PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. .> ^ ^'X pwttjADELPHIa: ESS r COMPANY. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 1/ PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 1892. €*' x^.^ Copyright, 1892, by J. B. Lippincott Company. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. Shelley, Percy Bysshe, one of the greatest of English poets, was born on 4th August 1792, at Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex, the eldest child of Timothy Shelley and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Pilfold of Effingham, Surrey. The family was old and honourable. Bysshe Shelley, the poet's grandfather, married two heiresses, acquired a great property, and in 1806 received a baronetcy ; in 1815 he died. Percy was a boy of much sensibility, quick imagination, and generous heart ; physically of a refined type of beauty, blue-eyed, golden-haired. At ten years old he became a pupil of Dr Greenlaw's at Sion House School, Isleworth, where he made some pro- gress in classics, listened with delight to lectures on natural science, and endured much rough hand- ling from his schoolfellows. In 1804 he passed to Eton, where Dr Goodall was then head-master. He continued his study of the classics, read eagerly Lucretius and Pliny, became a disciple of the 18th- century sceptical and revolutionary writers, pored over Godwin's Political Justice, filled his imagina- tion with the wonders of modern science, resisted the system of school-fagmng, and held aloof from the throng of the schoolboys, who in turn made him the object of systematic persecution. While still at Eton he wrote a crude romance, in the manner of M. G. Lewis, which was published with the title Zastrozzi in April 1810. Befcne the close of the year a second romance, St Irin/ne, or the Rosier iician, appeared ; it is as absurd as its pre- decessor in its sentimental extravagance, its pseudo- passion, and mock sublimity. He assisted his cousin Thomas Medwin in a long poem on the subject of The Waiulcring Jew (1810), and issued 4 PERCY BVSSHE SHELLEY, with some fellow-rhymer a volume of verse (now known only through reviews), Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire. Possibly his collaborator was his cousin Harriet Grove, whom Shelley loved with a boy's passion. Her parents, alanned by Shelley's religious scepticism, put a stop to the correspond- ence between the cousins. In April 1810 Shelley matriculated at University College, Oxford, and in Michaelmas term entered on residence. His chief friend was a student from Durham, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, who has left a most vivid account of Shelley's Oxford life. Hogg was shrewd, sar- castic, uniinpassioned, and withal a genuine lover of literature. He aided Shelley in putting forth a slender volume of poems, originally written by Shelley with a serious intention, now retouched with a view to burlesque — Posthiunous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson — the pretended authoress being a mad washerwoman who had attempted the life of the king. In February 1811 a small pam- phlet by Shelley, entitled Tlte Necessity of Atheism, was printed. When it was offered for sale in Oxford, the college autliorities conceived it their duty to interfere ; Shelley and Hogg were interro- gated respecting its authorship, and having refused to reply, were expelled from University College (March 25, 1811) for ccmtumacy and for declining to disavow the pamphlet'. For a time the friends lived together in London lodgings ; then Hogg- departed to the country and Shelley remained alone. In his solitude he found some pleasure in the society of a schoolfellow of his sisters at Clap- ham, Harriet Westbrook, a fresh and pretty girl of sixteen, daughter of a retired coffee-house keeper. She moved under the tutelage of an unmarried sister nearly twice her own age. WJien summer came Slielley was with cousins in Wales ; letters reached him from Harriet in London complaining of domestic persecution, and speaking of suicide as a possilde means of escape ; a letter followed in which she threw herself on Shelley's protection, and proposed to fly with him from her home. Shelley hastened to see her, but at the same time assured a cousin that l»e did not love Harriet, though he was prepared to devote himself to her through a sentiment of chivalry. On meeting him she avowed her passion, ami he left her with a promise tliat if she summoned him he would come at her call and make her his. The summons came speedily ; Shelley and Harriet, aged nineteen and sixteen, took coach for Edinburgh, and were there PERCY BVSSHE SHELLEY. 