CHAPTER I
Shelley and His Age
In the case of most great writers our interest in them as persons is
derived from out interest in them as writers; we are not very curious about
them except for reasons that have something to do with their art. With
Shelley it is different. During his life he aroused fears and hatreds, loves
and adorations, that were quite irrelevant to literature; and even now, when
he has become a classic, he still causes excitement as a man. His lovers are
as vehement as ever. For them he is the "banner of freedom," which,
"Torn but flying, Streams like a thunder-cloud against the wind."
He has suffered that worst indignity of canonisation as a being saintly
and superhuman, not subject to the morality of ordinary mortals. He has
been bedaubed with pathos. Nevertheless it is possible still to recognise in
him one of the most engaging personalities that ever lived. What is the
secret of this charm? He had many characteristics that belong to the most
tiresome natures; he even had the qualities of the man as to whom one
wonders whether partial insanity may not be his best excuse--inconstancy
expressing itself in hysterical revulsions of feeling, complete lack of
balance, proneness to act recklessly to the hurt of others. Yet he was loved
and respected by contemporaries of tastes very different from his own,
who were good judges and intolerant of bores--by Byron, who was apt to
care little for any one, least of all for poets, except himself; by Peacock,
who poured laughter on all enthusiasms; and by Hogg, who, though
slightly eccentric, was a Tory eccentric. The fact is that, with all his
defects, he had two qualities which, combined, are so attractive that there
is scarcely anything they will not redeem-- perfect sincerity without a
thought of self, and vivid emotional force