登陆注册
15440800000007

第7章

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 worshipped 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 Ithought 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.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 凡仙速记

    凡仙速记

    异国他乡述情缘,生为兄弟誓两难,为主成功争天下,日出东方你我他!
  • 混沌魔剑士

    混沌魔剑士

    魔剑士,这个世界除神之外最强的职业,神与神之间的战争,他会选择毁灭还是拯救。
  • 铁血独立营

    铁血独立营

    1937年,日寇侵略,民不聊生。日本人到处烧杀抢掠,无恶不作。抵抗侵略者的势力,共产党,国民党联合作战奋勇杀敌。王大庆,小王庄一个唯一幸存的村民,全村几百人都死在了日寇手里,为了报仇,他被迫上山当了山匪,随后带领山寨兄弟加入共产党领导的八路军,成立了一支番号为独立营的分队。杀敌日寇闻风丧胆,当之无愧的抗战英雄。
  • 专爱一生:陌上离

    专爱一生:陌上离

    偶然的相遇,他们相识知己天祝的情缘,他们刻骨铭心真相的浮现,他们纠缠徘徊现实的残酷,他们相忘江湖她说“阿离,此生遇见你我已知足,这一生既已有缘无分,那我愿割舍剩余生命换来世和你安安稳稳”
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 黑白战纪

    黑白战纪

    战魂源于传说中英雄,前世纠纷,今生的恩恩怨怨,黑与白到底谁才是真正的正义,无人知晓,但既不选择黑或白的人,一般都被称之为圣者!
  • 超级储蓄卡

    超级储蓄卡

    外出晨运的郑世强捡到被人丢弃的银行卡,别人的卡都是用来存钱。这张卡却是略有不同。存点力量,平时弱不禁风,用时力大无穷。存点速度,平时步履蹒跚,用时动若狡兔。这都是基础,存储视觉,那叫过目不忘。存储味觉,美食家分分钟的事。存储嗅觉,现实版闻香识女人。。。。。什么,升到一定级别还能开通银行卡商城。。。。。。
  • 尸祸:匈奴本纪

    尸祸:匈奴本纪

    二十一世纪,科学思想已普及全球,理智与快节奏的生活成为人们生活的主体,有人曾说,或许,数年之后,这个世上将不会再有神话。但是,我却是个例外,作为上一代茅山道士的孙子,就算所有人都不相信这世上还有传说,我却必须相信,因为,它们时时刻刻都发生在我身边,只不过,它们远没神话故事中那么美好,它们带来的,只不过是无限的恶心、恐惧!这是一片战场,道术、堪舆、丹药、机关、盗墓……百家争鸣,贪婪、无知、嗔痴、欲望、爱恨……相互纠缠,精灵鬼怪更是层出不穷,一幕幕古代疑云渐渐展开,一场末日即将到来……
  • 那个,我好想嫁给你

    那个,我好想嫁给你

    我是一个农村小姑娘,大学毕业无所事事,想出去看看外面的世界,于是在朋友的糖衣爆弹下决定去内地陪她,和她一起闯世界。爱,是个奇妙的东西,我就在不知不觉中陷了进去,那个……我好想嫁给你!
  • 课外实验活动指南(有趣的课外活动)

    课外实验活动指南(有趣的课外活动)

    《有趣的课外活动:课外实验活动指南》收编了200余个课外小实验,其内容既包括物理中的热学、力学、光学和电学等知识,也包括化学和生物知识。本书收编的小实验,可操作性非常强,简单易行,所需要的工具和材料也是我们在日常生活中所能见到的。但是其中的知识却是深刻的!作者谢芾把课堂里学到的知识与课外从事的各项活动有机的结合到一起,涉猎物理、化学、地理、数学等学科,用一个个有益的小实验,小发明创造加深课本上学到的知识,以提升所学知识的印象。