Queen Mab

1822

Special Collections PR5417 A1 1822

London: Printed and published by R. Carlile

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) is one of the most important English Romantic poets, perhaps best known for works such as Ozymandias, To a Skylark, and The Masque of Anarchy. Early editions of Shelley’s are not well represented at Otago. Perhaps this fine lyrical poet, who steadily gained fame after his death, was seen as too radical for students in the early days of the University? Queen Mab was his first major poem, first printed in 1813. Some copies remained unsold, while pirated editions were confiscated by the Society for the Prevention of Vice. Despite fear of prosecution, the bookseller Richard Carlile published this edition in 1822.