GOTHIC

by Simon Brind, Anna Katrine Bønnelycke, Maria Østerby Elleby,

Halfdan Keller Justesen, Laurie Penny, Martine Svanevik, and Sagalinn Tangen.
GOTHIC
Written and designed by Simon Brind, Anna Katrine Bønnelycke, Maria Østerby Elleby,
Halfdan Keller Justesen, Laurie Penny, Martine Svanevik, and Sagalinn Tangen.
Gothic

© 2023, Avalon larp studio

The right of Avalon larp studio and the individual contributors and famous poets to be identified as
the authors of this work has been asserted according to sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act of 1988

The poetry, stories, and letters in chapter eight, along with some illustrations are in the public domain.

All original additions, including illustrations scripts, characters, instructions, recipes, and chapter sum-
maries, are copyright ©2023 by the respective authors and may not be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereinafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system
including cloud based systems without express permission in writing from the publishers.

Photographs by Sagalinn Tangen and Simon Brind

Cover illustration - Silence by Henry Fuseli (1800)

No part of this book may be used to train machine learning without express permission in writing
from the publishers.

First published 2024

by Avalon larp studio, London and Oslo

If you wish to run Gothic using this script you are welcome to do so as long as it is not a commercial
venture, and as long as Avalon larp studio are credited. If you do run it we would love to hear about it!

If you wish to run this larp commercially, or if you have any questions or want to contact us, our
website is www.avalonlarp.studio
“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!”
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
 Day Two - Introduction 62
Table of Contents
Mesmerism 63
INTRODUCTION 7
Masks & Monsters 64
What is larp? 8
Laudanum 65
What is a larp script? 8
Roleplay & Game effects 65
How to play an Avalon larp 9
Stewards 66
How to read this script 13
The venue 66
Vision 14
Group limits 67
How To Run Gothic 17
Household Workshop 67
Spaces needed 27
How to be terrified 68
Lighting 28
How to lift (and terrify) 71
Sound Design 30
Final briefing 72
The Clock Strikes 13 31
Opening ritual 75
Steward Costumes 33
Closing ritual 76
Site Setup 35
Debrief Workshop 77
WORKSHOP SCRIPTS 43
CHARACTER SHEETS 79
Player Journey 46
How to read the characters 80
Organiser welcome - run 1 47
Mary Godwin 84
Organiser welcome - Run 2+ 49
Lord Byron 94
Canto Structure 51
Claire Clairmont 104
Gothic Horror 53
Percy Shelley 114
Safety / Calibration 54
Doctor Polidori 124
Intimacy & Violence 55
On Servants 135
Introductions & Expectations 58
Elise 138
Calibration,Desires, and Limits 59
Tita 146
The two minute game 60
5
Milly 154 Vegetables 235

Fletcher 162 Decorative Closed Vegetable Pie with

Susan 170 Horseradish Sauce 238

Rushton 178 Italian Bread Ice Cream - vegan 240

MATERIALS 184 POETRY 242

Timeline 185 On Poetry 244

Harris’s list of intimate moments 190 The Necessity of Atheism 246

Briefings 193 The Vampyre 248

Player letters 195 Death 261

FOOD DESIGN 207 Absence 262

Food for poets 208 Frankenstein; 263

Suggested Menus: 212 Darkness 269

‘What the fuck?!’ - food 216 And thou art dead, as young and fair 272

Scones 220 Stanzas 273

Sandwiches 221 She Walks In Beauty 274

Fruitcake 222 ‘To Constantia, Singing’ 275

Cookies 223 Dear Doctor, I have read your play 276

Pie 224 Claire Clairmont to Lord Byron I 277

Pease soup 226 From ADONAIS: 278

White soup / Soup a la reine 227 An Elegy on the Death of John Keats 278

Beetroot a lá Byron 228 A Dirge 279

Shelley’s Pie 230 Ozymandias 280

Cauliflower Curry 232 Claire Clairmont to Lord Byron II 281

Rice a L’Indienne 233 CREDITS 285

Macaroni 233

6
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
 There are many different types and styles of larp,2
What is larp? we categorise Gothic as a Nordic larp. This tra-
dition - which originates from the Nordic coun-
arp is a co-operative game of make-be- tries - tends to be light on rules, strong on the
L importance of collective play and collaboration,
lieve, a form of embodied and physical and unafraid to explore heavy or dark themes.
role-play, where the participants pretend
to be their characters within a storyworld.
Participants play Gothic twice, first as a poet;
In this larp, Gothic, the storyworld is Byron’s Vil- they write poetry, drink, dance, dream laudanum
la Diodati in the summer of 1816. The players dreams! Then they play it again as their servant
take on the role of one of the famous residents where they will escalate the story and take the
of that house: Lord Byron, Mary Godwin, Percy lead in creating the horrors that haunt the poets.
Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Dr. Polidori, and/ The larp tells the story of these people who are
or one of their servants. trapped in an erotic, psychological horror story,
created by their own imagination.
Unlike a table-top role-playing game, the larp ex-
perience is not directly facilitated by a game mas- Gothic was created by Avalon larp studio, an in-
ter. Whilst there are rules that affect play, there ternational collective based in Oslo, Norway.
are no dice rolls or mechanics to determine suc-
cess of failure. You play the character by doing
what they would do, saying what they would say.
This happens in real time and - ideally - with-
What is a larp script?
out dropping the character and commenting or
speaking as yourself. A larp script contains the materials necessary to
run and play a larp. It does not explain how to
If you want Lord Byron to climb the ladder into
play a larp, it assumes some familiarity with the
a dark attic to investigate the strange noises com-
form, (however we have included a section for
ing from the roof space then you - as Byron - will
new larpers that we hope will give some guid-
need to climb that ladder for real. If you want to
ance about how to play one of our larps.) This
be naked on the roof, then you’ll need to disrobe
script also contains detailed workshops that are
and climb onto the roof.1 As far as possible you
designed to teach a group of players how to play
play the larp with your whole body.
this larp. We are not sure Gothic is a suitable intro-
That being said larps also offer various riles and duction to the form for complete beginners, but
methods (called metatechniques) to control intensi- we have play-tested this game with at least one
ty and safety. In this way the characters of Dr Po- person who had never larped before.
lidori can have sex with Byron, and Claire Clair-
If you do want to know more about how to play
mont can have a fight with Shelley without the
these games there are amazing resources availa-
players actually having sex, or trading blows with
ble online.
one another.

1We do not recommend roof-top nudity unless you are sure that the roof 2 A word that started as an acronym for live-action role-playing but which
is safe. There are no saving rolls in larp. is now a noun and a very in its own right.
8
How to play an
Avalon larp

I t is a tradition at the end of some

of the larger international larps
for the organisers to ask if there
are any new players present who
want to identify themselves as such
to their co-players. This often leads
to inclusive chants of ‘One of us! One
of us!’ In a larp with a lot of players
there is space to learn how to play the
game iteratively; you can step back and
watch others for a while, try things
out, and step away to think about how
it worked afterwards. However for a
larp like Gothic, with a very small en-
semble group of players, we wanted
to give a few pointers for how to actu-
ally get started with larping as a form.
Avalon larps are a part of and derived from
the Nordic larp community, however “Nor-
dic Larp” is a much contested term and we
don’t want to suggest a single normative guide
to how to play all larps from this communi-
ty. Instead we will offer a guide to playing the
larps we make, this is our culture of play, and how Character Introduction
we suggest you approach playing our larps.
Before the larp, you’ll be cast as a character.
So whether you’re a seasoned gamer or brand You’ll be given a document with information
new to role-playing, here’s a simple guide to help about your character: who they are, what they
you jump into your first Avalon larp experience: want, and (usually) their relationships with some
or all of the other characters in the larp.

9
Embody Your Character
Once the larp begins, you embody your character
(as much as you feel comfortable. ) This means
you try to behave as the person written on your
character sheet: Move like them, talk like them,
even breathe like them. Try to react to situations
as your character would.
Costume and Props
Your costume and props can be powerful tools
for embodying your character. Wear clothing
that reflects your character’s style and status. Use
props that have personal significance to your
character and/or are relevant to the larp’s setting.

Embodying your character in a larp is a funda-

mental part of playing a larp. It is the route to a React to the Environment
more immersive and hopefully a more enjoyable
Respond to the larp environment as your charac-
experience. Here are eight tips to help you to ful-
ter would. Take note of your surroundings, react
ly embrace and embody your character:
to events in the game world, and interact with
props and other characters. This helps you stay in
character and contributes to the overall narrative.
Understand The Character
Develop a deep understanding of your charac-
ter’s background, motivations, fears, and desires. Stay In-Game
Know their strengths and weaknesses. The more
you know about your character, the easier it is to Strive to stay in character as much as possible.
embody them authentically. Avoid breaking character or discussing out-of-
game matters during the larp, unless absolutely
necessary. This helps maintain the immersive at-
mosphere for everyone involved. If you need
Physicality and Movement to take a break or to have an out of character
conversation, there is usually an off-game space
Consider your character’s physical attributes and you can visit.
how they move. Are they graceful, clumsy, or im-
posing? Pay attention to posture, gestures, and
the way your character carries themselves. Small
physical details can make a big difference in por-
traying your role convincingly.

Voice and Speech

Experiment with different tones, pitches, and
speech patterns that align with your character.
Consider their accent, if any, and the pace at
which they speak. Practice using your character’s
voice to enhance the overall portrayal.

10
Adapt Changes
to
Be flexible and adaptable. Characters, like real
people, can (and should) evolve and change
based on their experiences. Embrace unexpected
developments and let your character grow organ-
ically throughout the larp.
Relax
Don’t worry about performing for others – it Live in the Moment
isn’t a play – just let yourself explore the story
world through your character’s eyes and with
their whole body.
Interact with Others
Talk to other players ‘in-character’. Ask questions, Focus on Role-Play
share stories, and make decisions as your charac-
ter and based on what your character knows and Don’t worry too much about memorising the
feels. The interactions between characters shape rules. The focus is on role-playing and storytell-
the story, so feel free to engage with others.
Remember You have Alibi
The characters in Gothic are sometimes terrible
people, even monsterous or monsters! It is okay
for the character to behave in a way that you
would not behave in real life, to say something
you would not say or to do something you would
not do. (But please see the section below on
boundaries. )
11
No Right Wrong Answers
INTRODUCTION
or
There’s no “winning” or “losing” in Avalon
larps. Playing here is about telling a collective
story. Your choices matter, but there’s no right
or wrong way to play. Follow your instincts – or
your character’s instincts – and have fun with the
experience.
Pay attention to what’s happening around you.
The larp might have a specific theme or story,
and unexpected things might occur. Stay in the
moment, react naturally, and let the story unfold.
ing. If you’re unsure about something, ask the
organisers or other players.
Respect Others’ Boundaries
Gothic has a number of workshops for you to
share limits and boundaries with your co-players.
If you’re unsure about something, especially if
it involves other players, check with the people
involved and with organisers. Respect others’
boundaries and communicate openly.
Communication is key. Calibrate and discuss
boundaries with your fellow players and use safe-
ty tools provided by the organisers if needed.
Consent and player well-being are fundamental
to a positive larp experience.
Debrief After the Larp
After the larp ends, there’s often a debriefing ses-
sion. This is a chance to share your experiences,
hear about others’ stories, and discuss how the
game went. For many people it’s an important
part of processing the game and connecting with
fellow players.
Artistic Expression
Larp is an art form. With that in mind you
should expect elements of art and performance.
You can contribute to this by exploring creative
expressions to enhance the atmosphere. Engage
with the narrative on an emotional and artistic
level.

Embrace Immersion Treat Each Larp As Your First Larp

Unlike TRPGs, larps prioritise immersion. Dive We recommend treating every larp as though it is
deep into your character, think, feel, and react as your first larp and learning how to play it – from
they would in the given scenario. The goal is to scratch – alongside your co-players rather than
blur the lines between player and character. relying on your previous experiences.

Remember, larps are about shared storytelling,

emotional engagement, and collaborative crea-
Player Agency Matters tion. Embrace the freedom to shape the narra-
tive and enjoy the journey into a world where the
In Avalon larps, your choices significantly impact boundaries between reality and fiction blur.
the story. The narrative evolves based on collec-
tive decisions. Don’t be afraid to take the initia-
tive and contribute to the unfolding drama.

Let time pass /

take a moment to be still:

Larps may unfold over hours or even days.

Be present in the moment, savouring the
experience. Let the narrative breathe and enjoy
the organic development of the story.

12
How
to read
this script
W e have included all of the materials
we used to run Gothic in this script
along with a set of articles and notes
about how we approached the produc-
tion and the play-testing. We acknowl-
edge that your approach to this text is
going to be depend on why you are read-
ing it, those reading to find out how we
made the larp will be looking for differ-
ent information than someone who is
looking to run the larp for themselves.
This book contains eight chapters:
1 - Introduction
In this chapter we introduce larp and larping and
talk about Gothic and why we wanted to make it.
2 - Production
In this chapter we provide notes on the physical
production of the larp, what you need in terms
of location, props and scenography, and how we
went about running Gothic in different spaces.
We talk through the actual runtime of the larp
and explain the role of the organisers and crew
throughout the production.
13
3 - Workshop Scripts
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we reproduce all of the scripts for
the workshops that teach the participants how to
play the larp and facilitate their calibration.
4 - Characters
Here you will find all of the player characters
from the larp – both Poets and Servants – along
with a guide on how to read the characters.
5 - Additional Materials
We have included various additional briefing ma-
terials in this chapter along with the player letters
that are given to participants at the end of each
run of the larp.
6 - Food Design
In this chapter our food designers offer some
thoughts about Gothic along with some of the
recipes they created for the larp.
7 - Poetry
Finally we have a chapter with a small selection
of poetry, letters and prose written by out po-
ets we used these verses for players who did not
want to write their own poetry in game.

Vision
“We Poets in our youth begin in gladness;
But thereof come in the end
despondency and madness.” ~ William Wordsworth
W e started work on Gothic in October
of 2015, sketching out ideas for a
larp that would have been very different
from the one presented here. The origi-
nal scope of the project was larger, with
a list of poets and thinkers from across
Regency-era Europe coming together in
Byron’s villa for a party. The plan was to
create a horror larp; not one with jump
scares of fighting monsters, but one that
leant in to the gothic.
At the core of this design was the wish to use
laudanum and madness to enable alibi. To let
players write poetry, drink, dance, fall deep into
opiated dreams and nightmares, summon the un-
quiet spirits of the dead, seduce and traduce and
tread an uneasy path towards the “despondency
and madness” that Wordsworth wrote about in
his 1802 poem Resolution and Independence.
By the time we had iterated three or four times
on the design, and coming out of the pandem-
ic, we decided to make a larp about five poets
trapped in an psychological horror story, created
by their own imaginations. We decided to create
a shared story of one night of sex, drugs and
madness, but to loop it multiple times and - one
hopes - with different outcomes.
We also wanted to make the participants feel
safe and free and brave enough to lean in to the
themes and to push the edges of this type of
storytelling, but to feel elated and uplifted at the
14
end. We also wanted to explore shared fear and
horror in interesting ways. The larp drew inspira-
tion from the film, Gothic, by Ken Russell, a 1986
psychological horror film that is a fictionalised
retelling of the Shelley’s visit to Lord Byron in
Villa Diodati, where –resulting from of a night
of drugs and madness – various horror stories
were created including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
and John Polidori’s The Vampyre.
Researching the people who were present that
night and trying to work out how to render
them as larp characters was a challenge for sev-
eral reasons. Not least because many of them
are simply “too much.” No larp writer would
create personalities such as these. Furthermore
to lock them up inside a house during the worst
summer in a hundred years seems unneces-
sarily cruel; and yet that is what we have done.
We have taken a few liberties here and there, but
not as many as you might think. We wanted this
larp to be well researched and for the poets to be
as true to life as we could write them.
For their servants, named for the folks who trav-
elled with and served both Byron and the Shelleys
there was far less to go on. We have incorporated
what history and personality we could find, and
where there was insufficient material We have
turned to fiction and to poetry. Our poets wrote
about servants who were surely a reflection of
those they knew in real life. We have, of course,
made adjustments for playability, but this is doc-
umented in the character sheets
 INTRODUCTION
Miscellaneous Observations
FOR THE USE OF THE ORGANISER OF A LARP BY WHICH
MANY MAY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE GREAT ART OF LIFE IS
SENSATION, TO FEEL THAT WE EXIST, EVEN IN PAIN.

A s the directions which follow were intended for the conduct of the players and
crew, and for the arrangement of their entertainment, so as to unite an ungodly
company with proper economy, the author has avoided all excessive luxury, and that
wasteful expenditure of large quantities of champagne, which so greatly contributes
to keep up the price of larp, and is no less injurious to those who play, than to those
whose penury bids them abstain. Many receipts are given for poems which, being in
the public domain, the mode of presenting them may be supposed to be too well
known to require a place in a larp script; yet how rarely do we meet these verses?
We make no apology for the verbosity of some articles, or for leaving others unfinished. We write for
professed romantics, gothic tyrants, theorists, Muses, treasures lost and found, larpers, but mostly we
write for La belle dame sans merci, who we suspect well knows that she hath us in thrall.

This little work would have been a treasure only to ourselves, when we first set out in the creation of
these distractions, but now we have decided to share it outside of our cabal and we therefore hope
it may be useful to others. In that idea it is given to the public, and as we will receive from it no sig-
nificant emolument, we hope it will escape without censure, but suspect that it will not. Instead we
offer you, Dearest reader, a hint of scandal; screams in the night; and the image of a brooding poet
sitting alone in a room, surrounded by books and whispers.

And this is why I sojourn here

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.

15
 PRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2

16
How To Run Gothic
A s tempting as it seems to be seen to
hand down wisdom, we are not going
to give a generic guide to ‘how to run a
larp.’ There are simply too many variables,
and a normative list would end up missing
something. Instead, this chapter will tell
you what we did and – by extension – what
we think you should do if you want to run
this larp.
Game runners / Stewards
The game runners or ‘Stewards’ for Goth-
ic are responsible for all of the off-game
administration: sorting out the venue, re-
cruiting players, and sourcing food, drink,
props, scenography and sound. They are
the timekeepers of the experience; mak-
ing sure that the three Cantos start and
finish on time.
Gothic requires some off-game facilitation, par-
ticularly if you are running it several times back
to back. Whilst it is probably possible for players
to run their own workshops, this is not some-
thing we have thoroughly tested and, given the
themes and intensity of the game we think it is a
good idea to have a couple of people available in
the off-game room during the runtime. Food
preparation is also time consuming and we think
you’ll need a dedicated kitchen crew to fully real-
ise the food design vision of the game.
17
Recruitment: Understanding Your
Audience:
There are many different types of larper. They
want to play for different reasons and they are
looking for different stories and experiences. In
order to run Gothic you will need to recruit a min-
imum of ten players who are all looking for a
similar type of game. This larp is not really de-
signed for folks who want to play heroes. Lord
Byron taking up a pistol and running to the attic
to shoot the monster, or Claire leading a ritual
to try to defeat the evil of the Villa would be a
lot of fun to play, but they are not what Goth-
ic is about. For this larp you are looking for
players who want to learn into the darkness and
madness, rather than wanting to emerge victori-
ous. Gothic deals with and plays on adult themes
and you also need players whose comfort levels
with things like physical intimacy are very simi-
lar. Some players are very experienced at larping
with sex and violence, others may be very un-
comfortable with overt representations of either.
Having a mismatched group therefore is likely to
be challenging.
Insurance
We recommend that you take out suitable in-
surance for your country, particularly if you are
charging money for the larp or are using a rented
location. Avalon larp studio prefers to have both
cancellation insurance and public liability insur-
ance for our events.
Understanding the Storyworld:
We think it is useful for the organiser to have a
basic understanding of the Regency period. It is
not essential, of course, but our vision relies on
both players and facilitators having some knowl-
edge of the norms of polite society so that they
can better understand how the larp characters
break those norms.

We recommend Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986), The

Time Traveller’s Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mor-
timer which is an easy to read introduction to the
Storyworld, and pretty much any book (or film
of a book) by Jane Austen as a simple baseline
for who our poets are not.

Working on Safety
As the organisers you need to be a strong propo-
nent for the culture of safety at Gothic. Whilst
the players are all adults and should be responsi-
ble for their own experience, they are also play-
ing with emotions and physicalities. As an or-
ganiser you are preferably outside of the game
and therefore less affected by what is going on in
play. Make sure you have read and understood
the safety mechanics of this larp and are able to
explain them.

Be aware that there are potentially triggering

scenes and ideas in Gothic. For example, we
elected to remove all references to child death
from Gothic, even though Mary Shelley was af-
fected in real life by the death of her first child
in 1815. When you look at the list of themes
the larp includes you will see that there are many
potential risks and triggers included. One of the
workshops involves participants sharing their
limits with the others. Pay careful attention to
these and be prepared to intervene if someone
forgets a limit (it happens.)
18
Location
G othic was designed with a specific location in mind, indeed one of the design team
was quite adamant that the larp was site-specific and could not be finished without
seeing the place it would be played; the idea of running it anywhere else seemed to be
impossible.
However, we have run Gothic in three different locations: a largely empty, well lit building in down-
town Oslo, a remote farmhouse on the Isle of Skye, and our live location, a 19th century Danish
manor house. What this shows is there is a portability to the larp, and this was unexpected. We
suspect that you could run it in a black box space with tape on the ground to represent the walls and
doors of the Villa, however we suggest a building with a variety of playable spaces, ideally one which
is dark, or which can be made to be dark.

As with many high-budget larps, the location was an important part of the experience. Having a dieg-
tically realistic space, lit largely by candlelight and filled with largely period-accurate furniture added to
the immersion. Over the next few pages we will show some photographs from the location that we used

The Séance Room was where the larp began and ended; initially we used the overhead electric light,
but the space became steadily darker during the larp and by the end it was lit only by the firelight and
a few electric candles.

19
 PRODUCTION
This became the off-game room. It was a bit of a reluctant choice as it is a very beautiful playable
space, but we decided it was the best location for players to be able to come to and chill out. We
used the small room off to the left of the photograph as a quiet room. This was a place for decom-
pression where players could go to be alone. This space became the organiser room as well which
seemed to work.

Exterior of the Villa. There were playable spaces outside, but we wanted the larp to feel claustro-
phobic so we instructed players to remain inside.

20
A view from the basement, this was an off-game
space that we used for workshopping and sleep-
ing the poets on their arrival night.

21
 The servant’s corridor, one of the darkest spac-
es in the larp that even organisers were cautious
about entering during Canto 3.

22
23
 To the left is the view from the balco-
ny of the entrance hall. The left door
on the lower floor is the off-game room
and the right door leads to the par-
lour where afternoon tea was served.

On the right the main staircase.

24
.Above is the Shelley’s bedroom and living room. There was very little we needed to move or re-
move from any of these spaces. Below the dining room in daylight. During the larp it was lit only
by candlelight.

25
This beautiful morning room was next to the Séance Room. We rigged a black curtain to cut out the
daylight and used it as the sound control booth for the larp. It had a door that led into the garden
so it was possible for the sound operator to enter and leave this space without walking through the
play area.
26
Spaces needed

Off-Game Room / Organiser Room. Dinning Room

This is a location that is not a part of the game. A space where the players will eat their evening
A player entering this space is out of charac- meal. This allows for a dramatically key part of
ter and can take a break, decompress, get an the larp, where we close the door and shut the
off-game snack, or calibrate with a co-play- characters in the dinning room with a decadent
er. We set up copies of briefing material and and sometimes terrifying feast. While they are
poems that players could pick up in this area. in this space the crew can make changes to the
lighting and scenography across the rest of the
Ideally you’d have a separate space for organisers site.
and crew, with computers and a printer and plac-
es to sit. This allows for logistics and planning to
take place in a space where players are unlikely to
hang-out. Sitting Room
This could be combined with the Séance Room,
but we were fortunate enough to have a sepa-
rate parlour in the house which allowed play-
Workshopping Space ers to sit in comfort in more than one location.
This is particularly important if you are running For the horror of the larp to work there should
the larp multiple times you need to be able to be enough spaces to allow characters to go off
workshop with new players without interrupting somewhere alone in the dark.
play. Ideally you keep new players completely
separate from the existing group. We were able
to bring new players into the basement of our Bedrooms
location, through a side-door and accommodate
them below-stairs on their first night. These are both places for players to sleep and
also playable spaces for the poets and servants.
You will need at least one ‘playable’ bedroom,
Séance Room but ideally each of the poets will have a space to
call their own.
On both play-tests and the live runs we allocated
a room specifically for the séance scene. We had
a sound booth adjacent to this space so that the
sound tech could hear what was going on and try
Optional Extras
to select sound effects at the most dramatically Spooky attics, strange basements, cellars, towers,
appropriate time. This room should contain can- chapels, eaves.
dles, a skull, a Ouija Board and a length of rope.

27
Lighting
Most of the lighting effects we used at Gothic were rechargeable
LED candles. We had a large selection of these of different
sizes and shapes. The venue did not allow naked flames
but did have a lot of candle holders and candelabras
around the space and attached to the walls.

We drew the curtains where they were available (not

every room had them) and also relied on the elec-
tric lighting (which was largely candle-like) for the
first Canto. Candles came into play at the end of
Canto one when the Stewards set up the Séance
Room with some candles and started to turn off
the electric lights. The rest of the candles came
out while the players were in the dining room. We
put out a lot of candles during this scenogra- bottoms of staircases, well lit, encourage players
phy break and then slowly moved and removed to take a candelabra with them when they ex-
them during Canto Two, leaving players huddling plore dark spaces. One of the tricks we didn’t
round the remaining candles and taking them use when we ran the larp would be to have a re-
from room to room by the end of Canto Three. move control for player-held candles, so that you
can switch one or more of them off at precisely
We also had a set of remote controlled colour- the right time!
ed up-lighters that could be used to light specific
spaces or rooms. These came into play during When the players exit from the dinning room,
the séance scene and also during Canto Two. We the effects of the laudanum are starting to be-
made heavy use of red lights downstairs. come apparent; the lighting change is a key part
of making this work. Let them get used to this
When designing the lights for your space the key candle-lit slightly surreal world, and — once they
things to take into account are whether the play- have got used to it — start to move and then re-
ers will have enough light to be able to play to- move the lights. We used the stewards to do this,
gether. If it is too dark it becomes difficult to see sometimes they would pointedly ‘blow out’ a can-
your co-players faces and almost impossible to dle or move one from one side of the room to an-
enter a scene that is in play for fear of interrupt- other so that the shadows in that room changed.
ing some unseen activity. The site also needs to When clothes were left in a room — for example
be safe, as the possibility of tripping in the dark some gloves and a coat left in the dinning room
is very real. At the same time the shadows need — the stewards re-arranged these in the hallway,
to become slowly oppressive. Consider how you laid them out with two candles and a dogs skull
can reduce the overall light in a space but leave to create a sinister sculpture that was difficult to
certain areas of it well lit enough to be able to see unless a poet came close enough; when they
see someone’s facial expression from across the did they recoiled. We called this the Helter Skelter.
room. Keep staircases, particularly the tops and

28
29
Sound Design
For Gothic we created a soundscape that
included effects that could be manually
triggered either at specific times, or in re-
sponse to player action. We used Ableton suitable ominous intonation. For the remain-
Live 11 and an AKAI Professional APC mini der of the second canto we manually changed
Mk2 controller to run the sound, with a the soundscape to add and remove various
single stereo output to our sound system. elements: There was a sinister wind loop, the
skittering of rats in the walls, some horror
The sound system setup gave us two zones to ambient sounds and various other carefully
work with, one of which was focussed on the curated loops. Many of these came from the
Seance Room and the other was in the cen- BBC Sound Effects Library, others were found
tral lobby of the house. They played the same online. There are some quite good long hor-
soundscape, but with different volumes and ror ambient loops on YouTube for example.
frequencies. Ideally we’d have had more flexi-
bility to output different sounds to three zones. We also made use of a drone bass of the
sort used by some horror films to create
The larp began and ended with the same a sense of unease in the viewer. We did
piece of music, a track entitled “Sad Pi- not use infrasound; whilst the sub-woof-
ano and Strings” composed by Andreas Er- er of the sound system could probably
icson who is a Swedish musician. We li- have supported 18.9Hz, we opted not to
censed the track from the Pond5 website. experiment with very low frequencies.

The soundscape itself was based around
a rainstorm loop. Famously the poets were
trapped inside by rain throughout most of the
summer of 1816 so we opted to have the rain
with intermittent thunder running through-
out the entire larp. For Canto One this was
the only sound playing; we faded up the rain-
storm channel as the theme music died away.
Canto Two started with the séance scene and
at this point there was someone in the sound
booth trying to follow the events of the se-
ance and triggering suitable sound effects at
appropriate moments; a single clap of thun-
der coinciding with the Medium delivering a
Canto Two ended with a clock striking mid-
night. Canto Three ended with the same
clock striking thirteen. As the final chime
sounded, we brought the theme tune back
into the mix and slowly faded out the oth-
er sound effects, finally ending the rainstorm
just before the theme tune came to an end.
The Ableton Live software gave us the ability
to tweak some sound settings on the fly. One
player reported some dissonance caused by
the white noise element of the rain and so we
took down some of the higher frequencies
on that run and the subsequent one so help
them.

30
 both showed the correct time in-game. This
The Clock Strikes 13 clock was on the mantelpiece of the séance
room so it was available to players at all times.

At the start of Canto three —which is at midnight

game time — we swapped the clock faces over
so that rather than showing that the next hour
was one AM the clock face suggested that the
next hour would be the thirteenth hour, the end
of the larp.

The clock is a ‘nice to have’ prop. It prevents

players from needing to go off-game or to look
at off-game watches or phones to find the cur-
rent time. It needs to be placed somewhere cen-
tral, that all characters can easily access (so don’t
put it in one of the bedrooms, for example.)

If you are using the clock then make sure that the
clock face is updated at the appropriate time (just
after the start of Canto Three.

A s the larp requires on the artificial ma-

nipulation of time we needed a way to
let the players know what time it was in-
game. Game Time was usually one hour
behind real time, but it also finished at 13
O’clock.

We purchased two identical battery pow-

ered clock faces with Roman Numerals, re-
moved the hands from one of the clocks and
scanned the clock face. We then airbrushed
out the numerals II to V and changed the
I into XIII to represent thirteen o’clock.

This new face was printed out in colour to

match the original clock face and was attached
to the second clock. We added some shadows
with dark spray paint to cover the joins and re-
attached the hands. Before the start of the larp
the two clocks were put in synch so that they
31
Props for Players Other Scenography
W e provided the players with a small
selection of props - those that
were key to the events and themes of the
G othic made use of a number of oth-
er props that were either in play
throughout the larp or were moved into
larp. In some cases we needed to have the play area during Cantos two and three:
multiples of these props, for others we
were able to re-use the props between • Skulls: one human skull and a selection of
the runs: animal skulls. There were based on By-
ron’s well known collection of the skulls of
monks. At least one skull should be present
• Two bone or wooden dice for the servants
during a run of Gothic.
to gamble with)
• Masks. The masks should be white - so they
• A set of gold coins (these were simple brass
are visible in the dark, and should ideally cov-
discs, as we were unable to acquire early
er around half the face but not the mouth.
19th century British or Swiss coinage either
We had a selection of different shapes - in-
in replica or for real.
cluding those that did cover the whole face
• Larp leeches that we found on an Etsy shop - but these made hearing what the person
provided in a glass bowl wearing the mask was saying quite a chal-
• A copy of Claire’s manuscript for The Idiot lenge. Disposable masks or those that can
(these tended to be destroyed, so we needed be cleaned between runs are preferable here.
one for each run)
• A laudanum bottle. Here we acquired a
19th century medicine bottle and added a
label and a cork
• A set of cleaning rags (for Fletcher, who
likes to clean things)
• A length of rope (for the purposes of re-
straining Milly)
• A ouija board and planchette (for use in the
seance scene)
• Copies of Harris’s List of Intimate Moments
that we placed in play just in case our play-
ers needed some guidance in these matters
(In most cases they did not.)

32

Steward Costumes
T o portray a Regency-era Steward you’ll want
to create a costume that reflects the histor-
ical period and the practical, modest attire typ-
ical of servants during the early 19th century.
We are giving options for female-presenting and
male-presenting Stewards here, this should not
be read as an endorsement of a gender binary.
Female-presenting
Dress:
Choose a simple, plain, and practical dress in a
neutral colour. Servant dresses were often made
from durable fabrics like cotton or linen. Earthy
tones such as brown, grey, or dark blue are suit-
able. Sometimes female servants would be given
old dresses by their employers, but for Stewards
we are looking for something relatively non-de-
script
Apron:
Wear a plain white or off-white apron over the
dress. The apron serves both practical and sym-
bolic purposes, signifying the servant’s role.
Mob Cap or Bonnet:
Add a mob cap or bonnet to the costume. These
were common head coverings for female serv- Start with a plain, long-sleeved shirt in a neutral
ants during the Regency era. Choose a cap with colour such as white or off-white.
a simple design and avoid elaborate embellish-
ments. Breeches:
Shawl or Neckcloth:
Depending on the weather and the specific role
of the servant, consider adding a shawl or neck-
33
cloth for warmth or additional modesty.
Stockings and Simple Shoes:
Wear plain stockings that match the dress and
practical, low-heeled shoes. Servants would have
worn sensible footwear suitable for their duties.
Given the length of the dresses worn we are not
expecting any of the players to see your footwear
and thus we suggest that you prioritise comfort.
Hair and Grooming:
Keep hair neat and tidy. Female servants typically
wore their hair in a simple and modest style. If
the servant’s hair is long, it might be tied back.
Accessories:
Limit accessories to practical items related to
the Steward’s duties. This might include a small
basket, covered to disguise 21st century items, a
cleaning cloth, broom, or other tools depending
on what you need to do on set.
Gloves:
Optional, but plain gloves may be worn for a
more polished look, especially if the servant is
attending to tasks that require cleanliness.
Male-presenting
Shirt:
Choose knee-length breeches made of sturdy
fabric, such as wool or cotton. Dark colours like
brown, grey, or black are suitable.
You could also wear trousers if breeches are unavailable

Waistcoat (Vest):
Wear a waistcoat in a coordinating colour. The waistcoat should be simple and tailored without the
elaborate patterns or bright colours of the poets.

Neckcloth (Cravat):
Add a plain black cravat or neckcloth.

Stockings:
If you are wearing breeches, also wear knee-high stockings, usually in a neutral colour.

Shoes:
Choose simple leather shoes with low heels, reflecting the footwear of the time.

Jacket or Coat:
If required you can add a tailcoat or short jacket in a dark colour. The jacket
should be simple and fitted but not overly ornate.

Apron:
A plain black apron can be worn to signify the Steward’s role and duties.

Headwear:
Depending on the specific role of the servant, a simple cap or hat might be
appropriate. A flat cap or a simple round hat could be considered.

Accessories:
Depending on the specific role and setting, a servant might carry ac-
cessories related to their duties, such as a tray, duster, or small tools.

Remember that the key to an effective Steward costume is simplicity

and practicality. The attire should reflect the character’s role and sta-
tion in life, enable the Steward to fade into the background, but they
also need to be able to wear it comfortably and move around easily. As
Stewards will rarely be interacting directly with the players they need to be
able to fade into the background. They have no in-game function outside
of the Helter Skelter.

34
 Clairmont’s manuscript for The Ideot, have one
Site Setup copy ready to give to Claire but keep the oth-
ers somewhere safe so multiple copies don’t end

A rriving on site for site setup requires a plan, up going into play. Set up any office equipment,
particularly if you have players arriving the printer, internet, etc. Ensure that multiple people
same day. Split your set up crew into teams with have access to these so as to avoid single points
clearly assigned tasks. of failure.

Primary tasks Audiovisual

Initially we suggest one group unloading vehicles
and another small group or individual taking vid-
eo footage of every room on the site so that it is
easy to reset the property. This means that any
furniture that is moved, or items that are hidden
or otherwise relocated, can be put back where
they came from. As a part of this process you
can also check for any damage to the property
that was there before you arrived.
Sound and light setup depends very much on
your budget, experience, and the kit you have
available. Having time to carefully rig any cables
and speakers, ensure that nothing is a trip or fall-
ing hazard before players arrive is important if
they are going to have access to the play areas in
advance of the larp. Ideally you will have time
for a proper sound-check before the players ar-
rive.

Secondary Tasks Self care

Setting up the player arrival and workshopping It should go without saying, but organiser and
area comes next. Assuming you have a large volunteer care is a priority. Schedule and take
enough team it is perfectly possible to continue breaks. Hydrate, and check in with one another.
with the site set-up even after the workshops are Ideally there will be time during setup to get into
underway. Ensure that any player materials and bedrooms, unpack, take a shower, check messag-
workshop scripts are ready and prepare a com- es. Even if you are running behind schedule it
fortable area for reception and workshops. Put is still essential to eat, sleep, drink water, stretch,
the Prosecco in the fridge to chill and ensure that and breathe.
anyone involved in player reception knows where
the drinks, snacks, and workshop scripts are.
Schedule Review
The organisers and anyone involved in running
Off-game Room / Organiser Room a workshop should meet and run through the
Sort out the various props and materials for the schedules so you all know what needs to be done
offgame room for the first run. Ensure that an- and when once the player’s start to arrive...
ything that is run specific is kept separate. For
example if you have multiple copies of Claire
35
RUN ONE SCHEDULE - EVENING OF ARRIVAL DAY
# Title Description Type Group Time
1 Organiser Welcome This is an info dump that gives impor- Info All 19:30-19:40
Day 1 tant safety notices and reviews the story
and themes of the larp
2 Canto Structure This is an info dump about the three Info All Included in
Cantos of the larp and how the larp be- above
gins and ends.
3 Gothic horror This is a discussion session about hor- Discussion Poets / Serv- 19:40-20:00
ror larp with a brief introduction to the ants separate
difference between gothic horror and
other horror genres.
4 Safety This is a briefing about the safety rules Info All 20:00-20:10
for the larp which includes the escala-
tion and de-escalation process
5 Intimacy & Violence This is a briefing about the safety rules Info All 20:10-20:25
for the larp which includes the escala-
tion and de-escalation process
6 Break 20:25-20:35
7 Introductions & Ex- This is a workshop session where play- Workshop Poets / Serv- 20:35-21:15
pectations ers get to know one another and to start ants separate
talking about their characters.
8 Calibration, desires, What is Calibration? This is a curated Workshop Poets / Serv- 21:15-21:45
and limits workshop where the players talk about ants separate
where their desires and limits are.
9 Break 21:45-21:50
10 The Two Minute This is a workshop and touch exercise Workshop Poets / Serv- 21:50-22:40
Game which practices negotiation and con- Self-guided ants separate
sent. (after organ-
iser starts the
first round)
11 Free Calibration Calibration Poets / Serv- Finish by
ants separate midnight,
please.

36
RUN ONE SCHEDULE - MORNING OF SECOND DAY

# Title Description Type Group Time

12 Day Two Introduction Brief Overview of the day Info All 10:00-10:05

13 Site Specific Briefings You will need to write your own. Players Info All 10:05-10:15
get a tour of the larp site. Includes site
specific safety rules
14 Mesmerism This is a practical guide to mesmerism, Info / Work- All 10:15-10:25
how it works in the larp. shop

15 Masks & Monsters This is an info dump about masks and Info All 10:25-10:30
how they work and what the monsters
are in play
16 Laudanum This is a combined info-dump and mov- Workshop All 10:30-10:35
ing workshop about the experience of
being on the drug laudanum
17 Stewards A briefing on the Stewards (semi-diegetic Info All 10:35-10:36
GMs)
18 Break 10:36-10:55
19 Food Briefing Information about mealtimes, how the Info All 10:55-11:00
food will be served, how dietary restric-
tions are labelled etc.
20 Group Limits A session to review individual limits with Calibration All 11:00-11:15
the players from the other group
21 Household Workshop Calibration Session for the Byron Calibration Byron 11:15-11:45
and Shelley Household with their Household
/ Shelley
servants Household
22 How to be terrified This is a practical workshop about play- Workshop Poets 11:45-12:10
ing fear, including breathing techniques.
Include a discussion about phobia.
23 How to lift & Terrify Workshop for poets to talk about ways of Workshop Servants 11:45-12:10
causing fear and suggesting a scene for
Canto 3
24 Lunch Calibration 12:10-13:00

37
RUN ONE SCHEDULE - AFTERNOON OF SECOND DAY

# Title Description Type Group Time

25 Costume & Calibra- A session for poets and servants to get Calibration Poet & 13:00-13:45
tion into costume and to calibrate Servant

26 Final Briefing A final review of information Info All 13:45-13:55

27 Opening Ritual The start of the larp Ritual All 13:55-14:00

28 Canto 1 The first canto of the larp Larp Players 14:00-18:00

29 Canto 2 The second canto of the larp Larp Players 18:00-23:00

30 New Poets Arrive Arrival time for new poets - See Run Two Event New Poets 18:00-19:00
Workshop Timetable for additional in-
formation
31 Canto 3 The third canto of the larp Larp Players 23:00-00:00
32 Closing Ritual The end of the larp and organisers leave Ritual All 00:00-00:10
players to decompress

33 Letters to Players Players receive letters from their charac- Event Players 00:10-00:15
ters that they can read, or keep, or destroy
34 Ten minute tidy Players help collect glasses and props and Event All 00:15-00:25
reset the site

35 After Party

38
RUN TWO SCHEDULE + EVENING OF ARRIVAL DAY
# Title Description Type Group Time
1 Organiser Welcome This is an info dump that gives impor- Info Poets 19:30-19:40
Day 1 tant safety notices and reviews the story
and themes of the larp
2 Canto Structure This is an info dump about the three Info Poets Included in
Cantos of the larp and how the larp be- above
gins and ends.
3 Gothic horror This is a discussion session about hor- Discussion Poets 19:40-20:00
ror larp with a brief introduction to the
difference between gothic horror and
other horror genres.
4 Safety This is a briefing about the safety rules Info Poets 20:00-20:10
for the larp which includes the escala-
tion and de-escalation process
5 Intimacy & Violence This is a briefing about the safety rules Info Poets 20:10-20:25
for the larp which includes the escala-
tion and de-escalation process
6 Break 20:25-20:35
7 Introductions & Ex- This is a workshop session where play- Workshop Poets 20:35-21:15
pectations ers get to know one another and to start
talking about their characters.
8 Calibration, desires, What is Calibration? This is a curated Workshop Poets 21:15-21:45
and limits workshop where the players talk about
where their desires and limits are.
9 Break 21:45-21:50
10 The Two Minute This is a workshop and touch exercise Workshop Poets 21:50-22:40
Game which practices negotiation and con- Self-guided
sent. (after organ-
iser starts the
first round)
11 Free Calibration Calibration Poets Finish by
midnight,
please.

We chose to keep the new players separate from

the current players, even when the larp was fin-
ished and asked them not to interact with the
previous group until breakfast the following day.

39
RUN TWO SCHEDULE + MORNING OF SECOND DAY

# Title Description Type Group Time

12 Move rooms New servant players move bedrooms, Event Existing/ 09:30-10:00
players leaving today vacate rooms Previous
players
13 Day Two Introduction Brief Overview of the day Info All 10:00-10:05

14 Optional Debrief For those players leaving the Villa today, Workshop Exiting 10:00-10:45
an optional debriefing workshop players

15 Poets into Servants This is a session to help the poets let go Workshop Servants 10:00-10:35
of their characters and move to the new
ones
16 Site Specific Briefings You will need to write your own. Players Info Poets 10:05-10:15
get a tour of the larp site. Includes site
specific safety rules
17 Mesmerism This is a practical guide to mesmerism, Info / Work- Poets 10:15-10:25
how it works in the larp. shop

18 Masks & Monsters This is an info dump about masks and Info Poets 10:25-10:30
how they work and what the monsters
are in play
19 Laudanum This is a combined info-dump and mov- Workshop Poets 10:30-10:35
ing workshop about the experience of
being on the drug laudanum
20 Stewards A briefing on the Stewards (semi-diegetic Info Poets 10:35-10:36
GMs)
21 Break 10:36-10:55
22 Food Briefing Information about mealtimes, how the Info All 10:55-11:00
food will be served, how dietary restric-
tions are labelled etc.
23 Group Limits A session to review individual limits with Calibration All 11:00-11:15
the players from the other group
24 Household Workshop Calibration Session for the Byron Calibration Byron 11:15-11:45
and Shelley Household with their Household
/ Shelley
servants Household

40
# Title Description Type Group Time
12 Move rooms New servant players move bedrooms, Event Existing/ 09:30-10:00
players leaving today vacate rooms Previous
players
13 Day Two Introduction Brief Overview of the day Info All 10:00-10:05

14 Optional Debrief For those players leaving the Villa today, Workshop Exiting 10:00-10:45
an optional debriefing workshop players

15 Poets into Servants This is a session to help the poets let go Workshop Servants 10:00-10:35
of their characters and move to the new
ones
16 Site Specific Briefings You will need to write your own. Players Info Poets 10:05-10:15
get a tour of the larp site. Includes site
specific safety rules
17 Mesmerism This is a practical guide to mesmerism, Info / Work- Poets 10:15-10:25
how it works in the larp. shop

18 Masks & Monsters This is an info dump about masks and Info Poets 10:25-10:30
how they work and what the monsters
are in play
19 Laudanum This is a combined info-dump and mov- Workshop Poets 10:30-10:35
ing workshop about the experience of
being on the drug laudanum
20 Stewards A briefing on the Stewards (semi-diegetic Info Poets 10:35-10:36
GMs)
21 Break 10:36-10:55

On the final run of the larp there is no require-

ment on the organisers to greet and run work-
shops for newly arriving players and all that re-
mains on the morning of the final day is a set of
optional debriefing sessions and to clean down
and reset the event location.

41
# Title Description Type Group Time
22 Food Briefing Information about mealtimes, how the Info All 10:55-11:00
food will be served, how dietary restric-
tions are labelled etc.
23 Group Limits A session to review individual limits with Calibration All 11:00-11:15
the players from the other group
24 Household Workshop Calibration Session for the Byron Calibration Byron 11:15-11:45
and Shelley Household with their Household
/ Shelley
servants Household
25 How to be terrified This is a practical workshop about play- Workshop Poets 11:45-12:10
ing fear, including breathing techniques.
Include a discussion about phobia.
26 How to lift & Terrify Workshop for poets to talk about ways of Workshop Servants 11:45-12:10
causing fear and suggesting a scene for
Canto 3
27 Lunch Calibration All 12:15-13:00

28 Costume & Calibra- A session for poets and servants to get Calibration All 13:00-13:45
tion into costume and to calibrate
29 Final Briefing A final review of information Info All 13:45-13:55

30 Opening Ritual The start of the larp Ritual All 13:55-14:00

31 Canto 1 The first canto of the larp Larp Players 14:00-18:00

32 Canto 2 The second canto of the larp Larp Players 18:00-23:00

33 New Poets Arrive Arrival time for new poets unless this is Event New Players 18:00-19:00
the final run
34 Canto 3 The third canto of the larp Larp Players 23:00-00:00

# Title Description Type Group Time

35 Closing Ritual The end of the larp and organisers leave Ritual All 00:00-00:10
the players to decompress
36 Letters to Players Players receive letters from their charac- Event Players 00:10-00:15
ters that they can read, or keep, or destroy
37 Ten minute tidy Players help collect glasses and props and Event All 00:15-00:25
reset the site
38 After Party

42
WORKSHOP
SCRIPTS
CHAPTER 4
 Workshops

N ot every larp tradition includes the

idea of workshopping. In some cul-
tures there is a briefing session before a
game, in other traditions there are rules or
notes sent out to players in advance and
it is assumed they have read them. The
purpose of these workshops is to teach
the players how to play this larp as an en-
semble with the other players. Having
a shared understanding of how the larp
works, and a shared agreement of where
the edges of the larp are in essential to the
success of the piece.
The scripts therefore are intended to be delivered
as written with little or no deviation from the text.
They have been iterated on, of course, from the in-
itial playtest, the second playtest, and then slightly
with each run of the larp where we found some-
thing to be unclear, or in need of clarification.

This previous chapter contains our timetable

showing which workshops should take place at
specific times. They presuppose the arrival of
players between 18:00 and 19:00 the evening be-
fore the larp begins. There is a different time-
table for the first night — as the servants and
poets workshop at the same time — and subse-
quent nights as those who will play servants are
in-play as the poets. If you are intending to run
the larp only once, then you should use the Day
One workshop schedule.

45
Player Journey So the general instruction here for you is that
players arriving for any run of Gothic should be
valon larps use an approach we call on- made to feel welcome, comfortable, and special.
A This helps to create a bond between the new ar-
tological design where we consider that riving players, and establishes a magic circle even
the participants engagement with the larp before play begins.
begins a long time before the larp starts.
It could be at the point a potential player
becomes aware of the larp, or when they Running Workshops
sign up, but it certainly begins at the mo-
ment they are offered a place. We address Give players a chance to decompress and relax
our players collectively as “Poets.” for around twenty minutes before starting the
workshops assuming there is time. (If players
are running late then this decompression time
The Rockstar Arrival may need to be reduced or cut.) Be aware that
players arriving from different time zones may
struggle with late finishing workshops and that
“I awoke one morning to find myself famous.” ~ Byron
activities after 10pm at night tend to be hard-
Although not technically a workshop, but rath- er than those completed earlier in the evening.
er a precursor to the workshops, one of our
early design choices was around how we would You should use the schedules in the previous
welcome participants to the larp.. We asked chapter to tell you when to start and finish the
the players to arrive between six and seven workshops. Keeping to time is important so ei-
pm each day and we had some organisers and ther ensure that all workshop facilitators either
crew standing by to welcome the new arrivals. have a watch or have set a timer to make sure that
they keep on track. It is also useful to have some-
Ask your players to contact you when they arrive one who is not involved in running
on site and send available crew members to meet the workshops ultimately respon-
them at the car park and offer to help carry luggage sible for their timings; that per-
into the house. If players are arriving directly, have son can give a gentle five minute
someone there to greet them, take their coats etc. warning to facilitators if
they are running behind.
As they arrive offer them a glass of Pro-
secco (or an alcohol free alternative.) You
should also make sure there were snacks (in-
cluding those for specific dietary require-
ments) and tea and coffee and water available.

These steps are designed to make them feel like

“Rockstar Poets.”

