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Percy Bysshe Shelley | HearLore
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on the 4th of August 1792 at Field Place in Warnham, Sussex, into a life of quiet privilege that would soon fracture under the weight of his own imagination. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley, a baronet and Member of Parliament, and Elizabeth Pilfold, the daughter of a successful butcher. His early years were sheltered and happy, marked by a close bond with his mother and sisters, who encouraged his love for hunting, fishing, and riding. Yet beneath this idyllic surface lay a mind that was already beginning to turn toward the strange and the forbidden. By the age of six, he had displayed an impressive memory and a gift for languages, but it was his fascination with science and the supernatural that would define his childhood. He conducted experiments with gunpowder, acids, and electricity, terrifying his sisters and blowing up a paling fence at his school. These were not mere pranks; they were the first signs of a boy who saw the world as a laboratory of possibilities, where the laws of nature could be bent, broken, and rewritten.
The Expulsion That Made A Martyr
In the winter of 1810, 1811, Shelley published a series of anonymous political poems and tracts, including The Necessity of Atheism, which he co-authored with his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg. He mailed the pamphlet to all the bishops and heads of colleges at Oxford, a bold and reckless act that would change the course of his life. When called to appear before the college's fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley, Shelley refused to answer questions regarding whether or not he authored the pamphlet. His refusal to comply with the authorities resulted in his expulsion from Oxford on the 25th of March 1811, along with Hogg. This was not merely an academic setback; it was a public declaration of war against the established order. His father, Sir Timothy Shelley, threatened to cut all contact with his son unless he agreed to return home and study under tutors appointed by him. Shelley's refusal to do so led to a falling-out with his father, and he was left to navigate a world that had rejected him for his ideas. The expulsion marked the beginning of a life of exile, both self-imposed and forced, as he wandered through England, Ireland, and eventually Italy, always at odds with the society that had once embraced him.
The Elopement That Shattered A Family
In May 1814, Shelley began visiting his mentor, William Godwin, almost daily. He soon fell in love with Godwin's sixteen-year-old daughter, Mary, whose mother was the late feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley and Mary declared their love for each other during a visit to her mother's grave in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church on the 26th of June. When Shelley told Godwin that he intended to leave Harriet and live with Mary, his mentor banished him from the house and forbade Mary from seeing him. Shelley and Mary eloped to Europe on the 28th of July, taking Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont with them. Before leaving, Shelley had secured a loan of £3,000 but had left most of the funds at the disposal of Godwin and Harriet, who was again pregnant. The financial arrangement with Godwin led to rumours that he had sold his daughters to Shelley. The elopement was not just a romantic gesture; it was a political act, a rejection of the social and moral codes that had governed their lives. It was a decision that would lead to years of financial struggle, social ostracism, and personal tragedy, as Shelley and Mary navigated a world that refused to accept their union.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on the 4th of August 1792 at Field Place in Warnham, Sussex. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley and Elizabeth Pilfold.
Why was Percy Bysshe Shelley expelled from Oxford University?
Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from Oxford on the 25th of March 1811 for refusing to answer questions regarding his authorship of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism. He co-authored the work with Thomas Jefferson Hogg and mailed it to all bishops and heads of colleges.
Who did Percy Bysshe Shelley elope with in 1814?
Percy Bysshe Shelley eloped with Mary Godwin on the 28th of July 1814. They took Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont with them to Europe after declaring their love at her mother's grave on the 26th of June.
How did Percy Bysshe Shelley die and when?
Percy Bysshe Shelley died on the 1st of July 1822 when his boat the Don Juan sank in a storm off the coast of Livorno. His body washed ashore at Viareggio ten days later and was identified by Trelawny.
What happened to Percy Bysshe Shelley's heart after his death?
Percy Bysshe Shelley's heart resisted burning during his cremation on the 16th of August and was retrieved by Trelawny. The organ was preserved in spirits of wine and eventually buried at either St Peter's Church in Bournemouth or Christchurch Priory.
