Peter Bell the Third eBook

Peter Bell the Third by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.

(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.

The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.

The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.

All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Section Page

Start of eBook1
Title:  Peter Bell the Third1
PETER BELL THE THIRD.1
DEDICATION.1
PART 1.3
PART 2.4
PART 3.5
PART 4.7
PART 5.9
PART 6.10
PART 7.13
Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)16
(Three Pages)18

Page 1

Title:  Peter Bell the Third

Author:  Percy Bysshe Shelley

Release Date:  November, 2003 [Etext #4697] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 3, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Peter Bell the Third, by Percy Bysshe Shelley ************This file should be named ptbll10.txt or ptbll10.zip************

Corrected editions of our etexts get a new number, ptbll11.txt
versions based on separate sources get new letter, ptbll10a.txt

Produced by Sue Asscher asschers@dingoblue.net.au

Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the us unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition.

The “legal small print” and other information about this book may now be found at the end of this file.  Please read this important information, as it gives you specific rights and tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used.

PETER BELL THE THIRD.

By Miching Mallecho, ESQ.

 Is it a party in a parlour,
 Crammed just as they on earth were crammed,
 Some sipping punch—­some sipping tea;
 But, as you by their faces see,
 All silent, and all—­damned! 
 “Peter Bell”, by W. Wordsworth.

 Ophelia.—­What means this, my lord? 
 Hamlet.—­Marry, this is Miching Mallecho; it means mischief. 
 Shakespeare.

DEDICATION.

To Thomas Brown, ESQ., The younger, H.F.

Dear Tom—­Allow me to request you to introduce Mr. Peter Bell to the respectable family of the Fudges.  Although he may fall short of those very considerable personages in the more active properties which characterize the Rat and the Apostate, I suspect that even you, their historian, will confess that he surpasses them in the more peculiarly legitimate qualification of intolerable dulness.

You know Mr. Examiner Hunt; well—­it was he who presented me to two of the Mr. Bells.  My intimacy with the younger Mr. Bell naturally sprung from this introduction to his brothers.  And in presenting him to you, I have the satisfaction of being able to assure you that he is considerably the dullest of the three.

There is this particular advantage in an acquaintance with any one of the Peter Bells, that if you know one Peter Bell, you know three Peter Bells; they are not one, but three; not three, but one.  An awful mystery, which, after having caused torrents of blood, and having been hymned by groans enough to deafen the music of the spheres, is at length illustrated to the satisfaction of all parties in the theological world, by the nature of Mr. Peter Bell.

Page 2

Peter is a polyhedric Peter, or a Peter with many sides.  He changes colours like a chameleon, and his coat like a snake.  He is a Proteus of a Peter.  He was at first sublime, pathetic, impressive, profound; then dull; then prosy and dull; and now dull—­oh so very dull! it is an ultra-legitimate dulness.

You will perceive that it is not necessary to consider Hell and the Devil as supernatural machinery.  The whole scene of my epic is in ’this world which is’—­so Peter informed us before his conversion to “White Obi”—­

’The world of all of us, and where
we find our happiness, or not at all.’

Let me observe that I have spent six or seven days in composing this sublime piece; the orb of my moonlike genius has made the fourth part of its revolution round the dull earth which you inhabit, driving you mad, while it has retained its calmness and its splendour, and I have been fitting this its last phase ’to occupy a permanent station in the literature of my country.’

Your works, indeed, dear Tom, sell better; but mine are far superior.  The public is no judge; posterity sets all to rights.

Allow me to observe that so much has been written of Peter Bell, that the present history can be considered only, like the Iliad, as a continuation of that series of cyclic poems, which have already been candidates for bestowing immortality upon, at the same time that they receive it from, his character and adventures.  In this point of view I have violated no rule of syntax in beginning my composition with a conjunction; the full stop which closes the poem continued by me being, like the full stops at the end of the Iliad and Odyssey, a full stop of a very qualified import.

Hoping that the immortality which you have given to the Fudges, you will receive from them; and in the firm expectation, that when London shall be an habitation of bitterns; when St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey shall stand, shapeless and nameless ruins, in the midst of an unpeopled marsh; when the piers of Waterloo Bridge shall become the nuclei of islets of reeds and osiers, and cast the jagged shadows of their broken arches on the solitary stream, some transatlantic commentator will be weighing in the scales of some new and now unimagined system of criticism, the respective merits of the Bells and the Fudges, and their historians.  I remain, dear Tom, yours sincerely,

Miching Mallecho.

December 1, 1819.

P.S.—­Pray excuse the date of place; so soon as the profits of the publication come in, I mean to hire lodgings in a more respectable street.

 Prologue.

