Skip to content
Storgy

The Annotated Edition

A Hall of the Prison by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Summary, meaning, line-by-line analysis & FAQ.

Read aloud in ~12 minOpen reading mode →

This is the final scene from Shelley's verse drama *The Cenci*, set in a prison where Beatrice Cenci and her family await execution for killing their abusive father.

Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Core theme
Death
The PoemFull text

A Hall of the Prison

Percy Bysshe Shelley

ENTER CAMILLO AND BERNARDO. CAMILLO: The Pope is stern; not to be moved or bent. He looked as calm and keen as is the engine Which tortures and which kills, exempt itself From aught that it inflicts; a marble form, A rite, a law, a custom: not a man. _5 He frowned, as if to frown had been the trick Of his machinery, on the advocates Presenting the defences, which he tore And threw behind, muttering with hoarse, harsh voice: ‘Which among ye defended their old father _10 Killed in his sleep?’ Then to another: ‘Thou Dost this in virtue of thy place; ’tis well.’ He turned to me then, looking deprecation, And said these three words, coldly: ‘They must die.’ BERNARDO: And yet you left him not? CAMILLO: I urged him still; _15 Pleading, as I could guess, the devilish wrong Which prompted your unnatural parent’s death. And he replied: ‘Paolo Santa Croce Murdered his mother yester evening, And he is fled. Parricide grows so rife _20 That soon, for some just cause no doubt, the young Will strangle us all, dozing in our chairs. Authority, and power, and hoary hair Are grown crimes capital. You are my nephew, You come to ask their pardon; stay a moment; _25 Here is their sentence; never see me more Till, to the letter, it be all fulfilled.’ BERNARDO: O God, not so! I did believe indeed That all you said was but sad preparation For happy news. Oh, there are words and looks _30 To bend the sternest purpose! Once I knew them, Now I forget them at my dearest need. What think you if I seek him out, and bathe His feet and robe with hot and bitter tears? Importune him with prayers, vexing his brain _35 With my perpetual cries, until in rage He strike me with his pastoral cross, and trample Upon my prostrate head, so that my blood May stain the senseless dust on which he treads, And remorse waken mercy? I will do it! _40 Oh, wait till I return! [RUSHES OUT.] CAMILLO: Alas, poor boy! A wreck-devoted seaman thus might pray To the deaf sea. [ENTER LUCRETIA, BEATRICE, AND GIACOMO, GUARDED.] BEATRICE: I hardly dare to fear That thou bring’st other news than a just pardon. CAMILLO: May God in heaven be less inexorable _45 To the Pope’s prayers than he has been to mine. Here is the sentence and the warrant. BEATRICE [WILDLY]: O My God! Can it be possible I have To die so suddenly? So young to go Under the obscure, cold, rotting, wormy ground! _50 To be nailed down into a narrow place; To see no more sweet sunshine; hear no more Blithe voice of living thing; muse not again Upon familiar thoughts, sad, yet thus lost— How fearful! to be nothing! Or to be... _55 What? Oh, where am I? Let me not go mad! Sweet Heaven, forgive weak thoughts! If there should be No God, no Heaven, no Earth in the void world; The wide, gray, lampless, deep, unpeopled world! If all things then should be...my father’s spirit, _60 His eye, his voice, his touch surrounding me; The atmosphere and breath of my dead life! If sometimes, as a shape more like himself, Even the form which tortured me on earth, Masked in gray hairs and wrinkles, he should come _65 And wind me in his hellish arms, and fix His eyes on mine, and drag me down, down, down! For was he not alone omnipotent On Earth, and ever present? Even though dead, Does not his spirit live in all that breathe, _70 And work for me and mine still the same ruin, Scorn, pain, despair? Who ever yet returned To teach the laws of Death’s untrodden realm? Unjust perhaps as those which drive us now, Oh, whither, whither? LUCRETIA: Trust in God’s sweet love, _75 The tender promises of Christ: ere night, Think, we shall be in Paradise. BEATRICE: ’Tis past! Whatever comes, my heart shall sink no more. And yet, I know not why, your words strike chill: How tedious, false, and