Letters from Percy Bysshe Shelley to William Godwin

LETTERS

TO

WILLIAM GODWIN,

VOL. II.

LETTERS

FROM

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

TO

WILLIAM GODWIN.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

1891.
London : Privately Printed.

{Not for Sale.)

CONTENTS.

Vol. IL

LETTER XVIII.

Bishopgate.

Wednesday, 2^1 h January, i8i6 . 3

LETTER XIX.

Bishopgate.

Saturday, 28M January, 1816 . . 9

LETTER XX.

I, Garden Court, Temple.

Friday, i6th February, 18 16 . . 12

LETTER XXI.

London.

Saturday, 17M February, i8i6 , . 15

LETTER XXII.

Bishopgate.

Sunday, 18M February, 18 16 . . 16
VOL. H. b

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE
LETTER XXIII.

Bishopgate.

Wednesday, 21 st February, 18 1 6 . 20

LETTER XXIV.
Bishopgate.
Monday, 26th February, 18 16 . . 25

LETTER XXV.

IT,^ Norfolk St., London.

Wednesday, 6th March, 18 16 . . 33

LETTER XXVI.

13, Norfolk St., London.

Thursday, 'jth March, 181 6 . . . 37

LETTER XXVIl.

London.

Saturday, ()th March, 1816 . . 41

LETTER XXVIII.

13, Norfolk St., London.

Saturday ^ i6th March, 1816 . . . 44

LETTER XXIX.

13, Norfolk St., London.

Thursday, 21 st March, 18 16 . . 46

LETTER XXX.

26, Marchmont St., London.

Friday, 29M March, 1816 . . . 48

CONTENTS.

vii

PAGE

LETTER XXXI.

Dover.

Friday, ird May, 1816 . . .

. 5»

LETTER XXXII.

Evian, Savoie.

Sunday, 2^rd Jtme, 18 16 . .

. 57

LETTER XXXIII.

Geneva.

Wednesday, I'jth July, 1816

. 62

LETTER XXXIV.

5, Abbey Church Yard, Bath.
Thursday, ^rd October, 1816 . . 65

LETTER XXXV.

Bath.

Saturday, 2\th November, 1816 . . 68

LETTER XXXVI.

Great Marlow.

Sunday, gth March, 18 17 . . . 71

LETTER XXXVII.
Great Marlow.
Sunday, 22nd March, 181 7 . . . 73

LETTER XXXVIII.

Great Marlow.

Saturday, 1st December, 18 1 7 . . 76

viii CONTENTS.

PACE
LETTER XXXIX,

Great Marlow.

Friday, "jih December, 1817 . . . 79

LETTER XL.

Great Marlow.

Tuesday, nth December, 1817 . . ZS

LETTER XLL

Bagni Di Lucca.

Saturday, 2^th July, i8i8 ... 92

LETTER XLIL

Pisa.

Monday, ith August, 1820 ... 97

LETTERS

VOL. II.

LETTERS TO
WILLIAM GODWIN.

LETTER XVIII.

BiSHOPGATE,

/anuary 2^thy i8i6.
[Wednesday. 1

Sir,

Longdill told me a week ago
that he was then going into the country
for ten days. Relying on your in-
formation, however, I have written to
him, requesting that he will immediately
see Whitton, inform him of my dis-
satisfaction on the subject of his delay,
and extract some satisfactory answer.
This he was to have done ten days ago.
At least until the result of this mea-
sure is known to me, I am unwilling

4 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

to excite suspicions in Longdill that I
am in treaty for borrowing money on
annuity. The mode of address which
you suggest would undoubtedly appear
unnatural to me. I might destroy L.'s
confidence in the regularity and pru-
dence of my conduct at a time when
perhaps the whole success of the affair
with my father depends on its pre-
servation.

Hay ward in November was profuse
in his professions both of willingness
and ability to procure me money on
annuity. If I wanted ;^i,ooo he said
that he could readily procure the sum.
He knew at that period the uncertainty
of the negotiations with my father.
Perhaps he may believe that the
chances are now multiplied against the
probability of its accomplishment. At
least, it appears to me, that the
additional security which he would
feel from your assertions that the in-
terest was safe, may be considered

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 5

sufficient to overbalance these con-
tingencies. I feel unwilling, until you
shall have urged him on this point,
and extorted from him a declaration
whether in the last resort he would
refuse to serve you by negotiating the
loan, to accede to the doubtful and
difficult measure of obtaining the
letters to which I have alluded, from
Longdill. Add to which, it is very
doubtful if they would, when procured,
be serviceable or satisfactory.

A Mr. Bryan[t], a Sussex Man,
has written to me to know whether
I would sell the reversion of a small
estate in that county, on terms of 5
per cent. I have replied, that I can-
not do so, being under engagement to
sell the whole estate to my father ; but,
if this engagement should be annulled, I
should be glad to listen to his proposal.

He writes in answer, that " he could
find me purchasers at a fair price for
several things." He says he dines

VOL. II. c

6 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

every day, during term, at Anderton's
coffee house. Fleet Street. If you
entertain any doubt of Hayward, per-
haps you had better see this Bryant, or
I will do so, or write to him as ap-
pears good to you. But I am certainly
anxious that you should urge Hayward
to a decisive and immediate reply. I
will spare no pains, or any danger
which it is not evident ruin to incur,
but that you shall have the money in
March. If Hayward fails, do not fear
an ultimate failure. I am persuaded
that my situation is now widely dif-
ferent, and far more commanding and
respectable than when I with difficulty
procured money to live.

You seem strangely to have mis-
understood the affair in April. Cer-
tainly I did fix on ;^i,20o as your
contingent from the sum then raised,
on purpose to apply ;£"2oo to my own
demands ; which I should have been
unable so to apply without your

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 7

co-operation, unless indeed instead of
;£'i,ooo I had given you only ;^'"8oo,
which your refusal to have co-operated
in this manner would have compelled
me, in self defence, however reluct-
antly, to do. I thought you under-
stood and acquiesced in this arrange-
ment. There is nothing remarkable
in this foolish mistake but the
unskilfulness or unfaithfulness of our
interpreters, and it is well that such
imperfect intercourse did not, as in
many instances it might, have pro-
duced more serious errors.

I should come to town willingly on
the business of this loan, when it
appears that my presence is required.
If Hayward eventually refuses to ne-
gotiate it for us, then I certainly think
some personal discussion is needed-
I could perhaps then make clear
to you the reasonableness of my re-
luctance to apply to Longdill. But
I shall leave this subject henceforth

8 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

entirely to your own feelings. Prob-
ably my feelings on such an oc-
casion would not be less distressing
than your own. So far as those feel-
ings are concerned, I should certainly
reluctantly entertain the idea of such
an interview. But I would not
sacrifice anything essential to the
raising of this money to exempt my-
self from the sensations, however
painful, which could not fail to arise on
meeting a man, who having been once
my friend, would receive me with cold
looks and haughty words.

Frances and Mrs. Godwin will
probably be glad to hear that Mary
has safely recovered from a very
favourable confinement, and that her
child is well.

P. B. Shelley.

Addressed outside.^
W. Godwin, Esq.,

41 Skinner Street,
Snotv Hill,
Lottdon.

LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XIX.

BiSHOPGATE,

January 28M, 1816.
{Saiurday.']

Sir,

A letter which I received from Long-
dill by yesterday's post, decides, I fear,
the question of applying to him for the
letters of Whitton. I will briefly re-
capitulate the contents. It says that in
compliance with my requests he has
applied to Whitton. He tells me that
W. has by no means been idle in the
affair. My father wishes to bring the
matter to bear, but he judges it neces-
sary previously to ask the Lord Chan-
cellor's advice. This I^ongdill also
considers essential even to my interest.
The bill to be given in is now before

VOL. II. D

lo LETTERS TO GODWIN,

counsel. Longdill's expression is, that
it will cause considerable delay. It is
evident now that my father's intentions
are sincere. What time the Chancery
affair will take we cannot know.

This much however is certain, that
my Father desires to settle the thing,
however awkward and long are the
measures he takes for that settlement.

The arrangement in the spring could
not be completed without a Chancery
suit, though it is certain that there is not
the smallest ground for a similar pro-
ceeding in the present instance. In
all probability it is of a much simpler
nature. I cannot obviously now procure
Whitton's former letters. But surely
Hayward can substantiate if he would
take the trouble to inquire in an under-
hand and professional manner the facts
which I now relate. These facts I
imagine are sufficient to satisfy him if
he only requires such satisfaction as he
was contented with last autumn.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. ii

I forgot to answer one question.
Nash's suit is nominally instituted by
me, but really by my father, and for
his interests and at his expense.

