The Cenci
1.
The deed he saw could not have rated higher
Than his most worthless life:— (1 1 24, 25.)
Than is Mrs. Shelley’s emendation (1839) for That, the word in the
editio princeps (1819) printed in Italy, and in the (standard) edition
of 1821. The sense is: ‘The crime he witnessed could not have proved
costlier to redeem than his murder has proved to me.’
2.
And but that there yet remains a deed to act, etc. (1 1 100.)
Read: And but : that there yet : remains : etc.
3.
1 1 111-113. The earliest draft of these lines appears as a tentative
fragment in the Bodleian manuscript of “Prince Athanase” (vid. supr.).
In the Bodleian manuscript of “Prometheus Unbound” they reappear (after
2 4 27) in a modified shape, as follows:—
Or looks which tell that while the lips are calm
And the eyes cold, the spirit weeps within
Tears like the sanguine sweat of agony;
Here again, however, the passage is cancelled, once more to reappear in
its final and most effective shape in “The Cenci” (Locock).
4.
And thus I love you still, but holily,
Even as a sister or a spirit might; (1 2 24, 25.)
For this, the reading of the standard edition (1821), the editio
princeps has, And yet I love, etc., which Rossetti retains. If yet be
right, the line should be punctuated:—
And yet I love you still,—but holily,
Even as a sister or a spirit might;
5.
What, if we,
The desolate and the dead, were his own flesh,
His children and his wife, etc. (1 3 103-105.)
For were (104) Rossetti cj. are or wear. Wear is a plausible emendation,
but the text as it stands is defensible.
6.
But that no power can fill with vital oil
That broken lamp of flesh. (3 2 17, 18.)
The standard text (1821) has a Shelleyan comma after oil (17), which
Forman retains. Woodberry adds a dash to the comma, thus making that
(17) a demonstrative pronoun indicating broken lamp of flesh. The
pointing of our text is that of editions 1819, 1839, But that (17) is to
be taken as a prepositional conjunction linking the dependent clause, no
power...lamp of flesh, to the principal sentence, So wastes...kindled
mine (15, 16).
7.
The following list of punctual variations indicates the places where our
pointing departs from that of the standard text of 1821, and records in
each instance the pointing of that edition:—
Act 1, Scene 2:—Ah! No, 34; Scene 3:—hope, 29; Why 44;
love 115; thou 146; Ay 146.
Act 2, Scene 1:—Ah! No, 13; Ah! No, 73; courage 80; nook 179;
Scene 2:—fire, 70; courage 152.
Act 3, Scene 1:—Why 64; mock 185; opinion 185; law 185; strange 188;
friend 222;
Scene 2:—so 3; oil, 17.
Act 4, Scene 1:—wrong 41; looked 97; child 107;
Scene 3:—What 19; father, (omit quotes) 32.
Act 5, Scene 2:—years 119;
Scene 3:—Ay, 5; Guards 94;
Scene 4:—child, 145.