Who shall ask it?
The
tribunes cannot do’t for shame; the people
Deserve
such pity of him as the wolf
Does
of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should
say, ‘Be good to Rome,’ they charged him even
As
those should do that had deserved his hate,
And
therein show’d like enemies.
-Cominius
Coriolanus
Act IV Scene vi, Line 115
There is
certainly no more prescient play of Will, or anyone else for that matter, in
respect to our current political times than Coriolanus. I’ve said this before
and I’ll probably be saying it again.
This is late in
the play, and at this point word has reached Rome that Coriolanus has joined
forces with the Volscians and they are on their way to sack Rome. Meninius and
Cominius, and advisor and a general, respectively, are two who tried to keep
from having Coriolanus banished. Brutus and Sicinius are two politicians who
whipped up the crowds to get Coriolanus banished. The four are here talking
about ‘what now?’
Meninius has just
said,
The noble man have mercy.
Obviously, the noble man to whom he refers is Coriolanus. Today’s Totally Random lines are Cominius’s reply to Meninius. 'Who shall ask for his mercy?', he is saying. The tribunes Cominius refers to are the politicians.
I am just flabbergasted every time I read this play at how accurately Will describes the useless politicians and the fickle, ignorant, and easily led crowds. I suppose this is not entirely apparent from today’s lines. However, I listened to the whole of scene six this morning, and I can tell you that Brutus and Sicicnius are the picture of useless politicians whipping up ignorant crowds and then dodging all responsibility when things go sour. You would think Will was writing this about our twenty-first century world.
Flabbergasted.
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