The Shakespeare play that predicted the Trump administration will deal with the pandemic Corona virus

The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare is known for his plays that have won a special place in world literature, most notably the play "King Lear" which he did not write when the plague struck London unlike many other plays.

In his article published by the American "New Yorker" magazine, writer James Shapiro said that the tragic "Kryolans" play that dealt with "infection", "plague" and "corpses of men who were not buried" may have been written in 1608, in the wake of a popular uprising in the city of the Midlands Central Britain in protest of the heavy damage caused by agricultural capitalism, and the play is a narrative of what is happening in times of crisis.

Thousands of workers protested, in the play, the fencing of wealthy landowners with shared pastures with fences, and a brutal suppression of power and influence followed that social revolution, killing dozens of protesters, and then the execution of gang leaders and in some areas, the wealthy stockpiled food. This, in turn, led to a rise in grain prices, followed by a famine.

In the early 17th century, while Shakespeare was writing his plays, the plague invaded London and no one knew why, but officials realized that it was necessary to take measures regarding social estrangement, and that crowded theaters were a major threat.

The writer pointed out that when the number of deaths from the plague exceeded thirty Londoners within one week, the authorities ordered the closure of public theaters in the city, and during this period, William Shakespeare wrote the play "Kryolans" that highlights the social and economic crises of an ancient era of time .

The legendary Roman leader
The play "Kryolans" was the product of this dark moment, and Shakespeare was inspired by the story of "The Life of the Roman Legendary Leader" Gaius Coriolanus, whose story was recorded by the Greek philosopher and historian Vlutarchs who died in 125 AD in his codification of the lives of the Greek and Roman nobles.

Indeed, Plotarchs began his autobiography with the early years of Creoles. As for Shakespeare, his story began later in the narration, when the citizens of Rome, who did not rebel easily, became desperate enough to confront those who ruled and took power.

In the version of Plotarchs, the Romans were negatively affected by the high interest rate of interest, but Shakespeare in his play changed the nature of their complaint, as hungry citizens became angry at the fact that the rich were storing the food supplies they most needed. To this end, Shakespeare paraphrased the famous “Belly Tale” of Plotarchs, a speech intended to silence the opposition, delivered by the eloquent aristocrat Mennius.

In the opening scene of "Creoleans", Meninius (a noble and member of the Senate of Rome) wrestles with disaffected masses and insults one of them, stressing that what the hungry and desperate should do is pray and not seek relief.

Meninius insists that those in power do not bear responsibility for the catastrophe that ordinary citizens are now facing. "It is the drought of the gods, not the nobles, and submission to them, not the lifting of arms, that benefits you." Meninius adds that the complaints against their leaders must stop, "You are only stabbing the state's administrators concerned with you, such as the parents, when you insult them like enemies."

The writer indicated that the insults and the refusal to accept responsibility would be familiar to anyone who recently followed the daily briefings held by the White House on the Corona virus, and in return Mennius' defense of the government's policies with his command of the angry mass crowd ends in decline, as they are mistaken in believing that the stocks controlled by those who are In power it belongs to the people, because the government is in effect "the storehouse of the whole body and its store", and that "there is no public service that you obtain except from it and it is issued from them and it emanates from them not from you or from you."

US Federal Reserve
The writer compares the stances of the rulers and the public in the "Kryolans" play with the statements of Jared Kushner, the advisor to the American president, who said that the shortcomings in dealing with the crisis are the responsibility of "the United States" and not the responsibility of Washington (the capital).

"The idea of ​​the federal stockpile (of medical equipment) is that this stockpile is ours," the son-in-law of the US president said, adding, "This is not a stockpile of states that you can use as you wish." The author says that the concept of "ours" appears to have been extracted directly from the Shakespeare play.

The writer added that Donald Trump did not take long to continue what Kushner announced, and the writer says that Trump's tweet in early April, in which he said, "Some people carry an excessive appetite and do not feel satisfied (politics?). Remember, we are a cover for them. Preparing themselves long before this crisis struck "reminds us of the hero Coriolans' belittling of the grateful people who are supposed to be aware of his efforts and accomplishments; Trump likens Coriolans as a stranger who lacks sympathy, and whose supporters push him to a political position that does not suit him well.

Rome Wars
And while Rome is at war with its neighboring cities and on the brink of civil war in ancient time, those in power are deeply disturbed by the "ungratefulness", a word that has been mentioned many times in Shakespeare's play.

In a media briefing on the pandemic, after Trump continued to distinguish between the "generous" and the non-conservative, a journalist asked him, "Why does it matter whether they are generous or not so long as they need supplies?"

And while Trump's answer was that this is not important, it is in fact considered important to him, the writer says, as is the case in the play "Coriolans" where what was done by those who do not trust Coriolans and who failed to appreciate it "is a kind of ingratitude ".

Amid the escalating effects of the current pandemic in America, it is not yet clear whether those who are most in need of stored supplies will get it in time, and whether the majority of citizens in the United States of America will reach the point where their proxy is bursting, and they start In search of another option.