faction could deny-these were passed over in a Their boat had been built for Mr. Shelley at Genoa sweeping torrent of vulgar vituperation by the by a captain in the navy. It was twenty-four feet servile and venal Quarterly. long, eight in the beam, schooner-rigged, with During his residence at Great Marlow, he com- gaft topsails, etc. and drew four fect water. On posed his Revolt of Islam. In 1817 he left Eng-Monday, the 8th of July, at the same hour, they land, never to return to it, and directed his steps got under weigh to return home, having on board to Italy, where he resided partly at Venice, partly a quantity of household articles, four hundred dolat Pisa near his friend Byron, and on the neigh- lars, a small canoe, and some books and manuboring coast. In the month of June 1822 he was scripts. At half past twelve they made all sail out temporarily a resident in a house situated on the of the harbor with a light and favorable breeze, Gulf of Lerici. Being much attached to sea-ex-steering direct for Spezia. I had likewise weighed cursions, he kept a boat, in which he was in the anchor to accompany them a few miles out in habit of cruising along the coast. On the 7th of Lord Byron's schooner, the Bolivar; but there was July, he set sail from Leghorn, where he had been some demur about papers from the guard-boat ; to meet Mr. Leigh Hunt, who had just then ar- and they, fearful of losing the breeze, sailed withrived in Italy, intending to return to Lerici. But out me. I re-anchored, and watched my friends, he never reached that place; the boat in which he set sail was lost in a violent storm, and all on board perished. The following particulars of that melancholy event are extracted from the work of Mr. Leigh Hunt, entitled "Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries."

till their boat became a speck on the horizon, which was growing thick and dark, with heavy clouds moving rapidly, and gathering in the southwest quarter. I then retired to the cabin, where I had not been half an hour, before a man on deck told me a heavy squall had come on. We let go another anchor. The boats and vessels in the roads "In June 1822, I arrived in Italy, in consequence were scudding past us in all directions to get into of the invitation to set up a work with my friend harbor; and in a moment, it blew a hard gale from and Lord Byron. Mr. Shelley was passing the sum- the south-west, the sea, from excessive smoothness, mer season at a house he had taken for that pur- foaming, breaking, and getting up into a very pose on the Gulf of Lerici; and on hearing of my heavy swell. The wind, having shifted, was now arrival at Leghorn, came thither, accompanied by directly against my friends. I felt confident they Mr. Williams, formerly of the 8th Dragoons, who would be obliged to bear off for Leghorn; and was then on a visit to him. He came to welcome being anxious to hear of their safety, stayed on his friend and family, and see us comfortably set- board till a late hour, but saw nothing of them. tled at Pisa. He accordingly went with us to that The violence of the wind did not continue above city, and after remaining in it a few days, took an hour; it then gradually subsided; and at eight leave on the night of the 7th July, to return with o'clock, when I went on shore, it was almost a Mr. Williams to Lerici, meaning to come back to calm. It, however, blew hard at intervals during us shortly. In a day or two the voyagers were the night, with rain, and thunder and lightning. missed. The afternoon of the 8th had been stormy, The lightning struck the mast of a vessel close to with violent squalls from the south-west. A night us, shivering it to splinters, killing two men, and succeeded, broken up with that tremendous thun- wounding others. From these circumstances, beder and lightning, which appals the stoutest sea- coming greatly alarmed for the safety of the voy. man in the Mediterranean, dropping its bolts in agers, a note was dispatched to Mr. Shelley's house all directions more like melted brass, or liquid pil- at Lerici, the reply to which stated that nothing lars of fire, than any thing we conceive of light- had been heard of him and his friend, which augning in our northern climate. The suspense and mented our fears to such a degree, that couriers anguish of their friends need not be dwelt upon. were dispatched on the whole line of coast from A dreadful interval took place of more than a week, during which every inquiry and every fond hope were exhausted. At the end of that period dication of losses by sea. I immediately started our worst fears were confirmed. The following narrative of the particulars is from the pen of Mr. Trelawney, a friend of Lord Byron's, who had not long been acquainted with Mr. Shelley, but entertained the deepest regard for him :—

