Another Perspective
In High Roman Fashion
A Shakespearean gloss on the death of Deborah Jean Palfrey.
(Page 3 of 4)
br>
Which hurts, and is desir’d…
/em>
/blockquote>
br>
To
br>
blockquote>
em>Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
br>
That sucks the nurse asleep?
/em>
/blockquote>
br>
There may at first sight seem to be but little similarity between
“the high Roman fashion” and the squalid death of “the D.C. Madam,”
dangling from a rafter in a down-market “retirement community.” She
had spoken on more than one occasion of being so unwilling to go
back to prison — as she was certain to do after her sentencing,
scheduled for July 24 — that she would sooner die, and this was
simply her way of making good on her word. But of course Cleopatra
was in a similar plight. It was not prison that she feared but what
we might call the
low
Roman fashion of parading those who
had been defeated in battle before the Roman mob in order to affirm
the “triumph” of their conqueror.
br>
blockquote>
About the Author
James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.
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