SOURCE: Rees, Joan. “Shelley's Orsino: Evil in The Cenci.” Keats-Shelley Memorial Bulletin, no. 12 (1961): 3-6.

In the following essay, Rees investigates the role of Orsino as a minor character and emblem for evil in Shelley's play.

Shelley's treatment of his minor characters in The Cenci—all the dramatis personæ, that is, except Beatrice and Cenci himself—has never been found very satisfactory, and the general judgment as far as it concerns their dramatic effectiveness cannot be disputed. Nevertheless, the ideas behind Orsino, at least, are worth some attention and they have not been fully brought out by any commentator. Swinburne thought Orsino's rôle potentially interesting (Essays and Studies, London 1911, p. 221) but considered that Shelley had failed to make use of his opportunities. The portrait of Orsino could have been developed, he thought, into a subtle study of a curly-haired young priest, playing on villainy as on a lute...