Based on The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols., ed. Frederick L. Jones (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964)
Compiled by David S. Miall, University of Alberta
Volume 1: Shelley in England
The pointers provided in the following table are designed to enable the Letters to be consulted for (a) significant moments in Shelley's biography, and (b) some of Shelley's key ideas and responses. In many cases the letter designated is only the first of a series. In a few cases, indicated by multiple dates (e.g., 14/17 Feb 1811) two consecutive letters that deal with the same topic have been indicated. The extracts quoted often appear on a later page than the page cited, which is the page on the which the letter begins.
Where the topic of a letter shows a link, this is to a fuller extract available in Wollstonecraft, Godwin, and P. Shelley on Love and Marriage. Letters with an askerisk against the Topic are available in a fuller version on Romanticism: The CD-ROM.
| PAGE | DATE | RECIPIENT | TOPIC | EXTRACT |
| 9 | 23 Apr 1810 | Graham | Gothic parody | Never mind the Death-demons, & skeletons dripping with the putrefaction of the grave |
| 26 | 20 Dec 1810 | Hogg | Xtianity's dissolution | I burn with impatience for the moment of Xtianity's dissolution, it has injured me |
| 35 | 3 Jan 1811 | Hogg | Deist principles | some vast intellect animates Infinity |
| 43 | 12 Jan 1811 | Hogg | love and Deity | Do I love the person, the embodied identity . . . No! I love what is superior what is excellent, or what I conceive to be so . . . Oh! that . . . Deity were the Soul of the Universe, the spirit of universal imperishable love. |
| 50 | 6 Feb 1811 | father | use of reason in religious belief | |
| 51 | 14/17 Feb 1811 | Graham | Atheism tract published | |
| 55 | 17 Feb 1811 | father | expelled from Oxford for Atheism pamphlet | We found to our surprise that (strange as it may appear) the proofs of an existing Deity were as far as we had observed, defective. |
| 68 | 26 Apr 1811 | Hogg | Xtianity | Religion is the child of cold Prejudice & selfish fear |
| 71 | 28 Apr 1811 | Hogg | Harriet Westbrook, religion | Why is it that the moment we are separated, I can scarcely set bounds to my hatred of Xtianity -- is it feeling? is it passion? |
| 76 | 8 May 1811 | Hogg | meets Leigh Hunt | Hunt is a man of cultivated mind, & certainly exalted notions; -- I do not entirely despair of rescuing him out of this damnable heresy [Deism] from Reason |
| 80 | 9 May 1811 | Hogg | against marriage | if you want more argument read the marriage service before you think of allowing an amiable beloved female to submit to such degradation--. |
| 97 | 5 June 1811 | Hitchener | initiates correspondence | I know that you, like myself are a devotee at the Shrine of truth. |
| 99 | 11 June 1811 | Hitchener | Lockean arguments against God | Locke proves that there are no innate ideas, that in consequence there can be no innate speculative or practical principles, thus overturning all appeals of feeling in favor of Deity, since that feeling must be referable to some origin |
| 109 | 20 June 1811 | Hitchener | religion vs. virtue | Christianity strongly militates with virtue. |
| 115 | 25 June 1811 | Hitchener | eternal existence of intellect | How contrary then to all analogy to infer annihilation from Death, which you cannot prove suspends for a moment the force of the mind. |
| 126 | 26 July 1811 | Hitchener | aristocracy vs. equality | what can be worse than the present aristocratical system? here are in England ten millions only 500,000 of whom live in a state of ease; the rest earn their livelihood with toil & care. |
| 131 | 3 Aug 1811 | Hogg | plans elopement with Harriet | Her father has persecuted her in a most horrible way |
| 137 | 25 Aug 1811 | father | elopes with Harriet | Doubtless you will be surprised by my sudden departure. You will be more surprised at its finish . . . |
| 144 | 8 Oct 1811 | Hitchener | justifies his marriage | You will enquire how I an Atheist chose to subject myself to the ceremony of marriage, how my conscience could consent to it -- |
| 148 | 15 Oct 1811 | father | bitter complaints about his treatment | You have treated me ill, vilely. |
