7 Works, 5 vols., ed., with a Memoir by Leigh Hunt, by R. H. Shepherd (London, Chatto, 187175). Complete Works, 8 vols., ed. by H. B. Forman (London, Reeves, 1876-80, 1882; New York, Scribner). Complete Works, 8 vols., ed. by N. H. Dole (Laurel ed. London and Boston, 1904-06). Poetical Works, 3 vols., ed. by R. H. Shepherd (London, Chatto, 1888). Poetical Works, ed. by E. Dowden (Globe ed.: London and New York, Macmillan, 1890, 1907). Complete Poetical Works, 4 vols., ed., with a Memoir, by G. E. Woodberry (Centenary ed.: Boston, Houghton, 1892; London, Paul, 1893). Poetical Works, 5 vols., ed., with a Memoir, by H. B. Forman (Aldine ed.: London, Bell, 1892; New York, Macmillan). Complete Poetical Works, ed.: with a Memoir, by G. E. Woodberry (Cambridge ed.: Boston, Houghton, 1901). Complete Poetical Works, ed. by T. Hutchinson (Oxford Univ. Press, 1904, 1907). BIOGRAPHY Angeli, H. R.: Shelley and His Friends in Italy (London, Methuen, 1911; New York, Brentano). Clutton-Brock, A.: Shelley, the Man and the Poet (New York, Putnam, 1909; London, Methuen). Dowden, E.: The Life of P. B. Shelley, 2 vols. (London, Paul, 1886, 1896; New York, Scribner). Godwin, W.: The Elopement of Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, ed. by H. B. Forman (St. Louis, Privately printed for W. K. Bixby, 1912). Gribble, F.: The Romantic Life of Shelley, and the Sequel (New York, Putnam, 1911). Hogg, T. J.: The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols. (London, Moxon, 1858); 1 vol., with an Introduction, by E. Dowden (London, Routledge, 1906; New York, Dutton). Hogg, T. J.: Shelley at Oxford, with an Introduction by R. A. Streatfeild (London, Methuen, 1904). Hunt, Leigh: Autobiography (London, Smith, 1850, 1906); 2 vols., ed. by R. Ingpen (London, Constable, 1903; New York, Dutton). Marshall, Mrs. J.: Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 2 vols. (London, Bentley, 1889). Poems, 4 vols., ed. by C. D. Locock (London, Medwin, T.: Life of Shelley, 2 vols. (1847); ed. by Poems, 2 vols., ed., with an Introduction by A. Clutton-Brock, by C. D. Locock (London, Methuen, 1911). Prose Works, 2 vols., ed. by R. H. Shepherd (London, Chatto, 1888, 1912). Select Poems, ed., with an Introduction, by W. J. Alexander (Athenæum Press ed.: Boston, Ginn, 1898). Poems, selected, ed., with an Introduction, by A. Meynell (Red Letter ed.: Glasgow, Blackie, 1903). Poems, selected by J. C. Collins (Edinburgh, Jack, 1907). Select Poems, ed., with an Introduction, by G. E. Woodberry (Belles Lettres ed.: Boston, Heath, 1908). Essays and Letters, ed., with an Introduction, by E. Rhys (Camelot Classics ed. London, Scott, 1886). Letters, 2 vols., ed. by R. Ingpen (London, Pitman, 1909, 1912; New York, Scribner, 1909; Macmillan, 1915). Paul, C. K.: William Godwin, His Friends and Contemporaries, 2 vols. (London, Paul, 1876). Peacock, T. L.: Memoirs of Shelley, with Shelley's Letters to Peacock (London, Bentley, 1875; Frowde, 1909; New York, Oxford Univ. Press). Reed, M.: Love Affairs of Literary Men (New York, Putnam, 1907). Salt, H. S.: P. B. Shelley, Poet and Pioneer; a Biographical Study (London, Reeves, 1896). Sharp, William: Life of Shelley (Great Writers' Series: London, Scott, 1887; New York, Scribner). Shelley Memorials, ed. by Lady Shelley (London, King, 1859). Smith, G. B.: Shelley: A Critical Biography (Edinburgh, Hamilton, 1877). Symonds, J. A.: Shelley (English Men of Letters Series: London, Macmillan, 1878, 1887; New York, Harper). of Shelley and Byron (London, Moxon, 1858); Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author (London, Pickering, 1878; Frowde, 1906; New York, Dutton, 1905; Oxford Univ. Press, 1906). Select Letters, ed., with an Introduction, by R. Trelawny, E. J.: Recollections of the Last Days A Defense of Poetry, ed., with an Introduction, by A. S. Cook (Athenæum Press ed.: Boston, Ginn, 1890). An Apology for Poetry, with Browning's Essay on Shelley, ed. by L. Winstanley (Belles Lettres ed. Boston, Heath, 1911). CRITICISM Arnold, M.: Essays in Criticism, Second Series (London and New York, Macmillan, 1888). Bagehot, W.: The National Review, Oct., 1856; Literary Studies, 3 vols., ed. by R. H. Hutton (London and New York, Longmans, 1878-79, 1895). ។ ton, 1916). Bates, E. S.: A Study of Shelley's Drama, The Ingpen, R.: Shelley in England (Boston, Hough- Jack, A. A.: Shelley: An Essay (Edinburgh, Con- Jeaffreson, J. C.: The Real Shelley, 2 vols. (Long? Brailsford, H. N.: Shelley, Godwin, and Their Circle (London, Williams, 1913; New York, Holt). Brandes, G.: Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol. 