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III. MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi ovvero cento novelle, &c., appeared first in 1565 at Monteregale, in Sicily, 2 parts, 8vo., and in a more complete form in 1566, at Venice, in one volume, 4to. In this edition, as well as in that which appeared at Venice in 1593, in two quarto volumes, the Shakesperian tale is the fifth of the eighth decade which treats of Ingratitude. Giraldi himself has brought the substance of it upon the stage, under the name Epitia ; and the sources of all his dramatic works, consisting of six tragedies, may be found in his Hecatommithi. It is uncertain whether Shakespeare had seen the story of Cinthio; but we have no grounds for denying it, unless we recur to the opinion that he was ignorant of the Italian language. It is, however, certain that, if he was not acquainted with Italian, the substance of the tale was accessible to him through the twofold labours of Whetstone. This author published, in 1582, a collection of stories under the title of Heptameron, in which he included a translation of this story of Cinthio; but he had also treated the same matter dramatically four years earlier. This piece, noticed in the "Six old plays on which Shakespeare founded,"

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And again at Venice, 2 parts, 4to., 1584. The first edition is very rare; there is a copy in the Bodleian Library. Steevens has reprinted the play of Promos and Cassandra, founded by Whetstone on Cinthio's novel, and Mr. Collier has judiciously included the prose tale from the Heptameron, 1582, in his Shakespeare's Library, vol. ii. Both these sources being thus so readily accessible, I have not thought it requisite to add much annotation to this chapter.-ED.

2 Published by J. Nichols, at the suggestion of Steevens, in 1779. The play of "Promos and Cassandra" should be consulted by the reader, as

&c., bears the title, "The right excellent and famous Historye of Promos and Cassandra, divided into commical discourses. In the fyrste parte is showne the unsufferable abuse of a lewde Magistrate, the vertuous behaviours of a chaste ladye, the uncontrowled leawdenes of a favoured curtisan, and the undeserved estimation of a pernicious parasyte. In the second parte is discoursed the perfect magnanimitye of a noble Kinge, in checking vice and favouringe vertue, wherein is showne the ruyne and overthrowe of dishonest practises, and the advauncement of upright dealing."

Slight as the value of this piece may be, we find in it the deviation from Cinthio's novel which Shakespeare adoptedthat Vieo, whom Whetstone makes Andrugio, and Shakespeare Claudio, is not in reality put to death, though the governor has given his order for it. In other respects, however, Whetstone does not differ essentially from Cinthio; so that the many excellent alterations which are met with in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" are solely due to the poet's invention. Amongst these we include the deciding circumstance that the Duke of Vienna (in the story, the Emperor Maximilian) is always present, disguised as a monk, and leads the whole action, undiscovered, to a happy termination. The introduction of the betrothed of Angelo, who keeps the promise given by Isabella in her place, and thenceforward plays the part of Epitia in the tale, while Isabella preserves her chastity, and is married to the Duke, is another

in all probability the immediate source of Shakespeare's play. It is dedicated to Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, in an address which deserves a careful perusal. Speaking of plays, he says-"The Englishman, in this quality, is most vain, indiscreet, and out of order: he first grounds his work on impossibilities, then in three hours runs he through the world, marries, gets children, makes children men, men to conquer kingdoms, murder monsters, and bringeth gods from heaven, and fetcheth devils from hell." He proceeds to say that all decorum is sacrificed to effect, and observes it was usual to bring clowns on the stage as companions for kings.-ED.

equally great improvement of Shakespeare's. Remarkable is the art with which he has so contrived to weave in these alterations, that at the same time the original course of the novel is kept in the consciousness of Angelo; for he believes to the end that he has broken the law with Isabella, and caused her brother to be put. to death, as the novel relates it. Hence Isabella also makes the same complaint against him, before the Duke, on his entrance, as Epitia makes against Juriste, in the story. One might conclude, from this circumstance being retained with the alteration, that Shakespeare had been acquainted with the tale of Cinthio,1 were it not that the story of Whetstone, in the Heptameron, was precisely similar in its form.

