Thursday, June 03, 2004

The House of Bush and the House of Plantagenet

Dubya now says that all this stuff about him being mad at France was a mirage, that in fact he loves France:

I've had friends all my life who I call friends, who didn't agree with every decision I made...And Jacques made it perfectly clear to me he didn't believe the use of military force was necessary. And we discussed it as friends would discuss it...I've never been angry at the French. France has been a longtime ally.

Shakespeare leads us to a more subtle reading of this expression of love for France, via Henry V:

KING HENRY V [to Catherine Valois]
No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love the friend of France; for I love France so well that I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is France and you are mine.

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