A Shelley primer

A

SHELLEY PRIMER

BY

H. S. SALT.

LONDON:
REEVES AND TURNER, 196 STRAND.

1887.

BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

PREFATORY NOTE.

Much of the information given in the following pages is
drawn from the Prefaces and Notes to Messrs. Forman's
and Kossetti's editions of Shelley's works, and from the
critical and biographical writings of other Shelley students.
I am especially indebted to Mr. C. Kegan Paul and Mr.
W. M. Rossetti for their kind advice and many valuable

H. S. S.

CONTENTS.

CHAP,

I. STATE OF ENGLAND IN SHELLEY'S LIFETIME

IL SHELLEY S LIFE AND CHARACTER
IIL SHELLEY'S OPINIONS . . . . -2$

IV. LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS . . . -37

V. LITERARY PERIODS OF SHELLEY'S LIFE . . 47

VL THE POEMS ....... 50

Vn. PROSE WORKS . . . . . .101

VIIL TEXT, ORIGINAL EDITIONS, ETC. . . • H?

IX. SHELLEY'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE AND THOUGHT 121

X. CHIEF AUTHORITIES, BIOGRAPHIES, REVIEWS, ETC. . 1 25

PAGE

7
10

SHELLEY PEIMEE.

CHAPTEE I.

STATE OF ENGLAND IN SHELLEY'S LIFETIME.

Politics. — The period of thirty years (1792-1822)10 which
the life of Shelley was cast was a time at once of innova-
tion and repression, of fierce conflict between governors and
subjects, of strong popular movements on the one side, and
equally stern reprisals on the other. Towards the close of the
eighteenth century the spirit of inquiry had been abroad, and
there had been a great awakening of the nations, which had
taken visible form in the declaration of American Independ-
ence and the French Revolution. The immediate effect of
these heart-stirring events was to stimulate reformers, all the
world over, to further exertions, and to inspire them with
hopes, which to us seem Quixotic, of realising in the near
future their most sanguine dreams of Liberty and Justice.
Spain, Italy, and Greece were all preparing themselves for
the coming struggle ; while^ in the ISTew World, Mexico and
the Spanish colonies were striving to break away from the
mother-country's control. Ireland was in revolt in 1798,
and after the passing of the Act of Union in 1800 the per-
sistent rejection of the Catholic Relief Bill was the cause of
prolonged agitation. Then came a time of disappointment
and reaction. In England, where the horrors of the French
Revolution had filled men's minds with misgiving, the Tories,

8 SHELLEY PRIMER.

with " alarm " as their watchword of government, now ruled
supreme. The first quarter of this century has been de-
scribed as " an awful period for any one who ventured to
maintain Liberal opinions ; " perhaps the gloomiest time of
all was the Regency of the Prince of Wales (1811-1820),
with which Shelley's literary career almost coincided.
England was then governed by such men as Castlereagh
the author of the "gagging bills;" Sidmouth, the Home
Secretary, whose one idea of sound policy lay in " crushing
sedition;" Eldon, the Lord Chancellor, for forty years the
enemy of every sort of reform ; and EUenborough, the Chief
Justice, who in the numerous state-prosecutions of those
days did not scruple to strain the law to the utmost against
the accused. Under this Government civil and religious
liberty was for the time trampled under foot, while the social
condition of the working-classes grew more desperate every
year. The close of the war with Napoleon in 18 15 failed
to bring any relief, and the riots that took place in many
parts of the country were suppressed with great severity,
the Government even going so far as to employ spies, as in
the case of the notorious Oliver, for the purpose of inciting
the discontented workmen to violence, and then betraying
them to the gallows, which were constantly in use. Yet
such books as Paine's Age of Reason, Godwin's Political
Justice, and Mary WoUstonecraf t's Vindication of the Rights
of Women had not in reality failed in their effect ; in spite
of every obstacle the revolution of thought was being gradu-
ally accomplished, while the wide popularity gained by the
writings of Cobbett in England and Owen in America proved
that the demand for poUtical and social reform was intensi-
fiecl rather than extinguished by the harsh measures dealt out
to the reformers.

Literature. — In literature, as in politics, it was an age of
conflict and revolution. The monotonous tyranny of the
"correct" school of poetry, of which Pope may stand as
the representative, was giving way to a truer, simpler, more

STATE OF ENGLAND IN SHELLEY'S LIFETIME. 9

natural style, of which Cowper and Burns were the fore-
runners and Wordsworth the first apostle. Thus there
uprose a new generation of poets, who, in their regard for
the spirit rather than the letter of the laws of poetry, resem-
bled the Elizabethans of old, and stood in strong contrast to
their immediate predecessors of the eighteenth century. Break-
ing through the trammels of formalism which had long been
held indispensable, they proved that it was possible to unite
the most passionate feeling to the utmost simplicity of ex-
pression, and a close study of man to a deep sympathy with
nature. It was not to be expected that this literary revolu-
tion would be efi'ected without a struggle ; here also there
were periods of repression and reaction, and by the help of
such critics as Gifford and his Quarterly reviewers — the
Eldons and Ellenboroughs of literature — the champions of
the old system often found effective means of retaliating on
their opponents. In such an age as this, the world, as
Leigh Hunt has remarked, " requires the example of a spirit
not so prostrate as its own, to make it believe that all hearts
are not alike kept under, and that the hope of reformation
is not everywhere given up."

( lo )

CHAPTEE 11.

SHELLEY S LIFE AND CHARACTER.

Life. — Percy Bysshe Shelley was bom at Field Place,
Horsham, Sussex, the seat of the Shelley family, on August
4th, 1792. He was named Bysshe after his grandfather, a
vigorous but eccentric old man, who received a baronetcy
in 1806. Sir Bysshe was twice married, and founded two
families, the Shelleys of Field Place and the Shelley-Sidneys
of Penshurst, who number Sir Philip Sidney among their
ancestors. Timothy Shelley, the poet's father, who succeeded
to the baronetcy in 1 815, was an old-fashioned country gentle-
man, much in his element as Tory member for the borough of
Shoreham,^_but ill qualified to understand the character of his
son. The mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Pilfold,
had great personal beauty and fair intellectual power, but little
taste for literature. The poet was the eldest child ; there were
afterwards born five daughters and another son. Shelley's
childhood was spent at Field Place, where he delighted in
certain mysterious passages and garrets, and in the society of
a " great old snake " which haunted the lawn. At the age
of ten he was sent to Sion House, Brentford, from which
school he passed to Eton in 1804. Here his strange disposi-
tion and his refusal to fag caused him to be teased by his
schoolfellows, who called him "mad Shelley" and "the
atheist." He learnt the classics with rapidity, and wrote
fluent, if not correct, Latin verses ; but his chief interest was
in private study of chemistry and in translating Pliny's
Natural History. The only instructor for whom Shelley felt

SHELLEY'S LIFE AND CHAEACTEK ii

any respect was Dr. Lind, a retired physician living at
"Windsor, the original of the Hermit in Laon and Cythna.
Shelley did not leave Eton prematurely, as has generally
been supposed, but stayed there till the middle of 1810,
by which time he had completed his novel Zastrozzi. In
October 18 10 he went to University College, Oxford, where
he became intimate with Thomas Jefferson Hogg, who after-
wards recorded the events of their college career in his Life
of Shelleij (vide p. 126). Their stay at Oxford was cut short
by the publication of Shelley's pamphlet on The Necessihj
of Atheism, which resulted in the expulsion of both Shelley
and Hogg, March 25, 181 1.

Shelley had been deeply attached to his cousin, Harriet
Grove, in 1809, but their intimacy was now broken off on
account of his religious opinions. His father refusing to
receive him at Field Place, he lodged for a time in London at
15 Poland Street ; but in May 181 1 he came to terms with
his father, who agreed to allow him ;£"200 a year. His rest-
less and discontented state culminated in his elopement with
Harriet Westbrook, the daughter of the proprietor of a Lon-
don hotel, in the latter part of August 181 1, not on account
of any deep love for Harriet, but from a chivalrous desire to
protect her from real or supposed tyranny. It is probable
that Eliza "Westbrook, Harriet's elder sister, had a great
share in the ill-advised marriage and its disastrous termination.
Harriet herself was good-tempered and good-looking, but not
intellectually fit to be Shelley's companion, while Eliza, who
lived with them, certainly widened the breach between
Shelley and his wife. The marriage took place at Edinburgh
on August 28th, 181 1, and Shelley and Harriet were after-
wards joined by Hogg, who accompanied them to York,
where Shelley found it necessary to break off his intimacy
with Hogg on account of his advances to Harriet. The Shel-
leys accordingly proceeded to Keswick, where they made the
acquaintance of Southey. Then followed the visit to Dublin
(February 12 to April 7, 181 2), of which the fullest descrip-

12 SHELLEY PKIMER

tion is given in McCarthy's Shelley s Early Life. After
issuing his Dublin pamphlets and addressing a meeting of
Irish Catholics, Shelley left Dublin and travelled through
"Wales to Devonshire, where he settled awhile at Lynmouth.
Here his party was visited by Miss Hitchener, a lady of
advanced opinions, with whom he had corresponded for some
time, but whose society proved to be less agreeable than he
expected. From Lynmouth the Shelleys went to Tanyrallt,
near Tremadoc, in Carnarvonshire, where Shelley took part in
raising subscriptions to save the earthworks across the Port-
madoc estuary. Here a mysterious attack was made one
night on the Shelleys' house, but whether the attempted
" assassination " was a reality or an illusion has never been
satisfactorily determined. In May 1813 the Shelleys re-
turned to London, where lanthe Eliza, Harriet's first child,
was born some time in June. In the summer of 18 13
Shelley took a cottage at Bracknell, Berks., where he had
the society of the Newtons, a vegetarian family with whom
he had become intimate in London; a friendship which
influenced him strongly towards the adoption of certain
humanitarian views which seemed very ridiculous to his
friends Hogg and Peacock. Mrs. Newton was the sister of
a Mrs. Boinville, whom Shelley greatly liked. Towards the
end of 1 8 13 an estrangement already existed between Shelley
and Harriet, owing partly to their growing divergence of
tastes, and partly to graver causes, it being Shelley's belief
that Harriet had been unfaithful to him. In the early
months of 18 14 Shelley spent much time at Mrs. Boinville's
house at Bracknell, the final separation taking place in June,
when Harriet went with her child lanthe to her father and
sister at Bath. Towards the end of the same year, she gave
birth to a son, Charles Bysshe. Although Shelley delibe-
rately separated himself from Harriet, he did not, as has often
been wrongly stated, desert her, or fail to make due provision
for her wants ; on the contrary, he continued to correspond
with her, visit her, and advise her, after the separation.

SHELLEY'S LIFE AND CHARACTER 13

Mary Godwin, who was at this time in her seventeenth
year, was the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Woll-
stonecraft, and inherited great intellectual powers from
both parents. Shelley did not know her till May 18 14, and
it was not till after the separation from Harriet that they
pledged their love by the grave of Mary Wollstonecraft in
St. Pancras Churchyard. On July 28th Shelley and Mary
left England in the company of Miss Clairmont, a step-
daughter of Godwin, henceforth a frequent inmate of
Shelley's family. Their tour on the Continent, which lasted
till September 13th, was described by Mrs. Shelley in the
History of a Six Weehs^ Tour. During the closing months
of 18 14 Shelley was in London, much troubled by debts and
creditors, but on the death of his grandfather, Sir Bysshe,
early in 18 15, his annual income was increased to ;;^iooo,
and he became immediate heir to the entailed estate,
though he had sacrificed his prospect of inheriting a still
larger property by his refusal to agree to a further entail.
The summer of 181 5 was spent at Bishopsgate, on the skirts
of "Windsor Forest, where Alastor was written. After the
birth of William, their eldest son, January 24, 181 6,
Shelley and Mary started with Miss Clairmont on their
second Continental tour (May to September, 1816). At
S^cheron, near Geneva, they met Byron, with whom Shelley
made a trip round the lake. " Monk " Lewis was another
acquaintance at Geneva, and it was under his influence that
Mary Shelley then wrote her novel Fraiikenstein. Soon
after his return to England Shelley received news of
Harriet's suicide in the Serpentine, on, or soon after Novem-
ber 9th, 1 816. During the last few months of her life she
had sunk into lower and lower degradation, and the imme-
diate cause of her suicide was remorse at being turned from
her father's door. On December 30th, 18 16, Shelley was
married to Mary in London, and early in 181 7 they settled
near their friend Peacock at Marlow, where they stayed a
year, a period fruitful in literary work, including Laon and

14 SHELLEY PRIMEK.

Cythna. A daughter, Clara, was born September 3, 18 17.
After the death of Harriet her father had refused to give
up the two children, and took proceedings in Chancery to
deprive Shelley of their control, the result being that Lord
Eldon's judgment was given against Shelley in March, 18 17,
and the children were handed over to the care of a Dr. Hume.
The boy died in 1826 j lanthe afterwards became Mrs.
Esdaile. This loss of his children, next to Harriet's suicide,
affected Shelley more deeply than any other misfortune of
his life.

For various reasons, notably the state of Shelley's health,
Shelley and Mary left England for Italy, March 11, 1818,
again accompanied by Miss Clairmont. After first visiting
Milan, the Lake of Como, Pisa, and Leghorn, where they
met the Gisbornes, they settled for a time at Bagni di Lucca.
On August 17 th Shelley left Mary at this place, and visited
Byron at Venice (vide Julian and Maddalo). He was after-
wards joined by his family at I Capucini, a villa belonging
to Byron at Este, where they stayed till November 5 th.
Their daughter Clara died on September 24th. They next
travelled to Naples, spending a few days at Eome on the
way, and arriving at Naples early in December 181 8. They
stayed there three months, Shelley suffering much from ill
health and dejection during this winter. In March 18 19
they returned to Rome, where their son William died on
June 7th, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery. At
Eome Shelley wrote the greater part of Prometheus Unbound
and commenced The Cenci. Shortly after William's death
Shelley and Mary went to Leghorn, where they stayed in
the Villa Valsovano, and saw much of the Gisbornes. In
September they went on to Florence, where their last child,
Percy Florence, was born, November 12, 18 19. At
Florence, as at Rome, Shelley passed much time in the
picture-galleries. In January 1820 Shelley and his wife left
Miss Clairmont at Florence and settled at Pisa, where
they made a lengthy stay, broken at times by visits to Bagni

SHELLEY'S LIFE AND CHAKACTER. 15

di Pisa and Leghorn, and enjoyed more congenial society
than at any time since they left England. In the autumn
of 1820 they were visited by Med win, and about the same
time they became acquainted with Emilia Viviani (vide
Epipsychidion). Early in 182 1 they met Edward and Jane
Williams, with whom they soon became intimate friends.
In August 182 1 Shelley visited Eyron at Kavenna, and
discussed the plan of starting a magazine in conjunction
with Leigh Hunt ; Byron shortly afterwards came to Pisa,
where he spent the winter in a house near that occupied by
Shelley. Lastly, in January 1822, "Captain" Trelawny
arrived at Pisa and saw much of Shelley during the last
six months of his life. On April 26th, 1822, the Shelleys,
with the Williamses and Trelawny, took up their abode in
the Casa Magni, a solitary house on the shore of the Gulf
of Spezzia, near Lericl A great part of Shelley's time was
now spent on board his small yacht, named the "Ariel," or
in writing The Triumph of Life. The summer was sultry
and foreboded storms, and some strange portents are said to
have startled the small circle of friends at the Casa Magni.
On July ist, Shelley sailed with Williams to Leghorn, and
greeted Leigh Hunt, who had just arrived in Italy. On
Monday, July 8th, Shelley and Williams, with their sailor
boy, Charles Vivian, started from Leghorn on their return
voyage at 3 p.m. The afternoon was very hot, and a
thunderstorm presently burst on the sea, during which
the "Ariel" disappeared in the haze. When the storm
cleared off, all traces of the yacht were lost ; but she was
found two months later in fifteen fathoms water, with the
appearance of having been run down by a felucca during
the squall. Whether this was due to accident or design
will probably never be ascertained ; there is, however, some
slight ground for supposing that the boat was purposely run
down by some Italian sailors, under the impression that
Byron was on board with a large sum of money. Shelley's
body was found, July 22, on the Tuscan coast, and buried

1 6 SHELLEY PRIMER

in the sand. On August i6th it was burned, according to
the Italian law, the heart remaining unconsumed. The
ashes were buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome.

There are several points in Shelley's life which have never
been satisfactorily cleared up, and in which it seems impossible
to distinguish between fact and fiction. Among these may
be mentioned his idea in boyhood that his father meditated
sending him to an asylum and was only restrained by Dr.
Lind's intercession; his statement as to his being expelled
from Eton and afterwards permitted to return ; the detailed
account of the attempted assassination at TanyraUt; the
story of the mysterious lady who followed Shelley from
England to Naples and died there; the assault made on
Shelley by some unknown Englishmen at the post-office at
Pisa ; and the dreams and visions recorded during the last
residence at the Casa Magni. The frequent allusions to
drowning in Shelley's writings are very remarkable. He is
stated to have said that shipwreck was " a death he should
like better than any other." " If you can't swim, beware
of Providence," is Maddalo's warning to Julian ; and we
note that Shelley, who never learned to swim, was in danger
of drowning on several occasions before the final catastrophe,
viz., during the first voyage to Dublin ; in crossing to Calais
in 1814 ; with Byron on the Lake of Geneva in 1816 ; and
in his light skiff on the Arno in 182 1. One or two anecdotes
told by Trelawny touch on the same point. (Cf. Alastor,
lines 304, 305 ; the final stanzas of Adonais, Ode to Liberty,
and Lines written in Dejection near Naples ; and a striking
passage quoted in SJielley Memorials, p. 126.)

After Shelley's death his widow, as we see from her poem
The Choice, reproached herself for her supposed coldness and
neglect, but it would be easy to take such reproaches too
seriously. In spite of her dissimilarity to Shelley in
character, notably in her liking for society and greater
respect for conventionalities, she was well suited to be his
companion, and their affection and mutual respect were deep

SHELLEY'S LIFE AND CHARACTER. 17

and lasting. During the last period of their married life
some misunderstanding arose between them, which drove
Shelley to seek relief in the society of Edward and Jane
Williams {vide the poem To Edivard Williams, The Mag-
netic Lady, &c.). These misunderstandings were not due to
Shelley's feelings for Emilia Yiviani and Jane Williams,
which indicated rather his craving after the ideal perfection
of love, and certainly implied no loss of affection for Mary.
But it seems that the affairs of Claire Clairmont, with
whom Mary latterly often disagreed, had a disturbing in-
fluence on their household, and led to a temporary lack of
sympathy between Shelley and Mary {vide Dowden's Life of
Shelley, a. 470). Mrs. Shelley returned to England in 1823.
She edited editions of Shelley's works in 1824, 1839, 1840
{vide p. 120), besides writing several works of fiction. Her
father, William Godwin, died in 1836; and in 1844, on the
death of Sir Timothy Shelley, her son succeeded to the
baronetcy. She died in London, February 21, 1851, and
was buried at Bournemouth.

Character. — When Shelley's character is judged by the
usual standard of morality, many of his opinions and actions,
which from his own point of view were justifiable and
conscientious, must necessarily appear strange and repre-
hensible. Love was at all times his dominant quality, and
it is remarkable how all his intimate friends, although
differing widely from him and from each other in opinions
and disposition, bore united testimony to this moral beauty.
His prominent traits were a rare unworldliness and an
ardent enthusiasm ; he felt that he had a mission to perform,
and that he was charged with a message to his fellow-men.
His generosity alike to friends and strangers was as muni-
ficent as it was unassuming, while his unselfishness in all
the minor details of life was equally striking. His impulsive
nature, chivalrous to a fault, was shown in his impatience of
every sort of authority in which there could be any sus-
picion of tyranny, and in the culpable recklessness with

1 8 SHELLEY PRIMER.

which he took up and " wore as a gauntlet " the name cf
" Atneist " (cf. his use of the term " Assassin " in the
romance of that title ; his representation of the serpent as
the emblem of good; and the relationship of Laon and
Cythna). ]N'ot less conspicuous, however, was the gentle-
ness which made him shrink from all violence and cruelty,
whether inflicted on man or the lower animals ; the purity
of mind which prompted him to resent any coarse or vulgar
utterance as " blasphemy against the divine beauty of life ; "
the simplicity of taste which renounced the luxuries and
self-comforts of the class to which he by birth belonged.
"As perfect a gentleman as ever crossed a drawing-room,"
was Byron's remark on Shelley. Yet he was absolutely free
from all class prejudice and aristocratic pride ; the connec-
tion with Sir Philip Sidney, with whom he has often been
compared in character, being the only link in the family
genealogy which he cared to recall. His restless and mer-
curial temperament was another distinctive feature; at no
period of his life had he what could be called a permanent
home, but like the Wandering Jew, who figures so often in
his writings, he roamed from place to place and settled
nowhere. His dislike of ordinary society was very marked,
but he delighted in the intellectual converse of friends and
in argumentative encounter. His chief failing, especially in
his earlier career, was his inclination to form his judgments
of other men by his own standard ; this constantly led him
into a position of antagonism and disappointment, when he
attempted to advance his doctrines in quarters where success
was wholly impossible. In one sense he was certainly
dreamy and unpractical, and by his forgetfulness of times
and seasons he was ill qualified to be an inmate of an
ordinary household. Yet it is a great error to suppose that
he was altogether deficient in practical force and energy ; on
the contrary, what he said to Trelawny, " I always go on
till I am stopped, and I never am stopped," was distinctly
true of his character in some particulars. The shrewd

SHELLEY'S LIFE AND CHARACTER. 19

determination he showed in publishing his juvenile writings
gave an early proof that he was not wanting in that capacity
for business matters which was afterwards to be made still
more evident in some of his letters from Italy ; while his
practical kindness to the poor was long remembered at
the places he visited. It was rather his dissimilarity to
other men than any inherent inaptitude for business that
made him seem visionary and unpractical ; there was an
elemental and primeval simplicity about his nature, which
renders the expression "the eternal child," applied to him
by Gilfillan, a peculiarly appropriate one. Yet it is not fair
to argue that because he died young Shelley's opinions were
merely crude and immature ; for life and experience are not
measured only by time. " If I die to-morrow," he himself
said on a memorable occasion, "I have lived to be older
than my father ; " while, years before, in the Notes to Queen
Mab, he had spoken of "the life of a man of virtue and
talent who should die in his thirtieth year" as being by
comparison a long one.

Habits. — It was Shelley's habit to rise early, study or
write in the morning, and spend the evening in talking with
his friends or reading aloud his favourite authors. He was
seldom without a book in his hand, and it is related that he
used to read even in a crowded London thorouglifare. The
number of books that he read with his wife was very large ;
one or the other was almost always reading aloud. Next to
reading, love of boating was his strongest passion ; it is not
quite clear whether he acquired this at Eton, or during an
excursion up the Thames in 18 15, but he was constantly on
the water at Geneva and Marlow, and again in Italy. His
habit of floating paper boats is amusingly described by Hogg
and Peacock, and is referred to once or twice in his own
writings (vide The Assassins, ch. 4, and Letter to Maria
Gisborne, lines 72-75). When Byron and Shelley were
together at Venice and Kavenna, riding and pistol-practice
were their daily amusements, Shelley being an indifferent

20 SHELLEY PRIMER.

horsenican but a good shot. One of Shelley's peculiarities,
noticed by Hogg, was his habit of falling asleep on the
hearth-rug with his head exposed to the full glow of the
fire ; we read also that in Italy he would bask bare-headed
in the full heat of an Italian summer. His practice of
vegetarianism was adopted early in 1812, and maintained,
though not with entire consistency, during the rest of his
stay in England. In his later years in Italy he to some
extent gave it up, less from any change of principle than
from the inconvenience caused to the household. But at all
times bread was practically his staff of life, and his inclina-
tion was always to the simplest diet. He drank tea, but
not wine. His habit in early life of beginning a corre-
spondence with strangers deserves a passing mention. In
this way he introduced himself to Felicia Hemans, Leigh
Hunt, Godwin, and others.

Personal Appearance and Health.— Shelley was tall and
active in figure, though he was slightly built and stooped
considerably. His features, though not regular, were singu-
larly expressive, and retained to the last their youthful
aspect and almost feminine grace. His head was very small,
and thickly covered with wavy dark -brown hair, which
began to turn grey at an early age. His eyes were blue,
with a fixed and earnest expression that gave the appearance
of short sight. His voice was peculiar, being very high-
pitched in tone, especially in moments of excitement, when,
according to some of his biographers, it became "excruciat-
ing." At other times it was capable of pleasant modulation,
both in conversing and reading aloud. It has been well
remarked that both his appearance and voice were keen and
high-pitched in harmony with his general character. Of the
two original portraits of Shelley one was in oil, done by
Miss Curran at Rome in 1 8 1 9, and one in water-colours, by
Edward Williams, done probably in 182 1. From these two
Clint composed a portrait after Shelley's death, and both
this and the original by Miss Curran have been engraved

SHELLEY'S LIFE AND CHAEACTER. 21

and re-engraved. According to Mrs. Shelley's authority,
Miss Curran's portrait is the better one ; on the other hand,
Trelawny preferred that by Clint. Exception has been
taken, however, to all the extant portraits, as not giving a
true likeness of Shelley, for the spiritual and ever-varying
expression of his features rendered the task a very difficult
one. Mulready said that he was "too beautiful" to paint.

Mrs. Shelley spoke of her husband as a martyr to ill-
health, and his own statements were to the same effect, but
some doubt has been thrown on this by Hogg and other
writers. It seems certain that Shelley at times suffered great
pain from nervous spasms, though he had intervals of good
health. In 181 5 he had consumptive tendencies which
threatened to be serious, but these had passed away by 1 8 1 8.
It is less clear what was the nature of Shelley's malady
during the last few years of his life. At Pisa he consulted
the famous Italian physician, Vacca, who at first thought
that the disease was nephritis, but afterwards changed his
opinion.

Shelley's Friends. — Thomas Med win, Shelley's second
cousin, was one of his schoolfellows at Sion House. He
afterwards corresponded regularly with Shelley, and visited
him in Italy in 1820 and 1821. (On \ns> Life of Shelley,
vide p. 125.)

Thomas Jefferson Hogg was Shelley's intimate friend at
Oxford. An estrangement arose between Shelley and Hogg
after Shelley's first marriage, but they afterwards saw much
of each other in London, and Hogg is more than once men-
tioned with affection in the letters from Italy. In his early
life Hogg was to some extent in sympathy with Shelley,
though latterly of a cynical turn of mind. In 1826 he
married Edward Williams' widow. {Vide ^. 126.)

William Godwin had corresponded for some months with
Shelley before they met in London, October 181 2. After
the elopement with Mary in 18 14, Shelley's relations with
Godwin were much strained, and it was not till the end of

22 SHELLEY PRIMER.

1816, when the marriage with Mary took place, that a recon-
ciliation was effected. In later years Shelley gave Godwin
much pecuniary assistance.

