Percy Bysshe Shelly was born in Horsham, Sussex. His father Sir Timothy Shelley, 2nd Baronet, was a wealthy landowner and Whig Member of Parliament. His mother, Elizabeth Pilfold came from a prosperous landowning family in Sussex.
Percy attended several schools, including Syon House
Academy where he developed an interest in science and gothic literature. From
1804 to 1810 he was educated at Eton College where he was severely bullied. ‘Shelley-baiting’
stemmed from his refusal to participate in the school’s fagging system, his eccentric
interest in science and the supernatural, and his developing atheism – all of
which earned him the nickname ‘Mad Shelley’. Despite this, he continued to develop
his interest in writing poetry and prose.
In 1810 he began attending University College, Oxford, but was expelled just two terms later, along with his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg, for co-writing and circulating a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism – and refusing to deny authorship. Shelley was disinherited by his father after his expulsion from Oxford and controversial elopement to Scotland to marry Harriet Westbrook (aged sixteen).
Shelley was an avid admirer of William Godwin’s radical,
political philosophy and sought him out as a mentor (and father figure). He
regularly visited Godwin’s London home in the early 1810s and met his daughter
Mary Godwin.
Shelley and his wife moved frequently across the UK,
and he became deeply involved in political causes, publishing various pamphlets.
While living in Wales, he worked on his long, radical poem Queen Mab – which
included notes on atheism, free love and a vegetarian diet. The couple had two
children together – a daughter named Ianthe Eliza and a son named Charles
Bysshe (born in 1814 after Shelley abandoned his pregnant wife). The
relationship had deteriorated, and he felt that Mary Godwin was closer to his
intellectual equal.
In 1814, they eloped to Europe and after his
grandfather died, leaving him a substantial inheritance, they moved to
Switzerland. In the summer of 1816, Shelley met Lord Byron in Geneva. They spent
time boating on the lake and engaged in literary debates when the adverse
weather conditions prohibited outdoor activities.
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| Percy Bysshe Shelley by William Findon (Alamy) |
Byron and Shelley were introduced to each other by Claire Clairmont - Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s stepsister and Byron’s lover. The two poets had much to discuss. Shelley was a radical thinker, advocate of free love – and a vegetarian. Byron lived at the Villa Diodati, while Shelley rented a house nearby.
It was at Villa Diodati that the ghost story challenge took place. Shelley had previously attempted to raise spirits with various occult rituals.
In 1816, Shelley, Mary Godwin and Claire Clairmont returned to England. In December, Shelley’s wife was found dead in the Serpentine River in Hyde Park, London - a probable suicide by drowning. He fought for custody of his children, but the court ruled that due to his radical political and religious principles (specifically his atheism), he was unfit to be a father. His children were placed in foster care under the care of a guardian appointed by the court.
With the Godwins’ blessing, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Godwin were married. The Shelleys settled in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where Shelley joined a literary and political circle including Leigh Hunt and John Keats.
Percy Shelley advocated permanent self-exile, and they
moved to Italy in 1818.
In 1822, The Shelleys and Lord Byron, along with other friends and acquaintences resided in Pisa – and The Pisan Circle was formed. This was an informal group of intellectuals, centered primarily around Byron and Shelley. They were bound by shared literary and radical political views, including rebellion against conventional social and moral norms. The influential members of the circle also included Leigh Hunt (invited to Italy to help establish a new radical journal), Edward John Trelawny (adventurer and writer) and Alexandros Mavrocordatos (Greek politician and Prince). The group’s activities were a mix of intellectual pursuit, writing and social life.
Edward Ellerker, a former lieutenant in the dragoons, and Percy Shelley developed a shared passion for boating. They had a custom-built boat, the Don Juan (re-named Ariel) which ultimately led to their tragic deaths when it capsized during a storm in July 1822. They drowned in the Bay of Spezia while sailing back from a meeting with Byron and Leigh Hunt in Livorno. Shelley’s body was initially buried after it was washed ashore – but later cremated on a beach near Viareggio. According to witnesses, including Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt and Edward Trelawny, his heart refused to burn (possibly due to calcification from a previous bout of tuberculosis). Edward Trelawny physically retrieved the unburnt heart, burning his hand in the process. It was initially given to Leigh Hunt. Mary Shelley was in a fragile state, recovering from a miscarriage and the shock of her husband’s death. She was unable to attend the cremation. Later this led to a disagreement when Leigh Hunt refused to hand over the heart. He eventually handed it over to Mary after Byron intervened on her behalf. She kept the heart, wrapped in a copy of one of Shelley’s poems, in her writing desk for the rest of her life. His ashes were buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome – near the grave of his friend, John Keats.
When Percy Florence, discovered the heart, he had it interred in the family tomb at St. Peter’s Church in Bournemouth. His mother had kept it safe for nearly thirty years.
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| The imaginary recreation of the cremation of Percy Bysshe Shelley by Louis Fournier |
Literary Legacy
The Pisan Circle produced some of the most profound and enduring works of the Romantic movement, along with powerful memoirs that shaped the lasting memories and legend of the poets. Many key literary works were conceived, written, or published whilst in Pisa during the period 1821-1822.
Shelley is regarded as one of the major contributors to English Romantic poetry. He produced a substantial body of work during his short life, including lyrical poems, long narrative poems and verse dramas. Amongst his best-known works are Ozymandias (1818), Ode to the West Wind (1819), Prometheus Unbound (1820), Adonais (1821) and Hellas (1822).
Percy Bysshe Shelley was a radical political and social thinker who stood for several core ideals rooted in Romanticism, enlightened thought and political liberalism.
- political and social reform – believing in a constitutional government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and power
- atheism and anti-establishment religion – believing in spiritual freedom over rigid dogma
- individual liberty and freedom – believing in the right of the individual to determine their own destiny
- idealism and equality – believing in a society free from class distinctions and salvation for the poor and oppressed
- love and ‘free love’ - advocating for love as a guiding principle in human relationships rather than the legal constraints of marriage. Percy Shelley was a strong advocate of ‘free love’, which in his view, meant that love and desire were natural emotions that should not be restricted by marriage or societal rules. He believed that individuals should be free to act on their own desires. This partly explains his elopement with Harriet Westbrook, - later abandoning his pregnant wife – to elope with Mary Godwin.
War Legacy
Shelley was an archetypal Philhellene – a title derived from the words ‘philos’ (friend/lover) and ‘Hellen’ (a Greek). Philhellenism was defined as –
“a political-romantic movement, which supported the liberation struggle of the Greeks against the Turks”. (19th century German Druden dictionary)
Lord Byron was introduced to Prince Alexandros Mavrokordatos in Pisa in 1820 and encouraged by Shelley, to support the Greek Cause.
‘‘We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our art have their roots in Greece. But for Greece, we might still have been savages and idolaters… The modern Greek is the descendant of those glorious beings whom the imagination almost refuses to figure to itself as belonging to our kind, and he inherits much of their sensibility, their rapidity of conception, and their courage.’’ (Preface to Shelley’s poem Hellas: dedicated to Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos)
The sudden death of Shelley in a drowning accident on the Bay of Spezia in 1822, proved a turning point in Byron’s life and legacy. The poets had a deep abiding friendship and great respect for each other. Byron’s tribute to Shelley amounted to war.
“His thoughts reared round to his early love, the Isles of Greece, and the revolution in that country for before that time he never dreamt of donning the warrior’s plume though the peace-loving Shelley had suggested and I urged it.” (Edward Trelawny)
