{"id":50788,"date":"2026-04-15T09:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/?p=50788"},"modified":"2026-04-15T09:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:14:09","slug":"ian-mckellen-performs-speech-about-immigrants-by-shakespeare-from-thomas-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/archives\/50788","title":{"rendered":"Ian McKellen performs speech about immigrants by Shakespeare from Thomas More\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ian McKellen performs speech about immigrants by Shakespeare from Thomas More (23\/4\/2016)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DceEunnTA3A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ian McKellen performs Sir Thomas More, Act II, Scene 4, William Shakespeare (c. 1593) at the Royal Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon for the BBC&#8217;s &#8216;Shakespeare Live! From the RSC&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is the Strangers\u2019 Case monologue?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The riot that the play references took place on May 1, 1517 and is referred to as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/tudor\/evil-may-day-riots-1517-tudor-london-what-happened\/\">Evil May Day<\/a>. Thomas More, the then under-sheriff of London, was sent to calm the rioters and persuade them to go home.&nbsp;<\/em><em>According to the chronicler Edward Hall (c. 1498\u20131547), a fortnight before the riot an inflammatory xenophobic speech was made on Easter Tuesday by a preacher known as \u201cDr. Bell\u201d at St. Paul\u2019s Cross at the instigation of John Lincoln, a broker. Bell accused immigrants of stealing jobs from English workers and of \u201ceat[ing] the bread from poor fatherless children.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>From Act II, Scene 4 of&nbsp;<em>Sir Thomas More:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll put down strangers,<br>Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise<br>Hath chid down all the majesty of England;<br>Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,<br>Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,<br>Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,<br>And that you sit as kings in your desires,<br>Authority quite silent by your brawl,<br>And you in ruff of your opinions clothed;<br>What had you got? I\u2019ll tell you: you had taught<br>How insolence and strong hand should prevail,<br>How order should be quelled; and by this pattern<br>Not one of you should live an ag\u00e8d man,<br>For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,<br>With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,<br>Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes<br>Would feed on one another\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Say now the king,<br>As he is clement if th\u2019offender mourn,<br>Should so much come too short of your great trespass<br>As but to banish you, whither would you go?<br>What country, by the nature of your error,<br>Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,<br>To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,<br>Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England,<br>Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased<br>To find a nation of such barbarous temper,<br>That, breaking out in hideous violence,<br>Would not afford you an abode on earth,<br>Whet their detested knives against your throats,<br>Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God<br>Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements<br>Were not all appropriate to your comforts,<br>But chartered unto them, what would you think<br>To be thus used? This is the strangers\u2019 case;<br>And this your mountainish inhumanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ian McKellen performs Sir Thomas More, Act II, Scene 4, William Shakespeare (c. 1593) at the Royal Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon for the BBC&#8217;s &#8216;Shakespeare Live! From the RSC&#8217;. What is the Strangers\u2019 Case monologue? The riot that the play &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/archives\/50788\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1885],"class_list":["post-50788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1","tag-immigration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50788"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50790,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50788\/revisions\/50790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}