‘Knaves’ secret gold’ tells it like it is, still

I ENJOYED Bruce Whitfield’s column “Uneasy lies he that wears a shower head” (April 2), in which he reflects on South African politics, making his most apposite and witty commentary in the form of quotations from Shakespeare. This, after introducing his subject by opining that Shakespeare’s texts “are more than 400 years old, the language dated and the stories out of sync with current problems”.

He goes on to say that “it’s hardly surprising that the Department of Basic Education is re-evaluating his relevance”.

May I suggest, Mr Whitfield, that the stories and language of the classics have seldom been more alive and relevant.

Education is indeed “basic” if it fails to recognise the validity and importance of studying great, timeless and universal artistic commentary.

Anything worth studying, whether it be poetry, mathematics or the physical sciences, requires some perseverance and hard work before its “relevance” is recognised and understood.

But there is a plethora of excellent films of contemporary Shakespeare productions that show the enduring relevance of his work, while making them easily accessible.

And Shakespeare’s are not the only relevant texts. The 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope aptly describes the current problems in the kleptocracy that is South Africa today: “In vain may heroes fight, and patriots rave; If secret gold sap on from knave to knave .”— Graham Hopkins, Johannesburg