Leigh Hunt became intimate with Shelley in 18 16, their
friendship ripening apace during that year and the following,
as Hunt was perhaps the most sympathetic of all Shelley's
friends. They met again for a few days at Leghorn and
Pisa immediately before Shelley's death. " To see Hunt is
to like him," Shelley wrote in 1820, and this feeling was
reciprocated by Hunt. Shelley's liberality to his friend was
unbounded.

Thomas Love Peacock became acquainted with Shelley in
181 2, and visited him at Bishopsgate in 181 5, when they
went on a boating excursion up the Thames. They were
intimate at Marlow in 181 7, and some of Shelley's best
letters from abroad were written to Peacock. Shelley
greatly admired his writings, and liked him personally, but
Peacock's cynical disposition rendered him unable to appre-
ciate Shelley's best qualities. " His enthusiasm is not very
ardent, nor his views very comprehensive," Shelley wrote to
Hogg. {Vide p. 126.)

Lord Byron first met Shelley in 1816 at Geneva ; then at
Venice in 1818, at Ravenna in 182 1, and again at Pisa
during the last year of Shelley's life. Byron had a liking
for Shelley, and highly respected his character ; but though
their friendship was cordial, they were never on a footing of
perfect ease. Shelley was justly indignant with Byron on
account of his treatment of Claire Clairmont, but he greatly
admired his genius. (Vide Julian and Maddalo, p. 59.)

Horace Smith was introduced to Shelley by Leigh Hunt in

181 7, and afterwards managed some business matters for
him during his absence in Italy. Shelley speaks of him
warmly in his Letter to Maria Gishorne and elsewhere.

John Keats also met Shelley at Leigh Hunt's house. He
did not respond very cordially to Shelley's friendly overtures,
and seems to have scarcely appreciated the genius of his

SHELLEY'S LIFE AND CHARACTER 23

fellow-poet. In July 1820 Shelley invited Keats to join
him at Pisa. (Vide Adonais, p. 70.)

The Gisbornes became intimate with Shelley and Mary at
Leghorn, where they had a house. Mrs. Gisborne taught
Shelley Spanish. ( Vide p. 1 13, and Letter to Maria Gisborne,
p. 66.)

Edward Ellerker Williams and his wife, Jane, were intro-
<luced to the Shelleys by Medwin at Pisa, in January 1821.
Williams had been in the navy, and rivalled Shelley in his
fondness for the water ; Jane Williams was very musical,
and delighted Shelley by her singing. They lived near the
Shelleys at Pisa, and shared the Casa Magni at Lerici.
Shelley was much attached to Williams, and his affection
for Jane inspired some of his most beautiful lyrics of 182 1
and 1822.

Edward John Trelawny, Shelley's latest but not least
intimate friend, had travelled in many parts of the world
and led a romantic seafaring life, which lent a considerable
charm to his society. In spite of the contrast in their char-
acters and the short period of their acquaintance, he under-
stood Shelley better than some of his earlier friends. After
the death of Shelley and Williams, the duty of arranging for
the burning of their bodies and the subsequent burial of the
ashes fell on Trelawny. (On his Records of Shelley, vide
p. 125.)

Local Records. — Field Place. — An engraved plate, with
an inscription, has been placed over the fireplace in the room
where Shelley was born.

Eton. — There is no visible record of Shelley at Eton,
the school authorities having hitherto discountenanced any
attempt to class him among the Eton "worthies." The
house in which he boarded was pulled down about twenty-
five years ago.

Oxford. — Shelley's rooms at University College, in the
corner of the quadrangle, near the hall, are now known as
" the Shelley lecture-room."

24 SHELLEY PRIMER

Keswick. — Chestnut Cottage, where Shelley stayed in
1811, is still in existence.

Marlow. — An inscription has been placed on the outer
wall of the house where Shelley lived. It records, incor-
rectly, that Shelley was there visited by Byron.

Home. — The following is the inscription on Shelley's grave
in the new Protestant cemetery at Eome : —

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY,

Cor Cordium,

natus iv. aug. mdccxcii,

obiit viii. jul. mdcccxxii.

" Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea- change
Into something rich and strange."

The relics of Shelley's heart, which Trelawny rescued
from the funeral-pile, are preserved at Boscombe, Sir Percy
Shelley's residence, together with the manuscripts of his
works, the Sophocles clasped in his hand when he was
drowned, and other memorials.

( 25 )

CHAPTER III.
SHELLEY'S OPINIONS.

(i.) Philosophical and Religious Opinions. Doctrine of
Necessity. — Shelley's first inclination was towards philo-
sophy rather than poetry, a preference which he again ex-
pressed as late as 1819 in a letter to Peacock. It is suggested
by Mrs. Shelley that, had he lived longer, he might have
written a " complete theory of mind ; " as it stands, how-
ever, his philosophy is by no means consistent throughout*
In early life he was imbued with the materialism of the
French school, and the doctrine of necessity is strongly urged
in the Notes to Queen Mab (vide p. 103), though this, as has
often been pointed out, can scarcely be reconciled with the
enthusiastic moral exhortations and the belief in the power
of the will which pervade most of his poems, Queen Mab
included.

Idealism. — But his mind, as it has been truly said,
"possessed an original bias towards Transcendentalism," and
he soon became discontented with the cold and colourless
tenets of materialism. By about 18 15 he had adopted the
immaterial philosophy of Berkeley, who asserted that nothing
exists but as it is perceived, i.e., matter itself is only a
perception of the mind (vide essay On Life, p. 105). His
Platonic studies confirmed this belief in idealism, and he
must be considered, in his maturer years, as distinctly a
Platonist and idealist in thought. In accordance with this
philosophy he regarded as unreal and transitory all the
phenomena of life and death, space and time, which can

26 SHELLEY PRIMER

exist only as we think of them ; while he sought to grasp
the one reality of thought, the inner idea which underlies all
outer and material appearances {vide Ahasuerus's speech in
Hellas, lines 766-806, for a succinct expression of this
doctrine). It will be seen that in all Shelley's later writings,
whether philosophical or poetical, the ideal is the dominant
quality.

Tlie Existence of Evil. — On this question Shelley held a
kind of Manichean doctrine, which is very clearly expressed
in Laon and Cythna (canto i., stanzas 25-33), and again,
though less simply, in Frometlieus Unbound (act ii. sc. 4).
Evil is not inevitable in the nature of man : but from the
beginning of all things there have been two rival, co-existing
powers of Good and Evil, typified in Laon and Cythna by
the serpent and the eagle, in Prometheus Unbound by
Prometheus and Jupiter. These " twin Genii, equal Gods,"
maintain a ceaseless combat, in which, in spite of temporary
defeat and suffering, the good will ultimately prevail. In
short, Shelley firmly believed in the perfectibility of man by
the power of the human will. This forms the subject of
Queen Mab, Laon and Cythna, and Prometheus Unbound.

The Existence of a Deity. — Shelley's belief or disbelief on
this point is not easy to define, but pantheism is probably
the term most expressive of his views, since he certainly
believed in a universal world-spirit pervading all substance
(cf. Adonais, stanza 42, and similar passages). The ambig-
uous use of the name atheist, for which Shelley was himself
primarily responsible, was the cause of considerable miscon-
ception of his religious opinions ; and it is to be regretted
that he did not define more distinctly what meaning he
attached to words of this class. In Queen Mab, for instance,
and in most other places where he speaks of God, he evi-
dently uses the name in the strictly theological sense, to denote
the personal deity whose existence he denied. Yet there are
a fewpassages in Prornetheus Unbound, Epipsychidion, Adonais,
and Tlie Boat on tJie Serchio, where God seems to signify

SHELLEY'S OPINIONS. 27

rather the soul of the universe, in wliich Shelley as certainly
believed. He himself in his youth adopted the name of
atheist, and appears not to have disowned it towards the
close of his life ; but it should be remembered that he did
this chiefly in a spirit of chivalrous defiance. The word
atheist, in its present opprobrious sense, is not justly appli-
cable to him ; for his atheism was simply a disbelief in the
personal deity of orthodox theology.

Nature. — According to Shelley's pantheistic view, all
nature, " from man's high mind even to the central stone of
sullen lead," is animated by one eternal spirit, which under-
lies all passing phenomena. Man, himself a portion of
nature, turns to her for comfort and guidance, recognising the
beauty of her manifestations by the kindred emotion of his
own heart ; while nature in her turn sympathises with the
joys and sorrows of man (cf. Prometheus Unbound^ act iv.).

I'he Immoi'tality of the Soul. — Shelley seems, like his
master, Plato, to have been content to suspend judgment on
this point, under the stress of two conflicting tendencies of
thought. Medwin asserts that he believed in ante-natal
life, and Hogg tells a story of his interrogating a new-born
infant about its previous existence; but this idea is only
incidentally referred to twice or thrice in the poems (cf.
Epipsychidion, Prince Athanase, and The Triwnph of Life)^
while it is discountenanced in the essay On a Future Life.
As regards a future existence, the negative opinion, based on
pure reason, is advanced in the last-named essay {vide p. 106)
and other passages ; while the affirmative view, expressed as
a hope rather than an argument, may be found in Adonais^
The Sensitive Plant, the Essay on Christianity, and The
Punishment of Death. In one of the Notes on Hellas
Shelley says that the desire of immortality "must remain
the strongest and the only presumption that eternity is the
inheritance of every thinking being ; " and in some conver-
sations recorded by Trelawny he expresses the same opinion.
It was useless, he maintained, to dogmatise on a question

28 SHELLEY PRIMER.

which is quite insoluble. In the meantime he had no
curiosity about the system of the Universe. " My mind is
tranquil," he said; "I have no fears and some hopes." It
therefore seems probable that Shelley was inclined to believe
in immortality; not, however, in the sense of a separate
individual existence, but rather a fusion of the individual
mind in the universal.

Christianity. — His attitude towards Christianity was more
clearly marked. He resembled Blake in the strong contrast
of feeling with which he regarded Christ on the one hand,
and the Christian religion on the other. For the " sublime
human character of Jesus Christ " he felt the deepest respect
and veneration, as may be seen from the famous chorus in
Hellas, and the notes to that poem, the Essay on Christianity,
Letter to Lord Mlenborough, and passages in Prometheus Un-
bound. But he repudiated and condemned in the strongest
manner the dogmas of the Christian faith, and thought it a duty
to utter his opinions plainly on the subject of the existing
religion. " If every man," he wrote, "said what he thought,
it could not subsist a day." He felt that the spirit of estab-
lished Christianity was wholly out of harmony with that of
its Founder, and that a similarity to Christ was one of the
qualities most detested by the modern Christian ; if a second
Jesus should arise in these days, his fate would be "lengthened
imprisonment and infamous punishment." That Shelley,
whether right or wrong in his general view of Christianity,
did scant justice to the inner force which determined its
historical development, at any rate in its earlier stages, can
scarcely be denied ; but there is no warrant whatever for the
strange theory propounded by several writers, ^ that under
different circumstances he might himself have adopted the
Christian tenets. His objections to Christianity were far too
deeply rooted, and rested on too real a foundation, to admit

1 Vide Browning's Introduction to Letters, published 1852 ; F. W.
Robertson's Address to Brighton Working Men ; Gilfillan's Gallery of
Literary Portraits, &c.

SHELLEYS OPINIONS. 29

of any such mental transition, unless we gratuitously suppose
a total change in his nature, character, and habits of thought.
This has been very clearly put by De Quincey in his essay on
Shelley.

Again, in his mention oi faith, which he calls an "obscene
worm" and the "foulest birth of time," it must be under-
stood that he means the faith of the theologian only ; of
faith in its fuller and wider sense he himself possessed no
small portion. Repentance is another of the Christian virtues
which he more than once condemns (cf. Laon and Cythna,
viii. 22), but only in the special sense of that morbid self-
abasement and useless brooding over the past which retard
the omnipotence of man's will in the future. It is important
to note these points, for Shelley did himself an injustice in
liere leaving some scope for ambiguity and misrepresentation.
His hostility to Christianity as a religion was at all times
characteristic and determined, but it was not that mere
unreasoning antipathy, that " midsummer madness," with
which he has been charged. His intimate knowledge and
love of the Bible should alone be sufficient to refute that
idea. So far from being, as he has often been lightly called,
an " irreligious" man, he was in the truest sense profoundly
religious, though his faith was intuitive rather than tradi-
tional, and therefore could not harmonise with any established
creed. He claimed for himself and for all others absolute
freedom of opinion in religious matters, on the ground that
belief and disbelief are equally involuntary (vide Letter to
Lord Eltenhorougli, p. 102).

(2.) Morals. — The power of the human will, in other
words, the perfectibility of man, is the cardinal point in
Shelley's moral teaching. We might be wise and virtuous
and happy, if we would but set aside the tyranny of custom,
and allow scope for the intuitive excellence of our true
nature ; for original goodness, and not original sin, is the
inalienable birthright of mankind. The foundation of true
morality is therefore that innate benevolence which, together

30 SHELLEY PRIMER.

with a sense of justice, is the parent of virtue. At one time
Shelley meditated an essay on this subject, " to show how
virtue resulted from the nature of man," and holding this
opinion he condemned custom and compulsion of all kinds
as hostile to the essential conditions of virtue. Kings and
priests are outlawed and anathematised, not on any foolish
supposition of their personal wickedness, but as being the
representatives of civil and religious oppression ; and, accord-
ing to Shelley's doctrine, perfect liberty is absolutely indis-
pensable to the existence of virtue. "Gentleness, virtue,
wisdom, and endurance," are the four great moral qualities
on which Shelley insists ; while of the opposing vices,
tyranny, custom, and revenge are those that he most often
deprecates. In the Essay on Christianity he quotes the
authority of Christ against " the absurd and execrable doctrine
of vengeance." For Shelley's definition of Virtue, Benevo-
lence, and Justice, vide Speculations on Morals, p. io6.

Love. — Love, which in Shelley's view is an almost equi-
valent term to Liberty and ^N'ature, is the great power through
which the world may be regenerated. This Love is repre-
sented under three aspects, between which it is difficult to
draw a very strict distinction, viz., the ideal, the personal,
the philanthropic. The ideal Love is defined in the essay
On Love as the " soul within our own soul," the " something
within us, which, from the instant that we live, more and
more thirsts after its likeness." It is the yearning after that
divine spirit which pervades the universe ; the recognition
of outward beauty by the corresponding inward ideal ; the
"Uranian Venus" towards which we must needs struggle,
though we often meet her counterfeit the " Pandemian
Venus," and in our quest for the ideal are disappointed by
contact with the actual (vide Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,
Alastor, Epipsychidion^ Essay on Love^ The Coliseum, &c.).
The subject of personal Love, though often merged into that
of the ideal, is treated with some directness in the lyrics,
especially the later love-songs. Lastly, the philanthropic

SHELLEYS OPINIONS. 31

Love is that spirit of unselfishness which Shelley considered
to be the only remedy for all moral, social, and political
evils; "the great secret of morals," he wrote, " is Love."

(3.) Social Views. Necessity of Social Reform. — In
social as in moral regeneration. Love is to be the great
motive power. " If there be no love among men, whatever
institutions they may frame must be subservient to the same
purpose — to the continuance of inequality." Starting from
this principle, Shelley strongly condemns the present system
of society, which, he says, " must be overthrown from the
foundation, with all its superstructure of maxims and forms."
His views are distinctly revolutionary and socialistic, not
only in Queen Mah and its Notes, but in the whole body of
his writings. The twenty-eighth Declaration of Rights runs
as follows : "No man has a right to monopolise more than
he can enjoy ; what the rich give to the poor, whilst millions
are starving, is not a perfect favour, but an imperfect right."
He repeatedly insists that there is no real wealth but the
labour of man, and that the rich are directly indebted to the
poor for the comforts they possess ; " the labourer, he that
tills the ground and mauufactures cloth, is the man who has
to provide, out of what he would bring home to his wife
and children, for the luxuries and comforts" of the rich.
He " shuddered to think" that even the roof that covered
him and the bed on which he lay were provided from the
same source. Under these conditions the boasted freedom
of Englishmen was little better than a delusion ; there can
be no true freedom where there is poverty and want (cf.
Masque of Anarchy, stanzas 39-56). It is no wonder that
Owen should have spoken admiringly of the holder of these
opinions, or that Queen Mah became, as Medwin tells us, the
gospel of the Owenites. For a remedy for these social evils
Shelley looked to the growing sense of disinterestedness and
justice; he had little faith in political economy, or the
doctrines of Malthus, but he hoped that a reformed Parlia-
ment might see the necessity of abolishing the National

32 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Debt, and investigating the claims of all fund-holders.
Neither, on the other hand, did he trust to mere legislative
changes, still less to any violence or force, being of opinion
that all reform is useless unless accompanied by a correspond-
ing self -improvement. " Reform yourselves," is the keynote
of the Address to the Irish People, and the same warning is
enforced in the Essay on Christianity, where the failure of
the early Chrietian socialism is attributed to the fact that it
preceded that moral improvement from which it ought rather
to have resulted. For this reason simplicity of life is fre-
quently inculcated by Shelley ; to decrease his own physical
wants is the duty of every earnest man, for he " who has
fewest bodily wants approaches nearest to the divine nature."
The world has enough, and more than enough, of science and
inventions and mechanical skill ; but it is sadly deficient in
generous impulse, unselfishness, and the poetry of life ; hence
has resulted " the abuse of all invention for abridging and
combining labour, to the exasperation of the inequality of man-
kind." (The passages where Shelley's social views are most
clearly stated are in Notes to Queen Mah, Address to the Irish
People, Declaration of Bights, On Christianity, On the Death
of the Princess Charlotte, Letters from Italy, and the unpub-
lished Philosophical Vieiv of Reform.)

The Emancipation of Woman is another of Shelley's great
social themes. He painted in glowing colours the happiness
that might result if women could burst the bonds of restraint
imposed on them by ignorance and custom, and stand forth
as the free and equal companions of men. In Laon and
Cythna this vision is presented in its fullest form ; Cythna
being the type of the perfect woman, at once the tender and
gentle comforter, and the swift and fearless liberator. In
The Cenci we note the same spirit in Beatrice, though, warped
and repressed by the pitiless conditions of her life. In Rosa-
lind and Helen he deals with the subject of the social degra-
dation of woman, though in a less direct and powerful manner
than in Laon and Cythna. Shelley's views on the marriage-

SHELLEY'S OPINIONS. ^^

laws are well-known from the famous Note to Queen Mob
{vide p. 103), and a passage in JEpipsychidzon. He regarded
the marriage-bond as disastrous both for woman and man,
while the inconsistency in his own practice was due solely
to the desire of shielding the woman from what is at pre-
sent regarded as a social disgrace.

Humanitarianism. — Shelley's humanitarian opinions are
generally passed over as an amiable eccentricity, but in reality
they form a very characteristic and necessary part of his
moral teaching. He condemns war as a criminal and foolish
practice in the Address to the Irish People, and capital
punishment was equally incompatible with his doctrine of
gentleness (vide p. 105). He deprecated cruelt and violence
of all kinds ; and his vegetarianism, as set forth in his Vindi-
cation of Natural Diet^ and Laon and Gythna (canto v.), and
referred to in Alastor and the Refutation of Deism, was no
mere fastidious crotchet, but directly connected with his
belief in universal Love. He was too large-hearted and
clear-minded to be able to restrict his benevolence to man-
kind alone, or to view with equanimity the sufferings of the
lower animals (vide p. 104).

(4.) Politics. — We find the axioms of Shelley's political
opinions in the Declaration of Bights and Speculations on
Morals. " Politics are only sound when conducted on prin-
ciples of morality." "The basis of all political error" is
inability to recognise that unselfishness is intuitive ; that it
is wiser to promote the happiness of mankind than to con-
sider self or class-interests, although this fact cannot be
mathematically proved. Shelley was an ardent reformer and
republican, and if his early zeal was somewhat modified in
his later years, there is no reason to suppose that his convic-
tions were altered. He regarded political freedom as a
necessary means to an end, for only the free can be just and
wise. He therefore advocated the extension of the franchise
in his Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote {vide p. 108).
Catholic Emancipation is demanded in the Address to the

0

34 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Irish People, while in the Proposals for an Association he
suggests a method of obtaining this result and also the
Repeal of the Union {vide p. i o i ). After leaving England,
Shelley continued to take great interest in public affairs, as
may be seen from the group of political poems of 1819 {vide
p. 96), which he intended to work up into a regular series,
and many of his letters testify to the same political watch-
fulness (cf. the Philosophical View of Reform, 18 19, p. 109).
He expected national bankruptcy, as well as revolution,
and considerately warned his friends, the Gisbornes, who
had invested in English funds, that their ruin was de-
manded by "justice, policy, and the hopes of the nation."
But though his heart was entirely with the popular party,
he always insisted strongly on the necessity of caution and
moderation. Laws, however bad they may be, must not
be resisted by force, for a good cause can only be injured by
employing violence ; it is right to protest, but it is not right
to rebel. This characteristic doctrine of a passive protest is
fully developed in the Masque of Anarchy {stanzas 74-90).
Caution is also recommended in the Proposals for Putting
Reform to the Vote about the method of extending the
franchise and abolishing royalty. In political matters, as in
moral, Shelley earnestly deprecates a policy of vengeance ; in
Peter Bell he deplores the tendency of the poor to take
" Cobbett's snuff, Revenge."

Shelley had a strong dislike to party politics and the nar-
row views of newspapers ; his own opinions being thoroughly
cosmopolitan : " The only perfect and genuine republic is
that which comprehends every living being." His sympathies
with all oppressed nations were intense, and he watched with
the keenest anxiety the outbreaks in Spain, Italy, and Greece,
1820-1821 (vide Ode to Liberty, Ode to Naples, Hellas, &c.).
In the preface to Hellas he remarks that England's true
policy should be to maintain the independence of Greeks
a^^ainst both Turks and Russians. There is a fine tribute to
America, the " home for freedom," in Laon and Cythna

SHELLEY'S OPINIONS. 35

(xi. 24), and again in the last scene of Charles the First,
while the constitution of the United States is spoken of with
approval in the Philosophical View of Reforin.

(5.) Literature and Art. — Shelley's views on these subjects
may be gathered from his Defence of Poetry ; Prefaces to
Laon and Ci(thna, Prometheus Unbound, and The Genci ;
Letters from Italy, and I^otes on Sculpture. The scope of
art is to portray the impression made on man in his contact
with nature and society, poetry being the most direct method
of doing this. The function of poetry, as an art, is to quicken
the imaginative powers, and not to convey any direct teach-
ing. Didactic poetry was Shelley's " abhorrence," though he
did not shrink from enlisting his poetical powers in the
cause of reform. The catholicity of his literary tastes is
shown by his enthusiastic admiration for the Old Testament,
-^schylus, and Calderon, writings of a style very different to
that of the Eevolution. In Italy his few chosen books con-
sisted of the Greek Plays, Plato, Lord Bacon, Shakspere, the
Elizabethan dramatists, Milton, Goethe, Schiller, Dante,
Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Calderon, and
the Bible. In contemporary literature he preferred Byron's
Cain and Don Juan, the odes of Coleridge, some of Words-
worth's early poems, and Landor's Gehir. As a critic, how-
ever, he was hardly in his element ; his delight in giving
pleasure causing. him to praise too much; as appears from
his criticisms on the writings of such friends as Godwin,
Leigh Hunt, Peacock, Hogg, Medwin, and Williams ; while
he was too apt to idealise and exaggerate the merits of any
book that fascinated him.

Shelley's appreciation of the fine arts was dormant till
roused by the treasures of Rome and Florence, where he
studied intently, jotted down the Notes, and wrote long
descriptive letters to Peacock, more valuable for literary
style than any correctness of art-criticism. He seems to
have disliked Michel Angelo, and to have had an exaggerated
admiration for Guido and Salvator Eosa, being attracted

36 SHELLEY PRIMER.

probably by the sentiment of tlie former and the energy of
the latter. At Pisa he had no opportunities of continuing
these studies.

Before concluding this chapter it may be worth while to
consider to what writers Shelley is most indebted for the sug-
gestion of thoughts and opinions. Among philosophers he
constantly mentions Plato and Lord Bacon as holding the
highest rank — the antipodes to Paley and Malthus. The
influence of Plato is very strong throughout all Shelley's ideal
poetry, especially in the doctrine of love (cf. Epipsychidion) ;
he was also inspired by Rousseau in a smaller degree. On
the other hand, in all ethical and political questions of the
day he was a follower of Godwin. He himself says that
Godwin's Political Justice materially influenced his char-
acter. His opinion that no punishment is justifiable, except
as correction for the sake of the culprit, and that the death-
penalty is therefore objectionable ; tliat all laws, especially
the marriage-law, are mischievous, though for other reasons
it may be necessary to conform to them ; that property
belongs justly to him who needs it most ; that all coercion,
even in education, does harm rather than good ; that unsel-
fishness is the only true guide in political and social life ; all
this, together with the doctrine of passive protest and absten-
tion from violence, was inspired by the writings of Godwin.
Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women
doubtless inspired much of Shelley's ardour in that cause.

( Zl )

CHAPTER IV.
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS,

Ideality. — The dominant characteristic of Shelley's poetry
is its ideality. He constantly endeavours to penetrate the
outer cloak of appearances and grasp the idea, the reality
that underlies all forms ; what he strives to depict is there-
fore not so much the actual object perceived by the senses,
as the idealised image of it, apprehended only by the mind.
Whether he is preaching a crusade of social liberty and free
thought, as in Queen Mah, Laon and CytJma, and Prometheus
Unbound ; or of national and political freedom, as in Hellas,
the Ode to Liberty, and The Masque of Anarchy ; or eulo-
gising the poetic character, as in Alastor and Adonais ; or
singing of love, as in Epipsychidion ; or the imaginative
faculty, as in The Witch of Atlas, — we find always the same
ideal treatment of the subject on which he writes.

Subjectivity. — Next to his ideality, subjectivity is Shelley's
most important quality. He is one of the most subjective
of poets, many of the characters in his longer poems being
idealised portraits of his own, and the most beautiful of his
short lyrics being direct outpourings of his own emotions.
With the single exception of The Cenci, where he was com-
pelled to curb this tendency, it would be difficult to point
to any important poem by Shelley which is not to some
extent subjective.

Nature-Worship. — Another marked feature is his sym-
pathy with nature, which may be traced in his many
descriptions of skies, dawns, sunsets, clouds, storms, forests,

38 SHELLEY PRIMER.

flowers, moiTiitains, caves, seas, and rivers. Shelley told
Trelawny that " he always wrote best in the open air, in a
boat, under a tree, or on the banks of a river ; " and his
poems have accordingly much of the vitality and elementary
freshness of nature itself. He may claim to share with
Wordsworth the title of " Poet of Nature," for his treat-
ment of natural scenery is not the less true because it is
idealised, and instinct with passionate adoration and love,
rather than careful thought and patiently, diligent observa-
tion {vide p. 27).