| 149 | 16 Oct 1811 | Hitchener | on his love for Hitchener | you who can contemn the worlds prejudices, whose views are mine, I will dare to say I love, not do I risk the possibility of that degrading & contemptible interpretation of this sacred word |
| 159 | 28 Oct 1811 | Hitchener | explains his marriage to Harriet | If Harriet be not at sixteen all that you are at a more advanced age, assist me to mould a really noble soul into all that can make its[s] nobleness useful and lovely. |
| 166 | 6 Nov 1811 | Hogg | on Hogg's attempted seduction of Harriet | You have been led either by false reasoning, or as I conjecture more probable, real feeling into a great & terrible mistake |
| 168 | 8 Nov 1811 | Hitchener | describes Hogg's attempted seduction | Hogg is a mistaken man, vilely, dreadfully mistaken -- but you shall hear . . . |
| 172 | 11 Nov 1811? | Hitchener | on disinterested love | the Love which we worship . . . has as much to do with the senses as yonder mountains |
| 175 | 12/13/14 Nov 1811 | Hogg | why Hogg cannot live with the Shelleys now | |
| 187 | 23 Nov 1811 | Hitchener | on friendship, passion, nature (Lakes) | I say Passion is referable to reason, but I mean the great, aspiring Passions of disinterested friendship, Philanthropy |
| 191 | 24 Nov 1811 | Hitchener | real vs. sensual love | |
| 193 | 26 Nov 1811 | Hitchener | marriage as a prison | Marriage is monopolizing, exclusive jealous -- the tie which binds it bears the same relation to 'friendship in which excess is lovely' that the body doth to the soul. Everything which relates simply to this clayformed dungeon is comparatively despicable |
| 203 | 13 Dec 1811 | father | seeks reconciliation | |
| 207 | 15 Dec 1811 | Hitchener | on reconciliation terms proposed; on Hogg's sensuality | I strongly insisted on the criminality of exposing himself [Hogg] to the inroads of a passion which he had proved himself unequal to control |
| 210 | 26 Dec 1811 | Hitchener | conversation with Southey | Southey tho' far from being a man of great reasoning powers is a great Man. |
| 214 | 2 Jan 1812 | Hitchener | argument with Southey on Deity as intelligence | I tell him I believe that God is another signification for the Universe. -- I then explain -- 'I think reason and analogy seem to countenance the opinion that life is infinite -- |
| 219 | 3 Jan 1812 | Godwin | first letter; his admiration for Godwin | You will be surprised at hearing from a stranger. -- No introduction has, nor in all probability ever will authorize that which common thinkers would call a liberty . . . |
| 221 | 7 Jan 1812 | Hitchener | ethics a part of politics; French Revolution | the most fatal error that ever happened in the world was the seperation of political and ethical science, that the former ought to be entirely regulated by the latter |
| 227 | 10 Jan 1812 | Godwin | autobiographical account of himself | I am the Son of a man of fortune in Sussex. . . . Passive obedience was inculcated and enforced in my childhood: I was required to love because it was my duty to love |
| 237 | 26 Jan 1812 | Hitchener | attacked at Keswick, will travel to Ireland | I have been busily engaged in an address to the Irish which will be printed as Paine's works were here, and pasted on the walls of Dublin |
| 244 | 29 Jan 1812 | Hitchener | invites her to live with them | Come and live with us. You are not one to start at this. What will the world say? What they please, precisely. |
| 258 | 24 Feb 1812 | Godwin | sends his Irish pamphlet | I have another pamphlet in the press earnestly recommending to a different class, the institution of a Philanthropic Society |
| 263 | 27 Feb 1812 | Hitchener | the effect of his pamphlets in Dublin | Copies have been sent to 60 public houses, no prosecution is yet attempted. -- I do not see how it can be. Congratulate me my friend for everything proceeds well; I could not expect a more rapid success. |
| 270 | 19 Mar 1812 | Hitchener | on treatment of poor in Dublin | A widow woman with three infants were taken up by two constables . . . The woman's crime was stealing a penny loaf. . . . The rich grind the poor into abjectness & then complain that they are abject. |
| 276 | 18 Mar 1812 | Godwin | withdraws plan for association in Dublin | My schemes of organizing the ignorant I confess to be ill-timed |
