Editorial: What would Shakespeare make of the protests?

But who comes here? Is this an oil company I see before me? Marry, it is. No less than global multinational BP, sponsoring Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon. And who comes hither, yon rabble of disaffected youth? Are they now mounting upon the very Stratford stage, where actors strut and fret, amidst a great caterwauling?

Aye, by the mass, for they do call themselves the Reclaim Shakespeare Company and are protesting at BP verily greenwashing its lousy environmental record in, say, far-off Gulf of Mexico.

How wouldst the Bard have taken such irruption by the meaner sort? Perforce his wondrous plentiful natural references – 27 wildflowers and 55 wild birds, for them that counteth – can give the looked-for clue. And perchance, upon the Stratford antics, he might smile most heartily.