The manager, however, did not take this view; averring that the subject rendered it incapable of being even submitted to an actress like Miss O'Neil.

Shelley's self-criticism is always so valuable, that it may be well here to collect what he said about the two great dramas of 1819.

Concerning "The Cenci" he wrote to Peacock:--"It is written without any of the peculiar feelings and opinions which characterize my other compositions; I having attended simply to the impartial development of such characters as it is probable the persons represented really were, together with the greatest degree of popular effect to be produced by such a development." "'Cenci' is written for the multitude, and ought to sell well." "I believe it singularly fitted for the stage." "'The Cenci' is a work of art; it is not coloured by my feelings, nor obscured by my metaphysics.

I don't think much of it.

It gave me less trouble than anything I have written of the same length." "Prometheus", on the other hand, he tells Ollier, "is my favourite poem; I charge you, therefore, specially to pet him and feed him with fine ink and good paper"-- which was duly done.
Again:--"For 'Prometheus', I expect and desire no great sale; Prometheus was never intended for more than five or six persons; it is in my judgment of a higher character than anything I have yet attempted, and is perhaps less an imitation of anything that has gone before it; it is original, and cost me severe mental labour." Shelley was right in judging that "The Cenci" would be comparatively popular; this was proved by the fact that it went through two editions in his lifetime.