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THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY
I
[Illustration: Photogravure by Annan & Swan
_MRS SHELLEY._
_After a portrait by Rothwell,_
_in the possession of Sir Percy F. Shelley, Bart._]
THE LIFE & LETTERS OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY
by
MRS. JULIAN MARSHALL
With Portraits and Facsimile
In Two Volumes
VOL. I
London
Richard Bentley & Son
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1889
PREFACE
The following biography was undertaken at the request of Sir Percy and
Lady Shelley, and has been compiled from the MS. journals and letters in
their possession, which were entrusted to me, without reserve, for this
purpose.
The earlier portions of the journal having been placed also at Professor
Dowden's disposal for his _Life of Shelley_, it will be found that in my
first volume many passages indispensable to a life of Mary Shelley have
already appeared, in one form or another, in Professor Dowden's pages.
This fact I have had to ignore, having indeed settled on the quotations
necessary to my narrative before the _Life of Shelley_ appeared. They are
given without comment or dilution, just as they occur; where omissions are
made it is in order to avoid repetition, or because the everyday entries
refer to trivial circumstances uninteresting to the general reader.
Letters which have previously been published are shortened when they are
only of moderate interest; unpublished letters are given complete wherever
possible.
Those who hope to find in these pages much new circumstantial evidence on
the vexed subject of Shelley's separation from his first wife will be
disappointed. No contemporary document now exists which puts the case
beyond the reach of argument. Collateral evidence is not wanting, but even
were this not beyond the scope of the present work it would be wrong on
the strength of it to assert more than that Shelley himself felt certain
of his wife's unfaithfulness. Of that there is no doubt, nor of the fact
that all such evidence as did afterwards transpire went to prove him more
likely to have been right than wrong in his belief.
My first thanks are due to Sir Percy and Lady Shelley for the use of their
invaluable documents,--for the photographs of original pictures which form
the basis of the illustrations,--and last, not least, for their kindly
help and sympathy during the fulfilment of my task.
I wish especially to express my gratitude to Mrs. Charles Call for her
kind permission to me to print the letters of her father, Mr. Trelawny,
which are among the most interesting of my unpublished materials.
I have to thank Miss Stuart, from whom I obtained important letters from
Mr. Baxter and Godwin; and Mr. A. C. Haden, through whom I made the
acquaintance of Miss Christy Baxter.
To Professor Dowden, and, above all, to Mr. Garnett, I am indebted for
much valuable help, I may say, of all kinds.
FLORENCE A. MARSHALL.
CONTENTS
PAGES
CHAPTER I
Introductory remarks--Account of William Godwin and Mary
Wollstonecraft.
1797. Their marriage--Birth of their daughter--Death of Mary
Godwin 1-11
CHAPTER II
AUGUST 1797-JUNE 1812
1797. Godwin goes to reside at the "Polygon."
1798-99. His despondency--Repeated proposals of marriage to
various ladies.
1801. Marriage with Mrs. Clairmont.
1805. Enters business as a publisher--Books for children.
1807. Removes to Skinner Street, Holborn.
1808. Aaron Burr's first visit to England.
1811. Mrs. Godwin and the children go to Margate and
Ramsgate--Mary's health improves--She remains till Christmas
at Miss Petman's.
1812. Aaron Burr's sojourn in England--Intimacy with the
Godwins--Extracts from his journal--Mary is invited to stay
with the Baxters at Dundee 12-26
CHAPTER III
JUNE 1812-MAY 1814
1812. Mary sails for Dundee--Godwin's letter to Mr. Baxter--
The Baxters--Mary stays with them five months--Returns to
London with Christy Baxter--The Shelleys dine in Skinner
Street (Nov. 11)--Christy's enjoyment of London.
1813. Godwin's letter to an anonymous correspondent
describing Fanny and Mary--Mary and Christy go back to Dundee
(June 3)--Mary's reminiscences of this time in the preface to
_Frankenstein_.
1814. Mary returns home (March 30)--Domestic trials--Want of
guidance--Mrs. Godwin's jealousy--Shelley calls on Godwin
(May 5) 27-41
CHAPTER IV
APRIL-JUNE 1814
Account of Shelley's first introduction of himself to
Godwin--His past history--Correspondence (1812)--Shelley
goes to Ireland--Publishes address to the Irish people--
Godwin disapproves--Failure of Shelley's schemes--Godwin's
fruitless journey to Lynmouth (1813)--The Godwins and
Shelleys meet in London--The Shelleys leave town (Nov. 12).
