Immigration - The Strangers Case Speech (Ian McKellen)

 

In February 2026, Sir Ian  McKellen was a guest on the Late Show, hosted by Stephen Colbert. This was just after the killing of Renee Good by an ICE Agent in Minneapolis so when Sir Ian was asked to deliver a speech from Shakespeare he chooses to give The Stranger's Case from the play Sir Thomas More. 

Historical Context

In the reign of Henry VIII, on May 1, 1517 — now referred to as Evil May Day — riots broke out in London in response to an influx of immigrant workers. Sir Thomas More, who was sheriff of London went out into the streets to try and quell the riots. 80 years later this became a centre-piece of the play "Sir Thomas More". In this speech More asks the rioters to imagine themselves in the shoes of the immigrants they're attacking.

Sir Ian Mckellen gives a rousing performance of the speech to the delight of the studio audience. If like me, you find Shakespeare's language confusing I've asked AI to put the speech into modern English and also into conversational English. You'll find all these versions below this Youtube link

Ian McKellen giving The Stranger's Case Speech

The Stranger's Case - conversational English

So, imagine you’ve got your way. The people you want gone have been forced out, and all that shouting and violence has drowned out the law.

Now picture them leaving: frightened families, carrying their children and whatever belongings they can manage, making the long journey to the ports. Meanwhile, you’re acting as if wanting something badly enough gives you the right to rule, as if force matters more than authority and your opinion matters more than justice.

But what would you really have achieved? You’d have shown that bullying works, that violence can defeat the law, and that anyone strong enough can take control. And once that becomes the rule, none of you is safe. Sooner or later, other violent people will use exactly the same excuses against you. Society would turn into everyone attacking everyone else.

Now imagine the king shows mercy and, instead of imposing a harsher punishment, simply sends you out of the country. Where would you go? What nation, knowing what you’d done, would agree to take you in? France? Flanders? Germany? Spain? Portugal? Wherever you went, you would be the outsiders.

And how would you feel if the people there treated you with the same cruelty you’re showing now? What if they turned violent, refused to let you live among them, threatened your life and drove you away as if you were less than human—as if you had no right to safety, shelter or even a place in the world?

What would you think then? That is exactly what strangers and refugees face when they are met with hatred. And that is why the way you are treating them is so deeply inhumane.

The Stranger's Case - Shakespeare

Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise

Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silent by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an agèd man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
Say now the king,
As he is clement if th’offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England,
Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity.

The Stranger's Case - modern English

Suppose they are removed, and suppose that your shouting
Has silenced all the authority of England;
Picture those desperate strangers,
Their babies on their backs and their few belongings,
Making their weary way to the ports to be deported,
While you act as though your wishes make you kings,
With the authorities silenced by your violence,
And you proudly wrapped in your own opinions.
What would you have achieved? I’ll tell you: you would have shown
That arrogance and brute force can win,
And that law and order can be overthrown. Following your example,
Not one of you would live to old age,
Because other thugs, whenever it suited them,
Would use the same violence, the same excuses and the same claim to be right,
And prey on you; people, like starving fish,
Would devour one another.
Now suppose the king,
Merciful when an offender is sorry,
Were to punish your serious offence no more harshly
Than by banishing you. Where would you go?
What country, knowing the nature of your crime,
Would offer you refuge? Whether you went to France or Flanders,
To any part of Germany, to Spain or Portugal,
Or indeed anywhere beyond England,
You would be the strangers. Would you be happy
To encounter people so cruel
That they erupted into appalling violence,
Refused you any place to live,
Sharpened their hateful knives for your throats,
Kicked you aside like dogs, as though God
Had neither created you nor cared for you, and as though the natural world
Were not there for your comfort too,
But belonged only to them? What would you think
If you were treated like this? That is the situation strangers' case;

And this is the monstrous inhumanity you are showing.