348
Works of Porphyry, containing his Four Books on Abstinence from Animal Food,
8
most likely influenced by Shelley’s pamphlet, A Vindication of Natural Diet, notes,
initially, for the first edition of his “Queen Mab” (1813) and later that year published
in its own right.
9
And it is to the 9 Cantos and 17 Notes, 6 of them essays in themselves, of “Queen
Mab” that we turn. So powerful is the work—much in the manner of the mature
Mozart—that by 1821, there were multiple pirated versions all over England. It had
become celebrated by the general reader, oppressed workers, enlightened scholars,
and poets of all persuasion. A substantial bestseller, all the more remarkable given
both its huge erudition and the momentous advocacy for animal liberation with
which it takes up considerable energy, graphic commiseration, and the very Utopianlike conclusion. It was Shelley’s first and, in many respects, the foremost epic of his
entire career. The book (beautifully described by biographer Holmes)
10
sets out all
of the critical themes, style, reveries, and confluence of disciplines that would forever mark Shelley’s unique orientation to a specific geographic place (as Holmes
writes, “The idea of the search for a place, from which he could launch his ideas of
changing society…”).
11
The book combines theories of evolution, quotations from Lucretius’ On the
Nature of Things, ideas from Spinoza, and particularly those most powerful views
on the intelligence of flowers—of all nature—as incarnate in the grandfather of
Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden (1791)
12
and Zoonomia
(1796). Holmes distinguishes “Queen Mab” from Shelley’s entire body of work for
its “…relating, comparing and combining, information from enormously varied
sources: historical, ethical, astronomical, theological, political and biological”.
13
As
for historian Colin Spenser, he writes that “Queen Mab” “was to have enormous
influence throughout the century. It became the most widely read, the most notorious and the most influential of all Shelley’s works.”… “In his first major work he
had captured something of the spirit of the coming age”.
14
Even before his writing
8 Thomas Rodd, London 1823.
9 See William E. A. Axon’s Shelley’s Vegetarianism, London, 1891; Kenneth Neill Cameron, The
Young Shelley: Genesis of a Radical, Macmillan, London, 1950; Jonathan Bate, Romantic Ecology:
Wordsworth and the Environmental Tradition, Routledge, London, 1991; Henry S. Salt, The Creed
of Kinship, Constable, London, 1935; Henry S. Salt, The Story of My Cousins: Brief Animal
Biographies, Watts & Co., London, 1923, and Salt’s two biographical studies of Shelley, A Shelley
Primer, Shelley Society, Reeves & Turner, London, 1887, and Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and
Pioneer, William Reeves, London, 1896. See also “Henry Salt on Shelley: Literary Criticism and
Ecological Identity,” by William Stroup, Romantic Circles, University of Colorado-Boulder,
https://romantic-circles.org/praxis/ecology/stroup/stroup.html, Accessed April 3, 2020.
10 op. cit., Richard Holmes, Chapter 9, pp.199–234.
11 ibid, Holmes, p. 200.
12 Part 1 Containing The Economy Of Vegetation – A Poem With Philosophical Notes; and Part II
Containing The Loves Of The Plants. Printed for J. Johnson, London, 1791.
13 op cit., Holmes, p. 202.
14 See The Heretic’s Feast – A History Of Vegetarianism, by Colin Spenser, Fourth Estate, London,
1993. pp. 249, 250.
39 Shelley’s Ecological Exile and His Utopia of Animal Rights
Works of Porphyry, containing his Four Books on Abstinence from Animal Food,
8
most likely influenced by Shelley’s pamphlet, A Vindication of Natural Diet, notes,
initially, for the first edition of his “Queen Mab” (1813) and later that year published
in its own right.
9
And it is to the 9 Cantos and 17 Notes, 6 of them essays in themselves, of “Queen
Mab” that we turn. So powerful is the work—much in the manner of the mature
Mozart—that by 1821, there were multiple pirated versions all over England. It had
become celebrated by the general reader, oppressed workers, enlightened scholars,
and poets of all persuasion. A substantial bestseller, all the more remarkable given
both its huge erudition and the momentous advocacy for animal liberation with
which it takes up considerable energy, graphic commiseration, and the very Utopianlike conclusion. It was Shelley’s first and, in many respects, the foremost epic of his
entire career. The book (beautifully described by biographer Holmes)
10
sets out all
of the critical themes, style, reveries, and confluence of disciplines that would forever mark Shelley’s unique orientation to a specific geographic place (as Holmes
writes, “The idea of the search for a place, from which he could launch his ideas of
changing society…”).
11
The book combines theories of evolution, quotations from Lucretius’ On the
Nature of Things, ideas from Spinoza, and particularly those most powerful views
on the intelligence of flowers—of all nature—as incarnate in the grandfather of
Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden (1791)
12
and Zoonomia
(1796). Holmes distinguishes “Queen Mab” from Shelley’s entire body of work for
its “…relating, comparing and combining, information from enormously varied
sources: historical, ethical, astronomical, theological, political and biological”.
13
As
for historian Colin Spenser, he writes that “Queen Mab” “was to have enormous
influence throughout the century. It became the most widely read, the most notorious and the most influential of all Shelley’s works.”… “In his first major work he
had captured something of the spirit of the coming age”.
14
Even before his writing
8 Thomas Rodd, London 1823.
9 See William E. A. Axon’s Shelley’s Vegetarianism, London, 1891; Kenneth Neill Cameron, The
Young Shelley: Genesis of a Radical, Macmillan, London, 1950; Jonathan Bate, Romantic Ecology:
Wordsworth and the Environmental Tradition, Routledge, London, 1991; Henry S. Salt, The Creed
of Kinship, Constable, London, 1935; Henry S. Salt, The Story of My Cousins: Brief Animal
Biographies, Watts & Co., London, 1923, and Salt’s two biographical studies of Shelley, A Shelley
Primer, Shelley Society, Reeves & Turner, London, 1887, and Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and
Pioneer, William Reeves, London, 1896. See also “Henry Salt on Shelley: Literary Criticism and
Ecological Identity,” by William Stroup, Romantic Circles, University of Colorado-Boulder,
https://romantic-circles.org/praxis/ecology/stroup/stroup.html, Accessed April 3, 2020.
10 op. cit., Richard Holmes, Chapter 9, pp.199–234.
11 ibid, Holmes, p. 200.
12 Part 1 Containing The Economy Of Vegetation – A Poem With Philosophical Notes; and Part II
Containing The Loves Of The Plants. Printed for J. Johnson, London, 1791.
13 op cit., Holmes, p. 202.
14 See The Heretic’s Feast – A History Of Vegetarianism, by Colin Spenser, Fourth Estate, London,
1993. pp. 249, 250.
39 Shelley’s Ecological Exile and His Utopia of Animal Rights