ABSTRACT
The present texts are based on the manuscript fair copies of Proserpine and Midas, which are contained in Bodleian MS Shelley adds. d. 2.1 Although Proserpine was published in the Winter’s Wreath for MDCCCXXXII (London: Whittaker, Treacher, and Arnot; Liverpool: George Smith, n.d. [Preface dated 1831]), pp. 1–20, this was only in truncated form. A guide to the principles of treatment for the texts printed here will be found in the Introductory Note to Matilda, the only other finished work transcribed from manuscript in this edition.2 There are three further points which bear on these items. First, substantive variants from Proserpine (1831) are presented in an Appendix. Second, Mary Shelley’s idiosyncratic use of hyphens in Midas, which may cause confusion, has been corrected in the text, and the manuscript reading is recorded in the endnotes. Third, because of the inconsistencies in Mary Shelley’s pagination,3 the pagination in the headlines refers to the Bodleian foliation.
