[67] Percy Bysshe Shelley, b. 1792; d. (by drowning in Gulf of Spezia) 1822. Queen Mab, pub. 1821 (but privately printed 1813); Alastor, 1816; Laon and Cythna (afterward Revolt of Islam), 1818; Adonais, 1821. Life, by Mrs. Shelley, 1845; Hogg’s Life, 1858; Rossetti’s, 1870. Besides which there is biographic material, more or less full, by Forman, Trelawny, McCarthy, Leigh Hunt, Garnett, and Jeaffreson (Real Shelley). Life, in English Men of Letters, by the late John Addington Symonds; and in 1886, Professor Dowden’s work.
[68] Rossetti, in Ency. Britannica, says, “in Christ Church, Newark”—as to which item (repeated by Dowden) there has been some American wonderment!
[69] July, 1804, to July, 1810; Athenæum, No. 3,006, June, 1885.
[70] William Godwin, b. 1756; d. 1836. Political Justice, 1793; Caleb Williams, 1794. William Austen (author of Peter Rugg), in his Letters from London, 1802-3, describes a visit to Godwin at his cottage—Somerston; notices a portrait of “Mary” (Mrs. Shelley) hanging over the mantel.
[71] Miss Martineau (p. 304, vol. ii., Autobiography) says that Godwin told her he wrote the first half of Caleb Williams in three months, and then stopped for six—finishing it in three more. “This pause,” she says, “in the middle of a work so intense, seems to me a remarkable incident.”
[72] Separation took place about the middle of June, 1814; she destroyed herself, November 10, 1816. At one time there had been ugly rumors that she was untrue to him; and there is some reason to believe that Shelley once entertained this belief, but there is no adequate testimony to that end; Godwin’s dixit should not count for very much. Dowden leaves the matter in doubt.
[73] I am reminded that Macready’s impersonation of Werner was a noted and successful one. Sardanapalus and the Two Foscari enlisted also the fervor of this actor’s dramatic indorsement. But these all—needed a Macready.
[74] Very full account of the Chancery proceedings in respect to children of Shelley may be found in Professor Dowden’s biography. By this it would appear that by decision of Lord Eldon (July 25, 1818) Shelley was allowed to see his children twelve times a year—if in the presence of their regularly appointed guardians (Dr. and Mrs. Hume).
[75] John Keats, b. 1795; d. 1821. First “collected” Poems, 1817; Endymion, 1818; second volume of collected Poems, 1820; Life and Letters—Lord Houghton (Milnes), 1848.
[76] “Ode to a Nightingale,” vi.