Part 2 (1/2)

His poems, consisting of three successive volumes, have been already referred to here. The first volume, the _Poems_ of 1817, is mostly of a juvenile kind, containing only scattered suggestions of rich endowment and eventual excellence. _Endymion_ is lavish and profuse, nervous and languid, the wealth of a prodigal scattered in largesse of baubles and of gems. The last volume--comprising the _Hyperion_--is the work of a n.o.ble poetic artist, powerful and brilliant both in imagination and in expression. Of the writings published since their author's death, the only one of first-rate excellence is the fragmentary _Eve of St. Mark_.

There is also the drama of _Otho the Great_, written in co-operation with Armitage Brown; and in Keats's letters many admirable thoughts are admirably worded.

As to the relations between Sh.e.l.ley and Keats, I have to refer back to the preceding memoir of Sh.e.l.ley.

ADONAIS:

ITS COMPOSITION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.

For nearly two months after the death of Keats, 23 February, 1821, Sh.e.l.ley appears to have remained in ignorance of the event: he knew it on or before 19 April. The precise date when he began his Elegy does not seem to be recorded: one may suppose it to have been in the latter half of May. On 5 June he wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Gisborne: 'I have been engaged these last days in composing a poem on the death of Keats, which will shortly be finished; and I antic.i.p.ate the pleasure of reading it to you, as some of the very few persons who will be interested in it and understand it. It is a highly wrought piece of art, and perhaps better, in point of composition, than anything I have written.'

A letter to Mr. Ollier followed immediately afterwards.

'Pisa, June 8th, 1821,

'You may announce for publication a poem ent.i.tled _Adonais_. It is a lament on the death of poor Keats, with some interspersed stabs on the a.s.sa.s.sins of his peace and of his fame; and will be preceded by a criticism on _Hyperion_, a.s.serting the due claims which that fragment gives him to the rank which I have a.s.signed him. My poem is finished, and consists of about forty Spenser stanzas [fifty-five as published]. I shall send it to you, either printed at Pisa, or transcribed in such a manner as it shall be difficult for the reviser to leave such errors as a.s.sist the obscurity of the _Prometheus_. But in case I send it printed, it will be merely that mistakes may be avoided. I shall only have a few copies struck off in the cheapest manner. If you have interest enough in the subject, I could wish that you enquired of some of the friends and relations of Keats respecting the circ.u.mstances of his death, and could transmit me any information you may be able to collect; and especially as [to] the degree in which (as I am a.s.sured) the brutal attack in the _Quarterly Review_ excited the disease by which he perished.'

The criticism which Sh.e.l.ley intended to write on _Hyperion_ remained, to all appearance, unwritten. It will be seen, from the letter of Sh.e.l.ley to Mr. Severn cited further on (p. 34), that, from the notion of writing a criticism on _Hyperion_ to precede _Adonais_, his intention developed into the project of writing a criticism and biography of Keats in general, to precede a volume of his entire works; but that, before the close of November, the whole scheme was given up, on the ground that it would produce no impression on an unregardful public.

In another letter to Ollier, 11 June, the poet says: 'Adonais is finished, and you will soon receive it. It is little adapted for popularity, but is perhaps the least imperfect of my compositions.'

Sh.e.l.ley on 16 June caused his Elegy to be printed in Pisa, 'with the types of Didot': a small quarto, and a handsome one (notwithstanding his project of cheapness); the introductory matter filling five pages, and the poem itself going on from p. 7 to p. 25. It appeared in blue paper wrappers, with a woodcut of a basket of flowers within an ornamental border. Its price was three and sixpence: of late years 40 has been given for it--perhaps more. Up to 13 July only one copy had reached the author's hands: this he then sent on to the Gisbornes, at Leghorn. Some copies of the Pisa edition were afterwards put into circulation in London: there was no separate English edition. The Gisbornes having acknowledged the Elegy with expressions of admiration, the poet replied as follows:

'Bagni [di Pisa], July 19.

'MY DEAREST FRIENDS,

'I am fully repaid for the painful emotions from which some verses of my poem sprung by your sympathy and approbation; which is all the reward I expect, and as much as I desire. It is not for me to judge whether, in the high praise your feelings a.s.sign me, you are right or wrong. The poet and the man are two different natures: though they exist together, they may be unconscious of each other, and incapable of deciding on each other's powers and efforts by any reflex act. The decision of the cause whether or not I am a poet is removed from the present time to the hour when our posterity shall a.s.semble: but the court is a very severe one, and I fear that the verdict will be ”Guilty--death.”'

