diff options
Diffstat (limited to '3171-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 3171-0.txt | 2046 |
1 files changed, 2046 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/3171-0.txt b/3171-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e648aca --- /dev/null +++ b/3171-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2046 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Defense of Harriet Shelley by Mark +Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In Defense of Harriet Shelley + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #3171] +Last Updated: February 24, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN DEFENSE OF HARRIET SHELLEY*** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +IN DEFENSE OF HARRIET SHELLEY + +by Mark Twain + + + + +I + +I have committed sins, of course; but I have not committed enough of +them to entitle me to the punishment of reduction to the bread and water +of ordinary literature during six years when I might have been living +on the fat diet spread for the righteous in Professor Dowden's Life of +Shelley, if I had been justly dealt with. + +During these six years I have been living a life of peaceful ignorance. +I was not aware that Shelley's first wife was unfaithful to him, and +that that was why he deserted her and wiped the stain from his sensitive +honor by entering into soiled relations with Godwin's young daughter. +This was all new to me when I heard it lately, and was told that the +proofs of it were in this book, and that this book's verdict is accepted +in the girls' colleges of America and its view taught in their literary +classes. + +In each of these six years multitudes of young people in our country +have arrived at the Shelley-reading age. Are these six multitudes +unacquainted with this life of Shelley? Perhaps they are; indeed, one +may feel pretty sure that the great bulk of them are. To these, then, +I address myself, in the hope that some account of this romantic +historical fable and the fabulist's manner of constructing and adorning +it may interest them. + +First, as to its literary style. Our negroes in America have several +ways of entertaining themselves which are not found among the whites +anywhere. Among these inventions of theirs is one which is particularly +popular with them. It is a competition in elegant deportment. They hire +a hall and bank the spectators' seats in rising tiers along the two +sides, leaving all the middle stretch of the floor free. A cake is +provided as a prize for the winner in the competition, and a bench of +experts in deportment is appointed to award it. Sometimes there are as +many as fifty contestants, male and female, and five hundred spectators. +One at a time the contestants enter, clothed regardless of expense in +what each considers the perfection of style and taste, and walk down the +vacant central space and back again with that multitude of critical eyes +on them. All that the competitor knows of fine airs and graces he throws +into his carriage, all that he knows of seductive expression he +throws into his countenance. He may use all the helps he can devise: +watch-chain to twirl with his fingers, cane to do graceful things with, +snowy handkerchief to flourish and get artful effects out of, shiny new +stovepipe hat to assist in his courtly bows; and the colored lady may +have a fan to work up her effects with, and smile over and blush behind, +and she may add other helps, according to her judgment. When the review +by individual detail is over, a grand review of all the contestants in +procession follows, with all the airs and graces and all the bowings and +smirkings on exhibition at once, and this enables the bench of +experts to make the necessary comparisons and arrive at a verdict. The +successful competitor gets the prize which I have before mentioned, and +an abundance of applause and envy along with it. The negroes have a +name for this grave deportment-tournament; a name taken from the prize +contended for. They call it a Cake-walk. + +This Shelley biography is a literary cake-walk. The ordinary forms of +speech are absent from it. All the pages, all the paragraphs, walk by +sedately, elegantly, not to say mincingly, in their Sunday-best, shiny +and sleek, perfumed, and with boutonnieres in their button-holes; it is +rare to find even a chance sentence that has forgotten to dress. If the +book wishes to tell us that Mary Godwin, child of sixteen, had known +afflictions, the fact saunters forth in this nobby outfit: “Mary was +herself not unlearned in the lore of pain”--meaning by that that she had +not always traveled on asphalt; or, as some authorities would frame it, +that she had “been there herself,” a form which, while preferable to the +book's form, is still not to be recommended. If the book wishes to tell +us that Harriet Shelley hired a wet-nurse, that commonplace fact gets +turned into a dancing-master, who does his professional bow before us in +pumps and knee-breeches, with his fiddle under one arm and his crush-hat +under the other, thus: “The beauty of Harriet's motherly relation to her +babe was marred in Shelley's eyes by the introduction into his house of +a hireling nurse to whom was delegated the mother's tenderest office.” + +This is perhaps the strangest book that has seen the light since +Frankenstein. Indeed, it is a Frankenstein itself; a Frankenstein with +the original infirmity supplemented by a new one; a Frankenstein with +the reasoning faculty wanting. Yet it believes it can reason, and is +always trying. It is not content to leave a mountain of fact standing in +the clear sunshine, where the simplest reader can perceive its form, its +details, and its relation to the rest of the landscape, but thinks it +must help him examine it and understand it; so its drifting mind settles +upon it with that intent, but always with one and the same result: there +is a change of temperature and the mountain is hid in a fog. Every time +it sets up a premise and starts to reason from it, there is a surprise +in store for the reader. It is strangely nearsighted, cross-eyed, and +purblind. Sometimes when a mastodon walks across the field of its vision +it takes it for a rat; at other times it does not see it at all. + +The materials of this biographical fable are facts, rumors, and poetry. +They are connected together and harmonized by the help of suggestion, +conjecture, innuendo, perversion, and semi-suppression. + +The fable has a distinct object in view, but this object is not +acknowledged in set words. Percy Bysshe Shelley has done something which +in the case of other men is called a grave crime; it must be shown that +in his case it is not that, because he does not think as other men do +about these things. + +Ought not that to be enough, if the fabulist is serious? Having proved +that a crime is not a crime, was it worth while to go on and fasten the +responsibility of a crime which was not a crime upon somebody else? What +is the use of hunting down and holding to bitter account people who are +responsible for other people's innocent acts? + +Still, the fabulist thinks it a good idea to do that. In his view +Shelley's first wife, Harriet, free of all offense as far as we have +historical facts for guidance, must be held unforgivably responsible for +her husband's innocent act in deserting her and taking up with another +woman. + +Any one will suspect that this task has its difficulties. Any one will +divine that nice work is necessary here, cautious work, wily work, and +that there is entertainment to be had in watching the magician do it. +There is indeed entertainment in watching him. He arranges his facts, +his rumors, and his poems on his table in full view of the house, and +shows you that everything is there--no deception, everything fair and +above board. And this is apparently true, yet there is a defect, for +some of his best stock is hid in an appendix-basket behind the door, and +you do not come upon it until the exhibition is over and the enchantment +of your mind accomplished--as the magician thinks. + +There is an insistent atmosphere of candor and fairness about this book +which is engaging at first, then a little burdensome, then a trifle +fatiguing, then progressively suspicious, annoying, irritating, and +oppressive. It takes one some little time to find out that phrases which +seem intended to guide the reader aright are there to mislead him; that +phrases which seem intended to throw light are there to throw darkness; +that phrases which seem intended to interpret a fact are there to +misinterpret it; that phrases which seem intended to forestall prejudice +are there to create it; that phrases which seem antidotes are poisons in +disguise. The naked facts arrayed in the book establish Shelley's guilt +in that one episode which disfigures his otherwise superlatively +lofty and beautiful life; but the historian's careful and methodical +misinterpretation of them transfers the responsibility to the wife's +shoulders as he persuades himself. The few meager facts of Harriet +Shelley's life, as furnished by the book, acquit her of offense; but +by calling in the forbidden helps of rumor, gossip, conjecture, +insinuation, and innuendo he destroys her character and rehabilitates +Shelley's--as he believes. And in truth his unheroic work has not been +barren of the results he aimed at; as witness the assertion made to me +that girls in the colleges of America are taught that Harriet Shelley +put a stain upon her husband's honor, and that that was what stung him +into repurifying himself by deserting her and his child and entering +into scandalous relations with a school-girl acquaintance of his. + +If that assertion is true, they probably use a reduction of this work +in those colleges, maybe only a sketch outlined from it. Such a thing as +that could be harmful and misleading. They ought to cast it out and put +the whole book in its place. It would not deceive. It would not deceive +the janitor. + +All of this book is interesting on account of the sorcerer's methods and +the attractiveness of some of his characters and the repulsiveness of +the rest, but no part of it is so much so as are the chapters wherein he +tries to think he thinks he sets forth the causes which led to Shelley's +desertion of his wife in 1814. + +Harriet Westbrook was a school-girl sixteen years old. Shelley was +teeming with advanced thought. He believed that Christianity was a +degrading and selfish superstition, and he had a deep and sincere desire +to rescue one of his sisters from it. Harriet was impressed by +his various philosophies and looked upon him as an intellectual +wonder--which indeed he was. He had an idea that she could give him +valuable help in his scheme regarding his sister; therefore he asked her +to correspond with him. She was quite willing. Shelley was not thinking +of love, for he was just getting over a passion for his cousin, Harriet +Grove, and just getting well steeped in one for Miss Hitchener, a +school-teacher. What might happen to Harriet Westbrook before the +letter-writing was ended did not enter his mind. Yet an older person +could have made a good guess at it, for in person Shelley was as +beautiful as an angel, he was frank, sweet, winning, unassuming, and so +rich in unselfishness, generosities, and magnanimities that he made +his whole generation seem poor in these great qualities by comparison. +Besides, he was in distress. His college had expelled him for writing an +atheistical pamphlet and afflicting the reverend heads of the university +with it, his rich father and grandfather had closed their purses against +him, his friends were cold. Necessarily, Harriet fell in love with him; +and so deeply, indeed, that there was no way for Shelley to save her +from suicide but to marry her. He believed himself to blame for this +state of things, so the marriage took place. He was pretty fairly in +love with Harriet, although he loved Miss Hitchener better. He wrote and +explained the case to Miss Hitchener