P. B. Shelley.

Since I wrote the former page, I have
discovered Longdill's letter, which I
thought I had mislaid. I enclose it for
you to read and if you please to use.

Of course if you show it to Longdill
you will use due caution about the last
paragraph of it.

[Addressed outside. 1

W. Godwin, Esq.^
41, Skinner Street,

Snow Hill,

London.

12 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XX.

6, Garden Court,

Temple, [London].

February i6th, 1816.
[Friday. "l

Sir,

In the course of a few weeks I shall
certainly leave the neighbourhood of
London, and possibly even execute my
design of settling in Italy. I have felt
it necessary to decide on some such
measure in consequence of an event
which, I fear, will make even a more
calamitous change in your prospects.

It is the opinion of the lawyers that
my father ought not to complete the
intended affair with me and that he
cannot arrange any other. If you do
not feel it necessary to explain with me
in person on this subject I can state the

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 13

details in a letter. Such however is the
bare fact. The impossibility of effect-
ing anything by post obit, or sale of
reversion, has been already adverted to
by me. I am far from retracting any
engagement made for your benefit, but
I cannot refrain from suspecting under
these new circumstances how far I am
justified even by my sincere zeal for
your interests in signing the deed which,
Hayward informs me, is in progress.
You will beheve that I am the more
disinterested in what I say when I
inform you that my own difficulties
suspended by the intended settlement
now come upon me with tenfold weight;
so that I have every prospect of want-
ing money for my domestic expenditure.
I intended to have left town at 2
o'clock to-morrow. I will not do so,
if you wish to see me. In that latter
case send a letter by a porter^ to
Mr. Hogg's, of Garden Court, Temple,
making your own appointment.

VOL. II. E

14 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

Yet I do not know that it is best for
you to see me. On me it would inflict
deep dejection. But I would not refuse
anything which I can do, so that I may
benefit a man whom, in spite of his
wrongs to me, I respect and love.

Besides I shall certainly not delay to
depart from the haunts of men. Your
interests may suffer from your own fas-
tidiousness, they shall not be injured
by my wayward hopes and disappoint-
ments.

I shall write to you by Sunday's post,
if I receive no answer to this letter.

Jane of course is with you. She is
uninformed as to the latest and most
decisive particulars relating to the over-
throw of my hopes.

P. B. Shelley.
Friday night.

[Addressed outside.l

William Godwin, Esq.,
41, Skinner Street,

Sncnv Hill.

LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXI.

London.
February i*jth, 1816.*
[Saturday. ]
Sir,

I HASTEN to relieve your anxiety. I
have seen Hayward and arranged with
him to sign the deed at 12 o'clock next
Monday week. In what I have said to
him, as you will discover, I have taken
every imaginable precaution that you
should not be disappointed.

P. B. S[helley].
Addressed outside."]

William Godwin^ Esq.,

41, Skinner Street ^

Snow Hill.

* This letter is endorsed (at the head) by Jane Clair-
mont, as follows : —

" The date of this letter is written in Godwin's hand-
" writing, — most probably to remember by the date
" when the deed would be signed. — CI. Clairmont."

1 6 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXII.

BiSHOPGATE.

February i^th, i8i6.
Sunday.

Sir,

You will have received my letter in
answer to yours sent to Garden Court
in the course of Saturday evening.
This will entirely satisfy you as to my
intentions about the deed. — I promised
you further details by this post on the
subject of the affair with my father.
It is the opinion of the most eminent
lawyers that my father cannot become
a party to the projected arrangements
without forfeiting the property devised
by my grandfather's will. In con-
sequence of this opinion, and for the
purpose of ascertaining some other

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 17

point not necessarily connected with
my immediate interest, they recommend
a suit in Chancery. They are desirous
that their own opinion, however well
founded, should be confronted with
the Lord Chancellor's. It is moreover
the duty of one of the Council, Mr.
Butler, as trustee, to be extremely
cautious in his conduct. Longdill en-
tertains no doubt that the issue of this
appeal will be unfavourable to my
views. He considers indeed the ques-
tion as already decided, and the pro-
ceedings in Chancery, so far at least
as they regard that part of the affair,
entirely superfluous.

I understand that the existence of
two or three words in the will occasions
this most unexpected change. The
words are these — " For the time being "
— the application of those words to
the present case is explained to be,
that in case my father should survive
myself and my infant son, my younger

VOL. II. F

i8 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

brother, at the expiration of his
minority, might require my father to
fulfill those conditions of the will
which he would incapacitate himself
from fulfilling by cutting off the entail.
It is altogether a most complex affair,
the words of the will being equivocal
to a singular degree. A new difficulty
arises also from the import of my
signature to the Deed of Disclaimer,
as it is called, given in the presumption
of the completion of this settlement.
One thing alone is certain, that until
my father's death I shall receive no
portion of the estate.

How does this information affect
your prospects ? Does anything re-
main to be done by me ? You have
entire knowledge of my resources, my
situation, and my disposition towards
you ; what do you think I can do, or I
ought to do, to set you free ?

1 informed you that I should be in
town on Monday week, at 12 o'clock.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 19

to sign the deed at Hayward's. My
letter of Friday night asserts that I
should not be in town again before I
left the neighbourhood ; but I did not
foresee that the deed would not be
ready at Hayward's, or that there
would be so much difficulty and ex-
pense in conveying it to Bishopgate.

P. B. Shelley.

To
Mr. William Godwin,
London.

20 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXIIL

BiSHOPGATE,

Feh-uary list, i8i6.
\}Vednesday.'\

Sir,

I saw Turner yesterday who engaged
to convey to yon by that night's post a
reassurance on the points which he
called on me to ascertain. I should
have written to you myself if I had not
returned too late from a long walk with
Turner in which I endeavoured to make
him understand as clearly as possible
the present state of my affairs, and my
dispositions towards you. I shall cer-
tainly not leave this country, or even
remove to a greater distance from the
neighbourhood of London, until the
unfavourable aspect assumed by my

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 21

affairs shall appear to be unalterable ;
or until all has been done by me which
it is possible for me to do for the relief
of yours. This was my intention from
the moment that I first received an
intimation of the change,

I wrote to you for the purpose of
giving you an opportunity of making my
assistance as available to you as possible
before I departed.

When I wrote to you from London I
certainly was more firmly persuaded
than now of the inefficacy of any further
attempt for the settlement of my affairs.

You have suggested a view of the
question that makes me pause.

At all events I shall remain here or
in the neighbourhood for the present
and hold myself in readiness to do my
utmost towards advancing you the
money. You are perhaps aware that
one of the chief motives which strongly
urges me either to desert my native
country, dear to me from many con-

VOL. II. G

22 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

siderations, or resort to its most
distant and solitary regions, is the per-
petual experience of neglect or enmity
from almost every one but those who
are supported by my resources. I shall
cling perhaps during the infancy of my
children to all the prepossessions at-
tached to the country of my birth,
hiding myself and Mary from that
contempt which we so unjustly endure.
I think therefore at present only of
settling in Cumberland or Scotland. In
the event, the evils that will flow to my
children from our desolate and solitary
situation here, point out an exile as the
only resource to them against that
injustice which we can easily despise.
You will observe that the mere circum-
stance of our departing to the North of
England, and not immediately putting
into effect our Italian scheme, it is
strictly within the limits of the most
formal intercourse that you should
know. I might have misunderstood

LETTERS TO GODWIN, 25

Turner, for I did not urge him to explain
or literally repeat expressions : but it
appeared to me from his conversation
that you had communicated with him
on the subject of our antient intimacy,
and of the occasion of its close, in a
manner that expressed a certain degree
of interest in my future prospects. I
determined on that account to present
to you a real picture of my feelings in
as much as they would influence my
plan of residence. If this exposure
should be indifferent to you, silence will
afford an obvious protection against
additionat mistake.

P. B. Shelley.

I expect anxiously the plan to which
you alluded as to an infallible expedient
for my father to adopt that he might
settle with me.

I confess my hopes on that subject
are very faint.

Hayward wrote to-day to say that

24 LETTERS TO GODWIN,

he had everything ready for Monday,
twelve o'clock. I shall be punctual.

Addressed out side. ^

W. Godwin^ Esq.,

41, Skinner Street,

Snow Hill,

London.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 25

LETTER XXIV.

BiSHOPGATE.

February 26th, 18 16.

Monday night.

I WISH to God Turner's delusion had
assumed any other shape, or that the
painful task of destroying its flattering
effects was reserved for some one less
interested in your concerns than myself.
He has entirely misapprehended the
whole case, but I will endeavour to
state it clearly.

