Act I.1 - Prologue "Friends, Republicans, Countrymen"

Prologue "Friends, Republicans, Countrymen" (c) Jim Guinn 2012

Friends,Republicans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to critique Romney, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Romney. The noble Santorum
Hath told you Romney was not conservative.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Romney answer’d it.

Here, under leave of Santorum and the rest–
For Santorum is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–

Come I to speak in Romney's defense. He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Santorum says he was not conservative;
And Santorum is an honourable man.

He humiliated in defeat a miscreant while merely a youth
Whose actions brought shame to his preparatory school.
Did this in Romney not seem conservative?

When that the poor have cried,
Romney hath profited;
Conservatism should be made of such stuff:
Yet Santorum says he was not conservative;
And Santorum is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the campaign trail
He made humor of Obama's blood-line to the throne?
Which he did thrice repeat; was this not conservatism?
Yet Santorum says he is not conservative.
And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Santorum spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to lay blame on him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the Cayman's there with Romney;
And I must pause till it come back to me.