SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822). The Cenci, "Italy" [i.e. Livorno], 1819, 4to, FINELY BOUND in late 19th-century full red crushed morocco gilt. FIRST EDITION.

SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822).  The Cenci. A Tragedy, In Five Acts. "Italy" [i.e. Livorno]: "Printed for C. and J. Ollier, Vere Street, Bond Street, London," 1819. 4to (218 x 145mm). With the preliminary blank leaf (variable light spotting throughout). FINELY BOUND in late 19th-century full red crushed morocco by Maclehose, Glasgow, spine lettered in gilt with 5 raised bands, dentelles, top edges gilt, others uncut (small scuff mark to one corner of lower cover, some very light rubbing). Provenance: The Property of a Lady, by descent from her great grandfather; "Ex. Lib. Joan Scott M.D. Coll. Reg. Med. Lond. Soc." (old inscription on front blank). FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 250 COPIES. "... [L]argely written at Livorno, in summer 1819, published 1819 and 1821 [the second edition]. The melodramatic plot is taken from the true story of Beatrice Cenci, who was tried and executed for the murder of her father, Count Francesco Cenci, at Rome in 1599. Shelley was attracted by the themes of incest and atheism: the play concentrates on the Iago-like evil of the count and the inner sufferings of Beatrice, whose justification men seek with 'restless and atomizing casuistry'. Shelley claimed to have been influenced by the dramatic style of Calderon, but in fact the play is indebted to Shakespeare for much of its construction and language ... Surprisingly Shelley hoped for a popular theatrical success at Drury Lane or Covent Garden; the play was eventually produced in Paris a century later" (The Oxford Companion to English Literature (ed. Drabble, 1985)). The book has a printed dedication to Leigh Hunt and was the only of the author's works to have a second edition printed in his lifetime [1821], two years after the present first edition and in London. Ashley Library V, p.69; Buxton Forman 56: "[The first edition] has a few errors of the press incidental to the Italian compositors' ignorance of English, but on the whole it seems to me preferable to the second edition - a text more like the absolute production of Shelley"; Granniss Shelley 50: "250 copies"; Lowndes IV, 2375; Wise A Shelley Library p.51. RARE.