Percy Bysshe Shelley Complete Works – World’s Best Collection E-Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley

• Herausgeber: Imagination Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 3795

Beschreibung

Percy Bysshe Shelley Complete Works World's Best Collection

This is the world’s best Shelley collection, including the most complete set of Shelley’s works available plus many free bonus materials.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets. He was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron and Shelley’s own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was a radical in his poetry, as well as in his political and social views, and is regarded by some as among the finest and most influential lyric poets in the English language

The ‘Must-Have’ Complete Collection

In this irresistible collection you get a full set of Shelley’s work, with more than 150 works - All his poems, All poetry, All posthumous works, All Letters from his trips, All his Prose and Non-Fiction Works. Plus a full length biography, with Free Bonus material.

Works Included:

Poetry:

All Poems, early works and collections from 1810 through later works of 1822

Posthumously Published Poems

Fragments and Incomplete Poems

All Short and Long Poems, including:

The Devil’s Walk

Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

Ozymandias

Love’s Philosophy

Prometheus Unbound

Epipsychidion

Plays:

The Cenci

Hellas

Books:

Zastrozzi

St. Irvyne

Non Fiction:

All Prose and Writings, Including:

On Love

On Life

On Metaphysics

Letters And Journals:

All Letters and Journals from:

History of a Six Weeks’ Tour

Letters from Italy

Your Free Special Bonuses

Life Of Shelley - A biography of Shelley’s intriguing life.

Shelley At Oxford – the story of Shelley and his time at Oxford, written by Shelley’s close friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg.

Adonais – an analysis of Adonais, the mesmerizing poem that Shelley wrote for John Keats.

Notes And Annotations from Mary Shelley – Throughout the collection (and collected by themselves as a stand-alone chapter) you will find interesting and unique notes from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s wife and closest companion, Mary Shelley, concerning Shelley’s poems and writing.

Historical Context and Literary Context Notes - Detailed explanations of the Regency Era and Romanticism, written specially for this collection.

Get This Collection Right Now

This is the best Shelley collection you can get, so get it now and start enjoying and being inspired by his words like never before!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Historical Context: The Regency Period

LITERARY CONTEXT: ROMANTICISM AND THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY - OXFORD EDITION

MAJOR POEMS

THE REVOLT OF ISLAM.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

PRINCE ATHANASE.

ROSALIND AND HELEN.

JULIAN AND MADDALO - A CONVERSATION.

PROMETHEUS UNBOUND.

THE CENCI.

THE MASK OF ANARCHY.

PETER BELL THE THIRD.

LETTER TO MARIA GISBORNE.

THE WITCH OF ATLAS.

OEDIPUS TYRANNUS OR SWELLFOOT THE TYRANT.

EPIPSYCHIDION.

ADONAIS - AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JOHN KEATS, AUTHOR OF ENDYMION, HYPERION, ETC.

HELLAS

FRAGMENTS OF AN UNFINISHED DRAMA.

CHARLES THE FIRST.

THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE.

ORIGINAL POETRY BY VICTOR AND CAZIRE – SHELLEY’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK 1810

POSTHUMOUS FRAGMENTS OF MARGARET MCHOLSON.

EARLY POEMS [1814, 1815].

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1816.

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1817

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1818.

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1819.

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820.

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1821.

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1822.

ADONAIS – POEM WRITTEN ABOUT KEATS BY SHELLEY

PROSE AND NON-FICTION WORKS

HISTORY OF A SIX WEEKS' TOUR THROUGH A PART OF FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, GERMANY, AND HOLLAND; WITH LETTERS DESCRIPTIVE OF A SAIL ROUND THE LAKE OF GENEVA, AND OF THE GLACIERS OF CHAMOUNI

LETTERS WRITTEN DURING A RESIDENCE OF THREE MONTHS IN THE ENVIRONS OF GENEVA, IN THE SUMMER OF THE YEAR 1816.

LETTERS FROM ITALY.

ZASTROZZI

ST. IRVYNE

SHELLEY

NOTES TO THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

SHELLEY AT OXFORD

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY COMPLETE WORKS ULTIMATE COLLECTION

Edited by Darryl Marks

Percy Bysshe Shelley Complete Works World’s Best Collection - Original Publication Dates Poems, prose and works of Percy Bysshe Shelley – circa 1814-1824 Shelley at Oxford – Thomas Jefferson Hogg – 1904 Notes on Poems – Mary Shelley – 1824 Shelley – 1878 First Imagination Books edition published 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Darryl Marks and Infinite Eternity Entertainment LLC All Rights Reserved. "HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE REGENCY ERA” “LITERARY CONTEXT: ROMANTICISIM” By Darryl Marks Copyright © 2018 by Darryl Alan Marks and Infinite Eternity Entertainment LLC All Rights Reserved.

