Title:  Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Author:  Mary W. Shelley

Release Date:  November, 2003 [EBook #4695] [This file was last updated on April 14, 2002]

Edition:  11

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK notes to the complete ***

Produced by Sue Asscher asschers@bigpond.com

NOTES TO

THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

BY

Mary W. Shelley.

PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY

To first collected edition, 1839.

Obstacles have long existed to my presenting the public with a perfect edition of Shelley’s Poems.  These being at last happily removed, I hasten to fulfil an important duty,—­that of giving the productions of a sublime genius to the world, with all the correctness possible, and of, at the same time, detailing the history of those productions, as they sprang, living and warm, from his heart and brain.  I abstain from any remark on the occurrences of his private life, except inasmuch as the passions which they engendered inspired his poetry.  This is not the time to relate the truth; and I should reject any colouring of the truth.  No account of these events has ever been given at all approaching reality in their details, either as regards himself or others; nor shall I further allude to them than to remark that the errors of action committed by a man as noble and generous as Shelley, may, as far as he only is concerned, be fearlessly avowed by those who loved him, in the firm conviction that, were they judged impartially, his character would stand in fairer and brighter light than that of any contemporary.  Whatever faults he had ought to find extenuation among his fellows, since they prove him to be human; without them, the exalted nature of his soul would have raised him into something divine.

The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley were,—­First, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his intercourse with warm affection and helpful sympathy.  The other, the eagerness and ardour with which he was attached to the cause of human happiness and improvement; and the fervent eloquence with which he discussed such subjects.  His conversation was marked by its happy abundance, and the beautiful language in which he clothed his poetic ideas and philosophical notions.  To defecate life of its misery and its evil was the ruling passion of his soul; he dedicated to it every power of his mind, every pulsation of his heart.  He looked on political freedom as the direct agent to effect