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
(3) Consisting altogether of the two initial letters, the evidence which
disposes Mr. MacCarthy to rate the poet with the literary essayists of the
Oxford newspaper, cannot be declared convincingly cogent and conclusive.
It is, however, far less weak and shadowy than the evidence that the
undergraduate of University College, Oxford, produced the English
translations from the Greek _Anthologia_, which appeared in the _Oxford
Herald_ of 5th January, and 12th January, 1811, with the signature 'S'
attached to each set of verses. After identifying Shelley with the
translator by this solitary letter, Mr. MacCarthy next argues that, having
been thus detected in translating verses of the Greek _Anthologia_,
Shelley may be fairly suspected of being, and indeed assumed to be, the
translator of the epigram by Vincent Bourne, that appeared in English
dress in the _Oxford Herald_ of 23rd February, 1811 (signed
'Versificator'); and also the translator (signing himself 'Versificator')
who produced the English versions of two epigrams from the Greek
_Anthologia_, that appeared in the _Oxford Herald_ of 9th March, 1811. To
those, who hesitate in declaring Shelley the producer of the two January
translations, because his surname began with the letter 'S,' it may well
appear considerably less than manifest that Shelley should be regarded as
the producer of Versificator's translations, because he had a taste for
making verses. After arguing that 'S' was Shelley, because the Shelleys
resembled the Smiths in one interesting particular, and that
'Versificator' must have been Shelley, because Shelley had as good a right
as any one else to style himself so, this perplexing Mr. MacCarthy (who is
of so much account with the Shelleyan experts) tells us in a note, that
some one, during Shelley's time at Oxford, sent a translation from Vincent
Bourne to the _Oxford Herald_, signed 'S. S.--Edmonton.' On such trifles
and trifling, weeks and months were wasted by the Shelleyan expert, who,
with all his boastful show of laborious research, never troubled himself
to find out, when Shelley and Hogg became members of their University.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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