The Toleration Tango

Our German translator JLH has discovered a fragment of a play by William Shakespeare from the “Lost Folio”, which was written after the Bard emigrated to the newly-established colony of Virginia. (For a similar passage, see The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I.)

The Toleration Tango
by the Bard of Washington-upon-Potomack

The equality of multiculture is most strange.
It drifteth like a turgid fog
Across both high and low. It is twice potent;
Empowering him that gives and blinding him that takes.
It is most arrogant in the most elite; it suits
The self-styled leaders even better than self-love;
Their invective shows the strength of personal attack,
An aspect of that narcissism,
Which causes dread and fear of character assassination,
Like an attribute of Hope and Change itself.
And their social power then is like a plague,
When spite doth poison politics. Therefore, Racist,
Bigot, Misogynist and Homophobe,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of that justice, none of us
Would see wealth distribution. We do but pray for special treatment;
And that same prayer should teach you all to accept
The deeds of Political Correctness. I have spoken this much
To mitigate the so-called justice of thy plea:
Which, if thou follow, the strict court of popular opinion
Might just decide against the truly entitled.

7 thoughts on “The Toleration Tango

  1. In Liverpool and around Merseyside, they drink a beverage made from Australian marsupial bears. You should never drink it down to the dregs, because…

    “The Koala tea of Mersey is not strained”.

  2. Quite right, Peter, but sometimes a little light relief may be welcome?

    In 1973, I visited my parents and two younger brothers, who were living in Vancouver. We drove to San Francisco, and stopped at a diner in northern California. I made a pun, to unanimous groans, and pointed out that puns were a very intellectual form of humour, and Shakespeare and Beethoven were fond of them (bear in mind that I was 25, with the self-righteousness of young men).

    My mother said “Yes Mark, but at least they left the world something worthwhile to make up for it”.

    • And obviously your mum left the world something worthwhile, too, eh? (In Canada, “eh” was – maybe still is – used as punctuation, most often in place of a period)…

      BTW, Bing Crosby ate “merseyed oats”…took me a long, long time to figure that one out…

      • Thank you kindly, Dymphna! Canadians do indeed still say “eh”; my one brother still in Vancouver sometimes deliberately lays it on.

        Incidentally he’s the one who led me to Pat Condell, which led to Jihad Watch, which led to GoV.

        Surprised Crosby knew “Merseyed Oats”, eh? -thought that was a Brit thing.

          • Thanks, I knew the song, but had only heard it sung by Brits- didn’t know it was American; daresay US servicemen here popularised it.

            Some likely useless information: Bing Crosby helped the young Ampex company expand by ordering numbers of early tape recorders, based on the German Magnetofon. That way he didn’t have to repeat his coast-to-coast “live” radio show for the time zones!

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