Selected Poems and Prose

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  174 The all-beholding sun: Cp. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet I.ii.94: ‘the all-seeing sun’.

  177 Cp. Romeo and Juliet III.ii.25, ‘the garish sun’, and Milton, Il Penseroso, l. 141, ‘day’s garish eye’.

  181–3 Cp. Macbeth I.v.49–53: ‘Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark / To cry “Hold, hold!”’

  190 the earth’s shade: The shadow cast by the earth into space in the direction opposite the sun.

  interlunar: The period of darkness between the old and the new moon. Cp. ‘With a Guitar. To Jane’, l. 24.

  Scene ii

  14 thrice-driven beds of down: Cp. Shakespeare, Othello I.iii.230: ‘My thrice-driven bed of down’; ‘thrice-driven’ indicates beds made up of only the smallest, softest feathers separated from the larger, coarser ones.

  49 Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351–1402) became ruler of Milan after seizing control from his uncle; a patron of the arts, he also conducted a lengthy and bloody struggle to unite and rule northern Italy. Cesare Borgia (?1475/6–1507), statesman, soldier and one-time cardinal, was ruler of a territory in northern Italy which he sought to extend by treachery and open conflict. The illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, his power depended upon the continued support of the papacy. Ezzelino III da Romano (1194–1259) was leader of the Ghibellines in Lombardy and the Veneto; ruler of Verona, Vicenza and Padua, he was notorious for his cruelty. PBS also refers to ‘Ezzelin’ in ‘Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October, 1818’, l. 239, and would have read about all three ‘memorable torturers’ (l. 48) in J.-C.-L. Simonde de Sismondi, Histoire des républiques italiennes du moyen âge (2nd edn, 1818).

  70–71 scorpions … death: Cp. similar imagery in Byron, The Giaour (1813), ll. 422–38. Cp. also PBS’s A Declaration of Rights (1812) (Prose Works I, p. 57); Queen Mab VI.36–8 (p. 58); and Laon and Cyntha XI.viii.

  89 the inmost cave of our own mind: The image (Platonic in origin) is not uncommon in PBS’s work, e.g. ‘Mont Blanc’, ll. 34–48, and Julian and Maddalo, l. 573; cp. also the prose fragment in Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 4 ff. 184r–184v: ‘thought can with difficulty visit the intricate & winding chambers which it inhabits … The caverns of the mind are obscure & shadowy, or pervaded with a lustre, beautifully bright indeed, but shining not beyond their portals’ (see BSM XXI, pp. 192–5).

  110 Cp. PBS’s letter to MWS of 10 August 1821: ‘What is passing in the heart of another rarely escapes the observation of one who is a strict anatomist of his own’ (Letters II, p. 324).

  120 fee: Buy off, bribe.

  130–31 and all … its effect: Poems II compares this with Macbeth I.v.44–6: ‘That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between / The’effect and it.’

  147 Cp. Shakespeare, Richard III II.iv.52–3: ‘Welcome destruction, blood, and massacre! / I see, as in a map, the end of all.’

  ACT III

  Scene i

  13 Cp. Marlowe, Doctor Faustus V.ii.78: ‘See where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!’

  16–17 There creeps … mist: Cp. Paradise Lost IX.180, describing Satan ‘Like a black mist low creeping’.

  26–8 Cp. Shakespeare, Richard II I.iii.187–9: ‘By this time, had the King permitted us, / One of our souls had wandered in the air, / Banished this frail sepulchre of our flesh.’

  34–7 An instance of what in post-Freudian terminology would be called post-traumatic repression: Beatrice’s suffering effaces her memory of its cause, or ‘father’ (in a double sense).

  44 hales: Hauls, drags.

  48 strange flesh: Cp. Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra I.iv.67: ‘It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh’. In Jude 7 the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are reproached with eating ‘strange flesh’.

  52 Prodigious: Combining the senses of ‘extraordinary’ and ‘monstrous’.

  86–7 something … know not: Echoing the words of the old king in Shakespeare, King Lear II.ii.454–5: ‘I will do such things – / What they are, yet I know not.’ Poems II compares this with Leigh Hunt on the political situation in England in The Examiner for 3 January 1819, p. 1: ‘all classes feel that something, as the phrase is, must be done.’ PBS quotes Beatrice’s speech in his letter to Charles Ollier of 6 September 1819, in which he deplores the Peterloo Massacre (see The Mask of Anarchy and headnote, and Letters II, p. 117; see also Letters II, p. 120).

