NOTE UPON A PASSAGE IN "MEASURE FOR MEASURE."
The Third Act of Measure for Measure opens with Isabella's visit to her brother (Claudio) in the dungeon, where he lies under sentence of death. In accordance with Claudio's earnest entreaty, she has sued for mercy to Angelo, the sanctimonious deputy, and in the course of her allusion to the only terms upon which Angelo is willing to remit the sentence, she informs him that he "must die," and then continues:
"This outward-sainted deputy,—
Whose settled visage and deliberate word
Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew,
As falcon doth the fowl,—is yet a devil;
His filth within being cast, he would appear
A pond as deep as hell."
Whereupon (according to the reading of the folio of 1623) Claudio, who is aware of Angelo's reputation for sanctity, exclaims in astonishment:
"The prenzie Angelo?"
To which Isabella replies (according to the reading of the same edition):
"O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'st body to invest and cover
In prenzie guards! Dost thou think, Claudio,
If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou might'st be freed?"
Claudio, still incredulous, rejoins:
"O, heavens! it cannot be."
The word prenzie has given rise to much annotation, and it seems to be universally agreed that the word is a misprint. The question is, what was the word actually written, or intended, by Shakspeare? Steevens and Malone suggested "princely;" Warburton, "priestly;" and Tieck, "precise." Mr. Knight adopts "precise," the reading of Tieck, and thinks "that, having to choose some word which would have the double merit of agreeing with the sense of the passage and be similar in the number and form of the letters, nothing can be more unfortunate than the correction of "princely;" Mr. Collier, on the other hand, follows Steevens and Malone, and reads "princely," observing the Tieck's reading ("precise") "sounds ill as regards the metre, the accent falling on the wrong syllable. Mr. Collier's choice is determined by the authority of the second folio, which he considers ought to have considerable weight, whilst Mr. Knight regards the authority of that edition as very trifling; and the only point of agreement between the two distinguished recent editors is with respect to Warburton's word "priestly," which they both seem to think nearly conveys the meaning of the poet.
I have over and over again considered the several emendations which have been suggested, and it seems to me that none of them answer all the necessary conditions; namely, that the word adopted shall be (1.) suitable to the reputed character of Angelo; (2.) an appropriate epithet to the word "guards," in the reply of Isabella above quoted; (3.) of the proper metre in both
places in which the misprint occurred; and (4.) similar in appearance to the word "prenzie." "Princely" does not agree with the sense or spirit of the particular passage; for it is extremely improbable that Claudio, when confined under sentence of death for an absurd and insufficient cause, would use a term of mere compliment to the man by whom he had been doomed. "Precise" and "priestly" are both far better than "princely;" but "precise" is wholly unsuited to the metre in both places, and "priestly" points too much to a special character to be appropriate to Angelo's office and position. It may also be remarked, that both "princely" and "priestly" differ from the number and form of the letters contained in "prenzie."
The word which I venture to suggest is "Pensive," a word particularly applicable to a person of saintly habits, and which is so applied by Milton in "Il Penseroso:"
"Come, pensive nun, devout and pure,
Sober, stedfast, and demure."
The word "pensive" is stated by Dr. Johnson to mean "sorrowfully thoughtful, sorrowfully serious," or melancholy; and that such epithets are appropriate to the reputed character of Angelo will be seen from the following extracts:
"I implore her, in my service, that she make friends
To the strict deputy."—Claudio, Act I. Sc. 3.
"I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,
A man of stricture, and firm abstinence."—Duke, Act I. Sc. 4.
"Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone."—Duke, Act I. Sc. 4.
"A man, whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast."—Lucio, Act I. Sc. 5.
See also Angelo's portraiture of himself in the soliloquy at the commencement of Act II. Sc. 4.:
"My gravity,
Wherein (let no man hear me) I take pride,
Could I, with boot, change for an idle plume
Which the air beats for vain."
And, lastly, the passage immediately under consideration:
"This outward-sainted deputy,
Whose settled visage and deliberate word,
Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew."—Isabella, Act III. Sc. 1.
Thus much as to the propriety of the word "pensive," in relation to the reputed character of Angelo.
The next question is, whether the word "pensive" is an appropriate epithet to the word "guards." If Messrs. Knight and Collier are correct in construing "guards" to mean the "trimmings or border of robe," this question must be answered in the negative. But it appears to me that they are in error, and that the true meaning of the word "guards," in this particular passage, is "outward appearances," as suggested by Monck Mason; and, consequently, that the expression "pensive guards" means a grave or sanctified countenance or demeanour—"the settled visage and deliberate word" which "nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew."
It requires no argument to establish that the word "pensive" is suitable to the metre in both places in which the misprint occurred and it is equally clear that "prenzie" and "pensive" in manuscript are so similar, both in the number, form, and character of the letters, that the one might easily be printed for the other. The two words also have a certain resemblance, in point of sound; and if the word "pensive" be not very distinctly pronounced, the mistake might be made by a scribe writing from dictation.
Referring to Mrs. Cowden Clarke's admirable concordance of Shakspeare, it appears that the word "pensive" is used by Shakspeare in the text of his plays twice; namely, in Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Sc. 1., where Friar Laurence addresses Juliet thus:
"My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now."
and again, in the Third Part of Henry VI., Act IV. Sc. 1., where Clarence is thus addressed by King Edward upon the subject of his marriage with the Lady Grey:
"Now, brother Clarence, how like you our choice,
That you stand pensive, as half mal-content?"
I also find that, according to the stage directions (both ancient and modern) of Act II. Sc 2. of Henry VIII. (see Collier's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 534., note), the king is described to be found "reading pensively," at a moment when he is meditating his divorce from Katharine of Arragon, not "because the marriage of his brother's wife had crept too near his conscience," but "because his conscience had crept too near another lady."
I might extend the argument by further observations upon the reference last cited, but not without risk of losing all chance of a place in "Notes and Queries."
Query, Whether pensive was ever written or printed penzive in Shakspeare's time? If so, that word would bear a still closer resemblance to "prenzie."
Leges.