CHAPTER V.

Return to Mont Alegre-Monk Lewis and ghost stories -Strange effect on Shelley's imagination-" Frankenstein"-The Vampire"-Shelley's return to Eng

land.

"

RETURNING from this short excursion, which lasted about a week, Shelley again took up his abode at Mont Alegre; but a valuable addition was now made to their small circle, in the person of the celebrated Monk Lewis, who at this period visited Lord Byron at Diodati, where the noble poet had for some time past taken up his abode.

Lewis's love of the wild and marvellous, which he had imbibed from the legends of Ger

many, while travelling in early life, introduced a novelty into their small circle, which soon proved to be very contagious.

During a week of incessant rain, which confined them in-doors, they amused themselves by, each in turn, reading or narrating a ghost story, an accomplishment in which Lewis so particularly excelled. Many were the strange tales of terror thus conjured up, and Shelley has given us specimens of those told by Lewis, in a short journal kept at the time; but one evening a singular scene arose out of this mode of pastime.

After one of the party had been perusing a German work called Phantasmagoria, they began relating ghost stories as usual, and Lord Byron recited the beginning of Christabel, then unpublished, when Shelley suddenly started up and ran out of the room, followed soon after by Byron and the physician; he was discovered leaning against a mantle-piece, in a terrible state of agitation, with cold drops of perspiration trickling down his face.

When they had succeeded in calming him, they inquired the cause of his alarm, and it was

found that his wild imagination had conjured up the vision of a beautiful woman, who was leaning over the balustrade of a staircase, and looking down on him with four eyes, two of which were in the centre of her uncovered breast; and he had realized this picture so vividly to his own mind, that he was obliged to rush from the room in order to destroy the impression.*

But the most notable result of this story-telling system, was the far-famed novel of " Frankenstein," written by the gifted daughter of William Godwin, and pronounced by Byron "a wonderful book for a girl of nineteen," though Mary Godwin had scarcely attained that age when she produced this work.

The manner in which this novel was commenced is well known. Byron and the fair authoress agreed to write something in imitation of the German ghost stories they had been reading together, and they each sat down to their task. Byron's "Vampire" was then commenced, but being a prose narrative, was soon cast aside and forgotten. The poet, however,

*See Moore's Life of Byron.

had the whole plan of his story arranged in his head, and one evening he repeated a sketch of it, and from such scanty materials his physician vamped up his story of the "Vampire," which, says Moore, was received with great enthu siasm in France, under the impression that it was written by Lord Byron.

But the novel of "Frankenstein" proceeded steadily on, and from its wild and wonderful character, on its first appearance, it took so strong a hold on the public mind, that it was greedily read in every circle; the name of its hero became familiar to every ear, and soon furnished a subject for the stage, both in France and England. More than once it has been quoted in Parliament, and still holds its place among the classics of our country.

The period of Shelley's residence at Geneva was soon brought to a close, for on the 29th of August, he departed again for England, where he arrived about the 6th of September, and as it appears, proceeded direct to London; which brings us to a new epoch in his life.

CHAPTER VI.

Shelley arrives in London-His intimacy with Leigh Hunt-Their meetings at Hampstead-Paper-boat building again-Shelley's domesticity-His love of humour-His desponding moods-Anecdote of his benevolence.

"THE saddest events awaited his return to England," says Mrs. Shelley; but what were the immediate circumstances which brought Shelley home so much earlier than he seems to have intended by the letter already given, I am unable to trace.

Probably, as on his first visit to the Continent, some sudden discovery of the emptiness of his purse, and the consequent inability to carry out his projects, had much to do with it. The