular, as appealing at once +to emotions common to us all; some of these rest on the passion of love; +others on grief and despondency; others on the sentiments inspired by +natural objects. Shelley's conception of love was exalted, absorbing, +allied to all that is purest and noblest in our nature, and warmed by +earnest passion; such it appears when he gave it a voice in verse. Yet +he was usually averse to expressing these feelings, except when highly +idealized; and many of his more beautiful effusions he had cast aside +unfinished, and they were never seen by me till after I had lost him. +Others, as for instance "Rosalind and Helen" and "Lines written among +the Euganean Hills", I found among his papers by chance; and with some +difficulty urged him to complete them. There are others, such as the +"Ode to the Skylark and The Cloud", which, in the opinion of many +critics, bear a purer poetical stamp than any other of his productions. +They were written as his mind prompted: listening to the carolling of +the bird, aloft in the azure sky of Italy; or marking the cloud as it +sped across the heavens, while he floated in his boat on the Thames. + +No poet was ever warmed by a more genuine and unforced inspiration. His +extreme sensibility gave the intensity of passion to his intellectual +pursuits; and rendered his mind keenly alive to every perception of +outward objects, as well as to his internal sensations. Such a gift is, +among the sad vicissitudes of human life, the disappointments we meet, +and the galling sense of our own mistakes and errors, fraught with pain; +to escape from such, he delivered up his soul to poetry, and felt happy +when he sheltered himself, from the influence of human sympathies, in +the wildest regions of fancy. His imagination has been termed too +brilliant, his thoughts too subtle. He loved to idealize reality; and +this is a taste shared by few. We are willing to have our passing whims +exalted into passions, for this gratifies our vanity; but few of us +understand or sympathize with the endeavour to ally the love of abstract +beauty, and adoration of abstract good, the to agathon kai to kalon of +the Socratic philosophers, with our sympathies with our kind. In this, +Shelley resembled Plato; both taking more delight in the abstract and +the ideal than in the special and tangible. This did not result from +imitation; for it was not till Shelley resided in Italy that he made +Plato his study. He then translated his "Symposium" and his "Ion"; and +the English language boasts of no more brilliant composition than +Plato's Praise of Love translated by Shelley. To return to his own +poetry. The luxury of imagination, which sought nothing beyond itself +(as a child burdens itself with spring flowers, thinking of no use +beyond the enjoyment of gathering them), often showed itself in his +verses: they will be only appreciated by minds which have resemblance to +his own; and the mystic subtlety of many of his thoughts will share the +same fate. The metaphysical strain that characterizes much of what he +has written was, indeed, the portion of his works to which, apart from +those whose scope was to awaken mankind to aspirations for what he +considered the true and good, he was himself particularly attached. +There is much, however, that speaks to the many. When he would consent +to dismiss these huntings after the obscure (which, entwined with his +nature as they were, he did with difficulty), no poet ever expressed in +sweeter, more heart-reaching, or more passionate verse, the gentler or +more forcible emotions of the soul. + +A wise friend once wrote to Shelley: 'You are still very young, and in +certain essential respects you do not yet sufficiently perceive that you +are so.' It is seldom that the young know what youth is, till they have +got beyond its period; and time was not given him to attain this +knowledge. It must be remembered that there is the stamp of such +inexperience on all he wrote; he had not completed his +nine-and-twentieth year when he died. The calm of middle life did not +add the seal of the virtues which adorn maturity to those generated by +the vehement spirit of youth. Through life also he was a martyr to +ill-health, and constant pain wound up his nerves to a pitch of +susceptibility that rendered his views of life different from those of a +man in the enjoyment of healthy sensations. Perfectly gentle and +forbearing in manner, he suffered a good deal of internal irritability, +or rather excitement, and his fortitude to bear was almost always on the +stretch; and thus, during a short life, he had gone through more +experience of sensation than many whose existence is protracted. 'If I +die to-morrow,' he said, on the eve of his unanticipated death, 'I have +lived to be older than my father.' The weight of thought and feeling +burdened him heavily; you read his sufferings in his attenuated frame, +while you perceived the mastery he held over them in his animated +countenance and brilliant eyes. + +He died, and the world showed no outward sign. But his influence over +mankind, though slow in growth, is fast augmenting; and, in the +ameliorations that have taken place in the political state of his +country, we may trace in part the operation of his arduous struggles. +His spirit gathers peace in its new state from the sense that, though +late, his exertions were not made in vain, and in the progress of the +liberty he so fondly loved. + +He died, and his place, among those who knew him intimately, has never +been filled up. He walked beside them like a spirit of good to comfort +and benefit--to enlighten the darkness of life with irradiations of +genius, to cheer it with his sympathy and love. Any one, once attached +to Shelley, must feel all other affections, however true and fond, as +wasted on barren soil in comparison. It is our best consolation to know +that such a pure-minded and exalted being was once among us, and now +exists where we hope one day to join him; -- although the intolerant, in +their blindness, poured down anathemas, the Spirit of Good, who can +judge the heart, never rejected him. + +In the notes appended to the poems I have endeavoured to narrate the +origin and history of each. The loss of nearly all letters and papers +which refer to his early life renders the execution more imperfect than +it would otherwise have been. I have, however, the liveliest +recollection of all that was done and said during the period of my +knowing him. Every impression is as clear as if stamped yesterday, and I +have no apprehension of any mistake in my statements as far as they go. +In other respects I am indeed incompetent: but I feel the importance of +the task, and regard it as my most sacred duty. I endeavour to fulfil it +in a manner he would himself approve; and hope, in this publication, to +lay the first stone of a monument due to Shelley's genius, his +sufferings, and his virtues:-- + + Se al seguir son tarda, + Forse avverra che 'l bel nome gentile + Consacrero con questa stanca penna. + +POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839. + +In revising this new edition, and carefully consulting Shelley's +scattered and confused papers, I found a few fragments which had +hitherto escaped me, and was enabled to complete a few poems hitherto +left unfinished. What at one time escapes the searching eye, dimmed by +its own earnestness, becomes clear at a future period. By the aid of a +friend, I also present some poems complete and correct which hitherto +have been defaced by various mistakes and omissions. It was suggested +that the poem "To the Queen of my Heart" was falsely attributed to +Shelley. I certainly find no trace of it among his papers; and, as those +of his intimate friends whom I have consulted never heard of it, I omit +it. + +Two poems are added of some length, "Swellfoot the Tyrant" and "Peter +Bell the Third". I have mentioned the circumstances under which they +were written in the notes; and need only add that they are conceived in +a very different spirit from Shelley's usual compositions. They are +specimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but, although they adopt a +familiar style and homely imagery, there shine through the radiance of +the poet's imagination the earnest views and opinions of the politician +and the moralist. + +At my request the publisher has restored the omitted passages of "Queen +Mab". I now present this edition as a complete collection of my +husband's poetical works, and I do not foresee that I can hereafter add +to or take away a word or line. + +Putney, November 6, 1839. + +PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY + +TO THE VOLUME OF POSTHUMOUS POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1824. + + In nobil sangue vita umile e queta, + Ed in alto intelletto un puro core + Frutto senile in sul giovenil fibre, + E in aspetto pensoso anima lieta.--PETRARCA. + +It had been my wish, on presenting the public with the Posthumous Poems +of Mr. Shelley, to have accompanied them by a biographical notice; as it +appeared to me that at this moment a narration of the events of my +husband's life would come more gracefully from other hands than mine, I +applied to Mr. Leigh Hunt. The distinguished friendship that Mr. Shelley +felt for him, and the enthusiastic affection with which Mr. Leigh Hunt +clings to his friend's memory, seemed to point him out as the person +best calculated for such an undertaking. His absence from this country, +which prevented our mutual explanation, has unfortunately rendered my +scheme abortive. I do not doubt but that on some other occasion he will +pay this tribute to his lost friend, and sincerely regret that the +volume which I edit has not been honoured by its insertion. + +The comparative solitude in which Mr. Shelley lived was the occasion +that he was personally known to few; and his fearless enthusiasm in the +cause which he considered the most sacred upon earth, the improvement of +the moral and physical state of mankind, was the chief reason why he, +like other illustrious reformers, was pursued by hatred and calumny. No +man was ever more devoted than he to the endeavour of making those +around him happy; no man ever possessed friends more unfeignedly +attached to him. The ungrateful world did not feel his loss, and the gap +it made seemed to close as quickly over his memory as the murderous sea +above his living frame. Hereafter men will lament that his transcendent +powers of intellect were extinguished before they had bestowed on them +their choicest treasures. To his friends his loss is irremediable: the +wise, the brave, the gentle, is gone for ever! He is to them as a bright +vision, whose radiant track, left behind in the memory, is worth all the +realities that society can afford. Before the critics contradict me, let +them appeal to any one who had ever known him. To see him was to love +him: and his presence, like Ithuriel's spear, was alone sufficient to +disclose the falsehood of the tale which his enemies whispered in the +ear of the ignorant world. + +His life was spent in the contemplation of Nature, in arduous study, or +in acts of kindness and affection. He was an elegant scholar and a +profound metaphysician; without possessing much scientific knowledge, he +was unrivalled in the justness and extent of his observations on natural +objects; he knew every plant by its name, and was familiar with the +history and habits of every production of the earth; he could interpret +without a fault each appearance in the sky; and the varied phenomena of +heaven and earth filled him with deep emotion. He made his study and +reading-room of the shadowed copse, the stream, the lake, and the +waterfall. Ill health and continual pain preyed upon his powers; and the +solitude in which we lived, particularly on our first arrival in Italy, +although congenial to his feelings, must frequently have weighed upon +his spirits; those beautiful and affecting "Lines written in Dejection +near Naples" were composed at such an interval; but, when in health, his +spirits were buoyant and youthful to an extraordinary degree. + +Such was his love for Nature that every page of his poetry is +associated, in the minds of his friends, with the loveliest scenes of +the countries which he inhabited. In early life he visited the most +beautiful parts of this country and Ireland. Afterwards the Alps of +Switzerland became his inspirers. "Prometheus Unbound" was written among +the deserted and flower-grown ruins of Rome; and, when he made his home +under the Pisan hills, their roofless recesses harboured him as he +composed the "Witch of Atlas", "Adonais", and "Hellas". In the wild but +beautiful Bay of Spezzia, the winds and waves which he loved became his +playmates. His days were chiefly spent on the water; the management of +his boat, its alterations and improvements, were his principal +occupation. At night, when the unclouded moon shone on the calm sea, he +often went alone in his little shallop to the rocky caves that bordered +it, and, sitting beneath their shelter, wrote the "Triumph of Life", the +last of his productions. The beauty but strangeness of this lonely +place, the refined pleasure which he felt in the companionship of a few +selected friends, our entire sequestration from the rest of the world, +all contributed to render this period of his life one of continued +enjoyment. I am convinced that the two months we passed there were the +happiest which he had ever known: his health even rapidly improved, and +he was never better than when I last saw him, full of spirits and joy, +embark for Leghorn, that he might there welcome Leigh Hunt to Italy. I +was to have accompanied him; but illness confined me to my room, and +thus put the seal on my misfortune. His vessel bore out of sight with a +favourable wind, and I remained awaiting his return by the breakers of +that sea which was about to engulf him. + +He spent a week at Pisa, employed in kind offices toward his friend, and +enjoying with keen delight the renewal of their intercourse. He then +embarked with Mr. Williams, the chosen and beloved sharer of his +pleasures and of his fate, to return to us. We waited for them in vain; +the sea by its restless moaning seemed to desire to inform us of what we +would not learn:--but a veil may well be drawn over such misery. The +real anguish of those moments transcended all the fictions that the most +glowing imagination ever portrayed; our seclusion, the savage nature of +the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, and our immediate vicinity +to the troubled sea, combined to imbue with strange horror our days of +uncertainty. The truth was at last known,--a truth that made our loved +and lovely Italy appear a tomb, its sky a pall. Every heart echoed the +deep lament, and my only consolation was in the praise and earnest love +that each voice bestowed and each countenance demonstrated for him we +had lost,--not, I fondly hope, for ever; his unearthly and elevated +nature is a pledge of the continuation of his being, although in an +altered form. Rome received his ashes; they are deposited beneath its +weed-grown wall, and 'the world's sole monument' is enriched by his +remains. + +I must add a few words concerning the contents of this volume. "Julian +and Maddalo", the "Witch of Atlas", and most of the "Translations", were +written some years ago; and, with the exception of the "Cyclops", and +the Scenes from the "Magico Prodigioso", may be considered as having +received the author's ultimate corrections. The "Triumph of Life" was +his last work, and was left in so unfinished a state that I arranged it +in its present form with great difficulty. All his poems which were +scattered in periodical works are collected in this volume, and I have +added a reprint of "Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude": the difficulty +with which a copy can be obtained is the cause of its republication. +Many of the Miscellaneous Poems, written on the spur of the occasion, +and never retouched, I found among his manuscript books, and have +carefully copied. I have subjoined, whenever I have been able, the date +of their composition. + +I do not know whether the critics will reprehend the insertion of some +of the most imperfect among them; but I frankly own that I have been +more actuated by the fear lest any monument of his genius should escape +me than the wish of presenting nothing but what was complete to the +fastidious reader. I feel secure that the lovers of Shelley's poetry +(who know how, more than any poet of the present day, every line and +word he wrote is instinct with peculiar beauty) will pardon and thank +me: I consecrate this volume to them. + +The size of this collection has prevented the insertion of any prose +pieces. They will hereafter appear in a separate publication. + +MARY W. SHELLEY. + +London, June 1, 1824. + +NOTE ON QUEEN MAB, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley was eighteen when he wrote "Queen Mab"; he never published it. +When it was written, he had come to the decision that he was too young +to be a 'judge of controversies'; and he was desirous of acquiring 'that +sobriety of spirit which is the characteristic of true heroism.' But he +never doubted the truth or utility of his opinions; and, in printing and +privately distributing "Queen Mab", he