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Aug. 27th, 2006 12:15 am
Shakespeare Meme
"When you see this on your friends list, quote Shakespeare."
From The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 1
Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections,
passions,
fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
I like this line (or fragment thereof), because it seems so odd in the context of Elizabethan England. I've played Shylock, and this line is an absolute belter. It hits home quite hard, and I wonder how Shakespeare got away with it in his own time. I can't imagine "Jews are people too", even delivered by a jew, being terribly palatable to the audiences of the time.
From The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 1
Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections,
passions,
fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
I like this line (or fragment thereof), because it seems so odd in the context of Elizabethan England. I've played Shylock, and this line is an absolute belter. It hits home quite hard, and I wonder how Shakespeare got away with it in his own time. I can't imagine "Jews are people too", even delivered by a jew, being terribly palatable to the audiences of the time.