Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/817

Rh SHELLEY 791 to Keswick in Cumberland, coupled with the company of Southey, and some hospitality from the duke of Norfolk, who, as chief magnate in the Shoreham region of Sussex, was at pains to reconcile the father and his too unfilial heir ; sailed thence to Dublin, where Shelley was eager, and in some degree prominent, in the good cause of Catholic emancipation, conjoined with repeal of the union ; crossed to Wales, and lived at Nant-Gwillt, near Rhayader, then at Lynmouth in Devonshire, then at Tanyrallt in Carnarvonshire. All this was between September 1811 and February 1813. 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 Declaration of Rights composed by the youthful reformer, and some verses of his named The Devil's Walk. At Tanyrallt Shelley was (to trust his own and Harriet's account, confirmed by the evidence of Miss Westbrook, the elder sister, who continued an inmate in most of their homes) attacked on the night of 26th February by an assassin who fired three pistol-shots. The motive of the attack was undefined ; the fact of its occurrence was generally disbelieved, both at the time and by subsequent inquirers. To analyse the possibilities and probabilities of the case would lead us too far ; we can only say that we rank with the decided sceptics. Shelley was full of wild unpractical notions ; he dosed himself with laudanum as a palliative to spasmodic pains ; he was given to 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 line Avhich divides sanity from insane delusion. It is difficult to suppose that he simply invented such a monstrous story to serve a purpose. The very enormity of the story tends to dissuade us from thinking so, and the purpose alleged seems disproportion- ately small that of decamping from Tauyrallt ere creditors should become too pressing. Indeed, we decisively reject this supposed motive. On the other hand, nothing could be traced to corroborate Shelley's assertion. This was at any rate the break-up of the residence at Tanyrallt ; the Shelleys revisited Ireland, and then settled for a while in London. Here, in June 1813, Harriet gave birth to her daughter lanthe Eliza (she married a Mr Esdaile, and died in 1876). Here also Shelley brought out his first poem of any importance, Queen Mab; it was privately printed, as its exceedingly aggressive tone in matters of religion and morals would not allow of publication. The speculative sage whom Shelley especially reverenced was William Godwin, the author of Political Justice and of the romance Caleb Williams ; in 1796 he had married Mary Wollstonecraft, authoress of The Bights of Woman, who died shortly after giving birth, on 30th August 1797, to a daughter Mary. With Godwin Shelley had opened a volunteered correspondence late in 1811, and he had known him personally since the 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 household, two of whom call for some mention here Fanny Wollstonecraft, the daughter of the authoress and Mr Imlay, and Claire, the daughter of Mrs Clairmont. Fanny committed 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, 24th March, Shelley had remarried Harriet in London, though with no obviously cogent motive for doing so ; 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 Bath while he was in London, and for a while she heard nothing of him. They had, however, met again in Loiidon 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 bent upon gratifying his own wishes, which SOB 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, for no more is at present known. It is certain, however, that evidence exists which, while not plainly proving any grave wrongdoing on Harriet's part, exculpates Shelley from the charge of having separated from her without what appeared to himself sufficient cause. The upshot came on 28th July, when Shelley aided Mary to elope from her father's house, Claire Clairmont deciding to accompany them. They crossed to Calais, and proceeded across France into Switzerland. Godwin and his wife were greatly incensed. Though he and Mary Wollstonecraft had entertained and avowed bold opinions regarding the marriage-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 influence to think or do the like. Shelley and she chose to 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 land and the rules of society. The three young people returned to London in September. In the following January Sir Bysshe Shelley died, and Percy became the immediate heir to the entailed property inherited by his father Sir Timothy. This entailed property seems to have been 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 death, if he would have consented to put it upon the same footing of entail ; but this he resolutely refused to do, on the pro- fessed ground of his being opposed upon principle to the system of entail; therefore, on his grandfather's death the larger property passed wholly away from any 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 regular income of 1000 a year. Out of this he assigned 200 a year to Harriet, who had given birth in 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 peculiar views as to the rela- tions 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 domicile ; of course this curious arrangement did not take effect. Shelley and Mary (who was naturally always called Mrs Shelley) now settled at Bishopgate, near Windsor Forest ; here he produced his first excellent poem, Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude, which was published soon afterwards along with a few others. In May 1816 the pair left England for Switzerland, together with Miss Clairmont, and their own infant son William. They went straight to Secheron, near Geneva; Lord Byron, whose separation from his wife had just then taken place, arrived there immediately afterwards. A great deal of controversy has lately arisen as to the motives and incidents of this foreign sojourn.