'set the verbosity to one of the Verbose.levels strings'

def set_level(self, level):

    if (self._commandLineVerbose is not None):
        level = self._commandLineVerbose
    if (level not in self.levels):
        warnings.warn((u'matplotlib:    unrecognized    --verbose-*    string    "%s".    Legal    values    are    %s' % (level, self.levels)))
    else:
        self.level = level
