¹ Monthly Review, lxxix (London, 1816), 433.

² R. D. Havens “Shelley's Alastor,” PMLA, xlv, (Dec., 1930), 1098–1115; and M. C. Wier “Shelley's ‘Alastor’ again,” PMLA, xlvi, (Sept., 1931), 947–950.

³ Winstanley, L, “Shelley as a Nature Poet,” Englische Studien, (1904), 17–51.

⁴ Ackermann, Richard, Quellen Vorbilder, Stoffe zu Shelley's Poetischen Werken. 1. Alastor. Romanischen und Englischen Philologie (Erlangen & Leipzig, 1899), pp. 1–16.

⁵ Roger Ingpen, The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London, 1909), p. 198.

⁶ Letters, p. 208.—At about the same time, Peacock tells us, Shelley wondered what effect money-lenders might have had on Wordsworth: “One day, as we were walking together on the banks of the Surrey Canal, and discoursing of Wordsworth, and quoting some of his verses, Shelley suddenly said to me: ‘Do you think Wordsworth could have written such poetry, if he had ever had dealings with money-lenders?‘” H. F. B. Brett-Smith, Peacock's Memoirs of Shelley (London, 1909), p. 52.

⁷ Edward Dowden, Life of Shelley (London, 1886), i, 471.

⁸ Boston Herald (December 21, 1925).

^8a An unmistakable reference to Wordsworth's Thanksgiving Ode of January 1816, in which he celebrates England's bloody conquest.

⁹ As time went on Shelley's attitude became increasingly outspoken and denunciatory. Yet never did he lose his admiration for Wordsworth's lyrical qualities. Crabb Robinson records in his Diary: “Shelley spoke of Wordsworth with less bitterness, but with an insinuation of his insincerity”.—H. C. Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (Boston, 1870) i, 369.—In 1818 Shelley gave vent to his feelings in a letter: “What a beastly and pitiful wretch that Wordsworth! That such a man should be a poet! I can compare him with no one but Simonides, that flatterer of the Sicilian tyrants, and at the same time the most natural and tender of lyric poets.”—Letters, p. 607.—The last reference to Wordsworth occurs in a letter of 1820; the bitterness has diminished, but Shelley's disappointment is still evident: “As an excuse for mine and Mary's incurable stupidity, I send a little thing about poets, which is itself a kind of excuse for Wordsworth.”—Ibid., p. 780.

¹⁰ Ackermann, R, op. cit.

¹¹ It is worth noticing that in 1819, Shelley, in the irritation caused by an adverse review of The Revolt of Islam, denied the influence of Wordsworth; but that later, when he spoke less impetuously he said: “Poets—the best of them, are a very cameleonic race; they take the colour not only of what they feed on, but of the very leaves under which they pass.” Letters, 728 and 882.

¹² See Shelley's Preface to Epipsychidion.

¹³ Professor Wier (op. cit.) has advanced the theory that Alastor was conceived in accordance with the principles of Greek tragedy. While we agree that Alastor reflects to some extent Shelley's interest in Greek tragedy, we find his point of view open to the following objections: in accounting for the poet's offence he elevates a romantic episode to a position of exaggerated importance; second, there is no direct evidence in the poem itself that the vision is a divine illusion; on the contrary, the vision is spoken of as being inspired by human love; third, it is doubtful whether Shelley intends to identify the poet with Alastor throughout the latter part of the poem; fourth the furies pursuing the poet seem to be more psychological than supernatural.