5 formally united as man and wife on 28th August 1811. He assured his bride that, in accordance with principles which he firmly held, the union of man and wife might be dissolved as soon as ever it ceased to contribute to their mutual happiness. Coming from Edinburgh to York, where Hogg resided, the you pp; m-nr ripil pair were joined by Eliza Westbrook, the elder sister. Ill conduct of Hogg towards Harriet caused a temporary aliena- tion between the friends. The Shelleys with Eliza moved to Keswick, where ISouthey s presence was an attraction. Southey Avas kind and helpful, but his lack of revolutionary ardour and his indifl'er- ence to metaphysical speculation displeased Shelley. The young enthusiast found a monitor more to his liking in Godwin, with whom he now corresponded as a disciple with a master. To apply at once his ideas of reforming the world he resolved to \'isit Ireland, and there advocate Catholic emancipation and Repeal of the Union. On reaching Dublin he printed and scattered abroad an Address to the Irish People, M'ritten at Keswick. This was soon followed by a second pamphlet. Proposals for an Association of Philanthropists. He spoke at a large public meeting from the same platform with O'Connell, and made the acquaintance of Curran. Discouraged by the small results of his eflbrts, and yielding to Godwin's advice, he left Ireland (April 4, 1812), and after some wanderings in Wales found rest in a cottage at LynuKuith, then a lonely tishing-village. Here he received as a visitor IVTiss Hitchener, a Sussex sclioolmistress, whom botli before and for a time after his marriage he had idealised into all that is most lieroic and exalted in womanhood, and with whom he was ere long more ^^OL^Yf^^^^-'^ ^ than disenchanted. He wrote a vigorous pamphlet ^ vxt"^ on behalf of liberty of printing — the Letter to Lord Ellenhorough — amused himself with circulating, by means of bottles and boxes set afloat in the Channel and by fire-balloon, copies of his satirical poem The Devil's Walk and his revolutionary broadsheet Declaration of Rights, and was at work on his Queen Mah. His servant, having been found post- ing up at Barnstaple the offensive broadsheet, was imprisoned, and Shelley crossed to Wales. He took up his aljode at Tremadoc, where he was much interested in the scheme of a great embankment against the sea. In October he made (Godwin's personal acquaintance in London. During the winter he was active in the relief of the suttering poor of Tremadoc, studied history and philoso])hy. idV^ l^«,^>rvxt^ G PERCY BVSSHE SHELLEY. and added to his manuscript poems. On the night of 26th February 1813 an attempt was either really made by some vdllain to enter the lonely house of Tanyrallt, or Shelley with over-heated fancy con- jured up such an outrage. He liastily quitted Tremadoc, and, after an excursion to Dublin, Cork, and Killarney, once again settled in London. In ^Ti]ne 1S1.S bis wif e gave birtli tog, dau^tflit.er who was named lanthe (married to Mr Esdaile, died 1876). On Harriet's recovery some stay was made at Bracknell in Berkshire. Queen Mah was printed for private distribution, its religious and political views being considered too hostile to received opinions to admit of public circulation. The poem sets forth Shelley's youthful conceptions of the past history of humanity, its jjresent evils, and future progress. It is often crude, often rhetorical, yet there is more than a jironuse of poetical power in certain passages. In the autumn (1813) — perhaps to ol)tain time to settle with creditors — Shelley and his household went northward to the English Lakes, and thence to Edinburgh, but before the new year opened he was settled at Windsor. A1)Out this time he wrote a prose dialogue ( published 1814), A Refutation of Deism,, designed to prove that there is no rda media between Christianity ami Atheism. In March 1814 Shelley went through the cere- mony of marriage with Harriet according to the rites of the English Church, probably to set at rest any doubts of tlie validity of the Scotch marriage. He was endeavouring to raise large sums of money on Godwin's behalf, and the marriage may have been considered advisable to render certain the legitimacy of a future son and heir. Four months l ater he had separated from his wife for e ver. Tlieir early married happiness had become hope- lessly clouded ; an attempt at reconciliation made by Shelley in May was rejected. Harriet withdrew to Bath. ' It was stated by Miss Clairniont, the daughter of (Godwin's second wife, that Shelley declared in July 1814 that Harriet had yielded herself to a certain Major Kyai i. and Godwin in 1817 stated in writing that lie had evidence in- dependent of Shelley of her unfaithfulness before Shelley left her. No such evidence is in our possession to-day, and statements to the contrary were made by Harriet herself and by several persons who knew her well. The division between husband and wife, Avliatever its causes, was deep. Shelley had become suddenly and passionately PERCY BVSSHE SHELLEY. 