The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Volume Ii Part 10

It seems in prospect a short labour to write a play, and a long one to write a work consisting of volumes; and as much may be gained by the one as by the other. But as there is no royal road to geometry, so there is no idle and self-indulgent activity that leads to literary eminence.

As to the idea that you have no literary talent, for G.o.d's sake, do not give way to such diseased imaginations. You have, fortunately, ascertained that at a very early period. What would you have done if you had pa.s.sed through my ordeal? I did not venture to face the public till I was seven and twenty, and for ten years after that period could not contrive to write anything that anybody would read; yet even I have not wholly miscarried.

Much of this was shrewd, and undeniable, but the _wish_ to write for the stage continued to haunt Mary, and recurred two years later when she saw Kean play _Oth.e.l.lo_. To the end of her life she expressed regret that she had not tried her hand at a tragedy.

Meanwhile, besides her own novel, she was at no loss for literary jobs and literary occupation; her friends took care of that. Her pen and her powers were for ever at their service, and they never showed any scruple in working the willing horse. Her disinterested integrity made her an invaluable representative in business transactions. The affairs of the _Examiner_ newspaper, edited in England by Leigh Hunt's brother John, were in an unsatisfactory condition; and there was much disagreement between the two brothers as to both pecuniary and literary arrangements. Mary had to act as arbiter between the two, softening the harsh and ungracious expressions which, in his annoyance, were used by John; looking after Leigh Hunt's interests, and doing all she could to make clear to him the complicated details of the concern. In this she was aided by Vincent Novello, the eminent musician, and intimate friend of the Hunts, to whom she had had a letter of introduction on arriving in Italy. The Novellos had a large, old-fas.h.i.+oned house on Shacklewell Green; they were the very soul of hospitality and kindness, and the centre of a large circle of literary and artistic friends, they had made Sh.e.l.ley's acquaintance in the days when the Leigh Hunts lived at the Vale of Health in Hampstead, and they now welcomed his widow, as well as Mrs. Williams, doing all in their power to shed a little cheerfulness over these two broken and melancholy lives.

"Very, very fair both ladies were," writes Mrs. Cowden Clarke, then Mary Victoria Novello, who in her charming _Recollections of Writers_ has given us a pretty sketch of Mary Sh.e.l.ley as she then appeared to a "damsel approaching towards the age of 'sweet sixteen,' privileged to consider herself one of the grown-up people."

"Always observant as a child," she writes, "I had now become a greater observer than ever; and large and varied was the pleasure I derived from my observation of the interesting men and women around me at this time of my life. Certainly Mary Wollstonecraft G.o.dwin Sh.e.l.ley was the central figure of attraction then to my young-girl sight; and I looked upon her with ceaseless admiration,--for her personal graces, as well as for her literary distinction.

"The daughter of William G.o.dwin and Mary Wollstonecraft G.o.dwin, the wife of Sh.e.l.ley, the auth.o.r.ess of _Frankenstein_, had for me a concentration of charm and interest that perpetually excited and engrossed me while she continued a visitor at my parents' house."

Elsewhere she describes

... "Her well-shaped, golden-haired head, almost always a little bent and drooping; her marble-white shoulders and arms statuesquely visible in the perfectly plain black velvet dress, which the customs of that time allowed to be cut low, and which her own taste adopted (for neither she nor her sister-in-sorrow ever wore the conventional 'widow's weeds' and 'widow's cap'); her thoughtful, earnest eyes; her short upper lip and intellectually curved mouth, with a certain close-compressed and decisive expression while she listened, and a relaxation into fuller redness and mobility when speaking; her exquisitely formed, white, dimpled, small hands, with rosy palms, and plumply commencing fingers, that tapered into tips as slender and delicate as those in a Vand.y.k.e portrait."

And though it was not in the power of these kind genial people to change Mary's destiny, or even to modify very sensibly the tenour of her inner life and thought, still their friends.h.i.+p was a solace to her; she was grateful for it, and did her utmost to respond with cheerfulness to their kindly efforts on her behalf. To Leigh Hunt (from whom depression, when it pa.s.sed into querulousness, met with almost as little quarter as it did from G.o.dwin) she wrote--

I am not always in spirits, but if my friends say that I am good, contrive to fancy that I am so, and so continue to love yours most truly,

MARY Sh.e.l.lEY.

The news of Lord Byron's death in Greece, which in May of this year created so profound a sensation in England, fell on Mary's heart as a fresh calamity. She had small reason, personally, to esteem or regret him.