cold seem all things. I _80 Have met with much injustice in this world; No difference has been made by God or man, Or any power moulding my wretched lot, ’Twixt good or evil, as regarded me. I am cut off from the only world I know, _85 From light, and life, and love, in youth’s sweet prime. You do well telling me to trust in God; I hope I do trust in him. In whom else Can any trust? And yet my heart is cold. [DURING THE LATTER SPEECHES GIACOMO HAS RETIRED CONVERSING WITH CAMILLO, WHO NOW GOES OUT; GIACOMO ADVANCES.] GIACOMO: Know you not, Mother...Sister, know you not? _90 Bernardo even now is gone to implore The Pope to grant our pardon. LUCRETIA: Child, perhaps It will be granted. We may all then live To make these woes a tale for distant years: Oh, what a thought! It gushes to my heart _95 Like the warm blood. BEATRICE: Yet both will soon be cold. Oh, trample out that thought! Worse than despair, Worse than the bitterness of death, is hope: It is the only ill which can find place Upon the giddy, sharp, and narrow hour _100 Tottering beneath us. Plead with the swift frost That it should spare the eldest flower of spring: Plead with awakening earthquake, o’er whose couch Even now a city stands, strong, fair, and free; Now stench and blackness yawn, like death. Oh, plead _105 With famine, or wind-walking Pestilence, Blind lightning, or the deaf sea, not with man! Cruel, cold, formal man; righteous in words, In deeds a Cain. No, Mother, we must die: Since such is the reward of innocent lives; _110 Such the alleviation of worst wrongs. And whilst our murderers live, and hard, cold men, Smiling and slow, walk through a world of tears To death as to life’s sleep; ’twere just the grave Were some strange joy for us. Come, obscure Death, _115 And wind me in thine all-embracing arms! Like a fond mother hide me in thy bosom, And rock me to the sleep from which none wake. Live ye, who live, subject to one another As we were once, who now... NOTE: _105 yawn edition 1821; yawns editions 1819, 1839. [BERNARDO RUSHES IN.] BERNARDO: Oh, horrible! _120 That tears, that looks, that hope poured forth in prayer, Even till the heart is vacant and despairs, Should all be vain! The ministers of death Are waiting round the doors. I thought I saw Blood on the face of one...What if ’twere fancy? _125 Soon the heart’s blood of all I love on earth Will sprinkle him, and he will wipe it off As if ’twere only rain. O life! O world! Cover me! let me be no more! To see That perfect mirror of pure innocence _130 Wherein I gazed, and grew happy and good, Shivered to dust! To see thee, Beatrice, Who made all lovely thou didst look upon... Thee, light of life ... dead, dark! while I say, sister, To hear I have no sister; and thou, Mother, _135 Whose love was as a bond to all our loves... Dead! The sweet bond broken! [ENTER CAMILLO AND GUARDS.] They come! Let me Kiss those warm lips before their crimson leaves Are blighted...white...cold. Say farewell, before Death chokes that gentle voice! Oh, let me hear _140 You speak! NOTE: _136 was as a Rossetti cj.; was a editions 1819, 1821, 1839. BEATRICE: Farewell, my tender brother. Think Of our sad fate with gentleness, as now: And let mild, pitying thoughts lighten for thee Thy sorrow’s load. Err not in harsh despair, But tears and patience. One thing more, my child: _145 For thine own sake be constant to the love Thou bearest us; and to the faith that I, Though wrapped in a strange cloud of crime and shame, Lived ever holy and unstained. And though Ill tongues shall wound me, and our common name _150 Be as a mark stamped on thine innocent brow For men to point at as they pass, do thou Forbear, and never think a thought unkind Of those, who perhaps love thee in their graves. So mayest thou die as I do; fear and pain _155 Being subdued. Farewell! Farewell! Farewell! BERNARDO: I cannot say, farewell! CAMILLO: Oh, Lady Beatrice! BEATRICE: Give yourself no unnecessary pain, My dear Lord Cardinal. Here, Mother, tie My girdle for me, and bind up this hair _160 In any simple knot; ay, that does well. And yours I see is coming down. How often Have we done this for one another; now We shall not do it any more. My Lord, We are quite ready. Well, ’tis very well. _165