Page 3

 Peter Bells, one, two and three,
 O’er the wide world wandering be.—­
 First, the antenatal Peter,
 Wrapped in weeds of the same metre,
 The so-long-predestined raiment 5
 Clothed in which to walk his way meant
 The second Peter; whose ambition
 Is to link the proposition,
 As the mean of two extremes—­
 (This was learned from Aldric’s themes)
10
 Shielding from the guilt of schism
 The orthodoxal syllogism;
 The First Peter—­he who was
 Like the shadow in the glass
 Of the second, yet unripe, 15
 His substantial antitype.—­

 Then came Peter Bell the Second,
 Who henceforward must be reckoned
 The body of a double soul,
 And that portion of the whole 20
 Without which the rest would seem
 Ends of a disjointed dream.—­
 And the Third is he who has
 O’er the grave been forced to pass
 To the other side, which is,—­
25
 Go and try else,—­just like this.

 Peter Bell the First was Peter
 Smugger, milder, softer, neater,
 Like the soul before it is
 Born from that world into this. 30
 The next Peter Bell was he,
 Predevote, like you and me,
 To good or evil as may come;
 His was the severer doom,—­
 For he was an evil Cotter,
35
 And a polygamic Potter. 
 And the last is Peter Bell,
 Damned since our first parents fell,
 Damned eternally to Hell—­
 Surely he deserves it well! 40

PART 1.

 Death.

1.  And Peter Bell, when he had been With fresh-imported Hell-fire warmed, Grew serious—­from his dress and mien ’Twas very plainly to be seen Peter was quite reformed. 5
2.  His eyes turned up, his mouth turned down; His accent caught a nasal twang; He oiled his hair; there might be heard The grace of God in every word Which Peter said or sang. 10
3.  But Peter now grew old, and had An ill no doctor could unravel:  His torments almost drove him mad;—­ Some said it was a fever bad—­ Some swore it was the gravel. 15
4.  His holy friends then came about, And with long preaching and persuasion Convinced the patient that, without The smallest shadow of a doubt, He was predestined to damnation. 20
5.  They said—­’Thy name is Peter Bell; Thy skin is of a brimstone hue; Alive or dead—­ay, sick or well—­ The one God made to rhyme with hell; The other,

Page 4

I think, rhymes with you. 25
6.  Then Peter set up such a yell!—­ The nurse, who with some water gruel Was climbing up the stairs, as well As her old legs could climb them—­fell, And broke them both—­the fall was cruel. 30
7.  The Parson from the casement lept Into the lake of Windermere—­ And many an eel—­though no adept In God’s right reason for it—­kept Gnawing his kidneys half a year. 35
8.  And all the rest rushed through the door And tumbled over one another, And broke their skulls.—­Upon the floor Meanwhile sat Peter Bell, and swore, And cursed his father and his mother; 40
9.  And raved of God, and sin, and death, Blaspheming like an infidel; And said, that with his clenched teeth He’d seize the earth from underneath, And drag it with him down to hell. 45
10.  As he was speaking came a spasm, And wrenched his gnashing teeth asunder; Like one who sees a strange phantasm He lay,—­there was a silent chasm Between his upper jaw and under. 50
11.  And yellow death lay on his face; And a fixed smile that was not human Told, as I understand the case, That he was gone to the wrong place:—­ I heard all this from the old woman. 55
12.  Then there came down from Langdale Pike A cloud, with lightning, wind and hail; It swept over the mountains like An ocean,—­and I heard it strike The woods and crags of Grasmere vale. 60
13.  And I saw the black storm come Nearer, minute after minute; Its thunder made the cataracts dumb; With hiss, and clash, and hollow hum, It neared as if the Devil was in it. 65
14.  The Devil WAS in it:—­he had bought Peter for half-a-crown; and when The storm which bore him vanished, nought That in the house that storm had caught Was ever seen again. 70
15.  The gaping neighbours came next day—­ They found all vanished from the shore:  The Bible, whence he used to pray, Half scorched under a hen-coop lay; Smashed glass—­and nothing more! 75

PART 2.

 THE DEVIL.

