THROUGH the very great kindness f W. T. Spencer, Esq., of 27, New Oxford Street, owner of the MSS., nd that of Sir John Shelley-Rolls, older of the copyright, I have lately been enabled to transcribe a considerable body of unpublished Shelley MSS., the first of which are presented o the public in the article following. The variant readings from the Bodleian MS. of Mary Shelley's drama of Proserpine, and some other passages from that MS., so far unpublished, are given by the kind consent of Bodley's Librarian.

I

Letter from Shelley to Hunt, November, 1819.

(First complete text, from the holograph original.)

On September 20th, 1819, Hunt wrote Shelley a letter which, with one other written on the 12th of the same month, was delayed in posting till October 20th. In this he informed Shelley that the box of various articles which Mary Shelley had requested Marianne (Mrs. Leigh) Hunt to send to Florence, Italy, had not yet gone forward, but would be sent soon. He also announced that he was 'refreshing' himself 'with translating that delightful compromise of art with nature, Tasso's "Aminta." To this letter Shelley replied in a letter already published in part by Mr. Roger Ingpen, but which, in the complete form now

published, contains additional matter totalling more than 225 words (the new matter, for the reader's convenience, being bracketed) :

My Dear Friend,

Two letters, both bearing the date Oct. 20, arrive on the same day; one is always glad of twins.

We hear of a box arrived at Genoa with books and clothes; it must be yours. Meanwhile the babe is wrapped in flannel petticoats, and we get on with him as we can. He is small [but] healthy, and pretty. Mary is recovering rapidly. Marianne, I hope, is quite [recovered].

You do not tell me whether you have received my lines on the Manchester affair. They are of the exoteric species, and are meant not for the Indicator, but the Examiner. would send for the former if you like some letters on such subjects of art as suggest themselves in Italy. Perhaps I will, at a venture, send you a specimen of what I mean next post. I enclose you in this a piece for the Examiner; or let it share the fate, whatever that fate may be, of the 'Masque of Anarchy.'

I am sorry to hear that you have employed yourself in translating the Aminta, though I doubt not it will be a just and beautiful translation. You ought to write Amintas. You ought to exercise your fancy in the perpetual creation of new forms of gentleness and beauty. [You are formed to be a living fountain & not a canal

however clear. When I read your nymphs, which is a poem original & intense, conceived with the clearest sense of ideal beauty & executed with the fullest and most flowing lyrical power, & yet defined with the most intelligible outline of thought and language, I envy Tasso his translator because it deprives us of a poet.I speak rather of the nymphs than of the Story of Rimini; because the former is in my judgment more intensely and perfectly a poem, in the sense in which Tasso speaks of Poetry 'Non c'e creatore fuorche Iddio ed il Poeta' the latter affects the passions & searches the understanding more completely, but the former appeals to the Imagination, who is the master of them both, their God, & their Spirit by which they live and are.-]

With respect to translation, even I will not be seduced by it; although the Greek plays, and some of the ideal dramas of Calderon (with which I have lately, and with inexpressible wonder and delight, become acquainted) are perpetually tempting me to throw over their perfect and glowing forms the grey veil of my own words. And you know me too well to suspect that I refrain from [the] belief that what I would substitute for them would deserve the regret which yours would [deserve] if suppressed. I have confidence in my moral sense alone; but that is a kind of originality. I have only translated the Cyclops of Euripides when I could absolutely do nothing else and the Symposium of Plato, which is the delight and astonishment of all who read it; I mean the original, or so much of the original as is seen in my translation, not the translation itself.

[I do not wish it to be published that I am coming in the spring; for reasons which you can readily guess.]

F

N

I think I have an accession of ti strength since my residence in Italy though the disease itself in the side whatever it may be, is not subdued m Some day we shall all return from Pr K Italy. I fear that in England things will be carried violently by the rulers th and [that] they will not have learned fo to yield in time to the spirit of the H age. The great thing to do is to hold the balance between popular impe tience and tyrannical obstinacy; to culcate with fervour both the right of resistance, and the duty of fore ance. You know my principles in me to take all the good I can get politics, for ever aspiring to some thing more. I am one of those whom nothing will fully satisfy, but who [am] ready to be partially satisfied Sh [by] all that is practicable. We shall

see.

