ABSTRACT
Shortly after completing A Philosophical View of Reform, Shelley contacted Leigh Hunt concerning the possibility of publishing a volume of his political poems. Shelley did, however, complete seven of the poems that the volume was intended to contain: The Mask of Anarchy, Song to the Men of England, An Ode to the Assertors of liberty, lines Written During the Castlereagh Administration, To Sidmouth and Castlereagh, Sonnet: England in 1819, and A New National Anthem. Of the topical political satires written by Shelley between 1819–20 Oedipus Tyrannus takes its place as but one of a series of radical satires prompted by the Queen Caroline affair. Oedipus Tyrannus is a scathing allegorical satire containing thinly veiled portraits of all of the main participants in the scandal. Shelley takes the side of Caroline in her domestic differences with George and uses the characters to make a trenchant case for liberty and reform.