Historical Context: The Regency Period

The Regency Period

Shelley wrote within what is known as the Regency Era. This Regency Era or Regency Period can refer to various stretches of time, although the formal Regency lasted from 1811–1820. This period began in 1810 when George III was taken seriously ill. Due to fits of madness he was declared incapable of ruling because of his mental incapacity. In 1788 there had been a Regency Act that had been created because of George’s fits of madness. This act made it possible for his son, the Prince Regent, to rule as head of the country. In 1810, when George III’s madness became untenable, the act was formally passed, making George III’s son Regent and head of state. The Regency Period itself lasted until George III’s death in 1820 when the Regent officially became King George IV and was able to rule in his own right.

In 1837, Victoria became Queen, heralding the beginning of the Victorian Era.

It is easy to see why various different time periods can be classed as the Regency period. For certain historians, the period from 1795 to 1837 (which includes the latter part of the reign of George III and the reigns of his sons George IV and William IV) is sometimes regarded as the Regency era.

The Prince Regent Himself

George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, was 48 when he was appointed Prince Regent to his father, King George III. Notable for his extravagant lifestyle, the Regent was heavy drinker and compulsive gambler, who was gifted with charming manners, and musical ability in the form of singing and the cello.

The Regent though, was considered untrustworthy, hated his father George III, and this led him down several wayward paths: he colluded and allied himself with the Whig opposition in Parliament; he illegally and secretly married Maria Fitzherbert in 1785; he also married Princess Caroline of Brunswick, in 1795, despite hating her as well.

The Characteristics of the Regency

Regardless of time period used the Regency period is characterized by distinctive trends in British architecture, literature, fashions, politics, and culture.

Some of the basic characteristics of the period include:

Like the Regent himself, is characterized by freedom and extravagance compared with the ascetic lifestyle of his father George III.

Society was also considerably stratified, and there was a large class divide between the rich, opulence of the higher classes (sometimes bordering on debauchery) and the dingy, darker side of the lower classes.

There may have been rich, sumptuous, glamorous elements to life in higher class Regency society, but there was also the less affluent areas of London, where thievery, womanizing, gambling, and constant drinking was rampant.

Poverty was addressed only marginally and the betterment of society was far from the minds of the ruling class.

In fact, the formation of the Regency after George III saw the end of a pious, reserved society, and gave birth of a frivolous, ostentatious one. This was influenced by the Regent himself, who was kept removed from politics and military exploits and only channeled his energies into the pursuit of pleasure (also partly as his sole form of rebellion against what he saw as disapproval and censure in the form of his father).

Saul David in his biography of George IV describes the Regency “in its widest sense (1800-1830)” as a “devil-may-care period of low morals and high fashion”.

This societal gap was even exploited in the popular media and literature: One of the driving forces in the changes in the world at that time was the industrial revolution and its effects. Steam printing allowed a massively improved method to produce printed materials, and this gave rise to wildly popular fashionable novels about the rich and aristocratic. Publishers secretly hinted at the specific identity of these individuals in the books in order to drive sales. The gap in the hierarchy of society was so great that those of the upper classes were viewed by those below as wondrous and fantastical (like a fiction or living legend).

Such novels and literature from this period is still popular today, as is the period novel itself.

Society

One of the main draw-cards for the Regency’s popularity is its elegance and achievements in the fine arts and architecture. Although this was an era where war was waged (such as with Napoleon), the Regency was also a period of great refinement and cultural achievement. This shaped and molded the whole societal structure of Britain as a whole.

The Regency is popular mostly because of the so-called ‘Feel of the Regency’ period, associated with such period romances, glamorous elegance and etiquette, extravagant follies, and melodramatic emotions; filled with balls and duels, unrequited love, and romantic liaisons.

In terms of the prevailing literature movement of the time, it was the Romantic Movement that was well-established by the time the Regency started. Rich in literature, poetry and prose, it was the time of the Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Byron, Coleridge and Shelley and the Romantic novelist, Sir Walter Scott.

Romanticism was a revolt against the aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period (and its rationalistic attitude) which preceded it. Romanticism stressed emotion as a source of literary experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as anxiety, horror, and the feeling when observing nature. All of these themes are evident in the best-known classic Regency works.

Of course the works of Jane Austen are inextricably linked to the Regency, and her works have become known as archetypal Regency romances. It was a decade of particular etiquette and fashions with traits that include a highly developed sense of social standing for the characters, emphasis on "manners" and class issues, and the emergence of modern social thought amongst the upper classes of England.

In the British Regency, a marriage based on love was rarely an option for most women and instead, securing a steady and sufficient income was the first consideration for both the woman and her family.

This led to the Regency period yielding o many examples of both novel and poetry that echoed literary romance: it gave many the opportunity to live through the work's heroine, who generally married someone she loved deeply.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818, also falling within the Regency era. It also was part of the Romantics era and many consider it to be the single piece of British literature that best reflects the interests and concerns of the time - fascination with and fear of the science and technological advances of the times, while dredging up the emotions of horror and terror.