after the wedding, and he could +not have been franker or more naive and less stirred up about the +circumstance if the matter in issue had been a commercial transaction +involving thirty-five dollars. + +Shelley was nineteen. He was not a youth, but a man. He had never had +any youth. He was an erratic and fantastic child during eighteen years, +then he stepped into manhood, as one steps over a door-sill. He was +curiously mature at nineteen in his ability to do independent thinking +on the deep questions of life and to arrive at sharply definite +decisions regarding them, and stick to them--stick to them and stand by +them at cost of bread, friendships, esteem, respect, and approbation. + +For the sake of his opinions he was willing to sacrifice all these +valuable things, and did sacrifice them; and went on doing it, too, when +he could at any moment have made himself rich and supplied himself with +friends and esteem by compromising with his father, at the moderate +expense of throwing overboard one or two indifferent details of his +cargo of principles. + +He and Harriet eloped to Scotland and got married. They took lodgings +in Edinburgh of a sort answerable to their purse, which was about empty, +and there their life was a happy, one and grew daily more so. They had +only themselves for company, but they needed no additions to it. They +were as cozy and contented as birds in a nest. Harriet sang evenings or +read aloud; also she studied and tried to improve her mind, her husband +instructing her in Latin. She was very beautiful, she was modest, quiet, +genuine, and, according to her husband's testimony, she had no fine lady +airs or aspirations about her. In Matthew Arnold's judgment, she was “a +pleasing figure.” + +The pair remained five weeks in Edinburgh, and then took lodgings in +York, where Shelley's college mate, Hogg, lived. Shelley presently ran +down to London, and Hogg took this opportunity to make love to the young +wife. She repulsed him, and reported the fact to her husband when he got +back. It seems a pity that Shelley did not copy this creditable conduct +of hers some time or other when under temptation, so that we might +have seen the author of his biography hang the miracle in the skies and +squirt rainbows at it. + +At the end of the first year of marriage--the most trying year for any +young couple, for then the mutual failings are coming one by one +to light, and the necessary adjustments are being made in pain and +tribulation--Shelley was able to recognize that his marriage venture had +been a safe one. As we have seen, his love for his wife had begun in a +rather shallow way and with not much force, but now it was become deep +and strong, which entitles his wife to a broad credit mark, one may +admit. He addresses a long and loving poem to her, in which both passion +and worship appear: + +Exhibit A + + “O thou + Whose dear love gleamed upon the gloomy path + Which this lone spirit travelled, + ............. + ... wilt thou not turn + Those spirit-beaming eyes and look on me. + Until I be assured that Earth is Heaven + And Heaven is Earth? + ........ + Harriet! let death all mortal ties dissolve, + But ours shall not be mortal.” + + +Shelley also wrote a sonnet to her in August of this same year in +celebration of her birthday: + +Exhibit B + + “Ever as now with Love and Virtue's glow + May thy unwithering soul not cease to burn, + Still may thine heart with those pure thoughts o'erflow + Which force from mine such quick and warm return.” + + +Was the girl of seventeen glad and proud and happy? We may conjecture +that she was. + +That was the year 1812. Another year passed still happily, still +successfully--a child was born in June, 1813, and in September, three +months later, Shelley addresses a poem to this child, Ianthe, in which +he points out just when the little creature is most particularly dear to +him: + +Exhibit C + + “Dearest when most thy tender traits express + The image of thy mother's loveliness.” + + +Up to this point the fabulist counsel for Shelley and prosecutor of his +young wife has had easy sailing, but now his trouble begins, for Shelley +is getting ready to make some unpleasant history for himself, and it +will be necessary to put the blame of it on the wife. + +Shelley had made the acquaintance of a charming gray-haired, +young-hearted Mrs. Boinville, whose face “retained a certain youthful +beauty”; she lived at Bracknell, and had a young daughter named Cornelia +Turner, who was equipped with many fascinations. Apparently these people +were sufficiently sentimental. Hogg says of Mrs. Boinville: + + “The greater part of her associates were odious. I generally + found there two or three sentimental young butchers, an + eminently philosophical tinker, and several very + unsophisticated medical practitioners or medical students, all + of low origin and vulgar and offensive manners. They sighed, + turned up their eyes, retailed philosophy, such as it was,” + etc. + +Shelley moved to Bracknell, July 27th (this is still 1813) purposely to +be near this unwholesome prairie-dogs' nest. The fabulist says: “It was +the entrance into a world more amiable and exquisite than he had yet +known.” + +“In this acquaintance the attraction was mutual”--and presently it grew +to be very mutual indeed, between Shelley and Cornelia Turner, when they +got to studying the Italian poets together. Shelley, “responding like +a tremulous instrument to every breath of passion or of sentiment,” had +his chance here. It took only four days for Cornelia's attractions to +begin to dim Harriet's. Shelley arrived on the 27th of July; on the 31st +he wrote a sonnet to Harriet in which “one detects already the little +rift in the lover's lute which had seemed to be healed or never to +have gaped at all when the later and happier sonnet to Ianthe was +written”--in September, we remember: + +Exhibit D + + “EVENING. TO HARRIET + + “O thou bright Sun! Beneath the dark blue line + Of western distance that sublime descendest, + And, gleaming lovelier as thy beams decline, + Thy million hues to every vapor lendest, + And over cobweb, lawn, and grove, and stream + Sheddest the liquid magic of thy light, + Till calm Earth, with the parting splendor bright, + Shows like the vision of a beauteous dream; + What gazer now with astronomic eye + Could coldly count the spots within thy sphere? + Such were thy lover, Harriet, could he fly + The thoughts of all that makes his passion dear, + And turning senseless from thy warm caress + Pick flaws in our close-woven happiness.” + + +I cannot find the “rift”; still it may be there. What the poem seems to +say is, that a person would be coldly ungrateful who could consent +to count and consider little spots and flaws in such a warm, great, +satisfying sun as Harriet is. It is a “little rift which had seemed +to be healed, or never to have gaped at all.” That is, “one detects” a +little rift which perhaps had never existed. How does one do that? How +does one see the invisible? It is the fabulist's secret; he knows how to +detect what does not exist, he knows how to see what is not seeable; it +is his gift, and he works it many a time to poor dead Harriet Shelley's +deep damage. + +“As yet, however, if there was a speck upon Shelley's happiness it was +no more than a speck”--meaning the one which one detects where “it may +never have gaped at all”--“nor had Harriet cause for discontent.” + +Shelley's Latin instructions to his wife had ceased. “From a teacher he +had now become a pupil.” Mrs. Boinville and her young married daughter +Cornelia were teaching him Italian poetry; a fact which warns one to +receive with some caution that other statement that Harriet had no +“cause for discontent.” + +Shelley had stopped instructing Harriet in Latin, as before mentioned. +The biographer thinks that the busy life in London some time back, and +the intrusion of the baby, account for this. These were hindrances, but +were there no others? He is always overlooking a detail here and +there that might be valuable in helping us understand a situation. For +instance, when a man has been hard at work at the Italian poets with +a pretty woman, hour after hour, and responding like a tremulous +instrument to every breath of passion or of sentiment in the meantime, +that man is dog-tired when he gets home, and he can't teach his wife +Latin; it would be unreasonable to expect it. + +Up to this time we have submitted to having Mrs. Boinville pushed upon +us as ostensibly concerned in these Italian lessons, but the biographer +drops her now, of his own accord. Cornelia “perhaps” is sole teacher. +Hogg says she was a prey to a kind of sweet melancholy, arising from +causes purely imaginary; she required consolation, and found it in +Petrarch. He also says, “Bysshe entered at once fully into her views +and caught the soft infection, breathing the tenderest and sweetest +melancholy, as every true poet ought.” + +Then the author of the book interlards a most stately and fine +compliment to Cornelia, furnished by a man of approved judgment who knew +her well “in later years.” It is a very good compliment indeed, and she +no doubt deserved it in her “later years,” when she had for generations +ceased to be sentimental and lackadaisical, and was no longer engaged in +enchanting young husbands and sowing sorrow for young wives. But why is +that compliment to that old gentlewoman intruded there? Is it to make +the reader believe she was well-chosen and safe society for a young, +sentimental husband? The biographer's device was not well planned. That +old person was not present--it was her other self that was there, her +young, sentimental, melancholy, warm-blooded self, in those early sweet +times before antiquity had cooled her off and mossed her back. + +“In choosing for friends such women as Mrs. Newton, Mrs. Boinville, +and Cornelia Turner, Shelley gave good proof of his insight and +discrimination.” That is the fabulist's opinion--Harriet Shelley's is +not reported. + +Early in August, Shelley was in London trying to raise money. In +September he wrote the poem to the baby, already quoted from. In the +first week of October Shelley and family went to Warwick, then to +Edinburgh, arriving there about the middle of the month. + +“Harriet was happy.” Why? The author furnishes a reason, but hides from +us whether it is history or conjecture; it is because “the babe had +borne the journey well.” It has all the aspect of one of his artful +devices--flung in in his favorite casual way--the way he has when he +wants to draw one's attention away from an obvious thing and amuse it +with some trifle that is less obvious but more useful--in a history like +this. The obvious thing is, that Harriet was happy because there was +much territory between her husband and Cornelia Turner now; and because +the perilous Italian lessons were taking a rest; and because, if there +chanced to be any respondings like a tremulous instrument to every +breath of passion or of sentiment in stock in these days, she might hope +to get a share of them herself; and because, with her husband liberated, +now, from the fetid fascinations of that sentimental retreat so +pitilessly described by Hogg, who also dubbed it “Shelley's paradise” + later, she might hope to persuade him to stay away from it permanently; +and because she might also hope that his brain would cool, now, and his +heart become healthy, and both brain and heart consider the situation +and resolve that it would be a right and manly thing to stand by this +girl-wife and her child and see that they were honorably dealt with, +and cherished and protected and loved by the man that had promised these +things, and so be made happy and kept so. And because, also--may we +conjecture this?