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 be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. reference to context meaning of these line
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This piece of text has been taken from William Shakespeare's romantic-comedy 'The Merchant of Venice'. These lines have been said by Portia, a rich heiress from Belmont to her maid-in-waiting, Nerissa. In these lines, she means to say that if doing what is good and fair, was as easy as knowing what is good and fair, then chapels (small churches), would have been great churches and the dwellings of poor men, would have been huge palaces. Further, she says that she would rather teach what is good to twenty people, than being one of those twenty people and follow her own teachings. Here, Shakespeare has tried to throw light upon the natural fact that doing the right thing is way harder than merely knowing what is right. Thus, most people who preach goodness everywhere would probably abstain from carrying out the same goodness when time comes for them to do it.
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