of a very beautiful kind. He is a moral casuist; the opposite of the Christian, stoical, ready-made, and worldly system of morals. Do you remember one little remark (or rather maxim) of his, which might do some good to the common narrow. minded conceptions of love? 'Bocca baciata' &c."*

"For mountain cotter" (in apposition with "for all the land") would perhaps be the true reading.

is a mono

The rhythm seems to indicate that the word represented by the syllable: otherwise I should infer "Longman" to be the correct name, as the firm of Longman & Co. were the publishers of Peter Bell, and of other poems by Wordsworth issued about the same time.

ensue.

P. 18.

"Another: "Let him shave his head.""

There is no rhyme to "head"-"hope" and "Pope" being the rhymes which This matter of rhyme is by no means scrupulously attended to in Peter Bell the Third; but the present is an extreme instance. As a substitute for "head," "top" or "crop" might be suggested.

P. 18.

"One more: 'Is incest not enough?”"

"Enough" has (again) no rhyme; this first line of the stanza being supposed to rhyme with the third and fourth lines, which end with the words "liar" and "fire." Sooner than leave the first line wholly rhymeless, one might be tempted to assume that Shelley meant it should (by way of exception) rhyme with the second and fifth lines, ending with "too" and "you;" to effect which, "enough" might be re-spelled as 'enow."-As to the gist of the lines, incest and adultery, these accusations were never, I presume, launched by the most rabid of reviewers against the respectable Wordsworth: there was another contemporary poet, Shelley himself, in whose ears that particular sort of dingdong was much oftener rung.

64

P. 19.

"""Tis very cruel

To speak of me and Betty so!'"

This name has hitherto stood "Emma." But see, in the Shelley Memorials (p. 139) the letter addressed by Shelley to his publisher Ollier on 14th May 1820. "For 'Emma' read 'Betty,' as the name of Peter's sister. 'Emma,' I recollect, is the real name of the sister of a great poet who might be mistaken for Peter."

P. 22.

"The old Peter Bell-the hard old potter."

I have ventured to insert the word "Bell:" without this or some such monosyllable the metre is miserably cramped.

* Essays, Letters from Abroad, &c., vol. ii. pp. 183, 184.

VOL. II.

2 M

The meaning of the last line is by no means distinct to me. If it ran "desert kim too," that would be intelligible enough, as completing the statement of the Prince Regent's conduct to Sheridan. If this surmise is not correct, perhaps the last line should be understood as the retort of the "Soul" to Peter Bell,-as much as to say: "Yes, you would make merry with me as the Prince Regent did with Sherry; and, like him, you too would in the end desert me." But the whole thing is too uncertain to me to allow of a change in the text.

P. 23.

"To have heard him, like a male Molly."

The metre of this line is very loose. Perhaps we should read-"like to a male Molly."

P. 23.

"May Carnage and Slaughter'" &c.

The allusion in these lines is to Wordsworth's Thanksgiving Ode on the Battle of Waterloo. The passage more particularly referred to has been softened down in ater issues of Wordsworth's poems, but it used to stand thus:

"We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud

And magnify Thy name, Almighty God!

But Thy most dreaded instrument

In working out a pure intent

Is man arrayed for mutual slaughter:
Yea, Carnage is thy daughter."

P. 24

"Fewer

Have fluttered tamer to the lure

Than he.""

"Fewer" is obviously wrong, in point of meaning; it should be "few." But no doubt Shelley, looking to the requirement of rhyme, wrote "fewer," not reflecting that it makes no real sense.

P. 27.

"Were dead to their harmonious strife."

The construction of this line, in connexion with the earlier part of the stanza, is not very clear. It appears, however, that "their harmonious strife" must be "the harmonious strife of the earth and springs, and of the air and winds;" which sense I have aimed at bringing out by the punctuation.

P. 29.

"The fourth part of a long poem in blank verse."

This can only point to The Excursion. I find no such allusion in the fourth part of that poem,-nor indeed, so far as a cursory reinspection of it goes, in any part.

P. 29.

"I need scarcely observe that nothing personal to the author of Peter Bell is intended in this poem."

Mrs. Shelley's observations on Peter Bell the Third appear to be more courteous than candid. Surely it is manifest that Shelley does here "pitch into" Wordsworth with a will, on two grounds more especially: 1st, that he was time-serving and con

ventional in opinion, and, 2nd, that he was prosy and dull in writing. That these views, as entertained by Shelley, were accompanied by and consistent with a very intense admiration of Wordsworth and his poetry on certain other grounds, will of course remain none the less true. A letter to Mr Peacock dated 25th July 1818 (Fraser's Magazine, March 1860) puts the point very plainly. "I wish you had sent me some of the overflowing villany of those apostates. What a pitiful wretch that Wordsworth! That such a man should be such a poet! I can compare him with no other but Simonides, that flatterer of the Sicilian tyrants, and at the same time the most natural and tender of lyric poets."

Shelley sent Peter Bell the Third to Leigh Hunt on 2 Nov. 1819, for publication by Ollier :* it was never published, however, till after the author's death. Shelley says in writing to Mr. Ollier, 15 Dec. 1819: "I think Peter not bad in his way; but perhaps no one will believe in anything in the shape of a joke from me." And to Hunt: "The author is to be kept a secret. My motive in this is solely not to prejudge myself in the present moment; as I have only expended a few days in this party squib, and of course taken little pains. The verses and language I have let come as they would, and I am about to publish more serious things this winter: afterwards (that is next year, if the thing should be remembered so long) I have no objection to the author being known, but not now."

P. 30.

"The tenderness with which he treats the Pigs."

In previous texts, "beats the Pigs." Can there be any doubt that "treats" is the right word? "Charité" (named lower down on page 30) refers probably to the Princess Charlotte-as Mr. Swinburne suggests to me.

P. 34.
Pyrganax.

This name has hitherto been spelled "Purganax." The personage is meant for Lord Castlereagh (so Medwin affirms, and the reader will not fail to see it for himself). Now it is clear that Pyrganax is a Greek compound-IIúpyos, castle, and ȧvaş, king Castle-reagh; so Pyrganax is the proper spelling. (Not that I mean to affirm that Castlereagh does veritably mean "Castle of the kings:" I am informed that it may possibly mean that, but more probably "Grey Castle." Shelley presumably knew as little Irish as I do). The phrase which occurs in the first speech of Pyrganax, "The boldest turn their backs upon themselves," was a de facto utterance of Lord Castlereagh.

P. 35.

"Tis the same thing. If you but knew as much."

I have taken the liberty of inserting "but." Some such word is obviously needed for the metre.

P. 36. "But if

This Gadfly should drive Iona hither?

Here is another defective line. Perhaps the insertion of a "but" (after "should") would again be the readiest emendation to make.

P. 37.

"Disinherited

My eldest son Chrysaor" &c.

*This fact, and the extract which follows, are given in Mr. Garnett's Relics of Shelley. In the Essays, Letters, &c. (vol. ii. p. 206) there is a different letter to Hunt dated Nov. 1819, enclosing "a piece for the Examiner," and a note alleges that this piece was Peter Bell the Third. But that must be a mistake.

The reader will perceive here an allusion to the paper-money discussions of the time in England. Shelley was very gravely impressed with a conviction of impending bankruptcy in this country: his published letters to Mr. Gisborne contain recommendations to that gentleman to withdraw his investments in the British funds.

P. 37.

"And then my little grandchildren, the Gibbets."

This about the Gibbets is a ludicrous anachronism on Shelley's part. We hear of 'new-married" couple, whose wedding is notified as a novelty, already the parents of various children old enough to "read a select chapter in the bible" &c.

a

P. 37.

Enter Gadfly, followed by Leech and Rat.