I possessed in January 181 5 a re-
version expectant, on the death of the
survivor of my grandfather and father,
approaching so nearly to the nature of
an absolute reversion, that by a few
ceremonies I could, on these contin-

VOL. II. H

26 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

gencies falling, possess myself of the fee-
simple and alienate the whole.

My grandfather had exerted the ut-
most power with which the law invested
him to prevent this ultimate alienation,
but his power terminated in my person
and was exercised only to the restraint
of my father. The estate of which I
now speak is that which is the subject
of the settlement of 1792.

My grandfather's will was dictated
by the same spirit which had produced
the settlement. He desired to perpetu-
ate a large mass of property, he therefore
left the moiety of about ^£"2 40,000 to
De disposed of in the following manner.
My father was to enjoy the interest of
It during his life. After my father's
death I was to enjoy the interest alone,
in like manner, conditionally, on my
having previously deprived myself of
the absolute power, which I now possess,
over the settled estates of 1792 ; and so
accept the reversion of a life annuity of

LETTERS TO GODWIN, 27

12,000 or 14,000 per annum in exchange
for a reversion of landed property of
6, 7, or 8,000 a year. All was reversion.
I was entitled, in no view of the case, to
any immediate advantage.

My grandfather's will limited my
option of accepting these conditions,
to one year from the date of his death.
But I did not hesitate a moment to re-
fuse them, nor,'untill Longdill informed
me that it was my father's desire and
interest, that I should act as I intended
to act, did I see any necessity of mak-
ing a secret of my resolution. I allowed
Longdill however to manage these
affairs in his own way, and he agreed
with Whitton that I should refuse to
accept my grandfather's legacy, and
that my father should purchase of me
my interest in the settled estates at a
fair price. The project of this arrange-
ment was very satisfactory to me, as I
saw myself about to realise the very
scheme best suited to the uncertainty

28 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

of my health, and the peculiarity of my
views and situation, by the sacrifice of
that which I never intended to accept.

I signed the deed of disclaimer for
the purpose of making my father certain
of my intentions, so that our operations
need not wait for the expiration of the
year appointed by my grandfather's
will. If, as Turner says, I have the
power to stand in the same situation
with respect to my grandfather's will
now as on the day of his death, that
power is entirely worthless, and must as
you see be placed out of any considera-
tion.

Now lawyers say that my father dares
not buy my interest in the settled
estates of 1792 because such an act
might induce a forfeiture of the ad-
ditional income he derives from con-
curring with the intentions of the will.

After this clear recapitulation of facts,
with which I had imagined you to be
fully acquainted, I entreat you not to

LETTERS TO GODWIN, 29

adopt Turner's delusive inference that
because " I am ready and desirous to
fulfill my engagements, your difficulties
are therefore at an end."

Your letter of this morning indeed
throws a new light on Turner's inter-
vention, at least as I regard it.

The mistake, the vital mistake, he has
made appears to me by no means con-
sistent with the legal acuteness you
describe him to possess. I cannot help
thinking that you transfer your first
appreciation of his taste and his wit to
a subject on which the very subtlety
essential to these qualifications leads him
astray. Or perhaps you are right in
this judgement, and he is not enough
interested for you, not enough your
friend to force his attention to the point.
If he would think or act for your or my
interest as for his own, then possibly
he might deserve your opinion.

If after this explanation you continue
to think that his suggestions would be

VOL. II. I

30 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

valuable I will contrive to see him
without delay.

But without rejecting whatever
Turner's kindness or experience could
afford, are there no other means of
arriving at the same end ? You do not
understand the state of my affairs so
exactly as a lawyer could explain it to
you. You believe that I, from ignor-
ance of law and the usages of the world,
let pass opportunities of settling with
my father. Cannot you explain the
exact situation in which you stand with
me to Sir James Mackintosh? He, I
am informed, really desires to serve
you, but is unable. If he knew how
much of your future comfort depends
on your having a true conception of the
state of my affairs, surely he would
with pleasure enter into such explana-
tions with me as would make him
master of the subject. His various life
makes his experience far more valuable
than that of Turner, even if you should

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 31

judge that this latter surpassed him in
intrinsic mental worth.

I will not add to the length of this
letter by explaining a circumstance of
no real moment, but which asks a
good many words. I shall so soon see
either Turner or some other interlocutor
on your part.

I trust to your kindness that you will
forbear showing this letter to Turner.
I have spoken my real doubts of his
efficiency which, should an occasion
require, I would not think to repeat
in his presence. But he is apt to
take offence, and I am too generally
hated not to feel that the smallest
kindness from an old acquaintance is
valuable.

P. B. Shelley.

Feb. I'jth.

I open this letter to mention that
for some days I shall be quite incapable
of active exertion. I was seized last
night with symtoms of irritable fever,

32 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

and my state requires rest to prevent
serious effects.

Addressed otitside.'\

William Godwin, Esq.y

41, Skinner Street,

Sno-iv Hill,

London.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 33

LETTER XXV.

13, Norfolk Street,
[London.]
March 6th, 1816.
{Wednesday. 1

Sir,

The first part of your letter alludes
to a subject in which my feelings are
most deeply interested, and on which
I could wish to receive an entire
explanation. I confess that I do not
understand how the pecuniary engage-
ments subsisting between us in any
degree impose restrictions on your
conduct towards me. They did not,
at least to your knowledge or with your
consent, exist at the period of my return
from France, and yet your conduct
towards me and your daughter was then

VOL. II. K

34 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

precisely such as it is at present. Per-
haps I ought to except the tone which
you assumed in conversation with Tur-
ner respecting me, which for anything
that I learn from you I know not how
favourably he may not have perverted.
In my judgement neither I nor your
daughter nor her offspring ought to re-
ceive the treatment which we encounter
on every side. It has perpetually ap-
peared to me to have been your especial
duty to see that so far as mankind value
your good opinion, we were dealt justly
by, and that a young family innocent
and benevolent and united should not
be confounded with prostitutes and
seducers. My astonishment, and I will
confess, when I have been treated with
most harshness and cruelty by you, my
indignation, has been extreme, that
knowing as you do my nature, any
considerations should have prevailed
on you to have been thus harsh and
cruel. I lamented also over my ruined

LETTERS TO GODWIN^ 35

hopes of all that your genius once
taught me to expect from your virtue,
when I found that for yourself your
family and your creditors you would
submit to that communication with
me, which you once rejected and ab-
horred, and which no pity for my
poverty or sufferings, assumed willingly
for you, could avail to extort. Do not
talk of forgiveness again to me, for my
blood boils in my veins and my gall
rises against all that bears the human
form, when I think of what I their
benefactor and ardent lover have en-
dured of enmity and contempt from you
and from all mankind.

I cannot mix the feelings to which
you have given birth with details in
answer to your view of my affairs.
I can only say that I think you are too
sanguine, but that I will do all that I
can, not to disappoint you. I see much
difficulty and some danger, but I am in
no temper to overrate my own incon-

36 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

veniences. I shall certainly remain in
London for some days, perhaps longer,
as affairs appear to require. Meanwhile
oblige me by referring to the letter in
which I mention Bryant and enclose
me his direction as soon as possible.
I have left his letter at Bishopgate. I
will take an early opportunity of reply-
ing to your letter at length, if no other
mode of explanation suggests itself.
[P. B. Shelley.]

{Addressed outside.]

W. Godwin, Esq.,

41, Skinner Street,

Snoxu Hill.

LETTERS TO GODWIN, 37

LETTER XXVI.

13, Norfolk Street,
[London.]
March Tth, 1816.
[Thursday.']

Sir,

The hopes which I had conceived
of receiving from you the treatment
and consideration which I esteem to be
justly due to me, were destroyed by
your letter dated the 5 th. The feel-
ings occasioned by this discovery were
so bitter and so excruciating that I am
resolved for the future to stifle all
those expectations which my sanguine
temper too readily erects on the slightest
relaxation of the contempt and the
neglect in the midst of which I live.
I must appear the reverse of what I

VOL. II. L

38 LETTERS TO GODWIN,

really am, haughty and hard, if I am
not to see myself and all that I love
trampled upon and outraged. Pardon
me, I do entreat you, if pursued by the
conviction, that where my true character
is most entirely known, I there meet
with the most systematic injustice ; I
have expressed myself with violence,
overlook a fault caused by your own
equivocal politeness, and I wall offend
no more.

We will confine our communication
to business.