  101 and so die: And die in that doubt.

  129 the unworthy … spirit: An echo of 1 Corinthians 6:19: ‘know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.’

  132–4 Self-murder … it: Cp. Hamlet I.ii.129–32: ‘O that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, / Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon ’gainst self-slaughter!’

  157–60 aye … astonishment: Cp. Deuteronomy 28:37: ‘And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations’.

  178 double-visaged: Two-faced; recalling representations of the Roman god Janus.

  208–9 Echoing Satan in Paradise Lost IV.108–9: ‘So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, / Farewell remorse.’

  240 Apulian Apennines: PBS seems mistaken in his geography: the Appenine Mountains run the length of the Italian peninsula, but Apulia is the extreme south-eastern region of Italy whereas Petrella is located north-east of Rome.

  243–65 This is the speech which PBS, in his Preface, identifies as the sole instance in The Cenci of ‘mere poetry’, although the images suggest both the dark intentions of the principal characters and their precarious moral state. The ‘sublime passage’ of El Purgatorio de San Patricio on which he says it is based has been identified as II.2019–26. See Curran, Shelley’s Cenci, pp. 120–21. Beatrice’s description also recalls Coleridge, ‘Kubla Khan’ (1816), ll. 16–25.

  293 fair: Pure, untainted.

  319 specious: Deceptively plausible. Cp. IV.i.115.

  324 ardent: Passionate, fervent; in contrast to his wife’s ‘look averse and cold’ and to Cenci’s ‘specious tale’ in l. 319.

  Scene ii

  8–18 The imagery and sentiment are drawn from Othello V.ii.7–15.

  51–2 And yet … life: Echoing Othello, contemplating the murder of Desdemona: ‘I know not where is that Promethean heat / That can thy light relume’ (V.ii.12–13).

  54 recall: Restore.

  62 castellan: ‘The governor of a castle’ (OED).

  66 a reward of blood: Presumably, payment for a murder.

  ACT IV

  Scene i

  5  the eyes and ears of Rome: Cenci wonders whether he need be apprehensive of his deeds becoming known in Rome, even though, as Poems II points out, Petrella stood outside Roman jurisdiction.

  8–12 Cenci wants Beatrice to ‘consent’ rather than be forced to accept his abuse, so that he may destroy her body and soul. See IV.i.44–5, 93–5.

  55 the wide Campagna: Sparsely populated countryside around Rome.

  83 blazoned: Proclaimed.

  114–67 ‘As to Cenci’s curse—’, PBS wrote to his cousin, Thomas Medwin, on 20 July 1820: ‘I know not whether I can defend it or no. I wish I may be able, since, as it often happens respecting the worst part of an author’s work, it is a particular favourite with me’ (Letters II, p. 219). The curse has a notable precedent in King Lear’s cursing of his daughters (e.g. I.iv.254–69, II.ii.335–41).

  115 specious: Deceptively fair and attractive.

  131 Maremma: A large area of wetland along the coast of Tuscany; associated, like the Campagna Romana, with disease and banditry.

  140 That if she have a child: MWS comments in her ‘Note’ on The Cenci: ‘In speaking of his mode of treating this main incident, Shelley said that it might be remarked that, in the course of the play, he had never mentioned expressly Cenci’s worst crime. Every one knew what it must be, but it was never imaged
in words—the nearest allusion to it being that portion of Cenci’s curse, beginning, “That if she have a child”, &c.’ (1840, p. 159).

  144 Cp. Genesis 1:22: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.’

  145 imprecation: Curse.

  162 some unremembered world: Recalling the Platonic idea of the pre-existence of the soul which the soul forgets at birth.

  172 spurn: Kick.

  173–4 It were … prey: Cp. King Lear I.i.122: ‘Come not between the dragon and his wrath.’

  187–9 All good … quickened: Cp. Macbeth III.ii.53–4: ‘Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, / Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.’

  Scene ii

  11 recking: Considering, caring for.

