ABSTRACT
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem (1813) features extensive footnotes offering scientific and historical information, trenchant polemics and quotations from radical Enlightenment figures, most notably Baruch Spinoza. Recently, there has not only been a revival of critical interest in Mab, but the notes themselves have played an important role in re-engaging scholarly attention. Nevertheless, this chapter is the first to read the notes in the context of their reception history. Tracing the important role the notes played in the poem’s reception enables us to understand more clearly how Shelley deploys annotation to create a future audience for his work. Shelley creates a repository of radical quotations in the liminal space of annotation, in an attempt to disseminate radical ideas, while evading censors and critics. While Shelley attacks marriage and organized religion and seeks to historicize scripture, the constant shift between verse and note constitutes a quasi-religious ritual. By persistently projecting the readers’ attention out of the verse’s mythic narrative toward the prose critical analysis, Shelley seeks to propel them from a Christian worldview toward a secular socialist future. The introduction of the additional annotated voice enables Shelley to create a bifold poem that attacks specific aspects of Christianity while establishing new set of quasi-religious ideas and practices.