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

Study actions

Take the quizStudy sheet (PDF)

§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

This is the final scene from Shelley's verse drama *The Cenci*, set in a prison where Beatrice Cenci and her family await execution for killing their abusive father. Beatrice shifts from intense fear of death to a bitter dismissal of hope, ultimately finding a calm and dignified way to say goodbye. The scene raises the question of whether justice truly exists when the innocent are punished while the cruel remain unscathed.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. CAMILLO: The Pope is stern; not to be moved or bent. / He looked as calm and keen as is the engine

    Editor's note

    Camillo reports back from his unsuccessful appeal to the Pope. Instead of being portrayed as a person, the Pope is likened to a machine—cold and mechanical, indifferent to the suffering he inflicts. This comparison diminishes his moral authority, even though he wields absolute legal power. This establishes the main tension in the scene: the clash between institutional power and human emotion.

  2. BERNARDO: And yet you left him not? / CAMILLO: I urged him still;

    Editor's note

    Camillo shares that he pushed the Pope for more information, alluding to the 'devilish wrong' — Count Cenci's sexual abuse — that led the family to murder him. The Pope's reaction is unsettling: he references a recent case of a mother killed by her son to caution that forgiving parricide would invite chaos against authority. His reasoning is purely political rather than moral.

  3. BERNARDO: O God, not so! I did believe indeed / That all you said was but sad preparation

    Editor's note

    Young Bernardo falls into a blend of desperate hope and urgent action. He plans to throw himself at the Pope's feet and bleed on them, a move that is both heartbreaking and pointless. Camillo’s remark likening him to a sailor praying to a deaf sea reveals it all. The boy's love is genuine, but the institution he is pleading with is not paying attention.

  4. BEATRICE: I hardly dare to fear / That thou bring'st other news than a just pardon.

    Editor's note

    Beatrice enters with her family, feeling defensive, and prepares herself. When Camillo hands her the death warrant, she erupts in a rush of fear—her most raw and genuine moment in the play. She envisions the harsh reality of being buried: the cold, the worms, the darkness. Then her fear transforms into something even more horrifying: what if death means her father's spirit is still with her, still tormenting her? The afterlife provides no refuge if her abuser is present there.

  5. LUCRETIA: Trust in God's sweet love, / The tender promises of Christ: ere night,

    Editor's note

    Lucretia provides the traditional Christian reassurances of Paradise and the promises of Christ. Beatrice somewhat accepts this comfort, trying to find her footing, but she confesses that her heart remains cold. She has encountered too much injustice to truly embrace the idea of divine love. God, she explains, has not distinguished between good and evil in her experience. This isn’t atheism; it’s more about her weary, sincere grief.

  6. GIACOMO: Know you not, Mother...Sister, know you not? / Bernardo even now is gone to implore

    Editor's note

    Giacomo tells the Pope about Bernardo's mission, and Lucretia allows herself to feel a glimmer of hope. Beatrice quickly extinguishes it—not out of malice, but from hard-earned wisdom. She argues that hope is the worst thing they can hold onto right now; it’s the one pain that can still pierce them on the precarious ledge of their final hour.

  7. BEATRICE: Yet both will soon be cold. / Oh, trample out that thought! Worse than despair,

    Editor's note

    Beatrice's great speech against hope stands out as one of Shelley's most impactful passages. She presents a series of vivid images depicting indifferent natural forces—frost, earthquake, pestilence, lightning, the sea—and argues that appealing to any of them is more reasonable than seeking compassion from 'cruel, cold, formal man.' She concludes by embracing death as if it were a mother's embrace, describing it as a sleep from which there is no awakening. The tone here is not one of despair but rather resigned and almost tender.

  8. BERNARDO: Oh, horrible! / That tears, that looks, that hope poured forth in prayer,

    Editor's note

    Bernardo returns, feeling defeated. His grief is intense and vivid: he believes he saw blood on a guard's face. He mourns Beatrice as a "perfect mirror of pure innocence" — the person whose goodness inspired him to be better. His speech is fragmented and halting, the syntax unraveling under the weight of his sorrow.

