Bush can't measure up to the bard's Prince Hal

[dArKeR]

By Nicholas Kristof
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Saturday, Sep 04, 2004,Page 9

The most common literary allusion to US President George W. Bush is William Shakespeare's Prince Hal, the hard-drinking, wild-living young man who sobers up and emerges as the great English warrior King Henry V.

So, as the Republicans once again crown Bush as their nominee, I decided to seek lessons from an expert on King Henry, who is also one of the shrewdest analysts of current American politics and international affairs. That's right: Shakespeare. I went to Ashland for my annual pilgrimage to the Oregon Shake-speare Festival, then started thinking about what Shake-speare might say.

The paramount lesson in Shakespeare's plays is that the world is full of nuances and uncertainties, and that leaders self-destruct when they are too rigid, too sure of themselves or too intoxicated by moral clarity.

You see Shakespeare's passion for nuance in the way he portrays Henry V himself (you also see his prurience, for Henry V is Shake-speare's most obscene play, laced with X-rated double-entendres that make it a fine introduction to the Bard for teens).

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