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42 - 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 two 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 two, Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: February seventh, Read Homer, Tacitus and Emal Shelley and Edward
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  Speaker 1: depart for Las Bezzia, walk with Jane and to the
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  Speaker 1: opera with her in the evening with E. Trelawney, afterwards
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  Speaker 1: to Missus beau Clerk's ball during a long, long evening
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  Speaker 1: in mixed society? How often do one's sensations change and
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  Speaker 1: swiftly as the west wind drives the shadows of clouds
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  Speaker 1: across the sunny hill or the waving corn. So swift
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  Speaker 1: do so sensations pass, painting, yet oh not disfiguring the
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  Speaker 1: serenity of the mind. It is then that life seems
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  Speaker 1: to weigh itself, and hosts of memories and imaginations thrown
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  Speaker 1: into one scale make the other kick the beam. You
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  Speaker 1: remember what you have felt, what you have dreamt, yet
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  Speaker 1: you dwell on the shadowy side, and lost hopes and
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  Speaker 1: death such as you have seen. It seem to cover
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  Speaker 1: all things with a funeral pall the time that was,
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  Speaker 1: is and will be presses upon you, and standing the
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  Speaker 1: center of a moving circle, you slide giddily as the
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  Speaker 1: world reels. You look to heaven and would demand of
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  Speaker 1: the everlasting stars that the thoughts and passions which are
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  Speaker 1: your life life may be as ever living as they.
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  Speaker 1: You would demand of the blue Empurian that your mind
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  Speaker 1: might be as clear as it, and that the tears
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  Speaker 1: which gather in your eyes might be the shower that
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  Speaker 1: would drain from its profoundest depths the springs of weakness
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  Speaker 1: and sorrow. But where are the stars where the blue
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  Speaker 1: Empurian a ceiling clouds that and a thousand swift consuming
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  Speaker 1: lights supply the place of the eternal ones of heaven.
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  Speaker 1: The enthusiast suppresses her tears, crushes her opening thoughts, and
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  Speaker 1: but all is changed. Some word, some look excite the
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  Speaker 1: lagging blood. Laughter dances in the eyes, and the spirits
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  Speaker 1: rise proportionally high. The Queen is all for revel. Her
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  Speaker 1: light heart, unladen from the heaviness of state, bestows itself
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  Speaker 1: upon delightfulness. Friday, February eighth. Sometimes I awaken from my
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  Speaker 1: visionary monotony, and my thoughts flow until as it is
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  Speaker 1: exquisite pain to stop the flowing of the blood, so
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  Speaker 1: is it painful to check expression and make the overflowing
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  Speaker 1: mind return to its usual channel. I feel a kind
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  Speaker 1: of tenderness to those whoever they may be, even those
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  Speaker 1: strangers who awaken the train and touch a chord so
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  Speaker 1: full of harmony and thrilling music. When I would tear
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  Speaker 1: the veil from the strange world and pierce with eagle
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  Speaker 1: eyes beyond the sun, when every idea strange and changeful,
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  Speaker 1: is another step in the latter by which I would
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  Speaker 1: climb Read Emil Jane dines with Me, Walk with her
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  Speaker 1: e Trelawney and Jane. In the Evening. Trelawny tells us
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  Speaker 1: a number of amusing stories of his early life. Read
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  Speaker 1: third Canto of Linferno. They say that providence is shown
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  Speaker 1: by the extraction that may be ever made of good
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  Speaker 1: from evil. We draw our virtues from our faults. So
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  Speaker 1: I am to thank God for making me weak. I
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  Speaker 1: might say, thy will be done, but I cannot applaud
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  Speaker 1: the permitter of self degradation, though dignity and superior wisdom
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  Speaker 1: arise from its bitter and burning ashes. Saturday, February ninth
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  Speaker 1: read a meal, walk with Jane, and ride with Tea Gricioli,
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  Speaker 1: dine with Jane, Taife and T Medwin call I retire
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  Speaker 1: with E. Trelawney, who amuses me as usual by the
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  Speaker 1: endless variety of his adventures and conversation. Marry to Missus Gisborne,
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  Speaker 1: Pisa ninth of February eighteen twenty two. My dear Missus Gisborne.
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  Speaker 1: Not having heard from you, I am anxious about my desk.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been a great convenience to me if
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  Speaker 1: I could have received it at the beginning of the winter.
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  Speaker 1: But now I should like it as soon as possible.
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  Speaker 1: I hope that it is out of all your's hands.
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  Speaker 1: I have before said what I would have done with it.
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  Speaker 1: If both desks can be sent without being opened, let
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  Speaker 1: them be sent. If not, give the small one back
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  Speaker 1: to Peacock, get a key made for the larger, and
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  Speaker 1: send it. I entreat you by the very next vessel.
