Trelawny's Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron.
With Introduction by Edward Dowden. (H. Frowde. 2s. Gd. net.)—Edward John Trelawny published his " Recollections " of the two poets in 1858, and his " Records," an enlarged edition of the earlier book, in 1878. He died three years afterwards. Byron said of him that "even to save his life " be could not tell the truth. This was going much too far ; but it is clear that anything like implicit trust in Trelawny's story would be wrong. Professor Dowden gives a conclusive instance. Shelley's widow died in 1851. She had refused an offer from Trelawny, and she had declined to help him in putting together a memoir of Shelley. Nevertheless, she is favourably judged in the "Recollections," while in the "Records" she becomes a commonplace and perverse woman. Trelawny had brooded over fancied wrongs till his outlook on a long-past time had wholly changed; we have to be cautious, therefore, when we read him. Probably his picture of Shelley is more to be trusted than that of Byron, though, indeed, there is nothing impossible in the latter presentment. In Byron's case, however, there was a disposition to be unfavourable. The personality of Shelley, on the other hand, is singularly attractive. Manifestly he took the young stranger's heart by storm. The "last days" are vividly described. We hear much of the fatal boat, "built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark." It was constructed on unusual lines, and seems to have acquired a reputation for instability. Williams, who perished with Shelley, was infatuated with it. As for Shelley, he was absolutely help- less. Byron was dead when Trelawny reached Missolonghi. The recollections in this case are not so interesting. But the volume as a whole is eminently worth reading.
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