Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Hmm …

Forget Caesar. Shakespeare Has Another Role for Trump. - Bloomberg. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Which Shakespearean characters does Trump most closely resemble? Without impeachment (or worse) in place, Julius Caesar doesn’t seem to fit, and furthermore the Roman emperor had a pomp and gravitas that Trump as president lacks. 
Julius Caesar was never emperor of Rome. The first Roman emperor was Augustus. I would advise against facile political comparisons.

6 comments:

  1. Yes, but Caesar was a dictator -- though admittedly in the original (more or less) sense of the word. But I doubt that would worry Trump.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And comparisons, even if facile, remind as to pay attention to the past.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes. He was dictator in the original sense. That actually means a lot, if you know your Roman history, as evidently our author does not. And history only rhymes. Facile comparisons demean it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, I fear we're both straying into facile territory with our pronouncements about history.

    As counterpoint:

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/21/why-the-white-house-is-reading-greek-history-215287

    ReplyDelete
  5. BTW, rhymes can make for apt comparisons. Think 'chump' and 'sump', for example.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, history rhymes because there are points in common between now and then. But now is not then and then is not now. The best reason for reading history is that it gives you an experienced mind.

    ReplyDelete