XX. For they thrive well, whose garb of gore, And they thrive well, who from the poor, XXI. The Bishops thrive, tho' they are big, For every gown, and every wig, Hides the safe thrift of Hell within. XXII. Thus pigs were never counted clean, Altho' they eat from night to morn. XXIII. Oh! why is the Father of Hell in such glee, Why does he doff his clothes joyfully, As he skips, and prances, and flaps his wing, 2 As he sidles, leers, and twirls his sting, And dares, as he is, to appear? XXIV. A statesman pass'd-alone to him, The Devil dare his whole shape uncover, To show each feature, every limb, Secure of an unchanging lover. 1 There is a comma after are in the original, a printer's error, probably. So in the original; not slides as in The Fortnightly Review. XXV. At this known sign, a welcome sight, The watchful demons sought their King, And every fiend of the Stygian night, Was in an instant on the wing. XXVI. Pale Loyalty, his guilt steeled brow, XXVII. Hark the earthquake's crash I hear, Kings turn pale, and Conquerors start, Ruffians tremble in their fear, For their Satan doth depart. XXVIII. This day fiends give to revelry, XXIX. But were the Devil's sight as keen His sulphurous Majesty I ween, Would find but little cause for joy. XXX. For the sons of Reason see, That ere fate consume the Pole, The false Tyrant's cheek shall be, Bloodless as his coward soul. [In a letter to Mr. Thomas Hookham, dated the 18th of August, 1812, Shelley says "I enclose also, by way of specimen, all that I have written of a little poem begun since my arrival in England. I conceive I have matter enough for six more cantos. You will perceive that I have not attempted to temper my constitutional enthusiasm in that poem. Indeed, a poem is safe; the iron-souled Attorney-General would scarcely dare to attack. The Past, the Present, and the Future, are the grand and comprehensive topics of this poem. I have not yet half exhausted the second of them." The editor of the Shelley Memorials, wherein, at p. 39, this passage occurs, says "The poem here alluded to is (I conceive) Queen Mab." That assumption is almost certainly correct; for, even if we may trust that statement of Medwin (Life of Shelley, Vol. I, p. 153) which carries the commencement of the composition as far back as the autumn of 1809, we may be quite certain that anything sketched by Shelley in 1809 and resumed in 1812 would be entirely rewritten; and he might naturally speak of it as a newly-commenced work. The poem was finished in February, 1813; and the notes were put together after that date. He did not publish the book in the usual way, but printed it privately, in a crown octavo volume, of which the title-page is reproduced opposite. I should say the errors and irregularities of the press were comparatively few in one instance (section II, line 132) site is spelt scite; and we meet both gulf and gulph. I have spelt the word with ph, throughout, according to Shelley's custom: no other changes are made without being specified either in the foot-notes or in the Appendix. The book was printed on fine paper, in the belief that though it would not be read by the aristocrats of that day, it might be by their sons and daughters; and the chances are that not a copy, of the 250 said to have been printed, was wasted. Carlile, one of the numerous publishers of piratical editions of Queen Mab, affords us a curious piece of evidence on this point: I have in my possession an advertisement issued by this man in 1822, shortly after Shelley's death, to the effect that he had on sale, with his own edition of Queen Mab, 180 copies of Shelley's edition; and looking at the rapidity with which pirated editions followed Carlile's, I should not doubt that he got rid of all of his. The subject of Queen Mab piracies, prosecutions, and bibliography, is far too wide to be entered on here suffice it to say that the original privately-printed book has, beside the title-page, a dedication, pp. 1 to 122 of text, fly-title Notes, and pp. 125 to 240 of notes, and that Mr. Moxon was prosecuted as late as 1840 for republishing it.-H. B. F.] : |