CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
| PAGE | |
| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| William Godwin | [1] |
| Mr. Kegan Paul’s Inaccuracies—Godwin’s Early Story—From Socinianism to Deism—In the Service of Publishers—Hack-Work—PoliticalJustice—Caleb Williams—Temperance and Frugality—Godwin’s two imprudent Marriages—His consequent Impoverishment—His personalAppearance—His Speech and Manner—His morbid Vanity—His Sensitiveness for his Dignity—His Benevolence and Honesty—Good Husband and goodFather—Looking out for a suitable Young Woman—Mary Wollstonecraft—Godwin’s Regard for her—Mary in Heaven—A Blighted Being. | |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| Mary Wollstonecraft | [12] |
| The new Settler in George Street, Blackfriars—Mary’s earlier Story—Woman of Letters—Her Five Years’ Work—Her Attachment to Mr.Johnson—Coteries of Philosophical Radicalism—Anti-Jacobin on the Free Contract—Godwin’s Apostasy—From Blackfriars to StoreStreet—The Slut become a modish Woman—Her Passion for Fuseli—Her Appeal to Mrs. Fuseli—Mr. Kegan Paul’s strange Treatment of Mr.Knowles—Rights of Woman—Plain Speech and Coarseness—Mary goes to Paris—She makes Imlay’s Acquaintance—Her Assignationwith him at the Barrier—Their Association in Free Love—Mr. Kegan Paul speaks deliberately—His Apology for Mary’s Action—He falls betweenTwo Stools—Wife in the eyes of God and Man—Letters to Imlay—Badness of Mary’s Temper—Her consequent Quarrels with Imlay—Her Senseof Shame at her Position—Birth of her illegitimate Child—Her Withdrawal from France—Her Norwegian Trip—HerWretchedness and Rage—Dissolution of the Free Love Partnership—Mary’sAttempt to commit Suicide—Was she out of her Mind?—Her Union with Godwin in Free Love—Their subsequent Marriage—Their Squabbles andDifferences—Their Daughter’s Birth—Mary Wollstonecraft’s Death—Mrs. Shelley’s biographical Inaccuracies. | |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| The Second Mrs. William Godwin | [60] |
| The Blighted Being—Miss Jones’s Disappointment—The Blighted Being goes to Bath—He proposes to Miss Harriet Lee—Is rejected by Mrs.Reveley—Is accepted by Mary Jane Clairmont—Who was she?—Her Children by her first Marriage—Their Ages in 1801—Points of Resemblancein Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Jane Clairmont—The Blighted Being marries Mary Jane Clairmont—Mr. Kegan Paul’s serious Misrepresentations of Claire’sAge—The Use made of this Misrepresentation—Mr. Kegan Paul convicted by his own Evidences—Charles Clairmont’s Boyhood—Godwin’s Regard forhis second Wife—Misrepresentations touching the second Mrs. Godwin—Childhood of Mary and Claire—Education of Godwin’s Children andStep-children—Charles Clairmont’s Introduction to Free Thought—Godwin’s Care to withhold Mary from Free Thought—She is reared in Ignorance ofher Mother’s Story—The Book-shop in Hanway Street—The Godwins The Polygon—Their Migration to the City—The Godwins of Skinner Street. | |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| The Irish Campaign, and the Stay at Nantgwillt | [78] |
| Opium and Hallucination at Keswick—Migration to Ireland—Shelley’s Letters to Miss Hitchener—Curran’s Coldness to the Adventurer—Publicationof the Address to the Irish People—Measures for putting the Pamphlet in Circulation—Harriett’s Amusement—Shelley’s Seriousness—Shelley’sother Irish Tract—Public Meeting in the Fishamble Street Theatre—Shelley’s Speech to the Sixth Resolution—Various Accounts of the Speech—Mr.MacCarthy’s bad Manners—Honest Jack Lawless—His Project for a History of Ireland—His Way of handling Shelley—William Godwin’s Alarm—Shelley’sSubmission—His Intercourse with Curran—His Withdrawal from Ireland—Seizure of his Papers at the Holyhead Custom-House—Harriett’s Letter toPortia—The Shelleys in Wales—Miss Hitchener’s ‘Divine Suggestion’—Harriett and Eliza don’t think it ‘Divine’—Shelley at Nantgwillt—HisScheme for turning Farmer—His comprehensive Invitation to the Godwins—His sudden Departure from Nantgwillt—Cause of the Departure—Mr.MacCarthy again at Fault. | |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| North Devon | [100] |
