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Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley
At the butcher's pig parts
called pork bellies
while cow muscles are sold
at the corner deli
Elsewhere gelatin as soft
as jelly
none eaten by Mary
and Percy Bysshe Shelley
----
note
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein
at the age of 19
Forgive me, I just have to
Forgive me, I just have to add a couple of more things about Mary Shelley.
Scholars who study her husband's poetry now agree that her posthumous edition of his collected poems continues to be the foundation text/version of his reputation as a poet.
After the poet drowned, Mary's father-in-law, Sir Timothy, contributed to her son's maintenance, but only the barest minimum, and only if she agreed that her married surname would not appear on any of her novels. Through her lifetime, her novels, after the first, were printed as "By the author of Frankenstein." Even after he passed, she continued to use that format. However, after he passed, her son, his grandson, inherited the estate, the title, and the almost castle-like house, from which she had been banned, and her son and his wife moved into the manor house and then brought her there as well.
One of Mary's most ardent readers was the Duke of Clarence, who was later crowned as William IV. A collector of novels---many of which are now taught in our schools and colleges---he obtained first editions of each of Mary's novels as they came out. For his coronation, he invited several of his favorite writers to attend, despite the objections of the Archbishop of Canterbury that this broke with tradition (to which William replied that it was his coronation, not the Archbishop's). Mary was the only female novelist included in that group. Later, her father-in-law, Sir Timothy, was summoned to the Palace, and he arrived fully anticipating that the King was about to bestow upon him some additional honor, perhaps a higher peerage. After being made to wait alone for several hours, he was finally summoned into the presence of the King's private secretary, who informed him that the King was well aware of Sir Timothy's minimum child support payments, and the King took a very dim view of the arrangement. The secretary went on to say that the King expected more generous arrangements to be implemented immediately.
Like many novelists, Mary was asked if Frankenstein could be adapted for theatrical presentation, to which she consented, provided she was given tickets for the opening night. Another writer, a dramatist whose name I have forgotten, actually wrote the first staged version of the novel. A very tall, very well established, actor was cast as the Monster, and he devised his own make-up, which was considered to be extremely horrific for that time and place. Mary was given use of one of the boxes normally reserved for the aristocracy. After the play, while he was getting out of costume, the actor who had been cast as the Monster was told that Mrs. Shelley had requested permission to come backstage and meet him. He became very shakey and burst into a cold sweat---because he admired the novel so much, and was terrified that he had not brought out every possible nuance of his character's role. This actor was over six feet tall, and Mary Shelley was barely five feet tall with shoes on. When she was brought backstage to meet him, he admitted that he was absolutely terrified to meet her, and she found that ironic, given their respective heights/statures. However, she told him that she had found his performance very accurate and very respectful toward what she had attempted to represent in the Monster. He later said that her approval meant more to him than the finest reviews he had received for any part he had played.
J-Called
I applaud your poem about
I applaud your poem about Mary Shelley. She has been a part of my life since I was five years old. During my undergrad years, my interest in her was challeneged and severely criticized by the academic establishment, with whom she had never been in favor. Twenty-one years after graduation, at a reunion lunch, my former faculty advisor greeted me with the words, "Is Mary Shelley still your girl?" to which I replied with a resounding and enthusiastic "Yes!!!!!" When I was hospitalized in 2019, I had the thrill of hearing, on the television, one of the Nobel laureates suggest that every freshman science major should be required to read, and write an interpretive essay on, Frankenstein. Now she is also credited with having invented apocalyptic science fiction with her novel, The Last Man.
In her journal, which was published in 1941 (although edited by a scholar who despised her, and said so openly), the final entry, written before she experienced the brain stroke that proved fatal, she wrote this line, which stamds as the final words in the journal: "Preserve, always, the habit of giving."
J-Called