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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, 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 fourteen, Part three.
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  Speaker 1: Shelley's absence, though eventful, was after all a short one.
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  Speaker 1: In about a fortnight, he was back again at the Bangyi,
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  Speaker 1: and for a few weeks life was quiet. On the
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  Speaker 1: eighteenth of September, Mary records picnic on the Pugnano Mountains,
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  Speaker 1: music in the evening sleep there. On another occasion, wishing
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  Speaker 1: to find some tolerably cool seaside place where they might
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  Speaker 1: spend the next summer, they went the Shelleys at Claire
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  Speaker 1: on a two or three days expedition of discovery to Spezzia,
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  Speaker 1: and were enchanted with the beauty of the bay. Claire
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  Speaker 1: had shortly after to return to her situation at Florence,
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  Speaker 1: but the Lleys decided to winter at Pisa. They took
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  Speaker 1: a top flat in the Tre Palazzi di Quisa on
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  Speaker 1: the Lungarno, and spent part of October in furnishing it.
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  Speaker 1: They took possession about the twenty fifth, the Williams, coming
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  Speaker 1: not many days later to occupy a lower flat in
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  Speaker 1: the same house. At Lord Byron's request, the Shelleys had
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  Speaker 1: taken for him Casa Lanfranki, the finest palace in the Lungarno,
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  Speaker 1: just opposite the house where they themselves were established. This
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  Speaker 1: close juxtaposition of abodes was likely to prove somewhat inconvenient
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  Speaker 1: in case of Claire's occasional presence at Tre Palazzi. Her
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  Speaker 1: first visit, however, to which the following characteristic letter refers,
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  Speaker 1: was to the Masons at Casa Silva, and it came
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  Speaker 1: to an end just before Byron's arrival in Pisa. Claire
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  Speaker 1: had been staying with the Williams at Pugnano. Claire to Mary,
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  Speaker 1: my dear Mary, I arrived last night. Won't you come
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  Speaker 1: and see me to day? The Williams wish you to
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  Speaker 1: forward them mister Webb's answer, if possible to reach them
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  Speaker 1: by two o'clock afternoon to day. If mister Webb says yes,
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  Speaker 1: you will open his note, send Dominico with it to them,
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  Speaker 1: and he, passing by the baths, must order Pancani to
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  Speaker 1: be at Pugnano by five o'clock in the afternoon. If
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  Speaker 1: there comes no letter, from mister Webb, they will equally
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  Speaker 1: come to you, and I wish you could also, in
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  Speaker 1: that case contrive to get pancani ordered for them, for
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  Speaker 1: we forgot to arrange how that could be done. If not,
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  Speaker 1: they will be there expecting and perhaps get involved for
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  Speaker 1: the next month. I wish you to be so good
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  Speaker 1: as to send me immediately my large box and the
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  Speaker 1: clothes from the busati, indeed all that you have of mine,
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  Speaker 1: for I must arrange my boxes to get them bolatte immediately.
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  Speaker 1: Don't delay, and my band box too. If you could,
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  Speaker 1: of your great bounty give me a sponge. I should
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  Speaker 1: be infinitely obliged to you. Then, when it is dark
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  Speaker 1: and the Williams arrived, will you ask mister Williams to
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  Speaker 1: be so good good as to come and knock at
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  Speaker 1: Casa Silva, and I will return to spend the evening
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  Speaker 1: with you. Shelley won't do to fetch me because he
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  Speaker 1: looks singular in the streets, but I wish he would
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  Speaker 1: come now to give me some money, as I want
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  Speaker 1: to write to Lovorno and arrange everything later will be
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  Speaker 1: inconvenient for me. Kiss the chick for me and believe
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  Speaker 1: me yours affectionately, Claire Journal all October is left out.
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  Speaker 1: It seems we are at the baths, occupied with furnishing
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  Speaker 1: our house, copying my novel, et cetera, et cetera. Mary's
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  Speaker 1: intention was to devote any profits which might proceed from
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  Speaker 1: this work to the relief of her father's necessities, and
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  Speaker 1: the hope of being able to help him had stimulated
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  Speaker 1: her industry and energy, while it eased her heart. She
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  Speaker 1: aimed at selling the copyright for four hundred pounds, and
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  Speaker 1: Shelley opened negotiations to this effect with Alier, the publisher.
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  Speaker 1: His letter on the subject bears such striking testimony to
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  Speaker 1: the estimate he had formed of Mary's powers, and gives, besides,
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  Speaker 1: so complete a sketch of the novel itself that it
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  Speaker 1: cannot be omitted. Here. Shelley to mister Allier, Pisa twenty
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  Speaker 1: fifth of September eighteen twenty two. Dear sir, it will
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  Speaker 1: give me great pleasure if I can arrange the affair
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  Speaker 1: of Missus Shelley's novel with you to her and your satisfaction.
