--What, would you make me mad? Am
not I Christophero Sly, old Sly's son of Burtonheath, by birth a
pedlar, by education a cardmaker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and
now by present profession a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, the fat
alewife of Wincot, if she know me not; if she say I am not fourteen-
pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying'st knave
in Christendom.'
This is honest. 'The Slies are no rogues', as he says of himself. We
have a great predilection for this representative of the family; and
what makes us like him the better is, that we take him to be of kin
(not many degrees removed) to Sancho Panza.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
This is a play as full of genius as it is of wisdom. Yet there is an
original sin in the nature of the subject, which prevents us from
taking a cordial interest in it. The height of moral argument' which
the author has maintained in the intervals of passion or blended
with the more powerful impulses of nature, is hardly surpassed in
any of his plays. But there is in general a want of passion; the
affections are at a stand; our sympathies are repulsed and defeated
in all directions. The only passion which influences the story is
that of Angelo; and yet he seems to have a much greater passion for
hypocrisy than for his mistress. Neither are we greatly enamoured of
Isabella's rigid chastity, though she could not act otherwise than
she did.
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