Middletown transcript., 1895-02-02
sHELLEY,s MEMORIAL.
Erected by English and italian Admir-
ers on the Shore Where He Worked
and was drowned Years A QO.

ers on the Shore Where He Worked
and was Drowned Years Ago.
A monument has been erected t,
Percy Bysshe Shelley seventy year
after his death at Viareggio, where hi
body was washed ashore with that O
his friend, Capt. Williams.
The monument has been paid for BY
his admirers, many of them Italians
The pedestal bears this eloquent in
scription:
1884. To P. B. Shelley, heart oi
hearts, in 1922 drowned in this sea
consumed by fire on this shore, where
he meditated the addition to PRONE
theus Unbound of a poslhumous page,
in which every generation would have
token of its struggles, its tears and
its redemption"
The monument faces the sea, and its
total height is fifteen feet. The bust
of Shelley, by which it is sprmounted,
is the work of Prof. UIbano Kuchesi,
a well-known italian sculptor.
The erection of the memorial was the
idea of Sig. Cesar Riccloni, of Viareggio.
Mr.. Gladstone and Mr.. Swinbulne Were
on the committee, but the majority of
the members were Italians, many of
hem men of letters.
The unveiling took place in the pres
ence Of distinguished gathering. Lady
Shelley was represented by Col. Leigh
Hunt. The monument was given into
he care of the Mayor of Viareggio.
Shelley spent the last eighteen months
of his life in the company of Lord
Byron. In June, 1922, he was residing at
Lerici, town on the bay of Spezz:a.
On the Both Of that month, in company
with Capt. Williams and one seaman,
he set sail to welcome Leigh Hunt,
who had arrived at Leghorn.
On July Sth they started for Spezzia.
A heavy squall came up and capsized
the boat. Eight days later two bodies
were washed ashore at Viareggio. One
OF them was that of Shelley. In his
pocket was Keat,'s last volume, con-
tanning "Lamia." The bodies, save
Shelley's healt, which accidentally re-
mained unconsumed by the fire, were
burned as the quarantine laws of Tus-
cany required. Shelley's ashes were
taken to the Protestant burying ground
at Rome, which lie had described in
"Adonais" as the grave of his friend
Keats. This poem, published in 1921,
was one of his lat-st.
According t. Lady Blessington's
Conversations" Byron said shortly
after Shelley's death:
81 never can forget the night that
his poor wife rushed int my room at
Pisa, with face as pale as marble and
terror impressed on her brow, demand
ing with all the tragic impetu9sity of |
grief and alarm, where was her hus,
band. Vain We're all our efforts to |
calm her; desperate sort of courage |
seemed to give her energy confront |
the horrible fate that awaited her; it |
was the courage of despair. l have
seen nothing in tragedy or on the stage |
80 powerful or so affecting as her ap-
pearance; and it often presents itself |
to my memory. knew nothing then
of the catastrophe. but the vividness
If her terror communicated itself to
me, and l feared the worst, which fears
were, alasl too soon fearful!y realized"
1t is interesting to know that Shelley
had American ancestors. His paternal
great-grandfather, Timothy, emigrated
% Newark, N. j., where he married
an American, and where the poets
great grandfather Bysshe, was born.
The Shelleys are descended from a
follower of William the Conqueror,
and the name appears on the roll of
Battle Abbey.