Circ.u.mstances had made her only too painfully familiar with his worst side, and she might well have borne him more than one serious grudge. But he was a.s.sociated in her mind with Sh.e.l.ley, and with early, happy days, and now he, like Sh.e.l.ley, was dead and gone, and his faults faded into distance, while all that was great and might have been n.o.ble in him--the hero that should have been rather than the man that was--survived, and stood out in greater clearness and beauty, surrounded by the tearful halo of memory. The tidings reached her at a time of unusual--it afterwards seemed of prophetic--dejection.

_Journal, May 14._--This, then, is my English life; and thus I am to drag on existence; confined in my small room, friendless. Each day I string me to the task. I endeavour to read and write, my ideas stagnate and my understanding refuses to follow the words I read; day after day pa.s.ses while torrents fall from the dark clouds, and my mind is as gloomy as this odious sky. Without human friends I must attach myself to natural objects; but though I talk of the country, what difference shall I find in this miserable climate. Italy, dear Italy, murderess of those I love and of all my happiness, one word of your soft language coming unawares upon me, has made me shed bitter tears.

When shall I hear it again spoken, when see your skies, your trees, your streams? The imprisonment attendant on a succession of rainy days has quite overcome me. G.o.d knows I strive to be content, but in vain.

Amidst all the depressing circ.u.mstances that weigh on me, none sinks deeper than the failure of my intellectual powers; nothing I write pleases me. Whether I am just in this, or whether the want of Sh.e.l.ley's (oh, my loved Sh.e.l.ley, it is some alleviation only to write your name!) encouragement I can hardly tell, but it seems to me as if the lovely and sublime objects of nature had been my best inspirers, and, wanting them, I am lost. Although so utterly miserable at Genoa, yet what reveries were mine as I looked on the aspect of the ravine, the sunny deep and its boats, the promontories clothed in purple light, the starry heavens, the fireflies, the uprising of spring. Then I could think, and my imagination could invent and combine, and self became absorbed in the grandeur of the universe I created. Now my mind is a blank, a gulf filled with formless mist.

The Last Man! Yes, I may well describe that solitary being's feelings: I feel myself as the last relic of a beloved race, my companions extinct before me.

And thus has the acc.u.mulating sorrow of days and weeks been forced to find a voice, because the word _lucena_ met my eyes, and the idea of lost Italy sprang in my mind. What graceful lamps those are, though of base construction and vulgar use; I thought of bringing one with me; I am glad I did not. I will go back only to have a _lucena_.

If I told people so they would think me mad, and yet not madder than they seem to be now, when I say that the blue skies and verdure-clad earth of that dear land are necessary to my existence.

If there be a kind spirit attendant on me in compensation for these miserable days, let me only dream to-night that I am in Italy! Mine own Sh.e.l.ley, what a horror you had (fully sympathised in by me) of returning to this miserable country! To be here without you is to be doubly exiled, to be away from Italy is to lose you twice. Dearest, why is my spirit thus losing all energy? Indeed, indeed, I must go back, or your poor utterly lost Mary will never dare think herself worthy to visit you beyond the grave.

_May 15._--This then was the coming event that cast its shadow on my last night's miserable thoughts. Byron had become one of the people of the grave--that miserable conclave to which the beings I best loved belong. I knew him in the bright days of youth, when neither care nor fear had visited me--before death had made me feel my mortality, and the earth was the scene of my hopes. Can I forget our evening visits to Diodati? our excursions on the lake, when he sang the Tyrolese Hymn, and his voice was harmonised with winds and waves. Can I forget his attentions and consolations to me during my deepest misery?--Never.

Beauty sat on his countenance and power beamed from his eye. His faults being, for the most part, weaknesses, induced one readily to pardon them.

Albe--the dear, capricious, fascinating Albe--has left this desert world! G.o.d grant I may die young! A new race is springing about me. At the age of twenty-six I am in the condition of an aged person. All my old friends are gone, I have no wish to form new. I cling to the few remaining; but they slide away, and my heart fails when I think by how few ties I hold to the world. "Life is the desert and the solitude--how populous the grave"--and that region--to the dearer and best beloved beings which it has torn from me, now adds that resplendent spirit whose departure leaves the dull earth dark as midnight.

_June 18._--What a divine night it is! I have just returned from Kentish Town; a calm twilight pervades the clear sky; the lamp-like moon is hung out in heaven, and the bright west retains the dye of sunset. If such weather would continue, I should write again; the lamp of thought is again illumined in my heart, and the fire descends from heaven that kindles it. Such, my loved Sh.e.l.ley, now ten years ago, at this season, did we first meet, and these were the very scenes--that churchyard, with its sacred tomb, was the spot where first love shone in your dear eyes. The stars of heaven are now your country, and your spirit drinks beauty and wisdom in those spheres, and I, beloved, shall one day join you. Nature speaks to me of you. In towns and society I do not feel your presence; but there you are with me, my own, my unalienable!