  9. BEATRICE: Farewell, my tender brother. Think / Of our sad fate with gentleness, as now:

    Editor's note

    Beatrice's goodbye to Bernardo serves as the emotional heart of the scene. She urges him not to become bitter, to keep love and patience alive, and to protect her reputation from the shame that will come with her name. Her focus is solely on his well-being, not her own. She transitions from fear to a state that feels almost graceful.

  10. BEATRICE: Give yourself no unnecessary pain, / My dear Lord Cardinal. Here, Mother, tie

    Editor's note

    The final exchange is hauntingly quiet. Beatrice comforts the Cardinal, then asks her mother to tie her hair — a simple, everyday act they've shared countless times. 'We shall not do it any more' holds more significance than any grand speech. Her last words, 'We are quite ready. Well, 'tis very well,' demonstrate a brilliant use of understatement. It's about composure, not resignation.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The scene navigates various emotional states while maintaining clarity. It begins with a chilling sense of institutional dread — portraying the Pope as a machine — then transitions to Bernardo's frantic grief, Beatrice's intense existential fear, her bitter philosophical anger, and ultimately finds a hard-earned stillness. By the end, the prevailing tone conveys tragic dignity: not quite peace, but a lack of panic. Shelley uses straightforward language so that the emotions resonate directly, and the domestic details (tying hair, binding a girdle) strike deeper than any rhetoric.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

The Pope as engine / machine
The opening image of the Pope as a mechanical device — calm and detached from the consequences of its actions — represents institutional power devoid of conscience. Law and authority turn inhuman when they operate without any sense of empathy.
The deaf sea
Camillo employs it for the Pope, while Beatrice revisits it in her list of indifferent forces. The sea is immense, forceful, and completely unresponsive to human pleas. It serves as Shelley's metaphor for any power—be it natural or political—that acts without compassion.
The father's spirit in the afterlife
Beatrice fears that her abusive father's spirit could chase her even after death, turning the afterlife from a place of comfort into one of dread. This highlights just how thoroughly her father's violence has taken over her inner world; even in death, there’s no promise of escape.
Tying hair / the girdle
The simple act of assisting each other with hair and clothing in those last moments captures the everyday closeness of family life—the fabric of love that’s on the verge of being shattered. Its tiny scale amplifies the magnitude of the loss.
Death as a fond mother
Beatrice sees death not as an enemy but as a mother gently cradling her child to sleep. This twist—viewing death as a source of comfort in a life that has been harsh—shows just how deeply the world has let her down.
The mirror of pure innocence
Bernardo describes Beatrice as a 'perfect mirror of pure innocence,' reflecting his own journey towards becoming a better person. Her death shatters that mirror. This image illustrates how one person's goodness can serve as a moral anchor for those in their life.

§06Historical context

Historical context

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote *The Cenci* in 1819, inspired by the true story of Beatrice Cenci, a young Roman noblewoman who was executed in 1599 for killing her father, Count Francesco Cenci, after enduring years of abuse. Shelley came across her story through a manuscript that was circulating in Rome and was deeply moved by the stark contrast between personal suffering and public injustice. Although he wrote the play for the stage, Covent Garden refused to perform it, largely due to its controversial themes of incest and parricide. Shelley published the play in 1819 and later revised it for a second edition in 1821, regarding it as his most technically proficient work. The excerpt included here is from Act V, capturing the family's final moments before their execution. This scene is part of Shelley’s broader political aim to reveal how religious and state authority oppresses individual conscience and dignity.

§07FAQ

Questions readers ask

What is this scene from, and where does it fit in the story?

This is the final scene of Act V of Shelley's verse drama The Cenci. At this stage, Beatrice and her family have been tried and found guilty of murdering Count Cenci, their abusive father and husband. The scene unfolds in a prison hall where they learn of their death sentence and get ready for execution.

Why does Beatrice say hope is worse than despair?

Beatrice contends that hope is the most brutal thing in their predicament because it stretches out suffering without altering the result. She paints a picture of standing on a 'giddy, sharp, and narrow hour' — a ledge on the verge of collapsing — and claims that hope is what can make that moment even more unbearable. Once you've come to terms with death, hope snatches away that acceptance and compels you to relive the grief again.