4 (London, Heinemann, 1905; New York, Macmillan, 1906). Brooke, S. A.: "Epipsychidion," "Inaugural Address to the Shelley Society," "The Lyrics of Shelley," Studies in Poetry (London, Duckworth, 1907; New York, Putnam). Browning, R.: "An Essay on Shelley" (1852), Shelley Society Papers (London, 1888); Printed in the Appendix to the Cambridge edition of Browning's Complete Poetical Works (Boston, Houghton, 1895). Buck, P. M.: "The Empire of Beauty, Shelley," Social Forces in Modern Literature (Boston, Ginn, 1913). De Vere, A.: Essays, Chiefly on Poetry (New York, Macmillan, 1887). Dawson, W. J.: Quest and Vision (London, Hedder, 1892; New York, Hunt). Dawson, W. J.: The Makers of English Poetry (New York and London, Revell, 1906). Dowden, E.: "Last Words on Shelley," "Shelley's Philosophical View of Reform," Transcripts and Studies (London, Paul, 1888, 1910). Dowden, E.: "Renewed Revolutionary Advance," The French Revolution and English Literature (New York, Scribner, 1897, 1908). Edinburgh Review, The, "Posthumous Poems," July, 1824 (40:494). Edmunds, E. W.: Shelley and His Poetry (New York, Dodge, 1912). Edgar, P.: A Study of Shelley (Toronto, Briggs, 1899). Forster, J.: Great Teachers (London, Redway, 1898). Gardner, E. G.: "Mysticism of Shelley," The Catholic World, Nov., 1908 (88:145). Garnett, R.: "Shelley and Lord Beaconsfield," "Shelley's Views on Art," Essays of an Ex-Librarian (London, Heinemann, 1901). Gosse, E.: Questions at Issue (Chicago, Appleton, 1893). Graham, W.: Last Links With Byron, Shelley, and Keats (London, Smithers, 1898). Hancock, A. E.: The French Revolution and the English Poets (New York, Holt, 1899). Hutton, R. H.: "Shelley and His Poetry," Literary Essays (London, Strahan, 1871; Macmillan, 1888, 1908). Hutton, R. H.: "Shelley as Prophet," Brief Literary Criticisms (London and New York, Macmillan, 1906). Johnson, C. F.: Three Americans and Three Eng- na lishmen (New York, Whittaker, 1886). Lang, A.: Letters to Dead Authors (London, Longmans, 1886, 1892; New York, Scribner, 1893). Masson, D.: Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, and Other Essays (London and New York, Macmillan, 1874). More, P. E.: Shelburne Essays, Seventh Series Nicholson, A. P.: "Shelley contra Mundum," The Quarterly Review, The, "Prometheus Unbound," Robertson, J. M.: New Essays Towards a Critical L Schmitt, H.: "Shelley als Romantiker," Englische Life," Essays and Studies by Members of the W Suddard, S. J. M.: Keats, Shelley, and Shakes- James: Biographical and Critical Trent, W. P.: "Apropos of Shelley," The Au- Winstanley, L.: "Platonism in Shelley," Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, Vol. 4 (Oxford, 1913). Winstanley, L.: "Shelley as Nature Poet," Englische Studien, 1904 (34). Woodberry, G. E.: Studies in Letters and Life (Boston, Houghton, 1890); Makers of Literature (Macmillan, 1901). Woodberry, G. E.: The Torch (New York, Mc Clure, 1905; Macmillan, 1912). Woods, M. L.: "Shelley at Tan-yr-allt," The Nine- Young, A. B.: "Shelley and M. G. Lewis," Modern Language Review, 1906 (1). CONCORDANCE Ellis, F. S.: A Lexical Concordance to the Poetical Works of Shelley (Leadon, Quaritch, 1892). BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson, J. P.: In Sharp's Life of Shelley (1887). Bradley, A. C.: "Short Bibliography of Shelley," Short Bibliographies of Wordsworth, etc. (English Association Leaflet, No. 23, Oxford, 1912). Ellis, F. S.: An Alphabetical Table of Contents to Shelley's Poetical Works (London, Shelley Society Publication, Series 4, No. 6, 1888). Forman, H. B.: The Shelley Library, an Essay in Bibliography (London, Reeves, 1886). CRITICAL NOTES Shelley's Centenary1 Within a narrow span of time, Three princes of the realm of rhyme, 'Twas like his rapid soul! 'Twas meet Eager the Great Perhaps to greet Would build divine, And the whole past in ruins lay, Vain vision! but the glow, the fire. That mounts a million paces nigher And power is his, if naught besides, To ascend afar, Lost in a storm of light that hides His dizzy car. 35 40 45 50 At height of youth or manhood's prime From earth took wing, To join the fellowship sublime Who, dead, yet sing. And rare is noble impulse, rare He, first, his earliest wreath who wove Of laurel grown in Latmian grove, The impassioned aim, Conquered by pain and hapless love Found calmer home, Roofed by the heaven that glows above Eternal Rome. By vast desire, A fierier soul, its own fierce prey. And ardor fledging the swift word With plumes of fire. 90 The second stanza refers to Keats and his poem on Endymion, the shepherd on Mount Latmus. Keats died and was buried in Rome, in 1821. The third stanza refers to Byron, who died at Missolonghi, Greece, in 1824, while fighting for the independence of the Greeks. Line 30 and the last stanza of the poem refer to the death of Shelley by drowning, in 1822, and to the cremation of his body. While the body was burning, Shelley's unconsumed heart was snatched from the flames by Shelley's faithful friend and admirer, E. J. Trelawny. ties, majes155 160 Like mighty works which tell some Spirit there -Robert Browning (1832). 