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PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822)
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See also:PERCY BYSSHE See also:SHELLEY (1792-1822)
, See also:English poet, was See also:born on the 4th of See also:August 1792 at See also:
The Worminghurst branch was a family of See also:credit, but not of See also:special distinction, until its fortunes culminated under the above-named Sir Bysshe
.
In the character of Percy Bysshe Shelley three qualities became See also:early See also:manifest, and may be regarded as innate: impressionableness or extreme susceptibility to See also:external and See also:internal impulses of feeling; a lively See also:imagination or erratic See also:fancy, blurring a See also:sound estimate of solid facts; and a resolute repudiation
of See also:outer authority or the despotism of See also:custom
.
These qualities were highly See also:developed in his earliest manhood, were active in his boyhood, and no doubt made some show even on the borderland between childhood and See also:infancy
.
At the See also:age of six he was sent to a See also:day school at Warnham, kept by the Rev
.
Mr See also:Edwards; at ten to See also:Sion See also:House School, See also:Brentford, of which the See also:principal was Dr See also:Greenlaw, while the pupils were mostly sons of See also:local tradesmen; at twelve (or immediately before that age, on the 29th of See also:July 1804) to See also:Eton
.
The headmaster of Eton, up to nearly the See also:close of Shelley's sojourn in the school, was Dr Goodall, a mild disciplinarian; it is therefore a See also:mistake to suppose that Percy (unless during his very brief stay in the See also:lower school) was frequently flagellated by the formidable Dr See also:Keate, who only became headmaster after Goodall
.
Shelley was a shy, sensitive, mopish sort of boy from one point of view—from another a very unruly one, having his own notions of See also:justice, See also:independence and See also:mental freedom; by nature See also:gentle, kindly and retiring—under provocation dangerously violent
.
He resisted the odious See also:fagging See also:system, exerted himself little in the routine of school-learning, and was known both as "Mad Shelley" and as " Shelley the Atheist." Some writers try to show that an Eton boy would be termed atheist without exhibiting any propensity to See also:atheism, but solely on the ground of his being mutinous
.
However, as Shelley was a declared atheist a good while before attaining his See also:majority, a shrewd suspicion arises that, if Etonians dubbed him atheist, they had some relevant See also:reason for doing so
.
Shelley entered University See also:College, See also:Oxford, in See also:April 181o, returned thence to Eton, and finally quitted the school at See also:mid-summer, and commenced See also:residence in Oxford in See also:October
.
Here he met a See also:young See also:Durham man, See also: Hogg was not in the least an enthusiast, rather a cynic, but he also was a steady and well-read classical student . In religious matters both were sceptics, or indeed decided See also:anti-Christians; whether Hogg, as the See also:senior and more informed disputant, pioneered Shelley into strict atheism, or whether Shelley, as the more impassioned and unflinching speculator, outran the easy-going jeering Hogg, is a See also:moot point; we incline to the latter See also:opinion . Certain it is that each egged on the other by perpetual disquisition on abstruse subjects, conducted partly for the See also:sake of truth and partly for that of mental exercitation, without on either See also:side any disposition to See also:bow to authority or stop See also:short of extreme conclusions . The upshot of this See also:habit was that Shelley and Hogg, at the close of some five months of happy and uneventful See also:academic See also:life, got expelled from the university . Shelley—for he alone figures as the writer of the " little See also:syllabus," although there can be no doubt that Hogg was his confidant and coadjutor-throughoutpublished anonymously a pamphlet or flysheet entitled The See also:Necessity of Atheism, which he sent See also:round to bishops and all sorts of See also:people as an invitation or See also:challenge to discussion . It amounted to saying that neither reason nor testimony is adequate to establish the existence of a deity, and that nothing short of a See also:personal individual self-See also:revelation of the deity would be sufficient . The college authorities heard of the pamphlet, identified Shelley as its author, and summoned him before them—" our See also:master, and two or three of the See also:fellows." , The pamphlet was produced, and Shelley was required to say whether he had written it or not . The youth declined to See also:answer the question, and was expelled by a written See also:sentence, ready See also:drawn up . Hogg was next summoned, with a result practically the same . The precise details of this transaction have been much controverted; the best See also:evidence is that which appears on the college records, showing that both Hogg and Shelley (Hogg is there named first) were expelled for " contumaciously refusing to answer questions," and for " repeatedly declining to disavow " the authorship . Thus they were dismissed as being mutineers against academic authority, in a See also:case pregnant with the suspicion—not the proofof atheism; but how the authorities could know beforehand that the two undergraduates would be contumacious and stiff against disavowal, so as to give See also:warrant for written sentences ready drawn up, is nowhere explained . Possibly the sentences were worded without ground assigned, and would only have been produced in terrorem had the young men proved more malleable .
