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The Masque of Anarchy is a political poem written in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley following the Peterloo massacre of that year. It 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 armored 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;
- 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.
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