''The Cenci. A Tragedy, in Five Acts'' ( ; 1820) is a

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse (poetry), a line or lines in a poetic composition * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict meter or rhyme, but still re ...

drama in five acts by

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

written in the summer of 1819, and inspired by a real Roman family, the House of Cenci (in particular,

Beatrice Cenci Beatrice Cenci ( , ; 6 February 157711 September 1599) was an Italian noblewoman imprisoned and repeatedly raped by her own father. She killed him, and was tried for murder. Despite outpourings of public sympathy, Cenci was beheaded in 1599 ...

). Shelley composed the play in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and at Villa Valsovano near

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

, from May to 5 August 1819. The work was published by Charles and James Ollier in London in 1819. The Livorno edition was printed in Livorno, Italy by Shelley himself in a run of 250 copies. Shelley told

Thomas Love Peacock Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and they influenced each other's work. Peacock wrote satirical novels ...

that he arranged for the printing himself because in Italy "it costs, with all duties and freightage, about half of what it would cost in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

." Shelley sought to have the play staged, describing it as "totally different from anything you might conjecture that I should write; of a more popular kind... written for the multitude." Shelley wrote to his publisher Charles Ollier that he was confident that the play "will succeed as a publication." A second edition appeared in 1821, his only published work to go into a second edition during his lifetime. The play was not considered stageable in its day due to its themes of

incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...

and

parricide Parricide is the deliberate killing of one's own parent, spouse, child, or other close relative. However, the term is sometimes used more generally to refer to the intentional killing of a near relative. It is an umbrella term that can be used to ...

, and was not performed in public in England until 1922, when it was staged in London. In 1886 the Shelley Society had sponsored a private production at the

Grand Theatre, Islington The Grand Theatre, Islington – formerly the Philharmonic, Islington, later the Empire, Islington, and finally the Empire Cinema – was a theatre and later a cinema in the London suburb of Islington. Opened in 1860 as a concert hall it became a ...

, before an audience that included

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

, and

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

. Though there has been much debate over the play's stageability, it has been produced in many countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. It was included in the

Harvard Classics ''The Harvard Classics'', originally marketed as Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books, is a 50-volume series of classic works of world literature, important speeches, and historical documents compiled and edited by Harvard University President Ch ...

as one of the most important and representative works of the

Western canon The Western canon is the embodiment of High culture, high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly cherished across the Western culture, Western world, such works having achieved the status of classics. Recent ...

Plot

The horrific tragedy, set in 1599 in

, of a young woman executed for premeditated murder of her tyrannical father, was a well-known true story handed down orally and documented in the ''Annali d'Italia'', a twelve-volume chronicle of Italian history written by

Ludovico Antonio Muratori Lodovico Antonio Muratori (21 October 1672 – 23 January 1750), commonly referred to in Latin as Muratorius, was an Italian Catholic priest, notable as historian and a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragmen ...

in 1749. The events occurred during the

Pontificate The pontificate is the form of government used in Vatican City. The word came to English from French and simply means ''papacy'', or "to perform the functions of the Pope or other high official in the Church". Since there is only one bishop of Ro ...

Pope Clement VIII Pope Clement VIII (; ; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 January 1592 to his death in March 1605. Born in Fano, Papal States to a prominen ...

. Some local historical sources also note that Beatrice Cenci was born in a palazzo located in what is now the Regola district of Rome, near the present-day Hotel Monte Cenci. Shelley was first drawn to dramatize the tale after viewing a supposed portrait of Beatrice Cenci, then attributed to

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian Baroque painter, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but al ...

