"The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree"
— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Date
1600
Metaphor
"The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree"
Metaphor in Context
PORTIA
If to do were as easy as to know what were good
to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's
cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows
his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what
were good to be done than to be one of the twenty to
follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws
for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree.
Such a hare is madness, the youth, to skip o'er the
meshes of good counsel, the cripple. But this reasoning
is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me,
the word ``choose"! I may neither choose who I would
nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living
daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not
hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse
none?
(I.ii.12-26)
If to do were as easy as to know what were good
to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's
cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows
his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what
were good to be done than to be one of the twenty to
follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws
for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree.
Such a hare is madness, the youth, to skip o'er the
meshes of good counsel, the cripple. But this reasoning
is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me,
the word ``choose"! I may neither choose who I would
nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living
daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not
hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse
none?
(I.ii.12-26)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Citation
Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works. Oxford Shakespeare. Electronic Edition for the IBM PC. Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, Editor.
Date of Entry
08/11/2003