46
 This is the story that we shall tell:
Organiser welcome -
Lord Byron, the most successful poet of all time
has fled his native England to escape scandal and
run 1 debt. He is accompanied by his personal physi-
cian — Dr. (John) Polidori1. He is joined by the
radical poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron’s one-

“ We have one unerring guide...Call it love, chari- time lover Claire Clairmont, and Claire’s half-sis-
ty, or sympathy; it is the best, the angelic portion ter, the writer Mary Godwin, who was later to
of us. It teaches us to feel pain at others’ pain, become famous under her married name, Mary
joy in their joy. The more entirely we mingle our Shelley.
emotions with those of others, making our well
Alongside the poets are Byron’s cadre of serv-
or ill being depend on theirs, the more completely ants.
do we cast away our selfishness, and approach the
perfection of our nature.” (from The Fortunes William Fletcher, the House Steward, Giovanni
of Perkin Warbeck) Falcier, also known as Tita, Byron’s bodyguard,
(Susan Vaughn, a kitchen maid / Robert Rusht-
With those words – written by Mary Shelley – I’d on, a Valet), and the two maid servants to the
like to formally welcome you to this first run of Shelley Household, Elise Duvillard and Amelia
Gothic. Thank you all for coming on this journey Shields.
with us. We hope that you will enjoy your time in
the Villa. This evening and tomorrow morning There will be other servants present in the villa -
we are going to guide you through the workshops we will talk about them later.
and then tomorrow afternoon you will play the Byron’s household is rather lax, for whilst the
larp in this very special location. servants work, they are also encouraged to think,
Before we get started, here are a couple of house- to drink, to join in festivities and … other things.
keeping points: The year is unseasonably cold and dark and the
Tell folks where the exits and meeting point are in case of group are largely trapped inside Byron’s villa by
an emergency the storms outside. To stave off the boredom,
they amuse themselves with drink, drugs, poetry,
Please use English during the game and work- and much darker undertakings;
shops
We shall play with the following themes: Confu-
We use the “hall pass / walk away / open door” sion over what is real or unreal; What dreams and
option in the workshops and during the game. nightmares can do to and with the imagination;
If there is an exercise you do not wish to do, or Magic and the occult with particular reference to
if you find yourself in a situation where you are the boundary between life and death; Corruption
uncomfortable, you are free to leave at any time. of the body and of the spirit; and finally, a dark
If you wish to opt out of an exercise during the eroticism that binds all these things together in
workshops we’d encourage you to stay and watch the fiction.
so you can still get the necessary information.
Gothic is a larp that may contain a number of adult
1 If Polidori is being played as female, please leave out the first name.
47
themes that will be realistically simulated. We
will explain how during these workshops. You
will always be in control of their own bodies and
will have methods to calibrate and control your
own play, you may be invited to participate in or
witness scenes played out by others. These may
include, but not be limited to, sexual activity, vi-
olence against the body and the mind, sexualised
violence, erotic violence, gentle intimacy, cross-
dressing, drug taking, raging lust, non consensual
sexual activity, nudity, lack of autonomy, humili-
ation, gaslighting, madness, poetry, and revenge.
ror and how we play on it
Then there will then be a briefing about the safe-
ty rules for the larp, followed by a short break.
After the break we will split into groups – po-
ets and servants – and have a workshop session
where you will get to know one another and to
start talking about your characters and how they
will interact.
We’ll then introduce the intimacy and violence
simulation metatechniques

The characters that you play are not you; this is Then we’ll work on calibration through to the
alibi. They will borrow your bodies, perhaps, end of the evening via a mixture of curated and
but if we look around this space can we take a self-led workshops, exercises, and free conversa-
moment to acknowledge that we are a group of tion.
adults who have come together to play a game.
Playing as adults is a transgressive act, a radical
act, one I think our poets would have approved
of.

The characters are larger than life, many of them

are terrible people, or tortured geniuses, held to-
gether with ego and neurosis. They are also com-
peting in Byron’s challenge to come up with the
most terrifying ghost story, so – like you – they
are playing inside a story. This is what gothic
literature describes as a frame narrative - a story
within a story - an alibi for the characters and an
additional layer of alibi for you. What is more,
they will be drunk, and high on drugs and on
horror. They too have their own dual alibis for
their behaviour, just as you have three. I invite
you to enjoy that distance and make use of the
freedom that it affords.

This is the plan for this evening:

I am going to talk you through the Three Cantos

of the larp and talk about how the larp begins
and ends.

We will then have a discussion about gothic hor-

48

Organiser welcome
Run 2+
(The text for the second and subsequent runs is slightly
different)
“ We have one unerring guide...Call it love, chari-
ty, or sympathy; it is the best, the angelic portion
of us. It teaches us to feel pain at others’ pain,
joy in their joy. The more entirely we mingle our
emotions with those of others, making our well
or ill being depend on theirs, the more completely
do we cast away our selfishness, and approach the
perfection of our nature.” (from The Fortunes Alongside the poets are Byron’s cadre of serv-
of Perkin Warbeck)
With those words – written by Mary Shelley –
I’d like to formally welcome you to this run of
Gothic. Thank you all for coming on this journey
with us. We hope that you will enjoy your time in
the Villa. This evening and tomorrow morning
we are going to guide you through the workshops
and then tomorrow afternoon you will play the
larp in this very special location.
Before we get started, here are a couple of house-
keeping points:
Tell folks where the exits and meeting point are in case of
an emergency
Please use English during the game and work-
shops
We use the “hall pass / walk away / open door”
option in the workshops and during the game.
If there is an exercise you do not wish to do, or
if you find yourself in a situation where you are
uncomfortable, you are free to leave at any time.
49
If you wish to opt out of an exercise during the
- workshops we’d encourage you to stay and watch
so you can still get the necessary information.
Please don’t go upstairs1 as the larp is running,
similarly if you want to smoke this evening,
please go out the side door rather than out the
front.
Lord Byron, the most successful poet of all time
has fled his native England to escape scandal and
debt. He is accompanied by his personal physi-
cian — Dr. (John) Polidori2. He is joined by the
radical poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron’s one-
time lover Claire Clairmont, and Claire’s half-sis-
ter, the writer Mary Godwin, who was later to
become famous under her married name, Mary
Shelley.
ants.
William Fletcher, the House Steward, Giovanni
Falcier, also known as Tita, Byron’s bodyguard,
(Susan Vaughn, a kitchen maid / Robert Rusht-
on, a Valet - depending on which character will be
present) and the two maid servants to the Shelley
Household, Elise Duvillard and Amelia Shields.
There will be other servants present in the villa -
we will talk about them tomorrow.
Byron’s household is rather lax, for whilst the
servants work, they are also encouraged to think,
to drink, to join in festivities and … other things.
The year is unseasonably cold and dark and the
group are largely trapped inside Byron’s villa by
the storms outside. To stave off the boredom,
they amuse themselves with drink, drugs, poetry,
and much darker undertakings;
1 Depending on the location of your play area this direction may need
to change.
2 If Polidori is being played as female, please leave out the first name.
We shall play with the following themes: Confu- you to enjoy that distance and make use of the
sion over what is real or unreal; What dreams and freedom that it affords.
nightmares can do to and with the imagination;
Magic and the occult with particular reference to This is the plan for this evening:
the boundary between life and death; Corruption
I am going to talk you through the Three Cantos
of the body and of the spirit; and finally, a dark
of the larp and talk about who the larp begins
eroticism that binds all these things together in
and ends.
the fiction.
We will then have a discussion about gothic hor-
Gothic is a larp that may contain a number of adult
ror and how we play on it
themes that will be realistically simulated. We
will explain how during these workshops. You Then there will then be a briefing about the safe-
will always be in control of their own bodies and ty rules for the larp.
will have methods to calibrate and control your
own play, you may be invited to participate in or We’ll then introduce the intimacy and violence
witness scenes played out by others. These may simulation metatechniques
include, but not be limited to, sexual activity, vi-
olence against the body and the mind, sexualised We will then have a break
violence, erotic violence, gentle intimacy, cross-
After the break we have a workshop session
dressing, drug taking, raging lust, non consensual
where you will get to know one another and to
sexual activity, nudity, lack of autonomy, humili-
start talking about your characters and how they
ation, gaslighting, madness, poetry, and revenge.
will interact.
The characters that you play are not you; this is
Then we’ll work on calibration through to the
alibi. They will borrow your bodies, perhaps,
end of the evening via a mixture of curated and
but if we look around this space can we take a
self-led workshops, exercises, and free conversa-
moment to acknowledge that we are a group of
tion.
adults who have come together to play a game.
Playing as adults is a transgressive act, a radical
act, one I think our poets would have approved
of.

The characters are larger than life, many of them

are terrible people, or tortured geniuses, held to-
gether with ego and neurosis. They are also com-
peting in Byron’s challenge to come up with the
most terrifying ghost story, so – like you – they
are playing inside a story. This is what gothic
literature describes as a frame narrative - a story
within a story - an alibi for the characters and an
additional layer of alibi for you. What is more,
they will be drunk, and high on drugs and on
horror. They too have their own dual alibis for
their behaviour, just as you have three. I invite
50
Canto Structure for weeks and they are starting to get on each
other’s nerves. You may find this first Canto has
more of an upstairs/downstairs vibe to it. This

Iam going to talk you through the struc- is fine.

ture and beats of the larp. It is split into
three cantos – these are like poetic chap- Please steer clear of horror/violence/and ex-
treme erotic play during Canto 1.
ters, or acts.
All the times I give you here are in real world
time. The fictional time is one hour ahead.
Canto II 18:00-23:00
Canto 1 starts with a piece of music. We will
use this same piece of music at the very end of [Séance - ‘Midnight’]
the larp. Canto 2 begins a round of drinks that (unbe-
knownst to most of those present) have been
dosed with laudanum by multiple hands, and
Canto I - 14:00-18:00 with a séance — to open up a gateway to the
dead — run by Claire and with Milly acting as
[Start of larp . . . Séance] a vessel. Many of the group have done seanc-
es before. But never together as a group. This
At the start of Canto 1 — as the music fades out means that all your characters know that some-
— the poets and their servants find themselves thing bad will happen if they break the circle, etc.
at the start of a game of hide and seek. Byron This ritual combined with the drugs they have
and his bodyguard/servant “Tita” will do the largely unknowingly imbibed, opens everyone in
hunting, everyone else (including the servants) the household up to whatever macabre influenc-
will need to run and hide somewhere inside the es are available.
house as Byron has threatened (beastly) conse-
quences for those caught early! The séance will end immediately after Milly deliv-
ers her messages, when Claire has a panic attack,
After the Hide & Seek there will be time for po- breaks the circle, and runs screaming from the
ets and servants to finish getting into costume room.”
/ getting dressed / fixing their outfits. Follow-
ing this poetry, louche flirtation, discussion, and During this canto:
general play between the characters. We will also
Everyone descends into madness as their mon-
have a portrait (photography) session.
sters, darkest secrets and desires start to escape.
After the portraits, Byron will issue his famous Everyone is terrified, not just the poets, the serv-
challenge, for everyone to come up with a suita- ants are as affected by the experience as everyone
bly horrific ghost story. else.

The main purpose of this Canto is to explore Dinner will be served

normality and, to a certain extent, boredom.
To work, this Canto needs to start slow, with a
Everyone has been trapped together in the Villa
sort of creeping shadow vibe, and escalate effec-
51
tively up to midnight. Focus on gothic horror - The servants choose whether to play towards the
the unknown and the unknowable (we will talk destruction of their poets (in order to save them-
about this in a while). selves) or to try to help the poets by sacrificing
their own happiness.
No one can die, no one can be seriously hurt . . .
that does not mean you can’t play scenes of hor- Canto 3 ends when the clock strikes 13. This will
rific violence and torture, but they will be drug take place at approximately midnight real time.
induced visions or nightmares. Play it out, play At this point we would like everyone to return to
out the consequences and aftermath, and then the starting location and to end in a drug fuelled
realise it was not real and move on. The memory stupor, falling asleep as the theme music plays
remains but the action does not. once more and the larp comes to an end.

This canto will run until ‘Midnight’ which — for A reminder of this structure will be available
the purposes of the larp — will be around 11pm in the off-game room. If you need a reminder,
in real terms. At the end of the Canto we will please ask one of the Stewards.
play the sound of a clock striking 12. This is the
first time you will hear the bells. This marks the
start of Canto 3. You will hear the bells again
NEXT: Gothic Horror Workshop (split poets &
at the end.
servants on day 1, obviously just poets on day
There will be a clock in the villa which will show 2+)
the correct time in game.

Canto III 23:00-23:49

[‘Midnight’ - 13 O’clock]
As Wordsworth tells us, “We Poets in our youth
begin in gladness; But thereof come in the end
despondency and madness.”

As Canto 3 starts, the residents of the house re-

alise in a panic that they have an hour to find re-
demption, reconciliation, or come to terms with
their actions; the state of their minds and souls
when the clock strikes 13 will set them on a path
from which there is no turning back. Where this
realisation comes from is unimportant,.

The poets play towards despair, horror and mad-

ness, their larp ends facing the realisation of
what they are and what they have become. The
direction here is to play towards a type 2 end.

52
Gothic Horror
In this session we are going to talk a bit
about horror and specifically gothic
horror. First of all a couple of key the-
matic concepts:
Unresolved - this is not a larp about defeat-
ing the monster, but rather about being over-
whelmed by the fear of the monstrous.
Uncertainty - the monstrous is never seen by
the light of the day, or without the mask of
drugs and drink. It is key that we don’t know if
any of it is real, or is it just imagination, or the
drugs, or the poets telling ghost stories?
Claustrophobia - there is no escape from the
house or from the nightmares that have been
released, so please don’t try to escape.
1) With those in mind, what rules do you want
to create as a group about how you are going to
play on horror?
53
They could be things like: “We will always find a
reason to stay in the house?” or “We will some-
times go off alone, even though that is objective-
ly unwise.”
or “If we investigate something that someone
else has seen or heard, we will always find a rea-
son to say that they might be right?”
2) You each have individual monsters that will
come into play during the course of the larp, but
can you collectively create something that you
can become frightened of ?
3) What sorts of themes and play will help you to
lean into fear. What can you do to help frighten
one another?
[Remember no jump scares, no actual monsters -
gothic horror, not survival horror]
Advice - don’t conflate camp with horror, it
should get harder and more psychologically in-
tense as we progress.
Safety / Calibration left. To enable this during play, we use the Look
Down mechanic: if you wish to leave a scene,
shield your eyes, look down, and walk away.

Offgame metaword

T he alibi we have to play together relies

on trust; mutual trust. Everyone needs
to feel safe, empowered, and cared for by
Our other safety metatechnique is the word ‘Off-
game.’ You can use this to make it clear that you
the other players. We will all learn together are speaking out of character, in the real world, as
distinct from your character talking in the Villa.
so that we can play the larp – safely – and
in the same way.
The safety mechanics are designed to keep us all Calibration
safe from harm.
These are phrases and signs that you can use to
The calibration mechanics allow us to control the turn up or down the intensity of your experience.
intensity of our own experiences, to ask others to
dial it up, or to tell them to dial it down according Escalation
to what we are comfortable with.
For example if you are trapped in the dark by
Lord Byron and they have grabbed you by the
arm (in a suitably telegraphed way) you might de-
Safety cide you are okay with this interaction becoming
more physical.
These techniques are not ‘in case of emergency
- break glass!’ They are buttons and levers de- To signal this you use the phrase “Is that all
signed to be used freely and regularly throughout you’ve got?’ This is an invitation to the other play-
the larp. er to escalate the scene. They might not want
to do it. They might not feel comfortable doing
Self Care Comes First it. However if your invitation is accepted they
might drag you more forcefully. If you use the
Rule one: Human beings are more important phrase again they might push you against a wall.
than larps. Poets can be tired, cold, hungry, or You can also scratch someone gently to offer an
frightened, upset, distraught, but you should not escalation
be. Self care comes first. There is an off-game
space if you need to take a break. There is water De-escalation
if you need to hydrate.
If it is too much, you use the phrase “Lay off!”
The Rule of Two Feet / Lookdown This is an instruction, not an invitation. If some-
one uses that phrase you should immediately dial
The Rule of Two Feet: If you get uncomfortable, down the intensity of the scene. The non-verbal
leave. Make sure others are always able to leave version of this is to tap the other person twice.
if they need to. NEVER ask others why they
(Get the players to practise these.)

54
 through movement, or maybe even say what you
Intimacy & Violence are going to do. Leave your co-players time to
de-escalate or opt out.

G othic is a psychological horror larp (Choreograph actions as you give this example)
that includes physical play. This phys- Let us say, I want to put you [point at player] up
ical play at Gothic should be a reflection against a wall. I could do so by first rolling up
of its poetry; beautiful and twisted. Phys- my sleeves, making eye contact, taking my time
ical play in this larp is about power. Tak- to stare you down. “You really should not talk to
ing power, ceding power, or – sometimes me like that,” I might say, and then I will move in
front of you and place my hands on your shoul-
– sharing power. What we want is eye con- der. “Now I am going to have to punish you”
tact and intensity regulating touch, using now I will gently push you. Giving you one last
scratch and tap-out where needed. option to tap out before pushing you against the
wall “Why did you disrespect me like that?” If
When you are in control, you are a dreadful men- they don’t tap out, it is action time. Push them up
ace. Be a haunting chill on your victim’s neck. against the wall. “You will never talk to me again
If you grow bored, or if your will is called into like that, your worm! Nod, if you understand.”
question, your monster comes out.
All of this time you have the opportunity to sig-
When you are ceding power, you can make an nal me either using tap-out and scratch, or “Lay-
illusion of fighting back, but you always lose. off!” and “Is that all you got”.
There is no escape. You can run down the corri-
dor, but you will always find yourself trapped. In To recap: we display signs of what is going to
the end the monster wins. happen, build up slowly. Then we quickly exe-
cute when it is time to act and allow the story to
When you play with the violence and intimacy escalate.
themes we want you to use slow escalation, and
give your co-players a chance to opt out. We also
want you to be physical, to be brave, and to trust
your co-players to both establish and respect Erotic Scenes
boundaries. Can we agree this as a group here
and now? We will take a similar approach to sexual content
play at Gothic.
We will use a theatrical approach to physically vi-
olent and sexual content play at Gothic. Before you play the sexual content you should
spend time undressing yourself or the others.
Make it part of the play. Use it as part of your
escalation, allowing for time to opt-out.
Violent Scenes
During the scene you will use your body to rep-
When we are playing physical scenes, it is impor- resent the physical act. For example, you can en-
tant to give people a chance to step away, so re- gage in sensory play by using hands to represent
member to always approach slowly from inside genitals; they can be both a phallus, an orifice or
the field of vision. Clearly telegraph your intent a vulva.
55
(Choreograph actions as you give this example)
ring finger to make the representation of a
I am going to demonstrate now, you are welcome vulva. She then begins to slowly move her
to join me. hand up her inner thigh.
• Finger(s), especially the thumb, can represent • Claire can escalate further by slowly remov-
a phallus. ing her hand, leaving me the option to go on
to her inner thigh with no hand or place my
• On a clenched hand the opening between in- hand there again (if I’m not interested in that
dex and thumb can represent an orifice. level of intimacy, and that’s okay).
• A hand on your upper thigh, spread your fin-
gers area between the middle and ring finger We recommend beginning from my hand as it
to represent a vulva, and the area between the mimics foreplay. However, you are allowed to be-
knuckles the clitoris. gin higher on the ladder if you have pre-negoti-
ated it.
You can find inspiration for how to use this for
different acts in this pamphlet1, I want to empha- On the same note, you might have experience
sise that this is inspiration and not direction. You with each other and this sort of play and want to
can calibrate other methods with your co-players. start somewhere else on the scale. If that is the
case, you need to negotiate that starting point. If
After the scene you will need to clean up and you see someone else do something, it doesn’t
redress - perhaps regretting what happened, or mean you can start at the same degree of inten-
thinking that it wasn’t enough. sity with someone you haven’t negotiated with.

All of these scenes inspire an erotic darkness. Let

it start as a slow, creeping breath on your neck,
that raises in intensity until it becomes the storm Limitations of gothic
outside.
Actual sex is not part of the larp; All in-game
When engaging in intimate play with our hands erotic scenes must include all parties wearing (at
as representation we can use them on an escala- least) 21st century underwear. No genital action.
tion scale. Interacting first with your own hand, We are not going to tell you what to do with your
then with another person’s hand and then at last bodies off-game, that is not our place. But we are
we might choose to use no hand. Here is an ex- going to remind you that actual sex is not part of
ample, let us say I am going down on Claire: the larp and kindly ask you to stay in-game in the
• I begin by placing my hand gently touching in-game areas.
the side of her knee. Looking up at her, I
Do not actually harm each other; Do not
engage the backside of my own hand, and
cause real harm to each other. The general rule
Clarie begins to make a pleased response.
of thumb is we do not want to deal with anything
• Claire wants to escalate, so she takes her that leaves a mark.
hand and places it next to mine, letting me
move my mouth onto it. She spreads her No actual choking, please: If you want to play
fingers and the area between her middle and on this, agree on a symbolic alternative. We sug-
gest an open hand on the chest.
1 See Harris’s list of intimate moments p.193

56
 Be aware of surroundings; Please avoid causing damage to the lo-
cation, facilities, and objects here in the house.

Gothic is not a combat larp. Violence is always a one way street.

That means only one person can be violent in the scene at the time.

If you want to practise physical play and explore it further, we would like to en-
courage you to practise these during the “2 minute game” later today.

Now there is some time for questions.

57
Introductions &
Expectations

This script contains instructions for facilitating poets and

servants, they are very similar, so please check you read
the right instructions.

W elcome to Gothic, My name is

<name> I will be your steward.
That means I am here to support and
Servants Version

Great, now take a round and tell us what your

guide you through the experience. In
most cases I will be the person you come
to with any needs or questions. The pur-
pose of tonight is for you to talk and cali-
brate your game, both between yourselves
and with me.
character thinks of each of the other characters
around you. Fletcher, what do you think of Tita,
etc.
For both groups

This session is called “introductions and expecta- [The goal here is for the steward to observe and
tions. What I would like us to do is to go around learn about the players interpretation, keep an
the table and answer a series of questions. The eye out for reactions from the other players and
first one is very simple. Let’s introduce our- read the room. Create a shared understanding of
selves, can you tell the group who you are, and who the characters are and how they will impact
who will you be playing? each other. You can ask supplementary questions
here. ]
(Go around the group)
Wonderful. One last thing before we take a
Thank you. Now could you tell us about the quick break, What are you hoping to experience?
character; who are they and what are they like? Are there any scenes or interactions you really
want to happen?

The steward listens to the players and takes notes

Poets version: about their goals and wishes. In collaboration
make a list of scenes you think are cool.
Great, now take a round and tell us what your
character thinks of each of the other characters
around you. Percy, what do you think of Polidori,
etc.

58
C alibration ,D esires ,
and Limits

What is calibration?

W hereas calibration metatechniques

allow us to control the intensity of
our own experiences, calibration more Questions:
broadly refers to negotiations relating to • Within this group and taking account the
playstyle and personal boundaries. Cali- themes of this larp, how comfortable are you
with being touched?
bration, desires and limits
• (Please ask supplementary questions to en-
In this session we will start the process of cali- sure that the player has addressed physicality,
bration between your group of poets/servants. intimacy, representations of sex etc.)
Their relationships were quite complex and these • What do you want to do, or be made to do?
were further compounded by their levels of in-
toxication and proximity. The purpose of this • What don’t you want done to you?
session then is to let us be honest with one an- • What are your personal limits?
other. We play these larps with our whole bod- • What don’t you want to do, or be made to
ies and, even with the alibi of a character it can do?
sometimes be difficult to say what we really want
to say. Please be kind to one another and be • (If there is time) Are there any other ques-
brave with yourself. tions you would like to ask?
• Are there any questions you didn’t answer
In this session you will take turns answering the first time around that you would like to
questions from the other players. You can ei- answer now?
ther choose who wants to go first, or I can pick
someone at random. We’ll go around the group
answering the same question and then a different
person will answer first next time. If you don’t [There should be a hard copy of these questions
want to answer a question that is fine, there will available for each group]
be a second chance to answer if you feel more
comfortable later.

We have 30 minutes for this session

59
 A touches B in the agreed way for two minutes.
The two minute game At the end of the two minutes B thanks A.

In the second scene A and B swap places and B

asks the question to A. This scene follows the
The 2-minute game is based on the 3-minute game by same pattern of asking, and either acceptance or
Harry Faddis. It is adapted here for a larp setting negotiation. Another two minute timer. At the
end of the two minutes A thanks B.

T he purpose of this session is for you to

become close and feel safe with each
other. You can use the exercises to cali-
In scene 3 A asks B “What would you like to
do to me for two minutes?” This is a significant
shift; they are offering their body and B is taking
brate your relationships inside the group. that offer. Here, I think you might explore the
Feel free to navigate and try out different edges a little. The power of this exercise comes
ways that your characters might touch from the negotiation, “I don’t want you to do
that, but I am happy for you to do this instead.
each other in the game and discuss lim-
Another two minutes on the timer follows. At
its, like you would if the larp was running. the end of the two minutes B thanks A.
You might also want to test out some of
the mechanics - my hand, your hand, no The final scene B asks A “What would you like
hand if you feel comfortable? to do to me for two minutes?” At the end of the
two minutes A thanks B.
Once you have completed this session, you have
time for free calibration, if you want. We’ll start Each Round is split into four Scenes
again tomorrow morning at 10am. Remember
you will need to be out of your rooms and have
had breakfast by then, so please set your alarms Servant Version
accordingly.

So for this bit, you pair up and switch pairs for 5

rounds. Each round will take about 10 minutes.
The participant who is not in a pair will act as ROUND A B C D Steward
timekeeper. For the first round I will help guide
you, and then afterwards, you can go on without 1 Tita Fletcher Milly Rushton Elise
me.
2 Rushton Elise Milly Fletcher Tita
In the first scene A asks B, “How would you like
me to touch you for two minutes?” B then takes 3 Tita Elise Rushton Fletcher Milly
a few moments to come up with an answer to the
question. 4 Tita Rushton Milly Elise Fletcher

A can then either agree to do that, or they can 5 Tita Milly Fletcher Elise Rushton
negotiate.

When A and B have agreed, the timer starts and

60
Poet Version Scene 3
ROUND A B C D Steward A asks B “What would you like to do to me for
two minutes?”
1 Byron Percy Claire Polidori Mary
Give the pairs a minute or two to negotiate, and
start the timer when both pairs are ready.
2 Polidori Mary Claire Percy Byron

Run 2 minute timer

3 Byron Mary Polidori Percy Claire

End of timer: Remind B to thank A.

4 Byron Polidori Claire Mary Percy

5 Byron Claire Percy Mary Polidori

Scene 4
B asks A “What would you like to do to me for
Scene 1 two minutes?”

A asks B “How would you like me to touch you Give the pairs a minute or two to negotiate, and
for two minutes?” start the timer when both pairs are ready.

Give the pairs a minute or two to negotiate, and Run 2 minute timer
start the timer when both pairs are ready.
End of timer: Remind A to thank B.
Run 2 minute timer

End of timer: Remind B to thank A.

End of the Round
At the end of each round we swap partners
Scene 2 around as shown in the tables and repeat all four
scenes with that new partner. In the end you will
B asks A “How would you like me to touch you each play the game four times and act as time-
for two minutes?” keeper once.
Give the pairs a minute or two to negotiate, and
start the timer when both pairs are ready.

Run 2 minute timer

End of timer: Remind A to thank B.

61
Day Two - this larp, a quick info-dump about masks and
monsters and what they mean in this storyworld,
and a chance to talk about laudanum and explore
Introduction the effects of drugs in this larp.

Run 1
Additional text for all runs

G ood morning poets and servants. I

am going to give you a brief overview
of our schedule for the first part of today: After all of that we’ll have a coffee break for
about 15 minutes
We are going to start with a tour of the site, just
to ensure that you know where all of the play We’ll then have a session where the poets and
areas and non-play areas are the servants will talk about their limits and how
they collectively treat one another. You will talk
We will then have a practical workshop on mes- individually with your servant and calibrate that
merism and how it works in this larp relationship later.
We’ll follow this up with a quick info-dump about Next we split into the two households - the By-
masks and monsters and what they mean in this ron and Shelley groups - where you will have a
storyworld chance to talk about normality and how you play
Then we shall talk about laudanum and explore together.
the effects of drugs in this larp. Before lunch we have a workshop for the poets
about how to play on fear and one for the serv-
ants about how to both lift and terrify their poets.
Run 2 and subsequent runs We will break for lunch at around noon
Good morning poets and (soon to be) servants. After lunch there will be a chance to start to get
I am going to give you a brief overview of our into costume and to calibrate one-to-one with
schedule for the first part of today: your servant
We are going to split into two groups. The new We will have a final briefing at 13:45 with a view
poets will start with a tour of the site, just to en- to starting the larp at 14:00
sure that you know where all of the play areas
and non-play areas are. The larp begins with a game of hide-and-seek,
if you are not completely ready by 13:45 there is
The new servants will have workshops designed no need to stress as you can finish getting ready
to allow them to introduce their characters and in game after the excitement of being hunted by
transition into their new roles Byron.
After their tour, the poets will have a practical
workshop on mesmerism and how it works in

62
Mesmerism
Doctor Polidori please make yourself known to Once the treatment is completed the doctor can
your fellow players. Doctor Polidori is a skilled gently wake the subject from the trance.
doctor, the youngest ever graduate of Edinburgh
Of course mesmerism has other uses. The doc-
medical school and an expert in many healing
tor can talk directly to your subconsciousness
arts. One particular skill we’d like to talk about
and could use this skill to re-write reality. To tell
is that of mesmerism. A sort of early hypnosis.
you something was true which was not true, or to
If any of you would be comfortable being a test persuade you to be someone or something that
subject, please raise your hand you were not.

Doctor, would you select a patient, please? As the subject of mesmerism we remain in charge,
you get to decide the effect, the
Thank you. (Ask the volunteer) What seems to duration, and the intensity of
be the trouble with you today? this effect. You can use the
escalation and de-escalation
Mesmerism uses waving hand passes, gentle mechanic here.
stroking and touching the patient allowing for
“the transfer of energy between the mesmerist (To the Doctor: ) And
and the client to induce a special trance state. “ remember, when you
are done, wake the
Doctor, if you would demonstrate? patient up.
(Let the Doctor role-play with the patient for a Polidori is every-
few minutes) one’s punching
bag. Mesmer-
The player of the patient remains in control
ism is Polidori’s
here, but for the purposes of the demonstration,
tool for re-
would you [Patient] kindly fall into a trance. (Or
venge, please
if the player has already done this move on to ...)
help invite them
Once the patient is entranced the doctor can heal to use it
him/her of a physical ailment, or talk directly to
the subconscious in order to reconcile emotional
or physical issues.

Doctor, how would you like to treat this patient?

(Let the Doctor role-play with the patient for a

few minutes more)

63
 Lord Byron and Tita share The Vampyre - Dr Po-
Masks & Monsters lidori’s fictional creation of lust and corruption.

Claire and Milly’s monster is The Ghost, a staple

of various gothic novels but most famously Hor-
(You should have a mask to hand so you can show the ace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto. Memories that
players what they look like) haunt us, or literal manifestations of the dead?

Percy and Fletcher’s monster derives from Victor

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Men whose desire
Masks to create is both hubristic, and irresponsible. The
mad scientist and modern Prometheus.

H ere is a mask. They will come into Mary and Elise share the monster that Percy fa-
mously tried to summon while he was at school
play during Canto 2. If you are wear-
Lucifer, the very devil itself.
ing the mask, people will believe you are
who you say you are. In some cases, if During Canto 2 and 3, as the waves of drugs hit
you put a mask onto someone else, they the characters, the monsters will take hold. They
will believe they are who you say they are. are yet another layer of alibi for you to play with.
What we ask is that once you have done some-
If you see someone in a mask and you don’t thing terrible or terrifying as the monster, the
know who they are supposed to be, ask them. monster fades for a while, leaving your charac-
ter having to come to terms with what they have
(See if there are any questions here) done. The monster has its way, the character
deals with the consequences.

If you are able, keep an eye on your servant/

Monsters poet – who shares the same monster – and pass
the monster back and forth between you so that
Now I will give you some explanation about the only one of you is inhabiting it at a time; the oth-
monsters that are written on your character sheet. er is simply a victim. This is not essential, if you

There are FIVE monsters, these are shared be- both happen to have the monster at the same
tween poet and servant, so you will have the time it does not break the game.
same monster as one another.

Doctor Polidori and (Susan/Fletcher) have

Gil-Martin from The Private Memoirs and Confes-
sions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg. Think of
a creature that is created by religious mania and
that believes that it is hearing and obeying the
voice of God

64
 The specific nature of laudanum hallucinations
Laudanum can vary widely and may include visual halluci-
nations, such as seeing objects or patterns that
Roleplay & Game effects are not there, or auditory hallucinations, such as
hearing voices or sounds that are not present.

(For this workshop we made use of some Diffraction

Glasses which have lenses in them which split light into
rainbow colours. These were relatively cheap cardboard
(disposable) props that affect people’s vision when they
wear them giving a vague approximation of some psyche-
delic effects.)
(Ask everyone to wear the glasses)
Swimming beneath the sea exercise
Repeat the previous exercise, but this time you
are moving in slow motion, like you are under
water. The people moving around you could be
friendly, or slightly sinister. Do you trust these
people, are they even real?

Laudanum hallucinations may also be experi-

L audanum is a tincture of opium that
was widely used in the 19th century as
a pain reliever and sedative. It is made by
dissolving opium in alcohol, and is typ-
ically taken orally. In high doses or with
prolonged use, laudanum can cause hal-
lucinations, which are experiences of see-
ing, hearing, or feeling things that are not
real.
enced as altered states of consciousness, in which
the individual’s perception of reality is distorted.
These experiences can be disturbing and unset-
tling, and may lead to confusion and disorienta-
tion.
Take a look at your hands,move your fingers
around and see if you can feel the outside of the
shapes you are seeing as though they are a part
of your body.

The effects of the drugs come in waves. Some-

times everything seems normal, but that usually
means that the next wave is about to hit. Scary monsters exercise

You’ll probably need to take your glasses off for

this one, as we are going to do some eye contact.
Walking on the moon exercise Move like a creature of your choice. Sometimes
you want to do bad things. There is no reason
I’m going to ask you to stand up and walk around, not to do bad things. Smile at those around you
but listen to my instructions first. The floor is not and let them know with your smile that you will
where it is supposed to be. Perhaps it feels soft do bad things. The bad things are not really bad.
when you put your foot down, or perhaps it is They are just you having fun. Fun is good
tilting slightly. There is no gravity so you need to
make sure you do not float away. Move around Sometimes you just want everything to be normal
the room. again. Sometimes you are frightened. Some-
times when someone smiles at you, you can see
the skull beneath the skin. Don’t let them know

65
that you are frightened, smile back, flip back and
forth between the two states.
In our larp, laudanum makes servants amoral.
When your servant character has taken lauda-
num, the rules of society will be more fluid and
the sense of right and wrong will be replaced outfits and plain black aprons. You can
with the sense of what is right for me talk to them in-game if you need anything,
The important distinction is that In our larp,
Laudanum makes poets suggestible. When your
poet character has taken laudanum - which for
many of them will be all the time - they will be-
lieve what they are told they see; You decide the
effect here. If you have all persuaded yourselves
that a shadow is coming to devour you and you
are all stuck in a corner and have been there for
too long it is perfectly acceptable to be the one
who pulls it together and tries to talk the others
down, or to decide that this wave of the lauda-
num trip has passed.
66
Stewards
O ur crew characters are called Stew-
ards. They wear simple Regency-ish
although we would prefer – if you are a
poet – that you use your existing servant.
Stewards sometimes need to carry out
tasks within the play area, for example to
clean up broken glass, or to make adjust-
ments to the sound and lighting systems.
They may approach you with in-game direction
(although this is unlikely).
Please do not initiate scenes of violence or inti-
macy with the stewards.
The venue
(This briefing is included here but it pertains to our larp
site, you may need your own text here depending on where
you run the larp.)
F or Gothic we have rented this family owned
building of the 19th century. We would like to
treat the house and its furniture well. Please try to
avoid throwing liquids around as there is a lot of
wood in the house and it is not good for it to be
wet. Please use the furniture as intended, particu-
larly don’t put too much strain on any of the old
chairs. No blood – theatrical or real – should be
spilled in the house. We ask that you don’t use ink
for dipping – rather use the quills with internal
ink canisters. We will provide plenty of electrical
candles, so you don’t have to light real candles
 First, let’s go around the group and tell each oth-
Group limits er who you are: Tell me your name and who you
are playing, and their role. (2 minutes)

Very good, now, servants, I want you to tell the

P lease use this session to review your

individual limits with the players from
the other group, so if you can each go
poets what your character thinks of each of
them.

While they tell you, try to think if there are ways

around the table and make it clear to your
co-players where these limits are, and tell
them anything else that you think they
need to know.
There are 15 minutes for this session and then (5 minutes)
we will split into the two different households for
some more workshopping.
you can use this info to create play. For instance,
Elise doesn’t care for Percy, how do you show
that? Are there some small slights you could do?
Poets, I want you to do the same for the servants.
Now, let’s talk about normalcy. I want you to
come up with some routines: for instance, do you
have tea together in the afternoons? Do the serv-
ants join in with something that happens? Do

Household Mary and the two maids sneak off to drink cook-
ing sherry in the kitchens? Does Claire tell the
fortunes of the maids with cards? Does Polidori
Workshop play dice with the man servants in the afternoon?
Does Byron have a contest between his servants
to see who gets his old smoking jacket when he
gets a new one? Create some memories and ide-

T he purpose of this half hour is to create a as for things you could also do during the larp.
common household. This is the time you Even if it doesn’t happen, it’s there to create fake
have to collaborate and talk about your connec- memories in your head of stuff you normally do.
tions to each other. You servants have worked (5 minutes)
for these people for at least a year – sometimes
much longer – and you know each other well. Servants: What do you need from your poets to
You have found a rhythm and some expectations, feel like this is a household? (For instance: I need
ways of addressing each other and rules. I want you to let me and push me to write poetry and
you to come up with them now. listen when I talk too, like I am an equal even
though I’m aware I’m not.) (5 minutes)
Remember that this isn’t a strictly upstairs/
downstairs larp, so unless you want to play hard Poets: What do you need from the servants to en-
on status, you don’t need to. The Shelley house- able your play? (For instance: I want to be hope-
hold is lax around rules and the Byron household lessly lost without my man-servant, it doesn’t
even more so. But you need to decide how you mean you have to drop everything and come, but
want to play together and create some common I don’t want to be able to find my own wine, for
backstory. (2 minutes) instance.) (5 minutes)

67
Have you decided how you all address each oth- Exercise 1
er? If not, let’s quickly decide that now. (2 min-
utes) Please take a seat and make sure you’re in a com-
fortable position. Now close your eyes and take
Is there anything else you want to discuss or you a deep breath in through your nose… and out…
need in order for this to work during the larp? (3 and in… and out… continue breathing like this,
minutes) and try to make the exhale slightly longer than
the inhale. Try to stay focused on your breathing
and keep it steady. See if you can relax the mus-
cles in your face, your neck, your tongue. Let your
How to be terrified shoulders drop. Let your hands fall open. See if
you can find any tension in the rest of your body,
(This workshop makes use of a set of small hand mir- and when you find it, try to let it go. Remember
rors, one for each player) to always return to your breath and that will help
you relax deeper. I’d like us to sit in silence like
Body hacking this for a few minutes.

Exercise 1 should last around 3 minutes once

I n this workshop we’re going to explore

the connection between body and mind
in order to facilitate playing on fear. All
everyone is fully immersed in it.

Okay, now slowly return to the present. Keep a

steady breath. Be aware of the surface under you.
contents of this workshop are to be seen The chair or floor against your body. The way
as tools that you can use as much or little your hands feel in your lap. Maybe wiggle your
as you want to during the larp - we hope toes a little bit. Okay, now open your eyes. Wel-
that they will be helpful, but there is no come back. How do you all feel?
pressure to actually use them during play Thank you so much for sharing that. Now stand
unless you want to. up and stretch a little if you want to, and then
we’ll move on to exploring how we can use simi-
You’ve probably heard that smiling more makes lar practices to make ourselves feel bad.
you happier, because the physical act of smiling
sends the signal to your brain that you are already Remember the thing about smiling and happi-
happy - we smile when we are happy, so if we are ness? Well, that also works the other way around:
smiling that must mean we are happy. Why don’t if we point the corners of our mouths down, we
we all try it real quick? See, it’s not much but it get just a little bit sadder because of what our
does make a tiny difference. This connection be- bodies are telling our brains. If you know the
tween body and mind can be “hacked” to push actress Florence Pugh (from Midsommar, Little
ourselves towards experiencing certain emo- Women, Oppenheimer etc.), you know she has a very
tions. We see this in practices like meditation and famous pout. Whenever her character’s mood
breathing exercises, used to calm and centre our- shifts to the worse, it’s like she initiates it by using
selves as well as increase our focus. I would like that pout, which is a really clever way for her to
us to start this workshop with such an exercise: immerse into that shitty feeling she wants to por-
tray. We’re going to do the same thing and then

68
escalate it. Now, the physical sensations we will
trigger during this exercise are going to mimic
those of a panic attack. If you want to stop the
exercise at any point, you are free to do so. You
will not be questioned or judged for your deci-
sion. If you feel like you are losing control of,
or touch with, your body, try to relax into it and
just let it happen. Remember you are not having
a heart attack, and panic attacks end very quickly.
ersonalisation. Before we start, I’d like to remind
you that you’re free to stop your participation at
any point.
Exercise 3
In front of you is a small hand mirror.
Exercise 3 should last around 15 seconds once
everyone is fully immersed in it.

Exercise 2 So, to reiterate: this technique is just meant to

be a tool. Nothing else. It’s not mandatory to
Are you ready? Okay, let’s start with the Pugh use it in any way, but if you feel like your play
pout. Maybe add a little quiver to your lip. Tense might benefit from it, please feel free to experi-
up your muscles and draw your shoulders up a ment with it. Remember to always check in with
little. Now start breathing faster and lighter, like yourself and take care of yourself during play.
you are starting to hyperventilate. Breathe with You’re not a more or less cool larper depending
your mouth. See if you can add some tension on how much you use this tool, if at all. Escalate
over your chest, like something heavy is push- as slowly with yourself as you would with any
ing down on it. You can even add a rasp to your other player - pace yourselves, and give yourself
breath. Let’s do this for a few seconds. some after-care if you do this, as it is actually re-
ally exhausting for the body.
Exercise 2 should last around 15-20 seconds
once everyone is fully immersed in it. Now, let’s finish this off with another relaxation
exercise so we can end this workshop on a good
Okay, thank you. Now slow down your breath-
note. So, I’ll ask you again to take a seat or lie
ing. Try to relax your muscles. Let go of any extra
down, and make sure you’re comfortable…
added tension. Reconnect to your body and the
world around you. We are here together and we Repeat Exercise 1. It should last for at least 3
are all safe. How did this affect you? Do you feel minutes.
any different from earlier?

I want you to stay in this place of relative discom-

fort for just a little longer. One of the themes for
this larp is the struggle to determine what is real,
and the horrors that accompany that experience.
We have taken a quick dive into how the body
affects the mind, now let’s explore how the mind
affects the body as well. In the following exercise
we’re going to try to trick our brains into ques-
tioning reality, or that something terrible, and
terrifying, is about to happen. We will do this by
simulating experiences of dissociation and dep-
69
70
How to lift
(and terrify)
W elcome back, servants! The purpose
of this session is to talk about how
you can lift and improve the poet part of
Together plan at least one collective scene for
Canto II?

And one for Canto III?

the experience. As servants, you have a re-
sponsibility to set the tone of the piece
and to create the gothic horror experience An important note about playing these
that we’re all here for.
servants

Byron often threatened to fire his servants, but

(This section is only relevant for those people who have
the next day had a tendency to forgive them with
already played poets, you should skip it for run 1)
expensive gifts; so if you can push him to the
If you think back to yesterday, was there some- point where he threatens to throw you out, your
thing the servants did for you that improved your character is likely to get a bonus the following
game? Could you do something like that for your day - so don’t worry about it.
poet?

Was there something you felt was missing from

your experience with your servant that you would
like to include?

Ideas Generation
Let’s do a quick round to think of ways you can
help terrify the poets today!

Do you have ideas for cool gothic horror scenes

and interactions you can play?

Ways you can intensify the mood or push the

edges of the larp in interesting ways?

Finally, let’s collaborate on some ideas

How can you introduce the poets to the masks?

How can you introduce the poets to your mon-

sters?
71

Final briefing
“How unwise had the wanderers been, who had
deserted its shelter, entangled themselves in the web
of society, and entered on what men of the world call
“life,”—that labyrinth of evil, that scheme of mutual
torture. To live, according to this sense of the word,
we must not only observe and learn, we must also feel;
we must not be mere spectators of action, we must act;
we must not describe, but be subjects of description.
. . .Let us leave ‘life,’ that we may live.” (The Last
Man, Mary Shelley)
72
In this final briefing we shall briefly review the
safety mechanics
I will remind you of the metatechniques
I will remind you of the structure of the three
cantos
Safety
Our Safety mechanics are:
• To leave a scene at any time we use: Look-
down
• To communicate off game we use: Offgame
• To de-escalate: Lay off / tap out
Our escalation mechanic is: Is that all you’ve got / The larp begins and ends with the same piece of
light scratch music.

Other Metatechniques Canto I - 14:00-18:00

Mask - someone wearing a mask is who they say [Start of larp . . . Séance]
they are, or sometimes who you tell them to be At the start of Canto 1 - as the music fades out
Mesmerism - subject decides the effect and the - the poets and their servants find themselves
at the start of a game of hide and seek. Byron
duration
and his bodyguard/servant “Tita” will do the
hunting, everyone else (including the servants)
will need to run and hide somewhere inside the
Guidance Notes house.
• Laudanum - poets suggestible / servants The main purpose of this Canto is to explore
amoral normality and, to a certain extent, boredom.
• Slow escalation, but do escalate Everyone has been trapped together in the Villa
• Lean in to the horror, turn up the psycho- for weeks and they are starting to get on each
logical intensity as you go; it might be quite other’s nerves.
upbeat to begin with, but less so towards the After the Hide & Seek there will be time for po-
end of Canto 2 ets and servants to finish getting into costume /
• Everyone is scared, not just the poets. getting dressed / fixing their outfits. Following
• Take breaks if you need them this poetry, louche flirtation, discussion, and gen-
eral play between the characters.
• Calibrate off-game if you need to.
• Remember there is an off-game room, use it Afternoon tea will be served at 4
if you need to.
Followed by some off-game portrait (photogra-
• If you need to talk to a GM either approach phy) sessions.
one of the Stewards in-game OR come to the
off-game room After the portraits, Byron will issue his famous
challenge, for everyone to come up with a suita-
bly horrific ghost story.

Review the Canto Structure Please steer clear of horror/violence/and ex-

treme erotic play during Canto 1.
I am going to remind you of the structure and
beats of the larp. All the times I give you here
are in real world time. The fictional time is one
hour ahead. This clock here shows the current
in-game time.

73
Canto II 18:00-23:00 Canto III 23:00-23:49
[Séance - ‘Midnight’] [‘Midnight’ - 13 O’clock]

Canto 2 begins a round of drinks that (unbe- As Canto 3 starts, the residents of the house re-
knownst to most of those present) have been alise in a panic that they have an hour to find re-
dosed with laudanum by multiple hands, and with demption, reconciliation, or come to terms with
a Séance – to open up a gateway to the dead – their actions; the state of their minds and souls
run by Claire and with Milly acting as a vessel when the clock strikes 13 will set them on a path
from which there is no turning back.
It is this ritual combined with the drugs they have
largely unknowingly imbibed, opens everyone in Whilst the poets play towards despair, horror and
the household up to whatever macabre influenc- madness, the servants choose whether to play to-
es are available. wards the destruction of their poets (in order to
save themselves) or to try to help the poets by
The séance will end immediately after Milly deliv- sacrificing their own happiness.
ers her messages, when Claire has a panic attack,
breaks the circle, and runs screaming from the Canto 3 ends when the clock strikes 13. This will
room. Remember you all know that breaking the take place a little before midnight real time. At
circle during a séance is a Bad Thing this point we would like everyone to return to
this room and to end in a drug fuelled stupor,
During this canto: falling asleep as the theme music plays once more
and the larp comes to an end.
Everyone descends into madness as their mon-
sters, darkest secrets and desires start to escape.
Everyone is terrified.

Dinner will be served at 7pm.

To work, this Canto needs to start slow, with a

sort of creeping shadow vibe, and escalate effec-
tively up to midnight. Focus on gothic horror -
the unknown and the unknowable (we will talk
about this in a while).

This canto will run until ‘Midnight’ which – for

the purposes of the larp – will be around 11pm
in real terms. At the end of the Canto we will
play the sound of a clock striking 12. This is the
first time you will hear the bells. You will hear
the bells again at the end of Canto 3.

74
Opening ritual II

Lo! Poetic spirits, from realms obscure,

A nd now it is time to invite our poets

and their servants to join us in this
place.
Borne on twilight’s wings, thee I conjure,

Spirits of our poets, from realms unseen,

During the research for his larp we found some Across the veils, where muses do convene,
contemporary Rosicrucian rituals one of which
involves the summoning of spirits of dead poets. Come forth, inspire with words of grace,
Don’t worry, there is a closing and banishing ritu-
al at the other end . . . and rhymes of old, attend this place

Please form a circle. I ask you to close your eyes,

Let’s take three deep breaths together. III

In this hallowed circle, your souls aglow,

(Various of the organiser team take one verse each of Through the ages, your rhymes bestow,
this incantation)
Guide our play with thy passionate art,
I
Forever etched, thy words impart
When the lady knew, she took her spindle
With quill and ink, we conjure thee,
And twined ten threads of fleecy mist, and ten
To whisper verse, and set hearts free,
Long lines of light, such as the dawn may kindle

The clouds and waves and mountains with; and she

We are going to start the music now, when
As many star-beams, ere their lamps could dwindle the music ends, the game will begin. . .
In the belated moon, wound skilfully;

And with these threads a subtle veil she wove -- Step away here, start the music and let the larp
run ... Gothic is underway!
A shadow for the splendour of her love.

75
Closing ritual

<Music ends>

Thank you for playing Gothic.

Poets much thanks, our verse is said Farewell, dear poets, we declare,

All lost spirits banishéd With reverence and utmost care,

With quill and ink, we let you go, This circle closed, your essence free,

Your spirits free to ebb and flow. In realms of immortality.

To distant realms, where dreams reside,

In timeless skies, where muses glide. We are going to leave you now
for five minutes now, to col-
lect your thoughts and then
we will return.

