CHAPTER XVII.

The Italian revolution - Its failure

timacy with Greek patriots - Prince Mavrocordato

The Greek revolution-Shelley writes "Hellas". John Keats His poetry Shelley writes to the Quarterly on Keats' behalf Arrival of Keats in Italy-Effects of the journey on his health-Severn's devotion to Keats-Death of Keats-Reflections on his genius and character.

THE year 1821 dawned upon a fierce struggle which convulsed every part of the Italian Peninsula. The success of the Neapolitan insurrection, filled every heart with hope and encouragement; Sicily followed theexample, and the people rose against an oppressive government.

Enthusiasm was at its highest, and even the

women took part in resisting the armed forces that fought against them, by pouring boiling oil on their heads from the house tops.

After a murderous onslaught, this result was, says Shelley, as it should be-Sicily was free.

Piedmont was the next to assert its freedom, and Genoa threw off the yoke of the king of Sardinia. The little states of Massa and Carrara formed themselves into republics and dismissed their king.

Tuscany alone remained tranquil; meantime the Austrians poured down their armies into the peninsula and spread desolation in their path.

Shelley watched the progress of events with intense interest, and day after day read the Austrian bulletins, eagerly looking for news of their defeat. The news of the revolt of Genoa filled him with transport, and he entered heart and soul into the triumph of their cause; but the sequel to this desperate struggle is too well known. Austrian bayonets were everywhere successful, and the chains of Italy were rivetted stronger than ever.

Besides Italians and the affairs of Italy, Shelley had contracted a close intimacy with

several Greeks, and, ever ready to identify himself with the cause of freedom against oppression, had entered deeply into the future prospect of Greece.

Associated with every thing great and glorious, both in the annals of peace and war, the fate of this classic land was sure to excite the warmest sympathies of a mind so richly stored with her history, her philosophy, and her literature.

Her present degraded and servile condition, under the deplorable misrule of the Turks, called forth his utmost abhorrence and indignation, and he earnestly looked forward to the hour of her delivery.

The sacred fire that had lighted up Spain and Italy, and the triumphant march of events that immediately followed, had been watched by the Greek patriots with exultation and delight. It rendered such a crisis by no means improbable, though there seemed nothing at the present moment to represent it as at all imminent.

Shelley had contracted a close intimacy with Prince Mavrocordato, an illustrious Greek, of the family of Caradja, formerly Hospodar of Wallachia, under whom he had officiated as

Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and with whom he had fled from that province, on the former hearing that the bowstring was on its way to deprive him of his viceroyalty.

He had become the poet's constant visitor and frequent companion in study.

Besides being an elegant scholar, he possessed many of the qualities of a great statesman, and was pronounced at a later period by Lord Byron, who flatteringly associated him with Washington and Kosciusko, the only one among the Greeks worthy of that name. He was an ardent lover of his country, and constantly spoke of the possibility of an insurrection in Greece.

One morning, on the 1st of April, 1821, when such an event was little anticipated, Mavrocordato called on Shelley, bringing the proclamation of his cousin Prince Ipsilanti, and, radiant with exultation and delight, declared that henceforth Greece would be free.*

Such were the events that called forth the beautiful lyrical drama of "Hellas," in the same spirit of burning enthusiasm that had inspired the "Odes" on the revolutions in Spain and * Mrs Shelley's notes.

Naples. The concentrated energy, however, exhibited in those sublime rhapsodies is wanted in this composition.

Constructed on the model of the Persæ of Æschylus, Shelley has succeeded in producing a classical drama which he has adorned with many of his most brilliant thoughts. The same inspired eloquence, the same spirit of enthusiasm pervades it, and the choruses are written with all the lyrical beauty he was so eminently capable of; but there is not sufficient dramatic incident to spread over the space it is made to occupy.

The reappearance of the Wandering Jew, the favourite impersonation of Shelley's earlier years, is not a little curious, and the language he is made to speak, in the dialogue with Mahmud, while it is the finest in the drama, is perhaps the most perfect exemplification we have of the poet's peculiar style of thought.

MAHMUD.

"I apprehend not

What thou hast taught me, but I now perceive

That thou art no interpreter of dreams;

Thou dost not own that art, device, or God