orld; may they be fulfilled.[87]

NOTES TO _MATHILDA_

Abbreviations:

_F of F--A_ _The Fields of Fancy_, in Lord Abinger's notebook
_F of F--B_ _The Fields of Fancy_, in the notebook in the Bodleian Library
_S-R fr_ fragments of _The Fields of Fancy_ among the papers of the
late Sir John Shelley-Rolls, now in the Bodleian Library

[1] The name is spelled thus in the MSS of _Mathilda_ and _The Fields
of Fancy_, though in the printed _Journal_ (taken from _Shelley and
Mary_) and in the _Letters_ it is spelled _Matilda_. In the MS of the
journal, however, it is spelled first _Matilda_, later _Mathilda_.

[2] Mary has here added detail and contrast to the description in _F
of F--A_, in which the passage "save a few black patches ... on the
plain ground" does not appear.

[3] The addition of "I am alone ... withered me" motivates Mathilda's
state of mind and her resolve to write her history.

[4] Mathilda too is the unwitting victim in a story of incest. Like
Oedipus, she has lost her parent-lover by suicide; like him she leaves
the scene of the revelation overwhelmed by a sense of her own guilt,
"a sacred horror"; like him, she finds a measure of peace as she is
about to die.

[5] The addition of "the precious memorials ... gratitude towards
you," by its suggestion of the relationship between Mathilda and
Woodville, serves to justify the detailed narration.

[6] At this point two sheets have been removed from the notebook.
There is no break in continuity, however.

[7] The descriptions of Mathilda's father and mother and the account
of their marriage in the next few pages are greatly expanded from _F
of F--A_, where there is only one brief paragraph. The process of
expansion can be followed in _S-R fr_ and in _F of F--B_. The
development of the character of Diana (who represents Mary's own
mother, Mary Wollstonecraft) gave Mary the most trouble. For the
identifications with Mary's father and mother, see Nitchie, _Mary
Shelley_, pp. 11, 90-93, 96-97.

[8] The passage "There was a gentleman ... school & college vacations"
is on a slip of paper pasted on page 11 of the MS. In the margin are
two fragments, crossed out, evidently parts of what is supplanted by
the substituted passage: "an angelic disposition and a quick,
penetrating understanding" and "her visits ... to ... his house were
long & frequent & there." In _F of F--B_ Mary wrote of Diana's
understanding "that often receives the