1814. Mary makes acquaintance with Shelley in May--
Description of her--Shelley's depression of spirits--His
genius and personal charm--He and Mary become intimate--Their
meetings by Mary Wollstonecraft's grave--Episode described by
Hogg--Godwin's distress for money and dependence on
Shelley--Shelley constantly at Skinner Street--He and Mary
own their mutual love--He gives her his copy of "Queen
Mab"--His inscription--Her inscription--Hopelessness 42-56
CHAPTER V
JUNE-AUGUST 1814
Retrospective history of Shelley's first marriage--
Estrangement between him and Harriet after their visit to
Scotland in 1813--Deterioration in Harriet--Shelley's deep
dejection--He is much attracted by Mrs. Boinville and her
circle--His conclusions respecting Harriet--Their effect on
him--Harriet is at Bath--She becomes anxious to hear of
him--Godwin writes to her--She comes to town and sees
Shelley, who informs her of his intentions--Godwin goes to
see her--He talks to Shelley and to Jane Clairmont--The
situation is intolerable--Shelley tells Mary everything--
They leave England precipitately, accompanied by Jane
Clairmont (July 28) 57-67
CHAPTER VI
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1814
1814. (July).--They cross to Calais--Mrs. Godwin arrives in
pursuit of Jane--Jane thinks of returning, but changes her
mind and remains--Mrs. Godwin departs--Joint journal of
Shelley and Mary--They arrive at Paris without any money--
They procure some, and set off to walk through France with
a donkey--It is exchanged for a mule, and that for a
carriage--Journal--They arrive in Switzerland, and having
settled themselves for the winter, at once start to come
home--They arrive in England penniless, and have to obtain
money through Harriet--They go into lodgings in London 68-81
CHAPTER VII
SEPTEMBER 1814-MAY 1815
1814. (September).--Godwin's mortification at what had
happened--False reports concerning him--Keeps Shelley well
in sight, but will only communicate with him through a
solicitor--General demoralisation of the household--Mrs.
Godwin and Fanny peep in at Shelley's windows--Poverty of
the Shelleys--Harriet's creditors--Shelley's many
dependents--He has to hide from bailiffs--Jane's
excitability--Studious habits of Shelley and Mary--Extracts
from journal.
1815. Shelley's grandfather dies--Increase of income--Mary's
first baby born--It dies--Her regret--Fanny comes to see
her--Frequent change of lodgings--Hogg a constant visitor--
Peacock imprisoned for debt--He writes to the Shelleys--Jane
a source of much annoyance--She chooses to be called
"Clara"--Plans for her future--She departs to Lynmouth 82-114
CHAPTER VIII
MAY 1815-SEPTEMBER 1816
1815. Objections raised to Clara's return to Skinner Street--
Her letter to Fanny Godwin from Lynmouth--The Shelleys make a
tour in South Devon--Shelley seeks for houses--Letter from
Mary--They settle at Bishopsgate--Boating expedition--Happy
summer--Shelley writes "Alastor."
1816. Mary's son William born--List of books read by Shelley
and Mary in 1815--Clara's project of going on the stage--Her
connection with Byron--She introduces him to the Shelleys--
Shelley's efforts to raise money for Godwin--Godwin's
rapacity--Refuses to take a cheque made out in Shelley's
name--Shelley escapes from England--Is persuaded by Clara
(now called "Clare" or "Claire") to go to Geneva--Mary's
descriptive letters--Byron arrives at Geneva--Association of
Shelley and Byron--Origin of _Frankenstein_ as related by
Mary--She begins to write it--Voyage of Shelley and Byron
round the lake of Geneva--Tour to the valley of Chamouni--
Journal--Return to England (August)--Mary and Clare go to
Bath, and Shelley to Marlow 115-157
CHAPTER IX
SEPTEMBER 1816-FEBRUARY 1817
1816. Life in lodgings at Bath--Anxieties--Letters from
Fanny--Her pleadings on Godwin's behalf--Her own
disappointment--She leaves home in despair--Dies by her own
hand at Swansea (October 9)--Shelley's visit to Marlow--
Letter from Mary--Shelley's search for Harriet--He hears of
her death--His yearning after his children--Marriage with
Mary (Dec. 29).