, which intrigued his poetic imagination. It is now thought to be by Ginevra Cantofoli. Act I The play opens with Cardinal Camillo discussing with Count Francesco Cenci a murder in which Cenci is implicated. Camillo tells Cenci that the matter will be hushed up if Cenci will relinquish a third of his possessions, his property beyond the Pincian gate, to the Church. Count Cenci has sent two of his sons, Rocco and Cristofano, to

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the expectation that they will die of starvation. The Count's virtuous daughter, Beatrice, and Orsino, a prelate in love with Beatrice, discuss petitioning the Pope to relieve the Cenci family from the Count's brutal rule. Orsino withholds the petition, however, revealing himself to be disingenuous, lustful for Beatrice, and greedy. After he hears the news that his sons have been brutally killed in Salamanca, the Count holds a feast in celebration of their deaths, commanding his guests to revel with him. Cenci drinks wine which he imagines as "my children's blood" which he "did thirst to drink!" During the feast, Beatrice pleads with the guests to protect her family from her sadistic father, but the guests refuse, in fear of Cenci's brutality and retribution. Act II Count Cenci torments Beatrice and her stepmother, Lucretia, and announces his plan to imprison them in his castle in Petrella. A servant returns Beatrice's petition to the Pope, unopened, and Beatrice and Lucretia despair over the last hope of salvation from the Count. Orsino encourages Cenci's son, Giacomo, upset over Cenci's appropriation of Giacomo's wife's dowry, to murder Cenci. Act III Beatrice reveals to Lucretia that the Count has committed an unnameable act against her and expresses feelings of spiritual and physical contamination, implying Cenci's incestuous rape of his daughter. Orsino and Lucretia agree with Beatrice's suggestion that the Count must be murdered. After the first attempt at patricide fails because Cenci arrives early, Orsino conspires with Beatrice, Lucretia, and Giacomo, in a second assassination plot. Orsino proposes that two of Cenci's ill-treated servants, Marzio and Olimpio, carry out the murder. Act IV The scene shifts to the Petrella Castle in the Apulian Apennines. Olimpio and Marzio enter Cenci's bedchamber to murder him but hesitate to kill the sleeping Count and return to the conspirators with the deed undone. Threatening to kill Cenci herself, Beatrice shames the servants into action, and Olimpio and Marzio strangle the Count and throw his body out of the room off the balcony, where it is entangled in a pine. Shortly thereafter, Savella, a papal legate, arrives with a murder charge and execution order against Cenci. Upon finding the Count's dead body, the legate arrests the conspirators, with the exception of Orsino, who escapes in disguise. Act V The suspects are taken for trial for murder in Rome. Marzio is tortured and confesses to the murder, implicating Cenci's family members. Despite learning that Lucretia and Giacomo have also confessed, Beatrice refuses to do so, steadfastly insisting on her innocence. At the trial, all of the conspirators are found guilty and sentenced to death. Bernardo, another of Cenci's sons, attempts a futile last-minute appeal to the Pope to have mercy on his family. The Pope is reported to have declared: "They must die." The play concludes with Beatrice walking stoically to her execution for murder. Her final words are: "We are quite ready. Well, 'tis very well."

Major characters

* Count Francesco Cenci, head of the Cenci household and family * Beatrice, his daughter * Lucretia, the wife of Francesco Cenci and the stepmother of his children * Cardinal Camillo * Orsino, a Prelate * Savella, the Pope's Legate * Andrea, a servant to Francesco Cenci * Marzio, an assassin * Olimpio, an assassin * Giacomo, son of Francesco Cenci * Bernardo, son of Francesco Cenci

Performance history

England

The play was first staged in England by the Shelley Society in 1886. It did not receive its first public performance in England until 1922.

France

The play's second production in France was in 1891, directed by Lugnè-Poe at the Theatre d'Art.^:1097

Antonin Artaud adaptation

Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

staged his adaptation ''Les Cenci'' in 1935 at the Theatre Folies-Wagram.^:1099 The production closed after 17 performances due to poor reviews.^:132 Artaud staged the production in line with his theory for a

Theatre of Cruelty The Theatre of Cruelty (, also ) is a form of theatre conceptualised by Antonin Artaud. Artaud, who was briefly a member of the surrealist movement, outlined his theories in a series of essays and letters, which were collected as '' The Theatre an ...

, though he stated that it "is not Theatre of Cruelty yet, but is a preparation for it."^:103 Artaud drew on Shelley's text, as well as a version of the tale by

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, , ), was a French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ('' The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de Parme'' ('' T ...

