File:Percy Bysshe Shelley 03.jpg

Identifier: americanaunivers14newy (find matches)
Title: The Americana; a universal reference library, comprising the arts and sciences, literature, history, biography, geography, commerce, etc., of the world
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Publisher: New York : Scientific American Compiling Dept.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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morals during the closing months ofher life are fully or partially justified, it seemsabsurd to acquit Shelley of all responsibility forher tragic fate. He was now free to marry Mary Godwin (30Dec. 1816) but the law would not allow him torecover the control of his two children by Har-riet. Shelley resented Lord Eldons decision,with some justice so far as the management oftheir education was concerned; yet he had cer-tainly so conducted himself as to make theChancellors decision seem equitable to mostpeople at the time. ^leanwhile a son. William,had been born to him and Mary, Leigh Hunthad become a friend, and Keats an acquaintance,and the elaborate narrative and allegoricalpoem Laon and Cythna had been begun. Twopolitical tracts were also published and, true tothe humanitarian principles that always actuatedhis conduct, even when its effects were delete-rious to others, Shelley ministered to the sickand needy around him. His charity seemedboundless, and during his visitations he con-
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SHELLEY traded a bad case of ophthalmia. His healthhad been otherwise poor and, as lor many rea-sons England was not a congenial dwelling-place, he determined to go to Italy. He leftEngland with his family, and by the end ofMarch 1818 was at Turin. Two months pre-\fiously Oilier had reissued under the title ofThe Revolt of Islam. the long poem, which, onits first appearance, had been entitled Laon andCythna. The relationship between the heroand heroine had been too close to suit any savethe most emancipated readers, and Shelley hadreluctantly made a few alterations, in the in-terest not so much of conventionality as of thesuccess of the poem as a plea for the cause ofoppressed peoples. No changes could make solong and misty a performance popular; butlovers of poetry will always find The Revolt ofIslam incomparable for its glowing picturesand its exquisite melodies. Both in its meritsand in its defects it reflects, as though it werea mirror, its authors unique, attractive, yetsingularl

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