Give Bessie a thousand thanks from me for writing out in that pretty neat hand your kind and powerful defence. S Ask [her] what she would like best th from Italian land. We mean to bring a you all something; and Mary and have been wondering what it shall Do you each of you choose.

[The 'Julian & Maddalo' I do know how ought to be publishe What do you think best to do with Do as you like. The Prometheus wish to be printed and to come immediately. I think you will will pleased over the spirit in which it written.]

Adieu my dear friend. Yours Affectionately ever P. B.S (Addressed outside:-) Leigh H

BOTT

Esqr., 'Examiner' Office, 19. Cathe

ine St., Strand, London, Engleter (Postmarked:-) Firenze (and) O. DE.2 1819.

d

me

The reference, in paragraph four. S 'your nymphs,' was was provoked

elley's reading Hunt's poem by that e, which was the longest poem in liage (1818). Grounded in Greek thology as this poem is, it may be bfitably compared with the work of ats and Shelley in this sort, about same period. Shelley's enthusiasm the poem was of long standing. March 22nd, 1818, he had written. nt: 'What a delightful poem “The mphs" is! especially the second t. It is truly poetical, in the inse and emphatic sense of the word.' to Hunt's disposition of 'Julian 1 Maddalo,' which Shelley suggests the letter, the poem did not, of rse, appear until 1824 (Posthu¿us Poems).

II

lley's Correction in the Original Praft of Mary's Two-Act Drama

of 'Proserpine' (1820). mong the Spencer MSS. is one, a gment of the original draft of Mary lley's two-act drama (unpublished; final and complete draft, in Mary's ograph, is in the Shelley Collection he Bodleian Library) on Proser

This drama, and another of same length on Midas, were, says dwin, in his Revised Life of Shel

done by Mary in the winter of 0-1821 at Pisa. The Spencer gment, also in Mary's autograph,

been corrected throughout by lley, and is, therefore, important, ne so far neglected MS. of Edward liams's play, The Promise, is imant as indicating what wonders lley wrought even on the least nising material, lifting the complace to the realm of magic, and dead word to a note of music.

order that the speeches of Ino Eunoe may be better understood, ention the fact that in the Bodleian . of Act I. of Mrs. Shelley's drama, es mother of Proserpine, being

obliged to visit the gods, leaves her daughter in the care of Ino and Eunoe, who are described in the Dramatis Personae at the beginning of the Bodleian MS. as 'Nymphs attending upon Proserpine.' The three become separated, however, as they roam about, picking flowers on the Plain of Enna in Sicily. The scene is described in the Bodleian MS. as 'a beautiful plain, shadowed on one side by an overhanging rock, on the other a chestnut wood. Aetna at a Distance.' When Ino and Eunoe meet again, after a little while, they miss Proserpine, and, suddenly fearful of her fate, they are in doubt whether to seek her or to fly from the righteous wrath of Ceres. In a few moments Ceres returns, and learning of her loss, upbraids the unfaithful nymphs and directs that an immediate search be instituted. ends the first act.

This

The fragment of the original draft of the next act, now among the Spencer MSS., reads as follows, all words in Shelley's autograph being enclosed, for the reader's information, in brackets:

ACT II. Scene:

The Plain of Enna, as before.
[INO] HYMERA* & EUNOE.
EUNOE.

How weary am I and the hot sun burns* [flushes]

My cheeks that else were white with fear & grief

Ere* [E'er since that fatal eve, dear Hymera* [sister nymph),

On which we lost our lovely Proserpine,

I have but wept and watched the livelong night,

And all the day have wandered thro the woods.

The tale of coming joy which we, alas! Can answer but with tears unless you bring

Solace* To our grief [solace], hope to our despair.

