TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL DORIC.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
‘Choose Reform or Civil War,
When through thy streets, instead of hare with dogs,
A CONSORT-QUEEN shall hunt a king with hogs,
Riding on the IONIAN MINOTAUR.’
[Begun at the Baths of San Giuliano, near Pisa, August 24, 1819;
published anonymously by J. Johnston, Cheapside (imprint C.F.
Seyfang), 1820. On a threat of prosecution the publisher surrendered
the whole impression, seven copies—the total number sold—excepted.
“Oedipus” does not appear in the first edition of the “Poetical
Works”, 1839, but it was included by Mrs. Shelley in the second
edition of that year. Our text is that of the editio princeps, 1820,
save in three places, where the reading of edition 1820 will be found
in the notes.]