The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley from the original editions. Edited, prefaced, and annotated by R. H. Shepherd

Front matter

SHELLEY'S POETICAL WORKS VOL I Large Paper Edition limited to 100 copies, of which this is £fff6y THE POETICAL WORKS m PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITIONS EDITED, PREFACED, AND ANNOTATED BY RICHARD HERNE SHEPHERD IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I. ILonfion CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1S88 T&aHwitjme "-pees*. BALLANTVNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON CONTENTS. FAGH MARGARET NICHOLSON, PUBLISHED l8lO ... I Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson . . 7 Fragment, supposed to be an Epithalamium of Francis Ravaillac and Charlotte Corday . . . . 10 Symphony I2 Despair '3 Fragment '5 The Spectral Horseman 16 Alelody lo a Scene of Former Times . . . .18 CORRESPONDENCE WITH STOCKDALE . . . .20 THE WANDERING JEW 33 QUEEN MAB %l NOTES TO QUEEN MAB '54 ALASTOR ; OR, THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE . . -22$ Poems 25° Stanzas.— April 1814 251 Mutability 252 A Summer- Evening Churchyard, Gloucestershire . 254 To Wordsworth 255 Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparle . 256 Sonnet from the Italian of Dante . . . ■ 'b. Translated from the Greek of Moschus . . . 257 The Demon ofthe World.

A Fragment . . . ib. CONTENTS. VI PAGE MONT BLANC : LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALF. OF CHAMOUNI 267 LINES TO A CRITIC 272 ROSALIND AND HELEN : A MODERN ECLOGUE . . 273 LINES WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS (Oct. I8l8) 316 HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY .... 327 SONNET. OZYMANDIAS 330 TROMETHEUS UNBOUND 33I MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 423 The Sensitive Plant ....... 425 A Vision ofthe Sea ....... 435 Ode to Heaven ........ 441 An Exhortation ....... 443 Ode to the West Wind 444 An Ode: Written, Oct. 1819, before the Spaniards had recovered their Liberty ..... 447 The Cloud 448 To a Skylark ........ 450 Ode to Liberty . . , , . . . . 4 C4 Marianne's Dream -."..... 464 Arethusa 463 Love's Philosophy . . , . . . . 47 1 Lines to an Lndian Air 472 Song on a Faded Violet 47, Stanzas -written in dejection near Naples . . . ib. ADONAIS : AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JOHN KEATS

Introduction

r|n|S|HE plan and arrangement of this new edition of Ej gj Shelley's Complete Poetical Works, in three volumes, are as follows : — Vol. I. contains: — Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson ; Shelley's Correspondence with Stockdale ; The Wandering Jew (the only complete version) ; Queen Mab, with the Notes ; A lastor, and other Poems ; Rosalind and Helen; Prometheus Unbound; Adonais, &c. Vol. II. contains : — Loon and Cythna (as originally published, instead of the emasculated Revolt of Islam) ; The Cenci ; Julian and Maddalo (from Shelley's manuscript ; Swellfoot the Tyrant (from the copy in the Dyce Library at South Kensington) ; The Witch of Atlas ; Epipsychidion ; Hellas. Vol. III. contains : — Posthumous Poems, published by Mrs. Shelley in 1824 and 1839 ; The Masque of Anarchy (from Shelley's manuscript) ; and other pieces not brought together in the ordinary editions.

With the two exceptions indicated of poems printed from Shelley's manuscript, with important rectifications of text, all the works are printed direct from the rare original editions, of the titles of which facsimiles are given. The poem of Laon and Cythna — the original version ofthe Revolt of Islam, and one of the masterpieces of

INTRODUCTION.

. Shelley's maturer genius — is given to the world as he first wrote it. Considering that all the alterations and omissions in the later form of the work were made under outward pressure, and with warm and fervent protest from the poet himself, it is only a pious duty to his memory to substitute the perfect poem, as he wished it to stand, for the mangled and mutilated version which eventually saw the light.* The history of the transaction is not a little curious. It is thus briefly related by one of Shelley's more recent biographers, Thomas Love Peacock, the accomplished author of Nightmare Abbey : — ■ " In the summer of 1 8 1 7 Shelley wrote the Revolt of Islam, chiefly on a seat on a high prominence in Bisham Wood,f where he passed whole mornings with a blank book and a pencil. This work, when completed, was printed under the title of Laon and Cythna.

