30 DECEMBER 1922, Page 26

PROSERPINE AND MIDAS. By Mary Shelley. (Milford. 8s. 6d. net.)

Shelley's centenary is also made the excuse for the publica- tion of Proserpine and Midas. These two mythological dramas (hitherto unpublished) have been edited by A. Koszul from the Bodleian MSS. Both are pretty but mediocre, and suggest that their author was not unwise in leaving them in her desk. Mr. Koszul defends their appearance, however, by seeking to prove that in them may be found an early indica- tion " of the revival, in the heart of Romanticism, of the old love of classical myths." Mary Shelley, we feel, would have smiled at such claims for these unpretentious excursions into poetic drama.