POSTSCRIPT. IN revising this new edition, and carefully consulting Shelley's scattered and confused papers, I found a few fragments which had hitherto escaped me, and was enabled to complete a few poems hitherto left unfinished. What at one time escapes the searching eye, dimmed by its own earnestness, becomes clear at a future period. By the aid of a friend I also present some poems complete and correct, which hitherto have been defaced by various mistakes and omissions. It was suggested that the Poem "To the Queen of my Heart," was falsely attributed to Shelley. I certainly find no trace of it among his papers, and as those of his intimate friends whom I have consulted never heard of it, I omit it. Two Poems are added of some length, "Swellfoot the Tyrant," and "Peter Bell the Third." I have mentioned the circumstances under which they were written in the notes; and need only add, that they are conceived in a very different spirit from Shelley's usual compositions. They are specimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but although they adopt a familiar style and homely imagery, there shine through the radiance of the poet's imagination the earnest views and opinions of the politician and the moralist. At my request the publisher has restored the omitted passages of Queen Mab. I now present this edition as a complete collection of my husband's poetical works, and I do not foresee that I can hereafter add to or take away a word of line. PUTNEY, November 8th, 1839. MEMOIR OF SHELLEY. THE notes of Mrs. Shelley, in the present edition of the poems, contain so much biographical matter, that it will only be necessary to put the reader in possession of such facts as she has omitted either from a natural reserve, or a very pardonable delicacy. Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on the 4th of August, 1792, at Field Place, in Sussex. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley, Baronet, of Castle Goring. His family was an ancient one, and, while one branch of it represented the blood of Sir Philip Sidney, he himself was descended from the Sackvilles, a name inseparably associated with the dawn of the Elizabethan literature. There was also blood of the New World in Shelley's veins. His paternal great-grandfather, Timothy, had emigrated to America, settling at Newark in New Jersey, where he married an American wife, and where Shelley's grandfather, Bysshe, was born. Bysshe carried the family fortunes back to England, succeeded, by means. of a handsome person and fine manners, in marrying successively two heiresses, became a baronet, and lived to a great age, an eccentric and miser |