SHELLEY’S GREAT HEART

One of the most enduring myths connected with the life and death of Percy Bysshe Shelley is that his heart survived the cremation of his body that took place in 1822 on the beach at Viareggio, Italy.

 Here’s the bare bones of the story: Shelley went sailing. Shelley drowned. Shelley’s badly decomposed body turned up on a beach ten days later. Shelley’s friends cremated his body under somewhat extraordinary circumstances. After the entire body had been reduced to ashes, it was alleged that his heart had, as if by a miracle, survived the intense heat - heat sufficient to reduce his bones to ashes. And so, it became a miracle, and the hagiography of Shelley (an irreligious, confirmed atheist) began. And everyone got involved.

But I’m not going to bury the lede. That is an utter fantasy. It did not happen. And why Shelley scholars have been so reluctant to reject and debunk the myth remains a mystery. But I am undaunted. So, let’s dig in and go straight to the facts connected with the cremation. And let’s bring some experts to the stage.

At the time of his death, Shelley and his wife Mary had been living in San Terenzo in a ramshackle house that was literally right on the beach. In 2017 I visited the scene and captured some, I think, remarkable footage. Here I am across the little bay from where Shelley lived out his days.

Shelley had acquired a small boat which he used to sail for pleasure in the area. He also would use it to travel about 80 kilometers down the coast to Livorno to visit his friends, including Lord Byron. On July 1st he set off with his friend Edward Williams on just such a voyage.

After 7 days in Livorno, Shelley, Williams and a young deck hand Charles Vivian set out to return home. The weather was not promising, and the region was well known for sudden, unpredictable storms. His friend Trelawney attempted to follow him in Byron’s boat, The Bolivar, but was turned back by port authorities because he lacked the necessary credentials to leave port. According to Trelawney, through his telescope he observed the Ariel sail into the gloom. Hours later a violent storm hit Livorno. Looking again through his telescope, he saw no sign of the Ariel.

When I visited Livorno is 2017, I was in search some footage to give a sense of where Shelley would have been at the time. I was immensely disappointed to discover a congested city with almost no views. Disconsolate we drove out to the outskirts. In search of a washroom, I suddenly noticed a ten story Sofitel! Right on the beach. It occurred that there HAD to be a roof top restaurant, right? There was. And it was gorgeous. And it had a 360-degree view of the entire waterfront. I can safely say that no one has ever captured this view. You are seeing it for the first time. And it most definitely will add to your appreciation of what transpired. 

 There is much controversy about the sinking of the Ariel. Whatever the circumstances were, sink she did. And with her went Shelley, Williams and Vivian. None survived. But it is nonetheless worth some amateur meteorological observations. The day we filmed from the roof of the Sofitel, it occurred to me that the weather was uncannily like the weather that has been described by multiple witnesses in 1822.

In the following days their bodies, one by one, were discovered washed up the beaches between Livorno and Viareggio. First Williams was found at the mouth of the Serichio; then Shelley at Viareggio and finally Vivian further north at Massa. The search had been led mostly by Trelawney, but Byron and Leigh Hunt were most definitely involved and would remain so through the ensuing days. It took about ten days for the bodies to wash ashore. This would not have been an easy hunt as the shoreline was heavily wooded and not easy to access.

[Add image of what Shelley’s Boat might have looked like]

Most unfortunately all of my photographs and videos (save one) of the beach at Viareggio (see below) are missing at the time of writing. If I can locate them, I will update this article to include them.

The bodies were badly decomposed and at first difficult to identify. Shelley was the easiest. Despite all of his exposed flesh having been eaten away by scavenging fish, he still had his clothes on, and the Trelawney found two books in his pockets; books known to have been in Shelley’s possession. To comply with the quarantine laws, the local sanitary authorities demanded that the bodies be buried immediately – exactly where they were found. And so, a pit of sand was dug, and Shelley’s remains were interred much to the consternation of Mary and his friends. The body was covered with quicklime.