170 "The poetic ecstasy took him constantly upwards; and, the higher he got, the more thoroughly did his thoughts and words become one exquisite and intense unit. With elevation of meaning, and splendor and beauty of perception, he combined the most searching, the most inimitable loveliness of verse-music; and he stands at this day, and perhaps will always remain, the poet who, by instinct of verbal selection and charm of sound, comes nearest to expressing the half-inexpressible-the secret thing of beauty, the intolerable light of the arcane."-W. M. Rossetti, in Lives of Famous Poets (1878). Shelley has been immortalized in the character of Scythrop, in Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey. His This is a philosophical poem in which Shelley expresses his radical opinion about the society and orthodox Christianity of his day. In a note on the poem Mrs. Shelley says of Shelley: "He was animated to greater zeal by compassion for his fellow-creatures. sympathy was excited by the misery with which the world is burning. He witnessed the sufferings of the poor, and was aware of the evils of ignorance. He desired to induce every rich man to despoil himself of superfluity, and to create a brotherhood of property and service, and was ready to be the first to lay down the advantages of his birth. He was of too uncompromising a dis position to join any party. He did not in his youth look forward to gradual improvement; nay, in those days of intolerance, now almost forgotten, it seemed as easy to look forward to the sort of millennium of freedom and brotherhood which he thought the proper state of mankind as to the present reign of moderation and improvement. Ill-health made him believe that his race would soon be run; that a year or two was all he had of life. He desired that these years should be useful and illustrious. He saw, in a fervent call on his fellow-creatures to share alike the blessings of the creation, to love and serve each other, the noblest work that life and time permitted him In this spirit he composed Queen Mab.” Shelley himself was not blind to the crudeness of the poem. In a letter to the Editor of The Examiner, dated June 22, 1821, he said: "A poem entitled Queen Mab was written by me at the age of eighteen, I daresay in a sufficiently intemperate spirit-but even then was not intended for publication, and a few copies only were struck off, to be distributed among my personal friends. I have not seen this production for several years. I doubt not but that it is perfectly worthless in point of literary composition; and that, in all that concerns moral and political speculation, as well as in the subtler discriminations of metaphysical and religious doctrine, it is still more crude and immature." man. In the poem, Ianthe, the central figure, falls asleep and dreams that she is transported to the court of Queen Mab, conceived by Shelley as the ruler over men's thoughts. After showing Ianthe visions of the past, present, and future, Queen Mab instructs her regarding the true doctrine of God and In connection with this poem, cf. the selections from Godwin's An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (pp. 213 ff.). 629. 93-94. And statesmen boast of wealth!— "There is no real wealth but the labor of man. Were the mountains of gold and the valleys of silver, the world would not be one grain of corn the richer; no one comfort would be added to the human race. In consequence of our consideration for the precious metals, one man is enabled to heap to himself luxuries at the expense of the necessaries of his neighbor; a system admirably fitted to produce all the varieties of disease and crime, which never fail to characterize the two extremes of opulence and penury. A speculator takes pride to himself as the promoter of his country's prosperity, who employs a number of hands in the manufacture of articles avowedly destitute of use, or subservient only to the unhallowed cravings of luxury and ostentation. The poor are set to labor,-for what? Not the food for which they famish: not the blankets for want of which their babes are frozen by the cold of their miserable hovels : not those comforts of civilization without which civil- 635. 