The state of
his health, for he had appeared to be in a consumption for some time,
and the fear lest his son, by his second wife, should be taken from him,
combined to induce him to take refuge in Italy from both impending
evils. At Lucca he began his _Prometheus_, and wrote _Julian and
Maddalo_. He moved from place to place in Italy, as he had done in his
own country. Their two children dying, they were for a time left
childless; but the loss of these grieved Shelley less than that of his
eldest two, who were taken from him by the hand of man. In 1819, Shelley
finished his _Prometheus Unbound_, writing the greater part at Rome, and
completing it at Florence. In this year also he wrote his tragedy, _The
Cenci_, which attracted more attention during his lifetime than any
other of his works. The _Ode to a Skylark_ was written at Leghorn in the
spring of 1820; and in August of the same year, the _Witch of Atlas_ was
written, near Pisa. In the following year Shelley and Byron met at Pisa.
They were a good deal together; but their friendship, although real,
does not appear to have been of a very profound nature; for though
unlikeness be one of the necessary elements of friendship, there are
kinds of unlikeness which will not harmonize.
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