Price Two Shillings, A Poetical Essay on the / Existing State of Things./ And Famine at her bidding wasted wide / The Wretched Land, till in the Public way, / Dogs fed on human bones in the open light of day. / CURSE OF KEHAMA. / By a/Gentleman of the University of Oxford./ For assisting to maintain in prison / Mr. Peter Finnerty, / imprisoned for a libel./ London/: sold by B. Crosby & Co., / and all other book-sellers. / 1811. No copy is known. The Weekly Messenger, Dublin, March 7, 1812: “Mr. Shelley, commiserating the sufferings of our distinguished countryman, Mr. Finnerty, whose exertions in the cause of political freedom he much admired, wrote a very beautiful poem, the profits of which we understand, from undoubted authority, Mr. Shelley remitted to Mr. Finnerty: we have heard they amounted to nearly one hundred pounds." MacCarthy, Shelley's Early Life, p. 255. A Diary, Illustrative of the Times of George the Fourth. C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe (from Christ Church, Oxford) to March 15, 1811: Talking of books, we have lately had a literary Sun shine forth upon us here, before whom our former luminaries must hide their diminished heads- - a Mr. Shelley, of University College, who lives upon arsenic, aqua-fortis, half-an-hour's sleep in the night, and is desperately in love with the memory of Margaret Nicholson. He hath published what he terms the Posthumous Poems, printed for the benefit of Mr. Peter Finnerty, which, I am grieved to say, though stuffed full of treason, is extremely dull, but the Author is a great genius, and if he be not clapped up in Bedlam or hanged, will certainly prove one of the sweetest swans on the tuneful margin of the Charwell. Our Apollo next came out with a prose pamphlet in praise of atheism and there appeared a monstrous romance in one volume, called St. Ircoyne [sic], or the Rosicrucian. Shelley's last exhibition is a Poem on the State of Public Affairs." Forman, Shelley Library, pp. 21, 22. From these conflicting statements it appears certain that Shelley printed some poem for the benefit of Finnerty. The profits (£100) may refer to the public subscription made for Finnerty to which Shelley was a contributor. See The Satire of 1811, below. Lines on a Fête at Carlton House. C. H. Grove to Miss Helen Shelley, February 25, 1857: "I forgot to mention before, that during the early part of the summer which Bysshe spent in town after leaving Oxford the Prince Regent gave a splendid fête at Carlton House, in which the novelty was introduced of a stream of water, in imitation of a river, meandering down the middle of a very long table in a temporary tent erected in Carlton Gardens. This was much commented upon in the papers, and laughed at by the Opposition. Bysshe also was of the number of those who disapproved of the fête and its accompaniments. He wrote a poem on the subject of about fifty lines, which he published immediately, wherein he apostrophized the Prince as sitting on the bank of his tiny river : and he amused himself with throwing copies into the carriages of persons going to Carlton House after the fête." Hogg, ii. 556, 557. No copy of this poem is known, but some lines from it will be found in JUVENILIA. A burlesque letter from Shelley to Graham, no date, is connected with this poem by Forman, Shelley Library, p. 24, and by Dowden, i. 136, 137, but it seems doubtful whether the Ode, there mentioned, is not the translation of the Marseillaise Hymn, of which one stanza is there given. Satire: 1811. Shelley (from Field Place) to Hogg, December 20, 1810: "I am composing a satirical poem: I shall print it at Oxford, unless I find on visiting him that R[obinson] is ripe for printing whatever will sell. In case of that he is my man." Hogg, i. 143. Thornton Hunt: note on The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt, ii. 21: "Mr. Rowland Hunter, who first brought Leigh Hunt and his most valued friend personally together. Shelley had brought a manuscript poem, which proved by no means suited to the publishing house in St. Paul's churchyard. But Mr. Hunter sent the young reformer to seek the counsel of Leigh Hunt." : Forman suggests that the manuscript poem offered to Hunter was the saine mentioned in the letter to Hogg and he conjectures, that a poem entitled "Lines addressed to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, on his being appointed Regent," by Philopatria, Jr., and printed in London by Sherwood, Neely & Jones (later connected with the publication of Laon and Cythna) 1811, is the missing satire. Dowden rejects the conjecture. MacCarthy (Shelley's Early Life, 102-106) conjectures that the Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things is the missing satire. The Creator. Shelley (from the Baths of San Giuliano) to Mr. and Mrs. Gisborne June 5, 1821: "My unfortunate box! . . . If the idea