WMR was the first to publish this work—in his 1886 edition. The text he used was the present manuscript, which however he edited in various ways in an effort to make the work more presentable to readers. He of course left out altogether the cancelled passages, many of which are fascinating; but he also removed other parts of the text that DGR had not cancelled—one particularly significant passage at the end of Act I scene 1.
As so often in his composition process, DGR used the rectos of his pages for drafting the work and the facing versos for additions and revisions. The elaborate process of revision exhibited in this set of pages has resulted in a complex documentary structure (see the editorial page notes below for commentary).
Act I
Scene I
A Christmastime Hermitage near the Siren's
Rock. A
Christianized Prince/ The hermit's A
Christianized
soliloquizing relates
Prince flying from persecution in the latter
days of the
Roman Empire, is driven
that way by stress of weather (having
with him
his wife & infant child)
and succeeds in taking refuge in
the
Hermitage. The Hermit relates to
him the legend of the Sirens, and
how
they are among the Pagan powers not
yet entirely subdued
but still acting
as demons against the human race.
The spell upon them
is that their
power cannot be destroyed until
one of them shall yield to
human
love & become enamoured of some
one among her intended
victims.
The Hermit has therefore established
He dwells on his being a Christian, and
therefore
beyond the power of Pagan demons, who had as yet destroyed
only
those unprotected by true faith.
himself hard by to pray for travellers
in danger & if possible, to
warn them off
in time, and he implores the Prince
to pursue his voyage
by some other course.
The Prince however says that he shall
not be able
to do so, and trusts in
Heaven & in his love for his wife
to
guard him against danger. They start
The storm having subsided (this scene
occurs the morning after he had
taken refuge) the Prince and his family
re-embark, leaving the Hermit
praying
for their safety.
Scene 2
The ship arrives at the Sirens' Rock,
amid the songs of the
the
The first offers wealth
rejects
over his enemies
tempt him either
her love. Here a chorus in which
the three contend and the wife strives
rapt by her spells into the
belief that it is
the time of his first
love and that he is surrounded by the
scenes of
that time.
calling her as he dies by his wife's
name,
& shrinking from his wife
without recognition.
know her. During
this he dies, & Ligeia then says
“He knows us now;
Woman, take back your dead!”
against them. The Prince gradually,
in spite of his efforts, succumbs
to Li-
-geia & climbs the rock, his wife following
him. Here
the choral contention
is continued, the Prince clinging
to Ligeia,
& at
dying
arms, as she sings, under her poisonous
breath.
husband back to his wife, and she/who
pronounces a despairing curse against
her
love and be hated &
so destroy herself
& her sisters. The Queen then
flings
herself in madness from the rock into
the sea.
SCENE 3.
The Hermit puts out
ship is
still lying, and takes the
infant to his Hermitage. He
soliloquizes over
him, saying how, he will
if the faith prevails in his father's kingdom,
he will take him in due
time to occupy
the throne, but how otherwise he shall
stay with himself
to serve him as an acolyte
& so escape the storms of human
passion
more baneful than those of the sea.
Twenty-one years elapse between Acts I. and II.
ACT 2
SCENE I.
At the court of the Byzantine Prince.
The courtiers are conversing
about the
approaching marriage of the young Prince,
now come to the
throne. One of them
relates particulars respecting his
being brought
there as an infant
the Hermit, who revealed the secret
of his father's
& mother's death only to
a trusted counsellor, the father of
the
girl he is now about to marry. They
also refer to the troubles of
the time
when the former Prince had to fly
from his kingdom on account
of his
faith, and recall to each other the
progress of events since, and
the gradual
establishment of Christianity in the
country, after which the
young
Prince was brought back by the
Hermit, & established
The Prince connects these
of his early boyhood, which he dimly remembers
in the
hermitage by the Sirens' Rock, before the
Hermit brought him to his kingdom;
and he confesses
to his betrothed the gloomy uncertainty with which
his
mind is clouded.
throne. Allusions are made to various
omens & portents
appearing to bear on
the mysterious death of the Prince's
father
& mother, and on the vengeance
still to be taken for it.
Scene 2
A grove, formerly sacred to an oracle.
The Prince & his
betrothed meet and
in the morning and speak of their love &
approaching
nuptials, which are to take place
the next/same
troubled by dreams they have had
&
which they relate to each other at
length. These bear
fantastically
on the death of the Prince's parents
but without clearly
revealing anything,
though seeming to prognosticate misfortunes
still
unaccomplished, and a fatal issue to their love.
However, they try to forget
all
forebodings and dwell on the happi-
-ness in store for them. They sing
the Oracle.
to him. It tells her that her part in the sacrifice
is to let him
It then tells her clearly how it is the
heavenly will that the Prince
shall
only wed if he survived
due for his parents' death, but that
he had
been chosen now to fulfil the
doom of the Sirens, & must at
once
accomplish his mission. Finally the Oracle
announces that its
function has been so far renewed for
the last time that it may be compelled
to denounce its fellow
powers of paganism; but that now its voice is silent
for ever.
At the end of this scene the Bride's maidens come to meet her,
&
find her bewildered & in tears, but cannot learn the
cause from her.
seem to
find an ominous burden
in the echoes of the sacred grove, and
they part
at last, saddened in spite
of themselves.
Scene 3
the lady, who says that she will stay
there till
her maidens join her.
The same/ The Prince b
him
finds that it comes from the Oracle
of the grove,
whose shrine is forgotten
and almost overgrown. She forces the
tangled
growth aside & enters the
precincts.
