го PARKE GODWIN, ESQ. DEAR SIR: As a slight acknowledgement of the great pleasura and profit I have derived from your eloquent defense of SHELLEY, as well as a testimonial of the respect and affection I entertain for one who, though but in the flush of youth, has already done so much in every way for the cause of Humanity, permit me to dedicate to you this volume. In doing this I feel as if I were enabled to link myself, somehow, with the greatest Poet of the age and the Critic who has best appreciated him. I am gratefully Yours, G. G. FOSTER. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE first edition of the present work having been entirely exhausted in less than eighteen months, the publisher offers the second edition to the American public, with such additions as mature consideration seems to have rendered advisable. These additions consist in the suppressed stanzas of "Queen Mab" and the whole of the "Notes" to that poem. The suppressed passages were omitted in the first edition, principally from respect to the course which seemed to have been indicated by Mrs. SHELLEY, as more conformable to the intentions of the poct himself, and to the wishes of his friends. The "Notes" were passed over, because they would increase the size of the volume beyond the point which had been settled upon. But the voice of the Press seems unequivocally to demand the restoration of these portions of ou author's works; and the editor has even been suspected of a desire to shield the memory of SHELLEY from some odium which their publication might create. The present edition, therefore, contains all the accredited poetical works of SHELLEY, with his own notes and those of his wife. |