The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 1 (of 2) — John Shaqi
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
After keeping his terms at the same Oxford College, from which his son was
expelled in the following century, Mr. Timothy Shelley made 'the grand
tour,' returning in due course with a smattering of French, an extremely
bad picture of the Eruption of Vesuvius, and 'a certain air' (if Medwin
may be trusted) of having seen the world. Having surveyed mankind in
European capitals, and entered middle age, he married Miss Elizabeth
Pilfold, a gentlewoman of good family and great beauty, who is lightly
regarded by the Shelleyan enthusiasts, because, in the conflict of her
husband and her son, she held loyally to the former, and declined to be
the partisan of the latter. It has even been urged to this lady's
discredit that, when her wilful boy would fain have shaken his sister's
confidence in the doctrines of the Church of England, she, in her mental
narrowness, was alarmed for the spiritual safety of her girls, and thought
it well that at least for a time they should be guarded from his
influence.
Had these parents foreseen the trouble that would come to them from their
first-born child, they would have welcomed him coldly on his arrival in
the room (at Field Place), one of whose walls has in recent time been
illustrated with this inscription:--
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
WAS BORN IN THIS CHAMBER
AUGUST 4TH, 1792.
SHRINE OF THE DAWNING SPEECH AND THOUGHT
OF SHELLEY SACRED BE
TO ALL WHO BOW WHERE TIME HAS BROUGHT
GIFTS TO ETERNITY.
Of Shelley, the little fellow of Dr. Greenlaw's school at Brentford, we
know much from Tom Medwin's occasionally accurate pages, and from other
sources of information, which enable us to check the statements of that
more entertaining than reliable biographer. Respecting Shelley at Eton,
there is almost a redundance of evidence. Of the Etonian's ways of amusing
himself at Field Place during his holidays, there is no lack of
information;--thanks to Miss Hellen Shelley's goodness in committing all
she could remember of her brother to paper, for the assistance of his
biographer and fellow-collegian, Hogg, the cynical humourist and clever
lawyer. But of Shelley, the nursling of the Field Place nursery, and child
of the Field Place schoolroom, few facts are on the record;--scarcely
anything besides the three or four matters, which Miss Hellen placed
amongst her personal recollections, as matters of domestic tradition,
coming to her from times before she was of an age to take clear and
enduring cognizance of her brother's doings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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