Here the Oracle speaks
to him
but at length more explicitly
as
to a great task awaiting him &
without accomplishing which he must
not hope for
love or peace. It
speaks of the evil powers which
caused his parents'
death, & are
doomed themselves to annihilation
by the just
vengeance transmitted to him.
morning after the nuptials.
réveillée
to her of his love & their future happiness,
but
after a time, in the midst of their endearments,
he
finds begins to perceive that she is disturbed
and anxious,
and presses her to tell him
the cause. She at last informs him with tears
withheld from him the
cause of hers which
most horrified her, in which she was visited
she
had had a dream in which she was
visited by the spirit of the Hermit,
now a
spirit in Heaven, who announced that
it was the heavenly will
that the prince
should only wed if her survived the vengeance
due
for his parents' death, but that he had
been chosen now to
fullfil the doom of the
Sirens, and must at once accomplish his
misision.
Not even spiritual foreknowledge could
certify beforehand
if his life would
be sacrificed in this sacred act, but if so
he and
his Bride would renew their love in
Paradise.dream
courage to reveal to him
before their wedding,
as it must, if obeyed, it must tear
him
from her arms, perhaps never to return;
and she had then
resolved to suppress the
terrible secret at any risk to herself;
but
on the bridal night, while she lay in his
arms, the Hermit,
her in a dream,
with a wrathful aspect.
he will have tomorrow
from his bride further some
further
revelations bearing on his duty.
Finally the oracle
announces that
his
for the last time that
it may be
compelled to denounce its fellow
powers of paganism, but
that now
its voice is silent for ever. At the end of
the bride's
maidens come to meet her &
find her
bewildered
& in tears but cannot
learn the cause from
her.
Scene 4.
The Prince soliloquizing the hour before
his
nuptials. He refers to the events
of the past night
and
of his misgivings resolves to make
no delay
with his marriage unless
further events occur to prevent it.
The
nuptial cortège then assembles
and he is about to accompany
them
to the altar when his bride's father
demands a private audience.
This being granted, he informs the
in
infancy; had reproached her with her silence as to the charge she had
received
and had told her that if she did not now
make known to her
husband the will of
Heaven, some fatal mischance would
tells him with
many tears and with bitter
upbraidings of the cruel fate which
compelled
her to avoid certain disaster/miserythe
certain
wrath threatened to him by sending
him on a mission of such terrible
uncertainty.
Before telling all this she had consented to
speak only
on his promising to the f grant
the first favour she should
afterwards ask
for herself; and she now tells him that
this favour
is the permission to accompany
him on his voyage. He endeavours
in
vain to dissuade her from this, & at last
consents to
it. He tells her at the same time
of his own interview/conference with the Oracle,
Act 3
Scene I.
The hermitage near the Sirens' Rock
as in Act I. Arrival of the
Prince
accompanied by his Bride & her father,
who propose
hermitage while
he pursues his journey
to the rock. Before they part, a paper
is found
written, by which they learn
that the Hermit had died there a
year
& a day before, and that
of their
present arrival
onethe
appointed purpose of his hermitage
would cease, and yet when it would
would again be tenanted, and yet
on which its appointed use would cease.
Scene 2
The Sirens' Rock. The Sirens have
been warned by the evil powers
to
whom they are tributary that this
are uncertain whether for
good or
ill, but are possessed by a spirit of
baneful exultation, and in
their
songs alternate from one to the
other wild tales of their
triumphs
in past times and the renowned
victims who have succumbed to
them.
As they reach the name of the
Christian Prince and his wife
who
died by their means, a
as cednding the
rock
view, but almost before their
songs have
been directed towards
it, they are surprised to see
occupant
rock, and the occupant
resolutely
disembark & commence the ascent.
As he nears them,
Ligeia gradually
they exchange scornful prophecies
of his ruin between the pauses
of
their song; but gradually Ligeia,
sisters as her special
prey, finds herself
strangely overpowered by emotions
she does not
understand, & by the
time he reaches the summit of the
rock
& stands before them, she is
alternately beseeching him
for
his love & her sisters for his life.
A long chorus here
occurs: Ligeia
yielding to the agony of her passion,
while the Prince
repulses and reviles
her, and the other Sirens wail and
curse, warning
her of the impending
doom. The Prince tells Ligeia of his
parentage
& mission, but she still
madly craves for his love, and
holds
forth to him such promises of
infernal sovereignty as her
gods
afford, if he will yield to her passion.
He, meanwhile, though
proof against
her wiles
heart, is physically absorbed into?
? and when, at
his last word of reprobation, the
curse seizes
her& her sisters &
they dash themselves headlong
from
the rock, he also succumbs to the
doom, calling with his last
breath
on the name of his Bride
the scene the prayers of the
bride and her father
are fitfully
wafted from the hermitage
between the pauses of the
Sirens'
songs and the deadly chorus
of love and hate.
In case of representation—supposing the
hermitageScene 3.
Within the hermitage. At the moment
of the Prince's death, the
Bride & her
father, still praying, are aware of
the
spirit of the Hermit present
with them, who announces to them
the
accomplishment of the doom
and the return of his [?]
and rock to be visible on the stage at the
same
time—the conclusion might be that
at the moment of the
Prince's death,
when he calls to his Bride, she
him in the same words, & dies.
Scene
3 would thus be dispensed with.
Bride that in a year
and a day from
that time she shall rejoin her lover,
whose love
shall yet be to her tenfold
all that she had hoped for on earth.
Scene 3.
Within the hermitage, the Bride
Fatherbut her father ? a moment before ?
. The scene to commence
with a few lines of prayer, after
which
the Spirit of the Prince suddenly
appears, calling the Bride to come to him
in the same words with which
the
last scene ended. She then discourses
with
increasing ecstasy of
love, he all
the time speaking to her at intervals
only the same words
as before.
She ends by answering him in the
same
to her, & so dies.
The scene might
conclude by the appearance of the
Finis