Pages will open in separate windows, so close them to return to Shakespeare Illustrated. The painting depicts a moment from Act III, scene i of Measure for Measure when the novice Isabella visits her brother Claudio in prison to tell him that her plea for mercy from Angelo has failed and that he has lewdly proposed to her that she might trade her virginity for her brother's life. If it is to be supposed that Claudio expressed, in such a way of Mr. Hunt depicts it, his distress of mind, it is a thing that we had much rather suppose than see deliberately painted. If Altick correctly identifies the exact moment the painting captures, then I would agree that the expressions on the faces of Claudio and Isabella and their gestures do not genuinely reflect the action. That is why I would suggest another interpretation for the painting.
Death is a fearful thing.
The weariest and most loathed worldly life That age, ache, penury and imprisonment Can lay on nature is a paradise To what we fear of death. This is the precise moment, I think, depicted in the painting. Isabella sympathetically lays her hands upon her brother's heart to comfort him and looks up at him with obvious pity and concern. But Claudio looks away with furrowed brow and awkwardly fiddles with the shackles on his leg. He knows that what he is to say next must be put in the most diplomatic terms, for he is going to ask her to trade her virginity for his life.