A changing of the guard at the U.S. Supreme Court is approaching, now that conservative jurist Amy Comey Barrett has been nominated to fill the seat held for 27 years by liberal jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Passions are running high across the political spectrum, and, as always, Two-Hour Tours will look to cool those passions by offering the bard's perspective, today on the subject of judges and justice.
Why not take a break from the fever swamp and take a look?
We'll start with what is probably Shakespeare's most famous courtroom speech, given by Portia, while she is dressed as Balthasar, a fictional lawyer introduced to the court through forged paperwork. She and the Duke of Venice are trying to persuade Shylock to show mercy to Antonio, the play's Merchant of Venice, who has failed to repay a loan to Shylock. The loan terms permitted Shylock to cut a pound of flesh out of Antonio should he fail to repay. Here's Portia's speech:
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 throned 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 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. 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.”
The main point is clear enough; mercy is an attribute of the divine that elevates and ennobles those who extend it. Probably only once sentence needs some explanation: "...in the course of justice, none of us/Should see salvation." Regular, everyday justice merely reapportions value in accordance with the law; only mercy can offer salvation.
There's really no ironic subtext that undercuts this message, but that doesn't mean Shakespeare is endorsing the messenger. Much as he does with in Hamlet, when he allows the flawed and feckless Polonius a lovely speech of paternal advice to his son Laertes, here he allows Portia to offer wisdom without actually embodying it.
Portia says that if Shylock declines to show mercy, the court must enforce his contract. In fact, however, she is in fact laying a trap for Shylock that will result in his destruction. And she will manipulate the law to the point of strangling it in order to ambush Shylock in a way that costs him all his wealth, and that results in his forced conversion to Christianity.
And why does Portia do all this? She has recently married Bassanio, the man who came to Antonio for the loan. But she has figured out that Antonio also loves Bassanio and, in his financial and emotional distress, Antonio is willing to be killed by Shylock to demonstrate his love.
Portia can't have this. Shakespeare as always is interested in the human heart, and so is Portia, if only in Bassanio's. If Antonio dies for Bassanio, that will be a sacrifice for love beyond any she could ever offer. And that is her motivation for destroying Shylock. As Michael Corleone would say in The Godfather, "It's just business."
Bringing this all back to the U.S. Supreme Court, we can ask if those of us who are disappointed in the likely elevation of Justice Barrett will be able to accept her appointment with at least the same grudging level of acceptance that the other side of the political divide showed to the late Justice Ginsburg during her tenure on the Court.
"...we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy."
No comments:
Post a Comment