Forget Caesar. Shakespeare Has Another Role for Trump.

Are we living in a Shakespearean tragedy? A production of “Julius Caesar” that just ended in New York used an apparent Donald Trump substitute as the figure murdered by the Roman senators; a counterdemonstration was organized, with two pro-Trump activists crashing the stage in protest. Other (unconnected) Shakespeare theaters have been receiving emails and letters of protest.

Much as I love Shakespeare, I am not pleased by all the attention he’s getting in the American political scene. Too many of Shakespeare’s plays concern the corruption of power, the problems of political succession, the unreliability of alliances and the collapse of public order. His political decision-makers are rarely rational, and his most pleasing comedies and romances tend to be removed from matters of state. His most overtly legal tale, “Merchant of Venice,” stresses themes of scapegoating and preordained “justice” rather than judicial objectivity.