• my heart was poisoned with remorse This may seem a strange usage, but it accords with the primary meaning of "remorse"
    in Mary Shelley's day. Johnson's Dictionary (1755) lists the following two definitions:
    • Pain of guilt
    • Tenderness; pity; sympathetick sorrow

    In both cases, but particularly in the first, remorse involves a passionate suffering
    that could be likened to the action of poison.