Shylock’s Recantation – a sonnet based on themes from “The Merchant of Venice”, considering that only once in the Catholic Church would Shylock have known the Tridentine Doctrine of Concomitance, which would have been his best defence against Portia’s Balthazar…
Had I but known the Roman Council’s art—
That Flesh and Blood are held in single bond,
And cannot by a legal blade dispart,
Nor split by cunning of a clever blonde!
For Trent decrees the Blood dwells in the Host;
Where Flesh is given, Blood must surely flow.
Had I then claimed what Rome exalts the most,
I’d kept my ducats and my daughter’s vow.
Instead I swore by Moses and my Law,
Relied on Venice and her narrow scale;
Unknowing that the Church’s doctrine saw
A grace that made my contract’s loophole fail.
Now, forced to bow before the altar stone
I learn the tricks they use to claim my own.
Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics
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