The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley/History of a Six Weeks' Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland: with Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni/Letters
LETTERS
WRITTEN
DURING A RESIDENCE OF THREE MONTHS IN THE ENVIRONS OF GENEVA,
In the Summer of the Year 1816.
[Letters I and II in the following series are by Mrs. Shelley, Letters III and IV by Shelley. The latter would seem to represent a considerably larger mass of Shelley's incomparable descriptive prose. In Thomas Love Peacock's important contribution to the poet's biography, viz. Memoirs of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Part II, published in Fraser's Magazine for January, 1860, we read at pages 96, 98, 99 and 100 as follows: "After leaving England, in 1814, the newly affianced lovers took a tour on the Continent. He wrote to me several letters from Switzerland, which were subsequently published, together with a Six Weeks' Tour, written in the form of a journal by the lady with whom his fate was thenceforward indissolubly bound… In the early summer of 1816, the spirit of restlessness again came over him, and resulted in a second visit to the Continent… During his absence he wrote me several letters, some of which were subsequently published by Mrs. .Shelley; others are still in my possession… During his stay in Switzerland he became acquainted with Lord Byron. They made together an excursion round the Lake of Geneva, of which he sent me the detail in a diary. This diary was published by Mrs. Shelley, but without introducing the name of Lord Byron, who is throughout called 'my companion.' The diary was first published during Lord Byron's life; but why his name was concealed I do not know. Though the changes are not many, yet the association of the two names gives it great additional interest." The concealment of Byron's name in 1817 was of course part and parcel of the anonymous scheme of the whole book; and it is scarcely remarkable that Mrs. Shelley in 1840 should have abstained from filling in the names: at all events the term my compamion is Shelley's, not his widow's; and for the rest, if we are to trust Peacock's memory, some of these inestimable Swiss letters are missing. The remarks from which extracts are given above are made in chronological order, and it was clearly intended to imply that Shelley wrote Peacock "several letters from Switzerland" in 1814, which were published in the volume of 1817; but no such letters are there; nor are there any of the "several letters" of 1816, except the two extending from the 23rd of June to the 27th of July, which obviously constitute the "diary" referred to by Peacock. Moreover, with the exception of the two forming the diary, Mrs. Shelley did not publish any letters of Shelley's from Switzerland, nor did Peacock, when he issued Shelley's letters to him in Fraser's Magazine,—the earliest then printed being that of the 25th of July 1818 from the Bagni di Lucca. Furthermore, when Peacock's books and Shelley's letters to him were sold, there was but one from Switzerland beside those composing the diary; and that one was dated "Geneva, May 15th, 1816." It is to be hoped Peacock's memory was not inaccurate in this matter, because, if it was not, there will probably be found, sooner or later, some letters of Shelley belonging to a most interesting period: if Peacock had them in 1860—several of 1814, and several of 1816—they are not likely to have perished since, one would think. Those who wish to read this series of papers concerning Shelley may perhaps refer to Vol. III of Peacock's Works (Bentley, 1875) more conveniently than to Fraser's Magazine.—H. B. F.]