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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AS YOU LIKE IT, ACT II, SCENE 7.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;

Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eye-brow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the Justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,--

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness, and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

HELPS TO STUDY.

Notes

"Mewling"--squalling.

"sudden"--impetuous.

"sans"--without.

"his"--its, which was just coming into use at this time.

"formal cut"--trim, near--not shaggy as that of the soldier's,

"wise saws"--wise sayings.

"modern instances"--everyday examples, illustrations.

"strange oaths"--soldiers are proverbially profane--probably satirical reference to the affectation of foreign oaths by soldiers who have been abroad.

Words and Phrases for Discussion.

Comparisons:

"creeping like snail"

"sighing like furnace"

"bearded like the pard"

"eyes severe"

"woeful ballad"

"mere oblivion"

"Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth"

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HAMLET, ACT I, SCENE 3.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,

Bear it, that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy:

For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be:

For loan oft loses both itself and friend;

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all,--to thine own self be true;

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

HELPS TO STUDY.

Notes and Questions.

"unproportioned"--not worthy or fitting the occasion.

"familiar"--courteous, friendly.

"vulgar"-unduly familiar.

"their adoption tried"--tested by long acquaintance.

"dull thy palm"--lose discrimination.

"censure"--opinion.

"expressed in fancy"--loud, ostentatious.

"husbandry"--thrift.

Put in your own words:

"Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportioned thought his act."

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice."

"The apparel oft proclaims the man."

"Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."

Words and Phrases for Discussion.

"hoops of steel"

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