1817. Birth of Clare's infant (Jan. 13)--Visit of the
Shelleys to the Leigh Hunts at Hampstead--Removal to Marlow 158-181
CHAPTER X
MARCH 1817-MARCH 1818
1817 (March).--Albion House--Description--Visit of the Leigh
Hunts--Shelley's benevolence to the poor--Lord Eldon's
decree depriving Shelley of the custody of his children--His
indignation and grief--Godwin's continued impecuniosity and
exactions--Charles Clairmont's requests--Mary's visit to
Skinner Street--_Frankenstein_ is published--_Journal of a
Six Weeks' Tour_--Shelley writes _Revolt of Islam_--Allegra's
presence the cause of serious annoyance to the Shelleys--Mr.
Baxter's visit of discovery to Marlow--Birth of Mary's
daughter Clara (Sept. 2)--Mr. Baxter's second visit--His warm
appreciation of Shelley--Fruitless efforts to convert his
daughter Isabel to his way of thinking--The Shelleys
determine to leave Marlow--Shelley's ill-health--Mary's
letters to him in London--Desirability of sending Allegra to
her father--They decide on going abroad and taking her.
1818. Stay in London--The Booths and Baxters break off
acquaintance with the Shelleys--Shelley suffers from
ophthalmia--Preparations for departure--The three children
are christened--The whole party leave England (March 12) 182-210
CHAPTER XI
MARCH 1818-JUNE 1819
1818 (March).--Journey to Milan--Allegra sent to Venice--
Leghorn--Acquaintance with the Gisbornes--Lucca--Mary's wish
for literary work--Shelley and Clare go to Venice--The
Hoppners--Byron's villa at Este--Clara's illness--Letters--
Shelley to Mary--Mary to Mrs. Gisborne--Journey to Venice--
Clara dies--Godwin's letter to Mary--Este--Venice--Journey to
Rome--Naples--Shelley's depression of spirits.
1819. Discovery of Paolo's intrigue with Elise--They are
married--Return to Rome--Enjoyment--Shelley writes
_Prometheus Unbound_ and the _Cenci_--Miss Curran--Delay in
leaving Rome--William Shelley's illness and death 211-243
CHAPTER XII
JUNE 1819-SEPTEMBER 1820
1819 (August).--Leghorn--Journal--Mary's misery and utter
collapse of spirits--Letters to Miss Curran and Mrs. Hunt--
The Gisbornes--Henry Reveley's project of a steamboat--
Shelley's ardour--Letter from Godwin--Removal to Florence--
Acquaintance with Mrs. Mason (Lady Mountcashel)--Birth of
Percy (Nov. 19).
1820. Mary writes _Valperga_--Alarm about money--Removal to
Pisa--Paolo's infamous plot--Shelley seeks legal aid--Casa
Ricci, Leghorn--"Letter to Maria Gisborne"--Uncomfortable
relations of Mary and Clare--Godwin's distress and petitions
for money--Vexations and anxieties--Baths of San Giuliano--
General improvement--Shelley writes _Witch of Atlas_ 244-268
CHAPTER XIII
SEPTEMBER 1820-AUGUST 1821
1820. Abandonment of the steamboat project--Disappointment--
Wet season--The Serchio in flood--Return to Pisa--Medwin--His
illness--Clare takes a situation at Florence.
1821. Pisan acquaintances--Pacchiani--Sgricci--Prince
Mavrocordato--Emilia Viviani--Mary's Greek studies--Shelley's
trance of Emilia--It passes--The Williams' arrive--Friendship
with the Shelleys--Allegra placed in a convent--Clare's
despair--Shelley's passion for boating--They move to
Pugnano--"The boat on the Serchio"--Mary sits to E. Williams
for her portrait--Shelley visits Byron at Ravenna 269-293
CHAPTER XIV
AUGUST-NOVEMBER 1821
1821. Letters from Shelley to Mary--He hears from Lord Byron
of a scandalous story current about himself--Mary, at his
request, writes to Mrs. Hoppner confuting the charges--Letter
entrusted to Lord Byron, who neglects to forward it--Shelley
visits Allegra at Bagnacavallo--Winter at Pisa--"Tre Palazzi
di Chiesa"--Letters: Mary to Miss Curran; Clare to Mary;
