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43 - Life and Letters of Mary Shelley by Mrs. Julian Marshall · Life and Letters of Mary Shelley

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Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, Part three of the Life and Letters of
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Speaker 1: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume one by Julian Missus Marshall. This
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter fifteen, Part three.
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Speaker 1: Not a little amused, Mary answered her friend as follows
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Speaker 1: Pisa seventh of March eighteen twenty two. My dear Missus Gisborne,
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Speaker 1: I am very sorry that you have so much trouble
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Speaker 1: with my commissions and vainly two machevole Allier will not
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Speaker 1: give you the money, and we are to tell you
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Speaker 1: the truth, too poor at present to send you a
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Speaker 1: check upon our banker. Two or three circumstances have caused
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Speaker 1: that climax of all human ills, the inflammation of our
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Speaker 1: weekly bills. But far more than that, we have not
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Speaker 1: touched to quatrino of our Christmas quarter, since debts in
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Speaker 1: England and other calls swallowed it entirely up for the present. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: we must dispense with those things I asked you for.
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Speaker 1: As for the desk, we received last post from Alyyar
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Speaker 1: without a line the bill of lading that he talks of,
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Speaker 1: and see dio volee, we shall receive it safe. The
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Speaker 1: vessel in which they were shipped has not yet arrived.
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Speaker 1: The worst of keeping on with Ollyer, though it is
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Speaker 1: the best, I believe after all, is that you will
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Speaker 1: never be able to make anything of his accounts until
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Speaker 1: you can compare the number of copies in hand with
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Speaker 1: his account of their sale. As for my novel, I
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Speaker 1: shipped it off long ago to my father, telling him
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Speaker 1: to make the best of it. And by the way
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Speaker 1: in which he answered my letter, I fancy he thinks
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Speaker 1: he can make something of it. This is much better
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Speaker 1: than Allyer, for I should never have got a penny
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Speaker 1: from him. And moreover, he is a very bad bookseller
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Speaker 1: to publish with Ma Bastapoy, with all these secaturas, Poor
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Speaker 1: dear Hunt, you will have heard by this time of
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Speaker 1: the disastrous conclusion of his third embarkment. He is to
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Speaker 1: try a third time in April, and if he does
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Speaker 1: not succeed, then we must say that the sea is
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Speaker 1: unvero precipizzio, and let him try land by the bye.
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Speaker 1: Why not consult Varley on the result.
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Speaker 2: I have tried.
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Speaker 1: The sours Homeriri and the sours Virgili. The first says
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Speaker 1: I will write this Greek better. But I thought that
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Speaker 1: mister Gisborne could read the Romaic writing, and I now
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Speaker 1: quite forget what it was. Io mean dius moy a
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Speaker 1: del fion alos epephonin os diopod iyacioni iplocomos di mitr
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Speaker 1: do re teon meganipon ot ayeto pantos adusti, which first
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Speaker 1: seems to say that he will come, though his brother
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Speaker 1: may be prosecuted for a libel. Of the second I
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Speaker 1: can make neither head nor tail. And the third is
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Speaker 1: as oracularly obscure as one could wish for Who these
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Speaker 1: great people are who sat in a wooden horse kilosa virgil,
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Speaker 1: except the first line, which is unfavorable, is as nagmatical
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Speaker 1: as homer fulgores nunc horificos, sonitumke meetumke tum levees calamos
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Speaker 1: et rose hastilia virga connexuke angue ipsamkwe and pectore di vai.
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Speaker 1: But to speak of predictions or ant deductions, some of
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Speaker 1: Varley's are curious enough ill fortune in May or June
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Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen. No, it was then that he arranged his income.
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Speaker 2: There was no.
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Speaker 1: Ill except health al solito at that time. The particular
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Speaker 1: days of the second and fourteenth of June eighteen twenty
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Speaker 1: were not ill, but the full time was disastrous. It
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Speaker 1: was then we were alarmed by Paolo's attack and disturbance
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Speaker 1: about a lady in the winter of last year. Enough,
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Speaker 1: God knows nothing particular about a fat, bouncing lady at
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Speaker 1: ten at night, and indeed things got more quiet in April.
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Speaker 1: In July seventeen ninety nine, Shelley was only seven years
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Speaker 1: of age, a great blow up. Every seven years Shelley
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Speaker 1: is not at home. When he returns, I will ask
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Speaker 1: him what happened when he was fourteen. In his twenty
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Speaker 1: second year. We made our scapatura at twenty eight and
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Speaker 1: twenty nine. A good deal of discomfort on a certain point,
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Speaker 1: but it hardly amounted to a blow up. Pray ask
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Speaker 1: Varley also about me. So Hogg is shocked that for
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Speaker 1: good neighborhood's sake, I visited the Piano di Soto let
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Speaker 1: him reassure himself, since instead of a weekly it was
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Speaker 1: only a monthly visit. In fact, after going three times,
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Speaker 1: I stayed away until I heard he was going away.
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Speaker 1: He preached against atheism, and they said against Shelley. As
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Speaker 1: he invited me himself to come. This appeared to me
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Speaker 1: very impertinent, so I wrote to him to ask him
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Speaker 1: whether he intended any personal illusion. But he denied the
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Speaker 1: charge most entirely.