I have left a note at Anderton's
coffee house appointing an interview
with Bryant. If I have a fair offer on
the subject of reversion, there is at
once an end to the objections which I
should be inclined to make to any
other arrangement from the supposition
of my father's setding in some manner
on the basis of the original proposal.

If Bryant is in earnest, I will make
Longdill treat with him. Longdill will

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 39

not consent to treat with him unless
his terms approach to reasonableness.
I do not scruple to promise you the
advance if it can be managed thus.

I have a vital objection to auction,
or any enquiries among professed
money- lenders. I should suffer more
in my negociation with my father from
such measures, which would probably
be unsuccessful, than from a fair bar-
gain which might be carried into
effect.

The affair with Nash has a tendency
the opposite to that which you attribute
to it.

It is now in Chancery, though from
what fund it is to be paid no one knows,
and will infallibly be decided in my
favour. It will be decided that he is
to receive his capital and 5 per cent.,
and no more. This proves that the
bond is good property, but that all
speculations by which more than 5 per
cent, is to be made (as no one will

40 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

advance money withoat larger profit)
will be annulled by the Chancellor.

I entirely agree with you on the
subject of raising money on annuity.

I plainly see how necessary imme-
diate advances are to your concerns,
and will take care that I shall fail in
nothing which I can do to procure
them.

I shall remain in town at least
another week, that I may give every
possible attention to this subject. My
own concerns are decided, I fear,
already.

P. B. Shelley.

[Addressed outside."]

W. Godwin, Esq.,

41, Skinner Street,

Snow Hill.

LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXVII.

LOiNDON.

March ^ih, i8i6.
l^Saturday].

Sir,

I have made an appointment with
Bryant which he has not kept, probably
because he has not called at the coffee
house yet. I do not regret this neglect
as I think, under the circumstances I
am about to mention, that a negotiation
with him would be safest postponed.

Since Wednesday I have been daily
expecting a message from Longdill to
require my signature for the answer in
Chancery. Not having heard from him
I called this morning — the answer was
ready. In the progress of conversation
I asked Longdill how soon he thought

VOL. II. M

42 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

the question would be decided. He
replied coldly that he supposed in a
month or two, that he scarcely knew
the mode which Whitton designed to
adopt, but that it ought to be very in-
different to me, since it would certainly
be decided that we must not touch the
estates. It happened at this period of
the conversation that Whitton came in.
His manner and tone on the subject
were the very reverse of Longdill's. He
blamed Longdill for having neglected
to send for me to sign the answer
yesterday, which delay he observed
would prevent our cause from being
heard on Wednesday, the day which he
had provided. He seemed to regret
that one day had been lost, he said that
the production of the infant had already
procrastinated the proceedings much to
the displeasure of Sir Timothy. He
expressed on my father's account the
greatest anxiety for the approaching
decision, and that in a manner that

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 43

makes me hope that it is possible that
Mr. Hart and Butler and Sir T. Romilly
should be in the wroTig. Whitton ex-
presses much confidence in the expec-
tation that this decision will enable me
and my father to divide the whole
estates. — It is advisable under these
circumstances to suspend all other
negotiations. The cause must be heard
some day next week.

[P. B. Shelley.]

[Addressed outside.']

W. Godtvin, Esq.,

41, Skinner Street.
Snow Hill.

44 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXVIII.

13, Norfolk Street,

London,

March i6th, 18 16,

[Saturday.']

Sir,

Turner has been with you, and he
will have informed you that I have
been active in the endeavour to raise
money. I have seen Dawe, and at-
tempted by every possible inducement
to urge him to make the advance. He
has not refused and even has promised
that if he can procure any money he
would willingpy] lend it.

I have seen Bryant also, but nothing
can be done with him until the question
between my father and myself is dis-

LETTERS TO GODWIN, 45

posed of. This cause is to come on
and to receive judgement next Tues-
day.

[P. B. Shelley.]

[Addressed outside.]

W. Godwin^ Esq.

41, Skinner Street.

VOL. II.

46 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXIX.

13. Norfolk Street,

London.

March 21 si, 18 16.

[TAursday.]

Sir,

I have not been unemployed in at-
tempting to raise money, though I fear
ineffectually. I have seen Bryant
twice, and I fear that nothing favour-
able will result from my negotiation
with him ; he has promised however to
write if he should be able to do any-
thing. My principal hope is Dawe,
from whom I think money might be
obtained if Turner would undertake to
persuade him. Can you suggest any
other means than those in which I have
engaged ?

LETTERS TO GODWIN, 47

The decision in Chancery is post-
poned until to morrow (Thursday). I
shall inform you of the event im-
mediately.

P. B. Shelley.

[Addressed outside. 1
W, Godwin^ Esq.,

41 Skinner St. J

Snow Bill.

48 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXX.

[26,] Marchmont Street,

London.

March 2qth, 1816.

[Friday. '\

Sir,

I had a long and most painful con-
versation with Turner last night on the
subject of your pecuniary distress. — I
am not, as he I fear leaves you to infer,
unwilling to do my utmost, nor does my
disposition in the least depend on the
question of your demonstrating personal
kindness to myself and Mary. — I see
that if anything is to be done, it must
be done instantly. You know my
habitual, my constitutional inability to
deal with monied men. I have no
friend who will supply my deficien-

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 49

cies : — none who interest themselves in
my own much less in your concerns
which I have, as much as one man can
make those of another, made my own.
Can you not yourself see these money-
lenders? Hayward's partner was in
Chancery yesterday when he heard my
title to the reversion admitted to be
excellent, and my powers over that
which I pretend to, unimpeached. —
Would H [ay ward] advance money on
post obit bond or deferred annuity?
Can you not see him ?

I shall be absent from Town to-day,
to-morrow, and part of the following
day. Fanny can communicate, should
anything important occur, with Mary
on this subject. Her sentiments in all
respects coincide with mine, her interest
is perhaps greater ; her judgement, from
what she knows of our situation, of what
ought or can be done, is probably more
calm and firm. —

Chancery, as you have heard, has

VOL. II. o

50 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

given a doubtful and hesitating opinion.
Whatever is to be done for me will be
reluctantly done.

P. B. Shelley.

[Addressed on f side.]

W. Godwin, Esq.,

41, Skinner Street,
Snow Hill.

LETTERS TO GODWIN, 51

LETTER XXXI.

Dover.

May 2,rdy 181 6.

{Friday. '\

Sir,

No doubt you are anxious to hear
the state of my concerns. I wish that
it were in my power to give you a more
favourable view of them than such as
I am compelled to present. The
limited condition of my fortune is re-
gretted by me, as I imagine you will
know, because among other designs of
a similar nature, I cannot at once put
you in possession of all that would be
sufficient for the comfort and indepen-
dence which it is so unjust that you
should not have already received from
society.

52 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

Chancery has decided that my father
may not touch the estates. It has de-
cided also that all the timber, worth it
is said, ;£"6o,ooo, must be cut and sold,
and the money paid into court to abide
whatever equities may hereafter arise.
This you already know from Fanny.

All this reduces me very nearly to the
situation I described to you in March
so far as relates to your share in the
question. I shall receive nothing from
my father except in the way of charity.
Post obit concerns are very doubtful,
and annuity transactions are confined
within an obvious and very narrow
limit.

My father is to advance me a sum to
meet, as I have alleged, engagements
contracted during the dependence of
the late negociation. This sum is ex-
tremely small, and it is swallowed up,
almost, in such of my debts and the
liquidation of such securities as I have
been compelled to state in order to

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 53

obtain the money at all. A few hun-
dred pounds will remain ; you shall
have jQz^o from this source in the
course of the summer. I am to give
a post obit security for the sum, and
the affair at present stands that the
deeds are to be drawn in the course of
six weeks or two months, and that 1 am
to return for their signature and to re-
ceive the money. There can be no
doubt that, if my application in other
quarters should not be discovered by
my father, the money will be in readi-
ness for you by the time that Kingdom's
discounts recur.

I am afraid nothing can be done
with Bryant. He promised to lend me
;;^5oo on my mere bond) of course he
failed, and this failure presents no good
augury of his future performances.
Still the negociation is open and I can-
not but think that the only or at least
the best chance for success would be
your interference. Perhaps you would

VOL. II. p

54 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

dislike to be mistaken for my personal
friend, which it would be necessary you
should appear provided you acquiesce
in this suggestion. I am confident that
it would be a most favourable circum-
stance. It is necessary, I must re-
mark, that secrecy should at present
be observed.

Hay ward has also an affair in hand.
He says he thinks he can get me ;£^3oo
on post obit.

