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Portia's Plea: The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained
Reviewed by Kent d Curry

‘So beautiful and true, it should be in the Bible.’ That’s what I thought when I read Portia’s plea to Shylock in this amazing passage from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. In fact, these are the only non-biblical words I have read and believed that.

While the play itself flaunts gaping plot holes and an unresolved dual identity (is it a romance or a drama?) many believe The Merchant of Venice reveals his most beautiful and penetrating language. I couldn’t agree more.

What makes this passage doubly powerful is Portia is making one last appeal to Shylock, the Jew, for his mercy (toward someone else) before she springs a legal reversal that will place Shylock in need of the same mercy he is about to refuse.

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 throned monarch better than his crown,
His sceptre shows the force to 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 enthroned 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…

ninetyandnine.com

© 2004, Kent d Curry

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Kent d Curry is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com.

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*Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 10th Edition 1993 Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts