NOTES FRAGMENTS, PART II Charles the First. Mrs. Shelley's Note, 18391, iv. 226, 227: "The winter of 1822 was passed in Pisa, if we might call that season winter in which autumn merged into spring, after the interval of but few days of bleaker weather. Spring sprang up early, and with extreme beauty. Shelley had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the subject of Charles I. It was one that he believed adapted for a drama; full of intense interest, contrasted character, and busy passion. He had recommended it long before, when he encouraged me to attempt a play. Whether the subject proved more difficult than he anticipated, or whether in fact he could not bend his mind away from the broodings and wanderings of thought divested from human interest, which he best loved, I cannot tell; but he proceeded slowly, and threw it aside for one of the most mystical of his poems, The Triumph of Life, on which he was employed at the last." Shelley (from Padua) to Mrs. Shelley, September 22, 1818: "Meanwhile remember Charles the First. . . . Adieu, my dearest love remember, remember Charles I. and Myrra. I have been already imagining how you will conduct some scenes. The second volume of St. Leon begins with this proud and true sentiment 'There is nothing that the human mind can conceive, which it may not execute.' Shakespeare was only a human being." Mrs. Shelley, Essays and Letters, ii. 141, 142. Shelley (from Pisa) to Medwin, July 20, 1820: “ What think you of my boldness? I mean to write a play, in the spirit of human nature, without prejudice or passion, entitled Charles the First. So vanity intoxicates people; but let those few who praise my verses, and in whose approbation I take so much delight, answer for the sin." Trelawny, Records, ii. 38. Shelley (from Pisa) to Ollier, February 22, 1821: "I doubt about Charles the First; but, if I do write it, it shall be the birth of severe and high feelings. You are very welcome to it, on the terms you mention, and, when once I see and feel that I can write it, it is already written. My thoughts aspire to a production of a far higher character; but the execution of it will require some years. I write what I write chiefly to enquire, by the reception which my writings meet with, how far I am fit for so great a task, or not." Shelley Memorials, p. 155. Shelley (from the Baths of San Giuliano) to Mr. and Mrs. Gisborne, June 5, 1821: "My unfortunate box! it contained a chaos of the elements of Charles I." Mrs. Shelley, Essays and Letters, ii. 294. Shelley (from Pisa) to Ollier, September 25, 1821: "Charles the First is conceived, but not born. Unless I am sure of making something good, the play will not be written. Pride, that ruined Satan, will kill Charles the First, for his midwife would be only less than him whom thunder has made greater. I am full of great plans; and if I should tell you them, I should add to the list of these riddles." Shelley Memorials, p. 159. Shelley (from Pisa) to Peacock, January 11 (?), 1822 : "I have been long idle, and, as far as writing goes, despondent; but I am now engaged on Charles the First, and a devil of a nut it is to crack." Peacock, Works, iii. 477. Shelley (from Pisa) to Ollier, January 11, 1822: "The historical tragedy of Charles the First will be ready by the spring. [Here follows an offer of the copyright to Ollier.] I ought to say that the tragedy promises to be good as tragedies go, and that it is not colored by the party spirit of the author. How far it may be popular I cannot judge." Frederickson MS. Shelley (from Pisa) to Hunt, January 25, 1822: "One thing strikes me as possible. I am at present writing the drama of Charles the First, a play which, if completed according to my present idea, will hold a higher rank than The Cenci as a work of art. Write to Allman, your bookseller, tell him what I tell you of Charles the First, and do not delay a post. I have a parcel of little poems also, the ... Witch of Atlas, and some translations of Homer's Hymns, the copyright of which I must sell. I offered the Charles the First to Ollier, and you had better write at the same time to learn his terms. Of course you will not delay a post in this." Garnett, Relics, pp. 187, 188. Shelley (from Pisa) to Hunt, March 2, 1822: "So you think I can make nothing of Charles the First. Tanto peggio. Indeed, I have written nothing for this last two months a slight circumstance gave a new train to my ideas, and shattered the fragile edifice when half built. What motives have I to write? I had motives, and I thank the God of my own heart they were totally different from those of the other apes of humanity who make mouths in the glass of the time. But what are those motives now? The only inspiration of an ordinary kind I could descend to acknowledge would be the earning £100 for you; and that it seems I cannot." Garnett, Relics, pp. 107, 108. Shelley (from Pisa) to John Gisborne, April 10, 1822: "I have done some of Charles the First; but although the poetry succeeded very well, I cannot seize on the conception of the subject as a whole, and seldom now touch the canvas." Mrs. Shelley, Essays and Letters, ii. 339. Shelley (from Lerici) to John Gisborne, June 18, 1822 : "I write little now. It is impossible to compose except under the strong excitement of an assurance of finding sympathy in what you write. Imagine Demosthenes reciting a Philippic to the waves of the Atlantic. Lord Byron is in this respect fortunate. He touched the chord to which a million hearts responded, and the coarse music which he produced to please them, disciplined him to the perfection to which he now approaches. I do not go on with Charles the First. I feel too little certainty of the future, and too little satisfaction with regard to the past to undertake any subject seriously and deeply. I stand, as it were, upon a precipice, which I have ascended with great, and cannot descend without greater peril, and I am content if the heaven above me is calm for the passing moment." Fortnightly Review, June, 1878. |