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 virtue; 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 parts of the play are lively and amusing, and the reckless Barnardine, fearless of what's past, present, and to come,' is in fine contrast to the sentimentality of the other characters. Shakspeare "was a moralist in the same sense in which nature is one. He taught what he had learnt from her. He showed the greatest knowledge of humanity with the greatest fellow feeling for it*." Malone supposes this play to have been written about the close of the year 1603. * Characters of Shakspeare's Plays, 2d ed. London, 1818, p. 120. PERSONS REPRESENTED. VINCENTIO, Duke of Vienna. ANGELO, Lord Deputy in the Duke's absence. ESCALUS, an ancient Lord, joined with Angelo in the Deputation. CLAUDIO, a young Gentleman. LUCIO, a Fantastick. Two other like Gentlemen. VARRIUS, a Gentleman, Servant to the Duke. Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, Officers, and other Attendants. SCENE, Vienna. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT I. SCENE I. An Apartment in the Duke's Palace. Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants. ESCALUS.- Duke. Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know1, that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice 3 My strength can give you: Then no more remains For common justice, you are as pregnant in, 1i. e. since I am so placed as to know. Mr. Stevens says it may mean, I am compelled to acknowledge. And instances from Henry VI. Pt. ii. Sc. 1. ——' had I first been put to speak my mind.' 2 Lists are bounds. 3 Some words seem to be lost here. The sense of which may have been Then no more remains But that to your sufficiency you join A zeal as willing, as your worth is able, And let them work. Sufficiency is skill in government; ability to execute his office. 4 i. e. ready in. As art and practice hath enriched any That we remember: There is our commission, From which we would not have you warp.—Call hither, I say, bid come before us Angelo.— [Exit an Attendant. Lent him our terror, drest him with our love; Duke. Enter ANGELO. Look, where he comes. 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, As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd, The smallest scruple of her excellence, 5 So much thy own property. 6 i. e. high purposes. 7 Two negatives, not employed to make an affirmative, are common in Shakspeare's writings, so in Julius Cæsar: 'Nor to no Roman else.' But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Both thanks and use 8. But I do bend my speech In our remove, be thou at full ourself; Mortality and Mercy in Vienna Live in thy tongue and heart 10: Old Escalus, Take thy commission. Ang. Now, good my lord, Let there be some more test made of Be stamp'd upon it. Duke. my metal, No more evasion: We have with a leaven'd11 and prepared choice your honours. Ang. Yet, give leave, my lord, That we may bring you something on the way. 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 exertions in those whom she has favoured; by way of use (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 privilege of exercising mercy. A choice mature, concocted, fermented; i. e. not hasty, but considerate. |