‘A Masque For Shelley’ is the first in a trilogy of verse-dramas that offer contemporary perspectives on the lives of the romantic poets in Italy. It gives voice to the bronze bust of the poet erected in Viareggio, close to where he drowned, where his body washed ashore and was later cremated. It seeks to reconcile the poet with those he left behind and justify his place in the modern age where statues are toppled and free speech is weaponised.
Visited first by Mary Shelley, then by his first wife Harriet the author challenges the silent statue to account for his actions provoking a poetic odyssey that tells of Shelley’s ten days twisting in the waves, “his stormy going out, his short blown course and slow return to shore.”
JAN NOBLE 