"This is the strangers’ case/And this your mountainish inhumanity."

October 19, 2024 8:28 PM

William Shakespeare on mass deportation, performed by Ian McKellan

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. A young Sir Thomas More spoke to the crowd, and Shakespeare (a few decades later) wrote his version of that speech.

A more polished version can be found here
More background, and the script itself
This speech is (most likely) the only manuscript we have in Shakespeare's own handwriting.

Previously

posted by PlusDistance (3 comments total)

Not to be confused with the other Evil May Day..

I have never heard of, nor read, this text before but I think this section worth pondering (for the benefit of those who aren't inclined to click through the links):

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.

How does it go? "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"?

It really seems a bit too on the nose.
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:47 AM on October 20 [6 favorites]

500 years and nothing learned. That Ian McKellan is something else, choked me up.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:37 AM on October 20 [1 favorite]

Shakespeare didn't always get it right, but when he did, wow.
posted by humbug at 5:28 AM on October 20