Shelley (Percy Bysshe) The Cenci. A tragedy, in five acts, first edition, one of 250 copies, 4 autograph corrections by Shelley on four pages, slightly browned, ALs from Neville Rogers loosely inserted, new endpapers, bound in modern crushed morocco, gilt spine, [Ashley V 69], 8vo, Italy [Leghorn], Printed for C. and J. Ollier Vere Street Bond Street, London, 1819.

⁂ Shelley's autograph corrections. First edition of the only work by Shelley in Leghorn (Livorno), in an edition of only 250 copies, in the summer of 1819; it does not seem to have been published until the following year.

Corrections comprise: (1). Page 62, Shelley has added a line to the list of curses that Cenci wishes upon his daughter in Act IV scene 1: speech ending "All beholding sun, Strike in thine envy those life-darting eyes With thine own blinding beams!" has been extended with "till she become an abhorrence, and..." (2). Page 69, "Runs freely" has been changed to "Runs freelier" (3). Page 71, "He is a wicked and wrathful man" becomes "He is a wicked and a wrathful man" (4). Page 97, typographical correction, "Sweet sleep, were death like to thee" changed to "Sweet sleep, were death like thee."

Neville Rogers (1908-85), Shelley scholar; author of Shelley at Work: A Critical Enquiry, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956: Oxford English Texts, The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley. ALs from Rogers to James Stevens-Cox, "It is most kind of you to send me Shelley's corrections which he made to your precious copy of The Cenci".