I think it is time that we heard a woman’s voice in our collection of Bard Words.
“The quality of mercy” is a speech given by Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Act 4, Scene 1). In the speech, Portia, disguised as a male lawyer, begs Shylock, the Jewish moneylender who has demanded a ‘pound of flesh’ from Antonio (the title character of the play) in exchange for an unpaid debt, to show mercy. The speech extols the power of mercy, “an attribute to God Himself.”
ortia (disguised as Balthazar) tells Shylock, and the court, that mercy is an essential human quality. Being kind and forgiving towards those over whom we have some power is a noble pursuit. Note Shakespeare’s clever use of ‘strained’ here: mercy is ‘not strained’ in that it is doesn’t need to be forced, but nor is it constrained (or, indeed, restrained) in most of us. It is as natural as rainfall – which, of course, falls from ‘heaven’, where God resides. Mercy is ‘twice blessed’ because the person you are merciful towards is thankful for your mercy, but the one bestowing the mercy is ‘blessed’ too – by God. It’s also true that we often feel better about ourselves if we are kind towards others and show them mercy.
At the same time, of course, there is something ironic in Portia’s rhetorical recourse to Shylock’s innate sense of mercy. If mercy is such a natural quality within us, why does he need to be reminded of it? If it is ‘not strained’ but freely given, why is the court case happening at all? The answer, of course, is that Portia is cleverly – and rhetorically – hinting to Shylock that mercy is a natural human impulse which mirrors God’s mercy towards us. So if he refuses to act mercifully towards his debtor, Antonio, then Shylock is not only suggesting he is unnatural or abnormal, but also not following God’s example.
Portia reminds Shylock, a Jew, that Christians (‘We’) pray to God for mercy, and through doing so, Christians realise the importance of practising mercy towards others in their own lives. She (as Balthazar) sums up her speech by saying that she has tried to temper Shylock’s requested ‘justice’ (he wants that pound of flesh!) with mercy, but if he insists on justice (without mercy) the ‘strict court’ of the city state of Venice will have to find in Shylock’s favour and condemn Antonio, the merchant of Venice, to give up his pound of flesh in order to fulfil Shylock’s wishes.
Of course, giving up a pound of his flesh would involve Antonio’s almost certain death. Shylock doesn’t care, and Portia’s plea that he show ‘the quality of mercy’ falls on deaf ears. In the end, she manages to defend Antonio from Shylock’s knife by bringing up a legal technicality: although Antonio agreed to pay up a pound of his flesh if he defaulted on his debt, the bond said nothing about his giving Shylock his blood, and Shylock would be unable to remove the merchant’s flesh without drawing blood.
