note may help to explain why: "Did any one see the papers from which I drew that volume [the Posthumous Poems], the wonder would be how any eyes or patience were capable of extracting it from so confused a mass, interlined and broken into fragments, so that the sense could only be deciphered and joined by guesses, which might seem rather intuitive than founded on reasoning. Yet I believe no mistake was made." Mr. Garnett, in the "Relics of Shelley," writes: "Numerous errors have crept into the text of Shelley's poems, especially such as were published when, from his absence on the Continent, he was unable to attend to the correction of the press, and those posthumous pieces which were prepared for publication from almost illegible MSS." And as to this last point, Shelley's friend, Captain Trelawny, says somewhere, if I remember rightly, that the original MS. of the lovely poem, "To a Lady, with a Guitar," resembled a rude sketch of a reedy marsh, with blots and smears for the wild ducks. Mr. Garnett gave a chapter to the suggestion of emendations, and the suggestions were usually good; but they were very few in proportion to the number of errors, and they scarcely touched any of the countless cases of bad punctuation which were as apt to cause misunderstanding as were the verbal errors themselves.

Having looked up in this cheap edition numerous passages which I had marked in my own copy of Shelley as manifestly erroneous, I can bear witness that Mr. Rossetti has done his editing with great care and skill. A large number of mistakes he has definitely corrected, in other instances he has improved if he has not certainly rectified; and he seems to have paid particnlar attention to the punctuation, to the great benefit of the text.

There are still faults, but most of these may be incorrigible without taking liberties which no reverent editor would take with the text of a classical writer. As for the cases in which correction seems still necessary and allowable, and those in which the new reading seems not better or even less good than the old, their enumeration and discussion are not suited to these columns. I will here note but one instance, in which Mr. Rossetti may have been misled. His version of the graceful and charming "Good-night" is very different from that to which we have been accustomed; and I cannot but think that he has followed an earlier and inferior draft instead of a later and superior one. The last stanza which differs most seems to me the most inferior. On the whole, and in so far as I have hitherto had the opportunity of judging, I am clearly of opinion that Mr. Rossetti has done his Editorial work so thoroughly and well, that no other editions than his should now be recommended to those who wish really to study and understand the poems of Shelley.

1871.

[Mr. Rossetti afterwards explained, 1. That the limitation of size necessary in the cheap edition prevented the addition to it, both of the "Defence of Poetry," and of the "Hymn to Mercury." 2. That the text of the cheap edition, while substantially the same as that of the 2 vol. edition, published in 1870, is in some cases superior to it. 3. That in the text of the song "Good Night," he has implicitly followed Shelley's own MS.—a copy of the song carefully written by him in a pocket-book which he presented to a lady. This may or may not be the better version [Mr. Rossetti thinks it is] but at all events it is the most authentic.]

AN INSPIRED CRITIC ON SHELLEY.

S

HELLEY and Mr. Wyke Bayliss are truly strange

names to couple together, but thus it comes about. The latter gentleman has written a book entitled The Witness of Art, in noticing which the Daily News mentioned that it eulogises Shelley. This Mr. Wyke Bayliss indignantly denied. The reviewer in answer quoted a passage wherein Shelley is classed with Chaucer, Spenser, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Shakespeare, as having that insight into “the Invisible" which Mr. Wyke Bayliss observes, "is to the poet what light is to the painter; what ideal beauty is to the sculptor." As if this were not enough, another passage is given, wherein, after a quotation from Adonais, Mr. Wyke Bayliss observes: "Who shall say that Shelley wrote this in mockery, or not rather that it is the language of one who had seen-dimly it may be-but had seen the Invisible?" Whence it would appear the poet has not only insight into, but sight of the Invisible with a capital I; and indeed this is a distinction, for we have all insight into the common air, whereas poets (and it is said pigs) see it. Mr. Wyke Bayliss furiously returned to the charge or countercharge: "I refer to Shelley only three timesFirst, as one who had written a blasphemous libel upon Christ. Second, I name him simply as an Idealist.

Third, I say that he is an instance of the power of the verities of our Faith, in that they overmastered even his atrocious sentiments." That blasphemous libel is terribly strong, and at first sight rather incongruous; but Mr. Wyke Bayliss may refer the libel to the man Jesus, and the blasphemy to the God Christ. Next, we learn that to say one has insight into, and sight of, the Invisible with a capital I, is simply to say that he is an Idealist, so that our pig who sees the wind is simply an Idealist. We knew before how atrocious were the sentiments of Shelley, but knew not that they had been overmastered by the verities of "our Faith," with a capital F. Yet doubtless Mr. Wyke Bayliss is right, for lo! he is divinely inspired. He answereth us: "It is enough for me to deliver the one message with which I am charged-the message of Art-believing it to be from the King to His children, and about the beautiful." Now this King with a capital K, whose very pronoun itself has a capital H, can be none other than the Most High God; and we may be sure that Mr. Wyke Bayliss is indeed His special messenger as he affirmeth, for otherwise would the said Wyke Bayliss be guilty of something quite as bad as the blasphemous libel written by Shelley of the atrocious sentiments. By-the-by we strongly suspect that "the beautiful,”—which really ought to have a capital B, "the Beautiful," of Mr. Wyke Bayliss-is the same as the Invisible whereof he hath told us. Were any further proof needed that he is really divinely inspired, it would be found in his astonishing and quite supernatural revelation that the message of art is about the beautiful! Poor Shelley! thou art damned beyond hope for ever, being condemned of such a prophet.

1876.

NOTICE OF ROSSETTI'S EDITION OF

SHELLEY'S POETICAL WORKS.*

THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. In three volumes. London: E. Moxon, Son, and Co., 1878.

E

NGLAND is at length beginning to do something

like justice to its supreme Poet of this century. Quite recently, besides the cheap popular Editions of the Poems, of which the best we have examined is by Mr. Rossetti, there have been issued the reprint of the original Editions of the complete Works (so far as obtainable) under the care of Mr. R. Herne Shepherd, and the library edition, in four vols., of the Poetical Works by Mr. H. Buxton Forman; and now Mr. Rossetti has been encouraged to issue, with improvements up to date, a second edition of that which appeared in 1870. Those who, like ourselves, have had occasion to examine minutely the 1870 edition, know in how many and what important cases it rectified and tended to rectify the very inaccurate text of Mrs. Shelley; and both in the Memoir and the text this second issue is a marked improvement on the first. In Mr. Rossetti's own words: This and the following article are reprinted by permission from Cope's Tobacco Plant.