Значение слова SHELLEY в Литературной энциклопедии

SHELLEY

1) MRS. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (GODWIN) (1797-1851).-Novelist, _b._ in London, the only child of William Godwin (_q.v._) and Mary Wollstonecraft, his wife (_q.v._). In 1814 she went to the Continent with P.B. Shelley (_q.v._), and _m._ him two years later. When abroad she saw much of Byron, and it was at his villa on the Lake of Geneva that she conceived the idea of her famous novel of _Frankenstein_ (1818), a ghastly but powerful work. None of her other novels, including _The Last Man_ and _Lodore_, had the same success. She contributed biographies of foreign artists and authors to Lardner's _Cabinet Cyclopaedia_, and ed. her husband's poems.2) SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE (1792-1822).-Poet, _s._ of Sir Timothy S., was _b._ at Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex, and _ed._ at Brentford, Eton, and Univ. Coll., Oxf., whence for writing and circulating a pamphlet, _The Necessity of Atheism_, he was expelled. One immediate result of this was a difference with his _f._, which was deepened into a permanent breach by his marriage in the following year to Harriet Westbrook, the pretty and lively _dau._ of a retired innkeeper. The next three years were passed in wandering about from place to place in Ireland, Wales, the Lake District, and other parts of the kingdom, and in the composition of _Queen Mab_ (1813), the poet's first serious work. Before the end of that period he had separated from his wife, for which various reasons have been assigned, one being her previous desertion of him, and the discovery on his part of imperfect sympathy between them; the principal one, however, being that he had conceived a violent passion for Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (_see_ Shelley, Mrs. M.W.), _dau._ of William Godwin (_q.v._), with whom he eloped to Italy in 1814, and whom he _m._ in 1816, his first wife having drowned herself. The custody of his two children, whom he had left with their mother, was refused him by the Court of Chancery. In Switzerland he had made the acquaintance of Byron, with whom he afterwards lived in intimacy in Italy. Returning to England in 1815 he wrote his first really great poem, _Alastor_ (1816), followed by the _Hymn to Intellectual Beauty_, _Prince Athanase_, _Rosalind and Helen_, and _Laon and Cythna_, afterwards called the _Revolt of Islam_ (1817). In 1818 he left England never to return, and went to Italy, and in the next two years-while at Rome-produced his two greatest works, the tragedy of _The Cenci_ (1819) and _Prometheus Unbound_ (1820). He removed to Venice in 1820 in the company of Byron, and there wrote _Julian and Maddalo_, a poetic record of discussions between them. _Epipsychidion_, _Hellas_, and _Adonais_, a lament for Keats, were all produced in 1821. After a short residence at Pisa he went to Lerici on the Gulf of Spezzia, where he indulged in his favourite recreation of boating, and here on July 8, 1823, he went, in company with a friend, Mr. Williams, on that fatal expedition which cost him his life. His body was cast ashore about a fortnight later, and burnt, in accordance with the quarantine law of the country, on a pyre in the presence of Byron, Leigh Hunt, and Trelawny. His ashes were carefully preserved and buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome near those of Keats. The character of S. is a singularly compounded one. By the unanimous testimony of his friends, it was remarkable for gentleness, purity, generosity, and strong affection: on the other hand he appears to have had very inadequate conceptions of duty and responsibility, and from his childhood seems to have been in revolt against authority of every kind. The charge of Atheism rests chiefly on _Mab_, the work of a boy, printed by him for private circulation, and to some extent repudiated as personal opinion. As a poet he stands in the front rank: in lyrical gift, shown in _Prometheus_, _Hellas_, and some of his shorter poems, such as "The Skylark," he is probably unsurpassed, and in his _Cenci_ he exhibits dramatic power of a high order. Among his shorter poems are some which reach perfection, such as the sonnet on "Ozymandias," "Music when soft voices die," "I arise from dreams of thee," "When the lamp is shattered," the "Ode to the West Wind," and "O world! O life! O time!" During his short life of 30 years he was, not unnaturally, the object of much severe judgment, and his poetic power even was recognised by only a few. Posterity has taken a more lenient view of his serious errors of conduct, while according to his genius a shining place among the immortals. The best ed. of the _Works_ is that of Buxton Forman (4 vols.). There are ed. of the Poems by W.M. Rossetti (1894), Dowden (1891), etc. _Lives_ by Medwin (1847), J.A. Symonds (1887), W.M. Rossetti, Prof. Dowden, T. Jefferson Hogg, and others.

Литературная энциклопедия. 2012