Early life and education Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at
Field Place, Warnham, Sussex, England. He was the eldest son of Sir
Timothy Shelley, 2nd
Baronet of Castle Goring, a
Whig Member of Parliament for
Horsham from 1790 to 1792 and for
Shoreham between 1806 and 1812, and his wife, Elizabeth Pilfold, the daughter of a successful butcher. He had four younger sisters and one much younger brother. Shelley's early childhood was sheltered and mostly happy. He was particularly close to his sisters and his mother, who encouraged him to hunt, fish and ride. At age six, he was sent to a day school run by the vicar of
Warnham church, where he displayed an impressive memory and gift for languages
. In 1802, he entered the
Syon House Academy of
Brentford, Middlesex, where his cousin
Thomas Medwin was a pupil. Shelley was bullied and unhappy at the school and sometimes responded with violent rage. He also began suffering from the nightmares, hallucinations and sleep walking that were to periodically affect him throughout his life. Shelley developed an interest in science which supplemented his voracious reading of tales of mystery, romance and the supernatural. During his holidays at Field Place, his sisters were often terrified at being subjected to his experiments with
gunpowder, acids and electricity. Back at school he blew up a
paling fence with gunpowder. In 1804, Shelley entered
Eton College, a period which he later recalled with loathing. He was subjected to particularly severe mob bullying which the perpetrators called "Shelley-baits". A number of biographers and contemporaries have attributed the bullying to Shelley's aloofness, nonconformity and refusal to take part in
fagging. His peculiarities and violent rages earned him the nickname "Mad Shelley". His interest in the
occult and science continued, and contemporaries describe him giving an electric shock to a master, blowing up a tree stump with gunpowder and attempting to raise spirits with occult rituals. In his senior years, Shelley came under the influence of a part-time teacher,
James Lind, who encouraged his interest in the occult and introduced him to liberal and radical authors. Shelley also developed an interest in
Plato and
idealist philosophy which he pursued in later years through self-study. According to
Richard Holmes, Shelley, by his leaving year, had gained a reputation as a classical scholar and a tolerated eccentric. Prior to enrolling for
University College, Oxford, in October 1810, Shelley completed
Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire (written with his sister Elizabeth), the verse melodrama
The Wandering Jew and the gothic novel
St. Irvine; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance (published 1811). At Oxford, Shelley attended few lectures, instead spending long hours reading and conducting scientific experiments in the laboratory he set up in his room. He met a fellow student,
Thomas Jefferson Hogg, who became his closest friend. Shelley became increasingly politicised under Hogg's influence, developing strong radical and anti-Christian views. Such views were dangerous in the reactionary political climate prevailing during
Britain's war with Napoleonic France, and Shelley's father warned him against Hogg's influence. In the winter of 1810–1811, Shelley published a series of anonymous political poems and tracts:
Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson,
The Necessity of Atheism (written in collaboration with Hogg) and
A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things. Shelley mailed
The Necessity of Atheism to all the bishops and heads of colleges at Oxford, and he was called to appear before the college's fellows, including the Dean,
George Rowley. His refusal to answer questions put by college authorities regarding whether or not he authored the pamphlet resulted in his
expulsion from Oxford on 25March 1811, along with Hogg. Hearing of his son's expulsion, Shelley's father threatened to cut all contact with Shelley unless he agreed to return home and study under tutors appointed by him. Shelley's refusal to do so led to a falling-out with his father.
