Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
This star of England: Fortune made his sword;
By which the world’s best garden be achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown’d King
Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,
That they lost France and made his England bleed:
Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
In your fair minds let this acceptance take.
William Shakespeare, Henry V, Epilogue
The tale of how defeat abroad, combined with political instability at home, led to civil war. Somber reading for these ill days. May we avoid the fate that made fifteenth century England such an interesting, yes that would be the word, place to live.
And in line with this let remember the 50th Anniversary (August 15, 1971) the day Nixon, our own Shakespearean President, took us off the gold standard. The result has been catastrophic for our country economically and culturally.