“Shelley’s figure was a little above the middle height, slender, and
of delicate construction, which appeared the rather from a lounging or
waving manner in his gait, as though his frame was compounded barely
of muscle and tendon; and that the power of walking was an achievement
with him and not a natural habit. Yet I should suppose that he was not
a valetudinarian, although that has been said of him on account of his
spare and vegetable diet; for I have the remembrance of his scampering
and bounding over the gorse-bushes on Hampstead Heath late one
night--now close upon us, and now shouting from the height like a wild
school-boy. He was both an active and an enduring walker,--feats which
do not accompany an ailing and feeble constitution. His face was round,
flat, pale, with small features; mouth beautifully shaped; hair bright
brown and wavy; and such a pair of eyes as are rarely in the human or
any other head,--intensely blue, with a gentle and lambent expression,
yet wonderfully alert and engrossing; nothing appeared to escape his
knowledge.”
[Sidenote: Leigh Hunt’s _Autobiography_.]
“Shelley, when he died, was in his thirtieth year. His figure was tall
and slight, and his constitution consumptive. He was subject to violent
spasmodic pains, which would sometimes force him to lie on the ground
until they were over; but he had always a kind word to give to those
about him when his pangs allowed him to speak. In this organisation,
as well as in some other respects, he resembled the German poet
Schiller. Though well-turned, his shoulders were bent a little, owing
to premature thought and trouble. The same causes had touched his
hair with gray; and though his habits of temperance and exercise gave
him a remarkable degree of strength, it is not supposed that he could
have lived many years. He used to say that he had lived three times as
long as the calendar gave out; which he would prove, between jest and
earnest, by some remarks on Time,
‘That would have puzzled that stout Stagyrite.’
Like the Stagyrites, his voice was high and weak. His eyes were large
and animated, with a dash of wildness in them; his face small, but well
shaped, particularly the mouth and chin, the turn of which was very
sensitive and graceful. His complexion was naturally fair and delicate,
with a colour in the cheeks. He had brown hair, which, though tinged
with gray, surmounted his face well, being in considerable quantity,
and tending to a curl. His side face, upon the whole, was deficient
in strength, and his features would not have told well in a bust; but
when fronting and looking at you attentively, his aspect had a certain
seraphical character that would have suited a portrait of John the
Baptist, or the angel whom Milton describes as holding a reed ‘tipt
with fire.’”--1822.
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN
1751-1816
[Sidenote: Moore’s _Life of Sheridan_.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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