The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley vol. 1 ed. Betty T. Bennett, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP 1980

[note: Mary Godwin was born 30 August 1797]

To S [i.e. Percy Shelley] 24 Oct 1814] ... oh my love you have no friends why then should you be torn from the only one who
has affection for you--But I shall see you tonight and that is the hope tthat I shall live on through the day--be happy dear Shelley
and think of me--why do I say this dearest & only one I know how tenderly you love me and how you repine at this absence
from me-- when shall we be free from fear of treachery?-- 1

To S 28 Oct 1814] ... tomorrow I will seal this blessing on your lips dear good creature press me to you and hug your own
Mary to your heart perhaps she will one day have a father till then be every thing to me love--& indeed I will be a good girl and
never vex you any more I will learn Greek...
...
... I shall dream of you ten to one when naughty one--you have quite forgotten me-- 3

[after their July elopement, Mary's father refused to see her or Percy--though he continued to borrow money from
him]

To S 3 Nov 1814] ... Your own Mary who loves you so tenderly 5

To Hogg [Thomas Jefferson Hogg, friend of PBS] 24 Jan 1815] ... our still greater happiness will be in Shelley--I who love him
so tenderly & enitrely whose life hangs on the beam of his eye and whose whole soul is entirely wrapt up in him.... 9

To [? Fanny [MWS half-sister] 1 June 1816] ... The thunder storms that visit us are grander and more terrific than I have ever
seen before. We watch them as they approach from the opposite side of the lalke, observing the lightning play among the
clouds in various parts of the heavens, and dart in jagged figures upon the piny heights of Jura, dark with the shadow of the
overhanging cloud, whle perhaps the sun is shining cheerily upon us. One night we enjoyed a finer storm than I had ever before
behled. The lake was lit up--the pines on Jura made visible, and all the scene illuminated for an instant, when a pitchy blackness
succeeded, and the thunder came in frightful bursts over our heads amid the darkness.
... To the south of the town is the promenade of the Genevese, a grassy plain planted with a few trees, and called Plainpalais.
Here a small obelisk is erected to the glory of Rousseau, and here (such is the mutability of human life) the magistrates, the
successors of those who exiled him from his native country, were shot by the populace during that revolution, which his writings
mainly contributed to mature, and which, notwithstanding the temporary bloodshed and injustice with which it was polluted, has
produced enduring benefits to mankind .... From respect to the memory of their predecessors, none of the present magistrates
ever walk in Plainpalais. ... 20

To S {Sweet Elf} 5 Dec 1816] And what did my love think of as he rode along--Did he think about our home, our babe and
his poor Pecksie? But I am sure you did and thought of them all with joy and hope.-- ...
...--give me a garden & absentia Clariae and I will thank my love for many favours.
... Adieu, sweetest, Love me tenderly and think of me with affection whenever any thing pleases you greatly. 22-23

To S Dec 17 1816] --Poor dear Fanny is she had lived until this moment she would have been saved for my house would then
have been a proper assylum for her--Ah! my best love to you do I owe every joy every perfection that I may enjoy or boast
of--Love me, sweet, for ever--But I {do} not mean----I hardly know what I I mean I am so much agitated .... 24/25
... come back to reassure me my Shelley & bring with you Your darling Ianthe & Charles--Thank you kind friends I long to
hear about Godwin [i.e. her father] ... 25

[Charles and Ianthe were Percy's children by his first marriage; after their mother's suicide he attemped
unsuccessfully to gain custody of them]

To Lord Byron Jan 13 1817]... Another incident has also occurred which will surprise you, perhaps [i.e., her marriage]; It is a
little piece of egotism in me to mention it--but it allows me to sign myself--in assuring you of my esteem & sincere friendship
Mary W. Shelley 26

To S Jan 17 1817] If you have not sent the nipple shield for Clare pray send it without fail by to nights mail as she is in great
want of it-- send also a pretty book for me. Hunt has some old romances--of King Arthur & the Seven Champions I would
take great care of them if he would lend them to me--& pray ask Papa for a nice history that I can get here for I am in sad want
of books to read in the sick chamber--But pray send the thing for Clare if you have not sent it already which I trust you have. ...
Blue eyes--get dearer and sweeter every day- ... 28 [re William]