Major writers of classic Regency fiction

Jane Austen (1775–1817)

Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849)

Susan Ferrier (1782–1854)

ETA Hoffman (1776–1822)

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

Mary Shelley (1797–1851)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

Johann David Wyss (1743–1818)

Major writers of modern Regency fiction

Mary Balogh (born 1944)

Jo Beverley (born 1947)

Susan Carroll (born 1952)

Loretta Chase (born 1949)

Lecia Cornwall

Georgette Heyer (1902–1974)

Mary Jo Putney

Events of the Regency Era

1811

George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, begins his nine-year tenure as regent and became known as The Prince Regent.

1812

Prime Minister Spencer Perceval assassinated in the House of Commons.

The British were victorious over French armies at the Battle of Salamanca).

Gas company (Gas Light and Coke Company) founded. Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic of the Victorian era, was born on 7 February 1812.

1813

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was published.

William Hedley's Puffing Billy – which was an early steam locomotive - runs on smooth rails.

1814

Invasion of France by allies led to the Treaty of Paris, ended one of the Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.

Gas lighting introduced in London streets.

1815

Napoleon I of France defeated by the Seventh Coalition at the Battle of Waterloo.

Napoleon now exiled to St. Helena.

1816

Income tax abolished.

A "year without a summer" followed a volcanic eruption in Indonesia.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.

1817

Antonin Carême created a spectacular feast for the Prince Regent at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

The death of Princess Charlotte (the Prince Regent's daughter) from complications of childbirth changed obstetrical practices.

1818

Queen Charlotte died at Kew. Manchester cotton spinners went on strike. Frankenstein published.

Emily Brontë born.

1819

Ivanhoe by Walter Scott was published.

Sir Stamford Raffles, a British administrator, founded Singapore. First steam-propelled vessel (the SS Savannah) crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia.

1820

Death of George III and accession of The Prince Regent as George IV.

Historical Context of the Regency - Periods in English History

Prehistoric Britainuntil c. 43

Roman Britainc. 43–410

Anglo-Saxonc. 500–1066

Norman1066–1154

Plantagenet1154–1485

Tudor1485–1603

Elizabethan1558–1603

Stuart1603–1714

Jacobean1603–1625

Caroline1625–1649

(Interregnum)1649–1660

Restoration1660–1714

Georgian1714–1837

Regency1811–1820

Victorian1837–1901

Edwardian1901–1914

First World War1914–1918

Interwar Britain1918–1939

Second World War1939–1945

LITERARY CONTEXT: ROMANTICISM AND THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

Romanticism and the Romantic Movement

Shelley belongs to a period of time in arts and literature known as the Romantic Era. His work echoes many of the ideals of this Romantic movement. To fully appreciate his work, it can be useful to understand this time in literary history.

The Romantic era was caused by a variety of factors.

Firstly, it was largely a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, a period of time defined by strict rules, intellectualism, as well as aristocratic social and political norms.

Romanticism was also partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and modernity, as well as the scientific rationalization of nature.

Historical Context

Romanticism, as an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement, began in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Because of Romanticism beginning in slightly different time periods in various different countries (ranging from Scotland, Great Britain, to France, Germany and beyond), it is a matter of debate exactly when the movement began.

There are even scholars who identify the French Revolution, which began in 1789, as being another ‘source’ of the inspiration that led to the Era, with its rejection of the rules and class structures of the preceding era.

Despite this debate, it is generally accepted that the Romantic Era began in the late 18th Century and reached its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.

The period of time that preceded Romanticism is known as the Age of Enlightenment, which was characterized by the concepts of Rationalism and Classicism.

Enlightenment was ruled by concepts of rationality, of sciences, mathematics and numbers. By strict rules in regard to literature and the arts. Enlightenment also rejected many elements of the past, such as the Middle Ages and Medieval periods.

Its main focus was on intellectualism, on essentially endeavoring to define the concept of life according to intellect and reason.

Romanticism, Romantic Literature and Romantic Poetry was a direct reaction against this intellectualism and reason.

Instead of the rationality and the rules that Enlightenment held, Romanticism focused on human experience as defined by emotion.

From a poetry point of view, Romantic Poetry was a reaction against the set standards and conventions of eighteenth century poetry and neoclassic poetry. As explained by William J. Long, “The Romantic Movement was marked, and is always marked, by a strong reaction and protest against the bondage of rule and custom which in science and theology as well as literature, generally tend to fetter the free human spirit.”

Besides from the French Revolution as being cited as an influence in the beginning of the movement, some of the other main factors that gave rise to the era can be traced back to the German “Sturm und Drang” movement. Meaning "Storm and Drive" or "Storm and Urge" or "Storm and Stress", this was as a proto-Romantic movement between the 1760s and 1780s in German literature and music.

It emphasized individual subjectivity, extreme emotional states, free expression, all of which were in direct opposition to the objectivity and rule-based rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment. The period takes it’s named from Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play Sturm und Drang, which was first performed in 1777.

Another German influence came in the form of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In 1774, Goethe wrote the novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” and its protagonist struck a strong chord with young men throughout Europe - he was a young, passionate sensitive artist wand many young men in Germany sought to emulate him.

