The Bard and The Donald: Shakespeare and Trump
There’s absolutely no doubt that if “the Bard” were alive today he would have a field-day with the life and times of Donald Trump.
If Shakespeare were a contemporary, which of the following excerpts, do you think, is reflective of the current state of mind and situation of “the Donald”?
If you like something else, say so and cite it…
Macbeth;
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing..
———-William Shakespeare
Hamlet;
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contued .
mely,
The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
——-William Shakespeare
Richard III;
King Richard
“A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!”
Catesby
Withdraw, my lord; I’ll help you to a horse.
King Richard
Slave! I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die.
I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Dive have I Slain today instead of him.
A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!
——-William Shakespeare
08/26/2019 @ 9:25 am
I find it truly sad that Shakespeare said this about another when it fits Trump so perfectly:
“A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.”
~ All’s Well That Ends Well (Act 3, Scene 6)
Ron Powell
08/26/2019 @ 10:10 am
If Shakespeare were alive today he may well have had Trump in mind when he wrote that blistering assessment…