A Shakespearean lesson for NYC mosque

One more word, into the endless national din about the mosque in New York City. Not my word. Everything was better said by Mark MacWilliams, not to mention Fareed Zakaria. But I happened to run across what a better man said a very long time ago, on a similar matter. William Shakespeare, as a matter of fact, in one of the passages he revised for Sir Thomas More, in 1603 or 1604.

Sir Thomas More was sheriff of London (In Henry VIII's time) and "a riot broke out among native (and nativist) London tradesmen and apprentices, a riot against foreigners, an anti-immigrant riot. To some degree, in that many of the immigrants were Italian or 'swarthy,' a race riot. The immigrants were accused of offering goods and services so cheaply they were ruining native merchants (it might be seen as one of the earliest anti-globalization riots)." (Ron Rosenbaum, "The Shakespeare Wars.") Immigration! Shakespeare was first in everything. There was even a foolish accusation of poisoning.

Well, More confronted the crowd, and part of what he said was this: Suppose we gave in, and then had them all deported:

"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, with their poor luggage

Plodding to th' ports and coasts for transportation

And that you sit as kings in your desires,

Authority quite silenc'd by your brawl,

And you in ruff of your opinion cloth'd,

What had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught

How insolence and the strong hand should prevail,

How order should be quelled — and by this pattern

Not one of you should live an aged man,

For other ruffians as their fancies wrought

With selfsame hand, self reasons and self right

Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes

Would feed on one another."

It was answer enough in the play for the London mob. Substitute "the Constitution" for "England," and Gingrich, Palin, Angle, etc., for "ruffians," and it should be sufficient now, too. Those last 11 lines apply to the current shouting match about the mosque even better than to immigration. They're a constant truth.

Christopher Dunn

Potsdam