ABSTRACT
The present edition is based on Laon and Cythna, the version of the poem that conforms to S'. s original and unconstrained intention. Only Laon himself bears the guilt of having shed blood. The great motifs of siege, mass assembly, epidemic disease, and public execution can be variously related to well-known moments of the Revolution, but they are also established features of the European epic tradition that begins with Homer. In the early nineteenth century the plague was both a traditional poetic figure and a real contemporary menace to public health. Endemic in the southern and eastern Mediterranean, it was considered a threat to Western Europe. Endemic in the southern and eastern Mediterranean, it was considered a threat to Western Europe. Cythna's cave, situated at the extreme eastern limit of the Mediterranean, is paved with shells dating from that sea's creation.
