Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

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Title: Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Author: Mary W. Shelley
Release Date: November, 2003 [EBook #4695]
[This file was last
updated on April 14, 2002]
Edition: 11
Language: English
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES TO
THE COMPLETE ***
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NOTES TO
THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE
SHELLEY
BY
MARY W. SHELLEY.
PREFACE BY MRS. SHELLEY
TO FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, 1839.
Obstacles have long existed to my presenting the public with a perfect
edition of Shelley's Poems. These being at last happily removed, I
hasten to fulfil an important duty,--that of giving the productions of a
sublime genius to the world, with all the correctness possible, and of, at
the same time, detailing the history of those productions, as they sprang,
living and warm, from his heart and brain. I abstain from any remark on
the occurrences of his private life, except inasmuch as the passions
which they engendered inspired his poetry. This is not the time to relate
the truth; and I should reject any colouring of the truth. No account of
these events has ever been given at all approaching reality in their
details, either as regards himself or others; nor shall I further allude to
them than to remark that the errors of action committed by a man as
noble and generous as Shelley, may, as far as he only is concerned, be
fearlessly avowed by those who loved him, in the firm conviction that,
were they judged impartially, his character would stand in fairer and
brighter light than that of any contemporary. Whatever faults he had
ought to find extenuation among his fellows, since they prove him to be
human; without them, the exalted nature of his soul would have raised
him into something divine.
The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley

were,--First, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his intercourse
with warm affection and helpful sympathy. The other, the eagerness
and ardour with which he was attached to the cause of human
happiness and improvement; and the fervent eloquence with which he
discussed such subjects. His conversation was marked by its happy
abundance, and the beautiful language in which he clothed his poetic
ideas and philosophical notions. To defecate life of its misery and its
evil was the ruling passion of his soul; he dedicated to it every power of
his mind, every pulsation of his heart. He looked on political freedom
as the direct agent to effect the happiness of mankind; and thus any
new-sprung hope of liberty inspired a joy and an exultation more
intense and wild than he could have felt for any personal advantage.
Those who have never experienced the workings of passion on general
and unselfish subjects cannot understand this; and it must be difficult of
comprehension to the younger generation rising around, since they
cannot remember the scorn and hatred with which the partisans of
reform were regarded some few years ago, nor the persecutions to
which they were exposed. He had been from youth the victim of the
state of feeling inspired by the reaction of the French Revolution; and
believing firmly in the justice and excellence of his views, it cannot be
wondered that a nature as sensitive, as impetuous, and as generous as
his, should put its whole force into the attempt to alleviate for others
the evils of those systems from which he had himself suffered. Many
advantages attended his birth; he spurned them all when balanced with
what he considered his duties. He was generous to imprudence, devoted
to heroism.
These characteristics breathe throughout his poetry. The struggle for
human weal; the resolution firm to martyrdom; the impetuous pursuit,
the glad triumph in good; the determination not