In this poem he had carried the expression of his opinions, moral, political, and theological, beyond the bounds of discretion. The terror which, in those days of per secution of the press, the perusal of the book inspired in Mr. Oilier, the publisher, induced him to solicit the alteration of many passages which he had marked. * Mr. Rossetti, in his edition of Shelley, makes a kind of "hash" of the two books, adopting arbitrarily the earlier or later reading, as it happens to recommend itself to his individual taste. Mr. Buxton Forman has substantially adopted our own plan. All other editions, including those of Mrs. Shelley, reproduce the emasculated text of the Revolt of Islam, without any attempt at restitution of the original readings — a course preferable, perhaps, to the via media of Mr. Rossetti. t Near Marlow.

INTRODUCTION.

. IX Shelley was for some time inflexible; but Mr. Ollier's refusal to publish the poem as it was, backed by the advice of all his friends, induced him to submit to the required changes. Many leaves were cancelled, and it was finally published as the Revolt of Islam. Of Laon and Cythna only three copies had gone forth. One of these had found its way to the Quarterly Review, and the opportunity was readily seized of pouring out on it one of the most malignant effusions of the odium theo logicum that ever appeared even in those days, and in that periodical." * In that invaluable repository of out-of-the-way infor mation, Notes and Queries, there appeared in 1862 t an interesting paper on " Laon and Cythna and the Revolt of Islam," by another poet-critic, well versed in Shelleyan matters, the late Mr. Denis Florence Mac- Carthy.

From this paper we extract the following remarks : — " If Mr. Peacock is correct in stating that only three copies of Laon and Cythna had gone forth, the fate of these three is easily accounted for. ' One,' as Mr. Peacock says, and as is evident both from the heading and the notes of the article referred to, ' found its way to the Quarterly Review.' Another was certainly sent to Godwin, as we have a letter of Shelley's, dated De cember nth, 181 7 (three weeks before the poem came * Fraser's Alagazine, January 1860, p. 100. It seems a pity that Peacock's three papers on Shelley have not been reprinted in a permanent book form. Probably this desideratum will be shortly supplied by the Shelley Society. + April 12, 1862 (3rd S. i. 283-5).

INTRODUCTION.

. X out under its new title of the Revolt of Islam), in reply to one of Godwin's, in which he says, ' I listened with deference and self-suspicion to your censures of Laon and Cythna.' * The third, there can be no doubt, was sent to Thomas Moore, ' whose most kind and en couraging letter on the subject of the poem ' Shelley had ' just received ' when writing to his publisher, Mr. Oilier, on the same day.f This identical copy, with ' From the Author,' in Shelley's large bold hand-writing on the fly-leaf, is now in the Moore Library, Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street, Dublin, where the poet's books have found an honoured resting-place, owing to the liberality of Mrs. Moore. Moore's library contains also the original edition of the Revolt of Islam, but without any inscription from the author.

I have looked carefully through both these volumes to see whether they contained any pencil marks by Moore, or any notes of admiration, condemnation, or protestation from which we could infer whether his ' most kind and encouraging letter ' in acknowledgment was confined merely to the literary execution of the poem. I have, however, found none. It is quite plain, notwithstanding, that Shelley wished the frightened publisher to suppose that Moore might be considered in favour of the appearance of the poem in its original form. " That Mr. Peacock's statement is strictly true is, therefore, extremely probable ; but that more copies were made up than the three that ' had gone forth ' at the time of the publisher's objection to the further issue of the poem, and that these copies are now stealing into * Shelley Alemcrials, p. 8$. •)• Ibid., p. 81.

INTRODUCTION.

. XI the market, is beyond all doubt.* Before alluding to the analysis which I have made of the differences exist ing between Laon and Cythna and the Revolt of Islam, I may state that I have obtained two uncut copies of Laon and Cythna within the last six months from different London booksellers, neither of whom, however, could assist me in my inquiries as to the way in which original copies of this poem are now getting into cir culation, or as to their probable number. That the number must be exceedingly small is, I think, evident from the parsimony almost with which the disagreeable process of cancelling the offending pages was carried out, and the eagerness with which every printed scrap of the original sheets that was admissible was turned to use in the making up of the new volume. An amusing instance of this may be seen in the list of 'Errata,' which is the same in both volumes.