1.  The Devil, I safely can aver, Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting; Nor is he, as some sages swear, A spirit, neither here nor there, In nothing—­yet in everything. 80
2.  He is—­what we are; for sometimes The Devil is a gentleman; At others a bard bartering rhymes For sack; a statesman spinning crimes; A swindler, living as he can;

Page 5

85
3.  A thief, who cometh in the night, With whole boots and net pantaloons, Like some one whom it were not right To mention;—­or the luckless wight From whom he steals nine silver spoons. 90
4.  But in this case he did appear Like a slop-merchant from Wapping, And with smug face, and eye severe, On every side did perk and peer Till he saw Peter dead or napping. 95
5.  He had on an upper Benjamin (For he was of the driving schism) In the which he wrapped his skin From the storm he travelled in, For fear of rheumatism. 100
6.  He called the ghost out of the corse;—­ It was exceedingly like Peter,—­ Only its voice was hollow and hoarse—­ It had a queerish look of course—­ Its dress too was a little neater. 105
7.  The Devil knew not his name and lot; Peter knew not that he was Bell:  Each had an upper stream of thought, Which made all seem as it was not; Fitting itself to all things well. 110
8.  Peter thought he had parents dear, Brothers, sisters, cousins, cronies, In the fens of Lincolnshire; He perhaps had found them there Had he gone and boldly shown his 115
9.  Solemn phiz in his own village; Where he thought oft when a boy He’d clomb the orchard walls to pillage The produce of his neighbour’s tillage, With marvellous pride and joy. 120
10.  And the Devil thought he had, ’Mid the misery and confusion Of an unjust war, just made A fortune by the gainful trade Of giving soldiers rations bad—­ 125 The world is full of strange delusion—­
11.  That he had a mansion planned In a square like Grosvenor Square, That he was aping fashion, and That he now came to Westmoreland 130 To see what was romantic there.
12.  And all this, though quite ideal,—­ Ready at a breath to vanish,—­ Was a state not more unreal Than the peace he could not feel, 135 Or the care he could not banish.
13.  After a little conversation, The Devil told Peter, if he chose, He’d bring him to the world of fashion By giving him a situation 140 In his own service—­and new clothes.
14.  And Peter bowed, quite pleased and proud, And after waiting some few days For a new livery—­dirty yellow Turned up with black—­the wretched fellow 145 Was bowled to Hell in the Devil’s chaise.

PART 3.

Page 6

 HELL.

1.  Hell is a city much like London—­ A populous and a smoky city; There are all sorts of people undone, And there is little or no fun done; 150 Small justice shown, and still less pity.
2.  There is a Castles, and a Canning, A Cobbett, and a Castlereagh; All sorts of caitiff corpses planning All sorts of cozening for trepanning 155 Corpses less corrupt than they.
3.  There is a ***, who has lost His wits, or sold them, none knows which; He walks about a double ghost, And though as thin as Fraud almost—­ 160 Ever grows more grim and rich.
4.  There is a Chancery Court; a King; A manufacturing mob; a set Of thieves who by themselves are sent Similar thieves to represent; 165 An army; and a public debt.
5.  Which last is a scheme of paper money, And means—­being interpreted—­ ’Bees, keep your wax—­give us the honey, And we will plant, while skies are sunny, 170 Flowers, which in winter serve instead.’
6.  There is a great talk of revolution—­ And a great chance of despotism—­ German soldiers—­camps—­confusion—­ Tumults—­lotteries—­rage—­delusion—­ 175 Gin—­suicide—­and methodism;
7.  Taxes too, on wine and bread, And meat, and beer, and tea, and cheese, From which those patriots pure are fed, Who gorge before they reel to bed 180 The tenfold essence of all these.
8.  There are mincing women, mewing, (Like cats, who amant misere,) Of their own virtue, and pursuing Their gentler sisters to that ruin, 185 Without which—­what were chastity?
9.  Lawyers—­judges—­old hobnobbers Are there—­bailiffs—­chancellors—­ Bishops—­great and little robbers—­ Rhymesters—­pamphleteers—­stock-jobbers—­ 190 Men of glory in the wars,—­
10.  Things whose trade is, over ladies To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper, Till all that is divine in woman Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman, 195 Crucified ’twixt a smile and whimper.
11.  Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling, Frowning, preaching—­such a riot!  Each with never-ceasing labour, Whilst he thinks he cheats his neighbour, 200 Cheating his own heart of quiet.
12.  And all these meet at levees;—­ Dinners convivial and political;—­ Suppers of epic poets;—­teas, Where small talk dies in agonies;—­ 205 Breakfasts professional and critical;
13.  Lunches and snacks so aldermanic That one would furnish forth ten dinners, Where reigns a Cretan-tongued panic, Lest news Russ, Dutch,