believed that he should further +their dissemination, without occasioning the mischief either to others +or himself that might arise from publication. It is doubtful whether he +would himself have admitted it into a collection of his works. His +severe classical taste, refined by the constant study of the Greek +poets, might have discovered defects that escape the ordinary reader; +and the change his opinions underwent in many points would have +prevented him from putting forth the speculations of his boyish days. +But the poem is too beautiful in itself, and far too remarkable as the +production of a boy of eighteen, to allow of its being passed over: +besides that, having been frequently reprinted, the omission would be +vain. In the former edition certain portions were left out, as shocking +the general reader from the violence of their attack on religion. I +myself had a painful feeling that such erasures might be looked upon as +a mark of disrespect towards the author, and am glad to have the +opportunity of restoring them. The notes also are reprinted entire--not +because they are models of reasoning or lessons of truth, but because +Shelley wrote them, and that all that a man at once so distinguished and +so excellent ever did deserves to be preserved. The alterations his +opinions underwent ought to be recorded, for they form his history. + +A series of articles was published in the "New Monthly Magazine" during +the autumn of the year 1832, written by a man of great talent, a +fellow-collegian and warm friend of Shelley: they describe admirably the +state of his mind during his collegiate life. Inspired with ardour for +the acquisition of knowledge, endowed with the keenest sensibility and +with the fortitude of a martyr, Shelley came among his fellow-creatures, +congregated for the purposes of education, like a spirit from another +sphere; too delicately organized for the rough treatment man uses +towards man, especially in the season of youth, and too resolute in +carrying out his own sense of good and justice, not to become a victim. +To a devoted attachment to those he loved he added a determined +resistance to oppression. Refusing to fag at Eton, he was treated with +revolting cruelty by masters and boys: this roused instead of taming his +spirit, and he rejected the duty of obedience when it was enforced by +menaces and punishment. To aversion to the society of his +fellow-creatures, such as he found them when collected together in +societies, where one egged on the other to acts of tyranny, was joined +the deepest sympathy and compassion; while the attachment he felt for +individuals, and the admiration with which he regarded their powers and +their virtues, led him to entertain a high opinion of the perfectibility +of human nature; and he believed that all could reach the highest grade +of moral improvement, did not the customs and prejudices of society +foster evil passions and excuse evil actions. + +The oppression which, trembling at every nerve yet resolute to heroism, +it was his ill-fortune to encounter at school and at college, led him to +dissent in all things from those whose arguments were blows, whose faith +appeared to engender blame and hatred. 'During my existence,' he wrote +to a friend in 1812, 'I have incessantly speculated, thought, and read.' +His readings were not always well chosen; among them were the works of +the French philosophers: as far as metaphysical argument went, he +temporarily became a convert. At the same time, it was the cardinal +article of his faith that, if men were but taught and induced to treat +their fellows with love, charity, and equal rights, this earth would +realize paradise. He looked upon religion, as it is professed, and above +all practised, as hostile instead of friendly to the cultivation of +those virtues which would make men brothers. + +Can this be wondered at? At the age of seventeen, fragile in health and +frame, of the purest habits in morals, full of devoted generosity and +universal kindness, glowing with ardour to attain wisdom, resolved at +every personal sacrifice to do right, burning with a desire for +affection and sympathy,--he was treated as a reprobate, cast forth as a +criminal. + +The cause was that he was sincere; that he believed the opinions which +he entertained to be true. And he loved truth with a martyr's love; he +was ready to sacrifice station and fortune, and his dearest affections, +at its shrine. The sacrifice was demanded from, and made by, a youth of +seventeen. It is a singular fact in the history of society in the +civilized nations of modern times that no false step is so irretrievable +as one made in early youth. Older men, it is true, when they oppose +their fellows and transgress ordinary rules, carry a certain prudence or +hypocrisy as a shield along with them. But youth is rash; nor can it +imagine, while asserting what it believes to be true, and doing what it +believes to be right, that it should be denounced as vicious, and +pursued as a criminal. + +Shelley possessed a quality of mind which experience has shown me to be +of the rarest occurrence among human beings: this was his UNWORLDLINESS. +The usual motives that rule men, prospects of present or future +advantage, the rank and fortune of those around, the taunts and +censures, or the praise, of those who were hostile to him, had no +influence whatever over his actions, and apparently none over his +thoughts. It is difficult even to express the simplicity and directness +of purpose that adorned him. Some few might be found in the history of +mankind, and some one at least among his own friends, equally +disinterested and scornful, even to severe personal sacrifices, of every +baser motive. But no one, I believe, ever joined this noble but passive +virtue to equal active endeavours for the benefit of his friends and +mankind in general, and to equal power to produce the advantages he +desired. The world's brightest gauds and its most solid advantages were +of no worth in his eyes, when compared to the cause of what he +considered truth, and the good of his fellow-creatures. Born in a +position which, to his inexperienced mind, afforded the greatest +facilities to practise the tenets he espoused, he boldly declared the +use he would make of fortune and station, and enjoyed the belief that he +should materially benefit his fellow-creatures by his actions; while, +conscious of surpassing powers of reason and imagination, it is not +strange that he should, even while so young, have believed that his +written thoughts would tend to disseminate opinions which he believed +conducive to the happiness of the human race. + +If man were a creature devoid of passion, he might have said and done +all this with quietness. But he was too enthusiastic, and too full of +hatred of all the ills he witnessed, not to scorn danger. Various +disappointments tortured, but could not tame, his soul. The more enmity +he met, the more earnestly he became attached to his peculiar views, and +hostile to those of the men who persecuted him. + +He was animated to greater zeal by compassion for his fellow-creatures. +His sympathy was excited by the misery with which the world is burning. +He witnessed the sufferings of the poor, and was aware of the evils of +ignorance. He desired to induce every rich man to despoil himself of +superfluity, and to create a brotherhood of property and service, and +was ready to be the first to lay down the advantages of his birth. He +was of too uncompromising a disposition to join any party. He did not in +his youth look forward to gradual improvement: nay, in those days of +intolerance, now almost forgotten, it seemed as easy to look forward to +the sort of millennium of freedom and brotherhood which he thought the +proper state of mankind as to the present reign of moderation and +improvement. Ill-health made him believe that his race would soon be +run; that a year or two was all he had of life. He desired that these +years should be useful and illustrious. He saw, in a fervent call on his +fellow-creatures to share alike the blessings of the creation, to love +and serve each other, the noblest work that life and time permitted him. +In this spirit he composed "Queen Mab". + +He was a lover of the wonderful and wild in literature, but had not +fostered these tastes at their genuine sources--the romances and +chivalry of the middle ages--but in the perusal of such German works as +were current in those days. Under the influence of these he, at the age +of fifteen, wrote two short prose romances of slender merit. The +sentiments and language were exaggerated, the composition imitative and +poor. He wrote also a poem on the subject of Ahasuerus--being led to it +by a German fragment he picked up, dirty and torn, in Lincoln's Inn +Fields. This fell afterwards into other hands, and was considerably +altered before it was printed. Our earlier English poetry was almost +unknown to him. The love and knowledge of Nature developed by +Wordsworth--the lofty melody and mysterious beauty of Coleridge's +poetry--and the wild fantastic machinery and gorgeous scenery adopted by +Southey--composed his favourite reading; the rhythm of "Queen Mab" was +founded on that of "Thalaba", and the first few lines bear a striking +resemblance in spirit, though not in idea, to the opening of that poem. +His fertile imagination, and ear tuned to the finest sense of harmony, +preserved him from imitation. Another of his favourite books was the +poem of "Gebir" by Walter Savage Landor. From his boyhood he had a +wonderful facility of versification, which he carried into another +language; and his Latin school-verses were composed with an ease and +correctness that procured for him prizes, and caused him to be resorted +to by all his friends for help. He was, at the period of writing "Queen +Mab", a great traveller within the limits of England, Scotland, and +Ireland. His time was spent among the loveliest scenes of these +countries. Mountain and lake and forest were his home; the phenomena of +Nature were his favourite study. He loved to inquire into their causes, +and was addicted to pursuits of natural philosophy and chemistry, as far +as they could be carried on as an amusement. These tastes gave truth and +vivacity to his descriptions, and warmed his soul with that deep +admiration for the wonders of Nature which constant association with her +inspired. + +He never intended to publish "Queen Mab" as it stands; but a few years +after, when printing "Alastor", he extracted a small portion which he +entitled "The Daemon of the World". In this he changed somewhat the +versification, and made other alterations scarcely to be called +improvements. + +Some years after, when in Italy, a bookseller published an edition of +"Queen Mab" as it originally stood. Shelley was hastily written to by +his friends, under the idea that, deeply injurious as the mere +distribution of the poem had proved, the publication might awaken fresh +persecutions. At the suggestion of these friends he wrote a letter on +the subject, printed in the "Examiner" newspaper--with which I close +this history of his earliest work. + +TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'EXAMINER.' + +'Sir, + +'Having heard that a poem entitled "Queen Mab" has been surreptitiously +published in London, and that legal proceedings have been instituted +against the publisher, I request the favour of your insertion of the +following explanation of the affair, as it relates to me. + +'A poem entitled "Queen Mab" was written by me at the age of eighteen, I +daresay in a sufficiently intemperate spirit--but even then was not +intended for publication, and a few copies only were struck off, to be +distributed among my personal friends. I have not seen this production +for several years. I doubt not but that it is perfectly worthless in +point of literary composition; and that, in all that concerns moral and +political speculation, as well as in the subtler discriminations of +metaphysical and religious doctrine, it is still more crude and +immature. I am a devoted enemy to religious, political, and domestic +oppression; and I regret this publication, not so much from literary +vanity, as because I fear it is better fitted to injure than to serve +the sacred cause of freedom. I have directed my solicitor to apply to +Chancery for an injunction to restrain the sale; but, after the +precedent of Mr. Southey's "Wat Tyler" (a poem written, I believe, at +the same age, and with the same unreflecting enthusiasm), with little +hope of success. + +'Whilst I exonerate myself from all share in having divulged opinions +hostile to existing sanctions, under the form, whatever it may be, which +they assume in this poem, it is scarcely necessary for me to protest +against the system of inculcating the truth of Christianity or the +excellence of Monarchy, however true or however excellent they may be, +by such equivocal arguments as confiscation and imprisonment, and +invective and slander, and the insolent violation of the most sacred +ties of Nature and society. + +'SIR, + +'I am your obliged and obedient servant, + +'PERCY B. SHELLEY. + +'Pisa, June 22, 1821.' + +NOTE ON "ALASTOR", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +"Alastor" is written in a very different tone from "Queen Mab". In the +latter, Shelley poured out all the cherished speculations of his +youth--all the irrepressible emotions of sympathy, censure, and hope, to +which the present suffering, and what he considers the proper destiny of +his fellow-creatures, gave birth. "Alastor", on the contrary, contains +an individual interest only. A very few years, with their attendant +events, had checked the ardour of Shelley's hopes, though he still +thought them well-grounded, and that to advance their fulfilment was the +noblest task man could achieve. + +This is neither the time nor place to speak of the misfortunes that +chequered his life. It will be sufficient to say that, in all he did, he +at the time of doing it believed himself justified to his own +conscience; while the various ills of poverty and loss of friends +brought home to him the sad realities of life. Physical suffering had +also considerable influence in causing him to turn his eyes inward; +inclining him rather to brood over the thoughts and emotions of his own +soul than to glance abroad, and to make, as in "Queen Mab", the whole +universe the object and subject of his song. In the Spring of +1815, an eminent physician pronounced that he was dying rapidly of a +consumption; abscesses were formed on his lungs, and he suffered acute +spasms. Suddenly a complete change took place; and though through life +he was a martyr to pain and debility, every symptom of pulmonary disease +vanished. His nerves, which nature had formed sensitive to an unexampled +degree, were rendered still more susceptible by the state of his health. + +As soon as the peace of 1814 had opened the Continent, he went abroad. +He visited some of the more magnificent scenes of Switzerland, and +returned to England from Lucerne, by the Reuss and the Rhine. The +river-navigation enchanted him. In his favourite poem of "Thalaba", his +imagination had been excited by a description of such a voyage. In the +summer of 1815, after a tour along the southern coast of Devonshire and +a visit to Clifton, he rented a house on Bishopsgate Heath, on the +borders of Windsor Forest, where he enjoyed several months of +comparative health and tranquil happiness. The later summer months were +warm and dry. Accompanied by a few friends, he visited the source of the +Thames, making a voyage in a wherry from Windsor to Crichlade. His +beautiful stanzas in the churchyard of Lechlade were written on that +occasion. "Alastor" was composed on his return. He spent his days under +the oak-shades of Windsor Great Park; and the magnificent woodland was a +fitting study to inspire the various descriptions of forest scenery we +find in the poem. + +None of Shelley's poems is more characteristic than this. The solemn +spirit that reigns throughout, the worship of the majesty of nature, the +broodings of a poet's heart in solitude--the mingling of the exulting +joy which the various aspects of the visible universe inspires with the +sad and struggling pangs which human passion imparts--give a touching +interest to the whole. The death which he had often contemplated during +the last months as certain and near he here represented in such colours +as had, in his lonely musings, soothed his soul to peace. The +versification sustains the solemn spirit which breathes throughout: it +is peculiarly melodious. The poem ought rather to be considered didactic +than narrative: it was the outpouring of his own emotions, embodied in +the purest form he could conceive, painted in the ideal hues which his +brilliant imagination inspired, and softened by the recent anticipation +of death. + +NOTE ON THE "REVOLT OF ISLAM", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley possessed two remarkable qualities of intellect--a brilliant +imagination, and a logical exactness of reason. His inclinations led him +(he fancied) almost alike to poetry and metaphysical discussions. I say +'he fancied,' because I believe the former to have been paramount, and +that it would have gained the mastery even had he struggled against it. +However, he said