7 enanioTired of Godwin's daughter, Mary, a girl o£ fine intel lect ^iul_vigoi'Oii!^ r li.nrncfpr. Having in- formed Harriet of his resolve to leave her finally, and having made arrangements for her material comfort, he took flight to the Continent with Mary Godwin on 28th July 1814. Miss Clairmont accom- panied the fugitives. Shelley was inexperienced enough to suppose that Harriet could still regard him as a considerate friend, though no longer her husband. After a journey across France and a short stay in Switzerland, Shelley and his companions re- turned by the Rhine to England. The last months of 1814 Avere full of vexation caused by debts and duns. But in January 1815 Shelley's grandfather died, and by an arrangement with his father he obtained an income of a thousand a year. His health unhappily showed the ett'ects of the previous year's strain and excitement. He sought rest and refreshment in Devon, and in August found a home at Bishoi)sgate, on the edge of Windsor Forest. In the autumn of 1815 Alastor, his first really admirable poem, was written. It tells of the ruin of an idealist who, pining for absolute love and beauty, shuns human society ; its vision- ary landscapes have the largeness and idealitj^ characteristic of Shelley. In January 1816 Mary gave birth to a son, who was named after her father ; but Godwin still held aloof. It was decided to try life upon the Continent, and in May Shelley and' Mary travelled through France to Geneva. Miss Olairmont, whose intrigue with Byron was unknown to Shelley ami Mary, accom- panied them. On the shores of the Lake of (leneva a meeting took place between Byron and Shelley. They rowed and sailed together on the lake, and Shelley in company with Mary made an excursion to Chamouni. In the poem Mout Blanr and the Hi/mn tu Intdlectual Beauty we find a poetic record of the inipressions of these memorable days. In September they were once more in P2ng- land. The suicide, following a state of deep depression, of Fanny, the half-sister of Mary (see Godwin, William), gave Shelley a great shock, and this disaster was soon followed by the death of Harriet Shelley. For some time past Shelley had in vain inquired for her. She liad formed an irregular connection with one who, it is believed, deserted her. On 10th Decem- l)er her body was discovered in the Serj)entine ; had she livetl she would soon have given birth to a 8 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. child. It was another severe shock to Shelley, but he always iiiaiiitained that he himself was ' inno- cent of ill, either done or intended. ' Free now to make Mary his lawful wife, he at once celebrated his marriage (30th December 1816). Along Chan- cery suit followed, Shelley seeking to obtain pos- session of his daughter lanthe and his son Charles ( born November 1814— died 1826), the Westbrooks resisting. At length Lord Eldon gave judgment which compromised the matter ; Shelley's opinions being sucli as led to immoral and illegal conduct, he was disqualified for bringing up his children, but he might appoint caretakers and tutors to be approved by the court. The blow Avas deeply felt by Shelley. While the Chancery aft'air was pro- ceeding he was cheered by the friendship of Leigh Hunt and of Horace Smith. His home Mas at Marlow on the Thames, and here he wrote frag- ments of his Prince Athanase, a portion of Rosalind and Helen, and his long narrative poem Laon and Cythna, designed to sustain men's hopes in ideals or freedom and progress during days of political reaction. When some few copies of Laon and Ci/thna had been issued the publisher withdrew it from circulation, and induced Shelley to alter certain lines and phrases which might give oflence. As thus revised the poem was issued with a new title, The Revolt of Islam. During his residence at Marlow Shelley worked earnestly and systematically in the relief of the poor. He printed two pamphlets, A Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote, by 'The Hermit of Marlow,' and A71 Address to tne People on the Death of the I'rinccss Charlotte. In the spring of 1818 it was feared that he was threatened with pulmonary disease. He decided to seek a southern climate, and in April, with Mary, little William, an infant daughter Clara (born 2d September 1817), Miss Clairmont and her child Allegra (Byron's daughter), he left England foi' Italy, never again to see his native land. In the summer of 1818, at the Baths of Lucca, Shelley completed his Rosalind and Helen, and made his translation of Plato's Banquet. Grief came with the autumn ; little Clara died on 24th September at Venice, M'here Shelley liad been renewing his companionshi]) with Byron. Memorials of this visit to Venice, with an idealised presenta- tion of Byron, will be found in the admirable poem Julian and Maddalo. He contemplated a tragedy of l\tsso, but this was set aside in favour of his PERCY BVSSHE SHELLEY. 