The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 61

_29 or]and Wise ma.n.u.script only.

_35 And in his grasp Hunt ma.n.u.script, edition 1882; In his hand Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script cancelled, edition 1839.

_36 On his]And on his edition 1832 only.

_51 the Hunt ma.n.u.script, edition 1832; that Wise ma.n.u.script.

_56 tempestuous]tremendous editions 1839 only.

_58 For with pomp]For from... Hunt ma.n.u.script, Wise ma.n.u.script.

_71 G.o.d]Law editions 1839 only.

_79 rightly Wise ma.n.u.script; nightly Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1832, 1839.

_93 Fumbling] Trembling editions 1839 only.

_105 a vale Hunt ma.n.u.script, Wise ma.n.u.script; the vale editions 1832, 1839.

_113 as]like editions 1839 only.

_116 its Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script; it editions 1832, 1839.

_121 but Wise MS; and Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1832, 1839.

_122 May's footstep Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script; the footstep edition 1832; May's footsteps editions 1839.

_132-4 omit Wise ma.n.u.script.

_146 had cried Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1832, 1839; cried out Wise ma.n.u.script.

_155 omit edition 1832 only.

_182 of]from Wise ma.n.u.script only.

_186 wills Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1832, 1839; will Wise ma.n.u.script.

_198 their Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1839; the edition 1832.

_216 cave Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1839; caves edition 1832, Hunt ma.n.u.script cancelled.

_220 In Wise ma.n.u.script, editions 1832, 1839; To Hunt ma.n.u.script.

(Note at stanza 49: The following stanza is found in the Wise ma.n.u.script and in editions 1839, but is wanting in the Hunt ma.n.u.script and in edition 1832:--

'Horses, oxen, have a home, When from daily toil they come; Household dogs, when the wind roars, Find a home within warm doors.')

_233 the Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1832, 1839; both Wise ma.n.u.script.

_234 Freemen Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1839; Freedom edition 1832.

_235 Dream Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1839; Dreams edition 1832. d.a.m.n]doom editions 1839 only.

_248 Give Hunt ma.n.u.script, edition 1832; Given Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script cancelled, editions 1839.

_249 follow]followed editions 1839 only.

_250 Or Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script; Oh editions 1832, 1839.

_254 Science, Poetry, Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script; Science, and Poetry editions 1832, 1839.

_257 So Hunt ma.n.u.script, edition 1832; Such they curse their Maker not Wise ma.n.u.script, editions 1839.

_263 and]of edition 1832 only.

_274 or]and edition 1832 only.

(Note to end of stanza 67: The following stanza is found (cancelled) at this place in the Wise ma.n.u.script:--

'From the cities where from caves, Like the dead from putrid graves, Troops of starvelings gliding come, Living Tenants of a tomb.'

_282 sows Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script; sow editions 1832, 1839.

_297 measured Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script, edition 1832; ne'er-said editions 1839.

_322 of unvanquished Wise ma.n.u.script; of an unvanquished Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1832, 1839.

_346 slay Wise ma.n.u.script; Hunt ma.n.u.script, editions 1839; stay edition 1832.

_357 in wars Wise ma.n.u.script, Hunt ma.n.u.script, edition 1832; in the wars editions 1839.

NOTE ON THE MASK OF ANARCHY, BY MRS. Sh.e.l.lEY.

Though Sh.e.l.ley's first eager desire to excite his countrymen to resist openly the oppressions existent during 'the good old times' had faded with early youth, still his warmest sympathies were for the people. He was a republican, and loved a democracy. He looked on all human beings as inheriting an equal right to possess the dearest privileges of our nature; the necessaries of life when fairly earned by labour, and intellectual instruction. His hatred of any despotism that looked upon the people as not to be consulted, or protected from want and ignorance, was intense. He was residing near Leghorn, at Villa Valsovano, writing "The Cenci", when the news of the Manchester Ma.s.sacre reached us; it roused in him violent emotions of indignation and compa.s.sion. The great truth that the many, if accordant and resolute, could control the few, as was shown some years after, made him long to teach his injured countrymen how to resist. Inspired by these feelings, he wrote the "Mask of Anarchy", which he sent to his friend Leigh Hunt, to be inserted in the Examiner, of which he was then the Editor.

