P. 72. "The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child." This the reading of the original edition-not " dear," as in some subsequent issues. I think dead" the better epithet of the two, according to its place in the context. P. 80. "Thou think'st we will live through thee, one by one," &c. It seems pretty clear (as B. V. pointed out to me) that the whole of this speech forms a taunting interrogation-like the two preceding speeches beginning "Thou thinkest," and " Dost imagine." The interrogative sign is not however given in previous editions. P. 80. "And close upon Shipwreck and Famine's track Sit chattering with joy on the foodless wreck." One is strongly inclined (with B. V.) to set the rhyme right by reading "wrack." P. 81. Fourth Fury, Fifth Fury, &c. In other editions these are called First Fury, Second Fury," &c. But this confounds them with the Furies (First, Second, and Third) who have already been speaking; whereas it is quite certain that these new speakers are new arrivals, come to the summons contained in the preceding "Chorus of Furies." For the sake of clearness, I have therefore felt warranted in making this small change. P. 86. "A rainbow's arch stood on the sea This has hitherto been punctuated ་་ " "And the triumphant storm did flee, It seems very desirable to mark, by definite punctuation, the only sense of which between appears capable-i.e., "the storm did flee between-or through the arch of-the rainbow." P. 86. "I sate beside a sage's bed, And the lamp was burning red Near the book where he had fed." "The book where he had fed" is surely a most slovenly expression. It can only mean "the book in or from which he had fed his mind"; which sense would be rather less badly expressed by "whence he had fed." I should strongly surmise that Shelley had, in the first instance, written "where he had read"; and then, observing the preceding rhyme "red," altered "read" into fed," without reflecting that he ought to conciliate this "fed" with "where" by some modification of the latter word also. P. 88. "Till thou, O King of Sadness, Turn'st by thy smile the worst I saw to recollected gladness." In previous editions, the word is "turned" : Grammar protests against that. The uppermost substitute would be "Turn'dst." This, however, is so uneuphonious that I think "Turn'st" may fairly claim a preference. P. 88. "Desolation is a delicate thing." This (as B. V. observes to me) is related to the speech of Agathon, in Plato's Symposium, beginning For Homer says that the Goddess of Calamity is delicate." P. 91. "But not as now, since I am made the wind" &c. This passage, to the end of the speech, is by no means perspicuous to me. I suppose, however, that it is printed much as Shelley intended it to stand, and that its general meaning is as follows: "Erewhile I used to sleep locked, as now, in Ione's arms. Yet not exactly as now: for now I find myself, in dream, conversing with thee; and being thus in converse with thee, I had a sleep troubled and yet sweet, whereas my waking hours are too full of care and pain." B. V. suggests to me (and I agree with him) that "Is troubled and yet sweet (instead of "Was troubled" &c.) would simplify the flow of the passage. " I suspect "around" of being a misprint for either "among" or "amid." P. 97. "The storm of sound is driven along, Behind, its gathering billows meet," &c. This is substantially the punctuation of the later editions: the first edition gives no stop after "hurrying."-B. V. has called my attention to the great uncertainties which beset the whole punctuation of the passage. The main question of course is-What do the lines mean exactly? The most consistent sense seems to me to be this: "And so they [the destined spirits] float upon their way, until, still sweet but loud and strong, the storm of sound is driven along. As they [the spirits] fleet onward, sucked up and hurrying, its gathering billows [i.e., the billows, either of the sound, or else of the plume-uplifting wind from the breathing earth behind, as mentioned shortly before] meet behind, and bear [the spirits] to the fatal mountain." If this is correct, our punctuation is the contrary: we should read The chief raison d'être of this line manifestly is that it should rhyme to "meekness." It must, however, have some meaning beyond this; which meaning I should apprehend to be-"Attempt not to overcome thine own weakness, which makes thee passive in our hands." If so, Resist not thy weakness" would express the sense more distinctly, and would perhaps be the true reading. P. 100. "Dart round, as light from the meridian sun, Ungazed-upon and shapeless. Neither limb," &c. I suspect that the full-stop ought to come after "sun"; the succeeding words applying to Demogorgon, and commencing a new sentence. P. 101. "Who made that sense which, at the winds of Spring Of one beloved heard in youth alone, Fills the faint eyes with falling tears?" I have here taken a serious liberty with the text substituting "at" for when." Let the reader peruse the whole sentence with "when," and he will infallibly find that something is either wrong or missing. I have no doubt that in fact a whole line is missing through Shelley's oversight, or less likely through the printer's; and presume that the entire meaning ought to run something like this: 44 Who made that sense which-when the wind of Spring in rarest visitation, or the voice of one beloved heard in youth alone, is felt or heard again-fills the faint eyes with falling tears?" For an editor to supply a line would be the height of audacity: he has therefore to choose between some minor form of emendation, and the leaving of a vexatious hiatus in the structure and meaning of the sentence. I have made bold to adopt the former alternative. By reading" at," we do not indeed obtain the full sense very fully expressed ; but we do obtain a passable suggestion of it, and get rid of the defect of structure.-See the Witch of Atlas, st. xiv., for a very parallel passage. The word in the original edition (altered in all later ones) is "reigns"; and Mr. Forman has restored that, deeming it correct. I cannot at all agree with his conclusion, nor with the reason which he assigns for it. P. 103. "Who is master of the slave ?