Ibid] The old word is certainly right. My fenfe breeds with her sense, that is, new thoughts are stirring in my mind, new conceptions are katched in my imagination. So we fay to brood over thought. L. 14. JOHNS. tefied gold] i. e. attefted, or marked with WARB. the standard ftamp. JOHNS. L. 18. · preferved fouls] i. e. preferved from the corruption of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preferved in fugar. WARB. Ibid] In order to continue Dr. W's metaphor, we should alter fafting maids, to pickled maids. L. 25. I am that way going to temptation CANONS.* Where prayers crofs] Which way Angelo is going to temptation, we begin to perceive, but how prayers cross that way, or cross each other, at that way, more than any other, I do not understand. Ifabella prays that his bonour may be fafe, meaning only to give him his title: his imagination is caught by the word bonour: he feels that his honour is in danger, and therefore, I believe, answers thus: I am that way going to temptation, That is, I am tempted to lofe that honour of which thou implorest the preservation. The temptation under which I labour is that which thou haft unknowingly thwarted with thy prayer. He ufes the fame mode of language a few lines lower. Ifabella, parting, fays, Save your Angelo catches the word bonour. Save it! From what? From thee, even from thy virtue. P. 269. L. 3. it is I, That lying by the violet in the fun, &c.] I am not corrupted by her, but by my own heart, which excites foul defires under the fam benign influences that exalt her purity; as the carrion grows putrid by thofe beams which encrease the fragrance of the violet. L. 6. virtuous feafon] i. e. kindly feason. fubject here gives the figure a particular elegance. JOHNS. But the WARB.* L. 25. I fmil'd, and wonder'd bow] As a day muft now intervene between this conference of Ifabella with Angelo, and the next, the act might more properly end here, and here, in my opinion, it was ended by the poet. JOHNS. P. 270. L. 9. Who falling in the laws of her own youth, Hath blister'd her report: Who doth not fee that the integrity of the metaphor requires we fhould read FLAMES of her own youth. WARB and CAPELL. Ibid] Who does not fee that upon fuch principles there is no end of correction. JOHNS. P. 271. L. 7. There reft] Keep yourself in this temper. JOHNS. L. II. - ob, injurious love] Her execution was refpited on account of her pregnancy, the effects of her love: therefore the calls it injurious; not that it brought her to ih me, but that it hindered her freeing herfelf from it. Is not this ail very natural? yet the Oxford editor changes it to injurious law. WARB. Ibid] Mr. Warburton's fuppofition is abfolutely without foundation, and of which there is not the leaft hint given in the play, which on the contrary very clearly infinuates, that her punishment was not to extend farther than the infamy and some confinement. I cannot therefore but concur in Sir Thomas Hanmer's correction, Oh, injurious law. REVISAL.* L. 17. Whilft my intention] Nothing can be either plainer or exacter than this expreflion. But the old blundering folio having it, invention, this was enough for Mr Theobald (and Mr. Capell,) to prefer authority to sense. WARB. L. 23. Grown FEAR'D and tedious] We fhould read SEAR'D: i. e. old. So Sheakfpear ufes, in the fear, to fignify old age. WARB. Ibid] I think fear'd may ftand, what we go to with reluctance may be faid to be fear'd. JOHNS. L. 27. Cafe] For outfide; garb; external fhew. JOHNS. P. 272. L. 1. Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wifer fouls To thy falfe feeming ?] Here Shakespeare judiciously diftinguishes the different operations of high place upon different minds. Fools are frighted, and wife men are allured. Those who cannot judge but by the eye, are easily awed by fplendour, those who confider men as well as conditions, are easily perfuaded to love the appearance of virtue dignified with power. JOHNS. L. 3. Let's write good angel on the devil's born ; 'Tis not the devil's creft] i. e. Let the most wicked thing have but a virtuous pretence, and it fhall pass for inThis was his conclufion from his preceding words, ob form! лocent. How often doft thou with thy cafe, thy babit, But the Oxford editor makes him conclude juft counter to his own premises; by altering it to, Is't not the devil's creft. So that, according to this alteration, the reasoning ftands thus. Falfe feeming wrenches awe from fools, and deceives the wife. Therefore, " let us but write good angel on the devil's horn;" (i. e. give him the appearance of an angel;) and what then? "Is't not the devil's