ABSTRACT
Date of composition unknown, but probably c. April 1810. ‘Olympia’ is eponymous with a character who makes a brief but violent appearance in ch. iv of St Irvyne (written April-October 1810). Lady Olympia della Anzasca develops a passion for Wolfstein, whose mistress Megalena demands her murder, but Olympia commits suicide. The fragments were prefixed to chs. iv and vii respectively of the romance (the chs. were contiguous, as no chs. were numbered v or vi). The ‘Vengeance’ of the first fragment must refer to Megalena’s. Ch. vii concerns Eloisa de St Irvyne’s seduction by Nempere/Ginotti, who is immortal and has sold his soul to Satan; Nempere (or his Master) is presumably the ‘fiend’ of the second fragment, who fascinates Eloisa and causes her remorse. Nothing more is known of a poem ‘Olympia’, and the lines may have been purposely written as chapter-headings. Text from St Irvyne, epigraphs to chs. iv and vii. Previously uncollected.