Now here is an important detail. People today have generally no idea why quicklime was used on corpses. Most think it was designed to hasten the decomposition of the body.  But that is not true. According to a recent article by Eline Schotsmans, et al, “…studies demonstrate that despite conflicting evidence in the literature, hydrated lime and quicklime both delay the decay of the carcass during the first 6 months.”  It also tamps down the odor of rotting flesh.

It was Mary’s wish that Shelley should be moved to Rome to be buried next to their dead son (see below).  Jane wanted her husband’s body returned to England. Shelley’s friends, led largely by Trelawney set about to make this happen.

The strict sanitary laws in place at the time were designed to prevent the spread of unknown diseases, including the plague which still haunted the imaginations of Europeans. So, Trelawney and Byron came up with a plan to satisfy the health officials. They would disinter the body and immediately cremate the remains. Even so it too a lot of convincing to get the necessary permission. I don’t think we should underestimate the influence that Byron, an international celebrity and English Lord, might have had in convincing the authorities to allow this highly unusual step to be taken.

Trelawney took no half measures. To the extent people have thought about the circumstances of the cremation, folks assume Shelley was burned on a big pile of wood – a funeral pyre, just like the ancient Greeks burned their heroes - as described by Homer. There is in fact a painting of the scene. But the scene depicted in this famous 1889 painting NEVER HAPPENED.  Byron was not there.  Mary was not there. Hunt was not there. Shelley was cremated in a jury-rigged furnace. His body was badly decomposed.  And it is unlikely the sanitary authorities would have approved. This painting is a lie. It was all part of the industrial myth building complex that took over after Shelley died but such a fire needs to be huge (and the body would most certainly not have been properly cremated on the dinky fire pictured above).

So, incredibly, Trelawney created a portable crematorium:

“I made my preparations by ordering a machine of iron 5 feet long and two [feet wide] with a proportionate rim entirely round [it] supported by legs 2 feet high to burn the body in. To receive the ashes, I gave directions for two boxes of a foot and a half in length with proportionate breaths and depth to be covered with black velvet and fastened with screws. A plate of brass was to be attached on the top with a Latin inscription simply stating their loss by shipwreck, age, country, etc.”

Trelawney, Byron, Hunt, a sanitary officer and five soldiers were present on August 15 for a “test run of the apparatus at the site of Williams burial. It took more than four hours to cremate the body and was a messy business. Everyone was exhausted. But they were committed. The very next day they arrived at Shelley’s grave. Mary was NOT present. Trelawney described the scene:

“The lonely and grand scenery that surrounded us so act exactly harmonized with Shelley’s genius that I could imagine his spirit soaring over us. The sea, with the islands of Gorgona, Capri and Elba, was before us; old battlemented watchtowers stretched along the coast, backed by the marble crested Apennines, glistening in the sun, picturesque in their diversified outlines, and not a human dwelling was in sight”

This was the beach at Viareggio. I have been there and one thing that I can tell you is that even from the top of a tall building, you cannot see the islands of Gorgona, Capri, and Elba. You can clearly see in Trelawney’s choice of words, hints of the myth that was in development.

It had been difficult to relocate Shelley’s body. And when they removed it from the sandy grave it fragmented. But it was hoisted into the crematorium and the fire lit. Trelawney claims to have uttered an incantation (which seems to have been later confirmed by Byron):

“I restore to nature through fire, the elements of which this man was composed: earth, air, and water: everything is changed, but not annihilated; he is now a portion of that which she worshiped.”

He also tossed frankincense, oil and wine into the fire at the same time. This did leave one biographer of Byron’s to remark that a scene such as this had probably not been seen in the Mediterranean for 2000 years. Byron’s remark was, “I knew you were a pagan, but not that you were a pagan priest; you did this very well”.

But Byron grew weary of the gruesome scene. It was going to take hours (eventually six) two completely burn the remains. Lay hunt had no stomach for it all and returned to his carriage to await the creations conclusion. Byron for his part swam out to the Bolivar, which was anchored about a mile offshore. Shortly thereafter, the fire still burning, he returned to land, joined Hunt and the two left Trelawney to complete the cremation.  So apart from Trelawney, no one witnessed what was about to happen. And ALL accounts rely totally on what he told people.

