1819 was the most important year in Shelley’s life, so far as literary production is concerned.  Besides “The Cenci” and “Prometheus Unbound”, of which it yet remains to speak, this year saw the production of several political and satirical poems—­the “Masque of Anarchy”, suggested by the news of the Peterloo massacre, being by far the most important.  Shelley attempted the composition of short popular songs which should stir the English people to a sense of what he felt to be their degradation.  But he lacked the directness which alone could make such verses forcible, and the passionate apostrophe to the Men of England in his “Masque of Anarchy” marks the highest point of his achievement in this style:—­

    Men of England, Heirs of Glory,
    Heroes of unwritten story,
    Nurslings of one mighty mother,
    Hopes of her, and one another!

    Rise, like lions after slumber,
    In unvanquishable number,
    Shake your chains to earth like dew,
    Which in sleep had fall’n on you. 
    Ye are many, they are few.

“Peter Bell the Third”, written in this year, and “Swellfoot the Tyrant”, composed in the following autumn, are remarkable as showing with what keen interest Shelley watched public affairs in England from his exile home; but, for my own part, I cannot agree with those critics who esteem their humour at a high rate.  The political poems may profitably be compared with his contemporary correspondence; with the letters, for instance, to Leigh Hunt, November 23rd, 1819; and to Mr. John Gisborne, April 10th, 1822; and with an undated fragment published by Mr. Garnett in the “Relics of Shelley”, page 84.  No student of English political history before the Reform Bill can regard his apprehensions of a great catastrophe as ill-founded.  His insight into the real danger to the nation was as penetrating as his suggestion of a remedy was moderate.  Those who are accustomed to think of the poet as a visionary enthusiast, will rub their eyes when they read the sober lines in which he warns his friend to be cautious about the security offered by the English Funds.  Another letter, dated Lerici, June 29, 1822, illustrates the same practical temper of mind, the same logical application of political principles to questions of public economy.

That “Prometheus Unbound” and “The Cenci” should have been composed in one and the same year must be reckoned among the greatest wonders of literature, not only because of their sublime greatness, but also because of their essential difference.  Aeschylus, it is well known, had written a sequel to his “Prometheus Bound”, in which he showed the final reconciliation between Zeus, the oppressor, and Prometheus, the champion, of humanity.  What that reconciliation was, we do not know, because the play is lost, and the fragments are too brief for supporting any probable hypothesis.  But Shelley repudiated the notion of compromise.  He could not conceive of the Titan “unsaying his high