Varieties of Style. — The scope of Shelley's literary powers
was far wider than is usually supposed ; to think of him as
a lyric poet only is to make a very common but very com-
plete mistake. The versatility of his genius was shown in
the following ways, (i.) Lyric poetry, as befitting a sub-
jective writer, was certainly the element in which Shelley
was most at ease ; in passionate fervour of imagination and
melody of language he is generally admitted to be unsurpassed.
Out of his many odes, songs, and lyrical pieces there are very
few that do not reach a high standard ; and his later lyrics are
masterpieces of beauty and simplicity combined. He is at
his best in those metres which allow free play for sustained
imaginative flight ; in the more artificial metres, such as the
sonnet, he is not often successful. (2.) As a dramatist
Shelley relies for fame on The Cenci and the fragment
of Charles the First. Dramatic power was precisely what
one would least have expected to find in a writer of Shelley's
temperament. In a letter of 1 8 1 8 he himself remarks :
" You will say I have no dramatic talent ; very true in a
certain sense ; but I have taken the resolution to see what
kind of tragedy a person without dramatic talent could
write." The success of The Cenci is indisputable; yet it
may fairly be urged that this is in great measure due to the
happy choice of subject ; a struggle against parental tyranny
being a theme specially suited to Shelley's genius. When
in his Charles the First he attempted to deal with history,

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 39

"that record of crimes and miseries," as he elsewhere
described it, he could not make the same progress, and the
drama remains a fragment, though too fine a fragment to be
set down as a failure. Whether Shelley could ever have
produced a series of great dramas, must therefore remain
under debate. As it is, he can scarcely be called a great
dramatist, though he has the merit of having produced the
greatest drama of modern English literature. (3.) Narrative
poetry in the ordinary sense was perhaps Shelley's weakest
point; his attempts in this direction, as seen in parts of
Queen Mab, Alastor, Rosalind and Helen^ and even Laon and
Cythna, lack directness and concentration. On the other
hand, in the familiar-narrative style of Julian and. Maddalo
and the Letter to Maria Gisborne, he is at his strongest and
best. A study of these two poems, where simple incidents
are touched on with inimitable grace and versatility, yet with
a firm and steady grasp, should suffice to dispel the notion that
Shelley's genius was entirely visionary and transcendental.
(4.) Shelley's position in satirical writing, as in dramatic,
is difficult to define with any certainty. Satire was not
quite congenial to his gentle and kindly spirit ; and the
question of his humour, or lack of humour, is still an open
one. Humour is the quality of which enthusiasts are pro-
verbially devoid ; yet in Shelley's case it seems to have been
latent rather than absent ; for though many of his works are
conspicuously destitute of it, we see it very plainly in Peter
Bell, the essay On the Devil and Devils, and some passages
of some of the poems and letters. The wit in Sivellfoot is
rather laboured and ponderous ; and perhaps it may be said
that while some of Shelley's humorous pieces are far from un-
successful, we feel that this style of writing was rather against
the grain. (5.) As a translator Shelley had great qualities.
He was well aware of the difficulty, or rather impossibility,
of reproducing the melody of another language, but he strove
to make his versions true English poems ; one of his canons
of work being that " translations are intended for those who

40 SHELLEY PEIMER.

do not 'understand the original, and therefore should be
purely English." In spite of occasional mistakes, due to
carelessness or ignorance of idiom, he seldom fails to catch
the spirit of his originals, though he is not careful to follow
them in metre. His translations were generally thrown oif
at a time when he felt unfit for original writing, as a
secondary occupation on which he placed little value. In
his translations from the ancient languages the Greek largely
predominates, for Shelley cared little for Latin, and looked
on the Romans as " pale copyists " of the Greeks, for whom
his admiration was unbounded. He is said to have learnt
the Classics almost by intuition. In modern languages he
translated from the Italian, Spanish, and German, but not
from the French, for which literature, one or two writers
excepted, he had a strong dislike. He had studied Italian
with Hogg in 1813, and he afterwards read much with Mary
in Italy. Considering his familiarity with Italian literature,
we are surprised Shelley did not translate more. For his
introduction to the Spanish tongue Shelley was indebted to
the Gisbornes {vide p. 23) ; there is a conflict of evidence
as to when he became acquainted with German, but it was
probably not until 181 5. (6.) As a prose writer Shelley
was at his best in some of the essays and the letters from
Italy. His boyish Romances are entirely worthless, except
as a proof of his early determination to make his mark in
literature. The earlier essays and pamphlets are remark-
able for vigour and keen logical insight rather than
weight, and except in the Essay on Christianity, Defence
of Poetry^ and a few other masterpieces, the literary
style of the essays has been affected, perhaps unavoidably,
by the polemical nature of the subject-matter, a fault which
is also discoverable in the earlier letters. But in the letters
written during the last few years of his life, his ease and
mastery are at once apparent; as in the "poetic-familiar"
vein of Julian and Maddalo, so too in his familiar prose
correspondence he strikes the golden mean between the over-

LITEKAKY CHAKACTERISTICS. 41

elaborate style of the last century, and the practical but
somewhat inartistic method of his contemporaries. The
descriptive letters may be regarded as a kind of prose-poetry,
suggested by the same impulses as many of the poems, and
written, like them, under the immediate stress of inspiration.
They give a view of the conditions under which the poems
were composed, and thus indirectly afford a proof of their
sincerity in thought and style. Medwin tells us that Shelley
used to write his letters on his knees during intervals at
meals, " his pen flowing with extraordinary rapidity, and his
mind mirrored on the paper."

Favourite Subjects, Images, and Words. — The repetition
of certain images and words is one of Shelley's most marked
characteristics. Among metaphors frequently used are
those drawn from the instruments of weaving, the warp,
woof, and web ; from a lyre or ^olian harp hung up to the
wind ; an eagle and serpent locked together in fight. The
references to serpents are very numerous, and perhaps owe
their origin to the "great old snake" that haunted the
garden at Field Place. In the first canto of Laon and
Cythna, and elsewhere, the serpent is used by Shelley to
represent the spirit of good ; but often also in the contrary
sense. "The Snake" was the nickname given to Shelley
by Byron. Boats and rivers furnished another common
theme, the "little shallop" playing an important part in
Alastor, as also in Laon and Cytlina, The Witch of Atlas,
and many other poems. Flowers and plants are often men-
tioned, as in The Question, The Sensitive Plant, and The
Zucca, while the sky, with all its shifting scenery of clouds
and storms, was ever present in Shelley's imagination. Of
human characters, that of the ideal Sage or venerable Al-
chemist figures in The Coliseum, Laon and Cythna, and Prince
Athanase, as an exception to the usual tyranny of Age ; and
still more common is the " Youth with hoary hair," doubt-
less meant in some measure for Shelley himself. Perhaps
the strangest instance of Shelley's recurrence to a favourite

42 SHELLEY PRIMER.

idea is in his references to Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew.
One of the juvenile poems dealt with that story; and the
same character appears in Queen Mob and its Notes, — where
the legend is told at some length, — Alastor, Hellas, and 2^he
Assassins. Here too should be mentioned the quotation
" Letting I dare not luait upon I would," which recurs with
odd persistency in Shelley's writings. As a typical example
of the repetition of a particular image, it may be noted that
the description of the reflection of a city quivering on a
river's surface appears in at least four passages, viz., Ode to
Liberty (stanza 6), the lines on Evening (182 1), Witch of
Atlas (stanza 59), and Ode to the West Wind (stanza 3). Lair,
den, doedal, moonstone, hyaline, nursling, windless, anarch,
are instances of words that Shelley is fond of using.

Metre. — Blank verse is used in Queen Mah, Alastor, Pro-
metheus Unbound, The Cenci, Swellfoot, Hellas, and some of
the translations, with great mastery and success. With the
exception of Keats, Shelley has scarcely a rival in this metre
among modern English poets. In parts of Queen Mab we
find unrhymed lyrical iambics, as in Southey's Thalaba.
The following are the chief rhymed metres used by Shelley.
The Spenserian Stanza, revived by Byron, appears in Laon
and Cytlina and Adonais. Shelley's stanzas are not so com-
pact and forcible as Byron's, but have greater fluency and
grace, the number of double rhymes being a noteworthy
feature. The Heroic metre is that of Julian and Maddalo,
Epijpsychidion, Letter to Maria Gisborne, Ginevra, and some
sliorter pieces. In Shelley's hands it becomes free, unfet-
tered, and familiar, recalling the " mighty line " of Marlowe
rather than that of the eighteenth century school. The seven-
syllabled trochaic, the metre of Milton's U Allegro and II
Penseroso, is a favourite with Shelley ; e.g., Euganean Hills,
The Invitation, Ariel to Miranda, Lines at Lerici, The
Masque of Anarchy, some of the lyrics in Prometheus Un-
bound, and some political poems and translations. The
ia7nhic tetrameter, the metre of Scott, is less common, but is

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 43

found in parts of Rosalind and Helen. The ottava rhna is
used with rare skill and delicacy in The Dream, The Zucca,
Witch of Atlas, and translation of Hymn to Mercury ; while
the intricacies of the terza rima, that most difficult of metres
for an English poet, are wonderfully handled in Prince
Athanase, The Woodman and the Nightingale, The Triumph
of Life, Ode to the West Wind, and a translation from Dante.
The lyric arrangements used by Shelley are far too nume-
rous to mention. The Sonnet he seldom attempted, and
only once or twice with success. Most of his sonnets are
loosely constructed, and in some cases the usual sonnet-laws
are completely set at defiance.

Rhythm and Rhyme. — In language and power of expression
Shelley is rich almost to excess, his teeming fancies finding a
ready outlet in the inexhaustible flow of words. He could
use alliteration freely without abusing it, and a treasury of
metaphorical imagery was always ready to his hand. He
Avrote at a white heat of passionate inspiration, and this
lyric fervour was one cause of his frequent neglect of so-called
" rules of poetry ; " correctness of particular rhymes being
unhesitatingly sacrificed to the general musical effect. Such
half-rhymes as nest, east ; move, love, are frequent on every
page ; and we occasionally meet with more questionable
aberrations, such as accept not, reject not; frost, almost;
leaves, peace ; ruin, pursuing ; and many instances (especi-
ally in Laon and Cythna) of such loose rhyming as motion,
emotion ; fell, hefell. It has been remarked that Shelley's
poems are never unrhythmical, though the rhyme and metre
are sometimes at fault. In some cases the charge of metrical
defect is due to not recognising that Shelley often deliberately
chose an unusual cadence, as in the line " And wild roses
and ivy serpentine ; " or purposely suppressed one syllable
for the sake of the effect, e.g., "Is it with thy kisses or thy
tears ? " " Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar."
Signs of haste and inaccurate workmanship, where they
exist, must be attributed partly to the eagerness of poetic

44 SHELLEY PRIMER

inspiration and the profusion of images and ideas, partly to
the moral enthusiasm which pervades most of the poems ; it
must he remembered also that Shelley regarded mere artistic
perfection and elaborate style as of distinctly secondary im-
portance. It may be fairly urged that the fragmentary state
of so many poems and essays is a sign of desultory work ;
this was caused in some measure by his solitary life in Italy,
where he lacked the encouragement of literary society ; also,
no doubt, by the restless and transitory impulses of his
own nature. Shelley was always and essentially the poet of
youth, and, together with its fervid hopes and yearnings
after an ideal justice and love, he possessed somewhat of its
restlessness and lack of repose. This appears as plainly in
his literary style as in his life and character. Just as Words-
worth's writings are full of tranquillity and sober contempla-
tion, so Shelley's breathe the spirit of zeal and activity. He
represents a particular phase of thought and feeling, which,
though not universal, has special charms at certain periods
and for certain natures.

Mysticism. — Another charge often brought against Shelley's
style is that of obscurity and lack of human interest. That
occasional lines and passages are very obscure, there can be no
question, but the obscurity is generally only a verbal one, or
caused by some corruption of the text. In the Myths, how-
ever, which Shelley handles in Prometheus Unbound and
elsewhere, his love of allegory and metaphysical subtleties
occasionally renders the meaning difficult ; while the unex-
plained personal allusions in Epipsychidion, Julian and Mad-
dalo, and some other poems are less pardonable blemishes.
But as a rule it may be said that the general sense of
Shelley's writings is lucid and well-expressed ; though of
course his meaning is more likely to escape those who are
unaccustomed to his line of thought, than those who are in
sympathy with him. The same explanation will apply to
his so-called want of human interest. It is true that he
does not deal, as Wordsworth does, with simple, homely

LITERAEY CHARACTERISTICS. 45

incidents of everyday life, yet no writer has ever been more
in earnest in the cause of humanity, and the powerful interest
of his writings is strongly felt by readers of a kindred dis-
position, though others may remain unmoved by it. He
was, in fact, the poet-prophet of the future, and his vistas of
thought are therefore of necessity somewhat vague, vast, and
spiritual ; but though the outline, like a landscape by Turner,
may be misty in detail, there is no obscurity in the general
effect.

Plagiarisms, — The "plagiarisms" of Shelley are, as Pro-
fessor Baynes has remarked, " psychological curiosities rather
than serious blemishes." Shelley's mind was naturally recep-
tive, and it is not surprising that from his multifarious read-
ing he should sometimes have unconsciously appropriated
the thoughts and even the words of other writers. In the
Preface to Prometheus Unbound he admits that the study of
contemporary writings may have " tinged his composition ; "
but it is evident that he was quite unaware of the extent to
which he had absorbed favourite images and cadences from
old poets as well as new. In the Preface to Tlie Cenci he
is careful to acknowledge a debt to Calderon as the only
plagiarism he had intentionally committed, though in reality
there are others quite as striking; while in Alastor he
assigns inverted commas to the Wordsworthian phrase " too
deep for tears," but not to " natural piety " and " obstinate
questionings." Queen Mah shows traces not only of Southey
but of Pope, Gray, Collins, Akenside, and Thomson ; Alastor
is deeply tinged with the influence of Wordsworth; Laon
and Cythna has many echoes of Spenser; and The Genci
often recalls passages in Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and
other Shaksperean plays.

Grammar. — Shelley's grammar, owing to his hasty style of
composition, is at times slipshod and defective. We meet
with such solecisms as "like thou," "let you and / try,"
^^ these sort," ^^ to- lay'' (for lie), "to imprecate for," &c.
The past participle is sometimes used loosely, and there is

46 SHELLEY PRIMER.

often a confusion about the 2nd person sing, of the verb, e.g.,
" thou lovest, but ne'er knew." Another kind of error where
a plural verb follows a singular noun (e.g., "the shadow of
thy moving wings imbue ") was probably caused by the pre-
sence in Shelley's mind of the plural " wings ; " a similar
mistake at the beginning of the Preface to Adonais may be
accounted for in the same way. (Comp. also a passage in the
Lines loritten among the Euganean Hills, lines 40-43, and the
strange phrase " those deluded crew " in The Triumph of
Life.) It was characteristic of Shelley to care less for gram-
matical accuracy than the general sense ; but it seems scarcely
necessary to suppose that he purposely sacrificed grammar to
euphony.

His usual though not invariable method of spelling some
words was peculiar, but apparently deliberate : e.g., desart ;
eetherial, etherial ; recal ; extacy, ecstacy ; falshood ; knarled ;
stedfast ; tyger ; &c. {vide Appendix to Forman's edition).
He sometimes adopted the phonetic style, as in " vext."

Archaic words.— Many archaic words borrowed from
Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspere, or Milton, are used by Shelley,
especially in Laon and Cythna. Among these are hlosmy
(blossomy) ; undight (dishevelled) ; thwart (cross-grained) ;
forbid (accursed) ; brere (briar) ; crudded (curded) ; besprent
(besprinkled) ; teint (tint) ; sill (seat) ; sivinh (labour) ; foison
(plenty) ; frore (frozen) ; griding (cleaving) ; grain (dye) ;
pranht (variegated) ; the obsolete plurals eyne and treen ;
and the past tenses glode, strooJc, clombe. Uprest in the
sense of uprising (noun) occurs in Laon aiid Cythna, being
apparently adapted from Chaucer's upriste. The German
griff (grip) was oddly introduced by Shelley into The
Sensitive Plant.

( 47 )

CHAPTEE V.
LITERARY PERIODS OF SHELLEY'S LIFE.

I. Juvenile Period (1808-181 1). — The love of the marvel-
lous was Shelley's ruling passion at this time, his imagination
running freely on "bandits, castles, ruined towers, wild
mountains, storms, and apparitions," while his favourite
authors were Southey and M. G. Lewis. His cliief juvenile
works were the two romances, Zastrozzi and St. Irvyne
{vide p. 114); the poem on The Wandering Jew^ Original
Poetry, hy Victor and Cazire, and Posthumous Fragments of
Margaret Nicholson (vide p. 79). Besides these, Shelley
wrote also a number of short pieces, which are included in
Rossetti's and Forman's editions. It is said that many of
these were printed at Horsham at the expense of Sir Bysshe
Shelley. None of those extant are of any literary value ;
and the worthlessness of Shelley's juvenile writings is their
most conspicuous feature.

II. Propagandist Period (1811-1814). — This is the true
beginning of Shelley's literary career, the tract on The
Necessity of Atheism marking his first serious effort. The
romances now give way to pamphlets and propagandist writ-
ings, and the prose predominates largely over the poetry.
The chief works of this period are The Necessity of Atheism,
The Irish Pamphlets, the Letter to Lord Ellenhorough, Notes
to Queen Mab, and A Refutation of Deism {vide p. 1 01 -104).
The only poems of any note are The Devil's Walk and Quee?i
Mab. Some of these writings are occasionally classed with
Shelley's juvenilia ; but, with the exception perhaps of The

48 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Devil's Walk, they are distinguished from the real juvenilia
above mentioned by their greater earnestness of tone and
increased power of expression. The doctrines advanced are
often sound in their main purport, even where the actual
application is foolish and unseasonable ; and though it would
be futile to deny the great superiority of the later produc-
tions, it would be equally unjust to class The Irish Pamphlets
or Queen Mab with the puerilities of St. Irvyne or Margaret
Nicholson. It will be observed that this second period coin-
cides with Shelley's life with Harriet, during which he took
up the gauntlet against custom and society in the too con-
fident hope of effecting a speedy change.

IIL Tlie Bishopsgate and Marlow Periods (1814-1818)
date from the beginning of Shelley's life with Mary Godwin
to their departure for Italy. Experience had taught Shelley
the folly of expecting immediate results from his doctrines ;
while the influence of Mary Godwin and the novelty of his
travels on the Continent stimulated him to fresh efforts.
There are now signs of wider sympathies with nature and
man, and a vast improvement in descriptive power. Poetry
begins to take precedence of prose ; and though the essays
are still mainly propagandist, it is noticeable that they are
often fragmentary, as if Shelley were tiring of direct didactic
writing. It is possible, however, that ill-health was the
cause of this. The Assassins (18 14) is an instance of
Shelley's increased power. The Bishopsgate year (18 15)
was full of literary plans, Alastor being then written, and
possibly also the Essay on Christianity and the group of
essays mentioned on p. 105. The Hymn to Intellectual
Beauty (1816) is also remarkable. The Marlow period
(181 7) was a very productive one, including Laon and
Cythna, the two " Hermit of Marlow " pamphlets, and a
number of short poems {vide p. 81).

IV. The Italian Period (18 18-182 2). — Shelley now with-
drew to a more contemplative life in Italy, " the land of
ideal scenery," where his genius could develop more freely.

LITERARY PERIODS OF SHELLEY'S LIFE. 49

and in a more congenial climate ; and we see accordingly that
his natural bent towards the ideal henceforth dominates all
his writings. The didactic element is now finally with-
drawn ; prose is greatly reduced in scope, while poetry becomes
all in all, the letters, which now appear as an important
feature, being highly poetic in tone. Shelley's opinions still
remained unchanged ; but they are henceforth expressed in a
poetical rather than polemical method, as for instance in
Prometheus and Hellas. Latterly, however, the purely lyric
and personal element was strongly in the ascendant, the
short poems of 182 1 and 1822 being remarkable for their
extreme simplicity and directness.

In this period the prose writings are reduced to the
Defence of Poetry ^ Philosophical View of Reform, the Letters,
Translations, Notes on Sculptures, and some fragmentary
essays ; while no less than seven volumes of poetry were
published between 18 19 and 1822 {vide p. 119), and many
other poems, lyrics, and translations were written, but not
published till after Shelley's death (p. 120). Julian and
Maddalo and the Lines icritten among the Euganean Rills,
both inspired by the visit to Venice, were the chief pro-
ductions of 1 8 18. Prometheus Unbound and Jlie Cenci,
together with some of the finest lyrics, date from 1819,
which may be regarded as the crowning year of Shelley's
life. The residence at Pisa, 1820 and 182 1, witnessed
the writing of a large number of poems, among which were
The Sensitive Plant, The Witch of Atlas, the Ode to Liberty,
Hellas, Epipsychidion, and Adonais. The Bay of Spezzia,
in 1822, was the scene of the last phase in Shelley's literary
career ; and here were written some of the most impassioned
of the lyrics addressed to " Jane," and the great fragment on
The Triumph of Life.

( 50 )

CHAPTE E VI.
THE POEMS.

I. Longer Poems. Ideal and Subjective. — The poems
})laced in this class are arranged in chronological order. It
is impossible to draw any satisfactory line of demarcation
between the ideal and subjective, as the two qualities are
often combined by Shelley in the same poem (vide p. 37).

(i.) Queen Mah. — Shelley seems to have begun Queen
Mah as early as 1809, and to have corrected and recast it in
1 81 2, finishing it in February 181 3, and then adding the
Notes. In the same year he privately published an edition
of 250 copies, which he sent to various friends and corre-
spondents, among whom the poem made some sensation.
In 1 82 1 a piratical edition was issued by Clark, a London
bookseller, to Shelley's great annoyance, as expressed in
several letters. Since Shelley's death Queen Mah and its
Notes have been several times republished, both in England
and America, and have had a wider circulation than any
other of his writings, considerably influencing the working
classes in the direction of free thought. The metre of Queen
Mah is unrhymed lyrical iambic, like that employed by
Southey, interspersed with declamatory passages of blank
verse. There is a poetical dedication To Harriet *^***,
which Shelley himself mentions in a letter of 182 1 as a
reference to Harriet Westbrook, though it seems possible
that it was first intended for Harriet Grove.

Summary. — The sleeping lanthe is visited by Mab, the
Fairy Queen (comp. the "Witch of Atlas," another personi-

THE POEMS. 51

fication of tlie imaginative power), wlio summons her soul to
leave her body and ascend the magic car. They soar aloft,
and reach the Temple of Nature, whence they survey with
mental vision the empires of the old world, Syria, Egypt,
Judaea, Greece, Rome, and Carthage, the "stately city" of
the West. lanthe thus learns the lessons of the Past, the
mortality of man, and the vitality of the universe. Then
follows a dissertation on the Present ; the crime of kingship ;
tlie peace of nature broken by human wars ; the tyranny of
kings, priests, and statesmen ; the selfishness of commerce ;
of all which evils Religion is the guilty cause (conip. the
doctrine of Lucretius, a writer dear to Shelley even in
boyhood). This leads to the praise of Necessity, the true
deity. To explain still further, Ahasuerus {vide p. 42) is
summoned, who, though himself only a creation of the
fancy, can yet tell a tale to illustrate the guilt of a fanciful
religion. Lastly the Future is foretold, as an age of bliss
when all the world shall be fruitful, and nature and mankind
at peace. The magic car then descends to earth ; lanthe's
soul rejoins the body, and she wakes to find her lover
watching by her side.

It will thus be seen that the Past, Present, and Euture
are the "comprehensive topics" of Queen Mah. It is a
vehement attack on established religion and society, written
at a time when Shelley's expulsion from Oxford was still
fresh in his mind. In spite of its declared atheism it
contains a strong element of the pantheistic doctrines after-
wards developed by Shelley when he had outgrown the
Necessity of Queen Mah. . Its revolutionary speculations have
made it the subject of much praise and much disparagement,
some declaring it to be a great poem, while others allow it
scarcely any merit. It is certainly vastly inferior to
Shelley's true masterpieces; its arguments being confused
and ill-arranged, with much repetition and unnecessary
declamation, while the poetry lacks the peculiar music of
Shelley's later verse. But many of the declamatory passages

52 SHELLEY PRIMEK.

are exceedingly fine and sonorous, and the main conclusions
advanced in the poem, however unpopular they may be,
have not been disproved by time ; it therefore seems scarcely
justifiable to class it with the juvenilia, for if not a great
work, it is distinctly a notable one. Shelley in after years
Avrote of it as *' villainous trash," but as he was then vexed
at the issue of the pirated edition, and as he had not seen
the poem for several years, and " hardly knew what it was
about," it is safer to judge Queen Mat on its own merits
than by the author's opinion of it. In the last year of his
life Shelley remarked to Trelawny that the matter of Queen
Mob was good, though the treatment was unequal.

For Notes to Queen Mah, vide p. 103.

The Daemon of the World may be here conveniently men-
tioned. Under this title Shelley published in the Alastor
volume (18 1 6) a variation from the first two sections of
Queen Mah ; and the recent discovery of the very copy of
QiLcen Mah worked upon by Shelley in making this revision
has brought to light a second part of the Daemon of the
World, made up from the concluding sections. The Daemon
of the World is interesting as showing what parts of Queen
Mah Shelley cared to preserve ; but it lacks the energy and
the raison d'etre of the original poem.

(2,) Alastor ; or, The Spirit of Solitude, was written at
Bishopsgate in the summer of 18 15, and published with
some shorter poems in 18 16. There is a Preface by Shelley,
and a quotation from St. Augustine's Confessions which
strikes the keynote of the poem — the " love of love." The
title, which was suggested by Peacock, means primarily an
Avenging Spirit, and must be understood to refer to the
Spirit of Solitude and not to the youth who is haunted
thereby ; though the latter interpretation is also permissible,
according to the secondary meaning of the Greek word. We
can trace in Alastor the influence of Shelley's w^anderings
amidst wild scenery, his reminiscences of Lucerne, the Reuss,
and the Rhine, which he had visited the preceding year, and

THE POEMS. 53

his present seclusion among the oaks of Windsor Park ; it is
also " softened by the recent anticipation of death."

Summary. — After an invocation of Nature, the universal
mother, the poet's story is told. He leaves his "alienated
home," and wanders far through Athens, Tyre, Balbec,
Jerusalem, Egypt, and Arabia, where he is tended by an
Arab maiden, till he reaches Cashmere. Here he sees a
vision of "a veiled maid," which banishes for ever his
peace of mind. He wanders on, in search of this phantom
love, to the " lone Chorasmian shore," where he finds a little
shallop, and embarks. The boat is driven by a storm
beneath the cliffs of Caucasus, through the long windings of
a cavern, and stranded at last on the verge of a waterfall.
Then follows a description of the forest scenery through
which the poet roams, till he finds his resting-place in " a
silent nook " and dies. The poem concludes with a wish
that the secret of prolonged life, known only to " one living
man " (Ahasuerus), could be attained by mankind.

