ODE TO CORPORATE PERSONHOOD (OR THE MERCHANTS OF VENICE)

Hath not a corporation eyes? Hath not a board of directors hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
as a civilian is? If you tax us, do we not bleed?
If you perk us, do we not laugh? If you divest us,
do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a business wrong a taxpayer, what is his humility?
Litigation. If a citizen wrong a corporation, what should his
sufferance be by citizen example? Why, litigation.
The villainy you teach us, we will execute,
and it shall go hard but we will better the instruction.