Shakespeare meme

[innerslytherin]

Stolen from wojelah:



One of my favorite monologues (tied with the To-be-or-not-to-be speech):

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.

-- The Merchant of Venice


My favorite sonnet:

Sonnet CXVI

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.



It's so rare that I can stay up late on a week-night! Hurrah for late-morning doctor appointments. LOL

Comments

[calzamante.livejournal.com]

That's my favourite sonnet, too. It's beautiful.

[innerslytherin]

I loved the bit in Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility when they were trying to get that sonnet by memory. :)

[lordhellebore]

You know what's fun about that monologue of Portia's? She's the one who advocates Christian mercy so strongly, yet she is also the one who's the most cruel in the entire play, I'd argue - more so than Shylock.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

It's a neat fillip that what Portia enforces in the bond -- not a jot of blood -- is the rules for kosher meat. Very twisty, that Shakespeare.

[innerslytherin]

Yeah, I've always thought it was a very clever trap she set for Shylock.

[wojelah.livejournal.com]

I love that sonnet - my roommate asked me to read it for her at her wedding!

And there's a lovely version of Portia's monologue set to music on When Love Speaks (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006357N/ref=cm_rdp_product) that I'm sure I could link you to, if you are interested.

[innerslytherin]

Ooooh neat! Sounds wonderful! Yeah, there are a lot of good sonnets, but that one's so lovely.

[mcgarrygirl78.livejournal.com]

That is my favorite sonnet too, well its tied with #130.

Ooh, monologues....I want to do this meme too. I really love Shakespeare, I always have.

[innerslytherin]

*nods* 130 is also a good one. :)