Williams's Journal, January 6, 1822: "S. sat down to Charles I. about five days since. It is exceedingly to be regretted that Shelley does not meet with greater encouragement; a mind such as his, powerful as it is, requires gentle leading." Fortnightly Review, June, 1878. Medwin, Life, ii. 162: "I must now speak of his Charles the First. He had designed to write a tragedy on this ungrateful subject as far back as 1818, and had begun it at the end of the following year, when he asked me to obtain for him that well-known pamphlet, which was in my father's library Killing no Murder. He was, however, in limine, diverted at that time to more attractive subjects, and now resumed his abandoned labors, of which he has left a very unsatisfactory, though valuable, bozzo. The task seemed to him an irksome one. His progress was slow; one day he expunged what he had written the day before. He occasionally showed and read to me his MS., which was lined and interlined and interworded, so as to render it almost illegible. The scenes were disconnected, and intended to be interwoven in the tisse of the drama. He did not thus compose The Cenci. He seemed tangled in an inextricable web of difficulties, as to the treatment of his subject; and it was clear that he had formed no definite plan in his own mind, how to connect the links of the complicated yarn of events that led to that frightful catastrophe, or to justify it . . . Shelley meant to have made the last of King's fools, Archy, a more than subordinate among his dramatis personæ, as Calderon had done in his Cisma de l'Inglaterra, a fool sui generis, who talks in fable, "weaving a world of mirth out of the wreck of all around." . . . Other causes, besides doubt as to the manner of treating the subject, operated to impede its progress. The ever-growing fastidiousness of his taste had, I have often thought, begun to cramp his genius. The opinion of the world, too, at times shook his confidence in himself. I have often been shown the scenes of this tragedy in which he was engaged; like the MSS. of Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, in the library at Ferrara, his were larded with word on word, till they were scarcely decipherable." TEXT: I. 2 First Citizen || First Speaker, 1824. II. 5 Second Citizen || Second Speaker, 1824. 53-54 one line Forman, Dowden. 67 Third Citizen || Another Citizen, 1824. 67. . . omit, Rossetti. 74 made 18392 || make Forman, Dowden. 109 bondage Forman conj., Dowden. 115 A Marshalsman || Fourth Speaker (a pursuivant), 1824. 118 A Law Student || Fifth Speaker (a law student) 141 sea omit Forman, Dowden. 163 her its 1824. 174 presentiment 1824. 180, 181 omit last two speeches, 1824. Stage direction: Enter the KING, QUEEN, LAUD, WENTWORTH and ARCHY, 1824. 3-9 And . . . thanks, omit, 1824. 4 [observance] omit [ ] Forman, Dowden. 37 [eye] omit, Forman. 70 penned || pinched Forman, Dowden. 103 state || stake 1824. 107 With your Grace's leave omit, 1824. 114-118 spoken by the QUEEN 1824. 124 your Forman, Dowden. 126 omit, 1824. 142-240 Beloved mutilation omit 1824. 165 on this transpose to next line, Rossetti, Dowden. TEXT: 201 [belongs?] omit ? and [] Forman, Dowden. 247 the omit, 1824. 251, 252 omit ( ) 1824, Forman, Dowden. 257-261 with . . . innumerable omit, 1824. 263-478 to QUEEN, omit, 1824. 371 Gonzaga Boscombe MS. 384 [Cottington ? ] omit ? and [ IV. ]Forman, Dow salvation omit, 1824. 27-32 These lines are a fragment given by Gar nett, 1862, but not found by Rossetti in the MS. used by him. He places them conjecturally here; Forman suggests that they may belong with Laud's speech, II. 119 or II. 218. They appear rather a disconnected fragment. Stage direction: Hampden, Pym, Cromwell and the younger Vane. 11 flock Forman, Dowden. 17 [lies?] omit? and [ 37. . . omit, 1824. ] Forman, Dowden. 