The alteration of Whetstone, according to which the life of the condemned is preserved, though adopted by Shakespeare from him, is, in accordance with Shakespeare's purpose, turned to a different end. In Whetstone, Promos (Angelo) has ordered the gaoler to bring to Cassandra (Isabella, Epitia) the head of her brother. The gaoler, however, out of compassion for Andrugio, brought her the disfigured head of a malefactor who had been executed shortly before, and which Cassandra cannot distinguish from that of her brother. In Shakespeare, on the contrary, it is the governor who has ordered the execution who is deceived by the substituted head; and this departure from one tradition is fully in accordance with others. The circumstance is continually occurring in popular stories that kind-hearted servants, commissioned to perform cruel acts, have contrived to deceive their masters with false tokens of the fulfilment of their commands. Equally popular, and in accordance with the stream of fiction, is the substitution, due to our poet alone, of Mariana for Isabella. Thus, to quote the best known example, in Tristan, Brangene is laid by the side of Marke, instead of Isolde. A

1 I cannot understand this deduction. The incident is also found in Whetstone's play.-ED.

similar incident occurs in the poem of the two merchants, Alt: Wälder., i., 34) and in a modern Greek ballad (ibid., ii., 181). We choose the last two examples among innumerable others, because they will both be spoken of afterwards in "Cymbeline." Shakespeare, however, must1 have been led to this idea by the substitution of Giletta di Narbonne, instead of the lady's daughter with whom Beltram was in love, told by Boccaccio in the story which was the origin of “All's Well that ends Well." Here the circumstances are almost identical, for the substituted lady is not, as in the former examples, a maid, but the lawful wife of the object of the deceit: that Marianna is only Angelo's betrothed makes no essential difference.

By these alterations, in themselves so excellent, Shakespeare has given a proof how dear popular fiction was to him, and what advantages he could derive from it. And here it must not be forgotten that the world of fable and tale was in Shakespeare's time adopted by the mass of the people: it was their peculiar property; and therefore there was nothing which they more loved to see in the theatre than this reflection of its being, even though it had been cast from a mirror less artfully polished than Shakespeare's. And this may explain, also, why Shakespeare borrowed so much from popular fable, that we have been able to fill three volumes with stories that he has used for the foundations of his plays. With respect to the present story of Cinthio, however, we meet with the remarkable circumstance, that it has in itself little of the character of popular fiction, and that Shakespeare has drawn it within the compass of this kind of literature. Meanwhile, however, a few points of comparison offer themselves.

Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakespeare, i., 153, and after him Dunlop, ii., 429, have quoted a number of historical

1 Not necessarily. The poet had a barbarous story to dramatise, and used every effort to purify it. This will account most naturally and quite sufficiently for all his variations from the original.-ED.

incidents of a similar kind, of which the most important are

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the following. Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, compelled one of his nobles to marry a young lady for a similar offence, and ordered him to be executed immediately after. (Lipsii monita et exempla politica, Antverp, 1613, 4to., cap. 8.) This is the subject of a French tragedy by Antoine Marechal, Le jugement équitable de Charles le Hardi, 4to., 1646. Olivier le Dain, the barber and favourite of Louis the Eleventh, committed a similar crime, and expiated it with his life. Belleforest gives a story as of his own invention, which looks, however, too like that of Cinthio, to allow us to believe his assertion unconditionally. In this tale, a general seduces the wife of a soldier, under a promise to save the forfeited life of her husband, whom he shows her immediately after, through a window of the chamber, hanging on the gallows. His commander obliges him to marry the widow, and then condemns him to death. The same barbarity is attributed to the infamous Colonel Kirk, how justly is doubtful. In Goulart's Thrésor d'histoires admirables, &c., this circumstance is twice varied, pp. 300, 304. In Cooke's "Vindication of the Professors and Profession of the Law," 4to., 1640, p. 61, the whole story of Cinthio is related of Don Garcias, the Governor of Milan during the war between Charles V. and Francis I.; but here the dishonoured woman is the wife of the captive, and the beheading of the seducer actually takes place after the marriage with the widow. To these examples we have to add the following.

In the stories of Masuccio Salernitano it is related (iv., 7, p. 47) that the King of Sicily, the son of Don Juan of Arragon, was once staying at Vagliendoli, at the house of

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1 Omitting, however, somewhat unaccountably, the curious tale in Lupton's Siquila, 1580, of a woman who permits herself to be seduced by a judge, to save the life of her husband. The incident is often repeated; and a similar atrocity is asserted to have been actually committed within the last century.—ED.

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