of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused: so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives,' why, then the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes. Duke. Why, this is excellent. Clo. By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my friends. Duke. Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there's gold. Clo. But that it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could make it another. Duke. O, you give me ill counsel. Clo. Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, and let your flesh and blood obey it. Duke. Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a double-dealer; there's another. Clo. Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and he old saying is, the third pays for all; the triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure; or the bells of St. Bennet, sir, may put you in mind; One, two, three. Duke. You can fool no more money out of me at this throw if you will let your lady know, I am here to speak with her, and bring her along with vou, it may awake my bounty further. Clo. Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty, till I come again. I go, sir; but I would not have you to think, that my desire of having is the sin of covetousness; but, as you say, sir, let your bounty take a nap, I will awake it anon. [Exit Clown. Enter ANTONIO and Officers. Vio. Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me. A bawbling vessel was he captain of, Vio. He did me kindness, sir; drew on my side; Duke. Notable pirate! thou salt-water thief! Be pleas'd that I shake off these names you give me 1 So, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion :- Moor. Away, away. Queen. No, no, says I; and twice away says stay. 3 Freight. 4 Inattentive to his character or condition, like a desperate man. 5 Tooke has so adinirably accounted for the application of the epithet dear by our ancient writers to any object which excites a sensation of hurt, pain, and consequently of anxiety, solicitude, care, earnestness, that I shall refer to it as the best comment upon the ap parently opposite uses of the word in our great poet. 6 Dull, gross. Did I expose myself, pure for his love, Duke. Here comes the countess; now heaven -Take him aside. Oli. What would my lord, but that he may not Wherein Olivia may seem serviceable ?-- Duke. Gracious Olivia, Oli. What do you say, Cesario? lord, -Good my Vio. My lord would speak, my duty hushes me. Duke. Still so cruel? Oli. Still so constant, lord. Duke. What! to perverseness? you uncivil lady, Duke. Why should I not, had I the heart to do it I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love, ; To spite a raven's heart within a dove. [Going. 7 This Egyptian Thief was Thyamis. The story related in the Aethiopics of Heliodorus. He was the [Following. Oli. Where goes Cesario? Oli. Ah me, detested! how am I beguil'd! Vio. Who does beguile you? who does do you | Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the Clown. wrong? Here comes Sir Toby halting, you shall hear more. but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did. Oli. Hast thou forgot thyself! Is it so long!Call forth the holy father. [Exit an Attendant. Duke. Come away. [To VIOLA. Oli. Whither, my lord?-Cesario, husband, stay. Duke. Husband! Oli. Ay, husband; Can he that deny? Duke. Her husband, sirrah? Vio. No, my lord, not I. Father, I charge thee by thy reverence, Priest. A contract of eternal bond of love. Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings;2 And all the ceremony of this compact Seal'd in my function, by my testimony: Duke. How now, gentleman? how is't with you? Sir To. That's all one; he has hurt me, and there's an end on't.-Sot, didst see Dick surgeon, sot? his Clo. O he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; eyes were set at eight i'the morning. Sir To. Then he's a rogue and a passy-measures pavin; I hate a drunken rogue. Oli. Away with him: Who hath made this havock with them? Sir And. I'll help you, Sir Toby, because we' be dressed together. Sir To. Will you help?-An ass-head, and a cox comb, and a knave? a thin-faced knave, a gull ? Oli. Get him to bed and let his hurt be look'd to. [Exeunt Clown, SIR TOBY, and SIR ANDREW. Enter SEBASTIAN, Seb. I am sorry, madam, I have nurt your kinsman; But, had it been the brother of my blood, I must have done no less, with wit and safety. Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my By that I do perceive it hath offended grave I have travell'd but two hours. Duke. O, thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be, When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case?' Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow, That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow? Farewell, and take her; but direct thy feet, Where thou and I henceforth may never meet. Vio. My lord, I do protest,— Oli. O, do not swear; Hold little faith, though thou hast too much fear. Enter SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, with his head broke. Sir And. For the love of God, a surgeon; send one presently to Sir Toby. Oli. What's the matter? + Otherways. 5 The parin was a grave Spanish dance. Sir John Hawkins derives it from paro a peacock, and says that every pavin had its galliard, a lighter kind of air formed out of the former. Thus, in Middleton's More Dissemblers beside Women: 'I can dance nothing but ill favour'dly, A strain or two of passe measures galliard. By which it appears that the passe measure paran, and the passe measure galliard were only two different measures of one dance. Sir Toby therefore means by this quaint expression that the surgeon is a rogue and a you; Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows A natural perspective, that is, and is not. Ant. Sebastian are you? Seb. Fear'st thou that, Antonio ? Ant. How have you made division of yourself?Than these two creatures. Which is Sebastian? An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin Oli. Most wonderful! Seb. Do I stand there? I never had a brother; Nor can there be that deity in my nature, Of here and every where. I had a sister, Whom the blind waves and surges have devour'd:of charity," what kin are you to me? [To VIOLA. What countryman? what name? what parentage? Vio. Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father; Seb. Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow. grave solemn corcomb. In the first act of the play he has shown himself well acquainted with the various kinds of dance. Shakspeare's characters are always consistent, and even in drunkenness preserve the traits of character which distinguished them when sober. 6 A perspective formerly meant a glass that assisted the sight in any way. The several kinds in use in Shakspeare's time are enumerated in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, b. xiii. c. 19, where that alluded to by the Duke is thus described: There be glasses also wherein one man may see another man's image and not his own'-that optical illusion may be meant, which is called anamorphosis :- where that which is, is not,' or appears, in a different position, another thing. This may also explain a passage in Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2: 'Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid. Vide also K. Richard II. Act ii. Sc 1, and note there : 'Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon 7 Out of charity, tell me. Vio. And died that day when Viola from her birth Had number'd thirteen years. Seb. O, that record is lively in my soul! But nature to her bias drew in that. [TO VIOLA. To think me as well a sister as a wife, Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your Your master quits you [To VIOLA ;] and, for your So much against the mettle of your sex, Oli. A sister?-you are she. You must not now deny it is your hand, Why you have given me such clear lights of favour; Bade me come smiling, and cross-garter'd to you, Malvolio To put on yellow stockings, and to frown And yet, alas, now I remember me, A most extracting frenzy of mine own Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do; he has here writ a letter to you, I should have given it to you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered. Gli. Open it, and read it. Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman :-By the lord, Madam,— Oli. How now! art thou mad? Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an hour ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow Vox.3 4 Oli. Pr'ythee, read i'thy right wits. Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear. Oli. Read it you, sirrah. [TO FABIAN. Fab. [Reads] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-used Malvolio. Upon Sir Toby, and the lighter people: And, acting this in an obedient hope, Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing, Though, I confess, much like the character: And now I do bethink me, But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand. it was she First told me, thou wast mad: then cam❜st in smiling, thee And in such forms which here were presuppos'd Fab. Good madam, hear me speak, And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come, Taint the condition of this present hour, Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not, Most freely I confess, myself, and Toby, Set this device against Malvolio here, Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts We had conceiv'd against him: Maria writ The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance ;10 In recompense whereof, he hath married her. How with a sportful malice it was follow'd, May rather pluck on laughter than revenge; If that the injuries be justly weigh'd, That have on both sides past. Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee! Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve grealupon them. I ness, and some have greatness thrown was one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas, sir; Mai. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you. Of our dear souls.-Mean time, sweet sister, This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous Ague-cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contriv. ed to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life. JOHNSON. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. SHAKSPEARE took the fable of this play from the Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, published, in 1578, of which this is The Argument." special case, although he favoured her much, would not grant her suit. Andrugio (disguised among the company,) sorrowing the grief of his sister, bewrayed his safety, and craved pardon. The king to renown the virtues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos. The circumstances of this rare history, in action lively followeth.' forthwith he hasted to do justice on Promos: whose judgment was to marry Cassandra, to repair her crased honour; which done, for his heinous offence, he should In the city of Julio (sometimes under the dominion lose his head. This marriage solemnized, Cassandra of Corvinus King of Hungary and Bohemia,) there was tied in the greatest bonds of affection to her husband, a law, that what man soever committed adultery should became an earnest suitor for his life: the king tenderlose his head, and the woman offender should wearing the general benefit of the commonweal before her some disguised apparel, during her life, to make her infamously noted. This severe law, by the favour of some merciful magistrate, became little regarded, until the time of Lord Promos's authority; who convicting a young gentleman named Andrugio of incontinency, condemned both him and his minion to the execution of this statute. Andrugio had a very virtuous and beautiful gentlewoman to his sister, named Cassandra. Cassandra, to enlarge her brother's life, submitted an hum-analysis of his play, which contains a mixture of comic ble petition to the Lord Promos. Promos regarding her good behaviour, and fantasying her great beauty, was much delighted with the sweet order of her talk; and doing good, that evil might come thereof, for a time he reprieved her brother: but, wicked man, turning