her at that time more capable of dramatic composition than himself.

Little more than a twelvemonth later, this supposition was removed by the production of "The Cenci ;" and Shelley appears to have adopted the subject of Charles the First himself. His progress, however, was very inconsiderable; and from time to time he proceeded with it rather by an effort, than from any act of enthusiasm. In this manner he once more took it up to beguile the winter hours; but, after various attempts to mould it into shape, he writes:

"I have done some of Charles I.; but, although the poetry succeeded very well, I cannot seize on the conception of the subject as a whole, and seldom now touch the canvas."

Thus it languished in his hands; and he at length finally cast it aside for subjects more congenial to his tastes and habits of thought.

The mere fragment that is left us of this drama, renders it scarcely a fair subject of criticism. It is so scanty, and we are introduced so little to the great actors who took part in it, that we are compelled almost entirely to build up a theory of our own, as to the hues

in which Shelley intended painting his characters, and the manner he would have treated the subject as a whole.

We see but little of the king, and that little is rather in his domestic than in his political capacity; that Shelley would have done him ample justice in the former, as well as have conveyed his abhorrence of his crimes in the latter, there can be no doubt; but his known repugnance to the shedding of human blood, led him to consider the terrible expiation of those crimes, as both unjustifiable and unnecessary. As an expedient, his humanity revolted at it; as an act of retaliation, he considered it unworthy of the cause it was intended to support.

With such a bias, it seems by no means improbable that Shelley would have produced the husband and father, the gentleman, the scholar, the friend of the learned and the patron of art, in such colours as to excite esteem for the man rather than dislike to the king, and to enlist the sympathies of an audience for his fate, rather than to excite detestation of the unconstitutional conduct which led to it.

The character of Laud, as it is faintly sketched

upon the canvas, appears grim, bloody, and terrible; and that of the noble John Hampden, softened and subdued by manly grief, even in the brief outline, seems to stand apart already covered with glory; and this is all that the artist has left us.

Had he proceeded with his work, and left us instead, a finished picture, there can be no doubt he would have drawn all the great actors who figured in that drama, in a manner that would have been worthy of his genius; but the tendency of his mind hurried him from the contemplation of human life as it had been enacted, towards speculations of a more ethereal nature, and the task he had set himself was abandoned.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Shelley's longings for the sea shore-He decides on removing to Spezia-An excursion in search of a house -The poet's impatience-Accidents by the way-His residence at Casa Magni-Description of SpeziaIsolated position of the Casa Magni-Arrival of Shelley's yacht-Voyage down to Via ReggioAn adventure.

EARLY in the spring of 1822, Shelley began to discuss the scheme for spending the summer months by the shores of the sea, and in furtherance of this scheme, as already noticed, Captain Roberts was building him an open boat at Genoa, fitted to brave the squalls of the Mediterranean; an excursion during the winter to

Spezia had served also to mature his plans, by deciding the place of location.

Struck at once with the great beauty of the bay, he would even then, with characteristic impulse, have removed to Spezia; but no house could be found vacant to receive him, and he returned to Pisa with his resolution taken.

In the month of February, he set out again in search of a house, accompanied by his friend Williams, on the same mission, who entered heartily into his views, and was now inseparable from him.

Only one," says Mrs Shelley, "was to be found at all suitable; however, a trifle, such as not finding a house, could not stop Shelley."

It was soon decided that the one house was to serve for both families.

The necessary preliminaries considerably retarded Shelley's impetuosity to take possession, and so impatient did he at length become that, packing up all his furniture, and putting it on board ship, he started for Spezia, where his wife had preceded him to settle the arrangement, and arrived in the harbour of Lerici before the terms were concluded.