| Mr. Eton’s Cottage near Tintern Abbey—Shelley’s Reason for not taking the Cottage—His Letter to Mr. Eton—Godwin’sexpostulatory Epistle—His Grounds for thinking Shelley prodigal—Reasonableness of Godwin’s Admonitions—Hogg and MacCarthyat fault—Shelley’s Letters from Lynton to Godwin—Miss Hitchener at Lynton—Porcia alias Portia—Letter to Lord Ellenborough—Printedat Barnstaple—Mr. Chanter’s Sketches of the Literary History of Barnstaple—Fifty Copies of the Letter sentto London—Shelley’s Measures for the political Enlightenment of North Devon Peasants—His Irish Servant, Daniel Hill—Commotionat Barnstaple—Daniel Hill’s Arrest and Imprisonment—Mr. Syle’s Alarm—Shelley’s humiliating and perilous Position—HisFlight from North Devon to Wales—William Godwin’s Trip from London to Lynton—His Surprise and Disappointment—His ‘Good News’ of the Fugitives. | |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| North Wales and the Second Irish Trip | [120] |
| William A. Madocks—The Tremadoc Embankment—Shelley’s Zeal for the People of Tremadoc—His big Subscription to the EmbankmentFund—Tanyrallt Lodge—Shelley in London—Sussex Selfishness—The Reconciliation with Hogg—Miss Hitchener inDisgrace—She is banished from ‘Percy’s Little Circle’—Brown Demon and Hermaphroditical Beast—Shelley in Skinner Street—Claireand Mary—Fanny Imlay’s Intercourse with Shelley—The Worth and Worthlessness of Claire’s Evidence—Shelley’s Prodigality—Backat Tanyrallt—At Work on Queen Mab—At War with Neighbours—Embankment Annoyances—Livelier Delightin Harriett—Wheedling Letter to the Duke of Norfolk—Diet and Dyspepsia—The Hunts in Trouble—Shelley’s Contribution for theirRelief—The odious Leeson—Daniel Hill’s Liberation from Prison—His Arrival at Tanyrallt Lodge—The Tanyrallt Mystery—Shelley’smarvellous and conflicting Stories—Exhibition of the Evidence—Inquisition and Verdict—Shelley’s ignominious Position—Hisvirtuous Indignation at the World’s Villany—His undiminished Concern for Liberty and Virtue—His Withdrawal from Walesto Ireland—He hastens from Dublin to Killarney—Hogg in Dublin—The Shelleys back in London. | |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
| London and Bracknell | [164] |
| Imprint of Queen Mab—The Poem’s Notes—The Author’s Views touching Marriage—Places of Abode in London—PresentationCopies—Shelley ‘a Lion’—Half-Moon Street—Diet and Discomfort—Quacks and Crotchet-Mongers—‘Nakedized Children’—CorneliaNewton—Maimuna and her Salon—Elephantiasis—‘The Hampstead Stage’—Dinner Party at Norfolk House—The Duke’s Mediation between theFather and Son—Failure of the Negotiations—Shelley declines to be ‘a miserable Slave’—At the Pimlico Lodgings—Correspondence with Mr.Medwin, of Horsham—Birth of Ianthe Eliza—Shelley as a Father—Conflict of Evidence respecting his Parental Character—Shelley’s Kindnessto Children—The Poet sets up his Carriage—His Prodigality in London—His Life at Bracknell—Maimuna at her Country-House—Last Visitsto Field Place—Captain Kennedy’s Reminiscences—Medwin’s Gossip—The Trip to Scotland—Dissensions and Estrangements—Shelley andHarriett drifting apart—Queen Mab’s Vegetarian Note—Refutation of Deism. | |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| From the Old to the New Love | [205] |
