XI

Had loosed his heart, and shook the leaves and flowers

On which he wept, the while the savage storm Waked by the darkest of December's hours

Was raving round the chamber hushed and

warm;

The birds were shivering in their leafless bowers,
The fish were frozen in the pools, the form
Of every summer plant was dead

Whilst this

LINES

I

We meet not as we parted,
We feel more than all may see;

My bosom is heavy-hearted,

And thine full of doubt for me.
One moment has bound the free.

II

That moment is gone forever,

Like lightning that flashed and died,
Like a snowflake upon the river,
Like a sunbeam upon the tide,
Which the dark shadows hide.

III

That moment from time was singled
As the first of a life of pain;

Lines. Published by Garnett, 1862, and dated, 1822.

The cup of its joy was mingled-
Delusion too sweet though vain!
Too sweet to be mine again.

IV

Sweet lips, could my heart have hidden
That its life was crushed by you,
Ye would not have then forbidden
The death which a heart so true
Sought in your briny dew.

Methinks too little cost

For a moment so found, so lost!

NOTES

NOTES

CEDIPUS TYRANNUS

Edipus Tyrannus ; / or, / Swellfoot the Tyrant. / A Tragedy. / In Two Acts. / Translated from the original Doric. /

Choose Reform or civil-war, / When thro' the streets, instead of hare with dogs, / A Consort-Queen shall hunt a King with hogs, / Riding on the Ionian Minotaur. / London / Published for the Author, / By J. Johnston, 98, Cheapside, and sold by/all booksellers. / 1820.

Collation: Octavo. Title (with imprint, Printed by C. F. Seyfang, 57, Fleet-Market, on verso), pp. i. ii.; Advertisement (with Dramatis Persona on verso), pp. iii. iv.; Edipus Tyrannus, pp. 5–39. Issued as a pamphlet without wrapper. [The volume is described after Forman, The Shelley Library, p. 97, as are also the readings of the original edition, the book not being accessible in this country.]

A fragment of the MS. is in the possession of Mr. H. A. Bright and a transcript, of doubtful authenticity, by John Gisborne, is in that of Forman. Mrs. Shelley first republished the drama in 18392. The text of other editions shows variations, except as already noted, only in I. 59 your 18392, Rossetti; I. 135 own omit, 1820, 18392; I. 219 Enter Gadfly 18392, Enter Gadfly followed by Leech and Rat, Rossetti; I. 260 Enter the Leech and the Rat Forman conj., omit, 1820, 18392, Rossetti, Dowden; I. 373 nor 18392; II. i. 19 Bristles and sausages Rossetti conj. (the conjecture is one of a class of metrical corrections already sufficiently commented on); II. i. 112 the 1820, 18392. Shelley put footnotes to his edition as follows:

I. 8 See Universal History for an account of the number of people who died, and the immense consumption of garlic by the wretched Egyptians, who made a sepulchre for the name as well as the bodies of their tyrants.