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[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

Trump glares directly into the camera. He seethes. He glowers.

Glowers? I don't think I've seen that word since The Thief of Baghdad (1924) 📽️

Trump's glowering portrait reminds me of an obscure 1671 play called The Rehearsal, by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. It is a hilarious parody of John Dryden's popular 1670 "heroic drama" Almanzor and Almahide, or the Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards. Villiers felt that such an overly dramatic and overly heroic play had no business being so popular, and that Dryden's play was begging for parody.

The Rehearsal has a character Drawcansir who is a parody of Dryden's hero Almanzor. In Act IV scene 1, Drawcansir blusters about the stage à la Trump, and grabs other people's goblets and quaffs their wine. Then he says:

I drink, I huff, I strut, look big and stare;
And all this I can do, because I dare.

That's Trump's mug shot, described in 1671 😺

Here are Almanzor's original lines from The Conquest of Granada:

I'll stop at nothing that appears so brave:
I'll do't, and now I no reward will have.
You've given my honour such an ample field,
That I may die, but that shall never yield.
Spite of myself I'll stay, fight, love, despair;
And I can do all this, because I dare.