Contenting Logo

News

Entertainment

Science & Technology

Sport

Business & Money

Life

Culture & Art

Hobbies

Sites
Lists
#tags
  1. home
    2. ›
  2. #tags
    3. ›
  3. Persian

Discover Latest #Persian News, Articles and Videos with Contenting

Persian news, articles and videos cover a variety of topics related to Iran, its people and culture. Persian news can be found across the media, from newspapers, magazines, websites and television stations. Articles and videos can focus on current events, politics, culture, art, sports and more. Persian videos can be found on YouTube, Vimeo and other media websites, and articles can be found in newspapers and magazines around the world. Persian news can also be found on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. Persian news, articles and videos can provide insight into the culture and history of Iran, as well as its current events.

U.S. House History Blog

23.04.2025

Edition for Educators: The House and Shakespeare | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

Since the early nineteenth century, congressional debate has been recorded and distributed for public consumption. Congress initially entrusted this job to journalists working for the National Intelligencer and other newspapers. But in the years around the Civil War, lawmakers professionalized the responsibility, creating the Government Printing Office in 1860—now the Government Publishing Office—and printing speeches near verbatim in the Congressional Record starting in 1873. Debate can take many shapes on the House Floor. Members use their time to demonstrate their positions on legislation or current events. In some cases, they insert into the Congressional Record full speeches or remarks. To liven up their orations, legislators sometimes sprinkle in literary references. Before the internet became ubiquitous, the Congressional Research Service received so many requests for certain quotations from lawmakers that it published a book in 1989 titled Respectfully Quoted, which compiled more than 2,000 of the most frequently cited quotations by Members of Congress. Among the texts most quoted by legislators were the works of William Shakespeare, the famous sixteenth-century poet, playwright, and tormentor of twenty-first century high school students. Quotes from the Bard are often used to illustrate a point during congressional debate or to serve as a vehicle to tell a story. Second only to biblical references, the various works of Shakespeare are some of the most quoted or cited in congressional publications. To quote, or not to quote. That is the question Members of Congress must consider. The following Edition for Educators highlights examples of various works of Shakespeare found in the Congressional Record from debate on the House Floor and in the Extensions of Remarks.Earth Day and Shakespeare’s Birthday On Earth Day 1999, Representative Connie Morella of Maryland noted, I consider environmental protection to be national priority. I pledge to work with my colleagues to ensure the preservation of our natural resources and the protection of the public’s health. And this Earth Week, as we also celebrate the 435th birthday of William Shakespeare, we remember his words, ‘to nature none more bound.’ Today, as we observe Earth Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to a cleaner world. In this instance, Representative Morella is quoting Henry VIII, act 1, scene 2, line 129, when King Henry VIII, amid a discussion on taxation, refers to the Duke of Buckingham and calls for his execution: It grieves many: The gentleman is learn’d, and a most rare speaker; To nature none more bound; his training such, That he may furnish and instruct great teachers. Representative Morella, however, focused on the concept of being obligated to protect nature rather than the context of the play. Read more about Henry VIII from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Yielding the Floor to Shakespeare At the end of a five-minute special order speech titled “Truth in Speaking,” concerning the 1996 Whitewater investigation into President William J. Clinton, the Congressional Record captured an interesting back and forth between two Members. Representative Robert Kenneth Dornan of California yielded time to Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas by referencing Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: "Mr. Speaker,” he said, “I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas, the Portia from the other side of the aisle." Representative Jackson-Lee, however, questioned the reference and replied, "Mr. Speaker, I do not know if I will accept that. I am the gentlewoman from Texas.” The Congresswoman went on to acknowledge that she nevertheless, “appreciate[d] the gentleman from California in his sincerity." Dornan felt he needed to explain. “Just to clear the record,” he said, “for those who were not forced to take 4 years of Shakespeare in school, that Portia, because I well know the gentlewoman’s distinguished name, means a lady lawyer of exceeding skill, as in Portia from the Merchant of Venice, who gave us the great soliloquy: The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless’d: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. Afterward, Jackson-Lee showcased her own Shakespearian knowledge. Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas: Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, Shakespeare also said: The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers. Mr. DORNAN. That was in Henry VI. The barber said that. I do not want any part of that. Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate very much the gentleman’s compliment. I want it to be acknowledged I am just a humble servant from the 18th Congressional District of Texas. But I appreciate the kindness of the gentleman from California. Jackson-Lee’s quip about the lawyers comes from a brief line in Henry VI that focuses on the struggle for royal control and the British War of the Roses, which was a contest for power between to English families. The scene focuses on a plot against King Henry. Henry VI, part 2, act 4, scene 2, line 75:Dick (the butcher): The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. Cade (leader of the Kentish rebellion): Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? That parchment, being scribbled o’er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings, but I say, ’tis the beeswax; for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since. Learn more about Henry VI and The Merchant of Venice from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Great Tragedy On April 21, 1936, Representative Ulysses Guyer of Kansas gave a stirring address in the House Chamber during a Memorial Program held in honor of seven lawmakers (two Senators and five Representatives) who had recently passed away. Not constrained by time since the House had recessed for the ceremony, Guyer’s remarks filled nearly two pages of the Congressional Record. In his speech, Guyer quoted excerpts from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Shakespeare, in his tragedy of greatness, puts upon the lips of Marc Antony the naked truth concerning human greatness. Antonius was standing above the body of his assassinated friend and comrade, that ‘piece of bleeding earth’, that pathetic clay that but yesterday was Julius Caesar, ‘whose word might have stood against the world.’ As he gazed upon this prostrate form he exclaimed: ‘0 Mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure? The phrase “piece of bleeding earth” derives from Julius Caesar act 3, scene 1, line 280, when Marc Antony, a close confidante of Ceasar, looks upon his dead compatriot following Ceasar’s murder. In act 3, scene 2, line 130, Marc Antony begins his eulogy of Ceasar: But yesterday the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world. Now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence.” Guyer’s final quote is from act 3, scene 1, line 164 where Marc Antony meets with Brutus and Cassius following the death of Ceasar:O mighty Caesar, dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils Shrunk to this little measure.If Shakespeare had intended to underline the tragedy and treachery of Ceasar’s death in the play, Guyer’s use of quotations from Julius Caesar was instead intended to honored his deceased colleagues. Learn more about Julius Caesar from the Folger Shakespeare Library.Memorial Day On May 20, 1970, Representative William Bray of Indiana inserted a speech into the Congressional Record in honor of Memorial Day. To commemorate the service members who made the ultimate sacrifice by laying down their lives for their country, Bray cited a large portion of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, act 5, scene 8, lines 44 through 63. Said Bray: “Probably nowhere else in the English language is this so movingly described than in the last scene of Shakespeare’s Macbeth”: Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt: He only liv’d but ‘til he was a man; The which no sooner had his prowess confirm’d In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died. Then he is dead? Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow Must not be measur’d by his worth, for then It hath no end. Had he his hurts before? Ay, on the front. Why, then, God’s soldier be he! Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death: And, so his knell is knoll’d. . . . They say he parted well, and paid his score: And so, God be with him! In this passage, Bray quotes verbatim the characters Siward (commander of the English Army) and Ross (a Scottish Noble) from Macbeth. Bray also cited musical compositions and 11 other authors including, Plato, Herodotus, Alfred Lord Tennyson, the Gospel of Mathew, Plutarch, Ecclesiticus, Abraham Lincoln, Allan Seeger, the Sioux leader Low Dog, Sir Edward Creasey, and Robert Ingersoll. Bray closes his tribute repeating the Macbeth line, “They say he parted well, and paid his score: And so, God be with him!” In 1989, the Congressional Research Service noted Respectfully Quoted “will be helpful to Members of Congress in their task of expressing our national purpose and in their debating the public issues.” With more than 38 plays to his name, Shakespeare has provided a very large and quotable body of work with which to illustrate modern events. Sources: Congressional Record, 21 April 1936, congress.gov; Congressional Record, 20 May 1970, congress.gov; Congressional Record, 05 May 1996, congress.gov; Congressional Record, 22 April 1999, congress.gov; Folger Shakespeare Library, https://www.folger.edu/; Suzy Platt, Library Of Congress, Congressional Research Service, Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1989).

Contenting Logo
About UsPrivacy PolicyTerms Of UseContact