I feel my powers again, and this is, of itself, happiness; the eclipse of winter is pa.s.sing from my mind. I shall again feel the enthusiastic glow of composition, again, as I pour forth my soul upon paper, feel the winged ideas arise, and enjoy the delight of expressing them.

Study and occupation will be a pleasure, and not a task, and this I shall owe to sight and companions.h.i.+p of trees and meadows, flowers and suns.h.i.+ne.

England, I charge thee, dress thyself in smiles for my sake! I will celebrate thee, O England! and cast a glory on thy name, if thou wilt for me remove thy veil of clouds, and let me contemplate the country of my Sh.e.l.ley and feel in communion with him!

I have been gay in company before, but the inspiriting sentiment of the heart's peace I have not felt before to-night; and yet, my own, never was I so entirely yours. In sorrow and grief I wish sometimes (how vainly!) for earthly consolation. At a period of pleasing excitement I cling to your memory alone, and you alone receive the overflowing of my heart.

Beloved Sh.e.l.ley, good-night. One pang will seize me when I think, but I will only think, that thou art where I shall be, and conclude with my usual prayer,--from the depth of my soul I make it,--May I die young!

TRELAWNY TO MRS. Sh.e.l.lEY.

MISSOLONGHI, _30th April 1824_.

MY DEAR MARY--My brain is already dizzy with business and writing. I am transformed from the listless being you knew me to one of all energy and fire. Not content with the Camp, I must needs be a great diplomatist, I am again, dear Mary, in my _element_, and playing no _second_ part in Greece. If I live, the outcast Reginald will cut his name out on the Grecian hills, or set on its plains. I have had the merit of discovering and bringing out a n.o.ble fellow, a gallant _soldier_, and a man of most wonderful mind, with as little bigotry as Sh.e.l.ley, and nearly as much imagination; he is a glorious being. I have lived with him--he calls me brother--wants to connect me with his family. We have been inseparable now for eight months--fought side by side. But I am sick at heart with losing my friend,[8]--for still I call him so, you know, with all his weakness, you know I loved him. I cannot live with men for years without feeling--it is weak, it is want of judgment, of philosophy,--but this is my weakness. Dear Mary, if you love me,--_write_--write--write, for my heart yearns after you. I certainly must have you and Jane out. I am serious.

This is the place after my own heart, and I am certain of our good cause triumphing. Believe nothing you hear; Gamba will tell you everything about me--about Lord Byron, but he knows nothing of Greece--nothing; nor does it appear any one else does by what I see published. Colonel Stanhope is here; he is a good fellow, and does much good. The loan is achieved, and that sets the business at rest, but it is badly done--the Commissioners are bad. A word as to your wooden G.o.d, Mavrocordato. He is a miserable Jew, and I hope, ere long, to see his head removed from his worthless and heartless body. He is a mere shuffling soldier, an aristocratic brute--wants Kings and Congresses; a poor, weak, shuffling, intriguing, cowardly fellow; so no more about him. Dear Mary, dear Jane, I am serious, turn you thoughts this way. No more a nameless being, I am now a Greek Chieftain, willing and able to shelter and protect you; and thus I will continue, or follow our friends to wander over some other planet, for I have nearly exhausted this.--Your attached

TRELAWNY.

Care of John Hunt, Esq., _Examiner_ Office, Catherine Street, London.

Tell me of Clare, do write me of her! This is written with the other in desperate haste. I have received a letter from you, one from Jane, and none from Hunt.

This letter reached Mary at about the same time as the fatal news.

Trelawny also sent her his narrative of the facts (now so well known to every one) of Byron's death. It had been intended for Hobhouse, but the writer changed his mind and entrusted it to Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley instead, adding, "Hunt may pick something at it if he please."

Trelawny had been Byron's friend, and clearly as he saw the Pilgrim's faults and deficiencies, there would seem no doubt that he genuinely admired him, in spite of all. But his mercurial, impulsive temperament, ever in extremes, was liable to the most sudden revulsions of feeling, and retrospect hardened his feeling as much as it softened Mary Sh.e.l.ley's towards the great man who was gone. Only four months later he was writing again, from Livadia--

I have much to say to you, Mary, both as regards myself and the part I am enacting here. I would give much that I could, as in times dead, look in on you in the evening of every day and consult with you on its occurrences, as I used to do in Italy. It is curious, but, considering our characters, natural enough, that Byron and I took the diametrically opposite roads in Greece--I in Eastern, he in Western.

