SHAKESPEARE.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
[Composed at Florence, October, 1819, and forwarded to Hunt (November
2) to be published by C. & J. Ollier without the author’s name;
ultimately printed by Mrs. Shelley in the second edition of the
“Poetical Works”, 1839. A skit by John Hamilton Reynolds, “Peter Bell,
a Lyrical Ballad”, had already appeared (April, 1819), a few days
before the publication of Wordsworth’s “Peter Bell, a Tale”. These
productions were reviewed in Leigh Hunt’s “Examiner” (April 26, May 3,
1819); and to the entertainment derived from his perusal of Hunt’s
criticisms the composition of Shelley’s “Peter Bell the Third” is
chiefly owing.]