that he deliberated at one time whether he should +dedicate himself to poetry or metaphysics; and, resolving on the former, +he educated himself for it, discarding in a great measure his +philosophical pursuits, and engaging himself in the study of the poets +of Greece, Italy, and England. To these may be added a constant perusal +of portions of the old Testament--the Psalms, the Book of Job, the +Prophet Isaiah, and others, the sublime poetry of which filled him with +delight. + +As a poet, his intellect and compositions were powerfully influenced by +exterior circumstances, and especially by his place of abode. He was +very fond of travelling, and ill-health increased this restlessness. The +sufferings occasioned by a cold English winter made him pine, especially +when our colder spring arrived, for a more genial climate. In 1816 he +again visited Switzerland, and rented a house on the banks of the Lake +of Geneva; and many a day, in cloud or sunshine, was passed alone in his +boat--sailing as the wind listed, or weltering on the calm waters. The +majestic aspect of Nature ministered such thoughts as he afterwards +enwove in verse. His lines on the Bridge of the Arve, and his "Hymn to +Intellectual Beauty", were written at this time. Perhaps during this +summer his genius was checked by association with another poet whose +nature was utterly dissimilar to his own, yet who, in the poem he wrote +at that time, gave tokens that he shared for a period the more abstract +and etherealised inspiration of Shelley. The saddest events awaited his +return to England; but such was his fear to wound the feelings of others +that he never expressed the anguish he felt, and seldom gave vent to the +indignation roused by the persecutions he underwent; while the course of +deep unexpressed passion, and the sense of injury, engendered the desire +to embody themselves in forms defecated of all the weakness and evil +which cling to real life. + +He chose therefore for his hero a youth nourished in dreams of liberty, +some of whose actions are in direct opposition to the opinions of the +world; but who is animated throughout by an ardent love of virtue, and a +resolution to confer the boons of political and intellectual freedom on +his fellow-creatures. He created for this youth a woman such as he +delighted to imagine--full of enthusiasm for the same objects; and they +both, with will unvanquished, and the deepest sense of the justice of +their cause, met adversity and death. There exists in this poem a +memorial of a friend of his youth. The character of the old man who +liberates Laon from his tower prison, and tends on him in sickness, is +founded on that of Doctor Lind, who, when Shelley was at Eton, had often +stood by to befriend and support him, and whose name he never mentioned +without love and veneration. + +During the year 1817 we were established at Marlow in Buckinghamshire. +Shelley's choice of abode was fixed chiefly by this town being at no +great distance from London, and its neighbourhood to the Thames. The +poem was written in his boat, as it floated under the beech groves of +Bisham, or during wanderings in the neighbouring country, which is +distinguished for peculiar beauty. The chalk hills break into cliffs +that overhang the Thames, or form valleys clothed with beech; the wilder +portion of the country is rendered beautiful by exuberant vegetation; +and the cultivated part is peculiarly fertile. With all this wealth of +Nature which, either in the form of gentlemen's parks or soil dedicated +to agriculture, flourishes around, Marlow was inhabited (I hope it is +altered now) by a very poor population. The women are lacemakers, and +lose their health by sedentary labour, for which they were very ill +paid. The Poor-laws ground to the dust not only the paupers, but those +who had risen just above that state, and were obliged to pay poor-rates. +The changes produced by peace following a long war, and a bad harvest, +brought with them the most heart-rending evils to the poor. Shelley +afforded what alleviation he could. In the winter, while bringing out +his poem, he had a severe attack of ophthalmia, caught while visiting +the poor cottages. I mention these things,--for this minute and active +sympathy with his fellow-creatures gives a thousandfold interest to +his speculations, and stamps with reality his pleadings for the human +race. + +The poem, bold in its opinions and uncompromising in their expression, +met with many censurers, not only among those who allow of no virtue but +such as supports the cause they espouse, but even among those whose +opinions were similar to his own. I extract a portion of a letter +written in answer to one of these friends. It best details the impulses +of Shelley's mind, and his motives: it was written with entire +unreserve; and is therefore a precious monument of his own opinion of +his powers, of the purity of his designs, and the ardour with which he +clung, in adversity and through the valley of the shadow of death, to +views from which he believed the permanent happiness of mankind must +eventually spring. + + +'Marlowe, December 11, 1817. + +'I have read and considered all that you say about my general powers, +and the particular instance of the poem in which I have attempted to +develop them. Nothing can be more satisfactory to me than the interest +which your admonitions express. But I think you are mistaken in some +points with regard to the peculiar nature of my powers, whatever be +their amount. I listened with deference and self-suspicion to your +censures of "The Revolt of Islam"; but the productions of mine which you +commend hold a very low place in my own esteem; and this reassures me, +in some degree at least. The poem was produced by a series of thoughts +which filled my mind with unbounded and sustained enthusiasm. I felt the +precariousness of my life, and I engaged in this task, resolved to leave +some record of myself. Much of what the volume contains was written with +the same feeling--as real, though not so prophetic--as the +communications of a dying man. I never presumed indeed to consider it +anything approaching to faultless; but, when I consider contemporary +productions of the same apparent pretensions, I own I was filled with +confidence. I felt that it was in many respects a genuine picture of my +own mind. I felt that the sentiments were true, not assumed. And in this +have I long believed that my power consists; in sympathy, and that part +of the imagination which relates to sentiment and contemplation. I am +formed, if for anything not in common with the herd of mankind, to +apprehend minute and remote distinctions of feeling, whether relative to +external nature or the living beings which surround us, and to +communicate the conceptions which result from considering either the +moral or the material universe as a whole. Of course, I believe these +faculties, which perhaps comprehend all that is sublime in man, to exist +very imperfectly in my own mind. But, when you advert to my +Chancery-paper, a cold, forced, unimpassioned, insignificant piece of +cramped and cautious argument, and to the little scrap about +"Mandeville", which expressed my feelings indeed, but cost scarcely two +minutes' thought to express, as specimens of my powers more favourable +than that which grew as it were from "the agony and bloody sweat" of +intellectual travail; surely I must feel that, in some manner, either I +am mistaken in believing that I have any talent at all, or you in the +selection of the specimens of it. Yet, after all, I cannot but be +conscious, in much of what I write, of an absence of that tranquillity +which is the attribute and accompaniment of power. This feeling alone +would make your most kind and wise admonitions, on the subject of the +economy of intellectual force, valuable to me. And, if I live, or if I +see any trust in coming years, doubt not but that I shall do something, +whatever it may be, which a serious and earnest estimate of my powers +will suggest to me, and which will be in every respect accommodated to +their utmost limits. + +[Shelley to Godwin.] + +NOTE ON ROSALIND AND HELEN BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +"Rosalind and Helen" was begun at Marlow, and thrown aside--till I found +it; and, at my request, it was completed. Shelley had no care for any of +his poems that did not emanate from the depths of his mind, and develop +some high or abstruse truth. When he does touch on human life and the +human heart, no pictures can be more faithful, more delicate, more +subtle, or more pathetic. He never mentioned Love but he shed a grace +borrowed from his own nature, that scarcely any other poet has bestowed +on that passion. When he spoke of it as the law of life, which inasmuch +as we rebel against we err and injure ourselves and others, he +promulgated that which he considered an irrefragable truth. In his eyes +it was the essence of our being, and all woe and pain arose from the war +made against it by selfishness, or insensibility, or mistake. By +reverting in his mind to this first principle, he discovered the source +of many emotions, and could disclose the secrets of all hearts, and his +delineations of passion and emotion touch the finest chords of our +nature. + +"Rosalind and Helen" was finished during the summer of 1818, while we +were at the Baths of Lucca. + +NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +From the Baths of Lucca, in 1818, Shelley visited Venice; and, +circumstances rendering it eligible that we should remain a few weeks in +the neighbourhood of that city, he accepted the offer of Lord Byron, who +lent him the use of a villa he rented near Este; and he sent for his +family from Lucca to join him. + +I Capuccini was a villa built on the site of a Capuchin convent, +demolished when the French suppressed religious houses; it was situated +on the very overhanging brow of a low hill at the foot of a range of +higher ones. The house was cheerful and pleasant; a vine-trellised walk, +a pergola, as it is called in Italian, led from the hall-door to a +summer-house at the end of the garden, which Shelley made his study, and +in which he began the "Prometheus"; and here also, as he mentions in a +letter, he wrote "Julian and Maddalo". A slight ravine, with a road in +its depth, divided the garden from the hill, on which stood the ruins of +the ancient castle of Este, whose dark massive wall gave forth an echo, +and from whose ruined crevices owls and bats flitted forth at night, as +the crescent moon sunk behind the black and heavy battlements. We looked +from the garden over the wide plain of Lombardy, bounded to the west by +the far Apennines, while to the east the horizon was lost in misty +distance. After the picturesque but limited view of mountain, ravine, +and chestnut-wood, at the Baths of Lucca, there was something infinitely +gratifying to the eye in the wide range of prospect commanded by our new +abode. + +Our first misfortune, of the kind from which we soon suffered even more +severely, happened here. Our little girl, an infant in whose small +features I fancied that I traced great resemblance to her father, showed +symptoms of suffering from the heat of the climate. Teething increased +her illness and danger. We were at Este, and when we became alarmed, +hastened to Venice for the best advice. When we arrived at Fusina, we +found that we had forgotten our passport, and the soldiers on duty +attempted to prevent our crossing the laguna; but they could not resist +Shelley's impetuosity at such a moment. We had scarcely arrived at +Venice before life fled from the little sufferer, and we returned to +Este to weep her loss. + +After a few weeks spent in this retreat, which was interspersed by +visits to Venice, we proceeded southward. + + +NOTE ON "PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +On the 12th of March, 1818, Shelley quitted England, never to return. +His principal motive was the hope that his health would be improved by a +milder climate; he suffered very much during the winter previous to his +emigration, and this decided his vacillating purpose. In December, 1817, +he had written from Marlow to a friend, saying: + +'My health has been materially worse. My feelings at intervals are of a +deadly and torpid kind, or awakened to such a state of unnatural and +keen excitement that, only to instance the organ of sight, I find the +very blades of grass and the boughs of distant trees present themselves +to me with microscopic distinctness. Towards evening I sink into a state +of lethargy and inanimation, and often remain for hours on the sofa +between sleep and waking, a prey to the most painful irritability of +thought. Such, with little intermission, is my condition. The hours +devoted to study are selected with vigilant caution from among these +periods of endurance. It is not for this that I think of travelling to +Italy, even if I knew that Italy would relieve me. But I have +experienced a decisive pulmonary attack; and although at present it has +passed away without any considerable vestige of its existence, yet this +symptom sufficiently shows the true nature of my disease to be +consumptive. It is to my advantage that this malady is in its nature +slow, and, if one is sufficiently alive to its advances, is susceptible +of cure from a warm climate. In the event of its assuming any decided +shape, IT WOULD BE MY DUTY to go to Italy without delay. It is not mere +health, but life, that I should seek, and that not for my own sake--I +feel I am capable of trampling on all such weakness; but for the sake of +those to whom my life may be a source of happiness, utility, security, +and honour, and to some of whom my death might be all that is the +reverse.' + +In almost every respect his journey to Italy was advantageous. He left +behind friends to whom he was attached; but cares of a thousand kinds, +many springing from his lavish generosity, crowded round him in his +native country, and, except the society of one or two friends, he had no +compensation. The climate caused him to consume half his existence in +helpless suffering. His dearest pleasure, the free enjoyment of the +scenes of Nature, was marred by the same circumstance. + +He went direct to Italy, avoiding even Paris, and did not make any pause +till he arrived at Milan. The first aspect of Italy enchanted Shelley; +it seemed a garden of delight placed beneath a clearer and brighter +heaven than any he had lived under before. He wrote long descriptive +letters during the first year of his residence in Italy, which, as +compositions, are the most beautiful in the world, and show how truly he +appreciated and studied the wonders of Nature and Art in that divine +land. + +The poetical spirit within him speedily revived with all the power and +with more than all the beauty of his first attempts. He meditated three +subjects as the groundwork for lyrical dramas. One was the story of +Tasso; of this a slight fragment of a song of Tasso remains. The other +was one founded on the Book of Job, which he never abandoned in idea, +but of which no trace remains among his papers. The third was the +"Prometheus Unbound". The Greek tragedians were now his most familiar +companions in his wanderings, and the sublime majesty of Aeschylus +filled him with wonder and delight. The father of Greek tragedy does not +possess the pathos of Sophocles, nor the variety and tenderness of +Euripides; the interest on which he founds his dramas is often elevated +above human vicissitudes into the mighty passions and throes of gods and +demi-gods: such fascinated the abstract imagination of Shelley. + +We spent a month at Milan, visiting the Lake of Como during that +interval. Thence we passed in succession to Pisa, Leghorn, the Baths of +Lucca, Venice, Este, Rome, Naples, and back again to Rome, whither we +returned early in March, 1819. During all this time Shelley meditated +the subject of his drama, and wrote portions of it. Other poems were +composed during this interval, and while at the Bagni di Lucca he +translated Plato's "Symposium". But, though he diversified his studies, +his thoughts centred in the Prometheus. At last, when at Rome, during a +bright and beautiful Spring, he gave up his whole time to the +composition. The spot selected for his study was, as he mentions in his +preface, the mountainous ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. These are +little known to the ordinary visitor at Rome. He describes them in a +letter, with that poetry and delicacy and truth of description which +render his narrated impressions of scenery of unequalled beauty and +interest. + +At first he completed the drama in three acts. It was not till several +months after, when at Florence, that he conceived that a fourth act, a +sort of hymn of rejoicing in the fulfilment of the prophecies with +regard to Prometheus, ought to be added to complete the composition. + +The prominent feature of Shelley's theory of the destiny of the human +species was that evil is not inherent in the system of the creation, but +an accident that might be expelled. This also forms a portion of +Christianity: God made earth and man perfect, till he, by his fall, + + 'Brought death into the world and all our woe.' + +Shelley believed that mankind had only to will that there should be no +evil, and there