Verse tragedy · 1819

The Cenci

A Tragedy in Five Acts

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley's blank-verse tragedy of the Roman nobleman Francesco Cenci, whose cruelty to his family drives his daughter Beatrice to plot his murder; she is tried and executed for the deed. Based on a sixteenth-century Roman crime, it was written in 1819.

Contents · 16 parts

• Persons of the Drama2 lines
• Act I, Scene 1about 160 lines
• Act I, Scene 2about 100 lines
• Act I, Scene 3about 210 lines
• Act II, Scene 1about 220 lines
• Act II, Scene 2about 180 lines
• Act III, Scene 1about 460 lines
• Act III, Scene 2about 110 lines
• Act IV, Scene 1about 220 lines
• Act IV, Scene 267 lines
• Act IV, Scene 395 lines
• Act IV, Scene 4about 240 lines
• Act V, Scene 1about 120 lines
• Act V, Scene 2about 240 lines
• Act V, Scene 3about 170 lines
• Act V, Scene 4about 180 lines

Read this work with the Codex →