“I send you the two notes, which will tell you the story I allude to of the Auto da Fè. Shelley’s allusion to his ‘fellow-serpent’ is a buffoonery of mine. Goëthe’s Mephistofilus calls the serpent who tempted Eve ‘my aunt, the renowned snake;’ and I always insist that Shelley is nothing but one of her nephews, walking about on the tip of his tail.”