--we may hope for the privilege of taking up our cozy +Latin lessons again, that used to be so pleasant, and brought us so near +together--so near, indeed, that often our heads touched, just as heads +do over Italian lessons; and our hands met in casual and unintentional, +but still most delicious and thrilling little contacts and momentary +clasps, just as they inevitably do over Italian lessons. Suppose one +should say to any young wife: “I find that your husband is poring over +the Italian poets and being instructed in the beautiful Italian language +by the lovely Cornelia Robinson”--would that cozy picture fail to rise +before her mind? would its possibilities fail to suggest themselves to +her? would there be a pang in her heart and a blush on her face? or, on +the contrary, would the remark give her pleasure, make her joyous and +gay? Why, one needs only to make the experiment--the result will not be +uncertain. + +However, we learn--by authority of deeply reasoned and searching +conjecture--that the baby bore the journey well, and that that was +why the young wife was happy. That accounts for two per cent. of the +happiness, but it was not right to imply that it accounted for the other +ninety-eight also. + +Peacock, a scholar, poet, and friend of the Shelleys, was of their party +when they went away. He used to laugh at the Boinville menagerie, and +“was not a favorite.” One of the Boinville group, writing to Hogg, said, +“The Shelleys have made an addition to their party in the person of a +cold scholar, who, I think, has neither taste nor feeling. This, Shelley +will perceive sooner or later, for his warm nature craves sympathy.” + True, and Shelley will fight his way back there to get it--there will be +no way to head him off. + +Toward the end of November it was necessary for Shelley to pay a +business visit to London, and he conceived the project of leaving +Harriet and the baby in Edinburgh with Harriet's sister, Eliza +Westbrook, a sensible, practical maiden lady about thirty years old, who +had spent a great part of her time with the family since the marriage. +She was an estimable woman, and Shelley had had reason to like her, and +did like her; but along about this time his feeling towards her changed. +Part of Shelley's plan, as he wrote Hogg, was to spend his London +evenings with the Newtons--members of the Boinville Hysterical Society. +But, alas, when he arrived early in December, that pleasant game was +partially blocked, for Eliza and the family arrived with him. We are +left destitute of conjectures at this point by the biographer, and it +is my duty to supply one. I chance the conjecture that it was Eliza +who interfered with that game. I think she tried to do what she could +towards modifying the Boinville connection, in the interest of her young +sister's peace and honor. + +If it was she who blocked that game, she was not strong enough to block +the next one. Before the month and year were out--no date given, let us +call it Christmas--Shelley and family were nested in a furnished house +in Windsor, “at no great distance from the Boinvilles”--these decoys +still residing at Bracknell. + +What we need, now, is a misleading conjecture. We get it with +characteristic promptness and depravity: + + “But Prince Athanase found not the aged Zonoras, the friend of + his boyhood, in any wanderings to Windsor. Dr. Lind had died + a year since, and with his death Windsor must have lost, for + Shelley, its chief attraction.” + +Still, not to mention Shelley's wife, there was Bracknell, at any rate. +While Bracknell remains, all solace is not lost. Shelley is represented +by this biographer as doing a great many careless things, but to my mind +this hiring a furnished house for three months in order to be with a man +who has been dead a year, is the carelessest of them all. One feels for +him--that is but natural, and does us honor besides--yet one is vexed, +for all that. He could have written and asked about the aged Zonoras +before taking the house. He may not have had the address, but that is +nothing--any postman would know the aged Zonoras; a dead postman would +remember a name like that. + +And yet, why throw a rag like this to us ravening wolves? Is it +seriously supposable that we will stop to chew it and let our prey +escape? No, we are getting to expect this kind of device, and to give it +merely a sniff for certainty's sake and then walk around it and leave +it lying. Shelley was not after the aged Zonoras; he was pointed for +Cornelia and the Italian lessons, for his warm nature was craving +sympathy. + + + + +II + +The year 1813 is just ended now, and we step into 1814. + +To recapitulate, how much of Cornelia's society has Shelley had, thus +far? Portions of August and September, and four days of July. That is to +say, he has had opportunity to enjoy it, more or less, during that brief +period. Did he want some more of it? We must fall back upon history, and +then go to conjecturing. + + “In the early part of the year 1814, Shelley was a frequent + visitor at Bracknell.” + +“Frequent” is a cautious word, in this author's mouth; the very +cautiousness of it, the vagueness of it, provokes suspicion; it makes +one suspect that this frequency was more frequent than the mere common +everyday kinds of frequency which one is in the habit of averaging up +with the unassuming term “frequent.” I think so because they fixed up +a bedroom for him in the Boinville house. One doesn't need a bedroom +if one is only going to run over now and then in a disconnected way to +respond like a tremulous instrument to every breath of passion or of +sentiment and rub up one's Italian poetry a little. + +The young wife was not invited, perhaps. If she was, she most certainly +did not come, or she would have straightened the room up; the most +ignorant of us knows that a wife would not endure a room in the +condition in which Hogg found this one when he occupied it one night. +Shelley was away--why, nobody can divine. Clothes were scattered about, +there were books on every side: “Wherever a book could be laid was an +open book turned down on its face to keep its place.” It seems plain +that the wife was not invited. No, not that; I think she was invited, +but said to herself that she could not bear to go there and see another +young woman touching heads with her husband over an Italian book and +making thrilling hand-contacts with him accidentally. + +As remarked, he was a frequent visitor there, “where he found an +easeful resting-place in the house of Mrs. Boinville--the white-haired +Maimuna--and of her daughter, Mrs. Turner.” The aged Zonoras was +deceased, but the white-haired Maimuna was still on deck, as we see. +“Three charming ladies entertained the mocker (Hogg) with cups of tea, +late hours, Wieland's Agathon, sighs and smiles, and the celestial manna +of refined sentiment.” + +“Such,” says Hogg, “were the delights of Shelley's paradise in +Bracknell.” + +The white-haired Maimuna presently writes to Hogg: + + “I will not have you despise home-spun pleasures. Shelley is + making a trial of them with us--” + +A trial of them. It may be called that. It was March 11, and he had been +in the house a month. She continues: + + Shelley “likes them so well that he is resolved to leave off + rambling--” + +But he has already left it off. He has been there a month. + + “And begin a course of them himself.” + +But he has already begun it. He has been at it a month. He likes it +so well that he has forgotten all about his wife, as a letter of his +reveals. + + “Seriously, I think his mind and body want rest.” + +Yet he has been resting both for a month, with Italian, and tea, and +manna of sentiment, and late hours, and every restful thing a young +husband could need for the refreshment of weary limbs and a sore +conscience, and a nagging sense of shabbiness and treachery. + + “His journeys after what he has never found have racked his + purse and his tranquillity. He is resolved to take a little + care of the former, in pity to the latter, which I applaud, and + shall second with all my might.” + +But she does not say whether the young wife, a stranger and lonely +yonder, wants another woman and her daughter Cornelia to be lavishing so +much inflamed interest on her husband or not. That young wife is always +silent--we are never allowed to hear from her. She must have opinions +about such things, she cannot be indifferent, she must be approving or +disapproving, surely she would speak if she were allowed--even to-day +and from her grave she would, if she could, I think--but we get only the +other side, they keep her silent always. + + “He has deeply interested us. In the course of your intimacy + he must have made you feel what we now feel for him. He is + seeking a house close to us--” + +Ah! he is not close enough yet, it seems-- + + “and if he succeeds we shall have an additional motive to + induce you to come among us in the summer.” + +The reader would puzzle a long time and not guess the biographer's +comment upon the above letter. It is this: + + “These sound like words of A considerate and judicious friend.” + +That is what he thinks. That is, it is what he thinks he thinks. No, +that is not quite it: it is what he thinks he can stupefy a particularly +and unspeakably dull reader into thinking it is what he thinks. He +makes that comment with the knowledge that Shelley is in love with this +woman's daughter, and that it is because of the fascinations of these +two that Shelley has deserted his wife--for this month, considering all +the circumstances, and his new passion, and his employment of the time, +amounted to desertion; that is its rightful name. We cannot know how +the wife regarded it and felt about it; but if she could have read the +letter which Shelley was writing to Hogg four or five days later, we +could guess her thought and how she felt. Hear him:....... + + “I have been staying with Mrs. Boinville for the last month; + I have escaped, in the society of all that philosophy and + friendship combine, from the dismaying solitude of myself.” + +It is fair to conjecture that he was feeling ashamed. + + “They have revived in my heart the expiring flame of life. + I have felt myself translated to a paradise which has nothing + of mortality but its transitoriness; my heart sickens at the + view of that necessity which will quickly divide me from the + delightful tranquillity of this happy home--for it has become + my home. + ....... + “Eliza is still with us--not here!--but will be with me when + the infinite malice of destiny forces me to depart.” + +Eliza is she who blocked that game--the game in London--the one where +we were purposing to dine every night with one of the “three charming +ladies” who fed tea and manna and late hours to Hogg at Bracknell. + +Shelley could send Eliza away, of course; could have cleared her out +long ago if so minded, just as he had previously done with a predecessor +of hers whom he had first worshiped and then turned against; but +perhaps she was useful there as a thin excuse for staying away himself. + + “I am now but little inclined to contest this point. + I certainly hate her with all my heart and soul.... + + “It is a sight which awakens an inexpressible sensation of + disgust and horror, to see her caress my poor little Ianthe, + in whom I may hereafter find the consolation of sympathy. + I sometimes feel faint with the fatigue of checking the + overflowings of my unbounded abhorrence for this miserable + wretch. But she is no more than a blind and loathsome worm, + that cannot see to sting. + + “I have begun to learn Italian again.... Cornelia + assists me in this language. Did I not once tell you that I + thought her cold and reserved? She is the reverse of this, as + she is the reverse of everything bad. She inherits all the + divinity of her mother.... I have sometimes forgotten + that I am not an inmate of this delightful home--that a time + will come which will cast me again into the boundless ocean of + abhorred society. + + “I have written nothing but one stanza, which has no meaning, + and that I have only written in thought: + + “Thy dewy looks sink in my breast; + Thy gentle words stir poison there; + Thou hast disturbed the only rest + That was the portion of despair. + Subdued to duty's hard control, + I could