No one contends that Harriet actually broke her marriage vow before the separation. What Professor Dowden asks us to believe is that Shelley thought she was untrue to him at that period. Miss Clairmont’s evidence I reject as valueless. At the most she only reports something which Shelley is supposed to have said to Mary with the object of persuading her to elope with him, and which his subsequent conduct with regard to his son Charles Bysshe contradicted. The true inference to be drawn from Shelley’s and Godwin’s far more important letters in 1817 is that it was not until the latter date that the suspicion of Harriet’s guilt before the separation arose. This suspicion did not, however, harden into certainty, nor was it found capable of verification; else why did not Shelley use the fact, as he proposed, in order to strengthen his case against the Westbrooks? I admit that his letter to Southey in 1820 supports the view that, having once begun to entertain the suspicion, he never afterwards abandoned it.[42]
If now we turn to contemporary records between the dates, June, 1814, and May, 1815 (at which time Harriet disappears from our ken), we find no intimation either in Mary’s or Miss Clairmont’s diary, or in Shelley’s words and writings, or in the conduct of the Shelley-Godwin set, that Harriet was believed to have broken faith so early with her husband. When Shelley in the summer of 1814 sought to lower her in the eyes of Mary Godwin, he did so by hinting that she only cared for his money and his prospects.[43] Mary talks about her “insulting selfishness,” calls her “nasty woman,” and exhibits a good deal of resentment at Shelley’s welcome to his son and heir by her (December 6, 1814).[44] The pained reiteration of the words wife in her diary on this occasion proves how bitterly she felt her own position as mistress. Shelley invited Harriet to establish herself in the neighbourhood of Mary and himself. She was visited in London by the whole party. But while they continued upon awkward terms of half familiarity and mutual irritation, nothing by word or act implied a knowledge of her previous infidelity. What is further to the point is that Mrs. Shelley, in her novel of Lodore, which Professor Dowden rightly judges to be a history of Shelley’s relation to Harriet, painted a wife’s gradual alienation from her husband without hinting at misconduct.[45]
In conclusion, I am bound to express my opinion that nothing now produced from the Shelley archives very materially alters the view of the case at which sane and cautious critics arrived before these were placed in the hands of his last biographer. We ought, moreover, to remember that Shelley, of all men, would have most resented anything like an appeal to popular opinions regarding the marriage tie. His firm conviction was that when affection ceased between a married couple, or when new loves had irrevocably superseded old ones, the connexion ought to be broken. In his own case he felt that Harriet’s emotion towards him had changed, while an irresistible passion for another woman had suddenly sprung up in his heart. Upon these grounds, after undergoing a terrible contention of the soul, he forced on the separation to which his first wife unwillingly submitted.
INDEX.
Adonais, [130], [143];
Shelley’s own criticism of, [144], [153], [180], [186];
quotations from, [145-151]
Address to the Irish People, [59];
purpose of, [60], [61];
quotations from, [61]
Age of Reason (Paine’s), [66]
Alastor, [84];
Shelley’s first serious poem, [85];
its autobiographical value, [86];
quotations from, [87], [153];
self-portraiture in, [98];
last lines quoted, [187-188]
Anamnesis, doctrine of, its stronghold upon Shelley’s imagination, [27-28]
Ancient Mariner, The, allusion to, [183]
Ariosto, Shelley’s first acquaintance with, [72], [111], [112]
Aristotle, [29]
Assassins, The, [83]
Bacon, [151]
Bagni di Lucca, [103], [105]
Ballantyne, Messrs. (publishers), [19]
Bath, Harriet Shelley at, [80], [82], [192], [193]
Baxter, Mr. W. T., [194]
Berkeley, [117]
Bernardo (in The Cenci), [127]
Bethel, Mr., Shelley’s tutor at Eton, [12]
Bisham, beech-groves of, [95]
Bishopsgate Heath, [85]
Blake, William (artist), [126]
Boccaccio, Shelley’s remarks on, [111]
Boinville, Mrs., [76] et seq., [189], [191]
Boscombe, [180]
Bracknell (in Berkshire), [76], [77]
Brentford, [8]
Browne, Miss Felicia (afterwards Mrs. Hemans), [34]
Brunnen (on Lake Lucerne), [83]
Buffon (zoologist), [52]
Byron, Lord, [26];
joins Shelley at Geneva, [88];
accident off rocks of Meillerie, [89];
his description of Shelley, [109], [131], [157], [161], [162], [164];
visited by Shelley, [166]
Calderon, [112];
Shelley’s translations from, [113], [164]
Campbell, Thomas, [19], [130]
Caracalla, Baths of, [95], [104], [118]
Castlereagh, Lord, [58]
Catholic Emancipation, [58], [60], [62]
Cenci, The, [74], [95], [120], [121], [126] et seq., [182], [186]
Chamouni, [90]
Clairmont, Charles, [76], [85]
Clairmont, Claire, [76], [83], [88], [103], [157], [194] et seq.