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  Speaker 1: She has a specific purpose and the sum which she
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  Speaker 1: instructed me to require, And although this purpose could not
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  Speaker 1: be answered without ready money, yet I should find means
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  Speaker 1: to answer her wishes. In that point, if you could
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  Speaker 1: make it convenient to pay one third at Christmas and
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  Speaker 1: give bills for the other two thirds at twelve and
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  Speaker 1: eighteen months, it would give me peculiar satisfaction that you,
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  Speaker 1: rather than any other person, should be the publisher of
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  Speaker 1: this work. It is the product of no slight labor,
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  Speaker 1: and I flatter myself of no common talent. I doubt
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  Speaker 1: not it will give no less credit than it will
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  Speaker 1: receive from your names. I trust you know me too
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  Speaker 1: well to believe that my judgment, deliberately given in testimony
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  Speaker 1: of the value of any production, is influenced by motives
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  Speaker 1: of interest or partiality. The romance is called Castruccio, Prince
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  Speaker 1: of Lucca, and is founded not upon the novel of
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  Speaker 1: Macchiavelli under that name, which substitutes a childish fiction for
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  Speaker 1: the far more romantic truth of history, but upon the
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  Speaker 1: actual story of his life. He was a person who
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  Speaker 1: from an exile and an adventurer, after having served in
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  Speaker 1: the wars of England and Flanders in the reign of
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  Speaker 1: Our Edward the Second, returned to his native city and
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  Speaker 1: liberating it from its tyrants, became himself its tyrant, and
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  Speaker 1: died in the full splendor of his dominion, which he
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  Speaker 1: had extended over the half of Tuscany. He was a
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  Speaker 1: little Napoleon, and with a dukedom instead of an empire
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  Speaker 1: for his theater, brought upon the same all the passions
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  Speaker 1: and errors of his Antetype. The chief interest of the
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  Speaker 1: romance rests upon Euthanasia, his betrothed bride, whose love for
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  Speaker 1: him is only equalled by her enthusiasm for the liberty
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  Speaker 1: of the Republic of Florence, which is in some sort
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  Speaker 1: her country, and for that of Italy, to which Castruccio
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  Speaker 1: is a devoted enemy, being an ally of the party
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  Speaker 1: of the Emperor. This character is a masterpiece and a
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  Speaker 1: keystone of the drama, which is built up with admirable art.
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  Speaker 1: Is the conflict between these passions and these principles. Euthanasia,
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  Speaker 1: the last survivor of a noble house is a feudal countess,
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  Speaker 1: and her castle is the scene of the exhibition of
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  Speaker 1: the knightly manners of the time. The character of Beatrice
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  Speaker 1: the Prophetess can only be done justice to in the
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  Speaker 1: very language of the author. I know nothing in Walter
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  Speaker 1: Scott's novels, which at all approaches to the beauty and
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  Speaker 1: the sublimity of this creation, I may say, for it
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  Speaker 1: is perfectly original, and although founded upon the ideas and
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  Speaker 1: manners of the age which is represented, is wholly without
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  Speaker 1: a similitude in any fiction I ever read. Beatrice is
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  Speaker 1: in love with Castruccio and dies for the romance, although
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  Speaker 1: interspersed with much lighter matter, is deeply tragic, and the
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  Speaker 1: shades darken and gather as the catastrophe approaches. All the
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  Speaker 1: manners customs of the age are introduced, the superstitions, the heresies,
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  Speaker 1: and the real religious persecutions are displayed. The minutest circumstance
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  Speaker 1: of Italian manners in that age is not omitted, and
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  Speaker 1: the whole seems to me to constitute a living and
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  Speaker 1: moving picture of an age almost forgotten. The author visited
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  Speaker 1: the scenery which she describes in person, and one or
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  Speaker 1: two of the inferior characters are drawn from her own
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  Speaker 1: observation of the Italians, For the national character shows itself
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  Speaker 1: still in certain instances, under the same forms as it
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  Speaker 1: wore in the time of Dante. The novel consists, as
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  Speaker 1: I told you before, of three volumes, each at least
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  Speaker 1: equal to one of the tales of my Landlord, and
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  Speaker 1: they will be very soon ready to be sent. No arrangement, however,
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  Speaker 1: was come to it this time, and early in January,
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  Speaker 1: Mary wrote to her father, offering the work to him
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  Speaker 1: and asking him, if he accepted it, to make a
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  Speaker 1: bargain concerning it with a publisher. Godwin accepted the offer
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  Speaker 1: and undertook the responsibility in a letter from which the
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  Speaker 1: following is an extract. Thirty first of January eighteen twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: I am much gratified by your letter of the eleventh,
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  Speaker 1: which reached me on Saturday last. It is truly generous
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  Speaker 1: of you to desire that I would make use of
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  Speaker 1: the produce of your novel, But what can I say
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  Speaker 1: to it? It is against the course of nature, unless
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  Speaker 1: indeed you are actually in possession of a fortune. I
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  Speaker 1: said in the preface to Mandeville there were two or
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  Speaker 1: three works. Further, that I should be glad to finish
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  Speaker 1: before I died. If I make use of the money
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  Speaker 1: from you in the way you suggest, that may enable
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  Speaker 1: me to complete my present work. The manuscript was accordingly
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  Speaker 1: dispatched to England, but was not published. Till many months later.
