The Cenci, A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1819) is a verse drama in five acts by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in the summer of 1819, and inspired by a real Italian family, the Cenci (in particular, Beatrice Cenci, pronounced CHEN-chee). Shelley composed the play at Rome and at Villa Valsovano near Livorno, from May to 5 August 1819. The work was published by Charles and James Ollier, in London in 1819 (see 1819), the Livorno edition, printed in Livorno, Italy by Shelley himself in a run of 250 copies. Shelley told Thomas Love Peacock 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." 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.
Cenci (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛntʃi]) is an Italian surname, and may refer to:
Or, in Chinese, it refers 参差 (pinyin: cēncī), means "diversified".
Under gas light the joining of hands
Chanting a name over and over
A table tilts the circle is broken
Doubting no more
They pay what they owe her
Disembodied a luminous hand
Holding the air, passing the current
A voice is channeled, a rope is uncoiled
Flicker the light
And someone is here
We go following sorrow to feel your
Blood spilling out of the reeds there
Give me a sign I can breathe air
Blood flowing out of the stream there