  12 to die without confession: The fate of old Hamlet, murdered by his brother Claudius, as well as that which Prince Hamlet contemplates for Claudius. See Hamlet II.v.76–9, III.iii.74–95.

  33 the Hell within him: Cp. Paradise Lost IV.18–21: ‘Horror and doubt distract / His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir / The hell within him, for within him hell / He brings, and round about him.’

  Scene iii

  1–35 These lines draw on the conversation between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth following the murder of Duncan in Macbeth II.ii.1–18. Poems II observes that PBS also ‘follows closely the language’ of MWS’s translation of the MS account of the Cenci family.

  25 palterers: Prevaricators, tricksters.

  28 equivocation: A falsehood expressed in a form of words that is true in itself. Beatrice accuses Marzio and Olimpio of showing mercy in a case justly demanding an unflinching conscience when they have been habitually indifferent in dishonourable matters. Cp. Macbeth II.iii.7–11: ‘Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven.’

  42 light of life: Recalling Christ’s words in John 8:12: ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ Cp. also Prometheus Unbound III.iii.6.

  43 jellied: Congealed, coagulated.

  57–8 Hark … trump: Cp. Macbeth II.iii.80–82: ‘What’s the business, / That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley / The sleepers of the house?’

  58 tedious: Perhaps combining the senses of ‘irritating’ and ‘late-arriving’.

  Scene iv

  Stage direction Legate: ‘An ecclesiastic deputed to represent the Pope and armed with his authority’ (OED).

  13 suddenly: Immediately.

  28 PBS seems to have introduced this ironic twist to the story, although such devices are familiar practice in Classical and Renaissance tragedy.

  44 cheap: Easily feigned.

  49 Free … air: Cp. Macbeth III.iv.22: ‘As broad and general as the casing air’.

  76 effortless: ‘Lifeless; with no sign of struggle’ (Major Works).

  79 Poems II observes that the historical Marzio was apprehended some four months after Cenci’s murder. Olimpio was killed almost nine months after (cp. IV.iv.86–7).

  127–9 Unless … avenge: Unless God will avenge crimes that people are unwilling to address. Cp. IV.iv.151.

  151 rejected: Unacknowledged.

  ACT V

  Scene i

  12 Cp. Romeo and Juliet III.iv.1: ‘Things have fall’n out, sir, so unluckily.’

  85 vile: Mean, wretched.

  87 misdeeming: ‘Misjudging, wrongly supposing’ (OED).

  Scene ii

  50–55 MWS says that PBS recalls in these lines the grief that ‘haunted’ him after the death of their son William on 7 June (1839 II, p. 275n).

  59–61 What shall … fountain: Poems II compares this with Webster, The Duchess of Malfi IV.ii.364–6: ‘where were / These penitent fountains while she was living? / O, they were frozen up!’

  164 pain: Rendered ‘pang’ in the second edition, though the change is not on PBS’s list of errata.

  169 strain: Playing on the two senses of ‘filter’ (‘sifted’, l. 170) and ‘place under stress’.

  172–3 Entrap … accuser: Cp. Webster, The White Devil III.ii.225–6: ‘If you be my accuser / Pray cease to be my judge.’

  182 deep: Cunning, artful.

  189 pleasure: i.e. ‘will’, but with a pun on ‘enjoyment’.

  191 engines: Instruments of torture.

  Scene iii

  89 Cp. Iago being led to torture in Othello V.ii.310: ‘From this time forth I never will speak word.’

  125 monotony: i.e. ‘monotone’, sound without variation.

  Scene iv

  13 looking deprecation: His look expressing disapproval.

  18–20 According to MWS’s translation of the Italian account of the Cenci family (see headnote), the news that one Paolo Santa Croce had recently murdered his mother influenced the Pope to deny a pardon to Lucretia, Giacomo and Beatrice. See BSM X, pp. 214–17.

  47–55 The lines draw on Claudio’s speech in Shakespeare, Measure for Measure III.i.118–32.

  56 Let me not go mad: Cp. King Lear I.v.45: ‘O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!’

  76–7 Echoing the words of Jesus on the cross to the ‘good thief’ in Luke 23:43: ‘Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’

  80–81 Cp. Hamlet I.ii.133–4: ‘How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world!’

  100 narrow: Brief.

  101–7 Plead … man: Poems II compares this with Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice IV.i.70–79.

