Shelley

This sketch of Shelley’s life was written in the summer of 1878. Since then Professor Dowden’s Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (2 vols., Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 1886) has been given to the world. In that exhaustive work many important documents belonging to the poet’s heirs have been freely used for the first time. Professor Dowden has thus been able to elucidate some hitherto obscure points in Shelley’s history, and to settle several doubtful questions. It is not probable that much more will be added in the future to our knowledge of his life.

Upon the appearance of Professor Dowden’s biography, I was anxious to rewrite those portions of my book which required modification by the light of authentic papers now at length communicated to the public. My references to the Shelley archives (pp. 81 and 83) in particular required correction.

This, however, would have involved a disproportionate derangement of the stereotype plates. I am therefore obliged to content myself with minor alterations. These are of three kinds. In the present volume I have introduced such verbal changes as could be made upon the plates. I have also enclosed some passages in brackets, indicating thereby that I should prefer to omit these altogether. Finally, I have recast the narrative of Shelley’s separation from his first wife (pp. 79-83), and have placed this in an Appendix, to which I earnestly call the attention of my readers.

JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.

DAVOS PLATZ, February 1887.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD 1

CHAPTER II. ETON AND OXFORD 12

CHAPTER III. LIFE IN LONDON AND FIRST MARRIAGE 39

CHAPTER IV. SECOND RESIDENCE IN LONDON, AND SEPARATION FROM HARRIET 72

CHAPTER V. LIFE AT MARLOW, AND JOURNEY TO ITALY 95

CHAPTER VI. RESIDENCE AT PISA 131

CHAPTER VII. LAST DAYS 168

CHAPTER VIII. EPILOGUE 182

INDEX 199

LIST OF AUTHORITIES.

1. The Poetical and Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, edited by Mrs. Shelley. Moxon, 1840, 1845. 1 vol.

2. The Poetical Works, edited by Harry Buxton Forman. Reeves and Turner, 1876-7. 4 vols.

3. The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, edited by W. M. Rossetti. Moxon, 1870. 2 vols.

4. Hogg’s Life of Shelley. Moxon, 1858. 2 vols.

5. Trelawny’s Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author Pickering, 1878. 2 vols.

6. Shelley Memorials, edited by Lady Shelley. Smith and Elder. 1 vol.

7. Medwin’s Life of Shelley. Newby, 1847. 2 vols.

8. Shelley’s Early Life, by D. F. McCarthy. Chatto and Windus. 1 vol.

9. Leigh Hunt’s Autobiography. Smith and Elder.

10. W. M. Rossetti’s Life of Shelley, included in the edition above cited, No. 3.

11. Shelley, a Critical Biography, by G. B. Smith. David Douglas, 1877.

12. Relics of Shelley, edited by Richard Garnett. Moxon, 1862.

13. Peacock’s Articles on Shelley in Fraser’s Magazine, 1858 and 1860.

14. Shelley in Pall Mall, by R. Garnett, in Macmillan’s Magazine, June, 1860.

15. Shelley’s Last Days, by R. Garnett, in the Fortnightly Review, June, 1878.

16. Two Lectures on Shelley, by W. M. Rossetti, in the University Magazine, February and March, 1878.

17. The Prose Works of P. B. Shelley, edited by H. B. Forman. Reeves and Turner, 1880. 4 vols.

18. Shelley, a Poem, etc., by James Thomson. Printed for private circulation at the Chiswick Press, 1884.

19. The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Edward Dowden, LL.D. Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 1886. 2 vols.

SHELLEY.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD.