Horrid Mysteries under his pillow, and dreamed of venerable elutherarchs and ghastly confederates holding midnight
conversations in subterranean coves. He passed whole mornings in his study, immersed in gloomy reverie, stalking about the
room in his nightcap, which he pulled over his eyes like a cowl, and folding his striped calico dressing gown about him like
the mantle of a conspirator.
In January 1812 Shelley was taking laudanum for his nerves, and the medication may have set off a strange episode in which
Shelley believed that he had been attacked at his cottage door. A neighbor heard his screams and came running only to find
him unconscious and no one else around. Later Shelley played down the incident. The next year Shelley, Harriet, and Eliza
were staying in a house in Wales when one night Shelley heard a noise and went downstairs with a pistol. Those upstairs heard
a shot and rushed to help. Shelley claimed that a man leaving through a window had fired a pistol at him. Shelley urged his
wife and sister-in-law to go back to bed while he and a servant waited up. Around four a.m., while the servant was in another
room, more shots rang out. This time Shelley claimed that the same man had fired at him through the window and then fled.
Shelley made a sketch of the so-called assassin; it resembled not a human, but a Satanic figure with horns.
Shelley had written some childish poetry, but in 1812 he set out to make his mark on the world through verse. He began working
on his first long poem,
Queen Mab,
which was published the next year. Shelley was not writing to entertain; he saw himself as leading the way to a social revolution
that would mirror the political changes of the American and French Revolutions. Shelley boldly declared, “Poets . . . are
the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” and in fact, long after Shelley’s death, the Chartists, a radical movement of
working-class Britons, used
Queen Mab
to educate and inspire their followers.
The poem combined two different traditions; it was both an elaborate allegorical fairy tale and a historical political argument.
The poem describes the fairy Queen Mab with her girl pupil Ianthe traveling away from the earth through space in a magic chariot
to envision a new organization of society. In more than two thousand lines, Shelley attacks war, the church, monarchy, and
the consumption of meat—all in verse. He advocates freedom of speech, dietary reform, repeal of the Act of Union, and Catholic
emancipation. Appended to the poem were Shelley’s extensive notes explaining his philosophy more fully.
Queen Mab
also attempted to discredit marriage. Though Shelley was a married man and dedicated the poem to Harriet, he shared Godwin’s
dim view of the institution. In the notes he wrote: “A husband and wife ought to continue united so long as they love each
other: any law which should bind them to cohabitation for one moment after the decay of their affection, would be a most intolerable
tyranny.” He added, “Love is free; to promise for ever to love the same woman is not less absurd than to promise to believe
the same creed.” Fair warning to Harriet.
While at work on the poem, Shelley wrote a letter to William Godwin, expressing his admiration. “It is now . . . more than
two years since first I saw your inestimable book on ‘Political Justice,’” Shelley wrote. “It opened to my mind fresh & more
extensive view; it materially influenced my character, and I rose from its perusal a wiser and a better man.” These words,
which would warm the heart of any writer, came with an appeal for Godwin to adopt Shelley as his pupil and devoted follower.
Godwin, living in near obscurity, was flattered, even though Shelley tactlessly added that he had not written earlier because
he thought Godwin was dead. The two men began a correspondence that would be life-changing for both.
In a rash moment, Shelley also
conversations in subterranean coves. He passed whole mornings in his study, immersed in gloomy reverie, stalking about the
room in his nightcap, which he pulled over his eyes like a cowl, and folding his striped calico dressing gown about him like
the mantle of a conspirator.
In January 1812 Shelley was taking laudanum for his nerves, and the medication may have set off a strange episode in which
Shelley believed that he had been attacked at his cottage door. A neighbor heard his screams and came running only to find
him unconscious and no one else around. Later Shelley played down the incident. The next year Shelley, Harriet, and Eliza
were staying in a house in Wales when one night Shelley heard a noise and went downstairs with a pistol. Those upstairs heard
a shot and rushed to help. Shelley claimed that a man leaving through a window had fired a pistol at him. Shelley urged his
wife and sister-in-law to go back to bed while he and a servant waited up. Around four a.m., while the servant was in another
room, more shots rang out. This time Shelley claimed that the same man had fired at him through the window and then fled.
Shelley made a sketch of the so-called assassin; it resembled not a human, but a Satanic figure with horns.
Shelley had written some childish poetry, but in 1812 he set out to make his mark on the world through verse. He began working
on his first long poem,
Queen Mab,
which was published the next year. Shelley was not writing to entertain; he saw himself as leading the way to a social revolution
that would mirror the political changes of the American and French Revolutions. Shelley boldly declared, “Poets . . . are
the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” and in fact, long after Shelley’s death, the Chartists, a radical movement of
working-class Britons, used
Queen Mab
to educate and inspire their followers.
The poem combined two different traditions; it was both an elaborate allegorical fairy tale and a historical political argument.
The poem describes the fairy Queen Mab with her girl pupil Ianthe traveling away from the earth through space in a magic chariot
to envision a new organization of society. In more than two thousand lines, Shelley attacks war, the church, monarchy, and
the consumption of meat—all in verse. He advocates freedom of speech, dietary reform, repeal of the Act of Union, and Catholic
emancipation. Appended to the poem were Shelley’s extensive notes explaining his philosophy more fully.
Queen Mab
also attempted to discredit marriage. Though Shelley was a married man and dedicated the poem to Harriet, he shared Godwin’s
dim view of the institution. In the notes he wrote: “A husband and wife ought to continue united so long as they love each
other: any law which should bind them to cohabitation for one moment after the decay of their affection, would be a most intolerable
tyranny.” He added, “Love is free; to promise for ever to love the same woman is not less absurd than to promise to believe
the same creed.” Fair warning to Harriet.
While at work on the poem, Shelley wrote a letter to William Godwin, expressing his admiration. “It is now . . . more than
two years since first I saw your inestimable book on ‘Political Justice,’” Shelley wrote. “It opened to my mind fresh & more
extensive view; it materially influenced my character, and I rose from its perusal a wiser and a better man.” These words,
which would warm the heart of any writer, came with an appeal for Godwin to adopt Shelley as his pupil and devoted follower.
Godwin, living in near obscurity, was flattered, even though Shelley tactlessly added that he had not written earlier because
he thought Godwin was dead. The two men began a correspondence that would be life-changing for both.
In a rash moment, Shelley also
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