Complete Poetical Works

383 The Damon of the World. Part II. From Forman's Queen Mab, revised, as described above. A revised copy of Queen Mab is described by Medwin (Life, i. 101-103) and by Middleton (Life of Shelley, i. 251, 257) who gives various readings from it. Forman obtained from Mrs. Thomas Wade such a revised copy, given to her husband by Mr. Brooks, who had it, according to his own account, from Shelley. Medwin says it was probably left by accident at Marlow and fell into a stranger's hands. Forman identifies the copy used by him with that mentioned by Medwin and Middleton. He gives a detailed account of the volume in The Shelley Library, pp. 36-44. The variations in other sections than those included in the text of The Damon of the World are given below under the heading, Queen Mab: Notes for revision. All the readings are from Forman's edition. The state of Forman's revised copy, whether the unaltered printed text or the MS. corrections, is described below on “MS,” i. e., Shelley's copy for a new edition.

TEXT: 28, 29:

mighty time,

Relentless sire, inexorable King!

MS., intermediate reading between Queen Mab ix. 23, and the text, cancelled.

38 glows MS. cancelled: evenings MS. An oversight in revision.

104 many mingling MS.

142 noble bosom MS. cancelled.

175 Its || Their MS. An oversight in revision.

206 Pealed MS. An oversight in revision.

207 were MS. An oversight in revision. 216 their its MS. An oversight in revision. Queen Mab: Notes for revision.

i. 55, 56:

Are like such rays as many colored streams
Throw on the roof of some impending crag.

MS.

59 Behold MS. cancelled: Fairy || Universal MS.

69 When silver clouds infold his floating form.

MS.

83 Move the still moonlight's line MS.

190 They brake MS.

iv. 230-236 MS. cancelled.

Its buds unfold more brightly, till no more
Or frost or shower or change of seasons mar
The lustre in its cup of healing dew
The freshness of its amaranthine leaves.
The monstrous nurse of loveliness again
Invests the waste with hues of vital bloom,
Again deep groves wave in the wind, and
flowers

Gleam in the dark fens of the tangled woods,
And many a bird and many an insect keeps
Its dwelling in the shade, and Man doth
bend

His lonely steps to meet my angels there.

viii. 47 give MS. cancelled || lend MS.

MS.

52 failing MS. cancelled || suspended MS.

178, 179 Interpolate Their perfidy, their poisons and

their creeds MS.

184, 186 MS. cancelled ||

A banquet for the vultures and the worms,

Beneath that sun, where

MS. cancelled.

1 lustre in clearness of MS. cancelled.

97 field MS. cancelled || waste MS.

93-102 MS. cancelled.

vi. 72-103 Reprinted with Alastor 1816 as Superstition, except 102, 103, which read :—

Converging, thou didst give it name, and

form,

Intelligence, and unity, and power.

395 Prince Athanase. Shelley's Note on I.; "The Author was pursuing a fuller development of the ideal character of Athanase, when it struck him that in an attempt at extreme refinement and analysis, his conceptions might be betrayed into the assuming a morbid character. The reader will judge whether he is a loser or gainer by the difference." Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

Mrs. Shelley's Note on II. 18392, p. 199: “The idea Shelley had formed of Prince Athanase was a good deal modelled on Alastor. In the first sketch of the poem, he named it Pandemos and Urania. Athanase seeks through the world the One whom he may love. He meets, in the ship in which he is embarked, a lady who appears to him to embody his ideal of love and beauty. But she proves to be Pandemos, or the earthly and unworthy Venus; who, after disappointing his cherished dreams and hopes, deserts him. Athanase, crushed by sorrow, pines and dies. 'On his deathbed, the lady who can really reply to his soul comes and kisses his lips.' (The Deathbed of Athanase.) The poet describes her [ii. 155–160]. This slender note is all we have to aid our imagination in shaping out the form of the poem, such as its author imagined."

TEXT 10 blush James Thomson conj.

I. 28 relief; 1824, Forman.

30 chief. 1824, Forman.

II. 28 blighting || flitting or fleeting Rossetti conj.

36 gentle omit, 1824.

39 omit, 1824.

50 and master 1824.

69 reeling through the storm || wrecked... 1824.
80 nightingale, Rossetti.

83 here! Rossetti.

105 dark forgetfulness omit, 1824.

155-160 omit 1824, 18391,2.

407 The Woodman and the Nightingale.

TEXT: 19 waters,-1824, 18391,2, Forman, Dowden; waters,

Rossetti.

410 Otho. Mrs. Shelley's Note, 18391, iii. 70: "He had this

year also projected a poem on the subject of Otho, inspired by the pages of Tacitus. I find one or two stanzas only which were to open the subject." Forman joins with these the lines Once more descend and Inspiration given in this edition, iv. 86, 87.

TEXT: ii. 5 buy 18392.

411 Tasso. Shelley (from Milan) to Peacock, April 20, 1818: "I have devoted this summer, and indeed the next year, to the composition of a tragedy on the subject of Tasso's madness; which, I find upon inspection, is, if properly treated, admirably dramatic and poetical. But 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. It shall be better morality than Fazio, and better poetry than Bertram, at least." Mrs. Shelley, Essays and Letters, ii. 118,

119.

Shelley (from Milan) to a friend [probably Horace Smith], April 30, 1818: "I have been studying the history of Tasso's life, with some idea of making a drama of his adventures and misfortunes . . . Such a subject would suit English poetry." Dowden, ii. 201

[Garnett conjectures that Shelley abandoned the subject in consequence of Byron's Lament of Tasso.]

Shelley's Notes for intended scenes [from the Boscombe MS.]: "Scene where he reads the sonnet which he wrote to Leonora to herself as composed at the request of another. — His disguising himself in the habit of a shepherd, and questioning his sister in that disguise concerning himself, and then unveiling himself.” Garnett, Shelley's Select Letters, p. 245.

414 Marenghi. Mrs. Shelley's Note, 1824 : “This fragment refers to an event told in Sismondi's Histoire des Républiques Italiennes, which occurred during the war when Florence finally subdued Pisa, and reduced it to a province."

Rossetti identifies the reference in Sismondi (Paris, 1826, viii. 142, 143), and from it corrects the name, given as Mazenghi throughout by Mrs. Shelley, who also gives Vada for Vado. Rossetti derived the text from the Boscombe MS., through Garnett, and adds "December" to Mrs. Shelley's date "Naples, 1818.” TEXT: xiii. 2 cold and toil 1824, 18391,2.

xvii. 1 || of land Forman conj.

xix. 4