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ANNOTATIONS

ON

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

ACT I. SCENE I.

LINE 5. Since I am put to know,] May mean, I am obliged to

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But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,

And let them work.] That this passage is more or less corrupt, I believe every reader will agree. There was probably some original obscurity in the expression, which gave occasion to mistake in repetition or transcription. I therefore suspect that the author wrote thus:

Then no more remains,

But that to your sufficiencies your worth is abled,

And let them work.

Then nothing remains more than to tell you, that your virtue is now invested with power equal to your knowledge and wisdom. Let there fore your knowledge and your virtue now work together. It may easily be conceived how sufficiencies was, by an inarticulate speaker, or inattentive hearer, confounded with sufficiency as, and how abled,

a word very unusual, was changed into able. For abled, however, an authority is not wanting.

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STEEVENS.

For common justice, you are as pregnant in,] I think the Duke meant to say, that Escalus was pregnant, that is, ready and knowing in all the forms of law, and, among other things, in the terms or times set apart for its administration. JOHNSON.

Line 18. For you must know, we have with special soul

Elected him our absence to supply;] By the words with special soul elected him, I believe, the poet meant no more than that he was the immediate choice of his heart,

A similar expression occurs in the Tempest: -" for several virtues

"Have I lik'd several women, never any

"With so full soul, but some defect," &c. STEEvens. There is a kind of character in thy life,

Line 30.

That, to the observer, &c.] Shakspeare must, I believe, be answerable for the unnecessary solemnity (which Dr. Johnson justly condemns) of this introduction. He has the same thought in Henry IV. p. 2. which is the best comment on this passage.

"There is a history in all mens' lives,

"Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd:
"The which observ'd, a man may prophecy

"With a near aim, of the main chance of things

"As yet not come to life," &c.

Line 36.

40.

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STEEVENS.

-to fine issues:] To great consequences. For high purposes. JOHNSON. Line 44. Both thanks and use.] i. e. Both thanks and interest.

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To one that can my part in him advertise ;] The meaning is, I direct my speech to one who is able to teach me how to govern: my part in him, signifying my office, which I have delegated to him. My part in him advertise; i. e. who knows what appertains to the character of deputy or viceroy. WARBURTON

I know not whether we may not better read,
One that can my part to him advertise,

One that can inform himself of that which it would be otherwise my part to tell him. JOHNSON.

Line 46. Hold therefore, Angelo:] That is, continue to be An

gelo; hold as thou art.

Line 50. appointed.

JOHNSON.

first in question,] That is, first called for; first

JOHNSON.

Line 57. We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice] Leaven'd choice is one of Shakspeare's harsh metaphors. His train of ideas seems to be this. I have proceeded to you with choice mature, concocted, fermented, leavened. When bread is leavened it is left to ferment: a leavened choice is therefore a choice not hasty, but considerate, not declared as soon as it fell into the imagination, but suffered to work long in the mind. Thus explained, it suits better with prepared than levelled, which is Dr. Warburton's reading. JOHNSON. Line 68. bring you something on the way.] i. e. Travel some part of the way with you.

Line 71. plitude of power.

-your scope is as mine own.] That is, your am

JOHNSON.

ACT I. SCENE II.

Line 113.

-in metre?] In the primers, there are metrical graces, such as, I suppose, were used in Shakspeare's time.

JOHNSON.

Line 114. In any proportion, &c.] Proportion signifies measure: and refers to the question, What? in metre? WARBURTON. Line 116. Grace is grace, despite of all controversy:] Satirically insinuating that the controversies about grace were so intricate and endless, that the disputants unsettled every thing but this, that grace was grace; which, however, in spite of controversy, still remained certain. WARBURTON.

Line 119.

there went but a pair of sheers between us.] We JOHNSON.

are both of the same piece.

So in The Maid of the Mill, by Beaumont and Fletcher."There went but a pair of sheers and a bodkin between them."

STEEVENS,

Line 126. -pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet.] The jest about the pile of a French velvet alludes to the loss of hair in the French disease, a very frequent topick of our author's jocularity. Lucio finding that the gentleman understands the distemper so well, and mentions it so feelingly, promises to remember to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him. It was the opinion of Shakspeare's time, that the cup of an infected person was contagious. JOHNSON. The jest lies between the similar sound of the words pill'd and pil'd. STEEVENS. Line 141. To three thousand dollars a year.] A quibble intended between dollars and dolours.

The same jest occurred before in The Tempest.

HANMER.
JOHNSON.

Line 143. A French crown more.] Lucio means here not the piece of money so called, but that venereal scab, which among the surgeons is stiled corona Veneris. To this, I think, our author likewise makes Quince allude in Midsummer-Night's Dream.

Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced.

For where these eruptions are, the skull is carious, and the party becomes bald. THEOBALD.

Line 173. what with the sweat,] This may allude to the sweating sickness, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shakspeare: but more probably to the method of cure then used for the diseases contracted in brothels. JOHNSON.

Line 177. —what has he done?

Clown. A woman.] To illustrate the verb, we shall

quote Titus Andronicus:

Line 180.

property.

Chiron. Thou has undone our mother.

Aaron. Villain, I've done thy mother!

-in a peculiar river.] A stream that is private

Line 186. All houses in the suburbs—] It may here be observed, that by king James's law concerning huires (whores), brothels were not permitted, but in the suburbs.

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Line 212.

ACT I. SCENE III.

Thus can the demi-god, Authority,

Make us pay down for our offence by weight.—
The words of heaven;-on whom it will, it will;

On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.] The sense of the whole is this: The demi-god, Authority, makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus: -I punish and remit punishment according to my own uncontrolable will; and yet who can say, what dost thou?—Make us pay down for our offence by weight, is a fine expression, to signify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact. WARBURTON.

Line 242. I got possession of Julietta's bed, &c.] This speech is surely too indelicate to be spoken concerning Juliet, before her face; for she appears to be brought in with the rest, though she has nothing to say. The Clown points her out as they enter; and yet, from Claudio's telling Lucio, that he knows the lady, &c. one would think she was not meant to have made her personal appearance on the scene. STEEVENS.

Line 255. may read,

-the fault and glimpse of newness;] Perhaps we

Whether it be the fault or glimpse

That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. Yet the same sense follows in the next lines. JOHNSON.

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Line 266. So long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,] The Duke in the scene immediately following says,

Which for these fourteen years we have let slip. THEOBALD. -so tickle- -] i. e. Ticklish.

Line 270.

282.

STEEVENS.

-prone and speechless dialect,] The author may, by a prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as those actions seem to which JOHNSON.

we are prone.

Prone, perhaps, may stand for humble, as a prone posture is a posture of supplication.

STEEVENS.

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