Neither Bryant nor Hayward know
that I have left England, and as I must
in all probability, nay certainty, return
in a few weeks to sign the deeds if the
people should agree, or at least to get
the money from my father, I thought it
might relax their exertions to know
that I was abroad. I informed them
that I was gone for a fortnight or three
weeks into the country. I have not
even disengaged my lodgings in March-
mont-street.

The motives which determined me

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 55

to leave England and which I stated to
you in a former letter, have continued
since that period to press on me with
accumulated force.

Continually detained in a situation
where what I esteem a prejudice does
not permit me to live on equal terms
with my fellow-beings, I resolved to
commit myself by a decided step,
Therefore I take Mary to Geneva,
where I shall devise some plan of
settlement, and only leave her to return
to London and exclusively devote my-
self to business.

I leave England, I know not, per-
haps for ever. I return, alone, to see
no friend, to do no office of friendship,
to engage in nothing that can soothe
the sentiments of regret, almost like
remorse, which, under such circum-
stances, every one feels who quits his
native land. I respect you, I think
well of you, better perhaps than of any
other person whom England contains.

56 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

You were the philosopher who first
awakened, and who still as a philo-
sopher to a very great degree regulates,
my understanding. It is unfortunate
for me that the part of your character
which is least excellent should have
been met by convictions of what was
right to do. But I have been too
indignant ; I have been unjust to you ;
forgive me ; burn those letters which
contain the records of my violence,
and believe that however what you
erroneously call fame and honour
separate us, I shall always feel towards
you as the most affectionate of friends.
P. B. Shelley.

Address — Poste Restante^ Geneva.

I have written in gi-eat haste ex-
pecting every moment to hear that the
Pacquet sails.

[Addressed outside. ]

— Godwin^ Esq.^

41, Skiimer Street,

London.

LETTERS TO GODWLV. S7

LETTER XXXII.

EviAN, Savoie.

yune 2Srd, i8l6.
[Sundajy.]

Sir,

Your letter reached me the moment
before I got off on a little tour on tlie
borders of this lake. I write this reply
from the first hot town I arrive at.

You know that we are not on those
intimate terms as to permit that I should
have minutely explained to you the
motives which determined my departure,
or that if explained you would have
judged them with the judgement of a
friend. I can easily imagine that you
were disgusted by it. But I have ever
been most unwillingly the cause of

VOL. II. Q

58 LETTERS TO GODWIN,

disquiet to you, meaning you all possible
good.

I entirely approve of your seeing
Bryant, and I think if no unappreciated
circumstance renders the farm in
question more valuable than he states,
that the terms his client offers are un-
usually favourable. But I think, if you
undertake the business, you ought to
ascertain this. The property need not
actually be valued, as the expense of
valuation is proportionally immense,
but a clearer conception of its value
than the purchaser's assertion or even
the rental affords might, I should con-
ceive, be obtained by one so clear-sighted
and experienced in these affairs as
yourself. But perhaps I am unjust to
you to suppose that you would not in
all these respects consider my property
as your own.

There is a copy of the settlement, as
I imagine, at Jew King's, which he
said he would sell for ten pounds.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 59

Enclosed is a note which, as probably
it is inconvenient to you to pay this
sum, directs my bankers to give as
much to Mr. Martin. I have put this
name supposing that you would not like
your own to be stated.

I dare say that you can get the settle-
ment for five pounds, if, as I strongly
believe, it is yet in King's possession.
If it is not, I can think of no other
resource than Longdill, from whom I
conceive that a copy might be obtained
on the ground of your having on a
former occasion lent me a copy and my
not having returned it, and his having
collected all the copies belonging to me
and the person to whom this copy
belongs having a right to it. You
remember that you borrowed what I
now speak of from a law student, that
you lent it to me, and that it never was
returned. In the present state of the
negociation with Bryant the utmost care
must be taken that no circumstance

60 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

relating to it transpires. I hope that
you were impressed with the necessity
of secrecy on this point Nothing but
my persuation that you will act as if you
were, engages my consent to the
negotiation.

May I request if you obtain the settle-
ment that you will cause a copy to be
made and keep it for me.

The style of this letter I fear will
appear to you unusual. The truth is
that I feel the unbounded difficulty of
making myself understood on the com-
monest topic, and I am obliged to adopt
for that purpose a cold and stiff set of
phrases. No person can feel deeper
interest for another, or venerate their
character and talents more sincerely, or
regret more incessantly their own im-
potent loneliness, than I for you and
yours.

Remember me kindly to Fanny, both
for her own and for her sister's sake.
P. B. Shelley.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 6i

Address still Geneva. I shall have
returned in a few days from this date.

[Addressed outside. ]

William Godzvin, Esq.,

41, Skinner Sti'eet,

Snow Hillf

London.
Angleterre.

VOL. II.

62 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXXIII.

Geneva.

July \*jth, 1816.

\Wednesday.'\

Sir,

I write by this post to Mr. Hume,
giving the authority which you request.
Before this letter arrives you will how-
ever have received another from me
affording a solution of the questions
contained in your last, and rendering
that request superfluous. The delay
which has occurred in writing to Mr.
Hume and to you arose simply from
my expecting by every post an ac-
knowledgment of the letters to which I
allude. I need not again assert that
I think Mr. Turner neither a good man

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 63

nor a good judge of men. He acted
in your affairs with duplicity, and ac-
cused me indirectly of the dupHcity
which he was conscious attached to his
own conduct.

Mr. Turner was in the instance which
you state, and will be in every instance,
deceived in his judgement of me, for no
other reason than because he suspects
me to be like himself.

I recommend to you caution in ascer-
taining the value of the estates before
you allow the deeds to be drawn, as, of
course, although the business is nomin-
ally confided to Mr. Hume, you are
really the agent.

I suppose it will be necessary to dis^
patch the deeds hither for signature ; a
power of attorney, I fear, would not
suffice. However that may be, let us
choose first the easiest and the quickest,
next, the securest plan. I shall not
remain longer at Geneva than aftairs
require, and hope to have the earliest

64 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

and minutest intelligence from you on
a question so important to us both.
Percy B. Shelley.

[Addressed outside.'\

W. Godwin, Esq.,

41, Skinner Street,

Snow Hill,

London,
Angleterre,

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 65

LETTER X X X I \'.

5, Abbey Church Yard,
Bath.
October yd, 1816.
{Thursday. \
Sir,

I am exceedingly sorry to disappoint
you again. I cannot send you ;£'3oo
because I have not ;£3oo to send. I
enclose within a few pounds, the wreck
of my late negociation with my father.

In truth, I see no hope of my attaining
speedily to such a situation of affairs as
should enable me to discharge my
engagements towards you. My father's
main design, in all the transactions
which I have had with him, has gone
to tie me up from all such irregular
applications of my fortune. In this he

VOL. II. s

66 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

might have failed had he not been
seconded by Longdill, and between
them both I have been encompassed
with such toils as were impossible to be
evaded. When I look back I do not
see what else I could have done than
submit. What is called firmness would
have, I sincerely believe, left me in total
poverty.

In the present instance I expected
to have saved 5 or ;£^6oo ; 300 of which,
as I informed you, were devoted to you.
I have saved only 248, my father having
made an indispensable condition that
all my debts should be paid.

I do not think that anything can be
done with Bryant. Turner, had he
chosen, might have managed the affair
with Dawe. That nothing is more
evident than that this person has some
malignant passions which he seeks to
gratify at my expense and at yours —
I do not indeed know what can be
done, except through private confidence.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 67

Shall I conclude this unwelcome letter
by assuring you of the continuance of
those dispositions concerning your
welfare which I have so often expressed ?
Shall I say that I am ready to co-
operate in whatever plan may be devised
for your benefit ?

P. B. Shelley.

\^Addr€ssed outside. ]

William Godzvin, Esq.,

41, Skinner Street ^
Snow Hill,

London.

\

68 LETTERS TO GODWIN,

LETTER XXXV.

[5, Abbey Church Yard,]

Bath.

November 2\th, 1816.

{Saturday. '\

Sir,

I lament exceedingly that you sup-
pose it possible, or even esteem it right,
that I should submit to such a proposal
as Dawe's. I lament that you could
even permit me to accede to such an
imposture. You will therefore be dis-
appointed at my refusal — you will think
me insensible, unjust, insincere. I
regret that I must inspire you with such
feelings, but I am persuaded that it is
my duty not to submit to terms of so
exorbitant a nature.

The conclusion of your letter adds

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 69

to the reluctance of my refusal, but it
does not render it the less firm.