Page 7

or Alemannic 210 Should make some losers, and some winners—­
45.  At conversazioni—­balls—­ Conventicles—­and drawing-rooms—­ Courts of law—­committees—­calls Of a morning—­clubs—­book-stalls—­ 215 Churches—­masquerades—­and tombs.
15.  And this is Hell—­and in this smother All are damnable and damned; Each one damning, damns the other; They are damned by one another, 220 By none other are they damned.
16.  ’Tis a lie to say, ‘God damns’!  Where was Heaven’s Attorney General When they first gave out such flams?  Let there be an end of shams, 225 They are mines of poisonous mineral.
17.  Statesmen damn themselves to be Cursed; and lawyers damn their souls To the auction of a fee; Churchmen damn themselves to see 230 God’s sweet love in burning coals.
18.  The rich are damned, beyond all cure, To taunt, and starve, and trample on The weak and wretched; and the poor Damn their broken hearts to endure 235 Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan.
19.  Sometimes the poor are damned indeed To take,—­not means for being blessed,—­ But Cobbett’s snuff, revenge; that weed From which the worms that it doth feed 240 Squeeze less than they before possessed.
20.  And some few, like we know who, Damned—­but God alone knows why—­ To believe their minds are given To make this ugly Hell a Heaven; 245 In which faith they live and die.
21.  Thus, as in a town, plague-stricken, Each man be he sound or no Must indifferently sicken; As when day begins to thicken, 250 None knows a pigeon from a crow,—­
22.  So good and bad, sane and mad, The oppressor and the oppressed; Those who weep to see what others Smile to inflict upon their brothers; 255 Lovers, haters, worst and best;
23.  All are damned—­they breathe an air, Thick, infected, joy-dispelling:  Each pursues what seems most fair, Mining like moles, through mind, and there 260 Scoop palace-caverns vast, where Care In throned state is ever dwelling.

PART 4.

 SIN.

1.  Lo.  Peter in Hell’s Grosvenor Square, A footman in the Devil’s service!  And the misjudging world would swear 265 That every man in service there To virtue would prefer vice.
2.  But Peter, though now damned, was not What Peter was before damnation.  Men oftentimes prepare a lot

Page 8

270 Which ere it finds them, is not what Suits with their genuine station.
3.  All things that Peter saw and felt Had a peculiar aspect to him; And when they came within the belt 275 Of his own nature, seemed to melt, Like cloud to cloud, into him.
4.  And so the outward world uniting To that within him, he became Considerably uninviting 280 To those who, meditation slighting, Were moulded in a different frame.
5.  And he scorned them, and they scorned him; And he scorned all they did; and they Did all that men of their own trim 285 Are wont to do to please their whim, Drinking, lying, swearing, play.
6.  Such were his fellow-servants; thus His virtue, like our own, was built Too much on that indignant fuss 290 Hypocrite Pride stirs up in us To bully one another’s guilt.
7.  He had a mind which was somehow At once circumference and centre Of all he might or feel or know; 295 Nothing went ever out, although Something did ever enter.
8.  He had as much imagination As a pint-pot;—­he never could Fancy another situation, 300 From which to dart his contemplation, Than that wherein he stood.
9.  Yet his was individual mind, And new created all he saw In a new manner, and refined 305 Those new creations, and combined Them, by a master-spirit’s law.
10.  Thus—­though unimaginative—­ An apprehension clear, intense, Of his mind’s work, had made alive 310 The things it wrought on; I believe Wakening a sort of thought in sense.
11.  But from the first ’twas Peter’s drift To be a kind of moral eunuch, He touched the hem of Nature’s shift, 315 Felt faint—­and never dared uplift The closest, all-concealing tunic.
12.  She laughed the while, with an arch smile, And kissed him with a sister’s kiss, And said—­My best Diogenes, 320 I love you well—­but, if you please, Tempt not again my deepest bliss.
13.  ’’Tis you are cold—­for I, not coy, Yield love for love, frank, warm, and true; And Burns, a Scottish peasant boy—­ 325 His errors prove it—­knew my joy More, learned friend, than you.
14.  ’Boeca bacciata non perde ventura, Anzi rinnuova come fa la luna:—­ So thought Boccaccio, whose sweet words might cure a a Male prude, like you, from what you now endure, a Low-tide in soul, like a stagnant laguna.
15.  Then Peter rubbed his eyes severe. 

Page 9

And smoothed his spacious forehead down With his broad palm;—­’twixt love and fear,
335 He looked, as he no doubt felt, queer, And in his dream sate down.
16.  The Devil was no uncommon creature; A leaden-witted thief—­just huddled Out of the dross and scum of nature; 340 A toad-like lump of limb and feature, With mind, and heart, and fancy muddled.
17.  He was that heavy, dull, cold thing, The spirit of evil well may be:  A drone too base to have a sting; 345 Who gluts, and grimes his lazy wing, And calls lust, luxury.
18.  Now he was quite the kind of wight Round whom collect, at a fixed aera, Venison, turtle, hock, and claret,—­ 350 Good cheer—­and those who come to share it—­ And best East Indian madeira!
19.  It was his fancy to invite Men of science, wit, and learning, Who came to lend each other light; 355 He proudly thought that his gold’s might Had set those spirits burning.
20.  And men of learning, science, wit, Considered him as you and I Think of some rotten tree, and sit 360 Lounging and dining under it, Exposed to the wide sky.
21.  And all the while with loose fat smile, The willing wretch sat winking there, Believing ’twas his power that made 365 That jovial scene—­and that all paid Homage to his unnoticed chair.
22.  Though to be sure this place was Hell; He was the Devil—­and all they—­ What though the claret circled well, 370 And wit, like ocean, rose and fell?—­ Were damned eternally.

