Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Benbow, and Revolutionary Nonviolence

Is nonviolence revolutionary? It’s a contested question: some scholars and activists argue that nonviolent resistance is only suited to reform systems of oppression, while others believe that it has revolutionary potential. This paper examines the concept of revolutionary nonviolence through the work of Percy Bysshe Shelley and his working-class contemporary, the ultra-radical William Benbow. Through a reading of Shelley’s “The Mask of Anarchy” and Benbow’s Grand National Holiday and Congress of the Productive Classes I argue that the only revolutionary form of nonviolent resistance is the general strike. I advance a reading of Shelley’s “Mask” as figural interpretation rather than allegory, drawing on the work of Erich Auerbach. I conclude by examining the proximity between “The Mask” and a print published by Benbow during the Queen Caroline Affair in order to demonstrate a shared radical language vital to understanding the politics of Shelley’s most famous political poem.