The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 1 (of 2)Jeaffreson, John Cordy
History
The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Jeaffreson, John Cordy
Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822
The poet's coadjutor in the unfortunate business of the _Original Poetry_
was his sister Elizabeth, and it is easy to see how Shelley manufactured
the fanciful name 'Cazire' out of so dissimilar a name as Elizabeth. He
may be presumed to have made it out of the letters of his sister's name
and a single epithet of affection, on principles familiar to students who
are versed in the romantic curiosities and fanciful contrivances of
eighteenth-century English literature. Isabel and Elizabeth are the same
name with differences of garniture. In each case Iza is the veritable
name. To call a woman Izabel, or Izabella, is to call her 'the beautiful
Iza.' To call her Elizabeth (El Iza beata) is to style her 'the blessed
Iza.' In being christened Elizabeth, the eldest of Shelley's sisters was
named Iza. The letters out of which Shelley made the fancy-name 'Cazire,'
were the letters of Cara Iza == dear Iza. Of course he used no letter
twice. Rule of art forbade him to use the same letter twice. First he took
the letters of the name, and by reversing their order made them spell
'azi.' By prefixing to 'azi' the 'C' of Cara, and putting the 'r' of the
same epithet after the 'i' of 'Cazi,' he made the name 'Cazir,'--a name to
which he gave a more feminine appearance by adding to it the initial
letter of his sister's familiar name, Elizabeth. Hence 'Cazire.'
Even as the Byron of Southwell Green employed Ridge, the Newark
bookseller, to print and publish his three first volumes of verse, the
Shelley of Field Place appointed a Horsham printer to make a printed book
of the _Original Poetry_, which he and his sister had put together. The
edition, thus printed at Horsham in the late summer or early autumn of
1810, though it can scarcely be said to have been published there, seems
to have been an edition of fifteen hundred copies. If the youthful authors
looked for a brisk sale in Sussex, that would enable them to pay their
printer as soon as he should ask for his money, they were disappointed. If
the Horsham printer worked off the edition, under the notion that he would
have no difficulty in getting payment of his little bill from the young
gentleman of Field Place, or from the Member of Parliament for New
Shoreham, or from old Sir Bysshe Shelley, he, too, was disappointed. For
in the autumn (towards the end of August or on one of the earliest days of
September), 1810, the Oxford undergraduate entered for the first time the
place of business of Mr. John Joseph Stockdale, and with a countenance
eloquent of anxiety besought the publisher to satisfy the demand of the
importunate Horsham printer, and taking over the stock of printed copies
to offer them for sale in his usual way of business. Had he been a youth
of no social quality, instead of being the eldest son of a well-known
Member of Parliament, who was reputed to be the heir of the wealthiest
commoner of Sussex, the petitioner for relief from an embarrassing
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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