| Shelley’s Refusal to join in the Resettlement of A and B—His Places of Residence in Two Years and Eight Months—A Refutationof Deism—Mr. Kegan Paul’s Inaccuracies—Discord between Shelley and Harriett—Their Remarriage—Miss Westbrook’s Withdrawal—Shelley’sDesertion of Harriett—The Desertion closes in Separation by mutual Agreement—‘Do what other Women do!’—Causes of theSeparation—How Shelley’s Evidence touching them should be regarded—Peacock’s Testimony for Harriett—Shelley in SkinnerStreet—‘The Mask of Scorn’—Mary Godwin not bred up to mate in Free Contract—Old St. Pancras Church—At Mary Wollstonecraft’sGrave—Claire’s Part in the Wooing—Excuses for Mary Godwin—The Elopement from Skinner Street—From London toDover—From Dover to Calais—A ‘Scene’ at Calais—The Joint Journal—Mrs. Shelley convicted of Tampering with Evidence—TheSix Weeks’ Tour—Shelley begs Harriett to come to him in Switzerland—Byron’s Hunger for Evil Fame—Shelley’s Self-Approbationand Self-Righteousness—Godwin’s Wrath with Shelley—Their subsequent Relations—Shelley’s Renewal of Intercoursewith Harriett—Tiffs and Disagreements between Claire and Mary—Claire’s Incapacity for Friendship—She wants more than Friendship from Shelley. | |
| [CHAPTER IX.] | |
| Bishopgate | [257] |
| Pecuniary Difficulties and Resources—Choice of a Profession—Shelley walking a Hospital—Dropt by Acquaintances—Birth ofMary Godwin’s first Child—Sir Bysshe Shelley’s Death—Differences and Tiffs between Mary and Claire—Characteristics of the Sisters—Tripto South Devon—At Work on Alastor—Publication of the Poem—Essay on Christianity—Life at Bishopgate—Shelley’sIdolatry of Byron—Birth of Mary Godwin’s first-born Son—Claire and Byron—Second Trip to Switzerland—Shelley’s Pretext forleaving England—Strange Scene between Shelley and Peacock—Semi-Delusions—Another Hallucination. | |
| [CHAPTER X.] | |
| The Genevese Episode | [287] |
| Shelley’s Arrival at Geneva—Byron and Polidori—At the Sécheron Hotel—Union of the two Parties—Tattle of the Coteries—TheGenevese Scandal—Its Fruit in Manfred and Cain—Its Fruit in Laon and Cythna—The Shelleys’ Return to England—TheirStay at Bath—Their Choice of a House at Great Marlow—Fanny Imlay’s Suicide—Her pitiable Story—Harriett’s Suicide—Reviewof Shelley’s Treatment of her—His Responsibility for her Depravation and Ruin—Witnesses to Character and Conduct—Shelley’sGrief for Harriett—His wild Speech about her—His Marriage with Mary Godwin—Birth of Allegra. | |
| [CHAPTER XI.] | |
| The Chancery Suit | [304] |
| Mr. Westbrook’s Petition to the Court of Chancery—Date of Hearing—The Edinburgh Reviewer’s Strange Misrepresentation—LordEldon’s Decree—Arrangements for Harriett’s Children—Lady Shelley’s strange Mistake touching those Arrangements—LordEldon’s Justification—Mrs. Shelley’s Regard for Social Opinion—Shelley’s keen Annoyance at the Chancellor’s Decree—DelusiveEgotisms of The Billows of the Beach—Shelley’s Pretexts for going to Italy—His real Reasons for withdrawing from England. | |
| [CHAPTER XII.] | |
| Great Marlow | [317] |
| The Misleading Tablet—House and Garden—Claire at Marlow—Shelley’s Delight in Claire’s Voice—To Constantia Singing—Sourceof the Name—Trips to London—The Marlow Pamphlets—Rosalindand Helen—Other Literary Work at Marlow—Mary’s Treatment and Opinion of Claire—Shelley makes his Will—Date of Probate—TheWill’s various Legacies—Significant Legacies to Claire—Object of the Second Legacy of £6000—Did Shelley mean to leaveClaire so much as £12,000?—Mr. Froude’s Indiscretion—His Ignorance of the Will. | |
| [CHAPTER XIII.] | |
| Laon and Cythna | [329] |
| Origin of the Free-Contract Party—Divorce in Catholic England—Nullification of Marriage—Consequences of the Reformation—Edwardthe Sixth’s Commissioners for the Amendment of Ecclesiastical Laws—Martin Bucer’s Judgment touching Divorce—JohnMilton on Freedom of Divorce—Denunciations of Marriage by the Godwinian Radicals—Poetical Fruits of the Genevese Scandal—Byron’sTimidity—Shelley’s Boldness—His most extravagant Conclusions touching Liberty of Affection—Appalling Doctrine ofLaon and Cythna—Shelley’s Purpose in publishing the Poem—Alarm of the Olliers—Shelley’s Instructions to the frightenedPublishers—Suppression of the monstrous Poem—Friends in Council—Laon and Cythna manipulated into the Revolt of Islam—TheQuarterly Review on the original Poem—Consequences to Shelley’s Reputation—Irony of Fate. | |
