This is the second volume of a three-volume edition of the complete poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The edition presents all known poems by Shelley, fully annotated and arranged in chronological order. Volume one appeared in 1989 and was acclaimed as a major landmark in Shelley scholarship. When the three volumes are complete they will form the only fully inclusive chronological edition of Shelley's poetry.This volume makes extensive use of the Shelley manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and draws on the substantial new research which has appeared over the last ten years on Shelley's text and contexts, and on members of his circle such as Mary Shelley, Byron, Godwin, and others. It offers significant new datings and contextual exposition of major works including Prometheus Unbound, Laon and Cythna, Julian and Maddalo, The Cenci, and Shelley's translations from the Greek, notably his highly original translation of Euripides' The Cyclops. There are also comprehensive treatments of some of Shelley's best known shorter poems, such as 'Lines written among the Euganean Hills' and 'Ozymandias'.The annotation demonstrates the extraordinary range and richness of Shelley's literary intelligence, and situates his work in the revolutionary politics and social upheaval of the early ninetenth century.
The text and annotation are supported by an extensive bibliography, a chronology, indexes, and appendices which include a detailed examination of the history of the Cenci story. Kelvin Everest is Bradley Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Liverpool. The late Geoffrey Matthews was Reader in English at the University of Reading. He died in 1984. The second volume includes substantial items by three contributing editors. Jack Donovan, of the University of York, has edited Laon and Cythna. Ralph Pite, of the University of Liverpool, has edited Julian and Maddalo. Michael Rossington, of the University of Newcastle, has edited The Cenci.