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- What are kings, when regiment is gone,
- But perfect shadows in a sunshine day?
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, Edward the Second
I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not be traced to their king, as its source, nor a good, which is not derived from the small fibres of republicanism existing among them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to General Washington, May 2, 1788
All kings is mostly rapscallions.
MARK TWAIN, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
What the devil's a king but a man, or a queen but a woman?
MAXWELL ANDERSON, Elizabeth the Queen
All kings are foes of all the men they rule.
This principle is old, but true as fate, Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate.
THOMAS DEKKER, The Honest Whore
War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.
Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they are 'the best of kings'. It is their power, their splendour, it is the apprehension of the personal consequences of their favour or their hatred that dazzles the imagination and suspends the judgement of their favourites or their vassals; but death cancels the bond of allegiance and of interest; and seen AS THEY WERE, their power and their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous.
WILLIAM HAZLITT, Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
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