Prometheus Unbound
The variants of B. (Shelley’s ‘intermediate draft’ of “Prometheus
Unbound”, now in the Bodleian Library), here recorded, are taken from
Mr. C.D. Locock’s “Examination”, etc., Clarendon Press, 1903. See
Editor’s Prefatory Note, above.
1.
Act 1, line 204. B. has—shaken in pencil above—peopled.
2.
Hark that outcry, etc. (1 553.)
All editions read Mark that outcry, etc. As Shelley nowhere else uses
Mark in the sense of List, I have adopted Hark, the reading of B.
3.
Gleamed in the night. I wandered, etc. (1 770.)
Forman proposes to delete the period at night.
4.
But treads with lulling footstep, etc. (1 774.)
Forman prints killing—a misreading of B. Editions 1820, 1839 read silent.
5.
...the eastern star looks white, etc. (1 825.)
B. reads wan for white.
6.
Like footsteps of weak melody, etc. (2 1 89.)
B. reads far (above a cancelled lost) for weak.
7.
And wakes the destined soft emotion,—
Attracts, impels them; (2 2 50, 51.)
The editio princeps (1820) reads destined soft emotion, Attracts, etc.;
“Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition reads destined: soft emotion
Attracts, etc. “Poetical Works”, 1839, 2nd edition reads destined, soft
emotion Attracts, etc. Forman and Dowden place a period, and Woodberry a
semicolon, at destined (line 50).
8.
There steams a plume-uplifting wind, etc. (2 2 53.)
Here steams is found in B., in the editio princeps (1820) and in the 1st
edition of “Poetical Works”, 1839. In the 2nd edition, 1839, streams
appears—no doubt a misprint overlooked by the editress.
9.
Sucked up and hurrying: as they fleet, etc. (2 2 60.)
So “Poetical Works”, 1839, both editions. The editio princeps (1820)
reads hurrying as, etc.
10.
See’st thou shapes within the mist? (2 3 50.)
So B., where these words are substituted for the cancelled I see thin
shapes within the mist of the editio princeps (1820). ‘The credit of
discovering the true reading belongs to Zupitza’ (Locock).
11.
2 4 12-18. The construction is faulty here, but the sense, as Professor
Woodberry observes, is clear.
12.
...but who rains down, etc. (2 4 100.)
The editio princeps (1820) has reigns—a reading which Forman bravely
but unsuccessfully attempts to defend.
13.
Child of Light! thy limbs are burning, etc. (2 5 54.)
The editio princeps (1820) has lips for limbs, but the word membre in
Shelley’s Italian prose version of these lines establishes limbs, the
reading of B. (Locock).
14.
Which in the winds and on the waves doth move, (2 5 96.)
The word and is Rossetti’s conjectural emendation, adopted by Forman and
Dowden. Woodberry unhappily observes that ‘the emendation corrects a
faultless line merely to make it agree with stanzaic structure, and...is
open to the gravest doubt.’ Rossetti’s conjecture is fully established
by the authority of B.
15.
3 4 172-174. The editio princeps (1820) punctuates:
mouldering round
These imaged to the pride of kings and priests,
A dark yet mighty faith, a power, etc.
This punctuation is retained by Forman and Dowden; that of our text is
Woodberry’s.
16.
3 4 180, 188. A dash has been introduced at the close of these two lines
to indicate the construction more clearly. And for the sake of clearness
a note of interrogation has been substituted for the semicolon of 1820
after Passionless (line 198).
17.
Where lovers catch ye by your loose tresses; (4 107.)
B. has sliding for loose (cancelled).
18.
By ebbing light into her western cave, (4 208.)
Here light is the reading of B. for night (all editions). Mr. Locock
tells us that the anticipated discovery of this reading was the origin
of his examination of the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. In
printing night Marchant’s compositor blundered; yet ‘we cannot wish the
fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.’
19.
Purple and azure, white, and green, and golden, (4 242.)
The editio princeps (1820) reads white, green and golden, etc.—white
and green being Rossetti’s emendation, adopted by Forman and Dowden.
Here again—cf. note on (17) above—Prof. Woodberry commits himself by
stigmatizing the correction as one ‘for which there is no authority in
Shelley’s habitual versification.’ Rossetti’s conjecture is confirmed by
the reading of B., white and green, etc.
20.
Filling the abyss with sun-like lightenings, (4 276.)
The editio princeps (1820) reads lightnings, for which Rossetti
substitutes lightenings—a conjecture described by Forman as ‘an example
of how a very slight change may produce a very calamitous result.’ B.
however supports Rossetti, and in point of fact Shelley usually wrote
lightenings, even where the word counts as a dissyllable (Locock).
21.
Meteors and mists, which throng air’s solitudes:— (4 547.)
For throng (cancelled) B. reads feed, i.e., ‘feed on’ (cf. Pasturing
flowers of vegetable fire, 3 4 110)—a reading which carries on the
metaphor of line 546 (ye untameable herds), and ought, perhaps, to be
adopted into the text.