I enclose a letter to Hume written
principally for the purpose of being
shown to Dawe. Possibly he will
change his tone when he finds his
tricks ineffectual. For nothing is more
evident than that all he says are the
excuses and subterfuges of a money
broker.

You will observe from the rough
calculation in my letter to H. that he
asks very nearly 25 per cent., and that
I should throw away not ;^iooo, but
;^2,8oo.

The principles which pronounce on
the injustice of my hereditary rights, are
such, as rightly Hmited and understood,
are far dearer to me than life.

But these principles teach me to set
a high value on the power with which
their violation may one day intrust me.
They instruct me to be more, not less,
cautious in alienating it.

VOL. II. T

70 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

Indeed it would be no inconsiderable
evil if such a remorseless, mean-spirited
wretch as Dawe were to be presented
with ;£'2,8oo !

My refusal is therefore firm. — But
depend on it that what could be done in
1 8 14 could be done, and that on even
better terms, now. Do not despair.
Even Dawe may retract and relent, or
some one be found less exorbitant. I
applied about a fortnight since to a
quarter from which I had formerly ob-
tained a supply, but have not received
an answer.

The letters have arrived so late to-
day, that I am obliged to write in haste
if I would reply by return of post.

[P. B. Shelley.]

[Addressed ouiside.~[

W. Godwin^ Esq.,

41, Skinner Streety
Sno7v Hill,

London.

LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXXVI.

[Great Marlow.]

March ^th, 1817.
[Sunday.']

My dear Godwin,

I wish you knew me better than to
be vexed or disappointed at anything I
do. Either circumstances of petty
difficulty and embarrassment find some
peculiar attraction in me, or I have a
fainter power of repulsion with regard
to them. Certain it is that nothing
gives me serener and more pure
pleasure than your society, and that if
in breaking an engagement with you I
have forced an exercise of your philo-
sophy upon you, I have in my own
person incurred a penalty which mine
has not yet taught me to alleviate.

72 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

We are immersed in all kind of con-
fusion here. Mary said you meant to
come hither soon enough to see the
leaves come out. Which leaves did
you mean, for the wild-briar buds are
already unfolded? And what of
Mandeville, and how will he bear to be
transplanted here? All my people,
little Willy not excepted, desire their
kindest love to you. I beg to unite in
kind remembrances to Mrs. Godwin,
whose health is I hope improved.

Yours,

P. B. Shelley.

To

Mr. William Godwin,

London.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 73

LETTER XXXVII.

[Great Marlow.]

March 22nd, 18 17.
[Sunday. '\

My dear Godwin,

Marshall's proposal is one in which,
however reluctantly, I must refuse to
engage * It is that I should grant bills
to the amount of his debts, which are
to expire in thirty months. This is a
situation in which it might become me
to place myself for the sake of some
very dear friend, or some person who
might have an irresistible public claim,
but which, if it were only in the pos-
sible arrival of such emergencies, I feel
that with respect to Marshall I am

* Godwin's old friend and companion, James Mar-
shall, on whose behalf in 1816 Godwin had drawn up
an appeal for assistance to his friends.

VOL. II. U

74 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

bound to avoid. Do not infer that I
deny him to have just claims on my
assistance, which, if I were in posses-
sion of my paternal estate, I should
hasten to fulfil.

It was spring when I wrote to you,
and winter when your answer arrived.
But the frost is very transitory ; every
bud is ready to burst into leaf. It is a
nice distinction you make between the
development and the complete expan-
sion of the leaves. The oak and the
chesnut, the latest and the earliest
parents of foliage, would afford you a
still subtler subdivision, which would
enable you to defer the visit, from
which we expect so much delight, for
six weeks. I hope we shall really see
you before that time, and that you will
allow the chesnut, or any other impar-
tial tree, as he stands in the foreground,
to be considered as a virtual represen-
tation of the rest.

Will is quite well, and very beautiful.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 75

Mary unites with me in presenting her
kind remembrances to Mrs. Godwin;
and begs most affectionate love to you.
Yours,

P. B. Shelley.

Have you read Meltncourt? It
would entertain you. Will you be
kind enough to pay Newbery, the
newsman, for me? I enclose the
cheque.

To

Mr. William Godwin,

London.'

76 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XXXVIII.

Great Marlow.

December isi, 1817.
[Safurday.]

My dear Godwin,

Mandeville has arrived this evening.
Mary is now reading it ; and I am like
a man on the brink of a precipice, or
a ship whose sails are all to wind for
the storm. What do you mean by
saying that you shall be in a state of
unusual disquiet for the next two
weeks ? Is it money or literary affairs ?
I am extremely sorry to hear that Ireson
has put you off. I am to the last de-
gree serious and earnest in the affair,
and I can place no trust but in
Evans. I have written to Longdill as
enclosed. My health has suffered

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 77

somewhat of a relapse since I saw you,
attended with pulmonary symptoms.
I do not found much hope on physi-
cians; their judgments are all dis-
similar, and their prescriptions alike
ineffectual. I shall, at all events, quit
this damp situation as soon as an
opportunity offers, and I am strongly
impelled to doubt whether Italy might
not decide in my frame the contest
between disease and youth in favour
of life. The precariousness arising
out of these considerations makes me
earnest that something should be done,
and speedily, with Evans. I shall
then be free, whatever I ought to do.
Until then I consider myself bound to
you. Adieu.

Most affectionately yours,

P. B. S[helley.]

To
Mr. William Godwin^

London,
VOL. II. X

7d> LETTERS TO GODWIN.

My best respects to Mrs. Godwin.
Does she think of paying us a visit ?

Clare bids me say that the enclosed
thing is a measure, and that she sends
her love to her mother.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 79

LETTER XXXIX.

Marlow.

December ith^ 1817.
^Friday.'l

My dear Godwin,

To begin with the subject of most
immediate interest : close with Richard-
son ; and when I say this, what relief
should I not feel from a thousand
distressing emotions, if I could believe
that he was in earnest in his offer ! I
have not heard from Longdill, though
I wish earnestly for information.

My health has been materially worse.
My feelings at intervals are of a deadly
and torpid kind, or awakened to a
state of such unnatural and keen
excitement that, only to instance the
organ of sight, I find the very blades of

8o LETTERS TO GODWIN.

grass and the boughs of distant trees
present themselves to me with micro-
scopical distinctness. Towards evening
I sink into a state of lethargy and in-
animation, and often remain for hours
on the sofa, between sleep and waking,
a prey to the most painful irritability of
thought. Such, with little intermission,
is my condition. The hours devoted
to study are selected with vigilant
caution from among these periods of
endurance. It is not for this that I
think of travelling to Italy, even if I
knew that Italy would relieve me. But
I have experienced a decisive pulmonary
attack; and although at present it
has passed away without any very
considerable vestige of its existence,
yet this symptom sufficiently shows the
true nature of my disease to be con-
sumption. It is to my advantage that
this malady is in its nature slow, and,
if one is sufficiently alive to its advances,
is susceptible of cure from a warm

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 8r

climate. In the event of its assuming
any decided shape, it would be my
duty to go to Italy without delay ; and
it is only when that measure becomes
an indispensable duty that, contrary to
both Mary's feelings and to mine, as
they regard you, I shall go to Italy. I
need not remind you (besides the mere
pain endured by the survivors) of the
train of evil consequences which my
death would .cause to ensue. I am
thus circumstantial and explicit, because
you seem to have misunderstood me.
It is not health, but life, that I should
seek in Italy ; and that, not for my own
sake— I feel that I am capable of
trampling on all such weakness — but
for the sake of those to whom my life
may be a source of happiness, utility,
security, and honour, and to some of
whom my death might be all that is the
reverse.

I ought to say I cannot persevere in
the meat diet. What you say of

VOL. II. Y

82 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

Malthus fills me, as far as my intellect
is concerned, with life and strength. I
believe that I have a most anxious
desire that the time should quickly
come that, even so far as you are
personally concerned, you should be
tranquil and independent. But when
I consider the intellectual lustre with
which you clothe this world, and how
much the last generation of mankind
may be benefited by that light flowing
forth without the intervention of one
shadow, I am elevated above all
thoughts which tend to you or myself
as an individual, and become, by
sympathy, part of those distant and
innumerable minds to whom your
writings must be present.