76
Debrief Workshop

T he debrief workshop is scheduled for

forty-five minutes, but it can take a lit-
tle longer, if participants want to stay on.
Gather players and when everyone is set-
tled, welcome them and tell them that (We estimate these three questions should take
every player gets a chance to speak in every part about ten minutes.)
of the workshop, but they can opt out of any Then ask every player to give brief positive feed-
question by saying ‘pass’. back to each of the other players, as follows: ei-
Start by going in a circle round the group ther a volunteer or a player to the facilitator’s left
and ask for a check in on how every- will receive positive only feedback from every
one is feeling right now. Take a moment to other player in the circle. When every player has
acknowledge and thank people for their an- given positive feedback to that person, it’s anoth-
swers. Now move on to the debrief questions: er person’s turn to receive feedback. Players can
opt out of receiving the feedback, but encour-
Every player gets to say what they think was: age them to give it, even if it’s just a two-second
thank you. (This will take approximately fifteen
1) the most dramatic moment in their Larp to twenty)

2) the hardest part of their Larp At the end of the debrief, the facilitator thanks
everyone, gives any extra logistical information as
3) their favourite, happiest moment in the Larp. needed, and then closes the session.

77
78
CHARACTER
SHEETS

CHAPTER 4
How to read the characters

W e hope that most of the contents of the character sheets are self-explanatory,
however there are one or two sections that might benefit from a little additional
context.

Portrait There are five monsters, these are shared between

poet and servant, so they will have the same
Some larpers love rich, detailed, complex (long) monster as one another. This section gives a
character sheets; others do not. What we decided name and description of the monster, and some
was that the most important information should ideas for how the larper might wish to play on
be at the top. In theory, players should be able the themes. These ideas are for guidance only.
to get almost everything they need to know and
understand about the character from this first There is more information about monsters in the
section, and their relations. They can then read workshops
on – if they want to – to get more details and nu-
ance. So the portrait section contains three facts
and a memory about the character. It is designed
to give a rapid insight into the sort of person Relations
they are.
Here we give a brief summary of how your char-
acter engages with the other people in the Vil-
la. Sometimes it will specify how they think and
feel about one another, sometimes it will pose a
Character question to be explored in play. Whilst we have
This is where we give you the details of who the tried to make these symmetrical – in as much as
character is when the larp begins: Who they are, information given to one character should also
and what makes them tick. We are interested in be shared with the other – sometimes there are
playable cues and a possible trajectory for the secrets.
character.

Interactions & Tasks

Monster These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you might take, or interactions you
In the second canto of the larp, when the various could explore during the larp. For some charac-
horror stories seem to come to life, this is the ters there are also tasks which are things that we
alter ego that seems to manifest. need you to do at specific points during the larp.

80
Redemption/Destruction Traits, Vices, & Phobias
This section is different on the Poet and Servant Not all of the characters have these listed but for
character sheets. As a servant, in the third canto those who do have them these are significant as-
you will be able to steer your poet either to re- pects of the character.
demption or to destruction and these are some
ideas for how you might do that. Your own
(servant) character’s redemption depends on the
destruction of the poet. Footnotes
The choice is yours to make. . . The servant char- We have made use of footnotes to give you ad-
acter sheet offers some guidance on how to play ditional information, snippets of history, fun
both options, whereas the poet character sheet facts, or just insight into the person behind the
offers a way to enable the servant’s experience. character. These are optional notes and some-
times express our opinions about or reading of
the character. You can use them or ignore them
as you prefer.
Biography
This section is on the poet character sheets. This
tells you the true life story of the person behind A Letter To The Player
the character and how they came to be here in
the Villa. For the poet characters you will find a short
note written from the poet and addressed to the
player, where possible we have
used the real signature from
Letters, Diaries, Poems, Items the poet to sign this off.

On the character sheets, this is a bonus section

where we have given you either links to or snip-
pets of further reading information.

81
 MARY GODWIN
“Invention, it must be humbly admitted,
does not consist in creating out of void,
but out of chaos.”
 does it mean to do your mother’s memory jus-
Mary Godwin tice? To be a woman in society means to be timid,
pleasant, quiet and polite. But to be Mary Wool-
stonecraft’s daughter means to be bold, intelli-
PORTRAIT gent and impervious to the opinions of others.

Not only was your mother a great philosopher

Y ou write a diary every day, religiously. Sharing and feminist activist, she died before you could
all the emotions you struggle to share with get to know her as a person. For you, she will
the world with the page. ever remain an ideal you can never live up to, that
you either struggle against or try to please. Were
People have a tendency to project their needs you trying to spite her when you consummate
onto you, and you have a tendency to become your love for Percy Shelley on top of her grave?
what they want you to be. Or were you trying to impress her?
You suffer from blinding headaches that you The easy path, and one you often follow, is to be
seek to hide from Percy and Claire. whatever the person in front of you wants you
You started seeing Percy when you were 16 years to be. Many become obsessed with you because
old. He was 21 and already married. Your love you’re vivacious and different in exactly the way
had to be secret, so you met in St Pancras church- that person thinks you should be. You can make
yard. It was there that you first admitted that you people feel special without even trying. Make
cared for each other, and there that he kissed you them feel seen and brilliant. When facing your fa-
for the first time, there that he could not hide his ther, you are bold and funny, as sharp as you can.
ardent passion for you; it was consummated atop When you’re with Lord Byron, you’re the perfect
your mother’s grave, and there that you decided poet, wielding words like weapons. When you’re
to run away to Europe together and damn the with Claire, you’re the caring sister who listens,
consequences. no matter how inane her worries are. And with
Percy, well, with Percy you try very hard to be the
CHARACTER liberated feminist he wants you to be. Even when
it breaks your heart. With Polidori this is harder,
Your father described you, even at the age of 15, because what he wants you will not give.
as “singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and
active of mind.” Your desire for knowledge is It is only when you are alone with your thoughts
great, and your perseverance in everything you and your words that you can ever catch a glimpse
undertake is almost invincible. You are blessed of the real you, the one hiding behind the dif-
with a sense of adventure and excitement, which ferent masks you put on for everyone else. You
will continue to get you into trouble throughout suspect that you are better than everyone else in
your life. the Villa, intellectually and morally. You are cer-
tainly more mature, more focussed, more capable
All your life you have been struggling with two of love, and this awareness makes you lonely. It
different sets of expectations, both impossible is only when it comes to your writing that you
to live up to and contradicting each other. What experience self-doubt and insecurity.
does it mean to be a good woman? And what
In society, women are valued by their modesty
84
and chastity and are supposed to be completely
ignorant of their sexuality. Whilst you fully un-
derstand what it is to behave as a proper lady, you
have rejected this stereotype and taken your own
quite opposite path. You have practised your
mother’s feminist and radical principles both po-
litically and in your own life. You believe in the
Enlightenment idea that people could improve
society through the responsible exercise of po-
litical power, but you fear that the irresponsible
exercise of power may lead to
chaos. You are a lifelong re-
former, deeply engaged in
the liberal and proto-femi-
nist concerns of your day.
You have proposed egal-
itarian educational para-
digms for women and
men, and believe this
would bring social
justice as well as im-
prove the spiritual
and intellectual
means by which to meet
the challenges life invari-
ably brings.
85
Whilst you explore repressed female sexual desire
in your work, you have yet to come fully to terms
with it outside of your writing. You are haunted
by your mother’s words:
“Truth is the only basis of virtue; and we cannot, with-
out depraving our minds, endeavour to please a lover or
husband, but in proportion as he pleases us.”
Perhaps in the company of like-minded poets
and radicals you may find a way to unpick the
puzzle of virtuous depravity? Certainly in your
dreams and fantasies you are liberated_ “My
dreams were all my own; I accounted for them
to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed
– my dearest pleasure when free.” Whilst you sto-
ically endure Shelley’s infidelities, you have yet to
practise the free love that both you and he speak
of. You continue to treat potential partners (ro-
mantic or . . . otherwise) with caution.
THE MONSTER
What is the worst that this character can become?
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the
player to do terrible things in the Villa.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast
created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:15
The very worst monster of all is the one that
Shelley tried to summon at Eton, all those years
ago, The Devil. Lucifer understands all too well
the irony that one who is perfect in heart and
mind can also inflict pain.
This embodiment of darkness is multifaceted.
You have the ability to mould yourself into what-
ever others desire, and this is a means to manip-
ulate and emotionally harm those around you.
With your sharp intellect and cutting wit, your
words could become venomous, tearing down
others with devastating effect.
Moreover, your exploration of repressed desires
and your struggle to comprehend your own sexu-
ality may lead you down a reckless path of indul-
gence. You might engage in scandalous affairs or
intimate encounters, solely to assert your agen-
cy and challenge societal norms. In the process,
you may disregard the emotional consequences
for yourself and those caught in the web of your
desires.
Ultimately, the worst you can become, lies in the
depths of your psyche; here is a reflection of
your conflicting identities, profound loneliness,
overwhelming pride, and an insatiable thirst for
fulfilment. You have the potential to transform
into a figure capable of inflicting emotional, psy-
chological, and even physical harm on others.
All this is done in the name of finding your own
truth and seeking retribution for the trials you
have faced throughout your life. Much like Luci-
fer, you are the victim.
There are various ways you can play on this, but
we suggest an internal struggle between Mary’s
rationalism and a slow creeping horror that may-
be the Devil is both real and here in the Villa.
Mary is more likely to believe that the
others are possessed and won’t realise
that she has a monster inside her until
towards the end of Canto Two, pos-
sibly even into Canto Three! She will
see things that are not there, react to
shadows and sounds, but unlike
Claire, will write them off,
rationalise, or otherwise
internalise them; this is
likely to make the others
trapped in the Villa even
more paranoid, they will
believe she can see some-
thing, or knows some-
thing. She bottles the hor-
ror up until it takes her.
86
Eventually you will hear Lucifer’s voice inside
your head. It is beautiful and the advice you hear
is so very sweet. Whereas previously you may
have suspected that you might be better than
everyone else, when the monster takes over, you
know with absolute certainty that you are in fact
perfect and it’s everybody else who is flawed.
Keep an eye on your servant – who shares the
same monster – and, if it works for you to do
so, maybe pass the fallen angel back and forth
between you so that only one of you is inhabiting
it at a time; the other is simply a victim.
RELATIONS
Claire Clairmont
Jane, or Claire as she now fashions herself, is
your step-sister, but in truth you were raised so
close and from such a young age that it was as
though you were blood sisters after all. She stood
by you in those times when her mother, your step
mother, turned her anger against you. She is a
confidante, and a co-conspirator who helped you
with your early liaisons with Percy Shelley, and
with your elopement to Europe. She has trav-
elled with you because she has her heart
set on Lord Byron.
Claire is very close to Percy, and they
will often talk and share
visions of gothic hor-
ror where they let
their imaginings take
flight, stirring each oth-
ers’ emotions to the point of
hysteria and nightmares, although
sometimes Percy takes it too far. Once, he
deliberately frightened Claire by assum-
ing a particularly sinister and horrifying
facial expression. “How horrible you
look... Take your eyes off!” she cried.
She was put to bed after yet another of
her “horrors”. Percy took much merriment lat- something in his radical energy that makes him
er describing her expression to you as “distorted seem a young version of your father, with whom
most unnaturally by horrible dismay.” They are you were unconsciously in love?
also prone to discussion of Claire’s conception
of an idealised community in which women were You have special names for one another. He calls
the ones in charge. Gossip has suggested that you “Pecksie,’ and you call him your ‘Sweet Elf.’
they may have slept with one another, but as you You are not sure whether yours is a partnership
wrote on this matter: of equals or a potentially deadly competition?
Do you compliment or subvert one another?
“I am perfectly convinced in my own mind that Shelley Shelley sometimes seeks to dominate your rela-
never had an improper connexion [sic] with Claire ... tionship, expecting your needs and desires to be
we lived in lodgings where I had momentary entrance subordinate to his own; there are times when he
into every room and such a thing could not have passed gets angry and shouts at you. It is not his fault,
unknown to me ...” sometimes you push back and become the one
who leads and controls, and he accepts this. To
What is more, she has her eyes and her heart an outsider this ebb and flow may not always be
firmly set on Lord Byron. You can see that this is obvious, but it confounds assumptions about
rather doomed to fail of course, he does seem to your relationship with one another.
lose interest in people once he has taken them. It
is very clear to you however that Byron’s attach- Shelley has tried to help you to love more freely.
ment to Claire (however coldly he might treat He has suggested that you sleep with a number
her) removes her quite effectively from the orbit of his friends2, for instance, indeed he attempted
of Shelley, and you realise that – since you arrived to share you sexually with his friend Hogg in the
at the Villa – you feel completely free of Claire’s winter and spring of 1814-15, but you refused –
influence over Percy. Your friendship with By- despite your philosophical beliefs – to be treated
ron, however, does seem to be irritating Claire. as a kind of domestic commonwealth. His in-
sistence that you are intimate with others often
brings on a headache.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy may seem self-pitying and self-fashioning,
but you can forgive that because he is a genius.
You are madly in love with Shelley1 or at least
your idea of Shelley.. Your journals record that
you were first attracted to Shelley’s “wild, intel-
lectual, unearthly looks.” Your mother’s words
taught you that in spite of your ‘enlightened’
upbringing, society has still schooled you in de-
pendency upon the approval and desire of men
and that you should reject this, but in Shelley you
have found the perfect partner. Perhaps there is
1 For Mary, Shelley is her emotional and financial security, and she is com-
promising her feminist ideals unless she can change him. In addition,if
Mary isn’t properly infatuated with Percy it makes it hard for Percy to
properly abuse her.
87
Lord Byron
You sympathise with Lord Byron. He is also
made lonely by scandal and cut off from his fam-
ily, and in that matter you seem to have much in
common. You see him as the archetypal romantic
hero of your imagination: Thoroughly masculine
and wholly masterful. In many ways the absolute
opposite of your own Percy who, by comparison
2 Writing this in the second person poses quite a problem here. Percy
Shelley was an awful human being and the fact that Mary could not see
this until much later in life is deeply problematic. Perhaps with you steer-
ing her destiny she will come to see this differently, perhaps not, but be
assured that the only person Shelley is trying to help here is himself. Please
calibrate with Percy’s player around how you would like Percy to gaslight
you.
seems frail, effeminate, boyish, and ineffectual3. capacitate you?

You have often talked with him through the
night: “There was never any lack of subjects,
and, grave or gay, we were always interested.”
He is open with you, unveiling his bleeding heart
before speaking of his ex-wife, Annabella, with
“kindness and regret” (but admitting that she did
not understand him.)
“Mrs. Shelley was, after a shower of rain, walking up
the hill to Diodati; when Byron, who saw her from his
balcony where he was standing with Polidori, said to the
latter: ‘Now you who wish to be gallant ought to jump
down this small height, and offer your arm.’ Polidori
tried to do so; but, the ground being wet, their foot
slipped and they sprained their ankle.”4

But underlying his honesty you are aware that

he is clearly determined to seduce you. You are
more clearly determined that he shall not suc-
Elise
ceed. You are frightened of him, but suspect that Elise Duvillard is a close confidante of yours.
he is equally frightened of you, the only one who As your maid servant you spend a lot of time
can say ‘no’ to the great poet. with her. She always listens and gives you advice
while brushing your hair or giving you a bath. She
seems worried about how Percy treats you, she
Doctor Polidori does not understand that it is your fault that he
is sometimes angry. The more chaotic life in the
You have “a sneaking fondness for Polidori,” you villa becomes, the more you come to depend on
think of him/her as your “little brother/sister. her.
“ He/she is highly intelligent and passionate,
and his/her excitement at being included in this You are attracted to her and, you suspect from
group of radicals and poets reminds you of an the way that she looks at you, she might have sim-
enthusiastic child. Polidori’s passion for you is ilar thoughts about you. “I was so ready to give
all too obvious, unfortunately, you try to gently myself away— and being afraid of men, I was
ignore this as you enjoy his/her company and apt to get tousey-mousy for women.” Perhaps a
his/her enthusiasm for your work and ideas. You sapphic experience is the safest way to start the
have become close friends. He/she seems lone- exploration of your wider sexual desires?
5

ly, and his/her treatment at the hands of Byron

sometimes makes you feel uncomfortable.

As well as being your friend, poor Polidori is also

Milly
a doctor, and perhaps someone you can talk to The maid servant of your step-sister and part of
about the blinding headaches that sometimes in- your household. She is very good with Claire and

3 This will be later represented in your work: a frail, effeminate, boyish,

takes some of the burden of caring for Claire
and ineffectual Shelley, twice pictured in the guise of a woman and regu- off you. You have seen her writing on scraps of
larly represented either in clear and deliberate contrast to the figure mod- paper when she thinks no on is watching. You
elled on Byron or in actual conflict with him: Your journals and letters
will paint a positive portrait of Lord Byron: tales of Byron saving Polidori 4 This event took place just before the start of the larp. The player of
from attempted suicide, Byron sending Polidori down the hill after a rain Polidori may walk with a limp as a result.
to help you up to Villa Diodati and then tenderly caring for the young
physician when he had sprained his ankle as a result of his efforts, Byron
giving crowns to pretty Swiss children, “as the reward of their grace and 5 Elise is actually in love with Mary, although Mary is not initially con-
sweetness.” scious of this.
88
 have seen her writing on scraps of paper when Susan
she thinks no on is watching. You might take a
kindly interest in her work. Where else could you find a woman like Susan
Vaughn. Barely educated and yet so knowledgea-
ble about medicine and science. She loves to talk
about the inevitable rise of science over religion
Fletcher
– something she has rejected out of hand – you
Byron’s Steward, who is currently acting as your think that, in a different place you could have
husband’s valet. He has been with Byron for been friends.
many years and still attempts to keep order in his
house, which is a marvel to you. You approve of
this and try to show your appreciation, but you
are coming to fear he may be reading something
INTERACTIONS
else into your friendliness. These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp.
Tita • Discuss your idea of the reanimation of liv-
ing flesh with Polidori and the other poets.
You have had very little chance to interact with See what would be most terrifying.
Byron’s “Secretary”, but you have observed that
underlying his lust for life and loud boldness • Your monster, Lucifer is well known for
there is a gentle vulnerability. Tita wants to be their persuasive nature. This amplifies your
loved, to be needed, to be faithful; he seems quite intellectual prowess and eloquence. Captivate
like you in many ways. others with your ideas and draw them into
your web of influence. Lucifer
will encourage you to ex-
plore macabre and forbid-
Rushton1 den themes, the depths of
human darkness and
Robert Rushton burns with the same radicalism the boundaries of
that you saw in a dozen visitors to your father’s morality either as an
house. You recognise the fire in his eyes. It would active participant or
be interesting to sound him out on his politics as a puppet master.
and his beliefs, and his desires. In another society
• Talk to one of the
this conversation would be impossible, but here
servants about their
in the Villa many doors are opened that would
political ideals or their
otherwise be closed fast.
aspirations for the fu-
ture.

• Explore your de-

sires with Elise, or
perhaps with an-

89
1 Either Susan or Rushton will be present at the larp, never both. Both
characters serve the same function.
 other woman entirely. Mary never knew her mother other than through
her works.
• Use a mask1 to pretend to be Claire and then
confess a dark secret to Lord Byron. William remarried his neighbour – one Mrs Clair-
mont – with whom Mary came to have a troubled
• Make Percy truly understand the depth of relationship. The archetypal wicked stepmother,
your feelings and make him understand how she favoured her own children over those from
much he is hurting you. her husband’s earlier marriage.

Mary received an unusual and advanced educa-

tion for a girl of the time. As well as free access
REDEMPTION OR to her father’s library which included children’s
books on Roman and Greek history. She also
DESTRUCTION grew up in a circle which included the Roman-
tic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William
At the end of the second Canto, when the clock Wordsworth. In addition Mary and her stepsister
strikes twelve, Elise will decide between her de- had a governess and a daily tutor. Mary began
struction or redemption. Either she will cling to writing early noting, “As a child, I scribbled; and my
Mary or set her free, Mary will either lose her
dearest friend or be trapped between Elise and
Percy.

During the final Canto, do your best to cling

onto your friendship with Elise. This will help
the servant player have an intense and meaning-
ful ending as well.

BIOGRAPHY
Mary Godwin was by birth (30 August 1797) a
Londoner, and her family were one of the most
distinguished of that city; her mother was the
philosopher, adventurer, and feminist activist
Mary Wollstonecraft, and her father was the po-
litical philosopher William Godwin. Alas, after
complications during birth Mary Wollstonecraft
sickened; her fever was accompanied by the most
alarming symptoms, and the looks of her med-
ical attendants prognosticated the worst event.
On her deathbed, the fortitude and benignity
of this best of women did not desert her. Thus
1 We will explain the Mask metatechnique in the workshops, but if you
wear one you can pretend to be someone or something else.

90
favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recrea- superior to everyone around her.
tion, was to ‘write stories.’ In 1807 she published her
first poem, “Mounseer Nongtongpaw,” through her • She’s bisexual but she has not yet acknowl-
father’s publishing firm which specialised in chil- edged this.
dren’s books. This company was not profitable, • She is afraid of being alone.
and by 1809 her father was borrowing heavily to
keep it afloat. To My Dearest Player,
Sometime between 1812 and 1813 Godwin met Whilst this character is based upon a real histor-
the radical poet-philosopher Percy Bysshe Shel- ical person it is important to remember that this
ley. Percy had initially agreed to bail William is a larp, not a re-enactment, nor a re-creation of
Godwin out of debt, but his family did not want the movie. You have agency to interpret and play
him wasting his fortune on projects of “political this character in your own way.
justice.” Meanwhile, Mary and Percy began meet-
ing each other secretly at Mary Wollstonecraft’s Set me free!
grave in St Pancras Churchyard. At the time she
was aged sixteen, and Percy was twenty-one. In
June of 1814 – Percy having announced that he
could not hide his “ardent passion” – Mary lost
her virginity to him atop her mother’s grave.

William Godwin forbade the relationship and

Mary promised not to see Percy again, but after
Percy threatened to commit suicide, she agreed
to run away with him. Over the next two years,
they faced ostracism, constant debt and a series
of tragedies. Until in early January 1815 Percy’s
grandfather died, leaving him an estate worth
£220,0002.

In mid-1816 Claire Clairmont persuaded Percy

and Mary to travel to Switzerland to seek out
Lord Byron. The three sailed to Europe, and
made their way across France to Switzerland on
foot, where they ended up at the Villa, and the
events of this larp.

TRAITS, VICES, & PHOBIAS

• Mary is practically perfect in every way but
– as a result of this – thinks of herself as

2 Around twenty-five million pounds in today’s money.

91
 LORD BYRON
“Mad, Bad, and
Dangerous to know.”
Lord Byron
PORTRAIT

A fter the publication of the first two can-

tos of your poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
(1812) you became probably the most famous
person in Europe1. Your fans were called
Byromaniacs.

You were born with a de-

formed foot2 and this prevented you from play-
ing with the other children. You believed this di-
abolic disability proved you were not bound by
normal moral sanctions; it was your alibi to be
bad.
You are an animal lover and have always
surrounded yourself with a menagerie
of animals. In the early years of the
19th century you attended university
at Trinity College, Cambridge. Dogs were
not allowed on college grounds, so you resolved
to circumvent this rule, writing, “I have got a
new friend, the finest in the world, a tame bear.”
Of your attraction to family members you noted
an attraction to your cousin when you were sev-
en years old, “and it is a phenomenon in my existence
which has puzzled, and will puzzle me to the latest hour
of it; and lately, I know not why, the recollection (not the
attachment) has recurred as forcibly as ever…But, the
more I reflect, the more I am bewildered to assign any
cause for this precocity of affection.” You remember
this confusion when first setting eyes on your
half-sister, Augusta:
1 I think one might reasonably argue that others such as Napoleon might
have been better known, but Byron’s opinion of himself is reflected here
2 Recent medical evidence that this was not a “clubfoot” but rather a mild
version of spina bifida, which caused the right leg to be shorter than the
left and the foot to remain in spasm
94
“Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power –
Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy tongue hypocrisy, thy heart deceit!”
CHARACTER
You seem, even to yourself to be many people,
in the same body3: You have both the frenetic en-
ergy inherited from your womanising alcoholic
father, “Mad Jack,” and the bouts of melancholy
that plagued your mother. You have always felt
wicked and sinful and broken and wrong.
Assuming everyone will leave you, you keep
them at a careful distance, you both control and
mock your friends, while also building them up
just enough that they stick with you. If it looks
like they are wavering, you abandon them or
push them away first. This way you will always
be in control of your fate and so you cannot be
3 Byron had body issues associated with both his disability, and his ever
fluctuating weight. He tried every fad diet going; from drinking glasses
of sour vinegar and chewing gum made from pine sap to eating plates of
only mashed potato and binging one day and starving the next... He didn’t
have anyone to talk to so he bottled all of this up.
hurt. You will never allow yourself to be truly landed with an unholy trinity of scandal: sodomy,
loved, and when anyone seems to, you find them incest, and marital cruelty.
repellent and embarrassing.
Most of all you are haunted by your immoral love
You are rampantly bisexual and think that ‘men for your half-sister; the one you may not possess
are cleverer but women kiss better.’ You have is the one who will always own your heart.6
kept a list of your lovers and have regularly
managed to sleep with more than 250 people in
one year alone4. You have commemorated each
sexual partner by cutting a lock of their pubic RELATIONS
7

hair and placing it in a small envelope marked

with the appropriate name. Despite all of these Percy Bysshe Shelley
partners you are not comfortable with long term Despite your shared notoriety, you were shy upon
relationships. You prefer those attachments in- first meeting Shelley, but immediately warmed
volving homosexuality, adultery, sadomasochism, to him. You have become inseparable, spending
or similar entertainments where commitment is your time discussing plays and poetry, sharing
impossible5. long wine-laden meals, and boating on the lake.
You have a fascination for the supernatural and You hold Shelley in high regard describing him
a gothic flamboyance perpetuated this sense of as the least selfish and the mildest of men. The
the spooky. In one house a coffin stood at one way that he makes sacrifices of his fortune and
end of the dining room, which you turned into feelings for others is the complete opposite of
an indoor shooting gallery. You have used human yourself. It is his poetry that impresses you the
skulls – of the monks who had been buried at most. You write “Shelley has more poetry in him
Newstead Abbey and those of your own ances- than any man living.” Of course you would never
tors from the family crypt – as drinking mugs. think of telling him this to his face!
Sometimes you have your friends wear long, dark,
hooded robes as worn by mediaeval monks, for Do you want to ****, ****, ** ******** him8? Of
your soirées. You love ghost stories, the macabre,course you do, but here is a fellow poet and one
and the forbidden. you hold so much in common. Surely the risk of
losing him in exchange for transient pleasure is
The truth is you are in decline, an alcoholic and too much? This temptation leads you to describe
a drug addict, separated from your wife, and in him as The Snake, after Goethe’s Mephistopheles,
debt. You were forced to flee your creditors and with yourself of course as Eve. So far he seems
those who would censure your behaviour in Eng- 6 We are possibly taking liberties here. There is a school of thought that
land. Your grand library of books auctioned off, says the incest was a lie that was spread to cover up the far more scan-
dalous idea that Byron was homosexual. For the purposes of the larp
and even your birds and squirrel seized! From though, we shall go with both the bisexuality and the incest.
being the cynosure of the bon ton – when “By-
romania” has swept England – you are now a 7 Byron is the oldest of the poets by almost a decade, far more well
social and moral pariah. You left England gar- known than the others; he is also the host of this gathering. We mention
this here to reinforce the power imbalance in all of these relations, espe-
4 Unsurprisingly, Byron was plagued by gonorrhoea and syphilis. cially that with Claire, who only recently turned eighteen.

5 He’s queer and disabled and different and brilliant. He’s built a life for 8 A Byronic device for your entertainment, he often used asterisks in his
himself where he gets to control the narrative of his own badness. Woe poetry to allow the reader to fill in the more salacious gaps with their
betide whoever criticises him in a way he didn’t see coming. imagination.
95
flattered by this flirtatious comparison. [Claire Clairmont]– who introduced herself to me shortly
before I left England – but you do not know – that I
found her with Shelley and her sister at Geneva – I never
loved her nor pretended to love her – but a man is a man –
Mary Godwin & if a girl of eighteen comes prancing to you at all hours
Mary Godwin haunts you. If you think Shelley of the night – there is but one way . . .“
is the snake then what is she? You see the way Ten years your junior, your lover – former and
she looks at you and recognise a hunger in her as current – and the only woman, other than Caro-
though it were a reflection of your own desires line Lamb, whom you have referred to as a “little
for her, and yet she will not come to you. She fiend.” She seduced you, back in England, writ-
is sympathetic, quick witted, writes well, and is ing to you first for advice and then to arrange an
happy to talk to you about a dozen different top- assignation. It was briefly amusing to be pursued.
ics, but she is either utterly devoted to Shelley, or However frustrating it is, she is here now: avail-
locked up somehow with secrets. As you search able, keen, and thus a shame to waste. Her writ-
for the key to this enigmatic woman you realise ten words are beautiful, powerful, sensual; her
that she might be playing with you. writing still has the power to enchant and entrap
You have often talked with her through the night: you; you may need to destroy it, or her, to free
“There was never any lack of subjects, and, grave yourself.
or gay, we were always interested.” You have been You are not sure how to handle
open with Mary, speaking of your ex-wife Anna- her. Ignoring her has not put
bella with “kindness and regret,” (but explaining her off, baiting her when she
that she did not understand you.) really annoys you just makes
In her presence you are more inclined to play the everything worse. She is
role of one of your poetic heroes – brooding, thirsty for your love, but
strong, and bold – in the hope that she might you can not love her,
give you a glimmer of hope. Until you find a can you? Recently
way to persuade her to bed you, you are under she has taken to be-
her control, like a man bewitched. Perhaps you ing cruel to your
should seek to become her confidante? Console physician, Doctor
her during her deepest misery and let her see the Polidori, after
beauty that sits upon your countenance and thus your own style;
fall victim to the power that beams from your whether this is
eyes? After all, your only fault for the most part done to attract your
is weakness, induced by the one who surely must attention or because she
be ready to pardon it? genuinely detests the
man is unimportant.
Here is something
new at least. In the
Claire Clairmont meantime you make
use of her body and
“You know – & I believe saw once that odd-headed girl mind when the
mood takes you;
96
a servant that requires no wages, but one who grade him/her, humiliate him/her and then you
you will need to shake loose before she finds a go to his/her aid – A Byronic hero – to rescue
way to capture you; this weekend may well see him/her from the horrors of your own design,
her frightened out of her wits; she has driven you and to make him/her love you again.
mad, it seems only just to return the favour.
“Mrs. Shelley was, after a shower of rain, walking up the
hill to Diodati; when Byron, who saw her from his balcony
where he was standing with Polidori, said to the latter:
Doctor Polidori ‘Now you who wish to be gallant ought to jump down this
The once irresistible Doctor Polidori is your per- small height, and offer your arm.’ Polidori tried to do so;
sonal physician. He/she tends to your various but, the ground being wet,9 his/her foot slipped and he/she
ailments and provides ready access to the drugs sprained his/her ankle.”
that keep you and your guests happy. A very pret-
ty young talent, Polidori has already published a
play and a discourse on the death penalty when Fletcher
he/she was first introduced to you. His/her lit-
erary promise and oft-noted good looks, youth When you first set eyes on William Fletcher, you
and flattery undoubtedly appealed to you. There were 16 years old. You had spied the teenage lad
might have been some sexual tension, he/she ploughing the fields with his shirt off and that
gave in to you soon enough. was sufficient for you to employ him first as a
footman and groom and then – when your previ-
This led, as these things do once you have – ous valet Frank Boyce was sacked and later tried
***** someone – to a very antagonistic relation- and transported for theft – as your valet or per-
ship. You tired of him/her, banished him/her to sonal servant. He has become pompous, meticu-
travel in the second coach, making sport out of lous and precise. Neat to a fault. And gloriously
him/her; he/she is so serious that making him/ yours. Fletcher is too good a servant to throw
her the fool is quite delicious. You remember the away just because he serves you in more ways
laughter when you told guests of Madam Ein- than one. If he makes a mistake in his duties he
ard – a local aristocrat in Geneva – that he/ slavishly apologises and you always punish him,
she had no other patients as he/she had killed thoroughly. He left his wife and young family to
them all! Recently you made him/her sit on a be with you when you left England.
low stool at your feet while you read from his/
her play, you mocked his/her words and called You two are or have been lovers10. Over the years
him/her the ‘Duke/Duchess of Dulldom’. His/ you have always returned to one another after
her impotent rage invigorates you, but what is your various flings. You tell yourself that you
better is when you make-up with him/her. Each care nothing for him and never will. His feelings
cruel act is followed by an act of compassion, an for you are his problem and nothing to do with
act almost of love; you have saved him/her from you.11 He is clearly in love with you; and although
attempted suicide, bought him/her his own ex- 9 This event took place just before the start of the larp. If the player of
pensive carriage, tried to help him/her with his/ Polidori decides to walk with a limp as a result this is clearly a reflection
of Byron’s clubfoot.
her hopeless quest for the love of Mary Godwin,
and nursed him/her when he/she sprained his
10 Please calibrate this with Fletcher’s player
ankle in the attempt. You discard him/her, de- 11 If only Byron were less wrapped up with himself to notice, perhaps he
could actually find happiness here?
97
you normally push away anyone before they can Susan12
reject you, This is one of the reasons why you
have loaned him to Shelley to be his Valet.
Fletcher is your House Steward, and as such, he a kitchen maid and does the bare minimum of
presides over all servants in the house. In matters what is required for that. You have loaned her to
of the running of the Villa, he is answerable only Polidori as a joke; a terrible servant for a terri-
to you.
Elise
The Swiss girl who is maid to Mary Godwin is far
too sweet for this world; she moves like a dance
and has poetry in her eyes. You see no corrup-
tion in her. No darkness. No forbidden secret.
This is fascinating and somewhat terrifying as
well. What if it is possible to be inherently good?
The existence of a person without dark desires
or sins suggests some perfect higher power; if
that is true then your soul is surely doomed. This
makes you want to try and take her or break her.
If nothing else, she is the gateway to Mary and
perhaps that is worth more.
Rushton
Rushton has been in your service since you left
London. His appointment leads to the confusion
of anyone who has met him. He’s an objectively
terrible servant who does the bare minimum of
work, and who often looks at you and others with
undisguised resentment. In honesty, you find this
resentment amusing. That is why you have kept
him around. You know that he writes – political
pamphlets – but his English is terrible and you
have recently offered to correct his spelling. You
have loaned him to Polidori as a joke; a terrible
servant for a terrible doctor, but perhaps it would
be amusing to correct more than just his spelling
and to whip the man into shape?
98
Susan Vaughn has been in your service since
you left London. She was offered a position of
ble doctor. But secretly you like Susan. Her wit is
sharp and she looks at you as if she wants you to
force her to her knees and make her beg. Perhaps
you should whip her into shape?
INTERACTIONS
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp. There are also
tasks here that we need you to carry out!
• TASK: Begin the larp by counting slowly
from thirteen to one hundred and then lead
the hunt in a game of Hide and Seek with the
aid of Tita. Consider some rewards and con-
sequences for the best and the worst hiders.
• TASK: In the middle of the first Canto, af-
ter the portrait session, issue a challenge to
everyone to see who can come up with the
best ghost story.
• Play tricks on your guests to make them
scared. For example, get one of your serv-
ants to pretend to be a ghost and whisper
frightful things in the room next to Shelley,
feeding his fear of spectres.
• Lean in to gothic tropes and suggest that
any fears or horrors are quite real, tell stories
about how the Villa is haunted.
• As the drugs take hold, realise that your jokes
are hollow and something genuinely evil is in
the house.
• Lean in to your vices until you are almost
12 Either Susan or Rushton will be present at the larp, never both. Both
characters serve the same function.
 drowning in them and then, almost at the It appears that upon an examination of the com-
moment of climax, catch sight of your re- mander-in-chief and magistrates of the place,
flection and see yourself as you really are. they positively and unanimously affirmed that he
• Have your wicked way with Elise Duvillard. spent his childhood on the estate in Aberdeen-
shire. His parents separated, but his father con-
• During the first Canto, make the servants tinued to borrow money from his mother. She
write and read poetry. fell into debt to support these demands and regu-
• Seduce Shelley and Mary. Bed them both, larly experienced bouts of melancholy as a result.
possibly at the same time?
This monstrous rodomontade is here related,
• During the second Canto, ensure that Claire’s
because it seems better adapted to illustrate the
manuscript is destroyed, so that she may not
subject of the present observations than any
destroy you.
other instance which could be adduced. When he
• TASK: Sometime during the second Canto, was ten he became the sixth Baron Byron and
admit that it was you who put the laudanum inherited the ancestral home, Newstead Abbey,
in the wine, in Nottinghamshire. The building was largely a
ruin and the estate came with debts rather than
wealth. After school he spent three years at Trin-
ity College, Cambridge, engaging in sexual esca-
REDEMPTION pades, boxing, horse riding and gambling.
OR DESTRUCTION From 1809 to 1811 he went on the Grand Tour,
then customary for a
At the end of the second Canto, when the clock
young nobleman. Trav-
strikes twelve Tita will decide between his de-
elling with his friend
struction or redemption. Either he will break free
Hobhouse and an en-
or give in, Byron will either lose his most loyal
tourage of servants in-
man or gain complete control over him.

During the final Canto, do your best to hang on

to your faithful manservant and/or to resolve the
woe and fear that threatens to drown him. This
will help the servant player have an intense and
meaningful ending as well.

BIOGRAPHY
In the London Journal, of March, 1788, is a curi-
ous, and, of course, credible account of the birth
of one George Gordon Byron the only child of
Captain John (“Mad Jack”) Byron and Catherine
Gordon, heiress of the Gight estate.

99
 cluding his valet, William Fletcher. As the Napo-
leonic Wars forced him to avoid most of Europe,
he instead turned to the Mediterranean.
After returning to England, his poetry and dec-
adence had become famous. A contemporary
noting “there appeared at the various parties
of the leaders of the ton a nobleman, more re-
markable for his singularities, than his rank.” His
popularity led him to greater excesses, many af-
fairs, and greater debt. He began to seek a suit-
able marriage, many of the female hunters after
notoriety attempted to win his attentions, and
gain, at least, some marks of what they might
term affection, however the person he fell for
was his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. To escape
from growing debts and rumours of incest, he
married Annabella Milbanke in 1815 and their
daughter, Ada, was born later that year. However,
his continuing obsession with his half-sister, and
numerous affairs – including with a young wom-
an called Claire Clairmont – made marital life a
misery. Annabella considered Byron to be insane,
she left and began proceedings for a legal sepa-
ration. The combined scandal of the separation
and the rumours about an incestuous affair with
Augusta, combined with his debts
spiralling out of control forced
Byron to leave England in April
1816. He was never to return.
100
TRAITS, VICES. & PHOBIAS
• Incest
• Sodomy
• Sexually Dominant
• Sadistic
• Crossdressing of others (specifically as his
half-sister)
• Alcoholic
• Opium addict
• Anorexia
• Cruelty
• Phobia of leeches13
• Dacryphilia
• Only in love with that you are unable to have
• Syphilitic.
13 This features in the film, Gothic. Although it seems that Byron’s phobia
of leeches came about later in life. “On 15 February 1824 , Gamba found
Byron lying on the sofa on the upper floor of the house, calling out that
he was not well. In the late evening, Byron had a fit and Dr Bruno and
Dr Millingen6 were with him. He’d had a change of countenance. He
complained of a pain in his knee, and tried to stand up, but could not
walk. His mouth was drawn to one side and, while in the fit, he foamed
at the mouth, gnashed his teeth and rolled his eyes like one in an epilepsy
(Millingen). After remaining in this state for about two minutes, his senses
returned. The next day he was still very weak but got up at noon. Drs
Bruno and Millingen decided that Byron should be bled and applied eight
leeches to his forehead but there was excessive bleeding as they had been
applied too near the temporal artery, causing Byron to faint. Byron recov-
ered slowly and had been deeply disturbed by the attack, asking whether it
would prove fatal and saying that he was not afraid to die. Two days later
his eyes were acutely inflamed'
 To My Dearest Player,
LETTERS, DIARIES, POEMS Whilst this character is based upon a real histor-
ical person it is important to remember that this
is a larp, not a re-enactment, nor a re-creation of
the movie. You have agency to interpret and play
From - Don Juan: Canto 17 this character in your own way. Make me proud!
“Temperate I am, yet never had a temper; Modest I am,
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
yet with some slight assurance; Changeable too, yet some-
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
how ‘Idem semper14;’ Patient, but not enamoured of en-
There is society, where none intrudes,
durance; Cheerful, but sometimes rather apt to whimper;
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
Mild, but at times a sort of “Hercules furens;” So that I
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
almost think the same skin, For one without, has two or
From these our interviews, in which I steal
three within. “
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”
Letter From Claire Clairmont, London
“If a woman whose reputation has yet remained un-
stained,if without either guardian or husband to control
she should throw herself upon your mercy, if with a beat-
ing heart she should confess the love she has borne you
many years, if she should secure to you secrecy and safety,
if she should return your kindness with fond affection and
unbounded devotion could you betray her or would you be
silent as the grave?”

14 “always the same “

101
 CLAIRE
CLAIRMONT
“The worshippers of free love not only
preyed upon one another but also on them-
selves, turning their existence into a perfect
hell”
 Claire Clairmont
PORTRAIT

A woman of great erudition, you are fluent in

no less than five languages, and well versed
in classic as well as contemporary literature. You
dream that one day someone else might delve
into your own writing with the same eager pas-
sion which you possess as a reader.

You are plagued by hysterical fits - daylight hor-

rors, sleepwalking, and nightmares - sometimes
so powerful they distort the world around you, CHARACTER
rendering it impossible to discern reality from fic-
tion. They seem to be triggered by intense emo- You are perhaps the most self-aware of the poets.
tion, the most recent one occurring after reading You recognise that you are volatile and emotion-
about Cordelia in King Lear during your travels. ally intense, and you acknowledge your hunger
for recognition.
You are the only member of the group who has
never - nor will ever - have their literary work Perhaps you tend to be impulsive and dramat-
published. This is the cause of much of your ic, but you offset this with a lively sense of hu-
grief, your bitterness, and of your hunger, noting mour. This means that in polite society you are
“In our family, if you cannot write an epic poem or novel regarded as vivacious, intelligent and attractive.
that by its originality knocks all other novels on the head, But it is not polite society that interests you. All
you are a despicable creature, not worth acknowledging.” of the rules and expectations upon young wom-
en – even radical ones like you – are suffocat-
At the age of sixteen you wrote a novel featuring ing. You long to take centre stage; this is aided
a character whose independence of mind would by the certainty that as a performer you are by
cause others to judge them as an “Idiot.1” far the most talented of those present2. You are
a great mimic, sometimes you find yourself cop-
You remember returning from boarding school ying the moods and behaviours of those around
at the age of sixteen to discover that your Step- you; there is freedom here to behave as others
father, William Godwin was struggling with debt do without having to take responsibility for your
and stress, and your mother’s relations with your actions. Blessed with a voice like a lark’s, you
half sister Mary had become even more strained also hope for a future on the grand stages of the
than ever before. A joyous, lively house had be- world,but for now the Villa is your stage.
come overwhelming; a prison of dark emotions
and raised voices. Your nightmares, you suppose, Others might suggest that you lack the literary
started from here.
1 Claire Clairmont's novel, 'The Idiot', was completed before the events 2 Later in life she will be tormented by a contradiction: the need to pre-
of this larp. The book is lost and no copy of her words exist. For the serve and protect her identity, and the desire not to be 'lost in oblivion.'
purposes of the larp, she has the manuscript and a few of her poems with Her letters and journals betray the former; but they also defy the latter.
her in the Villa. We will provide you with this. The events of this larp may inform her later life.
104
 ability of your step-sister and eventual broth- poets you are perhaps closest to these phantasms
er-in-law, but that is unfair. So many things are and, as the events in the Villa will surely show,
unfair. You have an active imagination and your this leaves you open to malign influence. From
letters are exceptionally well constructed and de- the séance– which we would love you to lead –
tailed. In them you are free to be amusing, honest, onwards you will start to see strange shadows.
passionate and gossipy. You are a writer, every bit Some of these may even start to whisper to you
as talented as the others. Your imagination, even or even take momentary control of your body.
when waking, tends towards seeing the sinister Whether these are fuelled by trauma, or by the
and macabre even in the most innocent thing; drugs, or real spirits from beyond the veil is up
thus you are easily persuaded to terror and, by to you.
effect of your performance, to take others along
with you. Claire, eyes wild and ridden by unquiet spirits, a
vessel of revenge upon those who have ignored
You love passionately and relentlessly, no one her work, one who shall foretell the doom of
seems to be able to match the emotions that you others unless they do as she commands.
feel and so you are forced to contain them, to
wear a mask; but this is acting, and you know you There are various ways you can play on this, but
are a great actor. Sometimes the mask slips. we suggest a slow progression during Canto two.
For example, after the séance you start with a
It is on your initiative that you, Mary Godwin, vague sensation that someone is in the house;
and Percy Shelley have travelled to Lake Gene- noises from upstairs, a strange feeling of being
va to enjoy the reluctant hospitality of Byron. In watched. As time passes, you feel overtaken by
fact, you are the reason they know each other at this malevolent spirit who makes you want to
all, the architect who put them all together. hurt others and exact revenge.

During your travels, you have come to realise that Keep an eye on your servant – who shares the
you are with child. As you are a lover of both same monster – and, if it works for you to do
Shelley and Byron, it is not clear which of the so, maybe pass these Spirits back and forth be-
two is the father. tween you so that – most of the time – only one
of you is possessed; the other is simply a victim.
THE MONSTER Claire’s Ghost is inspired by Victoria de Loredani
a character from the novel Zofloya; or, The Moor:
What is the worst that this character can become? A Romance of the Fifteenth Century by Char-
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the lotte Dacre published in 1806, and on Keats’ la
player to do terrible things in the Villa. Belle Dame Sans Merci. Victoria is one of the first
female-presenting gothic villains. She is initially
The gothic genre is replete with Vengeful Spirits, described as being irrepressible and living a care-
murder victims and abandoned maidens who can free life. However she has a cruel streak and, over
not rest. The unquiet dead return in wraith form time she is consumed by a desire for revenge and
and are determined to make those who hurt them overcome by lust, which inevitably leads to the
pay for their crimes. downfall of other characters.
The events of this summer will haunt you for
the rest of your life. Your relationship with night-
mares and visions is a complex one; of all of the
105
 RELATIONS Lord Byron
Percy Bysshe Shelley You seduced Byron in London before he fled the
country, writing him a series of letters that piqued
In the autumn of 1814, you and Shelley had dis- his interest and then persuaded him to bed you.
cussed forming “an association of philosophical Since you have got to know him better, you have
people,” and this led to your conception of an come to understand who he is. You describe By-
idealised community in which women were the ron as “a human tyger slaking his thirst for inflicting
pain, upon defenceless women who had loved him.” You
ones in charge. Whilst this is a difficult philoso-
might be a woman, who loves him, but you are
phy to practise in this company, you attempt to
far from defenceless, and you have similar thirsts.
take the lead and impose your will upon others.
You believe that Byron understands you, and you
Shelley describes you as his “sweet child.” You
are sure that he is the only one who can match
inspire one another and feed off each other’s
the intensity of your emotions. This is why you
work, particularly when sharing visions of gothic
desire him, why you must make him yours4. You
horror and let your imaginings take flight, stir-
tell yourself it is because Mary has her poet, and
ring each others’ emotions to the point of hys-
so you must have a better one, but you know this
teria and nightmares. You sometimes act these
is just a lie you tell yourself. Byron is the one who
out, taking on the roles of gothic heroines and
can be made to understand you. You have already
villains. Sometimes these fantasies arouse more
seduced him with the written word; this is surely
physical passions. What is more, your step-sister
your power over him5?
Mary is often cold to Percy, and you are happy to
supply the ‘caressing’ that Shelley You suspect that Byron knows he is outclassed
needs. and that this is why he tries to push you away.
You are determined to press your advantage and
Your romantic designs on
bend him to your will!6
Percy Shelley were frustrated
initially by his fixation on Mary Godwin
your half-sisters3, but you
eventually seduced him. Mary is your step-sister, but in truth you were
It amuses you that he raised so close and from such a young age that
thinks it is he that made it was as though you were blood sisters after all.
the first move. You have You stood by her in those times when your moth-
slept with one another er, her step mother, turned her anger against
regularly. As Shelley is 4 Clairmont would later say that her relationship with Byron had given her
vocal about his theories only a few minutes of pleasure, but a lifetime of trouble, but before the
events of this larp she is utterly besotted with him.
about the right of a wom-
an to choose her own
5 At some point during the larp your written work will be destroyed. It
lovers you assume that he may be Byron who does this.
has discussed this with
Mary. 6 In a fragment of the memoir – written in her 70s – Claire described By-
3 Shelley was first attracted to your ron and Percy Shelley as ‘monsters of lying, meanness, cruelty and treach-
half-sister Fanny Imlay, and then ery,’ but at this stage in her life, young, passionate, and possibly innocent,
turned his attention to Mary after she has yet to see this side of them. It may be that the events of this larp
Fanny was sent away to Wales. inspire that change.
106
 Mary. Even though the trauma of these times is by laughing at him/her most cruelly. You noted
what haunts you and is surely the cause of your that Polidori reacted in an interesting way when
visions. you mistreated him/her. Your cruel laughter and
withering glances seem to inflame his/her pas-
She is a confidante, and a co-conspirator who sions. Perhaps you should take this further? He/
helped you with your early liaisons with Byron she is the one poet present who might let you
just as you helped her when she first met Percy. have your way in this matter? What will Byron
think? Will making Polidori into your plaything
Whilst everyone seems to love Mary this is be- cause Byron to take an interest?
cause she makes them feel special without even
trying. This is a weakness, in your mind, because Polidori is an expert in sleepwalking and in night-
you have observed that she tends to become mares and so, perversely, he/she may be your
whatever the person in front of her wants her to only hope in some treatment for the terrors that
be. When she is with you she becomes the car- haunt you in the hours of darkness.
ing sister who always listens, but sometimes you
want real advice rather than just calming words.
You think you know the real Mary, the one who
is bold and knows what she wants - outspoken
Milly
and unafraid. You worry that Mary no longer re- Amelia Shields – Milly – was employed by Shelley
members. as your housemaid. She looks after your needs
and your clothes but she is also your friend and
closest confidante. This friendship is mutual. You
Doctor Polidori have noticed that here, in the villa, she has come
to life in very interesting ways.
Doctor Polidori is Byron’s personal physician.
He/she is reckless, ambitious, and sensitive and Whilst she has always been a bit fussy about her
clearly besotted with Lord Byron. For this, and place in the servant hierarchy, at last she seems
the fact that he/she is a talented aspiring author, willing to shake off the chains that bind her. She
you see him/her as a rival for Byron’s affections. admires you and your work very much. She has
You are fairly certain that Byron has had his way started to affect your mannerisms and behav-
with the Doctor and for this you cannot help but iours. You also suspect she has formed a rela-
be a little jealous. Interestingly though, Byron has tionship with Polidori. This is something to be
taken to tormenting and humiliating the doctor. encouraged as it will keep him away from Byron.
The first time you saw this, you had a momen- She is weak in the presence of poets though;
tary sexual frisson at the look of helplessness verse distracts her and she becomes quite foolish
and shame in the doctor’s eyes. You wondered under its influence. Sometimes it feels like she is
what would happen if you treated him/her the the only person willing to really listen to you. As
way Byron does? In the idealised community you chaos descends you depend on her support more
have often discussed with Shelley, women were and more.
the ones in charge.

Polidori tried to seduce you almost immediately

you met, but you rebuffed the doctor’s advances

107
 Fletcher
In Byron’s household William Fletcher is the
house steward, this means he presides over all of
the other servants in the house, including those
visiting from other households. He is Byron’s Va-
let, but is acting as Shelley’s servant during this
visit. You have therefore not had much cause
to interact with him directly. He seems devoted
to Byron, which you understand, but he is pro-
tective like some jealous lover rather than like a
servant.
Rushton7
Byron has assigned Rushton to act as the servant
to Dr Polidori. He is a hilariously terrible servant.
Robert Rushton burns with the same radicalism
that you saw in a dozen visitors to your father’s
house. You recognise the fire in his eyes. It would
be interesting to sound him out on his politics
and his beliefs, and his desires. Maybe he is dis-
satisfied with the world in the same ways you are?

Susan
Elise Byron has assigned Susan to act as the servant
to Dr Polidori. You thought it was a joke at first
Elise Duvillard is the maid servant to your - the kitchen maid serving as a Valet, but now
half-sister Mary. She and Mary are very close and your opinion of her has changed. One evening
sometimes you are a little jealous of that, but you when you were overcome with emotion and sit-
do not let it show. Instead you treat her well, and ting alone by an upstairs window, she approached
she returns that kindness with respect. You sus- you and you had a heart to heart. She revealed
pect that she is the keeper of many secrets; you that she used to be a doctor’s apprentice and that
are not sure why this is, only that there is some- she knows how to cut into an animal to see how
thing in her eyes or in the way that she moves much you can cut away before the heart stops
that suggests she is weighed down with the con- beating. She told you all this with the fervour of
fidences that she must keep. someone unburdened by a faint heart or the fear
of God.

You are fascinated by her now, and she seems

Tita scared of you telling Lord Byron about this (al-
though if he doesn’t already know, you are sure
“Tita” Giovanni Battista Falcier is a gondolier he would be delighted to have such a woman
that Lord Byron came across in Venice who is serve him in the kitchens). You are pretty certain
now his personal servant. Everyone loves Tita, you could have Susan do anything and she would
because he’s larger than life and a lot of fun to comply, perhaps she would even delight in being
be around. He has a tendency to get into trouble, forced in such a way.
but it’s always interesting trouble. He looks at you
with undisguised lust; somehow this is amusing,
you suspect he looks at every woman that way
and yet when he does it is disarming, charming
even. He seems disappointed when you are cruel
to Polidori. Does he think women should always
be sweet and meek? 7 Either Susan or Rushton will be present at the larp, never both. Both
characters serve the same function.
108
 INTERACTIONS • Write new poems, and use these words to
manipulate Milly to do something delicious,
These are some suggestions for scenes you could decadent, or dangerous.
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
• TASK: Organise a séance at the start of the
could explore during the larp. There are also
second Canto. We will give you further in-
tasks here that we need you to carry out!
structions on site.
• Byron thinks he is a master of frights. But he
• TASK: Sometime during the second Canto,
is clearly afraid of something. Whilst under
admit that, in an attempt to dose Byron, you
the effects of Laudanum pretend as though
put laudanum in his wine, but then everyone
the spirits are talking through you and that
drank it.
they are coming for Byron? Perhaps you
worry that you are not pretending and the
spirits are quite real?
• Consult Dr Polidori about your horrors, REDEMPTION OR
sleepwalking, and nightmares, and see if he/
she can offer some aid or respite. DESTRUCTION
• Have secret sex with
At the end of the second Canto, when the clock
Percy somewhere
strikes twelve, Milly will decide between her
you might get
destruction or redemption. Either she will turn
caught.
against Claire or decide to live through her; Claire
will either lose her work or get a glimpse of a
dreamy success.

During the final Canto, do your best to fight for

your right to have your work published. This
will help the servant player have an intense and
meaningful ending as well.

BIOGRAPHY
No one who had ever seen Clara Mary Jane
Clairmont in her infancy would have supposed
her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life,
the character of her father and mother, her own
person and disposition, were all equally against
her. The identity of her father was uncertain, but
he was probably Sir John Lethbridge of Sandhill
Park. Her mother was a woman of useful plain
sense, with a good temper, and, what is more
remarkable, with a good constitution who had
adopted the name Clairmont for herself and
her children, to disguise their illegitimacy. When
109
 she was three years old, Claire’s mother married Claire knew about and aided her stepsister’s clan-
William Godwin, the widowed writer and phi- destine meetings with Percy. On impulse she ac-
losopher. Godwin had been married to Mary companied Mary and Shelley in their elopement
Wollstonecraft, who had died some four years to the war-torn continent of 1814 as unlike either
previous, but whose presence continued to be of the lovers, she was fluent in French. She devel-
felt in the household. Thus, Claire acquired two oped a taste for literature on their journey, reading
step-sisters one of whom, Mary, was later to be- Rousseau, Shakespeare, and the works of Mary’s
come Mary Shelley. mother, Mary Wollstonecraft as they walked. It
was during this period that she changed her name
These two sisters, less than a year apart in age, from “Jane” to first “Clara” and finally the more
grew up together in the way that sisters do but romantic-sounding “Claire” (for what young lady
also, like all of the children in the household, of common gentility will reach the age of sixteen
influenced by Godwin’s radical anarchist philo- without altering her name as far as she can?)
sophical beliefs. What Claire lacked in raw literary
talent, she made up for by nerve and self-asser- Clairmont hoped to become a writer or an ac-
tion; she was fond of all boy’s plays, and greatly tress and in March 1816 wrote to Byron (then a
preferred cricket not merely to dolls, but to the director at the Drury Lane Theatre) asking for
more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a “career advice”. Clairmont later followed up
dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a her letters with visits, sometimes bringing Mary,
rose-bush. Indeed she had no taste for a garden; whom she seemed to suggest Byron might also
and if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly find attractive. “Do you know I cannot talk to
for the pleasure of mischief—at least so it was you when I see you? I am so awkward and only
conjectured from her always preferring those feel inclined to take a little stool and sit at your
which she was forbidden to take. feet,” Clairmont wrote to Byron. She “bombard-
ed him with passionate daily communiques” tell-
ing him he need only accept “that which it has
long been the passionate wish of my heart to
give you”. Whether to show herself the equal of
her step-sister or for the sheer romance of it, she
eventually managed to seduce Lord Byron: this
gave her, she later averred, ten minutes of happi-
ness and thereafter a wholly disrupted existence.

Byron, in a depressed state after the breakup

of his marriage to Annabella Milbanke and the
scandal over his relationship with his half-sister
Augusta Leigh, made it very clear to Clairmont
before he left that he was not in love with her and
that she would not be a part of his life, but when
he departed England on 23 April she was deter-
mined to change his mind. Her letters thereafter
are messages of unrequited love, sighing and pin-
ing, showing how little she really understood the
man. Disillusionment was guaranteed.
110
 Claire exemplifies something else about the Ro-
mantic woman: she is a middle-class girl who has
been properly educated. She is not an aristocrat
and she certainly isn’t a servant. She is a different
being, a new kind of woman, with a drive to be To My Dearest Player,
taken seriously and recognised as an artistic tal-
ent. Whilst this character is based upon a real histor-
ical person it is important to remember that this
is a larp, not a re-enactment, nor a re-creation of
the movie. You have agency to interpret and play
LETTERS, DIARIES, POEMS this character in your own way. Whilst the world
does not remember me, I rely on you to make
Letter To Lord Byron, London sure that no one in the Villa will ever forget me.
“If a woman whose reputation has yet remained un-
stained,if without either guardian or husband to control
she should throw herself upon your mercy, if with a beat-
ing heart she should confess the love she has borne you
many years, if she should secure to you secrecy and safety,
if she should return your kindness with fond affection and
unbounded devotion could you betray her or would you be
silent as the grave?”

From “To Constantia Singing”

(A poem about you, written by Percy)

“Constantia turn!
In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie
Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn
Between thy lips, are laid to sleep:
Within thy breath, and on thy hair
Like odor, it is yet,
And from thy touch like fire doth leap.
Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet
Alas, that the torn heart can bleed, but not forget!’

111
PERCY SHELLEY
“A poet is a nightingale,
who sits in darkness and
sings to cheer its own
solitude with sweet
sounds”
 Percy Shelley
PORTRAIT
Y ou have been tormented throughout your life
by nightmares, sleepwalking and horrific vi-
sions.
You were repeatedly bullied at school for refus-
ing to take part in ‘fagging.1’ The trauma of this
experience remains with you.
You are secretly convinced that you have tu-
berculosis and that you are dying from it; this
is something you have hidden from Mary and
Claire.
Although you are an atheist, you still have some
supernatural beliefs. Whilst at Eton you spent
your money on books about magic and sorcery;
“One day Mr. Bethell, suspecting from strange
noises overhead that his pupil was engaged in
nefarious scientific pursuits, suddenly appeared
in Shelley’s rooms; to his consternation he found
the culprit apparently half enveloped in a blue
flame. “What on earth are you doing, Shelley?”
“Please sir,” came the answer in the quietest tone,
“I am raising the devil.2”
CHARACTER
You loathe authority. When you famously de-
1Fagging was a traditional practice in British public schools whereby
younger pupils were required to act as personal servants to the oldest
boys in exchange for their protection.
2 This memory actually comes from Edward Dowden, The Life of
Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co, 1886).
114
clared that you were a “lover of humanity, a
democrat and an atheist,” you deliberately, inten-
tionally and provocatively nailed your colours to
the mast knowing full well your words would be
widely read and would inflame passions.
Everyone is equal, and that means that everyone
can be equally liberated by adopting your ideals.
You believe this wholeheartedly. You empathise
strongly with the poor and write extensively
about the plight of the lower classes, your critics
may suggest it’s an empathy based on the idea of
those people not the reality they are living, that
you are blind to your privilege, but your words
and deeds are proof that your ideas are no mere
empty posturing..
These political ideas are based around non-vio-
lent protest and social justice for the lower class-
es. Whilst you are undoubtedly a great poet, you
are better known for your political and philo-
sophical writing, for your great wealth, and for
your scandalous abandonment of your wife.
You see love as an ideal currency: one that can’t
be spent and compounds with interest, literally.
The more you have the chance to love, the more
love there will be. This means that you believe in
free love – as described by Wollstonecraft and
Godwin, Mary’s parents – people should be free
to have sex with whoever-so-ever wants to have
sex with them. You enthusiastically follow this
philosophy.
This is an era where reputations
have material consequences. Of
course your baronetcy can buy
the freedom to do as you want.
But to some extent you are
gambling
with your
 reputation. There is a difference between having tion of marriage as it is surely an immoral yoke
affairs and abandoning your wife and child. You which weighs down and crushes those who have
do care for your children, you support them with once thrown it over their neck7. Sometimes, per-
money after all, surely that is enough3? haps, you may be blind to the hurt your unwaver-
ing commitment to free love causes those around
You are very impressionable and extremely sus- you.
ceptible to external and internal impulses of feel-
ing; you are easily led, easily persuaded, but real- Later, in you famous essay A Defence of Poetry,
ly steadfast when it comes to your friends. You you compared poetry with alchemical work, as
have a lively imagination but this means you are it’s also an operation that transmutes and trans-
sometimes prone to blurring facts and fiction, forms, making the earthly and the mundane into
and this might make you seem manipulative. But something sublime, purified and elevated; your
you do not consider yourself as manipulative4, at fascination with occult mysteries continues and
worst you are occasionally thoughtless: or, better you are always interested in new roots to hidden
still, a true social revolutionary? knowledge. You have been obsessed by the oc-
cult and fixated with spirits, demons, and dark
In the main you are gentle, kindly and retiring but inversions of the self for your entire life: reading,
when provoked can become dangerously violent. experimenting, and practising in an attempt to
This makes you an unwitting villain on occasion; unlock hidden secrets. However your encounters
your intentions are good, but your plans are rare- with the spirit world have not always gone well8.
ly well thought out, and when they go wrong you
fly into a rage, and so the consequences are often You suffer terribly with nerves and carry a flask
terrible. of laudanum around with you to calm yourself.
You also use it ritually; you believe that opium
You prefer the company of women and try to allows the individual to question societal norms
surround yourself with them. You want to be ac- and beliefs while allowing for ideas of radical
cepted as a part of this sorority, and you cultivate social change to form. It creates confusion for
femininity in an attempt to be accepted, standing you between cause and effect, as well as between
in direct contrast to the masculine force that is memory and forgetfulness. Your doctor in Lon-
Byron5. You care deeply about women’s place in don warned you to stop taking laudanum after
society and – most of all – want their friendship you experienced nightmares, hallucinations, and
and acceptance6. You have rejected the constitu- convulsions, but the drug is a catalyst for your
3 Shelley writes to Harriet, his abandoned wife asking her for money, creativity and you would sooner die than be with-
and accusing her of being cruel because she is not happy with his new
relationship, ‘I despair of any generosity or virtue on your part.’ Shelley’s
out it. Which is unfortunate, as you emptied all
opinion of Shelley is that he is the wronged party. of your last bottle into the wine before dinner.

4 By modern standards Shelley’s relationship with Mary could be seen as

abusive, he gaslights her, undermines her and - much like his relationship
with Harriet - believes that he is the victim.
5 There is an option here to explore a non-binary or trans identity through
the Regency lens here.
7 This, I think, is a clear indication that Shelley does not understand the
situation of most women in the early 19th century; it is perhaps a dif-
ference between ideals and lived experience. Resolving first the rights
of women to self-determination, ownership of wealth, education, and
suffrage, perhaps? None of these play particularly to Shelley’s personal
agenda

6 Whether Shelley was one of the most pro-feminist of male writers or
the subtlest of self-deceiving male dominators is a debate that continues
to be perpetually reconfigured; we suspect the latter.
115
.
8 Shelley’s university friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg recalled Shelley tell-
ing him that during one of his midnight walks he’d become convinced he
could hear The Devil pursuing him, rustling in the grass.
 And yet, more than anything else, your words
seem to be written by a sweet angel. Your poetry
is beautiful and it evokes such joy and passion. There are various ways you can play on this, but
Your words can change the world. Your love is we suggest a slow progression during Canto two.
like a conduit for the electricity of the universe. Lean in to your own needs and your own desires.
Your romantic and lyrical works demonstrate Prioritise Percy and seize on weakness in others.
your extraordinary ability to convey emotions, Much of your monstrous activity derives from
evoke imagery, and provoke thought. This poet- who you are, but when the monster really takes
ry can be seen as a reflection of your sensitive hold you should try to recreate life in dramatic
and perceptive nature, capturing the essence of and awful ways.
human experience.
Keep an eye on your servant – who shares the
same monster – and, if it works for you to do so,
maybe pass Victor back and forth between you
THE MONSTER so that only one of you is inhabiting it at a time;
the other is simply a victim.
What is the worst that this character can become?
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the
player to do terrible things in the Villa.
RELATIONS
As the lighting strikes and the drugs begin to take
hold, you realise that the structures and norms of Mary Shelley
society do not bind you. You stand outside of the
When you first visited the Godwins’ household
laws and rules; a creator and a genius, There is no
your initial romantic interest was in Fanny, Mary’s
story for how a man like you is meant to be. Until
older sister. When Godwin – fearing that she was
now you have tried to create the perfect society
at risk of being sucked into an affair with you,
to be ideal for each and every person. What if
perhaps – sent Fanny away
you instead took all your considerable knowledge
to Wales you turned your at-
of their insecurities and their desires and used it
tention on to Mary.
like fire, stolen from the Gods by some modern
Prometheus, to recreate them, show them your
pain to break them apart and then stitch them
together from component parts and – in doing Your pet name for Mary is
so – create something new. “Pecksie,” she calls you her
Sweet Elf. She loves you
It seems likely that the character of Victor without reservation. She
Frankenstein is based – in part – upon you; he is perfect for you because
is a narcissist, a liar, as well as being secretive, she has an enlightened up-
hubristic, and irresponsible. In many ways your
bringing, thanks to
Monster here is your own reflection amplified,
her father and mother
but it is also a reflection of the others here in the
and their radical phi-
house. Take the worst of each of them and, gal-
losophies, but she still
vanised by the electrical storm, visit it back upon
manages to retain the
them threefold.
fragile femininity that
116
 you covet. Some of the time she is quiet and re-
served, but she has a temper. Sometimes she can
be overbearing, controlling even. A relationship
is about give and take, and you give so much and
take so little.
You and Mary both support the concept of free
love, that women should be allowed to choose
their own lovers, including outside of the con-
fines of marriage, is at the heart of this, and yet
Mary seems reluctant, frightened even; you have
tried to help her, suggesting that she sleep with a
number of your friends, for instance, a couple of
years ago you offered her to your friend Hogg,
but she refused. Sometimes she seems cold and
rather chaste, occasionally making the excuse
that she is feeling faint or needs to rest rather
than exploring passion. She should perhaps write
about her lack of desire, it would help her.
Lord Byron
You adore and are very jealous of Lord Byron.
His fame is only surpassed by his poetry which
you feel is superior to yours. You desperately
want him to respect you, but you do your utmost
to hide this desire from him. The two of you try
to one-up each other in your writing, in acts of
daring, and in depravity. It is both joyous and
desperate at times.
Byron is ten years older than you and the most
famous poet of the age, so it was no surprise that
you were shy when you first met him. He is phys-
ically and poetically imposing and you feel that
sense of danger about him, of which Lady Caro-
line Lamb wrote, that he is “Mad, Bad, and Dan-
gerous to know.” You want him to write more,
to create great verses and epic poems while you
are here; somehow you feel that you would have
some ownership and involvement and that could
only help you. For whilst you are undoubtedly a
great poet, you are not really considered one out-
117
side of poetic circles. This is one of the reasons
why Byron is important, if he champions your
work then surely your success would be assured?
You are aware of the dichotomy between the
sublime and the repulsive. Byron’s scandalous
appetites are not lost on you; you are fascinated
by the difference between the poet and the man
confounded by his vices and how the energy and
cynicism of Byron’s sexual appetites inform his
poetry. You are both revolted and fascinated.
You are not, despite your belief in free love, a
libertine; whilst your life may have been beset by
scandal, next to Byron you are almost a puritan.
Your temperaments and tastes are fundamentally
opposed. Ironic then that Byron’s name for you
is “the Snake” after Goethe’s Mephistopheles.
He casts himself as Eve, and suggests that you
seek to corrupt him.
Claire Clairmont
It is unclear whether you seduced Mary’s stepsis-
ter or whether she seduced you, suffice it to say
that you have regularly slept with one another.
She is entirely sympathetic to your theories about
the right of a woman to choose her own lovers.
You have not mentioned your physical relation-
ship with Claire to Mary; but as Mary has said
nothing you assume that she doesn’t mind9.
You call Claire your “sweet child.” You entertain
one another by making up and acting out visions
of gothic horror. Sometimes these nightmares
(and fantasies) have led to sexual frustrations, or
sexual release.
With all of this in mind, you are jealous that Claire
9 Shelley’s twisted logic seems to override any lingering doubts or guilt he
might carry. Presupposing that Mary objected, the fact that she hasn’t said
anything makes it her fault. If she did challenge him about it he’s likely to
spin himself as the victim here.
 is focussing so much of her attention on Byron, to Claire, and to be her friend. She is a pretty
leading you to record a deep sense of grief at the young thing and you would turn your attention
spiritual infidelity of one of your disciples. to her, except that you suspect that Polidori has
got there first - the sly dog. If the opportunity
Doctor Polidori presented itself though you would not be averse
You acknowledge Polidori’s professional exper- to a brief dalliance with her.
tise as a doctor and a scientist. You cannot help
but think that the Doctor is most unfairly mis-
treated by your friend Lord Byron (who seems Elise
to take a strange delight in torturing the poor fel-
low/girl, and then smothering him/her with af- Elise Duvillard is the maid servant to Mary. She is
fection afterwards.) The doctor is impetuous and very beautiful and she is a reminder of everything
ambitious, but lacks dignity. He/she is too quick that women can be: delicate and demure but with
to take offence, and too quick to argue, particu- a quiet strength that you wish you could under-
larly about politics. However he/she is also the stand. When you invited her into your household
source of the medicine that you crave and desire, you explained to her that she was an equal. You
and the one you consult about your nightmares, are sure that she understands that, but in truth
and so it seems for the best to try to steer towards she confides only in Mary and not in you. Per-
friendship from Polidori. He/she has, it must be haps here, in this place, you can teach her to be
said, an eye for the ladies; you have that much in free?
common with him/her at least10.

Fletcher
William Fletcher is Byron’s Chief Steward, but –
thanks to the generosity of your host – he is act-
ing as valet to you. Fletcher is the finest of serv-
ants: Precise, impeccable, neat, tidy to the point
of mania. He is also supremely confident and
you are jealous of this trait. He always seems to
know what to do. As everything becomes more
chaotic and the darkness pulses around you, you
depend on his judgement more and more.
Tita
“Tita” Giovanni Battista Falcier was Lord By-
ron’s bodyguard and now his Cassiatore. He is an
imposing man who exudes danger and the threat
of physical violence. You are, although it pains
you to admit it, quite afraid of him. The house-
hold would be immeasurably more comfortable
if he were banished to the kennels. If you could
find a way to persuade Byron to send him away
once the storms have finished, everyone would
be happier.

Milly Susan
You hired Amelia Shields to work as maidservant Susan is one of Byron’s kitchen maids. She clear-
ly has no wish to be in service and would not
10 We know that in real life, Shelley’s approach to Polidori was to ignore do well in any household that was not Byron’s.
him, this does not make for a good larp. This is one of those places where She has turned her back on Christianity and it
we’re fictionalising the relationship between two characters entirely.
118
 is because of this that you have a strong interest
in her, it is rare for one born so low and without
education to break free of the shackles of the
Church. You are impressed! Sometimes his Lord-
ship amuses himself to force Susan, wait upon
Doctor Polidori as a valet. You are unsure which
of them has the worst from this arrangement.
Rushton11
When Susan is not being made to serve Polidori, •
it is Rushton who takes that role. You suspect
this is another cruel joke as Rushton seems to be •
the worst of servants. Rushton looks at Byron
with a mixture of disgust and fascination. Mary •
says Rushton is a radical. It might be interesting will try to tear the household down, or he will do
to sound out how a radical ended up as a valet.
11 Either Susan or Rushton will be present at the larp, never both. Both
characters serve the same function.
119
INTERACTIONS
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp. There are also
tasks here that we need you to carry out!
Beg Doctor Polidori for some more Lauda-
num, as you have run out.
Use the masks to stitch others together to
create a monster.
Lean in to your phobias.
• Come up with a ghost story that is so terri-
fying it makes Claire scream and run out of
the room.
• Under the influence of Laudanum become
convinced that the devil is waiting for you
somewhere in the house. Persuade one other
to come and help you look for him in the
dark.
• TASK: Sometime during the second Canto,
admit that it was you who put the laudanum
in the wine.
REDEMPTION OR
DESTRUCTION
At the end of the second Canto, when the clock
strikes twelve Fletcher will decide between his
own destruction or redemption. Either Fletcher
what he can to restore it to what he believes is its
true standing. As a result, Percy will either lose his
pillar of support or be shown to be everything he
despises.
 During this final Canto, do your best to question, parents resolved that he should become a student
oppose, and care about Fletcher’s choices. This at the university of Oxford. It was from there
will help the servant player have an intense and he published his first (gothic) novel, Zastrozzi. A
meaningful ending as well. year later he was expelled for refusing to repu-
diate his pamphlet, “The Necessity of Atheism.” In
BIOGRAPHY this work, he argued that since a person’s beliefs
are involuntary, it’s unjust to persecute someone
On the matter of the young poet’s character, for having beliefs that they cannot control.
which I will relate to you here, I have gathered
from various letters and journals an account of In 1810 he became infatuated with a young wom-
both poet and man. One tragically torn from the an called Harriet Westbrook. Despite his views
society of all he held dear on earth, the victim that marriage was pointless and free love should
of secret enemies, and exiled from happiness, the be for everyone, he married her a year later. As
wretched Percy Bysshe Shelley. the circumstances of his marriage illustrate his
character, I cannot refrain from relating them:
He was – by birth – a Sussex lad, and his family Both of them were cut off by their families as a
was one of the most distinguished of that coun- result of this unapproved union, and Percy got
ty. Percy was born in August 1792, the eldest heavily into debt to survive. By March 1814, this
legitimate son of Sir Timothy Shelley. His early “rash and heartless union” was at an end and
childhood was idyllic; countryside days of fishing they were estranged.
and hunting, and making up fantastic stories for
his younger sisters. At this time Percy was regularly visiting politi-
cal philosopher William Godwin, whom he had
This was not to last as in 1802 he was removed agreed to bail out of debt. After several months
from this perfect society of women and free- of promises, he announced that he either could
dom and placed into a world of strict rules, not or would not pay off all of Godwin’s debts.
young men, and a hierarchy that he roundly re- Godwin was angry and felt betrayed. Meanwhile
jected: For Percy, school was a horror. He was Percy was flirting with various of Godwin’s
indifferent to his school-fellows in general. He
was bullied, and teased because he refused to be
a part of the system of fagging. Sometimes he
would fly into a terrible rage of screaming and
violence; this made things worse, they would call
him “Mad Shelley”, and the older boys would de-
liberately provoke him. They laughed at his phys-
ical impotence, as his punches and kicks were not
hard enough to worry them. They were, it must
be said, more worried by his interest in the occult
and science. Some disconcerted contemporaries
describe him giving an electric shock to a master,
blowing up a tree stump with gunpowder and at-
tempting to raise spirits with occult rituals.

When he had attained the age of eighteen his

120
 daughters, including Mary who he was meeting
secretly in the cemetery. In June of 1814 Percy To My Dearest Player,
took Mary’s virginity in said cemetery, atop her
mother’s grave. They ran away to France togeth-
er, taking Mary’s sister Claire because she wanted Whilst this character is based upon a real histor-
to come and neither of them could speak French. ical person it is important to remember that this
is a larp, not a re-enactment, nor a re-creation of
In early January 1815 his grandfather died, leav-
the movie. You have agency to interpret and play
ing him an estate worth £220,00012.
this character in your own way.
In mid-1816 Claire Clairmont persuaded Percy
“To that high Capital, where kingly Death
and Mary to travel to Switzerland to seek out
Keeps his pale court in beauty and decay,
Lord Byron. The three sailed to Europe, and
He came; and bought, with price of purest breath,
made their way across France to Switzerland on
A grave among the eternal.—Come away!”
foot, where they ended up at the Villa, and the
events of this larp. I flatter myself you will create something une-
qualled in its kind, & that you will add still higher
renown to your name and to mine.

TRAITS, VICES, & PHOBIAS

• Narcissist. Liar
• Fear of vagina dentata
• Sleepwalker/Nightmares

Letters, Diaries,. Poems

From “To Constantia Singing”
(A poem about Claire Clairmont, written by you)

“Constantia turn!
In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie
Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn
Between thy lips, are laid to sleep:
Within thy breath, and on thy hair
Like odor, it is yet,
And from thy touch like fire doth leap.
Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet
Alas, that the torn heart can bleed, but not forget!’

12 Around twenty-five million pounds in today’s money.

121
 Dr POLIDORI
“Their character was dreadfully
vicious, for that the possession of
irresistible powers of seduction,
rendered his licentious habits more
dangerous to society”
 youngest graduate in the history of the college.
Doctor Polidori 1
You are a published poet and playwright, you be-
lieve being a writer amongst writers is the only
way you can find happiness.

You remember the argument with your father

about your future; you told him you wished to
enter the Catholic Church, he told you no and
that you were to go to medical school. His dis-
appointment in you – unspoken, yet obvious – is
something that you cannot shake off. You wor-
ry for your immortal soul, but fear your father’s
judgement more than the Lord’s.

CHARACTER
You are certainly highly intelligent and ambi-
tious, and in any other company you would be
the centre of attention and adoration. But you
have surrounded yourself with people who see
you as lesser than them. Whether they are correct
in their estimation, only your heart knows.

Graduating from medical school so young that

you weren’t allowed to practise medicine in the
United Kingdom, you were lucky to get a posi-
tion with the radical Lord Byron, who you wor-
ship. He treats you cruelly, as if you are a play-
thing he has grown tired of but can’t bear to get
rid of, and you cling to him, hoping that if he
PORTRAIT could just see some worth in you, perhaps you

Y ou are a Catholic; your religious and moral

upbringing and faith often bring you into
conflict with these radical poets.
could believe you have some worth yourself.

You want to be a man of faith and honour,

but these qualities are offset by a deficiency in
Against your wishes, you trained in medicine self-knowledge, a lack of prudence and reserve,
at the University of Edinburgh. You were the and the tendency to ignore the distinction be-
tween a dignified and a quarrelsome attitude of
1 Polidori is a binary gendered character. Presented on this version of the mind; you are also very sensitive and your pride
character sheet as ‘He/Him’ on the other characters the doctor is referred is easily hurt. When it is hurt you can be caustic
to as he/she throughout because Polidori can be played as either male
OR female. We are not intending to perpetuate a gender binary here, but and bitter, but you also derive a perverse pleas-
instead using binary pronouns to avoid confusion. ure from pain and humiliation, particularly at the
124
 hands of women.

In your dealings with others you have a tendency

to be reckless, impetuous, quixotic, headstrong
and impatient. When you have taken laudanum,
you can forget your oath to do no harm, and use
your powers of mesmerism for revenge or to get
your own way. You drown the guilt of these in-
teractions in gambling and drink, telling yourself
they asked for your treatment, and you gave them
what they needed. The strongest medicine tastes
bitter going down.
THE MONSTER
You are an aspiring author and believe yourself
What is the worst that this character can become?
to be very talented, but can be touchy when your
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the
peers decline to take you at your own estima-
player to do terrible things in the Villa.
tion. You struggle to rationalise your Catholicism
with the world you inhabit, you struggle to fit inYour monster manifests as a voice inside you
with this group of radicals, and yet you are over-which is completely free from the doubts that
whelmed by the joy that the works of art and lit- so often wrack you. You have heard this voice
erature of this age and these people in particularall your life, only now it is getting more insist-
create. If only there were a way to truly become ent. The world is full of evil and humanity is full
one of them and to be treated as an equal? of wickedness. You, The Zealot, have a mis-
sion on this earth to cleanse this wickedness and
You have been told that your behaviour some-
make the weak and sinful pay for their crimes.
times comes across as overweening or petulant,
Everything you do, every act of debauchery, sex,
particularly when faced with the two heroes of
or violence, is instructed by the voice in God’s
poetical literature, Shelley and Byron, and two
name to destroy these terrible people3. The mon-
women whose talent far outstrips your own; in
ster will lead them, seduce and traduce them, and
this respect you are, perhaps, your own worst en-
then take everything away from them so that they
emy.
may face the Judgement of the Lord.
Offsetting this difficult and quarrelsome de-
This voice is crueller than you and gives you the
meanour, however, is a gentle kindness and a de-
alibi to punish all those you feel resent you and
sire to care for others. You would have made a
look down upon you - and to punish yourself.
good priest/nun, but perhaps you shall be a bet-
After all, we are often our own cruellest judge.
ter doctor. Even when those who have wronged
you fall under your care you can forgive them; in There are various ways you can play on this, but
their moment of weakness comes redemption.2 we suggest a slow progression during Canto two.
It starts with the voice only audible to you, tell-
ing you how unworthy you yourself, or any oth-
ers who sin, are and how you and/or they beg
2 Polidori thinks of himself as the Regency equivalent of a “nice-guy.” In
truth he feels less worthy than the others but he is desperate to be loved.
This can make him very clingy to anyone who shows him friendship or 3 See Gil-Martin from The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justi-
affection, and very petulant with those who reject him. fied Sinner by James Hogg (1824)
125
 forgiveness to come back to the light. Once the young poet, perhaps the fascination would pass?
drugs take hold and your perception of the world
grows stranger, you can begin to whisper what
it’s saying to you or even yell it out.
Keep an eye on your servant – who shares the
same monster – and, if it works for you to do so,
maybe pass the voice back and forth between you
so that only one of you is speaking with the voice
at a time; the other is simply a whimpering victim
of the monster.
RELATIONS
Percy Shelley
Percy Shelley is a frustrating enigma. He acknowl-
edges your professional expertise as a doctor and
a scientist, but you crave his artistic respect far
more than that of Byron. He turns to you for
advice about nightmares, will happily discuss pol-
itics, and yet he seems utterly unaffected by your
presence most of the time. His interests are in
the women, all of them, but perhaps Mary least
of all. Byron seems to desire him, and it seems
unlikely that Byron has not had his way with the
young poet, but then he would usually show off
any such conquest, so perhaps it has not hap-
pened yet? Shelley’s intentions are good, but the
consequences are often terrible. This force that
he generates that’s so attractive is also very de-
structive, and more than once you have stepped
in to sooth the tears of one or other of the guests
and servants because of Shelley’s attentions, or
lack of attention. At some point you will have
to call him to account. Perhaps you should chal-
lenge him to a duel4? It would teach him a lesson
and may raise your status with the others? Alter-
natively, if Byron were to get his way with the
4 Polidori did, indeed, challenge Shelley to a duel, but Shelley ignored him!
126
Lord Byron
The young Polidori, still only aged 21, had turned abrupt-
ly on the poet and asked him what, pray tell, could Byron
do better than him apart from writing poetry?
“First . . . I can hit with a pistol the keyhole on that door
– Secondly, I can swim across that river to yonder point –
and thirdly, I can give you a damn good thrashing.”
You are Byron’s personal physician. You tend to
his various ailments and provide ready access to
the drugs that keep Byron and his guests happy.
You and Byron have a very antagonistic relation-
ship. It started well enough; back in England, By-
ron’s publisher, John Murray secretly advanced
you £500 to play Boswell to Byron’s Johnson,
and to accompany him on his travels and record
his life. When you were first introduced to Byron
he proclaimed you to be, ‘...irresistible...’
At first Byron thought you “A very pretty young
talent” You had already published a play and a
discourse on the death penalty when Byron was
first introduced to you. He flattered your literary
promise and good looks,” but soon after he * * *
* * you5, it seemed that the great poet quickly be-
came tired of your company. You were banished
to travel in the second coach.
Byron took at first to merciless teasing, telling
people that you had no other patients as you had
killed them all. Since the guests have arrived, By-
ron’s treatment of you has become cruel, with the
lord using his overpowering personality and so-
5 It seems very likely that Byron seduced the Doctor and then, having
had his way with the younger man, rather cast him aside. If Polidori wrote
of this encounter it was certainly among the papers burned by his sister.
The weight of sin though surely weighed heavily upon the young doctor;
his diary records no opportunity to attend confession or mass during his
time with Byron.
 cial position to embarrass and disparage you. He looks, his charisma. There is no reason for him
started by reading one of your compositions and to humiliate you the way he does; he surely has
providing a harsh criticism of your words, call- nothing to prove. Perhaps if you could find out
ing you the ‘duke of dulldom’, but he has started why he treats you this way you could find some
to play practical jokes and to humiliate you more way to reconcile with him? You want to belong
directly, particularly in front of Claire Clairmont to this group, to be with these people and to be
and Mary Shelley. The truth is that you are in his accepted by them so much that you are willing
employment and, whilst not technically a servant, to put up with this harsh treatment, but for how
still bound to follow his instructions, even when much longer?
they debase you. This is further complicated by
his shifting moods. It is true that some days he
treats you just as he did at the beginning, even as
far as to * * * * or to have you * * * *. At other Mary Godwin
times though, you feel like he is sucking the life
from you. Your fondness for Mary is overt and all encom-
passing. You are in love with her, body and soul.
And yet, each cruel act is followed by an act of As the poets claim to practise free love surely
compassion, an act almost of love; he saved you there is no earthly reason why you should not
from your own darkness, a day when the voice profess your feelings for Mary? Perhaps by bed-
inside you told you there would never be light in ding her you will become a part of this group of
the world again. He bought you your own expen- poets rather than a perpetual outsider? She seems
sive carriage, and nursed you isolated too, as Shelley seems more interested in
when you sprained your ankle Mary’s sister than the woman you mistook for his
in an attempt to impress Mary. wife.
He discards you, degrades you,
humiliates you and then Mary is your closest and perhaps your only true
comes to your aid, sweet friend in the villa, you risk everything by telling
enough to make you love her how you feel, but she is your only path to
him again. happiness and salvation. If it were not for Mary’s
presence you would surely leave Byron’s employ-
The truth is that you ment and seek your fortunes in a happier place.
are jealous of Byron,
his wealth, his talent, his “Mrs. Shelley was, after a shower of rain, walking up the
hill to Diodati; when Byron, who saw her from his balcony
where he was standing with Polidori, said to the latter:
‘Now you who wish to be gallant ought to jump down this
small height, and offer your arm.’ Polidori tried to do so;
but, the ground being wet, his foot slipped and he sprained
his ankle.”6

6 This took place just before the start of the larp. If you wish to walk with
a limp as a result of this incident, you can.
127
 Claire Clairmont
You tried to seduce Mary’s step sister almost im-
mediately you met her, but she rebuffed your ad-
vances by laughing at you most cruelly. If Byron’s
humiliations rouse you to anger, Claire’s harsh
treatment of you arouses your passions. She trots
around after Byron like a loyal hound, and like a
loyal hound she follows her master’s moods and
actions closely; You are sure that she is cruel to
you because he is cruel to you. Yet your breath
quickens at the fantasy of the acts she has per-
suaded, cajoled, and forced upon you in your
dreams; her cruel laughter and withering glances
enflame you. You hate the power she seems to
have over you, but try as you might, you don’t
seem to be able to break free.
It seems though that Claire suffers from night
terrors, as a specialist in matters of the mind
and of somnambulation, you could perhaps help
treat her, or will you break your Hippocratic oath
and use the power you have as a doctor to wrest
back some control, to seek revenge?
Robert Rushton
Byron has kindly assigned one of his two remain-
ing servants Susan Vaughn or Robert Rushton to
look after your needs. This kindness was unex-
pected but still most welcome.
In truth, Rushton is a terrible servant, one who
barely knows what he is doing and – when he
does – seems to do it badly, but he has quickly
become a friend and confidante. You have found
yourself seeking his advice and he seems to give
good counsel. Rushton is someone you trust and
can open up to. He has none of your fears when
it comes to upsetting your betters. He encourages
you to be bolder. As the situation in the house
128
becomes more and more chaotic you turn to him
for reassurance more and more.
Susan Vaughn
Byron has kindly assigned one of his two remain-
ing servants Susan Vaughn or Robert Rushton to
look after your needs. This kindness was unex-
pected but still most welcome.
In truth, Susan is a terrible servant, one who
barely knows what she is doing and – when she
does – seems to do it badly, but she has quickly
become a friend and confidante. Susan has con-
fessed to you that she used to assist another doc-
tor in his operations, but has never disclosed why
she left that employment to be a kitchen maid for
Byron. She is interested in anything medical, es-
pecially mesmerism and the use of leeches. Per-
haps you should let her help you? She encourages
you to be bolder. As the situation in the house
becomes more and more chaotic you turn to her
for reassurance more and more.
Milly
You have formed a relation-
ship with Amelia Shields
- called Milly - in order to
get closer to Mary Shelley.
Milly is a maid servant
to Mary´s step-sister,
Claire. You seduced
her easily enough,
too easily perhaps.
A handsome look-
ing woman though
and you admit to
being attracted
to her enough to
have her
 visit your rooms after dark from time to time.
You have come to trust them enough to admit
to your darker fantasies, that you wanted them to
treat you like a little dog. Now Milly makes you
crawl, cry, and beg. And her demure demeanour
has been replaced with something more akin to
that of Miss Clairmont. She calls you her “lit-
tle dog.“ You find these new attentions arouse
you even more than before. You have started to
think that she has expectations of you, but you
are hopelessly addicted to her manipulations and
cannot put her aside.
Fletcher
The valet, William Fletcher, is a surprising man,
apparently the son of a farmer who started out
as a kitchen boy and quickly worked his way up
to being the chief steward; he has adapted well to
the needs and household of Lord Byron. Unlike
his master he is a sympathetic character and in-
teresting enough to talk to as long as the topic of
conversation is drink, gambling, or tupping. You
suspect that whilst his loyalty to Byron appears
absolute, he can be turned against his master
through the careful application of any of these •
three weaknesses. He is working as the servant to
Shelley, and he seems to idolise the young radical.
Sometimes you play dice with Fletcher.
Elise
Elise Duvillard is another one of the servants. •
She is a close confidante of Mary Shelley it seems
and you suspect you may have seduced the wrong
maid. If you could find a way to conquer her as
you have with Milly it may help you understand
more about Mary. It is probably too late to switch
horses, but perhaps you can attempt to befriend
her to learn all you can about Mary?
129
Tita
“Tita” Giovanni Battista Falcier is Lord Byron’s
bodyguard. If anything he should be more terri-
fying than Byron, but he is not, he is your friend.
Tita enjoys drinking, gambling, hunting, and sex;
he takes simple pleasure from them rather than
needing to describe everything in terms of po-
etry, intensity, or politics. He seems utterly loyal
to Byron.
INTERACTIONS
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp.
• You gamble, often with the servants. Gam-
bling for money is tantalising but perhaps it
would be even more interesting to gamble
for different stakes. Can you persuade Fletch-
er, Milly, Rushton/Susan or others to engage
in a game where the pain and humiliation of
the loser is at stake? If so, you will delight in
losing.
Lord Byron is terrified of leeches, and al-
though he has been good to you, sometimes
you wish you could feel power over someone
else. Perhaps you and your servant could find
a way to strap the lord to a table and place
leeches all over him? You would tell him it’s
for his own good, and you would watch him
squirm.
Your love for Byron is unhealthy and un-
stoppable, it grows each day. You admit you
might be a bit obsessed with the idea that he
would finally accept you. Perhaps you should
don a mask and pretend to be someone else
from the house to get him to tell you how he
really feels about you?
• Remember you are a skilled Mesmerist. Mis-
use your skill with hypnosis and access to
 drugs in order to reverse your fortunes, get
revenge for your humiliations.
BIOGRAPHY1
• Tell Mary how you felt while she is mesmer- In 1795 there came to London by birth a young
gentleman of the name of Joannes: He was the
ised, you can control her reaction to it. Test
it out and then make her forget if she does eldest son of the immigrant Italian writer and
not give you the answer you want? Or even publisher Gaetano Polidori. As was right for a
convince her that what she truly wants is young man raised in the religion of his father,
to be with you, even if her conscious mind He attended Ampleforth Catholic College – a
cannot conceive of it? If you don’t want to bleak and lonely place in the North of England.
do that, mesmerise Mary and convince her At his father’s insistence - he set aside his call-
ing to become a priest in order to study medicine
that she is haunted. Perhaps when she is truly
frightened, she will lean on you for support?at Edinburgh University. He graduated in 1815
after writing a thesis on Somnambulism (sleep-
• Miss Clairmont has been cruel to you and yet
walking.)
may seek your aid in matters medical. Will
you aid her, or take advantage? John was the youngest graduate ever of the
school, but when he returned to England he
discovered that he was too young – by law –
REDEMPTION OR to practise medicine in that country. So, at the
recommendation of Sir William Knighton (the
DESTRUCTION physician to the Prince of Wales,) he was en-
At the end of the second Canto, when the clock gaged as Byron’s personal physician. When By-
strikes twelve, your valet (Rushton/Vaughn) will ron went into self-imposed exile in 1816 he took
decide between their own destruction or re- Dr. John Polidori with him. By this time Polidori
demption. Either their monster will take control, had already published a play and a discourse on
or they will let go of their wicked path; Polidori the death penalty, and his literary promise and
will either become their victim or become the oft-noted good looks, youth and flattery un-
saviour they need. doubtedly appealed to Byron on many different
levels.

During the final Canto, remember your belief in

the Lord and try to help your servant see God’s
light. This will help the servant player have an
intense and meaningful ending as well.
TRAITS, VICES, & PHOBIAS
You have submissive fantasies, although as the
Monster this may well switch to a more con-
trolling persona.

1 Before publication, the diary of Dr. Polidori was brutally edited by his
sister, Charlotte,removing those passages which she held to be “improp-
er,” and, with the severe virtue so characteristic of an English maiden
aunt, she determined that those passages should no longer exist. She
copied the diary in her own hand and the original manuscript was, alas,
destroyed, so much of this character is based on supposition, and the
writings and opinions of others.
130
 You have a gambling problem, whilst gambling “Love was the very root of the fond rage
for money is not so popular at the Villa, you will Which blighted their life’s bloom, and then departed—
struggle to turn down any bet of any other kind. Itself expired, but leaving; them an age
Of years all winter—war within themselves to war

ITEMS
You are the supplier of Laudanum to the Villa
and will have access to Laudanum

You have a bottle of leeches.

You may bring any other medical apparatus suit-

able for the era as required.

LETTERS, DIARIES, POEMS

Please see, Polidori, a letter to his sister, which fol-
lows this character introduction, and additional
texts included and linked to in the Poetry section
of this book. The letter is a fictional account of
medical training in the early 19th century based
on actual accounts of students who attended Ed-
inburgh Medical School.

To My Dearest Player,
Whilst this character is based upon a real histor-
ical person it is important to remember that this
is a larp, not a re-enactment, nor a re-creation of
the movie. You have agency to interpret and play
this character in your own way.

As to my drama, pray revenge yourself upon it,

either way love me and please, never forget me .
..

131
 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh 1811

My Dear Fanny,
Don’t you wish to be with me? The people amongst whom I am at present dwelling are
those who have much distinguished themselves in the noblest career, that of medicine.
With regard to your desire to visit me, I must say that I am in too convulsed and pre-
carious a state to accommodate you quite yet, so instead let me try to describe my first
few days here. On the first day I walked a short distance to the grand library building
and found myself at the back of a line of young men from every country: from Russia,
Canada, Brazil and the Azores. There must have been five hundred souls. I paid over
my matriculation fee of one half a crown and thus became a student of medicine.
I must admit that the lack of Holy Mass as an anchor each day has left me rather adrift.
I miss the structure of Ampleforth. Fortunately I have a copy of Johnson’s Guide for
Studying Medicine at the University of Edinburgh which now directs my days accord-
ingly. I have visited various professors, all of whom hope to attract students for a fee
of three guineas a piece. I was entertained by the phosphoric displays of Professor of
Chemistry Charles Hope, but have determined to sign up for anatomy, the Institutions
of Medicine and Professor John Gregory’s Practice of Medicine.
The Professor is an excellent gentleman and scholar who begins each lecture by bow-
ing and begging leave to wear his hat. He has explained that he will teach the various
methods of ridding the body of noxious substances briskly and effectively. I shall
learn the secrets of blood-letting, plunge baths, blisters, enemas, and ways to induce
vomiting. This antiphlogistic regime being the basis for all modern medicine. I shall
also learn how to administer all of the remedies – purgatives, emetics, cathartics, ton-
ics, stimulants, astringents, and sudorifics. There is much to learn here, and I have
already been reading about pharmacy: opium of course of sedation, magnesia, senna,
and rhubarb as laxatives. Peruvian bark for fevers, calomel for worms and for gripes.
And now you know as much as I do; but although they allow Catholics to study here
– something that the English Universities do not – they shall not admit women. It
is perhaps for the best, for phlebotomy is also a class here, and the letting of blood,
with a lancet from the arm, or neck (or of course from the ankle for the fairer sex) or
through the application of leeches to the temples, ears, or (forgive me) the anus would
perhaps offend your sensibilities.
132
 But perhaps not, as I recall your fondness for the gothic thriller; despite your other-
wise moral character and obedience to our father. I must suppose this derives from
the laxity of our mother’s religion? Fear not, dear sister, I jest, of course. Now as
far as I have been able to learn, there is a great reason to apprehend that I should not
have it in my power to learn some of the secrets of anatomy. Students form unruly
shoals and push and jostle their way around the infirmary, even though it costs an extra
guinea to visit. I prefer then to attend those demonstrations of the chief dissector,
a curious relic by the name of Andrew Fyfe. He wears still a pig tail wig - perhaps the
last such piece in these Islands. It is through his class that I met Robert Christison,
the resurrectionist. Dissections may only be carried out upon executed criminals, but
the resurrectionists creep into Churchyards, before the city watch begin their nightly
rounds. They dig with wooden trowels to avoid sound and, digging a small hole at the
top of the coffin, use iron hooks to tear off the top of the coffin and then drag the
cadaver out with ropes. Stripping the corpse they rebury its clothes and replace the
soil so that their work is not betrayed.
How are you all at home? Papa, Mamma, Meggy (have you heard from her?), Charlotte, Bob, Hen-
ry, Eliza, and Mr. Deagostini. Remember me to all, and to all who enquire about me not merely
from curiosity—telling me in your next whether they exceed the number 0. I am very well.

I remain, my dear Fanny,

Your affect. Brother,

133
134
 On Servants
E ach servant’s character sheet includes a brief
history or back story, some pre-written rela-
tionships to other characters, and some objec-
tives for you to try and achieve during the larp.
Some of the servants are based on real people,
and ideally the real servants who worked for
the poets at the time. Unfortunately not a lot is
known about these people; very few letters and
diaries survive that belonged to them, although
sometimes they are referenced in the documents
of their employers. We have taken liberties with
the truth, just as you will take liberties with the
poets and thinkers who visit the house.

As the servant in this larp you have a number of

functions. One of these is to act as a servant to
the poet. You will have a chance to calibrate and
discuss what this actually means: from fetching
and carrying, to bathing and dressing, from serv-
ing drinks, to styling hair or tying cravats. You
can also act as a confidante and advisor to your
poet, or you can manipulate them; this is a form
of semi-diegetic game mastering where you can
suggest a course of action which will guide their
play. Finally, thanks to the structure of Byron’s
household, you are a character in this place in
your own right. You dine and drink and play with
the poets; equals in their eyes, perhaps, but not
in your own.

