[Laon and Cythna, written in the summer of 1817, was printed in the latter part of that year, the title-page being dated 1818. It is an octavo volume, consisting of title-page, preface pp. III. to XXII., fly-title to the Dedication, with quotation from Chapman's Byron's Conspiracy (Act III.), dedication pp. XXIV. to XXXII., fly-title Laon and Cythna with quotation from Pindar, and 270 pages of text. The Revolt of Islam, being made up from the same sheets with a fresh title-page and 26 cancel-leaves, the same particulars apply, except that the preface, having the final paragraph cancelled, ends on page XXI. Some few copies of The Revolt bear the date 1817, instead of 1818 probably a realistic compositor set up the new title-page, and his realism was only discovered after the printing was begun. The same sheets were used again in 1829 with a third title-page as follows: "THE REVOLT OF ISLAM; A POEM IN TWELVE CANTOS. BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN BROOKS, 421 OXFORD STREET, 1829." In the meantime some part of the stock of cancel-leaves had, I presume, been lost; for copies of the 1829 issue of The Revolt of Islam not unfrequently occur with Laon and Cythna text. There is a list of errata usually found in all the four varieties of the book, but sometimes missing. For further bibliographical particulars, and for an account of the copy worked upon by Shelley, now in my possession, and from which the poem is here edited, see Appendix. I am not aware of any complete extant MS. of Laon and Cythna; but Sir Percy Shelley has the preface and dedication, written fair for the press in Shelley's handwriting; Leigh Hunt published a fac-simile of four lines in his Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries; Mr. W. M. Rossetti owns a larger fragment (24 lines) formerly in the possession of Hunt, and of which a fac-simile was given in some copies of Mr. Rossetti's two-volume edition of Shelley's Poetry; and there is a still larger fragment (52 lines) among the Leigh Hunt MSS. placed at my disposal by Mr. Townshend Mayer. The principal variations shewn in these MSS. will be found in my foot-notes.-H.B.F.] Laon and Cythna; OR, THE REVOLUTION OF THE GOLDEN CITY: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century. IN THE STANZA OF SPENSER. BY PERCY B. SHELLEY. ΔΟΣ ΠΟΥ ΣΤΩ ΚΑΙ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ ΚΙΝΗΣΩ. ARCHIMEDES. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, & JONES, PATERNOSTERROW; AND C. AND J. OLLIER, WELBECK-STREET; By B. M'Millan, Bow-Street, Covent Garden. |