ornament. It is meagre in illustration and analogy. If it argues, it does so with a
downward crush and overwhelming conviction of the syllogism and seldom
with the tentative groping towards the inductive apprehension of a truth
imperfectly discerned”.
16
Rhetoric, however, which is the means of conveying emotion, is also part of
the drama of the courtroom
17
and of legal culture,
18
especially in jury trials.
19
There are, for example, excellent and moving examples of legal rhetoric in
literature. William Shakespeare’s
Merchant of Venice
contains the plea that
Portia made on behalf of Antonio and the plea that Shylock made on his own
behalf. In a much admired speech, Portia exalted the quality of mercy:
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.
20
In another passage in the play, Shylock the Jewish financier, eloquently
pointed out that Jews, who were treated differently from others, were in fact
not different at all:
I am a Jew. 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?
21
___________________
16
Cardozo (1931) p 342
17
Laster, Breekweg and King (2000)
18
See, for example, Napley (1991).
19
See, for example, Vinson (1993), Hamlin (1984).
20
William Shakespears Merchant of Venice Act IV, Scene 1, 180-187
21
William Shakespeare Merchant of Venice Act III, Scene 1, 49-55
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