386 SOME NEW EMENDATIONS IN SHAKESPEARE. 



minds of many of the English rulers of Ireland since King Richard's'- 

 day. 1 



Turn we now to what Professor Dowden calls the " dark and 

 bitter " comedy of Measure for Measure, a play which enjoys the 

 unenviable distinction of having more manifestly corrupt passages 

 than any other of Shakespeare's plays, excepting perhaps " Cymbe- 

 line." Claudio when deprecating the cruelty of the Duke's Deputy 

 in enforcing against him the penalty of an obsolete statute, in con- 

 sequence of his having had a child by Juliet says, Act I. s. 3 : 



' ' And the new Deputy now for the Duke, 

 Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness, 

 Or whether, &c." 



The meaning of glimpse in this line I fail to see, and would suggest 

 that Shakespeare must have written not glimpse but gloss — gloss of 

 newness is most natural in speaking of the sudden accession of new 

 dignity to the Deputy. It is worth noting too that in several other 

 passages "gloss" and " new" are brought into close conjunction by 

 Shakespeare. 



In Much Ado, we have " new gloss of your marriage ;" in 

 Macbeth, " be worn now in their newest gloss ;" in Othello, " con- 

 tent to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes." 



Gloss written or printed with the long s might readily be mis- 

 taken for glimpse, especially when the former word was spelt with 

 an e at the end, as it certainly was by Shakespeare. 



In Claudio's speech, immediately preceding the one in which this 

 line occurs, I would suggest the omission of " the " in the fourth 

 line, which now stands : 



" Save that we do the denunciation lack." 



" The " is not necessaiw here for the sense and spoils the rythm of 

 the line, and I believe we are justified in suspecting any line in 

 Shakespeare which is unrythmical as being corrupt. 



1 Since writing the above my attention has been called to some passages from the literature 

 of Shakespeare's time, which certainly support the present reading. 

 " That Irish Judas, 

 Bred in a country where no venom prospers 

 But in his blood." 



Dryden. 

 ADd in Pier's Ploughman wc have 



" Of all freting venymes, the vilest is the Scorpion," 

 Where "venym" is clearly used as the animal not the poison. 