The date of this incident was the 25th of See also: Shelley, it should be understood, had by this time openly broken, not only with the dogmas and conventions of See also:Christian See also:religion, but with many of the institutions of Christian polity, and in especial with such as enforce and regulate See also:marriage; he held—with William See also:Godwin and some other theorists—that marriage ought to be simply a voluntary relation between a man and a woman, to be assumed at See also:joint See also:option and terminated at the after-option of either party . If, therefore, be had acted upon his personal conviction of the right, he would never have wedded Harriet, whether by, Scotch, English or any other See also:law; but he waived his own theory in favour of the See also:consideration that in such an experiment the woman's stake, and the disadvantages accruing to her, are out of all comparison with the man's . His conduct, therefore, was so far entirely See also:honourable; and, if it derogated from a principle of his own (a principle which, however contrary to the morality of other people, was and always remained See also:matter of genuine conviction on his individual See also:part), this was only in deference to a higher and more imperious See also:standard of right . Harriet Shelley was not only beautiful; she was amiable, accommodating, adequately well educated and well bred . She liked See also:reading, and her reading was not strictly frivolous . But she could not (as Shelley said at a later date) "feel poetry and understand philosophy." Her attractions were all on the See also:surface; there was (to use a common phrase) " nothing particular in her." }or nearly three years Shelley and she led a shifting sort of life upon an income of £400 a See also:year, one-See also:half of which was allowed (after his first severe indignation at the mesalliance was past) by Mr Timothy Shelley, and the other half by Mr Westbrook . The couple left Edinburgh for York and the society of Hogg; broke with him upon a See also:charge made by Harriet, and evidently fully believed by Shelley at the time, that, during a temporary See also:absence of his upon business in Sussex, Hogg had tried to seduce her (this See also:quarrel was entirely made up at the end of about a year) ; moved off to See also:Keswick in See also:Cumberland, where they received See also:kind attentions from See also:Southey, and some hospitality from the See also:duke of See also:Norfolk, who, as See also:chief See also:magnate in the Shoreham region of Sussex, was at pains to reconcile the father and his too unfilial heir; sailed thence to See also:Dublin, where Shelley was eager, and in some degree prominent, in the good cause of See also:Catholic emancipation, conjoined with See also:repeal of the See also:union; crossed to Wales, and lived at Nant-Gwillt, near See also:Rhayader, then at Lynmouth in See also:Devonshire, then at Tanyrallt in See also:Carnarvonshire . All this was between See also:September 1811 and See also:February 18r3 . At Lynmouth an Irish servant of Shelley's was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for distributing and posting up printed papers, bearing no printer's name, of an inflammatory or seditious tendency—being a See also:Declaration of Rights composed by the youthful reformer, and some verses of his named The See also:Devil's Walk . At Tanyrallt Shelley was (according to his own and Harriet's See also:account, confirmed by the evidence of Miss Westbrook, the See also:elder sister, who continued an inmate in most of their homes) attacked on the See also:night of 26th February by an See also:assassin who fired three See also:pistol-shots . It was either a human assassin or (as Shelley once said) " the devil." The See also:motive of the attack was undefined; the fact of its occurrence was generally disbelieved, both at the time and by subsequent inquirers . Shelley was full of See also:wild unpractical notions; he dosed himself occasionally with See also:laudanum as a palliative to spasmodic pains; he was given to See also:strange assertions and romancing narratives (several of which might properly be specified here but for want of space), and was not incapable of conscious fibbing . His mind no doubt oscillated at times along the See also:line which divides sanity from insane delusion . It is now, however, at last proved that he did not invent such a monstrous See also:story to serve a purpose . The See also:Century See also:Magazine for October 1905 contained an See also:article entitled " A Strange See also:Adventure of Shelley's," by See also:Margaret L . See also:Croft, which shows that a shepherd close to Tanyrallt, named See also:Robin Pant Evan, being irritated by some well-meant acts of Shelley in terminating the lives of dying or diseased See also:sheep, did really combine with two other shepherds to scare the poet, and Evan was the See also:person who played the part of " assassin." He himself avowed as much to members of a