Clapham Common, [45]
Clifton, [85]
Coleridge, [55], [117], [183]
Dante, [111], [113], [138]
Declaration of Rights, [64] et seq.
Defence of Poetry, [112], [113], [117], [137], [186];
quotation from, [114-116]
De Quincey, [56]
Don Juan (Shelley’s boat), [167]
Eaton, D. J. (printer), [66]
Edinburgh, [51-53], [76]
Edinburgh Journal, [19]
Edwards, Mr. (Shelley’s first tutor), [6]
Eldon, Lord, [81], [93], [130], [193]
Epipsychidion, [86], [136], [138], [141] et seq., [158];
quotations from, [139-140]
Essay on a Future State, [117], [152]
Essay on Christianity, [100], [117]
Essay on the Punishment of Death, [117]
Este, [95], [107]
Eton, [12] et seq.
Fenning, Mrs., [46]
Field Place, [3], [6] et seq., [14], [17], [37], [47], [77]
Florence, [95], [108], [119], [130]
France, [83], [90]
Frankenstein (Mrs. Shelley’s story), [90]
Fraser’s Magazine, [19], [91] note, [92] note
Garnett, Mr. Richard, [80] note, [81], [83], [121], [130] note, [143], [169], [186] note
Gebir (Landor’s), [33]
Geneva, [88];
Lake of, [89]
Gisborne, Mr., [112], [121], [136]
Gisborne, Mrs., [110], [112], [119]
Godwin, Mary, [76], [79] et seq., [85], [88];
marriage with Shelley, [93], [190] et seq.
Godwin, William, [21], [49] note, [56] et seq., [67], [76], [77], [85] note, [93], [107], [110], [191], [194], [195]
Goodall, Dr., [12]
Great Marlow, [92]
Greystoke, [56]
Grove, Harriet, [18], [20], [21], [47]
Grove, Mr. C. H. (Shelley’s cousin), [51]
Guiccioli, Countess, [157]
Hellas, [154];
quotation from, [156-157]
Hemans, Mrs. See [Browne, Miss F.]
History of a Six Weeks’ Tour (Mrs. Shelley’s), [84]
Hitchener, Miss Eliza, [47], [65]
Hogg, Thomas Jefferson, [7], [9], [14-16], [21], [22];
his description of Shelley at Oxford, [23] et seq., [33], [37], [43] et seq., [67], [68], [71] et seq., [82], [85], [100], [108], [131], [161], [186] note, [187], [193]
Homer, [74], [112];
Shelley’s translations from, [113]
Hookham, Mr. T., [71], [192]
Horsham, [3], [17], [20], [56]
Hume, [27], [35]
Hunt, Leigh, [34], [80] note, [92], [100] et seq., [109], [121], [128], [136], [157], [176], [179], [180], [187]
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, [16], [86], [87], [123]
Imlay, Fanny, [76], [77], [107]
Invocation to Night, the, quotation from, [159-160]
Ireland, Shelley in, [58], [59], [63], [64]
Italy, [103], [109], [110], [169]
Julian and Maddalo, quotations from, [105-106], [132]
Kant, [68], [117]
Keats, [100], [130], [143], [145], [146];
description of his resting-place by Shelley, [148-149]
Keswick, [55], [56], [58]
Laon and Cythna, [8], [9], [17], [90], [95];
present title, The Revolt of Islam, [97], [98], [103], [122]
Leghorn, [74], [95], [119], [131], [176] et seq.
Lerici, [131], [154], [168], [177]
Letters, extracts from Shelley’s, [48], [50], [54] et seq., [65], [69], [78], [104], [110], [112], [116], [118], [128], [129], [130], [135-136], [141], [143], [159]
Letter to Lord Ellenborough, [66], [67]
Letter to Maria Gisborne, [15], [132];
quotation from, [133-134]
Lewis, Monk, [19], [20], [90]
Lind, Dr., [17], [34], [44]
Lines written among Euganean Hills, [107]
Locke, [27], [35]
Lodore (Mrs. Shelley’s novel), [196]
London, [37], [43], [47], [48], [50], [68], [72], [76], [81], [83], [92], [107], [108], [191], [192]
Masque of Anarchy, [120]
Matthews (the comedian), [19]
Medwin, Captain, his description of Shelley, [8], [10-11], [19], [80] note, [85];
relates incidents in Shelley’s life, [107-108], [134-135]
Meillerie, scene of shipwreck, [89]
Milton, his influence on Shelley, [86]
Moore, [144-145]
Naples, [103], [107], [108], [110]
Necessity of Atheism, The, [35], [40], [57]
Nicholson, Peg, [34]
Norfolk, Duke of, [3], [5], [18], [29], [56], [68]
North Wales, [47], [66], [68]
Ode to a Skylark, [132]
Ode to Liberty, [132], [153]
Ode to Naples, [132]
Ode to the West Wind, [119], [120], [185]
Original Poetry, by Victor and Cazire, [20], [34]
Oxford, [15], [17];
University College, [21];
Shelley dismissed from, [36]
Paine, Thomas, [66]
Paris, [83]
Peacock, Mr., [71], [75], [77], [79], [85] et seq., [103], [113], [114], [116], [118], [128], [180], [186] note, [187], [191]
Penshurst, [4]
Peter Bell the Third, [120]
Petrarch, [72], [111]
Pilfold, Captain, [47], [51]
Pilfold, Charles, [3]
Pilfold, Elizabeth, [3]
Pisa, [95], [103], [108], [131], [138], [154] et seq., [165], [168], [176-178]
Plato, [27], [68], [100], [112], [113], [138], [151], [165], [176], [185]
Political Justice (W. Godwin’s), [56], [57], [82], [192]
Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, [34]
Prince Athanase, [17], [97], [98]
Prometheus Unbound, [95], [107], [117] note, [118] et seq., [128], [129], [136], [144];
quotation from, [125], [126]
Proposal for an Association, [62], [64]
Proposals for putting Reform to the Vote, [63]
Quarterly Review, [130], [135], [143], [144]
Queen Mab, [18], [56], [69], [70], [76], [81], [88], [97], [193]
Radcliffe, Mrs., [19]
Ravenna, [89], [108], [157]
Refutation of Deism, [77]
Rejected Addresses (Smith’s), [100]
Retzsch (engraver), [113]
Revolt of Islam, The (Laon and Cythna), [8], [9], [17], [90], [95], [97], [98], [103], [122]
Roberts, Captain, [167]
Rome, [24], [103], [110], [118], [143], [178], [180]
Rosalind and Helen, [98]
Rossetti, Mr. W. M., [44], [48], [66], [187]
Ryan, Major, [195]
Sensitive Plant, The, [132];
quotations from, [152-153]
Shelley, Sir Bysshe, [3], [4], [53]
Shelley, Charles Bysshe (second son), [193], [195], [196]
Shelley, Elizabeth, [3], [19], [20], [47]
Shelley, Harriet, [52], [59], [60], [64], [65], [72], [76], [78];
deserted by Shelley, [79], [80], [81];
commits suicide, [82], [190], [197]
Shelley, Hellen, [3], [6], [45]
Shelley, Ianthe Eliza,
[75]
Shelley, John, [3]
Shelley, Lady, [66] note, [81], [83], [180], [186] note, [191]
Shelley, Margaret, [3]
Shelley, Mary, [79], [111], [112], [154], [158]
Shelley, Mr., [53]
