Talk:The Masque of Anarchy

Not sure if this is accurate.

Hi there, I hope someone is watching this page. Although it would be dependent on the source cited for the article, I'm not too sure if the text for this poem is correct. For a start, I have a (print) copy in a book purchased at Shelley's house in Piazza di Spagna, Rome, where the poem is titled 'The Mask of Anarchy' rather than 'Masque' as in Poe's Red Death. I have never personally seen it titled this way, although I see there is a redirect from 'The Mask of Anarchy'. Secondly, the first line is also different from my copy, which begins "As I lay asleep in Thessaly," rather than Italy. Anyone with printed refs to hand to help out would be welcome . . . LSmok3 (talk) 16:30, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Masque is probably better, to my surprise - google books testing gets about equal results, but if you restrict to older, 19th century, and look at the earliest versions, Masque seems to be the original.John Z (talk) 06:45, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Masque or Mask?

These are completely different words. In "Masque of the Red Death", Death wears a mask at the masque.
I am standardizing on masque, as decided above.
Varlaam (talk) 18:59, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Nonviolence?

There is no indication in the poem itself that it is advocating nonviolence. Nonviolence, and the idea of a nonviolent revolution, was in fact a non thing until it was popularized by Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Rather than an early statement of nonviolent resistance, it was more of an early statement of resistance through anarchism. The article should be changed accordingly.

This stanza certainly doesn't advocate for nonviolence as a tactic:

   Rise like Lions after slumber
   In unvanquishable number,
   Shake your chains to earth like dew
   Which in sleep had fallen on you-
   Ye are many — they are few

Comment:

There is a reference to The Mask of Anarchy in an book of interviews with Arundhati Roy who had quoted the line 'Ye are many - they are few.' Roy admired Ghandi, but points out that the Indian resistance, while not a 'revolution', was certainly not inherently or only non-violent. She looks to non-violent means to counter injustice. But I think realises that as those in power react (as they did in regard to the Peterloo and events leading up to it even back as far as the Luddites); as they react, they reacted violently. So in India. The connection is made. I think that in essence Shelley is advocating strong non-violent action but then for people to rise. I think that readers of Shelley overlook his strong atheism, his "progressive" views and concern for justice and revolution. It seems he was influenced by Godwin (obviously), Paine, as well as new Science ideas (as Coleridge was, see e.g Richard Holmes's 'The Age of Wonder'), and the terrible conditions (almost prison like) of factory workers is described well by L.C.B. Seaman in 'A New History of England 410 - 1975". So I agree, Shelley was an idealist (this is not to subtract from his great "pure poetry" and his art say as in 'Lamia' etc): and not just a "misty eyed" romantic possessed, only, of the sublime. Clearly then, violent revolution could have been an outcome of his 'call to "Rise like Lions after slumber,/ In unvanquishable number... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.224.113.243 (talk) 22:17, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

Who is Ghandi?--Jack Upland (talk) 08:33, 25 June 2017 (UTC)

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Anti-Corbyn notes

I propose to remove these, as they have nothing to do with the poem and promote crude propaganda. Shtove 21:40, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Someone else had the same idea. Shtove 10:57, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Synopsis

I find the synopsis section very confusing for a few reasons:

• I see it is trying to summarize key themes in the poem by pulling verses from here and there and assembling them almost like a "mini-poem." However, to someone who has not read the original there is no indication that the verses pulled out are discontinuous.
• There are two of these "mini-poems" and they both end with the same verse. Given that the reader has not necessarily read the full poem, this leads to confusion because you think "is this two versions of the poem?"

In addition, I would argue the section is not limited to synopsis because it contains a lot of analysis as well. In this respect, some of the concepts analyzed refers to parts of the poem that were not summarized (e.g. women calling out murderers).

The synopsis and analysis in this section feels like original research, and is confusing. I am going to move it here onto the talk page for further consideration.

cmh^TC 14:00, 1 November 2025 (UTC)

imo it would be preferable to have a flawed synopsis rather than nothing. Oneequalsequalsone (talk | contribs) 23:30, 6 November 2025 (UTC)

Synopsis

Shelley begins his poem, written on the occasion of the Peterloo Massacre, Manchester 1819, with the powerful images of the unjust forms of authority of his time, "God, and King, and Law" – and then imagines the stirrings of a radically new form of social action: "Let a great assembly be, of the fearless, of the free". The crowd at this gathering is met by armed soldiers, but the protesters do not raise an arm against their assailants:

Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war.

And if then the tyrants dare,
Let them ride among you there;
Slash, and stab, and maim and hew;
What they like, that let them do.

With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay,
Till their rage has died away:

Then they will return with shame,
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek:

Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!

Shelley elaborates on the psychological consequences of violence met with pacifism. The guilty soldiers, he says, will return shamefully to society, where "blood thus shed will speak / In hot blushes on their cheek". Women will point out the murderers on the streets, their former friends will shun them, and honourable soldiers will turn away from those responsible for the massacre, "ashamed of such base company". A version was taken up by Henry David Thoreau in his essay Civil Disobedience, and later by Mahatma Gandhi in his doctrine of Satyagraha. Gandhi's passive resistance was influenced and inspired by Shelley's nonviolence in protest and political action. It is known that Gandhi would often quote Shelley's The Masque of Anarchy to vast audiences during the campaign for a free India.

The poem mentions several members of Lord Liverpool's government by name: the Foreign Secretary, Castlereagh, who appears as a mask worn by Murder, the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, whose guise is taken by Hypocrisy, and the Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon, whose ermine gown is worn by Fraud. Led by Anarchy, a skeleton with a crown, they try to take over England, but are slain by a mysterious armoured figure who arises from a mist. The maiden Hope, revived, then calls to the people of England:

Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another!

What is Freedom? Ye can tell
That which Slavery is too well,
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own

Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words, that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free.

The old laws of England—they
Whose reverend heads with age are grey,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo—Liberty!

Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!