Welcome back to the Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network.

I'm David Kern.

Today's poem is brought to you by a poet probably no one has ever heard of.

His name is William Shakespeare.

He lived from 1564 to 1616.

In case you didn't know it, he was an English poet, playwright, an actor. And actually,

that last bit is something I think people don't think about often enough. What a performer

he must have been to produce the kind of plays that he produced. It's too bad they didn't have

video cameras back then to get his performances.

The poem that I'm going to read today is a speech from The Merchant of Venice,

which was written sometime between 1596 and 1599.

I'm going to read from Act 4, Scene 1.

You'll recognize it by its first line, but it's a speech or a monologue presented by

Portia, one of the characters in the Merchant of Venice, one of the key characters in the play.

The scene is the Venetian court of justice, and this is a speech in which Portia is begging Shylock for mercy. This is how it goes.

The quality of mercy is not strained. It dropeth 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 scepter 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's way.

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