190 LATIN LANGUAGE 



ideas of Portia's speech are all there; it is only the inimitable form 

 of expression that is Shakespeare's. 



Nullum dementia ex omnibus magis quam regem aut principem decet (i, 3, 3; 

 again i, 19, 1). 



" It becomes 

 The throned monarch better than his crown." 



Eo scilicet formosius id esse magnificentiusque fatebimur quo in maiore prae- 

 stabitur potestate (i, 19, 1). 



" 'T is mightiest in the mightiest." 



Quod si di placabiles et aequi delicta potentium non statim fulminibus per- 

 sequuntur, quanto aequius est hominem hominibus praepositum miti ammo 

 exercere imperium? (i, 7, 2.) 



" But mercy is above this sceptred sway. 

 It is enthroned in the heart of kings; 

 It is an attribute of God himself." 



Quid autem? Non proximum eis (dis) locum tenet is qui se ex deorum natura 

 gerit beneficus et largus et in melius potens? (i, 19, 9.) 



" And earthly power doth then show likest God's 

 When mercy seasons justice." 



Cogitate quanta solitude et vastitas futura sit si nihil relinquitur 



nisi quod iudex severus absolverit (i, 6, 1). 



" Consider this 



That in the course of justice none of us 

 Should see salvation." 



Compare Hamlet, n, 2: "Use every man after his desert, and 

 who shall 'scape whipping? " 



And the story of Augustus pardoning Cinna (i, 9) probably 

 suggested : 



"It is twice blessed; 

 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." 



Lodge's translation was not published till some twenty years after 

 the Merchant of Venice. But that is no difficulty to those who 

 believe that Shakespeare had not forgotten the Latin which he had 

 learnt at Stratford Grammar School. And Seneca was more read in 

 those days than he is now: witness the enormous influence which 

 his tragedies exercised on the predecessors of Shakespeare. I venture 

 to commend the study of Seneca's prose works to Shakespearian 

 scholars. 



