Shakespeare has some words for President Zuma and Mr Julius Malema

 
The Royal Shakespeare Company are currently staging a new production of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts One and Two. In Part One, King Henry faces a rebellion led, among others, by the Earl of Worcester.
 
In a crucial meeting before the two do battle, Henry offers peace and friendship to all if Worcester will return to allegiance. Worcester's response is to list the rebels' many grievances, charging the King with 'violation of all faith and troth/Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.'
 
The King's reply, one cannot help feeling, would serve President Jacob Zuma perfectly, in a similar encounter with Mr Julius Malema today:
 
These things, indeed, you have articulate,
Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches,
To face the garment of rebellion
With some fine colour that may please the eye
Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,
Which gape and rub the elbow at the news
Of hurlyburly innovation;
And never yet did insurrection want
Such water-colours to impaint his cause,
Nor moody beggars, starving for a time
Of pellmell  havoc and confusion.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting, literate and crucial commentary.