  106 wind-walking Pestilence: According to the miasmatic theory of disease, infectious vapours rising from rotting vegetable matter were carried on the wind.

  136 This line lacks a tenth syllable. Some editors emend to ‘was as a bond’.

  THE MASK OF ANARCHY

  The Mask of Anarchy (MA) is PBS’s primary imaginative response to one of the defining events of English national life in the early nineteenth century. On 16 August 1819, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered on St Peter’s Field near the centre of Manchester for a mass protest against the hardship of the labouring poor and in support of electoral reform. They were to be addressed by well-known speakers from the reform movement. When constables, struggling to make their way through the dense crowd, were unable to carry out the orders of the magistrates to arrest the leaders of the meeting, the local mounted yeomanry was called to their aid. These inexperienced volunteers, acting both brutally and ineffectively, soon required the reinforcement of regular cavalry and infantry who were instructed to disperse the crowd. In the melee some dozen or more of the demonstrators were killed and hundreds wounded. There were women and children among the injured. That unarmed English civilians, legally and peacefully assembled, should be assaulted by mounted troops aroused widespread shock and consternation and inspired the ironic title of ‘Peterloo’ which was soon applied to the day’s events as a sarcastic allusion to the military victory at Waterloo four years previously. Shortly after 16 August, the home secretary, Lord Sidmouth, wrote to the civil authorities in Manchester to convey the Prince Regent’s congratulations to them and to the yeomanry for their decisive intervention to preserve the peace.

  The news from Manchester reached PBS in Livorno on 5 September. The following day he wrote to his publisher, Charles Ollier, that ‘the torrent of my indignation has not yet done boiling in my veins’, and to T. L. Peacock three days later that in the bloody confrontation of 16 August he could hear ‘the distant thunders of the terrible storm which is approaching’ (Letters II, pp. 117, 119). In this mood of outrage and foreboding, he set to work on MA, completed it rapidly and posted it to Leigh Hunt on 23 September for immediate publication in The Examiner newspaper (MWS Journal I, p. 298, Letters II, p. 152). But Hunt dared not risk legal sanctions by publishing so inflammatory a poem at a time of increased government vigila
nce of the press. MA was not to appear until 1832, after the passage of the First Reform Bill, in a separate volume with a preface by Hunt, but omitting the subtitle, which was not printed until Forman 1876–7.

  For information about Peterloo PBS relied on newspapers sent to him by Peacock, especially The Examiner for 22 and 29 August, which gave ample accounts of the events of the day and the opposing reactions they provoked. His sense of the matter, expressed in a letter to The Examiner of 3 November, which again Hunt did not publish, was fiercely indignant: ‘We hear that a troop of the enraged master manufacturers are let loose with sharpened swords upon a multitude of their starving dependents & in spite of the remonstrances of the regular troops that they ride over them & massacre without distinction of sex or age, & cut off women’s breasts and dash the heads of infants against the stones’ (Letters II, p. 136). But in MA he chose not to incorporate any actual details of the skirmish or any direct reference to the local actors or to dramatize conflicting political opinions. Instead he opted for a formal hybrid: a dream vision (ll. 1–4) that draws largely on the New Testament (especially Revelation), delivered as a symbolic narrative in a popular ballad stanza, and which borrows its title and fictional development from the mask (or masque), a dramatic pageant with courtly origins featuring allegorical personages and a plot that typically affirms the legitimacy of royal and aristocratic power. Leigh Hunt had given an example of the mask as vehicle for a progressive political viewpoint in his The Descent of Liberty (1815), which celebrates not the return of the conservative old order but the hopes of liberal opinion for increased freedom and solidarity in Europe after the first defeat of Napoleon in 1814. The ‘Mask’ of PBS’s title also signifies the disguises that arbitrary authority and its supporters assume, whether trappings of office or religious devotion or tendentious language, to conceal the self-interest that lies behind what Leigh Hunt calls in his leading article in The Examiner for 22 August 1819 ‘the Brazen Masks of power’. Looking beneath these disguises, MA reveals that it is the established political order and not the movement for reform which is the source of anarchy in its usual sense of ‘social confusion and disorder’, while bringing to the fore another sense of the word, ‘misrule’, as underlying cause.