have borne my wayward lot: + The chains that bind this rained soul + Had cankered then, but crushed it not. + + “This is the vision of a delirious and distempered dream, which + passes away at the cold clear light of morning. Its surpassing + excellence and exquisite perfections have no more reality than + the color of an autumnal sunset.” + +Then it did not refer to his wife. That is plain; otherwise he would +have said so. It is well that he explained that it has no meaning, for +if he had not done that, the previous soft references to Cornelia and +the way he has come to feel about her now would make us think she was +the person who had inspired it while teaching him how to read the warm +and ruddy Italian poets during a month. + +The biography observes that portions of this letter “read like the tired +moaning of a wounded creature.” Guesses at the nature of the wound are +permissible; we will hazard one. + +Read by the light of Shelley's previous history, his letter seems to be +the cry of a tortured conscience. Until this time it was a conscience +that had never felt a pang or known a smirch. It was the conscience of +one who, until this time, had never done a dishonorable thing, or an +ungenerous, or cruel, or treacherous thing, but was now doing all of +these, and was keenly aware of it. Up to this time Shelley had been +master of his nature, and it was a nature which was as beautiful and as +nearly perfect as any merely human nature may be. But he was drunk now, +with a debasing passion, and was not himself. There is nothing in his +previous history that is in character with the Shelley of this letter. +He had done boyish things, foolish things, even crazy things, but never +a thing to be ashamed of. He had done things which one might laugh at, +but the privilege of laughing was limited always to the thing itself; +you could not laugh at the motive back of it--that was high, that was +noble. His most fantastic and quixotic acts had a purpose back of +them which made them fine, often great, and made the rising laugh seem +profanation and quenched it; quenched it, and changed the impulse to +homage. + +Up to this time he had been loyalty itself, where his obligations +lay--treachery was new to him; he had never done an ignoble +thing--baseness was new to him; he had never done an unkind thing--that +also was new to him. + +This was the author of that letter, this was the man who had deserted +his young wife and was lamenting, because he must leave another woman's +house which had become a “home” to him, and go away. Is he lamenting +mainly because he must go back to his wife and child? No, the lament is +mainly for what he is to leave behind him. The physical comforts of the +house? No, in his life he had never attached importance to such +things. Then the thing which he grieves to leave is narrowed down to a +person--to the person whose “dewy looks” had sunk into his breast, and +whose seducing words had “stirred poison there.” + +He was ashamed of himself, his conscience was upbraiding him. He was +the slave of a degrading love; he was drunk with his passion, the real +Shelley was in temporary eclipse. This is the verdict which his previous +history must certainly deliver upon this episode, I think. + +One must be allowed to assist himself with conjectures like these +when trying to find his way through a literary swamp which has so many +misleading finger-boards up as this book is furnished with. + +We have now arrived at a part of the swamp where the difficulties +and perplexities are going to be greater than any we have yet met +with--where, indeed, the finger-boards are multitudinous, and the most +of them pointing diligently in the wrong direction. We are to be told by +the biography why Shelley deserted his wife and child and took up with +Cornelia Turner and Italian. It was not on account of Cornelia's sighs +and sentimentalities and tea and manna and late hours and soft and sweet +and industrious enticements; no, it was because “his happiness in his +home had been wounded and bruised almost to death.” + +It had been wounded and bruised almost to death in this way: + +1st. Harriet persuaded him to set up a carriage. + +2d. After the intrusion of the baby, Harriet stopped reading aloud and +studying. + +3d. Harriet's walks with Hogg “commonly conducted us to some fashionable +bonnet-shop.” + +4th. Harriet hired a wet-nurse. + +5th. When an operation was being performed upon the baby, “Harriet stood +by, narrowly observing all that was done, but, to the astonishment of +the operator, betraying not the smallest sign of emotion.” + +6th. Eliza Westbrook, sister-in-law, was still of the household. + +The evidence against Harriet Shelley is all in; there is no more. Upon +these six counts she stands indicted of the crime of driving her +husband into that sty at Bracknell; and this crime, by these helps, the +biographical prosecuting attorney has set himself the task of proving +upon her. + +Does the biographer call himself the attorney for the prosecution? +No, only to himself, privately; publicly he is the passionless, +disinterested, impartial judge on the bench. He holds up his judicial +scales before the world, that all may see; and it all tries to look so +fair that a blind person would sometimes fail to see him slip the false +weights in. + +Shelley's happiness in his home had been wounded and bruised almost to +death, first, because Harriet had persuaded him to set up a carriage. I +cannot discover that any evidence is offered that she asked him to set +up a carriage. Still, if she did, was it a heavy offense? Was it unique? +Other young wives had committed it before, others have committed it +since. Shelley had dearly loved her in those London days; possibly he +set up the carriage gladly to please her; affectionate young husbands +do such things. When Shelley ran away with another girl, by-and-by, this +girl persuaded him to pour the price of many carriages and many horses +down the bottomless well of her father's debts, but this impartial +judge finds no fault with that. Once she appeals to Shelley to raise +money--necessarily by borrowing, there was no other way--to pay her +father's debts with at a time when Shelley was in danger of being +arrested and imprisoned for his own debts; yet the good judge finds no +fault with her even for this. + +First and last, Shelley emptied into that rapacious mendicant's lap a +sum which cost him--for he borrowed it at ruinous rates--from eighty +to one hundred thousand dollars. But it was Mary Godwin's papa, the +supplications were often sent through Mary, the good judge is Mary's +strenuous friend, so Mary gets no censures. On the Continent Mary rode +in her private carriage, built, as Shelley boasts, “by one of the best +makers in Bond Street,” yet the good judge makes not even a passing +comment on this iniquity. Let us throw out Count No. 1 against Harriet +Shelley as being far-fetched, and frivolous. + +Shelley's happiness in his home had been wounded and bruised almost +to death, secondly, because Harriet's studies “had dwindled away to +nothing, Bysshe had ceased to express any interest in them.” At what +time was this? It was when Harriet “had fully recovered from the fatigue +of her first effort of maternity... and was now in full force, vigor, +and effect.” Very well, the baby was born two days before the close of +June. It took the mother a month to get back her full force, vigor, and +effect; this brings us to July 27th and the deadly Cornelia. If a +wife of eighteen is studying with her husband and he gets smitten with +another woman, isn't he likely to lose interest in his wife's studies +for that reason, and is not his wife's interest in her studies likely to +languish for the same reason? Would not the mere sight of those books of +hers sharpen the pain that is in her heart? This sudden breaking down of +a mutual intellectual interest of two years' standing is coincident with +Shelley's re-encounter with Cornelia; and we are allowed to gather from +that time forth for nearly two months he did all his studying in that +person's society. We feel at liberty to rule out Count No. 2 from the +indictment against Harriet. + +Shelley's happiness in his home had been wounded and bruised almost to +death, thirdly, because Harriet's walks with Hogg commonly led to some +fashionable bonnet-shop. I offer no palliation; I only ask why the +dispassionate, impartial judge did not offer one himself--merely, I +mean, to offset his leniency in a similar case or two where the girl +who ran away with Harriet's husband was the shopper. There are several +occasions where she interested herself with shopping--among them being +walks which ended at the bonnet-shop--yet in none of these cases does +she get a word of blame from the good judge, while in one of them he +covers the deed with a justifying remark, she doing the shopping that +time to find easement for her mind, her child having died. + +Shelley's happiness in his home had been wounded and bruised almost to +death, fourthly, by the introduction there of a wet-nurse. The wet-nurse +was introduced at the time of the Edinburgh sojourn, immediately after +Shelley had been enjoying the two months of study with Cornelia which +broke up his wife's studies and destroyed his personal interest in them. +Why, by this time, nothing that Shelley's wife could do would have been +satisfactory to him, for he was in love with another woman, and was +never going to be contented again until he got back to her. If he had +been still in love with his wife it is not easily conceivable that he +would care much who nursed the baby, provided the baby was well +nursed. Harriet's jealousy was assuredly voicing itself now, Shelley's +conscience was assuredly nagging him, pestering him, persecuting him. +Shelley needed excuses for his altered attitude toward his wife; +Providence pitied him and sent the wet-nurse. If Providence had sent him +a cotton doughnut it would have answered just as well; all he wanted was +something to find fault with. + +Shelley's happiness in his home had been wounded and bruised almost to +death, fifthly, because Harriet narrowly watched a surgical operation +which was being performed upon her child, and, “to the astonishment +of the operator,” who was watching Harriet instead of attending to his +operation, she betrayed “not the smallest sign of emotion.” The author +of this biography was not ashamed to set down that exultant slander. He +was apparently not aware that it was a small business to bring into his +court a witness whose name he does not know, and whose character and +veracity there is none to vouch for, and allow him to strike this blow +at the mother-heart of this friendless girl. The biographer says, “We +may not infer from this that Harriet did not feel”--why put it in, +then?--“but we learn that those about her could believe her to be hard +and insensible.” Who were those who were about her? Her husband? He +hated her now, because he was in love elsewhere. Her sister? Of course +that is not charged. Peacock? Peacock does not testify. The wet-nurse? +She does not testify. If any others were there we have no mention of +them. “Those about her” are reduced to one person--her husband. Who +reports the circumstance? It is Hogg. Perhaps he was there--we do not +know. But if he was, he still got his information at second-hand, as +it was the operator who noticed Harriet's lack of emotion, not himself. +Hogg is not given to saying kind things when Harriet is his subject. +He may have said them the time that he tried to tempt her to soil her +honor, but after that he mentions her usually with a sneer. “Among +those who were about her” was one witness well equipped to silence all +tongues, abolish all doubts, set our minds at rest; one witness, not +called, and not callable, whose evidence, if we could but get it, would +outweigh the oaths of whole battalions of hostile Hoggs and nameless +surgeons--the baby. I wish we had the baby's testimony; and yet if +we had it it would not do us any good--a furtive conjecture, a sly +insinuation, a pious “if” or two, would be smuggled in, here and there, +with a solemn air of judicial investigation, and its positiveness would +wilt into dubiety. + +The biographer says of Harriet, “If words of tender affection and +motherly pride proved the reality of love, then undoubtedly she loved +her firstborn child.” That is, if mere empty words can prove it, it +stands proved--and in this way, without committing himself, he gives the +reader a chance to infer that there isn't any extant evidence but words, +and that he doesn't take much stock in them. How seldom he shows his +hand! He is always lurking behind a non-committal “if” or something of +that kind; always gliding and dodging around, distributing colorless +poison here and there and everywhere, but always leaving himself in a +position to say that his language will be found innocuous if taken to +pieces and examined. He clearly exhibits a steady and never-relaxing +purpose to make Harriet the scapegoat for her husband's first great +sin--but it is in the general view that this is revealed, not in the +details. His insidious literature is like blue water; you know what it +is that makes it blue, but you cannot produce and verify any detail of +the cloud of microscopic dust in it that does it. Your adversary can dip +up a glassful and show you that it is pure white and you cannot deny +it; and he can dip the lake dry, glass by glass, and show that every +glassful is white, and prove it to any one's eye--and yet that lake was +blue and you can swear it. This book is blue--with slander in solution. + +Let the reader examine, for example, the paragraph of comment which +immediately follows the letter containing Shelley's self-exposure which +we have been considering. This is it. One should inspect the individual +sentences as they go by, then pass them in procession and review the +cake-walk as a whole: + + “Shelley's happiness in his home, as is evident from this + pathetic letter, had been fatally stricken; it is evident, + also, that he knew where duty lay; he felt that his part was to + take up his burden, silently and sorrowfully, and to bear it + henceforth with the quietness of despair. But we can perceive + that he scarcely possessed the strength and fortitude needful + for success in such an attempt. And clearly Shelley himself + was aware how perilous it was to accept that respite of + blissful ease which he enjoyed in the Boinville household; for + gentle voices and dewy looks and words of sympathy could not + fail to remind him of an ideal of tranquillity or of joy which + could never be his, and which he must henceforth sternly + exclude from his imagination.” + +That paragraph commits the author in no way. Taken sentence by sentence +it asserts nothing against anybody or in favor of anybody, pleads for +nobody, accuses nobody. Taken detail by detail, it is as innocent as +moonshine. And yet, taken as a whole, it is a design against the reader; +its intent is to remove the feeling which the letter must leave with him +if let alone, and put a different one in its place--to remove a feeling +justified by the letter and substitute one not justified by it. The +letter itself gives you no uncertain picture--no lecturer is needed to +stand by with a stick and point out its details and let on to explain +what they mean. The picture is the very clear and remorsefully faithful +picture of a fallen and fettered angel who is ashamed of himself; an +angel who beats his soiled wings and cries, who complains to the woman +who enticed him that he could have borne his wayward lot, he could have +stood by his duty if it had not been for her beguilements; an angel who +rails at the “boundless ocean of abhorred society,” and rages at +his poor judicious sister-in-law. If there is any dignity about this +spectacle it will escape most people. + +Yet when the paragraph of comment is taken as a whole, the picture is +full of dignity and pathos; we have before us a blameless and noble +spirit stricken to the earth by malign powers, but not conquered; +tempted, but grandly putting the temptation away; enmeshed by subtle +coils, but sternly resolved to rend them and march forth victorious, at +any peril of life or limb. Curtain--slow music. + +Was it the purpose of the paragraph to take the bad taste of Shelley's +letter out of the reader's mouth? If that was not it, good ink was +wasted; without that, it has no relevancy--the multiplication table +would have padded the space as rationally. + +We have inspected the six reasons which we are asked to believe drove a +man of conspicuous patience, honor, justice, fairness, kindliness, and +iron firmness, resolution, and steadfastness, from the wife whom +he loved and who loved him, to a refuge in the mephitic paradise of +Bracknell. These are six infinitely little reasons; but there were six +colossal ones, and these the counsel for the destruction of Harriet +Shelley persists in not considering very important. + +Moreover, the colossal six preceded the little six and had done the +mischief before they were born. Let us double-column the twelve; then we +shall see at a glance that each little reason is in turn answered by a +retorting reason of a size to overshadow it and make it insignificant: + + 1. Harriet sets up carriage. 1. CORNELIA TURNER. + 2. Harriet stops studying. 2. CORNELIA TURNER. + 3. Harriet goes to bonnet-shop. 3. CORNELIA TURNER. + 4. Harriet takes a wet-nurse. 4. CORNELIA TURNER. + 5. Harriet has too much nerve. 5. CORNELIA TURNER. + 6. Detested sister-in-law 6. CORNELIA TURNER. + +As soon as we comprehend that Cornelia Turner and the Italian lessons +happened before the little six had been discovered to be grievances, +we understand why Shelley's happiness in his home had been wounded and +bruised almost to death, and no one can persuade us into laying it on +Harriet. Shelley and Cornelia are the responsible persons, and we cannot +in honor and decency allow the cruelties which they practised upon the +unoffending wife to be pushed aside in order to give us a chance to +waste time and tears over six sentimental justifications of an offense +which the six can't justify, nor even respectably assist in justifying. + +Six? There were seven; but in charity to the biographer the seventh +ought not to be exposed. Still, he hung it out himself, and not only +hung it out, but thought it was a good point in Shelley's favor. For two +years Shelley found sympathy and intellectual food and all that at home; +there was enough for spiritual and mental support, but not enough for +luxury; and so, at the end of the contented two years, this latter +detail justifies him in going bag and baggage over to Cornelia Turner +and supplying the rest of his need in the way of surplus sympathy and +intellectual pie unlawfully. By the same reasoning a man in merely +comfortable circumstances may rob a bank without sin. + + + + +III + +It is 1814, it is the 16th of March, Shelley has written his letter, he +has been in the Boinville paradise a month, his deserted wife is in her +husbandless home. Mischief had been wrought. It is the biographer who +concedes this. We greatly need some light on Harriet's side of the case +now; we need to know how she enjoyed the month, but there is no way to +inform ourselves; there seems to be a strange absence of documents and +letters and diaries on that side. Shelley kept a diary, the approaching +Mary Godwin kept a diary, her father kept one, her half-sister by +marriage, adoption, and the dispensation of God kept one, and the entire +tribe and all its friends wrote and received letters, and the letters +were kept and are producible when this biography needs them; but there +are only three or four scraps of Harriet's writing, and no diary. +Harriet wrote plenty of letters to her husband--nobody knows where they +are, I suppose; she wrote plenty of letters to other people--apparently +they have disappeared, too. Peacock says she wrote good letters, but +apparently interested people had sagacity enough to mislay them in time. +After all her industry she went down into her grave and lies silent +there--silent, when she has so much need to speak. We can only wonder at +this mystery, not account for it. + +No, there is no way of finding out what Harriet's state of feeling was +during the month that Shelley was disporting himself in the Bracknell +paradise. We have to fall back upon conjecture, as our fabulist does +when he has nothing more substantial to work with. Then we easily +conjecture that as the days dragged by Harriet's heart grew heavier and +heavier under its two burdens--shame and resentment: the shame of being +pointed at and gossiped about as a deserted wife, and resentment against +the woman who had beguiled her husband from her and now kept him in a +disreputable captivity. Deserted wives--deserted whether for cause or +without cause--find small charity among the virtuous and the discreet. +We conjecture that one after another the neighbors ceased to call; that +one after another they got to being “engaged” when Harriet called; that +finally they one after the other cut her dead on the street; that after +that she stayed in the house daytimes, and brooded over her sorrows, and +nighttimes did the same, there being nothing else to do with the heavy +hours and the silence and solitude and the dreary intervals which sleep +should have charitably bridged, but didn't. + +Yes, mischief had been wrought. The biographer arrives at this +conclusion, and it is a most just one. Then, just as you begin to half +hope he is going to discover the cause of it and launch hot bolts +of wrath at the guilty manufacturers of it, you have to turn away +disappointed. You are disappointed, and you sigh. This is what he says +--the italics [''] are mine: + + “However the mischief may have been wrought--'and at this day + no one can wish to heap blame on any buried head'--” + +So it is poor Harriet, after all. Stern justice must take its +course--justice tempered with delicacy, justice tempered with +compassion, justice that pities a forlorn dead girl and refuses to +strike her. Except in the back. Will not be ignoble and say the harsh +thing, but only insinuate it. Stern justice knows about the carriage and +the wet-nurse and the bonnet-shop and the other dark things that caused +this sad mischief, and may not, must not blink them; so it delivers +judgment where judgment belongs, but softens the blow by not seeming to +deliver judgment at all. To resume--the italics are mine: + + “However the mischief may have been wrought--and at this day no + one can wish to heap blame on any buried head--'it is certain + that some cause or causes of deep division between Shelley and + his wife were in operation during the early part of the year + 1814'.” + +This shows penetration. No deduction could be more accurate than this. +There were indeed some causes of deep division. But next comes another +disappointing sentence: + + “To guess at the precise nature of these causes, in the absence + of definite statement, were useless.” + +Why, he has already been guessing at them for several pages, and we have +been trying to outguess him, and now all of a sudden he is tired of it +and won't play any more. It is not quite fair to us. However, he will +get over this by-and-by, when Shelley commits his next indiscretion and +has to be guessed out of it at Harriet's expense. + +“We may rest content with Shelley's own words”--in a Chancery paper +drawn up by him three years later. They were these: “Delicacy forbids me +to say more than that we were disunited by incurable dissensions.” + +As for me, I do not quite see why we should rest content with +anything of the sort. It is not a very definite statement. It does not +necessarily mean anything more than that he did not wish to go into the +tedious details of those family quarrels. Delicacy could quite properly +excuse him from saying, “I was in love with Cornelia all that time; my +wife kept crying and worrying about it and upbraiding me and begging +me to cut myself free from a connection which was wronging her and +disgracing us both; and I being stung by these reproaches retorted with +fierce and bitter speeches--for it is my nature to do that when I am +stirred, especially if the target of them is a person whom I had greatly +loved and respected before, as witness my various attitudes towards Miss +Hitchener, the Gisbornes, Harriet's sister, and others--and finally I +did not improve this state of things when I deserted my wife and spent a +whole month with the woman who had infatuated me.” + +No, he could not go into those details, and we excuse him; but, +nevertheless, we do not rest content with this bland proposition to +puff away that whole long disreputable episode with a single mean, +meaningless remark of Shelley's. + +We do admit that “it is certain that some cause or causes of deep +division were in operation.” We would admit it just the same if the +grammar of the statement were as straight as a string, for we drift into +pretty indifferent grammar ourselves when we are absorbed in historical +work; but we have to decline to admit that we cannot guess those cause +or causes. + +But guessing is not really necessary. There is evidence +attainable--evidence from the batch discredited by the biographer and +set out at the back door in his appendix-basket; and yet a court of law +would think twice before throwing it out, whereas it would be a hardy +person who would venture to offer in such a place a good part of the +material which is placed before the readers of this book as “evidence,” + and so treated by this daring biographer. Among some letters (in the +appendix-basket) from Mrs. Godwin, detailing the Godwinian share in the +Shelleyan events of 1814, she tells how Harriet Shelley came to her and +her husband, agitated and weeping, to implore them to forbid Shelley the +house, and prevent his seeing Mary Godwin. + + “She related that last November he had fallen in love with Mrs. + Turner and paid her such marked attentions Mr. Turner, the + husband, had carried off his wife to Devonshire.” + +The biographer finds a technical fault in this; “the Shelleys were +in Edinburgh in November.” What of that? The woman is recalling a +conversation which is more than two months old; besides, she was +probably more intent upon the central and important fact of it than upon +its unimportant date. Harriet's quoted statement has some sense in it; +for that reason, if for no other, it ought to have been put in the body +of the book. Still, that would not have answered; even the biographer's +enemy could not be cruel enough to ask him to let this real +grievance, this compact and substantial and picturesque figure, this +rawhead-and-bloody-bones, come striding in there among those pale shams, +those rickety specters labeled WET-NURSE, BONNET-SHOP, and so on--no, +the father of all malice could not ask the biographer to expose his +pathetic goblins to a competition like that. + +The fabulist finds fault with the statement because it has a technical +error in it; and he does this at the moment that he is furnishing us an +error himself, and of a graver sort. He says: + + “If Turner carried off his wife to Devonshire he brought her + back and Shelley was staying with her and her mother on terms + of cordial intimacy in March, 1814.” + +We accept the “cordial intimacy”--it was the very thing Harriet was +complaining of--but there is nothing to show that it was Turner who +brought his wife back. The statement is thrown in as if it were not only +true, but was proof that Turner was not uneasy. Turner's movements are +proof of nothing. Nothing but a statement from Turner's mouth would have +any value here, and he made none. + +Six days after writing his letter Shelley and his wife were together +again for a moment--to get remarried according to the rites of the +English Church. + +Within three weeks the new husband and wife were apart again, and the +former was back in his odorous paradise. This time it is the wife who +does the deserting. She finds Cornelia too strong for her, probably. At +any rate, she goes away with her baby and sister, and we have a playful +fling at her from good Mrs. Boinville, the “mysterious spinner Maimuna”; +she whose “face was as a damsel's face, and yet her hair was gray”; she +of whom the biographer has said, “Shelley was indeed caught in an almost +invisible thread spun around him, but unconsciously, by this subtle and +benignant enchantress.” The subtle and benignant enchantress writes to +Hogg, April 18: “Shelley is again a widower; his beauteous half went to +town on Thursday.” + +Then Shelley writes a poem--a chant of grief over the hard fate which +obliges him now to leave his paradise and take up with his wife again. +It seems to intimate that the paradise is cooling toward him; that he +is warned off by acclamation; that he must not even venture to tempt +with one last tear his friend Cornelia's ungentle mood, for her eye is +glazed and cold and dares not entreat her lover to stay: + +Exhibit E + + “Pause not! the time is past! Every voice cries 'Away!' + Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood; + Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy + stay: + Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.” + +Back to the solitude of his now empty home, that is! + + “Away! away! to thy sad and silent home; + Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth.” + ........ + +But he will have rest in the grave by-and-by. Until that time comes, +the charms of Bracknell will remain in his memory, along with Mrs. +Boinville's voice and Cornelia Turner's smile: + + “Thou in the grave shalt rest--yet, till the phantoms flee + Which that house and hearth and garden made dear to thee ere while, + Thy remembrance and repentance and deep musings are not free + From the music of two voices and the light of one sweet smile.” + +We cannot wonder that Harriet could not stand it. Any of us would have +left. We would not even stay with a cat that was in this condition. Even +the Boinvilles could not endure it; and so, as we have seen, they gave +this one notice. + + “Early in May, Shelley was in London. He did not yet despair + of reconciliation with Harriet, nor had he ceased to love her.” + +Shelley's poems are a good deal of trouble to his biographer. They are +constantly inserted as “evidence,” and they make much confusion. As +soon as one of them has proved one thing, another one follows and proves +quite a different thing. The poem just quoted shows that he was in love +with Cornelia, but a month later he is in love with Harriet again, and +there is a poem to prove it. + + “In this piteous appeal Shelley declares that he has now no + grief but one--the grief of having known and lost his wife's + love.” + +Exhibit F + + “Thy look of love has power to calm + The stormiest passion of my soul.” + + +But without doubt she had been reserving her looks of love a good part +of the time for ten months, now--ever since he began to lavish his own +on Cornelia Turner at the end of the previous July. He does really seem +to have already forgotten Cornelia's merits in one brief month, for he +eulogizes Harriet in a way which rules all competition out: + + “Thou only virtuous, gentle, kind, + Amid a world of hate.” + +He complains of her hardness, and begs her to make the concession of +a “slight endurance”--of his waywardness, perhaps--for the sake of “a +fellow-being's lasting weal.” But the main force of his appeal is in his +closing stanza, and is strongly worded: + + “O trust for once no erring guide! + Bid the remorseless feeling flee; + 'Tis malice, 'tis revenge, 'tis pride, + 'Tis anything but thee; + O deign a nobler pride to prove, + And pity if thou canst not love.” + +This is in May--apparently towards the end of it. Harriet and Shelley +were corresponding all the time. Harriet got the poem--a copy exists in +her own handwriting; she being the only gentle and kind person amid a +world of hate, according to Shelley's own testimony in the poem, we are +permitted to think that the daily letters would presently have melted +that kind and gentle heart and brought about the reconciliation, if +there had been time but there wasn't; for in a very few days--in fact, +before the 8th of June--Shelley was in love with another woman. + +And so--perhaps while Harriet was walking the floor nights, trying to +get her poem by heart--her husband was doing a fresh one--for the other +girl--Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin--with sentiments like these in it: + +Exhibit G + + To spend years thus and be rewarded, + As thou, sweet love, requited me + When none were near. + ... thy lips did meet + Mine tremblingly;... + + “Gentle and good and mild thou art, + Nor can I live if thou appear + Aught but thyself.”... + + +And so on. “Before the close of June it was known and felt by Mary and +Shelley that each was inexpressibly dear to the other.” Yes, Shelley had +found this child of sixteen to his liking, and had wooed and won her in +the graveyard. But that is nothing; it was better than wooing her in her +nursery, at any rate, where it might have disturbed the other children. + +However, she was a child in years only. From the day that she set her +masculine grip on Shelley he was to frisk no more. If she had occupied +the only kind and gentle Harriet's place in March it would have been a +thrilling spectacle to see her invade the Boinville rookery and read the +riot act. That holiday of Shelley's would have been of short duration, +and Cornelia's hair would have been as gray as her mother's when the +services were over. + +Hogg went to the Godwin residence in Skinner Street with Shelley on +that 8th of June. They passed through Godwin's little debt-factory of a +book-shop and went up-stairs hunting for the proprietor. Nobody there. +Shelley strode about the room impatiently, making its crazy floor quake +under him. Then a door “was partially and softly opened. A thrilling +voice called 'Shelley!' A thrilling voice answered, 'Mary!' And he +darted out of the room like an arrow from the bow of the far-shooting +King. A very young female, fair and fair-haired, pale, indeed, and with +a piercing look, wearing a frock of tartan, an unusual dress in London +at that time, had called him out of the room.” + +This is Mary Godwin, as described by Hogg. The thrill of the voices +shows that the love of Shelley and Mary was already upward of a +fortnight old; therefore it had been born within the month of May--born +while Harriet was still trying to get her poem by heart, we think. I +must not be asked how I know so much about that thrill; it is my secret. +The biographer and I have private ways of finding out things when it is +necessary to find them out and the customary methods fail. + +Shelley left London that day, and was gone ten days. The biographer +conjectures that he spent this interval with Harriet in Bath. It would +be just like him. To the end of his days he liked to be in love with two +women at once. He was more in love with Miss Hitchener when he married +Harriet than he was with Harriet, and told the lady so with simple and +unostentatious candor. He was more in love with Cornelia than he was +with Harriet in the end of 1813 and the beginning of 1814, yet he +supplied both of them with love poems of an equal temperature meantime; +he loved Mary and Harriet in June, and while getting ready to run off +with the one, it is conjectured that he put in his odd time trying to +get reconciled to the other; by-and-by, while still in love with Mary, +he will make love to her half-sister by marriage, adoption, and the +visitation of God, through the medium of clandestine letters, and she +will answer with letters that are for no eye but his own. + +When Shelley encountered Mary Godwin he was looking around for another +paradise. He had tastes of his own, and there were features about +the Godwin establishment that strongly recommended it. Godwin was an +advanced thinker and an able writer. One of his romances is still read, +but his philosophical works, once so esteemed, are out of vogue now; +their authority was already declining when Shelley made his acquaintance +--that is, it was declining with the public, but not with Shelley. They +had been his moral and political Bible, and they were that yet. Shelley +the infidel would himself have claimed to be less a work of God than a +work of Godwin. Godwin's philosophies had formed his mind and interwoven +themselves into it and become a part of its texture; he regarded himself +as Godwin's spiritual son. Godwin was not without self-appreciation; +indeed, it may be conjectured that from his point of view the last +syllable of his name was surplusage. He lived serene in his lofty world +of philosophy, far above the mean interests that absorbed smaller men, +and only came down to the ground at intervals to pass the hat for alms +to pay his debts with, and insult the man that relieved him. Several of +his principles were out of the ordinary. For example, he was opposed to +marriage. He was not aware that his preachings from this text were but +theory and wind; he supposed he was in earnest in imploring people to +live together without marrying, until Shelley furnished him a working +model of his scheme and a practical example to analyze, by applying the +principle in his own family; the matter took a different and surprising +aspect then. The late Matthew Arnold said that the main defect in +Shelley's make-up was that he was destitute of the sense of humor. This +episode must have escaped Mr. Arnold's attention. + +But we have said enough about the head of the new paradise. Mrs. Godwin +is described as being in several ways a terror; and even when her soul +was in repose she wore green spectacles. But I suspect that her main +unattractiveness was born of the fact that she wrote the letters that +are out in the appendix-basket in the back yard--letters which are an +outrage and wholly untrustworthy, for they say some kind things about +poor Harriet and tell some disagreeable truths about her husband; and +these things make the fabulist grit his teeth a good deal. + +Next we have Fanny Godwin--a Godwin by courtesy only; she was Mrs. +Godwin's natural daughter by a former friend. She was a sweet and +winning girl, but she presently wearied of the Godwin paradise, and +poisoned herself. + +Last in the list is Jane (or Claire, as she preferred to call herself) +Clairmont, daughter of Mrs. Godwin by a former marriage. She was very +young and pretty and accommodating, and always ready to do what +she could to make things pleasant. After Shelley ran off with her +part-sister Mary, she became the guest of the pair, and contributed a +natural child to their nursery--Allegra. Lord Byron was the father. + +We have named the several members and advantages of the new paradise +in Skinner Street, with its crazy book-shop underneath. Shelley was all +right now, this was a better place than the other; more variety anyway, +and more different kinds of fragrance. One could turn out poetry here +without any trouble at all. + +The way the new love-match came about was this: + +Shelley told Mary all his aggravations and sorrows and griefs, and about +the wet-nurse and the bonnetshop and the surgeon and the carriage, and +the sister-in-law that blocked the London game, and about Cornelia and +her mamma, and how they had turned him out of the house after making +so much of him; and how he had deserted Harriet and then Harriet had +deserted him, and how the reconciliation was working along and Harriet +getting her poem by heart; and still he was not happy, and Mary pitied +him, for she had had trouble herself. But I am not satisfied with this. +It reads too much like statistics. It lacks smoothness and grace, and is +too earthy and business-like. It has the sordid look of a trades-union +procession out on strike. That is not the right form for it. The book +does it better; we will fall back on the book and have a cake-walk: + + “It was easy to divine that some restless grief possessed him; + Mary herself was not unlearned in the lore of pain. His + generous zeal in her father's behalf, his spiritual sonship to + Godwin, his reverence for her mother's memory, were guarantees + with Mary of his excellence.--[What she was after was + guarantees of his excellence. That he stood ready to desert + his wife and child was one of them, apparently.]--The new + friends could not lack subjects of discourse, and underneath + their words about Mary's mother, and 'Political Justice,' and + 'Rights of Woman,' were two young hearts, each feeling towards + the other, each perhaps unaware, trembling in the direction of + the other. The desire to assuage the suffering of one whose + happiness has grown precious to us may become a hunger of the + spirit as keen as any other, and this hunger now possessed + Mary's heart; when her eyes rested unseen on Shelley, it was + with a look full of the ardor of a 'soothing pity.'” + +Yes, that is better and has more composure. That is just the way it +happened. He told her about the wet-nurse, she told him about political +justice; he told her about the deadly sister-in-law, she told him about +her mother; he told her about the bonnet-shop, she murmured back about +the rights of woman; then he assuaged her, then she assuaged him; then +he assuaged her some more, next she assuaged him some more; then they +both assuaged one another simultaneously; and so they went on by the +hour assuaging and assuaging and assuaging, until at last what was the +result? They were in love. It will happen so every time. + + “He had married a woman who, as he now persuaded himself, had + never truly loved him, who loved only his fortune and his rank, + and who proved her selfishness by deserting him in his misery.” + +I think that that is not quite fair to Harriet. We have no certainty +that she knew Cornelia had turned him out of the house. He went back to +Cornelia, and Harriet may have supposed that he was as happy with her +as ever. Still, it was judicious to begin to lay on the whitewash, +for Shelley is going to need many a coat of it now, and the sooner the +reader becomes used to the intrusion of the brush the sooner he will get +reconciled to it and stop fretting about it. + +After Shelley's (conjectured) visit to Harriet at Bath--8th of June to +18th--“it seems to have been arranged that Shelley should henceforth +join the Skinner Street household each day at dinner.” + +Nothing could be handier than this; things will swim along now. + + “Although now Shelley was coming to believe that his wedded + union with Harriet was a thing of the past, he had not ceased + to regard her with affectionate consideration; he wrote to her + frequently, and kept her informed of his whereabouts.” + +We must not get impatient over these curious inharmoniousnesses +and irreconcilabilities in Shelley's character. You can see by the +biographer's attitude towards them that there is nothing objectionable +about them. Shelley was doing his best to make two adoring young +creatures happy: he was regarding the one with affectionate +consideration by mail, and he was assuaging the other one at home. + + “Unhappy Harriet, residing at Bath, had perhaps never desired + that the breach between herself and her husband should be + irreparable and complete.” + +I find no fault with that sentence except that the “perhaps” is not +strictly warranted. It should have been left out. In support--or +shall we say extenuation?--of this opinion I submit that there is not +sufficient evidence to warrant the uncertainty which it implies. The +only “evidence” offered that Harriet was hard and proud and standing out +against a reconciliation is a poem--the poem in which Shelley beseeches +her to “bid the remorseless feeling flee” and “pity” if she “cannot +love.” We have just that as “evidence,” and out of its meagre materials +the biographer builds a cobhouse of conjectures as big as the Coliseum; +conjectures which convince him, the prosecuting attorney, but ought to +fall far short of convincing any fair-minded jury. + +Shelley's love-poems may be very good evidence, but we know well that +they are “good for this day and train only.” We are able to believe that +they spoke the truth for that one day, but we know by experience +that they could not be depended on to speak it the next. The very +supplication for a rewarming of Harriet's chilled love was followed so +suddenly by the poet's plunge into an adoring passion for Mary Godwin +that if it had been a check it would have lost its value before a lazy +person could have gotten to the bank with it. + +Hardness, stubbornness, pride, vindictiveness--these may sometimes +reside in a young wife and mother of nineteen, but they are not charged +against Harriet Shelley outside of that poem, and one has no right +to insert them into her character on such shadowy “evidence” as that. +Peacock knew Harriet well, and she has a flexible and persuadable look, +as painted by him: + + “Her manners were good, and her whole aspect and demeanor such + manifest emanations of pure and truthful nature that to be once + in her company was to know her thoroughly. She was fond of her + husband, and accommodated herself in every way to his tastes. + If they mixed in society, she adorned it; if they lived in + retirement, she was satisfied; if they travelled, she enjoyed + the change of scene.” + +“Perhaps” she had never desired that the breach should be irreparable +and complete. The truth is, we do not even know that there was any +breach at all at this time. We know that the husband and wife went +before the altar and took a new oath on the 24th of March to love and +cherish each other until death--and this may be regarded as a sort of +reconciliation itself, and a wiping out of the old grudges. Then Harriet +went away, and the sister-in-law removed herself from her society. That +was in April. Shelley wrote his “appeal” in May, but the corresponding +went right along afterwards. We have a right to doubt that the subject +of it was a “reconciliation,” or that Harriet had any suspicion that she +needed to be reconciled and that her husband was trying to persuade +her to it--as the biographer has sought to make us believe, with his +Coliseum of conjectures built out of a waste-basket of poetry. For we +have “evidence” now--not poetry and conjecture. When Shelley had been +dining daily in the Skinner Street paradise fifteen days and continuing +the love-match which was already a fortnight old twenty-five days +earlier, he forgot to write Harriet; forgot it the next day and the +next. During four days Harriet got no letter from him. Then her fright +and anxiety rose to expression-heat, and she wrote a letter to Shelley's +publisher which seems to reveal to us that Shelley's letters to her +had been the customary affectionate letters of husband to wife, and had +carried no appeals for reconciliation and had not needed to: + “BATH (postmark July 7, 1814). + + “MY DEAR SIR,--You will greatly oblige me by giving the + enclosed to Mr. Shelley. I would not trouble you, but it is + now four days since I have heard from him, which to me is an + age. Will you write by return of post and tell me what has + become of him? as I always fancy something dreadful has + happened if I do not hear from him. If you tell me that he is + well I shall not come to London, but if I do not hear from you + or him I shall certainly come, as I cannot endure this dreadful + state of suspense. You are his friend and you can feel for me. + + “I remain yours truly, + + “H. S.” + + +Even without Peacock's testimony that “her whole aspect and demeanor +were manifest emanations of a pure and truthful nature,” we should hold +this to be a truthful letter, a sincere letter, a loving letter; it +bears those marks; I think it is also the letter of a person accustomed +to receiving letters from her husband frequently, and that they have +been of a welcome and satisfactory sort, too, this long time back--ever +since the solemn remarriage and