The Shelleys in London and Rome
My literature class just finished reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley and her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, both from England, also spent time in Italy, where he passed away in a boating accident at age 24. The story of the Shelleys’ romance is fascinating and tragic, and some of their significant life events happened in London and Rome.
London and Early Life
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4, 1792, in Warnham, England, to Sir Timothy Shelley and Elizabeth Pilfold. Shelley attended Eton and Oxford, but did not enjoy school and suffered bullying, but was also known to have a temper. After befriending Thomas Jefferson Hogg, becoming increasingly radical and politized, and writing a tract called The Necessity of Athiesm, he was called before the Oxford fellows and Dean and later expelled. In 1810, he met Harriet Westbrook and they eventually married in 1811, despite Percy’s philosophical opposition to marriage. She was sixteen and he nineteen. In 1813, Harriet gave birth to a girl, amid the scandals and debts that plagued the marriage. They remarried in London in March of 1814 to settle the legitimacy of their earlier marriage vows.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (but from here on called Mary Shelley for clarity) was born in London on August 30, 1797, to radical writers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman). Mary Wollstonecraft died shortly after the birth from complications, leaving baby Mary to be raised by her father and later a stepmother, Mary Jane Clairmont. Mary Shelley spent many of her early years visiting her mother’s grave in St. Pancras Churchyard in London. (Mary Wollstonecraft’s remains were later moved to a church in Bournemouth.) Mary Shelley grew up with little formal education but was tutored by her father, had a governess and attended boarding school for half a year, read extensively, and met with many of her father’s intellectual friends. Percy Shelley was one such acquaintance.
When Mary was around age sixteen, in 1814, she met Percy Shelley when he visited William Godwin. At this time, twenty-one-year-old Percy was estranged from his wife. He had also promised to help bail William Godwin out of debt. However, his radical views kept him out of favor with his wealthy family, so he didn’t have a lot of money on hand to do so. Mary and Percy met secretly at her mother’s grave for some time until she confessed her love for him in June of 1814, just a few months since they’d started meeting regularly. William Godwin did not approve of the match when he found out. Despite his former radical writings against the institution of marriage, he did not want that lifestyle for his daughter. Against his wishes, the couple eloped (along with Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont) on July 28, 1814, and went to France. In November, Shelley’s estranged wife Harriet gave birth to a boy, and Mary was pregnant herself. She gave birth to their first child, a daughter who died ten days after birth, in February. This would be the first of five pregnancies that resulted in only one surviving child.
Switzerland and Frankenstein
The drama didn’t stop there for the Shelleys, but let’s skip ahead to Frankenstein times. In the summer of 1816 (called “the year without a summer”), the Shelleys, two fellow writers (Lord Bryon and John Polidori) and Claire Clairmont were together at Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Among the nights of discussions about literature, science, and philosophy, Mary had a vision or nightmare that inspired her to write what later became Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, which was published in 1818.
In December of 1816, Percy and Mary finally married, after the death of his wife Harriet by suicide. At the time, she’d been pregnant by a lover whom she believed had abandoned her. This death followed the death of Mary’s older half-sister, Fanny (first daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft), also from suicide. They continued to travel across Europe for the next several years.
Italy and Percy’s Death
After some travelling around in various cities of Italy and the loss of their baby daughter that sent Mary into depression, they spent some time in Rome. Percy made progress on several literary works. In the summer of 1819, their three-year-old son William died and was buried in Rome at Cimitero Degli Inglesi, The Protestant Church. The couple moved to Florence where Mary gave birth to their only surviving child, Percy Florence, in November. Through the next years, Percy fell in and out of love with several women (as he had for most of his marriage to Mary) and the couple moved around the country. By summer of 1822, they were in Lerici, where Mary had a miscarriage during her final pregnancy. On July 8, 1822, Percy and friends went out sailing, were caught in a storm, and the boat capsized. Percy’s body washed ashore ten days later. He was cremated on the beach, his remains saved, and later taken to be buried at the grave of his son, William. When the grave was opened, they found the bones of an adult and Percy’s ashes were buried elsewhere in the cemetery. Percy’s heart had been saved from the cremation by friend Edward Trelawny and Mary kept it until her death, wrapped in silk and a page of his poem Adonais. After Percy’s death, Mary never remarried, and in fact turned down proposals. She continued to write, although none of her other works are as well-known as her first masterpiece. She died in 1851, aged fifty-three, likely from a brain tumor. She is buried in St. Peter’s Church in Bournemouth, near her parents.
"Go thou to Rome, — at once the Paradise, The grave, the city, and the wilderness" - From Adonais by Percy Shelley
