Time Essay: The Contemporary Bard

"Why, what an intricate impeach is this!" —Comedy of Errors

"Well, he in time may come to clear himself... he with his oath ... will make up full clear, whensoever he is convented." —Measure for Measure

"Your Grace has given a president of wisdom above all princes..." —Henry VIII

Bardsmanship is a game with no losers. As the new, computerized Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare proves, every critic and defender of the Nixon Administration can find barbs and shields in the blank verse. The playwright has some thing for everyone: politics and religion, sin and redemption—if it is in the human condition,...

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