ABSTRACT
Mary S. quoted ‘Shelley’s distitch’ in a letter to Hogg on 25 April 1815, to describe her reaction to his letters when she was on holiday with S. at Salt Hill near Eton, but the joking lines were no doubt already in circulation among the three of them. ‘The Dormouse’, ‘the Maie’, and ‘Pecksie’ were pet names for Mary S. (she signed this letter ‘Your affectionate Dormouse’). It has been suggested that ‘Pecksie’ derives from one of the nestlings in ‘The History of the Robins’ in Mrs Trimmer’s Fabulous Histories: Designed for the Instruction of Children (1786, many edns), where Pecksy could not learn music (ch. ii), was very amiable (ch. iii), and ‘knew the value of parental instruction so well, that she should certainly treasure up in her heart every maxim of it’ (ch. xxiii), but which, if any, of these characteristics was the operative one is unknown. A ‘maie’ was a French kneading-trough for bread; but the relevance is even more dubious. Mary S. quoted four more lines in her letter, which may or may not be also S.’s invention: For Maië girls are Maië girls Wherever they’re found In air or in water Or In the ground
