pse of Shelley was burned on the
beach under the direction of Trelawny. In the pocket of his jacket had
been found two books--a Sophocles, and the _Lamia_ volume, doubled back
as if it had at the last moment been thrust aside. His ashes were
collected, and, with the exception of the heart which was delivered to
Mrs. Shelley, were buried in Rome, in the new Protestant Cemetery. The
corpse of Shelley's beloved son William had, in 1819, been interred hard
by, and in 1821 that of Keats, in the old Cemetery--a space of ground
which had, by 1822, been finally closed.

The enthusiastic and ideal fervour which marks Shelley's poetry could
not possibly be simulated--it was a part, the most essential part, of
his character. He was remarkably single-minded, in the sense of being
constantly ready to do what he professed as, in the abstract, the right
thing to be done; impetuous, bold, uncompromising, lavishly generous,
and inspired by a general love of humankind, and a coequal detestation
of all the narrowing influences of custom and prescription. Pity, which
included self-pity, was one of his dominant emotions. If we consider
what are the uses, and what the abuses, of a character of this type, we
shall have some notion of the excellences and the defects of Shelley. In
person he was well-grown and slim; more nearly beautiful than handsome;
his complexion brilliant, his dark-brown but slightly grizzling hair
abundant and wavy, and his eyes deep-blue, large, and fixed. His voice
was high-pitched--at times discordant, but capable of agreeable
modulation; his general aspect uncommonly youthful.

The roll of Shelley's publications is a long one for a man who perished
not yet thirty years of age. I append a list of the principal ones,
according to date of publication, which was never very distant from that
of composition. Several minor productions remain unspecified.

1810. Zastrozzi, a Romance. Puerile rubbish.

" Original Poetry, by Victor and Cazire.
Withdrawn, and ever since unknown.

" Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson.
Balderdash, partly (it would appear) intended as burlesque.

1811. St. Irvyne, or The Rosicrucian, a Romance.
No better than Zastrozzi.

1813. Queen Mab. Didactic and subversive.

1817. Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude, and other Poems.
The earliest volume fully worthy of its author.

1818. Laon and Cythna--reissued as The Revolt of Islam.
An ep