The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited, prefaced, and
annotated by Richard Herne Shepherd. 3 vols. The Prose Works. 2 vols. (Chatto and Windus.)—Mr. Shepherd has gone back to the original editions for his text. While we wish to give him all the credit due for his desire to do full justice to his author, as well as for the untiring industry which he has already displayed in the performance of similar work, we doubt the wisdom of his proceedings. The juvenile poems, " Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson " and " The Wandering Jew," would have been better left to oblivion. What is the good of dragging out of it such verses as these I-
" They dragged her to the altar's pale, The traveller leant against the rail, And gazed with eager eye,—
His cheek was flashed with sudden glow, On his brow sate a darker shade of glow, While a transient expression flitted by?'
It is a more serious matter when the editor prides himself on restoring " Laon and Cythna," as it originally stood, for what he is pleased to call " the mangled and mutilated version " that re- ceived the title of " The Revolt of Islam." This version is the one which the poet himself adopted, possibly under " outward pressure " and with "warm and fervent protests," but still, for reasons that were sufficient to determine his action. And it is the one which his widow, who may be supposed to have known his latest thoughts on the subject, and who certainly was not unduly influenced by public. opinion, gave to the world after his death. —In the Prose Works, " Zastrozzi " and " St. Irvyne ; or, the
Rosicrucian," might have been spared without loss. But it matters little what was done with them. To read them is almost im- possible. " The Refutation of Deism " is interesting. It is a dialogue between a Deist and a Christian, and the victory appears to be left with the latter. The "Address to the Irish People" is worth noting in the light of later events. Mr. Shepherd has done his task well, supposing that the premisses with which he starts can be granted.
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