'I did not insert it,' Leigh Hunt writes in his valuable and interesting preface to this poem, when he printed it in 1832, 'because I thought that the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked in this flaming robe of verse.' Days of outrage have pa.s.sed away, and with them the exasperation that would cause such an appeal to the many to be injurious. Without being aware of them, they at one time acted on his suggestions, and gained the day. But they rose when human life was respected by the Minister in power; such was not the case during the Administration which excited Sh.e.l.ley's abhorrence.

The poem was written for the people, and is therefore in a more popular tone than usual: portions strike as abrupt and unpolished, but many stanzas are all his own. I heard him repeat, and admired, those beginning

'My Father Time is old and gray,'

before I knew to what poem they were to belong. But the most touching pa.s.sage is that which describes the blessed effects of liberty; it might make a patriot of any man whose heart was not wholly closed against his humbler fellow-creatures.

PETER BELL THE THIRD.

BY MICHING MALLECHO, ESQ.

Is it a party in a parlour, Crammed just as they on earth were crammed, Some sipping punch--some sipping tea; But, as you by their faces see, All silent, and all--d.a.m.ned!

"Peter Bell", by W. WORDSWORTH.

OPHELIA.--What means this, my lord?

HAMLET.--Marry, this is Miching Mallecho; it means mischief.

SHAKESPEARE.

[Composed at Florence, October, 1819, and forwarded to Hunt (November 2) to be published by C. & J. Ollier without the author's name; ultimately printed by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley in the second edition of the "Poetical Works", 1839. A skit by John Hamilton Reynolds, "Peter Bell, a Lyrical Ballad", had already appeared (April, 1819), a few days before the publication of Wordsworth's "Peter Bell, a Tale". These productions were reviewed in Leigh Hunt's "Examiner" (April 26, May 3, 1819); and to the entertainment derived from his perusal of Hunt's criticisms the composition of Sh.e.l.ley's "Peter Bell the Third" is chiefly owing.]

DEDICATION.

TO THOMAS BROWN, ESQ., THE YOUNGER, H.F.

Dear Tom,

Allow me to request you to introduce Mr. Peter Bell to the respectable family of the Fudges. Although he may fall short of those very considerable personages in the more active properties which characterize the Rat and the Apostate, I suspect that even you, their historian, will confess that he surpa.s.ses them in the more peculiarly legitimate qualification of intolerable dulness.

You know Mr. Examiner Hunt; well--it was he who presented me to two of the Mr. Bells. My intimacy with the younger Mr. Bell naturally sprung from this introduction to his brothers. And in presenting him to you, I have the satisfaction of being able to a.s.sure you that he is considerably the dullest of the three.

There is this particular advantage in an acquaintance with any one of the Peter Bells, that if you know one Peter Bell, you know three Peter Bells; they are not one, but three; not three, but one. An awful mystery, which, after having caused torrents of blood, and having been hymned by groans enough to deafen the music of the spheres, is at length ill.u.s.trated to the satisfaction of all parties in the theological world, by the nature of Mr. Peter Bell.

Peter is a polyhedric Peter, or a Peter with many sides. He changes colours like a chameleon, and his coat like a snake. He is a Proteus of a Peter. He was at first sublime, pathetic, impressive, profound; then dull; then prosy and dull; and now dull--oh so very dull! it is an ultra-legitimate dulness.

You will perceive that it is not necessary to consider h.e.l.l and the Devil as supernatural machinery. The whole scene of my epic is in 'this world which is'--so Peter informed us before his conversion to "White Obi"--

'The world of all of us, AND WHERE WE FIND OUR HAPPINESS, OR NOT AT ALL.'

Let me observe that I have spent six or seven days in composing this sublime piece; the orb of my moonlike genius has made the fourth part of its revolution round the dull earth which you inhabit, driving you mad, while it has retained its calmness and its splendour, and I have been fitting this its last phase 'to occupy a permanent station in the literature of my country.'

Your works, indeed, dear Tom, sell better; but mine are far superior.

The public is no judge; posterity sets all to rights.