Prometheus Unbound
The variants of B. (Shelley’s ‘intermediate draft’ of “Prometheus Unbound”, now in the Bodleian Library), here recorded, are taken from Mr. C.D. Locock’s “Examination”, etc., Clarendon Press, 1903. See Editor’s Prefatory Note, above.
1. Act 1, line 204. B. has—shaken in pencil above—peopled.
2. Hark that outcry, etc. (1 553.) All editions read Mark that outcry, etc. As Shelley nowhere else uses Mark in the sense of List, I have adopted Hark, the reading of B.
3.
Gleamed in the night. I wandered, etc. (1 770.)
Forman proposes to delete the period at night.
4. But treads with lulling footstep, etc. (1 774.) Forman prints killing—a misreading of B. Editions 1820, 1839 read silent.
5. …the eastern star looks white, etc. (1 825.) B. reads wan for white.
6.
Like footsteps of weak melody, etc. (2 1 89.)
B. reads far (above a cancelled lost) for weak.
7. And wakes the destined soft emotion,— Attracts, impels them; (2 2 50, 51.) The editio princeps (1820) reads destined soft emotion, Attracts, etc.; “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition reads destined: soft emotion Attracts, etc. “Poetical Works”, 1839, 2nd edition reads destined, soft emotion Attracts, etc. Forman and Dowden place a period, and Woodberry a semicolon, at destined (line 50).
8. There steams a plume-uplifting wind, etc. (2 2 53.) Here steams is found in B., in the editio princeps (1820) and in the 1st edition of “Poetical Works”, 1839. In the 2nd edition, 1839, streams appears—no doubt a misprint overlooked by the editress.
9. Sucked up and hurrying: as they fleet, etc. (2 2 60.) So “Poetical Works”, 1839, both editions. The editio princeps (1820) reads hurrying as, etc.
10. See’st thou shapes within the mist? (2 3 50.) So B., where these words are substituted for the cancelled I see thin shapes within the mist of the editio princeps (1820). ‘The credit of discovering the true reading belongs to Zupitza’ (Locock).
11. 2 4 12-18. The construction is faulty here, but the sense, as Professor Woodberry observes, is clear.
12. …but who rains down, etc. (2 4 100.) The editio princeps (1820) has reigns—a reading which Forman bravely but unsuccessfully attempts to defend.
13. Child of Light! thy limbs are burning, etc. (2 5 54.) The editio princeps (1820) has lips for limbs, but the word membre in Shelley’s Italian prose version of these lines establishes limbs, the reading of B. (Locock).
14. Which in the winds and on the waves doth move, (2 5 96.) The word and is Rossetti’s conjectural emendation, adopted by Forman and Dowden. Woodberry unhappily observes that ‘the emendation corrects a faultless line merely to make it agree with stanzaic structure, and…is open to the gravest doubt.’ Rossetti’s conjecture is fully established by the authority of B.
15.
3 4 172-174. The editio princeps (1820) punctuates:
mouldering round
These imaged to the pride of kings and priests,
A dark yet mighty faith, a power, etc.
This punctuation is retained by Forman and Dowden; that of our text is
Woodberry’s.
16. 3 4 180, 188. A dash has been introduced at the close of these two lines to indicate the construction more clearly. And for the sake of clearness a note of interrogation has been substituted for the semicolon of 1820 after Passionless (line 198).
17.
Where lovers catch ye by your loose tresses; (4 107.)
B. has sliding for loose (cancelled).
18. By ebbing light into her western cave, (4 208.) Here light is the reading of B. for night (all editions). Mr. Locock tells us that the anticipated discovery of this reading was the origin of his examination of the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. In printing night Marchant’s compositor blundered; yet ‘we cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.’
19. Purple and azure, white, and green, and golden, (4 242.) The editio princeps (1820) reads white, green and golden, etc.—white and green being Rossetti’s emendation, adopted by Forman and Dowden. Here again—cf. note on (17) above—Prof. Woodberry commits himself by stigmatizing the correction as one ‘for which there is no authority in Shelley’s habitual versification.’ Rossetti’s conjecture is confirmed by the reading of B., white and green, etc.
