PREFACE

TO

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

No

THE FIRST EDITION. Measure for Measure was first printed in the First Folio, where it occupies pages 61–84, and holds the fourth place among the "Comedies." direct reference to the play has been found anterior to its publication in 1623, nor is there any record of its performance before the Restoration, when Davenant produced his Law against Lovers, a wretched attempt to fuse Measure for Measure and Much Ado About Nothing into one play.

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION. All arguments for the date of composition of Measure for Measure must be drawn from general considerations of style, and from alleged allusions. As regards the latter, it has been maintained that two passages (i. 1. 68-71 and ii. 4. 27– 30) offer "a courtly apology for King James I.'s stately and ungracious demeanour on his entry into England," and various points of likeness in the character of the Duke and James have been detected. This evidence by itself would be of little value, but it certainly corroborates the æsthetic and metrical tests, which fix the date of composition about the year 1603-4. Further, in 1607

William Barksted, an admirer of our poet, published a poem entitled Myrrha, the Mother of Adonis, wherein occurs an obvious reminiscence of a passage in Measure for Measure:

"And like as when some sudden extasie

Seizeth the nature of a sicklie man;

When he's discerned to swoon, straight by and by
Folke to his helpe confusedly have ran;

And seeking with their art to fetch him backe,
So many throng, that he the ayre doth lacke."1

Mr. Stokes has advanced the ingenious conjecture that Barksted, as one of the children of the Revels, may have been the original actor of the part of Isabella.2

The strongest argument for the date 1603, generally adopted by critics, is derived from the many links between this play and Hamlet; they both contain similar reflections on Life and Death, though Measure for Measure deals, not like Hamlet with the problems which beset one of exceptional temperament, but with mere human nature." 8 There are, moreover, striking parallelisms of expression in the two plays. Similarly, incidents in Measure for Measure recall All's Well that Ends Well; Isabella and Helena seem almost twin-sisters; but the questions at issue concerning the latter play are too intricate to warrant us in drawing conclusions as regards the date of the former play.

SOURCE OF THE PLAY. The plot of Measure for Measure was ultimately derived from the Hecatommithi of

1 Cp. Measure for Measure, ii. 4. 24–27.

• The Chronological Order of Shakespeare's Plays. H. P. Stokes; pp. 106-109.

W. Pater, Appreciations, p. 179.

Giraldi Cinthio (Decad. 8, Nov. 5); the direct source, however, was a dramatisation of the story by George Whetstone, whose Promos and Cassandra, never acted, was printed in 1578. The title of this tedious production is noteworthy as indicating the rough outline of Shakespeare's original:

The Right Excellent and Famous|| History|| of Promos and Cassandra;|| divided into two Comical Discourses.|| In the first part is shown|| the unsufferable abuse of a lewd Magistrate, the virtuous behavior of a chaste Lady,|| the uncontrolled lewdness of a favoured Courtesan,|| and the undeserved estimation of a pernicious Parasite. In the second part is discoursed || the perfect magnanimity of a noble King||| in checking Vice and favouring Virtue: || Wherein is shown|| the Ruin and Overthrow of dishonest practices,||_with_the advancement of upright dealing.|| 1

a

In 1582 Whetstone included a prose version of the same story in his Heptameron of Civil Discoursés, version probably known to Shakespeare; it has even been inferred that "in this narrative he may well have caught the first glimpse of a composition with nobler proportions."

The old play of Promos and Cassandra may claim the distinction of having provided the rough material for Measure for Measure. The earlier production should be read in order to understand, somewhat at least, how the poet has transformed his crude original; how he has infused into it a loftier motive; how he has ennobled its heroine, and created new episodes and new characters. The picture of the wronged, dejected mistress of the moated grange is wholly Shakespeare's.

1 See Hazlitt's Shakespeare Library; Part I. Vol. II.

DURATION OF ACTION. The time of action consists of four days:

Day 1. Act i. Scene 1 may be taken as a kind of prelude, after which some little interval must be supposed in order to permit the new governors of the city to settle to their work. The rest of the play is comprised in three consecutive days.

Day 2 commences in Act i. Scene 2, and ends in Act iv. Scene 2.

Day 3 commences in Act iv. Scene 2, and ends in Act iv. Scene 4.

Day 4 includes Act iv. Scenes 5 and 6, and the whole of Act v., which is one scene only.1

1 See P. A. Dariel; On the Times in Shakespeare's Plays; New Shakespeare Soc., 1877-79.