of The Creator had been packed up with them it would have shared the same fate; and that, I am afraid, has undergone another sort of shipwreck." Mrs. Shelley, Essays and Letters, ii. 294. Mrs. Shelley to Mr. and Mrs. Gisborne, June 30, 1821: "The Creator has not yet made himself heard." Dowden, ii. 413. Possibly connected with the plans of this summer, vaguely alluded to in letters to Ollier, or with the drama on the Book of Job, and hardly begun. There is no other reference to it, but a familiar quotation of Shelley's from Tasso, c'è in mondo chi merita nome di creatore che Dio ed il Poeta," (Shelley to Peacock, August 16, 1818), may be connected with the title. non UNPUBLISHED POEMS Shelley to Graham. A poetical epistle described by Forman (Aldine edition i. xix.), who gives from it the following lines, refering to Shelley's younger brother John. With little Jack upon the green A dear delightful red-faced brute, Esdaile Manuscript. A manuscript book containing poems, which Shelley intended to publish simultaneously with Queen Mab, in the possession of his grandson, Mr. Esdaile, is partly described by Dowden. Shelley's references to this volume are as follows: Shelley (from Tanyrallt) to Hookham, January 2, 1813 : "My poems will, I fear, little stand the criticism even of friendship: some of the later ones have the merit of conveying a meaning in every word, and all are faithful pictures of my feelings at the time of writing them. But they are in a great measure abrupt and obscure - all breathing hatred to government and religion, but I think not too openly for publication. One fault they are indisputably exempt from, that of being a volume of fashionable literature. I doubt not but that your friendly hand will clip the wings of my Pegasus considerably." Dowden, i. 344. [Shelley Memorials, pp. 50, 51, omits some parts.] Shelley (from Tanyrallt) to Hookham, February 19, 1813: "You will receive it [Queen Mab] with the other poems. I think that the whole should form one volume." Shelley Memorials, p. 52. [Hogg, ii. 183, modifies the text.] Shelley (from Tanyrallt) to Hookham, December 17, 1812: "I am also preparing a volume of minor poems, respecting whose publication I shall expect your judgment, both as publisher and friend. A very obvious question would Shelley Memorials, p. 48. be Will they sell or not?" Shelley (from Tanyrallt) to Hookham, January 26, 1813 : "Queen Mab.. will contain about twenty-eight hundred lines; the other poems contain probably as much more." Hogg, ii. 182. Shelley (from Keswick) to Miss Hitchener, January 26, 1812: "I have been busily engaged in the Address to the Irish people, which will be printed as Paine's works were, and posted on the walls of Dublin. My poems will be printed there." MacCarthy, Shelley's Early Life, p. 133. The contents of this volume are described by Dowden, i. 345-349. The poems appear to be as follows: — Dedication: To Harriet. Printed, revised, as the Dedication of Queen Mab. Falsehood and Vice: A Dialogue. notes to Queen Mab. Printed in Shelley's On Death ("The pale, the cold and the moony smile"). Printed, revised, with Alastor. The Tombs. Dowden quotes the following lines: 66 Courage and charity and truth And high devotedness." On Robert Emmet's Grave. Seven stanzas, of which Dowden prints vi., vii. The Retrospect: Cwm Elan, 1812. A poem contrasting the landscape as it appeared then with the same scene the year before. Dowden prints the greater portion. Sonnet: To Harriet, August 1, 1812. Dowden prints four lines. To Harriet. Partly printed (58-69) by Shelley, notes to Queen Mah; partly (5-13) by Garnett from the Boscombe manuscript, and entire by Dowden. Sonnet: To a Balloon Laden with Knowledge, printed by Dowden. Sonnet: On Launching some Bottles filled with Knowledge into the Bristol Channel, printed by Dowden. Sonnet: Farewell to North Devon. Dowden prints six lines. On Leaving London for Wales. Eight stanzas, of which Dowden prints four. A Tale of Society as it is from Facts, 1811. Published, except three stanzas, by Rossetti from the Hitchener MS. Marseillaise Hymn, translated. Forman prints the second stanza from Locker-Lampson MS. Henry and Louisa. Dowden, i. 347. A narrative poem in two parts, the scene changing from England in the first part to Egypt in the second. Dowden describes the catastrophe as follows: "Henry, borne from his lover's arms by the insane lust of conquest and of glory, is pursued by Louisa, who finds him dying on the bloody sands, and, like Shakespeare's Juliet, is swift to pursue her beloved through the portals of the grave." Shelley notes on this poem : "The stanza of this poem is radically that of Spenser, although I suffered myself at the time of writing it to be led into occasional deviations." Zeinab and Kathema. A tragedy in six-line stanzas, possibly suggested by Miss Owenson's novel, The Missionary. |