Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][ocr errors][merged small][graphic][subsumed]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

18452.20.5

B

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Aug 31,1544

COPYRIGHT, 1892,
BY VIDA D. SCUDDER.

2 c 6

Printed in U. S. A.

PREFACE.

No student's edition exists of the Prometheus Unbound, the greatest work of Shelley. Because of its length, abstruseness, and difficulty, the drama has been little used in the classroom: and, indeed, while its æsthetic glory has been fully recognized, its spiritual and historical significance has till lately been often ignored, even by lovers of Shelley. Yet the Prometheus Unbound gives perhaps the most perfect expression anywhere to be found of the thought and passion of a great period of English poetry. It fully initiates the earnest student into the ideals of the Revolution those ideals which, in their development, are determining the trend of our modern life. There is no need to speak of the imaginative fervor and pure lyricism of the drama: few English poems can be more effective to quicken and train æsthetic sensitiveness. So far as difficulty is concerned, the student who can understand the Faery Queene can understand the Prometheus Unbound.

It is hoped that the present edition may make the poem more widely known to the general reader, and more available for purposes of the classroom. The aim has been to supply

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »