The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,285 pages of information about The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete.

The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,285 pages of information about The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete.
manuscript; eye 1824. 372 on Hunt manuscript; in 1824. 388 greet Hunt manuscript; meet 1824. 390 your Hunt manuscript; thy 1824. 417 his Hunt manuscript; its 1824. 446 glance Hunt manuscript; glass 1824. 447 with Hunt manuscript; near 1824. 467 lip Hunt manuscript; life 1824. 483 this Hunt manuscript; that 1824. 493 I would Hunt manuscript; I’d 1824. 510 despair Hunt manuscript; my care 1839. 511 leant] See Editor’s Note. 518 were Hunt manuscript; was 1839. 525 his Hunt manuscript; it 1824. 530 on Hunt manuscript; in 1824. 537 were now Hunt manuscript; now were 1824. 588 regrets Hunt manuscript; regret 1824. 569 but Hunt manuscript;
     wanting in editions 1824 and 1839.
574 his 1824; this [?] Hunt manuscript.

NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY.

From the Baths of Lucca, in 1818, Shelley visited Venice; and, circumstances rendering it eligible that we should remain a few weeks in the neighbourhood of that city, he accepted the offer of Lord Byron, who lent him the use of a villa he rented near Este; and he sent for his family from Lucca to join him.

I Capuccini was a villa built on the site of a Capuchin convent, demolished when the French suppressed religious houses; it was situated on the very overhanging brow of a low hill at the foot of a range of higher ones.  The house was cheerful and pleasant; a vine-trellised walk, a pergola, as it is called in Italian, led from the hall-door to a summer-house at the end of the garden, which Shelley made his study, and in which he began the “Prometheus”; and here also, as he mentions in a letter, he wrote “Julian and Maddalo”.  A slight ravine, with a road in its depth, divided the garden from the hill, on which stood the ruins of the ancient castle of Este, whose dark massive wall gave forth an echo, and from whose ruined crevices owls and bats flitted forth at night, as the crescent moon sunk behind the black and heavy battlements.  We looked from the garden over the wide plain of Lombardy, bounded to the west by the far Apennines, while to the east the horizon was lost in misty distance.  After the picturesque but limited view of mountain, ravine, and chestnut-wood, at the Baths of Lucca, there was something infinitely gratifying to the eye in the wide range of prospect commanded by our new abode.

Our first misfortune, of the kind from which we soon suffered even more severely, happened here.  Our little girl, an infant in whose small features I fancied that I traced great resemblance to her father, showed symptoms of suffering from the heat of the climate.  Teething increased her illness and danger.  We were at Este, and when we became alarmed, hastened to Venice for the best advice.  When we arrived at Fusina, we found that we had forgotten our passport, and the soldiers on duty attempted to prevent our crossing the laguna; but they could not resist Shelley’s impetuosity at such a moment.  We had scarcely arrived at Venice before life fled from the little sufferer, and we returned to Este to weep her loss.

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The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.