Leghorn to Nice, to ascertain if they had put in anywhere, or if there had been any wreck, or in

for Via Reggio, having lost sight of the boat in that direction- My worst fears were almost confirmed on my arrival there, by news that a small canoe, two empty water-barrels, and a bottle, had been found on the shore, which things I recognized “Mr. Shelley, Mr. Williams (formerly of the as belonging to the boat. I had still, however, 8th Dragoons), and one seaman, Charles Vivian, warm hopes that these articles had been thrown left Villa Magni near Lerici, a small town situate overboard to clear them from useless lumber in in the Bay of Spezia, on the 30th of June, at twelve the storm; and it seemed a general opinion that o'clock, and arrived the same night at Leghorn. they had missed Leghorn, and put into Elba or

Corsica, as nothing more was heard for eight days. "It was thought that the whole of these melan. This state of suspense becoming intolerable, I re- choly operations might have been performed in turned from Spezia to Via Reggio, where my worst one day but the calculation turned out to be erfears were confirmed by the information that two roneous. Mr. Williams's remains were commenced bodies had been washed on shore, one on that with. Mr. Trelawney and Captain Shenley were night very near the town, which, by the dress and at the tower by noon, with proper persons to assist, stature, I knew to be Mr. Shelley's. Mr. Keats's and were joined shortly by Lord Byron and mylast volume of "Lamia,” “Isabella,” etc. being self. A portable furnace and a tent had been preopen in the jacket pocket, confirmed it beyond a pared. "Wood," continues Mr. Trelawney, "we doubt. The body of Mr. Williams was subsequent- found in abundance on the beach, old trees and ly found near a tower on the Tuscan shore, about parts of wrecks. Within a few paces of the spot four miles from his companion. Both the bodies where the body lay, there was a rude-built shed were greatly decomposed by the sea, but identified of straw, forming a temporary shelter for soldiers beyond a doubt. The seaman, Charles Vivian, was at night, when performing the coast-patrol duty. not found for nearly three weeks afterwards :-his The grave was at high-water mark, some eighteen body was interred on the spot on which a wave paces from the surf, as it was then breaking, the had washed it, in the vicinity of Massa. distance about four miles and a half from Via "After a variety of applications to the Luc- Reggio. The magnificent bay of Spezia is on the chese and Tuscan governments, and our ambassa- right of this spot, Leghorn on the left, at equal dor at Florence, I obtained, from the kindness and distances of about twenty-two miles. The headexertions of Mr. Dawkins, an order to the officer lands, projecting boldly and far into the sea, form commanding the tower of Migliarino (near to a deep and dangerous gulf, with a heavy swell which Lieutenant Williams had been cast, and and a strong current generally running right into buried in the sand), that the body should be at my it. A vessel embayed in this gulf, and overtaken disposal. I likewise obtained an order to the same by one of the squalls so common upon the coast effect to the commandant at Via Reggio, to deliver of it, is almost certain to be wrecked. The loss up the remains of Mr. Shelley, it having been de- of small craft is great; and the shallowness of the cided by the friends of the parties that the bodies water, and breaking of the surf, preventing apshould be reduced to ashes by fire, as the readiest proach to the shore, or boats going out to assist, mode of conveying them to the places where the the loss of lives is in proportion. It was in the deceased would have wished to repose, as well as centre of this bay, about four or five miles at sea, of removing all objections respecting the quaran- in fifteen or sixteen fathom water, with a light tine laws, which had been urged against their dis- breeze under a crowd of sail, that the boat of our interment. Every thing being prepared for the friends was suddenly taken clap aback by a sudden requisite purposes, I embarked on board Lord By- and very violent squall; and it is supposed that in ron's schooner with my friend Captain Shenley, attempting to bear up under such a press of canand sailed on the 13th of August. After a tedious vas, all the sheets fast, the hands unprepared, and passage of eleven hours, we anchored off Via Reg- only three persons on board, the boat filled to leegio, and fell in with two small vessels, which I ward, and having two tons of ballast, and not behad hired at Leghorn some days before for the ing decked, went down on the instant; not giving purpose of ascertaining, by the means used to re- them a moment to prepare themselves by even cover sunken vessels, the place in which my taking off their boots, or seizing an oar. Mr friend's boat had foundered. They had on board Williams was the only one who could swim, and the captain of a fishing-boat, who, having been he but indifferently. The spot where Mr. Wilovertaken in the same squall, had witnessed the liams's body lay was well adapted for a man of sinking of the boat, without (as he says) the pos- his imaginative cast of mind, and I wished his resibility of assisting her. After dragging the bot- mains to rest undisturbed; but it was willed othertom, in the place which he indicated, for six days wise. Before us was the sea, with islands; behind without finding her, I sent them back to Leghorn, us the Apennines; beside us, a large tract of thick and went on shore. The major commanding the wood, stunted and twisted into fantastic shapes by town, with the captain of the port, accompanied the sea-breeze.-The heat was intense, the sand me to the governor. He received us very cour- being so scorched as to render standing on it painteously, and did not object to the removal of our ful." friends' remains, but to burning them, as the latter