The allegory is sufficiently explained in Shelley's Preface.
The poet is at first happy in calm communion with nature ;
but when he seeks a human embodiment of his vision of
loveliness, he finds that his happiness is gone, the Spirit of
Solitude has undone him. The " veiled maid " whom he
vainly follows is the ideal love, unattainable in earthly form ;
his error consists in seeking the earthly and actual instead
of the heavenly and ideal. (Comp. Hymn to Intellectual
Beauty, EpipsycUidion, The Zucca, &c.) The poem is strongly
subjective ; we feel throughout that the youthful poet is
Shelley himself ; and the slightly morbid tone is accounted
for by Shelley's state of health at the time. Alastor is
written in blank verse of great beauty and strength, and is a
distinct advance on Queen Mob from a literary standpoint,
its descriptive passages ranking with some of Shelley's best
work, while the aggressive optimism of Queen Mah is here
temporarily replaced by the purely personal element. The
text of Alastor is very corrupt in places, and there are some

54 SHELLEY PRIMER.

passages tliat almost baffle interpretation. For tlie poems
published with Alastor in Shelley's original edition, vide
p. 119.

(3.) Laon and Cytlma ; or, The Revolution of the Golden
City, usually known as The Revolt of Islam, was written at
Marlow in the summer of 18 17, and printed at the close of
the same year. A certain number of copies, probably more
than has generally been supposed, had already been issued,
when the publisher, Oilier, took alarm at some passages of
the poem, especially those treating of the relationship of
Laon and Cythna, and insisted on delaying further publica-
tion until changes had been introduced. Shelley was com-
pelled, much against his will, to assent to this ; the title was
accordingly changed, the final paragraph of the preface
omitted, and some fifty lines of the text revised and modi-
fied. It so happened that all this could be done by merely
cancelling a few pages, and using the old sheets ; the poem
was thus published in January 18 18.

Laon and Cythna was written in the open air, partly
among the Bisham woods, and partly on the Thames. The
love of natural scenery is strongly stamped on every page ;
while Shelley's hatred of human tyranny was intensified by
the Chancery suit, which deprived him of the care of his
children in the spring of that year. The subject of Laon and
Cythna (Laon from Greek Xaog^ a people), which is stated at
some length in Shelley's Preface, was the emancipation, in
poetic vision, of Islam {i.e., the nations of the Levant),
whereby the "Golden City" is liberated for a time from the
Sultan's yoke ; but it must also be understood in a wider
sense as typical of the struggle between the principles of free
thought and conventional morality (comp. Hellas). The
Spenserian stanza was chosen as more suitable than blank
verse.

Summary. — The dedication " To Mary " (Mary

Wollstonecraft Shelley) is a piece of poetical autobiography,
describing Shelley's first awakening in his schooldays to the

THE POEMS. 55

higher life (either Sion House or Eton is referred to, pro-
bably the former ; vide Hymn to Intellectual Beauty) ; his
loneHness until he met with Mary Godwin ; and their sub-
sequent happiness. There is a reference in stanza 12 to the
death of Mary WoUstonecraft. Canto I. is introductory.
The poet tells how he witnessed a contest between the eagle
and serpent (emblems of tyranny and free thought), and how
the wounded serpent took refuge with a woman "beautiful
as morning " (the spirit of nature and love). She invites the
poet to accompany her in her boat ; and as they sail, tells
him of the eternal struggle between the two powers of Good
and Evil ; also the story of her own life, in which there
may possibly be a reference to the personality of Mary
WoUstonecraft ; which would account for the otherwise puzz-
ling statement that she is " a human form," and the mention
of her visit to Paris at the time of the Revolution. Thus
they reach the Temple of the Spirit, where sit the " mighty
Senate" of the dead, to join whom two spirits {i.e., Laon
and Cythna) have just arrived. Canto II. Laon is now the
speaker. He describes his youth and early resolutions at
Argolis ; his love for his little sister Cythna (" orphan" was
substituted in The Revolt of Islam), and their determination
to liberate the Golden City. Canto III. Laon and Cythna
are suddenly seized by the soldiers of the tyrant, Othman ;
Cythna is carried into captivity, and Laon is chained to a
lofty column, where he is rescued from death by the Hermit
(vide p. 11). Canto IV. The Hermit carries Laon to his
tower, where, after a madness of seven years, he recovers ;
and hearing of a revolution in the Golden City, brought
about by a mysterious maiden, he sets out thither. Canto V>
describes the peaceful triumph of the revolutionists. The
tyrant himself, with his daughter (who afterwards turns out
to be the child of Cythna), are befriended by Laon. The
liberated people rejoice round the "Altar of the Federation,"
where Laone (Cythna) sings her triumph-song of Wisdom,
Love, and Equality, which is followed by a bloodless feast.

56 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Canto VI. Tlie tyrant's troops attack and treacherously
massacre the citizens. Laon, resisting with a few followers,
is rescued by Cythna on her Tartar steed, and they escape to
a ruined castle, where they pledge their love. Cantos VII.,
VIII. , IX. Three cantos are now devoted to Cythna s
account of her life since she was parted from Laon. She
tells him of the tyrant's harem ; a mysterious cave to which
she was taken by a diver j the birth of her daughter, who
was afterwards taken from her ; and her escape on a slave-
ship. (The narrative here leaves us in some doubt whether
Othman or Laon is to be regarded as the father of Cythna's
daughter. There is some countenance for the latter view in
Cantos vii. i8, xii. 24; but on the whole the former seems
more probable.) Her eloquence had induced the seamen to
set the captives free ; and, on reaching the Golden City, she
had begun her revolutionary crusade. Here her story ends, and
Laon recommences. Canto X. The plague which followed
the massacres is now described. As an expiation, the priests
doom Laon and Cythna to the funeral-pile. Canto XL Laon,
after leaving Cythna at the castle, appears in disguise before
the tyrant, and reveals his name, on condition that Cythna
is allowed a safe passage to America. Canto XII. Cythna,
however, arrives, and shares Laon's death. As they die
the tyrant's child also falls lifeless. They awake after death,
and are greeted by the child-spirit, Cythna's daughter, who
guides them in her pearly boat down a mighty stream to the
Temple of the Spirit mentioned in the introductory canto.

Shelley was careful to state that Laon and Gijtlina is a
narrative, not didactic poem ; it is nevertheless a return
from the somewhat morbid " self-seclusion " of Alastor to the
more vigorous enthusiasm of Queen Mob. It' is the epic of
free thought, free love, and humanity in the widest sense ;
and in no other English poem is the emancipation of woman
preached with such earnestness and force. Yet it is also
subjective in a high degree ; Laon, like the two other char-
acters sketched at Marlow, Athanase and Lionel, being

THE POEMS. 57

a portrait of the poet himself; while Cythna is Shelley's
ideal of womanly perfection, gentle, frank, eloquent, and full
of tender pity for all suffering and grief. Laon and Cythna
is the crowning effort of Shelley's career in England ; it has
great merits, but it has also corresponding faults. For lofty
sentiments, gorgeous imagery, and subtle melody, it could
scarcely be surpassed ; yet, as Shelley himself admits in a
letter to Godwin, there is '' an' absence of that tranquillity
which is the attribute and accompaniment of power." The
polemical cast of the poem could not but be fatal to artistic
repose ; it consists, in fact, of a brilliant " succession of
pictures " rather than a perfect work. The plot of the nar-
rative is vague and loose in the extreme, and sometimes, as
in the first part of Cythna's story (canto vii.), recalls to our
mind the fantastic and incredible conceptions of Shelley's
early romances. The Spenserian stanza is wielded with much
grace and fluency, but not with the same uniform mastery as
in Adonais. There are several cases of deficient rhyme and
metrical oversights, an Alexandrine being twice left in the
middle of a stanza, while the Alexandrine is itself sometimes
supplanted by a line of five or seven feet ; the language also
is, in places, involved and obscure. But with all its artistic
defects Laon and Cythna can never lose its hold on the
affection of those readers who sympathise with the spirit of
the poem.

The relationship of Laon and Cythna in the original
edition was intended not to condone incest, but " to startle
the reader from the trance of ordinary life." This subject is
several times introduced by Shelley in all frankness and
simplicity, first during the Mario w period in Laon and Cythna
and several passages of liosalind and Helen^ and later still
in parts of EpipsychidioUj and a letter of 1819. When Laon
and Cijthna was altered to The Revolt of Islam, Shelley pro-
tested that the poem was spoiled. The true text and title
have now been restored in Mr. Eorman's edition.

(4.) Prince Athanase^ a fragment in terza rima, was

58 SHELLEY PRIMER.

written at Marlow in 1817, probably late in the year. In
1820 Shelley meditated publishing it in a volume with
Julian and Maddalo and other poems, but this was not
done, and it first appeared in the Posthumous Poems in 1824.
In the first sketch the title was Pandemos and Urania.

Summary.^ Part I. describes the character of Prince
Athanase, the grey-haired youth, who bears a close resem-
blance to the Poet in Alastor, Laon in Laon and Cythna, and
Lionel in Rosalind and Helen, and is evidently an auto-
biographical sketch. The first and second fragments of Part
II. narrate the friendship of Athanase and Zonoras, the
" divine old man," who, like the Hermit in Laon and Cythna,
was intended for Dr. Lind. In the third fragment Prince
Athanase sets forth on his travels, and in the fourth the
subject of love is commenced.

Prom Mrs. Shelley's note it appears that the main subject
of the complete poem would have been Prince Athanase's
search after the Uranian Yenus, the ideal love, and his meet-
ing with Pandemos, the earthly Yenus, who disappoints and
deserts him. The poem would thus have borne a close
resemblance to Alastor and Epipsychidion, q.v. It was
abandoned by Shelley as being morbid and over-refined, but
his intention of publishing it three years later shows that he
held it in some estimation. It was his first attempt in terza
rima, and in skilful handling of that metre is only inferior
to TJie Triumph of Life.

(5.) Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue, was begun
at Marlow in 181 7, whether before or after the writing of
Laon and Cythna is uncertain, and finished at Mrs. Shelley's
request at the Baths of Lucca in the summer of 18 18. It
was published in a volume with three other poems in the
spring of 18 19 {vide p. 119). There is a prefatory "Adver-
tisement " by Shelley in which he defines the scope of the
poem. The metre is chiefly the iambic tetrameter, popular-
ised by Scott and Byron, but varying and irregular, some
lines having no corresponding rhymes.

THE POEMS. 59

Summary. — The scene is laid at the Lake of Como, wliere
Helen "with her cliild meets Rosalind, who had renounced her
friendship on account of her connection with Lionel. They
now become reconciled, and sitting on a stone seat beside a
spring in the forest they compare the stories of their lives.
Rosalind first relates how she had been betrothed to a youth
who, at the very altar, was found to be her half-brother.
He died ; and she was then married to a tyrant husband,
after whose death, her children, by his will, were taken
from her charge. Helen's story is devoted to a description
of the character of her lover, Lionel ; her love for him ; his
imprisonment, release, and death. In the conclusion of the
poem we learn that Rosalind and Helen henceforth live
together in Helen's house ; Rosalind's daughter is restored
to her, and afterwards betrothed to Helen's son. Helen
outlives Rosalind.

The story of Rosalind and Helen was probably suggested
by Mary Shelley's early friendship with Isabel Baxter
having been broken off on account of her connection with
Shelley. It is called a Modern Eclogue because it attempts
to treat of real life, like the domestic idyll, the social de-
gradation of women being the principal theme. It contains
fine passages, but is on the whole the least successful of the
longer poems. Shelley himself remarks that he laid "no
stress on it," and that it was "not an attempt in the highest
style of poetry." The narrative is certainly weak and dis-
jointed, and leaves no strong impression on the mind.

(6.) Julian and Maddalo, a Conversation^ was written
at Este in the autumn of 1818, and sent to England for
publication, but for some reason Leigh Hunt kept it back,
and it first appeared in Posthumous Poems, 1824. In August
18 1 8, Shelley visited Byron at Venice, and rode with him
every evening ; this was the origin of Julian and Maddalo,
which Shelley wrote in a summer-house at I Capuccini,
Byron's villa at Este, among the Euganean Hills, about
thirty miles from Venice. The two chief characters of the

6o SHELLEY PRIMER.

*' Conversation " are Count Maddalo (Byron) and Julian
(Shelley, doubtless with reference to the Emperor Julian,
" the apostate "), while the Maniac, a mysterious person of
whom Shelley affects in his Preface to know nothing, is pro-
bably, as is hinted in a letter to Leigh Hunt, another portrait
of himself, " but with respect to time and place, ideal."

Summary. — Julian relates a conversation held with Mad-
dalo as they rode along the Lido (with this part of the poem
compare the letter to Mrs. Shelley of August 23, 18 18,
where the Lido is described as " a long sandy island, which
defends Venice from the Adriatic "). To gain a better view
of the sunset they embark in the Count's gondola, in which
they pass a madhouse where a bell was tolling for vespers.
(There is a doubt whether Shelley referred to the madhouse of
San Servola, or to a building on the isle of San Clemente, now
a penitentiary.) Next day Julian calls on Maddalo and
sees his daughter, a fair and lovely child. (Allegra, daughter
of Byron and Claire Clairmont, born in 181 7.) They again
go to the island, to see the maniac whom Maddalo had
befriended. They are led to his chamber in the madhouse,
where they overhear him as he talks to himself. The
Maniac's soliloquy which follows has been rendered almost
unintelligible for want of the full story of Shelley's life. It
is partly autobiographical, partly ideal ; the story of his
unhappy marriage with Harriet being merged in the account
of the fruitless search after the Uranian Yenus (vide Alastor
and Epipsychidion). Julian and Maddalo then leave him,
and years later, Julian returning to Venice, hears further
news of him from Maddalo's^daughter, now grown to woman-
hood. He refuses, however, to communicate what he learnt
to " the cold world." (This of course was a purely imaginary
anticipation. Shelley never revisited Venice ; and Allegra
died in 1822.)

In Julian and Maddalo Shelley shows a firmer grasp of
his subject than in any previous poem, and uses the heroic
metre, as in the Letter to Maria Gishorne, in a familiar and

THE POEMS. 6 1

yet tlioronglily poetical manner which was altogether his
own. Julian and Maddalo has sometimes been instanced
together with The Cenci as an objective poem, but it is in
reality highly subjective, presenting us at once with a sketch
of Shelley's character at the time, and an episode of his past
life. The obscurity of the personal allusions in the latter
part of the poem, like those in EpipsTjcMdion, is its chief
blemish. For his relations with Byron, vide p. 22.

(7.) Ldnes ivritten among the Euganean Hills. This poem
was written at Este in October 1818, after an excursion
among the Euganean Hills, on the southern slopes of which
Este lies. It was published in the Rosalind and Helen
volume early in 18 19. Shelley here first uses the seven-
syllabled trochaic metre, which afterwards became a favourite
with him.

Summary. — The opening lines strike a note of deep de-
spondency (vide "Advertisement" prefixed to Rosalind and
Helen). Life is a sea of misery, made tolerable to the
mariner only by occasional flowery islands, intervals of
rest and comfort, such as the day the poet had just spent
among the Euganean Hills. He describes the sunrise he
had there witnessed, and the view of distant Venice. This
leads him to moralise on the departed greatness of Venice,
and her present slavery under the yoke of Austria, the
" Celtic Anarch ; " and to refer to Byron, who had there
found a refuge. Then, as the sun rises higher, he looks
down on Padua, once the seat of learning, now enslaved by
the "Celts " ; there is also a reference to the death of Ezzelin
(tyrant of Padua in the thirteenth century ; mentioned by
Dante, Inferno ^ xii. no). Noon and evening are in turn
described ; and with evening sorrowful remembrances come
back. The island of rest is now to be left behind; the
pilot. Pain, again sits at the helm ; but the poet is com-
forted by the hope of touching at similar resting-places in
his future voyage through life, and concludes with a pro-
phetic vision of one such perfect island home.

62 SHELLEY PEIMER.

Shelley is at his best in this mood and metre ; the de-
scriptions of the autumnal sunrise and noon, with the views
of Yenice and Padua, are among the finest in his writings.
Mr. Swinburne has described this poem as " a rhapsody of
thought and feeling, coloured by contact with nature, but
not born of the contact." The same idea of a blissful isle
of refuge is worked out more fully in Epipsychidion and its
"Advertisement." In a letter to Mrs. Shelley in 182 1, he
talks of retiring with her and their child " to a solitary
island in the sea." It is noticeable that in Julian cmd
Maddalo the Euganean hills are described as resembling "a
clump of peaked isles," when seen from the Lido at
Yenice.

(8.) Prometheus Unbound was begun at Este in 18 18, and
the first three acts were completed at Rome in the spring
of 181 9. The fourth act, an afterthought, was written
at Florence in December 181 9. It was published about
August 1820, with nine shorter poems {vide p. 119). Pro-
inetheus Unbound was in great part written among the
ruined Baths of Caracalla, described in one of the letters to
Peacock, scenery well suited to so lofty and solemn a theme.
The subject is in the main the same as that of Queen Mah
and Laon and Cythna — the struggle of humanity against its
oppressors ; but it is treated in a more ideal and less polemi-
cal manner. For the title and general form of the poem
Shelley was indebted to ^schylus, who in his Prometheus
Bound represented Prometheus (" forethought "), the cham-
pion of mankind, fettered by the tyrant Zeus; and also
wrote a concluding drama now lost, in which Zeus and
Prometheus were reconciled. Shelley, dismissing the idea
of reconciliation, depicts the release and triumph of Prome-
theus, in other words, the emancipation of humanity. For
Prometheus, in Shelley's poem, is the incarnation of the
Human Mind; Asia, his consort, representing ISTature, the
spirit of immortal Love, and Jupiter being the embodiment
of Tyranny and Custom. Prometheus Unbound^ like Hellas,

THE POEMS. 63

is entitled a lyrical drama ; the lyrics in fact are as pro-
minent as the blank verse, and the lack of "dramatic
action " was intentional.

Summary. — In the Preface, Shelley touches on his debt
to ^schylus, his position with regard to his contemporaries,
and his "passion for reforming the world." Act I. Prome-
theus, chained to a precipice of the Indian Caucasus, solilo-
quises on his centuries of suffering, and converses with the
Earth, his mother. Mercury, Jove's herald (the spirit of
compromise), then brings the Furies (demons of doubt and
remorse) to torture Prometheus; who is comforted by the
two sisters of Asia, the nymphs Panthea and lone (faith
and hope ?), and by the songs of the spirits of the human
mind sent up by the Earth. Act II. describes the journey
of Asia with Panthea, who acts as the messenger of love
between Prometheus and his consort, from a lonely vale in
the Caucasus (scene i.), through forests and rocky heights
(scenes ii., iii.), to the cave of Demogorgon (Eternity; the
stern justice which awaits tyranny). There she inquires
when the time of liberation shall come, and sees the vision
of the Hours (scene iv.). Thence they ascend to a mountain
top where a voice is heard (that of Prometheus?) singing
the hymn of the genius of humanity to the spirit of nature,
to which Asia replies in another song. Act III. Jupiter,
exulting on his throne in heaven, is confronted by Demo-
gorgon, who arrives in the Car of the Hour and summons
him to the abyss (scene i.). Apollo relates Jove's fall to
Neptune (scene ii.). Hercules unbinds Prometheus, who is
united to Asia. The " Spirit of the Hour " receives a
mystic shell, from which is to be breathed the trumpet-
blast of freedom. Then follow the speeches of tlie renovated
Earth (scene iii.) ; the Spirit of the Earth (distinct from the
Earth herself); and the Spirit of the Hour, who describes
how the fall of tyranny everywhere resulted from the sound
of the shell. (Here the poem ended in Shelley's first plan.)
Act IV. is chiefly lyrical, " the choral song of the regenerated

64 SHELLEY PRIMER.

universe." Panthea and lone listen to spirit songs, and
then see a vision of the chariots of the moon (feminine
grace), and the Spirit of the Earth (masculine energy), who
sing to each other in alternate strains. The poem closes
with the solemn words of Demogorgon.

Prometheus Unbound is Shelley's greatest and most
characteristic work; he himself considered it his master-
piece, though he foresaw that it could not he popular. The
Myth, for such it is, is cast in a colossal mould, and resembles
the mysterious conceptions of Blake; yet the meaning is
clear enough in outline, if not in every detail. The principle
that underlies it is that evil is accidental to man's nature
and not inherent in it, and that the world may he regene-
rated by the power of love. Shelley thus put a new and
deeper meaning into the framework of the old Greek legend.
The first union of Prometheus and Asia, which is under-
stood to have existed before Jove's . tyranny began, is the
Saturnian Age of primitive innocence and natural simplicity ;
then follows the dominion of the usurper, when man is
separated from nature ; lastly, by the release of Prometheus,
and his final union with Asia, is inaugurated the perfect
age of mature w^isdom and natural love. Prometheus Un-
hound is the poem of liberated liumanity; the supreme
expression of the great humanitarian movement of this
century. It is for this reason that the conception of the
Titan Prometheus is loftier than that of Milton's Satan, or
any of the other titanic creations of poets and myth-writers.
The character of Job is perhaps the one with which Prome-
theus may be most fitly compared.

The Italian influence is very perceptible in Prometheus
Unhomid in the calmer and stronger tone inspired by climate
and surroundings. The mind is directed to the worship of
ideal beauty, rather than to the denunciation of existing
wrongs. There is a corresponding increase in poetical
strength, the majestic melody of the blank verse being
only surpassed by the sweetness of the lyrics, which reach

THE POEMS, 6$

their crowning excellence in the chorus at the end of Ad I.,
the two songs at the end of Act II. y and the spirit voices of
Act IV. The hymn to the spirit of nature ("Life of
Life ") is the most impassioned of all Shelley's poems. The
chief fault of Prometheus Unbound is that Shelley was
occasionally led by his subtle metaphysical fancies to over-
ingenious conceptions — as in the case of the " phantasm of
Jupiter" in the opening act (comp. Mahmud's "Phantom"
in Hellas), nor has he always succeeded in making the
titanic dignity of the characters quite harmonise with their
quasi-human relationship.

(9.) The Sensitive Plant was written at Pisa, in winter,
early in 1820, and published with Prometheus Unbound the
same year. The idea is said to have been suggested by the
numerous flowers in Mrs. Shelley's drawing-room at Pisa;
but we naturally recall to mind the account in Hogg's Life
of Shelley (vol. i., p. 117) of Shelley and Hogg discovering a
secluded flower-garden in one of their country rambles at
Oxford, and Shelley's rhapsody about the imaginary Lady
of the garden. In a letter of 1822, Shelley says that Jane
Williams was "the exact antitype of the Lady," although
the story was written before he knew her. The reference
to flowers and plants during the residence at Pisa are
numerous (cf. The Question, The Zucca, the gourd-boats
of The Witch of Atlas (stanzas 32, 33), and Fragments of an
Unfinished Drama). In a letter of January 1822, Shelley
writes : *' Our windows are full of plants which turn the
sunny winter into spring."

Summary. — Part I. describes the garden in spring-time,
the various flowers, and the Sensitive Plant, ever thirst-
ing for absent love. Part II. gives the character of the
Lady of the garden, her tender care of the flowers, and
her death. Part III. The gradual decay of the neglected
garden in autumn and winter; the death of the Sensitive
Plant. In the " Conclusion " we find some striking specula-
tions on death. Are the Sensitive Plant and the Lady in

E

66 SHELLEY PKIMER.

reality dead ? Or may not death itself be a mere illusion,
love and beauty the only true reality ?

The " companionless " Sensitive Plant, with its insatiable
yearning for the ideal Beauty, is a type of the poet, in fact
of Shelley himself (cf. Alastor and JSpipsychidion). The
concluding remarks about death are an instance of Shelley's
leaning to the Berkeleyan philosophy, which regarded the
material universe as only existing by a perception of the
mind, the mind itself being eternal. There are many sug-
gestions in Shelley's works of this unreality of death (comp.
Adonais, "'Tis death is dead, not he," and vide p. 27).

(10.) Letter to Maria Gisbarne, dated July i, but prob-
ably written in June 1 820, at Leghorn. Published in Posthu-
7nous Poems, 1824. The Gisbornes, who were absent on a
journey to England, had lent their house to the Shelleys,
and Shelley wrote the letter in the workshop of Henry
Reveley, an engineer, son of Mrs. Gisborne by a former
marriage. Maria Gisborne was a lady of keen and sensitive
nature, once closely acquainted with Godwin and Mary
Wollstonecraft, and now a cordial friend of the Shelleys.
The letter is written in the poetic-familiar style of Julian
and Maddulo, and is interesting as describing Shelley's way
of life at Leghorn, and enumerating his friends in London.
It should be compared with a prose letter to Mr. and Mrs.
Gisborne written from Pisa on May 26th, 1820, in which
Godwin, Hunt, and Hogg are also m-entioned.

Summary. — Shelley describes Reveley 's workshop, in
which he was writing, overlaid with screws, cones, wheels,
and blocks. On the table is a bowl of quicksilver, with
mathematical instruments, bills, books, and all kinds of
litter, lying about. He expresses hopes of renewed meet-
ings with the Gisbornes, and reminiscences of old pleasures ;
and then proceeds to enumerate the friends they will see in
London, viz., Godwin, Coleridge (vide p. 80, Shelley did not
himself know Coleridge), Leigh Hunt, Hogg, Peacock, and
Horace Smith {vide pp. 21, 22). He concludes by contrasting

THE POEMS. (i-j

London and Italy, and urges that they must pass next
winter with him.

(ii.) Tlie Witch of Atlas was written in August 1820, at
the Baths of San Giuliano, near Pisa, in the three days im-
mediately following a solitary excursion to Monte San Pelle-
grino. It was sent to London, but not published till the
Posthumous Poems appeared in 1824. The idea was probably
suggested by the Homeric Hymn to Mercury which Shelley
had just translated {vide p. 98), for the elfish nature of the
Witch is very like that of Mercury, to whom indeed she is
related by birth as well as character, both being grand-
children of Atlas. Both poems have the same metre, ottava
rima, and are written in the same fantastic tone ; there is
also a striking resemblance between the opening passages.
This subtle Mercurial character had doubtless a sympathetic
attraction for Shelley, who used to be told by Leigh Hunt
that "he had come from the planet Mercury" (cf. the
remarks on the bowl of quicksilver, "that dew which the
gnomes drink," in Letter to Maria Gishorne). But here
again, as in the Myth of Prometheus, Shelley breathed a
new spirit into the old Classical form. His " lady witch "
is the incarnation of ideal beauty, and, like the fairy Mab,
the patroness of free thought and free love among mankind.
The Witch of Atlas is perhaps the most impalpable of all
Shelley's poems, and by its very nature baffles criticism and
explanation.

Summary. — In the Dedication To Mary Shelley playfully
alludes to her being "critic-bitten," she having objected to
his "visionary rhyme," because it lacked human interest.
The opening stanzas describe the birth of the lady witch,
and how she was visited by " all living things " — wild beasts,
fawns, nymphs, Pan, Priapus, centaurs, satyrs, and shep-
herds. Then we read of her dwelling on Mount Atlas, with
its stores of treasures, visions, odours, scrolls, chalices, and
spices ; her magic boat, scooped out of a gourd (comp. a
similar idea in the Fragments of an Unfinished Drama) ;

68 SHELLEY PRIMER.

her attendant creature, " Hermaphroditus ; " her voyages to
the "Austral lake," "Old Kilus," and cloud-land; her
pranks and visits to mortals (comp. Queen Mob) ; lastly, her
beneficence, especially to poets and lovers.

