THE DEVIL'S WALK,1 A BALLAD. I. ONCE, early in the morning, Beelzebub arose, With care his sweet person adorning, 1 The Devil's Walk, technically speaking, was published by Shelley in 1812, that is to say, it was printed in the form of a broad-sheet and to some extent distributed in that year. The distribution must, however, have been very limited; and the poem did not become generally known (indeed I know of no one living who had heard of it) until Mr. Rossetti reprinted it in a valuable article entitled "Shelley in 1812-13," which appeared in The Fortnightly Review for January 1, 1871. The sheet measures 18 by 144 inches; and the ballad is printed in three columns, divided into stanzas as shewn in the text, but without numerals, which I have added for convenience of reference. The title is in large oldEnglish characters. The punctuation is very characteristic of Shelley, and I retain it intact, except in two instances (specified) in which the printer was probably at fault. The circumstances under which this poem got preserved, and eventually filed in the Public Record Office, form an important episode in the early career of Shelley. It is sufficient to state here that the original broad-sheet was distributed together with the Declaration of Rights, with the aid of Shelley's servant, Daniel Hill, and a curious machinery of boxes and bottles for marine service, about the shores of North Devon. Shelley was living at Lynmouth at the time; but it was at Barnstaple that Daniel Hill was ap prehended, convicted of distributing printed papers with no printer's name on them, and imprisoned. This poem of The Devil's Walk is by no means unimportant as a land-mark in the history of Shelley's poetic developement; and, as the honour of unearthing it belongs to Mr. Rossetti, I can do no better than quote the following remarks from the article already referred to. "Many readers will remember that there is a poem by Southey named The Devil's Walk, and also a poem by Coleridge named The Devil's Thoughts, the two being to a great extent identical. The original authorship of this joint composition has been much discussed; one statement is that Porson was the real inventor. However, I suppose that Southey's distinct assertion ought to be accepted: Southey himself started the idea, and wrote the larger part of the poem, in 1799; Coleridge wrote various stanzas; Porson had nothing to do with it. Shelley's poem is obviously, undisguisedly, founded on that of Southey and Coleridge: he has borrowed the idea, and written a different composition to develop it. There is only one stanza (that which begins Satan saw a lawyer a viper slay') that is directly appropriated from the earlier work,-as I gather, from Coleridge's portion of it; and even this is differently worded. Cole II. He drew on a boot to hide his hoof, He drew on a glove to hide his claw, As Bond-street ever saw. III. He sate him down, in London town, With a favourite imp he began to chat, IV. And then to St. James's court he went, He was mighty thick with every Saint, V. The Devil was an agriculturist, And as bad weeds quickly grow, In looking over his farm, I wist He wouldn't find cause for woe. ridge's production, read apart from Southey's, is no doubt better than Shelley's; but I think Shelley's compares creditably with the completed joint original. There are certainly some good points in his Devil's Walk; and it may safely receive this extremely qualified meed of praise, that it is the best now extant piece of poetry produced by the future author of Prometheus Unbound prior to the printing of Queen Mab (1813). Probably The Devil's Walk was written only a short time before Daniel Hill was commissioned to distribute it, in August, 1812; if so, Shelley had now VI. He peeped in each hole, to each chamber stole, Grinning applause, he just showed them his claws, VII. Satan poked his red nose into crannies so small, VIII. A Priest, at whose elbow the Devil1 during prayer, Sate familiarly, side by side, Declared, that if the tempter were there, His presence he would not abide. Ah! Ah! thought Old Nick, that's a very stale trick, For without the Devil, O! favourite of evil, In your carriage you would not ride. IX. Satan next saw a brainless King, Whose house was as hot as his own, Many imps in attendance were there on the wing, They flapped the pennon and twisted the sting, Close by the very Throne. X. Ah, ha thought Satan, the pasture is good, 1 Mr. Rossetti substitutes he for the Devil. They dine on news of human blood, They sup on the groans of the dying and dead, And supperless never will go to bed; Which will make them fat as their brothers. XI. Fat as the fiends that feed on blood, Fresh and warm from the fields of Spain, When the shoots of earth are nipped in the bud, Its glory the meed of the slain. XII. Fat as the death-birds on Erin's shore, 2 That glutted themselves in her dearest gore, And flitted round Castlereagh, When they snatched the Patriot's heart, that his grasp Had torn from its widow's maniac clasp,3 And fled at the dawn of day. XIII. Fat as the reptiles of the tomb, XIV. Fat as that Prince's maudlin brain, 1 Mr. Rossetti prints Where instead of When. 2 In the Fortnightly Review version this line reads as follows: Fat as death-birds on Erin's shore, but in the original it is as I have given it. 3 Misprinted claps in the original. XV. For he is fat, his waistcoat gay, When strained upon a levee day, Scarce meets across his princely paunch, XVI. How vast his stock of calf! when plenty Could make his pantaloon seams1 start. XVII. The Devil, (who sometimes is called nature,) XVIII. Satan saw a lawyer, a viper slay, That crawled up the leg of his table, It reminded him most marvellously, XIX. The wealthy yeoman, as he wanders, And on his thriving cattle ponders, Counts his sure gains, and hums a song; Thus did the Devil, thro' earth walking, Hum low a hellish song. 1 So in the original; but pantaloonseam in The Fortnightly Review. 2 Coleridge's corresponding stanza, referred to by Mr. Rossetti in the passage quoted in note 1, p. 371, is as follows: He saw a lawyer killing a viper |