2»<i S. V. 130., June 26. '68.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 



511 



Again, Crashaw writes of the " busy day," and 

 Shelley discourses of " the long and lone day- 

 light;" but I cannot discover the "wonderful 

 affinity " pointed out by Mb. M'Carthy between 

 these lines. The ^'■bitsy day," in contradistinction 

 to the repose of night, is one of those universally 

 adopted images which have become the common 

 pro[)erty of poets of all ages. Both Crashaw and 

 Shelley call nature our "great mother," our 

 "mighty mother;" but this mode of expression 

 is so universal that it has passed into a proverb. 

 Busy is, in fact, the stock epithet for " day." 



Crasbaw's line — 



" The worm of jealous envy and unrest," 

 is brought into juxtaposition with Shelley's fine 

 line : 



" And that unrest which men miscall delight ; " 



but, excepting that both employ a word which 

 has been consecrated to the purposes of poetry by 

 Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, and many lesser 

 poetical lights, there is no resemblance what- 

 ever between these passages. Shelley's line, in- 

 deed, comprises a totally different and more 

 original idea. 

 Tennyson says : 



" It is the Miller's daughter, 



And she is grown so dear, so dear ; " 



which Mr. M'Carthy refers to Crashaw's 



" Does the day-star rise, 

 Still thy stars do fall, do fall; " 



and also to Shelley's 



" Rarely, rarely comest thou, 

 Spirit of delight ! " 



But such repetitions (silly enough sometimes) 

 have often been employed by poets, and still more 

 frequently by poetasters. 



In the lines of Shelley which are supposed to 

 refer to his cousin Harriett Grove, he says : — 



" There were two cousins almost like to twins, 



And so they grew together, like two flowers 



Upon one stem, which the same leaves and showers 



Lull or awaken in their purple prime ; 



Which the same hand will gather, the same clime 



Shake with decay." 



This passage bears an undoubted resemblance 

 to the lines quoted from Crashaw by Mr. M'Car- 

 thy ; but both poets appear to have been antici- 

 pated by Shakspeare's well-known description of 

 Herpaia and IJeleng, : — 



"... They grew together 

 Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, 

 But yet an union in partition ; 

 Two lovely berries moulded on one stem." 



Mid. Night's Dream, Act iii. 8c. 2. 



With regard to the general comparison which 

 has been instituted between Shelley and Crashaw, 

 I am of opinion that they present strong con- 

 trasts, with but little if any resemblance, to each 



other. Extravagance of sentiment, and wildness 

 of imagination, sometimes carried them both to 

 the very verge of insanity ; and so clearly is this 

 shown in the case of Shelley in his writings, and 

 the delusions of his daily life, as recorded by the 

 most friendly of his biographers, that he could 

 hardly be regarded, at all times, as a responsible 

 being. In the constitution of their minds, and the 

 characteristics of their genius, there was no an- 

 alogy whatever. 



That Shelley had studied the works of our early 

 poets with great attention, and even with en- 

 thusiasm, is evidenced in almost every page of his 

 writings, and more than once confessed by himself; 

 although his obligations to them were not of a de- 

 scription to detract to any material extent from 

 his originality. Of all the technicalities of his 

 art, he was a consummate professor. His remark- 

 able improvement of the ordinary Spenserian 

 stanza, imitated by Lord Byron in the third and 

 fourth Cantos of Childe Harold with great success, 

 affords abundant proof of the mastery he had ac- 

 quired over that particular form of verse. The 

 pauses and modulations of his Spenserian stanza, 

 have all the music, the "linked sweetness" of the 

 most exquisitely constructed sonnet. But as with 

 Wordsworth, Rogers, and some few other fortu- 

 nate poets, who have enjoyed an undivided leisure 

 for the pursuits in which they most delighted, 

 poetry appears to have been the sole business 

 of Shelley's life ; and with the enthusiasm which 

 was the characteristic of his nature, it is not sur- 

 prising that he should have acquired so perfect an 

 acquaintance with the practical portion of his art. 

 Had his genius been under more wholesome con- 

 trol, and his tastes, ethical and social, been more 

 carefully cultivated, he might have deserved the 

 station on Parnassus to which some of the less 

 discriminating of his admirers have attempted 

 to elevate him : but a poet who made atheism his 

 boast, incest the favourite subject of his muse*, 



* The Revolt of Islam was originally published under 

 the title of Laon and Cythna, or the Revolution of the 

 Golden City ; a Vision of the Nineteenth Century. In this 

 version of the poem, not only are the hero and heroine 

 represented as brother and sister, but a passage is intro- 

 duced into the Preface justifying this monstrous violation 

 of public decency. This attempt " to startle the reader 

 from the trance of ordinary life," created so deep a feeling 

 of disgust and indignation, that Shelley was induced, 

 very reluctantly it is said, to cancel those passages which 

 described Laon and Cythna as brother and sister, and 

 omit from the Preface the paragraph which described their 

 incestuous intercourse as a mere " crime of convention." 

 The lines : — 



" I had a little sister, whose fair eyes 

 Were lode-stars of delight," 

 wer^ altered to — 



" An orphan with my parents lived whose eyes 

 Were lode-stars of delight." 



Other passages were modified or omitted, and the ob- 

 noxious portion of the Preface removed. To show how 



