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    266 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    The Life Of Percy Jbysshe Shelley. By Th...

    ever ; two volumes , in which it is almost impossible to disentangle " the facts from the dense veil of prejudice in which they are

    enveloped , and in the midst of which Shelley's letters stand out every here and there , giving" the lie to the very comments of his

    biographer He on says the either circumstances too much . or too little about Sir Timothy Shelley ,

    and he might have stated the facts of the father's dealings with the son in much simpler form and more decorous language . As it is ,

    it is exceedingly difficult to find out how the final rupture came about . In regard to Shelley's first married life , he wraps it round

    in a hopeless mist of sneers . He sneers at Mrs . Shelley ' s father , the " old ex-Coffee-house keeper" but does not let us know how

    far he was responsible for the marriage , , or what part he played in the marriage after it took place .

    Pie sneers at Miss Eliza Westbrook , and reiterates to wearisomeness a story about her love for brushing her hair , and he darkly

    hints that she injured Shelley's domestic peace and was the cause of his ceasing to love his home . But this is not clearly stated , and

    ought either to have been so stated or let alone . He praises Mrs . Shelley at first for beautyquietnessand excellent elocution , but

    finally sneers at her also , on , account , of her love of bonnets . With the Godwin family he deals still "worse . He sneers at . the

    philosopher on every occasion , and turns Shelley's enthusiasm for him into ridicule . It is not possible in a mere literary notice to

    give any adequate idea of the ingenuity with which every incident is turned the wrong side out , and a slur thrown on the poet's

    youthful ardor in behalf of one of the greatest "writers of his day . This very ardor -shews that in Shelley ' s character lay the possibility

    of true sonship , had his filial feeling been rightly cherished , and his letters to Godwin are among the really valuable portions of the

    book . For the rest , Shelley himself is not excepted from the general

    ridicule . Mr . Hogg calls him from first to last , and even with ostentatious parade"My incomparable friend ' * ' and , " The divine

    , , poet , " but he invariably exalts the poet at the expense of the man , and whenever Shelly conies in contact with mundane affairs he is

    represented as half a madman , incapable of prudence and the most ordinary self-control . We shrewdly suspect that the young man

    who wrote the thoughtful and elaborate " Cenci , " whose mind was full of solid and varied learning amassed year by year , and who

    penned those clear and vivid letters from Italy , was no fool even in the ordinary affairs of life , and that if he had lived long enough , he

    might have outrivalled Mr . Hogg himself in worldly wisdom . We do not say that Shelley ' s admirers will not read this book .

    There is much curious matter to be found in its pages , when disinterred from the anecdotal conceit of Mr . Plogg ' s own lucubrations .

    There is a whole series of letters written by the poet ; the early ones

    full of a boy ' s somewhat stilted imagination , but ripening and

    266 Notices Of Books.

    266 NOTICES OF BOOKS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 266, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/50/