I meant to have written to you about
Mandeville^ solely ; but I was so irritable
and weak that I could not write,
although I thought I had much to say.
I have read Mandeville^ but I must read
it again soon, for the interest is of that

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 83

irresistible and overwhelming kind,
that the mind in its influence is like a
cloud borne on by an impetuous wind —
like one breathlessly carried forward,
who has no time to pause, or observe
the causes of his career. I think the
power of Mandeville is inferior to
nothing you have done ; and, were it
not for the character of Falkland, no
instance in which you have exerted that
power of creation which you possess
beyond all contemporary writers, might
compare with it. Falkland is still
alone ; power is, in Falkland, not, as in
Mandeville^ tumult hurried onward by
the tempest, but tranquillity standing
unshaken amid its fiercest rage. But
Caleb Williams never shakes the deepest
soul like Mandeville. It must be said
of the latter, you rule with a rod of
iron. The picture is never bright ; and
we wonder whence you drew the dark-
ness with which its shades are deepened,
until the epithet of tenfold might

84 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

almost cease to be a metaphor. The
noun smorfia,* touches some cord
within us with such a cold and jarring
power that I started, and for some time
could scarce believe but that I was
Mandeville, and that this hideous grin
was stamped upon my own face. In
style and strength of expression,
Mandeville is wonderfully great, and the
energy and the sweetness of the senti-
ments scarcely to be equalled. Clifford's
character, as mere beauty, is a divine
and soothing contrast; and I do not
think — if, perhaps, I except (and I
know not if I ought to do so) the speech
of Agathon in the Symposium of Plato —
that there ever was produced a moral
discourse more characteristic of all that
is admirable and lovely in human
nature — more lovely and admirable in
itself — than that of Henrietta to Man-
deville, as he is recovering from
madness. Shall I say that, when I

* An Italian word, signifying ''grimace."

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 85

discovered that she was pleading all
this time sweetly for her lover, and
when at last she weakly abandoned
poor Mandeville, I felt an involuntary
and, perhaps, an unreasonable pang ?
Adieu !

Always most affectionately yours,

P. B. Shelley.
To
Mr. William Godwin,

London.

VOL. II.

86 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XL.

Great Mar low.

December nth, 1817.
{luesday.^

My Dear Godwin,

If I had believed it possible you
should send any part of my letter to the
Chronicle I should have expressed more
fully my sentiments of Mandeville and
of the author ; as it is, I cannot but be
glad that you should think any opinion
of mine relating to your book worthy
of being presented to the public. The
effect of your favourable consideration
of my powers, as they relate to the
judgment of the degree and kind of
approbation due to the intellectual
executions of others, has emboldened

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 87

me to write, not a volume, but a more
copious statement of my feelings as
they were excited by Ma?tdeville. This
I have sent to tht Examiner. If Hunt
does not insert it, I will send it to you
for your own reading, though it was so
written as to be more interesting to the
public than to yourself.

I have read and considered all that
you say about my general powers, and
the particular instance of the poem in
which I have attempted to develop
them. Nothing can be more satisfactory
to me than the interest which your
admonitions express ; but I think you
are mistaken in some points in regard
to the peculiar nature of my powers,
whatever be their amount. I listened
with deference and self-suspicion to
your censures of Laon and Cythna,
but the productions of mine which you
commend hold a very low place in my
own esteem, and this reassured me in
some degree at least. The poem was

88 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

produced by a series of thoughts which
filled my mind with unbounded and
sustained enthusiasm. I felt the pre-
cariousness of my life, and I resolved
in this book to leave some records of
myself. Much of what the volume
contains was written with the same
feeling — as real though not so prophetic
— as the communications of a dying
man. I never presumed indeed to
consider it anything approaching to
faultless, but when I considered con-
temporary productions of the same
apparent pretensions, I will own that I
was filled with confidence. I felt that
it was in many respects a genuine
picture of my own mind. I felt that
the sentiments were true, not assumed.
And in this have I long believed that
my power consists — in sympathy, and
that part of the imagination which
relates to sympathy and contemplation.
I am formed, if for anything not in
common with the herd of mankind, to

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 89

apprehend minute and remote distinc-
tions of feeling, whether relative to
external nature or the living beings
which surround us, and to communicate
the conceptions which result from
considering either the moral or the
material universe as a whole. Of
course I believe these faculties, which
perhaps comprehend all that is sublime
in man, to exist very imperfectly in my
own mind, But when you advert to
my Chancery paper (a cold, forced,
unimpassioned insignificant piece of
cramped and cautious argument) and
to the little scrap about Mandeville^
which expressed my feelings indeed,
but cost scarcely two minutes' thought
to express, as specimens of my powers
more favourable than that which grew,
as it were, from the " agony and bloody
sweat " of intellectual travail, surely I
must feel that in some manner either
1 am mistaken in believing that I have

VOL. II. A A

90 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

any talent at all, or you in the selection
of the specimens of it. Yet, after all,
I cannot but be conscious, in much of
what I write, of an absence of that
tranquility which is the attribute and
accompaniment of power. This feeling
alone would make your most kind and
wise admonitions on the subject of
the economy of intellectual force valu-
able to me ; and if I live, or if I see
any trust in coming years, doubt not
that I shall do something, whatever
it may be, which a serious and earnest
estimate of ray powers will suggest
to me, and which will be in every
respect accommodated to their utmost
limits.

This dry and frosty weather fills me
with health and spirits ; I wish I could
believe that it would last. Shall we
now see you soon ? Why could you not
for a day or two at least leave town ?
Mrs. Godwin, too; how is she? and

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 91

does she not mean to take embargo off
her own person ?

Mary unites with me in best love.
My dear Godwin,

Most affectionately yours,

P. B. S.
To
Mr. William Godwin^

London.

LETTERS TO GODWIN.

LETTER XLI.

Bagni di Lucca.

Jtdy 2Sth, 1818.
{Saturday. "[

My Dear Godwin,

We have, as yet, seen nothing of
Italy which marks it to us as the habi-
tation of departed greatness. The
serene sky, the magnificent scenery,
the dehghtful productions of the
chmate, are known to us, indeed, as
the same with those which the ancients
enjoyed. But Rome and Naples —
even Florence, — are yet to see ; and,
if we were to write you at present a
history of our impressions, it would
give you no idea that we lived in
Italy.

I am exceedingly delighted with the

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 93

plan you propose of a book, illustrating
the character of our calumniated Re-
publicans. It is precisely the subject
for Mary ; and I imagine that, but for
the fear of being excited to refer to
books not within her reach, she would
attempt to begin it here, and order the
works you notice. I am unfortunately
little skilled in English history, and the
interest which it excites in me is so
feeble, that I find it a duty to attain
merely to that general knowledge of it
which is indispensable.

Mary has just finished Ariosto with
me, and, indeed, has attained a very
competent knowledge of Italian. She
is now reading Livy. I have been
constantly occupied in literature, but
have written little — except some trans
lations from Plato ; in which I exer-
cised myself, in the despair of pro-
ducing anything original. The Sym-
posium of Plato seems to me one
of the most valuable pieces of all

VOL. II. B B

94 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

antiquity ; whether we consider the
intrinsic merit of the composition, or
the light which it throws on the inmost
state of manners and opinions among
the ancient Greeks. I have occupied
myself in translating this, and it has
excited me to attempt an Essay upon
the cause of some differences in senti-
ment between the Ancients and
Moderns, with respect to the subject
of the dialogue.

Two things give us pleasure in your
last letters. The resumption of
Malthus, * and the favourable turn of
the general election. If Ministers do
not find some means, totally inconceiv-
able to me, of plunging the nation in
war, do you imagine that they can sub-
sist ? Peace is all that a country, in
the present state of England, seems to
require to afford it tranquillity and
leisure for attempting some remedy,

* I.e., of Godwin's Answer to Malthus on popula-
tion.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 95

not to the universal evils of all consti-
tuted society, but to the peculiar
system of misrule under which those
evils have been exasperated now. I
wish that I had health or spirits that
would enable me to enter into public
affairs, or that I could find words to
express all that I feel and know.

The modern Italians seem a miser-
able people, without sensibility, or
imagination, or understanding. Their
outside is polished, and an intercourse
with them seems to proceed with much
facility, though it ends in nothing,
and produces nothing. The women
are particularly empty, and, though
possessed of the same kind of super,
ficial grace, are devoid of every culti-
vation and refinement. They have a
ball at the Casino here every Sunday,
which we attend— but neither Mary
nor Claire dance. I do not know
whether they refrain from philosophy
or protestantism.

96 LETTERS TO GODWhW

I hear that poor Mary's book [Frank-
enstein] is attacked most violently in the
Quarterly Review. We have heard
some praise of it ; and, among others,
an article of Walter Scott's in Black-
wood^ s Magazine.

If you should have anything to send
us — and, I assure you, anything re-
lating to England is interesting to us —
commit it to the care of Oilier the
bookseller, or P[eacock] ; they send me
a parcel every quarter.