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  Speaker 1: This key will cost half a guinea, and all yer
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  Speaker 1: will not give you the money, but give me credit
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  Speaker 1: for it. I entreat you. I pray, now let me
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  Speaker 1: have the desk as soon as possible. Shelley is now
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  Speaker 1: gone to Spitzzia to get houses for our colony for
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  Speaker 1: the summer. It will be a large one, too large.
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  Speaker 1: I am afraid for unity, Yet I hope not. There
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  Speaker 1: will be Lord Byron, who will have a large and
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  Speaker 1: beautiful boat built on purpose by some English navy officers
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  Speaker 1: at Genoa. There will be the Countess Guiccioli and her brother,
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  Speaker 1: the Williams, whom you know Trelawney, a kind of half
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  Speaker 1: Arab Englishman whose life has been as changeful as that
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  Speaker 1: of Anastatius, and who recounts the adventures as eloquently and
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  Speaker 1: as well as the imagined Greek. He is clever for
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  Speaker 1: his moral qualities I am, yet in the dark he
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  Speaker 1: is a strange web which I am endeavoring to unravel.
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  Speaker 1: I would fain learn if generosity is united to impetuousness,
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  Speaker 1: probity of the spirit, to his assumption of singularity and independence.
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  Speaker 1: He is six feet high, raven black hair which curls
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  Speaker 1: thickly and shortly like a moor's, dark gray, expressive eyes,
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  Speaker 1: overhanging brows, upturned lips, and a smile which expresses good
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  Speaker 1: nature and kind heartedness. His shoulders are high like an oriental's.
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  Speaker 1: His voice is monotonous yet emphatic, and his language as
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  Speaker 1: he relates the events of his life, energetic and simple.
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  Speaker 1: Whether the tale be one of blood and horror or
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  Speaker 1: of irresistible comedy, his company is delightful, for he excites
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  Speaker 1: me to think. And if any evil shade the intercourse
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  Speaker 1: that time will unveil, the sun will rise or night darken,
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  Speaker 1: all there will be besides a captain Roberts, whom I
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  Speaker 1: do not know, a very rough subject, I fancy a
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  Speaker 1: famous angler, et cetera. We are to have a small boat.
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  Speaker 1: And now that those first divine spring days are come,
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  Speaker 1: you know them well. The sky clear, the sun hot,
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  Speaker 1: the hedges butting. We sitting without a fire, and the
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  Speaker 1: windows open. I begin to long for the sparkling waves,
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  Speaker 1: the olive colored hills, and vine shaded pergolas of Spezzia. However,
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  Speaker 1: it would be madness to go. Yet, Yet, as Cheppo
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  Speaker 1: was bad, we hope for a good Pasqua, and if
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  Speaker 1: April prove fine, we shall fly with the swallows. The
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  Speaker 1: opera here has been detestable. The English Sinclair is the
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  Speaker 1: primo tenore and acquits himself excellently. But the Italians, after
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  Speaker 1: the first have enviously selected such operas as give him
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  Speaker 1: little or nothing to do. We have English here, and
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  Speaker 1: some English balls and parties to which I mirabile dictu go.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes we have Taife who bores us out of our
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  Speaker 1: senses when he comes telling a young lady that her
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  Speaker 1: eyes shed flowers, Why therefore should he send her any
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  Speaker 1: I have sent my novel to Papa. I long to
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  Speaker 1: hear some news of it, as with then author's vanity,
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  Speaker 1: I want to see it in print and hear the
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  Speaker 1: praises of my friends. I should like, as I said,
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  Speaker 1: when you went away a copy of Matilda, it might
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  Speaker 1: come out with a desk. I hope as the town
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  Speaker 1: fills to hear better news of your plans. We long
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  Speaker 1: to hear from you. What does Henry do? How many
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  Speaker 1: times has he been in love? Ever? Yours? M. W. S.
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  Speaker 1: Shelley would like to see the review of the Prometheus
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  Speaker 1: and the Quarterly. Thursday, February fourteenth, read Homer and Anastatius
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  Speaker 1: walk with the Williams in the evening. Nothing of us,
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  Speaker 1: but what must suffer a sea change. This entry marks
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  Speaker 1: the day to which Mary referred in a letter written
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  Speaker 1: more than a year later, where she says, a year
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  Speaker 1: ago Treulawney came one afternoon in high spirits with news
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  Speaker 1: concerning the building of the boat, saying, oh, we must
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  Speaker 1: all embark, all live aboard, we will all suffer a
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  Speaker 1: sea change. And dearest Shelley was delighted with the quotation,
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  Speaker 1: saying that he would have it for the motto for
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  Speaker 1: his boat. Little did they think, in their lightness of spirit,
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  Speaker 1: that in another year the motto of the boat would
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  Speaker 1: serve for the inscription on Shelley's tomb Journal Monday February eighteenth,
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  Speaker 1: Read Homer Walk with the Williams, Jane Trelawney, and Medwin
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  Speaker 1: in the evening Monday, February twenty fifth. What a mart
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  Speaker 1: this world is? Feelings, sentiments more invaluable than gold or
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  Speaker 1: precious stones? Is the coin? And what is bought contempt, discontent,
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  Speaker 1: and disappointment, unless indeed the mind be loaded with drearier memories.
