# The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Epipsychidion

Epipsychidion is a major poetical work published in 1821 by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The work was subtitled: "Verses addressed to the noble and unfortunate Lady, Emilia V--, now imprisoned in the convent of --." The title is Greek for “concerning or about a little soul" from epi, "around", and psychidion, "little soul".
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EPIPSYCHIDION
VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE NOBLE AND UNFORTUNATE LADY, EMILIA V———,
NOW IMPRISONED IN THE CONVENT OF ———
L'anima amante si slancia fuori del creato, e si crea nell' infinito un Mondo tutto per essa, diverso assai da questo oscuro e pauroso baratro.
Her own words.
[Epipsychidion was composed at Pisa, Jan., Feb., 1821, and published without the author's name, in the following summer, by C. & J. Ollier, London. The poem was included by Mrs. Shelley in the Poetical Works, 1839, both edd. Amongst the Shelley MSS. in the Bodleian is a first draft of Epipsychidion, 'consisting of three versions, more or less complete, of the Preface [Advertisement], a version in ink and pencil, much cancelled, of the last eighty lines of the poem, and some additional lines which did not appear in print' (Examination of the ​Shelley MSS. in the Bodleian Library, by G. D. Locock. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903, p. 3). This draft, the writing of which is 'extraordinarily confused and illegible,' has been carefully deciphered and printed by Mr. Locock in the volume named above. Our text follows that of the editio princeps, 1821.]
ADVERTISEMENT
The Writer of the following lines died at Florence, as he was preparing for a voyage to one of the wildest of the Sporades, which he had bought, and where he had fitted up the ruins of an old building, and where it was his hope to have realised a scheme of life, suited perhaps to that happier and better world of which he is now an inhabitant, but hardly practicable in this. His life was singular; less on account of the romantic vicissitudes which diversified it, than the ideal tinge which it received from his own character and feelings. The present Poem, like the Vita Nuova of Dante, is sufficiently intelligible to a certain class of readers without a matter-of-fact history of the circumstances to which it relates; and to a certain other class it must ever remain incomprehensible, from a defect of a common organ of perception for the ideas of which it treats. Not but that gran vergogna sarebbe a colui, che rimasse cosa sotto veste di figura, o di colore rettorico: e domandato non sapesse denudare le sue parole da cotal veste, in guisa che avessero verace intendimetnto.
The present poem appears to have been intended by the Writer as the dedication to some longer one. The stanza on the opposite page is almost a literal translation from Dante's famous Canzone
Voi, chi intendendo, il terzo ciel movete, etc.
The presumptuous application of the concluding lines to his own composition will raise a smile at the expense of my unfortunate friend: be it a smile not of contempt, but pity. S.
EPIPSYCHIDION
FRAGMENTS CONNECTED WITH EPIPSYCHIDION
[Of the fragments of verse that follow, lines 1-37, 62-92 were printed by Mrs. Shelley in P. W., 1839, 2nd edition; lines 1-174 were printed or reprinted by Dr. Garnett in Relics of Shelley, 1862; and lines 175-186 were printed by Mr. C. D. Locock from the first draft of Epipsychidion amongst the Shelley MSS. in the Bodleian Library. See Examination, &c, 1903, pp. 12, 13. The three early drafts of the Preface (Advertisement) were printed by Mr. Locock in the same volume, pp. 4, 5.]
THREE EARLY DRAFTS OF THE PREFACE (ADVERTISEMENT)
PREFACE I
The following Poem was found amongst other papers in the Portfolio of a young Englishman with whom the Editor had contracted an intimacy at Florence, brief indeed, but sufficiently long to render the Catastrophe by which it terminated one of the most painful events of his life.—
The literary merit of the Poem in question may not be considerable; but worse verses are printed every day, &
He was an accomplished & amiable person but his error was, θνητος ὠν μη θνητα φρονειν,—his fate is an additional proof that 'The tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.'—He had framed to himself certain opinions, founded no doubt upon the truth of things, but built up to a Babel height; they fell by their own weight, & the thoughts that were his architects, became unintelligible one to the other, as men upon whom confusion of tongues has fallen.
[These] verses seem to have been written as a sort of dedication of some work to have been presented to the person whom they address: but his papers afford no trace of such a work—The circumstances to which [they] the poem allude, may easily be understood by those to whom [the] spirit of the poem itself is [un]intelligible: a detail of facts, sufficiently romantic in [themselves but] their combinations
The melancholy [task] charge of consigning the body of my poor friend to the grave, was committed to me by his desolated family. I caused him to be buried in a spot selected by himself, & on the h
PREFACE II
[Epips] T. E. V. Epipsych Lines addressed to the Noble Lady [Emilia] [E. V.] Emilia
[The following Poem was found in the PF. of a young Englishman, who died on his passage from Leghorn to the Levant. He had bought one of the Sporades] He was accompanied by a lady [who might have been] supposed to be his wife, & an effeminate looking youth, to whom he shewed an [attachment] so [singular] excessive an attachment as to give rise to the suspicion, that she was a woman—At his death this suspicion was confirmed; object speedily found a refuge both from the taunts of the brute multitude, and from the of her grief in the same grave that contained her lover.—He had bought one of the Sporades, & fitted up a Saracenic castle which accident had preserved in some repair with simple elegance, & it was his intention to dedicate the remainder of his life to undisturbed intercourse with his companions
These verses apparently were intended as a dedication of a longer poem or series of poems
PREFACE III
The writer of these lines died at Florence in [January 1820] while he was preparing * * for one wildest of the of the Sporades, where he bought & fitted up the ruins of some old building—His life was singular, less on account of the romantic vicissitudes which diversified it, than the ideal tinge which they received from his own character & feelings—
The verses were apparently intended by the writer to accompany some longer poem or collection of poems, of which there * [are no remnants in his] * * * remains [in his] portfolio.—
The editor is induced to
The present poem, like the vita Nova of Dante, is sufficiently intelligible to a certain class of readers without a matter of fact history of the circumstances to which it relate, & to a certain other class, it must & ought ever to remain incomprehensible—It was evidently intended to be prefixed to a longer poem or series of poems—but among his papers there are no traces of such a collection.
PASSAGES OF THE POEM, OR CONNECTED THEREWITH
* ↑ i.e. the nine lines which follow, beginning, 'My Song, I fear,' etc.— Ed.
* ↑ 100 morning] morn may Rossetti cj.
* ↑ 118 of] on ed. 1839.
* ↑ 405 it] he ed. 1839.
* ↑ 501 many-twining] many twining ed. prin. 1821.
* ↑ 504 winter-woof] inter-woof Rossetti cj.
* ↑ 52-53 afraid The cj. A. C. Bradley.
* ↑ 54 And as cj. Rossetti, A. C. Bradley.
* ↑ 61 stone. . . . cj. A. C. Bradley.
* ↑ 155 them] trip or troop cj. A. C. Bradley.
* ↑ 157 in] as cj. A C. Bradley.