Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants. SCALUS! Duke. Escal. My lord. Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know, that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you: then no more remains But thereto your sufficiency1, as your worth is able, The old copy reads Then no more remains But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able. And let them work. On which passage we have three pages of notes in the variorum edition. No emendation or explanation of this passage hitherto offered is satisfactory; I feel confident that our great poet never wrote "But that to," following as it does "Exceeds, in that." The remedy lies in the trifling correction of a press error. The word thereto was probably written thrto, and was mistaken by the printer for thtto. The sense of the passage will then be "Since I am so placed as to know that you are better skilled in the nature And let them work. The nature of our people, For common justice, you are as pregnant2 in, That we remember: There is our commission, I hither, say, bid come before us Angelo.— [Exit an Attendant. What figure of us think you he will bear? Lent him our terror, drest him with our love; Duke. Enter ANGELO. Look, where he comes. Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure. Duke. Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life, of government than I am, it would be idle in me to lecture you As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto 2 i. e. ready in. That, to the observer doth thy history As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd. But to fine issues: nor nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence, But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech To one that can my part in him advértise3; In our remove, be thou at full ourself; Mortality and Mercy in Vienna Live in thy tongue and heart. Though first in question, is thy secondary: Take thy commission. Ang. Old Escalus, Now, good my lord, Let there be some more test made of my metal, Before so noble and so great a figure Be stamp'd upon it. Duke. No more evasion : We have with a leaven'd' and prepared choice 3 The old copy has "they on thee." • Two negatives, not employed to make an affirmative, are com mon in Shakespeare's writings, so in Julius Cæsar : 'Nor to no Roman else.' 5 i. e. to one who is already sufficiently conversant with the nature and duties of my office;-of that office which I have now delegated to him. 6 i. e. I delegate to thy tongue the power of pronouncing sentence of death, and to thy heart the privilege of exercising mercy. 7 A choice mature, concocted, fermented; i. e. not hasty, but considerate. Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours. Ang. Yet, give leave, my lord, That we may bring you something on the way. Nor need you on mine honour have to do With any scruple: your scope is as mine own; As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand; But do not like to stage me to their eyes: That does affect it. Once more, fare you well. [Exit. A power I have; but of what strength and nature I am not yet instructed. Ang. 'Tis so with me :-Let us withdraw together, And we may soon our satisfaction have SCENE II. A Street. Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen. Lucio. If the duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why, then all the dukes fall upon the king. 1 Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the king of Hungary's! 2 Gent. Amen. Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal? Lucio. 'Twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to steal: There's not a soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace1. 2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucio. I believe thee; for, I think, thou never wast where grace was said. 2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least. 1 Gent. What? in metre? Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language. 1 Gent. I think, or in any religion. Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: As for example; Thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace. 1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us?. Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: Thou art the list. 1 This speech is erroneously given to the 1 Gent. in the old copies. 2 This was a common saying, equivalent to they were both of a |