DISCOVERY 



185 



skull ; but its assimilation to the simian skull brings 

 it into complete harmony with the chimpanzee-like 

 jaw. The difficulty which arose from the discrepancy 

 between cranium and jaw has thus been completely 

 and satisfactorily resolved, while the endocranial cast, 

 as might be expected, takes up its place between that 

 of pithecanthropus erectns, the fossil skull from Java, 

 and that of the recently discovered Rhodesian Man.' 



I am indebted to the kindness of Professors Elliot Smith 

 and Hunter for the loan of the drawing of the reconstructed 

 Piltdown skull illustrating this note. 



The Fate of a Great 

 Lyric Poet — I 



By Edward Liveing, B.A. 



The breath whose might I have invoked in song 



Descends on me ; my spirit's bark is driven, 



Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng 



tl'hose sails were never to the tempest given ; 



The massy earth and sphered skies are riven ! 



I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar ; 



Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, 



The soul of Adonais, like a star. 



Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. 



From Shelley's .-J rfo)!n/s. 



On July 8th, 1822, the greatest, perhaps, of all our lyric 

 poets was drowned in a storm in the Gulf of Spezia 

 off the north-west coast of Italy. The disaster pro- 

 moted a large number of questions about which con- 

 siderable discussion took place during the nineteenth 

 century, but which have never been satisfactorily 

 answered. The centenary of the tragedy affords an 

 occasion for retelling the story of Shelley's last days, 

 for drawing attention to some important points in 

 that story, and for a fresh attempt to solve some of 

 those points. 



I 



By 1822 the remarkable renascence of literature, 

 which has been since named the Romantic Revival, 

 had already reached its zenith, and it is significant that 

 three of its youngest forces were removed almost 

 simultaneously around this date — Keats, in honour of 

 whom Shelley wrote the famous elegy, part of which is 

 quoted at the beginning of this article, at Rome in 

 '21, Shelley in '22, and B^Ton at Missolonghi, in the 

 cause for Greek independence, in '24. 



Shelley and B\Ton had first met in Switzerland in 



I For further reading on this subject see The Rhodesian 

 Skull and the Antiquity of Man, by E. N. Fallaize, in the 

 January number of Discovery. 



' The authorities and materials on which this article is 

 based are numbered in the list of references at the end of the 

 article. In the footnotes the authority is referred to by its 

 number in the list. 



1816, and from then onwards the fellow-exiles, though 

 never the closest of friends, had at intervals seen much 

 of one another, notably at Venice and Pisa. In the 

 winter of 1821 we find the Shelleys installed at Pisa 

 in rooms at the top of the Tre Palazzi di Chiesa on the 

 Lung'Arno, opposite the Casa Lanfranchi — the " pal- 

 azzo " in which B}Ton, the beautiful Countess Guiccioli, 

 his mistress, and her brother. Count Pietro Gamba, 

 were living. The two households became the nucleus 

 of a young, brave, brilliant and, in general, happy 

 circle. To a flat in the same house as the Shelleys had 

 come Edward Ellerker Williams, a young lieutenant 

 on half-pay, late of the 8th Dragoons, and his pretty 

 musical wife, Jane. Their literary tastes, Jane's 

 charm of manner, and Edward's passion for the sea 

 had endeared them to the Shelleys. The group was 

 next joined by Edward John Trelawny, aged thirty, 

 sailor, buccaneer, adventurer, a man of rugged strength, 

 physically and mentally, of an impulsive yet magni- 

 ficently loyal and generous nature, sufficient proofs 

 of which will be shown in this narrative alone — 

 altogether a fine product of old Cornish stock. He had 

 arrived " to pass the coming winter in the wild.est part 

 of Italy, the Maremma, in the midst of the marshes 

 and malaria, with my friends Roberts [Captain Roberts 

 who was commissioned to build the ill-fated Ariel] 

 and Williams ; keen sportsmen both — that part of the 

 country being well stocked with woodcocks and wild 

 fowl " ; and. " for the exercise of my brain, I proposed 

 passing my summer with Shelley and Byron, boating 

 in the Mediterranean." ^ 



Early in February 1822 the circle proposed trans- 

 planting itself for the summer to Spezia, over sixty 

 miles farther up the coast. Williams and Shelley found 

 what they considered some suitable houses at Spezia. 

 Meanwhile, before the move was effected, an unfortu- 

 nate incident occurred on March 24th, the importance 

 of which in relation to the disaster of July 8th has, I 

 think, been overlooked by Shelley's biographers. Late 

 in the afternoon Byron, Shelley, Trelawny, Captain 

 Hay, Count Pietro Gamba, and a certain Taaffe were 

 returning to Pisa on horseback from one of their cus- 

 tomary " pistol " parties, when a dragoon, a certain 

 Sergeant-Major Masi, bound apparently on an official 

 errand, rode through them, nearly knocking Taaffe 

 off his horse. What followed is best narrated in the 

 words of Williams,^ who happened to be in Pisa at the 

 time and to whom Trelawny gave an account of the 

 affair a few hours later : 



" Lord B. put spurs to his horse, saying that he should 

 give some account of such insolence. Shelley's horse, 

 however, was the fleetest, and coming up to the dragoon 

 he crossed and stopped him till the party arrived, but 



3Ref. VIII. Pp. lo-ii. 



* Ref. IX. Entry of March 24th. 



