The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 695 pages of information about The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1.

The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 695 pages of information about The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1.

ORSINO: 
Why, that were well.  I must be gone; good-night. 90
When next we meet—­may all be done!

NOTE: 
91 may all be done! 
Giacomo:  And all edition 1821;
Giacomo:  May all be done, and all edition 1819.

GIACOMO: 
And all
Forgotten:  Oh, that I had never been!

[EXEUNT.]

END OF ACT 3.

ACT 4.

SCENE 4.1: 
AN APARTMENT IN THE CASTLE OF PETRELLA. 
ENTER CENCI.

CENCI: 
She comes not; yet I left her even now
Vanquished and faint.  She knows the penalty
Of her delay:  yet what if threats are vain? 
Am I not now within Petrella’s moat? 
Or fear I still the eyes and ears of Rome? 5
Might I not drag her by the golden hair? 
Stamp on her? keep her sleepless till her brain
Be overworn?  Tame her with chains and famine? 
Less would suffice.  Yet so to leave undone
What I most seek!  No, ’tis her stubborn will
10
Which by its own consent shall stoop as low
As that which drags it down.
[ENTER LUCRETIA.]
Thou loathed wretch! 
Hide thee from my abhorrence:  fly, begone! 
Yet stay!  Bid Beatrice come hither.

NOTE: 
4 not now edition 1821; now not edition 1819.

LUCRETIA: 
Oh,
Husband!  I pray, for thine own wretched sake 15
Heed what thou dost.  A man who walks like thee
Through crimes, and through the danger of his crimes,
Each hour may stumble o’er a sudden grave. 
And thou art old; thy hairs are hoary gray;
As thou wouldst save thyself from death and hell,
20
Pity thy daughter; give her to some friend
In marriage:  so that she may tempt thee not
To hatred, or worse thoughts, if worse there be.

CENCI: 
What! like her sister who has found a home
To mock my hate from with prosperity? 25
Strange ruin shall destroy both her and thee
And all that yet remain.  My death may be
Rapid, her destiny outspeeds it.  Go,
Bid her come hither, and before my mood
Be changed, lest I should drag her by the hair.
30

LUCRETIA: 
She sent me to thee, husband.  At thy presence
She fell, as thou dost know, into a trance;
And in that trance she heard a voice which said,
’Cenci must die!  Let him confess himself! 
Even now the accusing Angel waits to hear 35
If God, to punish his enormous crimes,
Harden his dying heart!’

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.