The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1
Produced by Sue Asscher <asschers@dingoblue.net.au>
1914.
I have been chary of gratuitous interference with the punctuation of the manuscripts and early editions; in this direction, however, some revision was indispensable. Even in his most carefully finished fair copy Shelley under-punctuates (Thus in the exquisite autograph Hunt MS. of Julian and Maddalo , Mr. Buxton Forman, the most conservative of editors, finds it necessary to supplement Shelley's punctuation in no fewer than ninety-four places.), and sometimes punctuates capriciously. In the very act of transcribing his mind was apt to stray from the work in hand to higher things; he would lose himself in contemplating those airy abstractions and lofty visions of which alone he greatly cared to sing, to the neglect and detriment of the merely external and formal element of his song. Shelley recked little of the jots and tittles of literary craftsmanship; he committed many a small sin against the rules of grammar, and certainly paid but a halting attention to the nice distinctions of punctuation. Thus in the early editions a comma occasionally plays the part of a semicolon; colons and semicolons seem to be employed interchangeably; a semicolon almost invariably appears where nowadays we should employ the dash; and, lastly, the dash itself becomes a point of all work, replacing indifferently commas, colons, semicolons or periods. Inadequate and sometimes haphazard as it is, however, Shelley's punctuation, so far as it goes, is of great value as an index to his metrical, or at times, it may be, to his rhetorical intention—for, in Shelley's hands, punctuation serves rather to mark the rhythmical pause and onflow of the verse, or to secure some declamatory effect, than to indicate the structure or elucidate the sense. For this reason the original pointing has been retained, save where it tends to obscure or pervert the poet's meaning. Amongst the Editor's Notes at the end of the Volume 3 the reader will find lists of the punctual variations in the longer poems, by means of which the supplementary points now added may be identified, and the original points, which in this edition have been deleted or else replaced by others, ascertained, in the order of their occurrence. In the use of capitals Shelley's practice has been followed, while an attempt has been made to reduce the number of his inconsistencies in this regard.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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THE COMPLETE
OXFORD EDITION.
PREFACE.
PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY
POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839.
PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY.
POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839.
LETTER TO MARIA GISBORNE.
FRAGMENTS OF AN UNFINISHED DRAMA.
CHARLES THE FIRST.
THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE.
THE DAEMON OF THE WORLD.
PART 1.
PART 2.
ALASTOR: OR, THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE.
PREFACE.
ALASTOR: OR, THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE.
NOTE ON ALASTOR, BY MRS. SHELLEY.
THE REVOLT OF ISLAM.
DEDICATION.
CANTO 1.
CANTO 2.
CANTO 3.
CANTO 4.
CANTO 5.
CANTO 6.
CANTO 7.
CANTO 8.
CANTO 9.
CANTO 10.
CANTO 11.
CANTO 12.
NOTE ON THE "REVOLT OF ISLAM", BY MRS. SHELLEY.
PRINCE ATHANASE.
PART 1.
PART 2.
FRAGMENT 2.
FRAGMENT 3.
FRAGMENT 4.
FRAGMENT 5.
FRAGMENT 6.
ANOTHER FRAGMENT (A)
ANOTHER FRAGMENT (B)
ROSALIND AND HELEN.
ROSALIND, HELEN, AND HER CHILD.
NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY.
JULIAN AND MADDALO.
PREFACE.
CANCELLED FRAGMENTS OF JULIAN AND MADDALO.
NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY.
PROMETHEUS UNBOUND.
PREFACE.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
ACT 1.
ACT 2.
ACT 3.
ACT 4.
CANCELLED FRAGMENTS OF "PROMETHEUS UNBOUND".
NOTE ON "PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", BY MRS. SHELLEY.
THE CENCI.
DEDICATION, TO LEIGH HUNT, ESQ.
THE CENCI.
PREFACE.
ACT 1.
ACT 2.
ACT 3.
ACT 4.
ACT 5.
NOTE ON THE CENCI, BY MRS. SHELLEY.
THE MASK OF ANARCHY.
NOTE ON THE MASK OF ANARCHY, BY MRS. SHELLEY.
PETER BELL THE THIRD.
DEDICATION.
PROLOGUE.
PART 1.
PART 2.
PART 3.
PART 4.
PART 5.
PART 6.
PART 7.
NOTE ON PETER BELL THE THIRD, BY MRS. SHELLEY.
LETTER TO MARIA GISBORNE.
THE WITCH OF ATLAS.
TO MARY (ON HER OBJECTING TO THE FOLLOWING POEM, UPON THE SCORE OF ITS CONTAINING NO HUMAN INTEREST).
THE WITCH OF ATLAS.
NOTE ON THE WITCH OF ATLAS, BY MRS. SHELLEY.
OEDIPUS TYRANNUS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
ACT 1.
ACT 2.
NOTE ON OEDIPUS TYRANNUS, BY MRS. SHELLEY.
EPIPSYCHIDION.
EPIPSYCHIDION.
FRAGMENTS CONNECTED WITH EPIPSYCHIDION.
THREE EARLY DRAFTS OF THE PREFACE.
PREFACE 2.
PREFACE 3.
PASSAGES OF THE POEM, OR CONNECTED THEREWITH.
ADONAIS.
PREFACE.
ADONAIS.
CANCELLED PASSAGES OF ADONAIS.
PASSAGES OF THE POEM.
HELLAS
TO HIS EXCELLENCY
PREFACE.
PROLOGUE TO HELLAS.
HELLAS.
NOTES.
FRAGMENTS OF AN UNFINISHED DRAMA.
SCENE.—BEFORE THE CAVERN OF THE INDIAN ENCHANTRESS.
CHARLES THE FIRST.
SCENE 2: A CHAMBER IN WHITEHALL. ENTER THE KING, QUEEN, LAUD, LORD STRAFTORD, LORD COTTINGTON, AND OTHER LORDS; ARCHY; ALSO ST. JOHN, WITH SOME GENTLEMEN OF THE INNS OF COURT.
SCENE 3: THE STAR CHAMBER. LAUD, JUXON, STRAFFORD, AND OTHERS, AS JUDGES. PRYNNE AS A PRISONER, AND THEN BASTWICK.
SCENE 4: HAMPDEN, PYM, CROMWELL, HIS DAUGHTER, AND YOUNG SIR HARRY VANE.
SCENE 5:
THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE.
CANCELLED OPENING OF THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE.