Elson Grammar School Literature, Book Four.

MERCHANT OF VENICE, ACT IV., SCENE I.

The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed;

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The thronéd monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings:

But mercy is above the sceptred sway:

It is enthronéd in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute of God himself:

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,

When mercy seasons justice. Therefore,

Jew, though justice be thy plea, consider this,--

That, in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy.

HELPS TO STUDY.

Biographical and Historical: William Shakespeare, the greatest of English poets, indeed one of the greatest of the world's poets, was born in 1564 at Stratford-on-Avon. As a young man of twenty-two, after his marriage with Anne Hathaway, he went up to London, where he became connected with theaters, first, tradition says, by holding horses at the doors. The next twenty years he spent in London as an actor, and in writing poems and plays, later becoming a shareholder as well as an actor. The last ten years of his life were spent at Stratford, where he died at the age of fifty-two. This was the time of Queen Elizabeth and is known as the Elizabethan Age. It was the age richest in genius of all kinds, but especially in the creation of dramatic literature.

In the foregoing selection, Portia, disguised as a lawyer, makes this famous speech in pleading the cause of Antonio against Shylock.

Notes

"strained"--restrained "shows"--is the emblem of

Words and Phrases for Discussion.

"temporal power"

"sceptered sway"

"Earthly power doth then show likest

God's When mercy seasons justice"

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