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Speaker 2: This affair, as you may.
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Speaker 1: Guess, among the English at Pisa, made a great noise.
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Speaker 1: The gossip peer is of course out of all bounds,
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Speaker 1: and some people have given them something to talk about.
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Speaker 1: I have seen little of it all, but that which
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Speaker 1: I have seen makes me long most eagerly for some
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Speaker 1: sea girt isle, wherewith Shelley, my babe, and books and horses,
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Speaker 1: we may give the rest to the winds. This we
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Speaker 1: shall not have for the present. Shelley is entangled with
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Speaker 1: Lord Byron, who is in a terrible fright lest he
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Speaker 1: should desert him. We shall have boats and go somewhere
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Speaker 1: on the sea coast, where I dare say we shall
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Speaker 1: spend our time agreeably enough, for I like thee Williams exceedingly.
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Speaker 1: Though there my list begins and ends. Amelia married beyondy
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Speaker 1: we hear that she leads him and his mother to
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Speaker 1: use a vulgarism, a devil of a life. The conclusion
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Speaker 1: of our friendship Alla Italiana uh puts me in mind
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Speaker 1: of a nursery rhyme which runs thus. As I was
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Speaker 1: going down Cranborne Lane, Cranborne Lane was dirty, and there
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Speaker 1: I met a pretty maid who dropped to me a curtesy.
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Speaker 1: I gave her cakes, I gave her wine, I gave
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Speaker 1: her sugar candy. But oh, the little naughty girl, she.
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Speaker 2: Asked me for some brandy.
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Speaker 1: Now turn Cranborne Lane into peas and acquaintances, which I
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Speaker 1: am sure are dirty enough, and brandy into that wherewithal
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Speaker 1: to buy brandy, and that no small sum pero, and
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Speaker 1: you have the whole story of Shelley's Italian platonics. We
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Speaker 1: now know, indeed, few of those whom we knew last year.
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Speaker 1: Pacciani is a Prato mavra cordatto in Greece, the Arduropolis
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Speaker 1: in Florence, and so the world slides. Tafas still here
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Speaker 1: the butt of Lord Byron's quizzing, and the poet Laureate
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Speaker 1: of Pisa. On the occasion of a young lady's birthday,
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Speaker 1: he wrote, eyes that shed.
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Speaker 2: A thousand flowers?
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Speaker 1: Why should flowers be sent to you, sweetest flowers of
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Speaker 1: heavenly bowers? Love and friendship are what are due after
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Speaker 1: some divine Italian weather. We are now enjoying some fine
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Speaker 1: English weather. Chewe it does not rain, but not a
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Speaker 1: ray can pierce the web aloft, most truly yours, Mary w. S.
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Speaker 1: Mary Shelley to Missus Hunt, fifth of March eighteen twenty,
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Speaker 1: To my dearest mary Anne. I hope that this letter
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Speaker 1: will find you quite well, recovering from your severe attack,
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Speaker 1: and looking towards your haven Italy with best hopes. I
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Speaker 1: do indeed believe that you will find a relief here
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Speaker 1: from your many English cares, and that the winds which
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Speaker 1: waft you will sing the requiem to all your ills.
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Speaker 1: It was indeed unfortunate that you encountered such weather on
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Speaker 1: the very threshold of your journey. And as the wind
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Speaker 1: howled through the long night, how often did I think
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Speaker 1: of you?
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Speaker 2: At length?
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Speaker 1: It seemed as if we should never never meet. But
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Speaker 1: I will not give way to such a presentiment. We
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Speaker 1: enjoy here divine weather, the sun hot, too hot, with
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Speaker 1: a freshness and clearness in the breeze that bears with
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Speaker 1: it all the delights of spring. The hedges are butting,
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Speaker 1: and you should see me and my friend Missus Williams
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Speaker 1: poking about for violets by the sides of dry ditches,
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Speaker 1: she being herself a violet by a mossy stone half
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Speaker 1: hidden from the eye. Yesterday, a countryman, seeing our dilemma,
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Speaker 1: since the ditch was not quite dry, insisted on gathering
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Speaker 1: them for us, And when we resisted, saying that we
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Speaker 1: had no quatrini i e. Farthings, being the generic name
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Speaker 1: for all money, he indignantly exclaimed, Oh selo faccio peer interessay,
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Speaker 1: how I wish you were with us in our rambles.
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Speaker 1: Our good cavaliers flocked together, and as they do not
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Speaker 1: like fetching a walk with the absurd womankind.
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Speaker 2: Jane, I e missus Williams and I.
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Speaker 1: Are off together and talk morality and pluck violets. By
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Speaker 1: the way, I look forward to many duets with this
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Speaker 1: lady and hunt. She has a very pretty voice, and
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Speaker 1: a taste and ear for music which is almost miraculous.
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Speaker 2: The harp is her.
