著者

広本 勝也

出版者

慶應義塾大学日吉紀要刊行委員会

雑誌

慶応義塾大学日吉紀要 英語英米文学 (ISSN:09117180)

巻号頁・発行日

no.39, pp.1-22, 2001

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The Masque of Anarchy (writ. 1819) shows an eclectic, combined form of the ballad, masque and dream-narrative, among which masque is a courtly entertainment that was performed for the elite during the 16th_17th century. This poses a question as to why he uses it in the poem, which deals with liberation of the working class in the early 19th century. Thus I should like to analyse its art and thoughts in relation to literature of the Renaissance period. Unable to repress his resentment about Peterloo Massacre on 16 August 1819, Shelley was compelled to write this poem. It occurred during the rally held at St. Peter's Fields, Manchester, where approxi-mately 600, 000 workers gathered to stand up for their political rights and to listen to Henry Hunt, a radical orator, who advocated them. The militia and regular troops moved in to crack down on the unarmed crowd, leaving 11 killed and about 500 injured. The poem of 91 stanzas, with four to five lines each, largely consists of two parts. In the first half (I-XXXIII) the poet describes the pag-eant of allegorical figures, such as Murder, Fraud, Hypocrisy and many other Destructions. At the end of it Anarchy, a sinister character, with `God,' `King' and `Law' inscribed on his brow, came over, and along with the troop he stomps his worshippers to death. However, Hope, a maniac maid, throws herself before the hooves of horses of the procession Anarchy leads for the London Parliament. At this instant a mysterious Shape emerges to save her and the crowd sees Anarchy has already died and his runaway horse trampling his retainers. The death of Anarchy marks the turning point of the poem, and the Shape, the author's mouthpiece, delivers a discourse about the slavery of the English people (XXXIX-LI), defines liberty (LII-LXIV), and tries to arouse them to organize a political gathering to achieve it (LXV-XC). In this poem one may notice the Shape personifies the dens ex machina, which is reminiscent of Sabrina, the Nymph, in Comus and a band of angels who save the Son of God in Paradise Regained. Introduc-ing the conventional device, Shelley does not differ much from John Milton in the way that he presents the dramatic change from chaos into order. In the Stuart age masques were shown to mythologize the absolute rule of the King on the assumption that people could live in peace, happiness, and abundant wealth, as long as he governs the nation. From Shelley's perspective, however, it is a deceiving myth that the King gives them the fundamental basics of the Golden Age since he is, in fact, the source of all misery and chaos. Thus the poet creates a topsy-turvy world. In the similar way that Ben Jonson had resort to the literary means of `naming,' (or `labelling') to paint the real nature of charac-ters in his poems, Shelley satirically identifies the high-ranking officials with allegorical figures as mentioned above. In it, real politicians aregiven abstract names such as Murder, Fraud, and Hypocrisy. Shelley makes us perceive that they change into abstract beings without human characteristics due to their self-alienation. It may sound like a litany rather than a myth when the Shape presents the doctrine of the oppressed and envisions liberation in the latter half of the poem. Still, we can see that the description of legend-ary figures such as Chronos, the discourse about gold, and the image of spring conjure up a mythological atmosphere. The author attempts to parody the traditional masque, making the rule by `God, King, and Law' represent misrule in his work. We can conclude that he has constituted a masque for the working class, introducing conventional imagery, setting, and device, and reversing the value of the ruling class espoused by masque writers of the Renaissance period.