If Shakespeare were alive today, he would have had a good line in business books. Macbeth is a primer in how (not) to be a corporate wife; The Merchant of Venice is a cautionary tale about reckless lending. The play Stanley Ho should have read, however, is The Tragedy of King Lear.
It is not clear how the ageing king of Macao’s casinos intended to divide his gambling empire among his progeny. Instead, as in the play, it became apparent this week that the kingdom Mr Ho had built – and thought was his to distribute – had already been lost. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child, as King Lear himself said.
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, Mr Ho must have muttered when he discovered that the majority stake in his gaming and hotels business was already held by his third wife and five children from his second marriage. It would be understandable if Mr Ho, like Lear, had difficulty distinguishing confessions of devotion from the real thing. After all, he has had four wives and at least 15 children. But he shares the king’s fate in now accusing his relatives of grabbing the family business.