(i2.) Epijpsychidion ; Verses addressed to tlie nolle and

unfortunate Lady Emilia V , now imprisoned in the

Convent of , was written at Pisa in 182 1, probably early

in the year, and published anonymously in 182 1, for "the
esoteric few" who were likely to appreciate it {vide p. 120).
The meaning of the title is " a poem on the soul " (Psyche) ;
the lady to whom this poem was addressed was Emilia
Viviani, who was shut up by her father, an Italian count,
in the convent of St. Anne, Pisa, where the Shelley s made
her acquaintance and befriended her. The subject of
Epipsycliidion, which was inspired by the Vita Nuova of
Dante, is the ideal love, here identified with Shelley's spiritual
affection for Emilia ; he also gives us " an idealised history "
of his own life and feelings. The poem is attributed in the
" Advertisement " to a writer who died at Florence.

Summary. — Epipsychidion begins with an invocation of
Emilia, which rises higher and higher in successive grada-
tions of passionate appeal. In a famous passage, which
recalls Queen Mah and its Notes, the difference between
true love and the matrimonial bondage is insisted on. Then
the poet relates his own career ; how in his search for the
ideal, he found in her stead the earthly love, " one whose
voice was venomed agony." (His first marriage is prob-
ably alluded to.) While he rashly sought "the shadow" in
many mortal forms (the personal allusions are here too ob-
scure for satisfactory explanation), deliverance at last shines
on him in a moon-like shape (Mary Godwin), the reflection
of the true ideal light. After more storms, the vision of
the Sun (Emilia) rises on him, in which he recognises the
real object of his search. Henceforth he will live under the
alternate empire of Sun and Moon. Finally, he summons
Emilia to sail with him to an Ionian isle, which is described

THE POEMS. 69

at some length (comp. the closing passage of Lines icritten
among the Euganean Hills). At the end of EpipsycMdion are
subjoined thirteen lines in which the poet bids his verses go
forth to the initiated few who will appreciate them. Among
these are " Marina " (Mrs. Shelley), " Vanna " (diminutive
for Giovanna, Jane Williams), and " Primus " (Edward
Williams ?).

In EpipsycMdion we have Shelley's fullest, though not
most consistent, development of his doctrine of love, based
on Plato's Symposium and Dante's Vita Nuova. In this
respect EpipsycMdion is closely akin to Alastor, Hymn to
Intellectual Beauty, and Prince Athanase ; though it should
be noticed that in identifying Emilia with the spirit of love,
he was confusing the actual with the ideal, and so trans-
gressing his own Platonic doctrine as stated in The Zucca.
In the autobiographical passages of EpipsycMdion there is
much resemblance to the story of the Maniac in Julian and
Maddalo, the obscurity of the personal allusions being the
chief poetical flaw in both cases. EpipsycMdion has always
been the despair of the critics ; it is a rhapsody which only
the sympathetic will understand, and Shelley was well
aware of this himself, as appears from his " Advertisement,"
the instructions sent to his publisher, and letters to friends.
As regards the beauty of the heroic verse in which Ejnpsy-
chidion is written, there can be little difference of opinion ;
to find anything comparable to it, we must go back to
Marlowe's Hero and Leander.

The fullest account of Emilia Viviani is that given by
Medwin {Life of Shelley, vol. ii.), and quoted in the appen-
dix to Eorman's edition. Emilia is stated to have been
married to a husband whom she did not love, and to have
died six years later ; but there is some reason for doubting
Medwin's correctness on the latter point. Shelley's lines
To E V (182 1) should be read with EpipsycM-
dion; vide also Fiordispina. There are some interesting
fragments and cancelled passages of EpipsycMdion.

70 SHELLEY PRIMER.

(13.) Adonais, an Elegy on the Death of John Keats, was
written and printed at Pisa about June 1821, copies being
sent to London for publication the same' year {vide p. 120).
Keats, of whom Shelley was a friend and correspondent,
had died at Rome, February 23, 182 1, and Shelley, as his
Preface shows, shared the common but erroneous belief that
his death was caused by the savage criticism of the Quarterly
Revieio. The name Adonais, here given to Keats, was
doubtless suggested by Bion's dirge for Adonis, of which
Adonais is the Doric form.

Summary. — The Muse, Urania, is bidden lament for
Adonais, her youngest poet, as she wept before for Milton,
now "the third among the sons of light." (Homer and
Dante are probably alluded to as the first and second, vide
A Defence of Poetry, p. no.) The dreams and fancies of
Adonais are pictured as mourning round his body, while
nature itself weeps in sympathy. Urania speeds to the
death-chamber, and utters her lamentation ; then come the
" mountain shepherds," the " pilgrim of eternity " (Byron),
lerne's lyrist (Moore), the frail Form, "a phantom among
men" (Shelley), and the "gentlest of the wise" (probably
Leigh Hunt). The poet, after briefly lashing the anonymous
writer of the review, then turns to the subject of im-
mortality. Adonais is not dead, but absorbed into the
loveliness of nature ; for the world's luminaries, such as
Chatterton, Sidney, Lucan, may be eclipsed, but cannot be
extinguished. Rome, where Adonais lies, is the subject of
the concluding stanzas ; the English burying-place under the
pyramid of Cestius is alluded to (comp. the prose description
in the letter to Peacock from Naples, December 22, 18 18),
and by a strange prescience Shelley speaks of himself as
about to follow Adonais.

In Adonais Shelley again makes use of a classical model ;
this time taking as a framework the style of those Greek
idyllic writers, whose poetry he describes in his Defence of
Poetry as "intensely melodious," though "with an excess of

THE POEMS. 71

sweetness." His intimacy with Bion and Moschus is shown
by some of his translations {vide p. 99). In the first part of
the poem this classical influence is as clearly traced as in
Milton's LycidaSj to which Adonais has many points of
resemblance ; but Shelley is more successful in avoiding the
confusion of ancient with modern ideas ; there are no fauns
and satyrs in his elegy, but all is transformed by modern
thought and poetical mysticism. In the second part he
breaks away from his originals, to treat of the subject of
death and immortality, his utterances in Adanais being the
most positive indications he gives of a belief in a future life
{vide p. 27). The personal forebodings of death in the last
stanzas are one of those strange occurrences of wliich there
are several instances in Shelley's life {vide p. 16). His friend-
ship and admiration for Keats, though very cordial and
sincere, as is shown by several of his letters, especially that
to the editor of the Quarterly Mevieiv (1820)., would hardly
of themselves have made him long to rejoin his lost friend ;
but it must be remembered that his feelings towards Keats
are idealised in Adonais, as was his love for Emilia in Upi-
psychidion. As regards style and workmanship^ Adonais is
generally considered, as Shelley himself belie.ved it, the
most perfect of his longer poems. The Spenserian metre
is used with more finish and mastery than in Laon and
Cythna; but through his adhesion to a classical model, we
perhaps miss some of the charm of his wild originality and
lyric rapture.

(14.) Hellas, a Lyrical Drama, written at Pisa in the
autumn of 1 821, and published early the next year (wc?e p. 120),
was the last poem given to the world in Shelley's lifetime.
It is a tribute to the Greek nation, inspired by the enthu-
siasm Shelley felt on hearing of the proclamation of Greek
independence (182 1), and in its general form is based on the
PerscB of ^schylus, which was a triumph-song over the
defeat of the Persians at Salamis. Hellas, which describes
in sanguine anticipation the fall of the Moslem empire and

72 SHELLEY PRIMER.

the freedom of Greece (a vision realised in part by the battle
of Navarino, 1827), is lyrical rather than dramatic, and
cannot be classed with precision \Aath any of the other
poems, being, as Shelley himself wrote of it, "a sort of
lyrical, dramatic, nondescript piece of business." Though
professing to deal with contemporary events, it is, in the
main, ideal, being a poetic description of the world's passion
for liberty; herein resembling Laon and Cytlina^ and the
more so since in both poems the scene is laid in the " Golden
City " and the Levant. The Dedication to Prince Mavro-
cordato, who first brought Shelley the news of the insurrec-
tion, is dated November i, 1821. In his Preface, Shelley
insists on the world's debt to Greece, and points out the
true policy of England. The title Hellas was suggested by
Edward Williams.

Summary. — The scene is Constantinople. A chorus of
Greek captives sing of the hopes of freedom, while the
Sultan (Mahmud IL, who reigned 1 808-1 839) sleeps and
dreams of danger. He wakes in sudden alarm, and learns
from Hassan of a Jew, Ahasuerus {vide p. 42), a wizard and
interpreter of dreams, who has been summoned for consulta-
tion. Presently Daood brings news that the Janizaries are
in revolt, and to satisfy their demand the Sultan is com-
pelled to devote the treasures of Solyman. He is represented
throughout as foreseeing the ruin of his empire, and his
conversation with Hassan is so contrived as to emphasize
this foreboding. Then messengers arrive in succession with
news of repeated disasters. Lastly Ahasuerus enables Mah-
mud to see visions of the past, and also to divine the
impending ruin by raising his own " imperial shadow " from
the phantom-world (comp. the "Phantasm of Jupiter," in
Prometheus Unbound).

Of the sublime choric songs with which Hellas is inter-
spersed three are especially noteworthy, viz., those commenc-
ing *'In the great morning of the world," "Worlds on
worlds are rolling ever," and the concluding chorus " The

THE POEMS. 73

world's great age begins anew," which may be compared
with Byron's Isles of Greece. The second illustrates Shelley's
attitude towards Christianity, a subject treated more fully
in his Notes to Hellas. As in The Cenei he represents reli-
gion not from his own standpoint but from that of a Catholic
country, so in Hellas he recognises the fact that Christianity
compared with other religions may possess a relative if not
an absolute truth (vide p. 28). In a striking fragment, en-
titled Prologue to Hellas^ probably part of an earlier sketch
(Forman's edition, iv, 94), Christ, Satan, and Mahomet are
represented as contending before the throne of God for the
possession of Greece, Christ being the champion of liberty
and civilisation.

(15.) The Triumph of Life was written at Lerici on the
Gulf of Spezzia in the spring and early summer of 1822 and
published in Posthumous Poems, 1824. It was the last of
Shelley's great works, a fragment in terza rima. The sub-
ject, as indicated by the title, is the triumphal procession of
the powers of Life, dragging captive the spirit of Man ; but
we can only guess at what the full poem would have been
from the majestic proportions of the fragment. It was com-
posed by Shelley as he sailed along the Italian coast in his
yacht, the "Ariel," under the blaze of the summer sun, or as
he sat floating in a little " shallop " on the moonlit waves ;
and these influences have left a strong mark on the rhythm
and imagery. Dante and Petrarch are the poets to whom
Shelley was here most indebted.

Summary. — The opening of the poem is similar in form
to that of Laon and Cythna, Ode to Liberty, and Ode to
Naples, and describes a trance that fell on the poet at sun-
rise (the sun is possibly meant to be a type of the ideal, as
the moon of actual life, cf. Epipsychidion). The vision is
then described. The poet sees an onward-streaming multi-
tude accompanying a moon-like chariot in which sits a gloomy
shape (Life ; the actual, as opposed to the spiritual). The
chariot is driven by a " Janus-visaged shadow" (Destiny;

74 SHELLEY PKIMER.

or human reason (?) ), while round and behind it troop the
captive multitudes. A voice from the wayside proves to be
that of Eousseau, who appears in strangely distorted shape,
and his conversation with Shelley continues to the end of
the fragment. He points out other captives, Napoleon,
Voltaire, Plato, "the tutor and his pupil" (Aristotle and
Alexander), Bacon, and a company of other great men. His
own story is then given ; which resembles parts of Ejoipsy-
chidion and Julian and Maddalo. He relates how he awoke
to "the young year's dawn," and how a temptress, "a shape
all light," gave him the cup which betrayed him from the
ideal to the actual, and made him a victim of life's pageant.
The fragment ends with Shelley's question, " Then what is
Lifer'

The Triumph of Life may be compared with Tennyson's
Vision of Sin. That, so far as it goes, it was written in no
hopeful tone is clear from even Plato being classed among
the misguided captives ; but it is possible that the poem, if
completed, would have dealt with the liberating power of
Love. As it stands there is much in it that is mysterious
and obscure. The long line and mazy dance of the visionary
multitude is wonderfully expressed in the continuous rhythm
of the terza rima.

11. Dramas.

(i.) The Cenci was begun at Rome, May 14, 18 19, the
dedication to Leigh Hunt being dated May 29; but it was
not finished till about the middle of August, the greater
part being written at Leghorn in a small roofed terrace at
the top of the Villa Valsovano. It was printed at Leghorn
in 181 9, and published in England in the spring of .1820;
a second edition followed in 182 1, a proof of popularity
which none of Shelley's other poems achieved. It was
Shelley's desire that The Cenci should be acted at Covent
Garden, with Miss O'Neil as Beatrice ; but this was
declined by the manager of the theatre on account of the

THE POEMS. 75

nature of tlie play. Shelley derived the material of the
tragedy from an old manuscript which came into his hands
in Italy ; his enthusiasm was roused by Guido's picture of
Beatrice and the national interest which the story had
excited ; and he was thus induced by Mrs. Shelley to write
a drama on the subject, in spite of his deficiency, real or
fancied, in dramatic talent. His remarks on the manuscript
account, which he wished to prefix to his play, and the
proper method of treating it dramatically, may be seen in his
Preface. The actual date of the events alluded to was 1599,
in the Pontificate of Clement YIII. ; but the latest historical
investigations tend to take away much of the romantic ele-
ment of the story.

The interest of The Cenci centres almost exclusively on
the two chief characters, which it happened were such as
Shelley was well qualified to draw. Count Cenci is the
embodiment of a long life spent in tyranny and crime, which
have been fostered by success till they amount almost to
madness. His cruel and restless spirit still craves new
victims on whom to wreak its fury ; hence he conceives the
idea of inflicting a crowning outrage on his daughter Beatrice,
while co-existing with this diabolic wickedness is a firm faith
in religion, and a superstitious disposition to see in every-
thing the direct agency of God's providence. The character
of Beatrice is a mixture of womanly gentleness and unfalter-
ing courage; the crimes and miseries with which the cir-
cumstances of her life have encircled her are quite external
to her true nature. She errs in seeking revenge for the
wrong her father inflicts on her ; but it is precisely in this
error that the dramatic interest of her position consists. The
weakness of the other characters, whether intentional or not
on Shelley's part, serves to throw those of Count Cenci and
Beatrice into stronger relief ; though it is to be regretted
that Orsino, the crafty priest, was not more powerfully
delineated.

Summary. — The play falls naturally into two parts, Count

76 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Cenci being the prominent character in the first, Beatrice in
the second. The first three acts, in which the scene is laid
at Kome, exhibit Cenci at the height of his monstrous career
of wickedness, now rapidly approaching its close. In the
banquet scene (act i. sc. 3) we see him exulting over the
death of his sons, and then planning worse outrage against
his daughter. This drives his family in desperation to devise
the plot against his life, in which they are aided by the
double-dealing Orsino, who himself has crafty designs on
Beatrice. The fourth act opens at the Castle of Petrella,
Cenci's stronghold in the Apulian Apennines ; but after the
first scene, which describes his summons to Beatrice, and the
curse pronounced on her when she refuses to obey, Cenci
does not again appear on the stage, and our whole attention
is henceforth riveted on Beatrice. The murder scene is
immediately followed by the arrival of the Pope's Legate
with a warrant for Cenci's death ; but that just punishment
has been anticipated by the lawless vengeance of his family,
on whom suspicion at once falls. The last act, where the
scene is again at Rome, is occupied with Beatrice's splendid
though paradoxical denial of the charge of parricide. Her
intrepid spirit rises higher and higher, as the toils close
around her in hall of justice and prison cell, while her
tenderness and gentle pity for her mother and brother are
equally conspicuous. As the darkness of hatred and horror
broods over the earlier parts of The Cenci, so the closing
scenes are illuminated by the glory of love.

Shelley's chief deviation from the manuscript account con-
sists in making the detection of Count Cenci's murder follow
immediately on the crime, instead of six months later; he
also touches more lightly and delicately on the darker details
of the story. The (Edipus Tyrayinus of Sophocles was
doubtless in his mind when dealing with a subject so full of
horror ; there are also many passages suggestive of the in-
fluence of Ford and Webster, the determination of Beatrice
not to confess the murder resembling that of Vittoria Corom-

THE POEMS. 'j'j

bona in The WJiite Devil. Unconscious plagiarisms from
Shakspere are numerous in The Cenci {vide p. 45) ; the
most obvious being that from Macbeth in the murder scene.
In spite of these obligations The Cenci is by far the grandest
and most original English drama produced since the Eliza-
bethan period. In this poem Shelley deliberately curtailed
the profusion of poetical imagery with which his lyrics
abound ; the blank verse is direct and concentrated, and
there can be no possible suggestion of a 'lack of human
interest.' It has remained for the Shelley Society to carry
out the wish of the poet by the performance of The Cenci^
May 7, 1886, sixty-seven years after it was written. The
subject of the Cenci trial is treated of in Landor's Five
Scenes, and alluded to in Browning's Oenciaja. Count
Cenci's character has been compared with that of Guido
Eranceschini in The Ring and the Booh.

(2.) Charles the First, a fragment, was written in the winter
of 1821-22, at Pisa. Part of it was published in the
Posthumous Poems, 1824, and the rest added by Mr. Rossetti
in his edition of 1870. Shelley had for some time meditated
a drama on this subject ; but when he began to write it his
progress was slow, and he finally abandoned it in favour of
The Triumph of Life, his dislike of history being probably
the chief cause of the failure. Yet, as far as it goes, Charles
the First is a striking and powerful attempt. In scene i. the
murmuring of the discontented citizens as they watch the
Queen's masque passing through the streets forebodes the
troubles that are to come. Scene ii. shows us the King,
amiable by nature, but the slave of circumstances, urged into
tyrannous courses by the ambition of the Queen, the bigotry
of Laud, and the cunning of Strafford. Archy, the Eool (an
imitation of the Fool in King Lear), is alone wise enough to
foresee the gathering storm. The three remaining scenes are
quite fragmentary, but Hampden's tribute to America (scene
iv.) and Archy's song (" A Widow-bird," scene 5) are specially
noteworthy. SheUey speaks severely of the character of

78 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Charles in his Philosophical View of Reform, but he was
careful to repress his party spirit in the drama.

(3.) Fragments of an Unfinished Drama, written at Pisa,
probably in the spring of 1822. The opening portions were
published in the Posthumous Poems, 1824, and the rest added
in Garnett's Belies of Shelley, 1862 (under the title of 21ie
Magic Plant), and Eossetti's edition of 1870. The intended
plot of the fragment, which was written to amuse Shelley's
circle of friends at Pisa, is explained in Mrs. Shelley's Notes.
In the first short fragment an enchantress living in an isle of
the Indian Archipelago laments the departure of a Pirate,
whose life she had saved ; and summons a Spirit for the
purpose of luring him back to her. The Spirit's speech is
the most striking instance of unconscious 'plagiarism in all
Shelley's writings, being almost a reproduction of the opening
lines of Milton's Comus. The second fragment is a conversa-
tion between an Indian Youth and a Lady. The Lady is in
quest of her lover, the Pirate, and has met the Indian Youth
on the island, his love for her being returned by sympathy and
the affection of a sister. She tells him how she was brought
to the island by a "magic plant" (comp. Witch of Atlas, 32,
33, and The Zucca, and vide p. 65). These fragments are
rather a playful effort of the fancy than a serious dramatic
attempt. Trelawny is evidently alluded to in the Pirate "of
savage but noble nature ; " while Shelley and Jane Williams
are perhaps the originals of the Youth and the Lady. There
is an entry in Edward Williams' Diary for April 10, 1822,
which seems to refer to the composition of this fragment.

The Scene from Tasso {Relics of Shelley, 1862) and Song
for Tasso (Posthumous Poems, 1824) were written in 18 18,
when Shelley was meditating a tragedy on the subject of
Tasso's madness, a plan which was perhaps given up on the
appearance of Byron's Lament of Tasso. Another of Shelley's
schemes was a drama founded on the Book of Job, but no
traces exist of any attempt at this. The so-called Prologue
to Hellas {vide p. 73) is a magnificent dramatic fragment, first

THE POEMS. 79

published in Relics of Shelley, 1862. As regards Shelley's
dramatic powers, vide p. 38.

III. Shorter Poems. Lyrics, Odes, Songs, &c., in Chrono-
logical Order.

Original Poetry, hy Victor and Cazire, was published, 18 10,
by Stockdale, but withdrawn on his discovering that some
of the poetry was not original. It was a joint composition ;
Shelley being "Victor," with Harriet Grove, or Shelley's
sister Elizabeth, or his friend Graham, as " Cazire." The
poem is now missing.

Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, published
at Oxford in 18 10, was a semi-burlesque volume in which
Hogg had some part, the poems being attributed to a mad
washerwoman who had attempted the life of George III.
According to Hogg's account the hoax was successful, and
the book had some circulation at Oxford, but the truth of
this cannot be relied on.

The Wandering Jeio, written, according to Medwin, about
181 1, dealt at considerable length with a subject which
made a great impression on Shelley's mind {vide p. 42).
It was not published by Shelley, but four cantos appeared
in Fraser's Magazine, July 1831, which Medwin asserted
to be only a portion of the poem, viz., that which he himself
had contributed to a joint composition. It was therefore
supposed that Shelley's portion had been lost; but it is now
thought probable that the poem was complete in the four
cantos, and that Medwin's share in the writing was very
small. (Of. new edition of The Wandering Jew, with Notes
by B. Dobell. Shelley Society's Publications.)

1812-1815. — The Devil's Walk, printed and distributed by
Shelley in 1 8 1 2, was founded on the poem by Southey and Cole-
ridge of the same title. It was distributed, together with the
Declaration of Rights, by Shelley's servant, Daniel Hill, who
was for that reason arrested at Barnstaple in August 181 2.

Stanzas, April 1814, published with Alastor, 18 16.

8o SHELLEY PKIMER.

("Away! the moor is dark beneath the moon.") These
lines were written in reference to Shelley's leaving Mrs.
Boinville's house at Bracknell to return to his unhappy life
with Harriet.

To Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (''Mine eyes w^ere dim"),
written June 1814, and published in Posthumous Poems.
Previous to Rossetti's edition, 1870, this poem was wrongly
dated 182 1, under the title To . In reality it is an ex-
pression of Shelley's feelings a few weeks before his separa-
tion from Harriet.

To ("Oh there are spirits in the air"), published

with Alastor, 1 8 1 6, with a quotation prefixed from Euripides
(Hippolytus, 1 143). The lines are addressed to Coleridge,
whose change of opinions and consequent unhappiness are
deplored. Shelley did not know Coleridge personally, but
alludes to him in the Letter to Maria Gislorne, and Peter
Bell, part 5, stanzas 1-5.

A Summer-Evening Churcliyard, LecUdale, Gloucestershire.
These lines, which are pervaded by the melancholy tone
common to all the poems published with Alastor, 181 6, were
written during Shelley's boating excursion to visit the source
of the Thames, in the autumn of 18 15.

Mutability. Published with Alastor, 1816. There is
another poem of the same title, written in 182 1. Shelley's
mobile and changeful temperament made him an apt disciple
of the doctrine of Heraclitus, viz., that "restless movement
is the ultimate fact which meets us in every part of the
universe. Such knowledge as shifting senses give of shifting
particulars is not knowledge, but if all things are mutable,
there is a law of mutability which is itself immutable."
Compare his treatment of The Cloud, which changes but
cannot die.

To Wordsworth. A sonnet, published with Alastor.
Shelley, in spite of his admiration for Wordsworth's poetry,
regarded him as " a lost leader." " That such a man should
be such a poet ! " he wrote in a letter to Peacock in July,

THE POEMS. 8 1

1818. (Compare also a reference to Wordsworth in the
Remarks on " Mandeville") In Peter Bell (vide p. 93)
Shelley gave full vent to his indignation. This sonnet
bears a striking resemblance to one translated by Shelley
from the Italian in 18 15 {Guido Cavalcante to Dante^
vide p. 99).

1816. — Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, written in Switzer-
land in the summer of 18 16 ; first published in the Examiner
in January 181 7 ; and included in the Rosalind and Helen
volume, 18 19. The idea of the poem, which in some ways
resembles Wordsworth's ode on Litimations of Immortality,
was conceived during Shelley's excursion with Byron on
the Lake of Geneva, when his mind was full of Eousseau.
The Spirit of Beauty to which Shelley appeals, the " unseen
Power," whose visits to mortals are represented as incon-
stant and intermittent, is identical with the ideal Love of
which Asia is the personification in Prometheus Unbound
{vide also Alastor and Epipsychidion). Stanzas 5 and 6 should
be read in connection with stanzas 3-5 of the Dedication
of Laon and Cythna, as they refer to the same intellectual
awakening at Sion House or Eton. There is also an allusion
to this event in Julian and Maddalo, 380-382.

Mont Blanc, Lines written in the Vale of Chamouni,
dated June 23, 1816, published in 181 7 with the History of a
Six Weeks' Tour (vide p. 119), and reprinted with Posthumous
Poems. It was inspired by the view from the Bridge of
Arve, and, as Shelley tells us in his Preface to the Six JFeeks'
Tour, is " an attempt to imitate the untameable wildness " of
the scenes among which it was written. Mont Blanc is
regarded as typical of the power and majesty of nature ;
while in the first and last stanzas we see traces of Shelley's
Berkeleyan philosophy ; even the Alps cannot exist indepen-
dently of human thought.

1817. — Marianne's Dream, written at Marlow, 181 7, and
first published in Leigh Hunt's Literary Pocket Book for
1 8 19; then with Posthumous Poems. Marianne was the

F

82 SHELLEY PRIMER.

name of Mrs. Leigh Hunt, wlio related to Slielley tlie dream
here descrihed.

To JFUliam Shelley. These lines, published by Mrs.
Shelley in 1839, were written in 181 7, after the decision of
the Chancery suit, under the idea that an attempt would be
made to take away all Shelley's children. William, his
eldest son by the second marriage, was born January 24,
18 16. Comp. the two fragments written after his death
(p. 84). The fourth stanza of this poem reappears in
Rosalind and Helen.

To Gonstantia, Singing, published in Posthumous Poems,
1824. The lines were probably meant for Miss Clairmont.
The name Gonstantia was that of the heroine of a novel,
Ormond, which Shelley admired. There is a fragment To
Gonstantia, also written in 18 17.

Ozymandias, the finest of Shelley's sonnets, was published
with Rosalind and Helen, 18 19, and has been wrongly sup-
posed to be the one written by Shelley in competition with
Keats and Leigh Hunt. The sonnet-laws are here violated
by the rhymes of the octave and sextell being interwoven.
Ozymandias, or Kameses II., the Pharaoh of the oppression,
reigned over Egypt about B.C. 1322, and is supposed to be
the Sesostris of Greek legend. The fragments of his colossal
statue lie near Thebes, with the inscription, " I am Ozyman-
dias, king of kings. If you would know how great I am,
and where I lie, surpass my works."

