Hamilton Reynolds's Peter Bell, a Lyrical Ballad, from which the poem has been printed in the appendix, and for the continued loan of books, including the second edition of the same Peter Bell. Having collated these two editions, I am enabled to assure the curious that the text of the third is absolutely identical with that of the second. In view of certain questions that have been asked as to the completeness or otherwise of the present edition of Shelley's Poetical Works, it can be stated that the edition will be absolutely complete, will contain, that is to say, all poetical work of Shelley's published up to the present day, beside some small poems now published for the first time. By arrangements made between the present proprietors of the copyright portions of Shelley's works, the projectors of this edition are enabled to promise that no single line of Shelley's poetry at present known to the public will be omitted. These arrangements have been another cause of delay. I have to qualify in a very sad sense the bearing of one or two passages in the notes to this volume,-those wherein the name of Charles Cowden Clarke is coupled with the present tense. That veteran author and critic died at Genoa on the 13th of March, in his ninetieth year. He was one of the very few men remaining who moved in the same circle as Shelley moved in: the friend of Leigh Hunt and the guide of Keats naturally formed a link between the present generation and Shelley. It does not behove me to speak here of Mr. Clarke's well-known doings in literature for the last fifty or sixty years; but it will not be out of place to say that, in the correspondence I have had with him in connexion with my labours on the text of Shelley's works, I have found him, as I believe all who knew him personally have ever found him,-most courteous and amiable; and it is with very sincere regret that I make this record of his departure from among us. H. BUXTON FORMAN. 38, Marlborough Hill, St. John's Wood, March, 1877. [According to a letter from Shelley to Mr. Gisborne, dated the 5th of June 1821, he had been "engaged these last days in composing" Adonais; and on the 16th of the same month he wrote to Mr. Gisborne that it was then finished, and was sent to "the press at Pisa" on that day in writing again on the 13th of July, he advised Mr. Gisborne of the despatch of the only copy the printer had delivered. This was a considerable time for the printing of a thin pamphlet, and would seem to indicate some trouble given to the printer in corrections while at press. The Pisa edition of Adonais, of which the title-page is reproduced opposite, is a small quarto, stitched, in a blue ornamented wrapper. It consists of title-page, preface pp. 3 to 5, and text pp. 7 to 25,-in all three sheets and a single leaf. It has no imprint beyond that shewn in the title-page. There are hardly any printer's errors in it, in my opinion; and the appearance of the work as well as the passages in Shelley's letters relating to it justify the belief that here at all events Shelley took great care in writing and revising, and was not frustrated by the printer. I think, however, he must have made a few MS. changes after publication, as will be seen in the foot-notes. I am not aware of any extant MS. of Adonais approaching completeness, or of any MS. at all except the passages in the note-books in Sir Percy Shelley's possession, examined by Mr. Garnett, and which he tells me are "the merest fragments." But even if there were a finished MS. extant, it would not affect the question of those particular changes made by Mrs. Shelley, for which I suspect she had the authority of a copy revised by Shelley after publication. There is one curious detail in the Pisa Adonais which I must note, trivial as it is, because I have not reproduced it. The frequent dashes, which seem to have exactly the value usual with Shelley, are all double the usual length, except in two instances. The fact is that, in Shelley's bold writing, these dashes were very long: the English printers would understand this; but Didot's people seem to have followed them literally; and, the book being boldly printed, this peculiarity would not be likely to strike Shelley in revising. The two instances in which the ordinary dash occurs in the Pisa edition are line 5 of stanza IX, and line 9 of stanza XXXIV. In all other cases it is to be understood that I have substituted an ordinary dash for a long one.-H. B. F.] |