The Bard as pundit

The day after the Pennsylvania primary, April 23, will be the 444th birthday of William Shakespeare. As we take a brief respite from nonstop election coverage to raise a glass to the Bard -- for surely Democrats and Republicans alike can agree on Shakespeare's genius? -- it's worth noting some words that do not appear in Shakespeare's works: "Democrat," "democracy," "republic," "Republican," "primary," "pundit," "delegate" ... not even "vote." (In case you're wondering, "liberal" appears 28 times; "conservative," not at all.)

One can easily forget that the concept of democracy as a viable political system would have been quite alien in Shakespeare's day. Its brief flowering in Greece was ancient history, its rebirth in the New World still two centuries away. So what would the West's greatest dramatist make of modern American democracy? And, more enticingly in this election year, what would he make of our candidates? Shakespeare, whose most iconic characters are based on political figures -- Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Prince Hamlet, Richard III, King Lear -- would find plenty of source material in this year's blockbuster electoral battle.

The Bard was clearly fascinated with politics. Of his 21 histories and tragedies, every one deals directly or indirectly with the acquisition or maintenance of power. Usurpations, regicides, civil wars -- even the classic "love story" of Romeo and Juliet is woven into the tale of a civic feud between two powerful noble factions: the Montagues and the Capulets.

But it's difficult to pin down Shakespeare's personal political views. This may have been simple self-preservation. His overtly political contemporaries -- Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and Thomas Kyd -- were murdered. England in the age of Shakespeare was undergoing cataclysmic change. The burning of Protestants at the stake by "Bloody" Mary had been followed by the public hanging, drawing and quartering of Catholic priests and their supporters during Elizabeth I's reign. It all makes today's culture wars look rather like a tea party.

Not surprisingly, the political themes that do emerge in Shakespeare's works reveal a fear of chaos, a distrust of popular rule and the elevation of order and English sovereignty above all. Shakespeare usually portrays "the people" as an unruly mob in the street -- the "fool multitude that choose by show." In "Troilus and Cressida," the Greek hero Ulysses proclaims that the greatest peace and prosperity come when "the heavens themselves, the planets and this center, observe degree, priority and place ... proportion, season, form, office and custom, all in line of order." I'd argue that Shakespeare too believed this was the best prescription for his country, "this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."