Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/115

Rh to the Epipsychidion. It has always seemed to me that Shelley never soared higher than in this poem, which I find full of supreme inspiration. It is his Vita Nuova, tender and fervid and noble as Dante's; and his premature death has deprived us of the befitting Divina Commedia which should have followed.

I am considerably ashamed to speak of anything of my own in this connexion; but, as I believe my little piece In the Room was sent to you, I take the liberty of forwarding a corrected copy, that, having it at all, you may have it as I wrote it. Yours very Respectfully, .

Friday. 18. 4. 73.

I have to thank you for your letter of the 9th inst., and also for the series of remarks on my notes on your text of Shelley. On some passages these remarks have given me new light; as to a few others I may trouble you with further comments another time. Having gone pretty carefully through the Prometheus Unbound, I herewith enclose some preliminary notes, concerning rather the structure than the mere text. I have not been afraid of going into minutiæ, because nothing, however minute, which affects the perfection of a master-piece, can be quite insignificant. As to the question of the time occupied by the action, I have certainly felt it rather mean work making a great poem account for its employment of every hour, as if it were a prisoner at the bar whose defence rested on an alibi. Nor do I lay much stress upon this time question, excepting in the first instance investigated, which involves