ABSTRACT
52Mrs. Shelley had at this time been writing some little Dramas on classical subjects, one of which was the Rape of Proserpine, a very graceful composition which she has never published. Shelley contributed to this the exquisite fable of Arethusa and the Invocation to Ceres.—Among the Nymphs gathering flowers on Enna were two whom she called Ino and Uno, names which I remember in the Dialogue were irresistibly ludicrous. She also wrote one on Midas—into which were introduced by Shelley—in the Contest between Pan and Apollo, the Sublime Effusion of the latter, and Pan’s characterised Ode. She also had composed a Tale probably suggested by Alfieri’s Myrrha —the only Play of his which strange to say, has possession of the Stage—I remember turned on the incestuous love of a daughter for a father. Her taste was at this time not so refined as at present. It was however delicately treated —a disgusting subject—and I am not surprised that it should never have made its appearance—Mrs. Shelley had it seems from a letter of Shelley’s translated some scenes of Alfieri’s Myrrha, and probably worked out the subject in prose—in accordance with Shelley’s opinion that Incest is a very poetical circumstance. In this I cannot agree with him.—She also this winter read with Shelley—for she is a tolerable Latin Scholar—Spinoza—whose arguments she then thought irrefutable—Tempora Mutantur.
