The West Wing: He Shall, From Time to Time

Well, I'm in the new place, squashed but intact, and desperately behind on the thesis, but remaining confident that the final draft WILL be ready by Monday. In the meantime, a quick blog post.

This is the episode of The West Wing in which Leo and the audience discover that President Bartlett has a relapsing remitting form of MS (aptly described by Bartlett as 'the good kind'. He eventually starts to develop early signs of the bad kind in season 4 and gets slowly worse, in an very accurate portrayal of the early stages of the disease).

But, of course, that's not what we're interested in here! The interesting bit Classics-wise comes at the end, when Bartlett has recovered from his attack and is preparing to give the State of the Union. One person from the line of succession (or however you describe it in a republic) has to stay out of the State of the Union in case Guy Fawkes blows them up, and Bartlett decides to give a little pep talk to the chosen person, just in case. The person in question (The Secretary of Agriculture) walks in and it turns out he's The Mayor! So now I'm spending the entire scene expecting him to turn into a giant snake and eat Bartlett. Anyway, The Mayor has brought Bartlett a present: the Constitution of the United States of America, translated into Latin.

Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Latin is used a lot on The West Wing. Bartlett, being both a Catholic and something of an amateur classicist, loves it and refers to it frequently (comparatively speaking) and it's even used in episode titles - not just for religious references, like 'In Excelsis Deo', but Roman proverbs like 'Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc' as well (all of which I'm sure I'll post on at some point).

I have to confess, though, I'm a bit confused as to why anyone would want a copy of the Constitution in Latin. Harry Potter and Winnie the Pooh make sense, they're a good way to practise, but the Constitution? Does anyone read that for fun? The Mayor explains that it was a school project that got published, which does make more sense, and that he's highlighted an appropriate passage, which Bartlett reads and simultaneously translates, because now he's just showing off. It is this passage that the title of the episode is taken from.

The whole thing is really just an excuse to have Bartlett read that particular part of the Constitution out loud, in tones of due reverence. The first series of The West Wing is, in some ways, the most fun because it's still so in love with its concept. This episode is just thrilled at the whole idea of the State of the Union, and the wonderfully-named W. G. Snuffy Walden's music swells with pride as Bartlett walks out. Even the MS storyline, which the show would do such great things with in Season 2, was originally written because Aaron Sorkin wanted to engineer a situation in which the President would be sitting in bed watching daytime TV (and getting quite into it). So the Latin is really just a tool to get Bartlett waxing lyrical about the State of the Union.

It is an appropriate present for Bartlett though, who does love his Latin, for the above mentioned reasons. The Mayor doesn't mention whether the Latin in question was Classical Latin or Vulgate Latin (the Latin used by the Catholic Church) but, being a school project, it was probably Classical. Bartlett would love it either way, since he's also interested in Classics, a character trait which, in some cases, allows for very interesting parallels to be drawn between the US and the Roman Empire. But I have a thesis to finish, so that will have to wait for another day!