Chapter VII: London and Bracknell 164

Imprint of _Queen Mab_--The Poem’s Notes--The Author’s Views
touching Marriage--Places of Abode in London--Presentation
Copies--Shelley ‘a Lion’--Half-Moon Street--Diet and
Discomfort--Quacks and Crotchet-Mongers--‘Nakedized
Children’--Cornelia Newton--Maimuna and her Salon--
Elephantiasis--‘The Hampstead Stage’--Dinner Party at Norfolk
House--The Duke’s Mediation between the Father and Son--
Failure of the Negotiations--Shelley declines to be ‘a
miserable Slave’--At the Pimlico Lodgings--Correspondence
with Mr. Medwin, of Horsham--Birth of Ianthe Eliza--Shelley
as a Father--Conflict of Evidence respecting his Parental
Character--Shelley’s Kindness to Children--The Poet sets up
his Carriage--His Prodigality in London--His Life at
Bracknell--Maimuna at her Country-House--Last Visits to Field
Place--Captain Kennedy’s Reminiscences--Medwin’s Gossip--The
Trip to Scotland--Dissensions and Estrangements--Shelley and
Harriett drifting apart--_Queen Mab’s_ Vegetarian
Note--_Refutation of Deism_.