ベニスの商人の中のポーシアの慈悲の言葉
これはシェークスピアのベニスの商人の1場面で原告のシャーロックに判事のポーシアが慈悲に訴えていますがこれには面白い逸話があります。戦後英語の得意な幣原首相が占領軍統帥のマッカッサー元帥と茶飲み話でシェークスピアの話になり幣原氏がこの場面のポーシアの台詞を英語で朗読して見せたのです。この台詞の中には王者が慈悲を持つべきだという意味が含まれていたのですね。この事がマッカッサー氏が天皇を戦争犯罪の裁判に出廷させない決定をする要因の1つにもなったとのことです。
During Allied armies occupied in Tokyo after the WWII, the prime minister Heibara who was fluent in English had a chat with the general MacAthur about Shakespeare and he demonstrated the lines of the scene from the top of his head. He had memorised the lines.
MacAthur was impressed. The lines include a moral that the king who posses mercy is the real king. People say the episode was one of factors to exclude the Emperor Hirohito from the prosecution of the War Crime.
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre 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 sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. 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. I have spoke thus much