Lines to a Gritic, published in The Liberal, 1823, and
Posthumous Poems, 1824, should be compared with Lines to
a Revieiver, 1820, as illustrative of Shelley's quiet and tolerant
attitude towards hostile criticism. In a letter of 1822 he
wrote, " The man must be enviably happy whom reviews
can make miserable. I have neither curiosity, interest, pain,
nor pleasure in anything, good or evil, they can say of me."

Lines ("That time is dead for ever, child") dated by Mrs.
Shelley, November 5, 181 7. Harriet's suicide, which seems
to be referred to, took place about November 9, 1816.

THE POEMS. 83

On F. 6*., written 181 7, published in edition of 1839.
Fanny Godwin, Mary Godwin's half-sister, committed suicide
October 9, 18 16.

1818. — Sonnet to tJie Nile, written early in 181 8, before
Shelley left England, and first published among Shelley's
works in Forman's edition, 1877. This, and not Ozyrnandias,
was probably the sonnet written in friendly competition
with Keats and Leigh Hunt. It is as distinctly the least
successful of the three as Hunt's is the best.

The Woodman and the Nightingale, a fragmentary poem,
in terza rima; written at Naples in the winter of 1818 ; pub-
lished in Posthumous Poems in 1824. The nightingale is
the type of love ; the rough woodman represents the hard
hearts who expel it.

Maj-enghi {Mazenghi in edition of 1839) was written at
Kaples, December 18 18. Some of it appeared in Posthumous
Poems, 1824; the rest was added in Rossetti's edition, 1870.
It is a fragment of a narrative poem in six-line stanzas, de-
scribing the conquest of Pisa by Florence, and the exploits of
Marenghi, an exiled Florentine. The materials are drawn
from Sismondi's Histoire des R'epuUiques Italiennes.

Stanzas, written in dejection, near Naples, published in
Posthumous Poems, 1824, dated December, 18 18. The
winter spent by Shelley at Naples, a time of depression and ill-
health, left its mark on the poems then written — the desj^ond-
ent tone of which recalls that of Alaslor. Medwin asserts
that Shelley's dejection was caused by the death of the myste-
rious lady who was said to have followed him to Naples.

Song on a Faded Violet, published in Posthumous Poems,
1824, and classed by Mrs. Shelley with poems of 1818.

Sonnet (" Lift not the painted veil ") published in Post-
humous Poems, 1824, is interesting as containing a sketch of
Shelley's own character, and his yearning after the spirit of
love. It should be compared with the prose fragment On
Love. In this so-called sonnet the sextell is found to pre-
cede the octave instead of following it.

84 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Invocation to Misery was published in Tlie AtJiencewn,
1832, The Shelley Papers, 1833, and under title of Misery
— a Fragment, in the edition of 1839.

1819. — The Indian Serenade, first published in The
Liheral, 1822. In the Posthumous Poems and edition of
1839 i^ "^^s headed Lines to an Indian Air, and dated 182 1.
It has now been traced back at least to 18 19, which dis-
proves the tradition that Shelley first wrote the lines for an
air brought from India by Jane Williams, though he doubt-
less rewrote them for her. Trelawny (i. 159) says Shelley
spoke of having written the lines "long ago," and in-
tended to improve them. There are several variations in
the text.

To Sophia. These four stanzas, addressed by Shelley to
Miss Sophia Stacey, who was a friend of the Shelleys in
Italy, were first published in Rossetti's edition, 1870.

Lovers Philosophy was published in The Indicator in
December 181 9. In Posthumous Poems it was wrongly
dated 1820. It is inspired by Shelley's doctrine of uni-
versal love, and is apparently modelled on the form of an
ode of Anacreon (xxi.) Whether Shelley was acquainted
with the original Greek, or with the imitations by Ronsard
and Cowley, is a matter of conjecture.

To William Shelley. There are two fragments with this
title; one ("My lost William") written in June 1819, and
published in Posthumous Poems, 1824; the other ("Thy
little footsteps") first published in 1839. William Shelley
died at Rome on June 7th, 18 19, and was buried in the
Protestant cemetery. He is referred to in The Cenci, act v.
scene ii., in the account of Cardinal Camillo's nephew, " that
fair blue-eyed child." Vide the lines To William Shelley,
p. 82.

Ode to Heaven, published with Prometheus Unbound,
1820, is conceived in the lofty spirit of Shelley's Berkeleyan
philosophy ; its subject is the immensity of creation.

An Exhortation, published with Prometheus Unbound,

THE POEMS. 85

1820. It is probably the "little thing about poets" which
Shelley sent to Maria Gisborne, May 8th, 1820.

Ode to the West Wind was written in the autumn of
1 81 9 in the Cascine, "a wood that skirts the Arno, near
Florence " {vide Shelley's Note), and published with Prome-
theus Unbound in 1820. The leading idea of the poem is
the sequence and balance of seasons (comp. the Dirge for
the Year 182 1, and Laon and Cythna, ix. 21); winter is at
hand, yet spring cannot be far behind, a comforting thought
which is applied in the last two stanzas to the genius of the
poet himself. This ode, the most perfectly finished of all
Shelley's lyrics, consists of five stanzas, each of fourteen
lines, with the rhymes arranged after the fashion of the
terza rima rather than the sonnet. The "foliage of the
ocean," mentioned in the third stanza and the note thereon,
is a favourite subject with Shelley, appearing again in The
Recollection^ Ode to Naples, Ode to Liberty, &c.

On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci, in the Florentine
Gallery, written in the autumn of 1 8 1 9, at Florence ; pub-
lished in Posthumous Poems, 1824. This poem, which was
inspired by Shelley's studies in the picture galleries of
Florence {vide p. 113), is full of intensely vivid descriptive
power. Leigh Hunt wrote of it, "The poetry seems, sculp-
tured and grinning, like the subject; the words are cut
with a knife." In this respect it may be compared with
Ozymandias.

For the chief lyrics in Prometheus Unbound, vide p. 65.

1820. — Arethusa is dated Pisa, 1820, and was probably
written early in the year. It was published in Posthumous
Poems, 1824. It is a poetical version of the Greek legend
of the pursuit of the nymph Arethusa by the river god
Alpheus. They start from Peloponnesus, and pass under
the sea to their " Dorian home " in Sicily.

The Cloud, dated 1820 by Mrs. Shelley, was published
with Prometheus Unbound the same year. Its metre is the
same as that of Arethusa, which makes it probable that it

86 SHELLEY PRIMER.

was written at Pisa about the same time. Cloud scenery
had at all times a great attraction for Shelley, and from his
"tower window" at Leghorn he had special opportunities
of watching it. Mrs. Shelley in her Preface speaks of
Shelley " marking the cloud while he floated in his boat on
the Thames," which has suggested the idea that this poem
was written as early as 1818. The sixth stanza of The
Cloud should be compared with a cancelled passage of
Epipsycliidion (Forman's Edition IL, 393).

Ode to a Skylark, written at Leghorn in the summer of
1820, while the Shelleys were staying at the house of the
Gisbornes, and published with Prometheus Unbound the
same year. The idea was conceived during an evening walk
among myrtle hedges, while the skylark was singing over-
head. Here, as in the Ode to the West Wind, Tlie Sensitive
Plant, and many other poems, we note that strong personal
element which led Shelley, like Wordsworth, to draw hope
and comfort for man from the study of nature. Shelley's
ode should be read with Wordsworth's poem To a Skylark,
and Keats' Ode to a Nightingale.

Hymn of Apollo and Hymn of Pan, published in Post-
humous Poems, were written at a friend's request to be
inserted in a drama on the subject of Midas. Apollo and
Pan are supposed to be contending for a prize.

The Question, published in Posthumous Poems, 1824.
The title is explained by the concluding lines of the poem.
It is written in ottava rima, which makes it probable that it
dates from about the same time as the translation of Homer's
Hymn to Mercury and The Witch of Atlas, i.e., the summer
of 1820. Shelley's love of flowers is here exemplified, as in
other poems of his Pisan period (vide TJie Sensitive Plant,
p. 65). It is noticeable that the last line of the first stanza
has one redundant foot. The sixth line of stanza ii. (''Like
a child, half in tenderness and mirth"), omitted in early
editions, was restored by Dr. Garnett in 1870.

Ode to Liberty, written in the earlier half of 1820, and

THE POEMS. 87

published the same year with Prometlieus Unbound. It was
suggested by the insurrection in Spain in 1820, caused by
the tyranny of Ferdinand YII. The ode is an idealised
history of Liberty narrated to the poet by a spiritual " Voice
out of the deep " {vide first and last stanzas), in the same
way as the events in Laon and Cytlina, the Ode to Naples,
and The Triumph of Life are recorded as if seen in a vision.
The progress of Liberty is traced after the first ages of chaos
and tyranny (there is no mention here of a primeval golden
age as in Prometheus Unhound, &c.), in the glories of Athens
and Rome, which are -succeeded by a thousand years of
Christian oppression. At last the spirit of freedom is re-
vived in the Renaissance, and again in the French Revolu-
tion (stanzas 11, 12, where Napoleon is also alluded to).
Then follows an appeal to England, Germany, and Italy.
The free and wise are adjured to banish the names of King
and Priest {King is the word concealed in early editions by
the four asterisks in stanza 1 5 ; not Christ, as some have
supposed), that Science and Art may be unfettered ; but the
true Liberty will ever be accompanied by Wisdom, Love,
and Justice. The Ode to Liberty, in its stately rhythm,
sublime imagery, and passionate worship of true freedom, as
distinct from anarchy, is similar in many points to Coleridge's
Ode to France, which Shelley greatly admired.

Liberty, a short poem of four stanzas, was written the
same year as the ode, and published in Posthumous Poems.

Ode to Naples, published with Posthumous Poems, 1824,
and dated by Mrs. Shelley in her diary August 25, 1820,
was written, like Hellas, at a time of enthusiasm, on hearing
of the insurrection at Naples against the Bourbon dynasty.
In the "introductory Epodes^^ (so called by Shelley, though
JEpode means properly an after-song) he makes use of his
reminiscences of Pompeii and Baiae, where he imagines him-
self inspired by an oracular voice (comp. Ode to Liberty,
stanza i.), to which he gives utterance. In a succession of
strophes and antistrophes he cries "All hail" to Naples,

88 SHELLEY PRIMER.

where the spirit of freedom is abroad. The two last Epodes
contain a description of the march of the " Anarchs of the
North" (comp. Lines written among the Euganean Hills,
where Austria is called the " Celtic Anarch ") to repress the
revolution, and an invocation of the spirit of Love to keep
Naples free.

To ("I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden "), published in

Posthumous Poems, 1824.

Song of Proserpine, first printed in Mrs. Shelley's first
edition, 1839.

Fiordispina, a fragmentary poem, probably written late in
1820, when Shelley became acquainted with Emilia Yiviani.
Part of it was published in Posthumous Poems, under title of
A Fragment (" They were two cousins ") ; the rest was added
in Relics of Shelley, 1862. Some lines originally in Fiordis-
pina were transferred to EpipsycJddion.

Lines to a Reviewer, published in Posthumous Poems
(comp. the Lines to a Critic, p. 82).

Good Night, published in Posthumous Poems, 1824, and
dated 182 1. But there is another version which can be traced
back to 1820. There is also an Italian version, published
by Medwin in 1834, and reproduced in his Life of Shelley.

The World's Wanderers, published in Posthumous Poems,
1824. A fourth stanza, to balance the third, seems to have
been lost.

Sonnet ("Ye hasten to the dead"), published in Posthu-
mous Poems, 1824, illustrates Shelley's state of suspended
judgment on the question of future life.

Autumn: a Dirge, published in Posthumous Poems, 1824.
Comp. the Dirge for the Year (182 1).

1821. — To E V , so headed in Posthumous

Poems, 1824. These lines, addressed to Emilia Yiviani, were
doubtless written early in 182 1 (vide Epipsychidion).

From the Arabic, an Imitation. Posthumous Poems, 1824.
Said by Medwin to be derived from Antar, a Bedoween
Romance.

THE POEMS. 89

To Nightj an invocation of the spirit of night, published
in Posthumous Poems, 1824.

The Fugitives, Posthumous Poems, 1824, deals with a
story like that of Campbell's Lord UllirCs Daughtei', but in a
far more imaginative manner. In the account of the storm
we have doubtless a reminiscence of Shelley's experiences in
his boat.

Ginevra, a fragment in rhyming heroics, written at Pisa,
182 1, and pablished in Posthumous Poems, 1824, was part of
a poem Shelley had in mind, based on a story in a book
called nOsservatore Fiorentino. Ginevra, who has just been
married to Gherardi by her parents' compulsion, meets her
lover Antonio, who upbraids her. The same evening she is
found lifeless. Here Shelley's fragment ends ; but it appears
from the original story that Ginevra was in reality not dead
but in a trance, and that she was subsequently united to her
lover. Leigh Hunt's drama, A Legend of Florence, treats
of the same story, and Shelley's Ginevra is referred to in the
preface.

Tlie Aziola, published in The Keepsake, 1829, and Mrs.
Shelley's edition, 1839. Shelley's joy on discovering that
the Aziola, whose presence was announced, was "a little
downy owl " instead of " some tedious woman," is one in-
stance out of many of his dislike of ordinary " society." He
spoke to Trelawny of the torture of " being bored to death
by idle ladies and gentlemen."

The Boat on the Serchio was mostly published in Post-
humous Poems, 1824, but completed in Eossetti's edition,
1870. Melchior (Williams) and Lionel (Shelley) converse
about their boat on the Serchio, a river to the north of the
Arno, with which it was connected by a canal. In this
poem we have an instance of the great simplicity of treat-
ment that marked Shelley's later style. There is an in-
teresting reference to his schooldays, the only one in which
he directly mentions Eton.

To Edivard Williams. These lines, which were included

90 SHELLEY PRIMER.

in Mrs. Shelley's edition, 1839, headed Stanzas^ had been
publislied in a piratical edition in 1834, and perhaps still
earlier in some periodical. In some editions they are

headed To . They were written by Shelley at Bagni

di Pisa, and sent, with a letter, to his friend Williams,
then staying at Pugnano, a village four miles off. They are
remarkable both for their sadness of tone and the startling
directness of their personal allusions. The mention of " the
serpent " in the first line, recalls the nickname of " the snake "
given by Byron to Shelley. On Shelley's married life with
Mary, vide p. 16.

Rememhrance ("Swifter far than summer's flight"), of
which there are two versions, was headed, in Fosthumous
Poems, A Lameiit. It was one of the songs sent by Shelley
to Jane Williams.

Bridal Song (*' The golden gates of Sleep unbar "), in Post-
Immous Poems, 1824. There are two variations from this
song, one in Medwin's Life of Shelley, and another in a MS.
play by Williams, to which Shelley contributed an Epithala-
mium.

The following lyrics were also written in 1821, and pub-
lished in Fosthumous Poems, 1824: Time ("Unfathomable
sea"); Song ("Earely, rarely, comest thou"); Mutability:
A Lament ("0 World; 0 Life; 0 Time"); Dirge for the
Year ; Evening, Fonte a Mare, Pisa; Music ("I pant for

the music that is divine"); To ("Music, when soft

voices die") ; To (" One word is too often profaned") ;

To (" When passion's trance is overpast "). Several

of the last-mentioned were addressed to Jane Williams.

For chief lyrics in Hellas, vide p. 72.

1822. — The Zucca, a fragment in ottava rima, written at
Pisa, January 22, 1822; published in Posthumous Poems,
1824. It describes how Shelley found a frost-nipt Zucca
(gourd) and revived it in the warmth of his chamber. In
this there is a striking resemblance to the last part of the
Fragments of an Unfinished Drama, written about the same ^

THE POEMS. 91

time. (Comp. also The Witch of Atlas, stanzas 32, 33.)
The opening stanzas of The Zucca contain Shelley's most
direct exposition of his doctrine of ideal love, and furnish a
key to the right understanding of Alastor, Hymn to In-
tellectual Beauty, Epipsychidion, and kindred poems. The
third stanza should he compared with a passage in a letter to
Hogg written as early as 181 1. "Do I love the person, the
embodied identity, if I may be allowed the expression 1 No ;
I love what is superior, what is excellent, or what I conceive
to be so."

The Magnetic Lady to her Patient, first published in Med-
win's Shelley Papers, 1833. The Magnetic Lady is Jane
Williams; the Patient, Shelley. Some light is thrown on
the subject by Med win's Memoir prefixed to Shelley Papers,
from which it appears that Shelley was mesmerised by
Medwin and afterwards by Mrs. Williams (comp. Lines
written in the Bay of Lerici, 15-18). The poem is another
instance of the remarkable directness and simplicity of
Shelley's later lyrics.

To a Lady loith a Guitar, written at Pisa early in 1822.
The second part (lines 42-90) was published in The
Athenceum, 1832, the first part in Fraser, January 1833;
the whole was given in Mrs. Shelley's edition, 1839. The
MS. title is With a Guitar, to Jane. The characters are
borrowed from Shakspere's Tempest. Ariel was already a
nickname for Shelley in his circle of friends at Pisa,
Miranda is Jane, Ferdinand is Edward Williams. Trelawny
accompanied Shelley to Leghorn to purchase the guitar as a
present to Jane, and also gives an account of finding Shelley
writing this poem in the pine forest near Pisa {Records of
Shelley, i. 107).

To Jane: The Invitation, written at Pisa, in February
1822. Part of it was combined with part of The Recollec-
tion in the Posthumous Poems, 1824, headed The Pine
Forest of the Cascine near Pisa; the complete poem not
being published till the second edition of 1839. It is an

92 SHELLEY PRIMER.

invitation to Jane Williams to visit Shelley's favourite
haunts in the neighbourhood of Pisa, the pine forests and
the sandy flats near the sea. Trelawny says of him that
"when compelled to take up his quarters in a town, he
every morning, with the instinct that guides the Avater-birds,
fled to the nearest lake, river, or sea-shore."

To Jane : The Recollection^ was partly given among the
Posthumous Poems ; completed in 1839. In this poem,
which is a sequel to The Invitation^ Shelley describes how he
wandered with Jane Williams through the Pisan pine forests,
of which scenery this is his fullest description. (Comp.

Trelawny's account, vol. i. 102, 104.) By "/S " in the

last line but one Shelley's name was of course intended, now
printed in full in Kossetti's and Forman's editions.

Lines written in the Bay of Lerici, probably written early
in May 1822. The poem remained unknown, till dis-
covered by Dr. Garnett and published by him in Macmillan
and Relics of Shelley, 1862. It is another of the lyrics
inspired by the sympathy of Jane Williams, whose magnetic
influence is referred to in lines 15-18 (comp. The Magnetic
Lady to her Patient). In the closing sentences the scenery
of the Bay of Spezzia is described. Lerici is a town in this
bay, near which was the Casa Magni, Shelley's last dwelling-
place.

To Jane (" The keen stars were twinkling ") was published,
without the first stanza, in Tlie Athenaeum and Shelley
Papers, 1832, and completed in Mrs. Shelley's second edi-
tion, 1839, under title To , with the name Jane omitted

in line 3. The guitar here mentioned is presumably the
one immortalised in To a Lady, with a Guitar.

Lines ("When the lamp is shattered"), another of the
lyrics addressed to Jane, A Dirge ("Rough wind"), and
The Isle were all published with the Posthumous Poems,
1824. The Song ("A widow bird"), published at the same
time, belongs properly to Charles the First, scene 5.

THE POEMS. 93

ly. Satirical and Political Poems.

(i.) Peter Bell the Third was written between May and
November 1819, probably at the Yilla Yalsovano, Leghorn.
It was sent to Leigh Hunt for anonymous publication, but
did not appear till Mrs. Shelley published it in her second
edition of 1839. She describes it in her Note as an ideal
poem, suggested by a critique on Wordsworth's Peter Bell ;
but one cannot doubt that it was also a direct satire on
Wordsworth himself, whom Shelley, in spite of his real
admiration of his poetical genius, regarded as a typical in-
stance of political self-seeking and tergiversation (vide Sonnet
to Wordsworth, 18 16, and dedication of The Witch of Atlas.
Comp. Browning's poem, A Lost Leader). The dulness of
Wordsworth's later writings is also ridiculed in this " long
wild laugh of a young Greek god at the vision of a highly
respectable English Sunday-school teacher toiling up Par-
nassus." Peter Bell the Third purports to be written by
" Miching Mallecho, Esq." {i.e., secret mischief, Hamlet, act
iii. scene 2), and is dedicated to "Thomas Brown, Esq., the
younger, H. F." {i.e., Moore, the poet, who wrote The Fudge
Family under this title. H.F. = Historian of the Fudges (?) )
In the concluding sentence of the Dedication, Macaulay's
famous picture of the New Zealander standing on the ruins
of London Bridge is curiously anticipated. Shelley's poem
is called Peter Bell the Third because it was preceded by
(i) Peter Bell, a Lyrical Ballad, by J. H. Reynolds, a clever
skit on Wordsworth, which appeared between the advertise-
ment and actual publication of the true Peter; (2) Peter
Bell, by Wordsworth himself. This succession of Peters is
alluded to in Shelley's Prologue. Wordsworth's poem left
Peter a reformed character, and Shelley starts from this
point.

Summary. — Part I. Death. Peter, now grown old, falls
sick, and is persuaded by his friends that he is predestined
to damnation. He dies. Part II. The Devil. Peter, now
dead, accepts the livery, and enters the service of the devil

94 SHELLEY PEIMER.

(spirit of selfishness). Part III. Hell. Under this title
London life is described, with its follies, crimes, and injus-
tice. Part IV. Sin. Peter's character rapidly degenerates.
The Prince Eegent is satirised under the character of the
Devil. Part V. Grace. The conversation of "a mighty
poet " (Coleridge) rouses Peter to become an author, and ho
therefore gives warning to his master, the Devil. Part VI.
Damnation. The critics set upon Peter. He finds the
way to appease them is to praise tyranny and write odes
to the devil. Part VII. Double damnation. The Devil
obtains a sinecure for Peter, and himself dies. Peter is now
afflicted with the malady of exceeding dulness, a " drowsy
curse " which infects all about him (comp. the close of Pope's
Dunciad).

On Shelley's satirical powers, vide p. 39.

(2.) The Masque of Anarchy was written at Leghorn or
Florence in the autumn of 18 19, and sent to The Examiner.
Leigh Hunt, however, did not insert it in his paper, but
kept it till 1832, when he published it in a small volume
with a preface of his own dealing with Shelley's political
views. The exact title in Shelley's MS. is The Mash of
Anarchy^ written on the occasion of the massacre at Man-
chester. The massacre alluded to was the affair at " Peterloo "
(a parody on Waterloo) when the soldiers fired on the people
at a Reform meeting held in St. Peter's Field, Manchester,
August 16, 1 8 19 {vide Martineau's History of the Peace,
book i. chaps. 16, 17).

Summary. — The poet, as he lies asleep in Italy, sees a
vision of murder, fraud, and hypocrisy in the forms of
Castlereagh, Eldon, and Sidmouth (vide p. 8), with other
" destructions " passing before him in procession. It is the
masque of Anarchy, who himself rides last. They pass on-
ward in triumph to London, where the maiden, Hope, flings
herself down under their horses' feet, but is saved by an appa-
rition of Liberty. Then are heard the solemn " words of joy
and fear," which take up the rest of the poem. The voice of

THE POEMS. 95

Earth calls on Englishmen to rise, reminding them that they
are many, and their oppressors few ; that the true slavery
is poverty, and the true freedom is plenty. Let a great
assembly of Englishmen be called to demand their rights,
without violence, but with passive and resolute protest.

Shelley's treatment of the subject is partly ideal, but the
personal allusions are easily distinguishable through the alle-
gorical veil (cf. the reference to the Chancery suit in stanzas
4, 5). The poem has been compared to Langland's vision of
Piers Plowman, while in style there is certainly considerable
resemblance to Blake. One of its strongest features is the
markedly socialistic tone.

(3.) CEdipus Tyr annus, or Swellfoot the Tyrant, was written
in August 1820, at San Giuliano, near Pisa. It was published
anonymously the same year, but the hostility of the Society
for the Suppression of Vice caused its withdrawal. It is a
burlesque on Sophocles' tragedy CEdipus Tyrannus, and was
intended to ridicule the prosecution of Queen Caroline, at a
time when the Queen's entry into London and the proposed
Divorce Bill were causing much indignation in England (vide
Martineau's History of the Peace, book ii. ch. 2). Swellfoot
the Tyrant, the gouty monarch, is George the Fourth, who
had recently succeeded to the throne ; lona Taurina is Queen
Caroline, about whose real character Shelley was under no
delusions, though the king's attempt to divorce her had won
the sympathy of the people. The idea of the " Chorus of the
Swinish Multitude " (i.e., the English populace) was suggested
by the grunting of the pigs at a fair at San Giuliano, with
allusion also to the proverbial Greek expression of ^' Theban
pigs," and the dulness of the Theban climate and character.
There are many minor characters and references which it is
impossible to explain with any certainty.

Summary. — The scene is laid at Thebes, as in Sophocles'
tragedy. Act I. The chorus of swine vainly entreat Swell-
foot for redress and food. Mammon and Purganax (Castle-

96 SHELLEY PKIMER.

reagh) discuss an obscure oracle relating to the entry of the
Queen. Purganax summons his assistants, the Leech, Gad-
fly, and Rat (taxes, slander, espionage (?) ). Then comes
news of the Queen's arrival. Laoctonos (Wellington) and
Dakry (Eldon) have vainly tried to repress the popular
enthusiasm by force and fraud. Mammon, however, dis-
closes his scheme of the Green Bag (in allusion to the green
bag laid on the table of the House of Lords containino^
papers criminatory of the Queen), a test by which the Queen's
condemnation is to be secured. Act II. In scene i. the
test is accepted by the swine and the Queen. Scene ii. de-
scribes the application of the test, and the discomfiture of
Swellfoot and his court. The Minotaur (John Bull) appears,
and the oracle is fulfilled.

Swellfoot the Tyrant is grotesque in style, but the wit is
rather forced and ponderous. Most critics consider it a
failure, but it should be remembered that it was not meant
to be taken as a serious effort.

(4.) Shorter Poems : —

To the Lord Chancellor^ written in 181 7, and first printed
in Mrs. Shelley's edition, 1839. The poem can scarcely be
classed as satirical, being a father's solemn curse on the
tyrant who had robbed him of his children. The idea of
Lord Eldon's false tears being like millstones braining their
victims, occurs again in The Masque of Anarchy^ stanzas
4, 5, and Swellfoot the Tyrant, act i., where Eldon is called
" Dakry " (the weeper). The Chancery suit was decided in
March 181 7.

Song to the Men of England, written 18 19, published
1839, is an appeal in a socialistic tone to Englishmen, urging
them to refuse to toil longer for idle masters. In 18 19
Shelley meditated writing a series of political poems, in a
stirring and popular style, of which this and the four follow-
ing are examples.

