Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/222

 180 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12S. X. MAR. 4, 1022. in our opinion, express very happily, and with Sir Arthur's usual freshness and sureness of handling, the judgment formed by most plain readers who know and love Shakespeare well without being inspired or compelled to find some- thing new to say of him. Not, however, in these matters does he find the cause of failure, though he reminds us that the play belongs to the myste- riously troubled period of Shakespeare's life when his view of the relations between man and woman shows itself dark and bitter. Our critic agrees with Walter Pater in taking the idea of the play to be poetical justice ; but he urges that Pater reports aright not what Shakespeare succeeded in doing but only what he intended to do. A criticism of the character of Isabella leads him to the heart of the puzzle to the radical inconsistency which damns the play as unrealized. We think he bears too hardly on Isabella in the matter of Mariana, and makes too little of the pre-contract. After all a solemn betrothal could be annulled only by a papal dispensation, without which the parties were not free to marry elsewhere. Perhaps Sir Arthur " forgot to remember " the tedious business between John Paston and Anne Haute. The intervening century would count for little as regards stories. On the other hand, more emphasis might well have been laid on the inconsistency of Isabella's easy consent to marry the Duke. Her rebukes to Claudio, as they stand, are impossibly rough in wording, but at least they convey, in addition to the anger of an honest woman, detesta- tion of the suggested violation of her vows ; they carry on the note struck in the scene in the nunnery, that of the " thing enskied and sainted." The character in fact splits in two ; being, as we find her, so nobly a nun, the Isabella of the first part could not, without a struggle of some sort, have renounced her calling. In fact, in such a person, the breakdown of a vow would itself be matter for a play. Here it is treated with a. carelessness which, from the dramatic point of view, ruins the character. Who is to say what Shakespeare himself did or intended in ' Measure for Measure ' ? We have nothing but the folio text, in which appear plainly numerous inaccuracies to be imputed to careless transcribing, and also at least two processes, of abridgment and expansion, in a working over of the text. Mr. Dover Wilson, after discussing these processes makes an important contri- bution to the question of the date of the play, confirming the entry in the Account Books of the Revels Office, by which this is now accepted as Dec. 26, 1604. He points out that the " black Masques " which " proclaim an enshield beauty " are a compliment, in advance, to Ben Jonson and his " Masque of Blackness," which was given at Court on Twelfth Night, 1605. In this the masquers were placed in a great concave shell devised by Inigo Jones. The allusion falls in happily with those already noted by students to James I.'s dislike of crowds. The discussion of the copy used for the play as printed in 1623 an excellent handling of an intricate matter works out to the conclusion that a prompt-copy was the basis of it, and that not a copy made from the original MS. but one from an abridgment made for the occasion in 1604, and existing largely as a set of players' parts. Mr. Child summarizes skilfully the stage-history of the play, which was brilliant enough during the eighteenth century and the period of the great actors and actresses. More even than most of Shakespeare's plays it depends for its true effect on being seen upon the boards, and its very faults serve as opportunities to the genius of the player. WE have received the following letter, which will be read with interest by all old readers of N. & Q.' : Mollington Vicarage, Banbury, Feb. 25, 1922. Dear Sir, Oving to the death of my mother, I am having to dispose of the whole of MB. W. J. THOMS'S collection of papers on " Longevity," also a great many wonderful engravings of Cen- tenarians. They are to be sold by auction shortly by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson of Leicester Square. If you would kindly insert this letter in your next issue your readers would have the opportunity of seeing them before the sale. Yours faithfully, (MBS.) CICELY DUMMELOW. PBESENTATION TO THE ROTHAMSTED LIBBABY. The library of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, has recently been enriched by a rare volume (believed to be the first printed book on agriculture in France), given by Lady Ludlow. It is entitled ' Le livre des prouffitz champestres et ruraulx,' and was printed by Pierre de Sainte-Lucie at Lyons in 1539. It is of special interest in view of the influence exerted by the French agricultural authors of a somewhat later period on the Elizabethan agricultural writers in this country, whose influence in turn lasted almost to Victorian times. J?ottce to Correspondents EDITOBIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' ' ' Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lisher " at the Office, Printing House Square, London, B.C. 4 ; corrected proofs to The Editor, ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested to give within parentheses immediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the con- tribution in question is to be found. ANEUBIN WILLIAMS. (1) Edward Ellerker Williams, son of John Williams, a captain in the East India Company's army; b. 1793; d. L822. A short life of him by Richard Garnett will be found in the D.N.B.' ( 2) Archdeacon Stephen Phillips, D.D. ; b. 1638; d. 1684. Married Mary Cook, daughter of his predecessor at Bampton. See article on his son in ' D.N.B.'
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