In the process of cancelling the peccant pages, some of these errors were, however, corrected ; but the reader of the Revolt of Islam is, nevertheless, called upon to forgive mistakes that no longer exist (as at pp. 90 and 264), except in Laon and Cythna; and at p. 182, line 12, the 'these' of Laon and Cythna is requested to be read ' those ' in the list of errata to the Revolt of Islam; while in the text itself, the word ' thou,' which is different from either, is silently adopted. "As to the differences existing between the two * There are two copies in the Dyce Library at South Kensington, and there is one in the British Museum : all three have been used in preparing and in correcting the proof-sheets of the present reprint. — Ed.

INTRODUCTION.

. poems, I have carefully noted all the passages. In an inquiry of this kind they are all presentable, even, per haps, the tremendous termination of stanza xxxix., canto 6, in Laon and Cythna. " I may, however, say that, exclusive of the title-page and preface, but fifty-five lines of the original poem have been altered, necessitating, however, the cancelling of the leaves containing the following pages : — 41, 42, 43, 44, 57, 58, 89, 90, 115, 116, 139, 140, 143, 144, 147, 148, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 199, 200, 201, 202, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231,232, 234, 235, 236, 245, 246, 249, 250, 255, 256, 263, 264, 265, 266. To these are to be added the title-page, pp. xxi. xxii. of the Preface, and the false title containing the quota tion from Pindar,* which follows the address ' To Mary 'in the Revolt of L slam, but which is not given in Laon and Cythna.

Making altogether fifty two pages (or rather twenty-six leaves) in which the one poem differs from the other." In the present reprint the original text of Laon and Cythna is reproduced verbatim (with the exception that the errata noted on the fly-leaf are, of course, silently corrected). The alterations made in the later version, as afterwards published under the title of the Revolt cf Islam, are given in foot-note form, as variorum readings. 'Oo*ois Si Pporbv editos ayXaiais airro/teada Hepalvet irpds Itrxaroy TIX60V. vautrl S' oifre irej-is liiv &v evpois 'Es inrepfSopiunt aywm 0a\i)iara._t 686i\ IIix.. Iio6. x.

INTRODUCTION.

. XIII Before quitting the subject of Laon and Cythna, we must say a word or two in reference to the attack on it in the Quarterly Review* alluded to by Peacock. This is one of the most ferocious, unfeeling, and brutal onslaughts that a small critic ever was allowed to make on a great poet. A copy of the work in its original form had been sent out to the great review before the wary publisher had seen any cause for suppressing it ; and on the publica tion of the modified Revolt of Islam, the reviewer did not fail to make capital out of the accident. " Laon and Cythna?' he says, " is the same poem with the Revolt of Islam — under the first name it exhibited some features which made ' the experiment on the temper of the public mind,' as the author calls it, somewhat too bold and hazardous. This knight-errant in the cause of ' a liberal and comprehensive morality ' had already sus tained some 'perilous handling' in his encounters with Prejudice and Error, and acquired in consequence of it a small portion of the better part of valour.

Accordingly Laon and Cythna withdrew from circulation ; and happy had it been for Mr. Shelley if he had been contented with his failure, and closed his experiments. But with minds of a certain class, notoriety, infamy, anything is better than obscurity. Baffled in a thousand attempts after fame, they will still make one more at whatever risk, and they end commonly like an awkward chemist who perseveres in tampering with his ingredients, till, in an unlucky moment, they take fire, and he is blown up by the explosion. * No. 42 (April 1819), pp. 460-474.

INTRODUCTION.

. "Laon and Cythna has accordingly reappeared with a new name, and a few slight alterations. If we could trace in these any signs of an altered spirit, we should have hailed with the sincerest pleasure the return of one whom Nature intended for better things, to the ranks of virtue and religion. But Mr. Shelley is no penitent ; he has reproduced the same poison, a little, and but a little, more cautiously disguised, and as it is thus intended only to do the more mischief at less personal risk to the author, our duty requires us to use his own evidence against himself, to interpret him where he is obscure now, by himself where he was plain before, and to exhibit the ' fearful consequences ' to which he would bring us, as he drew them in the boldness of his first conceptioa " Before, however, we do this, we will discharge our duty to Mr. Shelley as poetical critics — in a case like the present, indeed, where the freight is so pernicious, it is but a secondary duty to consider the ' build ' of the vessel which bears it ; but it is a duty too peculiarly our own to be wholly neglected.

