The Lost Couplet Conjecture in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

This article disputes J. W. Lever's conjecture that Duke Vincentio's soliloquy at the end of Act 3 of Measure for Measure is missing a couplet. Proposing a reading of the original text, it argues that when the Duke speaks of a “likeness made in crimes / Making practice on the times”, he is referring to a criminal-like judge practising his version of justice on society, and that when he speaks of this judge trying to “draw with idle spiders’ strings / The most ponderous and substantial things”, he is commenting on this magistrate's endeavour to rid society of crime, depicting this as futile. The article discusses a parallel passage from The Rape of Lucrece. Finally, the article considers the Duke's speech in relation to early modern political thought, which frequently features a sharp opposition between good and evil judges and comments on the political and legal ramifications of each.