Song of Apollo

Drafted by S. in Nbk 14, with its companion Song of Pan (no. 318), for the first act of Midas, one of the two ‘mythological dramas’ written by Mary in 1820. Mary's jnl confirms that she completed the other drama, Proserpine, to which S. contributed Arethusa arose (no. 311), on 3 May 1820 (Mary Jnl i 136). Medwin's brief mention of Mary's dramas (Medwin 252) suggests that Midas was composed after Proserpine, and the order of Mary's fair copies in Mary Nbk supports this. Mary's jnl records her reading Ovid, from whose Met. both dramas are adapted, on 26 April, presumably while working on Proserpine, and again on 4 May, probably in preparation for Midas (Mary Jnl i 315, 317). The position of S.’s Nbk 14 drafts of the two songs, following The Cloud (no. 319) and God save the Queen! [A New National Anthem] (no. 313), also supports a composition date in late April or early May. Mary fair-copied both songs into Mary Nbk ff.22^r–22^v and 22^v–23^v (facsimile and transcription in BSM x 96–103), adding the marginal gloss ‘(Shelley)’ to indicate the authorship. While these fair copies may have had S.’s approval, they appear unreliable at a number of points (see notes); hence, the present texts are based on S.’s drafts. The songs were first published in 1824, entitled ‘Hymn of Apollo’ and ‘Hymn of Pan’ (Midas remained unpublished until André Koszul's edition of Proserpine and Midas in 1922). Neither song is titled in Nbk 14 or in Mary's transcripts. However, as a number of commentators have noted, hymns are usually addressed to gods rather than sung by them. For this reason, the 1824 titles have been emended to ‘Songs of’.