Such flowers as in the wintry memory bloom Helen, whose spirit was of softer mould, She died among her kindred, being old. Are blessed as now Helen and Rosalind. JULIAN AND MADDALO A CONVERSATION The meadows with fresh streams, the bees with thyme, Are saturated not-nor Love with tears. VIRGIL'S Gallus. Julian and Maddalo was first published in Mrs. Shelley's edition of the Posthumous Poems, London, 1824. The poem was composed at Este, in the fall of 1818, after Shelley's first visit to Venice. It was originally intended to be published in Leigh Hunt's Examiner; but this design was abandoned and Shelley sent it to Hunt, August 15, 1819, to be published, without his name, by Ollier. In May and December, 1820, and February, 1821, he wrote to Ollier about it, but without result. Mrs. Shelley's text, 1824, is modified by the MS. sent to Hunt, discovered by Mr. Townshend Mayer and minutely described by Forman in his edition. Julian and Maddalo, it is hardly necessary to remark, are Shelley and Byron, and the child, Allegra, Byron's daughter by Miss Clairemont. PREFACE COUNT MADDALO is a Venetian nobleman of ancient family and of great fortune, who, without mixing much in the society of his countrymen, resides chiefly at his magnificent palace in that city. He is a person of the most consummate genius, and capable, if he would direct his energies to such an end, of becoming the redeemer of his degraded country. But it is his weakness to be proud. He derives, from a comparison of his own extraordinary mind with the dwarfish intellects that surround him, an intense apprehension of the nothingness of human life. His passions and his powers are incomparably greater than those of other men; and, instead of the latter having been employed in curbing the former, they have mutually lent each other strength. His ambition preys upon itself, for want of objects which it can consider worthy of exertion. I say that Maddalo is proud, because I can find no other word to express the concentred and impatient feelings which consume him; but it is on his own hopes and affections only that he seems to trample, for in social life no human being can be more gentle, patient and unassuming than Maddalo. He is cheerful, frank and witty. His more serious conversation is a sort of intoxication; men are held by it as by a spell. He has travelled much; and there is an inexpressible charm in his relation of his adventures in different countries. Julian is an Englishman of good family, passionately attached to those philosophical notions which assert the power of man over his own mind, and the immense improvements of which, by the extinction of certain moral superstitions, human society may be yet susceptible. Without concealing the evil in the world he is forever speculating how good may be made superior. He is a complete infidel and a scoffer at all things reputed holy; and Maddalo takes a wicked pleasure in drawing out his taunts against religion. What Maddalo thinks on these matters is not exactly known. Julian, in spite of his heterodox opinions, is conjectured by his friends to possess some good qualities. How far this is possible the pious reader will determine. serious. Of the Maniac I can give no information. Julian is rather He seems, by his own account, to have been disappointed in love. He was evidently a very cultivated and amiable person when in his right senses. His story, told at length, might be like many The unconnected exclama other stories of the same kind. tions of his agony will perhaps be found a sufficient comment for the text of every heart. |