Dictionary of English Literature 341
Rome produced his two greatest works, the tragedy of The Cenci (1819) and Prometheus Unbound (1820). He removed to Venice in 1820 in the company of Byron, and there wrote Julian and Maddalo, a poetic record of discussions between them. Epipsychidion, Hellas, and Adonais, a lament for Keats, were all produced in 1821. After a short residence at Pisa he went to Lerici on the Gulf of Spezzia, where he indulged in his favourite recreation of boating, and here on July 8, 1822, he went, in company with a friend, Mr. Williams, on that fatal expedition which cost him his life. His body was cast ashore about a fortnight later, and burnt, in accordance with the quarantine law of the country, on a pyre in the presence of Byron, Leigh Hunt, and Trelawny. His ashes were carefully preserved and buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome near those of Keats. The character of S. is a singularly compounded one. By the unanimous testimony of his friends, it was remark able for gentleness, purity, generosity, and strong affection: on the other hand he appears to have had very inadequate concep tions of duty and responsibility, and from his childhood seems to have been in revolt against authority of every kind. The charge of Atheism rests chiefly on Mob, the work of a boy, printed by him for private circulation, and to some extent repudiated as personal opinion. As a poet he stands in the front rank: in lyrical gift, shown in Prometheus, Hellas, and some of his shorter poems, such as " The Skylark," he is probably unsurpassed, and in his Cenci he ex hibits dramatic power of a high order. Among his shorter poems are some which reach perfection, such as the sonnet on " Ozyman- dias," " Music when soft voices die," " I arise from dreams of thee," " When the lamp is shattered," the " Ode to the West Wind," and " O world! O life! O time! " During his short life of 30 years he was, not unnaturally, the object of much severe judg ment, and his poetic power even was recognised by only a few. Posterity has taken a more lenient view of his serious errors of con duct, while according to his genius a shining place among the immortals.
The best ed. of the Works is that of Buxton Forman (4 vols.). There are ed. of the Poems by W. M. Rossetti (1894), Dowden (1891), etc. Lives by Medwin (1847), J. A. Symonds (1887), W. M. Rossetti, Prof. Dowden, T. Jefferson Hogg, and others.
SHENSTONE, WILLIAM (1714-1763). Poet, s. of Thomas
S., owner of a small estate at Hales Owen, Shropshire. At this place, called the Leasowes, the poet was b. In 1732 he went to Oxf. On his father's death he retired to the Leasowes where he passed his time, and ran through his means in transforming it into a marvel of landscape gardening, visited by strangers from all parts of the king dom. The works of S. consist of poems and prose essays. Of the former two, The Schoolmistress, a humorous imitation of Spenser, with many quaint and tender touches, and the Pastoral Ballad in four parts, perhaps the best of its kind in the language, survive. The essays also display good sense and a pointed and graceful style. The last years of S. were clouded by financial embarrassments and perhaps also by disappointed affections. After his death his works were coll. and pub. by Dodsley.
