“… he does smile his face into more lines than are in the new map, with the augmentation of the Indies.”
(Twelfth Night, act 3, sc. 2)
Visitors to this site are well aware of the veneer of courtesy usually appearing on the face of economic and political pundits – praising democracy as a pretense and a screen to protect their abuses. There was a time when they were more frank. Here is an extract from US Bankers Magazine, Aug 25, 1924
“Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible….When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers. This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”
The French call it “Déjà vu”, the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event currently being experienced has been experienced in the past, whether it has actually happened or not.
In the instance it happened. It is probable that the hypocritical scoundrels in question were smiling as they gloated on their plans. As per Byron, “Hypocrisy is the gift of lengthened years.”
In the Play. Malvolio has fallen for the trick to make him believe that Olivia loves him. Maria, author of the trick, comments on Malvolio’s behavior. The ‘augmentation of the Indies’ refers to the discovery of America and the attendant enlargement of geographic maps.
Shakespeare at Work. Define an ever-smiling hypocrite. Or use to explain the need for a face-lift, e.g. (my face) has more lines than…Indies’.
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