This speech by William Shakepeare from a collaborative play The Book of Sir Thomas More was never performed during his lifetime, as it was banned by the Queen's censor. In this scene, the statesman Sir Thomas More confronts a mob in London as they riot and attack immigrants.
See this link for helpful background information, and click the YouTube video to hear the speech performed by the outstanding Shakespearean actor Sir Ian McKellen.
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Text
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 the ports and coasts for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent 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 self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another…. Say now the king 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 harbour? go you to France or Flanders, To any German province, to Spain or Portugal, Nay, any where 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 claimants 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. |
Focus Questions
Quick Task: Paraphrase the speech from "Imagine that you see..." to "What had you got?"
Quick Task: Paraphrase the speech from "I'll tell you..." to "...aged man."
Quick Task: Examine More's strategy here when he asks the mob what they themselves would do if the king were to banish them. Using VERBS, name three tactics or strategies or moves that More is doing or making here, as in "Here, Thomas More [verbs], and also [verbs] and [verbs.]"
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EXIGENCE.
PURPOSE.
TACTICS.
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Now it's time to put it all together. Using the information derived from this sentence, write a strong thesis statement in which you name the three rhetorical strategies AND connect them to More's goals for his audience.
Format: In [TAG], More's [strategy 1], [strategy 2], and [strategy 3] work together to convince his hostile audience to [DO X] and more importantly, to [BELIEVE Y]. Example: Your Work Will Look Like This
In Peter Jackson's film The Two Towers, Théoden's good humor, his massive self-revival from dying old man to brave protector of his kingdom, and most of all, his fearless embrace of certain destruction work together to convince the Riders of Rohan to make a valiant last effort against the numberless forces of evil, and more importantly, to believe that dying with courage and valor outweighs living in shame and defeat. |