, and his adaptation "exaggerated the sadistic and pathological elements of the play to a point of violence".^:1099

Critical reception

In his 15 May 1886 review of the play,

concluded: "In fact no one has more clearly understood than Shelley the mission of the dramatist and the meaning of the drama." Alfred and H. Buxton Forman also praised ''The Cenci'' as a "tragic masterpiece", elevating Shelley into the company of

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

, and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centre ...

, to whom the play was dedicated, effused over Shelley's "great sweetness of nature, and enthusiasm for good".

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...

, in her note on the play, wrote that " iversal approbation soon stamped ''The Cenci'' as the best tragedy of modern times." She critically assessed Act V: "The Fifth Act is a masterpiece. It is the finest thing he ever wrote, and may claim proud comparison not only with any contemporary, but preceding, poet." She noted that "Shelley wished ''The Cenci'' to be acted", intending the work, which she wrote was of "surpassing excellence", to be an acting play, not a "closet drama". Shelley sought unsuccessfully to have the play staged at Covent Garden.

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

wrote his criticisms of the play in a letter to Shelley: "I read ''Cenci'' – but, besides that I think the subject essentially un-dramatic, I am not a great admirer of our old dramatists as models. I deny that the English have hitherto had a drama at all. Your ''Cenci'', however, was a work of power and poetry." Byron told

Thomas Medwin Thomas Medwin (20 March 1788 –2 August 1869) was an early 19th-century English writer, poet and translator. He is known chiefly for his biography of his cousin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and for published recollections of his friend, Lord Byron. ...

in conversation: "The ''Cenci'' is... perhaps the best tragedy modern times have produced."

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

reportedly called the play "the greatest tragedy of the age."Bieri, James. 2005 p. 137. After seeing a performance of the play in 1886, George Bernard Shaw commented that "Shelley and Shakespeare are the only dramatists who have dealt in despair of this quality." A reviewer writing for the ''

Literary Gazette ''The Literary Gazette'' was a British literary magazine, established in London in 1817 with its full title being ''The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences''. Sometimes it appeared with the caption title, "London Lit ...

'' in 1820, on the other hand, wrote that the play was "noxious", "odious", and "abominable". The taboo subjects of incest, patricide, and parricide, as well as the negative depiction of the Roman

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, however, prevented ''The Cenci'' from being staged publicly.

Opera adaptations

German composer

Berthold Goldschmidt Berthold Goldschmidt (18 January 190317 October 1996) was a German Jewish composer who spent most of his life in England. The suppression of his work by Nazi Germany, as well as the disdain with which many modernist critics elsewhere dismissed hi ...

composed an opera in three acts based on the Shelley play in 1949 entitled ''

'' with a libretto by

Martin Esslin Martin Julius Esslin OBE (6 June 1918 – 24 February 2002) was a Hungarian-born British producer, dramatist, journalist, adaptor and translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama, known for coining the term " theatre of the ab ...

"after Shelley's verse drama ''The Cenci''". The opera won first prize in the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

opera competition in 1951. The opera was first performed in 1988. A critically lauded production starring

Roberta Alexander Roberta Alexander (born March 3, 1949) is an American operatic soprano. She began her career as a lyric soprano in 1975 and spent the next three decades performing principal roles with opera houses internationally. Particularly celebrated for her ...

as the title heroine was staged at the Opernfest in Berlin in 1994. The first staged production of ''Beatrice Cenci'' in the UK was by the

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...

on 9–11 July 1998. In 1951, British classical composer

Havergal Brian William Havergal Brian (29 January 187628 November 1972) was an English composer, librettist, and church organist. He is best known for having composed 32 symphonies—an unusually high number amongst his contemporaries—25 of them ...

composed an opera based on the Shelley play entitled ''

The Cenci ''The Cenci. A Tragedy, in Five Acts'' ( ; 1820) is a verse drama in five acts by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in the summer of 1819, and inspired by a real Roman family, the House of Cenci (in particular, Beatrice Cenci). Shelley composed t ...

