papal legate, arrives with a murder charge and execution order against Cenci. Upon finding the Count's dead body, the legate arrests the conspirators, with the exception of Orsino, who escapes in disguise. Act V The suspects are taken for trial for murder in Rome. Marzio is tortured and confesses to the murder, implicating Cenci's family members. Despite learning that Lucretia and Giacomo have also confessed, Beatrice refuses to do so, steadfastly insisting on her innocence. At the trial, all of the conspirators are found guilty and sentenced to death. Bernardo, another of Cenci's sons, attempts a futile last-minute appeal to the Pope to have mercy on his family. The Pope is reported to have declared: "They must die." The play concludes with Beatrice walking stoically to her execution for murder. Her final words are: "We are quite ready. Well, 'tis very well." Major characters Count Francesco Cenci, head of the Cenci household and family Beatrice, his daughter Lucretia, the wife of Francesco Cenci and the stepmother of his children Cardinal Camillo Orsino, a Prelate Savella, the Pope's Legate Andrea, a servant to Francesco Cenci Marzio, an assassin Olimpio, an assassin Giacomo, son of Francesco Cenci Bernardo, son of Francesco Cenci Performance History England The play was first staged in England by the Shelley Society in 1886. It did not receive its first public performance in England until 1922. France The play's second production was in France was in 1891, directed by Lugnè-Poe at the Theatre d'Art.:1097 Antonin Artaud adaptation Antonin Artaud staged his adaptation Les Cenci in 1935 at the Theatre Folies-Wagram.:1099 The production closed after 17 performances due to poor reviews.:132 Artaud staged the production in line with his theory for a Theatre of Cruelty, though he stated that it "is not Theatre of Cruelty yet, but is a preparation for it.":103 Artaud drew on Shelley's text, as well as a version of the tale by Stendhal, and his adaptation "exaggerated the sadistic and pathological elements of the play to a point of violence".:1099 Critical reception In his May 15, 1886 review of the play, Oscar Wilde concluded: "In fact no one has more clearly understood than Shelley the mission of the dramatist and the meaning of the drama." Alfred and H. Buxton Forman also praised The Cenci as a "tragic masterpiece", elevating Shelley into the company of Sophocles, Euripides, and Shakespeare. Leigh Hunt, to whom the play was