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Vice-President Mike Pence set the tone, confiding that serving a president “who’s keeping his word to the American people” is “the greatest privilege of my life”. As Mr Trump clenched his jaw, nodded and threw in an occasional “good job” of encouragement, his cabinet secretaries—who include former governors, retired four-star generals and more than one billionaire—mostly followed suit. They variously reported that his presidency has “thrilled” crime-fighters, excited the world with its “international flair” and inspired “love” in Mississippi. “My hat is off to you!” swooned the energy secretary, Rick Perry, who in 2015 called Mr Trump a “cancer on conservatism”. For as long as cameras whirred this surge of praise rolled round the room like a bureaucrats’ Mexican wave, peaking with a testimonial from Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff. Unabashed by speculation that he is to be sacked, Mr Priebus declared: “We thank you for the opportunity and the blessing to serve your agenda.” The verdict of a Twitter-user from Toronto, “This is actually the start of ‘King Lear’,” went viral, pinging around the political internet.

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As Mr Trump basked in congratulations, then hailed himself as the most “active” and productive president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was understandable if some recalled Shakespeare’s tragedies. For those works often explore how sycophancy clouds the judgment of great men, especially when pride prevents them from seeing that they are being gulled. As he divides his kingdom between three daughters, Lear confuses flowery words with love. It is fawning that lures Julius Caesar to a fatal ambush in the Capitol, as a conspirator predicts: “But when I tell [Caesar] he hates flatterers,/He says he does, being then most flatterèd.”

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For all that, those drawing parallels between Shakespeare’s tragedies and the Trump administration need to be sure that they are comparing like with like. The present White House may be uncomfortably reminiscent of a medieval court, with its cliques and coerced displays of fealty, all taking place under the watchful gaze of a ruling family—as cabinet members cringed this week, an impassive Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and senior counsellor, could be seen monitoring their tributes from a seat behind the president.

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Robes and furr’d gowns hide all

Shakespeare understood bullies. The tragedies are filled with demagogues: orators with a genius for stirring up divisions and stoking grievances to turn decent citizens into angry, vengeful followers. During the election Mr Trump called rivals “disgusting” or said they “choked like a dog”. This week he called the news media both fake and “dirty” and said they pursue “their agenda of hate”. Shakespearean populists—men like the plotters in “Julius Caesar” or the crowd-pleasing tribunes in “Coriolanus”—also dehumanise opponents. They call their foes wolves, or an elitist “enemy to the people”, liable to pay commoners no more heed than dogs that are “beat for barking”.

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