ness like as the best of them. But no clipping and coining, if you please.

"Now take this that I say in a light just so serious as not to give you pain, In fact, my dear fellow, my motive for soliciting your correspondence, and that flowing from your own mind, and clothed in your own words, is, that you may begin to accustom to discipline yourself in the only practice of life in which you appear deficient. You know that you are writing to a person persuaded of all the confidence and respect due to your powers in those branches of science to which you have addicted yourself; and you will not permit a false shame with regard to the mere mechanical arrangement of words to overbalance the advantage arising from the free communication of ideas. Thus you will become day by day more skilful in the management of that instrument of their communication on which the attainment of a person's just rank in society depends. Do not think me arrogant. There are subjects of the highest importance, on which you are far better qualified to instruct me, than I am qualified to instruct you on this subject.

Addressing the Gisbornes on the same day, Shelley again refers to the unsatisfactory state of his finances : —

"MY DEAR FRIENDS,

"Florence, Oct. 28th, 1819.

"I RECEIVED this morning the strange and unexpected news that my bill of 2001. has been returned to Mr. Webb protested. Ultimately this can be nothing but delay, as I have only drawn from my banker's hands as much as to leave them still in possession of 801.; and this I positively know, and can prove by documents. By return of post (for I have not only written to my banker, but to private friends) no doubt Henry will be enabled to proceed. Let him, meanwhile, do all that can be done.

"Meanwhile, to save time, could not money be obtained temporarily, at Livorno, from Mr. W- or Mr. G―, or any of your acquaintance, on my bills at three or six months, indorsed by Mr. Gisborne and Henry, so that he may go on with his work? If a month is of consequence, think of this.

"Be of good cheer, Madonna mia; all will go well. The enclosed is for Henry, and was written before this news, as he will see; but it does not, strange as it is, abate one atom of my cheer.

66

Accept, dear Mrs. G., my best regards.

"Yours faithfully,

"P. B. S."

On November 13th, Shelley writes to Leigh Hunt: — "Yesterday morning, Mary brought me a little boy. She suffered but two hours' pain, and is now so well that it seems a wonder that she stays in bed. The babe is also quite well, and has begun to suck. You may imagine that this is a great relief and a great comfort to me amongst all my misfortunes, past, present, and to come.

Poor Mary begins (for the first time) to look a little consoled; for we have spent, as you may imagine, a miserable five months." The same domestic event is touched upon by Mrs. Shelley herself in a letter to Mrs. Gisborne:

"MY DEAR MRS. G.,

"December 1st, 1819.

"THE little boy is nearly three times as big as when he was born; he thrives well and cries little, and is now taking a right-down, earnest sleep, with all his heart in his shut eyes.

"There are some ladies come to this house who knew Shelley's family; the younger one was enthousiasmée to see him; the elder said that he was a very shocking man, but, finding that we became the mode, she melted, and paid us a visit. She

is a little old Welshwoman, without the slightest education. She has got an Italian master, and has entered into the difficult part of the language, the singulars and plurals the il's and the lo's, and is to turn masculines into feminines, and feminines into masculines; but she says she does not think she shall ever learn, for she cannot help mixing Welsh with her Italian and, besides, it spoils her French. She speaks the sweetest French, as you may judge by her telling her master, 'Je ne peut lire aucune plus.'

"The younger lady was a ward of one of Shelley's uncles. She is lively and unaffected. She sings well for an English debûtante, and, if she would learn the scales, would sing exceedingly well, for she has a sweet voice. So there is a great deal of good company for C, who is as busy as a bee among them all, serving as an interpreter to their masters. She has a most excellent singing master, and he now teaches several other young ladies who are here. One who had had a very cross master in England, when told to sing sol, burst into tears. The poor man was aghast. Non capisco questo effetto.'

"I do not know why I write all this gossip to you. Pray let us hear of you, and the steamboat, and the felucca.

"Affectionately yours,

"M. W. SHELLEY.”

Writing to Mrs. Gisborne on December 15th, Mrs. Shelley says:

"You see, my dear friend, by the receipt of your crowns, that we have recovered 100l. of our money. There is still 1007. in jeopardy; but we must hope, and perhaps, by dint of giving it up as lost, we may find it again. I have begun reading with Shelley the Conquesta di Mexico, by Solio. We have read very little yet. I send you something to amuse you - the bane and antidote. The bane from the Quarterly, the antidote from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, a publication

as furious as the Quarterly, but which takes up arms (singularly enough) in Shelley's defence. We half think that it must be Walter Scott, the only liberal man of that faction."

Some days later, Mrs. Shelley again wrote to her friend, Mrs. Gisborne:

"MY DEAR MRS. GISBORNE,

"Florence, Dec. 28th, 1819.

- the

"I AM glad you are pleased with the Prometheus. The last act, though very beautiful, is certainly the most mystic of the four. I am glad also that Spenser pleases you, for he is a favorite author of mine. In his days, I fancy, translations and plagiarisms were not considered so disgraceful as they are now. You have not all of him, and therefore perhaps you have not read the parts that I particularly admire * — snowy Florimel, Belphœbe, and her Squire lover (who are half meant for Queen Elizabeth and Lord Essex). Britomart is only an imitation; she is cold and dull; but the others, and the lovely Una, are his own creations, and I own I like them better than Angelica, although, indeed, the thought of her night scene with Madora † came across me, and made me pause as I wrote the opinion. But, perhaps, it is not in pathos, but in simple description of beauty, that Spenser excels. His description of the Island of Bliss is an exact translation of Tasso's Garden of Armida; yet how is it that I find a greater simplicity and spirit in the translation than in the original? Yet, so it is.

"I think of beginning to read again — study I cannot, for I have no books, and I may not call simple reading study, for papa is continually saying and writing, that to read one book without others beside you, to which you may refer, is mere child's play; but still I hope now to get on with Latin and Spanish. Do you know that, if you could borrow for us In the Faëry Queene. - ED.

† See Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. - ED.

Rousseau's Emile, and Voltaire's Essai sur l'Esprit des Nations

- either or both — you would oblige us very much.

66

Shelley has given up the idea of visiting Leghorn before the finishing of the steamboat. He is rather better these last two or three days, but he has suffered dreadfully lately from his side. He seems a changed man. His numerous weaknesses and ailments have left him, and settled all in his side alone, for he never, any other winter, suffered such constant pain there.* It puts me in mind of the mountain of ills in the Spectator, where mankind exchange ills one with the other; then they all take up their old evils again as the most bearable. I do not know whether this is Shelley's case.

“Affectionately yours,

"M. W. SHELLEY."

* In another letter, Mrs. Shelley speaks of this pain having a rheumatic character. - ED.