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Conference Program with complete Audio/Video Archive Panel 1- Keynote by Lyndon LaRouche LaRouche Discussion with Nestor Oginar Panel 2 -A Tribute to Amelia Boynton Robinson Panel 3 -Prelude- Brahms, by Fred Haight Panel 3- Second Keynote by Helga Zepp LaRouche Panel 4 - Dialogue with Lyndon LaRouche Panel 5 - Defeat the Brute Within: --- It Only Smells Like the Island Of Dr.Moreau by Stanley Ezrol, --- Classical Drama and Americans - Harley Schlanger |
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The following speech was presented at the ICLC/Schiller Institute Conference, September 2, 2001 as the second part of Panel 5 entitled, "Defeat the Brute Within." The slides and other graphics for this presentation will be online in the near future. The address is also available as an audio/video RealMedia archive. Classical Drama:
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"O for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven on invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! "Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels (Leashed in, like hounds) should famine, sword, and fire Crouch for employment. "But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that hath dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth So great an object. "Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? "Or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? "O pardon, since a crooked figure may Attest in little place a million, And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces work. "Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high-upreared and abutting fronts The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder. "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts: Into a thousand parts divide one man And make imaginary puissance. "Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs I' the receiving earth. "For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times, "Turning the accomplishment of many years Into an hourglass; for the which supply, Admit me Chorus to this history, Who, Prologue-like, your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge our play." |
Did you see the horses, the kings, the battles, in your mind? If you see the recent Hollywood version, by Kenneth Branagh, he leaves nothing to your imagination. It opens with real horses, large numbers of them. In the Branagh version, while the Chorus is recited, you don't have to imagine, even though Shakespeare has called upon your imaginationit's all there, right in front of you. You can sit back, pop open a six-pack and be "entertained." The whole idea of drama, as encapsulated in this Prologue, is lost, by the treatment given to Shakespeare by Hollywood.
King Henry V was followed by a weak son. Henry V died young, and his son, Henry VI, came to power as a child. Shakespeare wrote three parts of Henry VI. In them, you see the corruption take over, and erode the kingdom. You see it in the court, in the rivalries.
By the time you get to Henry VI, Part III, you see emerging in the background, the figure who is the end product of this Plantagenet degeneration, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who later becomes Richard III. You will soon hear Richard in his first soliloquy.
In a soliloquy, there is a character on stage. I am sure many of you have an image of this, shaped by Hollywood: an actor, in tightsfor, if it's Shakespeare in Hollywood, it has to be in tightsstrutting and prancing on the stage, making you conscious that they are acting! But that is not what Shakespeare intended. What you are actually looking at, are the thoughts of the character, who is discussing them with you, giving you insight into his evil, or good, intentions, or his confusion. It is up to you to decide what's going on.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, was the last of the Plantagenets, who seized the throne in 1483, following the death of his older brother, Edward IV. (Henry VI reigned 1422-1461, when he was overthrown by Richard's older brother, Edward IV. Henry VI's army is finally defeated in 1471 by Edward IV, who reigned until his death in 1483.)
