APPENDIX. Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley These letters have been selected with a view to enhancing the reader's interest in many of the engravings to be found in this volume. لا XIII. EARLY ITALIAN IMPRESSIONS "ROSALIND AND HELEN " March 13-November 9, 1818 وو THE Journey to Italy—Leigh Hunt's Poems-Passage of the Echelles -Italian Women-Lake Como-Milan Cathedral-LeghornThe Gisbornes-The Baths of Lucca-Bathing-Godwin's Malthus Rosalind and Helen "-Florence-Venice-The Hoppners—Byron-Clare and Allegra—I Cappuccini-Death of Clara Shelley" Prometheus Unbound "-Journey to NaplesAriosto and Tasso-Pictures at Bologna. 290. TO LEIGH HUNT (London) CALAIS, March 13, 1818. [Friday.] MY DEAR FRIEND, After a stormy but very short voyage we have arrived at Calais, and are at this moment on the point of proceeding. We are all very well, and in excellent spirits. Motion has always this effect upon the blood, even when the mind knows that there are causes for dejection. With respect to Tailor and Hessey (sic) 1 I am ready to certify, if necessary in a Court of Justice, that one of them said he would give up his (qy. their] copyright for the £20; and that in lieu of that he would accept the profits of " Rimini " until it was paid. Pray write to Milan. Yours ever affectionately, P. B. SHELLEY. Taylor and Hessey' was a firm of London publishers. Written by Mary Shelley Shelley is full of business, and desires me to finish this hasty notice of our safety. The children are in high spirits and very well. Our passage was stormy but very short. Both Alba and William were sick, but they were very good and slept all the time. We now depart for Italy, with very fine weather and good hopes. Farewell, my dear Friend, may you be happy, Your affectionate friend, [Addressed outside], Mr. LEIGH HUNT, 13 Lisson Grove North, MARY W. S. Angleterre. 291. TO LEIGH HUNT LYONS,1 March 22, 1818. MY DEAR FRIEND, Why did you not wake me that night before we left England, you and Marianne ?? I take this as rather an unkind piece of kindness in you; but which, in consideration of the six hundred miles between us, I forgive. 1 Mary Shelley's journal tells us that they arrived at Calais on March 12, and departed on the following day, and travelled through Douay, La Fere, Rheims, Dizier, Langres, Dijon, Macon, and reached Lyons on Saturday, the 21st, at half-past eleven. The following day Shelley wrote to Byron, "who had refused to correspond with Clare, informing him that Allegra had come thus far on the way." (Dowden's "Shelley," II, p. 108.) On the 25th they left Lyons. 2 Shelley's last day in London, Tuesday, March 10, 1818, was spent at his lodgings in Great Russell Street, in the company of Leigh Hunt and his wife. Mary adds in her journal: "Mary Lamb calls, Papa in the evening; our adieus." During the evening Shelley fell into a sleep from which he was not awakened, and his friends departed without taking leave of him. 1818 Leigh Hunt's "Foliage " 589 We have journeyed towards the spring, that has been hastening to meet us from the south; and though our weather was at first abominable, we have now warm sunny days, and soft winds, and a sky of deep azure, the most serene I ever saw. The heat in this city to-day is like that of London in the midst of summer. My spirits and health sympathize in the change. Indeed, before I left London, my spirits were as feeble as my health, and I had demands on them which I found it difficult to supply. I have read "Foliage: "1 with most of the poems I am already familiar. What a delightful poem "The Nymphs " is! especially the second part. It is truly poetical, in the intense and emphatic sense of the word. If six hundred miles were not between us, I should say what a pity that glib 2 was not omitted, and that the poem is not as faultless as it is beautiful. But, for fear I should spoil your next poem I will not let slip a word upon the subject. Give my love to Marianne and her sister, and tell Marianne she defrauded me of a kiss by not waking me when she went away, and that, as I have no better mode of conveying it, I must take the best, and ask you to pay the debt. When shall I see you again? Oh, that it might be in Italy! I confess that the thought of how long we may be divided makes me very melancholy. Adieu, my dear friend. Write soon. Ever most affectionately yours, To LEIGH HUNT, Esq. P. B. S. 292. JOURNAL PASSAGE OF THE ECHELLES Thursday, March 26, [1818]. We travel towards the mountains, and begin to enter the 1 66 Foliage; or, Poems Original and Translated. By Leigh Published by Ollier in 1818. The volume contains a poem "To Percy Shelley." Hunt. " 2 In the phrase, the glib sea-flowers." |