CONTENTS OF THE APPENDIX. I. The Dinner Party Anticipated, a Paraphrase of Horace's Nineteenth Ode, Book the Third. II. The Magic Horse, from the Italian of Cristofano Bronzino. III. The Story of Ginevra degli Amieri, from the Osservatore Fiorentino. IV. Shelley's Letter to The Examiner, concerning Queen Mab. V. On the Ahasuerus Fragment and other points in the Notes to Queen Mab. VI. On certain Words used by Shelley in the Poems printed in the present Volume. APPENDIX. I. THE DINNER PARTY ANTICIPATED.1 A PARAPHRASE OF HORACE'S NINETEENTH ODE, ARGUMENT.—The Poet rallies his young friend Telephus upon his fondness for talking of genealogy and antiquities, and complains that he does not fix a day for having a dinner party somewhere. The thought of such a meeting fires his imagination, and he supposes them all in the midst of their enjoyment, and talking of their Mistresses. Commentators differ, as usual, upon passages in this ode. I have given myself up to the spirit of the occasion, as the most likely, if not the most learned guide. DEAR Telephus, you trace divinely The Grecian king who died so finely; 1 The story of this paraphrase, not hitherto known as a work of Shelley's, is somewhat complicated. Among the Leigh Hunt MSS. placed at my disposal by Mr. S. R. Townshend Mayer, are two sheets of extremely thin foreign paper such as numerous poems of Shelley's were written upon for convenience of transit through the post,-on which sheets, in Mrs. Shelley's writing, are this paraphrase from Horace, and The Magic Horse, from Cristofano Bronzino. The sheets have been folded in three as they would be if enclosed in a letter. Had this been all that was known of the MS., I should But scarcely have hesitated, looking at the And make us to our special joy, Of where we are to dine some day; Of neat, you rogue; nor what o'clock And shut the cold out this strange weather. Good Gods! I feel it done already! More wine, my boy! There-steady, steady: 10 Whose health?" whose health! why here's the moon: 15 She's young may she be older soon: "Whose next?" Why next, I think, it's clear there is, such a notion would be disposed of by the fact that, when he printed The Companion as a book he omitted this piece, and that he did not print it among his translations, admirable as it is. In the weekly number of The Companion following that which contains this paraphrase, he apologizes, on the plea of illness, for using something of Procter's, sent to him "for another pur pose"; and the presumption is that he used a translation of Shelley's under like circumstances. Following the search further, Mr. Mayer and I discovered Leigh Hunt's own copy of this paraphrase,-"copy" that has evidently been used to print from. The Ode has there been introduced as the first of a series of articles to be called The Dessert and to consist of compositions "not large enough to stand by themselves"; and this introduction, which after all did not appear with the Ode, concludes with the words, "Here have we been going to heaven, when our sole design was to introduce a thing no less earthly than one of Horace's Odes. But if ever heaven and earth meet (not to speak it profanely), it is at the table of a wit and good fellows; and so, finding ourselves right in that matter, we call upon Horace for his Ode." After the last line of the Ode, Hunt has written "The following is a portrait from the life, and comes well after our DinnerParty. The subject is not a beau ideal, like Telephus; but he is human and Horatian, and might illustrate a series of odes, from the mox reficit rates of the beginning, to the est mihi nonum of Book the Fourth." Then follows the heading, and only the heading, "Sketches from the ClubBook-No. I. Old Charlton,”—such being the title of the composition of Procter's used with the apology already referred to. It is to be noted, further, that, whereas in Mrs. Shelley's transcript we read I have given myself up to the spirit of the occasion, in the argument as published by Hunt we read The translator has given himself up &c. The word somewhere, after dinner party, is omitted in Hunt's copy, where we also read, after enjoyment, the words drinking their toasts and discussing their mistresses. He inserts, further, before the word Commentators, the following-His proposal to torment the old fellow next door, who envies them their good humour, is very pleasant. I should say from the writing, that this translation belongs to about the year 1820. Comes Mother Midnight-Here's to her: Talk of a third to common tumblers. Parties like us, true souls and glad, They've not been breathed yet half enough: Ah! Telephus! those locks of thine, That lie so thick, and smooth, and shine, And that complete and sparkling air, That gilds one's evenings like a star, 'Tis these for which the hussey wishes, And comes to meet with willing blushes.3 "And you too, Horace, what fair she 1 In Hunt's copy, 'tis; but simply is in Mrs. Shelley's. 2 So in Mrs. Shelley's transcript; but their in Hunt's. 3 So in Mrs. Shelley's transcript; but in Hunt's copy there is a different couplet 'Tis these the little jade considers, And cuts her poor profuser bidders. 20 25 3) 35 40 45 4 So in Mrs. Shelley's transcript; but in Hunt's we read And you, dear Horace. |