Shelley & Mary & Byron & Claire Quiz

Answer: A kilt

When Percy Bysshe Shelley first met love-of-his-life Mary Wollstencraft Godwin, she had just returned home from a visit with family friends in Scotland and was dressed in a kilt they had given her. It might seem an odd choice for household attire, but the Godwins were a well-known literary family, given to eccentricties of ideas and lifestyle.

In fact, Mary's father, William Godwin wrote "Political Justice" the book that inspired Shelley to rebel against his own rich, conventional-minded family and pursue a career as a politically driven, socially passionate poet.

Answer: Committed suicide

Harriet Westbrook Shelley was a mere 16 years of age when she and Shelley fled London to marry against the wishes of both of their families. The daughter of a wealthy wine merchant, Harriet soon abandoned her bourgeois ways and embraced Shelley's arty, 'counterculture' lifetsyle, giving him two children before he left her for Mary.

Not long afterward, Harriet committed suicide by jumping into the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park. Although subsequently dismissed by Shelley enthusiasts who saw her as a vapid "first love" unable to sustain Shelley's interest, Harriet did have some notable supporters. American humorist and author Mark Twain even wrote an essay detailing her plight, entitled "In Defense of Harriet."

Answer: She speaks French

Vivacious, outspoken, dark-haired Claire Claremont was "third wheel" to Shelley and Mary from the start. She later told friends that the couple took her to France with them because they needed someone who spoke fluent French to act as a translator. In fact, Claire showed clear signs of being in love with Shelley herself and has even been "accused" of having had his baby in secret while she, he and Mary were all living in Italy. Only a year younger than Mary, Claire (formerly Mary Ann) Claremont was both an integral part of the Shelleys' lives and one of its biggest frustrations.

Answer: She wrote him a fan letter

Claire was no slouch when it came to going after what she wanted. Determined to meet famous, handsome Lord Byron, she wrote a letter to him in the guise of an aspiring actress who needed career advice. Since Byron was on the board of Drury Lane Theater, he invited her down for an audition. Claire accepted the invitation, thus sparking the brief, infamous love affair that ended in hatred and tragedy on both sides.

Answer: A baby she will name Allegra

By the time the Shelleyan circle spent their famous night at Byron's chateau in Geneva, Byron and Claire's romance was history. Unfortunately, Claire was already pregnant with Byron's child, which posed a major problem for a young unwed woman in the Georgian era. Ultimately, the Shelleys came up with the idea of pretending to be the guardians of the new baby, with Claire posing as its nanny.

It was a conceit they maintained until Claire gave custody of the child to Byron, who installed her in an Italian convent where she died of influenza at the age of six.

Answer: All three died

Before the trio left for Italy, the Shelleys lost their first child to SIDS. While in Italy, their baby daughter Clara died of fever, a year before their beloved son William died of a similar illness. Claire's daughter Allegra died of influenza three years later.

In the end, there was but one child, Percy Florence, who was born only months before his father's death on July 8, 1822. At 25, Mary had lost three children and a husband. She never fully recovered from the pain of her children's deaths, nor did she ever marry again.

Answer: Shelley's heavy drinking

Although often portrayed in films as a wild, hedonistic drunk, Shelley was a near-teetotaller who chastised others for excessive drinking. Claire's constant presence in the household was a thorn in Mary's side from the start, a problem exacerbated by Claire's dramatic ups and downs with ex-lover Byron.

Shelley's frequent "emotional affairs" with other women were also a trial for Mary, although Shelley blamed his wandering eye on her coldness and depression after the loss of their children.

Answer: The Don Juan

Byron's negative feelings about Claire didn't stop him from maintaining a rocky, but intense friendship with Shelley. The two men spent many hours together, discussing poetry, shooting pistols (Shelley was a crack shot), and riding horses. But it was Shelley's love of sailing that brought them together on a truly fateful level.

After Shelley bought the boat on which he would later drown, Byron had "The Don Juan" painted on its sails in honor of his recently published epic poem. But Shelley had the name washed off in favor of "Ariel", the name of a fairy in his first major poem, "Queen Mab."

Answer: Byron

Shelley's first major poem, "Queen Mab", contained a detailed treatise on the positive effects of a vegetarian diet, whch Shelley followed despite a natural tendency toward "delicate health". After meeting Shelley, Mary and Claire became vegetarians as well, presumably for the rest of their lives. Byron, however, chastised the trio for their rejection of meat, going so far as to denounce their vegetarianism as "heathen".

He once angrily told Claire that he did not want their daughter, Allegra brought up on "green vegetables."

Answer: It was cremated

After Shelley's drowned body was recovered from the Mediterranean near Livorno, Italy, it was burned on the beach in accordance with Italian laws established to decrease the spread of disease. As it burned, family friend Leigh Hunt suddenly ran over and snatched the blackened heart from the smoldering chest cavity.

He kept the heart for years before finally honoring Mary's repeated request that he give it to her. Coda: Four years after Shelley's death in 1822, Byron died of fever in Greece. Mary died in England at the age of 54, a celebrated writer and famous widow. Claire outlived them all, dying in her 80s, never having returned to England.

Her epitaph, which she wrote, said: "She spent her life expatiating not only her faults, but her virtues." Adeiu!