I have added the words in italics; for soon afterwards we find the Leech and Rat saying their say, without (in previous editions) any prior notification of their presence.

P. 39.
Adiposa.

There would be no difficulty in naming the titled lady indicated by this pseudonym. But perhaps that scandal may now be allowed to sleep: poor Adiposa has been a skeleton this long while.

Again an unmetrical line. "Go pack them then" would be a not very daring emendation.

P. 40.

"Between the ears of the old ones..."

I have introduced the . . . The sentence is, to say the least of it, clearly not complete.

P. 40.

"This plan might be tried too. Where's General

Laoctonos? It is my royal pleasure."

Hitherto "Laoctonos" has always been printed as belonging to the first of these two lines: thus the first was grossly lengthened out, and the second docked.

P. 40.
Dakry.

This personage (with the name which means "a Tear") is obviously intended for Lord Chancellor Eldon; whose facility of weeping is again glanced at in the Masque of Anarchy and in the lines To the Lord Chancellor, and with the same simile of millstones, which is taken from Shakspeare's Troilus and Cressida: “Queen Hecuba laughed that her eyes ran o'er.-With millstones."

P. 43.

"" Sausages, bristles, and blood-puddings."

This line defies metre; an easy modification would be

"

Bristles, and sausages, and blood-puddings."

P. 43.

"Who have, by frequent squeaks, dared to impugn."

I have felt warranted here in adopting a slight transposition. The original runs "Who, by frequent squeaks, have dared impugn."

P. 46.

"His heart is seen to beat through his waistcoat."

No doubt Shelley took this amusing stage-direction from a similar one in the Nightmare Abbey of his friend Peacock-"His heart is seen to beat through his upper benjamin."

P. 48.

"Court Porkmen with marrow-bones and cleavers."

I have interpolated here the words "Court Porkmen." Without these words, it appears that the persons who hold the "marrow-bones and cleavers" are the Priests: but, as we find immediately afterwards a "Chorus of Priests, accompanied by the Court Porkmen ( Porkman' in previous editions) on marrow-bones and cleavers," it seems quite clear that the true holders of these instruments of music, in the first instance, must be the Porkmen, and not the Priests.

P. 54

"The world will take more interest in his slightest word than from the waters of Lethe."

There is evidently something defective here: probably it should be "than flows from:" or the omission may arise from laxity of language consequent upon laxity of thought.

P. 55.

"To thy fair feet a winged Vision came," &c.

These lines must no doubt refer to the Revolt of Islam, dedicated to Mary Shelley. "And that is dead" is not a minutely accurate account of its fate.

P. 59.

"Dog-headed, bosom-eyed, and bird-footed."

The idea of a woman with eyes instead of nipples to her breasts had taken strong hold of Shelley: see the Life, p. lxxxix.

P. 61.

"Had changed those rugged blocks of savage stone."

I think "rugged" must be right here. It is an innovation, for hitherto "ragged" has always been printed.

P. 62.

"Belongs to each and all who gaze thereon."

In previous editions, the word is "upon," instead of "thereon." Syntax and sense are left in a glaringly incomplete state with "upon"; and, as I cannot suppose that Shelley would deliberately have retained it, I have hazarded the emendation in the text, with some compunctious visitings.

P. 67.

"The water flashed,- like sunlight, by the prow

Of a noon-wandering meteor flung to heaven."

The meaning of this is not altogether perspicuous. I rather suppose that we are to understand it thus:-"The water, cloven by the prow of the boat, flashed in the sun; and, thus flashing, it looked as if it had been sunlight flung up to heaven by the prow of the boat [or the wings of Hermaphroditus], which, in brightness and swiftness, might have been taken for a meteor seen at noon." I have slightly modified the punctuation, to bring out this sense. If this is not right, I presume we ought to

read

"The water flashed, like sunlight, by the prow,

Or a noon-wandering meteor flung to heaven."