Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (
August 4,
1792 –
July 8,
1822) was one of the major
English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest
lyric poets of the
English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as
Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, and
"The Masque of Anarchy." However, his major works were long visionary poems including
Alastor, Adonais, Prometheus Unbound and the
unfinished "The Triumph of Life." Shelley's unconventional life and uncompromising idealism, combined with his strong skeptical voice, made him a notorious and much denigrated figure in his own life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations of poets (including the major Victorian poets
Robert Browning,
Alfred Tennyson,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Algernon Charles Swinburne,
William Butler Yeats and
Subramanya Bharathy). He was also famous for his association with the contemporaries
John Keats and
Lord Byron. An untimely death at a young age was common to all three. He was married to the famous novelist
Mary Shelley, author of
Frankenstein and is possibly responsible for the novel as well.
Education and early works
Shelley was the son of Sir Timothy Shelley, later the 2nd
baronet of Castle Goring, and his wife Elizabeth Pilfold. He grew up in
Sussex, and he received his early education at home, tutored by Reverend Thomas Edwards of
Horsham. In 1802, he entered the Sion House Academy of
Brentford. In 1804, Shelley entered
Eton College, and on
April 10,
1810 matriculated at
University College,
Oxford . His first publication was a Gothic novel,
Zastrozzi (1810), in which he gave vent to his
atheistic worldview through the villain Zastrozzi. In the same year, Shelley, together with his sister Elizabeth, published
Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire. Whilst at Oxford, he issued a collection of verses (perhaps ostensibly burlesque but quite subversive),
Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson. A fellow collegian,
Thomas Jefferson Hogg, is thought to have been his collaborator.
In 1811, Shelley published a pamphlet
The Necessity of Atheism. This gained the attention of the university administration and he was called to appear before the college's academics. He later claimed to have refused to answer all questions about its authorship on principle. His failure to do so resulted in his being sent down from Oxford on
March 25,
1811, along with Hogg. The re-discovery in mid-2006 of Shelley's long-lost 'Poetical Essay on the existing state of things', a long, strident anti-monarchical poem printed in Oxford, gives a new dimension to the expulsion, reinforcing Hogg's implication of political motives ('an affair of party'). Shelley was given the choice to be reinstated after his father intervened, on the condition that he would have had to recant his avowed views. His refusal to do so led to a falling out with his father.
Married life
Four months after being expelled, the 19-year-old Shelley travelled to
Scotland with the 16-year-old schoolgirl
Harriet Westbrook to get married. After their marriage on
August 28,
1811, Shelley invited his college friend Hogg to share their household, which included his wife. When Harriet objected, however, Shelley abandoned this first attempt at open marriage and brought her to England's
Lake District, intending to write. Distracted by political events, he visited
Ireland shortly afterward in order to engage in radical pamphleteering. His activities earned him the unfavourable attention of the British government.
Over the next two years, Shelley wrote and published
Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem. The poem shows the influence of English philosopher
William Godwin, and much of Godwin's freethinking
radical philosophy is voiced in it. Unhappy in his nearly three-year-old marriage, Shelley often left his wife and child (Ianthe Shelley, 1813-76) alone while he visited Godwin's home and bookshop in London. It was here that he met and fell in love with Godwin's intelligent and well-educated daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (
Mary Shelley). He became enamoured when Mary made fun of his "sissyfied" name (Percy), and he quickly grew fond of his "sassy wench," which was his nickname for Mary.
In July 28, 1814, Shelley abandoned his pregnant wife and child to elope with a 16-year-old for the second time. In fact, he managed to catch two 16-year-olds at this time: when he ran away with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (author of
Frankenstein), he also invited her step-sister Jane (later Claire) Clairmont along for company. The threesome sailed to Europe, crossed
France, and settled in
Switzerland. The Shelleys would later publish an account of this adventure. After six weeks, homesick and destitute, the three young people returned to England. There they found that William Godwin, the one-time champion and practitioner of
free love, refused to speak to Mary or Shelley.
In the autumn of 1815, while living close to London with Mary and avoiding creditors, Shelley produced the verse allegory
Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude. It attracted little attention at the time, but it has now come to be recognized as his first major poem. At this point in his writing career, Shelley was deeply influenced by
Wordsworth's poetry.