In English literature, the key figures of the Romantic movement are considered to be the group of poets including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the much older William Blake, followed later by the isolated figure of John Clare. In Scotland, Robert Burns became a leading figure in the Romantic Movement and influenced many other writers all across Europe (even becoming the people’s poet of Russia).

In England, it was the 1798 publication of Lyrical Ballads (from Wordsworth and Coleridge) that is said to have started the movement officially.

The poems of Lyrical Ballads intentionally re-imagined the way poetry should sound. As Wordsworth put it: "By fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men…"

In other words, Wordsworth wanted to show the true emotions men and women felt and find a way to construct poetry and art that evoked that emotion, and moved people emotionally.

As he said: “I have said before that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin in emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind…”

The Romantic movement spread across Europe and even found it influenced artists in America, such as Longfellow.

Etymology

Although common usage of the word Romantic has attached concepts such as love, romance and passion, the word in context of the Romantic Era and Romanticism is derived from different sources and has different connotations.

Essentially, the word is derived from the root word "Roman", which is found in various European languages, such as "romance" and "Romanesque".

In earlier periods, Romantic or romantique, as an adjective could be used to describe praise for natural phenomena such as views and sunsets. In other words, it wasn’t only used for the idea of Romance between people within a relationship.

Elements of Romanticism

Emotion

As explained, Romanticism was a direct Counter-Enlightenment movement and its focus was on the filtering of natural emotion through the human mind in order to create meaning. Whereas Enlightenment focused on Rationality, Romanticism focused on Emotion.

Although the concept may seem natural to us now, this was not so in the period of Enlightenment - strict rules and a focus of Objectivity, made poetry and literature of that period very different.

It was the Romantic movement itself that gave rise to the concept of using emotion in art, of trying to evoke and emulate true human emotional experience in words.

At the time, this was seen as difficult and the movement was revolutionary for its ability to convey that true emotion.

Because of this, the poets and writers themselves often wrote down much of their own emotion in their work, and so much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves.

The emotions it emphasized were vast, ranging from love to intense emotions such as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe.

Imagination

Belief in the importance of the imagination is a distinctive feature of romantic poets such as John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and P. B. Shelley.

This was unlike the neoclassical poets who put greater importance on a set of rules that dictated what a work should look like.

Indeed, for Wordsworth and Blake, as well as Victor Hugo and Alessandro Manzoni, they saw imagination is a spiritual force. They also believed that literature, especially poetry, could improve the world.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were natural laws the imagination would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. So it was an essential part of Romanticism that the content of art had to come from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as possible from "artificial" rules dictating what a work should consist of. The influence of these models from other works was considered to impede the creator's own imagination.

The concept of the genius/artist who was able to produce his own original work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism, and to be derivative was the worst sin. This idea is often called "romantic originality.”

Rejection of Satire

Predominately, Romanticism tended to regard satire as something unworthy of serious attention.

The work of the Romantics was intended to be about true emotion and satire detracted from this.

Spontaneity

Being spontaneous and not following strict rules was highly admired by the Romantic artists. An example of this was an impromptu musical recital, what might be called a ‘jam session’ today.

Instead of a tightly set out set of rule based structure of music, with its required crescendos and codas, it was more important to the Romantics to be spontaneous and to see what happened in the music.

Nature poetry

For most of the Romantics, love for nature was another important feature of romantic poetry, as well a source of inspiration. Their connection to external nature and places, and a belief in pantheism, was paramount.

Wordsworth considered nature as a living thing, teacher, god and everything, as expressed in his epic poem The Prelude.

Keats and Shelley were also nature poets, who also believed that nature is a living thing and there is a union between nature and man.

Coleridge differs from other romantic poets of his age, in that he has a realistic perspective on nature. Coleridge believed that joy does not come from external nature, but from the reaction an individual has to that nature based on their own feelings at the time.

Still, nature was very important to many Romantics of the time. The cliché of the poet sitting under a tree, alone in a meadow, comes from this Romantic period.

Isolation of the Poet

Love of nature and that idea of the Poet alone also ties into the idea of a poet’s isolation.

In order to create this wholly original piece of art, it was generally emphasized that the artists should be alone, working on his own.

This was in contrast to the usually very social art of the Enlightenment.

Melancholy

Melancholy and sadness occupied a prominent place in romantic poetry, and served as an important source of inspiration for the Romantic poets. Again, this emotion was in contrast to the Objectivity of Enlightenment.

Medievalism, Hellenism and Exoticism

Romantic poetry was attracted to nostalgia, in particular the Middle Ages, the heroes and tales of the Medieval period, and the classical Greek writings. They were also attracted to exotic, remote and obscure places, which is shown in much of their writing.

Supernaturalism

Although not essential to all Romantics, many of the romantic poets used supernatural elements in their poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the leading romantic poet in this regard, and "Kubla Khan" is full of supernatural elements. Romantic writers in literature often used Supernatural elements, such as Edgar Allen Poe. This supernatural element often gave the work an even more intense emotional content.

