Suspiria de Profundis - The Lost Suspiria

The Lost Suspiria

Out of the 32 pieces on the Suspiria master list, 18 are not extant; they were either planned but never written, or written but lost before publication. (In his later years, De Quincey, working by candlelight, had an unfortunate propensity to set things — his papers; his hair — on fire.) The lost pieces bear evocative and provoking titles:

• The Dreadful Infant (There was the glory of innocence made perfect; there was the dreadful beauty of infancy that had seen God)
• Foundering Ships
• The Archbishop and the Controller of Fire
• God that didst Promise
• Count the Leaves in Vallombrosa
• But if I submitted with Resignation, not the less I searched for the Unsearchable — sometimes in Arab Deserts, sometimes in the Sea
• That ran before us in malice
• Morning of Execution
• Kyrie Eleison
• The Nursery in Arabian Deserts
• The Halcyon Calm and the Coffin
• Faces! Angels' Faces!
• At that Word
• Oh, Apothanate! that hatest death, and cleansest from the Pollution of Sorrow
• Who is this Woman that for some Months has followed me up and down? Her face I cannot see, for she keeps for ever behind me
• Cagot and Cressida
• Lethe and Anapaula
• Oh, sweep away, Angel, with Angelic Scorn, the Dogs that come with Curious Eyes to gaze.

A few pages of Notes for the missing Suspiria were found in the author's papers.