The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 1 (of 2)Jeaffreson, John Cordy
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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
Mr. Denis Florence MacCarthy seizes every occasion for inaccuracy, and now
and then makes an occasion, in the absence of a decent opportunity, for
blundering. What does Mr. MacCarthy mean 'by University College at
Cambridge?' Oxford has a college styled University College; there is a
college so called in London; but Cambridge has no University College. By
the charitable writer of the present page, it is assumed that by
'University College _at_ Cambridge,' Mr. MacCarthy (who is so merciless
and malignant to Hogg for his occasional inaccuracies) means The Cambridge
University Library. Let it be so assumed by the reader.
It follows, that some years since Mr. Denis Florence MacCarthy sought by
printed circular for a copy of this Shelleyan poem (which possibly was
never published) in the shop of nearly every second-hand bookseller in
Great Britain and Ireland; that he caused the Librarians of the Bodleian
Library, and the Cambridge University Library, to search for a copy of the
poem in their libraries; that he induced Mr. Quaritch of Piccadilly, Mr.
Stibbs of Museum Street, and the Messrs. Longmans of Paternoster Row, 'and
others,' to make search by advertisements and special inquiries, for a
copy of the poem,--without coming upon a copy after all the trouble.
Yet more:--Hogg never heard of this poem; Peacock never heard of it, so
far as the evidences go; no one of the poet's friends or relations appears
ever to have heard of it; no review of the poem has come to light; and
(more remarkable yet!) no one of the many published lists of subscriptions
to the Finerty Fund, to be found in the _Morning Chronicle_, and other
papers of the period (examined by Mr. MacCarthy), makes mention of any
single contribution amounting to 100_l._,--of _any_ contributions whatever
as the result of the sale of the poem.
What a labour of searching for a copy of the poem, and for evidence about
the poem, that may never have been written! Surely the searching would
have resulted in the discovery of a copy, had 2000 copies passed into
circulation, or in the discovery of some stronger evidence of the poem's
publication, had the sale of the work yielded any considerable sum of
money to the Fund, which amounted in the course of twelve months to
something more than 1000_l._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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