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Ian McKellern , immigration, Shakespeare

16 replies

Lemondrizzle4A · 07/02/2026 07:49

Ian McKellern on The Late Show this week recites Shakespeare on immigration 400 years ago. The relevance today not just in the Uk but in USA is astounding.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatBritishMemes/comments/1qwvp65/ian_mckellens_shakespeare_monologue/

OP posts:
SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 10:54

Here's the text.

It's in response to a mob shouting "Remove the strangers", (where "strangers" means foreigners in middle ages) - the government send out a lawyer to address them

Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England.
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs, and their poor luggage,
Plodding to th’ ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silenced by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed.
What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an aged man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With selfsame hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you; and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
What’s this? You would be kings in your desires?
Go to. You’ll put down strangers,
Kill them, cut their throats, possess their houses,
And lead the majesty of law in lyam
To slip him like a hound. Say now the king
(As he is clement, if th’ offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you), whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England —
Why, you must needs be strangers. Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them? What would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity

Lemondrizzle4A · 07/02/2026 11:27

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 10:54

Here's the text.

It's in response to a mob shouting "Remove the strangers", (where "strangers" means foreigners in middle ages) - the government send out a lawyer to address them

Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England.
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs, and their poor luggage,
Plodding to th’ ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silenced by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed.
What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an aged man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With selfsame hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you; and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
What’s this? You would be kings in your desires?
Go to. You’ll put down strangers,
Kill them, cut their throats, possess their houses,
And lead the majesty of law in lyam
To slip him like a hound. Say now the king
(As he is clement, if th’ offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you), whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England —
Why, you must needs be strangers. Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them? What would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity

very powerful.

OP posts:
SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 16:17

If you aren't so comfortable with Shakespeare, here's some subtext.

Lemondrizzle4A · 07/02/2026 16:54

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 16:17

If you aren't so comfortable with Shakespeare, here's some subtext.

Is this a general comment?

OP posts:
MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 07/02/2026 17:06

Powerful indeed. But it will go over the heads of the people who voted for Trump/plan to vote for Reform.

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 17:36

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 07/02/2026 17:06

Powerful indeed. But it will go over the heads of the people who voted for Trump/plan to vote for Reform.

You mean the people who bang on about British heritage ?

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 07/02/2026 17:37

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 17:36

You mean the people who bang on about British heritage ?

Yep

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 07/02/2026 17:39

I've always been amazed tbh at how incredibly relevant Shakespeare is in the modern world. It's quite enlightening.

Lamelie · 07/02/2026 17:42

The lawyer speaking is Thomas More. Later canonised and who loved his dog.

wellstopdoingitthen · 07/02/2026 17:45

Perhaps schools could study this on St George’s Day this year.

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 17:51

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 07/02/2026 17:39

I've always been amazed tbh at how incredibly relevant Shakespeare is in the modern world. It's quite enlightening.

Why would it ever not be relevant ?

Once you cotton on that Shakespeare isn't writing about anything other than the human experience, it all makes sense.

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 07/02/2026 17:57

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 17:51

Why would it ever not be relevant ?

Once you cotton on that Shakespeare isn't writing about anything other than the human experience, it all makes sense.

I think it was the realisation - several decades ago in my case - that the human experience had changed so little. We tend to think the world is a very different place now from how it was back then, but clearly, there are many things that haven't really changed at all.

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 18:05

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 07/02/2026 17:57

I think it was the realisation - several decades ago in my case - that the human experience had changed so little. We tend to think the world is a very different place now from how it was back then, but clearly, there are many things that haven't really changed at all.

People who think we are in any way more "advanced" (by some convenient metric) are a tad dim and scare me.

We are the same beasts we have always been. Digital watches do not a species shift make.

A lot of people view history the wrong way round. It's not "How could they ever believe that ?". It's much more "Why do we not believe that ?".

Regarding teaching this in schools,. that would run counter to the attempt to make it "accepted wisdom" that the immigration "crisis" started in 2024, rather than being perennial and almost an intrinsic part of British life.

upinaballoon · 07/02/2026 18:07

By the by, interesting that he used the word 'transportation', and there were my friend and I, back in the 70s, snorting about a lorry firm which had changed from being 'Smith's Transport' to being 'Smith's Transportation', and calling it an Americanism.

KeepOffTheQuinoa · 07/02/2026 18:11

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 16:17

If you aren't so comfortable with Shakespeare, here's some subtext.

The point about extraordinary actors like Sir Ian is that you don't need an explanation, they make the meaning live. IMO.

SerendipityJane · 07/02/2026 18:59

KeepOffTheQuinoa · 07/02/2026 18:11

The point about extraordinary actors like Sir Ian is that you don't need an explanation, they make the meaning live. IMO.

Whilst I may agree, it can't do any harm. And if it reaches just one more person than might otherwise

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