"Your hopes and friends are infinite."
Everyone wants a level of success - surely no disagreement about that? We can't all go it alone though, which doesn't stop us trying. It's not easy working out how much you should achieve success by your own means, and how much you need the help of others.
The internet and social media are stuffed with individuals bragging about how successful they are, and how important it is to co-operate and work as part of a team. Weirdly, sometimes it's the same person saying both things.
So many of Shakespeare's plays, especially the histories and tragedies, highlight the dangers of what happens when a king refuses to take the advice of friends, relatives or supportive colleagues. After all, they made it to the top of tree, which is more than you managed Mr Second in Command loozah.
Henry the fifth is an extremely rare king out of all the Shakespeare plays. He's one of the very few monarchs who is still alive at the end. And part of the reason for that is because he listens to the advice of others, and sometimes changes his mind as a result.
We can learn a lot from him even though it's more than 600 years since the battle of Agincourt and if I'm honest with you once he became king he wasn't that great by the end (are they ever?). But I think we can learn an awful lot more from Coriolanus, who has absolutely no interest in being part of a team. This is a man who'd listen to your advice if you were three times world chess champion and he wanted to know his next move, then deliberately do the opposite because if you're a world chess champion you've obviously never engaged in brutal battle to the death with your sword.
Mainly, that while it's important on occasion to go it alone, two heads are better than one unless you're the two headed Dog Orthrus from Greek Mythology who is sain by Heracles.
Plays mentioned this week include Henry the Fifth, Othello, and 'there's only one I in' Coriolanus.
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