England in 1819. This sonnet, which was published in

THE POEMS. 97

1839, tersely describes the social and political lethargy of
England at the close of George the Third's reign. It may be
compared with Wordsworth's sonnet to Milton.

Lines ivritten during the Castlereagh Administration,
written 1819, published in the The Athenceum, 1832. Eng-
land in this time of despair is as a mother pale from the
abortive birth of dead Liberty. The oppressor is free to
triumph and to wed his bride, Ruin. Castlereagh is else-
where alluded to in Swellfoot the Tyrant, The Masque of
Anarchy, and the next poem.

Similes, for two Political Characters of 18 19, published
in The Shelley Papers, 1833. Castlereagh and Sidmouth
are referred to under various similes.

National Anthem, published in second edition of 1839 — a
parody on God save the Queen, the Queen in Shelley's poem
being Liberty. At the end of the address On the Death
of the Princess OJiarlotte (p. 108) there is a similar idea.

An Ode to the Assertors of Liberty was published with
Prometheus Unbound, in 1820, under the title An Ode,
tvritten October 1819, before the Spaniards had recovered
their liberty. This implies a reference to Spanish affairs,
whereas the poem seems rather to refer to the " Peterloo
massacre " (vide Masque of Anarchy, p. 94) and Shelley's
doctrine of passive protest. The title was changed in Mrs.
Shelley's edition.

Sonnet; Political Greatness, written 1821, published in
Posthumous Poems, 1824, repeats the warning about the
necessity for self-reform (comp. Irish Pamphlets).

Feelings of a Eepublican on the Fall of Bonaparte, pub-
lished in 18 16 ^?f ii\i Alastor, expresses Shelley's belief that
even the tyrant who could revel on the grave of liberty is
not so formidable a foe to virtue as custom and faith.

Lines written on Hearing the Neios of the Death of Napo-
leon, written 182 1, published with Hellas, 1822, The earth
is represented as exulting at again folding to her bosom the
great conqueror, whose return restores to her the energy

G

98 SHELLEY PRIMER.

which he had borrowed from her for a while. The elemental
and titanic vigour of this poem recalls passages in Prometheus
Unbound. That Napoleon's character powerfully affected
Shelley may be seen by other references (vide Ode to Liberty,
s'anza xii., and Tlie Triumph of Life, 11. 21 5-224).

V. Translations {vide p. 39).

L Greek.

(i.) Hymns of Homer. — Hymn to Mercury, written July
1820, at Mr. Gisborne's house at Leghorn, and published in
Posthumous Poems, 1824. In a letter of July 12, Shelley
says that the ottava rima precluded a literal translation, but
that he aimed at making a readable one. It was written
shortly before The Witch of Atlas, to which it has many
resemblances {vide p. 67). The grotesque element of the
hymn, underlaid by a certain natural simplicity and reality,
was reintroduced by Shelley in his account of the lady witch.

Hymns to Castor and Pollux; The Moon; The Sun; The
Earth, Mother of All; Minerva. These five translations
were probably made not later than 181 8 (?), and were first
published in Mrs. Shelley's second edition of 1839. They
are written in rhymed heroic lines.

Hymn to Venus, written in 18 18, first published in Relics
of Shelley, 1862.

(2.) The Cyclo2)s of Euripides, written 1819, published in
Posthumous Foems, 1824. The Cyclops is the only extant
specimen of the Greek Satyric Drama. In this a grotesque
element was mingled with the solemnity of tragedy. It
was written in tragic iambic metre, and was distinct from
comedy proper. Shelley's translation, in blank verse, is very
successful, but it never received his final revision, and the
text is often faulty {vide Swinburne's Notes on the Text of
Shelley in Essays and Studies).

(3.) Greek Epigrams. Four translations of Greek epigrams
were published in Mrs. Shelley's edition of 1839. The best
known is the one To Stella, from Plato, the Greek of which

THE POEMS. 99

is prefixed to Adonais. This translation is said by Medwin to
have been improvised by Shelley in conversation with him.

(4). Translations from Bion and Moschus. These are
interesting as showing Shelley's early liking for the poets on
whose style Adonais is modelled (vide p. 70). There is a
Sonnet Translated from the Greek of Moschus in the Alastor
volume (1816) ; a Translation from Moschus, called *' sonnet "
in most editions, but consisting of twelve lines only, in the
Posthumous Poems ; also two fragments first given in For-
man's edition under titles, Eleg]j on the Death of Adonis,
from Bion, and Elegy on the Death of Bion, from the Greek
of Moschus.

II. Latin.

A Fragment from Virgil's Tenth Eclogue, published in
Eossetti's edition, 1870, is the only translation from the Latin.
{Vide p. 40.)

III. Italian.

Dante's Sonnet to Guido Cavalcanti, published with
Alastor, 1816. The translation of the companion sonnet
of ^Guido Cavalcanti to Dante was probably written as early
as 1815, but was not included in the Alastor volume,
possibly because the Sonnet to Wordsworth was an imita-
tion of it. The translations from the Italian include also
a fragment from The Convito of Dante (1820 ?), another in
terza rima from the Purgatorio, preserved by Medwin, also
one written by Medwin and corrected by Shelley from the
Inferno (canto xxxiii. 22-75).

lY. Spanish.

Scenes from Calderon's Magico Prodigioso, translated at
Pisa in March 1822, and published in Posthumous Poems,
1824. The assonant verse of Calderon is represented in
blank verse by Shelley, who considered this one of his best
translations. He remarks on the similarity of this play to
Faust, of which it " furnished the germ." Shelley's Spanish
studies with Mrs. Gisborne are often mentioned in his
letters.

loo SHELLEY PKIMER.

V. German.

Scenes from Faust {i.e., the Prologue in Heaven and the
Walpnrgisnacht), written in spring of 1822, and published in
Posthumous Poems, 1824. Shelley was led to this transla-
tion by seeing Eetzsch's illustrations of Faust. He strongly
felt the difficulty of the task, and said that none but Coleridge
was " capable of this work." Goethe, however, is said to have
expressed gratification at it. The rhymed lines of the original
are translated by blank verse.

( loi )

CHAPTER YII.
PROSE WORKS.

I. Essays, PampMets, and Reviews.

The Necessity of Atheism^ the tract which caused Shelle3^'s
expulsion from Oxford, was printed at Worthing early in
i8i I, and circulated at Oxford. It was the result of Shelley's
study of Hume's Essays. It starts with the statement that
all belief rests on one of the three following sources of con-
viction : (i) the senses, (2) the reason, (3) testimony ; and
proceeds to argue that in the case of the Deity none of these
proofs are available, ending with a Q.E.D. The Necessity of
Atheism was afterwards incorporated in the Notes to Queen
Mah ; the original tract is now exceedingly scarce.

The Dublin Pam^phlets, 181 2. — (i.) An Address to the Irish
Peojple, printed at Dublin, February 181 2, and there distri-
buted by Shelley, was an attempt to show in what temper
and by what methods the Irish people would best secure
Catholic Emancipation and a repeal of the Union Act. The
pamphlet is purposely written in a popular and simple style.
It begins by stating the duty of universal toleration —
Catholics persecuted Protestants in the past, but no reta-
liations are justifiable, and the Irish demand for Catholic
Emancipation is just. Then follow repeated warnings
against violent and sudden rebellion ; the best way to insure
success is by self-reform. A second pamphlet is promised on
the subject of organisation.

(2.) Proposals for an Association, published at Dublin,
early in March 181 2, is a sequel to the Address, and calls

I02 SHELLEY PRIMER.

on all philanthropists to unite in demanding Catholic Emanci-
pation and the repeal of the Union Act. The latter question
is declared to be the more serious one, as affecting the whole
Irish people and not only the richer classes. Such an Asso-
ciation must be open-handed and sincere, disregarding the
hostility of government and aristocracy, and aiming at a
peaceful revolution, unlike that in France. In this way
happiness may be restored to Ireland ; nor need we fear the
warnings of Malthus, for the dangers he predicts would not
come to pass for some six thousand years.

We cannot but smile at Shelley's youthful ardour in these
Dublin pamphlets, and his idea that the Irish people, like
the inhabitants of the golden city in Laon and Cythna, were
in a mood for a philosophical survey of their position, and
the prompt adoption of self-reform. ]S"evertheless, the moral
teaching is excellent, and the political outlook shrewd. In
1824 the Catholic Association was formed, and in 1829 the
Emancipation took place. Still later events have proved
that Shelley was also right in considering the Union Act a
yet more vital point.

Declaration of Rights, a broadside printed during Shelley's
stay in Dublin, February and March 181 2, the distribution
of which at Barnstaple in the following August caused the
arrest of Daniel Hill, Shelley's Irish servant. The " Rights "
are thirty-one short statements relating to governments, indi-
vidual liberty, free speech, moral rights and moral duties,
religious tolerance, social inequality, and the need of self-
reform. They bear a strong resemblance to parts of the
second Dublin pamphlet, both being perhaps derived from a
French source. Godwin's influence is also noticeable.

A Letter to Lord Ellenhorough, written at Lynmouth, in
the summer of 18 12, and printed either at Barnstaple or
London. A bookseller named Eaton had been sentenced a
few months before by Lord Ellenborough {vide p. 8) to
pillory and imprisonment for the publication of Paine's Age
of Reason. The chief topics of the Letter are the injustice

PROSE WORKS. 103

of using antiquated precedents where there is no moral
offence and no crime but inquiry. Belief and disbelief
being alike involuntary, morality is quite independent of
opinions, and to punish for opinions is to persecute (this
argument is elsewhere advanced by Shelley in Notes to
Queen Mab, The Necessity of Atheism^ A Refutation of
Deism, &c.). Socrates and Jesus Christ are instanced ; the
latter would himself be persecuted by so-called " Christians "
if he lived now. It is absurd to attempt to assist " revealed
truth " by temporal punishments ; truth will reveal itself.
The Letter to Lord Ellenhorough is far the best of Shelley's
writings published up to 18 12, remarkable alike for its grave
and lofty tone, clear reasoning, and good literary style. A
portion of it was included in the Notes to Queen Mab, and
it has been reprinted in America (1881) and England (1883)
on appropriate occasions.

Notes to Queen Mab. The poem of Queen Mab was
finished in February 1813 ; the Notes were written after-
wards, and issued privately with the poem the same year
{vide p. 119). Some of them were partly drawn^^from earlier
writings {e.g., The Necessity of Atheism and A Letter to
Lord Ellenborough), while others were subsequently repro-
duced in A Refutation of Deism and A Vindication of
Natural Diet. The chief notes are as follows : —

(i.) On] Wealth ("And statesmen boast of wealth"). A
thoroughly socialistic note, showing the fallacy of supposing
luxury to benefit the poor. Labour, the only real wealth, is
expended wastefully and unfairly ; the poor losing the benefit
of leisure, and the rich of work.

(2.) On Marriage ("Even love is sold"). A protest
against the tyrannical marriage-bond which chains love,
whose very essence is liberty.

(3.) On Necessity (" Necessity, thou mother of the
world"). The world is governed by an invariable law of
cause and effect, in mind no less than matter. This doctrine
overthrows the present notions of morality; for "praise"

I04 SHELLEY PKIMER.

and "blame," ''reward" and " punishment " become mean-
ingless, except as recognitions of an unalterable fact. Neces-
sity is incompatible with a belief in a personal god or future
punishment.

(4.) On Deism (" There is no God "). This note is mainly
a reproduction of The Necessity of Atheism^ to which are
added some quotations from the French Systeme de la Nature
and Pliny's Natural History.

(5.) On Christianity (" I will beget a Son"). An amplifi-
cation of parts of the Letter to Lord Ellenhorough.

(6.) On Flesh-eating ("No longer now he slays the Iamb
that looks him in the face "). An argument in favour of
Vegetarianism, reproduced in 18 13 as a separate pamphlet,
entitled A Vindication of Natural Diet. Shelley's reasoning
that a vegetable diet is the most natural and wholesome for
man is based on the writings of Lambe and Newton, and
his own experience {vide p. 33).

A Refutation of Deism, published early in 18 14, is a
dialogue between Eusebes, a Christian^ and Theosophus, a
Deist ; its object being to show that there is no alternative
between Christianity and Atheism. Eusebes, alarmed for
the spiritual welfare of his friend, begs Theosophus to re-
consider his heterodox opinions, to which Theosophus replies
by criticising the evidence of Christianity. Eusebes, assum-
ing the part of a rationalist, shows that the same difficulties
attend a belief in Deism, and that there is no middle course
between accepting revealed religion and disbelieving the
existence of a deity. Theosophus, worsted in argument, pro-
mises to think of adopting Christianity. The conclusion
that Shelley meant to be drawn from the dialogue is of course
the very opposite to that of Theosophus, " the refutation of
Deism" being another way of stating the "necessity of
Atheism." Some of the Qiieen Mab notes are again made
use of, and Shelley again urges that "belief is not an act
of volition." There is also a reference to the question of
diet.

PROSE WORKS. 105

Series of Fragmentary Essays^ attributed to 1815 : —

On the Punishment of Death, published in Essays and
Letters, 1840, was evidently based in great measure on God-
win's writings. Much of the reasoning is now familiar to us,
but it should be remembered that in 1815 the death penalty
was attached to a long list of offences, and that the more
barbarous parts of an execution had only just been discon-
tinued. The argument is as follows. The question of an
after-life being insoluble, the death punishment is a vague
and incalculable penalty. It is also useless as a deterrent,
because (i) it makes the beholders sympathise with the
criminal, (2) accustoms them to brutal sights, and fosters the
passion of revenge by suggesting a connection between their
own security and the suffering of others. All unnecessary
punishment has a bad effect on society.

On Life, published in The Athenceuin and Shelley Papers,
1832, 1833, a fragment inspired by Berkeley's ideal philo-
sophy, and probably written in Italy in 1819, rather than
at the earlier date to which it has been attributed. After
dwelling on the mystery of life, Shelley avows his adherence
to the belief that " nothing exists but as it is perceived."
Materialism once had charms for him, as a protest against the
popular philosophy, but now he had adopted this intellectual
system. The distinction between ideas and external objects
is merely nominal ; unity is the right view of life.

On Love, a fragment attributed by Mrs. Shelley to the later
period of Shelley's life, but dated 181 5, or thereabouts, by
Rossetti and Form an. It was published in The Keepsake,
1829, and included in Essays and Letters, 1840. After a
reference to his own isolated and loveless lot, Shelley defines
love as "the bond and the sanction which connects not only
man with man, but with everything that exists;" perfect
sympathy is "the invisible and unattainable point to which
love tends." (Comp. Alastor and Epipsychidion, to which
the essay On Love in several ways corresponds; also a passage
in the Coliseum.)

io6 SHELLEY PKIMER.

On a Future State, included in Essays and Letters, 1840 :
a portion of it, on Death, had been already published in The
AthencBum and Shelley Pampers, In this fragment Shelley-
advances the negative view as regards a future life (vide
p. 27). Premising that we must lay aside all irrelevant
topics, such as the existence of a deity, he describes the
phenomena of death, and argues that the correspondence
between mental and bodily powers indicates that both perish
together. Thought is not independent of natural laws. It
is impossible to show that we existed before birth; how then
can we hope to exist after death ?

Speculations on Metaphysics, published in Essays and
Letters, 1840. These are five fragmentary chapters, dealing
with (i) the mind; nothing can exist beyond the limits of
thought and sensation; (2) a definition of metaphysics as
" the science of facts," as opposed to logic, the science of
words ; (3, 4) the difficulty of analysing the mind, and the
right method of doing so; (5) the phenomena of dreams.
The essay breaks off suddenly from a description of certain
impressions experienced by Shelley at Oxford in reference to
a particular dream, the recollection of which caused him to
be " overcome by thrilling horror." Mrs. Shelley also records
the occasion in her notes.

Speculations on Morals, published in Essays and Letters,
1840. Shelley meditated a greater work on morals, for
which the "Speculations," written about 18 15, were frag-
mentary notes. They are full of deep thought, and very
characteristic of Shelley. He shows that happiness is the
object of human society, and that virtue is the disposition in
an individual to promote this happiness. The constituent
parts of virtue are benevolence and justice, the former of
which is inherent and intuitive, though regulated by justice.
The promotion of general happiness is the only criterion of
virtue, the conduct of individuals being based on no uniform
principle, but in each case peculiar and distinctive. Moral
science should consist in appreciating those " little nameless

PROSE WORKS. 107

unremembered acts" which, are truly characteristic, i.e., in
considering the difference, not the resemblance of indivi-
duals.

A System of Government hy Juries, published in The
Athenceum and Shelley Papers, 1833, but omitted by Mrs.
Shelley from ^ssa?/s and Letters. After defining "govern-
ment " and " law," Shelley asserts that the passions of
revenge and fear influence the law towards undue severity in
punishments and injustice in awards, in cases of property,
compacts, violence, fraud, &c. The best remedy would be
government by juries, i.e., to discard old legal precedents,
and trust to the fairness of contemporary opinion.

Essay on Christianity, first published in the Shelley
Memorials, 1859 ; the date of writing is conjectured to have
been about 18 15. Shelley appears .to have thought of writ-
ing a Life of Christ, from which idea this essay, the most
important except the Defence of Poetry, may have originated.
He shows that Christ's idea of God was pantheistic rather
than personal, and that his condemnation of vengeance
belies the doctrine of eternal punishment falsely attributed
to him. Historical examples are cited to illustrate the differ-
ence between just punishment and vengeance. Christ's as-
sertions about a future life are a beautiful conception, whether
true or not. As regards Christ's character we must form a
general idea of ^it in the absence of clear historical record ;
probably, like all reformers, he was compelled to accommodate
his teaching in some degree to national prejudices, his main
object being the equality of mankind. Unselfishness, sim-
plicity, and frugality in private life, with wide cosmopolitan
benevolence, are the best means of improving the condition
of men. The cause of the failure of the early Christian com-
munity is explained (vide p. 32). Finally, Christ's doctrines
are not merely Jewish, but allied to the best philosophy of
Greece and Rome, and the attempt to establish their mira-
culous "originality," and to connect them with a popular
religion, can only trammel them.

io8 SHELLEY PKIMEE.

Marlow Pamphlets, 1817. — (i.) A Proposal for putting
Reform to the Vote, written at Marlow, and published early
in 18 1 7, under the nom de plume of " The Hermit of Mar-
low." At this time the discontent of the working-classes
had taken shape in a demand for Parliamentary Eeform.
" Hampden clubs " were organised in many of the large
towns, the Crown and Anchor Tavern being the meeting-
place in London. The object of Shelley's " proposal " was to
ascertain the real will of the people on the subject of Eeform.
He suggests that a meeting should be held at the Crown
and Anchor Tavern, at which it should be arranged to divide
the kingdom into three hundred districts, in each of which
an inspector might collect the signatures of those favourable
to Reform. Towards this inquiry Shelley offers to subscribe
;2f 100. He concludes by urging the adoption of annual
Parliaments, but not of universal suffrage ; the abolition of
royalty and aristocracy must be gradual.

(2.) An Address to the People on the Death of the Princess
Charlotte, by the Hermit of Marlow, was written in the
second week of JS^ovember 1 8 1 7, and published immediately.
It bears the motto (not title), " We pity the plumage, but
forget the dying bird," derived from Paine's Rights of Man,
where it is applied to Burke. In this pamphlet Shelley
unites two subjects then exciting national interest, viz.,,
the death of the Princess Charlotte, the daughter of
the Prince Eegent (November 6), and the execution of
three misguided men for high treason (November 7). After
dwelling on the solemnity of sudden death, he asserts that
the death of the three rebels was not less lamentable than
that of the Princess. The increasing troubles of the country
and the creation of a national debt had laid heavier burdens
on the working-classes. The Government had taken advan-
tage of the discontent to stir up rebellion by the spy, Oliver,
and these three men were the victims. (This refers to the
"Derby Insurrection," suppressed in June 181 7, which the
famous spy, Oliver, was believed to have instigated.) In

PROSE WOEKS. 109

conclusion the people are called on to mourn for the death
of the Princess, who died by the will of God; and still more
for the death of Liberty, who was murdered by the wicked-
ness of man.

A PhilosojpMcal Vieio of Reform, the longest of Shelley's
essays, was written in 18 19, and has not yet been published,
though a summary was given by Professor Dowden in the
Fortnightly Review for ISTovember 1886. It contains a full
statement of Shelley's views on the subject of social and
political reform ; the most important points being his demand
for the abolition of the national debt, the disbanding of the
army, and the gradual extension of the representative system.
These remedies are to be sought by the passive protest
advocated so often in Shelley's writings ; but the possibility
of civil war is boldly faced, and the right of resistance
asserted when all peaceful means have failed.

A Defence of Poetry was written early in 1821, soon after
Epipsychidion, and was first published in the Essays and
Letters, 1840. It was meant as an answer to Peacock's
article on The Four Ages of Poetry, whicli appeared in
Oilier' s Literary Miscellany, 1820; but the discontinuance of
the magazine prevented its publication. Peacock had ridi-
culed the nineteenth century poetry under the title of the
" Age of Brass." This Shelley intended to refute in a second
part of his essay, which was never written. The title was
doubtless suggested by Sir Philip Sidney's Defence of Poesie.
This is decidedly the finest and most finished of all Shelley's
prose writings, the train of thought being as profound as the
language and imagery are majestic.

Poetry is defined to be "the expression of the imagina-
tion," and the poets, in the widest sense, are they who by
language, music, dance, architecture, statuary, or painting,
can express the impressions made on man in his contact first
with nature, and then with society. They are also teachers
and " prophets." Poetry, in the restricted sense of language,
is a more direct medium than the other arts ; it may include,

no SHELLEY PRIMER.

also, certain kinds of prose, e.g.^ the writings of Plato and
Lord Bacon. The influence of poetry is pleasurable and
beneficial ; its function is not to convey any direct teaching,
but to replenish the imagination, '' the great instrument of
moral good." Shelley then proceeds to examine the chief
phases of ancient poetry, e.g.^ (i) Epic; Homer and the
cyclic poets ; (2) Dramatic ; seen in greatest perfection at
Athens — a kind of poetry which flourishes or decays together
with the social life; (3) Eucolic ; a style which marks still
further decay through lack of inner thought. Roman litera-
ture was inferior to Greek — Rome's poetry consisting in
deeds and her dramas in history. The ruin of ancient poetry
was succeeded by a new style derived from the poeti-
cal doctrines of Christ and the Celtic mythology. Hence
sprung (i) the abolition of personal slavery ; (2) the eman-
cipation of women, and the poetry of chivalry and love.
Dante is the connecting bridge between the old and the
new. Homer,'Dante, Milton — these are the three great epic
poets {vide p. 70, and comp. Adonais^ stanza 4). In conclu-
sion, Shelley shows that poetry is not only pleasing, but
also useful in the higher sense. The world could better
spare its philosophers than its poets. The cultivation of
mere science produces unhappy social results ; but poetry is
divine, the source of thought, and consolation of life.

"With A Defence of Poetry comp. Shelley's Prefaces to Laon
and Cythna, Pi^ometheus Unbound, The Cenci, and Hellas.

On the Devil and Devils. The date of this humorous
essay is not known ; it was first published in Forman's edi-
tion of the Prose Works, 1880.

The Fragment of an Essay on Friendship, published in
Hogg's Life of Shelley, contains an interesting reference to
Shelley's schooldays at Sion House. The dedication alludes
to his difi'erence with Hogg {vide p. 21).

Reviews. — Shelley's review of Hogg's novel entitled Me-
moirs of Prince Alexy Haimaioff appeared in The Critical
Revieiv, December 18 14. Its authorship, long unknown.

PKOSE WOEKS. Ill

was discovered in 1884 {vide Professor Dowden's article,
" Some Early Writings of Shelley," Contemporary Review,
September 1884).

The Remarks on Mandeville, a review of Godwin's
romance, and the short critique on Mrs. Shelley's Franlien-
steiu, were written in 18 16 or 18 17, and published in The
Shelley Papers, 1833.

The note on Peacock's poem Rhododaphne was written in
181 8, and sent to Leigh Hunt. It was published in For-
man's edition of Prose Works, 1880.

II. Letters.

On Shelley's style and method of letter-writing, vide
p. 41. All the published letters may be seen in Forman's
edition of the Prose Works, 1880, except those that appeared
in Hogg's Life of Shelley and the Shelley Memorials, and
those published for the first time in Garnett's Selected Letters,
1882, and Dowden's Life of Shelley, 1886. Many letters
have been lost, and forgeries have been frequent, notably
in the collection published by Moxon in 1852. The chief
groups of letters are as follows : —

(i.) To Stockdale (Forman's edition, vol. 3). These are
some of Shelley's earliest letters, written, 1810-11, to a Pall
Mall publisher, with whom he afterwards quarrelled. They
were published in Stockdale^ s Budget, 1826-27. They have
no literary value, but contain interesting references to
Shelley's juvenile writings.

(2.) To Hogg (Hogg's Life of Shelley). The earlier of
these, written from Field Place or Poland Street, 1810-11,
are on the subject of Harriet Grove's inconstancy, Shelley's
crusade against intolerance, money matters, and Shelley's
relations with his family. They include the famous letter
about the engagement with Harriet Westbrook. Others date
from Keswick and North Wales in 181 2. They are all poor
and inflated in style, and in some cases there is a suspicion
of their being garbled.

112 SHELLEY PEIMER.

(3.) To Miss Hitchener. In Garnett's Selected Letters six
are given from a large unpublished collection. They date
from York and Keswick, and refer to Shelley's first marriage
and his general opinions, on which subjects they throw some
light. There are a few further extracts in Dowden's Life of
Shelley.

(4.) To HooTiliam {Slielley Memorials), from Lynmouth
and Tanyrallt, 18 12-13, concerning Queen Mob, the at-
tempted " assassination," and political topics. Hookham
was a publisher and an early friend of Shelley.

(5.) To Godicin (Hogg's Life of Shelley , vol. 2, Shelley
Memorials, Dow^den's Life of Shelley, &c.). Shelley's self-
introduction to Godwin and requests for advice and direction
form the subject of the earlier letters from Keswick and
Dublin, 18 1 2. The later ones refer chiefly to Godwin's
pecuniary difficulties, and Shelley's attempts to relieve him.

(6.) To Claire Clair7nont {Do\Ydeii's Life of Shelley). The
published letters, mostly written 182 0-1822, are full of
sympathy and advice respecting Claire's troubles.

(7.) To Mrs. Shelley (Forman's edition, vol. 4). These
letters contain interesting accounts of Shelley's visits to Byron,
first at Venice in 18 18, and again at Ravenna in 182 1.

(8.) To Peacock. There are four letters from Switzerland
in 18 1 6, two of which were published with the History of a
Six Weehs^ Tour. Probably more were written and are lost.
Of those written from Italy, 1818-22, a large proportion
are narrative and descriptive, dealing with travels, scenery,
buildings, pictures, Rome, Naples, &c. ; others are on per-
sonal matters, literary plans, domestic joys and troubles,
friends and acquaintances. They are the most carefully
finished and highly coloured of all Shelley's letters.