Introduction to Byron
In the summer of 1816, Shelley and Mary made a second trip to
Switzerland. They were prompted to do so by Mary's stepsister
Claire Clairmont, who had commenced a liaison with
Lord Byron the previous April just before his self-exile on the continent. Byron had lost interest in Claire, and she used the opportunity of meeting the Shelleys as bait to lure him to
Geneva. The Shelleys and Byron rented neighbouring houses on the shores of
Lake Geneva. Regular conversation with Byron had an invigorating effect on Shelley's poetry. While on a boating tour the two took together, Shelley was inspired to write his
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, often considered his first significant production since
Alastor. A tour of
Chamonix in the French
Alps inspired "Mont Blanc," a difficult poem in which Shelley pondered questions of historical inevitability and the relationship between the human
mind and external
nature.
Shelley, in turn, influenced Byron's poetry. This new influence showed itself in the third part of
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which Byron was working on, as well as in
Manfred, which he wrote in the autumn of 1816. At the same time, Mary was inspired to begin writing
Frankenstein. At the end of summer, the Shelleys and Claire returned to England. Claire was pregnant with Byron's child, a fact that would have an enormous impact on Shelley's future.
Personal tragedies and second marriage
The return to England was marred with tragedy. Fanny Imlay, Mary Godwin's half-sister and a member of Godwin's household, killed herself in late autumn. In December 1816, Shelley's estranged wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine in
Hyde Park,
London. On
December 30,
1816, a few weeks after Harriet's body was recovered, Shelley and Mary Godwin were married. The marriage was intended, in part, to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet, but it was in vain: the children were handed over to foster parents by the courts.
The Shelleys took up residence in the village of
Marlow,
Buckinghamshire where a friend of Percy's,
Thomas Love Peacock, lived. Shelley took part in the literary circle that surrounded
Leigh Hunt, and during this period, he met
John Keats. Shelley's major production during this time was
Laon and Cythna, a long, narrative poem in which he attacked religion and featured a pair of incestuous lovers. It was hastily withdrawn after only a few copies were published. It was later edited and reissued as
The Revolt of Islam in 1818. Shelley also wrote two revolutionary political tracts under the
nom de plume of "The Hermit of Marlowe."
Early in 1818, the Shelleys and Claire left England in order to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron, who had taken up residence in
Venice. Contact with the older and more established poet encouraged Shelley to write once again. During the latter part of the year, he wrote
Julian and Maddalo, a lightly disguised rendering of his boat trips and conversations with Byron in Venice, finishing with a visit to a madhouse. This poem marked the appearance of Shelley's "urbane style." He then began the long verse drama
Prometheus Unbound, which features talking mountains and a petulant demon who overthrows
Zeus. Tragedy struck in 1818 and 1819, when his son Will died of fever in
Rome, and his infant daughter died during yet another household move.
The Shelleys moved around various Italian cities during these years. Shelley completed
Prometheus Unbound in Rome, and he spent the summer of 1819 writing a tragedy,
The Cenci, in
Livorno. In this year, prompted among other causes by the
Peterloo massacre, he wrote his best-known political poems:
The Masque of Anarchy and
Men of England. These were most likely his most-remembered works during the 19th century. Around this time period, he wrote the essay
The Philosophical View of Reform, which was his most thorough exposition of his political views to that date.
In 1821, inspired by the death of
John Keats, Shelley wrote the elegy
Adonais. The text of this famous poem can be found at [
1]
In 1822, Shelley arranged for
James Henry Leigh Hunt, the British poet and editor who had been one of his chief supporters in England, to come to Italy with his family. He meant for the three of them—himself, Byron and Hunt— to create a journal, which would be called
The Liberal. With Hunt as editor, their controversial writings would be disseminated, and the journal would act as a counter-blast to conservative periodicals such as
Blackwood's Magazine and
The Quarterly Review.Drowning
On
July 8,
1822, less than a month before his 30th birthday, Shelley drowned in a sudden storm while sailing back from
Livorno to
Lerici in his schooner,
Don Juan. Shelley claimed to have met his
Doppelgänger, foreboding his own death. He was returning from having set up
The Liberal with the newly-arrived Hunt. The name "Don Juan," a compliment to Byron, was chosen by Edward Trelawny, a member of the Shelley-Byron Pisan circle. However, according to Mary Shelley's testimony, Shelley changed it to "
Ariel." This annoyed Byron, who forced the painting of the words "Don Juan" on the mainsail. This offended the Shelleys, who felt that the boat was made to look much like a coal barge. The vessel, an open boat designed from a
Royal Dockyards model, was custom-built in
Genoa for Shelley. It did not capsize but sank; Mary Shelley declared in her "Note on Poems of 1822" (1839) that the design had a defect and that the boat was never seaworthy.