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Speaker 1: Favorite instrument, but we have none, and a very bad piano. However,
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Speaker 1: as it is, we pass very pleasant evenings. Though I
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Speaker 1: can hardly bear to hear her sing Dona lamour. It
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Speaker 1: transports me so entirely back to your little parlor at Hampstead,
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Speaker 1: and I see the piano, the bookcase, the Prince, the casts,
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Speaker 1: and here Mary's far ha ha ha. We are in
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Speaker 1: great uncertainty as to where we shall spend the summer.
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Speaker 1: There is a beautiful bay about fifty miles off, and
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Speaker 1: as we have resolved on the sea, Shelley bought a boat.
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Speaker 1: We wished very much to go there. Perhaps we shall still,
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Speaker 1: But as yet we can find but one house.
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Speaker 2: But as we.
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Speaker 1: Are a colony which moves all together or not at all,
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Speaker 1: we have not yet made up our minds. The apartments
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Speaker 1: which we have prepared for you in Lord Byron's house
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Speaker 1: will be very warm for the summer, and indeed for
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Speaker 1: the two hottest months. I should think that you had
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Speaker 1: better go into the country. Villas about here are tolerably cheap,
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Speaker 1: and they are perfect paradises. Perhaps, as it was with me,
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Speaker 1: Italy will not strike you as so divine at first,
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Speaker 1: but each day it becomes dearer and more delightful. The sun,
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Speaker 1: the flowers, the air all is more sweet and more
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Speaker 1: balmy than in the ulta moutoule that you inhabit. M. W. S.
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Speaker 1: The journal for the next few weeks has nothing eventful
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Speaker 1: to record. The preceding letter to missus Hunt gives a
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Speaker 1: simple and pleasing picture of their daily life. Perhaps Mary
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Speaker 1: had never been quite so happy before she wrote to
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Speaker 1: the Hunts that she thought she grew younger. Both she
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Speaker 1: and Shelley were occasionally ailing, and Shelley's letters show that
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Speaker 1: his spirits suffered depression at times. Still, in this respect,
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Speaker 1: as well as in health, he was better than he
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Speaker 1: had been in any former spring. The proximity of Byron
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Speaker 1: and his circle was not, however, favorable to inspiration or
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Speaker 1: to literary composition. Byron's temperament acted as a damper to
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Speaker 1: enthusiasm in others, and Shelley, though his estimate of Byron's
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Speaker 1: genius was very high, was perpetually jarred and crossed by
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Speaker 1: his worldliness and his moral shallowness and vulgarity. He invariably acted, however,
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Speaker 1: as Byron's true and disinterested friend, and Byron was fully
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Speaker 1: aware of the value of his friendship and of his
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Speaker 1: literary help and criticism. Trelawney, to whom Byron had taken
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Speaker 1: kindly enough, estimated the difference in the moral worth of
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Speaker 1: the two poets with singular justice. I believed in many
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Speaker 1: things then, and believe in some Now, he wrote more
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Speaker 1: than five and thirty years afterwards, I could not sympathize
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Speaker 1: with Byron, who believed in nothing.
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Speaker 2: His friendship for.
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Speaker 1: Byron, nevertheless, was to be loyal and lasting. But his
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Speaker 1: favorite resort in these peas and days was the hospitable
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Speaker 1: and cheerful abode of the Shelleys. There, he says, I
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Speaker 1: found those sympathies and sentiments which the pilgrim denounced as illusions,
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Speaker 1: believed in as the only realities. At Byron's social gatherings,
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Speaker 1: riding parties or dinner parties. He made a point of
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Speaker 1: getting Shelley if he could, and Shelley was very compliant,
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Speaker 1: although the society of which Byron was the nucleus was
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Speaker 1: neither congenial nor interesting to him, and he always took
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Speaker 1: the first good opportunity of escaping daily. In course of
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Speaker 1: this kind tended gradually to estrange, rather than unite, the
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Speaker 1: two poets. By accentuating differences. It brought into evidence that
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Speaker 1: gulf between their natures, which, in spite of the one
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Speaker 1: touch of kinship that certainly existed, was equally impassable by
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Speaker 1: one and by the other. Besides the subject of Claire
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Speaker 1: and allegra, never far below the surface, would occasionally come up,
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Speaker 1: and this was a sore point on both sides. As
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Speaker 1: has already been said, Byron appreciated Shelley, though he did
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Speaker 1: not sympathize with him. In after days. He bore public
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Speaker 1: testimony to the purity and unselfishness of Shelley's character, and
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Speaker 1: to the upright and disinterested motives which actuated him in
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Speaker 1: all he did. But his respect for Shelley was not
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Speaker 1: so strong as his antipathy to Claire, and Shelley's feelings
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Speaker 1: towards her was regarded by him with a cynical sneer
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Speaker 1: which he had no care to hide, and of which
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Speaker 1: its object could not always be unconscious. It is not
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Speaker 1: wonderful that at times there swept across Shelley's mind like
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Speaker 1: a black cloud, the conviction neither a sense of honor
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Speaker 1: nor justice restrained Byron from the basest insinuations. And then
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Speaker 1: again this suspicion would pass away as too dreadful to
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Speaker 1: be entertained. End of Chapter fifteen, Part three,