| [CHAPTER XIV.] | |
| From Marlow to Italy | [351] |
| The Hunts and the Shelleys—Their Intimacy—Pecuniary Difficulties—Dealings with Money-lenders—Leigh Hunt relieves Shelley of £1400—HisTestimony to Shelley’s virtuous Manners—Shelley’s Benevolence at Marlow—At the Opera—Departure for Italy—The fated Children—Shelley’sliterary Work and studious Life in Italy—Milan—Allegra sent to her Father—Elise the Swiss Nurse—Her Knowledge and Suspicions—Claireand her ‘Sister’—Their Affectionate Intercourse and Occasional Quarrels—Shelley’s Affection for Claire—Vagrants inItaly—Pisa—Leghorn—Maria Gisborne—Her Husband and Son—Claire and Shelley at Venice—Trick played on Byron—His Civilities tothe Shelleys—Little Clara’s Death—Paolo the Knave—He falls in Love with Elise—Their Marriage—Paolo’s Wrath and Vengeance—EmiliaViviani—Shelley’s Adoration of Her—The three-cornered Flirtation—Mrs. Shelley’s Attitude and Action—Shelley’s Fault in the Affair—Hissubsequent Shame at the Business—The imaginary Assault at the Pisan Post Office. | |
| [CHAPTER XV.] | |
| Pisan Acquaintances | [391] |
| The Williamses—Shelley at Ravenna—The Shelley-Claire Scandal—Shelley’s startling Letter to Mrs. Shelley—Examinationof the Letter—Its wild Inaccuracies—Mrs. Shelley’s vindicatory Letter to Mrs. Hoppner—Demonstration that Byron was authorizedby Shelley to withhold the Letter—Explanation of the Shelley-Claire Scandal—Shelley’s Visit to Allegra at Bagna-Cavallo—Projectfor starting the Liberal—Leigh Hunt invited to edit the Liberal—Shelley’s Change of Plans—His Pretexts and Reasons forchanging them—Leigh Hunt’s Way of dealing with his Friends—His Concealment of his financial Position—Byron at Pisa—Hunt’sMisadventures on his Outward Voyage—Byron’s Discouragement in respect to the Liberal—Differences between Byron and Shelley—Shelley’sPosition between Byron and Hunt—The Byron-Shelley ‘Set’ at Pisa—Shelley and Hunt in secret League against Byron—Shelley’sChange of Feeling towards Byron—Was Byron aware of the Change? | |
| [CHAPTER XVI.] | |
| Closing Scenes | [423] |
| Shelley’s Attachment to Jane Williams—Her Womanly Goodness—Her Devotion to her Husband—The Serpent is shut out from Paradise—Essayon the Devil—Shelley’s Happiness and Discord with Mary—Her Remorseful Verses—Trials of her Married Life—Essay on Christianity—SanTerenzo and Lerici—The Casa Magni—Mary’s Illness and Melancholy at San Terenzo—Arrival of the ‘Don Juan’—Mutual Affection of Mrs. Shelley and Mrs.Williams—Shelley’s latest Visions and Hallucinations—Leigh Hunt’s Arrival in Italy—Shelley sails for Leghorn—Meeting of Shelley andHunt—Improvement in Shelley’s Health—His Mediation between Hunt and Byron—The Hunts in the Palazzo Lanfranchi—Lady Shelley’s Account of theDifficulties between Byron and Shelley—Shelley’s Contentment with his Arrangements for the Hunts—He sets Sail for Lerici—The FatalStorm—Cremation on the Sea-shore—Grave at Rome. | |
| [CHAPTER XVII.] | |
| Shelley’s Widow and her Sister-by-Affinity | [453] |
| The Widow in Italy—Her Return to England—Sojourn in the Strand—Life at Kentish Town—Residence at Harrow—She isforbidden to write her Husband’s ‘Life’—‘Moonshine’ and ‘Celestial Mate’—Herclosing Years—Claire in her Later Time—Trelawny’s inaccurate Talk about Shelley’s Will—Claire’s DoubleLegacy—She becomes a Catholic—Dies in the Catholic Faith. | |
| [CHAPTER XVIII.] | |
| Last Words | [458] |
| A Schedule of Significant Matters—Delusion and Semi-delusion—Certain phenomenal Peculiarities of Shelley’s Mind—The PsychologicalProblem—The Story that would have opened Southey’s Eyes—How it would be received by Critical Persons—Misconceptionsof Field Place—Bootlessness of publishing the Story—Shelley and Socialistic Literature—Marian Evans’ Great Error—Her Marriage—MischievousEffects of the Apologies for Shelleyan Socialism—The Homage to which Shelley is entitled—The Homage to which he has no Title. |
THE REAL SHELLEY.
