PERSONS reprefented. Vincentio, duke of Vienna. Angelo, lord deputy in the duke's abfence. Lucio, a fantastick. Two other like gentlemen. Varrius, a gentleman, fervant to the duke. Thomas, Peter, A justice. Elbow, a fimple conftable. Froth, a foolish gentleman. Clown, fervant to Mrs. Over-done. Abhorfon, an executioner. Barnardine, a diffolute prifoner. Ifabella, fifter to Claudio. Mariana, betrothed to Angelo. Juliet, beloved by Claudio. Francifca, a nun. Miftrefs Over-done, a bawd. Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, Officers, and other Attendants. SCENE, Vienna. * Varrius might be omitted, for he is only once fpoken to, and fays nothing. JOHNSON. FOR MEASURE. ACT I. SCENE I. An apartment in the Duke's palace. Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants. DUKE. Efcalus,— ESCAL. My lord. DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect fpeech and difcourfe; Since I am put to know, that your own science, Exceeds, in that, the lifts of all advice 2 2 Since I am put to know,] may mean, I am compelled to as knowledge. So, in King Henry VI. P. II. fc. i: 66 had I first been put to speak my mind." Again, in Drayton's Legend of Pierce Gavefton: My limbs were put to travel day and night." lifts- Bounds, limits. JOHNSON. So, in Othello: "Confine yourfelf within a patient lift." Again, in Hamlet: "The ocean, over-peering of his lift," STEEVENS. STEEVENS, My ftrength can give you: Then no more remains, But that to your fufficiency, as your worth is able, And let them work. The nature of our peopie, Then no more remains, But that to your fufficiency, as your worth is able, And let them work.] To the integrity of this reading Mr. Theobald objects, and fays, What was Efcalus to put to his fufficiency? why, his fcience: But his science and sufficiency were but one and the fame thing. On what then does the relative them depend? He will have it, therefore, that a line has been accidentally dropp'd, which he attempts to restore thus: But that to your fufficiency you add Due diligence, as your worth is able, &c. Nodum in fcirpo quærit. And all for want of knowing, that by fufficiency is meant authority, the power delegated by the duke to Efcalus. The plain meaning of the word being this: Put your Skill in governing (fays the Duke) to the power which I give you to exercife it, and let them work together. WARBURTON. Sir Thomas Hanmer having caught from Mr. Theobald a hint that a line was loft, endeavours to fupply it thus: Then no more remains, But that to your fufficiency you join A will to ferve us, as your worth is able. He has, by this bold conjecture, undoubtedly obtained a meaning, but, perhaps, not even in his own opinion, the meaning of Shakspeare. That the paffage is more or lefs corrupt, I believe every reader will agree with the editors. I am not convinced that a line is loft, as Mr. Theobald conjectures, nor that the change of but to put, which Dr. Warburton has admitted after fome other editor, [Rowe] will amend the fault. There was probably fome original obfcurity in the expreffion, which gave occafion to mistake in repetition or tranfcription. I therefore fufpect that the author wrote thus: Then no more remains, But that to your fufficiencies your worth is abled, Then nothing remains more than to tell you, that your virtue is now invefted with power equal to your knowledge and wisdom. Let there fore your knowledge and your virtue now work together. It may eafily be conceived how fufficiencies was, by an inarticulate speaker, or inattentive hearer, confounded with fufficiency as, and how abled, a word very unusual, was changed into able. For abled, however, an authority is not wanting. Lear ufes it in the fame fenfe, or Our city's inftitutions, and the terms ' nearly the fame with the Duke. As for fufficiencies, D. Hamilton in his dying fpeech, prays that Charles II. may exceed both the virtues and fufficiencies of his father. JOHNSON, The uncommon redundancy, as well as obfcurity, of this verse may be confidered as evidence of its corruption. two firft words, and the fenfe joins well enough with what went Take away the before. Then (says the Duke) no more remains to say: Your fufficiency as your worth is able, And let them work. i. e. Your skill in government is, in ability to ferve me, equal to the integrity of your heart, and let them co-operate in your future miniftry. The verfification requires that either fomething should be added, or fomething retrenched. The latter is the eafier, as well as the fafer talk, I join in the belief, however, that a line is loft; and whoever is acquainted with the inaccuracy of the folio, (for of this play there is no other old edition,) will find my opinion justified. Some words feem to be loft here, the fenfe of which, perhaps, STEEVENS. may be thus fupplied: then no more remains, But that to your fufficiency you put A zeal as willing as your worth is able, And let them work. TYRWHITT, I agree with Warburton in thinking that by fufficiency the duke means authority, or power; and, if that be admitted, a very flight alteration indeed will reftore this paffage-the changing the word is into be. It will then run thus, and be clearly intelligible: Then no more remains, But that your fufficiency, as your worth, be able, That is, you are thoroughly acquainted with your duty, so that Then no more remains, as your worth is able, But that to your fufficiency ** And let them work. power I have not the smallest doubt that the compofitor's eye glanced For common juftice, you are as pregnant in, which, being taught, return, "To plague the ingredients of our poifon'd chalice instead of which, being taught, return, "To plague the inventor. This even-handed juftice "Commends the ingredients of our poifon'd chalice," &c. Again, in Much ado about Nothing, edit. 1623, p. 103: "And I will break with her. Was't not to this end," &c. instead of "And I will break with her, and with her father, "And thou shalt have her. Was't not to this end," &c. The following paffage, in King Henry IV. P. I. which is conftructed in a manner fomewhat fimilar to the present when corrected, appears to me to ftrengthen the fuppofition that two half lines have been loft: "Send danger from the east unto the weft, And let them grapple." Sufficiency is fkill in government; ability to execute his office. And let them work, a figurative expreffion; Let them ferment. courts. MALONE. 5 -the terms-] Terms mean the technical language of the An old book called Les Termes de la Ley, (written in Henry the Eighth's time) was in Shakspeare's days, and is now, the accidence of young students in the law. BLACKSTONE. For common juftice, you are as pregnant in,] The later editions all give it, without authority, the terms Of justice, and Dr. Warburton makes terms fignify bounds or limits. I rather think the Duke meant to fay, that Efcalus was pregnant, that is ready and knowing in all the forms of the law, and, among other things, in the terms or times fet apart for its administration. JOHNSON. The word pregnant is ufed with this fignification in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611, where a lawyer is reprefented reading: "In triceffimo primo Alberti Magni""Tis very cleare-the place is very pregnant. i. e. very expreffive, ready, or very big with appofite meaning. Again, the proof is moft pregnant.” STEEVENS. |