ture of the versification in this comedy was, we are satisfied, the result of the author's system; and, from the integrity with which it has been preserved in the first edition, we believe that the original manuscript passed directly through the hands of the printer, who made the best of it without any reference to other copies. The original edition is divided into acts and scenes. It also gives the enumeration of characters as we have printed them, such a list of “the names of the actors," as we have before observed, being rarely presented in the early copies.

We cannot trace that any allusion to Measure for Measure is to be found in the works of Shakspere's contemporaries. There is, indeed, a passage in a poem, published in 1607, which conveys the same idea as a passage in Measure for Measure:

"And like as when some sudden extasy

Seizeth the nature of a sickly man;

When he's discern'd to swoon, straight by and bye

Folk to his help confusedly have ran,

And seeking with their art to fetch him back,

So many throng, that he the air doth lack."

(Myrrha, the Mother of Adonis,' by William Barksted.)

The following is the parallel passage in the comedy :—

"So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;
Come all to help him, and so stop the air
By which he should revive."

Malone says of this coincidence, "That Measure for Measure was written before 1607 may be fairly concluded from the following passage in a poem published in that year, which we have good ground to believe was copied from a similar thought in this play, as the author, at the end of his piece, professes a personal regard for Shakspeare, and highly praises his Venus and Adonis.”* This reasoning is to us not at all conclusive; for Shakspere would not have hesitated to compress the six lines of Barksted into his own dramatic three; or the image might have been derived from some common source. Such coincidences prove nothing in themselves. In the other arguments of Malone as to the date of this play, which he assigns to 1603, we have an utter absence of all proof. The Duke says—

"I love the people,

But do not like to stage me to their eyes."

James I., according to Malone, is the model of this dislike of popular applause; and the passage is an apology for his proclamation of 1603, forbidding the people to resort to him. The expression in the first act, "Heaven grant us his peace," alludes, says Malone, to the war with Spain, which was not terminated till 1604. The Clown's enumeration of his old friends, the prisoners, includes "Master Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger-man, young Drop-heir that killed lusty Pudding, master Forthright the tilter, and wild Half-can that stabbed Pots:" and so the poet must have had in view the Act of the first of James against such offenders, and the play and "the statute on stabbing" must be dated in the same year. Chalmers carries this laborious trifling even farther, stoutly contending for the date of 1604: the assertion of the Clown, that "all houses in the suburbs must be plucked down," is held by Chalmers to allude to the proclamation of 1604 against the increase of London; and the complaint of Claudio, that "the neglected act" is enforced against him, is held to allude to "the statute to restrain all persons from marriage, until their former wives, and former husbands, be dead," passed on the 7th of July, 1604.

"In adjusting the chronology of Shakspeare's dramas, it is time all critics should abandon the endeavour to fix down every play to a certain year." The investigations which we have ourselves pursued, from the first, have had in view the principle laid down by the reviewer:-" We shall have gained all that is possible, and indeed all that is necessary for the main purpose of such investigations, if we have been enabled to classify the works in groups, indicating in their diversities the progress of the poet's mental development and action." We have no doubt the play before us belongs to the last ten years of the poet's life; and, from the considerations that arise out of the state of the text, we should be inclined to place it amongst his latest labours. This is the opinion of Tieck. But, on the other hand, however unwilling we may be to admit that Shakspere's perChronological Order,' p 387.

Edinburgh Review,' July 1840.

sonal feelings coloured his dramatic poetry to any great extent, there are peculiar habits of thought which, as it appears to us, belong to distinct periods of his life, and cannot therefore be disregarded in any attempt to settle the chronology of his plays upon broad and general principles. The whole aspect of society in Measure for Measure is presented to us by one who appears to look upon crimes and follies, upon guilt and baseness, with somewhat of a passionless and sarcastic (though tolerant) temper; and who seeks, first, to paint human beings as they are in their "vanity of vanities." Whether this temper belong to the latest years of Shakspere, or to the period at which he may be supposed to have left the stage and separated himself very much from the world, is too large a question to be here discussed.

SUPPOSED SOURCE OF THE PLOT.

THE Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, printed in 1578, but not acted, was, there can be no doubt, the foundation upon which Shakspere built his Measure for Measure. Whetstone tells us in a subsequent work that he constructed his play upon a novel of Giraldi Cinthio, of which he gives us a translation; observing, "this history, for rareness thereof, is livelily set out in a comedy by the reporter of the work, but yet never presented upon stage." Without entering into

a minute comparison of the conduct of the story by Whetstone and by Shakspere, it may be sufficient to give the elder poet's "argument of the whole history."

"In the city of Julio (sometime under the dominion of Corvinus king of Hungary and Bohemia) there was a law, that what man soever committed adultery should lose his head, and the woman offender should wear 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' 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 humble 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 Cassandra, abhorring both him and his suit, by no persuasion would yield to this ransom. But, in fine, won with 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 any 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 gaoler secretly to present Cassandra with her brother's head. The gaoler, with the outcries of Andrugio, abhorring Promos' lewdness, by the providence of God provided thus for his safety. He presented Cassandra with a felon's head, newly executed, who (being mangled, knew it not from her brother's, by the gaoler who was set at liberty) 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 her fortunes known unto the king. She (executing this resolution) was so highly favoured of the king, that 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 lose his head. This marriage solemnised, Cassandra, tied in the greatest bonds of affection to her husband, became an earnest suiter for his life. The king (tendering the general benefit of the commonweal before her special case, although he favoured her much) would not grant her suit. Andrugio (disguised among the company), sorrowing the grief of his sister, betrayed his safety and craved pardon. The king, to renown the virtues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos."