Marriage to Harriet Westbrook In late December 1810, Shelley had met Harriet Westbrook, a pupil at the same boarding school as his sisters. They corresponded frequently that winter and also after Shelley had been expelled from Oxford. Shelley expounded his radical ideas on politics, religion and marriage to Harriet, and they gradually convinced each other that she was oppressed by her father and at school. Shelley's infatuation with Harriet developed in the months following his expulsion, when he was under severe emotional strain due to the conflict with his family, his bitterness over the breakdown of his romance with his cousin Harriet Grove, and his unfounded belief that he might have a fatal illness. At the same time, Harriet Westbrook's elder sister Eliza, to whom Harriet was very close, encouraged the young girl's romance with Shelley. Shelley's correspondence with Harriet intensified in July, while he was holidaying in Wales, and in response to her urgent pleas for his protection, he returned to London in early August. Putting aside his philosophical objections to matrimony, he left with the 16-year-old Harriet for
Edinburgh, Scotland, on 25 August 1811, and they were married there on 28 August. in 1802, by
James Northcote Hearing of the elopement, Harriet's father, John Westbrook, and Shelley's father, Timothy, cut off the allowances of the bride and groom. (Shelley's father believed his son had married beneath him, as Harriet's father had earned his fortune in trade and was the owner of a tavern and coffee house.) Surviving on borrowed money, Shelley and Harriet stayed in Edinburgh for a month, with Hogg living under the same roof. The trio left for
York in October, and Shelley went on to Sussex to settle matters with his father, leaving Harriet behind with Hogg. Shelley returned from his unsuccessful excursion to find that Eliza had moved in with Harriet and Hogg. Harriet confessed that Hogg had tried to seduce her while Shelley had been away. Shelley, Harriet and Eliza soon left for
Keswick in the
Lake District, leaving Hogg in York. For a year from June 1811, Shelley was also involved in an intense platonic relationship with
Elizabeth Hitchener, a 28-year-old unmarried schoolteacher with whom he was corresponding frequently. Hitchener became his confidante and intellectual companion as he developed his views on politics, religion, ethics and personal relationships. Shelley became increasingly radicalised as the war with Napoleon brought economic recession, food riots, and government suppression of political dissent. He proposed that Hitchener join him, Harriet and Eliza in a communal household where all property would be shared. The Shelleys and Eliza spent December and January in Keswick where Shelley visited
Robert Southey, whose poetry he admired. Southey was taken with Shelley, even though there was a wide gulf between them politically, and predicted great things for him as a poet. Southey also informed Shelley that
William Godwin, author of
Political Justice, which had greatly influenced him in his youth, and which Shelley also admired, was still alive. Shelley wrote to Godwin, offering himself as his devoted disciple. Godwin, who had modified many of his earlier radical views, advised Shelley to reconcile with his father, become a scholar before he published anything else, and give up his avowed plans for political agitation in Ireland. Meanwhile, Shelley had met his father's patron,
Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk, who helped secure the reinstatement of Shelley's allowance. With Harriet's allowance also restored, Shelley now had the funds for his Irish venture. Their departure for Ireland was precipitated by increasing hostility towards the Shelley household from their landlord and neighbours who were alarmed by Shelley's scientific experiments, pistol shooting and radical political views. As tension mounted, Shelley claimed he had been attacked in his home by ruffians, an event which might have been real or a delusional episode triggered by stress. This was the first of a series of episodes in subsequent years where Shelley claimed to have been attacked by strangers during periods of personal crisis. Early in 1812, Shelley wrote, published and with Harriet personally distributed in Dublin two political tracts:
An Address, to the Irish People; and
Proposals for an Association of Philanthropists. He also delivered a speech at a meeting of
Daniel O'Connell's
Catholic Committee. In these he called for
Catholic emancipation, repeal of the
Acts of Union, and an end to the oppression of the Irish poor while cautioning against a resort to violence. Reports of Shelley's subversive activities were sent to the
Home Secretary. Returning from Ireland, the Shelley household travelled to Wales, then to the small coastal village of
Lynmouth in Devon. Here they were joined by Hitchener, and again came under government surveillance for distributing subversive literature. After several months, Hitchener had a falling out with the Shelleys and left. When Shelley's 15-year-old Irish servant was arrested for distributing Shelley's
Declaration of Rights and his ballad attacking the government, ''
The Devil's Walk,
Shelley and his companions fled. In September 1812, the Shelley household had settled in Tremadog, Wales, where Shelley worked on Queen Mab'', a utopian allegory with extensive notes preaching atheism, free love, republicanism and
vegetarianism. The poem was published the following year in a private edition of 250 copies, although few were initially distributed because of the risk of prosecution for seditious and religious libel. In February 1813, Shelley claimed he was attacked in his home at night. The incident might have been real, a hallucination brought on by stress, or a hoax staged by Shelley in order to escape government surveillance, creditors and his entanglements in local politics. The Shelleys and Eliza fled to Ireland, then London. Back in England, Shelley's debts mounted as he tried unsuccessfully to reach a financial settlement with his father. On 23 June, Harriet gave birth to a girl, Eliza Ianthe Shelley (known as Ianthe), and in the following months the relationship between Shelley and his wife deteriorated. Shelley resented the influence Harriet's sister had over her while Harriet was alienated from Shelley by his close friendship with an attractive widow, Mrs.
