Now,
trust me, were it not against our laws, Against my crown, my oath, my dignity,
Which princes, would they, may not disannul,
My
soul would sue as advocate for thee.
Duke Solinus
The Comedy Of Errors Act
I, Scene i Line 142
This is an interesting line, and it’s the very beginning of
the play. The Duke is talking to Aegeon, who has been sentenced to death, and he's telling Aegeon that he'd like to help him but... oh well. Aegeon's crime? He’s a Syracusian who’s showed up in Ephesus ostensibly with the intent
of trading. Now, to be clear, this is not the theme of this play, but it is a
premise of the play. Aegeon will argue that he’s not a trader, but the sentence
sticks. Oh don’t worry, this is a comedy and it’ll all turn out okay in the
end.
But what makes this particularly interesting is that I was
reading a different text of one current world leader who spoke yesterday to
congress, and I can’t help but draw parallels between him and the Duke above.
This current fellow is intent on going backwards from globalization. He’s
intent on restricting international trade, and he’s intent on restricting
certain internationals from even entering our country based purely on where
they’re coming from, and of course he wants to build a wall. Once again I cannot help but marvel at the relevance of
this four hundred year old work. Back in the fall I was talking about how
relevant Coriolanus was, taking into account the election that was going on.
And now we’re right back to it. I wish I was teaching Shakespeare in class
today. Yeah, I guess that’s where I should be.
But I’m not
This is me about to go into my Gene Kelly impersonation. Relevance? Yes indeed. Can you see where I am in this picture? That's right, I'm on the Great Wall of China. No, really, I am. So since we're talking today (ever so briefly) about xenophobia and keeping foreigners out, what better example than the Great Wall. At least that's what I was thinking. And by the way, it really was quite the soft shoe that I demonstrated after this picture was taken. You'll just have to take my word for it.
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