And* [Dark blight is showered from her looks of sorrow]

The Bodleian MS. of this drama displays several passages of marked force and beauty. Thus, for example, Ino relates how Proserpine

-wandered in Elysian groves, Through bowers forever green, and mossy walks,

Where flowers never die, nor wind disturbs

The sacred calm, whose silence soothes the dead,

Nor interposing clouds, with dun wings, dim

Its mild and silver light.

When one compares such passages,

Your smiles are the swift messengers that bear

*Words starred thus have been cancelled by Shelley.

ts deleted by Shelley.

After line 17 of the Spencer MS., the Bodleian MS. reads:

EUN: This fairest Arethuse,

A stranger naiad; yet you know her well. INO: My eyes were blind with tears— Enter Arethusa. dear Arethuse, Methinks I read glad tidings in your eyes, Your smiles are the swift messengers that bear

A tale of coming joy, which we, alas! Can answer but with tears, unless you bring

To our grief solace, Hope to our despair.

Have you found Proserpine? or know you where

The loved nymph wanders, hidden from our search?

ARETH: Where is corn-crowned Ceres? I have hastened

play one is inclined to believe that Shelley's hand must have been more than slightly exerted in touching up the earlier drafts of these passages else they would scarcely have attained to this poetic level.

Letter from Shelley to Hunt, June 24 1822.

the

Shelley, on June 19th, 1822, advised Hunt that had he learned of his ar rival at Genoa sooner (Hunt's letter. written on ship-board at Genoa on the 15th, had gone to Pisa, and been forwarded to Shelley at Lerici) he might have ventured to meet him at Genoa but that, as they might pass each other ter at sea should he attempt it, he would H not go to Genoa. 'I shall therefor set off for Leghorn the moment tha L I hear you have sailed,' he promised his friend. But, as Thornton Hunt &

the

I have received a bill for 37 pounds for you from your nephew, which I send by this post to Messrs. Guebhard & Co., Bankers, Leghorn, who will pay you the amount on your arrival there. The other 30 pounds you shall have when we meet: or within a few I days afterwards, but I have been obliged to employ it in housekeeping. I can scarcely pardon myself for having alarmed you by my silence. But I relied on your being better off than fortune seems ever to permit a person of generous feelings to be-but we must try to cure fortune of this antipathy.

This morning, on the receipt of your letter, I was on the point of setting sail to Genoa, in the hope of arriving there before Tuesday evening. I prepared my boat, rigged up all the sails, laid in provisions, & Williams had already gone on board to weigh anchor, when poor Mary suffered a relapse, which though in the issue not serious was sufficient to warn me of the necessity of remaining with her for the present. She is now much better, although still confined to the sofa. However, she will be well enough by the time that we weigh anchor for Leghorn. Could you not arrange W with the Captain to approach Lerici, & fire, or send up a rocket for a sig

nal, & we would instantly come alongside. Or must we wait until the promises of a merchantman conduct you to Leghorn?

Lord Byron, I hear, is in a state of supernatural fever about some lying memoirs published of him. You will see him before I shall, & as you have the faculty of eliciting from any given person the greatest possible quantity of good they are capable of yielding, all will go well. We shall soon meet. Adieu, my best friend. Kiss Marianne for me, & believe me

Ever yours,

S.

Mind you make no mistake about calling on Guebhard & Co. I send the bill to them to get negotiated ready for you, as there are seven days sight on it

I send a note to prevent any mistake.

Should you be still detained at Genoa, I will meet you there. Write by return of Post. (Stamped:) Sarzana (and) Genoa. Giu. 26.

(Addressed :) Leigh Hunt, Esqr., Gentiluomo Inglese, Leghorn. (And further stamped:) Luigio.

(Endorsed in another hand:) Taken up & forwarded by Yr. Hbl. Servt. Ira S. Whitney. 28 June.

The letter, written within a fortnight of his untimely end, is alive with that large-hearted generosity and utter self-abandonment in friendship of which Shelley stands as an example, almost without peer among the English poets. At the very moment of his deep anxiety over Hunt's financial unsoundness, and unreliability in the execution of ordinary business transactions (cf. 'Mind you make no mistake about calling on Guebhard & Co.'), he yet declares himself so eager