Home > Work > Shakespeare's Freedom (Rice University Campbell Lecture)
1 " The weariest and most loathèd worldly life That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature is a paradise To what we fear of death. "
― Stephen Greenblatt , Shakespeare's Freedom (Rice University Campbell Lecture)
2 " The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. (4.1.179–81) "
3 " 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. (4.1.192–97) "
4 " the government-controlled Saudi daily Al-Riyadh published a column declaring that “the Jews’ spilling human blood to prepare pastry for their holidays is a well-established fact. "
5 " You call me misbeliever, cut-throat, dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, "
6 " And all for use of that which is mine own. Well then, it now appears you need my help. Go to, then. You come to me, and you say ‘Shylock, we would have moneys’—you say so, You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold. (1.3.107–15) "
7 " Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, For suff ’rance is the badge of all our tribe. (1.3.105–6) "
8 " He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason?—I am a Jew. (3.1.46–49) "
9 " Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just. (3.4.34–37) "
