...most famous heroine, Portia, speaks to Nerissa in this scene; the speech begins "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." 31 James Baldwin also admired Shakespeare's efforts "to defeat all labels and complicate all battles,"...

...judgment and behave improperly. As Portia observes in The Merchant of Venice, "If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages prince's palaces. . . . I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the...

...„Moralpredigt" und hält ihre eigene Moral auf witzige Art und Weise dagegen. ("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, ..." I, 2, 12- 14) Die beiden kommen auch auf die bisherigen Bewerber um ihre Hand zu sprechen. Dabei...

...nothing. Good statements and well delivered. They would be better if well followed. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages would have been princes' palaces. It is a good clergyman that follows his own instructions. I can easier...