As this hitch in the lines occurs at the very opening of the play, it has been the cause of much perplexity. Henry Irving said: "This clause in the Duke's first sentence has proved a more awkward stumbling block to commentators than almost any passage in Shakespeare." It is one of the four passages in all the plays which Neilson particularly notes as "hopelessly corrupt." The Globe editors have marked it with the obolus according to their explanation in the preface: "Whenever a lacuna occurs too great to be filled out with any approach to certainty by conjecture, we have marked the passage with an obolus (†)".
What we need here is some thought upon the play as a whole. "Measure for Measure" is a play which deals with the nature of government. Being a product of Shakespeare's riper years, it has behind it much deep and thoroughgoing thought upon the problems which confront society as a whole. In the outcome Shakespeare emphasizes the fact that though a government may have any number of laws, true justice and the public welfare are, after all, dependent upon the character and insight of those who hold the reins of authority.
In a good public officer three things are necessary—power, intellect and character. A man may have great intellectual ability but it will avail him little in a public position if he have not the authority or power to put his ideas into practice. On the other hand, a man may