In Henry VI, Part III, there is a very dramatic scene, where there is a foreshadowing of the evil which later triumphs when Richard seizes the throne. In this scene, we listen, as Richard gives the earliest outlines of his plot [Beltran recites Richard's soliloquy, Act III, Scene ii]
"Ay, Edward will use women honorably. "Would he were wasted, marrow, bones and all, That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring, To cross me from the golden time I look for! "And yet, between my soul's desire and me The lustful Edward's title buried Is Clarence, Henry and his son young Edward, And all the unlooked-for issue of their bodies, To take their rooms, ere I can place myself: A cold premeditation for my purpose! "Why then, I do but dream on sovereignty; Like one that stands upon a promontory, And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, Wishing his foot were equal with his eye, And chides the sea that sunders him from thence, Saying, he'll lade it dry to have his way: "So do I wish the crown, being so far off; And so I chide the means that keeps me from it; And so (I say) I'll cut the causes off, Flattering me with impossibilities. "My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much, Unless my hand and strength could equal them. "Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard: What other pleasure can the world afford? "I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap, And deck my body in gay ornaments, And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. "O miserable thought! and more unlikely Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns! "Why, Love forswore me in my mother's womb: And, for I should not deal in her soft laws, She did corrupt frail Nature with some bribe, To shrink mine arm up like a withered shrub; To make an envious mountain on my back, Where sits deformity to mock my body; To shape my legs of an unequal size; To disproportion me in every part, Like to a chaos, or an unlicked bear-whelp That carries no impression like the dam. "And am I then a man to be beloved? O monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought! "Then, since this earth affords no joy to me, But to command, to check, to o'erbear such As are of better person than myself, I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown, And, whiles I live, t'account this world but hell, Until my misshaped trunk that bears this head Be round impaled with a glorious crown. "And yet I know not how to get the crown, For many lives stand between me and home: And I, like one lost in a thorny wood, That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns, Seeking a way and straying from the way, Not knowing how to find the open air, But toiling desperately to find it out Torment myself to catch the English crown: "And from that torment I will free myself, Or hew my way out with a bloody ax. "Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile, And cry 'Content' to that which grieves my heart, And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, And frame my face to all occasions. "I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall; I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk; I'll play the orator as well as Nestor, Deceive more slily than Ulysses could, And, like a Sinon, take another Troy. "I can add colors to the chameleon, Change shapes with Proteus for advantages, And set the murderous Machiavel to school. "Can I do this, and cannot get a crown? "Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down." |
Richard is plotting, as there were many people between him and the crown.
What is fascinating is the next scene, which takes place at the King's palace in France. The most interesting character in this scene is King Louis XI, the creator of the modern nation-state. As Lyndon LaRouche has stressed, these plays of the English kings must be seen as one continuous set. The question posed, following Richard's soliloquy, is whether England will continue to suffer under the brutal Plantagenets, or will it become a nation-state?
What we see in the next scene, is the battle for Louis' support. On the one hand, you have the wife of Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou, who is pleading with Louis for his support for placing Henry VI back on the throne.
The other principal character is the Earl of Warwick, who is there to make a plea for Louis' support for Edward IV, who became king by overthrowing Henry VI. Warwick is trying to seal the support for his sovereign, Edward IV, by asking that Louis XI allow his sister to marry Edward IV.
Margaret of Anjou was ranting, "No, you can't do that," but Warwick is insisting that, since Edward is the accepted sovereign, Louis has no choice but to back him. Louis seems to be leaning toward accepting Warwick's argument.
Then, suddenly, word comes from England that Edward IV, even while sending Warwick to France to negotiate a marriage, had married Elizabeth Woodville, who, we are told, is a very attractive and seductive woman. Again, we see the Plantagenet dynasty deserting the prospect for creating a nation-state, in alliance with Louis, and indulging instead in personal corruption, in league with dynastic ambition.
Edward was corrupt. Instead of acting for the good of the state, he put his lust first. The scene ends with Margaret triumphant, and Warwick turning against Edward IV, and Louis deciding that he could not support Edward. But the forces behind Henry VI were too weak to succeed, and Edward IV prevailed. Edward was a weak king, surrounded by ambitious nobles, and among them was the most ambitious of all, his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
When Richard III opens, Richard is a little closer to the crown than he was in the previous soliloquy we heard before, from Henry VI, Part III. In this opening soliloquy, we again listen, as Richard conveys his thoughts, and outlines his evil intentions [Beltran recites Richard's famous soliloquy from Richard III, Act 1, Scene I]:
"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
"Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments,
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
"Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front,
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a flute.
"But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks
Nor made to court an amorous looking glass;
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity.
"And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
"Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the King
In deadly hate the one against the other;
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mewed up
About a prophecy which says that
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
"Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clarence comes."
Who says there are no conspiracies?
