characters of tragedy has been found more effective in representation than Isabella; while there is perhaps no composition of the same length in the language which has left more of its expressive phrases, its moral aphorisms, its brief sentences crowded with meaning, fixed in the general memory, and embodied by daily use in every form of popular eloquence, argument, and literature. [From Mr. F. J. Furnivall's Introduction to the Play.*] On the stifling air of this drama, as contrasted with earlier ones, hear Mr. W. Watkiss Lloyd: "We never throughout this play get into the free, open, joyous atmosphere so invigorating in other works of Shakspere: the oppressive gloom of the prison, the foul breath of the brothel, are only exchanged for the chilly damp of conventual walls, or the oppressive retirement of the monastery, where friars are curious as to the motives of ducal seclusion, and are ready to intimate that a petticoat is concerned in the secret." Yet though we have this "night's black curtain" over the play ;† though woman's and man's incontinence match, to some extent, the queen's and Claudius's in Hamlet; though Claudio in his weak fear of death, like Hamlet, fails to do his duty; yet here, beside, in intentional contrast to the lust and weak will of woman and man, rises, like the moon in its pure beauty, like the lightning-flash in its white wrath, the noble figure of Isabella, a thing enskied and sainted, an immortal spirit," Shakspere's first wholly Christian woman, steadfast and true as Portia, Brutus's wife, pure as Lucrece's soul, merciful above Portia, Bassanio's bride, in that she prays for forgiveness for her foe, not her friend; with an unyielding will, a martyr's spirit above Helena's of All's Well, the highest type of woman that Shakspere has yet drawn. . . 66 *The Leopold Shakspere (London, 1877), p. lxxiv. †The play was probably written during the plague of 1603 in London, in which, according to Stowe, 30,578 persons died. (by permission). 32 * Those who would put Measure for Measure next to All's Well surely overlook the far deeper tone of the former play: its dealing with death and the future world, its weight of reflection, the analysis of Angelo's character, the working of conscience, the greater corruption dealt with, the higher saintliness shown in Isabella. Also, if we look at the name of the play, Measure for Measure, we shall see that Shakspere's idea in it was, though with grim humour and ultimate relenting, to preach in Angelo and Lucio his Third-Period doctrine an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, vengeance for weakness, yielding to temptation and sin, though here the vengeance is but the poetical justice of marriage to the women whom the sinners have sinned with or abandoned. Intending nun as Isabella is, we must nevertheless look on her as no hard recluse, but as "Isabel, sweet Isabel," with cheek-roses, gentle and fair. Yet she is "a thing enskied and sainted, an immortal spirit ;" and this enables us to understand the conflict that must have gone on in her mind between her sisterly affection and her religious principles when pleading her brother's cause, and her acquiescence in Angelo's resolve that Claudio must die. Both times she needs Lucio's appeal before she 'll again urge how much better mercy becomes the king and judge than justice. Her unhappy words, "Hark! how I'll bribe you," seem to have first brought out the evil in Angelo. "He tempts her through that which is uppermost in the noble woman, the passion for sacrifice. There is something splendid in the idea of perilling the soul itself for the sake of another" (E. H. Hickey). Shakspere's original, Whetstone, makes his heroine Cassandra give way to her brother's appeal: "My Andrugio, take comfort in distresse; Cassandra is wonne, thy rannsome greate to paye." * Mr. Furnivall puts M. for M. next to Hamlet in the order of the plays. See p. 11 above.-Ed. But this was not Shakspere's conception of Isabella. She believed that the son of her heroic father was noble like herself; and when she found that he was willing to sacrifice her honour for his life, "her swift vindictive anger leapt like a white flame from her white spirit,"* and her indignant "take my defiance, die, perish," was her fit answer to her brother's base proposal. Yet she who would not stoop to wrong, dared for the sake of Mariana to bear the imputation of it. She had no care for the world's opinion, so that the deed appeared not foul in the truth of her spirit; and as in The Merry Wives and Much Ado, her quick woman's wit took a righteous delight in circumventing a knave. We have another passionate outburst from her when she hears the false news that her brother has been executed. And then she takes her side by the duke, who loves her, to fight with him God's fight against the evil in that foul Vienna; a far better post, heading Heaven's army in her land, than praying barren prayers in convent walls. She is the first of the three splendid women who illumine the dark Third Period: she, glorious for her purity and righteousness, Cordelia for her truth and filial love, Volumnia for her devotion to honour and her love of her native land. Perhaps we may add a fourth, Portia, Brutus's wife, for nobleness and wifely duty. But the highest of all is Isabella. *See my friend Mr. W. H. Pater's admirable paper in The Fortnightly Review, 1874 or 1875. |