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  Speaker 1: Val Perca, as it was afterwards called, was a book
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  Speaker 1: of much power and more promise, very remarkable when the
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  Speaker 1: author's age is taken into consideration. Apart from local coloring,
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  Speaker 1: the interest of the tale turns on the development of
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  Speaker 1: the character naturally powerful and disposed to good, but spoiled
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  Speaker 1: by popularity and success, and unguided by principle of Castruccio himself,
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  Speaker 1: and on the contrast between him and Euthanasia, the noble
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  Speaker 1: and beautiful woman who sacrifices her possessions, her hopes, and
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  Speaker 1: her affections to the cause of fidelity and patriotism. Beatrice
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  Speaker 1: the prophetess is one of those gifted but faded souls who,
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  Speaker 1: under the persuasion that they are supernaturally inspired, mistake the
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  Speaker 1: ordinary impulses of human nature for divine commands, and finding
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  Speaker 1: their mistake, yet encourage themselves in what they know to
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  Speaker 1: be delusion till the end, a tragic end. There are
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  Speaker 1: some remarkable descriptive passages, especially one where the wandering Beatrice
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  Speaker 1: comes suddenly upon a house in a dreary landscape which
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  Speaker 1: she knows, although she has never seen it before except
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  Speaker 1: in a haunting dream. Every detail of it is horribly familiar,
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  Speaker 1: and she is paralyzed by the sense of imminent calamity,
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  Speaker 1: which in fact bursts upon her directly afterwards. Euthanasia dies
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  Speaker 1: at sea, and the account of the running down and
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  Speaker 1: wreck of her ship is a curious, almost prophetic foreshadowing
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  Speaker 1: of the calamity by which all too soon Shelley was
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  Speaker 1: to lose his life. The wind changed to a more
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  Speaker 1: northerly direction during the night, and the land breeze of
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  Speaker 1: the morning filled their sails, so that although slowly they
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  Speaker 1: dropped down southward. About noon they met a Peason vessel
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  Speaker 1: who bade them beware of a Genoese squadron which was
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  Speaker 1: cruising off Corsica, so they bore in nearer to the shore.
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  Speaker 1: At sunset that day, a fierce sirocco arose, accompanied by
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  Speaker 1: thunder and lightning, such as is seldom seen during the
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  Speaker 1: winter season. Presently they saw huge dark columns descending from
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  Speaker 1: heaven and meeting the sea, which boiled beneath. They were
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  Speaker 1: borne on by the storm and scattered by the wind.
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  Speaker 1: The rain came down in sheets, and the hail clattered
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  Speaker 1: as it fell to its grave in the ocean. The
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  Speaker 1: ocean was lashed into such waves that many miles inland.
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  Speaker 1: During the pauses of the wind, the hoarse and constant
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  Speaker 1: murmurs of the far off sea made the well housed
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  Speaker 1: landsmen mutter one more prayer for those exposed to its fury.
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  Speaker 1: Such was the storm as it was seen from shore.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing more was ever known of the Sicilian vessel which
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  Speaker 1: bore Euthanasia. It never reached its destined port, nor were
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  Speaker 1: any of those on board ever after seen. The Sentinels
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  Speaker 1: who watched near Vado, a town on the sea beach
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  Speaker 1: of the Marema, found on the following day that the
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  Speaker 1: waves had washed on shore some of the wrecks of
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  Speaker 1: the vessel. They picked up a few planks and a
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  Speaker 1: broken mast round which tangled with some of its cordage,
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  Speaker 1: was a white silk handkerchief, such a one as had
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  Speaker 1: bound the tresses of Euthanasia the night that she had embarked,
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  Speaker 1: and in its knot were a few golden hairs. To
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  Speaker 1: follow the fate of Mary's novel, it has been necessary
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  Speaker 1: somewhat to anticipate the history which is resumed in the
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  Speaker 1: next chapter. With the journal and letters of the latter
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  Speaker 1: part of eighteen twenty one end of Chapter fourteen