The Cenci

But of course, she herself came from a very scholarly, radical background.

Her father was William Godwin, a political philosopher, and her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, who's regarded as the mother of feminism.

She wrote a famous, uh, treatise called A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792.

Uh, so a lot was expected of Mary Shelley.

She's a 16th century noblewoman, and she was executed in 1599, a public beheading.

Uh, um, which reminds me of what we were talking earlier about the public executions in America.

Um, but Beatrice, she was executed for be- A conspiracy to have her father, Count Cenci, assassinated.

He was.

May I ask what play, Miss Bellew? he said.

The Cenci, Blanche answered him, fixing him with a quiet look.

What? I said.

Never heard of it.

But something was taking place between those two.

Obviously, the thing had a significance for Olav that escaped me.

The Cenci, he said very quietly but very expressively.

You, of course, are Beatrice, he went on.