PREFACE. [BY SHELLEY.] The meadows with fresh streams, the bees with thyme, VIRGIL'S GALLUS. COUNT MADDALO is a Venetian nobleman of antient family and of great fortune, who, without mixing much in the society of his countrymen, resides chiefly at his magnificent palace in that city. He is a person of the most consummate genius, and capable, if he would direct his energies to such an end, of becoming the redeemer of his degraded country. But it is his weakness to be proud: he derives, from a comparison of his own extraordinary mind with the dwarfish intellects that surround him, an intense apprehension of the nothingness of human life. His passions and his powers are incomparably greater than those of and, instead of the latter having been employed other men; in curbing the former, they have mutually lent each other strength. His ambition preys upon itself, for want of objects which it can consider worthy of exertion. Is that Maddalo proud, because I can find no other word to express the concentered and impatient feelings which consume him; but it is on his own hopes and affections only that he seems to is trample, for in social life no human being can be more gentle, patient, and unassuming than Maddalo. He is cheerful, frank, and witty. His more serious conversation is a sort of intoxication; men are held by it as by a spell. He has travelled much; and there is an inexpressible charm in his relation of his adventures in different countries. Julian is an Englishman of good family, passionately attached to those philosophical notions which assert the power of man over his own mind, and the immense improvements of which, by the extinction of certain moral superstitions, human society may be yet susceptible. Without concealing the evil in the world, he is for ever speculating how good may be made superior. He is a complete infidel, and a scoffer at all things reputed holy; and Maddalo takes a wicked pleasure in drawing out his taunts against religion. What Maddalo thinks on these matters is not exactly known. Julian, in spite of his heterodox opinions, is conjectured by his friends to possess some good qualities. How far this is possible the pious reader will determine. Julian is rather serious. Of the Maniac I can give no information. He seems, by his own account, to have been disappointed in love. He was evidently a very cultivated and amiable person when in his right senses. His story, told at length, might be like many other stories of the same kind: the unconnected exclamations of his agony will perhaps be found a sufficient comment for the text of every heart. EXTRACT FROM SHELLEY'S LETTER TO LEIGH HUNT ENCLOSING JULIAN AND MADDALO. I send you a little poem to give to Ollier for publication, but without my name. Peacock will correct the proofs. I wrote it with the idea of offering it to the "Examiner," but I find it is too long. It was composed last year at Este; two of the characters you will recognize; and the third is also in some degree a painting from nature, but, with respect to time and place, ideal. You will find the little piece, I think, in some degree consistent with your own ideas of the manner in which poetry ought to be written. I have employed a certain familiar style of language to express the actual way in which people talk with each other, whom education and a certain refinement of sentiment have placed above the use of vulgar idioms. I use the word vulgar in its most extensive sense. The vulgarity of rank and fashion is as gross in its way as that of poverty, and its cant terms equally expressive of base conceptions, and, therefore, equally unfit for poetry. Not that the familiar style is to be admitted in the treatment of a subject wholly ideal, or in that part of any subject which relates to common life, where the passion, exceeding a certain limit, touches the boundaries of that which is ideal. Strong passion expresses itself in metaphor, borrowed from objects alike remote or near, and casts over all the shadow of its own greatness. . This letter, dated "Livorno, August 15th, 1819," is printed in the ... Essays &c. (1840), Vol. II, pp. 220 to 223. If you would really correct the proof, I need not trouble Peacock, who I suppose, has enough. Can you take it as a compliment that I prefer to trouble you? I do not particularly wish this poem to be known as mine; but, at all events, I would not put my name to it. I leave you to judge whether it is best to throw it into the fire, or to publish it. LIST OF STOPS NOT IN THE MANUSCRIPT BUT PRINTED IN THIS EDITION. Commas at the end of lines 40, 85, 94, 107, 116, 120, 134, 144, 145, 154, 157, 167, 179, 191, 196, 202, 203, 204, 215, 217, 221, 224, 225, 238, 253, 262, 305, 307, 331, 338, 360, 375, 384, 385, 396, 436, 447, 450, 451, 473, 475, 476, 511, 520, 526, 541, 591, 592, 593, and 612. Semicolons at the end of lines 101, 103, 158, 181, 279, and 496. Colons at the end of lines 164, 178, 606, and 610. Full-stops at the end of lines 95, 201, 299, 319, 407, 481, 599, 601, and 617. Notes of exclamation at the end of lines 392 and 492. Commas after companion in line 86, meant in line 94, maker in line 113, past in line 114, churches in line 136, rainy in line 141, blithe in line 167, Maddalo in line 192, others in line 205, this in line 232, month and cried in line 300, misery in line 314, mad in line 394, Nay in line 398, he and seemed in line 529, Unseen in line 554, and parted in line 610. Full-stops after transparent in line 85, trials in line 472, and Venice in line 583. Note of interrogation after end in line 607. Inverted commas before A in line 87, See in line 166, You in line 408, and that in line 597. PECULIARITIES IN THE MANUSCRIPT, NOT FOLLOWED IN THIS EDITION. In line 45, achieve is spelt atchieve. In lines 90, 112, 113, 282, their is spelt thier. In line 192, judgment is spelt with a central e. In line 240, deceits is spelt deciets. In lines 308, 311, and 530, falsehood is spelt falshood. In line 314 disappointment is spelt dissappointment. In lines 331, 364, 603, and 612, the apostrophe is omitted from hope's, moment's, father's, and youth's. In line 433, searedst is spelt cearedst, and in line 614, cered is spelt ceared. In line 600, mien is spelt mein. |