Thursday
In Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part II, the ambitious third duke of York, Richard, enlists former officer Jack Cade to instigate a mob uprising in the hopes of overthrowing Henry. Richard makes his designs clear: he wants to “reap the harvest which that rascal sow’d.”
To so-called Cade rebellion is temporarily successful, as has been the seizure of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Civil War breaks out—the War of the Roses, with the Yorks pitted against the Lancasters—and in the ensuing turmoil first the Lancastrian Henry VI and then the Yorkist Richard III die. Eventually Henry Tudor prevails, becoming Henry VII.
Henry VI hearing news of the rebellion makes me think of Joe Biden receiving updates:
Jack Cade hath almost gotten London Bridge;
The citizens fly and forsake their houses;
The rascal people, thirsting after prey,
Join with the traitor; and they jointly swear
To spoil the city and your royal court.
Cade’s rebellion, like Trump’s, is anti-intellectual. After Cade sets himself up as London mayor, he executes the innocent Clerk of Chartham for the “crime” of being able to read and write:
Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou has caused printing to be us’d.
Trump has conducted a non-stop war on the press, calling them “the enemy of the people,” and now we are being terrorized by people with their own set of facts about the election. Even though Cade himself is killed, the chaos he creates serves Richard’s purposes. Henry is eventually overthrown and assassinated.
I still don’t think Trump or his mobs will prevail, but I’ve underestimated Trump’s resilience so many times that I can no longer say that with confidence.
Further thought: One of Cade’s followers, Dick the Butcher, is responsible for the well-known quote, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Essentially he’s calling for the overthrow of the rule of law. Trump, of course, has utter contempt for our country’s laws, including the 60+ legal opinions declaring the election to have been free and fair. Time and again Trump has attacked and frequently fired those trying to uphold the legal system.