PART 5.

 GRACE.

1.  Among the guests who often stayed Till the Devil’s petits-soupers, A man there came, fair as a maid, 375 And Peter noted what he said, Standing behind his master’s chair.
2.  He was a mighty poet—­and A subtle-souled psychologist; All things he seemed to understand, 380 Of old or new—­of sea or land—­ But his own mind—­which was a mist.
3.  This was a man who might have turned Hell into Heaven—­and so in gladness A Heaven unto himself have earned; 385 But he in shadows undiscerned Trusted.—­and damned himself to madness.
4.  He spoke of poetry, and how ’Divine it was—­a light—­a love—­ A spirit which like wind doth blow 390 As it listeth, to and fro; A dew rained down from God above;
5.  ’A power which comes and goes like dream, And which none can ever trace—­ Heaven’s light on earth—­Truth’s

Page 10

brightest beam.’ 395 And when he ceased there lay the gleam Of those words upon his face.
6.  Now Peter, when he heard such talk, Would, heedless of a broken pate, Stand like a man asleep, or balk 400 Some wishing guest of knife or fork, Or drop and break his master’s plate.
7.  At night he oft would start and wake Like a lover, and began In a wild measure songs to make 405 On moor, and glen, and rocky lake, And on the heart of man—­
8.  And on the universal sky—­ And the wide earth’s bosom green,—­ And the sweet, strange mystery 410 Of what beyond these things may lie, And yet remain unseen.
9.  For in his thought he visited The spots in which, ere dead and damned, He his wayward life had led; 415 Yet knew not whence the thoughts were fed Which thus his fancy crammed.
10.  And these obscure remembrances Stirred such harmony in Peter, That, whensoever he should please, 420 He could speak of rocks and trees In poetic metre.
11.  For though it was without a sense Of memory, yet he remembered well Many a ditch and quick-set fence; 425 Of lakes he had intelligence, He knew something of heath and fell.
12.  He had also dim recollections Of pedlars tramping on their rounds; Milk-pans and pails; and odd collections 430 Of saws, and proverbs; and reflections Old parsons make in burying-grounds.
13.  But Peter’s verse was clear, and came Announcing from the frozen hearth Of a cold age, that none might tame 435 The soul of that diviner flame It augured to the Earth: 
14.  Like gentle rains, on the dry plains, Making that green which late was gray, Or like the sudden moon, that stains 440 Some gloomy chamber’s window-panes With a broad light like day.
15.  For language was in Peter’s hand Like clay while he was yet a potter; And he made songs for all the land, 445 Sweet both to feel and understand, As pipkins late to mountain Cotter.
16.  And Mr. —­, the bookseller, Gave twenty pounds for some;—­then scorning A footman’s yellow coat to wear, 450 Peter, too proud of heart, I fear, Instantly gave the Devil warning.
17.  Whereat the Devil took offence, And swore in his soul a great oath then, ’That for his damned impertinence 455 He’d bring him to a proper sense Of what was due to gentlemen!’

PART 6.

Page 11

 DAMNATION.