To Leight Hunt March 5 1817] ... I had a dream tonight of the dead being alive which has affected my spirits. 32

To S 24 Sept 1817] Did you take the Examiner away with you--if you did send it back--tell me also what money you took and
if you took from my table--
A letter came from Godwin today--very short--You will see him tell me how he is--You are loaded with business--the event of
most of which I am very anxious to learn and none so much as whether you can do any thing for my father-- 42

To S Sept 28 1817] ... And can you do any thing for my father before we go?
... --I wish Willy to be my companion in my future walks--to further which plan will you send down if possible by Mondays
coach (and if you go to Longdills it will be very possible--for you can buy it at the corner of Southampton buildings and send it
to the coach at the old Bailey) a seal skin fur hat for him it must be a fashionable found shape for a boy mention particularly and
have a narrow gold riband round it--that it may be taken in if too large--it must measure round & let it be rather too large than
too small--but exactly the thing would be best--He cannot walk with me untill it comes which makes me in a greater hurry for
it.... 45 ...
Perhaps you had better not get William's hat as it may not fit him or please me ... 47

To S Sept 30 1817] He [Cobbett] encourages in the multitude the worst possible human passion revenge or as he would
probably give it that abominable Christian name retribution. 49

To S ?2 Oct 1817] --how I wish we had not come to Marlow-- 51

To S Oct 16 1817]... Have you seen any thing of Mr Baxter?
Will you send the things I mentioned without delay
When do you think of coming
Be sure to send to the dyers for William pelisse and what else may be ready. ... 56

To S Oct 18 1817] But Italy appears farther off than ever and the idea of it never enters my mind but Godwin enters also &
makes it lie heavy at my heart--Had you not better speak--you might relieve me from a heavy burthen....--I assure you that if
my Father said--Yes you must go--do what you can for me--I know that you will do all you can--I should far from writing so
melancholy a letter prepare every thing with a light heart ...--I know not whether it is early habit of affection but the idea of his
silent quiet disapprobation makes me weep as it did in the days of my childhood. 57

Mary Shelley's Journal

ed. Frederick L. Jones Norman: U of Oklahoma P 1947

Sept 10 1814] ... Mary begins "Hate," and gives Shelley the great pleasure. 14

March 13 1815] Shelley and Clara go to town. Stay at home; net, and think of my little dead baby. This is foolish, I suppose;
yet whenever I am left alone to my own thoughts, and do not read to divert them, they always come back to the same
point--that I was a mother, and am so no longer. ... 40

March 19 1815] Dream that my little baby came to life again; that it had only been cold, and that we rubbed it before the fire
and it lived. Awake and find no baby. I think about the little thing all day. Not in good spirits. ... 40

March 20 1815] Dream again about my baby. ... 41

April 15 1815] ... A very grim dream. 44

July 25 1816] This day promises to be fine, and we set out at 9 for Montanvert with beaucoup de monde go also. We get to
the top at 12, and behold le Mer de Glace. This is the most desolate place in the world; iced mountains surround it; no sign of
vegetation appears except on the place from which [we] view the scene.53

May 28 1817]... I am melancholy with reading the 3rd canoto of "Childe Harold." Do you not remember, Shelley, when you
first read it to me. ... The lake was before us, and the mighty Jura. That time is past, and this will also pass, when i may weep to
read these words, and again moralise on the flight of time.
Dear Lake! I shall ever love thee. How a powerful lmind can sanctify past scenes and recolleactions! His is a powerful lmind;
and that fills me with melancholy, yet mixed with pleasure, as is always the case when intellectual energy is displayed. ..... This
time will soon also be a recollection. We may see him again, and again enjoy his society; but the time will also arrive when that
which is now an anticipation will be only in the memory. Death will at length come, and in that last moment all will be a dream.
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