Here’s the latest update to the History pages of the IVU website.
The diary of George Bernard Shaw, October 12, 1890 records: ". . . I wrote some stuff for The Star about Salt's forthcoming lecture at the Shelley Society."
The diaries editor added an extract from four unsigned paragraphs . . . The Star, 14 October 1890:
"It is an open secret that the bulk of the members [of the Shelley Society] hold Shelley's opinions in abhorrence, and, indeed, regard the Society as a genteel conspiracy to maintain that the poet was a devout upholder of the Church of England and a strict monogamist. One of the most awful blows the society ever received was at one of its earliest public meetings [March, 1886], when Bernard Shaw, with an ingenious air of having something particularly acceptable to communicate, got up and began, 'Mr. Chairman: I am a socialist, an atheist, and a vegetarian, and therefore feel that all true Shellyans will welcome my presence here this evening.' &c. &c.
Whenever a lecture is delivered to the Society by anyone whose opinions in the least resemble Shelley's the committee invariably stays away, with the exception of William Rosetti, who never flinches from his place in the chair, the indomitable Furnivall, and Mr. Salt . . . . the mildest-mannered man that ever defied society."
Shelley's character had indeed been whitewashed, since his death in 1822 at the age of 29, by those who liked his poetry but couldn't cope with the views of Shelley himself. The problem, as his widow made clear in her posthumous publication of his poetry, is that much of it needs to be read in the context of his life, and his views, to make real sense.
The Shelley section of the IVU website has now been considerably expanded to include:
- items about his vegetarianism, his life and philosophy (he almost became a philosopher but decided on being a poet instead)
- a complete collection of his poetry and much of his political prose writing.
- a large collection of articles from the time of the Shelley Society in the 1880s and 90s, mostly by Henry S. Salt, GBS's friend.
see: www.ivu.org/history/shelley
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