Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire

Percy Bysshe Shelley

• Publisher: Curzon Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781408637623
• eBook ISBN: 9781528761611
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Poesia europea

This book contains a collection of poetry written by Percy Bysshe Shelly, originally published in 1810. It was Shelley's first published volume of poetry and was written in collaboration with his sister Elizabeth. This wonderful collection of Shelley's early poetry is highly recommended for fans of his seminal work, and it is not to be missed by collectors. The poems contained herein include: "Letter", "Song", "Despair", "Sorrow", "Hope", "Song, Translated from the Italian", "Song, Translated from the German", "The Irishman's Song", "St. Edmond's Eve", "Revenge", "Ghasta, or the Avenging Demon", and many more. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822) was an important English Romantic poet who is widely regarded as one of the finest lyric poets in the English Language. Many vintage texts such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now, in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned biography of the author.

INTRODUCTION

BETWEEN the completion of “Queen Mab” in 1813, and the composition of “Alastor” in 1815, Shelley underwent a silent internal revolution which transformed a vigorous writer in verse into a great original poet. Much the same transformation had previously occurred to Coleridge, but with this difference, that in the elder poet’s case the metamorphosis is manifestly due in great measure to the influence of Wordsworth, but in Shelley’s the impulse is wholly from within. The two poets, however, have this in common, that, unlike Wordsworth, Byron, and others who cannot claim to be enumerated among “the twice-born,” from the period of their regeneration onward, their works are almost free from admixture with a prosaic element. Alone among the illustrious poetical reputations of their age, their fame would decidedly not be promoted by the suppression of any considerable proportion of their compositions after this crisis in their intellectual history. The test is an especially severe one as regards Shelley, not only because the actual bulk of his poetical work is so much greater than Coleridge’s, but because he has triumphantly borne such an ordeal from the publication of mere fragments of it as has perhaps fallen to the lot of no other poet. Few indeed are the morsels collected in “The Relics of Shelley,” and subsequently incorporated in his works, which a votary of his genius would part with for any consideration. They are not chips, but diamond dust.

In proportion, however, to the habitual excellence of Shelley’s and Coleridge’s work after the full development of their powers, is its inferiority in “the ages of ignorance.” Shelley’s beginnings are far the more unpromising, and every admirer of his genius must have frequently wished that the whole of his poetical production prior to “Queen Mab” could be bestowed as “alms for oblivion.” Seldom have the beginnings of a poet been so destitute of merit as his early lyrics. Why, then, it may be asked, retrieve any more of them from obscurity? The question appears pertinent, but only to the uninitiated. The bibliographer and the book-hunter, no less than the Shelleian student, know that the recovery of the little book now republished from an unique copy is the final chapter of a romance, and a bibliographical event as rare as, according to Petrarch, the appearance of a Laura in heaven:—

“Quod optanti divûm promittere nemo
Auderet.”

The existence of a previously, unheard-of volume of poems by Shelley and an unknown coadjutor, published in 1810 under the title of “Original Poetry, by Victor and Cazire,” was first announced by the present writer in an article entitled “Shelley in Pall Mall,” in Macmillan’s Magazine for June, 1860. The fact had been ascertained by himself when, in August or September 1859, in the exercise of what was then his ordinary duty, he placed a newly purchased periodical entitled Stockdale’s Budget, and published in 1826–7, on the shelves of the Library of the British Museum. This Budget was a scandalous periodical, in which the publisher Stockdale, who had been ruined by his publication of the still more scandalous “Memoirs of Harriet Wilson,” sought to avenge himself upon society by raking together all the misdemeanours of the upper classes he could collect from the newspapers. Shelley was then commonly regarded as a social pariah, and fair game for a professional lampooner of the grade to which the once respectable publisher had sunk. Stockdale, remembering that he had letters from Shelley in his possession, began in the very first number of his Budget to utilise them for “copy,” and make them the basis of a history of the acquaintance which had existed between the ill-matched pair in 1810, without, it must be said, any trace of unkindness to the poet, whom he seems to have appreciated as fully as possible for one who, although accidentally an Ishmaelite, was congenitally a Philistine. Thus the story of “Victor and Cazire” came to light. It shall be related in Stockdale’s own words, with the retrenchment of some immaterial particulars.

“The unfortunate subject of these very slight recollections introduced himself to me early in the autumn of 1810. With anxiety in his countenance, he requested me to extricate him from a pecuniary difficulty in which he was involved with a printer, whose name I cannot call to mind, but who resided at Horsham. [Stockdale should have said Worthing.] I am not quite certain how the difference between the poet and the printer was arranged; but, after I had looked over the account I know that it was paid, though whether I assisted in the payment, by money or acceptance, I cannot remember.*

“Be that as it may, on the 17th September, 1810, I received fourteen hundred and eighty copies of a thin royal octavo volume in sheets. It was entitled, ‘Original Poetry,’ by Alonzo and Cazire, or two names something like them. The author told me that these poems were the joint production of himself and a friend, whose name was forgotten by me as soon as I heard it. I advertised the work, which was to be retailed at 3s. 6d., in nearly all the London papers of the day.*

“Some short time after the announcement of the poems I happened to be perusing them, with more leisure than I had till then had leisure to bestow upon them, when I recognised one which I knew to have been written by Mr. M. G. Lewis, the author of ‘The Monk,’ and I fully anticipated the probable vexation of the juvenile author when I communicated my discovery to Mr. P. B. Shelley.

“With all the ardour natural to his character he expressed the warmest resentment at the imposition practised upon him by his coadjutor, and entreated me to destroy all the copies, of which about one hundred had been put into circulation.”

Such is the history of “Victor and Cazire” according to Stockdale. It was merely the prelude to an acquaintance of some duration between author and publisher, productive of interesting correspondence published in the Budget, in Macmillan’s Magazine, and in more than one edition of Shelley’s letters. One letter alone, however, concerns us now as relating to “Victor and Cazire.”

“Field Place, Sept. 6, 1810.

“Sir,

“I have to return you my thankful acknowledgment for the receipt of the books, which arrived as soon as I had any reason to expect; the superfluity shall be balanced as soon as I pay for some books which I shall trouble you to bind for me.

“I enclose you the title-page of the Poems, which, as you will see, you have mistaken on account of the illegibility of my handwriting. I have had the last proof-impression from my printer this morning, and I suppose the execution of the work will not be long delayed. As soon as it possibly can, it shall reach you, and believe me, Sir, grateful for the interest you take in it.

“I am, Sir,

“Your obedient, humble servant,

“PERCY B. SHELLEY.”

It only remains to be added as regards the Budget that it is itself a book of great rarity; that the Museum copy had been bought in January, 1859; and t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Introdutcion
• Half title
• Contents.
• Letter.
• Letter.
• Song.
• Song.
• Despair.
• Sorrow.
• Hope.
• Song, translated from the Italian.
• Song, translated from the German.
• The Irishman’s Song.
• Song.
• Song.
• Song.
• St. Edmond’s Eve.
• Revenge.
• Ghasta, or the avenging Demon.
• Fragment.