Here is what he wrote in the immediate aftermath of the cremation.

“Although we made a tremendous fire, it burnt exceedingly slow; and it was three hours before the body separated. It then fell open across the breast and the heart, which was now seen, was likewise small. It was nearly 4 o’clock before the body was whole consumed, that part nearest the heart being the last that became ashes. And the heart itself seemed proof against the fire, for it was still perfect, and though the largest bones were reduced to white ashes, the heart which although bedded in fire would not burn. After waiting an hour continually adding fuel, it became late and we gave over by mutual conviction of it being unavailing, all exclaiming, it will not burn. There was a bright flame round it occasioned by the moisture, still flowing from it, and removing the furnace nearer to the sea to immerse the iron, I took the heart in my hand to examine it after sprinkling it with water; yet it was still so hot as to burn my hand badly and quantity of this oily fluid, still flowed from it.”

It is important to focus on EXACTLY what Trelawney’s claim was. He claimed the heart (first seen after about three hours) survived the entire cremation process and that it was “perfect” - after over 6 hours of incineration and after every other component of the body was reduced to ash - bones included. It is also an odd that after seeing a “perfect” heart he added more fuel to the fire and only then removed the heart. Why? Because it was absolutely essential for the myth, the legend, that he wanted to create that the heart had to have survived the entire cremation process.

If he had plucked the heart out at the beginning (or even mid way through) it would not have been as compelling. It would not have been a a sort of “miracle”. But if the heart survived the entire six or seven hour process, well that might just BE something like a miracle; something to build a legend upon. And that is EXACTLY what Trelawney wanted to do.

The circumstances of his death and the actions of his friends and loved ones contributed to a veritable circus of hagiography and myth-making that continues to this day - replete with the development of a trove of "relics" and icons many of which are of dubious provenance - including his heart. The story of the heart kicked off the proceedings. And the myth has lived on and has assumed quasi-religious. if not outright religious, overtones. Indeed, shortly after his death Shelley was going to undergo a full-blown deification; with which Mary was a knowing and enthusiastic participant. Michael Gamer in his article, “Shelley’s Incineration” wrote:

From Trelawny's decision to pluck Shelley's heart from the crematory fire (which at once scorched his hand and produced a quarrel between Mary Shelley and Hunt over who had the greater right to it), to Hunt's first announcements of Shelley's death in The Examiner (which produced a firefight in the London press), to the myriad of accounts of Shelley's life published over the next decades (themselves the children of such controversies), the task of creating what commentators have called the "Shelley Myth" was a collective effort, fre­quently contentious but remarkably coherent in purpose and symbolic language.

I think Shelley, who was a sophisticated skeptic and one of history’s great atheists, would be appalled. And I think he would be very happy to have a stake driven through the heart of this myth and the hagiography which ensued..

In some quarters doubt did began to creep in. Something didn’t add up. It just sounded TOO good to be true; the heart of a poet surviving temperatures of over 700 degrees Celsius? While the bones turned to ash? To rebut the doubters a new theory was advanced. Shelley’s heart had survived because there had been extensive “calcification” as the result of the “pericardium” effect.  This is the so-called “armoured heart” theory. Several otherwise reputable Shelley scholars have ascribed to this theory. If you Google “Shelley’s Heart” today, you will find the myth perpetuated but adjusted. It is now common to refer to the heart as his “calcified heart” often with the suggestion that “physicians” attribute this to an earlier bout with tuberculosis.

Yet people have clung tenaciously to the theory that Shelley’s heart survived the cremation process.  I guess many of them wanted then and want now to believe that a miracle happened. That Shelley was somehow special; more than special.