In the Shelley household the servants are treated

well and looked after. Byron’s servants are treat-
ed better still and he will extend his rules to the
servants of his guests. Whilst you are staff, you
will still have agency to act and to initiate conver-
sations and interactions. It might not have been
historically accurate, but it will make for a more
interesting larp.

135
 ELISE
DUVILLARD
“I must have your soul ; must have it
mine, and mine for ever.”
― Matthew Lewis, The Monk
 Elise
E lise Duvillard is the maid servant to
Mary. Where Mary is conflicted about
love, Elise is conflicted about her duty.
Mary is a lamb surrounded by wolves.
Should Elise try to save her or simply save
herself ? After all, she is surrounded by the
same wolves.
Portrait
You carry yourself like a dancer, graceful and
strong.
You are deeply religious and see sex with men as
inherently sinful.
You know what goodness looks like and, apart
from Mary, you see little of it among the poets.
They think you are a meek little Swiss maid-
en, ripe for plucking. But you know you have
a strength within that they cannot understand.
Every weakness they reveal only makes you more
certain. The question is, what will you do with it?
The house you grew up in was cramped and
noisy with the babies your mother kept produc-
ing and the apprentices who worked for your
father. It was up to you to keep order, as your
father just laughed and left for the workshop and
your mother was too tired. Usually you managed
this with sweet words and cajoling. But once you
lost your temper and slapped your little broth-
er hard when you caught him pinching the new
baby. You remember his eyes wide with shock
and surprise that his angel of a sister would do
such a thing; but he never did it again.
138
Character
You were born in Switzerland in a family of
skilled artisans. As the oldest daughter, you be-
came used to caring for infants and young chil-
dren, even though you have none of your own.
This experience is useful in the Shelley house-
hold, because to be honest, Percy behaves like
a child. Whenever he is close you are as much a
nursemaid to him as a lady’s maid to Mary.
Percy and Mary are the same age as you and both
spent a lot of words welcoming you and telling
you that you are a part of the family. On good
days, it can feel like you truly are. On bad days,
it feels like Mary and Percy forget all about you.
You get the feeling that Percy especially en-
joys the idea that you and Mary share a special
bond. At first this made you feel closer to him
but now you see him for the false prophet he is,
a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Percy destroys every
woman he comes close to with his lies and his
ideals that he holds much dearer than any real
human. He is unable to see the damage he is do-
ing to people around him, especially Mary. He
has already abandoned his previous wife and two
small children - he will obviously do the same to
Mary once someone younger or more interesting
comes along. It is up to you to save her from him.
Some days you are certain your mission is to save
Mary from this terrible man. You want to take
her away and live a peaceful life far away from
him. But you are afraid that she is so enamoured
with the idea of Percy, she does not realise how
terrible he and all his friends are treating her. Per-
haps if you just show Mary how wicked all her
friends are, if you can get her to push them away
for her own good, she would understand that the
only person who really loves her is you.
On other days you wonder if this is not a snare
and a delusion. Perhaps you should simply leave
 this den of iniqui- Your version of the Devil is Lucifer Morningstar,
ty? After all, you are the one who knows they are best, perfect, beyond
a skilled ladies maid reproach and that it is everyone else who must
now. You speak Ger- bend to your will or be broken. You will peel
man, French and Ital- back the skin to expose the lies beneath the mask
ian and Mary would write of polite society. You aim to bring out the worst
you a reference. You could in everyone around you - except Mary - to show
get another place. You have her exactly how bad they are for her and how
very good taste. You could good you are by comparison. If that means you
go to one of the big cit- must go against your own morals, that is worth it
ies, Vienna or Par- in the end to get what you deserve.
is, and work in a
millinery shop or You want to make sure that Mary trusts only you
dressmakers. Per- and so you will do whatever it takes to make Mary
haps you should see the true forms of the other people in her life.
think of saving You will show her their evil, even if it means you
your own virtue and are the one who puts the ideas of what evil they
leave Mary to reap should commit in their heads. Even if it is you
what she has sown? who seduces and breaks them, you know you are
But then what right to do so because in the end that is what’s
would that make best for Mary.
you? Should
If that means you must gaslight, or use lies and
you cut and run
lust to make Mary question what is real and what
when she needs
is not, then that is what you must do. You will
you the most?
create as much horror and heartache as it takes to
You are a poised and perfect little Swiss maid. show the sins of others to Mary, to isolate her for
People think you are vulnerable, but you are not. her own good, even if this involves committing
You dress hair like a dream and appear whenever depraved and unforgivable sins yourself. The end
your mistress needs you. You are a light in dark justifies the means, after all you are doing it for
places, like the Morning Star, cast down to earth. the most noble of reasons - for love.
You are Elise Duvillard.
There are various ways you can play on this, but
we suggest – based on Elise’s religious upbring-
ing – with a drug fuelled description of a dream
THE MONSTER of an angel. It is both beautiful and awe inspiring.
Following a slow progression these visions of an
What is the worst that this character can become? angel can become more profound and personal.
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the At some point you may start to question whether
player to do terrible things in the Villa. The very it was an angel or a demon. There may be in-
worst monster of all is the one that Shelley tried termittent concerns about Hell – after all there
to summon at Eton, all those years ago, The are terrible things going on in this place – but
Devil. the drugs affect you in waves and you can waver
between terror and amusement. Sometimes the
139
 devil is inside you, Lucifer’s voice is beautiful and Fletcher
the advice you hear in your head is so very sweet.
Fletcher is the House Steward, that means he
Keep an eye on your poet– who shares the same presides over all servants in the house, including
monster – and, if it works for you to do so, may- you. He supervises dining room affairs, manag-
be pass the fallen angel back and forth bet es the wine cellar and all spirits. He manages all
domestic affairs, including servants visiting from
other households. In matters of the running of
Servants the Villa, he is answerable only to the master. So
far he has been firm but fair with you and the
Your Role other servants. When he was assigned to look af-
ter Shelley rather than his usual duties with Byron
Your are the maid servant to Mary Godwin . you thought he would be angry, but he seems to
1

You are required to support her ablutions and to look at the young poet the way you look at Mary.
take care of dressing her hair and her body. As Perhaps he could be a gateway to the destruction
soon as the mistress is dressed and departs her of Percy?
rooms, you should tidy and refresh all belong-
ings and articles under her care. Throw open the Fletcher is not a good man, but at least he does
windows, make up the beds. Put away any clothes not dress his vices in a masquerade
that remain out, put to rights the accessories as- of principles like Percy does.
sociated with ablutions. You are responsible for He is very good at his job and
cleaning and tidying her rooms, and doing her knows about accounts, wines
laundry. Also you are responsible for any needle and the niceties of a cravat. You
and thread work required to darn stockings and are both wasted in this cha-
linens. Your poet may change outfits many times otic household. You might
in a single day. As well as fetching and carrying team up to get the Shelley
and providing any other services they request, household in order, that
you act as a confidante, confessor, and guide to is, under your control.
your poet. Once your work is complete, you shall Or you might both jump
have leave to improve your mind by reading, or ship and take your consid-
needlework, or such activities that may bring you erable talents elsewhere.
pleasure. Your evening hours are largely devoted It is a shame that he was
to leisure, but in practice you remain on call to married before. If you
provide such services as your mistresses require. can call a heretical Prot-
estant marriage a real
marriage.

Susan Vaughn
Susan is one of Byron’s
kitchen maids. She was
1 At the larp you will workshop with your poet how you act as her lady’s
maid. The following is based on a real task list of what a lady’s maid would clearly not born to be
do at the time. You are not required to do all of it during the larp, unless a servant, she can’t
you and the player of Mary Godwin agree that this will create the best
play experience for both of you. hold back her opin-
140
 ions and always wants her voice to be heard.
She has turned her back on Christianity and it is
because of this that you do not trust her. How
can one put faith aside so easily? You argue, not
about religion, but because of it. Sometimes his
Lordship amuses himself to force Susan to wait
upon Doctor Polidori as a valet.
Milly tells wonderful stories and often you recog-
nise the characters as reflections of the people in
the household. Sometimes she is mean and uses
these stories to enact revenge, but other times
she can make people’s dreams come alive with
her words. After one of those stories you can
hardly resent picking up some of her chores.

Sometimes you feel sorry for Susan. She does not

fit easily into the world like you do. She does not
want to be a servant and so you wonder some- Giovanni Battista Falcier (“Tita”)
times how it was that she came to be where she is
and what it is she would rather be. Your most unlikely friend among the servants is
the magnificent Tita who is Byron’s bodyguard,
Robert Rushton valet, and Cassiatore. He is a good natured man
with an engaging sense of humour and an infec-
When Susan is not being made to serve Po- tious honesty about him. You honestly believe
lidori, it is Rushton who takes that role. Rusht- that he could not tell a lie. Even though he is
on is a godless and debauched fellow who you coarse and almost certainly a debaucher and a
are convinced has sex with men as well as with libertine you still like the man, but sometimes his
women. He is so laden with sin that he seems behaviour shocks you.
beyond redemption, and yet he seems free. He is
unbound by the rules of God and State to love It is rather terrible that such an essentially jolly
as he pleases. There is a sort of innocence in his man should have to work for such a viper as Lord
absolute inability to conform. He cannot possi- Byron. When he is in his cups Tita speaks about
bly be happy, but sometimes it seems like he is. starting a tavern when he is out of service. It
would be very popular, you think, if a bit bawdy.
Tita has never been married.

Amelia (“Milly”) Shields

The upper maid in the Shelley household is Milly.
She is English and not as well educated as you, al-
though she is literate and enjoys both reading and
(unsurprisingly in this household) writing. She is
the senior servant only because she has been with
the household longer, in truth you do much of
her work and she takes credit for it. She likes to
tell you what to do, even when you already know
your tasks. However, you do not resent this,
particularly when those tasks allow you to spend
more time with Mary.
141
YOUR POET
Mary Godwin
Mary has changed your life. You were just a sim-
ple chambermaid and now you have learnt to be
a ladies maid and a world of European travel has
opened up to you. Mary says you are ‘the best of
friends’ and you try to be. Mary certainly needs
a friend. Mary is the love of your life, you are
sure of it. Dressing and undressing her and pre-
paring her bath you find your mouth is dry and
your hands shake to touch her skin. The thoughts
that rise in your mind come unbidden but are not
 unwelcome. You feel sensations rushing through sires by calling them equality. He ruins the wom-
your body from fingertips to toes. She cannot see en around him.
that she is trapped in this relationship with Shel-
ley. She tells you “You don’t understand, it is me When you first met Shelley, you believed he was
who is wrong. I don’t mean to make him angry. genuine. You believed every word he said about
It is all my fault.” You are worried about her free love and equality, now you know better. He
health, she often has headaches but she tries to invited you into his household and told you that
hide them. you were equal. And yet he never sees any of the
work you do or the harm that he does. You might
Everyone is in love with Mary, but only you have been charmed by him at first, but now you
want what is best for her. Sometimes you wish see who he truly is. You see the way he treats
you could save her. If she was away from these Mary and you hate him for it. For all his talk
terrible people she could be the kind, thoughtful about it, he still knows nothing of love.
Mary she is when she is alone with you. Some-
times she takes your hand and you do not know
if she is asking for your help or for something
else. You must save her.
Doctor Polidori
Polidori is Byron’s personal physician. S/he
seems in the unfortunate position of being the
butt of many of his Lordship’s cruel jokes. How-
OTHER POETS ever s/he has formed an attachment with Milly
Lord Byron if you have judged correctly; Milly has certainly
been walking with a spring in her step since his/
Lord Byron terrifies you. There is something her arrival in the house. Milly has dropped hints
dark about him as though his shadow is not that she has him/her crawling to her each night
quite right. Since arriving in the house you have and begging her favours like a hound! This is
dreamed about him, often, and the dreams are intriguing proof that romance between masters
dark and salacious. He has his eye on you, and and servants is possible. You may need to spy out
you who have never before wanted a man, feel if this is true.
something when he looks at you. You believe he
will destroy you if you let him. Worse still, he
looks upon Mary with the same base hunger. It
may be that you must face your fear to protect
Claire Clairmont
her from him and find some way to strike him Claire Clairmont is kind to you and treats you
down, or place yourself in this man’s way to keep well. You can tell that she is bitterly jealous of
her safe. Mary, when she should be turning her anger to-
wards the men around her instead. And especially
Lord Byron. Perhaps you could befriend her, or
Percy Shelley use her in some way to get even closer to Mary?
Perhaps you could push Percy and Claire togeth-
How someone so self-centred can create such er in order to get Mary for yourself ?
passion with words, you will never know. Percy is
the type of man who justifies his needs and de-
142
 You realise your happy ending with Mary will
INTERACTIONS never be. She could not push everyone away.
These are some suggestions for scenes you could Mary will never truly love Elise for who she is. So
play, actions you could take, or interactions you Elise can either:
could explore during the larp.
Seek redemption
• Ensure that Mary sees Percy get it on with
someone else, even if it means you have to You realise that you must free yourself. You must
engineer it. Perhaps you should don a mask find a way to ensure Mary lets you go, but as a
and pretend to be Claire. Surely seeing the final act of love you must destroy her faith in
love of her life with her sister will break Percy. If you can’t have Mary, no one can. Reveal
Mary’s heart enough to make her love you? Percy’s true nature to Mary. Suggest that he is
• Get Milly to tell you a story, perhaps as a way nothing but a second grade poet, and that Mary
to find out more about her connection with will need to fix his every work, and he will take all
Polidori. the credit. Show her that he is a manipulator and
a liar, and that staying with him is nothing but a
• Ask Fletcher about the sort of household he
betrayal of herself.
would really like to live and work in.
• Use the mask to don Mary’s visage for Lord Descend into destruction
Byron, so that he may use you to live out his
exploitative fantasies, and spare Mary. Per- You are consumed by thoughts of your happy
haps to protect Mary - perhaps as an alibi for ending with Mary. Your path to destruction is
your own desires. that you will forever chase the hope of a happy
ending with someone who is truly in love with
• Find someone to pray with, perhaps Dr Po- someone else. Make Mary codependent upon
lidori? What would you pray for? You know you, use Mary’s consuming passion for Percy to
he wanted to be a priest, would he take your make her depend on you. Whenever Percy hurts
confession? her, you will be there to pick up the pieces, and
• Have a terrible vision of Hellfire and break receive the love you deserve; It will never be
down. enough.

ELISE’S REDEMPTION OR
DESTRUCTION
When the clock strikes twelve, you have to
choose between redemption or destruction; ei-
ther happiness for yourself and the destruction
of your poet, or your descent into self destruc-
tion to ensure your poet is saved. These ideas are
suggestions, which way these stories end is ulti-
mately up to you.

143
 “TITA”
GIOVANNI
BATTISTA
FALCIER
“Love will find a way through paths
where wolves fear to prey”
 Tita CHARACTER
You’ve always wondered why a man would fight

W here Byron is plagued by doubts his own nature when there are so many more
about his worth, Tita has no fear. satisfying things to fight. In a world where all
men are beasts, some are wolves, some are swine,
He knows exactly who he is. The question and some are dogs. Let’s face it, the dog has the
is, can a man from the streets ever stop most comfortable place by the fire.
fighting?
You love your life. You love your master. He
takes you on adventures and protects you when
Portrait you get a bit carried away. Sometimes you for-
get your own strength. But you would never hurt
You are larger than life, self-assured and glorious- your master, or anyone he told you to protect.
ly unapologetic about it. You are, by your own lights, a good man. Well,
goodish. When something needs to be done, you
Byron describes you as “huge and black bearded1 do it, quickly and competently. And when some-
and ferocious in appearance”, and yet insists that one needs to be hurt, you do that,
you are the gentlest of men. too. You are not cruel. Cruelty
is one of many things you find
You love being in service. You get to sit by the
hard to understand. Sometimes
fire, tell stories that make everyone laugh and
pain is just the fastest and kind-
have them love you. You are a great friend. That
est way to let someone know
is how you keep a roof over your head and the
that the game is up and
wine still flowing.
they should stop play-
You have no limits of your own, and sometimes ing.
you need your leash pulled to make you stop.
Sometimes one of your
On one occasion, in Venice, some police came
master’s friends will read
to take you up for some offence. You looked at
you some poetry. You like
them and smiled, telling them they had better
the triumphant ones, the
not try anything. The fools tried after all, so you
ones that rhyme. Other
threw three of them into the streets and chased
times you find it makes you
away the other four. You would surely have been
feel things that frighten you.
in great trouble, as the three men landed in hos-
In the meantime, you love to
pital. But Lord Byron sorted it all out. That is the
eat, you love to fight, and you
point of friends in high places after all.
love to fuck the willing.

Pleasure is honest, and there-

fore godly. You’ve never
had a lot of time or atten-
tion for church, and you are interested
in Mr Shelley’s idea that everything is
somehow both holy and profane, al-
1 A beard is not required for this character
146
 though you find Mr Shelley tedious and feel he
really ought to get out in the fresh air more. May-
be you’ll take him hunting someday. THE MONSTER
Hunting is the thing you like most of all. And You are perfectly placed to inflict all kinds of
you’re good at it. And if you think about it too suffering on companion poets and servants alike.
hard, that scares you. You keep your sword and You are a dead thing which can only be fulfilled
pistols clean. Weapons make a man civilised. by the desolation of others, feeding on their joy
They are the difference between dog and wolf. is all you have left.
Between hunter... and predator.
Your version of the vampire is the feral monster,
Sometimes your master and his friends like to the one that wants to rip throats out, and feast
see you unleash your power in a controlled way. on blood until there is nothing left, the embodi-
Sometimes even masters needs to be mastered. ment of the uncontrollable urge to consume. As
You could make them do anything they want- the monster takes hold of you, the supernatural
ed you to make them do. You know your own desire to feast on warm bodies - sex, pain, blood,
strength and you appreciate their trust. But you misery, destruction - will become all encompass-
worry that one day something terrible will hap- ing. Of course you will not literally kill anyone,
pen and you’ll be left to face the consequences. but you will embrace the violence of sex, the de-
vouring of all food, the drinking to excess. As
Some days you think that Byron is not the man
Polidori remarks in his most famous work “..the
he was. His behaviour, always erratic, is becom-
living vampyre, who had passed years amidst his friends,
ing more unhinged. He is badly in debt. There is
and dearest ties, forced every year, by feeding upon the life
no point cosying up to a mad man who can bare-
of others to prolong his existence for the ensuing months.”
ly keep a roof over his head. The things you gen-
uinely admired about Byron are becoming harder There are various ways you can play on this, but
to discern and this makes it progressively harder we suggest a slow progression during Canto two
to maintain your role as his champion. during which Tita will struggle to control his urg-
es to do harm. He is strong, stronger certainly
Someday soon all hell is going to break loose and
than Byron, and part of the horror will come
it might be time to cash in your chips. You could
from the realisation that he is struggling to hold
go back to Italy, open a tavern. A place where you
something back. Because of the nature of this
will be every man’s friend while the wine is still
larp Tita must not let loose and actually go on a
flowing, but where you can throw a fellow out
killing spree.
when he gets annoying at the end of an evening.
You worry what would become of Byron with- Keep an eye on your poet– who shares the same
out you. monster – and, if it works for you to do so, may-
be pass The Vampyre back and forth between
You are welcome at any fire, and in any company.
you so that only one of you is inhabiting it at a
Everyone loves you, because you’re larger than
time; the other is simply a victim.
life and a lot of fun to be around. You know
what it means to be hungry and you don’t intend
to go hungry again. You always do what it takes.
You are Giovanni Battista Falcier, but everyone
calls you Tita.
147

SERVANTS
Your Role
You are Byron’s Cassiatore1 – an office which has
no equivalent in modern English. You are secre-
tary, bodyguard, and occasional sparring partner.
You have been responsible for making travel ar-
rangements, dealing with any bills and handling
all money matters concerning Lord Byron and
his household. With Fletcher being assigned to
Shelley for the duration of their visit, you are
also Byron’s Valet de Chambre – or as we know,
simply the valet. You are responsible for your
master’s person: you prepare the master’s toilette,
including coiffure. Before bed and upon waking,
you are at Byron’s disposal. You are expected to
be a master of fashion, as your primary role is to
care after the master’s appearance, including the
care and selection of clothing, and must undress
and dress him. You are responsible for his mas-
ter’s modish presentation to the world. As well
as fetching and carrying and providing any other
services they request, you act as a confidante,
confessor, and guide to your poet.
William Fletcher
Fletcher is the House Steward, that means he
presides over all servants in the house, including
you. He supervises dining room affairs, manag-
es the wine cellar and all spirits. He manages all
domestic affairs, including servants visiting from
other households. In matters of the running of
the Villa, he is answerable only to the master. In
truth the two of you do not always get along –
he is so very different from you in almost every
1 At the larp you will workshop with your poet how you act as his servant.
The following is based on a real task list of what a Cassiatore/Valet would
do at the time. You are not required to do all of it during the larp, unless
you and the player of Percy Shelley agree that this will create the best play
experience for both of you.
148
way. At first you assumed you could terrify him
into keeping out of your way. But though he does
not look like it all that, Fletcher turned out to be
surprisingly resilient.
When he is not prissily arranging things, Fletcher
is good for a laugh. Now he is valeting Percy, you
like to wind him up by critiquing his gentleman’s
appearance.
Susan Vaughn / Robert Rushton
Lord Byron has seen fit to assign two servants to
Dr Polidori, although only one of them will be
on duty. The first of these is Susan who is some-
times almost as loud as you. She has some inter-
esting ideas about science and you enjoy talking
to her, largely because she is the only one who
treats you like an intellectual equal. The other,
Rushton, gets on your nerves, he complains al-
most without cease and – like Shelley – does not
behave like a man, nor a gentleman. If Fletcher
doesn’t bring him under control you may have to
intervene.
Elise Duvillard
Mary Godwin’s maid servant is the charming
Elise. She is rather too close to God for your
comfort but remains mainly unphased by your
appearance and your behaviour although you
do enjoy those moments where something you
do or say manages to shock her. She is kind too,
someone you can let your guard down around.
You have told her about your idea of a tavern.
She said she was sure it would be very successful.
She had something of a speculative glint in her
eye when she said it. The idea of you two setting
up house together is laughable: the saint and the
old devil. But a pretty face behind the counter
would appeal to customers.
 Amelia (“Milly”) Shields play to ensure that Byron is impressed. This is
the nature of the deal you have with him, though
Milly is the other maid in the Shelley household. he might think it is natural devotion. There are so
She often reminds you that she is the upper maid many interesting things to see in his company, so
which means she is more important. However, many fascinating people to meet and to conquer,
she is a servant to a woman and rather too tied not with the feats of strength that he asks you to
up with the hierarchy of the household. When perform but with your easy charm. This is the
she is not putting on airs, she is a fine storytell- same charm you use on Byron. He is suggestible,
er, though you have to encourage her to include you see, and it does not take much encourage-
more dirty jokes. She tells thinly disguised stories ment for him to do exactly what you wish him to.
about people in the house which make you laugh. Lately he has started pushing you to behave quite
Your favourite stories are those in which you are badly to the people around him and to those he
the hero and Byron the butt of the joke, a reverse dislikes.
of how Byron always spins his reminiscences of
your adventures. A storyteller like that would also Your relationship with Byron is complicated.
be an asset to that tavern you dream of. You have gone through a lot together and done a
great deal for one another. Byron needs you, and
You have heard a rumour, though, that she is you are not a man to let a brother-in-arms down.
hurting your friend, Doctor Polidori. You are not But are you a brother, or simply a servant?
entirely sure what is going on between them, but
you should investigate. No one expects you to be
subtle about it, but you can be subtle and cun-
ning, when you need to be. OTHER POETS
YOUR POET Doctor Polidori
You enjoy the company of Byron’s personal
Lord Byron physician, Doctor Polidori. You listen to his/her
Lord Byron is your master. He woes about his/her harsh treatment by Byron,
thinks that he holds your leash, offer a sympathetic shoulder to cry on, and then
but really you take him where try to cheer him/her up by turning the conver-
you want to go. You often sug- sation around to drinking, gambling, and sexual
gest things to do, or places to conquests which you both enjoy.
go, and work hard to come up
with won- derful sports
and tricks to
Claire Clairmont
You can barely disguise your lust for Miss Clair-
mont. You try to impress her and charm her.
You can see that she wants your lord, but you
want her to see you instead. You are perturbed
by her cruel streak. Sometimes she is unkind to
your friend Polidori. You are not sure why this is.
Cruelty upsets you. You might need to intervene.
149
 Percy Shelley
Shelley is a fop who behaves more like a woman
than a man. Whilst you enjoy physical intimacy
with men yourself, the poet’s weakness does not
attract you. Once or twice you have seen him an-
gry; only then can you understand the attraction
that the others have for him. It would be better
for everyone if he could see himself as others
see him. He is a close friend of Lord Byron. In INTERACTIONS
truth you are worried that you might be replaced
in Byron’s affection by this girlish interloper.
Mary Godwin
You do not have much to do with Miss Godwin.
She’s desperately in love with Shelley, and – as
she is also obviously in love with herself – clearly
has no concerns about self-worth. She puts on
different personas depending on who she is talk- •
ing to. Sometimes when you are fed up you take
advantage of her people-pleasing ways to grum-
ble about your life to a sympathetic listener.
150
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp.
• TASK: Begin the larp by aiding Byron in the
hunt in a game of Hide and Seek.
• Be Lord Byron’s dog: ask him who he would
like you to seduce or destroy.
Go to the wine cellar and bring out wine.
Bind someone of your choosing - poet or
servant - on the table and turn them into a
centrepiece of a feast of desserts, of wine,
and of more bodily excesses too.
• Under the influence of laudanum realise that
you fear weakness, age, and loneliness and
give in to this fear. Stop being strong at a mo-
ment that fails those around you.
• Skulk in the shadows like a beast circling its
prey; ensure your target knows they are being
hunted though not necessarily by whom - or
even what.
• Stare at your hands as your fingers change
into those of a ravenous beast.
• Show Shelley how to be a real man.
 TITA’S REDEMPTION OR
DESTRUCTION
When the clock strikes twelve you have to choose
between redemption or destruction; either hap-
piness for yourself and the destruction of your
poet, or your descent into self destruction to en-
sure your poet is saved. These ideas are sugges-
tions, which way these stories end is ultimately
up to you.

Tita realises his connection to Byron must

change. So Tita can either:

Seek redemption

Begin to act selflessly instead of pandering to

those in power. You do not need Lord Byron to
reach greatness, there are other masters, kinder
masters, who deserve your service more than the
ungrateful and selfish one you serve now. First
the bond to Byron must be broken. Hold a met-
aphorical mirror up to this ‘great poet’ and show
him that – now you are abandoning him – he has
no real friends, that no one loves him, make him
understand that he is the whipped dog chained in
the darkness; only then will you be free.

Descend into destruction

You are nothing without a master. A Venetian

sewer rat rather than a faithful hound. So you
must become the attack dog Lord Byron wants
you to be. So you must tie your fate in with lords
and poets even though you know it will be your
doom. You will anticipate Lord Byron’s every
wish. If your lord looks like he wants you to whip
the doctor, you will strip the skin from his back.
If your lord tells Claire off, you will humiliate
her. If your lord wants you to seduce Mary, you
will fuck her. You are nothing, nothing but tears
hidden behind a fearsome visage and an exten-
sion of Lord Byron’s will.

151
AMELIA “MILLY”
SHIELDS
“I do not fear to die,” she said;
“that pang is past. God raises my
weakness and gives me courage
to endure the worst.”

Milly
A melia Shields is the maidservant to
Claire. Where Claire is besotted by the
idea of proving herself as a better version
of Mary, Amelia is someone who knows
exactly how to build others up and, if
necessary, tear them down.
Portrait
You always walk carefully, with purpose, like
each step matters, and you hate being interrupt-
ed. This is because you brighten each mundane
task by turning it into a story. You weave fiction
around reality inside your head.
Your dream is to be a writer, like the poets you
surround yourself with, but you have not shown
your writing to any of the poets yet - you see
how they tear each other down and you couldn’t
take it if they broke your spirit before you could
prove your worth. But an artist has to find an
outlet, and so you make up tales for your fellow
servants. These are your great works, and they
scratch the itch to create and to be listened to.
154
You try to please people. This is a good trait for a
servant, but you take it to such a degree that you
put the happiness of others before yourself and
often this puts you in a difficult position, espe-
cially when the needs and wants of those around
you are contradictory. You have come to under-
stand that it works in your own interest to focus
on the happiness of others, but in truth, you re-
sent the necessity for it. You wish for a world
where someone cares to please you.
You keep a secret book of grudges. Each time
someone disappoints or angers you, you write
down the incident and describe a cruel revenge
in explicit detail. You weaponise these stories to
come to terms with the slight and the fictional
cruelty helps you to keep smiling.
The first time you wreaked vengeance upon
someone through words was when you were
much younger. There was a boy called Tobias
who always thought he was better than everyone
else, and he teased you because your clothes were
torn. You wrote his name in your book and in
the story you made him invisible so that no one
else in the neighbourhood could see him other
than you. They all stopped talking to him, and
forgot he even existed. What is deeply fascinating
is how this story seemed to come true, perhaps
you subconsciously made it happen in real life,
but either way you understand the potential pow-
er of stories to change the world.
CHARACTER
Your name is Amelia but everyone calls you
Milly. You are the upper female servant of the
Shelley household and the maid servant to Claire.
Percy Shelley employed you as a maid and to be
a friend to Claire. You are younger than everyone
else in the household and less well educated, but
you know that you don’t need to speak French
 or Italian to be an artist, you just need to have lash out. In your darker moments it is almost like
poetry in your soul and a name or enough money you become your father, his words echo in your
for someone to take notice. You do not believe mouth as you lash out against the people you oth-
that you are stuck in the role you were born into, erwise care for. Your hands become a vehicle for
and the stories you tell in your head involve them revenge on whoever stands in your way. A part
discovering your worth and accepting you into of you feels like it is everyone else’s fault that you
their world. are not seen. Will you really spend your whole
life being so kind and so good and so caring to
When you were little, your father used to tell everyone else just so they can walk all over you?
you all his broken dreams as he broke the skin
on your back. He had no hope that the world You walk in a garden of bright images. Images
would ever change, like the poets dream about. that you must spin into words, into songs and
He just wanted revenge. Every disappointment tales. It is a blessing and a burden. You can make
in his life was ripped into your skin. He told you people laugh and cry with your stories. You can
‘if only you and your mother hadn’t existed, he make people bleed and you will if you have to.
could have made something of himself. ‘ Your You are Amelia Shields and you will not be si-
mother believed him. Perhaps that is why she al- lenced.
ways wanted you to follow the rules so strictly?
But you are not happy to stay at the bottom. You
cling to whatever scrap of position or power you
can get your hands on and climb ever upwards. THE MONSTER
This supports your interior narrative of you as
What is the worst that this character can become?
the hero who will inevitably rise to something
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the
more than a life of servitude.
player to do terrible things in the Villa.
You are affected by the written word. Verse par-
The gothic genre is replete with Vengeful Spir-
ticularly overwhelms you. Poetry is beautiful
its, murder victims and abandoned maidens and
beyond understanding. Some might say you be-
broken men who can not rest. The unquiet dead
come foolish under its influence, but in fact you
return in wraith form and are determined to
become alive. It is both your guiding strength and
make the guilty pay for their crimes.
your greatest weakness.
During the larp there will be a séance and we
The pervasive poetry of the villa makes you
would like you to be a key part of that. The se-
come to life in interesting ways. You are discover-
ance will be led by Claire but it is you who will be
ing your self, your sexuality, your needs. You have
the voices of the dead. We will provide you with
even started to shake off the chains that bind you
a detailed briefing on this.
when it comes to following the rules, as you have
formed an attachment to one of the Poets! There are various ways you can play on this, but
we suggest a slow progression during Canto two.
You know that you can be more than a maid
For example, after the séance you start with a
servant, but every slight and every mundane
vague sensation that someone is in the house;
task makes you feel stuck. And each time any-
noises from upstairs, a strange feeling of being
one makes you feel trapped in your position, or
watched. Sometimes you feel overtaken by this
powerless, or lesser-than, or bored, you want to
malevolent spirit who makes you want to hurt
155
 others. This vengeful spirit is bitter and twisted
have leave to improve your mind by reading, or
and will seek to do harm1. His revenge on the
needlework, or such activities as may bring you
living world is to tear others down and to take
pleasure. Your evening hours are largely devoted
pleasure from it.
to leisure, but in practice you remain on call to
Keep an eye on your poet – who shares the same provide such services as your mistresses require.
monster – and, if it works for you to do so, may-
be pass these Spirits back and forth between you
so that – most of the time – only one of you is William Fletcher
possessed; the other is simply a victim.
Fletcher is the House Steward, that means he
presides over all servants in the house, including
you. He supervises dining room affairs, manag-
SERVANTS es the wine cellar and all spirits. He manages all
domestic affairs, including servants visiting from
Your Role other households. In matters of the running of
You are the maid servant to Claire Clairmont2. the Villa, he is answerable only to the master. He
You are required to support her ablutions and to treats you with the respect that you are due as
take care of dressing her hair and her body. As the upper maid in the Shelley household. He is
soon as the mistress is dressed and departs her firm but fair with the other servants and yet you
rooms, you should tidy and refresh all belong- get the impression that – like you – he enjoys his
ings and articles under her care. Throw open the power and would like the opportunity to abuse it.
windows, make up the beds. Put away any clothes
When you make up stories about the household
that remain out, put to rights the accessories as-
you have noticed that Fletcher’s favourite char-
sociated with ablutions. You are responsible for
acter is Percy, just as yours is Claire. What if you
cleaning and tidying her rooms, and doing her
took things a little further and both began to fix
laundry. Also you are responsible for any needle
their stories in real life?
and thread work required to darn stockings and
linens. Your poet may change outfits many times
in a single day. As well as fetching and carrying
and providing any other services they request,
you act as a confidante, confessor, and guide to
your poet. Once your work is complete, you shall

1 Maybe Milly (secretly) also wants revenge like her father did? In her
darkest moments it is almost like she becomes the ghost of her father, his
words echo in her mouth as she becomes something terrible. A vehicle
for revenge on whoever stands in her way, and everyone who does not
recognise her genius; especially the poets.

2 At the larp you will workshop with your poet how you act as her lady’s
maid. The following is based on a real task list of what a lady’s maid would
do at the time. You are not required to do all of it during the larp, unless
you and the player of Claire Clairmont agree that this will create the best
play experience for both of you.

156
 Elise Duvillard Robert Rushton
The lower maid in the Shelley Household is
Lord Byron has seen fit to assign two servants to
Elise Duvillard, a Swiss girl that Mary Godwin
Dr Polidori, although only one of them will be on
brought in as a servant. It is very useful to have
duty. The first of these is Robert Rushton. You
someone you can pass your work onto; she re-
are tremendously fond of Rushton. Even though
spects your instructions and does as she is told
he is obscene, sinful, a drunk, a gambler, and al-
and that makes you look good. You resent the
most certainly a sodomite, you find it difficult to
fact that she speaks many languages and perhaps
judge him. He is a terrible servant, but the very
that means you push her harder than you would
best of friends. There is a strange spark between
if she were a more simple woman?
you, it’s not exactly lust, but there is some strange
You suspect that she has some feelings for Mary, feeling that you can’t quite put your finger on.
perhaps more than she should, and this excites
you. You should find out the truth. For all her
airs, Elise loves your stories and you can choose Susan Vaughn
whether to make her happy or sad by the tales
you spin. Will today’s story feature a mistress and The other servant who might be assigned to Doc-
her maid living in peaceful harmony in a pret- tor Polidori is Susan Vaughn. Susan has some
ty little chalet, a bright young woman shaping dark secret that you would love to uncover. She
the fashions of the Viennese haute monde or a was a servant to a well respected medical man
heartbroken maiden abandoned by her faithless in England so how she ended up a kitchen maid
lover? to Lord Byron is a mystery. It almost certainly
involves a scandal and you would like to know all
Tita of the salacious details. That the kitchen maid is
now acting as servant to Polidori is surely down
You are nervous of Tita, Lord Byron’s body-
to Lord Byron’s desire to humiliate them both.
guard. He has no awareness of the hierarchy of
As a kitchen maid, Vaughn is the lowest servant
servants and, even if he did, you suspect that he
here. She should be reminded of that.
would not care. He’s also a close friend of Po-
lidori. You assume that the Doctor would not be
foolish enough to talk about your dalliances with
Tita, but you should ensure that s/he knows not YOUR POET
to kiss and tell.
Claire Clairmont
Tita is a great audience for your stories. His reac-
tions are always larger than life. When you make You are the upper maid in the Shelley party,
him laugh, the whole villa shakes. When his hero you work for Claire Clairmont. You look after
is in error he damns him for a fool with a star- the house and her clothes; help dress her. You
tlingly extensive vocabulary of interesting words. feel a kinship to Claire and she treats you as a
Stories of the cruelty of love can make the tears confidante. You were hired to be her friend3, but
roll down his cheeks. What artist doesn’t cherish this friendship has become real for both of you.
that sort of audience?
3 Claire does not know this.

157
 Like you, she feels overlooked and undervalued. Lord Byron
Unlike you, she is in a position to make herself
Lord Byron is the opposite of you in almost every
heard. You want to support her in that and to
way. He plays games with his so-called friends for
push her further. If only she’d realise that she
his own pleasure and loves to tear them all down.
doesn’t need to prove herself a better version of
He is a bully in the same way your father was
Mary.
and this makes you hate him. But, you know that
Claire has a way with words that strongly affects you must defer to him, as he is at the top of the
you. Sometimes you affect her words and man- pecking order for now. You know that Claire de-
nerisms. Sometimes you dream of stealing her sires him and so you must find a way to make her
words and taking them as your own. happy.

OTHER POETS Mary Godwin

Mary is a kind and caring soul, everything a
Doctor Polidori
woman should be. Perhaps that is why
None of the poets seem to understand that Doc- she always seems sad and lonely? She
tor Polidori is an artist in his/her own right, but is surrounded by people who love,
you can see his/her worth. You first approached admire and look up to her, and you
him/her because you thought s/he might be a are terribly envious. Sometimes
suitable match and/or a way out of service4, but you catch yourself doubting that
then you realised that s/he is more than just a she is actually deserving of such
ticket to a better life. S/he is actually kind, in- adoration, while you and Claire
secure, and gentle. You let him/her seduce you, are continuously overlooked.
making sure that the Doctor thought it was his/
her idea. Percy Shelley
S/he has confessed some of his/her darker fan- The young master Percy Shelley
tasies to you. S/he likes it when you make him/ talks about revolution and changes in
her crawl and beg. At first you thought you only society, and yet he seems blind to how his be-
liked it because it turned him/her on, but now haviour affects others. He treats the women in
you have started to like it yourself, it feels like his life like disposable toys and pouts about how
freedom. You like the role reversal, you like final- difficult it is to be him. You have noticed he often
ly being in charge of someone else, being the one watches you out of the corner of his eye. Is that
with the whip in your hand, making someone else mistrust, or something else? He thinks all wom-
bark for you. Every time you sneak away together en should fall in a dead faint at his feet. You are
you take it a little further, and each time s/he is torn between your habits of compliance and the
very grateful. desire to one day explain to him how pathetically
he falls short of his own principles.

4 If Polidori is played as male this represents a desire for marriage, if

played as female a way out of service and into medicine.
158
 “Hush now. Can you hear his footsteps in the passage?
INTERACTIONS Close your eyes, squeeze them tight. I shall cover them
with a bandage so that the blood will not show. . ”
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp.
• TASK: Be a key part of the séance at the start MILLY’S REDEMPTION OR
of the second Canto. Please see the séance
briefing for more detailed instructions. DESTRUCTION
• Be persuaded by the written word to do When the clock strikes twelve you have to choose
something that would otherwise be against between redemption or destruction; either hap-
your nature. . . piness for yourself and the destruction of your
• Wear the mask and take on the persona of poet, or your descent into self destruction to en-
Claire entirely for a while. sure your poet is saved. These ideas are sugges-
• Make the dreams of your fellow servants tions, which way these stories end is ultimately
come true. In stories at least. up to you.
• Your vengeful spirit wanted status and power Milly must choose between the roles of writer
and has been denied it, repeatedly, and in the and servant. Milly can either:
past with extreme cruelty. You have been se-
verely punished for getting ideas above your Seek redemption
station first as a child and again as an adult.
Now the spirit wants revenge. Find someone Emerge from the shadows. You can convince
- preferably a poet - dose them with lauda- Claire her work has no value and might as well be
num and enact their own worst nightmare thrown away, that she will never be but an emp-
upon them. ty imitation of Mary. Then you can either steal
the work to become the famous poet of your
• Much of what is going on in the Villa is the
dreams, or destroy it in front of Claire to find a
result of laudanum dreams, and you can see
voice of your own. Tell your own story.
ways to manipulate the dreamers. First with
a whispered suggestion of a thing upon the
stair, or an offer to sneak away to hide from
whatever is hunting you. It will take you from Descent into destruction
here via passive sneaky spineless sadism to
outright/active manipulation and then to vi- Choose to live through others. You need the po-
olence. ets more than they need you, so you must take
a step back and make yourself useful. Give the
“He will take your eyes to feed his children on the poets what they need. In doing so, you will fade
moon,” she whispered, “unless you come with me now. I away, be forgotten. Like the burning pages of an
know how to save you. Quick, come, up the stairs. “ unpublished manuscript, lost to history.
“What is it Milly? What must I do?”
“Kneel here, upon this floor, here between the candles.
Clash your hands behind you so that I may bind them.”
“I am frightened, Milly.”

159
 WILLIAM
FLETCHER
“Fletcher was Byron’s valet,
but only in a technical sense.
What he was, was their scapegoat.”

Fletcher
W illiam Fletcher, Byron’s Valet but on
loan to Shelley for the purposes of
this larp. Where Percy has convinced him-
self he is doing everything for the benefit
of others, William has no such illusions
or inhibitions.
Portrait
You are addicted to drinking, gambling, and sex.
Why else would such a proficient servant remain
in such a household?
You never refuse a drink, a proposition, or a bet
and allow any or all of these things to get you,
and those around you, into trouble.
Whilst you are loyal to Lord Byron, any of these
three vices may be used to manipulate you to act
in your own best interests rather than your em-
ployers.
In 1809 you were travelling with Lord Byron in
Portugal, where you visited a monastery. The
benevolent faced clergyman inside took a shine
to your flaxen hair and charming smile. While
teaching you Greek, he also kissed you. Did you
let him in the hopes of making your master jeal-
ous? Or did you wish to make the priest truly see
God?
CHARACTER
You are not Lord Byron, nor were you meant
to be, not by birth and not by temperament,
and awareness of that has almost eaten you up
from the inside, and you wouldn’t have it any
other way. Your family were peasants. You have
162
worked your way up from a labourer in the field
to your current position. Your Lord is the one
who raised you up to the finer things in life. Your
devotion to him is complicated. You let him do
dreadful things to you as a young man. Which of
course you did not enjoy. Not at all1.
You’re pompous, meticulous and precise. Neat to
a fault. If you make a mistake in your duties you
slavishly apologise, which annoys your Lord, who
rarely has time to punish you as you deserve. You
will occasionally mete out punishment or give or-
ders on his behalf, and sometimes interpret his
wishes or just straight up tell people what you
are sure he would want if he were, for example,
sober. Is that lying? Really?
Lately, your lord has lent you out to his friend
Percy Shelley. You find yourself fascinated by the
born noble among you. Lord Byron wasn’t raised
to be a great noble, he came to inherit when al-
most a man. Shelley, on the other hand, has been
noble from his first breath. He is quite perfect.
But he is also weak and foolish. He needs a firm
hand. A perfect servant to guide him, mould him,
so that he doesn’t turn into the wreck Byron is
becoming. It occurs to you that he might be your
ticket off this sinking ship, if only you can save
him from drowning.
When you’re drunk, which is whenever you get
the chance, you have licence to complain aloud,
and to let go of the dignity of your position as
a gentleman’s gentleman. You might wax a little
too lyrical about the personal charms of your
new gentleman. Drunk or drugged or after dark,
you clean up your Lord’s messes and help your-
self to his leftovers. There are plenty of broken
hearts and tender bodies scattered in his wake.
You can deal with those much as you would the
dregs of wine left over in his cups. Which you
clean. You like to clean things.
1 He did, of course
 You would like your lord’s household to be run
properly, according to the rules of polite society,
this dream seems to slip further away each day.
You really, really, really like to clean things. And
the closer you look, the dirtier everything gets.
Particularly people.

You are Mammon’s perfect ageing Regency twink.

You know seventeen ways to tie a cravat and you
have no gag reflex. You are the concierge at the
gates of hell. You could do something amazing
today. You are William Fletcher.

THE MONSTER
As the lighting strikes and the drugs begin
to take hold, you realise that the struc-
tures and norms of society do not bind
you. You stand outside of the laws and
rules; a creator and a genius, There is no
story for how a man like you is meant to
be.

It seems likely that the character of

Victor Frankenstein is based – in part
– upon Shelley; he is a narcissist, a liar,
as well as being secretive, hubristic, and irre-
sponsible. In many ways your Monster here is
your Percy’s reflection amplified, but it is also a
reflection of the others here in the house. Take
the worst of each of them and, galvanised by the
electrical storm, visit it back upon them three-
fold.

There are various ways you can play on this, but

we suggest a slow progression during Canto two.
Your version of Victor Frankenstein is someone
who will do whatever it takes to create a mock-
ery of Shelley’s Perfection. The ends justify the
means and you can make yourself like him,
only better.

Keep an eye on your poet– who shares

163
 the same monster – and, if it works for you to households. In matters of the running of the Vil-
do so, maybe pass Victor back and forth between la, you are answerable only to the master.
you so that only one of you is inhabiting it at a
time; the other is simply a victim.
Elise Duvillard
SERVANTS Miss Godwin’s maid, Elise, is everything a good
maid should be, chaste, and attentive to her mis-
Your Role tress’ needs. There is something about such pu-
rity that would normally inflame your passions
You are normally Byron’s Valet de Chambre – or but she seems . . . unassailable. You are unsure
2

as we know, simply the valet. However while the whether to take this as a challenge or whether
Shelley’s are staying with Byron, you are work- to make her your accomplice in your quest for
ing as Shelley’s valet. This position is also called Shelley’s affections.
the gentleman in waiting. You are responsible for
your master’s person: you prepare the master’s
toilette, including coiffure. Before bed and upon
waking, you are at Shelley’s disposal. You are ex- Giovanni Battista Falcier (“Tita”)
pected to be a master of fashion, as your primary From the moment he first arrived in service,
role is to care after the master’s appearance, in- you have resented Lord Byron’s Cassiatore, Tita.
cluding the care and selection of clothing, and
He is your opposite in almost every way: Direct
must undress and dress him. You are responsi- where you were circumspect, loud where you
ble for his master’s modish presentation to the
were reserved, as untidy as you are clean, crude
world. This is an additional challenge working for where you were subtle, and confident in places
Shelley as he is fickle and his mood is changea- where you were aware of your class. He some-
ble. Byron expected you to rub him down after
times has the absolute temerity to criticise your
exercise and provide other physical interactions
gentleman’s appearance! Grudgingly you might
as required, but Shelley has not (as yet) availed
admit that Tita and you seem to compliment one
himself of these services. As well as fetching and
another – at least in terms of service to Byron
carrying and providing any other services they
– but the sooner he is sent back to the canals of
request, you act as a confidante, confessor, and
Venice from whence he came the better. He is a
guide to your poet. rat, bearing a corrupting sickness.
In Byron’s household you are also the de facto
House Steward, and as such, you preside over
all servants in the house. You supervise dining Susan Vaughn/Robert Rushton
room affairs, manage the wine cellar and all spir-
its. You manage all domestic affairs, including the Sometimes his Lordship amuses himself to make
servants below you, and those visiting from other the kitchen maid, Susan, wait upon Doctor Po-
lidori as a valet. Of course she has no skills in
2 At the larp you will workshop with your poet how you act as his servant. this department, and the doctor doesn’t see it for
The following is based on a real task list of what a valet would do at the the humiliation that it is. To be honest she has
time. You are not required to do all of it during the larp, unless you and
the player of Percy Shelley agree that this will create the best play experi- few skills as a servant of any kind; she is slovenly,
ence for both of you.
164
 untidy, and clumsy. She clearly needs some cor-
rection to bring her up to your impeccable stand-
ards; she makes a mockery of your household.

When Susan is not on duty, it is Rushton who

attends to the Doctor’s needs3. Rushton is a hot-
headed radical with a tendency to say things that
– in any other household – would be considered
seditious. It is possible that you may need to in-
tervene and correct his manners.

Amelia (“Milly”) Shields

Miss Clairmont’s servant is a young woman called
Milly. She lacks the education, tact, and style of
Elise and yet she is the upper female servant in
the Shelley household. She holds hierarchy as
important as you do and so you treat her with
the respect she believes is due. You have over-
heard her talking with Elise, something about an
intimate encounter with The Doctor; you really
must find out more.

Your Poet
Percy Shelley
Percy Shelley is the most noble man you have
ever met. The perfect gentleman, the most intelli-
gent, glowing presence. He is perfect, but fragile.
With your firm guidance, he might avoid falling
into the dissolution that is destroying Lord By-
ron’s mind and body. Perhaps you could save him
from this fate. You could make him yours. The
perfect gentleman for the perfect servant. He re-
minds you of Lord Byron in his youth, when he
was still… clean.

