Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley | Page 3

was not given him to attain this
knowledge. It must be remembered that there is the stamp of such
inexperience on all he wrote; he had not completed his

nine-and-twentieth year when he died. The calm of middle life did not
add the seal of the virtues which adorn maturity to those generated by
the vehement spirit of youth. Through life also he was a martyr to
ill-health, and constant pain wound up his nerves to a pitch of
susceptibility that rendered his views of life different from those of a
man in the enjoyment of healthy sensations. Perfectly gentle and
forbearing in manner, he suffered a good deal of internal irritability, or
rather excitement, and his fortitude to bear was almost always on the

stretch; and thus, during a short life, he had gone through more
experience of sensation than many whose existence is protracted. 'If I
die to-morrow,' he said, on the eve of his unanticipated death, 'I have
lived to be older than my father.' The weight of thought and feeling
burdened him heavily; you read his sufferings in his attenuated frame,
while you perceived the mastery he held over them in his animated
countenance and brilliant eyes.
He died, and the world showed no outward sign. But his influence over
mankind, though slow in growth, is fast augmenting; and, in the
ameliorations that have taken place in the political state of his country,
we may trace in part the operation of his arduous struggles. His spirit
gathers peace in its new state from the sense that, though late, his
exertions were not made in vain, and in the progress of the liberty he so
fondly loved.
He died, and his place, among those who knew him intimately, has
never been filled up. He walked beside them like a spirit of good to
comfort and benefit--to enlighten the darkness of life with irradiations
of genius, to cheer it with his sympathy and love. Any one, once
attached to Shelley, must feel all other affections, however true and
fond, as wasted on barren soil in comparison. It is our best consolation
to know that such a pure-minded and exalted being was once among us,
and now exists where we hope one day to join him; -- although the
intolerant, in their blindness, poured down anathemas, the Spirit of
Good, who can judge the heart, never rejected him.
In the notes appended to the poems I have endeavoured to narrate the
origin and history of each. The loss of nearly all letters and papers
which refer to his early life renders the execution more imperfect than
it would otherwise have been. I have, however, the liveliest recollection
of all that was done and said during the period of my knowing him.
Every impression is as clear as if stamped yesterday, and I have no
apprehension of any mistake in my statements as far as they go. In
other respects I am indeed incompetent: but I feel the importance of the
task, and regard it as my most sacred duty. I endeavour to fulfil it in a
manner he would himself approve; and hope, in this publication, to lay

the first stone of a monument due to Shelley's genius, his sufferings,
and his virtues:--
Se al seguir son tarda,
Forse avverra che 'l bel nome gentile

Consacrero con questa stanca penna.
POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839.
In revising this new edition, and carefully consulting Shelley's scattered
and confused papers, I found a few fragments which had hitherto
escaped me, and was enabled to complete a few poems hitherto left
unfinished. What at one time escapes the searching eye, dimmed by its
own earnestness, becomes clear at a future period. By the aid of a
friend, I also present some poems complete and correct which hitherto
have been defaced by various mistakes and omissions. It was suggested
that the poem "To the Queen of my Heart" was falsely attributed to
Shelley. I certainly find no trace of it among his papers; and, as those of
his intimate friends whom I have consulted never heard of it, I omit it.
Two poems are added of some length, "Swellfoot the Tyrant" and
"Peter Bell the Third". I have mentioned the circumstances under which
they were written in the notes; and need only add that they are
conceived in a very different spirit from Shelley's usual compositions.
They are specimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but, although they
adopt a familiar style and homely imagery, there shine through the
radiance of the poet's imagination the earnest views and opinions of the
politician and the moralist.
At my request the publisher has restored the omitted passages of
"Queen Mab". I now present this edition as a complete collection of my
husband's poetical works, and I do not foresee that