All the unsigned footnotes in this volume are by the writer of the article to which they are appended. The interpretation of the initials signed to the others is: I. G. = Israel Gollancz, M.A.; H. N. H. Henry Norman Hudson, A.M.; C. H. H.⇒ C. H. Herford, Litt.D. PREFACE By ISRAEL GOLLANCZ, M.A. THE FIRST EDITION Measure for Measure was first printed in the First Folio, where it occupies pp. 61-84, and holds the fourth place among the "Comedies." No 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 (Act I, i, 68-71, and Act II, iv, 27-30), offer "a courtly apology for King James I's stately and ungracious demeanor 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 aesthetic 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 When he's discerned to swoon, straight by an by (cp. Measure for Measure, II, iv, 24–27). 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.1 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" (W. Pater, Appreciations, p. 179). 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 twinsisters; 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 Giraldi Cinthio (Decad. 8, Nov. 5): the direct source, however, was a dramatization 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 behaviour of a chaste Lady; the uncontrolled lewdness of a favoured Courtesan, 1 Cp. The Chronological Order of Shakespeare's Plays; H. P. Stokes; pp. 106-109. |