reconciliation at the altar most likely. + +The biographer follows Harriet's letter with a conjecture. He +conjectures that she “would now gladly have retraced her steps.” Which +means that it is proven that she had steps to retrace--proven by the +poem. Well, if the poem is better evidence than the letter, we must let +it stand at that. + +Then the biographer attacks Harriet Shelley's honor--by authority of +random and unverified gossip scavengered from a group of people whose +very names make a person shudder: Mary Godwin, mistress to Shelley; her +part-sister, discarded mistress of Lord Byron; Godwin, the philosophical +tramp, who gathers his share of it from a shadow--that is to say, from +a person whom he shirks out of naming. Yet the biographer dignifies this +sorry rubbish with the name of “evidence.” + +Nothing remotely resembling a distinct charge from a named person +professing to know is offered among this precious “evidence.” + +1. “Shelley believed” so and so. + +2. Byron's discarded mistress says that Shelley told Mary Godwin so and +so, and Mary told her. + +3. “Shelley said” so and so--and later “admitted over and over again +that he had been in error.” + +4. The unspeakable Godwin “wrote to Mr. Baxter” that he knew so and so +“from unquestionable authority”--name not furnished. + +How any man in his right mind could bring himself to defile the grave +of a shamefully abused and defenseless girl with these baseless +fabrications, this manufactured filth, is inconceivable. How any man, in +his right mind or out of it, could sit down and coldly try to persuade +anybody to believe it, or listen patiently to it, or, indeed, do +anything but scoff at it and deride it, is astonishing. + +The charge insinuated by these odious slanders is one of the most +difficult of all offenses to prove; it is also one which no man has +a right to mention even in a whisper about any woman, living or dead, +unless he knows it to be true, and not even then unless he can also +prove it to be true. There is no justification for the abomination of +putting this stuff in the book. + +Against Harriet Shelley's good name there is not one scrap of tarnishing +evidence, and not even a scrap of evil gossip, that comes from a source +that entitles it to a hearing. + +On the credit side of the account we have strong opinions from the +people who knew her best. Peacock says: + + “I feel it due to the memory of Harriet to state my most + decided conviction that her conduct as a wife was as pure, as + true, as absolutely faultless, as that of any who for such + conduct are held most in honor.” + +Thornton Hunt, who had picked and published slight flaws in Harriet's +character, says, as regards this alleged large one: + + “There is not a trace of evidence or a whisper of scandal + against her before her voluntary departure from Shelley.” + +Trelawney says: + + “I was assured by the evidence of the few friends who knew both + Shelley and his wife--Hookham, Hogg, Peacock, and one of the + Godwins--that Harriet was perfectly innocent of all offense.” + +What excuse was there for raking up a parcel of foul rumors from +malicious and discredited sources and flinging them at this dead girl's +head? Her very defenselessness should have been her protection. The fact +that all letters to her or about her, with almost every scrap of her own +writing, had been diligently mislaid, leaving her case destitute of a +voice, while every pen-stroke which could help her husband's side had +been as diligently preserved, should have excused her from being brought +to trial. Her witnesses have all disappeared, yet we see her summoned +in her grave-clothes to plead for the life of her character, without the +help of an advocate, before a disqualified judge and a packed jury. + +Harriet Shelley wrote her distressed letter on the 7th of July. On the +28th her husband ran away with Mary Godwin and her part-sister Claire +to the Continent. He deserted his wife when her confinement was +approaching. She bore him a child at the end of November, his mistress +bore him another one something over two months later. The truants were +back in London before either of these events occurred. + +On one occasion, presently, Shelley was so pressed for money to support +his mistress with that he went to his wife and got some money of his +that was in her hands--twenty pounds. Yet the mistress was not moved +to gratitude; for later, when the wife was troubled to meet her +engagements, the mistress makes this entry in her diary: + + “Harriet sends her creditors here; nasty woman. Now we shall + have to change our lodgings.” + +The deserted wife bore the bitterness and obloquy of her situation two +years and a quarter; then she gave up, and drowned herself. A month +afterwards the body was found in the water. Three weeks later Shelley +married his mistress. + +I must here be allowed to italicize a remark of the biographer's +concerning Harriet Shelley: + + “That no act of Shelley's during the two years which + immediately preceded her death tended to cause the rash act + which brought her life to its close seems certain.” + +Yet her husband had deserted her and her children, and was living with a +concubine all that time! Why should a person attempt to write biography +when the simplest facts have no meaning to him? This book is littered +with as crass stupidities as that one--deductions by the page which bear +no discoverable kinship to their premises. + +The biographer throws off that extraordinary remark without any +perceptible disturbance to his serenity; for he follows it with a +sentimental justification of Shelley's conduct which has not a pang of +conscience in it, but is silky and smooth and undulating and pious--a +cake-walk with all the colored brethren at their best. There may be +people who can read that page and keep their temper, but it is doubtful. +Shelley's life has the one indelible blot upon it, but is otherwise +worshipfully noble and beautiful. It even stands out indestructibly +gracious and lovely from the ruck of these disastrous pages, in spite +of the fact that they expose and establish his responsibility for his +forsaken wife's pitiful fate--a responsibility which he himself tacitly +admits in a letter to Eliza Westbrook, wherein he refers to his taking +up with Mary Godwin as an act which Eliza “might excusably regard as the +cause of her sister's ruin.” + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In Defense of Harriet Shelley by +Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN DEFENSE OF HARRIET SHELLEY*** + +***** This file should be named 3171-0.txt or 3171-0.zip ***** This and all +associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/3171/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in +the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and +distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the +PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a +registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, +unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything +for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You +may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative +works, reports, performances and research. They may be modified and +printed and given away--you may do practically ANYTHING with public +domain eBooks. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, +especially commercial redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU +DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree +to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the +terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all +copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be used +on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree +to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that +you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works even without +complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C +below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help +preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. +See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in +the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you +are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent +you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating +derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project +Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the +Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic +works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with +the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name +associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this +agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached +full Project Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with +others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing +or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with +the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, +you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through +1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute +this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other +than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the full +Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access +to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free +distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth +in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the +owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as +set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm collection. +Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, and the +medium on which they may be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but +not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription +errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a +defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. +YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, +BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN +PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND +ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR +ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES +EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect +in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written +explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received +the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your +written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the +defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, +the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will remain +freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and +permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. To +learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and +how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the +Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state +of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue +Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number +is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, +email business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page +at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing +the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely +distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array +of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to +$5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with +the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any +statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside +the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways +including including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless +a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks +in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including +how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to +our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |