Chapter I: Front Matter

SHELLEY’S PROSE WORKS

VOL. I.

_In Five Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth boards_, =3s. 6d.= _each_.

THE COMPLETE WORKS IN VERSE AND PROSE OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

Edited, Prefaced, and Annotated by RICHARD HERNE SHEPHERD.

=Poetical Works=, in Three Volumes.

Vol. I. Introduction by the Editor; Posthumous Fragments
of Margaret Nicholson; Shelley’s Correspondence with
Stockdale; The Wandering Jew (the only complete version);
Queen Mab, with the Notes; Alastor, and other Poems;
Rosalind and Helen; Prometheus Unbound; Adonais, &c.

Vol. II. Laon 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. 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.

=Prose Works=, in Two Volumes.

Vol. I. The two Romances of Zastrozzi and St. Irvyne; the
Dublin and Marlow Pamphlets; A Refutation of Deism; Letters
to Leigh Hunt, and some Minor Writings and Fragments.

Vol. II. Essays: Letters from Abroad; Translations and
Fragments, edited by Mrs. Shelley, and first published
in 1840, with the addition of some Minor Pieces of great
interest and rarity, including one recently discovered by
Professor Dowden. With a Bibliography of Shelley, and an
exhaustive Index of the Prose Works.

CHATTO & WINDUS, 111 St. Martin’s Lane W.C.

THE PROSE WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

_FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITIONS_

EDITED, PREFACED, AND ANNOTATED BY RICHARD HERNE SHEPHERD

_IN TWO VOLUMES_

VOL. I

LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS

1897

_Printed by_ Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. _At the Ballantyne Press_

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EDITOR’S PREFACE.

These two volumes contain a complete collection of Shelley’s Prose Writings; the two youthful prose romances of _Zastrozzi_ and _St. Irvyne_; the Dublin and Marlow pamphlets; the long-lost and lately-found _Refutation of Deism_; the Letter to Lord Ellenborough; the curious review of Hogg’s romance of Alexy Haimatoff, recently unearthed by Professor Dowden; a number of minor papers originally published by Medwin; and the entire collection of “Essays and Letters from Abroad,” first issued by Mrs. Shelley in 1840, and which throw so much light on Shelley’s character and genius. The Bibliography appended to the second volume will, it is hoped, be of real service to all lovers and students of Shelley.

Shelley is another instance of the fact that a great master of verse is always a good writer of prose. Whatever may be thought of the crudity of his juvenile romances--and the greatest Shelleyan enthusiasts, Browning, Swinburne, and Rossetti, have successively laughed at them--they contain at least vivid descriptions of natural appearances; while his political pamphlets, as a recent writer has pointed out, are weighty and sententious to a wonderful degree, considering the age at which they were written. That he was a delightful letter-writer, full of grace and easy fluency, the letters to Peacock and to Leigh Hunt abundantly prove; while of his critical powers, especially in regard to sculpture and painting, both these and the posthumous papers published by Medwin give us no mean idea, though we may not be prepared to go quite so far as Mr. Matthew Arnold does when he says that he doubts whether Shelley’s “delightful Essays and Letters, which deserve to be far more read than they are now, will not resist the wear and tear of time better, and finally come to stand higher, than his poetry.”

RICHARD HERNE SHEPHERD

Kingston Vale, _Lent, 1888_.

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CONTENTS.

PAGE
ZASTROZZI 1
ST. IRVYNE; OR, THE ROSICRUCIAN 113
AN ADDRESS TO THE IRISH PEOPLE 221
PROPOSALS FOR AN ASSOCIATION 263
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS 284
A REFUTATION OF DEISM 289
HISTORY OF A SIX WEEKS’ TOUR 331
A PROPOSAL FOR PUTTING REFORM TO THE VOTE 357
“WE PITY THE PLUMAGE, BUT FORGET THE DYING BIRD” 367
LETTERS TO LEIGH HUNT 381
THE SHELLEY PAPERS:--
_The Coliseum: A Fragment_ 393
_Critical Notices of the Sculpture in the Florence Gallery_:--
_On the Niobe_ 402
_The Minerva_ 405
_On the Venus called Anadyomine_ 407
_A Bas-relief_ 408
_Michael Angelo’s Bacchus_ 409
_A Juno_ 410
_An Apollo_ 410
_Arch of Titus_ 411
_Remarks on “Mandeville” and Mr. Godwin_ 412
_On “Frankenstein”_ 417
_On the Revival of Literature_ 420
_A System of Government by Juries_ 422
_On Love_ 426

ZASTROZZI, A ROMANCE.

BY
P. B. S.
----That their God
May prove their foe, and with repenting hand
Abolish his own works.--This would surpass
Common revenge.

Paradise Lost.

LONDON, Printed for G. Wilkie and J. Robinson: 57, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1810.

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ZASTROZZI.

A Romance.