THE REAL SHELLEY. VOL. I. THE REAL SHELLEY. NEW VIEWS OF THE POET'S LIFE. BY JOHN CORDY JEAFFRESON, AUTHOR OF 'THE REAL LORD BYRON,' 'A BOOK ABOUT DOCTORS,' 'A BOOK ABOUT LAWYERS,' &c. &c. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1885. _All Rights reserved._ LONDON: PRINTED BY STRANGEWAYS AND SONS, Tower Street, Upper St. Martin's Lane. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. PAGE CHAPTER I. THE SHELLEY OF ROMANTIC BIOGRAPHY 1 Creators of The Romantic Shelley--Clint's Fanciful Composition--The Poet's Personal Appearance--His Little Turn-up Nose--His Ancestral Quality--Sussexisms of his Speech and Poetry--His Phenomenal Untruthfulness--His Temperance and Intemperance--A Victim of Domestic Persecution--Was _The Necessity of Atheism_ a mere Squib?--Lord Eldon's Decree--The Slaughter of Reputations--The Poet's Character--His Treatment of his familiar Friend--Biographic Fictions--Extravagances of Shelleyan Enthusiasm. CHAPTER II. THE SHELLEYS OF SUSSEX 13 Medwin's Blunders--Lady Shelley's Statement of the Case--The Michelgrove Shelleys--Sir William Shelley, Justice of The Common Pleas--The Castle Goring Shelleys--Their Pedigree at the Heralds' College--Evidences of the Connexion of the Two Families--John Shelley, 'Esquire and Lunatic'--Timothy Shelley, the Yankee Apothecary--Bysshe Shelley's Career--His Runaway Match with Catherine Michell--His Marriage with the Heiress of Penshurst--His Great Wealth--The Poet's Alleged Pride in his Connexion with the Sidneys--His Gentle, but not Aristocratic, Lineage. CHAPTER III. SHELLEY'S CHILDHOOD 27 The Poet's Father--Shelley's Birth and Birth-Chamber--Miss Hellen Shelley's Recollections--The Child-Shelley's Pleasant Fiction--His Aspect at Tender Age--His Description of his own Nose--The Indian-Ink Sketch--Miss Curran's 'Daub'-- Williams's Water-Colour Drawing--Clint's Composition-- Engravings of 'The Daub' and 'The Composition'--The Poet's Likeness in Marble--Shelley and Byron--Peacock and Hogg on Shelley's Facial Beauty--The Colnaghi Engraving. CHAPTER IV. THE BRENTFORD SCHOOLBOY 43