family, See also:Greaves, who were living at Tanyrallt between 1847 and 1865 . This was the break-up of the residence of the Shelleys at Tanyrallt; they revisited See also:Ireland, and then settled for a while in London . Here, in See also:June 1813, Harriet gave See also:birth to her daughter Ianthe Eliza (she married a Mr Esdaile, and died in 1876) . Here also Shelley brought out his first poem of any importance, See also:Queen Mab; it was privately printed, as its exceedingly aggressive See also:tone in matters of religion and morals would not allow of publication . In July the Shelleys took a house at Bracknell near See also:Windsor See also:Forest, where they had congenial neighbours, Mrs Boinville and her family . The speculative See also:sage whom Shelley especially reverenced was William Godwin, the author of Political Justice and of the See also:romance See also:Caleb See also:Williams; in 1796 he had married Mary Wollstonecraft, authoress of The Rights of Woman, who died shortly after giving birth, on the 3oth of August 1797, to a daughter Mary . With Godwin Shelley had opened a volunteered See also:correspondence See also:late in 1811, and he had known him personally since the See also:winter which closed 1812 . Godwin was then a bookseller, living with his second wife, who had been a Mrs Clairmont; there were four other inmates of the See also:household, two of whom See also:call for some mention here—Fanny Wollstonecraft, the daughter of the authoress and Mr Imlay, and Claire (See also:Clara Mary Jane), the daughter of Mrs Clairmont . Fanny committed See also:suicide in October 1816, being, according to some accounts which remain unverified, hopelessly in love with Shelley; Claire was closely associated with all his subsequent career . It was towards May 1814 that Shelley first saw Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin as a grown-up girl (she was well on towards seventeen) ; he instantly fell in love with her, and she with him . Just before this, on the 24th of March, Shelley had remarried Harriet in London, apparently with a view to strengthening his position in his relations with his father as to the family See also:property; but, on becoming enamoured of Mary, he seems to have rapidly made up his mind that Harriet should not stand in the way . She was at See also:Bath while he was in London . They had, however, met again in London and come to some sort of understanding before the final crisis arrived—Harriet remonstrating and indignant, but incapable of effective resistance—Shelley sick of her companionship, and See also:bent upon gratifying his own wishes, which as we have already seen were not at odds with his avowed principles of conduct . For some months past there had been bickerings and misunderstandings between him and Harriet, aggravated by the now detested presence of Miss Westbrook in the house; more than this cannot be said, and it seems dubious whether more will be hereafter known . Shelley, and not he alone, alleged See also:grave misdoing on Harriet's part—perhaps mistakenly . The upshot came on the 28th of July, when Shelley aided Mary to elope from her father's house, Claire Clairmont deciding to accompany them . They crossed to See also:Calais, and proceeded across See also:France into See also:Switzerland . Godwin and his wife were greatly incensed . Though he and Mary Wollstonecraft had entertained and avowed bold opinions regarding the marriage-See also:bond, similar to Shelley's own, and had in their time acted upon these opinions, it is not clearly made out that Mary Godwin had ever been encouraged by paternal. See also:influence to think or do the like . Shelley and she See also:chose to See also:act upon their own likings and responsibility—he disregarding any claim which Harriet had upon him, and Mary setting at nought her father's authority . Both were prepared to ignore the law of the See also:land and the rules of society . The three young people returned to London in September . In the following See also:January 1815 Sir Bysshe Shelley died, and Percy, who had, lately been in See also:great money-straits, became the immediate heir to the entailed property inherited by his father Sir Timothy . This entailed property seems to have been See also:worth £6000 per annum, or little less . There was another very much larger property which Percy might shortly before have secured to himself, contingently upon his father's See also:death, if he would have consented to put it upon the same footing of See also:entail; but this he resolutely refused to do, on the professed ground of his being opposed upon principle to the system of entail; there-fore, on his grandfather's death the larger property passed wholly away from any See also:interest which Percy might have had in it, in use or in expectancy . He now came to an understanding with his father as to the remaining entailed property; and, giving up certain future advantages, he received henceforth a See also:regular income of £r000 a