University of Virginia Library

lines 1-28. Here we transcribe the original manuscript in Shelley's mid-Jan. 1812 letter to Elizabeth Hitchener (British Library Add. MS. 37,496, f. 80 verso); there is a facsimile of the portion of that letter containing this poetic text, together with another literal transcription, in MYR: Shelley, VIII (1996), ed. D.H. Reiman & M. O'Neill.
Although the text of these stanzas in F. L. Jones's Letters (I, 235 37) places some characters at the ends of the first 28 lines within brackets, as though they were illegible or missing from the right-hand edge of the manuscript page, the only damage and repair that actually affect these lines is along the fold of the letter paper at the left-hand edge of the column of poetry, at the beginnings of those lines. Jones must, therefore, have relied upon an imperfect photocopy of the manuscript.

line 6. earth: the initial e may be a capital letter, written minutely.

line 14. We think the first word is more likely Grinning (as the editors of the letters have it) than "Receiving" (1989). M. O'Neill, when transcribing the MS for MYR: Shelley, VIII, was dubious about the reading and left "Receiving" in the text, while discussing his doubts in a note.

line 16. Shelley first underscored they, and then canceled the underline.

line 20. Shelley left a blank after were to be filled later, presumably by a word rhyming with prayer (18).

line 21. Both the caret and the raised placement of the word "trick" indicate that Shelley added this word later.

line 22. thats (sic).

line 23. While MS BL does have a small o with a ^ above it, the significance of this marking is not clear.

lines 25-28.This is the stanza that Shelley directly recollected (though perhaps unwittingly) from The Devil's Thoughts (see note to lines 84-87 of the Broadside). In the letter version, however, Shelley miswrote the Devil for "a lawyer" in line 25; in 26 his is superimposed on the.

line 29. Beginning with this line, Shelley continued his writing on the opposite side of the address panel; from here on, the repair to the worn fold is along the right-hand edge of the text, where the damage does affect the final letters of some words.

line 32. twisted: though 1989 reads this word as "twirled" (and emends twisted in the final text to "twirled" as a possible typo), the crucial letters seem to us to be st.

line 35. here: though Shelley clearly underscored the word for added emphasis, the short line he made does not actually underscore all four letters.

line 36. humans: Shelley canceled the terminal "s" in his draft.

line 39. The space between "brothers" and the period at the end of the line retains the original spacing found in the MS BL.

line 41. bond Street beau (sic).

line 42. For: this word might be read as "Nor" were there not an identical For at the beginning of line 23; altho: first two letters are canceled.

lines 43-44. Shelley, the son of an M.P., had probably seen Castlereagh in person and would certainly have known political caricatures of him.

line 47. hore (given as "horse" in 1926 [Julian, Letters ], 1964J; "Iron" in 1989): this Germanic word comes directly from Old English. The Oxford English Dictionary gives it only as an obsolete noun meaning "Dirt, filth, defilement, foulness"; though the noun had clearly dropped out of use because of its closeness to "hoar" and "whore," Shelley here uses it adjectively, meaning filthy or foul, a usage that may have persisted in rural Sussex.

line 48. and: written minutely and unclearly, but not "&" (as in 1989).