[1] See the _Life of Mrs. Shelley_, by Lucy Madox Rossetti (_Eminent
Women Series_), published in 1890. The connexion between the two
branches of the Shelley family is also set forth--incidentally, but with
perfect distinctness--in Collins's _Peerage of England_(1756), vol. iii.
p. 119. He says that Viscount Lumley (who died at some date towards
1670) 'married Frances, daughter of Henry Shelley, of Warminghurst in
Sussex, Esq. (a younger branch of the family seated at Michaelgrove, the
seat of the present Sir John Shelley, Bart.).'
[2] I am indebted to Mr. J. Cordy Jeaffreson for some strongly reasoned
arguments, in private-correspondence, tending to Harriet's disculpation.
[3] This line (should be '_Beneath_ the good,' &c.) is the final line of
Gray's _Progress of Poesy_. The sense in which Shelley intends to apply
it to _The Cenci_ may admit of some doubt. He seems to mean that _The
Cenci_ is not equal to really good tragedies; but still is superior to
some tragedies which have recently appeared, and which bad critics have
dubbed great.
[4] This phrase is not very clear to me. From the context ensuing, it
might seem that the 'circumstance' which prevented Keats from staying
with Shelley in Pisa was that his nerves were in so irritable a state as
to prompt him to move from place to place in Italy rather than fix in
any particular city or house.
[5] Though Shelley gave this advice, which was anything but unsound, he
is said to have taken good-naturedly some steps with a view to getting
the volume printed. Mr. John Dix, writing in 1846, says: 'He [Shelley]
went to Charles Richards, the printer in St. Martin's Lane, when quite
young, about the printing a little volume of Keats's first poems.'
[6] This statement is not correct--so far at least as the longer poems
in the volume are concerned. _Isabella_ indeed was finished by April,
1818; but _Hyperion_ was not relinquished till late in 1819, and the
_Eve of St. Agnes_ and _Lamia_ were probably not even begun till 1819.
[7] See p, 96 as to Shelley's under-rating of Keats's age. He must have
supposed that Keats was only about twenty years old at the date when
_Endymion_ was completed. The correct age was twenty-two.
[8] The passages to which Shelley refers begin thus: 'And then the
forest told it in a dream;' 'The rosy veils mantling the East;' 'Upon a
weeded rock this old man sat.'
[9] I do not find in Shelley's writings anything which distinctly
modifies this opinion. However, his biographer, Captain Medwin, avers
that Shelley valued all the poems in Keats's final volume; he cites
especially _Isabella_ and _The Eve of St. Agnes_.
[10] In books relating to Keats and Shelley the name of this gentleman
appears repeated, without any explanation of who he was. In a MS. diary
of Dr. John Polidori, Byron's travelling physician (my maternal uncle),
I find the following account of Colonel Finch, whom Polidori met in
Milan in 1816: 'Colonel Finch, an extremely pleasant, good-natured,
well-informed, clever gentleman, spoke Italian extremely well, and was
very well read in Italian literature. A ward of his gave a masquerade in
London upon her coming of age. She gave to each a character in the reign
of Queen Elizabeth to support, without the knowledge of each other; and
received them in a saloon in proper style as Queen Elizabeth. He
mentioned to me that Nelli had written a Life of Galileo, extremely
fair, which, if he had money by him, he would buy, that it might be
published. Finch is a great admirer of architecture in Italy. Mr.
Werthern, a gentleman most peaceable and quiet I ever saw, accompanying
Finch, whose only occupation [I understand this to mean the occupation
of Wethern, but possibly it means of Finch] is, when he arrives at a
town or other place, to set about sketching, and then colouring, so that
he has perhaps the most complete collection of sketches of his tour
possible. He invited me (taking me for an Italian), in case I went to
England, to see him; and, hearing I was English, he pressed me much
more,' The name 'Werthern' is not distinctly written: should it be
'Wertheim'?
[11] 'Envy' refers no doubt to hostile reviewers. 'Ingratitude' refers
to a statement of Colonel Finch that Keats had 'been infamously treated
by the very persons whom his generosity had rescued from want and woe.'
It is not quite clear who were the persons alluded to by Finch. Keats's
brother George (then in America) was presumably one: he is, however,
regarded as having eventually cleared himself from the distressing
imputation. I know of no one else, unless possibly the painter Haydon
may be glanced at: as to him also the charge appears to be too severe
and sweeping.
[12] Shelley wrote another letter on 16 June--to Miss Clairmont, then in
Florence. It contains expressions to nearly the same purport. 'I have
received a most melancholy account of the last illness of poor Keats;
which I will neither tell you nor send you, for it would make you too
low-spirited. My Elegy on him is finished. I have dipped my pen in
consuming fire to chastise his destroyers; otherwise the tone of the
poem is solemn and exalted. I send it to the press here, and you will
soon have a copy.'
[13] As Byron is introduced into _Adonais_ as mourning for Keats, and as
in fact he cared for Keats hardly at all, it seems possible that his
silence was dictated by antagonism rather than by modesty.
[14] _Blackwood_ seems to imply that the _Quarterly_ accused _Endymion_
of indecency; this is not correct.
[15] The reader of Keats's preface will find that this is a
misrepresentation. Keats did not speak of any fierce hell of criticism,
nor did he ask to remain uncriticised in order that he might write more.
What he said was that a feeling critic would not fall foul of him for
hoping to write good poetry in the long run, and would be aware that
Keats's own sense of failure in _Endymion_ was as fierce a hell as he
could be chastised by.
[16] This passage of the letter had remained unpublished up to 1890. It
then appeared in Mr. Buxton Forman's volume, _Poetry and Prose by John
Keats_. Some authentic information as to Keats's change of feeling had,
however, been published before.
[17] This phrase is lumbering and not grammatical. The words 'I confess
that I am unable to refuse' would be all that the meaning requires.
[18] This seems to contradict the phrase in _Adonais_ (stanza 20)
'Nought we know dies.' Probably Shelley, in the prose passage, does not
intend 'perishes' to be accepted in the absolute sense of 'dies,' or
'ceases to have any existence;' he means that all things undergo a
process of deterioration and decay, leading on to some essential change
or transmutation. The French have the word 'dêpérir' as well as 'périr':
Shelley's 'perishes' would correspond to 'dépérit.'