A letter to Mr. Ollier was probably a little later. It says: 'I send you a sketch for a frontispiece to the poem _Adonais_. Pray let it be put into the engraver's hands immediately, as the poem is already on its way to you, and I should wish it to be ready for its arrival. The poem is beautifully printed, and--what is of more consequence--correctly: indeed, it was to obtain this last point that I sent it to the press at Pisa. In a few days you will receive the bill of lading.' Nothing is known as to the sketch which Sh.e.l.ley thus sent. It cannot, I presume, have been his own production, nor yet Severn's: possibly it was supplied by Lieutenant Williams, who had some apt.i.tude as an amateur artist.

I add some of the poet's other expressions regarding _Adonais_, which he evidently regarded with more complacency than any of his previous works--at any rate, as a piece of execution. Hitherto his favourite had been _Prometheus Unbound_: I am fain to suppose that that great effort did not now hold a second place in his affections, though he may have considered that the _Adonais_, as being a less arduous feat, came nearer to reaching its goal. (To Peac.o.c.k, August, 1821.) 'I have sent you by the Gisbornes a copy of the Elegy on Keats. The subject, I know, will not please you; but the composition of the poetry, and the taste in which it is written, I do not think bad.' (To Hunt, 26 August.) 'Before this you will have seen _Adonais_. Lord Byron--I suppose from modesty on account of his being mentioned in it--did not say a word of _Adonais_[13], though he was loud in his praise of _Prometheus_, and (what you will not agree with him in) censure of _The Cenci_.' (To Horace Smith, 14 September,) 'I am glad you like _Adonais_, and particularly that you do not think it metaphysical, which I was afraid it was. I was resolved to pay some tribute of sympathy to the unhonoured dead; but I wrote, as usual, with a total ignorance of the effect that I should produce.' (To Ollier, 25 September.) 'The _Adonais_, in spite of its mysticism, is the least imperfect of my compositions; and, as the image of my regret and honour for poor Keats, I wish it to be so. I shall write to you probably by next post on the subject of that poem; and should have sent the promised criticism for the second edition, had I not mislaid, and in vain sought for, the volume that contains _Hyperion_.' (To Ollier, 14 November.) 'I am especially curious to hear the fate of _Adonais_. I confess I should be surprised if that poem were born to an immortality of oblivion.' (To Ollier, 11 January, 1822.) 'I was also more than commonly interested in the success of _Adonais_. I do not mean the sale, but the effect produced; and I should have [been]

glad to have received some communication from you respecting it. I do not know even whether it has been published, and still less whether it has been republished with the alterations I sent.' As to the alterations sent nothing definite is known, but some details bearing on this point will be found in our Notes, p. 105, &c. (To Gisborne, 10 April) 'I know what to think of _Adonais_, but what to think of those who confound it with the many bad poems of the day I know not.' This expression seems to indicate that Mr. Gisborne had sent Sh.e.l.ley some of the current criticisms--there were probably but few in all--upon _Adonais_: to this matter I shall recur further on. (To Gisborne, 18 June.) 'The _Adonais_ I wished to have had a fair chance, both because it is a favourite with me, and on account of the memory of Keats--who was a poet of great genius, let the cla.s.sic party say what it will.'

Earlier than the latest of these extracts Sh.e.l.ley had sent to Mr. Severn a copy of _Adonais_, along with a letter which I append.

'Pisa, Nov. 29th, 1821.

'DEAR SIR,

'I send you the Elegy on poor Keats, and I wish it were better worth your acceptance. You will see, by the preface, that it was written before I could obtain any particular account of his last moments. All that I still know was communicated to me by a friend who had derived his information from Colonel Finch, I have ventured [in the Preface] to express as I felt the respect and admiration which _your_ conduct towards him demands.

'In spite of his transcendent genius, Keats never was, nor ever will be, a popular poet; and the total neglect and obscurity in which the astonis.h.i.+ng remains of his mind still lie was hardly to be dissipated by a writer who, however he may differ from Keats in more important qualities, at least resembles him in that accidental one, a want of popularity.

'I have little hope therefore that the poem I send you will excite any attention, nor do I feel a.s.sured that a critical notice of his writings would find a single reader. But for these considerations, it had been my intention to have collected the remnants of his compositions, and to have published them with a Life and criticism. Has he left any poems or writings of whatsoever kind, and in whose possession are they? Perhaps you would oblige me by information on this point.

'Many thanks for the picture you promise me [presumably a portrait of Keats, but Sh.e.l.ley does not seem ever to have received one from Severn]: I shall consider it among the most sacred relics of the past. For my part, I little expected, when I last saw Keats at my friend Leigh Hunt's, that I should survive him.