Josh Hill wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:01:41 -0400, "John W. Kennedy"
>  wrote:
> 
>> Elko Tchernev wrote:
>>> In English lit. class, studying Shakespeare, a student asks the prof:
>>> - In the phrase "The quality of mercy is not
strained", what is the 
>>> meaning of 'strained'? Is it putting strain on it, or filtering?
>>> Bewildered, the prof thought for a moment and replied:
>>> - But see, it says "is NOT strained", so that
question doesn't arise!
>> 
>>
>> The context is as follows:
>>
>> Portia: You stand within his danger, do you not?
>>
>> Antonio: Ay, so he says.
>>
>> Portia:                  Do you confess the bond?
>>
>> Antonio: I do.
>>
>> Portia:        Then must the Jew be merciful.
>>
>> Shylock: On what compulsion must I? tell me that.
>>
>> Portia: The quality of mercy is not strain'd, ...
> 
> 	. . . It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
> 	Upon the place beneath.	
> 
> Which suggests that Shakespeare is contrasting the free flow of the
> rain with the flow of water in a strainer -- and modern readers are
> apt to think of strainers as filters, rather than as something through
> which water must be forced.
> 
> Though not, one hopes, professors.

Well, dear, of course a filter is a very useful thing in a house; but 
still I don't quite see that it is the sort of thing that places its 
possessor on the very pinnacle of earthly joy.


-- 
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
   -- Charles Williams.  "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"
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