"Mr. Trelawney proceeds to describe the disin was not specified in the order. However, after terment and burning of Mr. Williams's remains. some little explanation, he assented, and we gave Calumny, which never shows itself grosser than the necessary directions for making every prepa- in its charges of want of refinement, did not spare ration to commence our painful undertaking next even these melancholy ceremonies. The friends morning." " of the deceased, though they took no pains to pub

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lish the proceeding, were accused of wishing to philosophy. He loved to study in the open air, in make a sensation; of doing a horrible and unfeel- the shadow of the wood, or by the side of the ing thing, etc. The truth was, that the nearest water-fall. In short, he was a singular illustration connexions, both of Mr. Shelley and Mr. Williams, of the force of natural genius, bursting the bonds wished to have their remains interred in regular of birth and habit, and the conventional ties of the places of burial; and that for this purpose they circle in which he was born, and soaring high, could be removed in no other manner. Such being under the direction of his own spirit, chartless and the case, it is admitted that the mourners did not alone. He steered by his own ideas of justice; refuse themselves the little comfort of supposing hence he was ever at war with things which reathat lovers of books and antiquity, like Mr. Shel- son and right had no hand in establishing,―radiley and his friend, would not have been sorry to cally wrong in themselves perhaps, or to be changed foresee this part of their fate. Among the mate- for the better, but by usage become second nature rials for burning, as many of the gracefuller and to society, or at least to that far larger proportion more classical articles as could be procured,- of it which lives by custom alone. He had no frankincense, wine, etc.—were not forgotten.

value for what the mass of men estimate as desirable; a seat in the senate he declined, though he might have enriched himself by its acceptance. He seemed to commit the mistake of others before him, in dreaming of the perfectibility of man. An anecdote is related of him that, at a ball of fashion where he was a leading character, and the most elegant ladies of the crowd expected the honor of being led out by him, he selected a friendless girl for a partner who was scorned by her companions, having lain under the imputation of an unlucky mishap some time preceding.

"The proceedings of the next day, with Mr. Shelley's remains, exactly resembled those of the foregoing, with the exception of there being two assistants less. On both days, the extraordinary beauty of the flame arising from the funeral pile = was noticed. Mr. Shelley's remains were taken to Rome, and deposited in the Protestant burialground, near those of a child he had lost in that city, and of Mr. Keats. It is the cemetery he speaks of in the preface to his Elegy on the death of his young friend, as calculated to "make one in love with death, to think that one should be The books in which he commonly read were buried in so sweet a place."-The generous reader the Greek writers; in the tragedians particularly, will be glad to hear, that the remains of Mr. Shel- he was deeply versed. The Bible was a work of ley were attended to their final abode by some of great admiration with him, and his frequent study. the most respectable English residents in Rome. For the character of Christ and his doctrines he He was sure to awaken the sympathy of gallant had great reverence, the axiom of the founder of and accomplished spirits wherever he went, alive Christianity being that by which he endeavored to or dead. The remains of Mr. Williams were taken to England. Mr. Williams was a very intelligent, good-hearted man, and his death was deplored by friends worthy of him.—————”

shape his course in despite of all obstacles. In pecuniary matters he was liberal. Uncharitable indeed must that man have been who doubted the excellence of his intentions, or charged him with Shelley was thirty years old when he died. He wilful error: who then shall judge a being of whom was tall and slender in his figure, and stooped a this may be said, save his Creator-who that lives little in the shoulders, though perfectly well-made. in the way he sees others live, without regard to The expression of his features was mild and good. the mode being right or wrong, shall charge him His complexion was fair, and his cheeks colored. with crime, who tries to reconcile together his life His eyes were large and lively; and the whole and his aspirations after human perfectibility? urn of his face, which was small, was graceful Shelley had his faults as well as other men, but on and full of sensibility. He was subject to attacks the whole it appears that his deviations from the of a disorder which forced him to lie down (if in vulgar routine form the great sum of the charges the open air, upon the ground) until they were made against him. His religious sentiments were over; yet he bore them kindly and without a mur-between him and his God.