Harriet de Boinville. Mrs. Boinville had married a French revolutionary émigré and hosted a
salon, where Shelley was able to discuss politics, philosophy and vegetarianism. Mrs. Boinville became a
confidante of Shelley during his marital crisis. During a breakdown, Shelley moved into Mrs. Boinville's home outside London. In February and March 1814, he became infatuated with her married daughter, Cornelia Turner, aged 18, and wrote erotic poetry about her in his notebook. Following Ianthe's birth, the Shelleys moved frequently across London, Wales, the
Lake District, Scotland and
Berkshire to escape creditors and search for a home. In March 1814, Shelley remarried Harriet in London to settle any doubts about the legality of their Edinburgh wedding and secure the rights of their child. Nevertheless, the Shelleys lived apart for most of the following months, and Shelley reflected bitterly on "my rash & heartless union with Harriet". 's portrait of Mary Shelley in later life was shown at the
Royal Academy in 1840, accompanied by lines from Percy Shelley's poem
The Revolt of Islam calling her a "child of love and light".
Elopement with Mary Godwin In May 1814, Shelley began visiting his mentor, William Godwin, almost daily. He soon fell in love with Godwin's sixteen-year-old daughter,
Mary, whose mother was the late feminist writer
Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley and Mary declared their love for each other during a visit to her mother's grave in the churchyard of
St Pancras Old Church on 26 June. When Shelley told Godwin that he intended to leave Harriet and live with Mary, his mentor banished him from the house and forbade Mary from seeing him. Shelley and Mary eloped to Europe on 28 July, taking Mary's step-sister
Claire Clairmont with them. Before leaving, Shelley had secured a loan of £3,000 but had left most of the funds at the disposal of Godwin and Harriet, who was again pregnant. The financial arrangement with Godwin led to rumours that he had sold his daughters to Shelley. Shelley, Mary and Claire made their way across war-ravaged France, where Shelley wrote to Harriet, asking her to meet them in Switzerland with the money he had left for her. Hearing nothing from Harriet in Switzerland, and unable to secure sufficient funds or suitable accommodation, the three travelled to Germany and Holland, before returning to England on 13 September. Shelley spent the next few months trying to raise loans and avoid bailiffs. Mary was pregnant, lonely, depressed and ill. Her mood was not improved when she heard that, on 30 November, Harriet had given birth to Charles Bysshe Shelley, heir to the Shelley fortune and baronetcy. This was followed, in early January 1815, by news that Shelley's grandfather,
Sir Bysshe, had died leaving an estate worth £220,000. The settlement of the estate, and a financial settlement between Shelley and his father (now Sir Timothy), however, was not concluded until April the following year. In February 1815, Mary gave premature birth to a baby girl who died ten days later, deepening her depression. In the following weeks, Mary became close to Hogg who temporarily moved into the household. Shelley was almost certainly having a sexual relationship with Claire at this time, and it is possible that Mary, with Shelley's encouragement, was also having a sexual relationship with Hogg. In May Claire left the household, at Mary's insistence, to reside in Lynmouth. In August, Shelley and Mary moved to Bishopsgate, where Shelley worked on
Alastor, a long poem in blank verse based on the myth of
Narcissus and
Echo.