--If the abysm." This line has hitherto stood printed "Who is the master &c. That is so evident an excess of metre that one may well, I think, regard it as a misprint, or mere casual oversight. P. 104. "Others, with burning eyes, lean forth, and drink With eager lips the wind of their own speed." The same letter of Shelley's to Mr. Peacock which has been already quoted from (see p. 427) contains a passage which might seem to furnish the genesis of these beautiful lines. He is speaking of the Arch of Constantine. "The keystone of these arches is supported each by two winged figures of Victory, whose hair floats on the wind of their own speed, and whose arms are outstretched, bearing trophies, as if impatient to meet." The punctuation here is my own. In the early editions we find Like the fairest, for it folds thee From the sight, that liquid splendour, This seems to afford very little guidance towards the meaning of the passage. I think (Mr. W. Hale White, of Carshalton, called my special attention to this that we must understand that liquid splendour" to be the same thing as "this atmosphere divinest " in the preceding stanza; and we should do our bestas I attempt by punctuation-to keep the primary part of the present stanza primary, and its secondary part secondary. P. 107. "Which in the winds and on the waves doth move." I confidently insert the "and," which does not appear in previous editions. If the reader will look to the other two stanzas of Asia's lyrical speech, he will perceive that each of the penultimate lines is a decasyllabic; and that the metrical structure of the three stanzas is in all other respects identical. I therefore infer, as a matter almost of demonstration, that this penultimate line of the intermediate stanza ought also to be a decasyllabic-which it becomes by the addition of the "and." Moreover, this makes the form of expression more natural-more what one would à priori expect it to be. P. 109. "Under my wrath's night." Mrs. Shelley's editions substitute " and with authority. 'night" for "might"; I infer, correctly P. III. "Round many-peopled continents." The compound adjective "many-peopled" (instead of "many peopled") is a conjectural emendation proposed by Miss Blind in the Westminster Review article; conjectural, but I think indisputable. P. 114. "Than all thy sisters, this the mystic shell.' In the original edition, this is the mystic shell." confident but that "is" ought to be restored. P. 121. "The palaces and tombs I am by no means Of those who were their conquerors, mouldering round. The ordinary punctuation gives a colon after "conquerors," and no stop at all after "round." Mr. Swinburne (in his article in the Fortnightly Review) expounds a meaning in accordance with the old punctuation, admitting at the same time that the sentence can barely be construed. As I cannot help feeling strongly convinced that the altered punctuation (which I proposed in 1868 in Notes and Queries) is correct, I have introduced it into the text, and here add a paraphrase of the passage, as I understand and punctuate it."Thrones, altars, judgment-seats, and prisons, were like those monstrous and barbaric shapes sculptured by the ancient Egyptians on still unworn obelisks, and recording matters once famous, now forgotten,-which shapes yet look forth in triumph over the palaces and tombs of their Saracenic or other conquerors, now mouldering around them. Those shapes did, at the time when their meaning was understood, image forth, unto the pride of kings and priests of that remote age, a dark yet mighty faith, a supernatural and desolating power coextensive with the world: now, being no longer understood, those shapes are mere objects of astonishment. And even so the thrones, altars, judg ment-seats, and prisons, remain as yet unruined, but are now unregarded, and their meanings gone." P. 122. "The man remains, Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man: I have altered the punctuation and emphasis of these lines by putting a colon at the end of the first, and a full-stop at the end of the second, line ending with the word "man." In other editions, there are no stops at these particular points. The reader will observe that thus, in those other editions, the statement made at the opening of the passage is that "man remains sceptreless (unsubjected to any sceptre), but equal, exempt from degree, and the king over himself; free, but exempt from awe; uncircumscribed, but unclassed, tribeless, and nationless." A little reflection will show that this "but" is quite inappropriate; for there is no opposition or antithesis, but the contrary, between the epithets which precede the but," and those which succeed it. I am convinced therefore that this old punctuation is wrong, and mine right: the gist of the statement now being different-viz.: that "man, though sceptreless, free, and uncircumscribed, is still man; though equal, the king over himself, &c., he is still man. He has not passed from the human into any other condition only his human condition is now an exalted instead of a dejected one." P. 124. "The pine-boughs are singing The storms mock the mountains With the thunder of gladness." If Shelley had observed that his printer or himself had here twice given "gladness as the rhyme, I almost think he would have altered one of the two. The first "gladness" is plainly right: the second might not unreasonably be altered into "madness"; understanding "madness in the sense of "frenzied exultation," or more especially "maniac glee." Thus, on p. 132— "The joy, the triumph, the delight, the madness! The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness!' And the same two words as rhymes are frequently encountered in other pages of Shelley-for instance in the Skylark, st. xxi. P. 129. "Its plumes are as feathers of sunny frost." Every ear must notice the exceptional, not to say unrhythmical, quality of this line. Should it read thus ? "Its feathers are as plumes of sunny frost." P. 130. "Purple and azure, white and green and golden." The italicized "and" is not in other editions. I cannot doubt that Shelley gave it in, for the metre's sake. P. 131. "Filling the abyss with sun-like lightnings." I intended to give here (but the printer has thwarted me) the spelling "lightenings," instead of " lightnings." The latter word leaves a syllable deficient in the line. So again, pp. 182 and 388, and vol. iii. p. 210. |