The performance of Whetstone, as might be expected in a drama of that date, is feeble and monotonous, not informed with any real dramatic power, drawling or bombastic in its tragic parts, extravagant in its comic. Mr. Collier has observed that "the first part is entirely in rhyme, while in the second are inserted considerable portions of blank-verse, put only in the mouth of the king, as if it better suited the royal dignity." It is scarcely necessary to offer to our readers any parallel examples of the modes in which Whetstone and Shakspere have treated the same incidents. We +Annals of the Stage,' vol. iii. p. 64.

Heptameron of Civil Discourses,' 1582.

will, however, extract one scene, which may be compared with Shakspere. The second scene of the second act of Measure for Measure, fraught as it is with the noblest poetry, owes little to the following beyond the dramatic situation

PROMOS with the Sheriff, and their Officers.

Pro. 'T is strange to think what swarms of unthrifts live

Within this town, by rapine, spoil, and theft,

That, were it not that justice oft them grieve,

The just man's goods by rufflers should be reft.

At this our 'size are thirty judg'd to die,
Whose falls I see their fellows smally fear;

So that the way is, by severity

Such wicked weeds even by the roots to tear.
Wherefore, sheriff, execute with speedy pace
The damned wights, to cut off hope of grace.

Sher. It shall be done.

Cass. [to herself.] O cruel words! they make my heart to bleed:

Now, now I must this doom seek to revoke,

Lest grace come short when starved is the steed.

[Kneeling, speaks to PROMOS.
Most mighty lord, a worthy judge, thy judgment sharp abate;
Vail thou thine ears to hear the 'plaint that wretched I relate.
Behold the woeful sister here of poor Andrugio,

Whom though that law awardeth death, yet mercy do him show.
Weigh his young years, the force of love which forced his amiss,
Weigh, weigh that marriage works amends for what committed is.
He hath defil'd no nuptial bed, nor forced rape hath mov'd;
He fell through love who never meant but wife the wight he lov'd:
And wantons sure to keep in awe these statutes first were made,
Or none but lustful lechers should with rig'rous law be paid.
And yet to add intent thereto is far from my pretence;

I sue with tears to win him grace that sorrows his offence.

Wherefore herein, renowned lord, justice with pity pays;

Which two, in equal balance weigh'd, to heaven your fame will raise.
Pro. Cassandra, leave off thy bootless suit; by law he hath been tried-
Law found his fault, law judg'd him death.

Cas.

Yet this may be replied:

That law a mischief oft permits to keep due form of law-
That law small faults, with greatest, dooms, to keep men still in awe.
Yet kings, or such as execute regal authority,

If 'mends be made, may over-rule the force of law with mercy.
Here is no wilful murder wrought which asketh blood again;
Andrugio's fault may valued be, marriage wipes out his stain.
Pro. Fair dame, I see the natural zeal thou bear'st to Andrugio,
And for thy sake (not his desert) this favour will I show:
I will reprieve him yet a while, and on the matter pause;
To-morrow you shall licence have afresh to plead his cause.
Sheriff, execute my charge, but stay Andrugio

Until that you in this behalf more of my pleasure know.
Sher. I will perform your will.

Cass. O most worthy magistrate, myself thy thrall I bind,
Even for this little light'ning hope which at thy hands I find.
Now will I go and comfort him which hangs 'twixt death and life.
Pro. Happy is the man that enjoys the love of such a wife!
I do protest her modest words hath wrought in me amaze.
Though she be fair, she is not deck'd with garish shows for gaze;
Her beauty lures, her looks cut off fond suits with chaste disdain;
O God, I feel a sudden change that doth my freedom chain!
What didst thou say? Fie, Promos, fie! of her avoid the thought:
And so I will; my other cares will cure what love has wrought.

Come away.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

COSTUME.

WITH the exception, perhaps, of the Winter's Tale, no play of Shakspere's is so utterly destitute of any "loop or hinge to hang an" appropriate costume upon as Measure for Measure. The scene is laid in Vienna, of which city there never was a duke; and in the whole of the list of persons represented there is not one German name. Vincentio, Angelo, Escalus, Claudio, Lucio, Isabella, Juliet, Francisca, Mariana, all smack of Italy; and it has therefore been questioned by some whether or not we should read "Sienna" for "Vienna." There does not appear, however, to be any authority for supposing the scene of action to have been altered either theatrically or typographically, and, consequently, we must leave the artist to the indulgence of his own fancy, with the suggestion merely that the Viennese costume of the time of Shakspere must be sought for amongst the national monuments of the reign of the Emperor Rodolph II., A.D. 1576—1612.