Shakespeare owned a stake in the Globe Theater - at least part of the time. George Colman owned the Haymarket Theater - at least part of the time. As the histrionic prime minister, Boris Johnson is director of a theater called Great Britain – at least for the time being. Let's respectfully leave Shakespeare aside and turn to Johnson's current schedule, which currently features a play by George Colman. This is no coincidence, because Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and the enterprising George Colman the Younger (1762 to 1836) have a lot in common: a solid university education, a quick wit, a good dose of ambition and the necessary mix of energy, ingenuity and ruthlessness , which is necessary to satisfy him - at least for a while.

While the prime minister's opponents within the party are busy plotting to overthrow Johnson, and one of their conspiratorial meetings has been dubbed "The Pork Pie Putsch" in a meat-heavy way, Johnson and his gastrosophical advisors have in turn devised "Operation Red Meat" to help the ailing prime minister pulling his head out of the noose again.

The naming, which follows a pattern typical of Johnson, already shows that this is a questionable action: it combines education with cheerfully smirking cynicism.

Because the exclamation “Here is meat, neighbors, meat!

Fine, raw, red meat - to quell the flood of tears from your eyes and make your mouths water' comes from Colman's 1791 play The Surrender of Calais, which is based on a famous episode in the Hundred Years' War between England and France acts.

In 1346 Edward III.

with his army to the gates of the port city and besieged Calais for almost a year.

The result was a terrible famine.

In Colman's play, two Frenchmen manage to plunder the English supplies, but on the return journey much of the food is spoiled by salt water, so that the loot is only enough for a single meal.

The next day, according to the returnees, the city would have to starve again.

Rodin cast the citizens of Calais in bronze in 1895, and shortly afterwards Georg Kaiser dedicated a successful play to them.

Today, refugees are encamped outside the city, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Channel, and Boris Johnson is comparing the post-Brexit British population to the stranded, starving ranks of Calais.

For comfort and distraction, he promises them a little "fine, raw, red meat."

Whether such a meal will be enough to keep him in office is doubtful.

George Colman went into debt, eventually lost his theater and went to prison.

He then received a lucrative honorary post from King George IV.

He immediately sold it to the highest bidder.