The Mask of Anarchy (1819)¶

Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Type: Poetry · Political ballad (selected stanzas)
Published: Written 1819; withheld for fear of prosecution; published 1832
Copyright: Public domain
Era/Period: WH Era 3 — post-Napoleonic Britain; the Peterloo Massacre (August 16, 1819)
ELA Standards: 9-10.R.7 · 9-10.R.8 · 9-10.R.9
WH Standards: WH.6_12.3 · WH.6_12.5
Studio: WH-04 · One Idea, 130 Years of War — pairs with The Communist Manifesto

Studio 2 (WH-02) · The Rights We Wrote Down

Pairs with: FDR Four Freedoms · UN UDHR (1941–48) · Level: Maverick

When people write down their rights, what changes — and what doesn't? — People killed in 1819 for demanding the vote. The UDHR (Article 21) finally wrote that right down in 1948. Why did it take 129 years?

See the WH-02 Literature Lens.

What This Poem Is About¶

On August 16, 1819, cavalry charged a peaceful crowd of tens of thousands gathered at St Peter's Field, Manchester, to demand voting reform. People were killed and hundreds injured; newspapers called it "Peterloo." Shelley, living in Italy, wrote this furious ballad in response. It parades the government's leaders as figures of Murder, Fraud, and Hypocrisy — then calls on working people to resist without violence: "Rise like Lions after slumber / In unvanquishable number... / Ye are many — they are few."

Read It¶

Public domain — selected stanzas (the poem has 91). Full text: Project Gutenberg, The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

1. As I lay asleep in Italy
There came a voice from over the Sea,
And with great power it forth led me
To walk in the visions of Poesy.

2. I met Murder on the way—
He had a mask like Castlereagh—
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:

3. All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.

4. Next came Fraud, and he had on,
Like Eldon, an ermined gown;
His big tears, for he wept well,
Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

5. And the little children, who
Round his feet played to and fro,
Thinking every tear a gem,
Had their brains knocked out by them.

6. Clothed with the Bible, as with light,
And the shadows of the night,
Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy
On a crocodile rode by.

[...]

37. ‘Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another;

38. ‘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.

39. ‘What is Freedom?—ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well—
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.

40. ‘’Tis to work and have such pay
As just keeps life from day to day
In your limbs, as in a cell
For the tyrants’ use to dwell,

[...]

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

86. 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.

[...]

88. ‘And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.

89. ‘And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.

90. ‘And these words shall then become
Like Oppression’s thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again—again—again—

91. ‘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.’

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Mask of Anarchy," written 1819, published 1832

Why It Matters¶

Shelley's editor, Leigh Hunt, would not print the poem in 1819 — publishers were being jailed for criticizing the government. It appeared only in 1832, the year Britain finally passed its first Reform Act. Since then, "Ye are many — they are few" has been chanted, printed, and borrowed by protest movements around the world. It is one of the clearest early statements of mass nonviolent resistance in English.

The Essential Question — Can one document change the world — and if so, how?¶

Marx and Engels told workers they had "nothing to lose but their chains." Shelley, thirty years earlier, told them to "shake your chains to earth like dew." Ask: can a poem that wasn't even published for 13 years change the world? What does it mean that its most famous line outlived the government it attacked?

ELA Standards Connection¶

Standard	Connection
9-10.R.7	Repetition and imagery: the refrain "Rise like Lions," chains like dew. How does sound make the argument memorable?
9-10.R.8	Allegory: real politicians become Murder, Fraud, Hypocrisy, Anarchy. Why use allegory instead of names?
9-10.R.9	The final stanzas as an argument for nonviolent mass action.

WH.6_12.3 + Era 3 — Political systems: who could vote in Britain in 1819, and how the government responded to demands for reform.

WH.6_12.5 + Era 3 — Causes and effects: industrial cities, protest, repression, and the road to the Reform Act of 1832.

Key Vocabulary¶

Anarchy — here, lawless rule by the powerful — Shelley's twist on the word
Peterloo — the 1819 Manchester massacre — a bitter pun on Waterloo
Unvanquishable — impossible to defeat
Mask — a masque — a pageant or procession of costumed figures

Studio Ideas¶

Unpublished power — The poem was hidden for 13 years. Trace how its words were used after 1832. Did it change the world late — or not at all?
Shelley and Marx — Compare the final stanzas with the end of The Communist Manifesto. Same call? Different strategy?
Nonviolence — Shelley tells the crowd to stand with "folded arms." Compare with a later nonviolent movement.