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P. 41.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

ACT I. SCENE I.

OF government the properties to unfold,

Would seem in me t'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 corrector would substitute

Since I am apt to know, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you: then, no more remains,
But add to your sufficiency your worth,

And let them work.

Here the change of "I am put to know" to "I am apt to know" is a mischievous deviation from Shakspeare's language, for he uses the same phrase several times elsewhere, for I am constrained or obliged to know; and to leave out the word able after worth, and substitute add for that, is a very violent departure from the old text which is certainly not required. I read with a very slight deviation from the old copy :

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 thereto your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work.

The compositor mistook thito for thito, which rectified, all is clear. The sense of the whole passage is, " since I must acknowledge that you are better skilled in the nature of government than I am, it would be idle in me to lecture you on the subject. Then nothing more remains [is wanting] but thereto your sufficient authority [i. e. to govern] as you have the ability, and let them [your skill and authority] come into operation. The authority is the commission the Duke just afterward gives him.

SCENE II.

P. 42. The insertion of bawdy before houses in the Clown's speech is entirely uncalled for; by all houses, the Clown of

course means all such houses; but it is a common form of speech, in use every day, to say houses where public houses, or any other houses of business are meant.

SCENE III.

P. 43. The substitution of pronunciation for denunciation is again over-busy meddling : denunciation is used for pronuncia tion; as, in K. John, Act iii. Sc. 1, Pandulph says, "I will denounce a curse upon his head." So Baret, "To denounce openly, and tell before hand." And Philips, "Denunciation a proclaiming or denouncing." Propagation is also used by the poet for getting or increasing; and no change of the old text is necessary.

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Becomes more mock'd than fear'd, so our decrees, &c.

Pope supplied the word Becomes to complete the sense and metre. The corrector adds two words and alters another for

the same purpose, but with less effect; thus:

In time the rod's

More mock'd than fear'd; so our most just decrees,

Dead to infliction, &c.

There can be but one opinion as to which is the best and most simple correction.

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This is the reading of the old copy. The corrector would substitute

And yet my nature never in the sight

To draw on slander.

The true reading is

And yet my nature never in the fight
To do it slander.

Perhaps we might read light for fight?

ACT II. SCENE I.

P. 44. The foolish constable, master Froth, is made to say "I have so; because it is an open room and good for winter;" the corrector, not comprehending the humour of the scene, would, in sober sadness, read, "I have so; because it is an

open room, and good for windows"! I do not marvel at the corrector's want of perception of the ludicrous; but that Mr. Collier should think this is to set Shakespeare right does create some surprise.

SCENE II.

P. 45. The substitution of God of judgment for top of judgment is quite unwarranted and uncalled for. And to change sickles, the old form of shekels, to circles is to mar a fine and expressive passage. Such interference is nothing less than absurd. But it is nothing new, But it is nothing new, for Mr. Collier has elsewhere said, " Shakspeare's word may have been cycles”!

SCENE IV.

P. 46. Tyrwhitt's reading of in-shell'd for enshield is a very doubtful alteration, and how it can be authorized any more than it was, by the concurrence of Mr. Collier's folio I am at a loss to imagine. But this is one of the coincidences.

Ib.

As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question.

"The corrector," says Mr. Collier," writes in the margin, 'but in the force of question'—that is to say, in the compulsion of question, or for the sake of question, a sense the word will very well bear, the copyist having misheard force loss.'

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Is it possible that Mr. Collier can be serious? There is no such idea as compulsion in the case. A very ingenious attempt was made by a correspondent of Notes and Queries (Vol. vi. p. 271) to show that by "loss of question the casus quæstionis of the Logicians was meant; it is infinitely preferable, as a solution of the difficulty in the passage, to the force of Mr. Collier's corrector: but in my corrected copy of the second folio I find losse altered to loose, and the meaning would then be "in the looseness of conversation." Question is most frequently used by Shakspeare for conversation.

ACT III. SCENE I.

P.47. The" prenzie Angelo” and “prenzie guards.” Priestly has been over and over again proposed and rejected; for Angelo could not have affected the priestly garb. Mr. Hickson's suggestion of saintlie guards, i. e. saintly facings, or disguise, is by far the best that has been offered.

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The corrector would substitute troth, but the true reading is

What say'st thou to't?

The printer mistook to't for trot. In Coriolanus, Sc. 1, Menenius says to the Citizens, "What say you to't?" where it is also misprinted toot.

P. 49. The change of "Making practice on the times" to Masking practice is a very unhappy one. The old reading is correct, but in the previous line we should read "wade in crimes" instead of made in crimes, as Mr. Halliwell has suggested.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

P. 50. Wounds th' unsisting postern with these strokes.
The corrector reads resisting and Mr. Collier approves.
much better reading and nearer to the old copy is
Wounds th' unwisting [i. e. unconscious] postern with his strokes.

SCENE III.

A

P. 51. What do we gain by deviating from the unquestioned old reading " Injurious world!" and substituting Perjurious? It is hardly possible that the one word could be mistaken for the other.

In the Duke's speech

I am combined by a sacred vow.

There was no necessity for changing combined to confined. Johnson tells us, Shakspeare used combine for to bind by a pact or agreement. The Duke calls Angelo the combinate husband of Mariana. He himself is bound by his vow, his sacred pact with heaven. Confined would be a poor inexpressive word here.

P. 52.

SCENE IV.

But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me! yet reason dares her; no;
For my authority bears of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather.

Mr. Collier says, "The folios have of a credent bulk,' and Steevens suspected 'of' to be a blunder, as it appears in fact to have been. Malone reads 'off a credent bulk,' which hardly affords sense, whereas bears such a credent bulk' is, at least, intelligible. Still, though the poet's meaning may be collected from his language, it is obscure.

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Now it is very improbable that the words "of a" could have been mistaken by the printer for such! The mistake evidently lies in another word: "here's" would be easily mistaken for "beares," and this was doubtless the poet's word.

For my authority here's of a credent bulk,

That no particular scandal once can touch.

We thus get a lucid and unquestionable sense, and avoid the violent substitution and omission of the corrector, who certainly could not have had recourse to better authority than we possess for such an improbable reading.

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Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason
For inequality; but let your reason serve
To make the truth appear.

Inequality," says Mr. C. "could not be right: and what does the manuscript-corrector of the folio tell us is the real word that ought to be put in its place?

O, gracious duke!

Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason

For incredulity;

i. e. do not refuse to give your reason fair play, on account of the incredulity with which you listen to my complaint."

I boldly pronounce that the old text is right; and that incredulity could not be Isabella's word. It will be necessary to revert to what precedes; Isabella, in her preceding speech, had said,

O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st
There is another comfort than this world,
That thou neglect me not, with that opinion

That I am touch'd with madness: make not impossible
That which but seems unlike.

Now what is inequality but unlikeness, inconsistency; Isabella

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