mur. His disposition was amiable, and even the The writings of Shelley are too deep to be popu word "pious" has been applied to his conduct as lar, but there is no reader possessing taste and regarded others, to his love of nature, and to his judgment, who will not do homage to his pen He ideas of that power which pervades all things. was a poet of great power: he felt intensely, and He was very fond of music; frugal in all but his his works everywhere display the ethereal spirit charities, often to considerable self-denial, and of genius of a rare order-abstract, perhaps, but loved to do acts of generosity and kindness. He not less powerful; his is the poetry of intellect, was a first-rate scholar; and besides the languages not that of the Lakers; his theme is the high one of antiquity, well understood the German, Ital- of intellectual nature and lofty feeling, not of wagian and French tongues. He was an excellent oners or idiot children. His faults in writing are metaphysician, and was no slight adept in natural obvious, but equally so are his beauties. He is too

much of a philosopher, and dwells too much upon favorite images, that draw less upon our sympathies than those of social life. His language is lofty, and no one knows better how to cull, arrange, and manage the syllables of his native tongue. He thoroughly understood metrical composition.

"The comparative solitude in which Mr. Shelley lived, was the occasion that he was personally known to few; and his fearless enthusiasm in the cause, which he considered the most sacred upon earth, the improvement of the moral and physical state of mankind, was the chief reason why he, Shelley began to publish prematurely, as we like other illustrious reformers, was pursued by have already stated, at the early age of 15; but it hatred and calumny. No man was ever more de. was not till about the year 1811 or 1812 that he voted than he, to the endeavor of making those seems first to have devoted his attention to poetical around him happy; no man ever possessed friends composition. To enumerate his poetical works more unfeignedly attached to him. The ungrate here would be a useless task, as they will be found ful world did not feel his loss, and the gap it made in the collection of his poems appended. His seemed to close as quickly over his memory as "Prometheus Unbound" is a noble work; his the murderous sea above his living frame. Here "Cenci" and " Adonais" are his principal works after men will lament that his transcendent pow. in point of merit. Love was one of his favorite ers of intellect were extinguished before they had themes, as it is with all poets, and he has ever bestowed on them their choicest treasures. To his touched it with a master-hand. The subject of the friends his loss is irremediable: the wise, the "Cenci" is badly selected, but it is nobly written, brave, the gentle, is gone for ever! He is to them and admirably sustained. Faults it has, but they as a bright vision, whose radiant track, left behind are amply redeemed by its beauties. It is only in the memory, is worth all the realities that sofrom the false clamor raised against him during ciety can afford. Before the critics contradict me, his life-time, that his poems have not been more let them appeal to any one who had ever known read. No scholar, no one having the slightest pre- him: to see him was to love him; and his pres. tensions to true taste in poetry, can be without ence, like Ithuriel's spear, was alone sufficient to them. It may be boldly prophesied that they will disclose the falsehood of the tale, which his ene one day be more read than they have ever yet mies whispered in the ear of the ignorant world. been, and more understood. In no nation but Eng- "His life was spent in the contemplation of naland do the reading public suffer others to judge ture, in arduous study, or in acts of kindness and for them, and pin their ideas of the defects or affection. He was an elegant scholar and a probeauties of their national writers upon the partial found metaphysician: without possessing much diatribes of hired pens, and the splenetic outpour- scientific knowledge, he was unrivalled in the ings of faction. It is astonishing how the nation justness and extent of his observations on natural of Newton and Locke is thus contented to suffer objects; he knew every plant by its name, and itself to be deceived and misled by literary Ma- was familiar with the history and habits of every chiavelism. production of the earth; he could interpret with The following preface to the author's Posthu- out a fault cach appearance in the sky, and the mous Poems contains much to interest the admi- varied phenomena of heaven and earth filled him rers of his genius. The circumstance of its being with deep emotion. He made his study and read. from the pen of Mrs. Shelley will still farther re-ing-room of the shadowed copse, the stream, the commend it :lake and the water-fall. Ill health and continual "It had been my wish, on presenting the public pain preyed upon his powers; and the solitude in with the Posthumous Poems of Mr. Shelley, to which we lived, particularly on our first arrival in have accompanied them by a biographical notice; Italy, although congenial to his feelings, must freas it appeared to me, that at this moment a narra- quently have weighed upon his spirits: those beaution of the events of my husband's life would come tiful and affecting Lines, written in dejection at more gracefully from other hands than mine, I Naples,' were composed at such an interval; but applied to Mr. Leigh Hunt. The distinguished when in health, his spirits were buoyant and friendship that Mr. Shelley felt for him, and the youthful to an extraordinary degree. enthusiastic affection with which Mr. Leigh Hunt "Such was his love for nature, that every page clings to his friend's memory, seemed to point of his poetry is associated in the minds of his him out as the person best calculated for such an friends with the loveliest scenes of the countries undertaking. His absence from this country, which he inhabited. In early life he visited the which prevented our mutual explanation, has un- most beautiful parts of this country and Ireland, fortunately rendered my scheme `abortive. I do Afterwards the Alps of Switzerland became his not doubt but that, on some other occasion, he will inspirers. Prometheus Unbound' was written pay this tribute to his lost friend, and sincerely re- among the deserted and flower-grown ruins of gret that the volume which I edit has not been Rome; and when he made his home under the honored by its insertion. Pisan hills, their roofless recesses harbored him as

