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Shelley and Bacon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

David Lee Clark
David Lee Clark*
Affiliation:
University of Texas
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Extract

There is abundant evidence for the assertion that Shelley at one time thought of devoting all his talents to the study of metaphysics. On August 1, 1811, in a letter to Stockdale, Shelley writes:

My studies have been, since my writing it [St. Irvyne], of a more serious nature. I am at present engaged in completing a series of moral and metaphysical essays.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 1933 , pp. 529 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1933

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References

1 Thomas Jefferson Hogg: Life of Shelley, two vols. (1858). See especially I, 98, 99, 103, 191, 192, 270, 271.

2 Quoted from the Oxford Shelley, p. 153.

3 Ingpen and Peck's edition of Shelley, x, 21.

4 Shawcross, Shelley's Literary and Philosophical Criticism, p. 127.

5 Medwin's Revised Life of Shelley, p. 92.

6 Ibid., p. 255.

7 Oxford Shelley, p. 805.

8 Ibid., p. 35.

9 Ibid., p. 203.

10 Julian Edition (Peck and Ingpen), vi, 51.

11 Ibid., p. 57.

12 Ibid., vii, 63.

13 Ibid., vi, 241.

14 Ibid., vii, 161.

15 Ibid., vii. 111.

16 Ibid., vii, 114–115.

17 Julian Edition, vii, 133.

18 Ibid., vii, 138.

19 Ibid., vii, 7–10.

20 Ibid., vii, 38.

21 Ibid., x, 116.

22 Shawcross, Literary and Philosophical Criticism, p. 233.

23 In the Miriam E. Stark Collection is Shelley's own copy of Bacon. The/Works/of/Francis Bacon/Baron of Verulam,/Viscount St. Alban,/and/Lord High Chancellor of England./ In five quarto volumes, contemporary russia, Printed for J. Rivington and Sons; L. Davis, T. Payne; B. White; T. Davies; W. Davis; T. Cadell; G. Nichol; W. Otridge; H. Gardner; and T. Evans. London, MDCCLXXVIII.

These voumes were purchased direct at auction from the sale of Lord Abinger's estate. The sale catalogue reads: “Catalogue of the remaining contents of the Mansion, formerly the contents of the Boscombe Manor, Residence of the late Sir Percy Shelley, Bart.” This Sir Percy Shelley was the son of the poet.

When Shelley acquired these volumes, and at what period in his life he annotated them can not be definitely determined. It seems reasonable to presume that he had them before him during 1811–1816 when he was composing his metaphysical essays, and the Notes to Queen Mab, for not only were Bacon's ideas particularly congenial at that time to the poet's way of thinking, but Shelley actually used in these essays and Notes certain passages marked in his copy of Bacon. On the other hand, Medwin's use of the word devoured would indicate that the poet was reading these volumes for the first time. One would hardly devour a book which he had previously annotated. It is more than likely that Medwin used the word carelessly, and that Shelley had only received his own familiar copy from England.

24 ii, 344–348.

25 viii, 479.

26 Ibid., viii, 482.

27 Ibid., viii, 483.

28 Ibid., viii, 484.

29 Ibid., viii, 486–492.

30 Ibid., viii, 497.

31 Ibid., viii, 502.

32 Ibid., viii, 509.

33 Ibid., ix, 54.

34 Ibid., ix, 56–57.

35 Ibid., ix, 74.

36 Ibid., ix, 98–100.

37 Ibid., ix, 139.

38 Ibid., ix, 141.

39 Ibid., ix, 142.

40 Ibid., ix, 270.

41 Ibid., ix, 327.

42 Ibid., x, 84–85.