The Complete Poetical Works, vol 1 | Page 5

it recited, and will therefore more readily seize any error." This
confidence in the accuracy of Gisborne's verbal memory is touching!
From a letter to Gisborne on May 26 following it appears that the offer
to correct came from him, and that Shelley sent him "two little papers
of corrections and additions," which were probably made use of, or the
fact would have been made known. In the case of additions this may
satisfactorily account for apparent omissions in the Bodleian
manuscript. Gisborne, after all, did not prove fully up to the mark. "It is
to be regretted," writes Shelley to Ollier on November 20, "that the
errors of the press are so numerous," adding, "I shall send you the list
of errata in a day or two." This was probably "the list of errata written
by Shelley himself," from which Mrs. Shelley corrected the edition of
1839.')
In placing "Queen Mab" at the head of the "Juvenilia" I have followed
the arrangement adopted by Mr. Buxton Forman in his Library Edition
of 1876. I have excluded "The Wandering Jew", having failed to satisfy
myself of the sufficiency of the grounds on which, in certain quarters, it
is accepted as the work of Shelley. The shorter fragments are printed,
as in Professor Dowden's edition of 1890, along with the miscellaneous
poems of the years to which they severally belong, under titles which
are sometimes borrowed from Mr. Buxton Forman, sometimes of my
own choosing. I have added a few brief Editor's Notes, mainly on
textual questions, at the end of the book. Of the poverty of my work in
this direction I am painfully aware; but in the present edition the

ordinary reader will, it is hoped, find an authentic, complete, and
accurately printed text, and, if this be so, the principal end and aim of
the OXFORD SHELLEY will have been attained.
I desire cordially to acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. H. Buxton
Forman, C.B., by whose kind sanction the second part of "The Daemon
the World" appears in this volume. And I would fain express my deep
sense of obligation for manifold information and guidance, derived
from Mr. Buxton Forman's various editions, reprints and other
publications--especially from the monumental Library Edition of 1876.
Acknowledgements are also due to the poet's grandson, Charles E.J.
Esdaile, Esq., for permission to include the early poems first printed in
Professor Dowden's "Life of Shelley"; and to Mr. C.D. Locock, for
leave to make full use of the material contained in his interesting and
stimulating volume. To Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., and to Professor
Dowden, cordial thanks are hereby tendered for good counsel
cheerfully bestowed. To two of the editors of the Shelley Society
Reprints, Mr. Thomas J. Wise and Mr. Robert A. Potts--both
generously communicative collectors--I am deeply indebted for the gift
or loan of scarce volumes, as well as for many kind offices in other
ways. Lastly, to the staff of the Oxford University Press my heartiest
thanks are owing, for their unremitting care in all that relates to the
printing and correcting of the sheets.
THOMAS HUTCHINSON.
December, 1904.
POSTSCRIPT.
In a valuable paper, 'Notes on Passages in Shelley,' contributed to "The
Modern Language Review" (October, 1905), Mr. A.C. Bradley
discussed, amongst other things, some fifty places in the text of
Shelley's verse, and indicated certain errors and omissions in this
edition. With the aid of these "Notes" the editor has now carefully
revised the text, and has in many places adopted the suggestions or
conclusions of their accomplished author.

June, 1913.
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