Many believe his death was not accidental. Some say that Shelley was depressed in those days and that he wanted to kill himself, others that he didn't know how to navigate, others believe that some pirates mistook the boat for Byron's and attacked him, and others have even more fantastical stories. No matter what, there is a mass of evidence, though scattered and contradictory, that Shelley was in fact murdered for political reasons. To begin with, in the days before he died, he was almost shot on two separate occasions. A British consul defended the shooter from the first of these two incidents, keeping him from all legal consequence. As for navigation, two other Englishmen were with him on the boat. One was a retired Navy officer and the other a boatboy; would they not know how to navigate to the nearby coast at Livorno (Leghorn)? They drowned with Shelley, but an Italian boy who was also aboard did not drown. His identity, however, has remained a mystery. The boat was found beneath the waves near the shore, and it was plainly seen that one side of the boat was rammed and staved in by a much stronger vessel. However, the life-saving raft remained unused, still attached to the boat. Had it been an accident, they would at least have tried to swim for the beach. To do this, they most likely would have removed their clothing. However, the bodies were found completely clothed, including boots. In his 'Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron', Trelawny noted that the shirt that Williams's body was clad in was 'partly drawn over the head, as if the wearer had been in the act of taking it off [...] and one boot, indicating also that he had attempted to strip.' Trelawny also relates a supposed deathbed confession by an Italian fisherman who claimed to have rammed Shelley's boat in order to rob him, a plan confounded by the rapid sinking of the vessel. A large amount of cash and valuables was found untouched in the boat. On March 28th, 2006, a claim was made in a scholarly magazine at a University in the city of Kragujevac, Serbia that there is enough evidence to accuse the British establishment of the assassination of Shelley. There was definitely plenty of political activism on Shelley's part that the British government wished to silence; the contents of his "Sonnet: England in 1819" is evidence enough of such works. The day following Shelley's death, the Tory newspaper "The Courier" gloated "Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned,
now he knows whether there is God or no." (See: Blunden, Edmund,
Shelley, A Life Story, 1965, London, Oxford University Press.)
Shelley's body washed ashore, and later, in keeping with his unconventional views, was cremated on the beach near
Viareggio. "The Cremation of Shelley", by Louis-Edward Fournier, is a painting of the scene at Shelley's funeral pyre. Unfortunately, this painting is known to be inaccurate for several reasons. In pre-Victorian times, it was an English custom that women were not to attend funerals for reasons of health. Mary Shelley did not attend the funeral, but she was featured in this painting, kneeling at the left-hand side of the canvas.
Shelley's heart was snatched from the funeral pyre by Edward Trelawny. It was kept by Mary Shelley until her dying day, while his ashes were interred in the
Protestant Cemetery, Rome under a tower in the city walls. A reclining statue of Shelley's body washed up on the shore, created by the sculptor
Edward Onslow Ford, can be found at
University College, Oxford as the centrepiece of the
Shelley Memorial there.
Advocacy for vegetarianism
Both Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley were strong advocates of
vegetarianism. Shelley wrote several essays on the subject, the most prominent of which being "A Vindication of Natural Diet" and "On the Vegetable System of Diet".
Shelley wrote: "If the use of animal food be, in consequence, subversive to the peace of human society, how unwarrantable is the injustice and the barbarity which is exercised toward these miserable victims. They are called into existence by human artifice that they may drag out a short and miserable existence of slavery and disease, that their bodies may be mutilated, their social feelings outraged. It were much better that a sentient being should never have existed, than that it should have existed only to endure unmitigated misery."
Shelley was a strong advocate for social justice for the lower classes. He witnessed many of the same mistreatments occurring in the domestication and slaughtering of animals, and he became a fighter for the rights of all living creatures that he saw being treated unjustly.
Ancestry
Shelley was a seventeenth generation descendant of
Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel through his son
John Fitzalan,
Marshall of England (d. 1379). John was married to
Baroness Eleanor Maltravers (1345 –
January 10,
1404/
1405). Their eldest son succeeded them as
John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel (1365–1391). He was himself married to
Elizabeth le Despenser (d.
April 1/
April 10,
1408). His great great grandson is Robert Muth.
Elizabeth was a great-granddaughter of
Hugh the younger Despenser by his second son Edward Despenser of
Buckland (d.
September 30,
1342). Her parents were Sir Edward Despenser, 1st Lord Despenser (
March 24,
1336 –
November 11,
1375) and Elizabeth Burghersh (d.
July 26,
1409).