633. 166-86. Cf. with this passage, Cowper's 634. 211-12. "I hold that the depravity of the physical and moral nature of man originated in his unnatural habits of life. The origin of man, like that of the universe of which he is a part, is enveloped in impenetrable mystery. His generations either had a beginning, or they had not. The weight of evidence in favor of each of these suppositions seems tolerably equal; and it is perfectly unimportant to the present argument which is assumed. The language spoken, however, by the mythology of nearly all religions seems to prove that at some distant period man forsook the path of nature, and sacrificed the purity and happiness of his being to unnatural appetites. The date of this event seems to have also been that of some great change in the climates of the earth, with which it has an obvious correspondence. The allegory of Adam and Eve eating of the tree of evil, and entailing upon their posterity the wrath of God and the loss of everlasting life, admits of no other explanation than the disease and crime that have flowed from unnatural diet."-Shelley's note. Shelley then gives a long discussion of the necessity and the value of a vegetable diet. See Shelley's Alastor, 98-106 (p. 636). TO WORDSWORTH Wordsworth was at one time an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution, but its excesses and failures led him finally to become a conservative. This poem indicates the contemporary feeling of the ardent radicals toward his change of politics. See Browning's The Lost Leader, which also was suggested by Wordsworth's action. ALASTOR "The poem entitled Alastor may be considered as allegorical of one of the most interesting situations of the human mind. It represents a youth of uncorrupted feelings and adventurous genius led forth by an imagination inflamed and purified through familiarity with all that is excellent and majestic, to the contemplation of the universe. He drinks deep of the fountains of knowledge, and is still insatiate. The magnificence and beauty of the external world sinks profoundly into the frame of his conceptions, and affords to their modifications a variety not to be exhausted. So long as it is possible for his desires to point towards objects thus infinite and unmeasured, he is joyous, and tranquil, and self-possessed. But the period arrives when these objects cease to suffice. His mind is at length suddenly awakened and thirsts for intercourse with an intelligence similar to itself. He images to himself the being whom he loves. Conversant with speculations of the sublimest and most perfect natures, the vision in which he embodies his own imaginations unites all of wonderful, or wise, or beautiful, which the poet, the philosopher, or the lover could depicture. The intellectual faculties, the imagination, the functions of sense, have their respective requisitions on the sympathy of corresponding powers in other human beings. The poet is represented as uniting these requisitions, and attaching them to a single image. He seeks in vain for a prototype of his conception. Blasted by his disappointment, he descends to an untimely grave. "The picture is not barren of instruction to actual men. The poet's self-centred seclusion was avenged by the furies. of an irresistible passion pursuing him to speedy ruin. But that power which strikes the luminaries of the world with sudden darkness and extinction, by awakening them to too exquisite a perception of its influences, dooms to a slow and poisonous decay those meaner spirits that dare to abjure its dominion. Their destiny is more abject and inglorious as their delinquency is more contemptible and pernicious. They who, deluded by no generous error, instigated by no sacred thirst of doubtful knowledge, duped by no illustrious superstition, loving nothing on this earth, and cherishing no hopes beyond, yet keep aloof from sympathies with their kind, rejoicing neither in human joy nor mourning with human grief; these, and such as they, have their apportioned curse. They languish, benone feel with them their common nature. They are morally dead. They are neither friends, nor lovers, nor fathers, nor citizens of the world, nor benefactors of their country. Among those who attempt to exist without human sympathy, the pure and tender-hearted perish through the intensity and passion of their search after its communities, cause |