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  Speaker 1: And what say the worldly to this use Spartan, pay
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  Speaker 1: away iron and lead alone, and store up your precious metal.
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  Speaker 1: But alas from nothing nothing comes, or as all things
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  Speaker 1: seem to degenerate, give lead and you will receive clay.
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  Speaker 1: The most contemptible of all lives is where you live
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  Speaker 1: in the world, and none of your passions or affections
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  Speaker 1: are brought into action. I am convinced I could not
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  Speaker 1: live thus. And as Sterne says that in solitude he
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  Speaker 1: would worship a tree, so in the world I should
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  Speaker 1: attach myself to those who bore the semblance of those
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  Speaker 1: qualities which I admire. But it is not this that
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  Speaker 1: I want. Let me love the trees, the skies, and
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  Speaker 1: the ocean, and that all encompassing spirit of which I
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  Speaker 1: may soon become a part. Let me, in my fellow creature,
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  Speaker 1: love that which is, and not fix my affection on
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  Speaker 1: a fair form endued with imaginary attributes. Where goodness, kindness,
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  Speaker 1: and talent are, let me love and admire them at
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  Speaker 1: their just rate, neither adorning nor diminishing. And above all,
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  Speaker 1: let me fearlessly descend into the remotest caverns of my
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  Speaker 1: own mind, carry the torch of self knowledge into its
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  Speaker 1: dimmest recesses. But too happy if I dislodge any evil
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  Speaker 1: spirit or enshrine a new deity in some hitherto uninhabited
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  Speaker 1: Knook read Wrongs of Women and Homer. Claire departs, walk
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  Speaker 1: with Jane and ride with t. Guiccio. T. G dines
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  Speaker 1: with us Thursday, February twenty eighth, take leave of the Argiropolis,
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  Speaker 1: walk with Shelley, ride with T. Guiccioli, read letters, Spend
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  Speaker 1: the evening at the Williams Trelawney there Friday, March first,
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  Speaker 1: an embassy walk, my first Greek lesson, walk with Edward
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  Speaker 1: in the evening work Sunday, March third, a note to
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  Speaker 1: and a visit from doctor. Not go to church, walk
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  Speaker 1: the Williams and Trelawney to dinner. Mary's experiments in the
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  Speaker 1: way of church going so knew a thing in her
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  Speaker 1: experience and so little in accordance with Jelly's habits of
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  Speaker 1: thought and action, excited some surprise and comment. Hogg, Shelley's
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  Speaker 1: early friend, who heard of it from Missus Gisborne, now
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  Speaker 1: in England, was especially shocked. In a letter to Mary,
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  Speaker 1: Missus Gisborne remarked, your friend Hogg is molto Scandalazzatto to
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  Speaker 1: hear of your weekly visits to the Piano de Soto.
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  Speaker 1: The services were held on the ground floor of the
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  Speaker 1: Tre Palazzi. The same letter asks for news of Amelia Viviani.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Gisborne had heard that she was married and feared
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  Speaker 1: she had been sacrificed to a man whom she describes
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  Speaker 1: as that insipid, sickening Italian mortal Danielli, the lawyer. She
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  Speaker 1: proceeds to say, we invited Varley an evening to meet Hogg,
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  Speaker 1: who was curious to see a man really believing in
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  Speaker 1: astrology in the nineteenth century. Varley, as usual, was not
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  Speaker 1: sparing of his predictions. We talked of Shelley without mentioning
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  Speaker 1: his name. Varley was curious and being informed by Hog
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  Speaker 1: of his exact age, but describing his person as short
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  Speaker 1: and corpulent and himself as a bon vivante. Varley amused
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  Speaker 1: us with the following remarks, your friend suffered from ill
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  Speaker 1: fortune in May or June eighteen fifteen. Vexatious affairs on
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  Speaker 1: the second and fourteenth of June, or perhaps latter end
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  Speaker 1: of May eighteen twenty the following year, disturbance about a
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  Speaker 1: lady again last April at ten at night or at noon,
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  Speaker 1: disturbance about a bouncing stout lady and others at six
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  Speaker 1: years of age, noticed by ladies and gentlemen for learning
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  Speaker 1: in July seventeen ninety nine, beginning of charges made against
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  Speaker 1: him in September eighteen hundred at noon or dusk, very
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  Speaker 1: violent charges, scrape at fourteen years of age, eternal warfare
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  Speaker 1: against parents and public opinion, and a great blow up
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  Speaker 1: every seven years till death, et cetera, et cetera. Is
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  Speaker 1: all this true and of Chapter fifteen, Part two,