Her brother's 'ghost his pavéd bed would break,
And take her hence in horror!

Maria.

Isab.

Isabel,

Sweet Isabel, do yet but 'kneel by me:

They say, 'best men are moulded out of 'faults,
And, (for the most,) become much more the 'better
For being a 'little bad: so may my husband.
O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?

Isabella timidly approaches the Duke, and kneels :
Most bounteous sir,
Look, if it please you, on this man 'condemned,
As, if my brother 'lived. 'He had but justice,
In that he 'did the thing for which he died:
For Angelo,

'His act did not o'ertake his bad 'intent;

And must be buried 'but as an intent,

That perished by the way. 'Thoughts are no 'subjects;
'Intents but merely thoughts.

Duke. Your suit 's unprofitable: stand up, I say.-
I have bethought me of 'another fault.-

Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded
At an 'unusual hour?

Prov.

It was 'commanded so.

Duke. Had you a special 'warrant for the deed?
Prov. No, my good lord: it was by 'private 'message.
Duke. For which I do 'discharge you of your office:
Give-up your keys.

Prov.

Pardon me, noble lord:
I 'thought it was a fault, but 'knew it not,
Yet did repent me, after more advice ;a
For testimony whereof, one in the prison,-
That should by private order else have 'died,-
I have reserved 1alive.

Duke.

Prov.

What is he?

His name is Barnardine.

Duke. I would thou hadst done so by 'Claudio.-
Go fetch him hither: let me look upon him.

The Provost at once brings in his prisoner Barnardine, with

Claudio muffled, and Juliet.

Duke. There was a Friar 'told me of this man.—

Sirrah, [] thou art said to have a stubborn soul,

Bar.

That apprehends no further than 'this world,

a consultation.

And squar'st thy life according. Thou 'rt condemned;
But for those 'earthly faults, 'I quit them all;
And pray thee, take this mercy, to provide
For better times to 'come.-Friar, advise him

:

I leave him to 'your hand.-[audio] What 'muffled fellow's that?

Prov. This is another prisoner that I saved,

That 'should have died when 'Claudio lost his head,—
As like almost to Claudio as himself.

Duke. [1] If he be 'like your brother, for 'his sake
Then is he 'pardoned.

Claudio unmuffles himself and is most ardently embraced by Isabella. Angelo falls on his knees. The Duke continues:

And, for your lovely sake,

Give me your hand, and say you will be 'mine!
He is 'my brother too. But fitter time for that.-
By this, Lord 'Angelo perceives he's safe:
Methinks I see a quickening in his eye.-

Well, Angelo, your evil quits you 'well:

Look that you 'love your wife; 'her worth works 'yours.

I find an apt remission in myself,

And yet here's 'one in place I 'cannot pardon.—

The Officers bring forward the trembling Lucio.
You, sirrah, that 'knew me for a fool, a coward,—
One all of luxury-an ass-a madman —
Wherein have I so well deserved of you,

That you 'extol me thus?

Lucio.... Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the 'trick. If you will 'hang me for it, you may; but I had rather, it would please you,... I might be 'whipped.

Duke. Whipped 'first, sir,—and hanged after.—

Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city,
If any woman 's wronged by this lewd fellow,
(As I have heard him swear himself there's one
Whom he hath injured thus") let her appear,
And he shall 'marry her: The nuptial finished,
Let him be 'whipped, 'and 'hanged!

Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not 'marry me to the old widow !i Your highness said even now, I made

a punishable on earth. b requites. CO. R. worth. d tendency to forgive. e inserted word. f thoughtless custom (as a joke). 8 O. R. woman. h five substituted words. i three substituted words.

you a 'Duke: good my lord, do not recompense me in making 'me a 'fool.

Duke. Upon mine honour thou 'shalt marry her.

Thy 'slanders I forgive; and therewithal

Remit thy other forfeits."-Take him to prison,

And see our pleasure herein executed.

Lucio. Marrying the widow, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging.

Duke. 'Slandering a 'Prince deserves it.

Her," Claudio, that you wronged, look you restore.—
Joy to you, Mariana !-love her, Angelo :-

Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:-
Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy;
We shall employ thee in a 'worthier place.-
Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
The head of Ragozine for Claudio's:
The offence pardons 'itself.-Dear Isabel,
I have a motion' much imports your good;
Whereto, if you 'll a 'willing ear incline,

What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.—
So, bring us to our palace; where we 'll show

What's yet behind, that 's meet you all should know.
Haste still 'pays haste, and leisure 'answers leisure;
Like doth 'quit like, and "Measure still for Measure."

END OF MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

[Exeunt.

penalties, punishments. b O. R. she. c proposal. d release from any obligation. e two lines transposed from the Duke's speech," For this new-married man," p. 475.

THE WINTER'S TALE.

The Play of the "Winter's Tale" was written, it is supposed, about the year 1611,a being, therefore, the last but one of Shakespeare's dramatic productions; the "Tempest, "-composed in the same year,-happily and gracefully closing the poetic embodiments of the great magician. The earliest notice of its performance is found in Dr. Forman's "Diary ",-preserved in the Ashmole Collection at Oxford,—which fixes day and date: Wednesday, May 15th, 1611, at the "Globe "Theatre; but no printed copy appeared till the folio edition of Shakespeare's Collected Works was published in 1623, by his friends and "fellows" John Hemings and Henry Condell.

The Poet is indebted for the story of the Play to the novel of "Pandosto, or the Triumph of Time," (named, at a later period, "Dorastus and Faunia,") published in 1588-by Robert Greene, a contemporary of Shakespeare-equally remarkable for his genius and his misfortunes. The novel was very popular, (many editions having been printed,) and this favourable estimation of the story probably delayed the publication of the play.

It has been ingeniously suggested that "The Winter's Tale" is a complimentary memento to Shakespeare's early patroness, Queen Elizabeth; that it may be considered a continuation of the History of Henry the Eighth;" that Leontes of Sicily is an adumbration of that jealous but uxorious English King; and that the sufferings of Hermione, under unmerited disgrace and scandal, refer to those of Queen Anna Boleyn whose infant daughter Elizabeth thus became, as it were, the prototype of the amiable Perdita. But these "possibilities" are not wholly supported, (if they are not entirely destroyed,) by other evidence.

a In the earliest extant volume of the Stationers' Register (the first volume having been destroyed in the Great Fire of London, 1666,) there is the following entry: "May 22, 1594. A booke entituled A Winter Nyght's Pastime."-It is impossible now to ascertain if Shakespeare was, in any way, indebted to this publication.

The romantic Play, "The Tempest," usually classed as a Comedy, is published in Vol. II of this arrangement.

Dr. Forman thus commences his outline of the plot: "Observe there how Leontes, King of Sicilia, was overcome with jealousy of his wife with the King of Bohemia, his friend, that came to see him: and how he contrived his death, and would have had his cup-bearer to have poisoned him, who gave the King of Bohemia warning thereof, and fled with him to Bohemia. Remember also how he sent to the oracle of Apollo, &c."

In the office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, then Master of the Revels, is the following entry :-" For the King's Players. An old play called 'Winter's Tale,' formerly allowed of by Sir George Buck, and likewise by me on Mr. Hemmings his word that there was nothing profane added or reformed, though the allowed book was missing: and therefore I returned it without a fee this 19th of August, 1623."

The English Parliament passed an act (3 James I, chap. 21) "to restrain the abuses of players," subjecting "any person or persons... in any Stage-play, Enterlude, Sew (show), May-game, or Pageant" to a penalty of ten pounds for uttering any profanity.

Shakespeare, however, has been charged with many faults in this drama; and, if the violation of the old Unities of Time, Place, and Action is a fault, he is undoubtedly guilty: besides, we have, in pagan times, Christian burial; and, with a strange forgetfulness of geographical fact, Bohemia is placed on the sea-shore. But Shakespeare's "Bohemia" is a poetical, not a political territory, to be accurately located on prosaic maps; the author was not composing a "History" to instruct, but a "Play" to amuse, during our Winter nights; for, as he says, "A 'sad tale 's best for winter." Imagination despises chronology, and acknowledges not the vulgar boundaries of mundane geography. Besides, we must accept the gift as it has been presented to us.

The Characters retained in this Condensation are:

LEONTES, King of Sicilia.

AUTOLYCUS, a Rogue.

MAMILLIUS, Young Prince of TIME, the Chorus.

HERMIONE, Queen to Leontes.
PERDITA, Daughter to Leontes and
Hermione.

Sicilia.

CAMILLO,

ANTIGONUS,

CLEOMENES,

Lords of Sicilia.

PAULINA, Wife to Antigonus.

DORCAS,

Shepherdesses.

Lords, Ladies, Officers of the Court of Judicature, Shepherds, and Shepherdesses, Guards, &c.

Scene-sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.b

Leontes, Prince of Sicily, had, in his youth, visited Russia, and had there fallen in love with the Princess Hermione, daughter of the Emperor. Their married life was passed in the utmost harmony for several years; and their only son, Prince Mamillius, (for Leontes had succeeded his father on the throne of Sicily,) was, for his bright intelligence and his acute childish sensibilities, beloved by his parents and by the whole Court.

Leontes had, as companion in his boyish days, Prince Polixenes, son to the King of Bohemia. They had been educated together; and now, after the lapse of several years, Polixenes, (who had become 'King of Bohemia,) pays a long-promised visit to his early friend Leontes, King of Sicily. The claims of confraternity being thus cordially renewed, Polixenes intimates his intention to return to his own Kingdom.

a Sicilia, (Sicily,) the largest island in the Mediterranean, was united to the government of Naples, under the name of the Two Sicilies, and is now a part of the modern Kingdom of Italy.

b Bohemia, formerly a petty kindgom of Europe, almost in the heart of Germany, now forming part of the Austrian Empire.