. William Shakespeare; poet, dramatist, and man . the play the earlier dramatist affirmed that itshowed in the first part the unsufferable abuse ofa lewd magistrate ; the virtuous behaviour of a chastelady; the uncontrolled lewdness of a favoured cour-tesan ; and the undeserved estimation of a perni-cious parasite. Shakespeares modifications of theplot are highly significant: in the older versionsIsabella surrenders her virtue as the price of herbrothers life; in Measure for Measure her im-pregnable purity gives the whole play a savingsweetness. To Shakespeares imagination is duealso the roman
. William Shakespeare; poet, dramatist, and man . the play the earlier dramatist affirmed that itshowed in the first part the unsufferable abuse ofa lewd magistrate ; the virtuous behaviour of a chastelady; the uncontrolled lewdness of a favoured cour-tesan ; and the undeserved estimation of a perni-cious parasite. Shakespeares modifications of theplot are highly significant: in the older versionsIsabella surrenders her virtue as the price of herbrothers life; in Measure for Measure her im-pregnable purity gives the whole play a savingsweetness. To Shakespeares imagination is duealso the romantic episode of the moated grangeand the pathetic figure of Mariana. In the murkyatmosphere of this painful drama Isabellas stain-less and incorruptible chastity invests purity witha kind of radiancy, and she finds her place in thehttle company of adorable women in whom Shake-speares creative imagination realized and personi-fied the eternal feminine qualities. Measure for Measure was probably producedabout 1603, and Troilus and Cressida belongs,. THE LATER TRAGEDIES 317 in its final form, to the same year. The problemspresented by the different versions are not moredifficult than those presented by the play itself,which has been described as a history in whichhistorical verisimilitude is openly set at naught,a comedy without genuine laughter, a tragedywithout pathos. The editors of the First Foliowere so uncertain about its essential character thatthey evaded the necessity of classifying it by plac-inof it between the Histories and the Traq; temper, spirit, and probably in time, it belongswith the Tragedies, where it is now generallyprinted. It is the only play in which Shakespearedrew upon the greatest stream of ancient storyand the materials for which he found in manyforms in the literature of his time. Chief amongthese was Chaucers noble rendering of the ancientromance, to which may be added Chapmans Homer, Lydgates Troy Book, and probablyRobert Greenes version of th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectshakesp, bookyear1901
