of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused: so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives,' why, then the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes.

Duke. Why, this is excellent.

Clo. By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my friends.

Duke. Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there's gold.

Clo. But that it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could make it another.

Duke. O, you give me ill counsel.

Clo. Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, and let your flesh and blood obey it.

Duke. Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a double-dealer; there's another.

Clo. Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and he old saying is, the third pays for all; the triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure; or the bells of St. Bennet, sir, may put you in mind; One, two, three.

Duke. You can fool no more money out of me at this throw if you will let your lady know, I am here to speak with her, and bring her along with vou, it may awake my bounty further.

Clo. Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty, till I come again. I go, sir; but I would not have you to think, that my desire of having is the sin of covetousness; but, as you say, sir, let your bounty take a nap, I will awake it anon. [Exit Clown.

Enter ANTONIO and Officers.

Vio. Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me.
Duke. That face of his I do remember well;
Yet, when I saw it last, it was besmear'd
As black as Vulcan, in the smoke of war:

A bawbling vessel was he captain of,
For shallow draught, and bulk, unprizable:
With which such scathful grapple did he make
With the most noble bottom of our fleet,
That very envy, and the tongue of loss,
Cry'd fame and honour on him.-What's the matter?
I Of. Orsino, this is that Antonio
That took the Phoenix and her fraught, from Candy:
And this is he that did the Tiger board,
When your young nephew Titus lost his leg:
Here in the streets, desperate of shame and state,
In private brabble did we apprehend him.

Vio. He did me kindness, sir; drew on my side;
But, in conclusion, put strange speech upon me,
I know not what 'twas, but distraction.

Duke. Notable pirate! thou salt-water thief!
What foolish boldness brought thee to their mercies,
Whom thou, in terms so bloody, and so dear,
Hast made thine enemies?

Be pleas'd that I shake off these names you give me
Antonio never yet was thief, or pirate,
Though, I confess, on base and ground enough,
Orsino's enemy.
A witchcraft drew me hither:
That most ingrateful boy there, by your side,
From the rude sea's enrag'd and foamy mouth
Did I redeem: a wreck past hope he was:
His life I gave him, and did thereto add
My love, without retention or restraint,
All his in dedication: for his sake,

1 So, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion :-
Come let's kisse.

Moor. Away, away.

Queen. No, no, says I; and twice away says stay.
Sir Philip Sidney has enlarged upon the thought in the
Sixty-third Stanza of Astrophel and Stella.
2 Mischievous, destructive.

3 Freight.

4 Inattentive to his character or condition, like a desperate man.

5 Tooke has so adinirably accounted for the application of the epithet dear by our ancient writers to any object which excites a sensation of hurt, pain, and consequently of anxiety, solicitude, care, earnestness, that I shall refer to it as the best comment upon the ap parently opposite uses of the word in our great poet. 6 Dull, gross.

Did I expose myself, pure for his love,
Into the danger of this adverse town,
Drew to defend him, when he was beset;
Where being apprehended, his false cunning
(Not meaning to partake with me in danger,)
Taught him to face me out of his acquaintance,
And grew a twenty-years-removed thing,
While one would wink; denied me mine own purse,
Which I had recommended to his use
Not half an hour before.
Vio.
How can this be?
Duke. When came he to this town?
Ant. To-day, my lord; and for three months before
(No interim, not a minute's vacancy,)
Both day and night did we keep company.
Enter OLIVIA and Attendants.

Duke.
But for thee, fellow, fellow, thy words are madness:
Three months this youth hath tended upon me;
But more of that anon.-

Here comes the countess; now heaven
walks on earth..

-Take him aside.

Oli. What would my lord, but that he may not
have,

Wherein Olivia may seem serviceable ?--
Cesario, you do not keep promise with me.
Vio. Madam?

Duke. Gracious Olivia,

Oli. What do you say, Cesario?

lord,

-Good my

Vio. My lord would speak, my duty hushes me.
Oli. If it be ought to the old tune, my lord,
It is as fat and fulsome to mine ear,
As howling after music.

Duke.

Still so cruel?

Oli. Still so constant, lord.

Duke. What! to perverseness? you uncivil lady,
To whose ingrate and unauspicious altars
My soul the faithfull'st offerings hath breath'd out,
That e'er devotion tender'd! What shall I do?
Oli. Even what it please my lord, that shall be-
come him.

Duke. Why should I not, had I the heart to do it
Like the Egyptian thief," at point of death,
Kill what I love; a savage jealousy,
That sometimes savours nobly?-But hear me this:
Since you to non-regardance cast my faith,
And that I partly know the instrument
That screws me from my true place in your favour,
Live you, the marble-breasted tyrant, still;
But this your minion, whom, I know, you love,
And whom, by heaven, I swear, I tender dearly,
Him will I tear out of that cruel eye,
Where he sits crowned in his master's spite.-
Come boy with me; my thoughts are ripe in
mischief:

I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love,

; To spite a raven's heart within a dove. [Going.
Vio. And I, most jocund, apt, and willingly,
To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.

7 This Egyptian Thief was Thyamis. The story related in the Aethiopics of Heliodorus. He was the

[Following.