would be none. It is not my part in these Notes to +notice the arguments that have been urged against this opinion, but to +mention the fact that he entertained it, and was indeed attached to it +with fervent enthusiasm. That man could be so perfectionized as to be +able to expel evil from his own nature, and from the greater part of the +creation, was the cardinal point of his system. And the subject he loved +best to dwell on was the image of One warring with the Evil Principle, +oppressed not only by it, but by all--even the good, who were deluded +into considering evil a necessary portion of humanity; a victim full of +fortitude and hope and the spirit of triumph emanating from a reliance +in the ultimate omnipotence of Good. Such he had depicted in his last +poem, when he made Laon the enemy and the victim of tyrants. He now took +a more idealized image of the same subject. He followed certain +classical authorities in figuring Saturn as the good principle, Jupiter +the usurping evil one, and Prometheus as the regenerator, who, unable to +bring mankind back to primitive innocence, used knowledge as a weapon to +defeat evil, by leading mankind, beyond the state wherein they are +sinless through ignorance, to that in which they are virtuous through +wisdom. Jupiter punished the temerity of the Titan by chaining him to a +rock of Caucasus, and causing a vulture to devour his still-renewed +heart. There was a prophecy afloat in heaven portending the fall of +Jove, the secret of averting which was known only to Prometheus; and the +god offered freedom from torture on condition of its being communicated +to him. According to the mythological story, this referred to the +offspring of Thetis, who was destined to be greater than his father. +Prometheus at last bought pardon for his crime of enriching mankind with +his gifts, by revealing the prophecy. Hercules killed the vulture, and +set him free; and Thetis was married to Peleus, the father of Achilles. + +Shelley adapted the catastrophe of this story to his peculiar views. The +son greater than his father, born of the nuptials of Jupiter and Thetis, +was to dethrone Evil, and bring back a happier reign than that of +Saturn. Prometheus defies the power of his enemy, and endures centuries +of torture; till the hour arrives when Jove, blind to the real event, +but darkly guessing that some great good to himself will flow, espouses +Thetis. At the moment, the Primal Power of the world drives him from his +usurped throne, and Strength, in the person of Hercules, liberates +Humanity, typified in Prometheus, from the tortures generated by evil +done or suffered. Asia, one of the Oceanides, is the wife of +Prometheus--she was, according to other mythological interpretations, +the same as Venus and Nature. When the benefactor of mankind is +liberated, Nature resumes the beauty of her prime, and is united to her +husband, the emblem of the human race, in perfect and happy union. In +the Fourth Act, the Poet gives further scope to his imagination, and +idealizes the forms of creation--such as we know them, instead of such +as they appeared to the Greeks. Maternal Earth, the mighty parent, is +superseded by the Spirit of the Earth, the guide of our planet through +the realms of sky; while his fair and weaker companion and attendant, +the Spirit of the Moon, receives bliss from the annihilation of Evil in +the superior sphere. + +Shelley develops, more particularly in the lyrics of this drama, his +abstruse and imaginative theories with regard to the Creation. It +requires a mind as subtle and penetrating as his own to understand the +mystic meanings scattered throughout the poem. They elude the ordinary +reader by their abstraction and delicacy of distinction, but they are +far from vague. It was his design to write prose metaphysical essays on +the nature of Man, which would have served to explain much of what is +obscure in his poetry; a few scattered fragments of observations and +remarks alone remain. He considered these philosophical views of Mind +and Nature to be instinct with the intensest spirit of poetry. + +More popular poets clothe the ideal with familiar and sensible imagery. +Shelley loved to idealize the real--to gift the mechanism of the +material universe with a soul and a voice, and to bestow such also on +the most delicate and abstract emotions and thoughts of the mind. +Sophocles was his great master in this species of imagery. + +I find in one of his manuscript books some remarks on a line in the +"Oedipus Tyrannus", which show at once the critical subtlety of +Shelley's mind, and explain his apprehension of those 'minute and remote +distinctions of feeling, whether relative to external nature or the +living beings which surround us,' which he pronounces, in the letter +quoted in the note to the "Revolt of Islam", to comprehend all that is +sublime in man. + +'In the Greek Shakespeare, Sophocles, we find the image, + + Pollas d' odous elthonta phrontidos planois: + +a line of almost unfathomable depth of poetry; yet how simple are the +images in which it is arrayed! + + "Coming to many ways in the wanderings of careful thought." + +If the words odous and planois had not been used, the line might have +been explained in a metaphorical instead of an absolute sense, as we say +"WAYS and means," and "wanderings" for error and confusion. But they +meant literally paths or roads, such as we tread with our feet; and +wanderings, such as a man makes when he loses himself in a desert, or +roams from city to city--as Oedipus, the speaker of this verse, was +destined to wander, blind and asking charity. What a picture does this +line suggest of the mind as a wilderness of intricate paths, wide as the +universe, which is here made its symbol; a world within a world which he +who seeks some knowledge with respect to what he ought to do searches +throughout, as he would search the external universe for some valued +thing which was hidden from him upon its surface.' + +In reading Shelley's poetry, we often find similar verses, resembling, +but not imitating the Greek in this species of imagery; for, though he +adopted the style, he gifted it with that originality of form and +colouring which sprung from his own genius. + +In the "Prometheus Unbound", Shelley fulfils the promise quoted from a +letter in the Note on the "Revolt of Islam". (While correcting the +proof-sheets of that poem, it struck me that the poet had indulged in an +exaggerated view of the evils of restored despotism; which, however +injurious and degrading, were less openly sanguinary than the triumph of +anarchy, such as it appeared in France at the close of the last century. +But at this time a book, "Scenes of Spanish Life", translated by +Lieutenant Crawford from the German of Dr. Huber, of Rostock, fell into +my hands. The account of the triumph of the priests and the serviles, +after the French invasion of Spain in 1823, bears a strong and frightful +resemblance to some of the descriptions of the massacre of the patriots +in the "Revolt of Islam".) The tone of the composition is calmer and +more majestic, the poetry more perfect as a whole, and the imagination +displayed at once more pleasingly beautiful and more varied and daring. +The description of the Hours, as they are seen in the cave of +Demogorgon, is an instance of this--it fills the mind as the most +charming picture--we long to see an artist at work to bring to our view +the + + 'cars drawn by rainbow-winged steeds + Which trample the dim winds: in each there stands + A wild-eyed charioteer urging their flight. + Some look behind, as fiends pursued them there, + And yet I see no shapes but the keen stars: + Others, with burning eyes, lean forth, and drink + With eager lips the wind of their own speed, + As if the thing they loved fled on before, + And now, even now, they clasped it. Their bright locks + Stream like a comet's flashing hair: they all + Sweep onward.' + +Through the whole poem there reigns a sort of calm and holy spirit of +love; it soothes the tortured, and is hope to the expectant, till the +prophecy is fulfilled, and Love, untainted by any evil, becomes the law +of the world. + +England had been rendered a painful residence to Shelley, as much by the +sort of persecution with which in those days all men of liberal opinions +were visited, and by the injustice he had lately endured in the Court of +Chancery, as by the symptoms of disease which made him regard a visit to +Italy as necessary to prolong his life. An exile, and strongly impressed +with the feeling that the majority of his countrymen regarded him with +sentiments of aversion such as his own heart could experience towards +none, he sheltered himself from such disgusting and painful thoughts in +the calm retreats of poetry, and built up a world of his own--with the +more pleasure, since he hoped to induce some one or two to believe that +the earth might become such, did mankind themselves consent. The charm +of the Roman climate helped to clothe his thoughts in greater beauty +than they had ever worn before. And, as he wandered among the ruins made +one with Nature in their decay, or gazed on the Praxitelean shapes that +throng the Vatican, the Capitol, and the palaces of Rome, his soul +imbibed forms of loveliness which became a portion of itself. There are +many passages in the "Prometheus" which show the intense delight he +received from such studies, and give back the impression with a beauty +of poetical description peculiarly his own. He felt this, as a poet must +feel when he satisfies himself by the result of his labours; and he +wrote from Rome, 'My "Prometheus Unbound" is just finished, and in a +month or two I shall send it. It is a drama, with characters and +mechanism of a kind yet unattempted; and I think the execution is better +than any of my former attempts.' + +I may mention, for the information of the more critical reader, that the +verbal alterations in this edition of "Prometheus" are made from a list +of errata written by Shelley himself. + + +NOTE ON THE CENCI, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The sort of mistake that Shelley made as to the extent of his own genius +and powers, which led him deviously at first, but lastly into the direct +track that enabled him fully to develop them, is a curious instance of +his modesty of feeling, and of the methods which the human mind uses at +once to deceive itself, and yet, in its very delusion, to make its way +out of error into the path which Nature has marked out as its right one. +He often incited me to attempt the writing a tragedy: he conceived that +I possessed some dramatic talent, and he was always most earnest and +energetic in his exhortations that I should cultivate any talent I +possessed, to the utmost. I entertained a truer estimate of my powers; +and above all (though at that time not exactly aware of the fact) I was +far too young to have any chance of succeeding, even moderately, in a +species of composition that requires a greater scope of experience in, +and sympathy with, human passion than could then have fallen to my +lot,--or than any perhaps, except Shelley, ever possessed, even at the +age of twenty-six, at which he wrote The Cenci. + +On the other hand, Shelley most erroneously conceived himself to be +destitute of this talent. He believed that one of the first requisites +was the capacity of forming and following-up a story or plot. He fancied +himself to he defective in this portion of imagination: it was that +which gave him least pleasure in the writings of others, though he laid +great store by it as the proper framework to support the sublimest +efforts of poetry. He asserted that he was too metaphysical and +abstract, too fond of the theoretical and the ideal, to succeed as a +tragedian. It perhaps is not strange that I shared this opinion with +himself; for he had hitherto shown no inclination for, nor given any +specimen of his powers in framing and supporting the interest of a +story, either in prose or verse. Once or twice, when he attempted such, +he had speedily thrown it aside, as being even disagreeable to him as an +occupation. + +The subject he had suggested for a tragedy was Charles I: and he had +written to me: 'Remember, remember Charles I. I have been already +imagining how you would conduct some scenes. The second volume of "St. +Leon" begins with this proud and true sentiment: "There is nothing which +the human mind can conceive which it may not execute." Shakespeare was +only a human being.' These words were written in 1818, while we were in +Lombardy, when he little thought how soon a work of his own would prove +a proud comment on the passage he quoted. When in Rome, in 1819, a +friend put into our hands the old manuscript account of the story of the +Cenci. We visited the Colonna and Doria palaces, where the portraits of +Beatrice were to be found; and her beauty cast the reflection of its own +grace over her appalling story. Shelley's imagination became strongly +excited, and he urged the subject to me as one fitted for a tragedy. +More than ever I felt my incompetence; but I entreated him to write it +instead; and he began, and proceeded swiftly, urged on by intense +sympathy with the sufferings of the human beings whose passions, so long +cold in the tomb, he revived, and gifted with poetic language. This +tragedy is the only one of his works that he communicated to me during +its progress. We talked over the arrangement of the scenes together. I +speedily saw the great mistake we had made, and triumphed in the +discovery of the new talent brought to light from that mine of wealth +(never, alas, through his untimely death, worked to its depths)--his +richly gifted mind. + +We suffered a severe affliction in Rome by the loss of our eldest child, +who was of such beauty and promise as to cause him deservedly to be the +idol of our hearts. We left the capital of the world, anxious for a time +to escape a spot associated too intimately with his presence and loss. +(Such feelings haunted him when, in "The Cenci", he makes Beatrice speak +to Cardinal Camillo of + + 'that fair blue-eyed child + Who was the lodestar of your life:'--and say-- + All see, since his most swift and piteous death, + That day and night, and heaven and earth, and time, + And all the things hoped for or done therein + Are changed to you, through your exceeding grief.') + +Some friends of ours were residing in the neighbourhood of Leghorn, and +we took a small house, Villa Valsovano, about half-way between the town +and Monte Nero, where we remained during the summer. Our villa was +situated in the midst of a podere; the peasants sang as they worked +beneath our windows, during the heats of a very hot season, and in the +evening the water-wheel creaked as the process of irrigation went on, +and the fireflies flashed from among the myrtle hedges: Nature was +bright, sunshiny, and cheerful, or diversified by storms of a majestic +terror, such as we had never before witnessed. + +At the top of the house there was a sort of terrace. There is often such +in Italy, generally roofed: this one was very small, yet not only roofed +but glazed. This Shelley made his study; it looked out on a wide +prospect of fertile country, and commanded a view of the near sea. The +storms that sometimes varied our day showed themselves most +picturesquely as they were driven across the ocean; sometimes the dark +lurid clouds dipped towards the waves, and became water-spouts that +churned up the waters beneath, as they were chased onward and scattered +by the tempest. At other times the dazzling sunlight and heat made it +almost intolerable to every other; but Shelley basked in both, and his +health and spirits revived under their influence. In this airy cell he +wrote the principal part of "The Cenci". He was making a study of +Calderon at the time, reading his best tragedies with an accomplished +lady living near us, to whom his letter from Leghorn was addressed +during the following year. He admired Calderon, both for his poetry and +his dramatic genius; but it shows his judgement and originality that, +though greatly struck by his first acquaintance with the Spanish poet, +none of his peculiarities crept into the composition of "The Cenci"; and +there is no trace of his new studies, except in that passage to which he +himself alludes as suggested by one in "El Purgatorio de San Patricio". + +Shelley wished "The Cenci" to be acted. He was not a playgoer, being of +such fastidious taste that he was easily disgusted by the bad filling-up +of the inferior parts. While preparing for our departure from England, +however, he saw Miss O'Neil several times. She was then in the zenith of +her glory; and Shelley was deeply moved by her impersonation of several +parts, and by the graceful sweetness, the intense pathos, the sublime +vehemence of passion she displayed. She was often in his thoughts as he +wrote: and, when he had finished, he became anxious that his tragedy +should be acted, and receive the advantage of having this accomplished +actress to fill the part of the heroine. With this view he wrote the +following letter to a friend in London: + +'The object of the present letter us to ask a favour of you. I have +written a tragedy on a story well known in Italy, and, in my conception, +eminently dramatic. I have taken some pains to make my play fit for +representation, and those who have already seen it judge favourably. It +is written without any of the peculiar feelings and opinions which +characterize my other compositions; I have attended simply to the +impartial development of such characters as it is probable the persons +represented really were, together with the greatest degree of popular +effect to be produced by such a development. I send you a translation of +the Italian manuscript on which my play is founded; the chief +circumstance of which I have touched very delicately; for my principal +doubt as to whether it would succeed as an acting play hangs entirely on +the question as to whether any such a thing as incest in this shape, +however treated, would be admitted on the stage. I think, however, it +will form no objection; considering, first, that the facts are matter of +history, and, secondly, the peculiar delicacy with which I have treated +it. (In speaking of his mode of treating this main incident, Shelley +said that it might be remarked that, in the course of the play, he had +never mentioned expressly Cenci's worst crime. Every one knew what it +must be, but it was never imaged in words--the nearest allusion to it +being that portion of Cenci's curse beginning--"That, if she have a +child," etc.) + +'I am exceedingly interested in the question of whether this attempt of +mine will succeed or not. I am strongly inclined to the affirmative at +present; founding my hopes on this--that, as a composition, it is +certainly not inferior to any of the modern plays that have been acted, +with the exception of "Remorse"; that the interest of the plot is +incredibly greater and more real; and that there is nothing beyond what +the multitude are contented to believe that they can understand, either +in imagery, opinion, or sentiment. I wish to preserve a complete +incognito, and can trust to you that, whatever else you do, you will at +least favour me on this point. Indeed, this is essential, deeply +essential, to its success. After it had been acted, and successfully +(could I hope for such a thing), I would own it if I pleased, and use +the celebrity it might acquire to my own purposes. + +'What I want you to do is to procure for me its presentation at Covent +Garden. The principal character, Beatrice, is precisely fitted for Miss +O'Neil, and it might even seem to have been written for her (God forbid +that I should see her play it--it would tear my nerves to pieces); and +in all respects it is fitted only for Covent Garden. The chief male +character I confess I should be very unwilling that any one but Kean +should play. That is impossible, and I must be contented with an +inferior actor.' + +The play was accordingly sent to Mr. Harris. He pronounced the subject +to be so objectionable that he could not even submit the part to Miss +O'Neil for perusal, but expressed his desire that the author would write +a tragedy on some other subject, which he would gladly accept. Shelley +printed a small edition at Leghorn, to ensure its correctness; as he was +much annoyed by the many mistakes that crept into his text when distance +prevented him from correcting the press. + +Universal approbation soon stamped "The Cenci" as the best tragedy of +modern times. Writing concerning it, Shelley said: 'I have been cautious +to avoid the introducing faults of youthful composition; diffuseness, a +profusion of inapplicable imagery, vagueness, generality, and, as Hamlet +says, "words, words".' There is nothing that is not purely dramatic +throughout; and the character of Beatrice, proceeding, from vehement +struggle, to horror, to deadly resolution, and lastly to the elevated +dignity of calm suffering, joined to passionate tenderness and pathos, +is touched with hues so vivid and so beautiful that the poet seems to +have read intimately the secrets of the noble heart imaged in the lovely +countenance of the unfortunate girl. The Fifth Act is a masterpiece. It +is the finest thing he ever wrote, and may claim proud comparison not +only with any contemporary, but preceding, poet. The varying feelings of +Beatrice are expressed with passionate, heart-reaching eloquence. Every +character has a voice that echoes truth in its tones. It is curious, to +one acquainted with the written story, to mark the success with which +the poet has inwoven the real incidents of the tragedy into his scenes, +and yet, through the power of poetry, has obliterated all that would +otherwise have shown too harsh or too hideous in the picture. His +success was a double triumph; and often after he was earnestly entreated +to write again in a style that commanded popular favour, while it was +not less instinct with truth and genius. But the bent of his mind went +the other way; and, even when employed on subjects whose interest +depended on character and incident, he would start off in another +direction, and leave the delineations of human passion, which he could +depict in so able a manner, for fantastic creations of his fancy, or the +expression of those opinions and sentiments, with regard to human nature +and its destiny, a desire to diffuse which was the master passion of his +soul. + +NOTE ON THE MASK OF ANARCHY, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Though Shelley's first eager desire to excite his countrymen to resist +openly the oppressions existent during 'the good old times' had faded +with early youth, still his warmest sympathies were for the people. He +was a republican, and loved a democracy. He looked on all human beings +as inheriting an equal right to possess the dearest privileges of our +nature; the necessaries of life when fairly earned by labour, and +intellectual instruction. His hatred of any despotism that looked upon +the people as not to be consulted, or protected from want and ignorance, +was intense. He was residing near Leghorn, at Villa Valsovano, writing +"The Cenci", when the news of the Manchester Massacre reached us; it +roused in him violent emotions of indignation and compassion. The great +truth that the many, if accordant and resolute, could control the few, +as was shown some years after, made him long to teach his injured +countrymen how to resist. Inspired by these feelings, he wrote the "Mask +of Anarchy", which he sent to his friend Leigh Hunt, to be inserted in +the Examiner, of which he was then the Editor. + +'I did not insert it,' Leigh Hunt writes in his valuable and interesting +preface to this poem, when he printed it in 1832, 'because I thought +that the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do +justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked +in this flaming robe of verse.' Days of outrage have passed away, and +with them the exasperation that would cause such an appeal to the many +to be injurious. Without being aware of them, they at one time acted on +his suggestions, and gained the day. But they rose when human life was +respected by the Minister in power; such was not the case during the +Administration which excited Shelley's abhorrence. + +The poem was written for the people, and is therefore in a more popular +tone than usual: portions strike as abrupt and unpolished, but many +stanzas are all his own. I heard him repeat, and admired, those +beginning + + 'My Father Time is old and gray,' + +before I knew to what poem they were to belong. But the most touching +passage is that which describes the blessed effects of liberty; it might +make a patriot of any man whose heart was not wholly closed against his +humbler fellow-creatures. + + +NOTE ON PETER BELL THE THIRD, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +In this new edition I have added "Peter Bell the Third". A critique on +Wordsworth's "Peter Bell" reached us at Leghorn, which amused Shelley +exceedingly, and suggested this poem. + +I need scarcely observe that nothing personal to the author of "Peter +Bell" is intended in this poem. No man ever admired Wordsworth's poetry +more; --he read it perpetually, and taught others to appreciate its +beauties. This poem is, like all others written by Shelley, ideal. He +conceived the idealism of a poet--a man of lofty and creative +genius--quitting the glorious calling of discovering and announcing the +beautiful and good, to support and propagate ignorant prejudices and +pernicious errors; imparting to the unenlightened, not that ardour for +truth and spirit of toleration which Shelley looked on as the sources of +the moral improvement and happiness of mankind, but false and injurious +opinions, that evil was good, and that ignorance and force were the best +allies of purity and virtue. His idea was that a man gifted, even as +transcendently as the author of "Peter Bell", with the highest qualities +of genius, must, if he fostered such errors, be infected with dulness. +This poem was written as a warning--not as a narration of the reality. +He was unacquainted personally with Wordsworth, or with Coleridge (to +whom he alludes in the fifth part of the poem), and therefore, I repeat, +his poem is purely ideal; --it contains something of criticism on the +compositions of those great poets, but nothing injurious to the men +themselves. + +No poem contains more of Shelley's peculiar views with regard to the +errors into which many of the wisest have fallen, and the pernicious +effects of certain opinions on society. Much of it is beautifully +written: and, though, like the burlesque drama of "Swellfoot", it must +be looked on as a plaything, it has so much merit and poetry--so much of +HIMSELF in it--that it cannot fail to interest greatly, and by right +belongs to the world for whose instruction and benefit it was written. + +NOTE ON THE WITCH OF ATLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the summer of 1820 at the Baths of San Giuliano, four miles +from Pisa. These baths were of great use to Shelley in soothing his +nervous irritability. We made several excursions in the neighbourhood. +The country around is fertile, and diversified and rendered picturesque +by ranges of near hills and more distant mountains. The peasantry are a +handsome intelligent race; and there was a gladsome sunny heaven spread +over us, that rendered home and every scene we visited cheerful and +bright. During some of the hottest days of August, Shelley made a +solitary journey on foot to the summit of Monte San Pellegrino--a +mountain of some height, on the top of which there is a chapel, the +object, during certain days of the year, of many pilgrimages. The +excursion delighted him while it lasted; though he exerted himself too +much, and the effect was considerable lassitude and weakness on his +return. During the expedition he conceived the idea, and wrote, in the +three days immediately succeeding to his return, the "Witch of Atlas". +This poem is peculiarly characteristic of his tastes--wildly fanciful, +full of brilliant imagery, and discarding human interest and passion, to +revel in the fantastic ideas that his imagination suggested. + +The surpassing excellence of "The Cenci" had made me greatly desire that +Shelley should increase his popularity by adopting subjects that would +more suit the popular taste than a poem conceived in the abstract and +dreamy spirit of the "Witch of Atlas". It was not only that I wished him +to acquire popularity as redounding to his fame; but I believed that he +would obtain a greater mastery over his own powers, and greater +happiness in his mind, if public applause crowned his endeavours. The +few stanzas that precede the poem were addressed to me on my +representing these ideas to him. Even now I believe that I was in the +right. Shelley did not expect sympathy and approbation from the public; +but the want of it took away a portion of the ardour that ought to have +sustained him while writing. He was thrown on his own resources, and on +the inspiration of his own soul; and wrote because his mind overflowed, +without the hope of being appreciated. I had not the most distant wish +that he should truckle in opinion, or submit his lofty aspirations for +the human race to the low ambition and pride of the many; but I felt +sure that, if his poems were more addressed to the common feelings of +men, his proper rank among the writers of the day would be acknowledged, +and that popularity as a poet would enable his countrymen to do justice +to his character and virtues, which in those days it was the mode to +attack with the most flagitious calumnies and insulting abuse. That he +felt these things deeply cannot be doubted, though he armed himself with +the consciousness of acting from a lofty and heroic sense of right. The +truth burst from his heart sometimes in solitude, and he would write a +few unfinished verses that showed that he felt the sting; among such I +find the following: -- + + 'Alas! this is not what I thought Life was. + I knew that there were crimes and evil men, + Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass + Untouched by suffering through the rugged glen. + In mine own heart I saw as in a glass + The hearts of others...And, when + I went among my kind, with triple brass + Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed, + To bear scorn, fear, and hate--a woful mass!' + +I believed that all this morbid feeling would vanish if the chord of +sympathy between him and his countrymen were touched. But my persuasions +were vain, the mind could not be bent from its natural inclination. +Shelley shrunk instinctively from portraying human passion, with its +mixture of good and evil, of disappointment and disquiet. Such opened +again the wounds of his own heart; and he loved to shelter himself +rather in the airiest flights of fancy, forgetting love and hate, and +regret and lost hope, in such imaginations as borrowed their hues from +sunrise or sunset, from the yellow moonshine or paly twilight, from the +aspect of the far ocean or the shadows of the woods,--which celebrated +the singing of the winds among the pines, the flow of a murmuring +stream, and the thousand harmonious sounds which Nature creates in her +solitudes. These are the materials which form the "Witch of Atlas": it +is a brilliant congregation of ideas such as his senses gathered, and +his fancy coloured, during his rambles in the sunny land he so much +loved. + +NOTE ON OEDIPUS TYRANNUS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +In the brief journal I kept in those days, I find recorded, in August, +1820, Shelley 'begins "Swellfoot the Tyrant", suggested by the pigs at +the fair of San Giuliano.' This was the period of Queen Caroline's +landing in England, and the struggles made by George IV to get rid of +her claims; which failing, Lord Castlereagh placed the "Green Bag" on +the table of the House of Commons, demanding in the King's name that an +enquiry should be instituted into his wife's conduct. These +circumstances were the theme of all conversation among the English. We +were then at the Baths of San Giuliano. A friend came to visit us on the +day when a fair was held in the square, beneath our windows: Shelley +read to us his "Ode to Liberty"; and was riotously accompanied by the +grunting of a quantity of pigs brought for sale to the fair. He compared +it to the 'chorus of frogs' in the satiric drama of Aristophanes; and, +it being an hour of merriment, and one ludicrous association suggesting +another, he imagined a political-satirical drama on the circumstances of +the day, to which the pigs would serve as chorus--and "Swellfoot" was +begun. When finished, it was transmitted to England, printed, and +published anonymously; but stifled at the very dawn of its existence by +the Society for the Suppression of Vice, who threatened to prosecute it, +if not immediately withdrawn. The friend who had taken the trouble of +bringing it out, of course did not think it worth the annoyance and +expense of a contest, and it was laid aside. + +Hesitation of whether it would do honour to Shelley prevented my +publishing it at first. But I cannot bring myself to keep back anything +he ever wrote; for each word is fraught with the peculiar views and +sentiments which he believed to be beneficial to the human race, and the +bright light of poetry irradiates every thought. The world has a right +to the entire compositions of such a man; for it does not live and +thrive by the outworn lesson of the dullard or the hypocrite, but by the +original free thoughts of men of genius, who aspire to pluck bright +truth + + 'from the pale-faced moon; + Or dive into the bottom of the deep + Where fathom-line would never touch the ground, + And pluck up drowned' + +truth. Even those who may dissent from his opinions will consider that +he was a man of genius, and that the world will take more interest in +his slightest word than in the waters of Lethe which are so eagerly +prescribed as medicinal for all its wrongs and woe. This drama, however, +must not be judged for more than was meant. It is a mere plaything of +the imagination; which even may not excite smiles among many, who will +not see wit in those combinations of thought which were full of the +ridiculous to the author. But, like everything he wrote, it breathes +that deep sympathy for the sorrows of humanity, and indignation against +its oppressors, which make it worthy of his name. + +NOTE ON HELLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The South of Europe was in a state of great political