Shelley, Mary, and Claire made their way across war-ravaged France, where Shelley wrote to Harriet, asking her to meet them in Switzerland with the money he had left for her. Hearing nothing from Harriet in Switzerland, and unable to secure sufficient funds or suitable accommodation, the three travelled to Germany and Holland, before returning to England on the 13th of September. In May 1816, they arrived in Geneva and rented a house close to Villa Diodati, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Lord Byron was staying. There Shelley, Byron, and the others engaged in discussions about literature, science, and various philosophical doctrines. One night, while Byron was reciting Coleridge's Christabel, Shelley suffered a severe panic attack with hallucinations. The previous night Mary had had a more productive vision or nightmare which inspired her novel Frankenstein. The stormy nights of Lake Geneva were not just a backdrop for literary creation; they were a crucible of psychological and emotional turmoil. The discussions and the shared nightmares led to the creation of some of the most enduring works of the Romantic period, but they also exposed the fragility of the human mind and the thin line between inspiration and madness.
The Italy Exile And The Death Of A Child
On the 12th of March 1818, the Shelleys and Claire left England to escape its tyranny civil and religious. A doctor had also recommended that Shelley go to Italy for his chronic lung complaint, and Shelley had arranged to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron who was now in Venice. After travelling some months through France and Italy, Shelley left Mary and baby Clara at Bagni di Lucca while he travelled with Claire to Venice to see Byron and make arrangements for visiting Allegra. Clara became seriously ill on the journey and died on the 24th of September in Venice. Following Clara's death, Mary fell into a long period of depression and emotional estrangement from Shelley. The Shelleys moved to Naples, where they stayed for three months. During this period, Shelley was ill, depressed, and almost suicidal, a state of mind reflected in his poem Stanzas written in Dejection , December 1818, Near Naples. In Rome, Shelley was in poor health, probably having developed nephritis and tuberculosis which later was in remission. Nevertheless, he made significant progress on three major works: Julian and Maddalo, Prometheus Unbound, and The Cenci. The years in Italy were a time of both creative brilliance and personal tragedy, as Shelley and Mary struggled with illness, financial hardship, and the loss of their children. The beauty of the Italian landscape could not mask the darkness that had taken root in their hearts.
The Boat That Sank A Dream
On the 1st of July 1822, Shelley and Edward Williams sailed in Shelley's new boat the Don Juan to Livorno where Shelley met Leigh Hunt and Byron in order to make arrangements for a new journal, The Liberal. After the meeting, on the 8th of July, Shelley, Williams, and their boat boy sailed out of Livorno for Lerici. A few hours later, the Don Juan and its inexperienced crew were lost in a storm. The vessel, an open boat, had been custom-built in Genoa for Shelley. Mary Shelley declared in her Note on Poems of 1822 (1839) that the design had a defect and that the boat was never seaworthy. The sinking, however, was probably due to the severe storm and poor seamanship of the three men on board. Shelley's badly decomposed body washed ashore at Viareggio ten days later and was identified by Trelawny from the clothing and a copy of Keats's Lamia in a jacket pocket. On the 16th of August, his body was cremated on a beach near Viareggio and the ashes were buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome. The day after the news of his death reached England, the Tory London newspaper The Courier printed: Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned; now he knows whether there is God or no. The death of Shelley was not just the end of a life; it was the end of a dream, a dream that had been built on the ruins of his own ideals and the hopes of a generation that would come to see him as a prophet of a new age.
The Heart That Would Not Burn
When Shelley's body was cremated on the beach, his presumed heart resisted burning and was retrieved by Trelawny. The heart was possibly calcified from an earlier tubercular infection, or was perhaps his liver. Trelawny gave the scorched organ to Hunt, who preserved it in spirits of wine and refused to hand it over to Mary. He finally relented and the heart was eventually buried either at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, or in Christchurch Priory. Hunt also retrieved a piece of Shelley's jawbone which, in 1913, was given to the Shelley-Keats Memorial in Rome. The heart that would not burn became a symbol of Shelley's enduring spirit, a physical reminder of the man who had refused to conform to the expectations of his time. It was a testament to the power of his ideas, which had outlived his body and continued to inspire generations of poets, thinkers, and revolutionaries. The heart, preserved in spirits of wine, was a relic of a man who had lived and died for the belief that poetry could change the world.