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Shelley's Poetic Inspiration and Its Two Sources: the Ideals of Justice and Beauty

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Shelley's Poetic Inspiration and Its Two Sources: the Ideals of Justice and Beauty SHELLEY'S POETIC INSPIRATION AND ITS TWO SOURCES: THE IDEALS OF JUSTICE AND BEAUTY. by Marie Guertin •IBtlOrHEQf*' * "^ «« 11 Ottawa ^RYMtt^ Thesis presented to the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Ottawa as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature Department of English Ottawa, Canada, 1977 , Ottawa, Canada, 1978 UMI Number: EC55769 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform EC55769 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 SHELLEY'S POETIC INSPIRATION AND ITS TWO SOURCES: THE IDEALS OF JUSTICE AND BEAUTY by Marie Guertin ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to show that most of Shelley's poetry can be better understood when it is related: (1) to each of the two ideals which constantly inspired Shelley in his life, thought and poetry; (2) to the increasing unity which bound these two ideals so closely together that they finally appeared, through most of his mature philosophical and poetical Works, as two aspects of the same Ideal. That Shelley himself became fully aware of these two major sources is made explicit, for instance, in the "Dedication" of The Cenci he addressed to Leigh Hunt in May 1819: "Those writings which I have hitherto published, have been little else than visions which impersonate my own apprehensions of the beautiful and the just". Therefore, after a brief study of Shelley's philosophical thought (because it constantly supports his poetry), we first ana­ lyze several great poems inspired by the ideal of justice, such as Queen Mab, The Revolt of Islam, The Cenci, in order to demonstrate both the content and the poetical power of this ideal. Then we deal with some of the most successful achievements inspired by the ideal of beauty and aesthetic preoccupations or emotions, viz. Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Mont Blanc, the Odes. Finally, after having noted several times how these two ideals tend to converge into one, somewhat analogous with the Platonic Idea of Good, we consider two masterpieces which can be seen as the best expression of this unity: A Defence of Poetry, and Prometheus Unbound. This threefold analysis leads to concluding remarks about the originality of Shelley's Romanticism. TO MY PARENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply indebted to Dr. Dalton J. McGuinty, who as the supervisor of my M.A. thesis assisted me throughout this project. I also thank the library staff at the Univer- ity of Ottawa and the Director of Bancroft Library in Berkeley, for their professional and personal courtesies. A NOTE ON SOURCES All quotations from Shelley's Poetry, his Prefaces and Mrs. Shelley's Notes on the poems are taken from: Shelley Poetical Works, ed. by T. Hutchinson, a new edition, corr. by G. M. Matthews, OUP, 1970, 920p. All quotations from Shelley's Prose, except for the Prefaces and Notes on the poems are taken from: Shelley's Prose or the Trumpet of a Prophecy, ed. by D.L. Clark, with introd. and notes, Albuquerque, UNMP, 1966, 368p. All quotations from Shelley's Letters are taken from: The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. by F.L. Jones in two vols. OCP, 1964, I, 457p., II, 523p. ABBREVIATIONS OF WORKS FREQUENTLY USED IN THESIS SPW Shelley Poetical Works SPTP Shelley's Prose or the Trumpet of a Prophecy LPBS Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley QM Queen Mab ASS Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude HIB Hymn to Intellectual Beauty MB Mont Blanc RI The Revolt of Islam A NOTE ON SOURCES PU Prometheus Unbound TC The Cenci OWW Ode to the West Wind TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter page INTRODUCTION I I.- THE FORMATIVE YEARS OF SHELLEY AND HIS PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT 1 1. Family Background and Early Years 4 2. Philosophical Works 13 Belief and God — Religion and Philosophy — Nature — Man and Society — 3. A Turning Point: The Irish Campaign 35 II.- THE IDEAL OF JUSTICE IN POLITICAL AND MORAL POETRY 38 1. Philosophy and Poetry: The Ideal of Justice as a Source of Poetry 38 2. Common Themes and Features 41 Historical Perspective — Evil and Good — Dramatic Form — Visions and Prophecies — Symbolism and Lyricism — 3. Particular Emphases on Special Aspects of Justice 60 Initiation to Justice (Queen Mab) — Justice and Revolution (The Revolt of Islam) — Satire vs Establishment (The Mask of Anarchy) — Justice and Revenge (The Cenci) — TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter page III.