SOURCE: “Unsigned Review, The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences.” In Shelley: The Critical Heritage, edited by James E. Barcus, pp. 164-68. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975.

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1820, the critic condemns The Cenci, describing the play as “the production of a fiend, and calculated for the entertainment of devils in hell.”

Of all the abominations which intellectual perversion, and poetical atheism, have produced in our times, this tragedy appears to us to be the most abominable. We have much doubted whether we ought to notice it; but, as watchmen place a light over the common sewer which has been opened in a way dangerous to passengers, so have we concluded it to be our duty to set up a beacon on this noisome and noxious publication. We have heard of Mr. Shelley's genius; and were it exercised upon any subject...