Shelley to Ollier--_Valperga_ is sent to Godwin--His letter
accepting the gift (Jan. 1822)--Extracts 294-315
CHAPTER XV
NOVEMBER 1821-APRIL 1822
1822. Byron comes to Pisa--Letter from Mary to Mrs.
Gisborne--Journal--Trelawny arrives--Mary's first impression
of him--His description of her--His wonder on seeing
Shelley--Life at Pisa--Letters from Mary to Mrs. Gisborne
and Mrs. Hunt--Clare's disquiet--Her plans for getting
possession of Allegra--Affair of the dragoon--Judicial
inquiry--Projected colony at Spezzia--Shelley invites Clare
to come--She accepts--Difficulty in finding houses--
Allegra's death 316-342
CHAPTER XVI
APRIL-JULY 1822
1822 (April).--Difficulty in breaking the news to Clare--
Mary in weak health--Clare, Mary, and Percy sent to Spezzia--
Letter from Shelley--He follows with the Williams'--Casa
Magni--Clare hears the truth--Her grief--Domestic worries--
Mary's illness and suffering--Shelley's great enjoyment of
the sea--Williams' journal--The _Ariel_--Godwin's affairs and
threatened bankruptcy--Cruel letters--They are kept back from
Mary--Mary's letter to Mrs. Gisborne--Her serious illness--
Shelley's nervous attacks, dreams and visions--Mrs. Williams'
society soothing to him--Arrival of the Leigh Hunts at
Genoa--Shelley and Williams go to meet them at Pisa--They
sail for Leghorn--Mary's gloomy forebodings--Letters from
Shelley and Mrs. Williams--The voyagers' return is anxiously
awaited--They never come--Loss of the _Ariel_ 343-369
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY
CHAPTER I
They say that thou wert lovely from thy birth,
Of glorious parents, thou aspiring Child.
I wonder not, for one then left the earth
Whose life was like a setting planet mild,
Which clothed thee in the radiance undefiled
Of its departing glory: still her fame
Shines on thee thro' the tempest dark and wild
Which shakes these latter days; and thou canst claim
The shelter, from thy Sire, of an immortal name.
SHELLEY.
"So you really have seen Godwin, and had little Mary in your arms! the
only offspring of a union that will certainly be matchless in the present
generation." So, in 1798, wrote Sir Henry Taylor's mother to her husband,
who had travelled from Durham to London for the purpose of making
acquaintance with the famous author of _Political Justice_.
This "little Mary," the daughter of William and Mary Wollstonecraft
Godwin, was destined herself to form a union the memory of which will live
even longer than that of her illustrious parents. She is remembered as
_Mary Shelley_, wife of the poet. In any complete account of his life she
plays, next to his, the most important part. Young as she was during the
few years they passed together, her character and her intellect were
strong enough to affect, to modify, in some degree to mould his. That he
became what he did is in great measure due to her. This, if nothing more
were known of her, would be sufficient to stamp her as a remarkable woman,
of rare ability and moral excellence, well deserving of a niche in the
almost universal biographical series of the present day. But, besides
this, she would have been eminent among her sex at any time, in any
circumstances, and would, it cannot be doubted, have achieved greater
personal fame than she actually did but for the fact that she became, at a
very early age, the wife of Shelley. Not only has his name overshadowed
her, but the circumstances of her association with him were such as to
check to a considerable extent her own sources of invention and activity.
Had that freedom been her lot in which her mother's destiny shaped itself,
her talents must have asserted themselves as not inferior, as in some
respects superior, to those of Mary Wollstonecraft. This is the answer to
the question, sometimes asked,--as if, in becoming Shelley's wife, she had
forfeited all claim to individual consideration,--why any separate Life of
her should be written at all. Even as a completion of Shelley's own story,
Mary's Life is necessary. There remains the fact that her husband's
biographers have been busy with her name. It is impossible now to pass it
over in silence and indifference. She has been variously misunderstood. It
has been her lot to be idealised as one who gave up all for love, and to
be condemned and anathematised for the very same reason. She has been
extolled for perfections she did not possess, and decried for the absence
of those she possessed in the highest degree. She has been lauded as a
genius, and depreciated as one overrated, whose talent would never have
been heard of at all but for the name of Shelley. To her husband she has
been esteemed alternately a blessing and the reverse.