'', an opera in eight scenes. The opera premiered in 1997 in the UK in a performance in London by the Millennium Sinfonia conducted by James Kelleher.. In 1971, ''

Beatrix Cenci ''Beatrix Cenci'' is an opera in two acts by Alberto Ginastera to a Spanish libretto by the composer and William Shand, based on the historical family of Beatrice Cenci, the ''Chroniques italiennes'' by Stendhal, and ''The Cenci'' by Percy Shelley ...

'' premiered, an opera in two acts by

Alberto Ginastera Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical music, 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Biography G ...

to a Spanish libretto by the playwright

William Shand William Shand (1902–1997) was a Scottish-born Argentine poet, novelist and playwright. Arriving in Argentina in 1938, he worked for ''La Nación'' as a book reviewer, translator and critic. Shand translated the poetry of John Donne and Stephe ...

Other works titled ''The Cenci''

Other works titled ''The Cenci'' include an 1837 novella by Marie-Henri Beyle (

), and an 1840

true crime True crime is a genre of non-fiction work in which an author examines a crime, including detailing the actions of people associated with and affected by the crime, and investigating the perpetrator's Motive (law), motives. True crime works often ...

essay by Alexandre Dumas ''père'' included in Volume 1 of ''Celebrated Crimes''.

Productions of Shelley's ''The Cenci''

* (1886) Grand Theatre, Islington, London, UK (private production) * (1891) Paris, France * (1919) Moscow, Russia * (1920) Moscow, Russia * (1922) Prague, Czechoslovakia * (1922) New Theatre, London, UK * (1926) London, UK * (1933) Armenian Cultural Society of Los Angeles, California (in Armenian) * (1935) People's Theatre, Newcastle, UK * (1936)

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

* (1940) Bellingham, Washington * (1947) Equity Library Theatre, New York * (1947)

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

production * (1948) BBC radio production * (1948)

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

* (1949) Mt. Holyoke College * (1950) Walt Whitman School * (1950)

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

* (1953) Company of the Swan, London, UK * (1953) Oxford, UK *(1970)

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (sometimes abbreviated as La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1961 by African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer Ellen Stewart. Located in the East Village neighborho ...

, New York, NYLa MaMa Archives Digital Collections
"Production: ''Cenci, The'' (1970)". Accessed June 13, 2018.
/ref> * (1975)

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...

, Boston, Massachusetts * (1977) Jean Cocteau Repertory, Bouwerie Lane Theater, New York * (1985)

Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre is a 325-seat producing house located on Almeida Street off Upper Street in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre opened in 1980, and produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West E ...

, London, UK * (1991) Lyric Studio, London, UK * (1992) Red Heel Theatre at Studio 5,

Walnut Street Theater Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1808 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by Walnut Str ...

, Philadelphia, PA * (1995) Spotlighter's Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland * (1995)

Elmhurst College Elmhurst University is a private university in Elmhurst, Illinois, United States. It has a tradition of service-oriented learning and an affiliation with the United Church of Christ. The university changed its name from Elmhurst College on July ...

, Elmhurst, IL * (1997) North Pole Theatre, Greenwich, London, UK * (1997) The Swinish Multitude (with London University Theatre Company), Westminster, London, UK * (1997)

El Teatro Campesino El Teatro Campesino (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Farmworker's Theater") is a Chicano theatre, theatre company in California. Performing in both English language, English and Spanish language, Spanish, El Teatro Campesino was founded in 1965 ...

, San Juan Bautista, California * (2001) People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK * (2003) Hayman Theatre, Perth, Western Australia * (2005) The Lizard Loft and Cruel Theatre, Honolulu, Hawaii * (2008)

University of Guelph The University of Guelph (abbreviated U of G) is a comprehensive Public university, public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College (1874), the MacDonald I ...

, Ontario, Canada * (2008)

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

, New York * (2008) Red Bull Theater, Theatre at St. Clement's, New York * (2008) Shakespeare Performance Troupe,

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

, Pennsylvania * (2009) Mestno gledališče ljubljansko, Ljubljana, Slovenia (in Slovenian) * (2010)

East Los Angeles College East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communiti ...

