256 BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH. moment her face was hidden in the black veil which was to cover it for ever. The chorus raised the glorious music of its triumphal hymn; the incense filled the chapel, its silvery cloud dispersed, but the new-made nun was already lost amid the group of her veiled sisters. The crowd soon separated: acquaintances formed into little knots to discuss the ceremonial and the topics of the day. That evening the young nun lay exhausted between life and death in a brain fever, while all Naples was ringing with the faith, beauty, and fervour of the English proselyte. MRS SHELLEY. M ARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN was highly gifted in virtue of her parentage. Her father was Godwin, the author of "St Leon" and "Caleb Williams;" her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was distinguished by her talents, her energy, and her disregard of the usual social conventionalities. At an early age she gave unmistakable indications of mental power, which ripened rapidly under the guidance of her father. Trained in his school of thought, and accustomed to his code of morals, it is no marvel that she consented to accompany the poet Shelley on a visit to the Continent, and promised to share his fortunes without the useless thraldom (as they considered it) of the marriage-ties. They lived for some time in France and Switzerland; returned to England; took up their abode at Great Marlow; once more went abroad; and addressed themselves with entire devotion to the pursuits of literature. It was while residing, in 1816, on the banks of the Lake of Geneva, in company with Lord Byron, that Mrs Shelley conceived and executed her wild, powerful, and original novel of "Frankenstein;" which, when published in 1817, was rightly accepted as the work of a fresh and vigorous imagination-as founded on a terrible but splendid conception-and teaching an important and valuable lesson. During her husband's lifetime, Mrs Shelley (they were married in 1818) made no other attempt as a novelist; but, on his unhappy death in 1822, she was forced to wield her pen in augmentation of her scanty income. Her principal works of fiction are: "Valperga," "The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck," "Lodore," and "The Last Man." All are marked by a certain weirdness of tone and melancholy of sentiment. In all, the style is elegant and pure, frequently rising into poetry; in all, the interest of the plot is singular, and the scenes are constructed with considerable skill; but 260 A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. they lack what may be called the element of humanity; the characters are too shadowy and vague, and from the first page to the last the reader seems involved in an atmosphere of the supernatural. It must be owned, however, that some passages of "The Last Man" possess an almost Dantesque gloom and depth. Mrs Shelley also edited her husband's prose and poetical works; a labour of love which she discharged with fidelity and care. Their wedded life had been very happy, and Mrs Shelley never forgot the melancholy event which so abruptly terminated it. She died in 1851, aged 56. |