Who was Percy Bysshe Shelley?
Poet.
Date and Place of Birth:
4th August 1792, Field Place, near Horsham, Sussex,
England.
Family Background:
Son of minor gentry.
Education:
Syon House Academy. Eton College. University
College, Oxford. (Sent down for his contribution to the pamphlet
“The Necessity of Atheism”).
Chronology/Biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley:
1810: Goes up to
Oxford University. Breaks his love affair with his cousin Harriet
Grove.
1811: Sent down
from Oxford due to his contribution to the pamphlet “The Necessity
of Atheism”. Quarrels with his father. Meets and marries Harriet
Westbrook. Moves to York and then to Keswick where he meets Robert
Southey.
1812: Begins correspondence
with William Godwin. Travels to Dublin
then to Wales. Shelley and Harriet settle at Lynmouth in North Devon
as they are taken by the views. They stay at Mrs Hooper's lodgings
known as Woodbine Cottage (Now a hotel) . Here Shelley wrote the
poem "Queen Mab" and a seditious paper "The Declaration
of Rights". He put copies of this into bottles and tossed then
into the sea off Lynmouth and also put some in boxes and launched
them in small hot air balloons form the beach. Government spies
were everywhere at this time as this was the year that the Prime
Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated and revolution was in
the air. The Town Clerk of Barnstaple reported Shelley to the Home
Secretary as a couple of the bottles had been picked up from the
sea by the excise men. There was no printer or author's names on
the pamphlet so he could not be prosecuted. Undeterred Shelley sent
his servant Dan Healy to Barnstaple to post pamphlets on the walls.
Healy was arrested and put in gaol. Shelley did not have the money
to get him released but gave fifteen shillings a week to improve
his lodgings. The Shelleys borrowed money from their landlady and
her neighbours and bribed a boatman to take them across the Bristol
Channel to Wales to escape.
Woodbine Cottages where Harriet and Shelley stayed in Lynmouth,
Devon. Now a hotel.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1813: Goes to Ireland
then back to London. Birth of Daughter Ianthe on 23rd
June.
1814: Leaves England
with Mary Godwin and Jane Clairmont
and travels on the continent. Returns to London in September. Birth
of son Charles to Harriet on 30th November.
1815: Death of Grandfather
Sir Bysshe Shelley.
1816: Birth of son
William on 24th January. To Switzerland with Mary
Godwin and Claire Clairmont. Meets Lord
Byron through Claire. Returns to England September. Suicide
of Harriet Shelley on 30th December. Marries Mary.
Hotel d'Angleterre, Geneva where the Shelley and Mary stayed
in Switzerland.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1817: Birth of Claire’s
Daughter by Byron (Allegra). Shelley fails
to obtain custody of Ianthe and Charles. Meets John
Keats. Goes to live at Marlow. Birth of Daughter Clara on 2nd
September.
1818: Goes across
Alps to Italy with Mary, Claire and the children. Allegra is sent
to Byron in Venice in August Death of Clara. Birth of daughter Elena
on 27th December.
1819: Leaves Naples
in February. Goes to Rome then Leghorn. Death of William Shelley.
In October goes to Florence. Birth of Son Percy on 12th
November.
1820: Goes to Pisa.
Death of Elena in June.
1821: Visits Byron
at Ravenna. Byron visits Shelley at Pisa.
The Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa with leaning bell tower which
Shelley would have climbed
(© Anthony Blagg)
1822: Trelawny arrives
in Pisa. Death of Allegra on 20th April. Mary has near
fatal miscarriage. Sails to Leghorn to meet Leigh-Hunt. Sees Byron.
Drowned on return trip.
Written Works:
- 1810:
“Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire”.
- 1811: “The
Necessity of Atheism”.” A Poetical Essay on the Existing State
of Things”.
- 1812:
“An Address to the Irish People”. “Declaration of Rights”. “Proposals
for an Association of Philanthropists for Ireland”.
- 1813: “A
Vindication of Natural Diet”. “Queen Mab”.
- 1814: “Refutation
of Deism”.
- 1815:
“Guy Mannering”.
- 1816:
“Alasto and other Poems”.
- 1817:
“Address to the People on the Death of Princess Charlotte”. “Laon
and Cythna, or The Revolution of the Golden City”.
- 1818:
“The Revolt of Islam”.
- 1819:
“Rosalind and Helen”.
- 1820:
“Oedipus Tyrannus”. “Prometheus Unbound”.
- 1821: “Adonais”.
“Epipsychidion”.
- 1822:
“Hellas”.
- (1823):
“Poetical Pieces”.
- (1824):
“Posthumous Poems”.
- (1832):
“The Masque of Anarchy”.
- (1833):
“Chilly Papers”.
Marriage:
1811: 29th August to Harriet Westbrook, Edinburgh,
Scotland.
30th December 1816 Mary Wollstonecraft-Godwin
daughter of William Godwin and Mary
Wollstonecraft at St. Mildred’s Church, Bread Street, London.
Her father William Godwin and his wife attend.
Date and Place of Death:
8th July 1822, at sea off Livorno, Tuscany, Italy.
Age at Death:
30.
Site of Grave:
Body cremated at Viareggio and his ashes
taken to Rome. Heart only at St. Peter's Churchyard, Bournemouth,
Dorset, England from where it was re-interred from the English Protestant
Cemetery, Rome, Italy.
Places of Interest:
CUMBRIA:
Dove Cottage and Museum, Grasmere, LA22 9SH.
(Wordsworth Trust.)
DEVON:
Lynmouth. (Picturesque fishing port where Shelley
threw political tracts in bottles into the sea. The Shelleys had
to leave their lodgings quickly after arousing local suspicion by
Government Officers).
View of Lynmouth Harbour from above where Shelley distributed
his pamphlets in bottles into the sea.
(© Anthony Blagg)
Valley of Rocks above Lynton, North Devon.
Coleridge, Wordsworth,
Southey and Davy were
to walk here many times.
Shelley also found it fascinating.
(© Anthony Blagg)
LONDON:
National Portrait Gallery.
OXFORD:
Bodleian Library. (Holds Boscombe manuscripts
and letters).