| 293 | 7 May 1812 | Hitchener | plan for Hitchener to join them is a problem | And so our dear friends are determined to destroy our peace of mind if we live together |
| 301 | 2 June 1812 | Hitchener | anticipates Hitchener's arrival | Nothing shall now prevent our meeting; the opposition of the narrowminded & worldly shall only render more speedy & decisive what they are now inefficient to hinder! |
| 304 | 6/11 June 1812 | Hitchener | cannot stay in Wales; to move to Devon | |
| 310 | 5 July 1812 | Godwin | anticipates living with Hitchener at Lynmouth | |
| 315 | 29 July 1812 | Godwin | honour morality criticised in classics | the evils of acquiring Greek & Latin considerably overbalance the benefits. |
| 322 | 17 Aug 1812 | J. H. Lawrence | on evils of marriage, to author of Nairs | Your "Empire of the Nairs" . . . succeeded in making me a perfect convert to its doctrines. I then retained no doubts of the evils of marriage. |
| 335 | 3 Dec 1812 | Hogg | on Hitchener's superficiality | She is an artful, superficial, ugly, hermaphroditical beast of a woman |
| 355 | 27 Feb 1813 | Hookham | Shelley attacked at Tan-yr-allt | I have just escaped an atrocious assassination. |
| 360 | March 1813 | Hookham | sends Queen Mab for printing | If you do not dread the arm of the law, or any exasperation of public opinion against yourself, I wish that it should be printed & published immediately. |
| 373 | 28 June 1813 | Medwin | Harriet gives birth to Eliza Ianthe | |
| 377 | 4 Oct 1813 | Hookham | gives a post-obit of 2000 pounds for cash | |
| 379 | 26 Nov 1813 | Hogg | being visited by Peacock | He is a very mild, agreeable man, and a good scholar. |
| 389 | 14 July 1814? | Harriet | on his new love for Mary Godwin (see 388n2) | I repeat . . . that my attachment to you is unimpaired |
| 391 | 13 Aug 1814 | Harriet | from France asks Harriet to join him, Mary and Clare | I write to urge you to come to Switzerland, where you will at least find one firm & constant friend, to whom your interests will always be dear, by whom your feelings will never wilfully be injured. |
| 394 | 14 Sept 1814 | Harriet | on whether he has injured Harriet | Even now when a violent and lasting passion for another leads me to prefer her society to yours, I am perpetually employed in devising how I can be permanently & truly useful to you |
| 396 | 26 Sept 1814 | Harriet | Harriet selfish and superstitious | I was an idiot to expect greatness or generosity from you, that when an occasion of the sublimest virtue occurred, you would fail to play a part of mean & despicable selfishness. |
| 401 | 4 Oct 1814 | Hogg | his loathing for Harriet and love for Mary | The originality & loveliness of Mary's character was apparent to me from her very motions & tones of voice. The irresistable wildness & sublimity of her feelings shewed itself in her gestures and looks -- |
| 408 | 24 Oct 1814 | Mary | Godwin's injustice and worldliness | I confess to you that I have been shocked & staggered by Godwin's cold injustice. |
| 410 | 25 Oct 1814? | Harriet | in danger of arrest for debt | If once in prison, confined in a damp cell, without a sixpence, without a friend . . . I must inevitably be starved to death. |
| 413 | 28 Oct 1814 | Mary | his distress at separation from Mary | Would it not be better my heavenly love, to creep into the loathliest cave so that we might be together. |
| 420 | 8 Nov 1814 | Mary | to live together from the following day | My dearest best love only one more day, & we meet. [Harriet gave birth to Charles Bysshe Shelley Nov 30] |
| 423 | 1 Jan 1815? | Hogg | facilitates Hogg's intimacy with Mary | Mary wished to speak with you alone, for which purpose I have gone out & removed Clare. |
| 452 | 21 Feb 1816 | Godwin | plans to exile himself and Mary | In the event the evils which will flow to my children from our desolate and solitary situation here point out an exile as the only resource to them against that injustice which we can easily despise. |
| 458 | 6/7 March 1816 | Godwin | objects to Godwin's view of him | In my judgment neither I, nor your daughter, nor her offspring, ought to receive the treatment which we encounter on every side. |
| 471 | 3 May 1816 | Godwin | explains departure for Switzerland | Continually detained in a situation where what I esteem prejudice does not permit me to live on equal terms with my fellow beings I resolved to commit myself by a decided step. I therefore decided to take Mary to Geneva |