My health is, I think, better, and, I
imagine, continues to improve ; but I
still have busy thoughts and dispiriting
cares, which I would shake off — and it

is now summer. A thousand good

wishes to yourself and your under-
takings.

Ever most affectionately yours,

P. B. S[helley].

To
Mr. William Godwin,

London.

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 97

LETTER XLIL

Pisa.

August -jtk^ 1820.

\Monday.\

Sir,

The purport of this letter is to
inform you that I cannot comply with
the request contained in yours dated
July 2ist, and that you ought not to
depend upon me for any further pecu-
niary assistance at the present moment.
— My affairs are in a state of the most
complicated embarassment : added to
which I am surrounded by circum-
stances in which any diminution of my
very limited resources might involve
me in personal peril. I fear that you
and I are not on such terms as to
justify me in exposing to you the actual
state of my delicate and emergent
situation which the most sacred con-

VOL. II. c c

98 LETTERS TO GODWIN,

siderations imperiously require me to
conceal from Mary ; be it sufficient,
without entering into the subject now
present to my mind, to state the ques-
tion in such a manner that any entire
stranger who should chance to peruse
this letter might without reference to
these circumstances perceive that I am
justified in withholding my assent to
your request. I cannot comply, but it
will be an additional consolation to me
to have shown that I ought not.

I have given you within a {q\^ years
the amount of a considerable fortune,
and have destituted myself, for the
purpose of realising it, of nearly four
times the amount. Except for the
good will which this transaction seems
to have produced between you and me,
this money, for any advantage it ever
conferred on you, might as well have
been thrown into the sea. Had I kept in
my own hands this j^ 4,000 or ^5,000
and administered it in trust for your

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 99

permanent advantage, I should have
been indeed your benefactor. The
error however was greater in the man
of mature age, extensive experience, and
penetrating intellect, than in the crude
and impetuous boy. Such an error is
seldom committed twice.

You tell me that I promised to give
yo^ £i^^^ out of my income of
the present year. Never, certainly.
How is it possible that you should
assert such a mistake ? I might have
said that I could, or that I would if I
thought it necessary. I might have
been so foolish as to say this ; but I
must have been mad to have promised
what you alledge. Thus much at once
on the subject of promises. I never
but in one instance promised anything
unconditionally. And the conditions
were, first that I should be able to per-
form my engagement ; and secondly,
that the great sacrifices at which alone
it could ever be performed by me

/

loo LETTERS TO GODWIN.

should be made available to some
adequate and decisive advantage to
result to you ; such for instance as
the compromise of the suit now-
pending. Had Mr. Gisborn advanced
the money, according to the terms
proposed by me, its application to this
purpose alone would have been secured.
In October, 1819, you wrote to say
that the verdict of a jury had been
obtained against you for something
between ;£"6oo and ;£2ooo : and that
if you had ^500 you believed that you
could compromise the claim founded
upon that verdict. My first impulse
was — that I would do every thing that
I could to serve you ; as much as that
I certainly expressed under a belief of
the emergency of your situation. But
in fact I could do nothing. A year
passes over, and after this decision in a
court of common law, the affair remains
stationary. Nothing is more unlikely
than that, if your opponents can show

LETTERS TO GODWIN, loi

a legal claim to this ever-increasing sum,
they will compromise that claim for a
fourth of the whole amount which has
accrued. Nothing is more absurd than
to pay the sum in question, if they
cannot show this legal claim, with a
reserve of a liability for the entire sum
to those claimants in whose favour the
property may be finally adjudged.
The affair seems to me a mass of
improbabilities and absurdities. You
still urge the request of ^500. You
would take anything in the shape of it
that would compel me to make the
great sacrifices (if indeed 7iow it be not
impossible) of paying it from my income,
without — you must allow me to say — a
due regard to the proportion borne by
your accommodation to my immediate
loss or even your own ultimate advan-
tage. If you had bills on my income
for the sum, how would you procure
money on them ? My credit, except
among those friends from whom I

VOL. II. D D

I02 LETTERS TO GODWIN,

never will ask a pecuniary favor, cer-
tainly would not suffice to raise it, and
your own name is worth as little or less
in the money market. That my bills
would tell for something, I do not
doubt. And when you had procured
this money — this ;^4oo— what would
be done with it? What is become of
the ;£ioo already advanced by Horace
Smith ? Put your hand upon your
heart, and tell me where it is. In a
letter written after your receipt of this
sum you state with the most circum-
locutory force of expression, and as if
you were anxious to leave yourself no
outlet for escape, that you have never
received a single farthing. This of
course was only meant for immediate
effect ; and not for the purpose of
ultimately leading into error, and is
only a part of that system you pursue
of sacrificing all interests to the present
one. Suppose after this I were to in-
volve myself in the chance of destruc-

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 103

tion, to defraud my creditors of what is
justly theirs, to withhold their due from
those to whom I am the only source
of happiness and misery, and send you
these bills. The weakness and wicked-
ness of my conduct would admit of
some palliation if the money they pro-
duced were reserved for the attempt at
compromise and re-transmitted to me
the moment that attempt, as it must,
should fail. Sir Philip Sidney when
dying, and consumed with thirst, gave
the helmet of water which was brought
to him to the wounded soldier who stood
beside him. It would not have been
generosity but folly had he poured it on
the ground, as you would that I should
the wrecks of my once prosperous
fortune.

So much for the benefit which you
would derive from my concession of
your request. The evils — exclusive of
that circumstance which makes con-
cession absolutely impossible— were to

I04 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

me immense. I have creditors whose
claims amount nearly to ^"2,000 : some
of whom are exceedingly importunate ;
others suffering perhaps more than you
suffer, from the delays which my im-
poverished condition and limited in-
come have compelled me to assign ;
others threatening to institute a legal
process against me, which, not to speak
of the ruinous expense connected with
it, would expose my name to an
obloquy from which you must excuse
me if I endeavour to preserve it.
Amongst these creditors is the annui-
tant from whom I procured money to
meet Hogan's claim on you, at 25 per
cent, and the interest on which you
pledged yourself, but have neglected, to
pay. To all, or any one of these
objects the excess of my income over
my expenditure is most justly due.

In case any such reverse as bank-
ruptcy happening to yourself, a circum-
stance which sometimes surprises the

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 105

most prosperous concern, and infinitely
probable in an embarrassed business
conducted by a person wholly ignorant
of trade, how would you regret my folly
in not having been now severely just ?
If you are sincere with me on this
subject, why, instead of seeking to
plunge one person already half ruined
for your sake into deeper ruin, do you
not procure the ;£4oo by your own active
powers ? A person of your extraor-
dinary accomplishments might easily
obtain from the booksellers, for the
promise of a novel, a sum exceeding
this amount. Your answer to Malthus
would sell at least for ;^4oo. Half the
care and thought bestowed upon this
honorable exertion of the highest
faculties of our nature would have
rewarded you more largely than depen-
dence on a person whose precarious
situation and ruined fortunes make
that dependance a curse to both.
Mary is now giving suck to her

VOL. II. E E

io6 LETTERS TO GODWIN.

infant, in whose life, after the frightful
ev^ents of the last two years, her own
seems wholly to be bound up. Your
letters from their style and spirit (such
is your erroneous notion of taste) never
fail to produce an apalling effect on
her frame. On one occasion agita
tion of mind produced through her a
disorder in the child, similar to that
which destroyed our little girl two years
ago. The disorder was prolonged by
the alarm which it occasioned, until
by the utmost efforts of medical skill
and care it was restored to health. On
that occasion Mary at my request
authorised me to intercept such letters
or information as I might judge likely
to disturb her mind. That discretion
I have exercised with the letter to
which this is a reply. The correspond-
ence therefore rests between you and
me, if you should consider any further
discussion of a similar nature with that
in which you have lately been engaged

LETTERS TO GODWIN. 107

with Mary necessary, after the full
explanation which I have given of my
views, and the unalterable decision
which I have pronounced. Nor must
the correspondence with your daughter
on a similar subject be renewed. It
was even wholly improper, and might
lead to serious imputations against both
herself and you, which it is important
for her honour as well as for yours that
I should not only repel but prevent.
She has not, nor ought she to have, the
disposal of money ; if she had, poor
thing, she would give it all to you.

Such a father (I mean a man of such
high genius) can be at no loss to find
subjects on which to address such a
daughter. Do not let me be thought
to dictate, but I can only convey to
her such letters as are consistent with
her peace to read, such as you once
proposed to write, containing ....

The remainder of this letter is missing.]

Privately Printed : 1891.