The Quality of Mercy
Shylock is savouring revenge on Antonio for years of disgusting mistreatment, but the judge warns him to temper his demands.
before 1598
Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
Shylock is savouring revenge on Antonio for years of disgusting mistreatment, but the judge warns him to temper his demands.
before 1598
Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio has helped his friend Bassanio by borrowing from a Jewish moneylender named Shylock. Antonio has always treated Shylock with disgusting scorn, so when he defaults on his bond Shylock goes gleefully to court to enforce the grisly penalty agreed: a pound of flesh — unaware that Bassanio’s wife Portia has pulled some strings and will judge the case herself, in disguise of course.
abridged
Portia. Do you confess the bond?
Antonio. I do.
Portia. Then must the Jew be merciful.
Shylock. On what compulsion must I? tell me that.
Portia. The quality of mercy is not strain’d
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The thronèd 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 this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to 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.* I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant there.
Shylock. My deeds upon my head!* I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
abridged
* See Psalm 130:3: “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”
* Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Christians have behaved in a supercilious and hypocritical fashion to poor Shylock, and this may seem like another example, loftily recommending the spirit of the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer to a Jew smarting at shocking ill use. See Matthew 5:7 and Matthew 6:9-15. Yet the sentiment is thoroughly Jewish. See for example Sirach 28:2: “Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee, so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest.”
* See Matthew 27:25, when the crowd shouts out at Jesus’s trial: “His blood be on us, and on our children.”
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.