Nay weep not [...] for thy Brother's crimes;
O gen'rous Boy, thou shar'st but half his blood,
Yet lov'st beyond the kindness of a Brother.
But I'll reward thy Vertue. Follow me.
My Lord, you wait the King who comes resolv'd
To quit the Toils of Empire, and divide
His Realms amongst his Daughters, Heaven succeed it,
But much I fear the Change.
Shakespeare (adapt. Tate), The History of King Lear I.i (1681 rev.)
Thus passeth the Duke of Hyannis Port, to much chagrin on both sides of the Aisle. The rending of garments from such as Richard II, Duke of Chicago, and Michael, Earl of Westlawn (and his daughter the Lady Lisa) will drown out the griping from the Duke of Crawford, and perhaps even the Lords Justice of Cape Girardeau (whom, one must admit, ordinar'ly express their ire in a civil tongue) and their obstreporous nephew (whose tongue knoweth not the meaning of "civil"). The anticipated gnashing of teeth and frustration from a near-classmate of mine own — himself only a life peer, albeit with greater ambition — will no doubt be drowned out by his clerical father's.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet; and political nepotism remains mere fertilizer, the odious product and end of the mastication of the land's bounty.
* * *
Yup. We revolutionary Murikans have sure done away with the trappings of nobility and the abuses of English government. No sign of that over here. My disgust for the perversion of process outweighs my respect from my general agreement with the substance of Senator Kennedy's stated positions.