excitement at the +beginning of the year 1821. The Spanish Revolution had been a signal to +Italy; secrete societies were formed; and, when Naples rose to declare +the Constitution, the call was responded to from Brundusium to the foot +of the Alps. To crush these attempts to obtain liberty, early in 1821 +the Austrians poured their armies into the Peninsula: at first their +coming rather seemed to add energy and resolution to a people long +enslaved. The Piedmontese asserted their freedom; Genoa threw off the +yoke of the King of Sardinia; and, as if in playful imitation, the +people of the little state of Massa and Carrara gave the conge to their +sovereign, and set up a republic. + +Tuscany alone was perfectly tranquil. It was said that the Austrian +minister presented a list of sixty Carbonari to the Grand Duke, urging +their imprisonment; and the Grand Duke replied, 'I do not know whether +these sixty men are Carbonari, but I know, if I imprison them, I shall +directly have sixty thousand start up.' But, though the Tuscans had no +desire to disturb the paternal government beneath whose shelter they +slumbered, they regarded the progress of the various Italian revolutions +with intense interest, and hatred for the Austrian was warm in every +bosom. But they had slender hopes; they knew that the Neapolitans would +offer no fit resistance to the regular German troops, and that the +overthrow of the constitution in Naples would act as a decisive blow +against all struggles for liberty in Italy. + +We have seen the rise and progress of reform. But the Holy Alliance was +alive and active in those days, and few could dream of the peaceful +triumph of liberty. It seemed then that the armed assertion of freedom +in the South of Europe was the only hope of the liberals, as, if it +prevailed, the nations of the north would imitate the example. Happily +the reverse has proved the fact. The countries accustomed to the +exercise of the privileges of freemen, to a limited extent, have +extended, and are extending, these limits. Freedom and knowledge have +now a chance of proceeding hand in hand; and, if it continue thus, we +may hope for the durability of both. Then, as I have said--in +1821--Shelley, as well as every other lover of liberty, looked upon the +struggles in Spain and Italy as decisive of the destinies of the world, +probably for centuries to come. The interest he took in the progress of +affairs was intense. When Genoa declared itself free, his hopes were at +their highest. Day after day he read the bulletins of the Austrian army, +and sought eagerly to gather tokens of its defeat. He heard of the +revolt of Genoa with emotions of transport. His whole heart and soul +were in the triumph of the cause. We were living at Pisa at that time; +and several well-informed Italians, at the head of whom we may place the +celebrated Vacca, were accustomed to seek for sympathy in their hopes +from Shelley: they did not find such for the despair they too generally +experienced, founded on contempt for their southern countrymen. + +While the fate of the progress of the Austrian armies then invading +Naples was yet in suspense, the news of another revolution filled him +with exultation. We had formed the acquaintance at Pisa of several +Constantinopolitan Greeks, of the family of Prince Caradja, formerly +Hospodar of Wallachia; who, hearing that the bowstring, the accustomed +finale of his viceroyalty, was on the road to him, escaped with his +treasures, and took up his abode in Tuscany. Among these was the +gentleman to whom the drama of "Hellas" is dedicated. Prince +Mavrocordato was warmed by those aspirations for the independence of his +country which filled the hearts of many of his countrymen. He often +intimated the possibility of an insurrection in Greece; but we had no +idea of its being so near at hand, when, on the 1st of April 1821, he +called on Shelley, bringing the proclamation of his cousin, Prince +Ypsilanti, and, radiant with exultation and delight, declared that +henceforth Greece would be free. + +Shelley had hymned the dawn of liberty in Spain and Naples, in two odes +dictated by the warmest enthusiasm; he felt himself naturally impelled +to decorate with poetry the uprise of the descendants of that people +whose works he regarded with deep admiration, and to adopt the +vaticinatory character in prophesying their success. "Hellas" was +written in a moment of enthusiasm. It is curious to remark how well he +overcomes the difficulty of forming a drama out of such scant materials. +His prophecies, indeed, came true in their general, not their +particular, purport. He did not foresee the death of Lord Londonderry, +which was to be the epoch of a change in English politics, particularly +as regarded foreign affairs; nor that the navy of his country would +fight for instead of against the Greeks, and by the battle of Navarino +secure their enfranchisement from the Turks. Almost against reason, as +it appeared to him, he resolved to believe that Greece would prove +triumphant; and in this spirit, auguring ultimate good, yet grieving +over the vicissitudes to be endured in the interval, he composed his +drama. + +"Hellas" was among the last of his compositions, and is among the most +beautiful. The choruses are singularly imaginative, and melodious in +their versification. There are some stanzas that beautifully exemplify +Shelley's peculiar style; as, for instance, the assertion of the +intellectual empire which must be for ever the inheritance of the +country of Homer, Sophocles, and Plato:-- + + 'But Greece and her foundations are + Built below the tide of war, + Based on the crystalline sea + Of thought and its eternity.' + +And again, that philosophical truth felicitously imaged forth-- + + 'Revenge and Wrong bring forth their kind, + The foul cubs like their parents are, + Their den is in the guilty mind, + And Conscience feeds them with despair.' + +The conclusion of the last chorus is among the most beautiful of his +lyrics. The imagery is distinct and majestic; the prophecy, such as +poets love to dwell upon, the Regeneration of Mankind--and that +regeneration reflecting back splendour on the foregone time, from which +it inherits so much of intellectual wealth, and memory of past virtuous +deeds, as must render the possession of happiness and peace of tenfold +value. + +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The remainder of Shelley's Poems will be arranged in the order in which +they were written. Of course, mistakes will occur in placing some of the +shorter ones; for, as I have said, many of these were thrown aside, and +I never saw them till I had the misery of looking over his writings +after the hand that traced them was dust; and some were in the hands of +others, and I never saw them till now. The subjects of the poems are +often to me an unerring guide; but on other occasions I can only guess, +by finding them in the pages of the same manuscript book that contains +poems with the date of whose composition I am fully conversant. In the +present arrangement all his poetical translations will be placed +together at the end. + +The loss of his early papers prevents my being able to give any of the +poetry of his boyhood. Of the few I give as "Early Poems", the greater +part were published with "Alastor"; some of them were written +previously, some at the same period. The poem beginning 'Oh, there are +spirits in the air' was addressed in idea to Coleridge, whom he never +knew; and at whose character he could only guess imperfectly, through +his writings, and accounts he heard of him from some who knew him well. +He regarded his change of opinions as rather an act of will than +conviction, and believed that in his inner heart he would be haunted by +what Shelley considered the better and holier aspirations of his youth. +The summer evening that suggested to him the poem written in the +churchyard of Lechlade occurred during his voyage up the Thames in 1815. +He had been advised by a physician to live as much as possible in the +open air; and a fortnight of a bright warm July was spent in tracing the +Thames to its source. He never spent a season more tranquilly than the +summer of 1815. He had just recovered from a severe pulmonary attack; +the weather was warm and pleasant. He lived near Windsor Forest; and his +life was spent under its shades or on the water, meditating subjects for +verse. Hitherto, he had chiefly aimed at extending his political +doctrines, and attempted so to do by appeals in prose essays to the +people, exhorting them to claim their rights; but he had now begun to +feel that the time for action was not ripe in England, and that the pen +was the only instrument wherewith to prepare the way for better things. + +In the scanty journals kept during those years I find a record of the +books that Shelley read during several years. During the years of 1814 +and 1815 the list is extensive. It includes, in Greek, Homer, Hesiod, +Theocritus, the histories of Thucydides and Herodotus, and Diogenes +Laertius. In Latin, Petronius, Suetonius, some of the works of Cicero, a +large proportion of those of Seneca and Livy. In English, Milton's +poems, Wordsworth's "Excursion", Southey's "Madoc" and "Thalaba", Locke +"On the Human Understanding", Bacon's "Novum Organum". In Italian, +Ariosto, Tasso, and Alfieri. In French, the "Reveries d'un Solitaire" of +Rousseau. To these may be added several modern books of travel. He read +few novels. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley wrote little during this year. The poem entitled "The Sunset" +was written in the spring of the year, while still residing at +Bishopsgate. He spent the summer on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. +The "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was conceived during his voyage round +the lake with Lord Byron. He occupied himself during this voyage by +reading the "Nouvelle Heloise" for the first time. The reading it on the +very spot where the scenes are laid added to the interest; and he was at +once surprised and charmed by the passionate eloquence and earnest +enthralling interest that pervade this work. There was something in the +character of Saint-Preux, in his abnegation of self, and in the worship +he paid to Love, that coincided with Shelley's own disposition; and, +though differing in many of the views and shocked by others, yet the +effect of the whole was fascinating and delightful. + +"Mont Blanc" was inspired by a view of that mountain and its surrounding +peaks and valleys, as he lingered on the Bridge of Arve on his way +through the Valley of Chamouni. Shelley makes the following mention of +this poem in his publication of the "History of a Six Weeks' Tour, and +Letters from Switzerland": 'The poem entitled "Mont Blanc" is written by +the author of the two letters from Chamouni and Vevai. It was composed +under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful feelings excited +by the objects which it attempts to describe; and, as an undisciplined +overflowing of the soul, rests its claim to approbation on an attempt to +imitate the untamable wildness and inaccessible solemnity from which +those feelings sprang.' + +This was an eventful year, and less time was given to study than usual. +In the list of his reading I find, in Greek, Theocritus, the +"Prometheus" of Aeschylus, several of Plutarch's "Lives", and the works +of Lucian. In Latin, Lucretius, Pliny's "Letters", the "Annals" and +"Germany" of Tacitus. In French, the "History of the French Revolution" +by Lacretelle. He read for the first time, this year, Montaigne's +"Essays", and regarded them ever after as one of the most delightful and +instructive books in the world. The list is scanty in English works: +Locke's "Essay", "Political Justice", and Coleridge's "Lay Sermon", form +nearly the whole. It was his frequent habit to read aloud to me in the +evening; in this way we read, this year, the New Testament, "Paradise +Lost", Spenser's "Faery Queen", and "Don Quixote". + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The very illness that oppressed, and the aspect of death which had +approached so near Shelley, appear to have kindled to yet keener life +the Spirit of Poetry in his heart. The restless thoughts kept awake by +pain clothed themselves in verse. Much was composed during this year. +The "Revolt of Islam", written and printed, was a great +effort--"Rosalind and Helen" was begun--and the fragments and poems I +can trace to the same period show how full of passion and reflection +were his solitary hours. + +In addition to such poems as have an intelligible aim and shape, many a +stray idea and transitory emotion found imperfect and abrupt expression, +and then again lost themselves in silence. As he never wandered without +a book and without implements of writing, I find many such, in his +manuscript books, that scarcely bear record; while some of them, broken +and vague as they are, will appear valuable to those who love Shelley's +mind, and desire to trace its workings. + +He projected also translating the "Hymns" of Homer; his version of +several of the shorter ones remains, as well as that to Mercury already +published in the "Posthumous Poems". His readings this year were chiefly +Greek. Besides the "Hymns" of Homer and the "Iliad", he read the dramas +of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the "Symposium" of Plato, and Arrian's +"Historia Indica". In Latin, Apuleius alone is named. In English, the +Bible was his constant study; he read a great portion of it aloud in the +evening. Among these evening readings I find also mentioned the "Faerie +Queen"; and other modern works, the production of his contemporaries, +Coleridge, Wordsworth, Moore and Byron. + +His life was now spent more in thought than action--he had lost the +eager spirit which believed it could achieve what it projected for the +benefit of mankind. And yet in the converse of daily life Shelley was +far from being a melancholy man. He was eloquent when philosophy or +politics or taste were the subjects of conversation. He was playful; and +indulged in the wild spirit that mocked itself and others--not in +bitterness, but in sport. The author of "Nightmare Abbey" seized on some +points of his character and some habits of his life when he painted +Scythrop. He was not addicted to 'port or madeira,' but in youth he had +read of 'Illuminati and Eleutherarchs,' and believed that he possessed +the power of operating an immediate change in the minds of men and the +state of society. These wild dreams had faded; sorrow and adversity had +struck home; but he struggled with despondency as he did with physical +pain. There are few who remember him sailing paper boats, and watching +the navigation of his tiny craft with eagerness--or repeating with wild +energy "The Ancient Mariner", and Southey's "Old Woman of Berkeley"; but +those who do will recollect that it was in such, and in the creations of +his own fancy when that was most daring and ideal, that he sheltered +himself from the storms and disappointments, the pain and sorrow, that +beset his life. + +No words can express the anguish he felt when his elder children were +torn from him. In his first resentment against the Chancellor, on the +passing of the decree, he had written a curse, in which there breathes, +besides haughty indignation, all the tenderness of a father's love, +which could imagine and fondly dwell upon its loss and the consequences. + +At one time, while the question was still pending, the Chancellor had +said some words that seemed to intimate that Shelley should not be +permitted the care of any of his children, and for a moment he feared +that our infant son would be torn from us. He did not hesitate to +resolve, if such were menaced, to abandon country, fortune, everything, +and to escape with his child; and I find some unfinished stanzas +addressed to this son, whom afterwards we lost at Rome, written under +the idea that we might suddenly be forced to cross the sea, so to +preserve him. This poem, as well as the one previously quoted, were not +written to exhibit the pangs of distress to the public; they were the +spontaneous outbursts of a man who brooded over his wrongs and woes, and +was impelled to shed the grace of his genius over the uncontrollable +emotions of his heart. I ought to observe that the fourth verse of this +effusion is introduced in "Rosalind and Helen". When afterwards this +child died at Rome, he wrote, a propos of the English burying-ground in +that city: 'This spot is the repository of a sacred loss, of which the +yearnings of a parent's heart are now prophetic; he is rendered immortal +by love, as his memory is by death. My beloved child lies buried here. I +envy death the body far less than the oppressors the minds of those whom +they have torn from me. The one can only kill the body, the other +crushes the affections.' + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We often hear of persons disappointed by a first visit to Italy. This +was not Shelley's case. The aspect of its nature, its sunny sky, its +majestic storms, of the luxuriant vegetation of the country, and the +noble marble-built cities, enchanted him. The sight of the works of art +was full enjoyment and wonder. He had not studied pictures or statues +before; he now did so with the