A Galley Life ( 1836—1841)

Abstract Godwin’s death presented an immediate problem, described by Trelawny to Claire as ‘keeping your mother afloat’. After thirty-five years of marriage, of copying manuscripts, and attempting to publish books, of unpaid rent and household bills, of bankruptcies and loans spent before they were received, Godwin’s widow was left with less than a hundred pounds. She proposed that Claire should keep house for her and her son’s widow Emily ‘in some village about town’, but Trelawny knew his old flame too well for this. It would be ‘a galley life’. The widow was ‘crony, rheumy-rheumatic and phtisicy … that will never do. Claire had better be housekeeper to my houseless self.’