William Shakespeare
‘I think the king is but a man’: why we, like King Charles, always reach for Shakespeare’s words
The new monarch is quick to quote the playwright, but given the bard’s genius with simple language, who wouldn’t?
Why is the apt phrase so often one from Shakespeare? King Charles’s address to the nation has been praised for its emotional authenticity and fitting use of moving words from Hamlet. They are spoken over the dying Danish prince by his friend Horatio, who bids a fond farewell: “Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
Some television viewers recognised the lines not from the classic tragedy, but from an episode of Blackadder. Ben Elton, who co-wrote the TV show, adores Shakespeare, proving his devotion with the sitcom and stage play Upstart Crow and his film All is True, starring Kenneth Branagh as the Bard.
The old joke about the theatregoer surprised at how many popular sayings are included in Hamlet was also on to something. The thoughts Shakespeare expresses were often common currency; his genius was in elevating them into enduring poetry, often in simple words, as in the phrase from Hamlet that Volodymyr Zelenskiy used in the Commons: “The question for us now is: ‘To be or not to be?’”
Politicians are also fond of Romeo and Juliet’s “star-crossed lovers”, often noting: “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” When Hillary Rodham Clinton left the US Senate in 2009, Senator Robert Byrd declared that “parting is such sweet sorrow”.
Many favourite quotes, including Horatio’s, involve the word “sweet”. Kenneth Branagh opened the London Olympics with lines from The Tempest: “Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.”
But the history plays will be on the mind of the new king. Speaking to the BBC on his 70th birthday, he offered evidence that a prince can transform into a solemn monarch: “You only have to look at Henry V or Henry IV Parts I and II to see the change that can take place.” A phrase from the last of those says it best: “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
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