Subjectivity

Romantic poetry is the poetry of sentiments, emotions and imagination, as opposed to the objectivity of neoclassical poetry. Neoclassical poets avoided describing their personal emotions in their poetry, but the Romantics often placed themselves into the poem emotionally.

Nationalism

Although much of English Romanticism was not nationalistic, in other parts of Europe, for example Germany, there was a great deal of nationalism in the Romantic works. Even writers such as Robert Burns (who is known as the Poet Laureate of Scotland) evoked a certain sense of national pride in their writing.

End of Romanticism

The end of the Romantic era is marked in some areas by a new style…Realism. Some scholars see this new movement as another reaction against the previous era – in other words, Realism was the reaction against Romanticism.

This Realism movement was led by France, with Balzac and Flaubert in literature and Courbet in painting. It affected literature, especially the novel and drama, painting, and even music, through Verismo opera.

The reasons for this are also complicated but it was partly because the Early Romantic visionary optimism and belief that the world was in the process of great change and improvement had largely vanished, especially in northern Europe.

As a result, art became more conventionally political as its creators engaged polemically with the world.

Legacy

Many of the Romantics ideas about nature, individuality, purpose of art, above all the pre-eminent importance of originality, remained important for later generations, and often underlie modern views.

We accept those concepts as in inherent part of the art and literature we see every day, but we should remember that it was these writers that actually created those concepts in art.

THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY - OXFORD EDITION

By THOMAS HUTCHINSON, M. A. EDITOR OF THE OXFORD WORDSWORTH.

PREFACE.

This edition of his "Poetical Works" contains all Shelley's ascertained poems and fragments of verse that have hitherto appeared in print. In preparing the volume I have worked as far as possible on the principle of recognizing the editio princeps as the primary textual authority. I have not been content to reprint Mrs. Shelley's recension of 1839, or that of any subsequent editor of the "Poems". The present text is the result of a fresh collation of the early editions; and in every material instance of departure from the wording of those originals the rejected reading has been subjoined in a footnote. Again, wherever—as in the case of "Julian and Maddalo"—there has appeared to be good reason for superseding the authority of the editio princeps, the fact is announced, and the substituted exemplar indicated, in the Prefatory Note. in the case of a few pieces extant in two or more versions of debatable authority the alternative text or texts will be found at the [end] of the [relevant work]; but it may be said once for all that this does not pretend to be a variorum edition, in the proper sense of the term—the textual apparatus does not claim to be exhaustive. Thus I have not thought it necessary to cumber the footnotes with every minute grammatical correction introduced by Mrs. Shelley, apparently on her own authority, into the texts of 1839; nor has it come within the scheme of this edition to record every conjectural emendation adopted or proposed by Rossetti and others in recent times. But it is hoped that, up to and including the editions of 1839 at least, no important variation of the text has been overlooked. Whenever a reading has been adopted on manuscript authority, a reference to the particular source has been added below.

I have been chary of gratuitous interference with the punctuation of the manuscripts and early editions; in this direction, however, some revision was indispensable. Even in his most carefully finished "fair copy" Shelley under-punctuates (Thus in the exquisite autograph "Hunt MS." of "Julian and Maddalo", Mr. Buxton Forman, the most conservative of editors, finds it necessary to supplement Shelley's punctuation in no fewer than ninety-four places.), and sometimes punctuates capriciously. In the very act of transcribing his mind was apt to stray from the work in hand to higher things; he would lose himself in contemplating those airy abstractions and lofty visions of which alone he greatly cared to sing, to the neglect and detriment of the merely external and formal element of his song. Shelley recked little of the jots and tittles of literary craftsmanship; he committed many a small sin against the rules of grammar, and certainly paid but a halting attention to the nice distinctions of punctuation. Thus in the early editions a comma occasionally plays the part of a semicolon; colons and semicolons seem to be employed interchangeably; a semicolon almost invariably appears where nowadays we should employ the dash; and, lastly, the dash itself becomes a point of all work, replacing indifferently commas, colons, semicolons or periods. Inadequate and sometimes haphazard as it is, however, Shelley's punctuation, so far as it goes, is of great value as an index to his metrical, or at times, it may be, to his rhetorical intention—for, in Shelley's hands, punctuation serves rather to mark the rhythmical pause and onflow of the verse, or to secure some declamatory effect, than to indicate the structure or elucidate the sense. For this reason the original pointing has been retained, save where it tends to obscure or pervert the poet's meaning. Amongst the Editor's Notes at the end of the Volume 3 the reader will find lists of the punctual variations in the longer poems, by means of which the supplementary points now added may be identified, and the original points, which in this edition have been deleted or else replaced by others, ascertained, in the order of their occurrence. In the use of capitals Shelley's practice has been followed, while an attempt has been made to reduce the number of his inconsistencies in this regard.

