Proserpine is a verse drama written for children by the English Romantic writers Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Composed in 1820 while the Shelleys were living in Italy, it is often considered a partner to the Shelley’s play Midas. Mary Shelley’s version focuses on the female characters. In a largely feminist retelling from Ceres’s point of view, Shelley emphasises the separation of mother and daughter.
About Proserpine (play) in brief
Proserpine is a verse drama written for children by the English Romantic writers Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. Composed in 1820 while the Shelleys were living in Italy, it is often considered a partner to the Shelley’s play Midas. Mary Shelley’s version focuses on the female characters. In a largely feminist retelling from Ceres’s point of view, Shelley emphasises the separation of mother and daughter and the strength offered by a community of women. Proserpine was first published in the London periodical The Winter’s Wreath in 1832. Whether the drama was ever intended to be staged is a point of debate among scholars. The drama is based on Ovid’s tale of the abduction ofproserpine by Pluto, which itself was based on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. The genres of the text also reflect gender debates of the time. Percy contributed in the lyric verse form traditionally dominated by men; Mary created a drama with elements common to early nineteenth-century women’s writing: details of everyday life and empathetic dialogue. The play has been both neglected and marginalised by critics. In March 1818 the. Shelleys moved to Italy, where their two young children, Clara and William, soon died. Mary entered into a deep depression and became alienated from Percy. She recovered to some extent with the birth of Percy Florence later in 1819. Percy believed that Mary had a talent for dramatic writing, and convinced her to study the great English, French, Latin, and Italian plays as well as dramatic theory.
He even sought her advice on his play The Cenci, and she transcribed the manuscript of his drama Prometheus Unbound. Percy also encouraged Mary to translate Vittorio Alfieri’s play Mirra, a tragedy about father-daughter incest which influenced her own novel Mathilda. In 1824 Mary submitted Proser pine to The Brown Boxing Boxing for publication by Walter Procter, but it was rejected by Bryan Bryan. In the same year, Mary Shelley wrote the children’s story Laurette for publication for Maurice Browning’s Browning Boxed. The story was published in 1824. The foreshadowing of Proser Pine’s abduction, foretelling of the story of Ceres’s abduction by Pluto is in the foreword to the book The Rediscovery of the Redeemer, which was published the following year. In her biography of Mary Shelley, Miranda Seymour speculates that both Midas and Pro Serpine were written for two young girls Mary Shelley met and befriended, Laurete and Nerina, daughters of the shelleys’ friends of friends of the Shelley family in Italy. The book was also published the year after Mary Shelley died in 1825. The first act of the play, including Percy’s poem Arethusa, including an ominous dream, was cut from the first act. The second act, including Mary’s poem, was edited by Walter procter and cut about 120 lines—about 120 lines.
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