The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-23
MANUSCRIPT OF SHELLEY.
Valuable Book That Is Now Dis
played in Hnrvard,s Iil,r.n,.,


CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Dec. .22.-(speciaI
Correspondence.)-An eminent English
critic said not long ago that the most
precious manuscript in English litera ture
was the volume of Millions so-called
minor poems, in the handwriting, for the
most part, Of Milton himself. which is
preserved in the library of Trinity col
Iege, Cambridge. But apart from this,
there IS perhaps no more interesting and
touching memorial of English poetic gen
lus than the little OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
| book now displayed in a case in Harry
ard library, in which Shelley and his
wife, Mary Goodwin, made fair copies"
OF such famous lyrics as the "Skylarx,"
1.-The Sensitive Plant" ''The Indian Sere-
made" and the lode to Liberty"
The volume has long been owned in
America, though it has been only COM
parattVely recently that 1t has come in
to the possession of Harvard university,
1t once belonged to Jane CIairmont-SheI-
ley's claire, who was a stepsister of
Mrs. Shelley and who was the compan-
ion of her elopement with the poet It
was finally secured by Mr. Edward A.
Sllsbee, Of Salem, and by him presented,
after it had for some years been depOS-
tied with the library, to the university.
The book contains altogether twenty
poems. Of these thirteen are in SheIey's
handwriting and six in Mrs. SheHev's
an unknown hand. But originally other
poems were included. The earlier leaves,
up to page AZ, and a few leaves here and
there in the latter part of the book
have been torn out OF the binding; but
from the table contents which appears
at the end one learns that orig inaIly
there were twelve more pieces. including
Julian and Maddalo (set down as Mad
dalo and Julian" in this early draft,
The Masque Of Anarchy" and the
''Stanzas Written in Detection Near Ma
pies"
The volume is still clean and well pre-
served the writing fresh and clear and
the pages which have been cut out We're
removed doubtless by the Shelleys them
selves. One need not be too much of a
sentimentalist to feel a little thrill in
turning over the leaves at the reality of
1t all-the sense that one has got very
close indeed to the actual breathing life
of the poet As the critics say Of a
picture, it is very Convincing" Brown
ms, in his Memorabilia, compares a
chance conversation with Shelley, as he
heard it from friend, to an eagles
feather picked up on a lonely moor, so
distinct and notable happening did it
appear. And, as Col. Higginson has said,
this little book is in itself an eagles
feather" in the life of any lover of Shef-
ley, who is so fortunate as to be able to
handle and read it.
The book abOunds with little personal
touches. On one rage Shelley has added
UP the number of stanzas in "The Sensf-
tive Plant and then multiplied his sum
by fOur-the number of lines in the
stanza-to satisfy himself as to the
amount of "copY'-if a poets text may
be called copy-he had produced Three
of the poems are marked as already
published, referring to the volume
which had contained the" 'Prometheus In
bound Several are dated, as The Sen
sitiVe Plant" ''Pisa, March, 1920 Another
is dated Florence" Many contain read
tngs unlike those of the accredited text
Of Shelley. Sometimes there are omis-
sions. In 1.-THE Sensitive Plant the
beautiful lines:
''And the rose like a nymph to the bath
Which unveiled the depth of her glowing
TIL, fold after fold, to the fainting air
The soul Of her beauty and love lay
bare"
are left out altogether
But the volume seems to have been
compared consciennously throughout with
other original sources by Mrs. Shelley in
preparing the posthurnous editions Of her
husbands poetry, and everything that it
contains has found its way into print
with the exception of ballad, so called,
entitled Young Parson Richards" and
consisting of twenty-one stanzas of four
lines each Commenting on this poem.
Prof. George Edward Woodbury. has
said: 1T is entirely valueless in itself.
and uninstructive with respect either to
Shelley or the growth of his poetical
genius. So much inferior writing by
men Of genius has been published of late
years that most persons will be grate-
full to those who have refrained from
printing bad poem simply because it
was written by g great poet