Alastor was published in an edition of 250 copies in early 1816 to poor sales and largely unfavourable reviews from the conservative press. On 24 January 1816, Mary gave birth to William Shelley. Shelley was delighted to have another son, but was suffering from the strain of prolonged financial negotiations with his father, Harriet and William Godwin. Shelley showed signs of delusional behaviour and was contemplating an escape to the continent.
Byron Claire initiated a sexual relationship with
Lord Byron in April 1816, just before his self-exile on the continent, and then arranged for Byron to meet Shelley, Mary, and her in Geneva. Shelley admired Byron's poetry and had sent him
Queen Mab and other poems. Shelley's party arrived in Geneva in May and rented a house close to
Villa Diodati, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Byron was staying. There Shelley, Byron and the others engaged in discussions about literature, science and "various philosophical doctrines". One night, while Byron was reciting Coleridge's
Christabel, Shelley suffered a severe panic attack with hallucinations. The previous night Mary had had a more productive vision or nightmare which inspired her novel
Frankenstein. Shelley and Byron then took a boating tour around Lake Geneva, which inspired Shelley to write his "
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", his first substantial poem since
Alastor. A tour of
Chamonix inspired "
Mont Blanc", which has been described as an atheistic response to Coleridge's "Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamoni". During this tour, Shelley often signed guest books with a declaration that he was an atheist. These declarations were seen by other British tourists, including Southey, which hardened attitudes against Shelley back home. Relations between Byron and Shelley's party became strained when Byron was told that Claire was pregnant with his child. Shelley, Mary, and Claire left Switzerland in late August, with arrangements for the expected baby still unclear, although Shelley made provision for Claire and the baby in his will. In January 1817 Claire gave birth to a daughter by Byron whom she named Alba, but later renamed
Allegra in accordance with Byron's wishes.
Marriage to Mary Godwin Shelley and Mary returned to England in September 1816, and in early October they heard that Mary's half-sister
Fanny Imlay had killed herself. Godwin believed that Fanny had been in love with Shelley, and Shelley himself suffered depression and guilt over her death, writing: "Friend had I known thy secret grief / Should we have parted so." Further tragedy followed in December when Shelley's estranged wife Harriet drowned herself in the
Serpentine. Harriet, pregnant and living alone at the time, believed that she had been abandoned by her new lover. In her suicide letter she asked Shelley to take custody of their son Charles but to leave their daughter in her sister Eliza's care. Shelley married Mary Godwin on 30 December, despite his philosophical objections to the institution. The marriage was intended to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet and to placate Godwin who had refused to see Shelley and Mary because of their previous adulterous relationship. After a prolonged legal battle, the
Court of Chancery eventually awarded custody of Shelley and Harriet's children to foster parents, on the grounds that Shelley had abandoned his first wife for Mary without cause and was an atheist. In March 1817, the Shelleys moved to the village of
Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where Shelley's friend
Thomas Love Peacock lived. The Shelley household included Claire and her baby Allegra, both of whose presence Mary resented. Shelley's generosity with money and increasing debts also led to financial and marital stress, as did Godwin's frequent requests for financial help. On 2 September, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Clara Everina Shelley. Soon afterwards, Shelley left for London with Claire, which increased Mary's resentment towards her stepsister. Shelley was arrested for two days in London over money he owed, and attorneys visited Mary in Marlow over Shelley's debts. Shelley took part in the literary and political circle that surrounded
Leigh Hunt, and during this period he met
William Hazlitt and
John Keats. Shelley's major work during this time was
Laon and Cythna, a long narrative poem featuring incest and attacks on religion. It was hastily withdrawn after publication due to fears of prosecution for religious libel, and was re-edited and reissued as
The Revolt of Islam in January 1818. Shelley also published two political tracts under a pseudonym:
A Proposal for putting Reform to the Vote throughout the Kingdom (March 1817) and
An Address to the People on the Death of Princess Charlotte (November 1817). In December he wrote "Ozymandias", which is considered to be one of his finest sonnets, as part of a competition with friend and fellow poet
Horace Smith.
