[6] At this point two sheets have been removed from the notebook. There is no break in continuity, however.
[7] The descriptions of Mathilda’s father and mother and the account of their marriage in the next few pages are greatly expanded from F of F—A, where there is only one brief paragraph. The process of expansion can be followed in S-R fr and in F of F—B. The development of the character of Diana (who represents Mary’s own mother, Mary Wollstonecraft) gave Mary the most trouble. For the identifications with Mary’s father and mother, see Nitchie, Mary Shelley, pp. 11, 90-93, 96-97.
[8] The passage “There was a gentleman ... school & college vacations” is on a slip of paper pasted on page 11 of the MS. In the margin are two fragments, crossed out, evidently parts of what is supplanted by the substituted passage: “an angelic disposition and a quick, penetrating understanding” and “her visits ... to ... his house were long & frequent & there.” In F of F—B Mary wrote of Diana’s understanding “that often receives the name of masculine from its firmness and strength.” This adjective had often been applied to Mary Wollstonecraft’s mind. Mary Shelley’s own understanding had been called masculine by Leigh Hunt in 1817 in the Examiner. The word was used also by a reviewer of her last published work, Rambles in Germany and Italy, 1844. (See Nitchie, Mary Shelley, p. 178.)
[9] The account of Diana in Mathilda is much better ordered and more coherent than that in F of F—B.
[10] The description of the effect of Diana’s death on her husband is largely new in Mathilda. F of F—B is frankly incomplete; F of F—A contains some of this material; Mathilda puts it in order and fills in the gaps.
[11] This paragraph is an elaboration of the description of her aunt’s coldness as found in F of F—B. There is only one sentence in F of F—A.
[12] The description of Mathilda’s love of nature and of animals is elaborated from both rough drafts. The effect, like that of the preceding addition (see note 11), is to emphasize Mathilda’s loneliness. For the theme of loneliness in Mary Shelley’s work, see Nitchie, Mary Shelley, pp. 13-17.
[13] This paragraph is a revision of F of F—B, which is fragmentary. There is nothing in F of F—A and only one scored-out sentence in S-R fr. None of the rough drafts tells of her plans to join her father.
[14] The final paragraph in Chapter II is entirely new.
[15] The account of the return of Mathilda’s father is very slightly revised from that in F of F—A. F of F—B has only a few fragmentary sentences, scored out. It resumes with the paragraph beginning, “My father was very little changed.”