48 Rossetti's reading seems to destroy the natural sense. V. 10-17 Published by Mrs. Shelley, 1824, as A Song, without connection with the drama. MS. Boscombe. Mrs. Shelley, 18391,2, follow 1824 except as already noted. Fragments of an Unfinished Drama. Williams's Journal, April 10, 1822: "Trelawny dined and passed the evening. We talked of a play of his singular life, and a plot to give it the air of romance." April 21: "Call on S. Talk over the subject of the play. drama. Put me in bad He gave me a long lecture on the spirits with myself." [Garnett sug gests that this is the Unfinished Drama.] Fortnightly Review, June, 1878. Mrs. Shelley's Note, 1839, iv. 168: "The following fragments are part of a drama, undertaken for the amusement of the individuals who composed our intimate society, but left unfinished. I have preserved a sketch of the story, so far as it had been shadowed out in the poet's mind." ... Garnett, Relics, p. 14: "A close scrutiny, however, of one of Shelley's MS. books has revealed the existence of much more of this piece than has hitherto been suspected to exist. By far the larger portion of this, forming an episode complete in itself, is here made public, under the title of The Magic Plant. . . . The little drama of which this charming sport of fancy forms a portion was written at Pisa during the late winter or early spring of 1822. The episode of The Magic Plant was obviously suggested by the pleasure Shelley received from the plants grown indoors in his Pisan dwelling, which he says in a letter written in January, 1822, 'turn the sunny winter into spring.' See also the poem of The Zucca, composed about the same time." 15-27 Published separately by Mrs. Shelley, 1824, as Song of a Spirit, but inserted here, 18391. 16 have omit, 1824. 25 seas, waves, 18391,2. 29 pleasure, 1824. 32-41 Oh... loved One speech spoken by INDIAN, 1824. 62 sat 18392. 65 there? Forman. 69 own, Forman. 71 spray | Spring Forman, Dowden. 120-126 Such . . . dream omit, 1824. Published by Mrs. Shelley, 18391. 170. . . disencumbered Garnett, Rossetti. MS. Boscombe. Mrs. Shelley's Note, 1824, v.-vii. : "In the wild but beautiful Bay of Spezzia the winds and waves which he loved became his playmates. His days were chiefly spent on the water; the management of his boat, its alterations and improvements, were his principal occupations. At night, when the unclouded moon shone on the calm sea, he often went alone in his little shallop to the rocky caves that bordered it, and sitting beneath their shelter wrote The Triumph of Life, the last of his productions. The beauty but strangeness of this lonely place, the refined pleasure which he felt in the companionship of a few selected friends, our entire sequestration from the rest of the world, all contributed to render this period of his life one of continued enjoyment. I am convinced that the two months we passed there were the happiest he had ever known. . . . The Triumph of Life . . . was left in so unfinished a state that I arranged it in its present form with the greatest difficulty." 51 The Triumph of Life. Mrs. Shelley's Note, 1839,2 pp. 323, 324: "At first the fatal boat had not arrived, and was expected with great impatience. On Monday, May 12th, it came. Williams records the long wished for fact in his journal: Cloudy and threatening weather. M. Maglian called, and after dinner and while walking with him on the terrace, we discovered a strange sail coming round the point of Porto Venere, which proved at length to be Shelley's boat. She had left Genoa on Thursday last, but had been driven back by the prevailing bad winds. A Mr. Heslop and two English seamen brought her round, and they speak most highly of her performances. She does indeed excite my surprise and admiration. Shelley and I walked to Lerici, and made a stretch off the land to try her; and I find she fetches whatever she looks at. In short, we have now a perfect plaything for the summer.'-It was thus that short-sighted mortals welcomed death, he having disguised his grim form in a pleasing mask! The time of the friends was now spent on the sea; the weather became fine, and our whole party often passed the evenings on the water, when the wind promised pleasant sailing. Shelley and Williams made longer excursions; they sailed several times to Massa; they had engaged one of the seamen who brought her round, a boy, by name Charles Vivian; and they had not the slightest apprehension of danger. When the weather |