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Authors: Richard Holmes
Tags: Literary, Biography & Autobiography, Literary Criticism, European, English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, Poetry
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G[odwin] told me that the three girls were all equally in love with [ blank ].’ 42 There is no doubt from the context of these remarks that the blank stands for Shelley.
On Shelley’s side, the straightforward desire to help a philosopher and political figure whom he still admired immensely had become layered over with secondary motives. He could no longer avoid the realization that Godwin was venal and opportunist where money was concerned. Yet paradoxically, the need to prove himself in Godwin’s eyes had increased, and he was prepared to try and buy his father-in-law’s approbation at almost any price. He felt the need to prove himself worthy of Godwin’s principles, to be more Godwinian than Godwin in his social conduct. Yet why this need drove him to such lengths is still not altogether clear. To an extent, Shelley must have felt that Godwin was his own father by adoption and the idea of a second failure, a second withdrawal of love filled him with terrible dismay. But perhaps stronger than this was the influence of both Mary and Claire. Mary especially felt that Godwin ought to be helped, whatever his apparent attitude, for only thereby could he be saved from the clutches of Mrs Godwin. It was, significantly, Mary and not Shelley who became Godwin’s final court of appeal when he was writing for yet more money to them in Italy. The intensity of the bond between Mary and her father was something that Shelley only slowly realized. But it is this which finally explains the inordinate lengths that Shelley went to to satisfy Godwin’s financial requests, and the mixture of patience and fury with which he persisted.
Shelley first began to negotiate seriously with Godwin on 7 January 1816. He explained the half-completed terms of the settlement of May 1815, and continued: ‘You say that you will receive no more than £1250 for the payment of those incumbrances from which you think I may be considered as specially bound to relieve you. I would not desire to persuade you to sell the approbationof your friends for the difference between this sum, & that which your necessities actually require . . . .’ 43
This sum of £1,250 was of course in addition to the £1,000 which Shelley had procured for Godwin as a ‘debt’ the previous year. Shelley was in fact unable to provide such a large sum until either the settlement with his father to buy the reversion of old Sir Bysshe’s legacy was complete, or else the legal state of his own inheritance without entail was sufficiently clarified for him to raise post obit bonds upon it. This latter course required the strictest secrecy from Whitton and Sir Timothy, and there were even doubts in Shelley’s mind as to whether his own solicitor Longdill could be trusted. But Shelley’s grasp of these worldly difficulties was quite confident and steady.
By the end of the month, the two other main figures in the negotiation, Hayward, Godwin’s solicitor, and William Bryant, a money-lender, were deeply involved, and Shelley was steadily applying pressure on Godwin to meet him. He carefully let the personal note creep back into the business letters, as the prelude to a rapprochement . ‘But I shall leave this subject henceforth, entirely to your own feelings. Probably my feelings on such an occasion would be no less distressing than your own . . . . Fanny & Mrs Godwin will probably be glad to hear that Mary has safely recovered from a very favourable confinement, & that her child is well.’ 44
By mid-February, the solicitors had discovered that the sale of the reversion to Sir Timothy might actually break the terms of Sir Bysshe’s will as a whole, and disqualify both Sir Timothy and his son, so that a test case was now required in Chancery. Shelley was in difficulties once again over his own ‘domestic expenditure’ at Bishopsgate, and he came briefly to London to see if anything could be hastened. It seems that Claire, who was staying at Bishopsgate, accompanied him,
On Shelley’s side, the straightforward desire to help a philosopher and political figure whom he still admired immensely had become layered over with secondary motives. He could no longer avoid the realization that Godwin was venal and opportunist where money was concerned. Yet paradoxically, the need to prove himself in Godwin’s eyes had increased, and he was prepared to try and buy his father-in-law’s approbation at almost any price. He felt the need to prove himself worthy of Godwin’s principles, to be more Godwinian than Godwin in his social conduct. Yet why this need drove him to such lengths is still not altogether clear. To an extent, Shelley must have felt that Godwin was his own father by adoption and the idea of a second failure, a second withdrawal of love filled him with terrible dismay. But perhaps stronger than this was the influence of both Mary and Claire. Mary especially felt that Godwin ought to be helped, whatever his apparent attitude, for only thereby could he be saved from the clutches of Mrs Godwin. It was, significantly, Mary and not Shelley who became Godwin’s final court of appeal when he was writing for yet more money to them in Italy. The intensity of the bond between Mary and her father was something that Shelley only slowly realized. But it is this which finally explains the inordinate lengths that Shelley went to to satisfy Godwin’s financial requests, and the mixture of patience and fury with which he persisted.
Shelley first began to negotiate seriously with Godwin on 7 January 1816. He explained the half-completed terms of the settlement of May 1815, and continued: ‘You say that you will receive no more than £1250 for the payment of those incumbrances from which you think I may be considered as specially bound to relieve you. I would not desire to persuade you to sell the approbationof your friends for the difference between this sum, & that which your necessities actually require . . . .’ 43
This sum of £1,250 was of course in addition to the £1,000 which Shelley had procured for Godwin as a ‘debt’ the previous year. Shelley was in fact unable to provide such a large sum until either the settlement with his father to buy the reversion of old Sir Bysshe’s legacy was complete, or else the legal state of his own inheritance without entail was sufficiently clarified for him to raise post obit bonds upon it. This latter course required the strictest secrecy from Whitton and Sir Timothy, and there were even doubts in Shelley’s mind as to whether his own solicitor Longdill could be trusted. But Shelley’s grasp of these worldly difficulties was quite confident and steady.
By the end of the month, the two other main figures in the negotiation, Hayward, Godwin’s solicitor, and William Bryant, a money-lender, were deeply involved, and Shelley was steadily applying pressure on Godwin to meet him. He carefully let the personal note creep back into the business letters, as the prelude to a rapprochement . ‘But I shall leave this subject henceforth, entirely to your own feelings. Probably my feelings on such an occasion would be no less distressing than your own . . . . Fanny & Mrs Godwin will probably be glad to hear that Mary has safely recovered from a very favourable confinement, & that her child is well.’ 44
By mid-February, the solicitors had discovered that the sale of the reversion to Sir Timothy might actually break the terms of Sir Bysshe’s will as a whole, and disqualify both Sir Timothy and his son, so that a test case was now required in Chancery. Shelley was in difficulties once again over his own ‘domestic expenditure’ at Bishopsgate, and he came briefly to London to see if anything could be hastened. It seems that Claire, who was staying at Bishopsgate, accompanied him,
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