The summer of death ... 1822 ...
So now we’re
back to the part of the story I’ve been kind of avoiding—the drowning deaths in
the summer of 1822 of Percy Bysshe Shelley, his friend Edward Williams, their
teenage deckhand Edward Vivian. A quick set of reminders …
For the
summer the Shelleys and Williamses had rented a place called Casa Magni on the
Gulf of Spezia, on the western coast of Italy in the tiny fishing village of
Lerici, a couple of miles from San Terenzo. It was remote, lonely, crowded.
Mary was
profoundly depressed, their Italian dream now the grimmest of nightmares. She
had buried two little children—one (Clara Everina, age 1, on September 24,
1818, in Venice), another (William, age 3 ½, on June 7, 1819, in Rome). In Casa
Magni she suffered a near-fatal miscarriage on June 16. Her son Percy
Florence—not yet three years old—was her only living child.
Mary was
unhappy at Bysshe’s shifting affections for young women. Jane Williams
(Edward’s wife) was his latest infatuation. Compounding Mary’s despair—the
enduring presence of Claire Clairmont, again living with them for the summer.
Relieving
her grief and anger, at times, was Edward John Trelawny, the roving adventurer
full of stories (some true) of his escapades.[1] It
was Trelawny who introduced Bysshe to Daniel Roberts, a sometime shipbuilder,
the man who would construct Ariel (Byron
had liked another name, Don Juan),
the vessel that would capsize that summer’s day in 1822.
Lord Byron was
in the area, too, summering in Livorno (the English called it Leghorn), about a
hundred miles down the coast from Lerici. Byron and the Shelleys had decided to start a
journal, The Liberal, and had convinced
their mutual friend (and experienced journalist), Leigh Hunt, to join them in
Italy to be the editor. Hunt had a large, raucous family. And Mary dreaded their arrival at Casa Magni. She
would have no peace.
The Hunts
arrived in Livorno on July 3 and moved in with Byron, who was alarmed at the
behavior of their children—he thought they were out of control. In anticipation
of the Hunts’ arrival, Bysshe, Edward Williams, and Charles Vivian sailed for
Livorno on July 3 to meet Bysshe’s friends from England.
They arrived
safely. Visited for a few days. Then pointed Ariel/Don Juan for Lerici on July 8, 1822.
[1] Richard Holmes called him
“the incorrigible, myth-making Edward John Trelawny.” In “Death and Destiny,” The Guardian, 23 January 2004. Online: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jan/24/featuresreviews.guardianreview1
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