![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.substack.com\/image\/fetch\/w_2912,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8ba774f9-fcf6-4ff2-9c3f-0f2c7806d2ec_3000x2000.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one enduring theme about tyrants in myth, literature, and history it is that, for a long time, no one takes them seriously. And there are few better examples of this than Shakespeare\u2019s fictional Richard III. He\u2019s a preposterous figure in many ways, an unsightly hunchback, far down the line of royal accession, socially outcast, riven with resentment, utterly dismissible \u2014 until he serially dismisses and\/or murders everyone between him and the throne. What makes the play so riveting and often darkly funny is the sheer unlikelihood of the plot, the previously inconceivable ascent to the Crown of this indelibly absurd figure, as Stephen Greenblatt recently explored in his brilliant monograph, \u201cTyrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll never forget watching a performance by Antony Sher of Richard decades ago \u2014 playing him as a spider, instinctually scuttling on two legs and two black canes, to trap, murder, and ingest his foes. The role is, of course, a fictional portrait, designed to buttress the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty that followed Richard III and that Shakespeare lived under. But as an analysis of the psychology of tyranny, it\u2019s genius. Like Plato and Aristotle, Shakespeare saw this question not merely as political, but as wrapped up in the darker folds of the human soul, individual and collective.<\/p>\n
The background of the drama is England\u2019s \u201cWar of the Roses\u201d, the civil war between two regional dynasties from which Richard emerged. And that\u2019s often key in tyrant narratives: it\u2019s when societies are already fractured into tribes, and divisions have become insurmountable, that tyrants tend to emerge, exploiting and fomenting chaos, to reign, however briefly, over the aftermath.<\/p>\n
The war seems resolved when the victorious Edward, Richard\u2019s older brother, succeeds to the throne: \u201cFor here I hope begins our lasting joy!\u201d And no one thinks the deformed, bitter sibling, of all people, would be a threat. It seems preposterous. But it\u2019s true. And at each unimaginable power grab by Richard \u2014 murdering one brother, killing the late king Edward\u2019s young heirs, killing his own wife, and then trying to marry his niece to secure the dynasty \u2014 Richard\u2019s peers keep telling themselves that it isn\u2019t really happening. Greenblatt notes: \u201cThe principal weapon Richard has is the very absurdity of his ambition. No one in his right mind would suspect that he seriously aspires to the throne.\u201d <\/p>\n
But he has one key skill, Greenblatt notes, the ability to lie shamelessly: \u201c\u2018Why, I can smile and murder whiles I smile, And cry \u2018Content!\u2019 to that which grieves my heart, And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, And frame my face to all occasions.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s a skill that serves him well \u2014 and there seems no limit to the number of those eager to believe him. His older brother George, Duke of Clarence, told by thugs that Richard wants him dead, exclaims: \u201cOh no, he loves me, and he holds me dear. Go you to him from me.\u201d At which point the hired goons reply \u2014 \u201cAy, so we will\u201d \u2014 and merrily murder him, taking him to Richard as a corpse. (In a good production, that can get a laugh.) One of Clarence\u2019s young sons, told that his own uncle hates him, declares, \u201cI cannot think it.\u201d Others witness obvious depravity but can\u2019t quite call it out. One official receives clearly illegal orders from Richard, and follows them, asking no questions: \u201cI will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless from the meaning.\u201d <\/p>\n
Denial. Avoidance. Distraction. Willful ignorance. These are all essential to enabling a tyrant\u2019s rise. And keeping this pattern going is Richard\u2019s profound grasp of the power of shock. He does and says the unexpected and unthinkable in order to stun his opponents into a kind of dazed passivity. It\u2019s this capacity to keep you on your heels, to keep disorienting you with the unacceptable (which is then somehow accepted), that marks a tyrant\u2019s relentless drive. He does this by instinct. He craves chaos, lies, suspense, surprises \u2014 not because he\u2019s a genius, but because stability threatens his psyche. He cannot rest. He is not in control of himself. And whenever the dust settles, as it were, he has to disturb it again….<\/p>\n
It continues but this suffices. Subscribe to the Weekly Dish to read the rest<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Andrew Sullivan’s latest essay: This is the Face of a Tyrant If there\u2019s one enduring theme about tyrants in myth, literature, and history…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trump-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31849,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31848\/revisions\/31849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}