Though we should be sorry to see the Revolt of Islam in our readers' hands, we are bound to say that it is not without beautiful pas sages, that the language is in general free from errors of taste, and the versification smooth and harmonious. " The poem could never, we are persuaded, become popular. Its merits and its faults equally conspire against it; it has not much ribaldry or voluptuousness for prurient imaginations, and no personal scandal for the malicious • arid even those on whom it might be expected to act most dangerously by its semblance of enthusiasm, will have stout hearts to proceed beyond the first canto. As

INTRODUCTION.

. XV a whole, it is insupportably dull, and laboriously obscure; its absurdities are not of the kind which provoke laughter ; the story is almost wholly devoid of interest, and very meagre ; nor can we admire Mr. Shelley's mode of making up for this defect — as he has but one incident where he should have ten, he tells that one so intricately, that it takes the time of ten to comprehend it." We pass on to the great tragedy of The Cenci. This is reproduced from the Italian Edition, printed under Shelley's own eyes, but into which some errors had slipped that the later (London) edition of 1S21 has enabled us silently to correct. The Cenci (which has been considered worthy of the greatest Elizabethan masters) was intended by Shelley for dramatic representation, and he was in hopes of in ducing the famous Miss O'Neil to undertake the part of the heroine.

The revolting nature of the plot, however, precluded its acceptance. "Shelley only once," says Mr. Peacock, "descended into the arena of reality, and that was in the tragedy of Tlie Cenci* This is unquestionably a work of great dramatic power, but it is as unquestionably not a work for the modern English stage. It would have been a great work in the days of Massinger. He sent it to me to introduce it to Covent Garden Theatre. I did so ; but the result was as I expected. It could not be re ceived ; though great admiration was expressed of the author's powers, and great hopes of his success with a less repulsive subject." Swellfoot the Tyrant is reproduced from a copy of the * Fraser's Magazine, ubi supr-k.

INTRODUCTION.

. XVI extremely rare original edition in the Dyce collection at South Kensington. Hellas, the last piece of Shelley published in his life time, is from the original edition of 1822. Thus our edition contains everything that Shelley published in his lifetime, as he first printed it, unmutilated and untampered with ; and everything of any value or significance published after his death which he would have wished to have preserved. The present Editor's humble office in the matter has been strictly limited, both by his own choice and by the instructions he received. He has taken as the ground work of his text the author's own editions, of which the proofs were corrected either by himself, by Peacock, or by other judicious friends ; has eschewed altogether con jectural emendations ; and has confined himself to the correction of obvious clerical errors, and to reducing the orthography and punctuation to a uniform standard.

And he does not hesitate to add that, without any merit on his part but that of loving fidelity and painstaking, the present edition of Shelley is the most correct and trustworthy in text of any that has yet issued from the press. RICHARD HERNE SHEPHERD. Kingston Vale. Lent, 1888. POSTHUMOUS FRAGMENTS 0_ MARGARET NICHOLSON. i. A POSTHUMOUS FRAGMENTS OF MARGARET NICHOLSON. isr]*sS|HE following extraordinary productions were jflj.SJ written by Shelley at the age of eighteen during his brief University career at Oxford. The proofs were submitted before publication to his friend and fellow collegian, Jefferson Hogg, who suggested the whimsical title under which they afterwards appeared, and made sundry alterations with the view of giving to the various pieces an air of burlesque, which Shelley had not originally intended.

When the proofs were returned to the bookseller, under whose auspices they were printed, he was so pleased with the humour of the thing, that he offered to publish the little pamphlet at his own risk. It came out as a thin quarto, and appears to have had a considerable sale among the Oxonians. Mr. Hogg states that he used to meet gownsmen in High Street reading the little volume as they walked with a grave and sage delight. " It was indeed a kind of fashion to be seen reading it in public, as a mark of a nice discernment, of a delicate and fasti dious taste in poetry, and the very criterion of a choice spirit. Nobody suspected, or could suspect, who was the author ; the thing passed off as the genuine production of the would-be regicide." Here, in this boyish work we already find Shelley as piring to further " the dearest interest of universal happi ness."