As a fact, it is probable that no woman of like endowments and promise
ever abdicated her own individuality in favour of another so
transcendently greater. To consider Mary altogether apart from Shelley is,
indeed, not possible, but the study of the effect, on life and character,
of this memorable union is unique of its kind. From Shelley's point of
view it has been variously considered; from Mary's, as yet, not at all.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on the 30th of August 1797.
Her father, the philosopher and philosophical novelist, William Godwin,
began his career as a Dissenting minister in Norfolk, and something of the
preacher's character adhered to him all his life. Not the apostolic
preacher. No enthusiasm of faith or devotion, no constraining fervour,
eliciting the like in others, were his, but a calm, earnest, philosophic
spirit, with an irresistible impulse to guide and advise others.
This same calm rationalism got the better, in no long time, of his
religious creed, which he seems to have abandoned slowly, gradually, and
deliberately, without painful struggle. His religion, of the head alone,
was easily replaced by other views for which intellectual qualities were
all-sufficient. Of a cool, unemotional temperament, safe from any snares
of passion or imagination, he became the very type of a town philosopher.
Abstractions of the intellect and the philosophy of politics were his
world. He had a true townsman's love of the theatre, but external nature
for the most part left him unaffected, as it found him. With the most
exalted opinion of his own genius and merit, he was nervously susceptible
to the criticism of others, yet always ready to combat any judgment
unfavourable to himself. Never weary of argument, he thought that by its
means, conducted on lines of reason, all questions might be finally
settled, all problems satisfactorily and speedily solved. Hence the
fascination he possessed for those in doubt and distress of mind. Cool
rather than cold-hearted, he had a certain benignity of nature which,
joined to intellectual exaltation, passed as warmth and fervour. His
kindness was very great to young men at the "storm and stress" period of
their lives. They for their part thought that, as he was delighted to
enter into, discuss and analyse their difficulties, he must, himself, have
felt all these difficulties and have overcome them; and, whether they
followed his proffered advice or not, they never failed to look up to him
as an oracle.
Friendships Godwin had, but of love he seems to have kept absolutely clear
until at the age of forty-three he met Mary Wollstonecraft. He had not
much believed in love as a disturbing element, and had openly avowed in
his writings that he thought it usurped far too large a place in the
ordinary plan of human life. He did not think it needful to reckon with
passion or emotion as factors in the sum of existence, and in his ideal
programme they played no part at all.
Mary Wollstonecraft was in all respects his opposite. Her ardent,
impulsive, Irish nature had stood the test of an early life of much
unhappiness. Her childhood's home had been a wretched one; suffering and
hardship were her earliest companions. She had had not only to maintain
herself, but to be the support of others weaker than herself, and many of
these had proved unworthy of her devotion. But her rare nature had risen
superior to these trials, which, far from crushing her, elicited her
finest qualities.
The indignation aroused in her by injustice and oppression, her revolt
against the consecrated tyranny of conventionality, impelled her to raise
her voice in behalf of the weak and unfortunate. The book which made her
name famous, _A Vindication of the Rights of Women_, won for her then, as
it has done since, an admiration from half of mankind only equalled by the
reprobation of the other half. Yet most of its theories, then considered
so dangerously extreme, would to-day be contested by few, although the
frankness of expression thought so shocking now attracted no special
notice then, and indicated no coarseness of feeling, but only the habit of
calling things by their names.
In 1792, desiring to become better acquainted with the French language,
and also to follow on the spot the development of France's efforts in the
cause of freedom, she went to Paris, where, in a short time, owing to the
unforeseen progress of the Revolution, she was virtually imprisoned, in
the sense of being unable to return to England. Here she met Captain
Gilbert Imlay, an American, between whom and herself an attachment sprang
up, and whose wife, in all but the legal and religious ceremony, she
became. This step she took in full conscientiousness. Had she married
Imlay she must have openly declared her true position as a British
subject, an act which would have been fraught with the most dangerous,
perhaps fatal consequences to them both. A woman of strong religious
feeling, she had upheld the sanctity of marriage in her writings, yet not
on religious grounds. The heart of marriage, and reason for it, with her,
was love. She regarded herself as Imlay's lawful wife, and had perfect
faith in his constancy. It wore out, however, and after causing her much
suspense, anxiety, and affliction, he finally left her with a little girl
some eighteen months old. Her grief was excessive, and for a time
threatened to affect her reason. But her healthy temperament prevailed,
and the powerful tie of maternal love saved her from the consequences of
despair. It was well for her that she had to work hard at her literary
occupations to support herself and her little daughter.
