“I send you the two notes, which will tell you the story I allude to, of the auto da fé. Shelley’s allusion to “his fellow serpent,” is a buffoonery of mine. Göthe’s Mephistopholes 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.