Here also, in spite of Hogg's buffoonish interpola tions, we find some passages of rare poetic beauty, givin^ no uncertain promise of great things to come. POSTHUMOUS FRAGMENTS Off MARGARET NICHOLSON; BEING POEMS FOUND AMONGST THE PAPERS OF THAT NOTED FEMALE WHO ATTEMPTED THE LIFE OF THE KING IN 1786. EDITED BT 5N©*£ dttŒdTHfCŒÆR. OXFORD : PEINTED AND SOLD BT J. MUNDAT.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. [fjj'jgilHE energy and native genius of these fragments pj.fc__ must be the only apology which the Editor can make for thus intruding them on the public no tice. The frst I found with no title, and have left it so. It is intimately connected with the dearest interests of universal happiness ; and much as we may deplore the fatal and enthusiastic tendency which the ideas of this poor female had acquired, we cannot fail to pay the tribute of unequivocal regret to the departed memory of genius, which, had it been rightly organized, would have made that intellect, which has since become the victim of frenzy and despair, a most brilliant ornament to society. In case the sale of these fragments evinces that the public have any curiosity to be presented with a more copious collection of my unfortunate aunt's poems, I have other papers in my possession, which shall, in that case, be subjected to their notice.

It may be supposed they require much arrangement ; but I send the following to the press in the same state in which they came into my possession. J.F. POSTHUMOUS FRAGMENTS OF MARGARET NICHOLSON. jgjrtgjiMBITION, power, and avarice, now have hurl'd lgfe|S Death, fate, and ruin, on a bleeding world. See on yon heath what countless victims lie, Hark ! what loud shrieks ascend thro' yonder sky ; Tell then the cause, 'tis sure the avenger's rage Has swept these myriads from life's crowded stage : Hark to that groan, an anguish'd hero dies, He shudders in death's latest agonies ; Yet does a fleeting hectic flush his cheek, Yet does his parting breath essay to speak — " Oh God ! my wife, my children — Monarch, thou " For whose support this fainting frame lies low ; " For whose support in distant lands I bleed, " Let his friends' welfare be the warrior's meed.

" He hears me not — ah ! no — kings cannot hear, " For passion's voice has dull'd their listless ear. " To thee, then, mighty God, I lift my moan, " Thou wilt not scorn a suppliant's anguish'd groan. " Oh ! now I die — but still is death's fierce pain — " God hears my prayer — we meet, we meet again." He spake, reclined him on death's bloody bed, And with a parting groan his spirit fled. Oppressors of mankind, to you we owe The hateful streams from whence these miseries flow ; P0STHUA10US FRAGAIENTS OF i For you how many a mother weeps her son, Snatch'd from life's course ere half his race was run For you how many a widow drops a tear, In silent anguish, on her husband's bier ! " Is it then Thine, Almighty Power," she cries, " Whence tears of endless sorrow dim these eyes ? "Is this the system which Thy powerful sway, " Which else in shapeless chaos sleeping lay, " Form'd and approved ? — it cannot be — but oh !

" Forgive me, Heaven, my brain is warp'd by woe." 'Tis not — He never bade the war-note swell, He never triumph'd in the work of hell — Monarchs of earth ! thine is the baleful deed, Thine are the crimes for which thy subjects bleed. Ah ! when will come the sacred fated time, When man unsullied by his leaders' crime, Despising wealth, ambition, pomp, and pride, Will stretch him fearless by his foemen's side ? Ah ! when will come the time, when o'er the plain No more shall death and desolation reign ? When will the sun smile on the bloodless field, And the stern warrior's arm the sickle wield ? Not whilst some king, in cold ambition's dreams, Plans for the field of death his plodding schemes ; Not whilst for private pique the public fall, And one frail mortal's mandate governs all. Swell'd with command and mad with dizzying sway, Who sees unmoved his myriads fade away, Careless who lives or dies, so that he gains Some trivial point for which he took the pains.

What then are kings ? — I see the trembling crowd, I hear their fulsome clamours echo'd loud ; Their stern oppressor pleased appears awhile, But April's sunshine is a Monarch's smile — Kings are but dust — the last eventful day AIARGARET NICHOLSON. Will level all and make them lose their sway ; Will dash the sceptre from the Monarch's hand, And from the warrior's grasp wrest the ensanguined brand. Oh ! Peace, soft Peace, art thou for ever gone, Is thy fair form indeed for ever flown ? And love and concord hast thou swept away, As if incongruous with thy parted sway ? Alas ! I fear thou hast, for none appear. Now o'er the palsied earth stalks giant Fear, With War, and Woe, and Terror, in his train : Listening he pauses on the embattled plain, Then speeding swiftly o'er the ensanguined heath, Has left the frightful work to hell and death.