It was at this juncture that she became acquainted with William Godwin.
They had already met once, before Mary's sojourn in France, but at this
first interview neither was impressed by the other. Since her return to
London he had shunned her because she was too much talked about in
society. Imagining her to be obtrusively "strong-minded" and deficient in
delicacy, he was too strongly prejudiced against her even to read her
books. But by degrees he was won over. He saw her warmth of heart, her
generous temper, her vigour of intellect; he saw too that she had
suffered. Such susceptibility as he had was fanned into warmth. His
critical acumen could not but detect her rare quality and worth, although
the keen sense of humour and Irish charm which fascinated others may, with
him, have told against her for a time. But the nervous vanity which formed
his closest link with ordinary human nature must have been flattered by
the growing preference of one so widely admired, and whom he discovered to
be even more deserving of admiration and esteem than the world knew. As to
her, accustomed as she was to homage, she may have felt that for the first
time she was justly appreciated, and to her wounded and smarting
susceptibilities this balm of appreciation must have been immeasurable.
Her first freshness of feeling had been wasted on a love which proved to
have been one-sided and which had recoiled on itself. To love and be
loved again was the beginning of a new life for her. And so it came about
that the coldest of men and the warmest of women found their happiness in
each other. Thus drawn together, the discipline afforded to her nature by
the rudest realities of life, to his by the severities of study, had been
such as to promise a growing and a lasting companionship and affection.
In the short memoir of his wife, prefixed by Godwin to his published
collection of her letters, he has given his own account, a touching one,
of the growth and recognition of their love.
The partiality we conceived for each other was in that mode which I
have always considered as the purest and most refined style of love.
It would have been impossible for the most minute observer to have
said who was before and who was after. One sex did not take the
priority which long-established custom has awarded it, nor the other
overstep that delicacy which is so severely imposed. I am not
conscious that either party can assume to have the agent or the
patient, the toil spreader or the prey, in the affair. When in the
course of things the disclosure came, there was nothing in a manner
for either party to disclose to the other....
There was no period of throes and resolute explanation attendant on
the tale. It was friendship melting into love.
They did not, however, marry at once. Godwin's opinion of marriage, looked
on as indissoluble, was that it was "a law, and the worst of all laws." In
accordance with this view, the ceremony did not take place till their
union had lasted some months, and when it did, it was regarded by Godwin
in the light of a distinct concession. He expresses himself most
decisively on this point in a letter to his friend, Mr. Wedgwood of
Etruria (printed by Mr. Kegan Paul in his memoirs of Godwin), announcing
his marriage, which had actually taken place a month before, but had been
kept secret.
Some persons have found an inconsistency between my practice in this
instance and my doctrines. But I cannot see it. The doctrine of my
_Political Justice_ is, that an attachment in some degree permanent
between two persons of opposite sexes is right, but that marriage, as
practised in European countries, is wrong. I still adhere to that
opinion. Nothing but a regard for the happiness of the individual,
which I have no right to ignore, could have induced me to submit to an
institution which I wish to see abolished, and which I would recommend
to my fellow-men never to practise but with the greatest caution.
Having done what I thought was necessary for the peace and
respectability of the individual, I hold myself no otherwise bound
than I was before the ceremony took place.
It is certain that he did not repent his concession. But their wedded
happiness was of short duration. On 30th August 1797 a little girl was
born to them.
All seemed well at first with the mother. But during the night which
followed alarming symptoms made their appearance. For a time it was hoped
that these had been overcome, and a deceptive rally of two days set
Godwin free from anxiety. But a change for the worst supervened, and after
four days of intense suffering, sweetly and patiently borne, Mary died,
and Godwin was again alone.