ne composed 'The Witch of Atlas'' Adonais,' and to imbue with strange horror our days of uncer'Hellas. In the wild but beautiful Bay of Spezia, tainty. The truth was at last known,—a truth the winds and waves which he loved became his that made our loved and lovely Italy appear a tomb, playmates. His days were chiefly spent on the its sky a pall. Every heart echoed the deep lament; water; the management of his boat, its alterations and my only consolation was in the praise and and improvements, were his principal occupation. earnest love that each voice bestowed and each At night, when the unclouded moon shone on the countenance demonstrated for him we had lost,calm sea, he often went alone in his little shallop not, I fondly hope, for ever: his unearthly and to the rocky caves that bordered it, and sitting be- elevated nature is a pledge of the continuation of neath their shelter wrote "The Triumph of Life,' his being, although in an altered form. Rome rethe last of his productions. The beauty but ceived his ashes; they are deposited beneath its strangeness of this lonely place, the refined plea-weed-grown wall, and the world's sole monusure which he felt in the companionship of a few ment' is enriched by his remains. selected friends, our entire sequestration from the "Julian and Maddalo,' 'The Witch of Atlas,' rest of the world, all contributed to render this and most of the Translations, were written some period of his life one of continued enjoyment. I years ago, and, with the exception of 'The Cyclops,' am convinced that the two months we passed there and the Scenes from the Magico Prodigioso,' were the happiest he had ever known: his health may be considered as having received the author's even rapidly improved, and he was never better ultimate corrections. The Triumph of Life' was than when I last saw him, full of spirits and joy, his last work, and was left in so unfinished a state, embark for Leghorn, that he might there welcome that I arranged it in its present form with great Leigh Hunt to Italy. I was to have accompanied difficulty. Many of the Miscellaneous Poems, him, but illness confined me to my room, and thus written on the spur of the occasion, and never reput the seal on my misfortune. His vessel bore out of sight with a favorable wind, and I remained awaiting his return by the breakers of that sea which was about to ingulf him.

touched, I found among his manuscript books, and have carefully copied : I have subjoined, whenever I have been able, the date of their composition.

"I do not know whether the critics will repre"He spent a week at Pisa, employed in kind hend the insertion of some of the most imperfect offices towards his friend, and enjoying with keen among these; but I frankly own, that I have been delight the renewal of their intercourse. He then more actuated by the fear lest any monument of embarked with Mr. Williams, the chosen and his genius should escape me, than the wish of prebeloved sharer of his pleasures and of his fate, to senting nothing but what was complete to the fasreturn to us. We waited for them in vain; the tidious reader. I feel secure that the Lovers of sea by its restless moaning seemed to desire to in- Shelley's Poetry (who know how, more than any form us of what we would not learn:-but a other poet of the present day, every line and word veil may well be drawn over such misery. The he wrote is instinct with peculiar beauty) will real anguish of these moments transcended all the pardon and thank me: I consecrate this volume fictions that the most glowing imagination ever to them. portrayed: our seclusion, the savage nature of the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, and our immediate vicinity to the troubled sea, combined;

"MARY W. SHELLEY.

"London, June 1st, 1824.

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