Now is the hour - now is my moment - now is my time to write it. After all, we have all had a few days to reflect on England's performance in the World Cup and although I am not qualified to write about football, I have reflected on other aspects of the tournament.
These reflections began about two weeks into the World Cup. While on holiday in Cyprus, I took the opportunity to recite a favourite piece from Shakespeare. Our guide had foolishly asked me to speak from the stage of the amphitheatre in Kourion in order to demonstrate the acoustics. I was delighted to oblige and there I am on the stage below quoting some favourite lines from Shakespeare.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...
Even while speaking these words, I was reflecting that for footballers like Ronaldo and Messi, the world really is their stage. The World Cup competition attracts competitors and guests from many lands. It is one of the few occasions that "ordinary people" have to see their heroes in the flesh and in an arena in which these heroes can demonstrate their powers in front of a vast global audience.
What struck me, even at the time, is that the short paragraph above could easily have been written about medieval and post-medieval jousting tournaments. The paragraph could read: Tudor jousting attracted competitors, spectators and foreign guests from a variety of lands. Ordinary people were given the opportunity to watch their king topple his adversary from his steed and, majestically, beat his adversary with his sword or axe. Thus were the king and courtiers displayed as noble and superior. And woe betide the oaf who dared to topple his king and beat him with his own flanged mace. His role was to give the king a well fought match. He had also to ensure that the king won in the end.
Luckily, our modern football hero does not have this delicate problem to deal with. No team - at least no team I have ever heard of - has to lose on purpose. Having said that, many other aspects of the medieval ideal of masculinity transmit perfectly into the modern world of football. Take managers, for instance. It is their job to look for the opponent's Achilles heel. It might be the defence or even a shaky goalkeeper. The manager will identify their best player and what his best weapon is. Is it the boot or the head? The manager will decide how to exploit weaknesses and so on. How similar it must have been for the medieval jouster! I am sure that he, too, looked for weaknesses in the defence of his opponents and how he held his shield, for example. Was his lance steady and what was his best weapon - his sword, his mace or his lance? Better prepare for all possibilities and find a winning edge!
Both jouster and footballer are icons of manhood. Although they represent the ideal of masculinity of their respective times, I am of the opinion that there is little difference between the man of steel flying on horseback down the tiltyard in 1530 and Harry Maguire hurling himself though the air to head the ball into the back of Sweden's net in 2018. And all of this in front of adoring supporters.
And of course, it is the relationship between flawed hero and hero-worshipper that often inspires the writer and the filmmaker. Think of Anakin Skywalker, Jay Gatsby, Rhett Butler, Scarlett O'Hara, Jean Valjean and Sir Lancelot. But think also of the hero's downfall. Is it their tragic flaws that make them so appealing to readers and cinema-goers? Don't we really love it when Messi misses a penalty? And didn't we love George Best when he was down and out? Perhaps we can we learn from the flaws of the hero and, by doing so, make better choices in our own lives. And maybe that was what Greek and Roman theatre was all about and why the people crowded into theatres like Kourion above.
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