Persevere even though Hell and destruction
should yawn beneath your feet.
"Think of all this at the frightful hour of midnight,
when the Hell-demon leans over your sleeping form, and
inspires those thoughts which eventually will lead you
to the gates of destruction... The fiend of the Sussex
solitudes shrieked in the wilderness at midnight--he
thirsts for thy detestable gore, impious Fergus. But
the day of retribution will arrive. H + D=Hell
Devil."[96]
That Shelley could jest thus lightly in the mock-terrific vein
shows that his mind was fundamentally sane and well-balanced, and
that he only regarded "fiendmongering" as a pleasantly thrilling
diversion. His _Zastrozzi_ (1810) and _St. Irvyne_ (1811) were
probably written with the same zest and spirit as his harrowing
letter to "impious Fergus." They are the outcome of a boyish
ambition to practise the art of freezing the blood, and their
composition was a source of pride and delight to their author. A
letter to Peacock (Nov. 9, 1818) from Italy re-echoes the note of
child-like enjoyment in weaving romances:
"We went to see heaven knows how many more palaces--Ranuzzi,
Marriscalchi, Aldobrandi. If you want Italian names for any
purpose, here they are; I should be glad of them if I was writing
a novel.
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