In 1967, at last, this story fell into the hands of Dr. Earle Parkhill Scarlett. According to one biographical note, “Scarlett was a man of distinction and culture. He was a classical scholar, author, historian, musicologist, and physician. More importantly, he had a particular specialty in heart disease and had mastered the electrocardiograph. Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Volume 118 in October 1966, Scarlett challenged Trelawney’s version. After reviewing the evidence, he wrote:

“First, it should be noted that apart from some minor in dispositions and a hypochondriacal tendency, quite in keeping with an individual of Shelley’s temperament, there is nothing of note in his past medical history, nor is there any suggestion of symptoms, such as dyspnea, abdominal swelling, or edema, such as one might expect with advanced pericardial involvement. Shelley was unusually well and active during the last months of his life. Then it was noted by all observers that the heart was small which, while still compatible with pericardial calcification, would hardly be expected in a case of extreme calcification. In short, with calcification so extensive as to prevent destruction by burning one would’ve expected symptoms and signs of constrictive pericarditis, and of these there is no evidence whatsoever.” (emphasis added).

For some reason, with the sole exception of Bieri, this article has not attracted the notice of a single Shelley scholar. And Bieri’s reference to it was in a footnote and oblique at best. I have searched in vain to see another single medical opinion offered – and I do not believe there is - simply endless speculation by non-experts over the decades. Scarlett’s article was hidden behind an expensive paywall which I breached with a hefty contribution to the owner of the copyright. But at least here it is exposed to daylight for the first time.

In order to double check the finding of Dr. Scarlett, I asked Dr. Paul Hacker BSC, MD, FRCPC, FACC to review Scarlett’s article and bring a 21st Century medical perspective to the table.

Dr. Hacker practices general cardiology including cardiac catheterization at Markham Stouffville Hospital. Here is what he had to say:

[INSERT PAUL’S PARAGRAPH(S)]

Thus, we have a very definitive set of medical opinions which once and for all put to rest the idea that Shelley’s heart survived the entire 6-hour cremation process.  One more Shelley myth bites the dust.

But I don’t want people to leave angry or sad. I want to offer my own theory which might make everyone happy.  One thing we know. Trelawney had something; it was enough to convince Mary to keep it her for the rest of her life. So what was it? Maybe, as first postulated by the New York Times in 1885 according to Anna Mazola, it was the liver? Surely that makes no one happy.

So, I’m going to leave you with this thought. What if it WAS the heart? What it Trelawney simply lied about when he took the heart out of the flames. Maybe he removed the heart when he first saw it and then concocted a lie to help create his legend. This only matters if our goal is to demythologize the story of the heart. And I believe I have, with an able assist from Drs. Scarlett and Hacker. What we can authoritatively say now is that Trelawney did not remove the heart from the flames after every part of the body had been reduced to ashes. That myth is dead - there was nothing miraculous or special about Shelley’s heart. Or was there?

Shelley had a big, capacious heart. It was bursting with love. Love for his fellow human beings; love for nature, for literature, for plants and animals - for everything. He created an entire poetic/philosophical system based on empathy to help us experience a revolution of love in our minds so that we can work together to change to world for the better. Now THAT’S a great heart.

Postscript.

After the cremation was completed, Trelawney immersed what he called the heart in some wine to “preserve” it. And put Shelley’s ashes in the pre-prepared boxes. He then returned to Livorno and his friends with the foregoing story. Clearly from everything that Byron, Hunt and the others wrote thereafter they took Trelawney’s words as truth. In fact, an unseemly quarrel erupted between Hunt and Mary as to who the heart actually belonged to. With Hunt only reluctantly yielding it to her. Mary kept what she believed to be Shelley’s heart with her for the rest of her life. Upon her death in 1851, it was buried with her. As for Shelley? He was in fact buried in Rome near to his beloved son in the il Cimitero Acattolico di Roma (The Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome - otherwise known as the “Protestant Cemetery”). It is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. You should visit. I wrote about it here. I hope my ashes will find their way to il Cimitero Acattolico di Roma someday in the care of someone who loved me. And I dedicate this and my entire work on Shelley to that special person.