NaBloPoMo prompt -- If you could have worked for anyone in history, in your field, who would you choose and why?
Interesting question!
Especialy so because my desire to become a lawyer was formed, in part, in a high school history class.
It was 10th grade, and we were studying European history. And my very creative teacher decided to put Napoleon Bonaparte on trial for crimes against the people of France. Everyone in the class got to play a role -- those who didn't have specific characters sat on the jury -- and we all had to write a term paper about our experience. Two students were assigned to be prosecutors and two were assigned to be Bonaparte's defense counsel. I was on the defense team and we got an acquittal!
and while I was thinking about that history class, I also remembered Portia, the female attorney in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. I have issues with some of the characters in that play, but Portia...."The quality of mercy is not strained..."
Shakespeare really had a thing about lawyers, didn't he? "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". That's the famous quote from Henry IV Part 2. Such a misunderstood quote -- the character who uttered the words urged killing the lawyers to create anarchy in an otherwise well-ordered society.
I guess, if I had to choose, I'd want to be a lawyer in Shakespeare's England.
Especialy so because my desire to become a lawyer was formed, in part, in a high school history class.
It was 10th grade, and we were studying European history. And my very creative teacher decided to put Napoleon Bonaparte on trial for crimes against the people of France. Everyone in the class got to play a role -- those who didn't have specific characters sat on the jury -- and we all had to write a term paper about our experience. Two students were assigned to be prosecutors and two were assigned to be Bonaparte's defense counsel. I was on the defense team and we got an acquittal!
and while I was thinking about that history class, I also remembered Portia, the female attorney in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. I have issues with some of the characters in that play, but Portia...."The quality of mercy is not strained..."
Shakespeare really had a thing about lawyers, didn't he? "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". That's the famous quote from Henry IV Part 2. Such a misunderstood quote -- the character who uttered the words urged killing the lawyers to create anarchy in an otherwise well-ordered society.
I guess, if I had to choose, I'd want to be a lawyer in Shakespeare's England.
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