"Of government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you: Then, no more remains:
But that, to your sufficiency as your worth, is able;
And let them work. The nature of our people,
Our city's institutions, and the terms
For common justice, you are as pregnant in,
As art and practice hath enriched any
That we remember: There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp."
Opening of _Measure for Measure_.
In Mr. Knight's edition, from which the foregoing passage is printed and
pointed, the following note is appended to it:
"We encounter at the onset one of the obscure passages for which
this play is remarkable. The text is usually pointed thus:--
"'Then no more remains
But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work.'
"It is certainly difficult to extract a clear meaning from this;
and so Theobald and Hanmer assume that a line has dropped out,
which they kindly restore to us, each in his own way."
After relating Steevens' attempt at elucidation, Mr. Knight proceeds to
explain the passage by a running interpretation parenthetically applied
to each expression; but I doubt very much whether any person would feel
much enlightened by it; or whether, amongst so many explanations, any
one of them could be pointed out less obscure than the rest.
Let us try, then, what a total change of interpretation will do.
In the sixth line of the Duke's speech, as quoted at the commencement,
we find the demonstrative pronoun _that_, which must have _some_ object.
Mr. Knight supposes that object to be "your science." I, on the
contrary, am of opinion that it refers to _the commission_ which the
Duke holds in his hand, and which he is in the act of presenting to
Escalus:
"Then no more remains,
But--that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work."
By transposition, this sentence becomes "Then, as your worth is able, no
more remains, to your sufficiency, but _that_."
But _what_?
Your COMMISSION!
Have we not here the _mot_ to the enigma, the clue to the mystery? When
the Duke takes up the commission, he addresses Escalus to the following
effect:
"It would be affectation in me to lecture you upon the art of
government, since I must needs know that your own science exceeds,
in that, the limits of all I could teach you. Therefore, since
your worth is able, no more remains to your sufficiency,
but--_that_, and let them work."
The _sufficiency_ here spoken of is twofold, ability to direct, and
_authority to enforce_. The first was personal to Escalus, consisting of
his own skill and knowledge; the second was conferred upon him _by
commission_: when both were united, he was to "let them work!"
Reading the passage in this way, there is no necessity for the
alteration of a single letter; and yet I will put it to any person of
sense and candour, whether the passage be not thereby relieved from all
real obscurity?
It must be borne in mind, that the presentation of the commission is the
_main object_ of the Duke's address: the presentation therefore is not a
_single act_, but rather a protracted action during the whole speech,
finally consummated with the concluding words--"there is our
commission."
This is so plain, that it scarcely needs confirmation; but, if it did
so, it would receive it, by analogy, in the similarly protracted
presentation to Angelo when it becomes his turn to receive _his_
commission. In that case the act of presentation commences with the word
"hold:"
"Hold--therefore, Angelo!"
And finishes six lines lower down with:
"Take thy commission."
And it is not a little singular, that this word "hold," having been at
first similarly misinterpreted, proved as great a stumbling block to
Tyrwhitt and others, who seemed to grope about in sheer perverseness,
catching at any meaning for it rather than the right, and certainly the
obvious one.