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There is no doubt that for some particulars in the plot and story of Measure for Measure the Poet was ultimately indebted to Cinthio, an Italian novelist of the sixteenth century.  The original story makes the eighty-fifth in his Hundred Tales.  A youth named Ludovico is there overtaken in the crime of seduction:  Juriste, a magistrate highly reputed for wisdom and justice, passes sentence of death upon him; and Ludovico’s sister, a virgin of rare gifts and graces, goes to pleading for his life.  Her beauty and eloquence have the same effect on Juriste as Isabella’s on Angelo.  His proposals are rejected with scorn and horror; but the lady, overcome by the pathetic entreaties of her brother, at last yields to them under a solemn promise of marriage.  His object being gained, the wicked man then commits a double vow-breach, neither marrying the sister nor sparing the brother.  She appeals to the Emperor, by whom Juriste is forced to marry her, and then sentenced to death; but is finally pardoned at the lady’s suit, who is now as earnest and eloquent for her husband as she had been for her brother.  Her conduct touches him with remorse, and at length proves as effective in reforming his character as it was in redeeming his life.

As early as 1578, this tale was dramatized after a sort by George Whetstone, and was published as The History of Promos and Cassandra.  Whetstone was a writer of learning and talent, but not such that even the instructions of a Shakespeare could have made him capable of dramatic excellence; and, as he had no such benefit, his performance is insipid and worthless enough.  The drama is in Two Parts, and is written in verse, with alternate rhymes.  In his conduct of the story Whetstone varies somewhat from the original; as the following abstract will show: 

In the city of Julio, then under the rule of Corvinus, King of Hungary, there was a law that for incontinence the man should suffer death, and the woman be marked out for infamy by her dress.  Through the indulgence of magistrates, this law came to be little regarded.  The government falling at length into the hands of Lord Promos, he revived the statute, and, a youth named Andrugio being convicted of the fault in question, resolved to visit the penalties in their utmost rigour upon both the parties.  Andrugio had a sister of great virtue and accomplishment, named Cassandra, who undertook to sue for his life.  Her good behaviour, great beauty, and “the sweet order of her talk” wrought so far with the governor as to induce a short reprieve.  Being inflamed soon after with a criminal passion, he set down the spoil of her honour as the ransom.  She spurned his suit with abhorrence.  Unable, however, to resist the pleadings of her brother, she at last yielded to the man’s proposal, on condition of his pardoning her brother and then marrying her.  This he vowed to do; but, his end once gained,