To have reproduced the spelling of the manuscripts would only have served to divert attention from Shelley's poetry to my own ingenuity in disgusting the reader according to the rules of editorial punctilio. (I adapt a phrase or two from the preface to "The Revolt of Islam".) Shelley was neither very accurate, nor always consistent, in his spelling. He was, to say the truth, indifferent about all such matters: indeed, to one absorbed in the spectacle of a world travailing for lack of the gospel of "Political Justice", the study of orthographical niceties must have seemed an occupation for Bedlamites. Again—as a distinguished critic and editor of Shelley, Professor Dowden, aptly observes in this connexion—'a great poet is not of an age, but for all time.' Irregular or antiquated forms such as 'recieve,' 'sacrifize,' 'tyger,' 'gulph,' 'desart,' 'falshood,' and the like, can only serve to distract the reader's attention, and mar his enjoyment of the verse. Accordingly Shelley's eccentricities in this kind have been discarded, and his spelling reversed in accordance with modern usage. All weak preterite-forms, whether indicatives or participles, have been printed with "ed" rather than "t", participial adjectives and substantives, such as 'past,' alone excepted. In the case of 'leap,' which has two preterite-forms, both employed by Shelley (See for an example of the longer form, the "Hymn to Mercury", 18 5, where 'leaped' rhymes with 'heaped' (line 1). The shorter form, rhyming to 'wept,' 'adapt,' etc., occurs more frequently.)—one with the long vowel of the present-form, the other with a vowel-change (Of course, wherever this vowel-shortening takes place, whether indicated by a corresponding change in the spelling or not, "t", not "ed" is properly used—'cleave,' 'cleft,'; 'deal,' 'dealt'; etc. The forms discarded under the general rule laid down above are such as 'wrackt,' 'prankt,' 'snatcht,' 'kist,' 'opprest,' etc.) like that of 'crept' from 'creep'—I have not hesitated to print the longer form 'leaped,' and the shorter (after Mr. Henry Sweet's example) 'lept,' in order clearly to indicate the pronunciation intended by Shelley. In the editions the two vowel-sounds are confounded under the one spelling, 'leapt.' In a few cases Shelley's spelling, though unusual or obsolete, has been retained. Thus in 'aethereal,' 'paean,' and one or two more words the "ae" will be found, and 'airy' still appears as 'aery'. Shelley seems to have uniformly written 'lightening': here the word is so printed whenever it is employed as a trisyllable; elsewhere the ordinary spelling has been adopted. (Not a little has been written about 'uprest' ("Revolt of Islam", 3 21 5), which has been described as a nonce-word deliberately coined by Shelley 'on no better warrant than the exigency of the rhyme.' There can be little doubt that 'uprest' is simply an overlooked misprint for 'uprist'—not by any means a nonce-word, but a genuine English verbal substantive of regular formation, familiar to many from its employment by Chaucer. True, the corresponding rhyme-words in the passage above referred to are 'nest,' 'possessed,' 'breast'; but a laxity such as 'nest'—'uprist' is quite in Shelley's manner. Thus in this very poem we find 'midst'—'shed'st' (6 16), 'mist'—'rest'—'blest' (5 58), 'loveliest'—'mist'—kissed'—'dressed' (5 53). Shelley may have first seen the word in "The Ancient Mariner"; but he employs it more correctly than Coleridge, who seems to have mistaken it for a preterite-form (='uprose') whereas in truth it serves either as the third person singular of the present (='upriseth'), or, as here, for the verbal substantive (='uprising').

The editor of Shelley to-day enters upon a goodly heritage, the accumulated gains of a series of distinguished predecessors. Mrs. Shelley's two editions of 1839 form the nucleus of the present volume, and her notes are here reprinted in full; but the arrangement of the poems differs to some extent from that followed by her—chiefly in respect of "Queen Mab", which is here placed at the head of the "Juvenilia", instead of at the forefront of the poems of Shelley's maturity. In 1862 a slender volume of poems and fragments, entitled "Relics of Shelley", was published by Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B.—a precious sheaf gleaned from the manuscripts preserved at Boscombe Manor. The "Relics" constitute a salvage second only in value to the "Posthumous Poems" of 1824. To the growing mass of Shelley's verse yet more material was added in 1870 by Mr. William Michael Rossetti, who edited for Moxon the "Complete Poetical Works" published in that year. To him we owe in particular a revised and greatly enlarged version of the fragmentary drama of "Charles I". But though not seldom successful in restoring the text, Mr. Rossetti pushed revision beyond the bounds of prudence, freely correcting grammatical errors, rectifying small inconsistencies in the sense, and too lightly adopting conjectural emendations on the grounds of rhyme or metre. In the course of an article published in the "Westminster Review" for July, 1870, Miss Mathilde Blind, with the aid of material furnished by Dr. Garnett, 'was enabled,' in the words of Mr. Buxton Forman, 'to supply omissions, make authoritative emendations, and controvert erroneous changes' in Mr. Rossetti's work; and in the more cautiously edited text of his later edition, published by Moxon in 1878, may be traced the influence of her strictures.