Italy in Italy – painting by
Joseph Severn, 1845 On 12 March 1818, the Shelleys and Claire left England to escape its "tyranny civil and religious". A doctor had also recommended that Shelley go to Italy for his chronic lung complaint, and Shelley had arranged to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron who was now in Venice. After travelling some months through France and Italy, Shelley left Mary and baby Clara at
Bagni di Lucca (in today's Tuscany) while he travelled with Claire to Venice to see Byron and make arrangements for visiting Allegra. Byron invited the Shelleys to stay at his summer residence at
Este, and Shelley urged Mary to meet him there. Clara became seriously ill on the journey and died on 24 September in Venice. Following Clara's death, Mary fell into a long period of depression and emotional estrangement from Shelley. On 1 December, the Shelleys moved to
Naples, where they stayed for three months. During this period, Shelley was ill, depressed and almost suicidal: a state of mind reflected in his poem "Stanzas written in Dejection – December 1818, Near Naples". While in Naples, Shelley registered the birth and baptism of a baby girl, Elena Adelaide Shelley (born 27 December), naming himself as the father and falsely naming Mary as the mother. The parentage of Elena has never been conclusively established. Biographers have variously speculated that she was adopted by Shelley to console Mary for the loss of Clara, that she was Shelley's child by Claire, that she was his child by his servant Elise Foggi, or that she was the child of a "mysterious lady" who had followed Shelley to the continent. Shelley registered the birth and baptism on 27 February 1819, and the household left Naples for Rome the following day, leaving Elena with carers. Elena was to die in a poor suburb of Naples on 9 June 1820. In Rome, Shelley was in poor health, probably having developed
nephritis and
tuberculosis which later was in remission. Nevertheless, he made significant progress on three major works:
Julian and Maddalo,
Prometheus Unbound and
The Cenci.
Julian and Maddalo is an autobiographical poem which explores the relationship between Shelley and Byron and analyses Shelley's personal crises of 1818 and 1819. The poem was completed in the summer of 1819, but was not published in Shelley's lifetime.
Prometheus Unbound is a long dramatic poem inspired by
Aeschylus's retelling of the Prometheus myth. It was completed in late 1819 and published in 1820.
The Cenci is a verse drama of rape, murder and incest based on the story of the Renaissance Count Cenci of Rome and
his daughter Beatrice. Shelley completed the play in September and the first edition was published that year. It was to become one of his most popular works and the only one to have two authorised editions in his lifetime. Shelley's three-year-old son William died in June 1819, probably of malaria. The new tragedy caused a further decline in Shelley's health and deepened Mary's depression. On 4 August, she wrote: "We have now lived five years together; and if all the events of the five years were blotted out, I might be happy". The Shelleys were now living in
Livorno where, in September, Shelley heard of the
Peterloo Massacre of peaceful protesters in Manchester. Within two weeks he had completed one of his most famous political poems,
The Mask of Anarchy, and despatched it to Leigh Hunt for publication. Hunt, however, decided not to publish it for fear of prosecution for seditious libel. The poem was only officially published in 1832. In October, the Shelleys moved to Florence, where Shelley read a scathing review of the
Revolt of Islam (and its earlier version
Laon and Cythna) in the conservative
Quarterly Review. He was angered by the personal attack on him in the article, which he erroneously believed had been written by Southey. His bitterness over the review lasted for the rest of his life. On 12 November, Mary gave birth to a boy,
Percy Florence Shelley. Around the time of Percy's birth, the Shelleys met
Sophia Stacey, who was a ward of one of Shelley's uncles and was staying at the same pension as the Shelleys. Sophia, a talented harpist and singer, formed a friendship with Shelley while Mary was preoccupied with her newborn son. Shelley wrote at least five love poems and fragments for Sophia including "Song written for an Indian Air". The Shelleys moved to
Pisa in January 1820, ostensibly to consult a doctor who had been recommended to them. There they became friends with the Irish republican Margaret Mason (
Lady Margaret Mountcashell) and her lover
George William Tighe. Mrs Mason became the inspiration for Shelley's poem "The Sensitive Plant", and Shelley's discussions with Mason and Tighe influenced his political thought and his critical interest in the population theories of