- THE IDEAL OF BEAUTY AND ITS FUSION WITH THE IDEAL OF JUSTICE 88 1. The Ideal of Beauty: Birth, Developnent and Expression in Poetry 88 Travels and Letters — Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude — Hymn to Intellectual Beauty — Mont Blanc — The Odes — 2. Unity of the Two Ideals 129 A Defence of Poetry — Prometheus Unbound The Last Poems CONCLUSION 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY 153 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION During the past ten years, there has been a renewed interest in Percy Bysshe Shelley, reflected in the number of new editions and critical studies published in Europe and America. Among the editions, may be mentioned, for instance, The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley , that Neville Rogers began in 1974, supplemented with Rogers' an­ notations and those of eminent critics, or The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, first issued in 1887 by W. Sharp and re-issued in 1972 by Kennikat Press, or A Shelley Primer and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet and Pioneer, written by H. Salt in the end of the 19th century and also published by Kennikat Press in 1968. Similarly Haskell House republished in the early seventies, Francis Gribble's 1919 edition of The Romantic Life of Shelley and the Sequel. This list is far from being exhaustive. As for the critics, they continue to vindicate Shelley from the misunderstandings and disparagement of him by Arnold and his followers, casting new light, through their detailed analyses, of both his writings and personality. Thus, some authors undertake to write biographies, since family manus­ cripts are now available to the public: for instance J.O. Fullerton and R. Holmes in England respectively published, in 1968 and 1974, Shelley, a Biography and Shelley, the Pursuit. 1 Although this edition has been criticized, it is nevertheless a sign of interest in Shelley. INTRODUCTION II. Others direct their attention towards what may be called the "poetic-ethics" and study the political interests of the poet: for example Pollard Guinn in Shelley's Political Thought and Gerald McNiece, of Harvard University, in Shelley and the Revolutionary Idea (1969). Another critic, Margaret Crompton (Shelley's Dream Women, 1967) thought that female figures ought to be looked at in Shelley's life, while some years later, Earl R. Wasserman, of Johns Hopkins University, stressed in Shelley a Critical Reading (1971) the philosophical side of the poet, i.e. his skepticism as well as his idealism, and analyzed his poetry from this viewpoint. Almost at the same time, James Reiger of Berkeley reconsidered Shelley's natural and religious rebellion in The Mutiny Within: the Heresies of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1967). Other scholars, from various countries, believe on the contrary that more emphasis should be placed upon what may be called the "poetic-aesthetics". For example, Ross Woodman, of Canada, studied the importance of myth in The Apocalyptic Vision in the Poetry of Shelley (1964); E.J. Schulze, of the United States, re-assembled the poet's literary criticism in Shelley's Theory of Poetry (1966); the year before, Donald H. Reiman had developed the notion of symbols in his new edition of The Triumph of Life. Later on in 1973 Jean Perrin, of France, published Les Structures de l'imaginaire Shelleyen, where he studied the process of imaginative creativity according to Bachelard's INTRODUCTION III. 1 o ideas , while Helene Lemaitre , in Shelley, poete des Elements, analyzed the symbolical hegemony of light. While many of these critics have considered in depth particular aspects of Shelley's poetry, and some of them scru­ tinized step by step the whole canon, there is still room, I believe, for another kind of study, closer to a simple but attentive reading, viz. an attempt to reach a global under­ standing of this poetry according to its major sources of in­ spiration, as they appeared to the poet himself. Shelley's poetry divides naturally into two parts. The first consists of poems such as Queen Mab, The Revolt of Islam, The Mask of Anarchy which have political subjects, as well as 3 metaphysical , and seem inspired by the so-called idealism of Shelley, or more precisely by his ideal of justice. The achieve­ ments of the second part appear at first sight very different: here an aesthetic emphasis predominates, because the poems which belong to this group such as Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude, Mont Blanc and the Odes are filled with sensitive impressions, 1 As developed in his books of aesthetics, i.e. La Psychanalyse du feu, L'eau et les reves, L'air et les songes, where Bachelard takes Shelley's poetry as an example. 2 Who also follows Bachelard's ideas on imagination. 3 By metaphysical, I mean topics dealing with God's existence, fundamental nature of things, destiny of man, etc.
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