1.  ’O that mine enemy had written A book!’—­cried Job:—­a fearful curse, If to the Arab, as the Briton, 460 ’Twas galling to be critic-bitten:—­ The Devil to Peter wished no worse.
2.  When Peter’s next new book found vent, The Devil to all the first Reviews A copy of it slyly sent, 465 With five-pound note as compliment, And this short notice—­’Pray abuse.’
3.  Then seriatim, month and quarter, Appeared such mad tirades.—­One said—­ ’Peter seduced Mrs. Foy’s daughter, 470 Then drowned the mother in Ullswater, The last thing as he went to bed.’
4.  Another—­’Let him shave his head!  Where’s Dr. Willis?—­Or is he joking?  What does the rascal mean or hope, 475 No longer imitating Pope, In that barbarian Shakespeare poking?’
5.  One more, ’Is incest not enough?  And must there be adultery too?  Grace after meat?  Miscreant and Liar! 480 Thief!  Blackguard!  Scoundrel!  Fool! hell-fire Is twenty times too good for you.
6.  ’By that last book of yours WE think You’ve double damned yourself to scorn; We warned you whilst yet on the brink 485 You stood.  From your black name will shrink The babe that is unborn.’
7.  All these Reviews the Devil made Up in a parcel, which he had Safely to Peter’s house conveyed. 490 For carriage, tenpence Peter paid—­ Untied them—­read them—­went half mad.
8.  ‘What!’ cried he, ’this is my reward For nights of thought, and days, of toil?  Do poets, but to be abhorred 495 By men of whom they never heard, Consume their spirits’ oil?
9.  ’What have I done to them?—­and who IS Mrs. Foy?  ’Tis very cruel To speak of me and Betty so! 500 Adultery!  God defend me!  Oh!  I’ve half a mind to fight a duel.
10.  ‘Or,’ cried he, a grave look collecting, ’Is it my genius, like the moon, Sets those who stand her face inspecting, 505 That face within their brain reflecting, Like a crazed bell-chime, out of tune?’
11.  For Peter did not know the town, But thought, as country readers do, For half a guinea or a crown, 510 He bought oblivion or renown From God’s own voice in a review.
12.  All Peter did on this occasion Was, writing some sad stuff in prose.  It is a dangerous invasion 515 When poets criticize; their station Is to delight, not pose.
13.  The Devil then sent to Leipsic fair For Born’s translation of Kant’s

Page 12

book; A world of words, tail foremost, where 520 Right—­wrong—­false—­true—­and foul—­and fair As in a lottery-wheel are shook.
14.  Five thousand crammed octavo pages Of German psychologics,—­he Who his furor verborum assuages 525 Thereon, deserves just seven months’ wages More than will e’er be due to me.
15.  I looked on them nine several days, And then I saw that they were bad; A friend, too, spoke in their dispraise,—­ 530 He never read them;—­with amaze I found Sir William Drummond had.
16.  When the book came, the Devil sent It to P. Verbovale, Esquire, With a brief note of compliment, 535 By that night’s Carlisle mail.  It went, And set his soul on fire.
17.  Fire, which ex luce praebens fumum, Made him beyond the bottom see Of truth’s clear well—­when I and you, Ma’am, 540 Go, as we shall do, subter humum, We may know more than he.
18.  Now Peter ran to seed in soul Into a walking paradox; For he was neither part nor whole, 545 Nor good, nor bad—­nor knave nor fool; —­Among the woods and rocks
19.  Furious he rode, where late he ran, Lashing and spurring his tame hobby; Turned to a formal puritan, 550 A solemn and unsexual man,—­ He half believed “White Obi”.
20.  This steed in vision he would ride, High trotting over nine-inch bridges, With Flibbertigibbet, imp of pride, 555 Mocking and mowing by his side—­ A mad-brained goblin for a guide—­ Over corn-fields, gates, and hedges.
21.  After these ghastly rides, he came Home to his heart, and found from thence 560 Much stolen of its accustomed flame; His thoughts grew weak, drowsy, and lame Of their intelligence.
22.  To Peter’s view, all seemed one hue; He was no Whig, he was no Tory; 565 No Deist and no Christian he;—­ He got so subtle, that to be Nothing, was all his glory.
23.  One single point in his belief From his organization sprung, 570 The heart-enrooted faith, the chief Ear in his doctrines’ blighted sheaf, That ‘Happiness is wrong’;
24.  So thought Calvin and Dominic; So think their fierce successors, who 575 Even now would neither stint nor stick Our flesh from off our bones to pick, If they might ‘do their do.’
25.  His morals thus were undermined:—­ The old Peter—­the hard, old Potter—­ 580 Was born anew within his mind; He grew dull, harsh, sly, unrefined, As when he tramped beside the Otter.

