"THIS ENGLAND"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 4, 7 September 1943, Page 7

"THIS ENGLAND"

SHAKESPEARE'S LAMENT WHAT THE "NEWS" NEVER ' TELLS Since the outbreak of the Second World War, various patriotic poetical compositions arc from time to time published in the papers and magazines. Among them is the following, from Act 11 Sc. 1,, of King Richard the Second, being the dying speech of John of Gaunt: This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this scat of Mars, This other Eden, (Icmi-paradjisc. This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hantl of war. This happy breed of men, this, little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in tlic office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house', Against the envy of less l happier lands. This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. Invariably, the above is where the quotation stops. Readers may note by following the rest of the speech of Gaunt that Shakespeare was lamenting that the England he referred to belonged toi a past age, before the. private monopoly of the lands of England, by successive- enclosures, and before landlord; parliaments relieved the nobles of their obligations to' pay the social rent (so-called "and value") to the. people of England,, and imposed rates and taxes instead. This colossal robbery of the people, so well described in "The Great Robbery," by W. G. Graham Peace., drove the masses of the people down to beggary and thievery. Henry the Villi, known as "Honeymoon Harry," a royal predecessor of sundry monetary mystics l depreciated, the currency and made things much worst still, and then in one year hanged over 800 "'beggars and thieves" whom the wretched social rent, robbery and currency juggling had driven to the roads and forests, in desperation and destitution. Shakespeare makes John of Gaunt say that he would gladly die if by his death these terrible wrongs could be banished from England. Mark well the rest of the speech, the part of the "news" never tells: This nurse, this teeming womb of royal krngs, Fear'd by their breed and. famous by their birth, Renowned for their deeds as far from home, For Christian service and true chivalry,, As in the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son; This land of such dear sons, this dear, dear land, Dear for her" reputation through the world, Is now leas'd out,,—l die pronouncing it, — Like to a tenement, or pelting farm; England, bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, With inky blots,, and rotten parchment bonds: That. England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. Ah! would the scandal vanish with my life. How happy« then were my ensuing death.