The Mask of Anarchy

“Last came anarchy: he rode On a white horse, splashed with blood; He was pale even to the lips, Like Death in the Apocalypse.”

In August 1819, a political rally in Manchester drew a vast but peaceful crowd, demanding parliamentary reform, representation and economic relief. Authorities suppressed the meeting brutally with an armed cavalry Charge.

The Mask of Anarchy, written in response to the Peterloo Massacre, presents an allegorical vision of England and its people trampled and tormented by the forces of Anarchy, a skeletal tyrant king, and his henchmen Murder, Fraud and Hypocrisy. Unpublished during Shelley’s lifetime, it now stands as one of the greatest works of political poetry. Its rallying cry for dignified and non-violent resistance has inspired activists such as Gandhi, the Tiananmen Square protesters and the Arab Spring movement.

We are marking the bicentennial anniversary of the massacre and the poem with a world first specially dramatised performance.