This evening, I was exposed to greatness. Colbert’s guest was Ian McKellan, who performed live a speech from Shakespeare’s play Thomas More, which was written some 500 years ago and represents the only work actually preserved in the Bard’s actual handwriting. For political reasons, namely that it was considered seditious when written, the play was first performed in 1967. Ian McKellan was the actor who created the part of Thomas More in that first production of the play; a play which is as fitting in today’s world as it was 500 years ago.
On May 1, 1517 — now referred to as Evil May Day — riots broke out in London as a response to an influx of immigrant workers. Eighty years later, Shakespeare wrote this play that includes some of those events. The play, called Sir Thomas More, wasn't published or performed at the time, quite possibly because it was censored. This speech from the play is delivered to the rampaging crowd by Thomas More, who was sheriff of London at the time. Thomas More asks the rioters to imagine themselves in the shoes of the immigrants they're attacking:
Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silent by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an agèd man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
[...]
Say now the king,
As he is clement if th’offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England,
Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity.
Have we not progressed at all in 500 years?
If you wish to see the speech performed, click on the link below.
Comments
Thanks for posting the link
The video was shot at the 'Globe' theatre in London. This is a replica of the theatre where many of 'The Bard's' works were performed noticeable with men playing the female parts.
The actors are almost all descended from immigrants many of those had fled persecution in their own countries over the centuries. London is and has been since before the time of Shakespeare, a melting pot of nationalities. Long may that continue.
Sadly, we have a political party here that will try to enact many of the same policies of the current POTUS. They are a clear and present danger.
Samantha
Imagine?
I'm under the impression that some people can't imagine. Not only that, I saw a YouTube video somewhere -- forgotten -- about some people who don't or can't visualize an image described to them. (Not sure how accurate that description is.)
-- Daphne Xu
Raw and powerful
Thank you for sharing it. And, Sir Ian’s performance was stunning as well.
Such ancient tribal demons we have seen fit to stir. May God have mercy on us . . . for a just God would not.
— Emma
Brilliant
And still they are spurned. Where is our humanity?