Shelley, Mrs. (second wife), [12], [13], [73], [74], [84], [86], [95], [100], [102], [108-110], [117], [118], [132], [159], [161], [180], [196]
Shelley, Miss, [14], [19]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, [2];
birth of, [3];
position, [4], [5];
relations with father, [6];
sent to Sion House, Brentford, [8];
subject to sleep-walking, [8];
distaste for school games, [8];
goes to Eton (1804), [12];
life there, [12-13], [15];
experiments in chemistry and electricity, [14];
his taste for science, [14-15];
farewell supper at Eton, [16];
attachment to Harriet Grove, [18];
yearns for fame and publicity, [19];
finishes Zastrozzi, [19];
his literary productions, [19-21];
enters University College, Oxford, as Leicester Scholar (1810), [21];
friendship with Hogg, [22-33];
genesis of Posthumous Fragments, [34];
correspondence with distinguished persons, [34];
his favourite authors, [35];
antagonistic to Christianity, [35];
publication of The Necessity of Atheism, [35];
his expulsion from Oxford with Hogg, [36], [37], [38];
his atheistical opinions, [39], [40];
settles with Hogg in London, [43];
his contempt for Paley’s Evidences, [44];
quarrels with his father, [44];
his poverty, [45];
helped by his sisters, [45];
visits his sisters at Clapham School, meets Harriet Westbrook, [45];
pays her frequent visits, [46];
revisits his old home, [47];
receives allowance of £200 a year, [47];
elopement and marriage with Harriet, [51];
life in George Street, Edinburgh, [52];
removes to York and resides with Hogg, [53];
arrival of Harriet’s sister Eliza, [53];
leaves York, [55];
goes to Keswick, [55];
visits Duke of Norfolk, [55];
his friendship with Godwin, [58];
sets sail for Ireland, [59];
his Address to Irish People distributed, [59];
makes his debut as an orator, leaves Ireland, [64];
corresponds with Eliza Hitchener, [65];
settles at Nantgwilt, [66];
his Letter to Lord Ellenborough, [67];
goes to Tanyrallt, [68];
sudden flight from Tanyrallt, [70];
subject to hallucinations, [70], [71];
poverty, [71];
goes to London and takes rooms in Half-Moon Street, [72];
habits of his household, [72-73];
personal details, [73-75];
friendship with Mrs. Boinville and the Godwins, [76];
love for Mary Godwin, [79-80];
remarried to Harriet, [80];
his separation from Harriet, [80];
leaves England with Mary, [83];
return to England, [84];
walks London Hospital, [84];
commences poem of Alastor, [85];
birth of William Shelley, [88];
second journey to Switzerland, [88];
joined by Byron, [88];
makes tour to Lake Geneva with Byron, [89];
excursion to Chamouni, [90];
hallucinations, [91];
returns to England and lives at Great Marlow, [91-92];
hears of Harriet’s death, [92];
friendship with Leigh Hunt, [92-93];
Chancery suit re Harriet’s children, [93];
works steadily at Laon and Cythna, [95];
meets Keats and the brothers Smith at Leigh Hunt’s house, [100];
his daily routine described, [100];
leaves England for Italy, [103];
pays visit to Lord Byron, [105];
improved health, [108];
companionship with Byron, [109];
his ideas on Italian poets, [111];
begins to study Spanish, [112];
composes Defence of Poetry, [113];
settles in Rome, [118];
loss of son William, [118];
removes to near Leghorn, [119];
begins and finishes The Cenci, [119];
removes to Florence, [119];
birth of Sir P. Florence Shelley, [119];
attitude towards his critics, [130];
removes to Pisa, [131];
his high ideal of verse composition, [137];
visits the Contessina Emilia Viviani, [138];
sympathy for her, [138];
his criticisms, [144];
at work upon Hellas, [154];
visits Byron at Ravenna, [157];
his affection for Jane Williams, [159];
first acquaintance with Trelawny at Pisa, [161];
accident, [165];
his daily routine, [165];
daily visit to Byron, [166];
nautical affairs, [166-167];
takes a home (Villa Magni) at Spezia, [168-169];
at Pisa with Leigh Hunt, [176];
return voyage, [177];
storm, loss of Shelley’s boat, [177];
discovery of bodies, [178];
cremation, [179-180];
burial at Rome, [180];
review of life and work, [182];
his genius, [183-186];
portrait of, [186-187]
Attachment to his sisters, [6];
his love of games, [6], [7];
sensitiveness, [11];
powers of memory, [15];
personality, [25];
his voice, [25];
his moral character, [32-33];
love for mankind, [40];
his faith, [41];
his creed, [41-42];
remorse, [92];
his charity, [101], [119];
self-denial, [102];
sensibility to art, [104];
his melancholy, [107];
his self-criticism, [128];
his thoughts of death, [151-152], [154];
his mental activity, [162];
the tranquillity in his life, [169];
his nicknames, [166];
nervousness, [175];
somnambulism, [175]
Life of, by Professor Dowden, [v]
Shelley, Sir Percy Florence, [3], [119]
Shelley, Timothy, [3], [5], [6], [44]
Shelley, William, [88], [118], [178]
Sidney, Philip Charles, [4]
Sion House (Shelley’s school), [6], [8], [12], [14], [18]
Sophocles, [1], [165], [178]
Southey, Shelley’s favourite poet whilst at Sion House, [19], [55], [196]
Speculations on Metaphysics, [91], [117]
St. Irvyne, or the Rosicrucian, [21]
Stanzas written in Dejection near Naples, quotation from, [153-154]
Stockdale, Mr. J. J. (publisher), [19], [20]
Swellfoot the Tyrant, [120]
Taafe, Mr., [164]
Tasso, [72], [111], [137]
To his Genius, [143]
Trelawny, Captain, [161], [162];
description of first meeting with Shelley, [163-164];
meets Shelley in Pisan Maremma, [165] et seq., [186] note, [187]
Triumph of Life (Shelley’s last great poem), [95], [170], [171];
quotations from, [171-175]
Two Noble Kinsmen, The (Beaumont and Fletcher’s), [112]
University Magazine, letter on Harriet Westbrook, [48], [49]
Venice, [89], [103], [107], [110]
Vivian, Charles (a sailor), [167], [177], [178]
Viviani, Contessina Emilia, [138], [158]
Wandering Jew, [19]
Westbrook, Mr., [93]
Westbrook, Eliza, [46], [53] et seq., [65], [71] et seq.
Westbrook, Harriet, [18], [45];
first acquaintance with Shelley, [46] et seq.;
elopement with Shelley, marriage at Edinburgh, [51].
See [Shelley, Harriet]
Westbrook, “Jew,” [46], [51], [54]
Wilkie and Robinson, Messrs. (publishers), [19]
Williams, Mr., [109], [154], [158] et seq., [176-179], [187]
Williams, Mrs. (Jane), [154], [158], [159], [163], [164], [169]
Windsor, [17];
Forest of, [85]
Witch of Atlas, [132]
Wollstonecraft, Mary, [76], [110]
Wordsworth, [55], [56], [86], [130], [183]
York, [48], [51], [53], [55]
Zastrozzi, [16];
reviewed, [19], [21]
Zofloya the Moor (supposed source of Zastrozzi), [19]
THE END.