, Monterey Park, California * (2011) Beijing Fringe Festival (in Chinese) * (2019) Amitis Theater Group, Nufel Lushato Theater, Tehran (in Persian) * (2019) Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

Notes

References

* Adams, Charles L. "The Structure of The Cenci". ''Drama Survey'', 4, 2 (Summer, 1965): 139–48. * An, Young-Ok. (1996). "Beatrice's Gaze Revisited: Anatomizing The Cenci." ''Criticism'', 37, pp. 27–88. * Anderson, Martin. "Classical: The new life of Brian's 'Cenci': Havergal Brian's 'The Cenci' QEH, SBC, London." ''The Independent'', 19 December 1997. * Bates, Ernest Sutherland. ''A Study of Shelley's Drama, The Cenci''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1908. * Behrendt, Stephen C. "Beatrice Cenci and the Tragic Myth of History", in ''History & Myth: Essays on English Romantic Literature'', edited by Stephen C. Behrendt, Wayne State University Press, 1990, pp. 214–34. * Blood, Roger. (1994). "Allegory and Dramatic Representation in The Cenci." ''SIR'', 33:3, pp. 355–89. * Brewer, William D. (Fall, 1994). "Mary Shelley on the Therapeutic Value of Language." ''Papers on Language and Literature'', 30, 4, pp. 387–407. nalyzed the influence of the play on Mary Shelley's writings.* Brophy, Robert J. (1970). "'Tamar,' 'The Cenci,' and Incest." ''American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography'', 42, pp. 241–44. * Bruhn, Mark J. (2001). "Prodigious mixtures and confusions strange": The Self-Subverting Mixed Style of The Cenci. ''Poetics Today'', 22:713–763. * Cameron, Kenneth N., and Horst Frenz. (December 1945). "The Stage History of Shelley's The Cenci." ''PMLA'', Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 1080–1105. * Cheeke, Stephen. "Shelley's 'The Cenci': Economies of a 'Familiar' Language." ''Keats-Shelley Journal'', 47, (1998), pp. 142–160. * Curran, Stuart. ''Shelley's Cenci: Scorpions Ringed with Fire''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970. * Curran, Stuart. "Shelleyan Drama." ''The Romantic Theatre: An International Symposium'', pp. 61–78. Edited by Richard Allen Cave. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes and Noble, 1986. * Davy, Daniel. "The Harmony of the Horrorscape: A Perspective on The Cenci". ''Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism'', 5, 1 (Fall 1990): 95–113. * Donohue, Joseph W. Jr. "Shelley's Beatrice and the Romantic Concept of Tragic Character." ''Keats-Shelley Journal'', 17, (1968), pp. 53–73. * Endo, Paul. (Fall-Winter, 1996). "The Cenci: Recognizing the Shelleyan Sublime," ''TSLL'', 38, pp. 379–97. * Ferriss, Suzanne. (1991). "Reflection in a "many-sided mirror": Shelley's the Cenci through the post-revolutionary prism." ''Nineteenth-Century Contexts'', 15, 2, pp. 161–170. * Ferriss, Suzanne. "Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Cenci and the 'Rhetoric of Tyranny.'" ''British Romantic Drama: Historical and Critical Essays''. Ed. Terence Hoagwood and Daniel P. Watkins. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, forthcoming. * Finn, Mary, E. (Summer, 1996). "The Ethics and Aesthetics of Shelley's The Cenci," ''SIR'', 35, pp. 177–97. * Forman, Alfred, and H. Buxton Forman. ''Introduction to The Cenci: A Tragedy in Five Acts'', pp. v–xii. New York: Phaeton Press, 1970. They label Shelley the "chief tragic poet since Shakespeare" in an essay first published in 1886. * Gladden, Samuel Lyndon. ''Shelley's Textual Seductions: Plotting Utopia in the Erotic and Political Works''. New York: Routledge, 2002. * Goulding, Christopher. (2001). "Shelley Laughs: Comic Possibilities in 'The Cenci.'" ''KSR'', 15, pp. 44–46. * Goulding, Christopher. (2002). "Early Detective Drama in Percy Shelley's The Cenci." ''Notes and Queries'', 49(1), pp. 40–41. * Groseclose, Barbara. (1985). "The Incest Motif in Shelley's The Cenci." ''Comparative Drama'', 19, pp. 222–39. * Hall, Jean. "The Socialized Imagination: Shelley's 'The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound'." ''Studies in Romanticism'', 23, 3, Percy Bysshe Shelley (Fall, 1984), pp. 339–350. * Hammond, Eugene R. (1981). "Beatrice's Three Fathers: Successive Betrayal in Shelley's The Cenci." ''Essays in Literature'', 8, pp. 25–32. * Harrington-Lueker, D. "Imagination versus Introspection: 'The Cenci' and 'Macbeth'." ''Keats-Shelley Journal'', 32, (1983), pp. 172–189. * Harrison, Margot. (2000). "No Way for a Victim to Act?: Beatrice Cenci and the Dilemma of Romantic Performance." ''Studies in Romanticism''. * Hicks, Arthur C., and R. Milton Clarke. ''A Stage Version of Shelley's Cenci, by Arthur C. Hicks ... and R. Milton Clarke ... Based upon the Bellingham Theatre Guild's Production of the Tragedy, March, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12, 1940''. Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1945. * Hunt, Leigh. "Leigh Hunt, 1820 Review, The Indicator". In ''Shelley: The Critical Heritage'', edited by James E. Barcus, pp. 200–06. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975.
Kobetts, Renata. "Violent Names: Beatrice Cenci as Speaking Subject." Indiana University.
* Kohler, Michael. (Winter, 1998). "Shelley in Chancery: The Reimagination of the Paternalist State in The Cenci." ''Studies in Romanticism'', 37, pp. 545–89.

