I am not however aware that the resemblances had ever
been brought out in detail until Mr. G.S.D. Murray, of Christ Church,
Oxford, noted down the passages from Bion, which were published
accordingly in my edition of Shelley's Poems, 1870. Since then, 1888,
Lieut.-Colonel Hime, R.A., issued a pamphlet (Dulau & Co.) entitled _The
Greek Materials of Shelley's Adonais, with Remarks on the three Great
English Elegies_, entering into further, yet not exhaustive, particulars
on the same subject. Shelley himself made a fragmentary translation from
the Elegy of Bion on Adonis: it was first printed in Mr. Forman's
edition of Shelley's Poems, 1877. I append here those passages which are
directly related to _Adonais_:--
'I mourn Adonis dead--loveliest Adonis--
Dead, dead Adonis--and the Loves lament.
Sleep no more, Venus, wrapped in purple woof--
Wake, violet-stoled queen, and weave the crown
Of death,--'tis Misery calls,--for he is dead.
... Aphrodite
With hair unbound is wandering through the woods,
Wildered, ungirt, unsandalled--the thorns pierce
Her hastening feet, and drink her sacred blood.
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