Chapter 14

“_Shal._ The luce is the fresh fish, the salt fish is an old coat.”

I cannot understand this. Perhaps there is a corruption both of words and speakers. Shallow no sooner corrects one mistake of Sir Hugh’s, namely, “louse” for “luce,” a pike, but the honest Welchman falls into another, namely, “cod” (_baccalà_). _Cambrice_—“cot” for coat.

“_Shal._ The luce is the fresh fish—

_Evans._ The salt fish is an old cot.”

“Luce is a fresh fish, and not a louse;” says Shallow. “Aye, aye,” quoth Sir Hugh; “the _fresh_ fish is the luce; it is an old cod that is the salt fish.” At all events, as the text stands, there is no sense at all in the words.

_Ib._ sc. 3—

“_Fal._ Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband’s purse; He hath a legion of angels.

_Pist._ As many devils entertain; and _To her, boy_, say I.”

Perhaps it is—

“As many devils enter (or enter’d) swine; and _to her, boy_, say I:”—

a somewhat profane, but not un-Shakespearian, allusion to the “legion” in St. Luke’s “gospel.”

“Measure For Measure.”

This play, which is Shakespeare’s throughout, is to me the most painful—say rather, the only painful—part of his genuine works. The comic and tragic parts equally border on the μισητὸν,—the one being disgusting, the other horrible; and the pardon and marriage of Angelo not merely baffles the strong indignant claim of justice—(for cruelty, with lust and damnable baseness, cannot be forgiven, because we cannot conceive them as being morally repented of); but it is likewise degrading to the character of woman. Beaumont and Fletcher, who can follow Shakespeare in his errors only, have presented a still worse, because more loathsome and contradictory, instance of the same kind in the _Night-Walker_, in the marriage of Alathe to Algripe. Of the counter-balancing beauties of _Measure for Measure_, I need say nothing; for I have already remarked that the play is Shakespeare’s throughout.