I saw Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Donmar Theatre recently. It was a great production and well received by the critics. The play is about kingship, high politics and revenge. It’s all very Shakespearean in its grandeur.
The lines that struck me are spoken by Henry Bolingbroke in the first act.
O, who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast?
He is saying it’s hard to imagine anything different from your current situation.
This seems very apt for politics today. When things are going well, victory seems inevitable and certain. People can’t imagine any setback. Similarly, when things start to go wrong, panic sets in. Some people can only envisage doom and defeat....
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