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''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson'' was a collection of poetry published in November, 1810 by
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...
and his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg while they were students at Oxford University. The pamphlet was subtitled: "Being Poems found amongst the Papers of that Noted Female who attempted the Life of the King in 1786. Edited by John Fitzvictor." The pamphlet was published by John Munday and Henry Slatter in Oxford and consisted of fictional fragments that were in the nature of a hoax and prank or burlesque. The collection was one of the earliest published works of Shelley and one of his earliest political works. The work was reprinted in 1877. Shelley expressed his early political views on government, war, and society.


Synopsis

Shelley and Hogg presented the poems as being written by Margaret Nicholson herself but which were "edited by her nephew, John FitzVictor" and published after her death. John FitzVictor was not a real person but contrived by Shelley and Hogg. In the play on words he was the son of Victor, intended as an allusion to the co-author of ''
Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire ''Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire'' was a poetry collection written by Percy Bysshe Shelley and his sister Elizabeth which was printed by Charles and William Phillips in Worthing and published by John Joseph Stockdale in September 1810. The ...
'', and the nephew of Margaret Nicholson who had located the poetical fragments. Moreover, Margaret Nicholson was alive at the time of publication and living in Bethlem Hospital. The work is important because it shows the early political views and radicalism that would evolve in Shelley's later writings.Judson, Barbara. "The Politics of Medusa: Shelley's Physiognomy of Revolution." ''English Literary History'', Johns Hopkins University, Volume 68, Number 1, Spring, 2001, pp. 135–154. In this work Shelley, in the guise of Margaret Nicholson, attacks the British monarchy as oppressive and burdensome on the people. He expresses his antiwar and antimonarchical views. He blames absolutist and monarchist governments for fomenting wars. These political views would be developed further in ''Queen Mab'' in 1812. This work is significant as the earliest expression of Shelley's political radicalism and reformist views. Shelly perceived "Monarchs" as the "Oppressors of mankind". He wrote: "Kings are but dust—the last eventful day/Will level all and make them lose their sway;/Will dash the sceptre from the Monarch's hand,/And from the warrior's grasp wrest the ensanguin'd brand." Shelley would later more fully develop these political views, in ''Queen Mab'', ''The Revolt of Islam'', and "Ozymandias". This early work is important because it shows the genesis and initial development of Shelley's views on politics and political reform.Hutchinson, Thomas. ''The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley. Vol. 3''. Penn State University Press, 2003. Contains analysis of ''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson''. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat in their edition of ''The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley'' argued that the work was important because it anticipated Shelley's mature poetry: "The personae whom PBS chose as the author and editor of PF and his method in constructing PF seem to involve a nexus of mutually supportive public and private associations that anticipate (albeit in a crude form) the complex intertwining of traditional myth, literary precedent, historical allusion, scientific knowledge, and personal emotion that characterize his mature poetry" (pp. 240–41).
Margaret Nicholson Margaret Nicholson (c. 1750 – 14 May 1828) was an Englishwoman who assaulted King George III in 1786. Her futile and somewhat half-hearted attempt on the King's life became famous and was featured in one of Shelley's first works: '' Posthumo ...
was a real person who is remembered today chiefly through the Shelley work. She attempted to assassinate King
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
in 1786 with a knife. In spite of the title, she was still alive in 1810, dying in
Bethlem Royal Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and wikt:bedlam, Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably ''Bedlam (1946 fil ...
on 14 May 1828. Shelley also has a poem on
Charlotte Corday Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed by guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who ...
who assassinated
Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the '' sans-culottes'', a radica ...
in 1793. François Ravaillac, the assassin of King
Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monar ...
in 1610, is also a subject of the poem. Shelley, however, uses the real-life Margaret Nicholson only as a starting-off point to develop and to espouse a theory of revolution and emancipation from monarchical rule. The real-life Margaret Nicholson has very little in common with Shelley's fictional recreation; she was evidently unbalanced to the point of insanity. Her motives for the attack were based on a delusion that she was the rightful heir to the throne of England. Shelley is not retelling the story of her life but using it as merely a premise to develop a radical new political theory or vision. This theory would be developed in Shelley's subsequent works such as ''Queen Mab'' and the novella "The Assassins". What is important are not the facts of her life but the political views that Shelley would espouse in the work. In this important early work, Shelley presents his theories on political reform and revolution, which would subsequently evolve and develop in his writings.


Contents

*Advertisement *Posthumous Fragments ("Ambition, power, and avarice, now have hurl'd") *Fragment. Supposed to be an
Epithalamium An epithalamium (; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον ''epithalamion'' from ἐπί ''epi'' "upon," and θάλαμος ''thalamos'' nuptial chamber) is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form ...
of Francis Ravaillac and Charlotte Corde. Chorus of Spirits. Symphony. Francis. Charlotte. ("'Tis midnight now—athwart the murky air,") *Despair *Fragment ("Yes! all is past—swift time has fled away,") *The Spectral Horseman *Melody to a Scene of Former Times


Reception

According to Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat in ''The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley'', the work was published in a limited run of 250 copies. The copies were sold and the work was not reprinted, although Shelley expected a second edition. The work thus became rare and copies were difficult to find. The work was, however, reprinted in 1877 by
Harry Buxton Forman Henry Buxton Forman (11 July 1842 – 15 June 1917) was a Victorian-era bibliographer and antiquarian bookseller whose literary reputation is based on his bibliographies of Percy Shelley and John Keats. In 1934 he was revealed to have been in a ...
for private distribution.Forman, Harry Buxton, editor. ''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson by Percy Bysshe Shelley''. Printed for private distribution, 1877. The volume was not reviewed but an advertisement was placed in the 17 November 1810 edition of the ''Oxford University and City Herald'' that it would be sold by the publisher John Munday according to Thomas Hutchinson in ''The Complete Poetical Works, Volume 3''. In a letter while he was a student at Oxford, Shelley wrote: "It sells wonderfully here, & is become the fashionable subject of discussion."


Footnotes


Sources


Infoplease article on ''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson''.

Description of the work in ''The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley''.

''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson'' on Poets.org.

Hutchinson, Thomas. ''The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley. Vol. 3''. Penn State University Press, 2003. Contains analysis of ''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson''.


* Goslee, Nancy Moore. "On The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1. Edited by Donald H. *Reiman and Neil Fraistat." ''Romantic Circles Reviews'', 6.1 (2003). * Woudhuysen, H.R. "Shelley's Fantastic Prank: An Extraordinary Pamphlet Comes to Light." ''The Sunday Times'', 12 July 2006. * Levinson, Margorie. ''The Romantic Fragment Poem: A Critique of a Form''. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1986. * Hogg, Thomas Jefferson. ''The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley''. Volume 1. London: Edward Moxon, 1858. * Forman, Harry Buxton, editor. ''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson by Percy Bysshe Shelley''. Printed for private distribution, 1877. * Medwin, Thomas. ''The Shelley Papers: Memoir of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Original Poems and Papers''. London: Whittaker, Treacher, and Co., 1833. * Slicer, Thomas R. ''Percy Bysshe Shelley: An Appreciation''. NY: Privately Printed, 1903. *Duff, David. "Harps, Heroes and Yelling Vampires: The 1810 Poetry Collections", in ''The Neglected Shelley'', edited by Alan A. Weinberg and Timothy Webb, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2015.


External links


Online version of the 1810 edition.

Online version of the 1877 reprint edition edited by Harry Buxton Forman.
{{Authority control 1810 poems Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1810 books English poetry collections Monarchism in the United Kingdom Hoaxes in the United Kingdom Anti-war books Gothic fiction