* ''Les Cenci de P. B. Shelley'', traduction de Tola Dorian, avec Preface de A. C. Swinburne, Paris, 1883. (French translation). * Lockridge, Laurence S. "Justice in The Cenci." ''Wordsworth Circle'', 19.2 (1988): 95–98. * Magarian, Barry. (Spring, 1996). "Shelley's The Cenci: Moral Ambivalence and Self-Knowledge," ''KSR'', 10, pp. 181–204. * Mathews, James W. (1984). "The Enigma of Beatrice Cenci: Shelley and Melville." ''

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'' 49.2, pp. 31–41. * McWhir, Anne. "The Light and the Knife: Ab/Using Language in The Cenci." ''Keats-Shelley Journal'', 38 (1989): 145–161. * Mulhallen, Jacqueline
''The Theatre of Shelley''.
Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2010. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0011 * Nielsen, Wendy C. (2004). "Censored Acts: Shelley’s The Cenci and the Terror of the Stage". ''Proceedings of the Ninth Nordic Conference for English Studies'', Terror and Literature Panel. * Pfeiffer, Karl G. "Landor's Critique of 'The Cenci'." ''Studies in Philology'', 39, 4 (October 1942), pp. 670–679. * Potkay, Monica Brzezinski. (Spring, 2004). "Incest as theology in Shelley's The Cenci." ''Wordsworth Circle'', Vol. 35. * Rees, Joan. "Shelley's Orsino: Evil in The Cenci". ''Keats-Shelley Memorial Bulletin'', 12 (1961): 3–6. * Richardson, Donna. "The Hamartia of Imagination in Shelley's Cenci." ''Keats-Shelley Journal'', 44 (1995): 216–239. * Rieger, James. "Shelley's Paterin Beatrice." ''Studies in Romanticism'', 4 (1965). * Rieger, James. ''The Mutiny Within: The Heresies of Percy Bysshe Shelley''. New York: George Braziller, 1967. * Roberts, Hugh. (July 2009). "Mere poetry and strange flesh: Shelley's The Cenci and Calderón's El Purgatorio de San Patricio." European Romantic Review, Volume 20, Issue 3, pp. 345–366. * Rossington, Michael, and Kelvin Everest. "Shelley, The Cenci and The French Revolution", in ''Revolution in Writing: British Literary Responses to the French Revolution'', pp. 138–57. Open University Press, 1991. * Roussetzki, Remy. (Winter, 2000). "Theater of Anxiety in Shelley's The Cenci and Musset's Lorenzaccio." ''Criticism''. * Schell, John F. "Shelley's The Cenci: Corruption and the Calculating Faculty". ''University of Mississippi Studies in English'', n. s. 2 (1981): 1–14. * Shelley, Percy Bysshe. ''The Cenci: A Tragedy in Five Acts: An Authoritative Text Based on the 1819 Edition''. Edited by Cajsa C. Baldini. Kansas City, MO: Valancourt, 2008. * Smith, Paul. "Restless Casuistry: Shelley's Composition of The Cenci". ''Keats-Shelley Journal'', 13 (Winter, 1964): 77–85. * Sperry, Stuart M. "The Ethical Politics of Shelley's 'The Cenci'." ''Studies in Romanticism'', 25, 3, Homage to Carl Woodring (Fall, 1986), pp. 411–427. * Steffan, Truman Guy. (1969). "Seven Accounts of the Cenci and Shelley's Drama." ''SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900'', 9, 4, pp. 601–618. * Strand, Ginger, and Sarah