A Reprint of the original edition (1822) of “Hellas” was edited for the
Shelley Society in 1887 by Mr. Thomas J. Wise. In Shelley’s list of
Dramatis Personae the Phantom of Mahomet the Second is wanting.
Shelley’s list of Errata in edition 1822 was first printed in Mr. Buxton
Forman’s Library Edition of the Poems, 1876 (4 page 572). These errata
are silently corrected in the text.
1. For Revenge and Wrong bring forth their kind, etc. (lines 728-729.) ‘“For” has no rhyme (unless “are” and “despair” are to be considered such): it requires to rhyme with “hear.” From this defect of rhyme, and other considerations, I (following Mr. Fleay) used to consider it almost certain that “Fear” ought to replace “For”; and I gave “Fear” in my edition of 1870…However, the word in the manuscript [“Williams transcript”] is “For,” and Shelley’s list of errata leaves this unaltered—so we must needs abide by it.’—Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, edition 1878 (3 volumes), 2 page 456.
2. Lines 729-732. This quatrain, as Dr. Garnett (“Letters of Shelley”, 1884, pages 166, 249) points out, is an expansion of the following lines from the “Agamemmon” of Aeschylus (758-760), quoted by Shelley in a letter to his wife, dated ‘Friday, August 10, 1821’:— to dussebes— meta men pleiona tiktei, sphetera d’ eikota genna.
3. Lines 1091-1093. This passage, from the words more bright to the close of line 1093, is wanting in the editio princeps, 1822, its place being supplied by asterisks. The lacuna in the text is due, no doubt, to the timidity of Ollier, the publisher, whom Shelley had authorised to make excisions from the notes. In “Poetical Works”, 1839, the lines, as they appear in our text, are restored; in Galignani’s edition of “Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats” (Paris, 1829), however, they had already appeared, though with the substitution of wise for bright (line 1091), and of unwithstood for unsubdued (line 1093). Galignani’s reading—native for votive—in line 1095 is an evident misprint. In Ascham’s edition of Shelley (2 volumes, fcp. 8vo., 1834), the passage is reprinted from Galignani.
4. The following list shows the places in which our text departs from the punctuation of the editio princeps, 1822, and records in each instance the pointing of that edition:—dreams 71; course. 125; mockery 150; conqueror 212; streams 235; Moslems 275; West 305; moon, 347; harm, 394; shame, 402; anger 408; descends 447; crime 454; banner. 461; Phanae, 470; blood 551; tyrant 557; Cydaris, 606; Heaven 636; Highness 638; man 738; sayest 738; One 768; mountains 831; dust 885; consummation? 902; dream 921; may 923; death 935; clime. 1005; feast, 1025; horn, 1032; Noon, 1045; death 1057; dowers 1094.
CHARLES THE FIRST.
To Mr. Rossetti we owe the reconstruction of this fragmentary drama out of materials partly published by Mrs. Shelley in 1824, partly recovered from manuscript by himself. The bracketed words are, presumably, supplied by Mr. Rossetti to fill actual lacunae in the manuscript; those queried represent indistinct writing. Mr. Rossetti’s additions to the text are indicated in the footnotes. In one or two instances Mr. Forman and Dr. Garnett have restored the true reading. The list of Dramatis Personae is Mr. Forman’s.
THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE.
1. Lines 131-135. This grammatically incoherent passage is thus conjecturally emended by Rossetti:— Fled back like eagles to their native noon; For those who put aside the diadem Of earthly thrones or gems…, Whether of Athens or Jerusalem, Were neither mid the mighty captives seen, etc. In the case of an incomplete poem lacking the author’s final corrections, however, restoration by conjecture is, to say the least of it, gratuitous.
2. Line 282. The words, ‘Even as the deeds of others, not as theirs.’ And then—are wanting in editions 1824, 1839, and were recovered by Dr. Garnett from the Boscombe manuscript. Mrs. Shelley’s note here runs:—‘There is a chasm here in the manuscript which it is impossible to fill. It appears from the context that other shapes pass and that Rousseau still stood beside the dreamer.’ Mr. Forman thinks that the ‘chasm’ is filled up by the words restored from the manuscript by Dr. Garnett. Mr. A.C. Bradley writes: ‘It seems likely that, after writing “I have suffered…pain”, Shelley meant to strike out the words between “known” [276] and “I” [278], and to fill up the gap in such a way that “I” would be the last word of the line beginning “May well be known”.’