year . Out of this he assigned £200 a year to Harriet, who had given birth in See also:November to a son, Charles Bysshe (he died in 1826) . Shelley, and Mary as well, were on moderately good terms with Harriet, seeing her from time to time . His See also:peculiar views as to the relations of the sexes appear markedly again in his having (so it is alleged) invited Harriet to return to his and Mary's house as a See also:domicile; a curious arrangement which of course did not take effect . He had, undoubtedly, while previously abroad with Mary, invited Harriet to stay in their immediate neighbourhood . Shelley and Mary (who was naturally always called Mrs Shelley) now settled at Bishopgate, near Windsor Forest; here he produced his first excellent poem, 4lastor, or the Spirit of Solitude, which was published soon after-wards with a few others . Thomas Love See also:Peacock was one of his principal associates at Bishopgate . In May 1816 the pair left England for Switzerland, together with Miss Clairmont, and their own See also:infant son William . They went straight to Secheron, near See also:Geneva; See also:Byron, whose separation from his wife had just then taken place, arrived there immediately afterwards . A great See also:deal of controversy has arisen as to the motives and incidents of this See also:foreign sojourn . The clear fact is that Miss Clairmont, who had a See also:fine See also:voice and some inclination for the See also:stage, had seen Byron, as connected with the management of See also:Drury See also:Lane See also:theatre, early in the year, and an amorous intrigue had begun between them in London . Prima facie it seems quite reasonable to suppose that she had explained the facts to Shelley or to Mary, or to both, and had induced them to See also:convoy her to the society of Byron abroad; were this finally established as the fact, it would show no inconsistency of conduct, or See also:breach of his own See also:code of sexual morals, on Shelley's part . On the other hand, documentary evidence exists showing that Mary was totally ignorant of the amour shortly before they went abroad . Whether or not they knew of it while they and Claire were in daily intercourse with Byron, and housed close by him on the See also:shore of the See also:Lake of Geneva, may be left unargued . The three returned to London in September, 1816, Byron remaining abroad; and in January 1817 Miss Clairmont gave birth to his daughter named Allegra . The return of the Shelleys was closely followed by two suicides —first that of Fanny Wollstonecraft (already referred to), and second that of Harriet Shelley, who on the 9th of November drowned herself in the See also:Serpentine . The See also:body was not found until the loth of See also:December . The latest stages of the lovely and See also:ill-starred Harriet's career have never been very explicitly recorded . It seems that she formed a connexion with some' See also:gentleman from whom circumstances or See also:desertion separated her, that her habits became intemperate, and that she was treated with contumelious harshness by her sister during an illness of their father . She had always had a propensity (often laughed at in earlier and happier days) to the See also:idea of suicide, and she now carried it out in act—possibly without anything which could be regarded as an extremely cogent predisposing motive, although the See also:total See also:weight of her distresses, accumulating within the past two years and a half, was beyond question heavy to See also:bear . Shelley, then at Bath, hurried up to London when he heard of Harriet's death, giving manifest signs of the See also:shock which so terrible a See also:catastrophe had produced on him . Some self-reproach must no doubt have mingled with his affliction and dismay; yet he does not appear to have considerei4 himself gravely in the wrong at any stage in the transaction, and it is established that in the See also:train of quite See also:recent events which immediately led up to Harriet's suicide he had See also:borne no part . This was the time when Shelley began to see a great deal of See also:Leigh See also:Hunt, the poet and essayist, editor of the Examiner; they were close See also:friends, and Hunt did something to uphold the reputation of Shelley as a poet—which, we may here say once for all, scarcely obtained any public See also:acceptance or solidity during his brief lifetime . The death of Harriet having removed the only obstacle to a marriage with Mary Godwin, the See also:wedding ensued on the 3oth of December 1816, and the married couple settled down at Great See also:Marlow in See also:Buckinghamshire . Their tranquillity was shortly disturbed by a See also:Chancery suit set in See also:motion by Mr Westbrook, who asked for the custody of his two See also:grand-See also:children, on the ground that Shelley had deserted his wife and intended to bring up his offspring in his own atheistic and anti-social opinions . See also:Lord See also: |