See ! gory Ruin yokes his blood-stain'd car, He scents the battle's carnage from afar ; Hell and destruction mark his mad career, He tracts the rapid step of hurrying Fear ; Whilst ruin'd towns and smoking cities tell That thy work, Monarch, is the work of hell. It is thy work ! I hear a voice repeat, Shakes the broad basis of thy blood-stain'd seat ; And at the orphan's sigh, the widow's moan, Totters the fabric of thy guilt-stain'd throne — " It is thy work, O Monarch," now the sound Fainter and fainter yet is borne around : Yet to enthusiast ears the murmurs tell That Heaven, indignant at the work of hell, Will soon the cause, the hated cause, remove Which tears from earth peace, innocence, and love. POSTHUMOUS FRAGMENTS OF 10 FRAGMENT. SUPPOSED TO BE AN EPITHALAMIUM OF FRANCIS RAVAILLAC AND CHARLOTTE CORDAV.

(»v,gA. IS midnight now — athwart the murky air Dank lurid meteors shoot a livid gleam, From the dark storm-clouds flashes a fearful glare, It shews the bending oak, the roaring stream. I ponder'd on the woes of lost mankind, I ponder'd on the ceaseless rage of Kings, My rapt soul dwelt upon the ties that bind The mazy volume of commingling things, When fell and wild misrule to man stern sorrow brings. I heard a yell — it was not the knell, When the blasts on the wild lake sleep, That floats on the pause of the summer gale's swell, O'er the breast of the waveless deep. I thought it had been death's accents cold That bade me recline on the shore ; 1 laid mine hot head on the surge-beaten mould, And thought to breathe no more. But a heavenly sleep That did suddenly steep In balm my bosom's pain, Pervaded my soul, And free from control, Did mine intellect range again.

Methought enthroned upon a silvery cloud, Which floated 'mid a strange and brilliant light,— My form upborne by viewless ether rode, And spurn'd the lessening realms of earthly night. What heavenly notes burst on my ravish'd ears, What beauteous spirits met my dazzled eye ! Hark ! louder swells the music of the spheres, AIARGARET NICHOLSON. 11 roll, More clear the forms of speechless bliss float by. And heavenly gestures suit ethereal melody. But fairer than the spirits of the air, More graceful than the Sylph of symmetry, Than the enthusiast's fancied love more fair, Were the bright forms that swept the azure sky. Enthroned in roseate light, a heavenly band Strew'd flowers of bliss that never fade away ; They welcome virtue to its native land, And songs of triumph greet the joyous day When endless bliss the woes of fleeting life repay.

Congenial minds will seek their kindred soul, E'en though the tide of time has roll'd between ; They mock weak matter's impotent control, And seek of endless life the eternal scene. At death's vain summons this will never die, In Nature's chaos this will not decay — These are the bands which closely, warmly tie Thy soul, O Charlotte, 'yond this chain of clay, To him who thine must be till time shall fade away. Yes, Francis ! thine was the dear knife that tore A tyrant's heart-strings from his guilty breast, Thine was the daring at a tyranf s gore To smile in triumph, to contemn the rest ; And thine, loved glory of thy sex ! to tear From its base shrine a despot's haughty soul, To laugh at sorrow in secure despair, To mock, with smiles, life's lingering control, And triumph 'mid the griefs that round thy fate did Yes ! the fierce spirits of the avenging deep, With endless tortures goad their guilty shades.

I see the lank and ghastly spectres sweep Along the burning length of yon arcades : P0STHUA10US FRAGMENTS OF 12 •> And I see Satan stalk athwart the plain ; He hastes along the burning soil of hell. " Welcome, thou despots, to my dark domain ; With maddening joy mine anguish'd senses swell To welcome to their home the friends I love so well.' Hark to those notes, how sweet, how thrilling sweet, They echo to the sound of angels' feet. Oh haste to the bower where roses are spread, For there is prepared thy nuptial bed. Oh haste — hark ! hark ! they're gone. CHORUS OF SPIRITS. Stay, ye days of contentment and joy, Whilst love every care is erasing, Stay, ye pleasures that never can cloy, And ye spirits that can never cease pleasing. And if any soft passion be near, Which mortals, frail mortals, can know, Let love shed on the bosom a tear, And dissolve the chill ice-drop of woe.