Is it unreasonable to expect a live performance of a play to follow the script exactly? Surely, only robots can be word perfect every time, and does it really matter if Portia says 'The quality of mercy is not strain'd/It droppeth like the gentle rain of heaven/Upon the place beneath' (William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice Act Four Scene One), instead of … 'it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven…'. Shakespeare's works are so famous that there would be bound to be someone in the a...


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