Shakespeare in his own time was more famous for two epic poems that he wrote at the beginning of his career, than for any of the plays that he wrote thereafter. In 1593 he published Venus and Adonis, and the year after saw The Rape of Lucrece. And this week, with Andrew Cuomo’s career-long record of abuse suddenly coming to light, it’s time to dip into this irresistible chronicle of the weakness of the flesh. The backstory: Lucius Tarquinius, after gaining control of Rome and while on a military campaign, …

‘For light and lust are deadly enemies’: Governor Cuomo and Shakespeare’s Rape of Lucrece Read More »

With inflation in the air following a bipartisan orgy of money printing, investment flows are careening into perceived safe havens from a devalued currency, whether cyber currencies, precious metals, commodities, or others. Shakespeare saw even this, and chronicled the Elizabethan equivalent in Measure for Measure, a dark comedy ostensibly set in Vienna, but with local color clearly provided by then-present-day England. The ban on banking that held throughout the Middle Ages was designed to enforce a static, feudal system that directed all human endeavor toward the glorification of God, and …

‘Brown paper and old ginger’: Skirting usury laws in Shakespeare’s time, and skirting currency devaluation now Read More »

Facebook has until now been able to publish content from news organizations worldwide and escape any obligation to pay for that content by claiming that it is only providing a platform, and should incur no payment obligation when its users elect to share links to news articles. Australia disagreed. Its government concluded that, like the spymaster Polonius in Hamlet, Facebook earns its keep by monitoring its users’ viewing activities, including their news consumption, and selling that information on to advertisers. Here’s Polonius/Zuckerberg directing Facebook employee/spy Reynaldo to surveil (sorry, monitor …

‘How now! A rat?’: Australia’s stabbing of Facebook and Hamlet’s stabbing of Polonius Read More »

The communist China government, having whetted its appetite by killing tens of millions of their own ethnic Han Chinese in the Great Leap Forward of the 1960s, and having invaded and absorbed Tibet not long after, nearly doubling their territory, to a combined yawn from the rest of the world, now have their sights set on subduing and possibly exterminating the Uighurs. Here’s as close as Shakespeare comes to addressing genocide: Fluellen: “Kill the poys and the luggage! ’tis expressly against the law of arms: ’tis as arrant a piece …

”Tis expressly against the law of arms’: Henry V and the Chinese Concentration Camps Read More »

We are now at the exciting finale of Hamlet. During a break in the duel between Laertes and Hamlet, in which Laertes has been wielding a fencing foil tipped with poison, Queen Gertrude lifted a goblet of wine separately poisoned by her husband and intended for Hamlet — and she has taken a drink. Claudius: [aside] “It is the poisoned cup. It is too late.” Hamlet: “I do not drink yet, madam; by and by.” Queen: “Come, let me wipe thy face.” Laertes: “My lord, I’ll hit him now.” Claudius: …

‘Absent thee from felicity awhile/And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain’: Blogging Hamlet – 33 Read More »