Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-12-13
SHELLEY'S REMAINS.

SHELLEY'S REMAINS.
story of the Recovery and Burning of
the Body of the Renowned Poet.
From Richard Henry stoddard's
Anecdote Biography of Percy Bysshe
Shelley" published by scribner, Arm
strong & Co., we take the following:
The story of the drowning of Shelley
and Williams, in the Gulf of Spezzia, is
wildly told. It will be remembered
that when the bodies were found, they
were buried on the beach. Quicklime
having been thrown into the graves. It
was decided to remove them to Leg
horn, but the remains could not be re-
moved In the condition to which the
quickhme and a months interment
had reduced them. It was then sug-
gested that they be burnt, and permits
sion having been obtained from the
Government, the ceremony was per-
performed Aug. 18th, 1922. A furnace
was constructed at Leghorn, and sent
to the spot. Williams body was first
exhumed and burned, and on the day
following the party proceeded to
the spot near Via Reggie, where
Shelley's body was laid. We quote:
Three white wands had been stuck in
the sand to mark the poets grave, but
as they were at some distance from
each other we had to cut trench
thirty yards in length, in the line of
sticks, to ascertain the exact spot, and
| II yxyor r1v1 hon.
upon a grave. In the meantime, By
ron and Leigh Hunt arrived in the car
riage, attended by soldiers and the
health officer as before. The lonely
and grand scenery that surrounded us
SO exactly harmonized with Shelley's
genius that I could imagine his spirit
soaring over us. The Sea, with the ISL
ands Of old Gorgona, Capraji and Elba,
was before us; old battlemented watch
towers stretched along the coast, back
ed by the marble-crested Apprentices
glistening in the sun, picturesque from
their diversified outlines, and not a
human dwelling was in sight. AS
thought of the delight Shelley felt in
such scenes of loneliness and grandeur
while living, I felt we were no better
than a herd of wolves or pack of
wild dogs, in tearing out his battered
and naked body from the pure yellow
sand that lay SO tightly over it, to drag
him back to the light of day; but the
dead have no voice, nor had [ power to
check the sacrilege; the work went on
silently and in the deep and unresting
sand; not word WAS spoken, for the
Italians have a touch Of sentiment,
and their feelings are easily excited in
to sympathy. Even Byron was silent
and thoughtful. We were startled and
drawn together by dull, hollow sound
that followed the blow of a mattock;
the iron had struck a skull, and the
body was soon uncovered. Lime had
been strewn on it; this, or decomposi-
ton, had the effect of staining it of q
dark and CHASTITY indigo color. Byron
asked me to preserve the skull for him !;
but remembering that he had formerly
used one as drinking cup, was de-
termin~ d Shelley's should not be so
profaned. The limbs did not separate
from the trunk, as in the case Of Will
liams' body, SO that the corpse was re-
moved entire into the furnace. I had
taken the precaution of having more
and larger pieces of timber, in conse-
quence of my experience the day be-
fore of the difficulty of consuming a
corpse III the open air with our appa-
ratus. After the fire was we'll kindled
we repeated the ceremony of the pre-
vious day; and more vine was poured
over Shelley's dead body than he had
consumed during his life. This with
fh oil md cali do 40
glisten and culver. The heat from the
sun and fire was so intense that the at
mosphere was tremulous and wavy.
The corpse fell open and the heart was
laid bare. The frontal bone of the
skull, where it had been struck with the
mattock, fell off, and, as the back of
the head rested on the red-hot bottom
bars of the furnace, the brains literally
seethed, dubbed and boiled as in a
caldron, for a very long time. Byron
could not face this scene; he withdrew
to the beach and swan off to the Boil
var. Leigh Hunt remained in the car
rlage. The fire was so fierce as to pro-
duce white heat on the iron and to
reduce its contents to gray ashes. The
only portions that we're not consumed
were some fragments of bones, the jaw
and the skull, but what surprised us all
was that the heart remained entire.
In snatching this relic from the fiery
furnace my hand was severely burnt,
and had any one seen me do the act [
should have been put into quaran-
tine. After cooling the iron machine
in the sea collected human ashes and
placed them in a box, which I took on
board the Bolivar. Byron and Hunt
retraced their steps to their home, and
the officers and soldiers returned to
their quarters"
Singular History of q lar If Gold