Pleading for support from his party members, Boris Johnson recently fell back on William Shakespeare. The British Prime Minister compared himself to Othello, the main character from the play of the same name on the themes of jealousy, race and passion. Like the black officer, Johnson claimed, he is one who always sees the good in people, who is too gullible. The role of the manipulative subordinate Iago was, of course, for Johnson’s former chief of staff Dominic Cummings.
The reference raised the question of what the situation is with The Riddle of Genius, Johnson’s Shakespeare biography announced in 2015 and due out a year later. He had already received an advance of half a million. A lot has happened since then. Johnson dragged the British out of the EU, became Foreign Secretary and eventually Prime Minister. He also almost died. But the status of the book is a state secret.
Reportedly, Johnson, who is known as a jack of all trades, is trying to work on it in between. On the eve of the corona crisis, he is said to have locked himself up for twelve days in Chevening, the country house that is actually intended for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Downing Street spokesperson later denied that Literature came before Politics, saying a writing break was not the reason Johnson missed emergency meetings about the impending virus.
That Johnson’s thoughts are often with The Bard was not only apparent from his reference to Othello. During an online question time with voters in early 2020, he gave his thoughts free rein, which led to a brief account of Queen Elizabeth I’s love for Falstaff. Johnson has been compared, to his satisfaction, to this popular Shakespearean character for years. Sir John is a great, cunning personality, who in The Merry Wives of Windsor chasing the women.
It is sometimes jokingly suggested that Johnson is writing his own Shakespearean tragedy. Following the betrayal, shortly after the Brexit referendum, by his friend Michael ‘Brutus’ Gove, quotes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar† Now that he is lonely in Downing Street, abandoned by his friends, there are comparisons to the tragic King Macbeth. His wife Carrie has been compared to the power-hungry Lady Macbeth in the recent past, which is also the tenor of a forthcoming book about her that sparked a stir this week: First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Boris and Carrie Johnson†
While this comparison is not a compliment, it is better than a comparison with Desdemona, who was eventually murdered by her manipulated husband, Othello.