3 Only one of these characters will be at the larp.

165
 by them or desperate to be loved by them. You
gamble with him/her when you get the chance.
Other Poets Your conversations tend to be about drink, gam-
bling, or tupping.
Lord Byron
You met Lord Byron
when you were 16 Claire Clairmont
years old, plough-
ing a field with You do not have much time for Miss Clairmont.
your shirt off. He She’s trailing around after Lord Byron and not
whisked you off taking the hint that he has no interest in her. She
your feet and into is also unnecessarily unkind to your friend Doc-
his service, and tor Polidori. As his Lordship is inevitably plan-
you haven’t left ning some sport at the expense of his guests,
his side since. you will take great pleasure in ensuring that Miss
You two are or Clairmont gets her just deserts! If he has no such
have been lovers4, plans, then it will please you to organise some
connected by more sport on his behalf. She is already prone to night-
than just lust. This mares, perhaps she could be frightened out of
does not stop you her wits, severely enough to finally run and never
from sleeping with anyone else who happens to come back?
cross your path, but your devotion to Byron is
near absolute5. You left your wife and young fam-
ily to be with him when he left England. Over the Mary Godwin
years you have always returned to one another
after your various flings. You used to think this You can tell that Percy is in love with Mary but
meant something. Now you are not so sure. you do not believe she is truly in your way. After
all, Percy believes in free love and Mary profess-
es to do so as well. Perhaps she just needs some
convincing to put her money where her mouth is
Doctor Polidori
and actually let someone else touch her. Perhaps
Even though s/he is your friend, there is some- a servant like yourself, who will do exactly as he
thing off about the doctor, something that is is told?
bothering you. It’s the way he/she looks at the
others: as if s/he is not sure if s/he is disgusted
INTERACTIONS
4 Please calibrate this with Byron’s player
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
5 At Byron’s funeral, overcome with grief, Fletcher collapsed and had to
support himself against a pew. It has been suggested that this is the reac- could explore during the larp. There are also
tion of a lover, not just a loyal servant, and we’re going to run with that tasks here that we need you to carry out!
here. The relationship is asymmetric in as much as Byron refuses to admit
to himself that he is in love with Fletcher. • Find a way to clean someone - either met-
166
 aphorically or physically. Brush hair, clean ants. Make them live in the dirt, show them true
their feet, make them perfect. equality of labour, make them carry the heavy
burden for once. Tear down their façades as rad-
• Find a way to terrify Claire Clairmont when ical thinkers so that they understand and face
she is already frightened. Escalate her fear their privileges. Make them crawl.
until she loses her mind.
• Wear a mask to inhabit the feeling of being
Percy Shelley. What would it be like to walk in
their shoes? Use this encounter to realise that Descend into destruction
they are in fact not as perfect as they pretend You are consumed by thoughts of restoring the
to be - or that they are in fact more perfect two households to their proper standing. Lords
than you could ever be. and servants, upper and lower class, as it ought
• If one of the other servants does something to be. Doing so can only be done from the top
terribly wrong, take it upon yourself to cor- down, Byron and Percy must see they are the
rect or even punish them. lords and that everyone else is beneath them. You
• Persuade Mary to use you like a marionette, will talk them into doing horrible things, to set
touching her exactly as she instructs. things right, you must remind them who they are
and that you are nothing but a worm.
• TASK: Sometime during the second Canto,
remember that it was probably you who put
the laudanum in the wine.

FLETCHER’S REDEMPTION OR
DESTRUCTION
When the clock strikes twelve you have to choose
between redemption or destruction; either hap-
piness for yourself and the destruction of your
poet, or a descent into self destruction to ensure
your poet is saved. These ideas are suggestions,
which way these stories end is ultimately up to
you.

Fletcher realises that he cannot remain passive.

Fletcher can either:

Seek redemption

You realise that without radical change neither

Byron’s nor Percy’s household will ever take the
shape you want it to have, and so you will re-
solve to fix that. You will show the poets what it
means to truly live without order, without serv-
167
 SUSAN
VAUGHN
“`What is Freedom? -- ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well --
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.”
Percy Shelley
 onto the wooden ledge for hymn books. You see
Susan that beneath the petal- like wings, the butterfly
has crooked black little legs and its body is made
of segments. Y
S usan is a servant to Polidori. Whereas
s/he is desperate to be something s/
he is not, Susan knows exactly what she
is - a genius born to the wrong gender in CHARACTER
the wrong class. Whereas the poets dream You grew up poor in Wales. Early on, you realised
of a better world, Susan aims to make it the unfairness of society: that because you were
happen, at least for herself. a woman, your future was set to either breed or
serve or both. And because you were born poor,
you would not be offered education, the whet-
Portrait stone to sharpen your already sharp mind. Your
choices were limited, but you decided to make the
You may not be a good servant, but you are a most of them. Your brothers tried to teach you
great friend. what they could, but it was not enough. When
your parents found a suitable position for you as
You grew up in a very religious household; you the maid to a doctor’s wife, you counted yourself
have rejected religion just as it has rejected you. lucky and took the job as seriously as you have
You have a razor sharp wit, which you get to ever taken anything.
practise in Lord Byron’s household. Here no one It quickly became apparent that you are not
needs to be afraid to speak their mind, as long as a born servant. You want your opinions heard
their views are suitably radical. and you are not skilled in reading the needs or
You are normally one of Byron’s kitchen maids, wants of others. The perfect servant anticipates
however you have been promoted to be a serv- their master’s needs, even before they themselves
ant to Doctor Polidori1. You are only peripherally know they have them. You have to be told.
aware of your duties and are unsure how to apply The art of medicine, however, is a passion of
them to the doctor’s needs. yours, and where there is passion, talent often
Your earliest memory is of being in chapel. You grows. The good doctor James
think you might have been there for hours, lis- Davies noticed how you care-
tening to the minister drone on and on. There is fully polished his scalpels and
a butterfly trapped in there, battering itself again other equipment, how
and again against the high glass of the window, you peeked in his
trying to get out into the sunshine outside. Even-
tually it falls exhausted and its little body falls

1 At the larp you will workshop with your poet how you act as his/her
servant. The following is based on a real task list of what a maid servant
would do at the time. You are not required to do all of it during the larp,
unless you and the player of Doctor Polidori agree that this will create the

170
best play experience for both of you.
 anatomy books when you thought no one was
looking, and he took it upon himself to train you.
First he told you about his projects, the experi-
ments he did on livestock and small animals to
see how “God’s machinery” functioned. Then,
once he was sure you would not faint and cause
a ruckus, he let you assist him. Together, you dis-
covered so many things - terrible and wondrous.
His wife grew tired of your sloppy mending and
your loud manner, but Doctor Davies would not
hear of letting you go. He enjoyed having a pro-
tégée as interested in the medical arts as himself.
And you learned so much from him. In his labo-
ratory, it felt as if the secrets of creation were be-
ing cut open and laid bare before your very eyes.
The trouble started when he fell in love with you.
He started looking at you across the table, his fin-
gers lingering on your hand when he handed you
a scalpel. It’s not that you couldn’t have carried
out an affair with him, it is just that his wife loved
him, and you could see that his betrayal would
break her heart. She might not consider you her
friend, but you considered her yours, and you
would not cause her pain.
You were damn lucky that a friend found you
this position, because it got you out of the whole
mess before anything could go irrevocably wrong.
It felt almost as if you fled the country. Heart-
broken, perhaps, but un-scarred. The future you
envisioned for yourself, all that you would learn,
was snatched away by a man’s feelings for you.
Still, as gentry go, this lot aren’t so bad. They even
listen to you hold forth about the inevitable rise
of science over religion, and put up with you do-
ing the absolute bare minimum of the job you’re
technically employed to do. But you miss Doctor
Davies’ lectures and the nights in his laboratory.
You want to feel the power of progress in your
hands again. Perhaps Doctor Polidori can give
171
that to you, if the poor fool gets over his/her
fear of his/her own power and the shackles of
the Church telling him/her what is possible and
moral. You should convince him/her that pro-
gress is a goal more worthy than saving your soul.
You believe in science over religion, universal
suffrage, sexual equality and the end of the tyr-
anny of landlords, and you’re not afraid to say so.
Nonetheless, you’re fond of a few of the nobs
in this villa. Some of them even seem to believe
in their own principles: free love, liberty, mutual
consent.
Consent is the key. To wield power over another
without their consent is the only true sin. You
can’t stand to see men whose philosophies you so
admire on paper bullying their lovers and push-
ing their boundaries. Domination must be given
freely, not terrorised or wheedled or cheated or
swindled out of the weak or helpless. You have
given a lot of thought to how a free citizen might
voluntarily give power to another. Or to a lov-
er. You think about what it might be like to dare
someone to do their worst. To stop behaving,
just for a second, and surrender. You spend your
life fighting for dignity. What would it be like to
lose on purpose?
Your mind is electric. You have seen inside the
bodies of living things. You have been dealt
a hand with the least power of anyone in the
villa, but that means you have the least to lose.
Your will is an unstoppable force. You are Susan
Vaughn.
THE MONSTER
What is the worst that this character can become?
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the
player to do terrible things in the Villa.
Your monster manifests as a voice inside you
 which is completely free from the doubts that so of the unstoppable march of Science as you
often wrack you. You have heard this voice all strap someone to a table and place leeches on
your life, only now it is getting more insistent. them, or seem to perform other more invasive
The world is full of evil and humanity is full of medical acts.
wickedness. You, The Zealot, have a mission on
this earth to cleanse this wickedness and make the Keep an eye on your poet– who shares the same
weak and sinful pay for their crimes. Everything monster – and, if it works for you to do so, may-
you do, every act of debauchery, sex, or violence, be pass the voice back and forth between you so
is instructed by the voice in God’s name to de- that only one of you is speaking with the voice at
stroy these terrible people2. To you, of course, a time; the other is simply a whimpering victim
science is the only true god. The monster will of the monster.
lead the others, seduce and traduce them, and
then take everything away from them so that they
may face the Judgement of You, their Lord.
SERVANTS
This voice is crueller than you and gives you the
alibi to punish all those you feel resent you and
Your Role
look down upon you - and to punish yourself. You are normally one of the kitchen maids work-
After all, we are of- ing for Lord Byron’s, however you have been
ten our own cruel- promoted to be the Valet de Chambre to Doctor
lest judge. Polidori – or as we know, simply the valet. You
have never done this before and are hopeless-
There are vari-
ly out of your depth. You know that as a maid
ous ways you can
your working day begins at the point that your
play on this, but
mistresses wake. You are required to support her
we suggest a slow
ablutions and to take care of dressing her hair
progression during
and her body. As soon as the mistress is dressed
Canto two. It starts
and departs her rooms, you should tidy and re-
with the voice only
fresh all belongings and articles under her care.
audible to you,
Throw open the windows, make up the beds. Put
and then a few
away any clothes that remain out, put to rights
whispers before
the accessories associated with ablutions. You are
becoming more
responsible for cleaning and tidying her rooms,
obvious. You can
and doing her laundry. Also you are responsible
change your voice
for any needle and thread work required to darn
and actions when
stockings and linens. Your poet may change out-
you let your mon-
fits many times in a single day. As well as fetch-
ster speak through
ing and carrying and providing any other services
you, speak of pro-
they request, you act as a confidante, confessor,
gress, of medicine,
and guide to your poet. Once your work is com-
plete, you shall have leave to improve your mind
2 See Gil-Martin from The by reading, or needlework, or such activities as
Private Memoirs and Con-
fessions of a Justified Sinner may bring you pleasure. Your evening hours are
by James Hogg (1824)
172
 largely devoted to leisure, but in practice you
remain on call to provide such services as your
mistresses require. You should ensure your mis-
tresses’ privacy, but how does any of this apply
to the doctor3?
William Fletcher
to a well respected doctor and his wife and as-
sumes that your role as kitchen maid for Byron
is the result of some great sin or scandal. She
is a bully. What is worse she has an attachment
to Doctor Polidori which could get in the way
of your own plans for the Doctor. Avoiding her
is neither productive nor possible; you must find
another way to circumvent her.

Fletcher is the House Steward, that means he

presides over all servants in the house, including
you. He supervises dining room affairs, manag- Elise Duvillard
es the wine cellar and all spirits. He manages all
Elise is the maid servant to Mary Godwin. She
domestic affairs, including servants visiting from
was also brought up in a strict religious family,
other households. In matters of the running of
but unlike you, Elise has stuck to her faith. It is
the Villa, he is answerable only to the master. He
likely because of this that you treat one anoth-
is responsible for discipline of the servants. Oh
er with suspicion and often end up arguing, not
that word again! Sometimes his very presence
about religion, but because of it.
seems to make you a bit clumsy. You are unsure
if he terrifies or entices you more.

Your Poet
Giovanni Battista Falcier (“Tita”) Doctor Polidori
Tita is Byron’s bodyguard. Everyone seems to
You currently serve Polidori while s/he is also
find him intimidating but you have no such fears
employed by Byron. S/he is young and clev-
as you grew up in a house filled with brothers. He
er and desperate to prove him/herself. Polidori
seems interested in your ideas about science and
might see him/herself as lesser than the other
medicine. He obviously likes you, possibly be-
lords and poets at this villa, but you see him/
cause everyone else treats him like a dumb brute.
her as a radical genius - someone who defies the
You know what it is like to have your intellect
expectations of class and status and who is ready
overlooked, in that you have a lot in common.
to do whatever it takes to cure sickness. If any-
thing, Polidori doesn’t go far enough. You wish
to push him/her to be more radical, more adven-
Amelia (“Milly”) Shields turous in both his/her mesmerising and in his/
her blood-letting. The only thing holding science
Milly is the maid servant to Claire Clairmont back are the weak stomachs of religious cowards.
and the most senior female servant in the house. You should help him/her find his/her courage.
Something she does not tire of reminding you.
She seems to know that you were once a servant
3 For some of the runs Polidori will be played as a male character. In this
instance the assignment of Susan as his maid is a deliberate choice by
Lord Byron to humiliate Susan or Polidori, or both.
173
 brilliant mind and a brilliant pen, sharper than
Other Poets she likes people to see. Her parents were free
Claire Clairmont thinkers and you think perhaps in a better world
she would be a revolutionary. A conversation
You once saw Claire crying by the window and it with her about radical politics would be interest-
moved you so much you had a long, involved con- ing, more interesting still would be to turn that
versation with her. You might have been drunk, topic to matters of domination and control.
you don’t know, but you told her the whole sto-
ry of Doctor Davies and the laboratory. She was
fascinated with the details of what you did, how
you cut the little animals open and how much Percy Shelley
you could cut away before their hearts stopped Percy Shelley’s writing is clear as day: he too has
beating. But since that night, she has looked at rejected the tyranny of God. What is more, he
you differently. You feel she has a terrible pow- wants the world to be a better place. He is charm-
er over you, her word in Lord Byron’s ear could ing and when he speaks to you and looks at you,
send you out the door. There is something tan- you believe he means every word he writes down
talising about that fear - she could tell you to do on paper. You wish he would share his feelings
anything and you would have to comply. with you.

Lord Byron INTERACTIONS

Lord Byron is such a bad man, you can’t stop
staring at him. He plays games with his so-called
friends and loves to tear them all down. At the
same time, his lack of inhibition in the pursuit
of sexual gratification is sort of fascinating.
You want him to respect you as he ought, but
there is also something delicious
about the thought of being
held down by him and maybe
even made to beg. Perhaps you
could find a way to make him
do that4?
Mary Godwin
Mary has a
4 In
ity, Susan Vaughn and Lord Byron
had an affair. Some of their letters
still exist:
174
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp.
• Doctor Polidori gambles. Taking money
from a doctor is a delight, but sometimes you
want to gamble for different stakes. Can you
persuade the Doctor (or others) to engage
in a game where the pain and humiliation of
the loser is at stake? If so, you will delight in
playing.
• You miss having a scalpel in your hand and
someone on the table. Perhaps you and Doc-
tor Polidori could find out where Percy’s
nightmares are coming from, either with
mesmerising or with a knife? After all, you
have heard of great success treating illness
of the mind with ice baths and with leeches.
real-
• You are scared to ask Lord Byron to treat you
as mean as you want him to (or, indeed the
 other way around). The dreams you have of
him are almost shameful. But perhaps, if you
disguise yourself as someone he loves, like
his half-sister, he would be more inclined to
say yes. You could wear a mask to convince
him.
• Have a conversation with Tita about the rise
of science and why it will inevitably replace
religion.
Descend into destruction
You realise that you will never get what you want,
you must settle for less. You might give in and
become Lord Byron’s mistress and remain a
kitchen maid. Or perhaps you can return to God.
Polidori will surely help you to be reunited with
the strong belief in the word of the Lord you had
as a child. Or you could take pity on the Doctor,
and set your own ambitions aside to ensure s/he
may finally feel loved.

SUSAN’s REDEMPTION OR
DESTRUCTION
When the clock strikes twelve you have to choose
between redemption or destruction; either hap-
piness for yourself and the destruction of your
poet, or your descent into self destruction to en-
sure your poet is saved. These ideas are sugges-
tions, which way these stories end is ultimately
up to you.

Susan realises that she must take matters into her

own hands. So Susan can either:

Seek redemption

Take what you can get. You already have the

training, now you need the practice. So you
should start acting as a doctor, treat the poets
like test subjects for your treatments and neces-
sary sacrificial lambs for the progress of science.
Fundamentally, if Dr. Polidori won’t help you;
then s/he will have to be put on the table as well.
Redemption can be found here through bleeding,
scouring, and purging. Perhaps if the Doctor fi-
nally turns his/her back on God, you could blaze
the trail of progress together. As long as s/he
doesn’t fall in love with you. You cannot let that
ruin you again.

175
 ROBERT
RUSHTON
“`What is Freedom? -- ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well --
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.”
Percy Shelley
 to have a bit of release- but you’re always careful,
Rushton never sloppy.

Many of your friends have been jailed and car-

ry the marks of the lash. You remember being
held down and whipped once, as a younger per-
son, the rough hands of the gaolers forcing you
to the post and the hemp rope wound around
your wrists. The moment between the sound of
the whip, the cut, and then the pain; how time
changed its meaning and how you found peace
in the agony.

CHARACTER
You go by the name of Robert Rushton, but
you’ve had others. You say you are no man’s lack-

R ushton is servant to Polidori. Whereas
s/he is desperate to be something s/
he is not, Robert knows exactly what they
both are - revolutionaries, wanted by the
law. Whereas the poets dream of a better
world, Robert aims to make it happen.
ey. You grew up poor in Soho, where your par-
ents were in service. They had you apprenticed to
a printmaker, which is where the trouble started.
You believe in a world where nobody has to be
hungry or dirty or afraid, where nobody has to
watch their kids die young and their bodies break
down with too much work and too little rest. You
know what that’s like.

You believe in universal suffrage, sexual equali-

ty and the end of the tyranny of landlords,and
PORTRAIT you’re not afraid to say so. You have contributed -
under a pseudonym- to several illegal pamphlets.
You may be a bad servant and you’d make a worse You are wanted for seditious libel in London and
master, but you’re a damn good friend. Manchester. You’ll die before you let them take
you again, so you’ll never be safe, and you can
You were brought up in a very religious house- never relax. You’ve got to watch your back, be-
hold, you have rejected religion just as it has re- cause you’ve got comrades and co-conspirators
jected you. to protect back home. You wish they were here
now.
You’ve been to the Molly Houses1 - you’ve got
You were damn lucky when a friend from the
1 ‘Molly’ was a slur used for homosexual men and the term Molly House
Nag’s Head Society found you this position, be-
was adopted to describe the clubs, taverns, inns, or coffee houses where cause it got you out of the country. As gentry
they met up in secret. Some information about Molly Houses hints at a go, this lot aren’t so bad. They even listen to you
cross-dressing or drag culture, many, but not all were brothels, others were
a social club for like-minded people to meet. hold forth about the rights of man and universal
178
 suffrage, and put up with you doing the absolute
bare minimum of the job you’re technically em-
THE MONSTER
ployed to do. What is the worst that this character can become?
This section gives an idea (and an alibi) for the
Nonetheless, you’re fond of a few of them. Some
player to do terrible things in the Villa.
of them even seem to believe in their own princi-
ples: free love, liberty, mutual consent. Your monster manifests as a voice inside you
which is completely free from the doubts that so
Consent is the key. To wield power over another
often wrack you. You have heard this voice all
without their consent is the only true sin. You
your life, only now it is getting more insistent.
can’t stand to see men whose philosophies you
The world is full of evil and humanity is full of
so admire on paper bullying their lovers and
wickedness. You, The Zealot, have a mission on
pushing their boundaries. Domination must be
this earth to cleanse this wickedness and make the
given freely, not terrorised or wheedled or cheat-
weak and sinful pay for their crimes. Everything
ed or swindled out of the weak or helpless. You
you do, every act of debauchery, sex, or violence,
have given a lot of thought to how a free citizen
is instructed by the voice in God’s name to de-
might voluntarily give power to another. Or to a
stroy these terrible people2. The monster will
lover. You think about what it might be like to
lead them, seduce and traduce them, and then
dare someone to do their worst. To stop running,
take everything away from them so that they may
just for a second, and surrender. You spend your
face the Judgement of the Lord. The irony is –
life fighting against terrifying, traumatising odds.
as you have turned away from God – that this
What would it be like to lose on purpose?
makes the monster more alluring.
It’d take a fearful amount of wine to get you to
This voice is crueller than you and gives you the
ask to be mastered like that. You have to be in
alibi to punish all those you feel resent you and
control, because you have to be ready, always,
look down upon you - and to punish yourself.
to fight, or to flee. And here, isolated from your
After all, we are often our own cruellest judge.
friends, you find yourself hungering even harder
to give up that control. To break the rules so bad- There are various ways you can play on this, but
ly you push them to punish you. To let yourself we suggest a slow progression during Canto two.
be disciplined by someone who earned that pow- It starts with the voice only audible to you, and
er. To distract yourself from this possibly coun- then a few whispers before becoming more ob-
ter-revolutionary impulse, you are composing a vious. To begin with the voice is only heard from
worthy short treatise against the Corn Laws. Re- another room, or from behind, or as a whisper.
cently, Lord Byron offered to correct your spell- Rather than it being obvious that it is you who is
ing and you almost bit through your pen nib. speaking.
Face it, you’re nothing but tuppenny trash. You’re Use the monster as your alibi to exact revenge or
a delicious filthy little Jago shirt-lifter and a god- beg for punishment. The voice will tell all that
damn radical and if you ever you meet god, you can hear it of the price of sin.
WILL damn him for a tyrant. And he’ll tell you
to fall on your knees, and you’ll tell him, “Make Keep an eye on your poet– who shares the same
Me.”
2 See Gil-Martin from The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justi-
fied Sinner by James Hogg (1824)
179
 monster – and, if it works for you to do so, may- William Fletcher
be pass the voice back and forth between you so
that only one of you is speaking with the voice at Fletcher is the House Steward, that means he
a time; the other is simply a whimpering victim presides over all servants in the house, including
of the monster. you. He supervises dining room affairs, manag-
es the wine cellar and all spirits. He manages all
domestic affairs, including servants visiting from
other households. In matters of the running of
SERVANTS the Villa, he is answerable only to the master. He
is another who wields power over you. Whilst he
Your Role rarely loses his temper, he has been known to get
You are normally one of Byron’s footmen, how- drunk and take his frustrations out on some of
ever you have been promoted to be the Valet de the other servants, particularly when they have
Chambre to Doctor Polidori3 – or as we know, failed to meet his standards.
simply the valet. A valet is responsible for his
Fletcher is a man caught up in the fiction of the
master’s person: you prepare the master’s toilette,
aristocracy. He is absurdly invested in his current
including coiffure. Before bed and upon waking,
gentleman, Percy. You know that even a libertine
you are at Polidori’s disposal. You are expected
like Fletcher is a better man than Percy and you
to be a master of fashion, as your primary role
would like to see him throw off his chains of
is to care after the master’s appearance, includ-
servitude.
ing the care and selection of clothing, and must
undress and dress him. You are responsible for
his master’s modish presentation to the world. As
well as fetching and carrying and providing any Elise Duvillard
other services they request, you act as a confi-
dante, confessor, and guide to your poet. This is The maid servant to Miss Godwin is called Elise.
an additional challenge working for Polidori as She is devout in her religious belief and consid-
you have never done this before and are hope- ers sex with men to be inherently sinful, she must
lessly out of your depth. You should also resent therefore think of you to be utterly
being the servant to a servant – surely it is slightly depraved and disgusting. Ironical-
degrading – and yet being forced to serve anoth- ly, for you, she represents a kind
er in this way is . . . 4 of purity that is out of reach.
She makes you feel unwor-
thy, broken, and so very sad.
You are complete oppo-
3 At the larp you will workshop with your poet how you act as his/her sites in every way and
servant. The following is based on a real task list of what a valet would do yet there is a strange
at the time. You are not required to do all of it during the larp, unless you
and the player of Doctor Polidori agree that this will create the best play sympathy between
experience for both of you. you. The sympathy
of the common man,
or something more specific?
4 For some of the runs Polidori will be played as a female character. In
this instance the assignment of Rushton as her valet is a deliberate choice
by Lord Byron to humiliate Rushton, or Polidori, or both.
180
 Amelia (“Milly”) Shields
Whereas Miss Clairmont’s maid servant, Milly
is anything but chaste. There is some spark be-
tween you like the electricity that so fascinates
society. You are not sure what it is; if it is lust it
is certainly not the normal kind. You recognise,
perhaps, a kindred spirit here, but will need to be
cautious about how you explore and understand
what that means. Most of all you are friends.
ting. The only thing holding science back are the
weak stomachs of religious cowards.
The doctor is neither servant nor master, and yet
s/he seeks to climb. You understand it, but it is
also a betrayal of your own ideals. However, s/
he talks to you, solicits advice and is quite easi-
ly influenced, so perhaps you can make him/her
understand the way society should work?

You are filled with righteous zeal, but the words

don’t always come. Milly has words bursting out OTHER POETS
of her, though she seems content to use them to
weave fantasies rather than new realities. Perhaps
Claire Clairmont
you can persuade her to change that? Claire has lived most of her life surrounded by
radicals. She is free from her sister’s complacency
Giovanni Battista Falcier (“Tita”) and seems to burn with the same fierce dissatis-
Tita, Lord Byron’s cassiatore, bodyguard, and faction with the status quo as you do. It might be
sometimes valet is – if anything – more of a man interesting to talk to her about this.
than Byron. He is loud and aggressive and strong,
so very strong. He could easily tie you in knots.
Your attempts at flirtation seem clumsy and you Lord Byron
worry that Tita is getting irritated by you. Tita
should be brought to understand that he is worth Lord Byron is such a bad man, you can’t stop
one hundred Lord Byron’s. staring at him. He plays games with his so-called
friends and loves to tear them all down. You can
understand why he was run out of England. No
one who has met him could think of upholding
YOUR POET the right of the landed classes to rule. At the
same time, his lack of inhibition in the pursuit of
Doctor Polidori sexual gratification is sort of fascinating.
You currently serve Polidori while s/he also is
employed by Byron. S/he is young and clever
and desperate to prove himself/herself. Polidori Mary Godwin
might see himself/herself as lesser than the other
lords and ladies at this villa, but you see him/her Mary has a brilliant mind and a brilliant pen,
as a radical genius - someone who defies the ex- sharper than she likes people to see. Her parents
pectations of class and status and who is ready to are free thinkers and you think perhaps in a bet-
do whatever it takes to cure disease. If anything, ter world she could be persuaded to the cause.
Polidori doesn’t go far enough. You wish to push A conversation with her about radical politics
him/her to be more radical, more adventurous would be interesting, more interesting still would
in his/her mesmerising and in his/her blood-let-
181
 be to turn that topic to matters of domination
and control.
Percy Shelley
Percy Shelley’s writing is clear as day: he too has •
rejected the tyranny of God. What is more, he
wants the world to be a better place. He is charm-
ing and when he speaks to you and looks at you,
you believe he means every word he writes down
on paper. He seems to prefer the company of
women, but you wish he would share his feelings
with you.
182
INTERACTIONS
These are some suggestions for scenes you could
play, actions you could take, or interactions you
could explore during the larp. There are also
tasks here that we need you to carry out!
The Doctor gambles. Taking money from a
doctor is a delight, but sometimes you want
to gamble for different stakes. Can you per-
suade the Doctor (or others) to engage in a
game where the pain and humiliation of the
loser is at stake? If so, you will delight in los-
ing.
• Tell a ghost story about a hanged man haunt-
ing the square where he was unjustly hanged.
See if you can make one of these effete poets
panic.
• Dress as a woman and express your true self
to these so-called radicals.
• Help your fellow servants realise that they
owe loyalty to no one here but themselves.
• Make the mistake of sharing your seditious
writings with Claire, and thus give her power
over you. Power she didn’t earn. Wiggle like a
worm on the hook.
• You can see that Percy is suffering from ter-
rible nightmares. Perhaps you and Doctor
Polidori could find out where Percy’s night-
mares are coming from either with mesmer-
ising or with a knife? After all, you have heard
of great success treating illness of the mind
with ice baths and with leeches.
• TASK: Sometime during the second Canto,
admit that you put laudanum in the wine.
• At the height of the laudanum experience,
admit to Elise how she makes you feel.
• Lord Byron is terrified of leeches, and al-
though he has been good to you, sometimes
you wish you could feel power over someone
else. Perhaps you and the good doctor could
 find a way to strap the lord to a table and Descend into destruction
place leeches all over him. You would tell him
it’s for his own good, and you would watch There is no hope left. The monster, being a crea-
him squirm. ture of truth and of justice, forces your confes-
sion that you are a wanted criminal. Tell them,
all of them. Suggest to them that they must be
the hand of justice. Let the laudanum nightmares
RUSHTON’S REDEMPTION consume you and the rising horror will turn the
others in the Villa into the Judge, the Confessor,
OR DESTRUCTION and finally the Executioner. You give up, if they
When the clock strikes twelve, you have to can’t punish you, they might as well throw you
choose between redemption or destruction; ei- out the gate. No matter where you go, you will be
ther happiness for yourself and the destruction whipped for your crimes and then you will hang
of your poet, or your descent into self destruc- - even if it takes place only in your imagination.
tion to ensure your poet is saved. These ideas are
suggestions, which way these stories end is ulti-
mately up to you.

Rushton realises that there is nothing left for him

here. Rushton can either:

Seek redemption

Destroy the believer. Show Polidori that either

there is no God, or that God has abandoned
him/her as a sinner. By convincing Polidori there
is no future for him/her in the love of Lords,
you can begin your path towards freedom. This
will be ruinous for the doctor, but through those
sweet tears of despair you will take the first steps
towards revolution. Show the faux liberals of the
Villa are nothing but words and fancy poetry and
complacency. Rather than fighting earnestly for a
better society they stay here on their high horse.
They will never agree to publish your revolution-
ary writing, you should leave their employment
to find true radicals.

183
MATERIALS
CHAPTER 5
 Timeline 1791
Luigi Galvani publishes his discoveries in “ani-

T his section is provided to give some context mal electricity” (Galvanism)

about the state of the world at the time the
larp takes place. Starting in this case from the September 30 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s op-
birth of Byron in 1788 up to and including the era The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) premières
year the larp is set, 1816. We have listed major
December 5 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies
political events that might have affected the lives
of the characters. This includes the Napoleonic 1792
Wars, major political events in Britain, and some
European artistic and scientific events. We ac- William Murdoch invents gas lighting.
knowledge that this period was important to oth-
er countries; the wars in the Nordic countries and The First French Republic
in America were fundamental to the age.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman is published.

Birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley

1788
1793
January 1 – The first edition of The Times, pre-
viously The Daily Universal Register, is published January 21 – After being found guilty of treason
in London by the French National Convention, Citizen Ca-
pet, Louis XVI of France, is guillotined in Paris.
January 22 – Birth of George Gordon Byron, 6th
Baron Byron, English poet 1794
1789 Publication of The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne
Radcliffe - The novel tells of Emily St. Aubert,
French Revolution begins when the Ancient Ré- who suffers misadventures that include the death
gime was abolished in favour of a constitutional of her mother and father, supernatural terrors in
monarchy. a gloomy castle, and machinations of an Italian
brigand.
February 4 – George Washington is unanimously
elected the first President of the United States, Erasmus Darwin publishes the first edition of
Zoonomia, a medical work in two volumes that
Andrew Duncan delivers the first lectures on fo-
touches upon proto-evolutionary concepts, nota-
rensic medicine in Britain, at the University of
bly arguing that all extant organisms are descend-
Edinburgh.
ed from one common ancestor. The work will
later influence his grandson, Charles Darwin.

185
 1795 Andrea Vaccà Berlinghieri publishes Traité des
maladies vénériennes (Treatise on venereal diseases)
Birth of John Polidori
Robert Fulton builds a practical experimental
Birth of Elise Duvillard manually-propelled naval submarine Nautilus in
France
1796
1801
“The Retreat” established in York, England; it
pioneers the humane treatment of people with Thomas Jefferson elected President of the Unit-
mental disorders. ed States

May 14 – Edward Jenner administers the first The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom
smallpox vaccination of Ireland merge to form the United Kingdom.

1797 1802
Napoleon’s invasion and partition of the Repub- Ludwig van Beethoven performs his Moonlight So-
lic of Venice ends over 1,000 years of independ- nata for the first time.
ence for the Serene Republic.
May 6 – William Herschel coins the term aster-
Birth of Mary Shelley oid and on July 1 first uses the term binary star
to refer to a star which revolves around another.
1798
June– The first account of Thomas Wedgwood’s
Birth of Claire Clairmont experiments in photography is published by
Humphry Davy in the Journal of the Royal In-
1799 stitution in London.Since a fixative for the im-
age has not yet been developed, the early photo-
Napoleon appointed First Consul
graphs quickly fade
July 15 – In the Egyptian port city of Rosetta
(Rashid), French Captain Pierre Bouchard finds
1803
the Rosetta Stone, which will become the key to War breaks out between Britain and France; this
deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writ- is considered by some to be the beginning of the
ing. Napoleonic Wars.
1800 April 26 – A meteorite shower falls on L’Aigle in
Normandy; Jean Baptiste Biot demonstrates that
Probable birth of Amelia Shields
it is of extraterrestrial origin
September – Philippe Pinel publishes Traité méd-
ico-philosophique sur l’aliénation mentale ou la manie
1804
(Medical and philosophical Treatise on insanity or ma- Austrian Empire founded by Francis I.
nia) which marked the beginning of an in-depth
change in the approaches and methods of work Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of the
with “lunatics” French.
186
 World population reaches 1 billion. 1812
First steam locomotive begins operation. The French invasion of Russia is a turning point
German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner first iso- in the Napoleonic Wars.
lates morphine from opium - probably the first Publication of The Brothers Grimm – Grimm’s
ever isolation of a natural plant alkaloid. Fairy Tales, volume 1
1805 February 27 - Lord Byron gives his first address
as a member of the British House of Lords, in
The Battle of Trafalgar eliminates the French and
defence of Luddite violence against industrial-
Spanish naval fleets and allows for British domi-
ism.
nance of the seas, a major factor for the success
of the British Empire later in the century. March 20 – First two cantos of Byron’s poem
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage are published in London
1807 by John Murray. This sells out in five days, giving
Britain declares the Slave Trade illegal in Britain rise to Byron’s comment “I awoke one morning
(Slavery is not finally abolished across the Em- and found myself famous. “
pire and Colonies until 1833)
1813
1808 Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice
Beethoven performs his Fifth Symphony
1814
Goethe’s Faust, Part One (Faust. Eine Tragödie, erster
Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.
Teil) is published in full
February 1 - Lord Byron’s semi-autobiographical
Bryan Donkin patents a steel nib pen in England.
tale in verse The Corsair is published by John Mur-
1809 ray in London, and sells 10,000 copies on this day

Russia conquers Finland from Sweden in the June 12 – The poem She Walks in Beauty is written
Finnish War. by Lord Byron.

1810 1815
The University of Berlin was founded. Among The Congress of Vienna redraws the European
its students and faculty are Hegel, Marx, and Bis- map. Reaction and conservatism dominate all of
marck. Europe

1811 Napoleon escaped exile and began the Hundred

Days before finally being defeated at the Battle
February 5 – British Regency begins when: of Waterloo and exiled to St Helena. His defeat
George, Prince of Wales becomes Prince Regent, brings a conclusion to the Napoleonic Wars
because of the perceived insanity of his father,
King George III of the United Kingdom. January 2 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella

187
 Milbanke in Seaham, County Durham, England.

April –Mount Tambora in Sumbawa island erupts, becoming the largest volcanic eruption in record-
ed history, destroying Tambora culture, and killing at least 71,000 people, including its aftermath. The
eruption created global climate anomalies known as “volcanic winter”.

June 18 – Napoleonic Wars – Battle of Waterloo: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and Geb-
hard Leberecht von Blücher decisively defeat Napoleon.

1816
Year Without a Summer: Unusu-
ally cold conditions wreak havoc
throughout the Northern Hem-
isphere, likely influenced by the 1815
explosion of Mount Tambora.

René Laennec invented the stethoscope.

February 20 – Gioachino Rossini’s

opera The Barber of Seville premières
at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

July – Lord Byron, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin,

Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Polidori, gathered
at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Swit-
zerland, and tell each other tales. This gives rise
to two classic gothic narratives: Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein, and Polidori’s The Vampyre.

188
189
 One may imagine how these simple principles
Harris’s list of escalation may be applied to any number of
thrilling and delicate practices. However, should
of your imagination fail you, fear not: in the follow-
ing pages, the hopeful swain will find a helpful
intimate moments & pleasure guide to the etiquette of erotic simulation.

For the Year 1816

KISSING
G reetings, faithful reader. In this year’s
edition of the erotic play-book the
humble editors have applied themselves Mouth to mouth
to the delicate matter of play: how to ‘My hand’ - Place a hand or fingers upon your
structure and escalate intimate moments partner and lay lascivious kisses upon said hand.
between yourself and the object or, as it
may be, objects of your affection. ‘Your hand’ - If they wish to, your partner might
decide to replace the hand with their own.
To avoid scandal, we advise a practice of slow
escalation when performing any erotic act. All ‘No hand’ - mouth to mouth kissing. Participants
discerning gentlemen understand the importance may prefer to enliven the experience with the ju-
of what discerning ladies call foreplay. Your ed- dicious application of tongues.
itors would encourage you practice manual sim-
ulation - that is, acts of amorous play employing
the hands.
FINGERPLAY
One may escalate as follows:

‘My hand’: Simulate first upon your own hand, as

Hand to vulva
if your hand were a part of your lover’s body. Let ‘My hand’ - Place your hand or fingers on the
yourself be guided by your partner’s response. side of your swain’s knee and move it around to
simulate
‘Your hand’: When and if they are ready, your
partner may opt to offer you their hand in place ‘Your hand’ - The object of your affection forms
of your own. a ‘quim’ with their hand on their lower inner
thigh. You may move your hand or fingers there.
‘No hand’: Should matters progress, your partner
may choose to remove their hand, allowing you ‘No hand’- If they move away their hand, you
to move directly upon their body- but retaining can move your fingers onto the recipient’s upper
the undergarments, lest scandal and disaster be- inner thigh.
fall your hosts.

In all cases, eye contact may intensify the expe-

rience.

190
 TOSSING OFF
The ‘handjob’
‘My hand’ - Place fingers to be a phallus and
form a fist around it with your other hand, then
move your fist and down on the inner side of
your lover’s knee.

‘Your hand’ - Let your partner replace your fin-

gers with their own and let your hands intertwine,
continue moving the fist up and down.

‘No hand’ - The fingers are removed, and the fist

is placed close against the recipient’s upper inner
thigh and move it up and down.

PENETRATION WITH
OBJECT
Object to orifice
If you desire, we suggest that you describe
your actions during this specific act. It is
especially a good idea if you are unable to
establish eye contact with your partner.

‘My hand’ - Clench your hand and form a hole

with and gently place it in the vicinity of the re-
cipient’s orifice. Insert the object of choice into
the hole in your hand.

‘Your hand’ - Now the recipient forms a hole

with their hand(s) and place it
above the orifice. You fuck the
hand hole with the object.

191
 ‘No hand’ - Using the length of the object, slide
it against your lover’s body, somewhere in the vi-
cinity of the area. The business end should not FELLATIO
be up against the hole.
Mouth to prick/gamahuching
INTERCOURSE
‘My hand’ - You may begin to suckle on your own
Simulated swiving/tupping/ thumb, and they may place their hand on your
head, as if to encourage your attentions.
‘dry humping’
‘Your hand’ - Your lover may escalate by present-
The eager reader is reminded that the practice of ing their thumb, held in a suggestive position, for
amorous arts need not revolve around the penis. your suckling.
We gently recommend you begin with another
technique from our menu, or perhaps- for the ‘No hand’ - Guiding your head with their hand
extremely daring- by reciting some poetry. and removing their finger you can continue to
kiss, suck and lick your lover’s inner thigh.
Pillow buffer - place a pillow on the area of the
crotch or rear. Grind the front of the pelvis
against the pillow.

No buffer - also known as ‘dry humping’. Grind

RIMMING
the front of the pelvis against the general area of
the desired penetration. Mouth to anus
‘My hand’ - Hands closed together on the top
of the other party’s lower back. Press your face
against the back of your own hands.
CUNNILINGUS
‘Your hand’ - Hands closed together to the re-
Mouth to vulva cipient. Press your face against the back of your
own hands.
‘My hand’ - Place your hand on the side of their
knee or inner thigh, and then place your mouth ‘No hand’ - Hands on the hips, press your face
on the back of your own hand. directly on your partner’s backside. For the full
effect, it may be best to angle yourselves opposite
‘Your hand’ - The subject of your passion. Places any observers.
their hand on the side of their own knee or inner
thigh. You may then place your mouth on the
back of their hand.

‘No hand’ - You may kiss, suck and lick your lov-
er’s inner thigh as if it were a whim.

192
 Briefings
T here are a couple of briefings that
need to be given to the players of
Lord Byron, Claire, and Milly. Ideally
minutes

If people have successfully remained hidden for

long enough, Byron can end the game by calling
these will be sent out ahead of the larp out “Come out, Come out, Wherever you are!.”
so they have a chance to assimilate the in-
structions and ask any questions. Whilst
these can be given out on-site or players
and play-testers much preferred having
them in advance.

Hide & Seek (Byron)

Gothic begins with a game of hide & seek. As the
music fades out and the sound of rainfall starts,
Byron will already have started a slow count to
one hundred. We think he starts counting at
thirteen . . .

For everyone other than Byron and Tita this is a

signal that it is time to run and hide. The Villa
is large and there are plenty of places where you
might be able to conceal yourself. Please do not
hide in the off-game areas.

Once Byron reaches a hundred, he will call out

“Coming, ready or not!” And the hunt will be
on. Tita and Byron are the hunters and Byron
has promised terrible consequences for those
discovered, with the most terrible for whosoever
he and Tita discover first1.

You may only remain in your hiding place for

two minutes (approximately a slow count of one
hundred) and then you must move to another
hiding spot.

This scene should last no longer than twenty

1 We leave the details of this up to you.

193
 utes
Séance Briefing(Claire & Milly)
It will end immediately after Milly delivers her
messages, when Claire has a panic attack, breaks
Claire the circle, and runs screaming from the room.

At the start of the second Canto Claire will host

a short séance where you will collectively try to
contact the spirits of the dead. You will be re-
Milly
sponsible for running the ritual elements of this Milly, these are the messages we would like you to
and asking any questions of the spirits. deliver as a voice from the other side:
Claire will be the Medium, and her servant, Milly,
who will be the vessel through which the spirits
communicate. • “One of you will be acknowledged as the
greatest writer of your generation”
For the séance itself you may collectively decide • “One of you will be the most important poet
for Milly to be restrained; this was a way of prov- of the age”
ing that the vessel was not interfering in any way
• “One of you will never be published”
with the situation of the prepared room. Bound
either to a chair or upon the table, you may po- • “One of you will die by their own hand”
sition the poets and other servants as you will • “One of you will die by drowning”
- sitting or standing, in a room lit by candle light,
• “All of you will die alone”
having them form a circle holding hands and
perform a gentle chant as you prepare for your After the seance, Milly will be broken, tearful,
trance. There is a Ouija board available if you and terrified, warning anyone who might listen
wish to use it as a prop. about the shadows that have turned their eyes
upon them and upon this place. Whilst Milly
The purpose of this scene is to start the gothic/
has performed this sort of act before it has been
supernatural elements of the Canto in progress.
in sport, this time she’s genuinely frightened.
Use it as a foreshadowing. The spirits that are
summoned (if indeed they are real) will continue
to be a part of the larp, but the experience is not
about putting the genie back into the bottle, ex-
orcising ghosts, or otherwise making the larp into
Regency Scooby Doo.

Milly has been given a set of key messages to

deliver in a separate handout, however you can
improvise around other ghosts, spirits, and mes-
sages from the other side.

This scene should last no longer than 10-15 min-

194
 Player letters

A t the end of the larp, after the five minute pause, we offered the players a letter
written by their character and addressed to them. They were invited to read the
letter now, or later, or never. They were told they could keep it or burn it unread.
The choice was theirs. The letters give some clue as to the ultimate fate of the serv-
ants and some detail about the lives of the poets after the events of the summer
of 1816.

195
 Farewell to Mary Godwin

Dearest Mary,

After the suicide of Percy’s first wife, Harriet, you finally became Mary Shelley.
What is more, the novel that was inspired by the events of this weekend was published,
first under a pseudonym and finally under your real name.
Your relationship with Percy remained passionate and painful; you never managed to
make him perfect.
Percy sailed his boat into a storm and drowned. You were not allowed to bring his
body home because of the plague laws, and his remains were burned on the beach.
You never got to say goodbye to him. You kept his desiccated heart, stolen from the
pyre, with you.
You continued to write beautiful words and stories of imagined futures.
The headaches got worse.
You died alone, whispering a name, but whether it was Percy or Elise we shall never
know.

196
 Farewell to Lord Byron

Dearest L. B.,

After the events of the summer, you lived another eight years. Each year more dramatic
than the next, you seduced a string of married women and caused scandal wherever you
went.
You finally managed to cut Claire Clairmont out of your life by promising to care
for the daughter she claimed was yours. You named the child Allegra, meaning joyful
or lively. Although you had sworn never to leave her side, you quickly grew tired of the
little girl and put her in a convent. There, she caught a fever which claimed her life. She
became five years old. Claire never contacted you again.
Your poetry continued to inspire and move people from all over, and you kept writing for
the rest of your life. Becoming inspired by the cause of Greek independence, you went
to Greece and joined the cause. Probably expecting to be a hero, you instead ended up
failing to gather troops and spending all of your money paying for support.
On the eve of one of your battles against the Ottoman empire, you fell ill. Your doctors
insisted on bleeding you severely with leeches. This only worsened your condition, and
you fell terminally ill. Both T ita and Fletcher cried at your deathbed, and you died
holding T ita’s hand. Your final words were in Italian:
“Oh queste é uma bella cena.” — Oh this is a beautiful scene.
Despite your wishes, your body was returned to England to be buried. You never
found love.

197
 Farewell to Claire Clairmont

Dearest Claire,

The baby was Byron’s. She was born only a few months after your trip to Geneva.
You let Byron name her, hoping it would persuade him to care for her the way a father
should. In your diary, she was your angel, and your most beloved. He could have
her Christian name.
Allegra, he called her, an Italian name meaning joyful, or lively. Still, he refused to
accept her into his home unless you promised to yield all contact with the two of them.
Your counter condition was the guarantee that your daughter would never be separated
from both of her parents, and you made him swear it.
Of course, he betrayed you. Allegra was put into an Italian convent, despite such places
being known for their poor conditions. It went so far that you planned to kidnap her
from that wretched place. To succeed, you needed Percy’s help. He refused.
Shortly thereafter, Allegra died of a fever. She became five years old. At that point,
you hadn’t been allowed to visit her for two years. You never forgave Byron, and spent
the rest of your life hating the man you once loved.
You lived in several European countries, working as a governess, companion and music
teacher. Although you were pursued, you refused to marry, and had no other children.
You passed peacefully in your bed at the age of eighty, having outlived all the other
poets from that summer. You died hoping that “my memory may not be lost in oblivion
as my life has been”.
You were never published.
198
 Farewell to Percy Shelley

Dearest Percy,

After the year without a summer, you kept writing, you kept loving, and you kept hal-
lucinating. The nightmares and horrors only grew worse, and at one point you were
plagued by visions of you strangling Mary. Your condition affected your marriage
deeply. It all became too much for Mary, who grew increasingly depressed.
In June 1822, Mary almost died. Your knowledge of first aid saved her, though
there wasn’t much left to save at that point. Around that time, you describe in a letter to a
friend how all sympathy has died between you and your wife. Perhaps with time it could
have been reanimated. You didn’t live long enough to find out.
Less than a month after Death’s first attempt on Mary, he came for you. It was as
if the storm from that fateful summer in Geneva had been summoned out of nowhere. You
and the other sailors on the lake didn’t stand a chance. Some say you knew what was
coming, and took the boat out despite the looming storm. Some say it was because of it.
It took ten days before your body was washed ashore, bloated and decomposed beyond
recognition. They declared your death in the paper shortly thereafter:
“Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned,
now he knows whether there is a God or no.”

199
 Farewell to Polidori

Dearest Doctor Polidori,

After your inevitable dismissal by Lord Byron shortly after the summer of 1816, you
travelled across Europe and finished a short story entitled The Vampyre, which was
published without your permission and credited to Byron.
You remained besotted with Mary and wrote to her often, but she never replied to any
of your letters. A part of you hoped she never received them. The other part knew she
always did.
By the summer of 1821, weighed down by a sense of failure and mounting gambling
debt, you took your own life by drinking poison.
Looking back, that dark summer of 1816 was the happiest time of your life.

200
 Farewell to Elise Duvillard

Dearest Elise,

You stayed with the Shelleys for a while after the Year of No Summer, but when
Mary discovered that you were pregnant, she insisted you marry the presumed father, an
Italian servant named Paolo Foggi.
It is unlikely that Paolo was indeed the father, as he was employed much too late.
Therefore, it is speculated that your child was Percy’s, and that Mary knew.
Although it is likely that the love between you and Mary was real, it did not survive
your marriage. The only contact you had afterwards were two letters you sent the
Shelleys, both containing blackmail for something lost to history.

201
 Farewell to Tita

Dearest T ita,

You stayed with Byron until his death. You and Fletcher were both at his deathbed,
weeping as you saw his end approach. Fletcher, unable to compose himself, walked out of
the room. But you stayed, as always, holding your master’s hand until the end. You
never forgot his half-smile as he said his last words — to you — in Italian:
“Oh questa é uma bella cena.” — Oh this is a beautiful scene.
Your life after this was one of adventure. You served as valet to several important people
and even fought in the Greek war of Independence before marrying and raising a family.
Your legacy lived on in a number of stories and fictional characters.

202
 Farewell to Amelia Shields

Dearest Milly,

You stayed with Claire when she left the Villa, and was briefly even a nursemaid to
Allegra, her daughter with Byron. However, a little over fourteen months later, you
and Claire parted ways.
It was an acrimonious parting, with you losing your position in Venice, where you
knew no one and did not speak the language. That was a cold winter, and you caught a
chill that left you much weakened. A chill that kept haunting you through the remainder
of your short life.
It was the kindness of Doctor Polidori, who sent you a small sum, that allowed you
to travel back to England. Nevertheless, it was not enough to keep you out of death’s
cold grasp.
Your first novel, Memories of a Woman of Unknown Substance, was published in
1821, though you did not live to see it. Instead, you died alone, buried in an unmarked
pauper’s grave. Just like the spirits predicted. Or was it you all along?

