The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]Shelley, Percy Bysshe
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The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe
English prose literature
“Haimatoff, the blight has tainted thee, thou ample roomy
web of life, whereon were traced the gaudy characters,
the gay embroidery of pleasure, how has the moth battened
on thee; Haimatoff, how has the devouring flame scorched
the plains, once yellow with the harvest! the simoon, the
parching breath of the desert, has swept over the laughing
plains, the carpet of verdure rolled away at its approach,
and has bared amid desolation. Thou stricken deer, thy
leather coat, thy dappled hide hangs loose upon thee, it
was a deadly arrow, how has it wasted thee, thou scathed
oak, how has the red lightning drank thy sap: Haimatoff,
Haimatoff, eat thy soul with vexation. Let the immeasurable
ocean roll between thee and pride: you must not dwell
together,” p. 129
The episode of Viola is affecting, natural, and beautiful. We do not
ever remember to have seen the unforgiving fastidiousness of family
honour more awfully illustrated. After the death of her lover, Viola
still expects that he will esteem, still cherishes the delusion that he
is not lost to her for ever.
“She used frequently to go to the window to look for him,
or walk in the Park to meet him, but without the least
impatience, at his delay. She learnt a new tune, or a new
song to amuse him, she stood behind the door to startle him
as he entered, or disguised herself to surprise him.”
The character of Mary, deserves, we think, to be considered as the
only complete failure in the book. Every other female whom the author
has attempted to describe is designated by an individuality peculiarly
marked and true. They constitute finished portraits of whatever is
eminently simple, graceful, gentle, or disgustingly atrocious and vile.
Mary alone is the miserable parasite of fashion, the tame slave of
drivelling and drunken folly, the cold-hearted coquette, the lying and
meretricious prude. The means employed to gain this worthless prize
corresponds exactly with its worthlessness. Sir Fulke Hildebrand is
a strenuous Tory, Alexy, on his arrival in England professes himself
inclined to the principles of the Whig party, finding that the Baronet
had sworn that his daughter should never marry a Whig, he sacrifices
his principles and with inconceivable effrontery thus palliates his
apostasy and falsehood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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