Page 13

26.  In the death hues of agony Lambently flashing from a fish, 585 Now Peter felt amused to see Shades like a rainbow’s rise and flee, Mixed with a certain hungry wish.
27.  So in his Country’s dying face He looked—­and, lovely as she lay, 590 Seeking in vain his last embrace, Wailing her own abandoned case, With hardened sneer he turned away: 
28.  And coolly to his own soul said;—­ ’Do you not think that we might make 595 A poem on her when she’s dead:—­ Or, no—­a thought is in my head—­ Her shroud for a new sheet I’ll take: 
29.  ’My wife wants one.—­Let who will bury This mangled corpse!  And I and you, 600 My dearest Soul, will then make merry, As the Prince Regent did with Sherry,—­’ ‘Ay—­and at last desert me too.’
30.  And so his Soul would not be gay, But moaned within him; like a fawn 605 Moaning within a cave, it lay Wounded and wasting, day by day, Till all its life of life was gone.
31.  As troubled skies stain waters clear, The storm in Peter’s heart and mind 610 Now made his verses dark and queer:  They were the ghosts of what they were, Shaking dim grave-clothes in the wind.
32.  For he now raved enormous folly, Of Baptisms, Sunday-schools, and Graves, 615 ’Twould make George Colman melancholy To have heard him, like a male Molly, Chanting those stupid staves.
33.  Yet the Reviews, who heaped abuse On Peter while he wrote for freedom, 620 So soon as in his song they spy The folly which soothes tyranny, Praise him, for those who feed ’em.
34.  ’He was a man, too great to scan;—­ A planet lost in truth’s keen rays:—­ 625 His virtue, awful and prodigious;—­ He was the most sublime, religious, Pure-minded Poet of these days.’
35.  As soon as he read that, cried Peter, ’Eureka!  I have found the way 630 To make a better thing of metre Than e’er was made by living creature Up to this blessed day.’
36.  Then Peter wrote odes to the Devil;—­ In one of which he meekly said:  635 ’May Carnage and Slaughter, Thy niece and thy daughter, May Rapine and Famine, Thy gorge ever cramming, Glut thee with living and dead! 640
37.  ’May Death and Damnation, And Consternation, Flit up from Hell with pure intent!  Slash them at Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, and Chester; 645 Drench all with blood from Avon to Trent.
38.  ’Let thy body-guard yeomen Hew down babes and women, And laugh with bold triumph till Heaven be rent!  When Moloch in Jewry 650 Munched children with fury, It was thou, Devil, dining with pure intent.

PART 7.

Page 14

 DOUBLE DAMNATION.

1.  The Devil now knew his proper cue.—­ Soon as he read the ode, he drove To his friend Lord MacMurderchouse’s, 655 A man of interest in both houses, And said:—­’For money or for love,
2.  ’Pray find some cure or sinecure; To feed from the superfluous taxes A friend of ours—­a poet—­fewer 660 Have fluttered tamer to the lure Than he.’  His lordship stands and racks his
3.  Stupid brains, while one might count As many beads as he had boroughs,—­ At length replies; from his mean front, 665 Like one who rubs out an account, Smoothing away the unmeaning furrows: 
4.  ’It happens fortunately, dear Sir, I can.  I hope I need require No pledge from you, that he will stir 670 In our affairs;—­like Oliver.  That he’ll be worthy of his hire.’
5.  These words exchanged, the news sent off To Peter, home the Devil hied,—­ Took to his bed; he had no cough, 675 No doctor,—­meat and drink enough.—­ Yet that same night he died.
6.  The Devil’s corpse was leaded down; His decent heirs enjoyed his pelf, Mourning-coaches, many a one, 680 Followed his hearse along the town:—­ Where was the Devil himself?
7.  When Peter heard of his promotion, His eyes grew like two stars for bliss:  There was a bow of sleek devotion 685 Engendering in his back; each motion Seemed a Lord’s shoe to kiss.
8.  He hired a house, bought plate, and made A genteel drive up to his door, With sifted gravel neatly laid,—­ 690 As if defying all who said, Peter was ever poor.
9.  But a disease soon struck into The very life and soul of Peter—­ He walked about—­slept—­had the hue 695 Of health upon his cheeks—­and few Dug better—­none a heartier eater.
10.  And yet a strange and horrid curse Clung upon Peter, night and day; Month after month the thing grew worse, 700 And deadlier than in this my verse I can find strength to say.
11.  Peter was dull—­he was at first Dull—­oh, so dull—­so very dull!  Whether he talked, wrote, or rehearsed—­ 705 Still with this dulness was he cursed—­ Dull—­beyond all conception—­dull.
12.  No one could read his books—­no mortal, But a few natural friends, would hear him; The parson came not near his portal; 710 His state was like that of the immortal Described by Swift—­no man could bear him.
13.  His sister, wife, and children yawned, With a long, slow, and drear ennui, All