9 great lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound, the first act of which was written at Este, September-Octo- ber 1818. Seeking a warmer climate for the winter, he journeyed to Rome, and thence to Naples. His letters descriptive of Sotithern Italy are fnll of radiance and luminous beauty. In the spring (1819) he was again in Rome, and found great delight in its classical sculpture and architectural remains. Among the ruins of the Baths of Cara- calla he wrote the second and third acts of Prome- theus. The fourth act^not originally conceived as part of the poem — was added before the close of the year at Florence. On 7th June 1819 Shelley's beloved son William died at Rome. The afflicted parents sought the neighbourhood of kind friends near Leghorn, and here — at the Villa Valsovano — Shelley Mrote the greater part of his dark and pathetic tragedy The Cenci. At Leghorn the first edition was printed in quarto. The other works of this memorable year were written at Florence — a prose treatise called A Philosophical View of Reform (still unpublished in its entirety) ; a poet- ical appeal to his countrymen on the occasion of the 'Peterloo' affair, entitled The Mask of Anarchy; a grotesque satire suggested by the supposed failure of Wordsworth's poetic powers under the blight of Toryism — Peter Bell the Tiiird ; a translation of The Cyclops of Euripides ; and in addition to these some of his noblest lyrical poems, among them the matj-niticent Ode to the West Wind . On 12tii November 1819 a son was born to comfort iiis father and mother, Percy Florence (died 5th Decem))er 1889). The climate of Florence was found trying, and in January the Shelley household mo\'ed to Pisa, where Mas spent the greater part of the poet's remaining days. The year 1820 was less productive than ]8l"9. The charming poetical Letter to Maria Gisborne, a spirited translation of the Homeric Hymn to Mer- cury, the brilliant fantasy of 7'Ac Witch of Atlas, the satirica,l dvAma CEdij) us Tyrannus or Swellfoot the Tyrant, which deals not very iiappily with the affair of Queen Caroline, are tlie chief writings of 1820. As the year was closing tlie Shelleys made the acquaintance of a beautiful girl, Emilia Yiviani, M'ho was confined in the convent of St Anna. To Shelley's imagination for a brief time she became the incarnation, as it were, of all that is most perfect, all that is most radiant in the uni\'erse. At sucli a moment he wrote his Epipsychidion, which is rather a homage to the ideal as seen in 10 PERCY BVSSHE SHELLEY. womanhood than a poem addressed to an indi- vidual woman. It was followed by a remarkable piece of prose — the critical study entitled A Defence of Poetry. A small circle of interesting friends had gathered about Shelley at Pisa. Among these were Edward Williams, a young lieutenant of dragoons, and his wife Jane, to whom many of Shelley's latest lyrics were addressed. In the summer of 1821 the Shelleys and Williamses had much pleasant intercouse at the Baths of San Giuliano. The elegy Adonals. .suggested by the death of Keats, was here written ; it is Shelley's most finished piece of art . In the late summer or autumn he swiftly composed his Hellas, a lyrical drama suggested by passing events in Greece. Early next year Byron was settled in Pisa, and Shelley had also an interesting new com- panion in Trelawny, a young man of ardent and romantic temper. Shelley worked somewhat tenta- tively at his unfinished historical drama Charles I. His last great poem, also unfinished, The Triumph of Life, was written in his boat near Casa Magni, a lonely house on the eastern side of the Bay of Spezzia, occupied as a summer residence by the Shelleys, together with Edward and Jane Williams. On 19tii June Shelley heard of the arrival in Italy of Leigli Hunt and his family. He and Williams, some days later, set sail for Leghorn. The meeting with Hunt was full of joy and hope. On Monday, 8th July, Shelley and Williams left the port of Leghorn with a favourable breeze ; the boat was observed at ten miles distance ; then it was lost in sudden storm and