The Parallel Lives

In Shakespeare’s play, “Henry IV, Part II,” Act 3, Scene 1, the King, dressed in a nightgown, delivers a monologue. In it, the king asks, “How many thousands of my poorest subjects are at this hour asleep?” Yet, “Nature’s soft nurse,” is not for him. He finishes with often-quoted words,

     “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” a reflection back to Damocles’s hanging sword.

     Thomas Paine hated the idea of a king, a monarch. In much of his work, “Common Sense,” Paine ridicules the idea that a king must rule over people. Paine writes,

     “There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of Monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the World.”

     Throughout “Common Sense,” Paine calls for independence from England, from Parliament, from King George III, saying, “Let us come to a final separation.”

     Thomas Paine felt thrilled when he saw “Common Sense,” first published on January 10, 1776. Six months later, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress that brought together representatives from the thirteen colonies approved Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. 

     After the French Revolution, the autocratic general Napoleon claimed the title of king. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame de Paris.

     During the coronation, he received the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself, a signal that he rejected the Pontiff’s authority. 

     Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saints, claimed for himself three titles, that of Prophet, Priest, and King, at Nauvoo, Illinois, on April 11, 1844, three months after he announced he was running for President in the November 1844 election. 

     Smith did not win that election, because he was assassinated on June 27, 1844.

     This past week, the nation read the chilling words, “Long live the king,” in reference to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the State of New York, a state policy that has worked ok the past seven weeks to reduce city traffic.

     The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, felt outraged. She said,

     “The state of New York has not labored under a king in 250 years, and we’re not going to start now. The streets of this city were where battles were fought, and we stood up to a king, and we won then. You know New Yorkers. We do not back down, not now, not ever.”

     The governor is correct about the American Revolution’s battles in and around New York City. George Washington was close to defeat on numerous occasions there, but he would escape to fight another day, summoning reserves of strength to defeat the British and King George III. 

     Washington achieved that win in Virginia, his native state, with the French navy’s assistance.

     Thomas Paine asks a question, “Where is the King of America?” To answer, Paine suggests a formal ceremony, where an official would place a written Charter of laws atop a Bible, and “let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that in America the law is king.”

     A second quote by William Shakespeare. “Time’s glory is to calm contending kings, to unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.” The Bard is saying that over time the world’s grasping kings will experience a humbling, that truth will appear, and it will banish falsehood.

     The paradox is that “life often presents a confused picture of events, and it is difficult to discern truth from falsehood.” It is to the historians that we look for clarity between the two.       

       Common sense tells us much. Shakespeare tells us much more.