He took part with, and became the paltry tool of the weak, imbecile, cowardly being calling himself Prince Mavrocordato. Five months he dozed away. By the G.o.ds! the lies that are said in his praise urge one to speak the truth. It is well for his name, and better for Greece, that he is dead. With the aid of his name, his fame, his talents, and his fortune, he might have been a tower of strength to Greece, instead of which the little he did was in favour of the aristocrats, to destroy the republic, and smooth the road for a foreign King. But he is dead, and I now feel my face burn with shame that so weak and ign.o.ble a soul could so long have influenced me. It is a degrading reflection, and ever will be. I wish he had lived a little longer, that he might have witnessed how I would have soared above him here, how I would have triumphed over his mean spirit. I would do much to see and talk to you, but as I am now too much irritated to disclose the real state of things, I will not mislead you by false statements.

With this fine flourish was enclosed a "Description of the Cavern Fortress of Mount Parna.s.sus," which he was commanding (and of which a full account is given in his _Recollections_), and then followed a P.S. to this effect--

DEAR MARY--Will you make an article of this, as Leigh Hunt calls it, and request his brother to publish it in the _Examiner_, which will very much oblige me.

FROM MARY Sh.e.l.lEY TO TRELAWNY.

28th July 1824.

So, dear Trelawny, you remember still poor Mary Sh.e.l.ley; thank you for your remembrance, and a thousand times for your kind letter. It is delightful to feel that absence does not diminish your affection, excellent, warm-hearted friend, remnant of our happy days, of my vagabond life in beloved Italy, our companion in prosperity, our comforter in sorrow. You will not wonder that the late loss of Lord Byron makes me cling with greater zeal to those dear friends who remain to me. He could hardly be called a friend, but, connected with him in a thousand ways, admiring his talents, and (with all his faults) feeling affection for him, it went to my heart when, the other day, the hea.r.s.e that contained his lifeless form--a form of beauty which in life I often delighted to behold--pa.s.sed my windows going up Highgate Hill on his last journey to the last seat of his ancestors.

Your account of his last moments was infinitely interesting to me.

Going about a fortnight ago to the house where his remains lay, I found there Fletcher and Lega--Lega looking a most preposterous rogue,--Fletcher I expect to call on me when he returns from Nottingham. From a few words he imprudently let fall, it would seem that his Lord spoke of Clare in his last moments, and of his wish to do something for her, at a time when his mind, vacillating between consciousness and delirium, would not permit him to do anything. Did Fletcher mention this to you? It seems that this doughty Leporello speaks of his Lord to strangers with the highest respect; more than he did a year ago,--the best, the most generous, the most wronged of peers,--the notion of his leading an irregular life,--quite a false one. Lady B. sent for Fletcher; he found her in a fit of pa.s.sionate grief, but perfectly implacable, and as much resolved never to have united herself again to him as she was when she first signed their separation. Mrs. Claremont (the governess) was with her.

His death, as you may guess, made a great sensation here, which was not diminished by the destruction of his Memoirs, which he wrote and gave to Moore, and which were burned by Mrs. Leigh and Hobhouse. There was not much in them, I know, for I read them some years ago at Venice, but the world fancied it was to have a confession of the hidden feelings of one concerning whom they were always pa.s.sionately curious. Moore was by no means pleased: he is now writing a life of him himself, but it is conjectured that, notwithstanding he had the MS. so long in his possession, he never found time to read it. I breakfasted with him about a week ago, and he is anxious to get materials for his work. I showed him your letter on the subject of Lord Byron's death, and he wishes very much to obtain from you any anecdote or account you would like to send. If you know anything that ought to be known, or feel inclined to detail anything that you may remember worthy of record concerning him, perhaps you will communicate with Moore. You have often said that you wished to keep up our friend's name in the world, and if you still entertain the same feeling, no way is more obvious than to a.s.sist Moore, who asked me to make this request. You can write to him through me or addressed to Longmans....

Here then we are, Jane and I, in Kentish Town.... We live near each other now, and, seeing each other almost daily, for ever dwell on one subject.... The country about here is really pretty; lawny uplands, wooded parks, green lanes, and gentle hills form agreeable and varying combinations. If we had orange sunsets, cloudless noons, fireflies, large halls, etc. etc., I should not find the scenery amiss, and yet I can attach myself to nothing here; neither among the people, though some are good and clever, nor to the places, though they be pretty.

Jane is my chosen companion and only friend. I am under a cloud, and cannot form near acquaintances among that cla.s.s whose manners and modes of life are agreeable to me, and I think myself fortunate in having one or two pleasing acquaintances among literary people, whose society I enjoy without dreaming of friends.h.i.+p. My child is in excellent health; a fine, tall, handsome boy.

And then for money and the rest of those necessary annoyances, the means of getting at the necessaries of life; Jane's affairs are yet unsettled....