Read Wrongs of Women and Homer. Clare departs. Walk with Jane and ride with T. Guiccioli. T. G. dines with us.
Thursday, February 28.—Take leave of the Argyropolis. Walk with Shelley. Ride with T. Guiccioli. Read letters. Spend the evening at the Williams’. Trelawny there.
Friday, March 1.—An embassy. Walk. My first Greek lesson. Walk with Edward. In the evening work.
Sunday, March 3.—A note to, and a visit from, Dr. Nott. Go to church. Walk. The Williams’ and Trelawny to dinner.
Mary’s experiments in the way of church-going, so new a thing in her experience, and so little in accordance with Shelley’s habits of thought and action, excited some surprise and comment. Hogg, Shelley’s early friend, who heard of it from Mrs. Gisborne, now in England, was especially shocked. In a letter to Mary, Mrs. Gisborne remarked, “Your friend Hogg is molto scandalizzato to hear of your weekly visits to the piano di sotto” (the services were held on the ground floor of the Tre Palazzi).
The same letter asks for news of Emilia Viviani. Mrs. Gisborne had heard that she was married, and feared she had been sacrificed to a man whom she describes as “that insipid, sickening Italian mortal, Danieli the lawyer.” She proceeds to say—
We invited Varley one evening to meet Hogg, who was curious to see a man really believing in astrology in the nineteenth century. Varley, as usual, was not sparing of his predictions. We talked of Shelley without mentioning his name; Varley was curious, and being informed by Hogg of his exact age, but describing his person as short and corpulent, and himself as a bon vivant, Varley amused us with the following remarks: “Your friend suffered from ill-fortune in May or June 1815. Vexatious affairs on the 2d and 14th of June, or perhaps latter end of May 1820. The following year, disturbance about a lady. Again, last April, at 10 at night, or at noon, disturbance about a bouncing stout lady, and others. At six years of age, noticed by ladies and gentlemen for learning. In July 1799, beginning of charges made against him. In September 1800, at noon, or dusk, very violent charges. Scrape at fourteen years of age. Eternal warfare against parents and public opinion, and a great blow-up every seven years till death,” etc. etc. Is all this true?
Not a little amused, Mary answered her friend as follows—
My dear Mrs. Gisborne—I am very sorry that you have so much trouble with my commissions, and vainly, too! ma che vuole? Ollier will not give you the money, and we are, to tell you the truth, too poor at present to send you a cheque upon our banker; two or three circumstances having caused