liar tone and the cast of thought in the forenamed plays, it is pretty certain that the darkness was not permanent; the clear azure, soft sunshine, and serene sweetness of The Tempest and The Winter's Tale being unquestionably of a later date. And, surely, in the life of so earnest and thoughtful a man as Shakespeare, there might well be, nay, there must have been, times when, without any special woundings or bruisings of fortune, his mind got fascinated by the appalling mystery of evil that haunts our fallen nature.

That such darker hours, however occasioned, were more frequent at one period of the Poet's life than at others, is indeed probable. And it was equally natural that their coming should sometimes engage him in heart-tugging and brain-sweating efforts to scrutinize the inscrutable workings of human guilt, and thus stamp itself strongly upon the offspring of his mind. Thus, without any other than the ordinary progress of thoughtful spirits, we should naturally have a middle period, when the early enthusiasm of hope had passed away, and before the deeper, calmer, but not less cheerful tranquillity of resignation had set in. For so it is apt to be in this life of ours: the angry barkings of fortune, or what seem such, have their turn with us; the fretful fever and the stir unprofitable" work our souls full of discord and perturbation; but after a while these things pass away, and are followed by a more placid and genial time; the experienced insufficiency of man for himself having charmed our wrestlings of thought into repose, and our spirits having undergone the chastening and subduing power of life's sterner discipline.

66

SCENE I.—An Apartment in the DUKE's Palace.

Enter the DUKE, ESCALUS, and Attendants.

Duke. Escalus,

Escal. My lord?

Duke. Of government the properties t' unfold,

Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse ;

Since I am put to know1 that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you: then no more remains
But t' add sufficiency, as your worth is able,3
And let them work. The nature of our people,
Our city's institutions, and the terms

For common justice, you're as pregnant 4 in

As art and practice hath enriched any

That we remember. There is our commission, [Giving it. From which we would not have you warp.-Call hither,

I say, bid come before us Angelo.

[Exit an Attendant.

What figure of us think you he will bear?
For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply;

Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love,
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: what think you of it?
Escal. If any in Vienna be of worth

To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is Lord Angelo.

1 "Am put to know" is the same, I take it, as am given or made to understand. We have a like expression in Cymbeline, ii. 3: "I am much sorry, sir, you put me to forget a lady's manners."

2 Lists is limits or boundaries. So in Hamlet, iv. 2: "The ocean, overpeering of his list, eats not the flats with more impetuous haste," &c.

66

3 All that Escalus needs, to complete his fitness for the duties in question, is legal sufficiency, that is, authority. So that the meaning of the whole clause seems to be, "Then no more remains but to add authority commensurate with your worth," or, as ample as is your worth." This use of sufficiency in the sense of authority or full power is rare; but we have a like instance in Bacon's Essay Of Seeming Wise: "For, as the apostle saith of godliness, 'Having a show of godliness, but denying the power thereof'; so certainly there are, in points of wisdom and sufficiency, that do nothing or a little very solemnly; magno conatu nugas.”

4 Pregnant, here, is ripe, well-informed, or full of learning and experience." The terms for common justice" are, probably, the forms and technical language of the law.

Duke.

Look where he comes.

Enter ANGELO.

Ang. Always obedient to your Grace's will, I come to know your pleasure.

There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to th' observer doth thy history
Fully unfold.5 Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd
But to fine issues;7 nor Nature never lends

5 The Duke here speaks as knowing Angelo's real character, and at the same time as believing him to be what he seems. This makes his speech somewhat enigmatical, and gives it an air of meaning more than meets the ear. So the leading idea appears to be, that Angelo has something about him that signs him for eminence; that to a well-seeing eye the born statesman and ruler are legible in his bearing; that his life indicates certain latent aptitudes fitting him and pointing him out for high trust and prerog. ative: so that, if he be but transferred to his proper sphere, the germs of greatness in him will soon come to blossom. Thus, to one who reads him aright, there is a peculiarity in his life, a moral idiom, that prognosticates for him a history full of renown. All this, to be sure, is ironical; but, in itself, and in the way it is put, it is perfectly suited to the Duke's purpose of drawing Angelo out, and so unmasking him.

6 That is, so peculiarly or exclusively thine own property.

7 "Touch'd to fine issues" is kindled or quickened to noble ends, to lofty purposes, or by great occasions. A just and felicitous thought, well illustrated in Wordsworth's Character of the Happy Warrior:

But who, if he be call'd upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has join'd

Great issues, good or bad for human kind,

Is happy as a lover; and attired

With sudden brightness, like a man inspired.