The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 1 (of 2)Jeaffreson, John Cordy
History
The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Jeaffreson, John Cordy
Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822
From this survey of his literary diversions and other ways of spending his
time during this academic term, it is obvious that the freshman had not
many hours for strenuous study. Few, indeed, were the minutes left to him
out of the twenty-four hours for any purpose, when he had spent _five_
hours in bed, an hour in attending chapel and breakfasting, two or three
hours in attending lectures, an hour in playing with his scientific toys,
an hour or two in writing letters to some of his numerous correspondents,
two hours in correcting proofs and producing fresh copy for the printers,
four hours in walking (with 'breaks' for pistol practice, playing with
paper boats, and 'making ducks-and-drakes' on the water), an hour at
dinner and supper, from two to four hours in his usual evening-nap, and
four hours in conversation with his peculiar friend. Some reading,
together with much talk, was doubtless done by the friends during these
last-mentioned four hours; but though it may be refreshing and otherwise
serviceable, the reading, which two sociable and naturally loquacious
fellow-students get through in each other's company, is never strenuous
and 'hard reading,'--must ever be more or less light and desultory. The
best apology to be made for the freshman's practice of conning the printed
page in the High Street, is that his various diversions left him so little
time for reading in his own rooms.
Whilst amusing himself with his young friend, whose eccentricities
afforded him so much amusement, the lightly humorous and severely
practical Hogg (ever with an eye to the 'first-class' and the
'fellowship,' that should serve him as stepping-stones to higher social
success, if not to social greatness) held to his hard-reading and was a
prudent economist of the time, which the freshman spent in busy idleness.
Rising from his bed at seven, and passing the earlier hours of the day on
the work for which he had come to Oxford, the reading-man never entered
Shelley's rooms before one p.m., and sometimes kept away from them till a
later hour of the afternoon. In the evening he resumed his studies, and
pursued them without interruption, whilst Shelley took his
evening-slumber, lying sometimes on a sofa, but oftener on the hearth-rug
before the large fire, that, ever bright and fierce, never burnt too
fiercely for his comfort. Suddenly overcome by drowsiness the slight and
nervous stripling surrendered himself to torpor almost in an instant, and
dropping on the sofa or rug, lay in deep lethargy for two or three (on
some evenings for four) hours, stretched like a cat before the glowing
fire. If he dropt off in this fashion at six o'clock, he slept for four
hours; if he fell into slumber at eight o'clock he slept for only two
hours. Whatever the time when it began, the nap of profound slumber--never
a short one--ended at ten o'clock, or within a few minutes. That the heat
of the glowing stove affected the sleeper agreeably, was obvious from the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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