20. Filling the abyss with sun-like lightenings, (4 276.) The editio princeps (1820) reads lightnings, for which Rossetti substitutes lightenings—a conjecture described by Forman as ‘an example of how a very slight change may produce a very calamitous result.’ B. however supports Rossetti, and in point of fact Shelley usually wrote lightenings, even where the word counts as a dissyllable (Locock).
21. Meteors and mists, which throng air’s solitudes:— (4 547.) For throng (cancelled) B. reads feed, i.e., ‘feed on’ (cf. Pasturing flowers of vegetable fire, 3 4 110)—a reading which carries on the metaphor of line 546 (ye untameable herds), and ought, perhaps, to be adopted into the text.
22. PUNCTUAL VARIATIONS. The punctuation of our text is that of the editio princeps (1820), except in the places indicated in the following list, which records in each instance the pointing of 1820:—
Act 1 — Empire. 15; o, 17; God 144; Words 185; Internally. 299; o, 302; Gnash 345; Wail 345; Sufferer 352; Agony. 491; Between 712; Cloud 712; Vale 826
Act 2: Scene 1 — Air 129; by 153; Fire, 155. Scene 2 — Noonday, 25; Hurrying 60. Scene 3 — Mist. 50. Scene 4 — Sun, 4; Ungazed 5; on 103; Ay 106; Secrets. 115. Scene 5 — Brightness 67
Act 3: Scene 3 — Apparitions, 49; Beauty, 51; Phantoms, (Omit Parentheses) 52; Reality, 53; Wind 98. Scene 4 — Toil 109; Fire. 110; Feel; 114; Borne; 115; Said 124; Priests, 173; Man, 180; Hate, 188; Passionless; 198
Act 4 — Dreams, 66; Be. 165; Light. 168; Air, 187; Dreams, 209; Woods 211; Thunder-Storm, 215; Lie 298; Bones 342; Blending. 343; Mire. 349; Pass, 371; Kind 385; Move. 387
The Cenci
1. The deed he saw could not have rated higher Than his most worthless life:— (1 1 24, 25.) Than is Mrs. Shelley’s emendation (1839) for That, the word in the editio princeps (1819) printed in Italy, and in the (standard) edition of 1821. The sense is: ‘The crime he witnessed could not have proved costlier to redeem than his murder has proved to me.’
2. And but that there yet remains a deed to act, etc. (1 1 100.) Read: And but: that there yet: remains: etc.
3. 1 1 111-113. The earliest draft of these lines appears as a tentative fragment in the Bodleian manuscript of “Prince Athanase” (vid. supr.). In the Bodleian manuscript of “Prometheus Unbound” they reappear (after 2 4 27) in a modified shape, as follows:— Or looks which tell that while the lips are calm And the eyes cold, the spirit weeps within Tears like the sanguine sweat of agony; Here again, however, the passage is cancelled, once more to reappear in its final and most effective shape in “The Cenci” (Locock).
4. And thus I love you still, but holily, Even as a sister or a spirit might; (1 2 24, 25.) For this, the reading of the standard edition (1821), the editio princeps has, And yet I love, etc., which Rossetti retains. If yet be right, the line should be punctuated:— And yet I love you still,—but holily, Even as a sister or a spirit might;
5.
What, if we, The desolate and the dead, were his own flesh, His children and his wife, etc. (1 3 103-105.)
For were (104) Rossetti cj. are or wear. Wear is a plausible emendation, but the text as it stands is defensible.
6. But that no power can fill with vital oil That broken lamp of flesh. (3 2 17, 18.) The standard text (1821) has a Shelleyan comma after oil (17), which Forman retains. Woodberry adds a dash to the comma, thus making that (17) a demonstrative pronoun indicating broken lamp of flesh. The pointing of our text is that of editions 1819, 1839, But that (17) is to be taken as a prepositional conjunction linking the dependent clause, no power…lamp of flesh, to the principal sentence, So wastes…kindled mine (15, 16).
7. The following list of punctual variations indicates the places where our pointing departs from that of the standard text of 1821, and records in each instance the pointing of that edition:—