The eldest son of Elizabeth by Baron Maltravers was
John Fitzalan, 13th Earl of Arundel. Their third son was Sir
Thomas Fitzalan of Beechwood. His own daughter Eleanor Fitzalan was married to Sir Thomas Browne of Beechworth Castle. They had four sons and one daughter, Katherine Browne, who in 1471 married Humphrey Sackville of Buckhurst (1426 –
January 24,
1488).
Their oldest son Richard Sackville of Buckhurst (1472 –
July 18,
1524) was married in 1492 to Isabel Dyggs. Their oldest son Sir John Sackville of Buckhurst (1492 –
October 5,
1557) was married to Margaret Boleyn. Margaret was a sister to
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire. His younger brother Richard Sackville had a less prominent marriage which resulted in the birth of Anne Sackville. Anne herself was later married to Henry Shelley.
Henry became father to a younger Henry Shelley. This younger Henry had at least three sons. The youngest of them Richard Shelley was later married to Joan Fuste, daughter of John Fuste from Ichingfield. Their grandson John Shelley of
Fen Place was married himself to Helen Bysshe, daughter of Roger Bysshe. Their son Timothy Shelley of Fen Place (born c. 1700) married
widow Johanna Plum from
New York City. Timothy and Johanna were the great-grandparents of Percy.
Family
Percy was born to Sir Timothy Shelley (
September 7,
1753 –
April 24,
1844) and his wife Elizabeth Pilfold following their marriage in October, 1791. His father was son and heir to Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st
Baronet of
Castle Goring (
June 21,
1731 –
January 6,
1815) by his wife Mary Catherine Michell (d.
November 7,
1760). His mother was daughter of Charles Pilfold of
Effingham. Through his paternal grandmother Percy was great-grandson to
Reverend Theobald Michell of
Horsham.
He was the eldest of six children. His younger siblings were:
*John Shelley of
Avington House (
March 15,
1806 –
November 11,
1866; married on
March 24,
1827 Elizabeth Bowen (d.
November 28,
1889)
*Mary Shelley
*Elizabeth Shelley (d. 1831)
*Hellen Shelley (d.
May 10,
1885)
*Margaret Shelley (d.
July 9,
1887)
Descendants
Three children survived Shelley: Ianthe and Charles, his daughter and son by Harriet; and Percy Florence, his son by Mary. Charles died of
tuberculosis in 1826. Percy Florence, who eventually inherited the baronetcy in 1844, died without children. The only lineal descendants of the poet are therefore the children of Ianthe.
Ianthe Eliza Shelley was married in 1837 to Edward Jeffries Esdaile. The marriage resulted in the birth of two sons and a daughter. Ianthe died in 1876.
Shelley's son Percy Florence Shelley, and his wife Jane, adopted Jane's niece Bessie Florence Gibson. Bessie married Leopold James Yorke Campbell Scarlett - Lord Abinger, and so the Scarletts/Abingers became heirs to the Shelleys. Several members of the Scarlett family were born at Percy Florence's seaside home 'Boscombe Manor', in Bournemouth. The 1891 census shows Lady Shelley living at Boscombe Manor with several great nephews.
Shelley's mainstream following did not develop until a generation after his passing. This differed from
Lord Byron, who was popular among all classes during his lifetime despite his radical views. For decades after his death, Shelley was mainly only appreciated by the major Victorian poets, including Tennyson, the
pre-Raphaelites, the
socialists and the
labour movement.
*(1811)
The Necessity of Atheism*(1813)
Queen Mab*(1815)
Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude*(1816)
Mont Blanc*(1817)
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty*(1818)
Ozymandias (
text)
*(1819)
The Cenci*(1819)
Ode to the West Wind (
text)
*(1819)
The Masque of Anarchy*(1819)
Men of England*(1819)
The Witch of Atlas*(1820)
Prometheus Unbound*(1820)
To a Skylark*(1821)
Adonais*(1821)
Hellas*(1821)
A Defence of Poetry (first published in 1840)
*(1822)
The Triumph of Life (unfinished, published in 1824 after Shelley died)
*
Romanticism*
Ephebophilia*
Trelawny Recovers Shelley's Body. Trelawny's account of searching for Shelley and his companions after the storm in which they perished.
*
Trelawny Burns Shelley's Body. Trelawny's account of overseeing the exhumation and burning of Shelley's body.
*
Free ebook of Percy Bysshe Shelley at
Project Gutenberg*
Free ebook of Percy Bysshe Shelley by John Addington Symonds at
Project Gutenberg*
Selected Poems of Shelley*A talk on Shelley's politics (MP3) by
Paul Foot of the British
Socialist Workers Party:
part 1,
part 2*
A pedigree of the Shelley family
