[Footnote 37: From an essay written sometime in 1820-21, and suggested
by an article on poetry which his friend, Thomas Love Peacock, had
contributed to the _Literary Miscellany_. John Addington Symonds, one
of Shelley's biographers, cites this paper as containing some of the
finest prose writing of Shelley.]
[Footnote 38: One of Shelley's many letters to his friend, Thomas Love
Peacock, of which Symonds says: "Taken altogether, they are the most
perfect specimens of descriptive prose on the English language; never
overcharged with color, vibrating with emotions excited by the
stimulating scenes of Italy, frank in criticisms, and exquisitely
delicate in observation. Their transparent sincerity and
unpremeditated grace, combined with natural finish of expression, make
them masterpieces of a style at once familiar and elevated." It was
among the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla that Shelley wrote his poem
"Prometheus Unbound." Of this poem Shelley wrote from Florence on
December 26, 1819, a letter the original of which is now owned in New
York by Louis V. Ledoux: "My 'Prometheus' is the best thing I ever
wrote."]
[Footnote 39: A letter to Thomas Love Peacock, dated "Naples, Jan. 26,
1819."]