eye of taste, that referred not to the +rules of schools, but to those of Nature and truth. The first entrance +to Rome opened to him a scene of remains of antique grandeur that far +surpassed his expectations; and the unspeakable beauty of Naples and its +environs added to the impression he received of the transcendent and +glorious beauty of Italy. + +Our winter was spent at Naples. Here he wrote the fragments of +"Marenghi" and "The Woodman and the Nightingale", which he afterwards +threw aside. At this time, Shelley suffered greatly in health. He put +himself under the care of a medical man, who promised great things, and +made him endure severe bodily pain, without any good results. Constant +and poignant physical suffering exhausted him; and though he preserved +the appearance of cheerfulness, and often greatly enjoyed our wanderings +in the environs of Naples, and our excursions on its sunny sea, yet many +hours were passed when his thoughts, shadowed by illness, became +gloomy,--and then he escaped to solitude, and in verses, which he hid +from fear of wounding me, poured forth morbid but too natural bursts of +discontent and sadness. One looks back with unspeakable regret and +gnawing remorse to such periods; fancying that, had one been more alive +to the nature of his feelings, and more attentive to soothe them, such +would not have existed. And yet, enjoying as he appeared to do every +sight or influence of earth or sky, it was difficult to imagine that any +melancholy he showed was aught but the effect of the constant pain to +which he was a martyr. + +We lived in utter solitude. And such is often not the nurse of +cheerfulness; for then, at least with those who have been exposed to +adversity, the mind broods over its sorrows too intently; while the +society of the enlightened, the witty, and the wise, enables us to +forget ourselves by making us the sharers of the thoughts of others, +which is a portion of the philosophy of happiness. Shelley never liked +society in numbers,--it harassed and wearied him; but neither did he +like loneliness, and usually, when alone, sheltered himself against +memory and reflection in a book. But, with one or two whom he loved, he +gave way to wild and joyous spirits, or in more serious conversation +expounded his opinions with vivacity and eloquence. If an argument +arose, no man ever argued better. He was clear, logical, and earnest, in +supporting his own views; attentive, patient, and impartial, while +listening to those on the adverse side. Had not a wall of prejudice been +raised at this time between him and his countrymen, how many would have +sought the acquaintance of one whom to know was to love and to revere! +How many of the more enlightened of his contemporaries have since +regretted that they did not seek him! how very few knew his worth while +he lived! and, of those few, several were withheld by timidity or envy +from declaring their sense of it. But no man was ever more +enthusiastically loved--more looked up to, as one superior to his +fellows in intellectual endowments and moral worth, by the few who knew +him well, and had sufficient nobleness of soul to appreciate his +superiority. His excellence is now acknowledged; but, even while +admitted, not duly appreciated. For who, except those who were +acquainted with him, can imagine his unwearied benevolence, his +generosity, his systematic forbearance? And still less is his vast +superiority in intellectual attainments sufficiently understood--his +sagacity, his clear understanding, his learning, his prodigious memory. +All these as displayed in conversation, were known to few while he +lived, and are now silent in the tomb: + + 'Ahi orbo mondo ingrato! + Gran cagion hai di dever pianger meco; + Che quel ben ch' era in te, perdut' hai seco.' + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1819, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley loved the People; and respected them as often more virtuous, as +always more suffering, and therefore more deserving of sympathy, than +the great. He believed that a clash between the two classes of society +was inevitable, and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side. He +had an idea of publishing a series of poems adapted expressly to +commemorate their circumstances and wrongs. He wrote a few; but, in +those days of prosecution for libel, they could not be printed. They are +not among the best of his productions, a writer being always shackled +when he endeavours to write down to the comprehension of those who could +not understand or feel a highly imaginative style; but they show his +earnestness, and with what heart-felt compassion he went home to the +direct point of injury--that oppression is detestable as being the +parent of starvation, nakedness, and ignorance. Besides these +outpourings of compassion and indignation, he had meant to adorn the +cause he loved with loftier poetry of glory and triumph: such is the +scope of the "Ode to the Assertors of Liberty". He sketched also a new +version of our national anthem, as addressed to Liberty. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the latter part of the year 1819 in Florence, where Shelley +passed several hours daily in the Gallery, and made various notes on its +ancient works of art. His thoughts were a good deal taken up also by the +project of a steamboat, undertaken by a friend, an engineer, to ply +between Leghorn and Marseilles, for which he supplied a sum of money. +This was a sort of plan to delight Shelley, and he was greatly +disappointed when it was thrown aside. + +There was something in Florence that disagreed excessively with his +health, and he suffered far more pain than usual; so much so that we +left it sooner than we intended, and removed to Pisa, where we had some +friends, and, above all, where we could consult the celebrated Vacca as +to the cause of Shelley's sufferings. He, like every other medical man, +could only guess at that, and gave little hope of immediate relief; he +enjoined him to abstain from all physicians and medicine, and to leave +his complaint to Nature. As he had vainly consulted medical men of the +highest repute in England, he was easily persuaded to adopt this advice. +Pain and ill-health followed him to the end; but the residence at Pisa +agreed with him better than any other, and there in consequence we +remained. + +In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn, borrowing the house +of some friends who were absent on a journey to England. It was on a +beautiful summer evening, while wandering among the lanes whose +myrtle-hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the +carolling of the skylark which inspired one of the most beautiful of his +poems. He addressed the letter to Mrs. Gisborne from this house, which +was hers: he had made his study of the workshop of her son, who was an +engineer. Mrs. Gisborne had been a friend of my father in her younger +days. She was a lady of great accomplishments, and charming from her +frank and affectionate nature. She had the most intense love of +knowledge, a delicate and trembling sensibility, and preserved freshness +of mind after a life of considerable adversity. As a favourite friend of +my father, we had sought her with eagerness; and the most open and +cordial friendship was established between us. + +Our stay at the Baths of San Giuliano was shortened by an accident. At +the foot of our garden ran the canal that communicated between the +Serchio and the Arno. The Serchio overflowed its banks, and, breaking +its bounds, this canal also overflowed; all this part of the country is +below the level of its rivers, and the consequence was that it was +speedily flooded. The rising waters filled the Square of the Baths, in +the lower part of which our house was situated. The canal overflowed in +the garden behind; the rising waters on either side at last burst open +the doors, and, meeting in the house, rose to the height of six feet. It +was a picturesque sight at night to see the peasants driving the cattle +from the plains below to the hills above the Baths. A fire was kept up +to guide them across the ford; and the forms of the men and the animals +showed in dark relief against the red glare of the flame, which was +reflected again in the waters that filled the Square. + +We then removed to Pisa, and took up our abode there for the winter. The +extreme mildness of the climate suited Shelley, and his solitude was +enlivened by an intercourse with several intimate friends. Chance cast +us strangely enough on this quiet half-unpeopled town; but its very +peace suited Shelley. Its river, the near mountains, and not distant +sea, added to its attractions, and were the objects of many delightful +excursions. We feared the south of Italy, and a hotter climate, on +account of our child; our former bereavement inspiring us with terror. +We seemed to take root here, and moved little afterwards; often, indeed, +entertaining projects for visiting other parts of Italy, but still +delaying. But for our fears on account of our child, I believe we should +have wandered over the world, both being passionately fond of +travelling. But human life, besides its great unalterable necessities, +is ruled by a thousand lilliputian ties that shackle at the time, +although it is difficult to account afterwards for their influence over +our destiny. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +My task becomes inexpressibly painful as the year draws near that which +sealed our earthly fate, and each poem, and each event it records, has a +real or mysterious connection with the fatal catastrophe. I feel that I +am incapable of putting on paper the history of those times. The heart +of the man, abhorred of the poet, who could + +'peep and botanize +Upon his mother's grave,' + +does not appear to me more inexplicably framed than that of one who can +dissect and probe past woes, and repeat to the public ear the groans +drawn from them in the throes of their agony. + +The year 1821 was spent in Pisa, or at the Baths of San Giuliano. We +were not, as our wont had been, alone; friends had gathered round us. +Nearly all are dead, and, when Memory recurs to the past, she wanders +among tombs. The genius, with all his blighting errors and mighty +powers; the companion of Shelley's ocean-wanderings, and the sharer of +his fate, than whom no man ever existed more gentle, generous, and +fearless; and others, who found in Shelley's society, and in his great +knowledge and warm sympathy, delight, instruction, and solace; have +joined him beyond the grave. A few survive who have felt life a desert +since he left it. What misfortune can equal death? Change can convert +every other into a blessing, or heal its sting--death alone has no cure. +It shakes the foundations of the earth on which we tread; it destroys +its beauty; it casts down our shelter; it exposes us bare to desolation. +When those we love have passed into eternity, 'life is the desert and +the solitude' in which we are forced to linger--but never find comfort +more. + +There is much in the "Adonais" which seems now more applicable to +Shelley himself than to the young and gifted poet whom he mourned. The +poetic view he takes of death, and the lofty scorn he displays towards +his calumniators, are as a prophecy on his own destiny when received +among immortal names, and the poisonous breath of critics has vanished +into emptiness before the fame he inherits. + +Shelley's favourite taste was boating; when living near the Thames or by +the Lake of Geneva, much of his life was spent on the water. On the +shore of every lake or stream or sea near which he dwelt, he had a boat +moored. He had latterly enjoyed this pleasure again. There are no +pleasure-boats on the Arno; and the shallowness of its waters (except in +winter-time, when the stream is too turbid and impetuous for boating) +rendered it difficult to get any skiff light enough to float. Shelley, +however, overcame the difficulty; he, together with a friend, contrived +a boat such as the huntsmen carry about with them in the Maremma, to +cross the sluggish but deep streams that intersect the forests,--a boat +of laths and pitched canvas. It held three persons; and he was often +seen on the Arno in it, to the horror of the Italians, who remonstrated +on the danger, and could not understand how anyone could take pleasure +in an exercise that risked life. 'Ma va per la vita!' they exclaimed. I +little thought how true their words would prove. He once ventured, with +a friend, on the glassy sea of a calm day, down the Arno and round the +coast to Leghorn, which, by keeping close in shore, was very +practicable. They returned to Pisa by the canal, when, missing the +direct cut, they got entangled among weeds, and the boat upset; a +wetting was all the harm done, except that the intense cold of his +drenched clothes made Shelley faint. Once I went down with him to the +mouth of the Arno, where the stream, then high and swift, met the +tideless sea, and disturbed its sluggish waters. It was a waste and +dreary scene; the desert sand stretched into a point surrounded by waves +that broke idly though perpetually around; it was a scene very similar +to Lido, of which he had said-- + + 'I love all waste + And solitary places; where we taste + The pleasure of believing what we see + Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be: + And such was this wide ocean, and this shore + More barren than its billows.' + +Our little boat was of greater use, unaccompanied by any danger, when we +removed to the Baths. Some friends lived at the village of Pugnano, four +miles off, and we went to and fro to see them, in our boat, by the +canal; which, fed by the Serchio, was, though an artificial, a full and +picturesque stream, making its way under verdant banks, sheltered by +trees that dipped their boughs into the murmuring waters. By day, +multitudes of Ephemera darted to and fro on the surface; at night, the +fireflies came out among the shrubs on the banks; the cicale at noon-day +kept up their hum; the aziola cooed in the quiet evening. It was a +pleasant summer, bright in all but Shelley's health and inconstant +spirits; yet he enjoyed himself greatly, and became more and more +attached to the part of the country were chance appeared to cast us. +Sometimes he projected taking a farm situated on the height of one of +the near hills, surrounded by chestnut and pine woods, and overlooking a +wide extent of country: or settling still farther in the maritime +Apennines, at Massa. Several of his slighter and unfinished poems were +inspired by these scenes, and by the companions around us. It is the +nature of that poetry, however, which overflows from the soul oftener to +express sorrow and regret than joy; for it is when oppressed by the +weight of life, and away from those he loves, that the poet has recourse +to the solace of expression in verse. + +Still, Shelley's passion was the ocean; and he wished that our summers, +instead of being passed among the hills near Pisa, should be spent on +the shores of the sea. It was very difficult to find a spot. We shrank +from Naples from a fear that the heats would disagree with Percy: +Leghorn had lost its only attraction, since our friends who had resided +there were returned to England; and, Monte Nero being the resort of many +English, we did not wish to find ourselves in the midst of a colony of +chance travellers. No one then thought it possible to reside at Via +Reggio, which latterly has become a summer resort. The low lands and bad +air of Maremma stretch the whole length of the western shores of the +Mediterranean, till broken by the rocks and hills of Spezia. It was a +vague idea, but Shelley suggested an excursion to Spezia, to see whether +it would be feasible to spend a summer there. The beauty of the bay +enchanted him. We saw no house to suit us; but the notion took root, and +many circumstances, enchained as by fatality, occurred to urge him to +execute it. + +He looked forward this autumn with great pleasure to the prospect of a +visit from Leigh Hunt. When Shelley visited Lord Byron at Ravenna, the +latter had suggested his coming out, together with the plan of a +periodical work in which they should all join. Shelley saw a prospect of +good for the fortunes of his friend, and pleasure in his society; and +instantly exerted himself to have the plan executed. He did not intend +himself joining in the work: partly from pride, not wishing to have the +air of acquiring readers for his poetry by associating it with the +compositions of more popular writers; and also because he might feel +shackled in the free expression of his opinions, if any friends were to +be compromised. By those opinions, carried even to their outermost +extent, he wished to live and die, as being in his conviction not only +true, but such as alone would conduce to the moral improvement and +happiness of mankind. The sale of the work might meanwhile, either +really or supposedly, be injured by the free expression of his thoughts; +and this evil he resolved to avoid. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + + This morn thy gallant bark + Sailed on a sunny sea: + 'Tis noon, and tempests dark + Have wrecked it on the lee. + Ah woe! ah woe! + By Spirits of the deep + Thou'rt cradled on the billow + To thy eternal sleep. + + Thou sleep'st upon the shore + Beside the knelling surge, + And Sea-nymphs evermore + Shall sadly chant thy dirge. + They come, they come, + The Spirits of the deep,-- + While near thy seaweed pillow + My lonely watch I keep. + + From far across the sea + I hear a loud lament, + By Echo's voice for thee + From Ocean's caverns sent. + O list! O list! + The Spirits of the deep! + They raise a wail of sorrow, + While I forever weep. + +With this last year of the life of Shelley these Notes end. They are not +what I intended them to be. I began with energy, and a burning desire to +impart to the world, in worthy language, the sense I have of the virtues +and genius of the beloved and the lost; my strength has failed under the +task. Recurrence to the past, full of its own deep and unforgotten joys +and sorrows, contrasted with succeeding years of painful and solitary +struggle, has shaken my health. Days of great suffering have followed my +attempts to write, and these again produced a weakness and languor that +spread their sinister influence over these notes. I dislike speaking of +myself, but cannot help apologizing to the dead, and to the public, for +not having executed in the manner I desired the history I engaged to +give of Shelley's writings. (I at one time feared that the correction of +the press might be less exact through my illness; but I believe that it +is nearly free from error. Some asterisks occur in a few pages, as they +did in the volume of "Posthumous Poems", either because they refer to +private concerns, or because the original manuscript was left imperfect. +Did any one see the papers from which I drew that volume, the wonder +would be how any eyes or patience were capable of extracting it from so +confused a mass, interlined and broken into fragments, so that the sense +could only be deciphered and joined by guesses which might seem rather +intuitive than founded on reasoning. Yet I believe no mistake was made.) + +The winter of 1822 was passed in Pisa, if we might call that season +winter in which autumn merged into spring after the interval of but few +days of bleaker weather. Spring sprang up early, and with extreme +beauty. Shelley had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the +subject of Charles I. It was one that he believed adapted for a drama; +full of intense interest, contrasted character, and busy passion. He had +recommended it long before, when he encouraged me to attempt a play. +Whether the subject proved more difficult than he anticipated, or +whether in fact he could not bend his mind away from the broodings and +wanderings of thought, divested from human interest, which he best +loved, I cannot tell; but he proceeded slowly, and threw it aside for +one of the most mystical of his poems, the "Triumph of Life", on which +he was employed at the last. + +His passion for boating was fostered at this time by having among our +friends several sailors. His favourite companion, Edward Ellerker +Williams, of the 8th Light Dragoons, had begun his life in the navy, and +had afterwards entered the army; he had spent several years in India, +and his love for adventure and manly exercises accorded with Shelley's +taste. It was their favourite plan to build a boat such as they could +manage themselves, and, living on the sea-coast, to enjoy at every hour +and season the pleasure they loved best. Captain Roberts, R.N., +undertook to build the boat at Genoa, where he was also occupied in +building the "Bolivar" for Lord Byron. Ours was to be an open boat, on a +model taken from one of the royal dockyards. I have since heard that +there was a defect in this model, and that it was never seaworthy. In +the month of February, Shelley and his friend went to Spezia to seek for +houses for us. Only one was to be found at all suitable; however, a +trifle such as not finding a house could not stop Shelley; the one found +was to serve for all. It was unfurnished; we sent our furniture by sea, +and with a good deal of precipitation, arising from his impatience, made +our removal. We left Pisa on the 26th of April. + +The Bay of Spezia is of considerable extent, and divided by a rocky +promontory into a larger and smaller one. The town of Lerici is situated +on the eastern point, and in the depth of the smaller bay, which bears +the name of this town, is the village of San Terenzo. Our house, Casa +Magni, was close to this village; the sea came up to the door, a steep +hill sheltered it behind. The proprietor of the estate on which it was +situated was insane; he had begun to erect a large house at the summit +of the hill behind, but his malady prevented its being finished, and it +was falling into ruin. He had (and this to the Italians had seemed a +glaring symptom of very decided madness) rooted up the olives on the +hillside, and planted forest trees. These were mostly young, but the +plantation was more in English taste than I ever elsewhere saw in Italy; +some fine walnut and ilex trees intermingled their dark massy foliage, +and formed groups which still haunt my memory, as then they satiated the +eye with a sense of loveliness. The scene was indeed of unimaginable +beauty. The blue extent of waters, the almost landlocked bay, the near +castle of Lerici shutting it in to the east, and distant Porto Venere to +the west; the varied forms of the precipitous rocks that bound in the +beach, over which there was only a winding rugged footpath towards +Lerici, and none on the other side; the tideless sea leaving no sands +nor shingle, formed a picture such as one sees in Salvator Rosa's +landscapes only. Sometimes the sunshine vanished when the sirocco +raged--the 'ponente' the wind was called on that shore. The gales and +squalls that hailed our first arrival surrounded the bay with foam; the +howling wind swept round our exposed house, and the sea roared +unremittingly, so that we almost fancied ourselves on board ship. At +other times sunshine and calm invested sea and sky, and the rich tints +of Italian heaven bathed the scene in bright and ever-varying tints. + +The natives were wilder than the place. Our near neighbours of San +Terenzo were more like savages than any people I ever before lived +among. Many a night they passed on the beach, singing, or rather +howling; the women dancing about among the waves that broke at their +feet, the men leaning against the rocks and joining in their loud wild +chorus. We could get no provisions nearer than Sarzana, at a distance of +three miles and a half off, with the torrent of the Magra between; and +even there the supply was very deficient. Had we been wrecked on an +island of the South Seas, we could scarcely have felt ourselves farther +from civilisation and comfort; but, where the sun shines, the latter +becomes an unnecessary luxury, and we had enough society among +ourselves. Yet I confess housekeeping became rather a toilsome task, +especially as I was suffering in my health, and could not exert myself +actively. + +At first the fatal boat had not arrived, and was expected with great +impatience. On Monday, 12th May, it came. Williams records the +long-wished-for fact in his journal: 'Cloudy and threatening weather. M. +Maglian called; and after dinner, and while walking with him on the +terrace, we discovered a strange sail coming round the point of Porto +Venere, which proved at length to be Shelley's boat. She had left Genoa +on Thursday last, but had been driven back by the prevailing bad winds. +A Mr. Heslop and two English seamen brought her round, and they speak +most highly of her performances. She does indeed excite my surprise and +admiration. Shelley and I walked to Lerici, and made a stretch off the +land to try her: and I find she fetches whatever she looks at. In short, +we have now a perfect plaything for the summer.'--It was thus that +short-sighted mortals welcomed Death, he having disguised his grim form +in a pleasing mask! The time of the friends was now spent on the sea; +the weather became fine, and our whole party often passed the evenings +on the water when the wind promised pleasant sailing. Shelley and +Williams made longer excursions; they sailed several times to Massa. +They had engaged one of the seamen who brought her round, a boy, by name +Charles Vivian; and they had not the slightest apprehension of danger. +When the weather was unfavourable, they employed themselves with +alterations in the rigging, and by building a boat of canvas and reeds, +as light as possible, to have on board the other for the convenience of +landing in waters too shallow for the larger vessel. When Shelley was on +board, he had his papers with him; and much of the "Triumph of Life" was +written as he sailed or weltered on that sea which was soon to engulf +him. + +The heats set in in the middle of June; the days became excessively hot. +But the sea-breeze cooled the air at noon, and extreme heat always put +Shelley in spirits. A long drought had preceded the heat; and prayers +for rain were being put up in the churches, and processions of relics +for the same effect took place in every town. At this time we received +letters announcing the arrival of Leigh Hunt at Genoa. Shelley was very +eager to see him. I was confined to my room by severe illness, and could +not move; it was agreed that Shelley and Williams should go to Leghorn +in the boat. Strange that no fear of danger crossed our minds! Living on +the sea-shore, the ocean became as a plaything: as a child may sport +with a lighted stick, till a spark inflames a forest, and spreads +destruction over all, so did we fearlessly and blindly tamper with +danger, and make a game of the terrors of the ocean. Our Italian +neighbours, even, trusted themselves as far as Massa in the skiff; and +the running down the line of coast to Leghorn gave no more notion of +peril than a fair-weather inland navigation would have done to those who +had never seen the sea. Once, some months before, Trelawny had raised a +warning voice as to the difference of our calm bay and the open sea +beyond; but Shelley and his friend, with their one sailor-boy, thought +themselves a match for the storms of the Mediterranean, in a boat which +they looked upon as equal to all it was put to do. + +On the 1st of July they left us. If ever shadow of future ill darkened +the present hour, such was over my mind when they went. During the whole +of our stay at Lerici, an intense presentiment of coming evil brooded +over my mind, and covered this beautiful place and genial summer with +the shadow of coming misery. I had vainly struggled with these +emotions--they seemed accounted for by my illness; but at this hour of +separation they recurred with renewed violence. I did not anticipate +danger for them, but a vague expectation of evil shook me to agony, and +I could scarcely bring myself to let them go. The day was calm and +clear; and, a fine breeze rising at twelve, they weighed for Leghorn. +They made the run of about fifty miles in seven hours and a half. The +"Bolivar" was in port; and, the regulations of the Health-office not +permitting them to go on shore after sunset, they borrowed cushions from +the larger vessel, and slept on board their boat. + +They spent a week at Pisa and Leghorn. The want of rain was severely +felt in the country. The weather continued sultry and fine. I have heard +that Shelley all this time was in brilliant spirits. Not long before, +talking of presentiment, he had said the only one that he ever found +infallible was the certain advent of some evil fortune when he felt +peculiarly joyous. Yet, if ever fate whispered of coming disaster, such +inaudible but not unfelt prognostics hovered around us. The beauty of +the place seemed unearthly in its excess: the distance we were at from +all signs of civilization, the sea at our feet, its murmurs or its +roaring for ever in our ears,--all these things led the mind to brood +over strange thoughts, and, lifting it from everyday life, caused it to +be familiar with the unreal. A sort of spell surrounded us; and each +day, as the voyagers did not return, we grew restless and disquieted, +and yet, strange to say, we were not fearful of the most apparent +danger. + +The spell snapped; it was all over; an interval of agonizing doubt--of +days passed in miserable journeys to gain tidings, of hopes that took +firmer root even as they were more baseless--was changed to the +certainty of the death that eclipsed all happiness for the survivors for +evermore. + +There was something in our fate peculiarly harrowing. The remains of +those we lost were cast on shore; but, by the quarantine-laws of the +coast, we were not permitted to have possession of them--the law with +respect to everything cast on land by the sea being that such should be +burned, to prevent the possibility of any remnant bringing the plague +into Italy; and no representation could alter the law. At length, +through the kind and unwearied exertions of Mr. Dawkins, our Charge +d'Affaires at Florence, we gained permission to receive the ashes after +the bodies were consumed. Nothing could equal the zeal of Trelawny in +carrying our wishes into effect. He was indefatigable in his exertions, +and full of forethought and sagacity in his arrangements. It was a +fearful task; he stood before us at last, his hands scorched and +blistered by the flames of the funeral-pyre, and by touching the burnt +relics as he placed them in the receptacles prepared for the purpose. +And there, in compass of that small case, was gathered all that remained +on earth of him whose genius and virtue were a crown of glory to the +world--whose love had been the source of happiness, peace, and good,--to +be buried with him! + +The concluding stanzas of the "Adonais" pointed out where the remains +ought to be deposited; in addition to which our beloved child lay buried +in the cemetery at Rome. Thither Shelley's ashes were conveyed; and they +rest beneath one of the antique weed-grown towers that recur at +intervals in the circuit of the massy ancient wall of Rome. He selected +the hallowed place himself; there is + + 'the sepulchre, + Oh, not of him, but of our joy!-- + ... + And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time + Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand; + And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, + Pavilioning the dust of him who planned + This refuge for his memory, doth stand + Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath, + A field is spread, on which a newer band + Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, + Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath.' + +Could sorrow for the lost, and shuddering anguish at the vacancy left +behind, be soothed by poetic imaginations, there was something in +Shelley's fate to mitigate pangs which yet, alas! could not be so +mitigated; for hard reality brings too miserably home to the mourner all +that is lost of happiness, all of lonely unsolaced struggle that +remains. Still, though dreams and hues of poetry cannot blunt grief, it +invests his fate with a sublime fitness, which those less nearly allied +may regard with complacency. A year before he had poured into verse all +such ideas about death as give it a glory of its own. He had, as it now +seems, almost anticipated his own destiny; and, when the mind figures +his skiff wrapped from sight by the thunder-storm, as it was last seen +upon the purple sea, and then, as the cloud of the tempest passed away, +no sign remained of where it had been (Captain Roberts watched the +vessel with his glass from the top of the lighthouse of Leghorn, on its +homeward track. They were off Via Reggio, at some distance from shore, +when a storm was driven over the sea. It enveloped them and several +larger vessels in darkness. When the cloud passed onwards, Roberts +looked again, and saw every other vessel sailing on the ocean except +their little schooner, which had vanished. From that time he could +scarcely doubt the fatal truth; yet we fancied that they might have been +driven towards Elba or Corsica, and so be saved. The observation made as +to the spot where the boat disappeared caused it to be found, through +the exertions of Trelawny for that effect. It had gone down in ten +fathom water; it had not capsized, and, except such things as had +floated from her, everything was found on board exactly as it had been +placed when they sailed. The boat itself was uninjured. Roberts +possessed himself of her, and decked her; but she proved not seaworthy, +and her shattered planks now lie rotting on the shore of one of the +Ionian islands, on which she was wrecked.)--who but will regard as a +prophecy the last stanza of the "Adonais"? + + 'The breath whose might I have invoked in song + Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven, + Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng + Whose sails were never to the tempest given; + The massy earth and sphered skies are riven! + I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; + Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, + The soul of Adonais, like a star, + Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.' + +Putney, May 1, 1839. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes to The Complete Poetical Works +of Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Mary W. 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