What is Beatrice so afraid of when she imagines the afterlife?

She worries that death won't free her from her father. Count Cenci abused her, and she is terrified that his spirit might linger in the afterlife, just as he controlled her life on earth — surrounding her, touching her, dragging her down. The afterlife, which Lucretia describes as Paradise, feels to Beatrice like it could be another chapter of her suffering.

Why does Beatrice compare the Pope to a machine?

Camillo portrays the Pope as akin to the very instrument of torture — composed, effective, and unaffected by the harm it inflicts on others. The crux of the matter is that when institutional authority operates solely through rules and procedures, it becomes devoid of humanity. The Pope isn't cruel out of passion; rather, he is indifferent, a portrayal that Shelley suggests is far more disturbing.

What does the hair-tying moment at the end mean?

When Beatrice asks her mother to tie her hair, acknowledging that they have shared this simple task countless times but "shall not do it any more," Shelley is using this small domestic action to express the profound loss at hand. It's more impactful than any grand speech because it's so commonplace. The closeness of family life — those little acts of daily care — is about to come to a permanent end.

Is Beatrice religious? Does she believe in God?

She doesn’t identify as an atheist, but she’s open about her doubts and her lack of warmth toward faith. She expresses a hope that she can trust in God and questions, “In whom else can anyone trust?” — but quickly admits, “My heart is cold.” After facing too much injustice, she finds it hard to feel the comfort that religion offers. Shelley frames this not as a failing but as a logical reaction to a life where God has shown no difference between good and bad treatment she has received.

What does Beatrice ask of Bernardo in her farewell speech?

She asks him for three things: to regard their fate with gentleness instead of bitterness; to remain loyal to the love they share; and to protect her reputation from the shame that will come after her name. Her focus is solely on his future wellbeing, not her own death. It’s a truly selfless speech.

Why was this play controversial and never performed in Shelley's lifetime?

Covent Garden turned it down because the topic — a father's sexual abuse of his daughter that ends in parricide — was deemed too unsettling for the stage. There was also a political aspect: the play openly criticizes the Catholic Church and papal authority, making it a controversial piece in the early 19th-century European political climate. It didn't see a public performance in England until 1886.

Citation

Cite this poem

MLA

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "A Hall of the Prison." Storgy, https://storgy.com/poems/a-hall-of-the-prison-percy-bysshe-shelley/.

APA

Shelley, P. B. (n.d.). A hall of the prison. Storgy. https://storgy.com/poems/a-hall-of-the-prison-percy-bysshe-shelley/

TeacherAP Lit Q1 scaffold — preview

Row A — Thesis

1 pt

In this prison-hall scene from Shelley's verse drama The Cenci, the condemned Beatrice moves from animal terror—her mind dissolving into visions of a dead father who will drag her 'down, down, down'—toward a composure so deliberate it …

  • Row B — Evidence + Commentary4 pts
  • Row C — Sophistication1 pt
  • Common student errors
Unlock the full scaffold

Available on any Storgy plan — model paragraphs, band callouts, and common student errors for every poem.

The study desk

Teaching materials and reference tools prepared for this poem.

Seminar guideSocratic · printable

Discussion questions for A Hall of the Prison

Open, analytical, and comparative questions for class discussion or a reading group — ready to print or project.

Essay promptsAO-aligned

Essay prompts on A Hall of the Prison

Argument-led, context-led, and craft-led written tasks tied to this exact text, aligned to assessment objectives.

Quiz questionsAnswer key included

Reading-check questions for A Hall of the Prison

Multiple-choice questions covering meaning, language, and form — each with the correct answer and a short rationale.

InteractiveSelf-test

Take the quiz on this poem

Test your reading directly on the page — instant scoring, no signup, no printing.

ReferenceMLA · APA · Chicago

Cite this poem

A properly formatted citation for your essay or bibliography, typeset by deterministic rules — no AI involved.

Adjacent texts in the archive

More by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Browse all Percy Bysshe Shelley poems →

Themes in this poem

Poems about DeathPoems about DespairPoems about FamilyPoems about Justice

Compared with

Compare this poem with any other →

Poetry tools

Analyze another poem →Rate your own poem →Check rhyme & meter →