To summarize the play briefly, Richard battles his way to the throne, killing a number of people, marrying the widow of one of his victims. In a chilling scene, he woos the widow of a prince he has murdered, almost as a business proposition.
What is Shakespeare portraying here?
Richard does not become more evil during the play; he's depraved from the moment you first see him, as you have just seen.
He's almost joking about his dislike of peace, his preference for war; therefore, he has no difficulty carrying out a conspiracy to seize the throne.
So, the question is not the character of Richardit's of the English people, of those in the court, who first served his brother, then served Richard. Every single one of them, including those who do not like Richard, cut their deals with him. First, there is Anne Neville, who agreed to marry him even though he killed her beloved; or Buckingham, who sold out for the promise of an estate. One after another, they march across the stage, the courtiers, who engage in the ongoing conspiracy with Richard, even while talking against him behind his back.
Still, hope emerges, for removing Richard from the throne, putting an end to the Plantagenet nightmare. That hope is in the person of Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond, who went to France for aid and support, who succeeded in winning the backing of the heir of Louis XI.
Instead of having to choose between rival factions of the Plantagenets, as Louis XI had to do, the decision was made to bring down the Plantagenets, by supporting a new king, establishing a new dynasty, that of Henry Tudor.
The play ends with Richard going to war against Henry Tudor, who returns from France with an army. Some of the noblemen desert Richard III for Henry, some sit watching the battle, to choose sides at the endso you know the corruption doesn't end, even with the decisive victory by Henry Tudor.
There are two completely contrasting speeches given, by Richard and Henry, before the final battle. Richard tries to rally the troops by saying that these are foreigners coming here, they're going to take your wives and your land, you must fight to defend the women of England.
Whereas, Richmond holds out a different vision, and we see him in his final speech, now triumphant, presenting that vision. After denouncing Richard as a "bloody tyrant and a homicide," who had "slaughtered those that were the means to help him," he promises them that they will benefit from his ascendance: "But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt /The least of you shall share his part thereof."
This sentiment is expanded by Richmond, after the defeat of Richard, in his final speech. Richard's defeat was not easy. He fought nobly and valiantly. We see him fighting to the very end, demanding "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse."
But Richard is finally beaten. In his speech which ends the play, which is almost a prayer, Henry Tudor addresses his victorious collaborators [Beltran recites Henry's speech, Act 5, Scene 5]:
Inter their bodies as become their births
Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
That in submission will return to us;
And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the White Rose and the Red
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That long have frowned upon their enmity
What traitor hears me, and says not amen?
England hath long been mad and scarred herself;
The brother blindly shed the brother's blood;
The father rashly slaughtered his own son;
The son, compelled, been butcher to the sire:
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divide in their dire division,
O now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together
And let their heirs, God, if Thy will be so,
Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again
And make poor England weep in streams of blood
Let them not live to taste this land's increase
That would with treason wound this fair land's peace
Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again:
That she may long live here, God say amen
You can read the play. Look beyond the words, into the mind of Shakespeare, and see how he set out, in the course of these plays, to show the people of his time the benefits of peace and unity, based on the development of a nation-state, as opposed to the horrible circumstances, due to the murderous squabbling of rival dynastic ambitions, that existed before the victory of Henry Tudor. And this will give you insight into how we can triumph over fate.
Recommended for Further Reading
1. Friedrich Schiller's Aesthetical Writings, and Essays on Theater. Friedrich Schiller: Poet of Freedom, Vols. 1-3, Schiller Institute, 1985-1990.
2. William Shakespeare's History Plays, especially Henry V; Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III; and Richard III. Order from BenFranklinbooks@mediasoft.net
3. Muriel Mirak-Weissbach, "Saint Thomas More," New Federalist, June 18, 2001.
4. Stanley Ezrol, "It Only Smells Like the Island of Dr. Moreau"
5. Lyndon LaRouche, "Shrunken Heads in America Today," and other articles in LaRouche's book, The Economics of the Nöosphere.
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