Oli. Where goes Cesario?
Vio.
After him I love,
More than I love these eyes, more than my life,
More, by all mores, than e'er I shall love wife:
If I do feign, you witnesses above,
Punish my life for tainting of my love!

Oli. Ah me, detested! how am I beguil'd!
chief of a band of robbers. Theogenes and Chariclea
falling into their hands, Thyamis falls in love with Cha
riclea, and would have married her. But, being attack
ed by a stronger band of robbers, he was in such feal
for his mistress that he causes her to be shut into a cave
with his treasure. It was customary with those barba
rians, when they despaired of their own safety, first to
make away with those whom they held most dear, and
desired for companions in the next life. Thyamis,
therefore, benetted round with enemies, raging with
love, jealousy, and anger, went to his cave, and calling
aloud in the Egyptian tongue, so soon as he heard him-
self answered towards the cave's mouth by a Grecian,
making to the person by the direction of her voice, he
caught her by the hair with his left hand, and (suppos.
ing her to be Chariclea) with his right hand plunged his
sword into her breast

Vio. Who does beguile you? who does do you | Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the Clown. wrong? Here comes Sir Toby halting, you shall hear more. but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did.

Seb. I am sorry, madam, I have nurt your kinsman;

But, had it been the brother of my blood,

I must have done no less, with wit and safety.
You throw a strange regard upon me, and

Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my By that I do perceive it hath offended

To think me as well a sister as a wife,
One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you,
Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your
offer.-

Your master quits you [To VIOLA ;] and, for your
service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand; you shall from this time be
Your master's mistress.

You must not now deny it is your hand,
Write from it, if you can, in hand, or phrase,
Or say 'tis not your seal, nor your invention:
You can say none of this: Well, grant it then,
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,

Why you have given me such clear lights of favour; Bade me come smiling, and cross-garter'd to you, Malvolio To put on yellow stockings, and to frown

was one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas, sir;
but that's all one:-By the Lord, fool, I am not
mad.-But do you remember? Madam, why laugh
you at such a barren rascal? an you smile not, he's
gagg'd: And thus the whirligig of time brings in
his revenges.

Mai. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
[Exit.
Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd.
Duke. Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace :-
Ile hath not told us of the captain yet;
When that is known and golden time convents,'
A solemn combination shall be made

Of our dear souls.-Mean time, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence-Cesario, come,
For so you shall be, while you are a man;
But, when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen. [Exeunt.

This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous Ague-cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contriv. ed to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life. JOHNSON.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

SHAKSPEARE took the fable of this play from the Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, published, in 1578, of which this is The Argument."

special case, although he favoured her much, would not grant her suit. Andrugio (disguised among the company,) sorrowing the grief of his sister, bewrayed his safety, and craved pardon. The king to renown the virtues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos. The circumstances of this rare history, in action lively followeth.'

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 In the city of Julio (sometimes under the dominion lose his head. This marriage solemnized, Cassandra of Corvinus King of Hungary and Bohemia,) there was tied in the greatest bonds of affection to her husband, a law, that what man soever committed adultery should became an earnest suitor for his life: the king tenderlose his head, and the woman offender should wearing the general benefit of the commonweal before her 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's 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 hum-analysis of his play, which contains a mixture of comic ble 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 Cassanstra, abhorring both him and his suit, by no persuasion would yield to this ransom. But in fine, won by 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 acy 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 jailer secretly to present Cassandra with her brother's head. The jailer [touched] with the outcries of Andrugio (abhorring Promos's lewdness,) by the providence of God provided thus for his safety. He presented Cassandra with a felon's head newly executed; who knew it not, being mangled, from her brother's (who was set at liberty by the jailer.) [She] 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 ner fortunes known to the king. She, executing this resolution, was so highly favoured of the king, that

Whetstone, however, has not afforded a very correct scenes, between a bawd, a pimp, felons, &c. together with some serious situations which are not described. A hint, like a seed, is more or less prolific, according to the qualities of the soil on which it is thrown. This story, which in the hands of Whetstone produced little more than barren insipidity, under the culture of Shakspeare became fertile of entertainment. The curious reader may see the old play of Promos and Cassandra among Six old plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c.' published by Mr. Steevens, printed for S. Leacroft, Charing Cross. The piece exhibits an almost complete embryo of Measure for Measure; yet the hints on which it is formed are so slight, that it is nearly as impossible to detect them, as it is to point out in the acorn the future ramifications of the oak. The story originally came from the Hecatommithi' of Cinthio. Decad 8, novel 5, and is repeated in the Tragic Histories of Belleforest.

"This play," says Mr. Hazlitt, "is as full of genius as it is of wisdom. Yet there is an original sin in the nature of the subject, which prevents us from taking a cordial interest in it. The height of moral argument,' which the author has maintained in the intervals of passion, or blended with the more powerful impulses of nature, is hardly surpassed in any of his plays. But there is a general want of passion, the affections are at a stand; our sympathies are repulsed and defeated in all directions."

Isabella is a lovely example of female purity and vir

REPRESENTED.

ESCALUS, an ancient Lord, joined with Angelo in ABHORSON, an Executioner.