Six years later appeared a variorum edition in which for the first time Shelley's text was edited with scientific exactness of method, and with a due respect for the authority of the original editions. It would be difficult indeed to over-estimate the gains which have accrued to the lovers of Shelley from the strenuous labours of Mr. Harry Buxton Forman, C.B. He too has enlarged the body of Shelley's poetry (Mr. Forman's most notable addition is the second part of "The Daemon of the World", which he printed privately in 1876, and included in his Library Edition of the "Poetical Works" published in the same year. See the "List of Editions", etc. at the end of Volume 3.); but, important as his editions undoubtedly are, it may safely be affirmed that his services in this direction constitute the least part of what we owe him. He has vindicated the authenticity of the text in many places, while in many others he has succeeded, with the aid of manuscripts, in restoring it. His untiring industry in research, his wide bibliographical knowledge and experience, above all, his accuracy, as invariable as it is minute, have combined to make him, in the words of Professor Dowden, 'our chief living authority on all that relates to Shelley's writings.' His name stands securely linked for all time to Shelley's by a long series of notable words, including three successive editions (1876, 1882, 1892) of the Poems, an edition of the Prose Remains, as well as many minor publications—a Bibliography ("The Shelley Library", 1886)and several Facsimile Reprints of the early issues, edited for the Shelley Society.

To Professor Dowden, whose authoritative Biography of the poet, published in 1886, was followed in 1890 by an edition of the Poems (Macmillans), is due the addition of several pieces belonging to the juvenile period, incorporated by him in the pages of the "Life of Shelley". Professor Dowden has also been enabled, with the aid of the manuscripts placed in his hands, to correct the text of the "Juvenilia" in many places. In 1893 Professor George E. Woodberry edited a "Centenary Edition of the Complete Poetical Works", in which, to quote his own words, an attempt is made 'to summarize the labours of more than half a century on Shelley's text, and on his biography so far as the biography is bound up with the text.' In this Centenary edition the textual variations found in the Harvard College manuscripts, as well as those in the manuscripts belonging to Mr. Frederickson of Brooklyn, are fully recorded. Professor Woodberry's text is conservative on the whole, but his revision of the punctuation is drastic, and occasionally sacrifices melody to perspicuity.

In 1903 Mr. C.D. Locock published, in a quarto volume of seventy-five pages, the fruits of a careful scrutiny of the Shelley manuscripts now lodged in the Bodleian Library. Mr. Locock succeeded in recovering several inedited fragments of verse and prose. Amongst the poems chiefly concerned in the results of his "Examination" may be named "Marenghi", "Prince Athanase", "The Witch of Atlas", "To Constantia", the "Ode to Naples", and (last, not least) "Prometheus Unbound". Full use has been made in this edition of Mr. Locock's collations, and the fragments recovered and printed by him are included in the text. Variants derived from the Bodleian manuscripts are marked "B." in the footnotes.

On the state of the text generally, and the various quarters in which it lies open to conjectural emendation, I cannot do better than quote the following succinct and luminous account from a "Causerie" on the Shelley manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, contributed by Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., to the columns of "The Speaker" of December 19, 1903:—

'From the textual point of view, Shelley's works may be divided into three classes—those published in his lifetime under his own direction; those also published in his lifetime, but in his absence from the press; and those published after his death. The first class includes "Queen Mab", "The Revolt of Islam", and "Alastor" with its appendages, published in England before his final departure for the continent; and "The Cenci" and "Adonais", printed under his own eye at Leghorn and Pisa respectively. Except for some provoking but corrigible misprints in "The Revolt of Islam" and one crucial passage in "Alastor", these poems afford little material for conjectural emendation; for the Alexandrines now and then left in the middle of stanzas in "The Revolt of Islam" must remain untouched, as proceeding not from the printer's carelessness but the author's. The second class, poems printed during Shelley's lifetime, but not under his immediate inspection, comprise "Prometheus Unbound" and "Rosalind and Helen", together with the pieces which accompanied them, "Epipsychidion", "Hellas", and "Swellfoot the Tyrant". The correction of the most important of these, the "Prometheus", was the least satisfactory. Shelley, though speaking plainly to the publisher, rather hints than expresses his dissatisfaction when writing to Gisborne, the corrector, but there is a pretty clear hint when on a subsequent occasion he says to him, "I have received 'Hellas', which is prettily printed, and with fewer mistakes than any poem I ever published." This also was probably not without influence on his determination to have "The Cenci" and "Adonais" printed in Italy…Of the third class of Shelley's writings—those which were first published after his death—sufficient facsimiles have been published to prove that Trelawny's graphic description of the chaotic state of most of them was really in no respect exaggerated…The difficulty is much augmented by the fact that these pieces are rarely consecutive, but literally disiecti membra poetae, scattered through various notebooks in a way to require piecing together as well as deciphering. The editors of the Posthumous Poems, moreover, though diligent according to their light, were neither endowed with remarkable acumen nor possessed of the wide knowledge requisite for the full intelligence of so erudite a poet as Shelley, hence the perpetration of numerous mistakes. Some few of the manuscripts, indeed, such as those of "The Witch of Atlas", "Julian and Maddalo", and the "Lines at Naples", were beautifully written out for the press in Shelley's best hand, but their very value and beauty necessitated the ordeal of transcription, with disastrous results in several instances. An entire line dropped out of the "Lines at Naples", and although "Julian and Maddalo" was extant in more than one very clear copy, the printed text had several such sense-destroying errors as "least" for "lead".