Zimmerman. (Winter, 1996). "Finding an Audience: Beatrice Cenci, Percy Shelley, and the Stage." ''European Romantic Review'', 6, pp. 246–68. * Swinburne, Algernon Charles. "Les Cenci". ''Studies in Prose and Poetry''. London: Chatto and Windus, 1894. * Tung, Chung-hsuan. (2008). "'Beauty is Goodness, Goodness Beauty': Shelley's 'Awful Shadow' and 'Ethical Sublime'." ''Intergrams'', 8.2–9.1. *Tatlock, John S. P., and Robert Grant Martin, editors. ''Representative English Plays, From the Middle Ages to the End of the Nineteenth Century''. NY, The Century Co., 1916. * Turner, Justin G. "The Cenci: Shelley vs. the Truth". ''American Book Collector'', 22, 5 (February 1972): 5–9. * Twitchell, James B. "Shelley's Use of Vampirism in The Cenci." ''Tennessee Studies in Literature'', 24 (1979), 120–33. * "Unsigned Review, The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences". In ''Shelley: The Critical Heritage'', edited by James E. Barcus, pp. 164–68. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975. In this 1820 review, the critic condemns The Cenci as "the production of a fiend, and calculated for the entertainment of devils in hell". * Wallace, Jennifer. (Summer, 2002). "Romantic Electra: The Case of Shelley's Beatrice." ''Didaskalia'', 5, 3. University of Warwick, edited by Hugh Denard and C.W. Marshall. * Weinberg, Alan M. "Religion and Patriarchy in Shelley's The Cenci". ''Unisa English Studies'', 28, 1 (April 1990): 5–13. * White, Harry. "Beatrice Cenci and Shelley's Avenger." ''Essays in Literature'', 5.1 (Spring, 1978). * White, Harry. "Relative Means and Ends in Shelley's Social-Political Thought." ''SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900'', 22, 4, Nineteenth Century (Autumn, 1982), pp. 613–631. * Whitman, Robert F. (1959). "Beatrice's 'Pernicious Mistake' in the Cenci." ''Modern Language Association''. * Wilson, James D. "Beatrice Cenci and Shelley's Vision of Moral Responsibility". ''Ariel'', 9, 3 (July 1978): 75–89. * Worton, Michael. "Speech and Silence in The Cenci." ''Essays on Shelley'', pp. 105–24.. Edited by Miriam Allott. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 1982.

External links

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* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/theater/10blank.html?fta=y 2008 ''New York Times'' review "It’s Not Just Cruel; It’s Unusual, Too" of the Artaud adaptation
2008 University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada production of ''The Cenci''

* ttps://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/classical-the-new-life-of-brians-cenci-1289602.html 1997 premiere of Havergal Brian opera based on the play {{DEFAULTSORT:Cenci, The Plays by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1819 plays Plays about incest Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley Plays adapted into operas Biographical plays Plays set in Italy Plays set in the 16th century Cultural depictions of Beatrice Cenci