"Welcome the Stranger" in Sir Thomas More

"Welcome the Stranger, for you were once strangers" is a theme repeated in the Bible, and is related to the theme of what Jesus calls the second most important commandment ("like the first), to love neighbors as we love ourselves (the first being to love God). Later Jesus says that what we do to "the least of these" we do unto him. People in Shakespeare's time would have been thoroughly familiar with these passages, especially adults who had heard them in church over and over throughout their lives. #Shakespeare embodied this theme in his contributions to a play about Sir Thomas More, never performed in his lifetime, which includes a speech More gave to a crowd to try to prevent mob violence against immigrants. At the link below, you can watch a video of Ian McKellen delivering the speech.

https://qz.com/786163/the-banned-400-year-old-shakespearean-speech-being-used-for-refugee-rights-today/?fbclid=IwAR33VADBeO-eY0WVbRZVzGJswBpwpPWLgv1OBW3XalULLDfyl1e1AoD0XEs

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#immigrants #bible #Theatre #Theater #Drama #britishliterature #Britlit