Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), poet, was born at Field Place, Warnham, on 4 August 1792, and attended the Sion House academy at Brentford, and then Eton. He entered University College, Oxford, in 1810, but was sent down the following year after writing the pamphlet The necessity of atheism . He eloped to Scotland with Harriet Westbrook, whom he married in Edinburgh in 1811. Shelley spent 1812 in Ireland, addressing meetings and writing pamphlets. In 1814 he left his wife and fled to the continent with Mary Godwin. He left England again in 1816, and travelled with Mary and Lord Byron on the continent. In 1818 he departed England for Italy, where he settled. He was drowned after leaving Leghorn to sail to Spezzia on 8 July 1822.

From the guide to the Percy Bysshe Shelley: To Jane. The Invitation, 1822, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)

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