SHELLEY’S POSTHUMOUS POEMS
The volume here reviewed was published in 1824 by John and Henry L. Hunt. Hazlitt had little sympathy with Shelley either as a man or a poet. The grounds of his distrust of him as a man are given more than once, most fully, perhaps, in the essay ‘On Paradox and Common-Place’ (Table Talk, VI. 148–150), which led to the quarrel between Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt in 1821. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, I. 304–315, and Four Generations of a Literary Family, I. 130–135. As for Shelley’s poetry, P. G. Patmore suggests that Hazlitt knew little or nothing of it. ‘Though I have often,’ he says (My Friends and Acquaintance, III. 136), ‘heard him speak disparagingly of Shelley as a poet, I never heard him refer to a single line or passage of his published writings.’ Hazlitt met Shelley at Leigh Hunt’s, and the two discussed Monarchy and Republicanism until three in the morning.’ See Mary Shelley’s journal of 1817, quoted in Professor Dowden’s Life, II. 103.
PAGE [256]. ‘Too fiery,’ etc. Cf. ‘You know the fiery quality of the duke.’ King Lear, Act II. Sc. 4. ‘Beyond the visible,’ etc. Cf. Paradise Lost, VII. 22. ‘All air.’ Cf. ‘He is pure air and fire.’ Henry V., Act III. Sc. 7. [257]. ‘So divinely wrought,’ etc. Cf. John Donne, An Anatomy of the World, Second Anniversary, 245–246. ‘And dallies,’ etc. Richard III., Act I. Sc. 3. ‘More subtle web,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, Book II. Canto XII. St. 77. [259]. ‘There the antics sit.’ Richard II., Act. III. Sc. 2. ‘Palsied eld.’ Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. 1. [260]. Mr. Shelley died, etc. When Shelley’s body was cast ashore near Via Reggio (July 18, 1822), a volume of Keats’s poems was found in one pocket, and a volume of Sophocles in the other. Two out of four poets, patriots, and friends. The four poets were presumably Shelley, Keats, Byron and Leigh Hunt. Keats died young, etc. Cf. vol. VI. (Table Talk) p. 99. A third has since been added, etc. Byron died at Mesolonghi, April 19, 1824. [261]. Mrs. Shelley. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797–1851) married to Shelley, Dec. 30, 1816. Alastor. Originally published in 1816. Translation of the May-day Night. Published in The Liberal. Julian and Maddalo. This poem, first published in Posthumous Poems, had been sent to Leigh Hunt in 1819 for publication by Ollier. [264]. ‘Made as flax.’ Cf. Judges, XV. 14. [267]. The Letter to a Friend in London. The Letter to Maria Gisborne presumably. ‘Toys of feathered cupid.’ Othello, Act I. Sc. 3. [269]. ‘The sun is warm,’ etc. Stanzas written in dejection near Naples. [270]. Mr. Keats’s sounding lines. Endymion, Book I. 232 et seq. ‘Weakness and melancholy.’ Cf. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2. [271]. ‘To elevate and surprise.’ The Duke of Buckingham’s Rehearsal, Act I. Sc. 1. ‘Overstep the modesty.’ Hamlet, Act III., Sc. 2. ‘Good set terms.’ As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7. Lord Leveson Gower. Lord Francis Leveson Gower (1800–1857), son of the second Marquis of Stafford, inherited a large property from his uncle, Francis Henry Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, assumed the name of Egerton, and in 1846 was created Earl of Ellesmere. His translation of Faust appeared in 1823. [275]. Note. See vol. V. pp. 202–203, and notes.