“Get thee glass eyes;

And like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou dost not.”

(King Lear, Act IV, Scene vi)

Unfortunately, because of other heavy commitments, I shall be unable to post regular entries on the G8 Summit being held this week in Hokkaido, Japan. Luckily, however, this will not matter, because, as in pretty well everything else, Shakespeare and Dr. Johnson have said it all in advance rather better and more succinctly. I shall thus leave you with four summary ‘press reports’ direct from Hokkaido:

The Hotspur, July, 2008(1)

G8 Leaders: We “Can Call Spirits From The Vasty Deep.”

The Hotspur comments : “Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?”

The Rambler, July, 2008(2)

Dr Johnson Comments On The G8

Mr. James Boswell Reports From Hokkaido

On being asked about the climate-change plans of the G8 Summit being held this week in Hokkaido, Japan, Dr. Johnson replied tartly: “Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.”

The Bedlam, July, 2008(3)

G8 Leaders Promise The Earth

Today, the G8 leaders meeting in Japan declared that “they will do such things, -

What they are, yet we know not: but they shall be

The terrors of the earth.”

The Idler, July, 2008(4)

Dr. Johnson Comments On G8 Leaders

Mr. Goldsmith Reports From Hokkaido

On being asked about the effectiveness of the G8 Leaders currently meeting in Japan, Dr. Samuel Johnson declaimed:

“How small, of all that human hearts endure,

That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!”

What more need one add? Surely, all we require to make sense of this mad, mad world are Shakespeare, Dr. Johnson, and Jane Austen.

The rest is “... a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

Hopefully, I shall be back, like an idiot, early next week. See you then.

Original Sources Of Quotations

(1)In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I, Glendower (leader of the Welsh), a self-styled necromancer, declares: “I can call spirits from the vasty deep.” Hotspur [Henry Percy, known as Hotspur, Northumberland’s son] responds dryly: “Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?”

(2)Reported in 1791 by Samuel Johnson’s famous biographer, James Boswell (1740 - 1795) as: “Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.”

(3)”I will do such things, -

What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be

The terrors of the earth.”

(King Lear, Act II, Scene iv)

(4)Dr. Johnson (1709 - 1784) supplied Oliver Goldsmith with four lines for The Traveller, two of which went: “How small, of all that human hearts endure,/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!”