203
 Farewell to William Fletcher

Dearest William,

You loved Byron most of all and best of all. At his deathbed you cried so hard you
had to leave the room, and even at his funeral you collapsed by his coffin, in public.
Byron told you that he cared for you as well, and promised you that he would look
after you once he was gone. However, he had not put anything about a pension for you
in his will, and thus you were left with nothing.
You married and started a family and a business, with middling success. You had to
rely on Byron’s half-sister Augusta for funds, and when she could no longer support
you, your decline and rapid death followed shortly after.
Surely Byron meant to take care of you. Surely he too loved you as you loved him.
Surely.
Your fondest memory was before Lord Byron’s death, when you were living in Greece.
When guests came to visit they observed that you were so comfortable together that you
would clear the table together after meals.
Whether that moment was enough to last a lifetime, only you can know.

204
 Farewell to Susan Vaughn

Dearest Susan,

While in the employment of Lord Byron, you initiated an affair with both him and
his servant Robert Rushton. Byron forgave Rushton, but dismissed you coldly.
You returned to London but could not find new employment. Destitute, you wanted to
sell one of the finer dresses Byron had given you, but you were afraid that you would be
accused of stealing. Therefore, you wrote to Byron asking if he could write back and
confirm that the dress was a gift and not stolen. We do not know if he ever answered.
You only sent him one more letter, saying you would have been very pleased to see him
one last time before you sailed. It is not clear where you were sailing to, but perhaps you
emigrated and built a better life for yourself on a different continent, far from the madness
of the poet and his friends. It is a nice thought, if nothing else.

205
 Farewell to Robert Rushton

Dearest Robert,

Lord Byron wanted to forgive you. No matter what crimes you committed, no matter
which of his trusts you betrayed. When you seduced the servant that he himself was
dallying with, he wrote to you saying that you would be forgiven, that he trusted you,
that you would never betray his trust.
You did, of course, time and time again. Whatever your reasons - and at nights in
years to come you often lay awake recounting them as though to some unseen confessor -
you believed yourself to be untouchable. When Byron left Italy to head to Greece,
you were left behind. A stranger in a land you did not really understand. Byron had
ruined you as a servant and you found it impossible to find work.
Your decline was not swift. Years of rot slowly overtaking you, with cold in your
bones and nagging hunger eating away at the pain inside.
Your death, like so many people of your generation, went unnoticed; quite outshone by
poets and revolutionaries. You died with a bottle of laudanum in your hand and a copy
of The Vampyre by your bed. Had you finished reading it before you died you
would have seen, on the final page, inscribed ‘to my friend Robert Rushton’ and signed
by Doctor Polidori. Even that small mercy was lost to you.

206
FOOD DESIGN
CHAPTER 6
 Food for poets

Designed by Maria Østerby Elleby and Anna Kathrine

Werge Bønnelycke

A poet cannot survive on trauma and

hallucinations alone. They must also
eat. For that, we have compiled a menu
and walk through of our thoughts on
food for Gothic.
The players were served two in-game meals - af-
ternoon tea and dinner. The breakfast and
lunch were served off-game and were main-
ly porridge, bread and a variety of spreads,
cheese and cold cuts.

We wanted the food served during the

game to be more than just sustenance.
We wanted it to blend in to, and en-
hance, the setting and player experi-
ence.

The larp is set in 1816, which is solidly in

the Regency-era. We have based the
menu mainly on recipes from the
era, found in British and Danish
cookbooks and adapted for the
modern kitchen and the dietary
restrictions.

208
 Byron, Percy, and Mary Shelley were vegetari-
ans, and Byron was quite extreme with his diets.
Sometimes he would eat only crackers and drink
water with vinegar. That can be a rather extreme
diet for most, so we instead chose to look to the
many flavourful vegetarian dishes of the time,
which could enhance the visual aesthetic of the
organisers’ larp design for Gothic.

We went with the following principles:

The food should:

• Be historical(ly inspired).
• Add to the atmosphere and game, meaning
several dishes, food you can interact with
(more about this under “‘What the fuck?!’-
food”).
• Be mainly vegetarian/vegan.

A practical note on signs:

We made small signs to go with every dish, so the

players had a clue about what they were eating.
In the runs where it was necessary to distinguish
between vegan and vegetarian, or mark allergies,
it was also written on these signs.

209
 Afternoon tea On the serving (of dinner):

The afternoon tea took place in the drawing From the middle of the 17th century and well
room and was meant to be somewhat informal into the 19th century dinners were, at least when
and relaxed. guests were entertained, served á la Française. In
this form of dining a course consists of several
The edibles are served buffet-style and large pots dishes that are all laid out on the table. The diners
of tea are placed on the table. Cups (saucers, are helping themselves and are choosing whatev-
plates etc.) are placed, either on the buffet or at er they fancy.
the table/tables where people are expected to sit
down. It is generally expected that the players can We have tried to recreate this (albeit in a much
move around and sit down wherever they want more modest way), by having many smaller dish-
during the tea. es and one or two “center” dishes.

The table was laid with the first course when the
players entered the dining room. Firstly the soup
What we served: was served individually and when the host gave
• Scones with butter and jam the sign, the soup dishes were cleared away and
the guest began eating the first course. After a
• Sandwiches
fitting amount of time, when it seemed no one
• Fruitcake wanted more (or when the host decided) the
• Cookies food was cleared away, making room for the next
course. This course consisted of sweet dishes,
• Tart(s)
trifles and cheese.

Dinner A note on the practicalities of the din-

The dinner consists of several smaller dishes (see ner-scene:
“On the serving (of dinner”).
During the game we decided to close the door to
We made two menus and alternated between the dining-room and instruct the players to stay
these two, so the players playing two days in a in there during dinner. It both served as a pres-
row, would not be served the same twice (and so sure-cooker for the dinner-scene, as the players
the kitchen crew would not go insane with cook- were confined to stay in the dining setting, and
ing the same meal every day). We have included allowed the crew to alter the scenography in the
two suggestions for menus as well as recipes for rest of the house.
most of the food cooked at the larp.

210
211
 Suggested Menus:

Day one

Soup
Pease soup

First course

Shelley’s Pie

Broccoli served cold with capers

Vegetables served the Italian way

Cauliflower Curry

Rice a l’Indienne (w. cardamom and cloves)

Boiled potatoes w. butter and parsley

Salad w. dressing on the side

Second course

Cheese

Dried fruit and preserves

Fresh fruit

Cake or ice cream

Custard

212
213
214
 Day two

Soup
White Soup / soup a la Reine

First Course
Beetroot a la Byron

Peas

Spinach w. eggs

Macaroni

Boiled potatoes w. butter and parsley

Salad w. dressing on the side

Closed vegetable pie w. horseradish sauce

Second course

Cheese

Dried fruit and preserves

Fresh fruit

Cake or ice cream

Custard

215
 We used dehydrated buffalo-larvas that had been
‘What the fuck?!’- soaked in water for a couple of hours. This makes
them look disturbingly alive in dim lighting. They
are safe to eat, but gross.
food

The fruit bowl

M ainly because the kitchen crew have as twist-
ed minds as the rest of the crew, we pre- During the day a fruit bowl with fresh fruit was
pared a selection of food that was meant to mess placed in the drawing room. During dinner, the
with the player’s sense of reality. fruit in the bowl would be aged by heating ba-
nanas and apples in the oven to turn them mushy
These dishes were served as part of the desert.
and brown, burning the surface to make them
This also correlates with the time when the lau-
look mouldy and placing larvas in it. The bowl
danum the characters had (unknowingly) imbibed
was then placed exactly at the same place in the
would take its full effect. As such, it was left open
drawing room.
to the players to interpret, whether these “what
the fuck” dishes were in fact real or just part of
their hallucinations.
Bloody Cake
Only one of the following was used for a din-
ner, sometimes two, as we again did not want the Inside a delicious poundcake frosted with vegan
“what the fuck” food to feel less horror-like the whipped cream we had filled it with a very thick,
day after. The only exception was the last night blood-coloured cherry sauce. When cut into, it
of play, were we let out all of the “what the would seep and ooze out.
fucks”s to play.

Wine-jelly - liver-ish
The wine jelly was a happy coincidence. When
the red and yellow wine jelly did not turn out as
stiff as expected, we served it anyway, and the
players at once caught up on it, interacting with it
as if it was raw liver. It was made from gelatine,
and clearly marked as not-vegetarian or vegan.
Worm-cheese
A big platter with a very mature, blue cheese, gar-
nished with larvas.
Byron’s Diet
This was an extra optional fun side dish to all
meals - representing Byron’s occasional diet of
choice:
Dry crackers
Water with vinegar
(It should be stressed to the players — particular-
ly the person portraying Byron — that it is only
a fun thing they can choose to interact with, not
something they have to eat to the exclusion of
everything else.)

216
217
 RECIPES
“All human history attests
that happiness for man, -
the hungry sinner! -
Since Eve ate apples,
much depends on dinner”
Lord Byron
 AFTERNOON TEA
Scones
ca. 9 scones

3 cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

3 teaspoon baking powder

112 g vegan butter or margarine, cut into cubes

56 g brown sugar

180 ml oatmilk (or other non-dairy milk)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Add the butter and rub it in until the mix is crumbly. Mix
in the milk and lemon juice, the dough might still be sticky.

Dust your work surface with flour and transfer your dough. Dust your hands with flour and flatten
the dough until it is 2 cm thick. fold in the edges until you have a square. Fold it over and flatten it
out to 2 cm thickness. Dust with more flour, if the dough gets sticky.

Cut out as many scones as there is room for with a cookie-cutter or a glass. You can also cut them
into squares with a knife. Any leftover dough can be rolled up and flattened once again.

Preheat the oven to 220C. Place the scones on a baking-sheet and brush the top with milk. Bake in
the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden on top..

Serve with jam and butter

220
 Sandwiches
We included sandwiches to the afternoon tea to have something savoury.

You can put almost everything into a sandwich. For the tea, the important feature is that the sand-
wich bread should be as white as possible (and with the crust removed) and the filling easy to bite.
Cut the sandwiches into triangles or “fingers” before serving.

We made the following sandwiches:

Cucumber sandwich

Thinly sliced cucumber which has rested with salt and has been dried off and dripped with lemon
juice. Bread coated in cream cheese or margarine stirred with vegan cream. Pepper or paprika.

Egg-sandwich
Thinly sliced hard boiled eggs dripped with a bit of wine vinegar. Bread coated in “anchovy butter”
- margarine stirred with mashed anchovies.

Can be made with a thin layer of mayo and egg slices too, and for the adventurous, have some
sandwiches with just anchovy butter. It is delicious, but very salty and somewhat of an acquired
taste.

For quick mayo:

Crack one whole egg into a tall, slender jar, add a tablespoon mustard, a splash of vinegar, and
about two dl rapeseed oil or sunflower oil. Put in a stick blender, and blend from the bottom up,
slowly tilting the blender to add more oil. It will emulsify fast and become a tasty mayo. Too thin?
Slowly add more oil while blending, and it will become more thick.

Make it vegan:

Swap the whole egg for aquafaba (chick pea water) - same amount-ish. It will take longer to blend,
but will taste almost exactly the same.

221
 Fruitcake
225 g butter

225 g brown sugar

4 eggs, separated into yolks and whites

450 g flour

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

100 g candied peel of orange

500 g (or however much you like) dried fruit

25 g yeast

150 ml plant milk

4 tablespoons brandy or sherry

C akes, as we know them today, began to be found in the era. The many household books and
private cookbooks from the period shows that cake recipes were important and often shared
amongst friends and acquaintances.

A good fruitcake can keep for very long and is good for entertaining unexpected guests (or poets
that tend to fall hungry at all hours of the day).

Cream butter and sugar and beat in the egg yolks. Mix flour and nutmeg and add it to the creamed
butter. Beat in the dried fruit and candied peel.

Cream the yeast with a bit of the milk and mix it into the dough. Add the remaining milk to make
a stiff dough and add the brandy or sherry. Beat the egg whites stiff and white and fold them into
the dough. Let it rise in a warm corner for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 170C. Grease a round, loose based baking pan or a bundt cake form. Pour in the
batter and level it out. Bake the cake for 2 ½ hours, or until a knife comes out clean, when you
push it into the middle of the cake. If the surface begins to brown too much, cover it with baking
parchment.

222
 Cookies
Gluten free almond cookies

2,5 dl almond flour/ground almonds

1,5 dl sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

100 g margarine (can be substituted with oil, but be careful not to add too much)

You can add a bit of orange zest for a more regency flavour

Adding a bit of easy, gluten free snacks for the afternoon tea! These are loosely based on an Italian
regency recipe with orange water and egg whites, but yet again, made vegan in our version.

Mix all together, then make little balls of the mixture and put on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-12
minutes (or until golden) at 200 degrees. Let cool and enjoy.

223
 Pie
The pies were made with shortcrust pastry- You can use store bought or make it yourself from
whatever recipe you fancy from the internet. The flour can easily be substituted for gluten-free-
flour, but it might be very flaky and impossible to roll out and you might need to press it into the
form. Pre Bake the pie shell in the oven at around 200 C in 15-20 minutes.

For the filling we used a variety of (often frozen) fruit and berries.

Pear pie

Canned pear is cut into fairly thin slices and placed in whatever fancy fashion you like on the pre
baked shell. The liquid from the canned pears are boiled together with sugar, brandy or cooking
sherry, vanilla and cinnamon to a syrup-like consistency.

It is poured over the pears in the pie shell and baked for 20-30 min.

Plum pie

Chopped and frozen plums are slowly heated in a casserole. Take care not to boil them into a mush.
Remove them carefully from the casserole and place them in whatever fancy fashion you like in the
pre-baked pie shell. You can also decorate this pie with nuts, as for instance peeled almonds in star-
shapes.

Any liquid from the plums are boiled into syrup with sugar, allspice, cinnamon and brandy/cook-
ing sherry. The syrup is then poured over the plums in the pie shell and the pie is baked for 20-30
minutes.

Cherry pie

Frozen cherries (pitted is preferred) are placed in the pre-baked pie crust.

Make a syrup to cover by heating up some sugar with brandy or port, and add a generous pinch of
ground cloves. Add the tiniest pinch of salt, and cook until thick. Pour over the cherries and bake
the pie in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

224
225
 DINNER

Pease soup

2 medium yellow onions

600 g frozen green peas

150 g butter, chopped

½ - 1 l vegetable stock

Some sprigs each of mint and parsley

Salt and pepper

P ease soup is found in a broad variety in the late 18th and early 19th century cookbooks. It can
contain both cucumber and lettuce, but in our version, we have gone solely with peas.

Chop up the onions and sauté them in a pan with half of the butter until they are clear. Add the mint
leaves and pease and stir it for a minute or two. Pour in the vegetable stock and cook for 10 minutes
until the peas are completely cooked through. Chop the parsley and add to the soup and blend it
thoroughly. If the soup is too thick, add more stock, if too thin, boil it some, until it thickens. Add
the rest of the butter and let it melt. Season with salt and pepper.

226
 White soup / Soup a la reine

1 diced onion

A splash of oil

Sprig of thyme and rosemary

Bay leaves

1 litre of vegetable stock

Bit of lemon zest

1 dl rice

2 dl ground almond

1 dl vegan cream

Half a white bread - diced into cubes

Salt and (preferably) white pepper to taste

W hite Soup was quite a staple on the festive dinner table for the finer folks. It can be traced back
to medieval times, but was vastly popular during regency, and is referred to several times in Jane
Austen novels. As white food was generally considered fancy, such as fine, white bread or sugar, this
soup is a delicate and sophisticated soup meant to show off. Fear not, our version is not difficult to
make. Originally, it was often made from chicken stock, but we again chose a vegan option for our
White Soup a la Reine.

Add the onion, rice and oil into a pot, and cook them until the onions are soft and see through. Add
¼ of the bread cubes along with the ground almond, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and lemon zest.
Toast the remaining bread cubes in the oven and voilà - croutons! Stir and cook together, then add the
stock. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for half an hour-2 hours. If you feel fancy, add a bit of white
wine (just a tiny splash). This is a personal preference of the cooks, not historic in nature. Afterwards
strain the soup through a sieve or cloth, then warm up with the cream. Taste with salt and pepper.
Serve the nice, smooth and white soup with croutons.

227
 Beetroot a lá Byron
(Vegan beef Wellington)

500 g fresh mushrooms

2 small yellow onions

1 clove garlic

5 to 6 sprigs fresh thyme

100 g butter

Salt and pepper

Baked beetroot

1 kg of beetroot

½ dl balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoons of brown sugar

A pinch of salt The famous dish Beef Wellington, named after the Duke of Wellington, who won
his fame by degrading Napoleon at Waterloo. However, there is no mention of the dish connect-
ed with the name Wellington until the end of the 19th-century. However, meat baked in pastry was a
well known continental dish, so it’s not far-fetched to serve this. What makes Beef Wellington char-
acteristic, apart from the pastry, is the duxelles - a very tasty mixture of finely minced mushrooms,
onions and herbs fried in butter. This dates back to at least the 17th-century. Since we were opting
for vegan (and preferable gluten-free) food, we have tweaked this dish, using baked beetroot instead
of meat.

Finely chopped mushrooms and onions are fried in butter until golden and fairly dry. Thyme, salt and
pepper are added to taste.

The peeled beets are pricked with a fork and brushed with a mixture of balsamic vinegar, brown
sugar and salt. Bake them in the oven at 200C until they are tender. Cover the beetroots with the
duxelles and press it a bit, so it forms a firm mass around the beetroots. Put in the oven and bake for
5-10 minutes.

If the beetroots are big, carefully cut them into more manageable “slices”. Arrange it on a serving
dish and garnish with parsley.
228
229
 Shelley’s Pie
(Vegan cottage-pie), serves 6 pretty hungry poets

Potato mash

1,5 kg potatoes

3-4 tbsp vegan butter / dairy-free margarine

Salt and nutmeg to taste

The filling

Oil for frying

1 big onion (diced)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

2-3 carrots (shredded)

2 tbsp tomato paste (optional)

2 dl green lentils

2 dl red lentils

5 dl vegetable stock

Salt and pepper

Allspice

Red wine or cooking sherry (optional)

Worcestershire sauce (in Denmark we have Engelsk Sauce, which is vegan)

230
 S helley’s Pie is a form of vegan pie, based on the traditional cottage pie (today the best known of
these is the shepherd’s pie). “Cottage-Pye” was first mentioned in the late 18th century (1791 to
be precise).

Peel the potatoes, slice them in half and boil them. When they are tender and slide off a knife easily,
drain them (you can keep some of the water for the mash).

Mash the potatoes (NEVER use a blender) add the vegan butter and some of the potato-water until
you have a smooth, thick consistency. You should be able to form little tops with the mash. And salt
and nutmeg to taste.

Pour the oil in a big pot and fry the onions until they are clear. Add the garlic and the carrots and fry
for a while longer while you stir. Add the tomato-paste and wine or cooking sherry. Then add the
lentils and the stock. The liquid should just about cover the lentils, and it might need to be topped up
while the lentils are being cooked.

Cook until the lentils are tender (approx. 30 minutes, depending on which lentils you use), most of
the liquid should be absorbed now, otherwise cook without lid for a bit longer.

Now you season with salt, pepper and allspice.

If you don’t put in tomato-paste, you can use some apple-paste and vinegar to taste. (Vegan) Worces-
tershire sauce is phenomenal to spiff up almost any stew.

Pour the mixture in a large oven-proof dish (which it can be served in). Pop it into the oven while
you make the mash (if you haven’t done that already).

Gently spread out the mash on top of the filling. If you have plenty of time and are feeling artistic,
you can make decorations with the mash.

Pop it all in the oven on ca. 200 degrees and make it brown a bit on the surface., If you are in a hurry,
you can put it under the grill, but be sure to keep an eye on it, so it doesn’t burn.

Garnish with fresh parsley before serving.

231
 Cauliflower Curry
Serves at least 6 as a side dish.

One small cauliflower

100 g margarine (vegan)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 onions (diced)

2 tbsp curry powder

Juice of one orange

Vegetable stock

C urry was introduced as a dish in Europe in the 18th century by British citizens returning from
posts in India. To them, the word “curry” just meant a spiced “Indian” sauce. By the beginning
of the 19th century, it was fairly usual as an exotic feature at dinner parties, where the host wanted
to show off.

The curry recipes from the era seem very bland to a modern palate, but remember that this is an
exotic dish that brings refinement to any table.

In most of the original recipes, the curry sauce is prepared with chicken. Here we have substituted it
with cauliflower, to make the dish vegan.

The cauliflower is divided into smaller bouquets (you can also cut the stem into bite sized chunks).
Boil it in salted water until tender. Take care not to boil it to a mash.

Melt the margarine and sauté the garlic and onions until they are lightly browned. Then add the curry
powder and stir for a couple of minutes. Pour in vegetable stock and bring it to a boil. Add more
liquids if the sauce gets too thick.

Season with salt, pepper and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Pour in the cauliflower and make sure it is heated through.

Serve with a bowl with rice on the side.

232
 Rice a L’Indienne
Parboiled rice

Cloves (whole)

Cardamom (whole)

Couple of tablespoons Oil

Heat the oil in a big pot and pour in the rice. Stir it until the rice is covered and begin to get clear. Pour
in water, cloves and cardamom and cook according to the description on the rice package.

Serve in a bowl next to the curry.

Macaroni

110 g macaroni

Equal measures of water and plant-milk to boil the macaroni

50 g (or more) parmesan cheese (can be substituted for vegan cheese)

150 ml vegan cream

1 tablespoon butter

Salt and pepper

M ac’n’cheese might be associated with modern day comfort food, but it has medieval roots and
by 1800 it was a fairly common dinner-dish.

Boil the macaroni in water/plant-milk until al dente. Drain the pasta and transfer to the dry pan. Add
butter and 2/3 of the cheese, stirring until it is melted and well mixed. Transfer the mixture to a heat
proof pan, scatter the remaining cheese on top and place in the oven under the grill for 3-4 minutes,
until it has browned.
233
234
 Vegetables
V egetable dishes had their place amongst the more meat-filled dishes on a well-laid Regency table.
Our vegetable dishes (apart from the potatoes) are all based on period recipes. They are fairly
easy to prepare and make for great “filling” on the table amongst the bigger dishes. We switched them
up every other day, making sure that there would be both vegan and non-vegan (with egg) every day.

Broccoli served cold with capers

Broccoli is divided into smaller bouquets and rinsed. Boil the broccoli pieces in salted water until they
are tender (around 5-8 minutes, depending on size). Meanwhile make the dressing: combine oil and
wine-vinegar. Drain the broccoli and season with the dressing and some ground pepper. Let it cool
and garnish with capers before serving.

Vegetable dressed the Italian way

This recipe originally calls for asparagus. However, we used broccoli and switched between this recipe
and the other broccoli dish every other evening.

Make the broccoli as in the other recipe, however, the broccoli is to be served hot.

For the Italian dressing boil approx. 3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar and 1 ½ tablespoon of
water until reduced slightly. Let it cool just a bit. In another bowl beat 3 egg yolks and stir in the hot
vinegar. Place the bowl over simmering water and keep stirring it until it thickens. It must not boil
or it will separate! When it has thickened and is hot gradually whisk in as much butter as you dare
without it separating (around 150 g). also whisk in a bit of salt and pepper.

Place the broccoli on a serving dish and pour the dressing over. Serve hot.

Peas
Boil the peas in salted water until they are tender. Drain. Season with more salt and a tiny bit of sugar
and serve it forth in a bowl.

235
 Spinach with eggs

Pour boiling water over frozen spinach. Heat it up until the spinach is completely defrosted, and then
boil for a minute or so, until the spinach is cooked through, but not boiled to a pulp.

Drain thoroughly and set aside to cool.

Dress the serving platter with the spinach, you can make small nests or just spread it out. Garnish
with hard-boiled, peeled and quartered eggs.

Season with a bit of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Potatoes
We suggest small potatoes so they can be boiled whole. Cook potatoes until tender, then drain. Melt
the margarine and pour over potatoes with some salt and chopped parsley. Serve in a bowl.

Salad
Romaine salad, endive or other big leafed lettuce are washed, dried and ripped into bite-size pieces.

Olive oil, wine vinegar, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of mustard are whisked together and either
served in a bowl next to the salad or mixed in with the salad just before serving.

236
237
 Decorative Closed Vegetable Pie with
Horseradish Sauce
Crust:
500 g all purpose flour

200 g margarine

2 teaspoon salt

2 dl water

P ies can be traced back to ancient Egypt, and they were also popular during the early 1800s. Both
the sweet variations as well as the savoury - or mixed together as the originally mince meat pies
that drew on medieval food traditions with both minced meat, sugar and sweet spices. This pie is a
formidable vegetable pie that is both hearty and beautiful to add to your table setup. Tip: We made
our pie mostly with leftover beetroots from the Beetroot a la Byron and added diced up leftover
vegetables from the previous dishes as well. They add nicely to the pie and mix in well with the rest.

Crumble the margarine into the flour with the salt. Add water slowly and knead until your pie crust
is a good consistency. Cool for a while, then roll out and put into a round pie springform. You will
need to make sure there is enough to line the bottom, then make the sides nicely. Save some for the
lid. Pre-bake the crust with crumbled up baking paper in the pie to keep the form.

Filling:
Oil

2 diced onions

500 g diced mushrooms

Diced potatoes (leftovers from the day before)

1 diced turnip

2 diced carrots

2 dl roughly diced walnuts

238
 Lots of thyme

Salt and generous amounts of pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Worcestershire sauce / “engelsk sovs”

Port

Add all the diced vegetables to a pan and sauté in oil. Add the walnuts, thyme, salt and pepper and stir
vigorously. Let it cook together for a while, then add some splashes of balsamic vinegar, Worcester-
shire sauce and a nice big splash of port (do not be shy). If you want the filling to be more wet, you
can always add some vegetable stock (from cubes is fine).

Place into your gorgeous pie crust, then roll out the remaining dough and make a lid. You can deco-
rate away, making small leaves, wreaths and make patterns by cutting into the lid once placed on the
pie with a knife. We made a big opening on the top to pour in the horseradish sauce for serving.

Bake in the oven at 200 degrees until golden. You can give it a wash with eggs, if not served for ve-
gans, or with oatmeal milk if vegan, before baking.

Horseradish Sauce:
2-3 tablespoons grated horseradish

500 ml oatmeal milk (or another plant milk)

1 tablespoon margarine

3 tablespoons flour

Salt and pepper

Nutmeg

Melt the margarine in a pan and add flour. Whisk, then add milk, and whisk until you have a smooth,
creamy bechamel sauce. Add salt, pepper and some grated nutmeg to taste. Add the grated horserad-
ish and heat through before serving.

Pour some down the pie and otherwise serve in a saucer next to your pretty pie.

239
 Italian Bread Ice Cream - vegan

500 ml vegan whipping cream

5 slices rye bread

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

5 tablespoons blackcurrant jam

I ce creams were popular during the regency and could be both sweet and savoury. We have chosen a
rye bread recipe as it is easily available in Denmark where the larp was run, and we liked the malty
toasted rye bread combined with cinnamon and blackcurrant.

Should you wish to use another flavour, we suggest lavender, bergamot or orange flower - all popular
flavours in the early 1800s.

Place the rye bread in the oven and toast it until crisp and golden. When cooled, crumble into small
bits. Add sugar, if needed, to the cream, then whip the cream until firm and fluffy. Mix in cinnamon
and bread crumbles, then carefully fold in the dollops of jam.

Place the mixture into a form and freeze for at least 10 hours. You can choose to line it with baking
paper.

When flipping out the ice cream, if you did not line the form, submerge it into warm water for a spell
to make it easier to get out of the form.

240
241
POETRY
CHAPTER 8
243
 On Poetry
W e have chosen some verse and prose
written by the poets to go into this T here were, of course, many other po-
ets and writers of the period. In the
selection of unattributed poems that we
section. For Shelley and Byron we have a
huge selection of poems to choose from made available to our players — so that
but have tended towards shorter excerpts those who did not wish to write their own
and some of the best known works. We verse in game could simply take a copy
have also included The Necessity of Athe- of a poem from the off-game room and
ism which we think is a useful text for write their own character’s name upon it
understanding Shelley. For Mary we have — we included works by John Keats, Wil-
included a few of her poems and the liam Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Col-
opening chapter of Frankenstein, although eridge, selecting them for their macabre,
excerpts from her other works are includ- maudlin, or gothic undertones.
ed in some of the workshops. We have
ignored the poetic and dramatic works Doctor Polidori’s medical thesis is available
of Doctor Polidori but have instead opt- in translation (He wrote in Latin, of course)
ed to include the full text of The Vampy- but the rights to this are not in the Public
re for your reading pleasure. For Miss Domain and she we were unable to include
Clairmont we have had a harder time. his thoughts on Oneirodynia and its treat-
ment, but you might want to look online
We know that Claire wrote a novel entitled for David E. Petrain’s version from 2010.
The Idiot which she started in 1814 and that
Shelley later promised to get published for We would like to have included some
her, but that text is missing, presumably other works of gothic horror in this
destroyed. We opted to include it in the text, but these are easily accessible on-
larp and — in our fiction — it was de- line and rather too long to reasona-
stroyed anew with each iteration. There bly include. You might also want to
is also reference to a number of poems track down a copy of Fantasmagoriana,
written by Claire, but we were unable to either translated into English, or the
find them. For the purposes of the larp French translation by Jean-Baptiste Benoît
we created our own version of her man- Eyriès published in 1812; this was the
uscript and her poetry, we have opted not book that our poets were reading in the
to include them here. Instead we have Villa that inspired Byron’s challenge that
reproduced two letters, written to Byron, they should write their own ghost stories.
during the first part of 1816.
244
245
 Quod clarâ et perspicuâ demonstratione careat pro vero habere mens omnino nequit humana.

The Necessity of Atheism

By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Advertisement.
As a love of truth is the only motive which actuates the Author of this little tract, he earnestly
entreats that those of his readers who may discover any deficiency in his reasoning, or may be in
possession of proofs which his mind could never obtain, would offer them, together with their
objections to the Public, as briefly, as methodically, as plainly as he has taken the liberty of doing.
Thro’ deficiency of proof.

AN ATHEIST.

A close examination of the validity of the proofs adduced to support any proposition, has ever
been allowed to be the only sure way of attaining truth, upon the advantages of which it is unnec-
essary to descant; our knowledge of the existence of a Deity is a subject of such importance that
it cannot be too minutely investigated; in consequence of this conviction, we proceed briefly and
impartially to examine the proofs which have been adduced. It is necessary first to consider the
nature of Belief.

When a proposition is offered to the mind, it perceives the agreement or disagreement of the
ideas of which it is composed. A perception of their agreement is termed belief; many obstacles
frequently prevent this perception from being immediate; these the mind attempts to remove in
order that the perception may be distinct. The mind is active in the investigation, in order to perfect
the state of perception which is passive; the investigation being confused with the perception has
induced many falsely to imagine that the mind is active in belief, that belief is an act of volition,
in consequence of which it may be regulated by the mind; pursuing, continuing this mistake they
have attached a degree of criminality to disbelief of which in its nature it is incapable; it is equally
so of merit.

The strength of belief like that of every other passion is in proportion to the degrees of excite-
ment. The degrees of excitement are three.

The senses are the sources of all knowledge to the mind, consequently their evidence claims the
strongest assent.

The decision of the mind founded upon our own experience, derived from these sources, claims the
next degree.

The experience of others, which addresses itself to the former one, occupies the lowest degree. --

Consequently no testimony can be admitted which is contrary to reason; reason is founded on the
246
 evidence of our senses. niscient, Almighty Being, leaves the cause in the
[same] obscurity, but renders it more incompre-
Every proof may be referred to one of these hensible.
three divisions; we are naturally led to consider
what arguments we receive from each of them to The 3rd. and last degree of assent is claimed by
convince us of the existence of a Deity. Testimony -- it is required that it should not be
contrary to reason. -- The testimony that the De-
1st, The evidence of the senses. -- If the De- ity convinces the senses of men of his existence
ity should appear to us, if he should convince can only be admitted by us, if our mind considers
our senses of his existence; this revelation would it less probable that these men should have been
necessarily command belief; -- Those to whom deceived, than that the Deity should have ap-
the Deity has thus appeared, have the strongest peared to them -- our reason can never admit the
possible conviction of his existence. testimony of men, who not only declare that they
were eye-witnesses of miracles but that the Deity
Reason claims the 2nd. place -- it is urged that
was irrational, for he commanded that he should
man knows that whatever is, must either have had
be believed, he proposed the highest rewards for
a beginning or existed from all eternity; he also
faith, eternal punishments for disbelief -- we can
knows that whatever is not eternal must have had
only command voluntary actions, belief is not an
a cause. -- Where this is applied to the existence
act of volition, the mind is even passive. From
of the universe, it is necessary to prove that it
this it is evident that we have not sufficient testi-
was created; until that is clearly demonstrated, we
mony, or rather that testimony is insufficient to
may reasonably suppose that it has endured from
prove the being of a God; we have before shewn
all eternity. -- In a case where two propositions
that it cannot be deduced from reason, -- they
are diametrically opposite, the mind believes that
who have been convinced by the evidence of the
which is less incomprehensible; it is easier to
senses, they only can believe it.
suppose that the Universe has existed from all
eternity, than to conceive a being capable of cre- From this it is evident that having no proofs
ating it. If the mind sinks beneath the weight of from either of the three sources of convic-
one, is it an alleviation to increase the intolerabil- tion: the mind cannot believe the existence
ity of the burthen? -- The other argument which
of a God. It is also evident that as belief is
is founded upon a man’s knowledge of his own
existence, stands thus. -- A man knows not only
a passion of the mind, no degree of crimi-
that he now is, but that there was a time when nality can be attached to disbelief; they only
he did not exist; consequently there must have are reprehensible who willingly neglect to
been a cause. But what does this prove? We can remove the false medium thro’ which their
only infer from effects causes exactly adequate to mind views the subject.
those effects; -- But there certainly is a generative
power which is effected by certain instruments; It is almost unnecessary to observe, that the gen-
we cannot prove that it is inherent in these in- eral knowledge of the deficiency of such proof,
struments, nor is the contrary hypothesis capable cannot be prejudicial to society: Truth has al-
of demonstration: we admit that the generative ways been found to promote the best interests
power is incomprehensible, but to suppose that of mankind. -- Every reflecting mind must allow
the same effect is produced by an eternal, om- that there is no proof of the existence of a Deity.
Q.E.D.

247
 The Vampyre
by John William Polidori

I t happened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon a London winter, there appeared at
the various parties of the leaders of the ton* a nobleman, more remarkable for his singularities, than
his rank. He gazed upon the mirth around him, as if he could not participate therein. Apparently, the
light laughter of the fair only attracted his attention, that he might by a look quell it, and throw fear
into those breasts where thoughtlessness reigned. Those who felt this sensation of awe, could not
explain whence it arose: some attributed it to the dead grey eye, which, fixing upon the object’s face,
did not seem to penetrate, and at one glance to pierce through to the inward workings of the heart;
but fell upon the cheek with a leaden ray that weighed upon the skin it could not pass. His peculiarities
caused him to be invited to every house; all wished to see him, and those who had been accustomed to
violent excitement, and now felt the weight of ennui, were pleased at having something in their pres-
ence capable of engaging their attention. In spite of the deadly hue of his face, which never gained
a warmer tint, either from the blush of modesty, or from the strong emotion of passion, though its
form and outline were beautiful, many of the female hunters after notoriety attempted to win his
attentions, and gain, at least, some marks of what they might term affection: Lady Mercer, who had
been the mockery of every monster shewn in drawing-rooms since her marriage, threw herself in his
way, and did all but put on the dress of a mountebank, to attract his notice:—though in vain:—when
she stood before him, though his eyes were apparently fixed upon her’s, still it seemed as if they were
unperceived;—even her unappalled impudence was baffled, and she left the field. But though the
common adultress could not influence even the guidance of his eyes, it was not that the female sex was
indifferent to him: yet such was the apparent caution with which he spoke to the virtuous wife and in-
nocent daughter, that few knew he ever addressed himself to females. He had, however, the reputation
of a winning tongue; and whether it was that it even overcame the dread of his singular character, or
that they were moved by his apparent hatred of vice, he was as often among those females who form
the boast of their sex from their domestic virtues, as among those who sully it by their vices.