(9.) To Oilier (Shelley Memorials). These letters, written
from July 18 19-21, to Shelley's publisher in England, are
specially interesting as showing Shelley's own views and inten-
tions about his writings, his wise yet modest estimate of his
own powers, and his clear-headed method in business matters.

PROSE WORKS. 113

(10.) To the Gishornes and Henry Reveley (Forman's edi-
tion, vol. 4). These, like the poetical Letter to Maria
Gishorne^ are familiar and colloquial in tone, showing a
keen insight into character, and much practical shrewdness.
They are on all sorts of subjects — literature, business, steam-
boats, investments, &c.

(11.) To Leigh Hunt (Forman's edition, vol. 4), 18 18-
22, are chiefly on literary subjects and Leigh Hunt's jour-
ney to Italy to establish The Liberal.

There are scattered letters to Byron, Keats, Horace Smith,
Med win, and others. In Mrs. Shelley's edition of 1840,
sixty-seven letters were published under the title of Letters
from Abroad.

III. Journals and Notebook. ^

From July 28, 1814, tbe date of Shelley's departure with
Mary, a daily diary was kept regularly by one or the other.
There is, however, a break for one period of fourteen months
(May 1 8 15 to July 18 16). This journal has not been pub-
lished, but extracts are given in Dowden's Life of Shelley.

History of a Six Weelcs' Tour, published by Shelley in
1 81 7, contains a combined record of the two Continental
trips made by Shelley and Mary — one in 18 14, the other in
18 1 6. The first part, arranged under headings of France,
Switzerland, Germany, Holland, is the account given in Mrs.
Shelley's journal of the tour in 18 14, edited three years
later by Shelley. The four letters which follow — the first
and second written by Mrs. Shelley, the third and fourth by
Shelley himself to Peacock — refer to the second tour in
1 81 6; as also does Shelley's poem on Mont Blanc {vide p.
81), which concluded the volume.

Journal at Geneva, dated i8th August 181 6, published in
Essays, Letters, (fee, 1840. It deals chiefly with four ghost-
stories told by M. G. Lewis, "Apollo's Sexton," to Byron
and the Shelleys at Geneva.
, Notes on Sculptures in Rome and Florence. — Some of these

H

114 SHELLEY PRIMER

were published in Medwiii's Shelley Papers, 1833, ^^^ ^J
Mrs. Shelley in her edition of 1840. Others have been
added in Eorman's edition, making sixty in all. The most
remarkable are those on the The Arch of Titus, Laocoon,
Bacchus and Ampelus, Venus Anadyomene, A Statue of
Minerva, The Niohe. Some characteristic remarks are scat-
tered here and there. For Shelley's views on art, vide
P- 35-

YV. Eomances.

Zastrozzi, written during Shelley's Eton days, and pub-
lished in the spring of 18 10, is a wild story, full of descrip-
tions of caves and forests, outlaws and assassinations. It is
said to have been founded on a novel called Zofioya, or The
Moor ; but it has also been suggested that Shelley's early
romances may have been partly translated from some Ger-
man source. Zastrozzi, the hero, is a desperate outlaw,
round whose revengeful purposes the plot centres.

St Irvyne, or The Rosici'ucian, was written at Oxford,
and published in December 18 10. Though it shows some
advance on Zastrozzi in harmony and general arrangement,
its style is even more extravagant, the situations being as
wildly impossible, and the language fully as inflated. St.
Irvyne is the name of the birthplace and family of one
"Wolfstein, to whom Ginotti, the Eosicrucian, a mysterious
person of superhuman size, imparts the secret of magic.
Shelley's original in this is said to have been Godwin's *S'^.
Leon^ where the hero learns the secret of the philosopher's
stone and elixir vitse. There are some songs interposed in
*S'^. Irvyne, but of no value. It is curious to notice the ortho-
doxy of the religious tone both in St. Irvyne and Zastrozzi.

The Assassins, a fragment published in Essays and Letters,
1840, was written at Brunnen, on the Lake of Lucerne, in
1 8 14, during the first Continental tour. It is immensely
superior at every point to the preceding romances, and marks
a new departure in Shelley's literary style. The title has

PEOSE WORKS. 115

reference to that Mahometan clan to whom the name of
"The Assassins " was given on account of their attacks on
the Crusaders in the eleventh century. Shelley, however,
who had lately been reading about the siege of Jerusalem,
identifies the assassins with the Christians who escaped from
the city before the siege. In chapter i. he relates their
settlement in a valley of the Lebanon, the descriptions of
mountain scenery prefiguring those in Alastor. In chapter
ii. we see the assassins, four centuries having passed, still
living apart from the world. " Assassin " is interpreted as
meaning a freethinker, one who cuts away religious prejudice.
The next two chapters are devoted to the personal part of
the story. A youth, by name Albedir, finding a strange
being (Ahasuerus) impaled on the branch of a tree, takes
him to his home and assists him. The fragment ends in a
beautiful account of Albedir's two children playing with a
snake (comp. Laon and Cythna, canto i. stanzas 17-20).
There is a resemblance to Prometheus in the position and
character of Ahasuerus in this romance; and it seems as
if Shelley here first conceived his idea of a sufiering yet
triumphant humanity. Another characteristic feature of
this romance is the way in which Shelley took up the title of
" assassin," as he did that of " atheist," and used it in a good
sense. (On Ahasuerus, vide p. 42.)

Tlie Coliseum, a Fragment of a Romance, written probably
in 181 9. Part of it was published in The Athenceum and
The Shelley Papers, 1832, 1833, and the whole of it in Essays
and Letters, 1840. The persons introduced are a blind
father and his daughter, and a youthful stranger who meets
them amidst the ruins of the Coliseum. We learn from Mrs.
Shelley's note that this stranger would have been represented
to be a Greek, brought up by an instructress named Diotima,
and it is not difficult to see that the character was in some
degree autobiographical. There is a fine description of the
Coliseum, and a panegyric on Love, which should be com-
pared with the essay On Love.

ii6 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Y. Prose Translations {vide pp. 39, 98).

Plato's Symposium, translated by Shelley in July 1818 at
Bagni di Lucca, and first published in Essays, Letters, dx.,
1840. It is an abridged version, and its merit consists in its
brilliant rendering of the spirit of the original rather than in
correct scholarship. Plato's Symposium is the fountain-head
from which Shelley drew his inspiration on the subject of
Love, and the distinction between the Uranian and the
Pandemian Yenus, which plays so important a part in Alastor,
Epipsycliidion, &c. The Discourse on the Manners of the
Ancients, a fragment given in Essays, Letters, &c., was
intended to be a commentary on the Symposium.

Plato's Ion, A Portion of Menexenus, and Fragments from
the Repuhlic were all published in Essays, Letters, d'C, 1840.

( 117 )

CHAPTEK VIII.
TEXT, ORIGINAL EDITIONS, ETC.

Text.

The text of Shelley's poems is in many passages as defective
or corrupt as if he were a classic instead of a modern writer.
This is due partly to Shelley's own manner of writing, and
partly to the circumstances under which his works were pub-
lished. In the first place, he wrote with great rapidity, often
with a pencil in the open air, correcting hastily or leav-
ing spaces as he went on, and always giving free play to the
eager inspiration of the moment. He would afterwards
revise and complete his work, and then send it to the printer
with all possible despatch in order to pass on to other sub-
jects. He was also characteristically inaccurate in details of
punctuation and grammar ; but it is probable that many of
the supposed corruptions in the original editions were really
deliberate on Shelley's part, and the result of his peculiar
method of spelling and punctuating. A second fruitful
cause of variations in the text was that Shelley had no oppor-
tunity of correcting the proof-sheets of a great number of
the poems published in his lifetime, which were printed in
England during his absence in Italy ; and when his post-
humous works were edited by his widow or friends, the
difficulty of deciphering MSS. was often very great, owing to
the many erasures and corrections and the hasty rather than
careless style of writing. In Mrs. Shelley's collected edi-
tions of 1839 there were numerous passages where the text
was obviously faulty, and emendations have been freely sug-
gested by later editors and commentators, of which some
have MS. authority, while others are conjectural, and in
many cases far from successful. The principle which guided

ii8 SHELLEY PRIMER.

Mr. Forman in his edition of 1876, which must be regarded
as the most authoritative text, was to avoid with the most
scrupulous care the alteration of anything, however eccentric,
which was perhaps intentional on Shelley's part, but not to
shrink from correcting inaccuracies which were distinctly un-
intentional. (For critical remarks on the text of Shelley,
vide Swinburne's Essays and Studies, Garnett's Relics of
Shelley, Miss Blind's article in The Westminster Review,
July 8, 1870, the writings of the late James Thomson
(" B. Y."), and especially the Prefaces and Notes of Rossetti's
and Forman's editions.)

Original Editions.

Of the original editions published in Shelley's lifetime the
prose writings predominated largely during the English
period, while those which were issued during his residence
in Italy were entirely poems. The following were the chief
volumes : —

(i.) Prose Writings. — Zastrozzi, a Romance, i vol.
duodecimo, London, 18 10. St. Irvyne ; or The Rosicru-
dan, I vol. duodecimo, London, 181 1. The Necessity of
Atheism, a tract, printed at Worthing in 181 1, now exceed-
ingly scarce. An Address to the Irish People, octavo pam-
phlet, Dublin, 1 81 2. Pi'oposals for an Association, octavo
pamphlet, Dublin, 1 8 1 2. Declaration of Rights, a broadside,
printed at Dublin, 181 2. A Letter to Lord Ellenhorough,
181 2 (Barnstaple or London). A Vindication of Natural
Diet, a duodecimo pamphlet, London, 18 13; now very
scarce, reprinted by the Vegetarian Society in 1884. A
Refutation of Deism, London, 18 14, a handsomely printed
octavo, very scarce. A Proposal for putting Reform to the
Vote, octavo pamphlet, London, 181 7. An Address to the
People on the Death of the Princess Charlotte, 181 7 ; only
a reprint is now extant. History of a Six Weeks'^ Tour,
London, 181 7 ; a foolscap octavo volume.

(2.) Poems. — Juvenilia {vide p. 79).

Queen Mah. London, 18 13. Crown octavo; on fine

TEXT, OKIGINAL EDITIONS, ETC. 119

paper ; 250 copies only are said to have been printed.
Among copies still extant is the one given by Shelley to
Mary Godwin in July 18 14, and the one revised by Shelley
in writing The Dcemon of the World.

Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude, and other Poems. Lon-
don, 18 16. A foolscap octavo volume, which was scarce
even in 1824. The Shelley Society issued a facsimile re-
print in 1885. The poems that accompanied Alastor are
lieaded as follows : Aax^yg/ 5/o/(yw ttotimov a-Tror/xov (To Cole-
ridge) ; Stanzas, April 1814 ; Mutability ; There is no ivork,
nor device, nor Jcnoiuledge, nor ivisdom in the grave, ichither
thou goest ; A Summer Evening Churchyard, Lechddle,
Gloucestershire; To Wordsworth; Feelings of a Republican
on the Fall of Bonaparte; Superstition; Sonnet, from the
Italian of Dante ; Translated from the Greek ofMoschus ; The
Dcemon of the World.

Loon and Cythna (The Revolt of Islam). London, 1818.
An octavo volume. The actual copy revised by Shelley
when changing Laon and Cythna into 2'he Revolt of Islam
(vide p. 54) is in Mr. Forman's possession.

Rosalind and Helen. London, 1 819. An octavo volume,
containing also Lines written among the Euganean Hills,
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, and the Sonnet on Ozymandias.

The Cenci. London, 18 19. A second edition was issued
in 1821.

Prometheus Unbound. London, 1820. An octavo volume.
The miscellaneous poems which accompanied Prometheus
were — The Sensitive Plant; A Vision of the Sea; Ode to
Heaven ; An Exhortation ; Ode to the West Wind ; An Ode,
loritten October 1819, before the Spaniards had recovered their
Liberty; The Cloud; To a Skylark ; Ode to Liberty.

(Edipus Tyrannus, or Swellfoot the Tyrant. An octavo
pamphlet. London, 1820.

Epipsychidion. An octavo pamphlet. London, 182 1.

Adonais. A small quarto in blue wrapper, with the
types of Didot. Pisa, 1821. A facsimile of this very scarce
volume was published by the Shelley Society in 1 886.

I20 SHELLEY PEIMER.

Hellas. London, 1822. An octavo pamphlet, including
the lyrical drama, Hellas, and the lines, Written on Hearing
the Neics of the Death of Napoleon.

Hellas was the last book published by Shelley. After his
death the following volumes were issued from MSS. left in
the hands of Mrs. Shelley, Leigh Hunt, Medwin, and other
friends : —

Posthumous Poems, 1824, edited by Mrs. Shelley. Con-
tained most of Shelley's hitherto unpublished poems, to-
gether with Alastor reprinted.

The Masque of Anarchy, 1832, with a Preface by Leigh
Hunt {vide p. 94).

The Sitelley Papers, 1833, reprinted from The Athenceum,
contained a few more of Shelley's short poems and fragmen-
tary essays, edited by Medwin.

Essays, Letters from Abroad, d:c., Moxon, 2 vols., 1840
and 1845. This was to the Prose Works what the Post-
humo2is Poems had been to the poetry, and consisted mainly,
though not entirely, of unpublished essays and letters. The
Essay on Christianity was not published till 1859.

Belies of Shelley, edited by Richard Garnett, Moxon, 1862,
contained some new fragments of great interest.

Collected Editions.

The chief collected editions are as follows : —

The Poetical Works, Moxon, 1839, edited by Mrs. Shelley.
A second edition was issued the same year. These must be
classed as the first collected editions, though they also con-
tained a good deal of original matter.

The Complete Poetical Works, edited by W. M. Rossetti,
Moxon, 1870, 2 vols. ; and J. Slark, 1878, 3 vols.

The Poetical Works, 4 vols., 1876-77, and the Prose
Works, 4 vols., 1880, edited by H. Buxton Forman (Reeves
& Turner). In these editions all the previously published
writings of Shelley have been collected, and a few new pieces
added.

( 121 )

CHAPTER IX.

SHELLEY'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE AND
THOUGHT.

The critic's joke on the title of Prometheus (" Unbound — •
for who would bind it ? ") was a fair sample of the style of
contemporary criticism dealt out to Shelley's poems, while his
opinions and doctrines were still more recklessly misrepre-
sented by the Quarterly Review and most other periodicals
of that time, with the exception of Leigh Hunt's Examiner.
Leigh Hunt, indeed, was the only one of Shelley's fellow-
poets who seems to have appreciated his genius, which was
certainly undervalued by Byron and Keats, and entirely mis-
understood by Wordsworth, Southey, Campbell, and Moore?
It was no wonder, therefore, that his books, with perhaps
the exception of Queen Mah and The Cenci, gained hardly
any recognition in his lifetime, and that, in spite of his good-
humoured indifference to the abuse of his reviewers, he
became latterly depressed by lack of sympathy and apprecia-
tion. He was at all times inclined to take a singularly
modest view of his own powers ; but it is recorded by
Medwin that he sometimes said he looked to America and
Germany for posthumous fame, or even quoted Milton's words
— " This I know, that whether in prosing or in versing, there
is something in my writings that shall live for ever." Dur-
ing the past half century Shelley's fame as a lyric poet has
been firmly established, and his reputation as a thinker has
also been surely, though more slowly, progressing. No
clearer proof could be needed of the power and originality of

122 SHELLEY PEIMER.

his genius than the fact that while those readers who under-
stand and sympathise with him are filled with a personal
love and admiration unique in the annals of literature, others
regard him with contrary feelings of aversion and animosity.
He represents the very soul and essence of a revolutionary
movement which is even now only in its earlier stages of
accomplishment ; and until that movement is fulfilled it can-
not be doubted that men's opinions will be as sharply divided
on the merits of Shelley's writings and character, as they are
divided on the great cause of humanity which he so unflinch-
ingly championed.

(i.) Influence on Literature. — Though Shelley had not,
like "Wordsworth, a direct school of followers, his indirect
influence on poetry has been very great. The purely lyric
element is now far more widely understood and genuinely
valued than in the days when the Quarterly critics could
discover nothing but "drivelling prose run mad" in Pro-
metheus and Epipsychidion. The " lyric cry," first sounded
in full perfection by Shelley, has been taken up and re-
echoed by succeeding poets ; and all recent English poetry is
indebted to the same source for greater spirituality of thought
and richer melody of tone. Shelley has also shown, above
all other poets, how entirely the true lyrist can transcend
what Macaulay calls " the irrational laws which bad critics
have framed for the government of poets;" with the recognition
of the excellence of Shelley's lyrics, one can hardly fail to
see the absurdity of that arbitrary and dogmatic system of
criticism which was the terror of English writers at the
beginning of this century. That the estimates of critics as
to Shelley's place in literature are still somewhat conflicting,
is not to be wondered at ; for the lyric spirit which is the
chief feature of his poetry is by its very nature intelligible
only to those who have been gifted with an instinctive
sympathy ; a right appreciation of lyric poety is intuitive,
and cannot be acquired by study. But though there are always
critics who lay their own deficiencies of vision to the fault of

INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE AND THOUGHT. 123

a poet whom they cannot comprehend, the balance of opinion
is rapidly becoming more and more favourable ; and Shelley's
true position has been admirably defined by such clear-sighted
and large-minded critics as Swinburne and Stopford Brooke.
It cannot be doubted that Shelley will soon be recognised as
occupying that important place in literature which belongs to
one of England's greatest lyric poets.

(2.) Influence on Thought. There is a disposition in some
quarters to pass lightly over Shelley's protests against all
forms of prejudice and injustice, as though such protests,
however justifiable once, were no longer needed in these days
of political enfranchisement. But, as a matter of fact, though
the contest has passed into a difi'erent phase, few or none of
the main objects of Shelley's teaching have yet been realised;
and it should not be forgotten that if Shelley were living
now, he would still be a discredited revolutionist, preaching
a bloodless crusade against religion, property, and all the con-
ventional notions of social morality. Queen Mah, for instance,
is admitted to have done some service to the revolutionary
cause ; but there is no ground whatever for the assumption
that Shelley's socialist opinions are henceforth to fall out of
notice ; on the contrary, as the struggle between labour and
capital is year by year intensified, they are likely to become
of more importance ; and the same is true of what he taught
about Christianity, the marriage laws, and many other sub-
jects. It is no use attempting to clothe Shelley's doctrines
with the garb of social " respectability ;" it is wiser to recog-
nise them at their real worth. On the other hand, those who
cannot sympathise with his hopes and aspirations are apt to
set down his views as crude and immature, a mass of wild,
though perhaps well-meant, speculation; thus ignoring the
fact that during the sixty years that have elapsed since his
death all the movements which he advocated have advanced
largely in importance, and while some of his opinions have
been proved to be true, not one has been exploded by time.
The only way to a correct understanding of Shelley's doctrines ,

124 SHELLEY PRIMER.

is to realise that they are all part of one great revolutionary
and humanitarian idea, the possibility or impossibility of
which is still under debate, and which cannot be contemptu-
ously disregarded as impracticable. Time alone can decide
the question ; and Shelley believed that time would be on
his side.

(3.) Influence of Character. Nothing is more striking
about Shelley than the extraordinary charm of his individual
character, which not only impressed the friends who knew
him personally {vide p. 17), but continues to affect later
generations of readers. This feeling has at different times
drawn tributes of admiration from such different writers as
De Quincey, Browning, Frederick Robertson, Swinburne, and
the late James Thomson. But here too, as in the case of his
writings, we find equally strong hostility on the part of those
to whom Shelley's character was unintelligible or uncon-
geniah To Kingsley's school of "muscular Christianity" he
appears, and probably must continue to appear, little better
than a weak sentimentalist ; Carlyle speaks of him as " fill-
ing the earth with inarticulate wail;" others again regard
him as a mere visionary enthusiast; while many have been
still more strongly prejudiced against him by the tragic end-
ing of his first marriage and the delay in the publication of
the true story. It is now full time for sincere admirers of
Shelley to drop the half-apologetic tone sometimes adopted
in speaking of him, and to recognise that there is a singular
harmony between his writings and his character. His poetical
genius cannot be justly estimated apart from his opinions,
and his opinions, again, found a consistent expression in the
actions of his life.

The chief tributes paid to Shelley's genius by later poets
are Robert Browning's Memorabilia; sonnets by Leigh
Hunt, D. G. Rossetti, and Swinburne; and Shelley, an
unpublished poem, by James Thomson ("B. V."). Leigh
Hunt's poem Ahou Ben Adhem should probably be regarded
as a sketch of Shelley's character.

( 125 )

CHAPTER X.

CHIEF AUTHORITIES, BIOGRAPHIES,
REVIEWS, ETC.

I. Biographical.

(i.) Mrs. Shelley's Prefaces and Notes to Postlmmous
Poems, 1824, collected editions, 1839, and Essays, Letters,
(i'C, 1840, 1845, S^^^ much invaluable information.

(2.) Leigh Hunt's Lord Byron and some of His Con-
temporaries, 1828, contains a record of Shelley, brief, but
very afifectionate and appreciative. It was incorporated in
Leigh Hunt's Autobiography, Smith & Elder, i860.

(3.) Med win's Life of Shelley, Kewby, 1847, 2 vols.,
reproduced most of the information given in The Shelley
Papers, 1833, by the same author. The style is loose and
illiterate, and there are many inaccurate statements, but
the book is interesting, especially the second volume.

(4.) Middleton's Shelley and His Writings, Newby, 1856,
a work of little merit, chiefly based on Hogg's articles in
llie New Monthly Magazine, 1832, and Medwin's Life, but
containing a little new information derived from a friend at
Marlow.

(5.) Trelawny's Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley
and Byron, Moxon, 1858; reissued as Records of Shelley,
Byron, and the Author, 2 vols., Pickering, 1878. This is
perhaps the pleasantest of all the records of Shelley, though
some of the incidents look as if they were apocryphal. The
second edition is less satisfactory than the first; additions
being made which are very unfair to Mrs. Shelley, on the

126 SHELLEY PRIMER.

strength of the reminiscences of an author then in extreme
old age.

(6.) Hogg's Life of Shelley, vols. i. and ii., Moxon, 1858,
includes the articles on Shelley at Oxford in The New
Monthly Magazine, 1832, 1833. After the publication of
the first two volumes the Shelley family withdrew the
materials which they had placed at Hogg's disposal, and the
book remains a fragment {vide Preface to Shelley Memorials).
The older part, that on Shelley at Oxford, is told with
admirable humour, force, and directness, but the rest is
pointless and grotesque, and marred by the coarse anecdotes
and extraordinary egotism of the writer. In 1832 Hogg
was describing a part of Shelley's life on which he could
speak with special authority; but in 1858 he seems to have
been quite unable to deal with the life as a whole. Some
passages of the later part have a certain amount of caustic
humour.

(7.) Peacock's Memoirs of P. B. Shelley, Fraser's Maga-
zine, 1858 and i860, have been over-rated and over-praised,
but tell some important facts. Peacock, a shrewd, cynical
satirist, was quite incapable of rightly depicting Shelley's
character; and his positive statements about the cause of
Shelley's separation from Harriet were disproved by Dr.
Garnett in Relics of Shelley.

(8.) Shelley Memorials, Smith & Elder, 1859, edited by
Lady Shelley. This brief but comprehensive summary of
Shelley's life was published after the cessation of the work
by Hogg ; and, until the appearance of Professor Dowden's
book, has been the most authoritative record.

(9.) Garnett's Relics of Shelley, Moxon, 1862, contains
among other important matter some valuable remarks on
Shelley's separation from Harriet.

(10.) W. M. Rossetti's Memoir of Shelley, prefixed to
editions of 1870 and 1885, gives an admirable account of
Shelley's life, with critical notices of his chief works.

(II.) D. P. McCarthy's Shelley's Early Life, Chatto &

AUTHOEITIES, BIOGKAPHIES, EEYIEWS, ETC. 127

Windus, I vol., 1872, is a faithful but formless account of
Shelley's life up to 181 2, dealing at great length with the
Dublin episode, and correcting various errors made by Hogg,
Medwin, Peacock, anc^ others, A special feature of the
book is the merciless exposure of Hogg's "so-called Life of
Shelley."

(12.) C. Kegan Paul's William Godwin, his Friends and
Contemporaries, 1876, shows clearly the relation subsisting
between Godwin and Shelley.

(13.) G. B. Smith's Shelley, a Critical Biography. David
Douglas, 1877.

(14.) J. A. Symonds' Shelley, 1878. (English Men of
Letters series.)

(15.) J. C. JeafFreson's The Real Shelley, 1885, professes
to unmask Shelley's principles and character, while it does
not deny his genius. It is remarkable for its grotesque
vulgarity of tone and inaccuracy of statement.

(16.) Dowden's Life of Shelley, 1886, gives the true story
of Shelley's life for the first time, on the authority of the
unpublished manuscripts in the possession of the Shelley
family. It contains letters, hitherto unpublished, addressed
to Mary Shelley, Godwin, Claire Clairmont, and others, and
a notice of some early poems intended for publication in
1813.

Magazine Articles. — Some of the chief biographical notices
are to be reprinted by the Shelley Society ; among these are
P. B. Shelley, in StocMale's Budget, 1826-27; A News-
paper Editor's Reminiscences, writer unknown, Fraser, 1841;
Shelley in Pall Mall, by K. Garnett, Macmillan, i860;
Shelley, by one who knew him, by Thornton Hunt, Atlantic
Monthly, 1863; Shelley in 181 2-13, by W. M. Kossetti,
Fortnightly Revieiv, 1871 ; Shelleifs Last Days, by R.
Garnett, Fortnightly Review, 1878 ; Shelley's Life near
Spezzia, by H. B. Forman, Macmillan, 1880. De Quincey's
Essay on Shelley (vol. 5 of his collected works) is kindly
and appreciative, if allowance be made for its wide divergence

128 SHELLEY PRIMER.

of opinion. De Quincey had no personal knowledge of
Shelley, and his information was chiefly based on the notice
of Shelley in Gilfillan's Gallery of Literary Portraits.

II. Critical.

Some of the contemporary criticisms of Shelley's writings
will be republished by the Shelley Society. Of later
notices the most important are these — Browning's Introduc-
tory Essay to Letters^ 1852 ; Prof. Baynes' article in the
Edinhurgli Revieio, April 187 1 ; Miss Blind's article in the
Westminster Review, July 1870; Swinburne's Note on tlie
Text of Shelley, in Essays and Studies, 1875 ; The Poems of
Shelley, in North British Review, 1870 ; Some Thoughts on
Shelley, by Stopford Brooke, Macmillaiis Magazine, 1880,
and Preface to Select Poems, Golden Treasury series ; James
Thomson's (" B. V.") writings on Shelley, privately published
in 1884 ; Garnett's Preface to Select Poems, Parchment series;
J. Todhunter's Study of Shelley, Kegan Paul, Trench, and
Co., 1880 ; Shelley's Prose Works, in the Edinburgh Revieio,
July 1886. Many important critical remarks are found in
the Prefaces and ISTotes to Rossetti's and Forman's editions.

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