Droppingly.
* * * * *
Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Born, August 4, 1792. Drowned, July 8, 1822.
Shelley’s poetry has not been extensively parodied, nor have his prose writings been burlesqued, unless, indeed, the forged letters published in 1852 by Mr. Edward Moxon, London, may be considered in the light of a burlesque. This little volume was entitled “Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, with an Introductory Essay by Robert Browning.” The essay, dated “Paris, December 4th, 1851,” occupies 44 pages, and the letters, which were 25 in number, occupy pp. 47 to 165 inclusive.
This was one of the most ingenious literary forgeries of modern times, so clever, not only in its imitation of handwriting, but in style and circumstances, as to have deceived the very elect.
The genuineness of the letters was first called in question by Mr. F. T. Palgrave, who saw the book at Lord (then Mr.) Tennyson’s house, and accidentally opened it at a passage which he recognised as taken from an article contributed by his father to the “Quarterly Review.” Other tests were then applied, the post marks were carefully examined, and little by little the network of fraud was unravelled.
In February, March, and April, 1852, a great controversy, concerning these letters, was carried on in literary circles, but it was practically decided by a series of articles published in the Athenæum, that they were forgeries.
The book was rigidly suppressed, and as only a few copies had got abroad, it now very rarely occurs for sale.