CHAPTER I.
WILLIAM GODWIN.
Mr. Kegan Paul’s Inaccuracies—Godwin’s Early Story—From Socinianism to Deism—In the Service of Publishers—Hack-Work—Political Justice—Caleb Williams—Temperance and Frugality—Godwin’s two imprudent Marriages—His consequent Impoverishment—His personal Appearance—His Speech and Manner—His morbid Vanity—His Sensitiveness for his Dignity—His Benevolence and Honesty—Good Husband and good Father—Looking out for a suitable Young Woman—Mary Wollstonecraft—Godwin’s Regard for her—Mary in Heaven—A Blighted Being.
To guard against imputations of error, that may be unjustly preferred against this work on the authority of another man of letters, it is needful for me to call attention to certain inaccuracies of Mr. Kegan Paul’s chief literary performance. In Chapter VII., Vol. II., of William Godwin; his Friends and Contemporaries, Mr. Kegan Paul remarks, ‘The attraction which Godwin’s society always possessed for young men has often been noticed, nor did it decrease as years passed on. Two young men were drawn to him in the year 1811, fired with zeal for intellectual pursuits, and desiring help from Godwin. They were different in their circumstances, but were both unhappy, and both died young. The first was a lad named Patrickson, the second Percy Bysshe Shelley.’ In this characteristic sentence, Mr. Kegan Paul makes at least three blunders. As Patrickson was corresponding with William Godwin in December, 1810, the youth was drawn to the man of letters before 1811. As Shelley never saw William Godwin, never wrote him a line, before 1812 (though Mr. Denis Florence MacCarthy states otherwise, on the strength of a misread passage of one of the Oxonian Shelley’s epistles), he certainly did not make Godwin’s acquaintance in 1811. As he was corresponding with him for many months before he set eyes on him, Shelley was not in the first instance drawn to the author of Political Justice by his social charms. It is characteristic of Mr. Kegan Paul that the page on which he declares Patrickson to have made Godwin’s acquaintance, no earlier than 1811, faces the very page that exhibits the greater part of a letter from the man of letters to his ill-fated protégé, dated ‘Skinner Street, London, December 18th, 1810.’
At the opening of the next chapter of his book of blunders, Mr. Kegan Paul holds stoutly to his statement that Shelley and Godwin were in correspondence twelve months before they exchanged letters. Instead of being headed ‘1812-14,’ as it would have been, had it not been for this droll misconception, Chapter VIII., Vol. II., of the book is headed ‘The Shelleys, 1811-14,’ and opens with a short paragraph containing these words, ‘The first notice of Shelley in the Godwin Diaries is under date January 6th, 1811, “Write to Shelley.”’ To heighten the confusion, for which I am slow to think Godwin’s diary in any degree accountable, the biographer says in his next paragraph, ‘Shelley was at this time living at Keswick, in the earlier and happier days of his marriage with Harriet Westbrook.... He had already, in this manner, made the acquaintance of Leigh Hunt, when, in January, 1811, he wrote thus to Godwin’:—the letter thus submitted to the reader’s notice being Shelley’s well-known first letter to Godwin, which appears in Hogg’s Life under the right date, ‘January 3rd, 1812,’ but in Mr. Kegan Paul’s medley of mistakes under the wrong date of ‘January 3rd, 1811.’ As Shelley’s first letter to Leigh Hunt was dated 2nd March, 1811, it was not written before 3rd January, 1811. As Leigh Hunt took no notice of that letter, Shelley did not make Leigh Hunt’s acquaintance by writing it. Though Leigh Hunt saw and spoke with Shelley on one or two occasions of earlier time, he cannot be fairly said to have made his acquaintance before a day long subsequent to 3rd February, 1815.