The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe · Chapter 26Scenes from Politian
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an unpublished drama
I ROME — a Hall in a Palace. ALESSANDRA and CASTIGLIONE.
II ROME.—A Lady's Apartment, with a window open and looking into a garden. LALAGE, in deep mourning, reading at a table on which lie some books and a hand-mirror. In the background JACINTA (a servant maid) leans carelessly upon a chair.
III An Apartment in a Palace. POLITIAN and BALDAZZAR.
IV The Gardens of a Palace—Moonlight. LALAGE and POLITIAN.
V The Suburbs. POLITIAN alone.
Footnote 1: By Sir Thomas Wyatt.—Ed. return
Such portions of "Politian" as are known to the public first saw the light of publicity in the Southern Literary Messenger for December 1835 and January 1836, being styled "Scenes from Politian; an unpublished drama." These scenes were included, unaltered, in the 1845 collection of Poems by Poe. The larger portion of the original draft subsequently became the property of the present editor, but it is not considered just to the poet's memory to publish it. The work is a hasty and unrevised production of its author's earlier days of literary labor; and, beyond the scenes already known, scarcely calculated to enhance his reputation. As a specimen, however, of the parts unpublished, the following fragment from the first scene of Act II. may be offered. The Duke, it should be premised, is uncle to Alessandra, and father of Castiglione her betrothed.