Thomas Malthus. In March, Shelley wrote to friends that Mary was depressed, suicidal and hostile towards him. Shelley was also beset by financial worries, as creditors from England pressed him for payment and he was obliged to make secret payments in connection with his "Neapolitan charge" Elena. Meanwhile, Shelley was writing
A Philosophical View of Reform, a political essay which he had begun in Rome. The unfinished essay, which remained unpublished in Shelley's lifetime, has been called "one of the most advanced and sophisticated documents of political philosophy in the nineteenth century". Another crisis erupted in June when Shelley claimed that he had been assaulted in the Pisan post office by a man accusing him of foul crimes. Shelley's biographer
James Bieri suggests that this incident was possibly a delusional episode brought on by extreme stress, as Shelley was being blackmailed by a former servant, Paolo Foggi, over baby Elena. It is likely that the blackmail was connected with a story spread by another former servant, Elise Foggi, that Shelley had fathered a child by Claire in Naples and had sent it to a foundling home. Shelley, Claire and Mary denied this story, and Elise later recanted. In July, hearing that John Keats was seriously ill in England, Shelley wrote to the poet inviting him to stay with him at Pisa. Keats replied with hopes of seeing him, but instead, arrangements were made for Keats to travel to Rome. Following the death of Keats in 1821, Shelley wrote
Adonais, which
Harold Bloom considers one of the major pastoral elegies. The poem was published in Pisa in July 1821, but sold few copies. In early July 1820, Shelley heard that baby Elena had died on 9 June. In the months following the post office incident and Elena's death, relations between Mary and Claire deteriorated and Claire spent most of the next two years living separately from the Shelleys, mainly in Florence. That December, Shelley met Teresa (Emilia) Viviani, the 19-year-old daughter of the Governor of Pisa, who was living in a convent awaiting a suitable marriage. Shelley visited her several times over the next few months and they started a passionate correspondence, which dwindled after her marriage the following September. Emilia was the inspiration for Shelley's major poem
Epipsychidion. In March 1821, Shelley completed "
A Defence of Poetry", a response to Peacock's article "
The Four Ages of Poetry". Shelley's essay, with its famous conclusion "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world", remained unpublished in his lifetime. Shelley went alone to Ravenna in early August to see Byron, making a detour to Livorno for a rendezvous with Claire. Shelley stayed with Byron for two weeks and invited the older poet to spend the winter in Pisa. After Shelley had heard Byron recite his newly completed fifth canto of
Don Juan he wrote to Mary: "I despair of rivalling Byron." In November, Byron moved into Villa Lanfranchi in Pisa, just across the river from the Shelleys. Byron became the centre of the "Pisan circle", which was to include Shelley, Thomas Medwin,
Edward Williams and
Edward Trelawny. In the early months of 1822, Shelley became increasingly close to
Jane Williams, who was living with her partner Edward Williams in the same building as the Shelleys. Shelley wrote a number of love poems for Jane, including "The Serpent is shut out of Paradise" and "With a Guitar, to Jane". His obvious affection for Jane was to cause increasing tension among Shelley, Edward Williams and Mary. Claire arrived in Pisa in April at Shelley's invitation, and soon afterwards they heard that her daughter Allegra had died of typhus in Ravenna. The Shelleys and Claire then moved to Villa Magni, near
Lerici, on the shores of the
Gulf of La Spezia. Shelley acted as mediator between Claire and Byron over arrangements for the burial of their daughter, and the added strain led to Shelley having a series of hallucinations. Mary almost died from a miscarriage on 16 June, her life only being saved by Shelley's effective first aid. Two days later Shelley wrote to a friend that there was no sympathy between Mary and him and if the past and future could be obliterated he would be content in his boat with Jane and her guitar. That same day he also wrote to Trelawny asking for
prussic acid. The following week, Shelley woke the household with his screaming over a nightmare or hallucination in which he saw Edward and Jane Williams as walking corpses and himself strangling Mary. During this time, Shelley was writing his final major poem, the unfinished
The Triumph of Life, which Harold Bloom has called "the most despairing poem he wrote".