'The corrupt state of the text has stimulated the ingenuity of numerous correctors, who have suggested many acute and convincing emendations, and some very specious ones which sustained scrutiny has proved untenable. It should be needless to remark that success has in general been proportionate to the facilities of access to the manuscripts, which have only of late become generally available. If Shelley is less fortunate than most modern poets in the purity of his text, he is more fortunate than many in the preservation of his manuscripts. These have not, as regards a fair proportion, been destroyed or dispersed at auctions, but were protected from either fate by their very character as confused memoranda. As such they remained in the possession of Shelley's widow, and passed from her to her son and daughter-in-law. After Sir Percy Shelley's death, Lady Shelley took the occasion of the erection of the monument to Shelley at University College, Oxford, to present [certain of] the manuscripts to the Bodleian Library, and verse and sculpture form an imperishable memorial of his connection with the University where his residence was so brief and troubled.' (Dr. Garnett proceeds:—'The most important of the Bodleian manuscripts is that of "Prometheus Unbound", which, says Mr. Locock, has the appearance of being an intermediate draft, and also the first copy made. This should confer considerable authority on its variations from the accepted text, as this appears to have been printed from a copy not made by Shelley himself. "My 'Prometheus'," he writes to Ollier on September 6, 1819, "is now being transcribed," an expression which he would hardly have used if he had himself been the copyist. He wished the proofs to be sent to him in Italy for correction, but to this Ollier objected, and on May 14, 1820, Shelley signifies his acquiescence, adding, however, "In this case I shall repose trust in your care respecting the correction of the press; Mr. Gisborne will revise it; he heard it recited, and will therefore more readily seize any error." This confidence in the accuracy of Gisborne's verbal memory is touching! From a letter to Gisborne on May 26 following it appears that the offer to correct came from him, and that Shelley sent him "two little papers of corrections and additions," which were probably made use of, or the fact would have been made known. In the case of additions this may satisfactorily account for apparent omissions in the Bodleian manuscript. Gisborne, after all, did not prove fully up to the mark. "It is to be regretted," writes Shelley to Ollier on November 20, "that the errors of the press are so numerous," adding, "I shall send you the list of errata in a day or two." This was probably "the list of errata written by Shelley himself," from which Mrs. Shelley corrected the edition of 1839.')

In placing "Queen Mab" at the head of the "Juvenilia" I have followed the arrangement adopted by Mr. Buxton Forman in his Library Edition of 1876. I have excluded "The Wandering Jew", having failed to satisfy myself of the sufficiency of the grounds on which, in certain quarters, it is accepted as the work of Shelley. The shorter fragments are printed, as in Professor Dowden's edition of 1890, along with the miscellaneous poems of the years to which they severally belong, under titles which are sometimes borrowed from Mr. Buxton Forman, sometimes of my own choosing. I have added a few brief Editor's Notes, mainly on textual questions, at the end of the book. Of the poverty of my work in this direction I am painfully aware; but in the present edition the ordinary reader will, it is hoped, find an authentic, complete, and accurately printed text, and, if this be so, the principal end and aim of the OXFORD SHELLEY will have been attained.

I desire cordially to acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., by whose kind sanction the second part of "The Daemon the World" appears in this volume. And I would fain express my deep sense of obligation for manifold information and guidance, derived from Mr. Buxton Forman's various editions, reprints and other publications—especially from the monumental Library Edition of 1876. Acknowledgements are also due to the poet's grandson, Charles E.J. Esdaile, Esq., for permission to include the early poems first printed in Professor Dowden's "Life of Shelley"; and to Mr. C.D. Locock, for leave to make full use of the material contained in his interesting and stimulating volume. To Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., and to Professor Dowden, cordial thanks are hereby tendered for good counsel cheerfully bestowed. To two of the editors of the Shelley Society Reprints, Mr. Thomas J. Wise and Mr. Robert A. Potts—both generously communicative collectors—I am deeply indebted for the gift or loan of scarce volumes, as well as for many kind offices in other ways. Lastly, to the staff of the Oxford University Press my heartiest thanks are owing, for their unremitting care in all that relates to the printing and correcting of the sheets.

THOMAS HUTCHINSON.

December, 1904.

POSTSCRIPT.

In a valuable paper, 'Notes on Passages in Shelley,' contributed to "The Modern Language Review" (October, 1905), Mr. A.C. Bradley discussed, amongst other things, some fifty places in the text of Shelley's verse, and indicated certain errors and omissions in this edition. With the aid of these "Notes" the editor has now carefully revised the text, and has in many places adopted the suggestions or conclusions of their accomplished author.

June, 1913.

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.