crest?" (i. e. he fhall be efteem'd a devil.) WARB. Ibid] I am ftill înclined to the opinion of the Oxford editor. Angelo, reflecting on the difference between his feeming character, and his real difpofition, observes that he "could change his gravity for a plume." He then digreffes into an apostrophe, "O dignity, how doft thou impofe upon the world!" then returning to himself, " Blood, fays he, thou art but blood," however concealed with appearances and decorations. Title and character do not alter nature, which is ftill corrupt, however dignified. Let's write good Angel on the devil's born ; JOHNS. L. 15. The gen'ral fubjects to a well-wish'd King.] So the later editions: but the old copies read, the general fubject 10 a well-wish'd king. The general fubject feems a harsh expreffion, but general fubjects has no fenfe at all; and general was in our author's time a word for people, fo that the general is the people or multitude, fubject to a king. So in Hamlet, the play pleased not the million, 'twas caviare to the general. JOHNS. P. 273. L. 9. -'tis all as eafie] Ealy is here put for light or trifling. "Tis, fays he, as light or trifing a crime to do fo, as fo, &c. Which the Oxford editor not apprehending, has altered it to just; for 'tis much easier to conceive what Shakespeare fhould fay, than what he does fay. So juft before, the poet faid, with his ufual licence, their fawcy sweetness, for fawcy indulgence of the appetite.' And this, forfooth, must be changed to "fawcy lewdnefs," tho' the epithet confines us, as it were to the poet's word. WARB. L. 10. Falfely is the fame with dishonesty, illegally, fo falle in the next lines is illegal, illegitimate. JOHNS. L. 11. In restrained means. s.] In forbidden moulds. I fufpect means not to be the right word, but I cannot find ano ther. JOHNS. P. 274. L. 1. Pleas'd you to do't at peril, &c.] The reafoning is thus: Angelo afks, whether there might not be a charity in fin to fave this brother." Ifabella answers, that "if Angelo will fave him, she would take her foul that it were charity not fin." Angelo replies, that if "Ifabella would fave him at the hazard of her foul, it would be not indeed no fin, but a fin to which the charity would be equivalent. JOHNS. L. 7. And nothing of your anfwer.] I think it should be read, "And nothing of yours anfwer." You and whatever is yours be exempt from penalty. JOHNS. L. 21. Accountant to the law upon that pain] Pain is here for penalty, punishment. L. 25. But in the loss of question] The loss of question I do not well understand, and should rather read, "But in the tofs of question. In the agitation, in the difcuffion of the question. To tofs an argument is a common phrase. The Revifal reads, LIST of question. JOHNS. L. 29. The old editions read all-building law, from which the editors have made all-kolding; yet Mr. Theobald has binding in one of his copies. JOHNS. P. 275. L. 10.] A brother dy'd at once.] Perhaps we fhould read, Better it were a brother dy'd for once, JOHNS. L. 27. If not a feodary, but only be, &c.] This is fo obfcure, but the allufion is fo fine, that it deferves to be explained. A feodary was one, that in the times of vaffalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service: which tenures were called feuda amongst the Goths. Now, fays Angelo, "we are all frail; yes, replies Ifabella; if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecillity, and who fucceed each other by the fame tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original fin, to a feodary, who owes fuit and fervice to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined., WARB. L. 28. To owe is in this place, to own, to hold, to have poffeffion. JOHNS. L. 30. Glaffes Which are as eafy broke, as they make forms] Would it not be better to read, take forms? JOHNS. P. 276. L. 1. In profiting by them] In imitating them, in taking them for examples. JOHNS. L. 3. And credulous to falfe prints] i. e. take any impref fion. L. 14. WARB. Speak the former language] We should read formal, which he here uses for plain, direct. WARE. Ibid] Ifabella anfwers to his circumlocutory courtship, that fhe has but one tongue, the does not understand this new phrase, and defires him to talk his former language, that is, to talk as he talked before. JOHNS. L. 19. I know your virtue bath a licence in't] Alluding to the licences given by minifters to their spies, to go into all fufpected companies and join in the language of malecon tents. - WARB. ·feeming, feeming! -] Hypocrify, hypo rify; L. 25. Counterfeit virtue. JOHNS. L. 32. My vouch against you] The calling his denial of |