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A MASQUE FOR BYRON is poetic investigation into one of litrature’s most divisive figures offering a sympathetic critique of the poet with the benefit of a contemporary lens. Byron is reimagined as a dandy libertine, a haughty Ian Dury, a style icon caught by Mapplethorpe. Wrestling with his disability, his sexuality, his title and privilege he ultimately finds both freedom and poetry out in the water. This is the second work in a trilogy commemorating the poets Keats, Shelley and Byron in Italy. After its launch in London and a world premiere performance at the British Institute, Florence, a sold out reading was given at Keats-Shelley House, Rome, as part of their ‘Byron 200’ programme.
“Not since the Dam of Marib broke
and below, its twinned gardens
both to the left and to the right
engulfed by spoiled flood and blighted
each with bitter fruit, nor since Hapi
saw fit to raise the waters at the Nile’s bank
and sent them seaward in a hellish swell
has such division fallen on this earth”
This ‘Masque’ in three parts is told from the perspective of a narrator looking down on the Dardanelles, the action carries us from present day settings to historic locations: From a modern English seaside to the coast at Viareggio, from the Hellespont to tourist flooded Venice.
“ There was one who entered here
followed myth into the waves
to find his Hero on the rise
who came with an uneven pace
yet with ambition he could overcome
his cruel default, not find a cure
instead relief from his sick root
that had him stand a withered tree”
from ‘A Masque for Byron’ Jan Noble, 2024
READINGS
THE BYRON STATUE – LONDON →
THE BRITISH INSTITUTE – FLORENCE →
KEATS-SHELLEY HOUSE – ROME →
JAN NOBLE 