William Shakespeare - On power

PENGUIN BOOKS GREAT IDEAS On Power William Shakespeare 15641616 William Shakespeare On Power PENGUIN BOOKS GREAT IDEAS PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England www.penguin.com This selection first published in Penguin Books 2009 All rights reserved Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser ISBN: 978-0-14-195660-2 ContentsPower in governmentHamlet, Act III, Scene 3 ROSENCRANTZ : The single and peculiar life is bound With all the strength and armour of the mind To keep itself from noyance, but much more That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw Whats near it with it. It is a massy wheel Fixed on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoined, which when it falls Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boistrous ruin. Never alone Did the King sigh, but with a general groan. Richard II, Act III, Scene 2 KING RICHARD : Of comfort no man speak. Lets talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs, Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.

Lets choose executors and talk of wills, And yet not so, for what can we bequeath Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbrokes, And nothing can we call our own but death, And that small model of the barren earth Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. For Gods sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings: How some have been deposed, some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, All murdered. For within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp, Allowing him a breath, a little scene, To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks, Infusing him with self and vain conceit, As if this flesh which walls about our life Were brass impregnable; and humoured thus, Comes at the last, and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall; and farewell, king. Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence. Throw away respect, Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty, For you have but mistook me all this while. I live with bread, like you; feel want, Taste grief, need friends.

Subjected thus, How can you say to me I am a king? Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene 3

For so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king, and officers of sorts, Where some like magistrates correct at home; Others like merchants venture trade abroad; Others like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summers velvet buds, Which pillage they with merry march bring home To the tent royal of their emperor, Who busied in his majesty surveys The singing masons building roofs of gold, The civil citizens lading up the honey, The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum Delivering oer to executors pale The lazy yawning drone. I this infer: That many things, having full reference To one consent, may work contrariously. As many arrows, loosed several ways, Fly to one mark, as many ways meet in one town, As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea, As many lines close in the dials centre, So may a thousand actions once afoot End in one purpose, and be all well borne Without defect. Therefore to France my liege. Divide your happy England into four, Whereof take you one quarter into France, And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.

If we with thrice such powers left at home Cannot defend our own doors from the dog, Let us be worried, and our nation lose The name of hardiness and policy. Coriolanus, Act II, Scene 2