mist. Dreadful uncertainty for a time came upon tlie two widowed women at Casa Magni. On 19th July the bodies were found upon the shore near Via Keggio. By special permission they were consumed by fire in the presence of Trelawny, Hunt, and Byron. The ashes of Shelley were -placed in a casket, and were afterwards in- terred in the Protestant burial-ground at Rome. In person Shelley was tall and slight, and if not of e.xact formal beauty of face had a countenance full of spiritual beauty, radiant with its luminous blue eyes. His portrait, painted in Rome by Miss (^urran, is the only likeness of Shelley in manhood. His poetiy is inspired by an ardent passion for truth, an ardent love of liumanity ; it expresses desires and regrets with peculiar intensitj% but also sets forth a somewhat stoical ideal of self-possession, as if to balance the excessive sensi- tiveness of its author. The earlier poetry is ag- PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 11 gressive and doctrinaire, embodying the views and visions of Godwin's philosophy ; the later is more purely emotional. Shelley's creed, which passed at an early stage from deism to atheism, rested in his mature years on a spiritual conception of the universe. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, daughter of William GodAvin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and wife of the poet Shelley, was l)orn August 30, 1797. Her life from 1814 to 1822 was hound up with that of Shelley. Her firs t and most impressive nove l, Frnnkendcin, had its origin in a proposal of Byron's made in 1816 at his villa on the Lake of Geneva, that Mary and Shelley, Polidori ( Byron's young physician), and Byron himself should write each a ghost story. Frankenstein (q.v. ) was pub- lished in 1818. The influence of Godwin's ro- mances is apparent throughout. Her second tali; . Valperga, or the Life and Advent ures of t'ast- ruccin. Prince of Lucca. (1823), is a historical romance of mediteval Italy. In 1823 she returned to England \\ith her son. Her husband's father, in granting her an allowance, insisted on the suppression of the volume of Shelley's Posthumous Poems, edited by her ; and she was obliged to sub- mit. The Last Man (1826), ii_romance of the ruin of human society by jjestilence, fails to attain sub- limity, but we can trace in it with interest ideal- ised portraits of some of the illustrious persons most intimately known to ber. In Lodor e (1835) we read under a disguise the st(try of Shelley's alienation from his first wife. Her last novel . Falkner, appeared in 1837. She published several short tales in the aTiuuals, some of Mhieh have been collected and edited by Dr Garnett. Of her occasional pieces of verse the most remarkable is The Choice. She wrote also many of the lives of Italian and Spanish literary men in Lardners Cabinet C^jchipo'dia. Her Jourmd of a Six Weeks' To»/- (partly by Shelley) tells of the excursion to Switzerland in 1814; Ea)nbles in Gernunn/ and Italy describes a series of tours in her later years. She will be remembered by Frankenstein and her admirable notes — in large part biographical — to her husband's jjoems. Those who knew her intimately valued Mary Shelley for her nobility of character, even more than for lier fine intellect. She died February 21, 1851, and was buried in Bournemouth. The best edition of Shelley's works in verse and prose is Mr H. v.. Forman's (8 vols. 1870-80). Mr Forman has also given an ailmirahle text of the poetical works 12 PERCY RYSSHE SHELLEY. in two volumes. Mr Rossetti's edition of the poetical woiks is of great value. The most complete one-volume edition of the iioetical works is that by the present writer (Professor Dowdeu), who has also written the fullest and most exact Life of Shelley ( 2 vols. 1886 ). Mrs Julian Marshall has written a valuable Life of Jlary WoUstonecraft Shelley ( 2 vols. 1889 ) ; and there is a short Life of her by Mrs W. M. Rossetti. Short lives of Shelley have been written by Mr Symonds, Mr Ros- setti, Mr Salt, and Mr W. Sharp, and by the poet's daughter-in-law. Lady Shelley. Hogg's Life of Shelley is excellent for the months at Oxford. Trelawny's Records gives a vivid picture of Shelley during his last days. Dr Garnett's Belies of Shelley gave for the first time many pieces recovered from MSS. The same care- ful editor has superintended an admirable selection from Shelley's Letters (1882). Mr Forman's Shelley Biblio- [H'aphy ( 1882 ) is full and accurate. The publications of the ' Shelley Society ' include reprints of several rare editions. A Shelleii Concordance is promised by Mr F. S. Ellis. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 001 346 230 6