Page 15

human patience far beyond; 715 Their hopes of Heaven each would have pawned, Anywhere else to be.
14.  But in his verse, and in his prose, The essence of his dulness was Concentred and compressed so close, 720 ’Twould have made Guatimozin doze On his red gridiron of brass.
15.  A printer’s boy, folding those pages, Fell slumbrously upon one side; Like those famed Seven who slept three ages. 725 To wakeful frenzy’s vigil—­rages, As opiates, were the same applied.
16.  Even the Reviewers who were hired To do the work of his reviewing, With adamantine nerves, grew tired;—­ 730 Gaping and torpid they retired, To dream of what they should be doing.
17.  And worse and worse, the drowsy curse Yawned in him, till it grew a pest—­ A wide contagious atmosphere, 735 Creeping like cold through all things near; A power to infect and to infest.
18.  His servant-maids and dogs grew dull; His kitten, late a sportive elf; The woods and lakes, so beautiful, 740 Of dim stupidity were full.  All grew dull as Peter’s self.
19.  The earth under his feet—­the springs, Which lived within it a quick life, The air, the winds of many wings, 745 That fan it with new murmurings, Were dead to their harmonious strife.
20.  The birds and beasts within the wood, The insects, and each creeping thing, Were now a silent multitude; 750 Love’s work was left unwrought—­no brood Near Peter’s house took wing.
21.  And every neighbouring cottager Stupidly yawned upon the other:  No jackass brayed; no little cur 755 Cocked up his ears;—­no man would stir To save a dying mother.
22.  Yet all from that charmed district went But some half-idiot and half-knave, Who rather than pay any rent, 760 Would live with marvellous content, Over his father’s grave.
23.  No bailiff dared within that space, For fear of the dull charm, to enter; A man would bear upon his face, 765 For fifteen months in any case, The yawn of such a venture.
24.  Seven miles above—­below—­around—­ This pest of dulness holds its sway; A ghastly life without a sound; 770 To Peter’s soul the spell is bound—­ How should it ever pass away?

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Peter Bell the Third, by Percy Bysshe Shelley ************This file should be named ptbll10.txt or ptbll10.zip************

Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ptbll11.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ptbll10a.txt

Page 16

Produced by Sue Asscher asschers@dingoblue.net.au

More information about this book is at the top of this file.

We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.  Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, even years after the official publication date.

Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.  The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment and editing by those who wish to do so.

Most people start at our Web sites at:  http://gutenberg.net or http://promo.net/pg

These Web sites include award-winning information about Project Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new etexts, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).

Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.

http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or ftp://ftp.ibi
blio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03

Or etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90

Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, as it appears in our Newsletters.

Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  Our projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 If they reach just 1-2% of the world’s population then the total will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year’s end.

The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!  This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.

Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): 

eBooks Year Month

    1 1971 July
   10 1991 January
  100 1994 January
 1000 1997 August
 1500 1998 October
 2000 1999 December
 2500 2000 December
 3000 2001 November
 4000 2001 October/November
 6000 2002 December*
 9000 2003 November*
10000 2004 January*

Page 17

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.

We need your donations more than ever!

As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people and organizations in:  Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones that have responded.

As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.  Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.

In answer to various questions we have received on this: 

We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, just ask.

While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to donate.

International donations are accepted, but we don’t know ANYTHING about how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made deductible, and don’t have the staff to handle it even if there are ways.

The most recent list of states, along with all methods for donations (including credit card donations and international donations), may be found online at http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html

Donations by check or money order may be sent to: 

Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
PMB 113
1739 University Ave. 
Oxford, MS 38655-4109

Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment method other than by check or money order.

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.

We need your donations more than ever!

You can get up to date donation information at: 

http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html

***

If you can’t reach Project Gutenberg,
you can always email directly to: 

Page 18

Michael S. Hart hart@pobox.com

Prof.  Hart will answer or forward your message.

We would prefer to send you information by email.

**The Legal Small Print**

(Three Pages)

***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** Why is this “Small Print!” statement here?  You know:  lawyers.  They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from someone other than us, and even if what’s wrong is not our fault.  So, among other things, this “Small Print!” statement disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.

BEFORE! YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept this “Small Print!” statement.  If you do not, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.

ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, is a “public domain” work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association (the “Project").  Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext under the “PROJECT GUTENBERG” trademark.

Please do not use the “PROJECT GUTENBERG” trademark to market any commercial products without permission.

To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain works.  Despite these efforts, the Project’s etexts and any medium they may be on may contain “Defects”.  Among other things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES But for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described below, [1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Page 19

If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that time to the person you received it from.  If you received it on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to receive it electronically.

THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU “AS-IS”.  NO OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you may have other legal rights.

INDEMNITY You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.

DISTRIBUTION UNDER “PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm” You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this “Small Print!” and all other references to Project Gutenberg, or: 

[1] Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
     etext or this “small print!” statement.  You may however,
     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
     including any form resulting from conversion by word
     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
     EITHER

     [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
          does not contain characters other than those
          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
          author, and additional characters may be used to
          indicate hypertext links; OR

     [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
          OR

     [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
          or other equivalent proprietary form).

Page 20

[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
     “Small Print!” statement.

[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
     don’t derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
     payable to “Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation”
     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
     let us know your plans and to work out the details.

WHAT IF YOU WANT TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO?  Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed in machine readable form.

The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. 
Money should be paid to the: 
“Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.”

If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:  hart@pobox.com

[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] [Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or software or any other related product without express permission.]

END THE SMALL PRINT!  FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTSVer.10/04/01*END*