The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]

Name: The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]
Author: Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

English prose literature

Kindest regards to Henry. I hope he is not stopped for want of money,
as I shall assuredly send him what he wants in a month from the date of
my last letter. I received his letter from Pistoia, and have no other
criticism to make on it, except the severest--that it is too short. How
goes on Portuguese--and Theocritus? I have deserted the odorous gardens
of literature, to journey across the great sandy desert of politics;
not, as you may imagine, without the hope of finding some enchanted
paradise. In all probability, I shall be overwhelmed by one of the
tempestuous columns which are forever traversing, with the speed of
a storm, and the confusion of a chaos, that pathless wilderness. You
meanwhile will be lamenting in some happy oasis that I do not return.
This is out-Calderonizing Muley. We have had lightning and rain here
in plenty. I like the Cascini very much, where I often walk alone,
watching the leaves, and the rising and falling of the Arno. I am full
of all kinds of literary plans.

                                  Meanwhile, all yours most faithfully,
                                                               P. B. S.

[29] A letter (to Leigh Hunt) on the Trial of Richard Carlile for
publishing Paine’s _Age of Reason_, intended for insertion in the
_Examiner_.--Ed.


 TO MRS. GISBORNE.

                                             _Florence, Nov. 16, 1819._

  Madonna,

I have been lately voyaging in a sea without my pilot, and although
my sail has often been torn, my boat become leaky, and the log lost,
I have yet sailed in a kind of way from island to island; some of
craggy and mountainous magnificence, some clothed with moss and
flowers, and radiant with fountains, some barren deserts. _I have been
reading Calderon without you._ I have read the “Cisma de Ingalaterra,”
the “Cabellos de Absolom,” and three or four others. These pieces,
inferior to those we read, at least to the “Principe Constante,”
in the splendour of particular passages, are perhaps superior in
their satisfying completeness. The “Cabellos de Absolom” is full of
the deepest and tenderest touches of nature. Nothing can be more
pathetically conceived than the character of old David, and the tender
and impartial love, overcoming all insults and all crimes, with which
he regards his conflicting and disobedient sons. The incest scene of
Amon and Tamar is perfectly tremendous. Well may Calderon say in the
person of the former--

        Si sangre sin fuego hiere,
    que fara sangre con fuego?

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]Shelley, Percy Bysshe

General

The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

English prose literature

Kindest regards to Henry. I hope he is not stopped for want of money,
as I shall assuredly send him what he wants in a month from the date of
my last letter. I received his letter from Pistoia, and have no other
criticism to make on it, except the severest--that it is too short. How
goes on Portuguese--and Theocritus? I have deserted the odorous gardens
of literature, to journey across the great sandy desert of politics;
not, as you may imagine, without the hope of finding some enchanted
paradise. In all probability, I shall be overwhelmed by one of the
tempestuous columns which are forever traversing, with the speed of
a storm, and the confusion of a chaos, that pathless wilderness. You
meanwhile will be lamenting in some happy oasis that I do not return.
This is out-Calderonizing Muley. We have had lightning and rain here
in plenty. I like the Cascini very much, where I often walk alone,
watching the leaves, and the rising and falling of the Arno. I am full
of all kinds of literary plans.

                                  Meanwhile, all yours most faithfully,
                                                               P. B. S.

[29] A letter (to Leigh Hunt) on the Trial of Richard Carlile for
publishing Paine’s _Age of Reason_, intended for insertion in the
_Examiner_.--Ed.


 TO MRS. GISBORNE.

                                             _Florence, Nov. 16, 1819._

  Madonna,

I have been lately voyaging in a sea without my pilot, and although
my sail has often been torn, my boat become leaky, and the log lost,
I have yet sailed in a kind of way from island to island; some of
craggy and mountainous magnificence, some clothed with moss and
flowers, and radiant with fountains, some barren deserts. _I have been
reading Calderon without you._ I have read the “Cisma de Ingalaterra,”
the “Cabellos de Absolom,” and three or four others. These pieces,
inferior to those we read, at least to the “Principe Constante,”
in the splendour of particular passages, are perhaps superior in
their satisfying completeness. The “Cabellos de Absolom” is full of
the deepest and tenderest touches of nature. Nothing can be more
pathetically conceived than the character of old David, and the tender
and impartial love, overcoming all insults and all crimes, with which
he regards his conflicting and disobedient sons. The incest scene of
Amon and Tamar is perfectly tremendous. Well may Calderon say in the
person of the former--

        Si sangre sin fuego hiere,
    que fara sangre con fuego?

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]

The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]

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