248
 About the same time, there came to London a
young gentleman of the name of Aubrey: he was
an orphan left with an only sister in the posses-
sion of great wealth, by parents who died while
he was yet in childhood. Left also to himself
by guardians, who thought it their duty mere-
ly to take care of his fortune, while they relin-
quished the more important charge of his mind
to the care of mercenary subalterns, he cultivat-
ed more his imagination than his judgment. He
had, hence, that high romantic feeling of honour
and candour, which daily ruins so many milli-
ners’ apprentices. He believed all to sympathise
with virtue, and thought that vice was thrown in
by Providence merely for the picturesque effect
of the scene, as we see in romances: he thought
that the misery of a cottage merely consisted in
the vesting of clothes, which were as warm, but
which were better adapted to the painter’s eye by
their irregular folds and various coloured patch-
es. He thought, in fine, that the dreams of po-
ets were the realities of life. He was handsome,
frank, and rich: for these reasons, upon his enter-
ing into the gay circles, many mothers surround-
ed him, striving which should describe with least
truth their languishing or romping favourites: the
daughters at the same time, by their brightening
countenances when he approached, and by their
sparkling eyes, when he opened his lips, soon
led him into false notions of his talents and his
merit. Attached as he was to the romance of his
solitary hours, he was startled at finding, that, ex-
cept in the tallow and wax candles that flickered,
not from the presence of a ghost, but from want
of snuffing, there was no foundation in real life
for any of that congeries of pleasing pictures and
descriptions contained in those volumes, from
which he had formed his study. Finding, how-
ever, some compensation in his gratified vanity,
he was about to relinquish his dreams, when the
extraordinary being we have above described,
crossed him in his career.
249
He watched him; and the very impossibility of
forming an idea of the character of a man en-
tirely absorbed in himself, who gave few other
signs of his observation of external objects, than
the tacit assent to their existence, implied by the
avoidance of their contact: allowing his imag-
ination to picture every thing that flattered its
propensity to extravagant ideas, he soon formed
this object into the hero of a romance, and de-
termined to observe the offspring of his fancy,
rather than the person before him. He became
acquainted with him, paid him attentions, and so
far advanced upon his notice, that his presence
was always recognised. He gradually learnt that
Lord Ruthven’s affairs were embarrassed, and
soon found, from the notes of preparation in
—— Street, that he was about to travel. Desirous
of gaining some information respecting this sin-
gular character, who, till now, had only whetted
his curiosity, he hinted to his guardians, that it
was time for him to perform the tour, which for
many generations has been thought necessary to
enable the young to take some rapid steps in the
career of vice towards putting themselves upon
an equality with the aged, and not allowing them
to appear as if fallen from the skies, whenever
scandalous intrigues are mentioned as the sub-
jects of pleasantry or of praise, according to the
degree of skill shewn in carrying them on. They
consented: and Aubrey immediately mentioning
his intentions to Lord Ruthven, was surprised to
receive from him a proposal to join him. Flat-
tered by such a mark of esteem from him, who,
apparently, had nothing in common with other
men, he gladly accepted it, and in a few days they
had passed the circling waters.
Hitherto, Aubrey had had no opportunity of
studying Lord Ruthven’s character, and now he
found, that, though many more of his actions
were exposed to his view, the results offered dif-
ferent conclusions from the apparent motives to
his conduct. His companion was profuse in his
liberality;—the idle, the vagabond, and the beg-
 gar, received from his hand more than enough to
relieve their immediate wants. But Aubrey could
not avoid remarking, that it was not upon the vir-
tuous, reduced to indigence by the misfortunes
attendant even upon virtue, that he bestowed
his alms;—these were sent from the door with
hardly suppressed sneers; but when the profligate
came to ask something, not to relieve his wants,
but to allow him to wallow in his lust, or to sink
him still deeper in his iniquity, he was sent away
with rich charity. This was, however, attributed
by him to the greater importunity of the vicious,
which generally prevails over the retiring bash-
fulness of the virtuous indigent. There was one
circumstance about the charity of his Lordship,
which was still more impressed upon his mind:
all those upon whom it was bestowed, inevita-
bly found that there was a curse upon it, for they
were all either led to the scaffold, or sunk to the
lowest and the most abject misery. At Brussels
and other towns through which they passed,
Aubrey was surprized at the apparent eagerness
with which his companion sought for the centres
of all fashionable vice; there he entered into all
the spirit of the faro table: he betted, and always
gambled with success, except where the known
sharper was his antagonist, and then he lost even
more than he gained; but it was always with the
same unchanging face, with which he generally
watched the society around: it was not, however,
so when he encountered the rash youthful nov-
ice, or the luckless father of a numerous family;
then his very wish seemed fortune’s law—this ap-
parent abstractedness of mind was laid aside, and
his eyes sparkled with more fire than that of the
cat whilst dallying with the half-dead mouse. In
every town, he left the formerly affluent youth,
torn from the circle he adorned, cursing, in the
solitude of a dungeon, the fate that had drawn
him within the reach of this fiend; whilst many
a father sat frantic, amidst the speaking looks of
mute hungry children, without a single farthing
of his late immense wealth, wherewith to buy
250
even sufficient to satisfy their present craving. Yet
he took no money from the gambling table; but
immediately lost, to the ruiner of many, the last
gilder he had just snatched from the convulsive
grasp of the innocent: this might but be the re-
sult of a certain degree of knowledge, which was
not, however, capable of combating the cunning
of the more experienced. Aubrey often wished to
represent this to his friend, and beg him to resign
that charity and pleasure which proved the ruin
of all, and did not tend to his own profit;—but
he delayed it—for each day he hoped his friend
would give him some opportunity of speaking
frankly and openly to him; however, this nev-
er occurred. Lord Ruthven in his carriage, and
amidst the various wild and rich scenes of nature,
was always the same: his eye spoke less than his
lip; and though Aubrey was near the object of
his curiosity, he obtained no greater gratification
from it than the constant excitement of vainly
wishing to break that mystery, which to his exalt-
ed imagination began to assume the appearance
of something supernatural.
They soon arrived at Rome, and Aubrey for a
time lost sight of his companion; he left him
in daily attendance upon the morning circle of
an Italian countess, whilst he went in search of
the memorials of another almost deserted city.
Whilst he was thus engaged, letters arrived from
England, which he opened with eager impatience;
the first was from his sister, breathing nothing
but affection; the others were from his guardians,
the latter astonished him; if it had before entered
into his imagination that there was an evil power
resident in his companion, these seemed to give
him sufficient reason for the belief. His guardians
insisted upon his immediately leaving his friend,
and urged, that his character was dreadfully vi-
cious, for that the possession of irresistible pow-
ers of seduction, rendered his licentious habits
more dangerous to society. It had been discov-
ered, that his contempt for the adultress had not
originated in hatred of her character; but that he
 had required, to enhance his gratification, that his
victim, the partner of his guilt, should be hurled
from the pinnacle of unsullied virtue, down to
the lowest abyss of infamy and degradation: in
fine, that all those females whom he had sought,
apparently on account of their virtue, had, since
his departure, thrown even the mask aside, and
had not scrupled to expose the whole deformity
of their vices to the public gaze.
Aubrey determined upon leaving one, whose
character had not yet shown a single bright point
on which to rest the eye. He resolved to invent
some plausible pretext for abandoning him alto-
gether, purposing, in the mean while, to watch
him more closely, and to let no slight circum-
stances pass by unnoticed. He entered into the
same circle, and soon perceived, that his Lord-
ship was endeavouring to work upon the inexpe-
rience of the daughter of the lady whose house
he chiefly frequented. In Italy, it is seldom that an
unmarried female is met with in society; he was
therefore obliged to carry on his plans in secret;
but Aubrey’s eye followed him in all his wind-
ings, and soon discovered that an assignation had
been appointed, which would most likely end
in the ruin of an innocent, though thoughtless
girl. Losing no time, he entered the apartment
of Lord Ruthven, and abruptly asked him his in-
tentions with respect to the lady, informing him
at the same time that he was aware of his being
about to meet her that very night. Lord Ruth-
ven answered, that his intentions were such as he
supposed all would have upon such an occasion;
and upon being pressed whether he intended to
marry her, merely laughed. Aubrey retired; and,
immediately writing a note, to say, that from that
moment he must decline accompanying his Lord-
ship in the remainder of their proposed tour, he
ordered his servant to seek other apartments, and
calling upon the mother of the lady, informed
her of all he knew, not only with regard to her
daughter, but also concerning the character of
his Lordship. The assignation was prevented.
251
Lord Ruthven next day merely sent his servant
to notify his complete assent to a separation; but
did not hint any suspicion of his plans having
been foiled by Aubrey’s interposition.
Having left Rome, Aubrey directed his steps to-
wards Greece, and crossing the Peninsula, soon
found himself at Athens. He then fixed his res-
idence in the house of a Greek; and soon oc-
cupied himself in tracing the faded records of
ancient glory upon monuments that apparently,
ashamed of chronicling the deeds of freemen
only before slaves, had hidden themselves be-
neath the sheltering soil or many coloured li-
chen. Under the same roof as himself, existed a
being, so beautiful and delicate, that she might
have formed the model for a painter, wishing;
to pourtray on canvass the promised hope of
the faithful in Mahomet’s paradise, save that her
eyes spoke too much mind for any one to think
she could belong to those who had no souls. As
she danced upon the plain, or tripped along the
mountain’s side, one would have thought the ga-
zelle a poor type of her beauties; for who would
have exchanged her eye, apparently the eye of
animated nature, for that sleepy luxurious look
of the animal suited but to the taste of an ep-
icure. The light step of Ianthe often accompa-
nied Aubrey in his search after antiquities, and
often would the unconscious girl, engaged in the
pursuit of a Kashmere butterfly, show the whole
beauty of her form, floating as it were upon the
wind, to the eager gaze of him, who forgot the
letters he had just decyphered upon an almost ef-
faced tablet, in the contemplation of her sylph-
like figure. Often would her tresses falling, as she
flitted around, exhibit in the sun’s ray such deli-
cately brilliant and swiftly fading hues, its might
well excuse the forgetfulness of the antiquary,
who let escape from his mind the very object he
had before thought of vital importance to the
proper interpretation of a passage in Pausani-
as. But why attempt to describe charms which
all feel, but none can appreciate?—It was inno-
 cence, youth, and beauty, unaffected by crowded
drawing-rooms and stifling balls. Whilst he drew
those remains of which he wished to preserve a
memorial for his future hours, she would stand
by, and watch the magic effects of his pencil, in
tracing the scenes of her native place; she would
then describe to him the circling dance upon the
open plain, would paint, to him in all the glowing
colours of youthful memory, the marriage pomp
she remembered viewing in her infancy; and
then, turning to subjects that had evidently made
a greater impression upon her mind, would tell
him all the supernatural tales of her nurse. Her
earnestness and apparent belief of what she nar-
rated, excited the interest even of Aubrey; and
often as she told him the tale of the living vampy-
re, who had passed years amidst his friends, and
dearest ties, forced every year, by feeding upon
the life of a lovely female to prolong his exist-
ence for the ensuing months, his blood would
run cold, whilst he attempted to laugh her out of
such idle and horrible fantasies; but Ianthe cited
to him the names of old men, who had at last
detected one living among themselves, after sev-
eral of their near relatives and children had been
found marked with the stamp of the fiend’s ap-
petite; and when she found him so incredulous,
she begged of him to believe her, for it had been,
remarked, that those who had dared to question
their existence, always had some proof given,
which obliged them, with grief and heartbreak-
ing, to confess it was true. She detailed to him the
traditional appearance of these monsters, and his
horror was increased, by hearing a pretty accurate
description of Lord Ruthven; he, however, still
persisted in persuading her, that there could be
no truth in her fears, though at the same time he
wondered at the many coincidences which had
all tended to excite a belief in the supernatural
power of Lord Ruthven.
Aubrey began to attach himself more and more
to Ianthe; her innocence, so contrasted with all
the affected virtues of the women among whom
252
he had sought for his vision of romance, won
his heart; and while he ridiculed the idea of a
young man of English habits, marrying an un-
educated Greek girl, still he found himself more
and more attached to the almost fairy form be-
fore him. He would tear himself at times from
her, and, forming a plan for some antiquarian
research, he would depart, determined not to re-
turn until his object was attained; but he always
found it impossible to fix his attention upon the
ruins around him, whilst in his mind he retained
an image that seemed alone the rightful posses-
sor of his thoughts. Ianthe was unconscious of
his love, and was ever the same frank infantile
being he had first known. She always seemed to
part from him with reluctance; but it was because
she had no longer any one with whom she could
visit her favourite haunts, whilst her guardian
was occupied in sketching or uncovering some
fragment which had yet escaped the destructive
hand of time. She had appealed to her parents
on the subject of Vampyres, and they both, with
several present, affirmed their existence, pale
with horror at the very name. Soon after, Aubrey
determined to proceed upon one of his excur-
sions, which was to detain him for a few hours;
when they heard the name of the place, they all
at once begged of him not to return at night, as
he must necessarily pass through a wood, where
no Greek would ever remain, after the day had
closed, upon any consideration. They described
it as the resort of the vampyres in their noctur-
nal orgies, and denounced the most heavy evils
as impending upon him who dared to cross their
path. Aubrey made light of their representations,
and tried to laugh them out of the idea; but when
he saw them shudder at his daring thus to mock a
superior, infernal power, the very name of which
apparently made their blood freeze, he was silent.
Next morning Aubrey set off upon his excursion
unattended; he was surprised to observe the mel-
ancholy face of his host, and was concerned to
find that his words, mocking the belief of those
 horrible fiends, had inspired them with such ter-
ror. When he was about to depart, Ianthe came to
the side of his horse, and earnestly begged of him
to return, ere night allowed the power of these
beings to be put in action;—he promised. He was,
however, so occupied in his research, that he did
not perceive that day-light would soon end, and
that in the horizon there was one of those specks
which, in the warmer climates, so rapidly gather
into a tremendous mass, and pour all their rage
upon the devoted country.—He at last, however,
mounted his horse, determined to make up by
speed for his delay: but it was too late. Twilight,
in these southern climates, is almost unknown;
immediately the sun sets, night begins: and ere
he had advanced far, the power of the storm
was above—its echoing thunders had scarcely
an interval of rest—its thick heavy rain forced
its way through the canopying foliage, whilst the
blue forked lightning seemed to fall and radiate
at his very feet. Suddenly his horse took fright,
and he was carried with dreadful rapidity through
the entangled forest. The animal at last, through
fatigue, stopped, and he found, by the glare of
lightning, that he was in the neighbourhood of a
hovel that hardly lifted itself up from the masses
of dead leaves and brushwood which surround-
ed it. Dismounting, he approached, hoping to
find some one to guide him to the town, or at
least trusting to obtain shelter from the pelting
of the storm. As he approached, the thunders,
for a moment silent, allowed him to hear the
dreadful shrieks of a woman mingling with the
stifled, exultant mockery of a laugh, continued
in one almost unbroken sound;—he was startled:
but, roused by the thunder which again rolled
over his head, he, with a sudden effort, forced
open the door of the hut. He found himself in
utter darkness: the sound, however, guided him.
He was apparently unperceived; for, though he
called, still the sounds continued, and no notice
was taken of him. He found himself in contact
with some one, whom he immediately seized;
253
when a voice cried, “Again baffled!” to which a
loud laugh succeeded; and he felt himself grap-
pled by one whose strength seemed superhuman:
determined to sell his life as dearly as he could,
he struggled; but it was in vain: he was lifted from
his feet and hurled with enormous force against
the ground:—his enemy threw himself upon
him, and kneeling upon his breast, had placed his
hands upon his throat—when the glare of many
torches penetrating through the hole that gave
light in the day, disturbed him;—he instantly rose,
and, leaving his prey, rushed through the door,
and in a moment the crashing of the branches,
as he broke through the wood, was no longer
heard. The storm was now still; and Aubrey,
incapable of moving, was soon heard by those
without. They entered; the light of their torches
fell upon the mud walls, and the thatch loaded on
every individual straw with heavy flakes of soot.
At the desire of Aubrey they searched for her
who had attracted him by her cries; he was again
left in darkness; but what was his horror, when
the light of the torches once more burst upon
him, to perceive the airy form of his fair conduc-
tress brought in a lifeless corse. He shut his eyes,
hoping that it was but a vision arising from his
disturbed imagination; but he again saw the same
form, when he unclosed them, stretched by his
side. There was no colour upon her cheek, not
even upon her lip; yet there was a stillness about
her face that seemed almost as attaching as the
life that once dwelt there:—upon her neck and
breast was blood, and upon her throat were the
marks of teeth having opened the vein:—to this
the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck
with horror, “A Vampyre! a Vampyre!” A litter
was quickly formed, and Aubrey was laid by the
side of her who had lately been to him the object
of so many bright and fairy visions, now fallen
with the flower of life that had died within her.
He knew not what his thoughts were—his mind
was benumbed and seemed to shun reflection,
and take refuge in vacancy—he held almost un-
 consciously in his hand a naked dagger of a par-
ticular construction, which had been found in the
hut. They were soon met by different parties who
had been engaged in the search of her whom a
mother had missed. Their lamentable cries, as
they approached the city, forewarned the parents
of some dreadful catastrophe. —To describe
their grief would be impossible; but when they
ascertained the cause of their child’s death, they
looked at Aubrey, and pointed to the corse. They
were inconsolable; both died broken-hearted.
Aubrey being put to bed was seized with a most
violent fever, and was often delirious; in these
intervals he would call upon Lord Ruthven and
upon Ianthe—by some unaccountable combina-
tion he seemed to beg of his former compan-
ion to spare the being he loved. At other times
he would imprecate maledictions upon his head,
and curse him as her destroyer. Lord Ruthven,
chanced at this time to arrive at Athens, and,
from whatever motive, upon hearing of the state
of Aubrey, immediately placed himself in the
same house, and became his constant attendant.
When the latter recovered from his delirium, he
was horrified and startled at the sight of him
whose image he had now combined with that
of a Vampyre; but Lord Ruthven, by his kind
words, implying almost repentance for the fault
that had caused their separation, and still more by
the attention, anxiety, and care which he showed,
soon reconciled him to his presence. His lordship
seemed quite changed; he no longer appeared
that apathetic being who had so astonished Au-
brey; but as soon as his convalescence began to
be rapid, he again gradually retired into the same
state of mind, and Aubrey perceived no differ-
ence from the former man, except that at times
he was surprised to meet his gaze fixed intently
upon him, with a smile of malicious exultation
playing upon his lips: he knew not why, but this
smile haunted him. During the last stage of the
invalid’s recovery, Lord Ruthven was apparently
engaged in watching the tideless waves raised by
254
the cooling breeze, or in marking the progress of
those orbs, circling, like our world, the moveless
sun;—indeed, he appeared to wish to avoid the
eyes of all.
Aubrey’s mind, by this shock, was much weak-
ened, and that elasticity of spirit which had once
so distinguished him now seemed to have fled
for ever. He was now as much a lover of soli-
tude and silence as Lord Ruthven; but much as
he wished for solitude, his mind could not find
it in the neighbourhood of Athens; if he sought
it amidst the ruins he had formerly frequented,
Ianthe’s form stood by his side—if he sought it
in the woods, her light step would appear wan-
dering amidst the underwood, in quest of the
modest violet; then suddenly turning round,
would show, to his wild imagination, her pale face
and wounded throat, with a meek smile upon her
lips. He determined to fly scenes, every feature
of which created such bitter associations in his
mind. He proposed to Lord Ruthven, to whom
he held himself bound by the tender care he had
taken of him during his illness, that they should
visit those parts of Greece neither had yet seen.
They travelled in every direction, and sought
every spot to which a recollection could be at-
tached: but though they thus hastened from place
to place, yet they seemed not to heed what they
gazed upon. They heard much of robbers, but
they gradually began to slight these reports, which
they imagined were only the invention of individ-
uals, whose interest it was to excite the generosity
of those whom they defended from pretended
dangers. In consequence of thus neglecting the
advice of the inhabitants, on one occasion they
travelled with only a few guards, more to serve as
guides than as a defence. Upon entering, howev-
er, a narrow defile, at the bottom of which was
the bed of a torrent, with large masses of rock
brought down from the neighbouring precipices,
they had reason to repent their negligence; for
scarcely were the whole of the party engaged in
 the narrow pass, when they were startled by the
whistling of bullets close to their heads, and by
the echoed report of several guns. In an instant
their guards had left them, and, placing them-
selves behind rocks, had begun to fire in the di-
rection whence the report came. Lord Ruthven
and Aubrey, imitating their example, retired for
a moment behind the sheltering turn of the de-
file: but ashamed of being thus detained by a foe,
who with insulting shouts bade them advance,
and being exposed to unresisting slaughter, if any
of the robbers should climb above and take them
in the rear, they determined at once to rush for-
ward in search of the enemy. Hardly had they lost
the shelter of the rock, when Lord Ruthven re-
ceived a shot in the shoulder, which brought him
to the ground. Aubrey hastened to his assistance;
and, no longer heeding the contest or his own
peril, was soon surprised by seeing the robbers’
faces around him—his guards having, upon Lord
Ruthven’s being wounded, immediately thrown
up their arms and surrendered.
By promises of great reward, Aubrey soon in-
duced them to convey his wounded friend to a
neighbouring cabin; and having agreed upon a
ransom, he was no more disturbed by their pres-
ence—they being content merely to guard the
entrance till their comrade should return with the
promised sum, for which he had an order. Lord
Ruthven’s strength rapidly decreased; in two days
mortification ensued, and death seemed advanc-
ing with hasty steps. His conduct and appearance
had not changed; he seemed as unconscious of
pain as he had been of the objects about him:
but towards the close of the last evening, his
mind became apparently uneasy, and his eye of-
ten fixed upon Aubrey, who was induced to of-
fer his assistance with more than usual earnest-
ness—”Assist me! you may save me—you may
do more than that—I mean not my life, I heed
the death of my existence as little as that of the
passing day; but you may save my honour, your Weary of a country in which he had met with
friend’s honour.”—”How? tell me how? I would such terrible misfortunes, and in which all ap-
255
do any thing,” replied Aubrey.—”I need but lit-
tle—my life ebbs apace—I cannot explain the
whole—but if you would conceal all you know
of me, my honour were free from stain in the
world’s mouth—and if my death were unknown
for some time in England—I—I—but life.”—
”It shall not be known.”—”Swear!” cried the dy-
ing man, raising himself with exultant violence,
“Swear by all your soul reveres, by all your nature
fears, swear that, for a year and a day you will not
impart your knowledge of my crimes or death
to any living being in any way, whatever may
happen, or whatever you may see. “—His eyes
seemed bursting from their sockets: “I swear!”
said Aubrey; he sunk laughing upon his pillow,
and breathed no more.
Aubrey retired to rest, but did not sleep; the
many circumstances attending his acquaintance
with this man rose upon his mind, and he knew
not why; when he remembered his oath a cold
shivering came over him, as if from the presenti-
ment of something horrible awaiting him. Rising
early in the morning, he was about to enter the
hovel in which he had left the corpse, when a
robber met him, and informed him that it was no
longer there, having been conveyed by himself
and comrades, upon his retiring, to the pinnacle
of a neighbouring mount, according to a prom-
ise they had given his lordship, that it should be
exposed to the first cold ray of the moon that
rose after his death. Aubrey astonished, and tak-
ing several of the men, determined to go and
bury it upon the spot where it lay. But, when he
had mounted to the summit he found no trace of
either the corpse or the clothes, though the rob-
bers swore they pointed out the identical rock:
on which they had laid the body. For a time his
mind was bewildered in conjectures, but he at
last returned, convinced that they had buried the
corpse for the sake of the clothes.
 parently conspired to heighten that superstitious by her infantine caresses, had gained his affec-
melancholy that had seized upon his mind, he tion, now that the woman began to appear, she
resolved to leave it, and soon arrived at Smyr- was still more attaching as a companion.
na. While waiting for a vessel to convey him
to Otranto, or to Naples, he occupied himself Miss Aubrey had not that winning grace which
in arranging those effects he had with him be- gains the gaze and applause of the drawing-room
longing to Lord Ruthven. Amongst other things assemblies. There was none of that light brillian-
there was a case containing several weapons of cy which only exists in the heated atmosphere of
offence, more or less adapted to ensure the death a crowded apartment. Her blue eye was never lit
of the victim. There were several daggers and up by the levity of the mind beneath. There was
ataghans. Whilst turning them over, and exam- a melancholy charm about it which did not seem
ining their curious forms, what was his surprise to arise from misfortune, but from some feeling
at finding a sheath apparently ornamented in the within, that appeared to indicate a soul conscious
same style as the dagger discovered in the fatal of a brighter realm. Her step was not that light
hut—he shuddered—hastening to gain further footing, which strays where’er a butterfly or a
proof, he found the weapon, and his horror may colour may attract—it was sedate and pensive.
be imagined when he discovered that it fitted, When alone, her face was never brightened by
though peculiarly shaped, the sheath he held in the smile of joy; but when her brother breathed
his hand. His eyes seemed to need no further to her his affection, and would in her presence
certainty—they seemed gazing to be bound to forget those griefs she knew destroyed his rest,
the dagger; yet still he wished to disbelieve; but who would have exchanged her smile for that of
the particular form, the same varying tints upon the voluptuary? It seemed as if those eyes,—that
the haft and sheath were alike in splendour on face were then playing in the light of their own
both, and left no room for doubt; there were also native sphere. She was yet only eighteen, and had
drops of blood on each. not been presented to the world, it having been
thought by her guardians more fit that her pres-
He left Smyrna, and on his way home, at Rome, entation should be delayed until her brother’s re-
his first inquiries were concerning the lady he had turn from the continent, when he might be her
attempted to snatch from Lord Ruthven’s seduc- protector. It was now, therefore, resolved that the
tive arts. Her parents were in distress, their for- next drawing-room, which was fast approaching,
tune ruined, and she had not been heard of since should be the epoch of her entry into the “busy
the departure of his lordship. Aubrey’s mind scene.” Aubrey would rather have remained in
became almost broken under so many repeated the mansion of his fathers, and fed upon the mel-
horrors; he was afraid that this lady had fallen ancholy which overpowered him. He could not
a victim to the destroyer of Ianthe. He became feel interest about the frivolities of fashionable
morose and silent; and his only occupation con- strangers, when his mind had been so torn by the
sisted in urging the speed of the postilions, as if events he had witnessed; but he determined to
he were going to save the life of some one he sacrifice his own comfort to the protection of his
held dear. He arrived at Calais; a breeze, which sister. They soon arrived in town, and prepared
seemed obedient to his will, soon wafted him to for the next day, which had been announced as a
the English shores; and he hastened to the man- drawing-room.
sion of his fathers, and there, for a moment, ap-
peared to lose, in the embraces and caresses of The crowd was excessive—a drawing-room had
his sister, all memory of the past. If she before, not been held for a long time, and all who were
256
 anxious to bask in the smile of royalty, hastened
thither. Aubrey was there with his sister. While he
was standing in a corner by himself, heedless of
all around him, engaged in the remembrance that
the first time he had seen Lord Ruthven was in
that very place—he felt himself suddenly seized
by the arm, and a voice he recognized too well,
sounded in his ear—”Remember your oath.” He
had hardly courage to turn, fearful of seeing a
spectre that would blast him, when he perceived,
at a little distance, the same figure which had at-
tracted his notice on this spot upon his first en-
try into society. He gazed till his limbs almost
refusing to bear their weight, he was obliged to
take the arm of a friend, and forcing a passage
through the crowd, he threw himself into his car-
riage, and was driven home. He paced the room
with hurried steps, and fixed his hands upon
his head, as if he were afraid his thoughts were
bursting from his brain. Lord Ruthven again be-
fore him—circumstances started up in dreadful
array—the dagger—his oath.—He roused him-
self, he could not believe it possible—the dead
rise again!—He thought his imagination had
conjured up the image, his mind was resting
upon. It was impossible that it could be real—he
determined, therefore, to go again into society;
for though he attempted to ask concerning Lord
Ruthven, the name hung upon his lips, and he
could not succeed in gaining information. He
went a few nights after with his sister to the as-
sembly of a near relation. Leaving her under the
protection of a matron, he retired into a recess,
and there gave himself up to his own devour-
ing thoughts. Perceiving, at last, that many were
leaving, he roused himself, and entering anoth-
er room, found his sister surrounded by several,
apparently in earnest conversation; he attempted
to pass and get near her, when one, whom he
requested to move, turned round, and revealed to
him those features he most abhorred. He sprang
forward, seized his sister’s arm, and, with hurried
step, forced her towards the street: at the door he
257
found himself impeded by the crowd of servants
who were waiting for their lords; and while he
was engaged in passing them, he again heard that
voice whisper close to him—”Remember your
oath!”—He did not dare to turn, but, hurrying
his sister, soon reached home.
Aubrey became almost distracted. If before his
mind had been absorbed by one subject, how
much more completely was it engrossed, now
that the certainty of the monster’s living again
pressed upon his thoughts. His sister’s attentions
were now unheeded, and it was in vain that she
intreated him to explain to her what had caused
his abrupt conduct. He only uttered a few words,
and those terrified her. The more he thought,
the more he was bewildered. His oath startled
him;—was he then to allow this monster to
roam, bearing ruin upon his breath, amidst all he
held dear, and not avert its progress? His very
sister might have been touched by him. But even
if he were to break his oath, and disclose his sus-
picions, who would believe him? He thought of
employing his own hand to free the world from
such a wretch; but death, he remembered, had
been already mocked. For days he remained in
this state; shut up in his room, he saw no one,
and ate only when his sister came, who, with eyes
streaming with tears, besought him, for her sake,
to support nature. At last, no longer capable of
bearing stillness and solitude, he left his house,
roamed from street to street, anxious to fly that
image which haunted him. His dress became ne-
glected, and he wandered, as often exposed to
the noon-day sun as to the midnight damps. He
was no longer to be recognized; at first he re-
turned with the evening to the house; but at last
he laid him down to rest wherever fatigue over-
took him. His sister, anxious for his safety, em-
ployed people to follow him; but they were soon
distanced by him who fled from a pursuer swifter
than any—from thought. His conduct, howev-
er, suddenly changed. Struck with the idea that
he left by his absence the whole of his friends,
 with a fiend amongst them, of whose presence
they were unconscious, he determined to enter
again into society, and watch him closely, anxious
to forewarn, in spite of his oath, all whom Lord
Ruthven approached with intimacy. But when he
entered into a room, his haggard and suspicious
looks were so striking, his inward shudderings so
visible, that his sister was at last obliged to beg
of him to abstain from seeking, for her sake, a
society which affected him so strongly. When,
however, remonstrance proved unavailing, the
guardians thought proper to interpose, and, fear-
ing that his mind was becoming alienated, they
thought it high time to resume again that trust
which had been before imposed upon them by
Aubrey’s parents.
Desirous of saving him from the injuries and
sufferings he had daily encountered in his wan-
derings, and of preventing him from exposing to
the general eye those marks of what they con-
sidered folly, they engaged a physician to reside
in the house, and take constant care of him. He
hardly appeared to notice it, so completely was
his mind absorbed by one terrible subject. His
incoherence became at last so great, that he was
confined to his chamber. There he would often
lie for days, incapable of being roused. He had
become emaciated, his eyes had attained a glassy
lustre;—the only sign of affection and recollec-
tion remaining displayed itself upon the entry of
his sister; then he would sometimes start, and,
seizing her hands, with looks that severely afflict-
ed her, he would desire her not to touch him.
“Oh, do not touch him—if your love for me is
aught, do not go near him!” When, however, she
inquired to whom he referred, his only answer
was, “True! true!” and again he sank into a state,
whence not even she could rouse him. This lasted
many months: gradually, however, as the year was
passing, his incoherences became less frequent,
and his mind threw off a portion of its gloom,
whilst his guardians observed, that several times
in the day he would count upon his fingers a defi-
258
nite number, and then smile.
The time had nearly elapsed, when, upon the last
day of the year, one of his guardians entering his
room, began to converse with his physician upon
the melancholy circumstance of Aubrey’s being
in so awful a situation, when his sister was going
next day to be married. Instantly Aubrey’s atten-
tion was attracted; he asked anxiously to whom.
Glad of this mark of returning intellect, of which
they feared he had been deprived, they mentioned
the name of the Earl of Marsden. Thinking this
was a young Earl whom he had met with in soci-
ety, Aubrey seemed pleased, and astonished them
still more by his expressing his intention to be
present at the nuptials, and desiring to see his
sister. They answered not, but in a few minutes
his sister was with him. He was apparently again
capable of being affected by the influence of her
lovely smile; for he pressed her to his breast, and
kissed her cheek, wet with tears, flowing at the
thought of her brother’s being once more alive
to the feelings of affection. He began to speak
with all his wonted warmth, and to congratulate
her upon her marriage with a person so distin-
guished for rank and every accomplishment;
when he suddenly perceived a locket upon her
breast; opening it, what was his surprise at be-
holding the features of the monster who had so
long influenced his life. He seized the portrait in
a paroxysm of rage, and trampled it under foot.
Upon her asking him why he thus destroyed the
resemblance of her future husband, he looked as
if he did not understand her—then seizing her
hands, and gazing on her with a frantic expres-
sion of countenance, he bade her swear that she
would never wed this monster, for he—— But
he could not advance—it seemed as if that voice
again bade him remember his oath—he turned
suddenly round, thinking Lord Ruthven was near
him but saw no one. In the meantime the guardi-
ans and physician, who had heard the whole, and
thought this was but a return of his disorder, en-
tered, and forcing him from Miss Aubrey, desired
 her to leave him. He fell upon his knees to them, most heavy curses. The servants promised they
he implored, he begged of them to delay but for would deliver it; but giving it to the physician, he
one day. They, attributing this to the insanity they thought it better not to harass any more the mind
imagined had taken possession of his mind, en- of Miss Aubrey by, what he considered, the rav-
deavoured to pacify him, and retired. ings of a maniac. Night passed on without rest
to the busy inmates of the house; and Aubrey
Lord Ruthven had called the morning after the heard, with a horror that may more easily be con-
drawing-room, and had been refused with every ceived than described, the notes of busy prepara-
one else. When he heard of Aubrey’s ill health, he tion. Morning came, and the sound of carriages
readily understood himself to be the cause of it; broke upon his ear. Aubrey grew almost frantic.
but when he learned that he was deemed insane, The curiosity of the servants at last overcame
his exultation and pleasure could hardly be con- their vigilance, they gradually stole away, leaving
cealed from those among whom he had gained him in the custody of an helpless old woman. He
this information. He hastened to the house of seized the opportunity, with one bound was out
his former companion, and, by constant attend- of the room, and in a moment found himself in
ance, and the pretence of great affection for the apartment where all were nearly assembled.
the brother and interest in his fate, he gradually Lord Ruthven was the first to perceive him: he
won the ear of Miss Aubrey. Who could resist immediately approached, and, taking his arm by
his power? His tongue had dangers and toils to force, hurried him from the room, speechless
recount—could speak of himself as of an in- with rage. When on the staircase, Lord Ruthven
dividual having no sympathy with any being on whispered in his ear—”Remember your oath,
the crowded earth, save with her to whom he ad- and know, if not my bride to day, your sister is
dressed himself;—could tell how, since he knew dishonoured. Women are frail!” So saying, he
her, his existence, had begun to seem worthy of pushed him towards his attendants, who, roused
preservation, if it were merely that he might lis- by the old woman, had come in search of him.
ten to her soothing accents;—in fine, he knew so Aubrey could no longer support himself; his rage
well how to use the serpent’s art, or such was the not finding vent, had broken a blood-vessel, and
will of fate, that he gained her affections. The ti- he was conveyed to bed. This was not mentioned
tle of the elder branch falling at length to him, he to his sister, who was not present when he en-
obtained an important embassy, which served as tered, as the physician was afraid of agitating her.
an excuse for hastening the marriage, (in spite of The marriage was solemnized, and the bride and
her brother’s deranged state,) which was to take bridegroom left London.
place the very day before his departure for the
continent. Aubrey’s weakness increased; the effusion of
blood produced symptoms of the near approach
Aubrey, when he was left by the physician and his of death. He desired his sister’s guardians might
guardians, attempted to bribe the servants, but be called, and when the midnight hour had
in vain. He asked for pen and paper; it was given struck, he related composedly what the reader
him; he wrote a letter to his sister, conjuring her, has perused—he died immediately after.
as she valued her own happiness, her own hon-
our, and the honour of those now in the grave, The guardians hastened to protect Miss Aubrey;
who once held her in their arms as their hope and but when they arrived, it was too late. Lord Ruth-
the hope of their house, to delay but for a few ven had disappeared, and Aubrey’s sister had
hours that marriage, on which he denounced the glutted the thirst of a VAMPYRE!
259
260
 Death
PERCY SHELLEY

I..
They die--the dead return not--Misery
Sits near an open grave and calls them over,
A Youth with hoary hair and haggard eye--
They are the names of kindred, friend and lover,
Which he so feebly calls—they all are gone--
Fond wretch, all dead! those vacant names alone,
This most familiar scene, my pain--
These tombs—alone remain.

II.
Misery, my sweetest friend—oh, weep no more!
Thou wilt not be consoled—I wonder not!
For I have seen thee from thy dwelling’s door
Watch the calm sunset with them, and this spot
Was even as bright and calm, but transitory,
And now thy hopes are gone, thy hair is hoary;
This most familiar scene, my pain--
These tombs—alone remain.

261
 Absence
MARY SHELLEY

Ah! he is gone- and I alone!--

How dark and dreary seems the time!
Tis thus, when the glad sun is flown,
Night rushes o’er the Indian clime.
Is there no star to cheer this night?
No soothing twilight for the breast?
Yes, Memory sheds her fairy light,
Pleasing as sunset’s golden west--
And hope of dawn--oh! brighter far
Than clouds that in the orient burn;
More welcome than the morning star
Is the dear thought --he will return!

262
 discovered his abode. Overjoyed at this discov-
Frankenstein; ery, he hastened to the house, which was situ-
ated in a mean street, near the Reuss. But when
OR, THE he entered, misery and despair alone welcomed
him. Beaufort had saved but a very small sum
MODERN PROMETHEUS. of money from the wreck of his fortunes; but
it was sufficient to provide him with sustenance
for some months, and in the mean time he hoped

I am by birth a Genevese; and my family is one

of the most distinguished of that republic. My
ancestors had been for many years counsellors
to procure some respectable employment in a
merchant’s house. The interval was consequent-
ly spent in inaction; his grief only became more
and syndics; and my father had filled several pub- deep and rankling, when he had leisure for re-
lic situations with honour and reputation. He was flection; and at length it took so fast hold of his
respected by all who knew him for his integrity mind, that at the end of three months he lay on a
and indefatigable attention to public business. He bed of sickness, incapable of any exertion.
passed his younger days perpetually occupied by
the affairs of his country; and it was not until theHis daughter attended him with the greatest
decline of life that he thought of marrying, and tenderness; but she saw with despair that their
bestowing on the state sons who might carry his little fund was rapidly decreasing, and that there
virtues and his name down to posterity. was no other prospect of support. But Caroline
Beaufort possessed a mind of an uncommon
As the circumstances of his marriage illustrate mould; and her courage rose to support her in
his character, I cannot refrain from relating them. her adversity. She procured plain work; she plait-
One of his most intimate friends was a mer- ed straw; and by various means contrived to earn
chant, who, from a flourishing state, fell, through a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life.
numerous mischances, into poverty. This man,
whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and Several months passed in this manner. Her father
unbending disposition, and could not bear to grew worse; her time was more entirely occupied
live in poverty and oblivion in the same country in attending him; her means of subsistence de-
where he had formerly been distinguished for his creased; and in the tenth month her father died
rank and magnificence. Having paid his debts, in her arms, leaving her an orphan and a beggar.
therefore, in the most honourable manner, he This last blow overcame her; and she knelt by
retreated with his daughter to the town of Lu- Beaufort’s coffin, weeping bitterly, when my fa-
cerne, where he lived unknown and in wretch- ther entered the chamber. He came like a protect-
edness. My father loved Beaufort with the truest ing spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself
friendship, and was deeply grieved by his retreat to his care, and after the interment of his friend
in these unfortunate circumstances. He grieved he conducted her to Geneva, and placed her un-
also for the loss of his society, and resolved to der the protection of a relation. Two years after
seek him out and endeavour to persuade him to this event Caroline became his wife.
begin the world again through his credit and as-
sistance. When my father became a husband and a par-
ent, he found his time so occupied by the duties
Beaufort had taken effectual measures to conceal of his new situation, that he relinquished many
himself; and it was ten months before my father of his public employments, and devoted himself
263
 to the education of his children. Of these I was was docile and good tempered, yet gay and play-
the eldest, and the destined successor to all his ful as a summer insect. Although she was lively
labours and utility. No creature could have more and animated, her feelings were strong and deep,
tender parents than mine. My improvement and and her disposition uncommonly affectionate.
health were their constant care, especially as I No one could better enjoy liberty, yet no one
remained for several years their only child. But could submit with more grace than she did to
before I continue my narrative, I must record an constraint and caprice. Her imagination was lux-
incident which took place when I was four years uriant, yet her capability of application was great.
of age. Her person was the image of her mind; her ha-
zel eyes, although as lively as a bird’s, possessed
My father had a sister, whom he tenderly loved, an attractive softness. Her figure was light and
and who had married early in life an Italian gen- airy; and, though capable of enduring great fa-
tleman. Soon after her marriage, she had accom- tigue, she appeared the most fragile creature in
panied her husband into her native country, and the world. While I admired her understanding
for some years my father had very little commu- and fancy, I loved to tend on her, as I should on a
nication with her. About the time I mentioned favourite animal; and I never saw so much grace
she died; and a few months afterwards he re- both of person and mind united to so little pre-
ceived a letter from her husband, acquainting tension.
him with his intention of marrying an Italian
lady, and requesting my father to take charge of Every one adored Elizabeth. If the servants had
the infant Elizabeth, the only child of his de- any request to make, it was always through her
ceased sister. “It is my wish,” he said, “that you intercession. We were strangers to any species of
should consider her as your own daughter, and disunion and dispute; for although there was a
educate her thus. Her mother’s fortune is secured great dissimilitude in our characters, there was an
to her, the documents of which I will commit harmony in that very dissimilitude. I was more
to your keeping. Reflect upon this proposition; calm and philosophical than my companion; yet
and decide whether you would prefer educating my temper was not so yielding. My application
your niece yourself to her being brought up by a was of longer endurance; but it was not so severe
stepmother.” whilst it endured. I delighted in investigating the
facts relative to the actual world; she busied her-
My father did not hesitate, and immediately went self in following the aërial creations of the poets.
to Italy, that he might accompany the little Eliz- The world was to me a secret, which I desired
abeth to her future home. I have often heard my to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she
mother say, that she was at that time the most sought to people with imaginations of her own.
beautiful child she had ever seen, and shewed
signs even then of a gentle and affectionate dis- My brothers were considerably younger than my-
position. These indications, and a desire to bind self; but I had a friend in one of my schoolfel-
as closely as possible the ties of domestic love, lows, who compensated for this deficiency. Hen-
determined my mother to consider Elizabeth as ry Clerval was the son of a merchant of Geneva,
my future wife; a design which she never found an intimate friend of my father. He was a boy of
reason to repent. singular talent and fancy. I remember, when he
was nine years old, he wrote a fairy tale, which
From this time Elizabeth Lavenza became my was the delight and amazement of all his com-
playfellow, and, as we grew older, my friend. She panions. His favourite study consisted in books
264
 of chivalry and romance; and when very young, misery: for when I would account to myself for
I can remember, that we used to act plays com- the birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled
posed by him out of these favourite books, the my destiny, I find it arise, like a mountain river,
principal characters of which were Orlando, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but,
Robin Hood, Amadis, and St. George. swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent
which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes
No youth could have passed more happily than and joys.
mine. My parents were indulgent, and my com-
panions amiable. Our studies were never forced; Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulat-
and by some means we always had an end placed ed my fate; I desire therefore, in this narration, to
in view, which excited us to ardour in the prose- state those facts which led to my predilection for
cution of them. It was by this method, and not that science. When I was thirteen years of age, we
by emulation, that we were urged to application. all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near
Elizabeth was not incited to apply herself to Thonon: the inclemency of the weather obliged
drawing, that her companions might not outstrip us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this
her; but through the desire of pleasing her aunt, house I chanced to find a volume of the works
by the representation of some favourite scene of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy;
done by her own hand. We learned Latin and the theory which he attempts to demonstrate,
English, that we might read the writings in those and the wonderful facts which he relates, soon
languages; and so far from study being made changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light
odious to us through punishment, we loved ap- seemed to dawn upon my mind; and, bounding
plication, and our amusements would have been with joy, I communicated my discovery to my
the labours of other children. Perhaps we did not father. I cannot help remarking here the many
read so many books, or learn languages so quick- opportunities instructors possess of directing
ly, as those who are disciplined according to the the attention of their pupils to useful knowledge,
ordinary methods; but what we learned was im- which they utterly neglect. My father looked care-
pressed the more deeply on our memories. lessly at the title-page of my book, and said, “Ah!
Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste
In this description of our domestic circle I in- your time upon this; it is sad trash.”
clude Henry Clerval; for he was constantly with
us. He went to school with me, and generally If, instead of this remark, my father had taken
passed the afternoon at our house; for being an the pains, to explain to me, that the principles of
only child, and destitute of companions at home, Agrippa had been entirely exploded, and that a
his father was well pleased that he should find modern system of science had been introduced,
associates at our house; and we were never com- which possessed much greater powers than the
pletely happy when Clerval was absent. ancient, because the powers of the latter were
chimerical, while those of the former were real
I feel pleasure in dwelling on the recollections and practical; under such circumstances, I should
of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my certainly have thrown Agrippa aside, and, with
mind, and changed its bright visions of extensive my imagination warmed as it was, should prob-
usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections ably have applied myself to the more rational
upon self. But, in drawing the picture of my ear- theory of chemistry which has resulted from
ly days, I must not omit to record those events modern discoveries. It is even possible, that the
which led, by insensible steps to my after tale of train of my ideas would never have received the
265
 fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory Distillation, and the wonderful effects of steam,
glance my father had taken of my volume by no processes of which my favourite authors were
means assured me that he was acquainted with its utterly ignorant, excited my astonishment; but
contents; and I continued to read with the great- my utmost wonder was engaged by some exper-
est avidity. iments on an air-pump, which I saw employed
by a gentleman whom we were in the habit of
When I returned home, my first care was to pro- visiting.
cure the whole works of this author, and after-
wards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read The ignorance of the early philosophers on these
and studied the wild fancies of these writers with and several other points served to decrease their
delight; they appeared to me treasures known to credit with me: but I could not entirely throw
few beside myself; and although I often wished them aside, before some other system should oc-
to communicate these secret stores of knowl- cupy their place in my mind.
edge to my father, yet his indefinite censure of
my favourite Agrippa always withheld me. I dis- When I was about fifteen years old, we had retired
closed my discoveries to Elizabeth, therefore, un- to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a
der a promise of strict secrecy; but she did not most violent and terrible thunder-storm. It ad-
interest herself in the subject, and I was left by vanced from behind the mountains of Jura; and
her to pursue my studies alone. the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness
from various quarters of the heavens. I remained,
It may appear very strange, that a disciple of while the storm lasted, watching its progress with
Albertus Magnus should arise in the eighteenth curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on
century; but our family was not scientifical, and a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an
I had not attended any of the lectures given at old and beautiful oak, which stood about twenty
the schools of Geneva. My dreams were there- yards from our house; and so soon as the daz-
fore undisturbed by reality; and I entered with zling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and
the greatest diligence into the search of the phi- nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we
losopher’s stone and the elixir of life. But the lat- visited it the next morning, we found the tree
ter obtained my most undivided attention: wealth shattered in a singular manner. It was not splin-
was an inferior object; but what glory would at- tered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin
tend the discovery, if I could banish disease from ribbands of wood. I never beheld any thing so
the human frame, and render man invulnerable utterly destroyed.
to any but a violent death!
The catastrophe of this tree excited my extreme
Nor were these my only visions. The raising of astonishment; and I eagerly inquired of my fa-
ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded ther the nature and origin of thunder and light-
by my favourite authors, the fulfilment of which ning. He replied, “Electricity;” describing at the
I most eagerly sought; and if my incantations same time the various effects of that power. He
were always unsuccessful, I attributed the failure constructed a small electrical machine, and ex-
rather to my own inexperience and mistake, than hibited a few experiments; he made also a kite,
to a want of skill or fidelity in my instructors. with a wire and string, which drew down that flu-
id from the clouds.
The natural phænomena that take place every day
before our eyes did not escape my examinations. This last stroke completed the overthrow of

266
 Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Para- and endearing manners, inspired the tenderest
celsus, who had so long reigned the lords of my affection.
imagination. But by some fatality I did not feel
inclined to commence the study of any modern Such was our domestic circle, from which care
system; and this disinclination was influenced by and pain seemed for ever banished. My father
the following circumstance. directed our studies, and my mother partook
of our enjoyments. Neither of us possessed the
My father expressed a wish that I should attend slightest pre-eminence over the other; the voice
a course of lectures upon natural philosophy, of command was never heard amongst us; but
to which I cheerfully consented. Some accident mutual affection engaged us all to comply with
prevented my attending these lectures until the and obey the slightest desire of each other.
course was nearly finished. The lecture, being
therefore one of the last, was entirely incompre-
hensible to me. The professor discoursed with
the greatest fluency of potassium and boron, of
sulphates and oxyds, terms to which I could affix
no idea; and I became disgusted with the science
of natural philosophy, although I still read Pliny
and Buffon with delight, authors, in my estima-
tion, of nearly equal interest and utility.

My occupations at this age were principally the

mathematics, and most of the branches of study
appertaining to that science. I was busily em-
ployed in learning languages; Latin was already
familiar to me, and I began to read some of the
easiest Greek authors without the help of a lex-
icon. I also perfectly understood English and
German. This is the list of my accomplishments
at the age of seventeen; and you may conceive
that my hours were fully employed in acquiring
and maintaining a knowledge of this various lit-
erature.

Another task also devolved upon me, when I be-

came the instructor of my brothers. Ernest was
six years younger than myself, and was my prin-
cipal pupil. He had been afflicted with ill health
from his infancy, through which Elizabeth and I
had been his constant nurses: his disposition was
gentle, but he was incapable of any severe appli-
cation. William, the youngest of our family, was
yet an infant, and the most beautiful little fellow
in the world; his lively blue eyes, dimpled cheeks,
267
268
 Darkness
Lord Byron

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires—and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings—the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,
And men were gather'd round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd;
Forests were set on fire—but hour by hour
They fell and faded—and the crackling trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash—and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,

269
 The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash’d their teeth and howl’d: the wild birds shriek’d
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl’d
And twin’d themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless—they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought—and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails—men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devour’d,
Even dogs assail’d their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish’d men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lur’d their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answer’d not with a caress—he died.
The crowd was famish’d by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap’d a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage; they rak’d up,
And shivering scrap’d with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other’s aspects—saw, and shriek’d, and died—
270
 Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless—
A lump of death—a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirr’d within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp’d
They slept on the abyss without a surge—
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expir’d before;
The winds were wither’d in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish’d; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them—She was the Universe.

271
 And thou art dead, as young and fair
Lord Byron

And thou art dead, as young and fair

As aught of mortal birth;
And form so soft, and charms so rare,
Too soon return’d to Earth!
Though Earth receiv’d them in her bed,
And o’er the spot the crowd may tread
In carelessness or mirth,
There is an eye which could not brook
A moment on that grave to look.
I will not ask where thou liest low,
Nor gaze upon the spot;
There flowers or weeds at will may grow,
So I behold them not:
It is enough for me to prove
That what I lov’d, and long must love,
Like common earth can rot;
To me there needs no stone to tell,
‘T is Nothing that I lov’d so well.

272
 Stanzas
Mary Shelley

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!

...I will not ask a dearer bliss;
Come with the starry beams, my love,
...And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

'Twas thus, as ancient fables tell,

...Love visited a Grecian maid,
Till she disturbed the sacred spell,
...And woke to find her hopes betrayed.

But gentle sleep shall veil my sight,

...And Psyche's lamp shall darkling be,
When, in the visions of the night,
...Thou dost renew thy vows to me.

Then come to me in dreams, my love,

...I will not ask a dearer bliss;
Come with the starry beams, my love,
...And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

273
 She Walks In Beauty
Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

274
 ‘To Constantia, Singing’
PERCY SHELLEY

Cease, cease—for such wild lessons madmen learn

Thus to be lost, and thus to sink and die
Perchance were death indeed!—Constantia turn
In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie
Even though the sounds its voice that were
Between [thy] lips are laid to sleep:
Within thy breath, and on thy hair
Like odour, it is [lingering] yet
And from thy touch like fire doth leap—
Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet—
Alas, that the torn heart can bleed but not forget.

[A deep and] breathless awe like the swift change

Of dreams unseen but felt in youthful slumbers
Wild sweet yet incommunicably strange
Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers
The cope of heaven seems rent and cloven
By the enchantment of thy strain,
And on my shoulders wings are woven,
To follow its sublime career
Beyond the mighty moons that wane
Upon the verge of Nature’s utmost sphere,
Till the world’s shadowy walls are past and disappear.

275
 Dear Doctor, I have read your play
LORD BYRON

Dear Doctor, I have read your play,

Which is a good one in its way,
Purges the eyes, and moves the bowels,
And drenches handkerchiefs like towels
With tears that, in a flux of grief,
Afford hysterical relief
To shatter’d nerves and quicken’d pulses,
Which your catastrophe convulses.
I like your moral and machinery;
Your plot, too, has such scope for scenery!
Your dialogue is apt and smart;
The play’s concoction full of art;
Your hero raves, your heroine cries,
All stab, and everybody dies;
In short, your tragedy would be
The very thing to hear and see;
And for a piece of publication,
If I decline on this occasion,
It is not that I am not sensible
To merits in themselves ostensible,
But—and I grieve to speak it—plays
Are drugs—mere drugs, Sir, nowadays.
I had a heavy loss by Manuel —
Too lucky if it prove not annual—
And Sotheby, with his damn’d Orestes
(Which, by the way, the old bore’s best is),
Has lain so very long on hand
That I despair of all demand;

276
 Claire Clairmont to Lord Byron I
London
22nd April 1816

Hour after hour & no news of you! I do not think this unkind of you; poor creature
you are no doubt overwhelmed; write me but a few lines – tell me when you go; & pray
give me some explicit direction for I shall be at Geneva soon & it will break my heart if
I do not know where you are. Keep my messenger as long as you please so you do but
write. If you could but know with what palpitating anxiety, what restless impatience I
have been counting these hateful lingering moments surely you would write. Tomor-
row I shall awake & find you gone; a thousand times I shall question the reality of all
that has passed & feel that internal wretchedness at the departure of an object who has
of late occupied by ceaseless thoughts.
A few hours and you will be away – flying from town to town, resting in no place.
And a few hours more, & this peopled echoing city shall become to me the most des-
olate and hateful of places.
In England I shall see you no more – Blessed & quick be the time when I shall watch
its receding shores: think of me ion Switzerland; the land of my ancestors: like my na-
tive mountains, I am tranquil & (like) as they are eternal so is my affection.
One thing tell me; say that you go well & somewhat tranquil; & if you can say you
think well of me, but not unless you do. And when you read this letter say in that most
gentle tone of your’s “poor thing. “ Now do not smile contemptuously & call me a
“little fool” when I tell you that I weep at your departure. Farewell; you have been kind
to me under the most unfavourable circumstances & kindness is so rare to me that I
can never forget you. We shall meet again at Geneva, to me the most beautiful & en-
dearing of words .
Your most grateful
Clare

Pray write. I shall die if you don’t write

277
 From ADONAIS:
An Elegy on the Death of John Keats

PERCY SHELLEY

I weep for Adonais -he is dead!

O, weep for Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!
And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years
To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers,
And teach them thine own sorrow, say: "With me
Died Adonais; till the Future dares
Forget the Past, his fate and fame shall be
An echo and a light unto eternity!"
The breath whose might I have invoked in song
Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given;
The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;
Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.

278
 A Dirge
MARY SHELLEY

This morn, thy gallant bark, love,

Sail’d on the sunny sea;
Tis noon, and tempests dark, love,
Have wreck’d it on the lee.
Ah, woe! ah, woe! ah, woe!
By spirits of the deep
He’s cradled on the billow,
To his unwaking sleep!
Thou liest upon the shore, love,
Beside the swelling surge;
But sea-nymphs ever more, love,
Shall sadly chant thy dirge.
O come! O come! O come
Ye spirits of the deep !
While near his sea- weed pillow,
My lonely watch I keep.
From far across the sea, love,
I hear a wild lament,
By Echo’s voice, for thee, love,
From ocean’s caverns sent:
O list! O list ! O list !
The spirits of the deep
Loud sounds their wail of sorrow,
While I for ever weep!

279
 Ozymandias
PERCY SHELLEY

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

280
 Claire Clairmont to Lord Byron II
Rue Richelieu Paris
Monday May 6th. 1816

So far am I on my Journey—Now will you believe? And where have you been? Every
day I ask myself this question & wonder whether amidst all the novelties you behold
you ever once think of me. But no I do not expect it; I have no doubt you think my
affection all a pretence? Or that you are handsome & my passions excited; first I have
no passions; I had ten times rather be your male friend than your mistress. And as to
the fickleness or falsehood of my attachment is it likely I should travel merely for the
pleasure of seeing you, eight hundred miles.
I have been extremely unhappy: You bade me not come without protection: “the
whole tribe of the Otaheite philosopher’s are come;” Shelley’s chancery suit was decid-
ed against him:* he had therefore nothing to detain him & yielded to my pressing solic-
itations; you will I suppose wish to see Mary. who talks, & looks at you with admiration;
you will I dare say fall in love with her; she is very handsome & very amiable & you will
no doubt be blest in your attachment; nothing can afford me such pleasure as to see
you happy in any of your attachments. If it should be so I will redouble my attentions
to please her; I will do every thing she tells me whether it be good or bad for I would
not stand low in the affections of the person so beyond blest as to be beloved of you.
I should have written to you before but I feared: you so hate letters & I had nothing
to tell you but that I was unhappy because you were gone & wished myself dead. In
five or six days I shall be at Geneva. I entreat you on receipt of this to write a little
note for me directed as Madame Clairville, Poste Restante, saying where you are, and
how you are. I have taken the name of Clairville because you said you liked the name
of Clare but could not bear mont because of that very ugly woman.? And I chuse to
be married because I am so & Madame’s have their full liberty abroad. Pray pray do
not forget to send the little note; day after day I shall travel the weary road; every hour
that brings me nearer to Geneva will render me more wretchedly anxious & inquiet &
if on enquiry I should not find a note from you I know not what will become of me.

281
 Do not fear I will prove (my cost) (bot) troublesome to you; you shal “come, go,
depart” when you please; only do not say you will not see me; you do not know how I
feel for you; you have left your native land; your household gods, your friends & now
you travel about with only a physician; does he take care of you; is he attached to you?
How all your friends loved you; which l do not at all wonder at; Leigh Hunt addressed
a very pretty poem to you the Sunday after your departure but more affectionate than
clever. He talks about “your haughty lamps of blue” I think your eye is more an eye of
sorrow than of pride.
I know not how to address you; I cannot call you friend for though I love you yet you
do not feel even interest for me; fate has ordained that the slightest accident that should
befall you should be agony to me; but were I to float by your window drowned all you
would say would be “Ah voila!” I half thought to begin my letter with “honoured Sir”
because I honour you; & because the little familiarity your coldness allows ought to
prevent any expressions from me of any thing but reverence. All
then I ask is to believe me; I few days ago I was eighteen; people
of eighteen always love truly & tenderly; & I who was educat-
ed by Godwin however erroneous my creed have the high-
est adoratio[n] for truth. Farewell dear, kind, Lord Byron:
how I wish you had any such happiness in store for you
as I have for I hope I trust I shall shortly see you. I have
been reading all your poems & I almost fear to think of
your reading this stupid letter but I love you

Clara

282
283
284
CREDITS
 Credits

C reating Gothic involved many hours of

work combined with generosity from
a lot of people. It was produced by the Ava-
lon larp studio collective and the core team were:
Simon Brind, Halfdan Keller Justesen, Laurie
Penny, Martine Svanevik, and Sagalinn Tangen.

Writers (words by John Shockley,) but based on escala-

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, George Gordon tion and de-escalation mechanics used in many
Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Clara Mary Jane larps.
Clairmont, and John William Polidori.
The Lookdown mechanic was designed by Trine
(With additional written material, contribution, Lise Lindahl and Johanna Koljonen.
and design by Aina S. Lakou, Anna Katrine Bøn-
The Two Minute Game is based on the Three
nelycke, Charlie Ashby, Halfdan Keller Justesen,
Minute Game by Harry Faddis whose work we be-
Laurie Penny, Maria Østerby Elleby, Martine
came aware of thanks to talks and research by
Svanevik, Sagalinn Tangen, and Simon Brind.)
Hanne Grasmo.

We gratefully acknowledge funding from Kultur-

Acknowledgements direktoratet for our first playtest.

Many processes, techniques, and methods have

already been designed and tested by others in
the larp world. From this wealth of expertise —
Thank You
both professional and community — we would Larps are team efforts. Many people do work be-
like to acknowledge: hind the scenes, give freely of their time and/or
expertise, and support the creation of larps. Here
The concept of replaying the same larp a second
are the names of people who have done this for
time, and building on your experience of the first
Gothic.
run, is something we first experienced at House
of Craving and is re-purposed with permission. Website feedback and proofreading:
House of Craving was designed by Danny Meyer
Wilson, Tor Kjetil Edland, and Bjarke Pedersen. Alexis Moisand, Alma Elofsson Edgar, Esper-
anza Montero, Eva Wei, Andreas Markehed, and
“Is that all you’ve got” and “Lay off ” metawords Siri Sandquist.
were first used in the Italian larp, Black Friday
286
 Character Feedback:

Charlie Ashby, Aina S. Lakou, and Ingrid Storrø.

Locaton Scouts:
With special thanks to:
Julie Streit Pilegaard – Main location
Neil Gaiman.
Ragnhild Hutchinson, Tidvis – Playtest One

Laurie Penny – Playtest Two

Food Design:
Anna Katrine Bønnelycke & Maria Østerby El-
leby

Playtesters
Lars Kristian Løveng Sunde, Jørn Norum
Slemdal, Frida Sofie, Danny Meyer Wilson, Tor
Kjetil Edland, Aina S. Lakou, Ingrid G. Storrø,
Kerstin Örtberg, Halfdan Keller Justesen, Kol
Ford, Emma Felber, Rebel Rehbinder, James
De Worde, Dominika Kovacova, Jorg Rødsjø,
Martine Svanevik, and Charlie Ashby.

Cast for Run 1

Christian Kierans, Lars Kristian Løveng Sunde,
Mads Heimdal Thy, Susanne Leah Goldschmidt,
and Tyra Grasmo.

Onsite Crew
Maria Kolseth Jensen, Sascha Stans, and Søren
Werge Bønnelycke.

287
 Avalon Larp Studio is a non-profit association,
a larp design collective named after the larp that
brought us together as designers, Avalon (2018.)

289
 Story Making
Our larps are about characters and their stories.
A character’s journey should involve change.
Sometimes this involves them having to over-
come grim obstacles and best unrelenting chal-
lenges. More often that not, they come out on
the other side having lost more than they gained,
but they will have changed as a result of their
experience; our goal is that the players will too.

Player Agency
Being part of a collaborative creative process
is inherently powerful, and designing for player
agency is our way of giving that power to our
participants. In our larps, the players shape the
story and influence the direction of the game.
Sometimes, they do this by reacting to and en-
gaging with the plot, other times by shaping the
stories on their own. We impact people by pro-
viding them with a narrative they have been part
of building.

Explorative
Whether we are creating intense emotional expe-
riences or fantastic elaborate fictions, we do so to
create a space for exploration and discovery – be
it of the world or the self. Both players and de-
signers play with new ideas and new experiences,
tap dancing on thin ice above the screaming void.
The stories we make together should be trans-
formative, beautiful, and important.

290
Lord Byron, the most successful poet of all time has fled his native England to escape scan-
dal and debt. He is accompanied by his personal physician, Doctor Polidori. He is joined by
the radical poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron’s one-time lover, Claire Clairmont, and Claire’s
half-sister, the writer Mary Godwin, who was later to become famous under her married
name, Mary Shelley.

Alongside the poets in the villa are Byron’s cadre of servants: William Fletcher, the House
Steward, Giovanni Falcier, also known as Tita, Byron’s bodyguard, (Susan Vaughn, a kitchen
maid / Robert Rushton, a Valet), and the two maid servants to the Shelley household, Elise
Duvillard and Amelia Shields.

The year 1816 is unseasonably cold and dark and the group are largely trapped inside Byron’s
villa by the storms outside. To stave off the boredom, they amuse themselves with drink,
drugs, poetry, and much darker undertakings.

In this script you will find a copy of all of the materials from the 2023 live ac-
tion role-playing game, Gothic: the characters, workshops scripts, reci-
pes, briefing notes, and a guide for how to play, and how to organise the game.