his liking into unlawful lust; he set down the spoil of her honour, ransom for her brother's life: chaste Cassanstra, abhorring both him and his suit, by no persuasion would yield to this ransom. But in fine, won by the importunity of her brother (pleading for life,) upon these conditions she agreed to Promos: First, that he should pardon her brother, and after marry her. Promos, as fearless in promise, as careless in performance, with solemn vow signed her conditions; but worse than acy infidel, his will satisfied, he performed neither the one nor the other: for to keep his authority unspotted with favour, and to prevent Cassandra's clamours, he commanded the jailer secretly to present Cassandra with her brother's head. The jailer [touched] with the outcries of Andrugio (abhorring Promos's lewdness,) by the providence of God provided thus for his safety. He presented Cassandra with a felon's head newly executed; who knew it not, being mangled, from her brother's (who was set at liberty by the jailer.) [She] was so aggrieved at this treachery, that, at the point to kill herself, she spared that stroke to be avenged of Promos: and devising a way, she concluded, to make ner fortunes known to the king. She, executing this resolution, was so highly favoured of the king, that Whetstone, however, has not afforded a very correct scenes, between a bawd, a pimp, felons, &c. together with some serious situations which are not described. A hint, like a seed, is more or less prolific, according to the qualities of the soil on which it is thrown. This story, which in the hands of Whetstone produced little more than barren insipidity, under the culture of Shakspeare became fertile of entertainment. The curious reader may see the old play of Promos and Cassandra among Six old plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c.' published by Mr. Steevens, printed for S. Leacroft, Charing Cross. The piece exhibits an almost complete embryo of Measure for Measure; yet the hints on which it is formed are so slight, that it is nearly as impossible to detect them, as it is to point out in the acorn the future ramifications of the oak. The story originally came from the Hecatommithi' of Cinthio. Decad 8, novel 5, and is repeated in the Tragic Histories of Belleforest. "This play," says Mr. Hazlitt, "is as full of genius as it is of wisdom. Yet there is an original sin in the nature of the subject, which prevents us from taking a cordial interest in it. The height of moral argument,' which the author has maintained in the intervals of passion, or blended with the more powerful impulses of nature, is hardly surpassed in any of his plays. But there is a general want of passion, the affections are at a stand; our sympathies are repulsed and defeated in all directions." Isabella is a lovely example of female purity and vir tue; with mental energies of a very superior kind, she is placed in a situation to make trial of them all, and the firmness with which her virtue resists the appeal of natural affection has something in it heroically sublime. The passages in which she encourages her brother to meet death with firmness rather than dishonour, his burst of indignant passion on learning the price at which his life might be redeemed, and his subsequent clinging to life, and desire that she would make the sacrifice required, are among the finest dramatic passages of Shakspeare. What heightens the effect is that this scene follows the fine exhortation of the Duke in the character of the Friar about the little value of life, which had almost made Claudio resolved to die.' The comic VINCENTIO, Duke of Vienna. PERSONS ANGELO, Lord Deputy in the Duke's absence. REPRESENTED. FROTH, a foolish Gentleman. Clown, Servant to Mrs. Over-done. ESCALUS, an ancient Lord, joined with Angelo in ABHORSON, an Executioner. the Deputation. CLAUDIO, a young Gentleman. LUCIO, a Fantastic. Two other like Gentlemen. VARRIUS, a Gentleman, Servant to the Duke. Provost. SCENE I. An Apartment in the Duke's Palace. Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know,' that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you: Then no more remains But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able, And let them work. The nature of our people, For common justice, you are as pregnant in, I say, bid come before us, Angelo. [Exit an Attendant. Lent him our terror, drest him with our love; BARNARDINE, a dissolute Prisoner, ISABELLA, Sister to Claudio. MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo. JULIET, beloved by Claudio. MISTRESS OVER-DONE, a Bawd. Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, Officers, and other Attendants. SCENE, Vienna. Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure. Duke. Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life, That, to the observer doth thy history Fully unfold: Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper, as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee. Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do; Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd, Let there be some more test made of my metal, Duke. No more evasion: We have with a leaven'd11 and prepared choice Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours. Our haste from hence is of so quick condition, That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd Matters of needful value. We shall write to you, tive, are common in Shakspeare's writings, so in Julius Cæsar: 'Nor to no Roman else.' 8 i. e. Nature requires and allots to herself the same advantages that creditors usually enjoy-thanks for the endowments she has bestowed, and extraordinary exer. tions in those whom she has favoured; by way of us (i. e. interest) for what she has lent. 9 i. e. to one who is already sufficiently conversant with the nature and duties of my office ;-of that office which I have now delegated to him. 10 i. e. I delegate to thy tongue the power of pronouncing sentence of death, and to thy heart the privi lege of exercising mercy. 11 A choice mature, concocted, fermented; i. e not hasty, but considerate. |