| 474 | 15 May 1816 | Peacock | on the French; the scenery of the Jura | They exhibit scenery of wonderful su[blimity.] Pine forests of impenetrable thickness & untrodden, nay, inaccessible expanse spread on every side. |
| 480 | 12 July 1816 | Peacock | boat trip with Byron on Lake Geneva* | The mountains of Savoy, whose summits were bright with snow, descended in broken slopes to the lake: on high, the rocks were dark with pine forests, which become deeper and more immense, until the ice and snow mingle with the points of naked rock that pierce the blue air |
| 488 | 17 July 1816 | Peacock | plans to live near Windsor after more travels | I wish you to get an unfurnished house, with as good a garden as may be, near Windsor Forest, and take a lease of it for fourteen or twenty-one years. |
| 495 | 22 July 1816 | Peacock | journey to Chamonix and glaciers* | Mont Blanc was before us but was covered with cloud, & its base furrowed with dreadful gaps was seen alone. Pinnacles of snow, intolerably bright, part of the chain connected with Mont Blanc shone thro the clouds at intervals on high. |
| 506 | 29 Sept 1816 | Byron | on Byron's future fame | I do not know how great an intellectual compass you are destined to fill. I only know that your powers are astonishingly great, and that they ought to be exerted to their full extent. |
| 512 | 20 Nov 1816 | Byron | Clare's approaching confinement | |
| 516 | 8 Dec 1816 | Hunt | on his isolation; Peacock's novels | But thus much I do not seek to conceal from myself, that I am an outcast from human society; my name is execrated by all who understand its entire import |
| 519 | 16 Dec 1816 | Mary | on Harriet's suicide, fate of the children | it is thro' you that I can entertain without despair the recollection of the horrors of unutterable villainy that led to this dark dreadful death. |
| 522 | 18 Dec 1816 | Eliza Westbrook | plans to take custody of Harriet's children | |
| 524 | 30 Dec 1816 | Claire | on his marriage to Mary | The ceremony, so magical in its effects, was undergone this morning at St. Mildred's Church, in the City. |
| 526 | 11 Jan 1817 | Mary | legal moves against Shelley's custody of children | They have filed a bill, to say that I published Queen Mab, that I avow myself to be an atheist & a republican; with some other imputations of an infamous nature. |
| 529 | 17 Jan 1817 | Byron | Clare has given birth to Allegra | Clare is safely delivered of a most beautiful girl. Both the mother and the child are well |
| 539 | 23 Apr 1817 | Byron | asks Byron what he plans for Allegra | |
| 556 | 24 Sept 1817 | Byron | Clara born; opinions of Byron's work | those lines in which you describe the youthful feelings of Tasso . . . have a profound and thrilling pathos |
| 558 | 26 Sept 1817 | Examiner | against the compulsion to marry in church | |
| 560 | 6/8 Oct 1817 | Mary | plans to move to Italy; his ill health | We must go to Italy, on every ground. This weather does me great mischief. |
| 563 | 13 Oct 1817 | Publisher | sends Laon & Cythna for publication | It is in fact a tale illustrative of such a Revolution as might be supposed to take place in an European nation, acted upon by the opinions of what has been called (erroneously as I think) the modern philosophy |
| 566 | 22 Nov 1817 | Waller | affirms principles of Queen Mab | |
| 572 | 7 Dec 1817 | Godwin | his ill health; on Mandeville | It is not health but life that I should seek in Italy, & that not for my own sake . . . but for the sake of those to whom my life may be a source of happiness utility security & honour |
| 578 | 11 Dec 1817 | Ollier | on withdrawal of Laon & Cythna from publication | I beseech you to reconsider the matter, for your sake no less than for my own. Assume the high and secure ground of courage. |
| 582 | 16 Dec 1817 | Moore | revised poem to appear as Revolt of Islam | with some alterations which consist in little else than the substitution of the friend or lover for that of brother & sister |
| 590 | 2 Jan 1818 | Scott | sends a copy of Frankenstein | The Author has requested me to send you, as a slight tribute of high admiration & respect, the accompanying volumes. |
Last updated August 9th 2003