Death '' by
Louis Édouard Fournier (1889). Pictured in the centre are, from left, Trelawny, Hunt, and Byron. In fact, Hunt did not observe the cremation, and Byron left early. Mary Shelley, who is pictured kneeling at left, did not attend the funeral. On 1 July 1822, Shelley and Edward Williams sailed in Shelley's new boat the
Don Juan to Livorno where Shelley met Leigh Hunt and Byron in order to make arrangements for a new journal,
The Liberal. After the meeting, on 8 July, Shelley, Williams, and their boat boy sailed out of Livorno for Lerici. A few hours later, the
Don Juan and its inexperienced crew were lost in a storm. The vessel, an open boat, had been custom-built in
Genoa for Shelley. Mary Shelley declared in her "Note on Poems of 1822" (1839) that the design had a defect and that the boat was never seaworthy. The sinking, however, was probably due to the severe storm and poor seamanship of the three men on board. Shelley's badly decomposed body washed ashore at
Viareggio ten days later and was identified by Trelawny from the clothing and a copy of Keats's
Lamia in a jacket pocket. On 16 August, his body was cremated on a beach near Viareggio and the ashes were buried in the
Protestant Cemetery of Rome. The day after the news of his death reached England, the
Tory London newspaper
The Courier printed: "Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned;
now he knows whether there is God or no." Shelley's ashes were reburied in a different plot at the cemetery in 1823. His grave bears the Latin inscription
Cor Cordium (Heart of Hearts), and a few lines of "Ariel's Song" from Shakespeare's
The Tempest:
Shelley's remains in Rome; phrases from "
Ariel's Song" in
Shakespeare's
The Tempest appear below When Shelley's body was cremated on the beach, his presumed heart resisted burning and was retrieved by Trelawny. He finally relented and the heart was eventually buried either at
St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, or in
Christchurch Priory. Hunt also retrieved a piece of Shelley's jawbone which, in 1913, was given to the Shelley-Keats Memorial in Rome.
Family history Shelley's paternal grandfather was
Bysshe Shelley (21 June 1731 – 6 January 1815), who, in 1806, was created Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet of
Castle Goring. On Sir Bysshe's death in 1815, Shelley's father inherited the baronetcy, becoming
Sir Timothy Shelley. Shelley was the eldest of several legitimate children. Bieri argues that Shelley had an older illegitimate brother but, if he existed, little is known of him. His younger siblings were: Elizabeth (1794–1831), Hellen (1796–1796), Mary (1797–1884), Hellen (1799–1885), Margaret (1801–1887) and John (1806–1866). Shelley had two children by his first wife Harriet: Eliza Ianthe Shelley (1813–1876) and Charles Bysshe Shelley (1814–1826). He had four children by his second wife Mary: an unnamed daughter born in 1815 who only survived ten days; William Shelley (1816–1819); Clara Everina Shelley (1817–1818); and
Percy Florence Shelley (1819–1889). Shelley also declared himself to be the father of Elena Adelaide Shelley (1818–1820), who might have been an illegitimate or adopted daughter. His son Percy became the third baronet in 1844, following the death of Sir Timothy. ==Political, religious and ethical views==