which her passions burst forth, when
opposed or under the influence of strong excitement, is admirably
characteristic.

Thus in her exclamation, when she first allows herself to perceive
Angelo's vile design--

ISABELLA.

Ha! little honor to be much believed,
And most pernicious purpose;--seeming!--seeming
I will proclaim thee, Angelo: look for it!
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or with an outstretched throat I'll tell the world
Aloud, what man thou art!

And again, where she finds that the "outward tainted deputy," has
deceived her--

O I will to him, and pluck out his eyes!
Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!
Injurious world! most damned Angelo!

She places at first a strong and high-souled confidence in her brother's
fortitude and magnanimity, judging him by her own lofty spirit:

I'll to my brother;
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honor,
That had he twenty heads to tender down,
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.

But when her trust in his honor is deceived by his momentary weakness,
her scorn has a bitterness, and her indignation a force of expression
almost fearful; and both are carried to an extreme, which is perfectly
in character:

O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
Is't not a kind of incest to take life
From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?
Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair!
For such a warped slip of wilderness
Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance;
Die! perish! might but my bending down,
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed.
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death.
No word to save thee.

The whole of this scene with Claudio is inexpressibly grand in the
poetry and the sentiment; and the entire play abounds in those passages
and phrases which must have become trite from familiar and constant use
and abuse, if their wisdom and unequalled beauty did not invest them
with an immortal freshness and vigor, and a perpetual charm.

The story of Measure for Measure is a tradition of great antiquity, of
which there are several versions, narrative and dramatic. A contemptible
tragedy, the _Promos and Cassandra_ of George Whetston