MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, announces his intention to leave his dominions and travel in Poland. Taking leave of his friends, he deputes Angelo, assisted by Escalus (both of them lords of his court), to govern in his absence. Instead, however, of taking his departure, the Duke disguises himself as a friar, and remains in Vienna, being desirous of ascertaining how justice is administered when he is an absentee. No sooner has he disappeared from the court than Angelo, reviving an obsolete law, commits Claudio, a young gentleman in love with Juliet, to prison, and inhumanly condemns him to death. Isabella, Claudio's sister, a lady of exalted character, who is about to enter a nunnery, becomes a suppliant to Angelo for her brother's life; she, however, sues in vain, and Claudio is left for execution. An interview between the brother and sister takes place in the prison, and their conversation is overheard by the Duke, who thus is made aware of the harsh manner in which Angelo is overstraining the laws. At length the Duke throws off his disguise, and condemns Angelo to death, whom he, however, subsequently pardons at the intercession of Isabella. Claudio is released and marries Juliet, and the Duke himself, charmed with the nobility of character and piety of Isabella, offers her his hand. Dr. Johnson, speaking of " Measure for Measure,” says: "The light or comic part is very natural and pleasing; but the grave scenes (a few passages excepted), have more labour than elegance; the plot is rather intricate than artful.”

Аст І.

Virtue given to be Exerted.

HEAVEN doth with us as we with torches do;
Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd,

But to fine issues: nor nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence ;
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.

In her youth

Eloquence and Beauty.

There is a pronet and speechless dialect,

Such as moves men; beside, she hath prosperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

Angelo's Character as a Governor described.

Lord Angelo is precise ;

Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

Resolution.

Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt.

Аст II.

Mercy•

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
mercy does.

As

* Interest of money.

† Facile, ready.

M

Alas! alas!

The Duty of Forgiveness.

Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once,
And he that might the vantage best have took
Found out the remedy. How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.

The Abuse of Power.

O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength: but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

The Abuse of Authority.

Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,

For every pelting, petty officer,

Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder—

Merciful Heaven!

Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,

Splitt'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,

Than the soft myrtle: O, but man, proud man!

Drest in a little brief authority:

Most ignorant of what he's most assured, -
His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,

As make the angels weep.

The Privilege of Authority.

That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

* Mean, despicable.

ACT III.

Hope.

The miserable have no other medicine,

But only hope.

The Vanity of Life.

Reason thus with life,

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art
(Servile to all the skyey influences.)

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labourest by thy flight to shun,

And yet runs't toward him still: thou art not noble ; For all the accommodations that thou bear'st

Are nursed by baseness: thou art by no means valiant ;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm: thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st

Thy death, which is no more: thou art not thyself;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust: happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get;
And what thou hast, forget'st thou art not certain
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,*
After the moon: if thou art rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee: friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo,† and the rheum,

* Affections.

† A Leprous disease.

;

For ending thee no sooner: thou hast nor youth nor age: But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both for all thy blessed youth

:

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the arms

Of palsied eld ;* and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant.

That bears the name of life.

What's yet in this
Yet in this life

Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

The Terrors of Death chiefly in Apprehension.

O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake
Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect
Than a perpetual honour. Darest thou die?
The sense of death is most in apprehension ;
And the poor beetle that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

The Fear of Death.

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ;
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribb'd ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless † winds.
And blown with restless violence about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!-'t is too horrible!

* Old age.

† Invisible.