Bard. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat,* what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am cuftomfhrunk. How now? what's the news with you? Enter Clown. Clo. Yonder man is carried to prifon. Bawd. Well, what has he done? Clo. A woman. Barwd. But what's his offence? Clo. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.3 Clo. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: You have not heard of the proclamation, have you? Bawd. What proclamation, man? Clo. All houfes in the fuburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down. Bawd. And what fhall become of thofe in the city? Clo. They fhall ftand for feed: they had gone down too, but that a wife burgher put in for them. Barwd. But fhall all our houfes of refort in the fuburbs be pull'd down s Clo. 2 This may allude to the fweating fickness, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shakspeare: but more probably to the method of cure then ufed for the diseases contracted in brothels JOHNSON. "You are very moift, fir: did you fweat all this, I pray? 3 i. e, a river belonging to an individual; not public property. MALONE. 4 This is furely too general an expreffion, unless we fuppofe, that all the houfes in the suburbs were bawdy-boufes. It appears too, from what the barud fays below, "But fhail all our boufes of refort in the fuburbs be pulled down?" that the Clown had been particular in his defcription of the houfes which were to be pulled down. I am therefore inclined to believe that we should read here, ali bawdy-bouses, or all boufes of resort in the fuburbs. TYRWHITT. 5 This will be understood from the Scotch law of James's time, concerning buires (whores): that comoun women be put at the utmost endes of townes, queire least perril of fire is." Hence Urfula the pig-woman, in Bartholemew-Fair: « I, I, gamesters, mock a plain, plump, soft wench of the fuburbs, do!" FARMER. See Martial, where fummæniana and suburbana are applied to prostitutes. STEEVENS. The licenced houses of refort at Vienna are at this time all in the suburbs, under the permiffion of the Committee of Chastity. S. W. Clo. To the ground, miftrefs. Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth! What fhall become of me? Clo. Come; fear not you : good counsellors lack no clients : though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapfter ftill. Courage; there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almoft out in the fervice, you will be confidered. Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfter? let's withdraw. Clo. Here comes fignior Claudio, led by the provoft to prison; and there's madam Juliet. SCENE III. The fame. [Exeunt. Enter Provoft, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers; Lucio, and two Gentlemen. Claud. Fellow, why doft thou show me thus to the world? Bear me to prifon, where I am committed. Prov. I do it not in evil difpofition, But from lord Angelo by fpecial charge. Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down for our offence by weight.- Lucio. 6 The fenfe of the whole is this: The demi-god Authority makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be queftioned as the zwords of beaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus,—I punish and remit punishment according to my own uncontroulable will; and yet who can fay, what doft thou ?-Make us pay down for our offence by weight, is a fine expreffion to fignify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not fo by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the fpecies. WARBURTON. If fpect that a line is loft. JOHNSON. It may be read,The fword of heavens Thus can the demi-god Authority, Make us pay down for our offence, by weight ; The fword of beaven :-on whom, &c. Authority is then poetically called the fword of beaven, which will spare ст Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this reftraint? Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As furfeit is the father of much fast, So every scope by the immoderate ufe Turns to reftraint: Our natures do pursue, Lucio. If I could fpeak fo wifely under an arreft, I would fend for certain of my creditors: And yet, to fay the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio? Claud. What, but to fpeak of would offend again. Lucie. What is it? murder ? Claud. No. Lucio. Lechery? Claud. Call it fo. Prov. Away, fir; you must go. Claud. One word, good friend :-Lucio, a word with you. [Takes him afide. Lucio. Á hundred, if they'll do you any good.Is lechery fo lock'd after? Claud. or punish, as it is commanded. The alteration is flight, being made only by taking a fingle letter from the end of the word, and placing it at the beginning. This very ingenious and elegant emendation was fuggested to me by the Reverend Dr. Roberts, Provost of Eaton. STEEVENS. Notwithstanding Dr. Roberts's ingenious conjecture, the text is certainly right. Authority, being abfolute in Angelo, is finely ftyled by Claudio, the demi-god. To this uncontroulable power, the poet applies a pas fage from St. Paul to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15, 18, which he properly ftyles, the words of heaven: "for he faith to Mofes, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," &c. And again: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy," &c. HENLEY. It should be remembered, however, that the poet is here speaking not of mercy, but punishment. MALONE. Mr. Malone might have spared himself this remark, had he recollected that the words of St. Paul immediately following, and to which the &c. referred, are- and whom he will be bardenetb." See alfo the preceding verfe. HENLEY. 7 To ravin was formerly used for eagerly or voraciously devouring any thing: fo in Wilfon's Epiftle to the Earl of Leicester, prefixed to a Difcourfe upon Ufurye, 1572: "For thefe bee the greedie cormoraunte wolfes indeed, that ravyn up both beafte and man." REED. Ravin is an ancient word for prey. STEEVENS. Claud. Thus ftands it with me:-Upon a true contract, I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed; You know the lady; fhe is faft my wife, From whom we thought it meet to hide our love, But it chances, The stealth of our most mutual entertainment, With character too grofs, is writ on Juliet. Claud. Unhappily, even fo. And the new deputy now for the duke,— Or I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed, &c.] This fpeech is furely too indelicate to be spoken concerning Juliet, before her face; for the appears to be brought in with the reft, though fhe has nothing to say. The Clown points her out as they enter; and yet, from Claudio's telling Lucio, that he knows the lady, &c. one would think he was not meant to have made her perfonal appearance on the fcene. STEEVENS. The little feeming impropriety there is, will be entirely removed, by fuppofing that when Claudio ftops to speak to Lucio, the Provost's officers depart with Julietta. RITSON. Claudio may be supposed to speak to Lucio apart. MALONE. 9 This fingular mode of expreffion certainly demands fome elucidation. The fenfe appears to be this. "We did not think it proper publickly to celebrate our marriage; for this reafon, that there might be no hindrance to the payment of Fulietta's portion zubich was then in the hands of her friends; from whom, therefore, we judged it expedient to conceal our love till we bad gained their favour." Propagation being here used to fignify payment, muft have its root in the Italian word pagare. Edinburgh Magazine for November, 1786. I fuppofe the fpeaker means for the fake of getting fuch a dower as her friends might hereafter beftow on her, when time had reconciled them to her clandeftine marriage. STEEVENS. Perhaps we should read-only for prorogation. MALONE. 2 Fault and glimpfe have fo little relation to each other, that both can fcarcely be right: we may read flash for fault: or, perhaps, we may read, Whether it be the fault or glimpfe That is, whether it be the feeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. Yet the fame fenfe follows in the next lines. JOHNSON. Or whether that the body public be A horse whereon the governor doth ride, I ftagger in But this new governor Which have, like unfcour'd armour, hung by the wall Freshly on me :-'tis, furely, for a name. Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands fo tickle 4 on thy fhoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may figh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him. Claud. I have done fo, but he's not to be found. I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service: Such Fault, I apprehend, does not refer to any enormous act done by the deputy, (as Dr. Johnson feems to have thought,) but to neronefs. The fault and glimpfe is the fame as the faulty glimpfe. And the meaning feems to be-Whether it be the fault of newness, a fault arifing from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority, of which the new governor bas yet bad only a glimpse,-bas yet taken only a bafty furvey; or whether, &c. Shakspeare has many fimilar expreffions. MALONE. 3 The Duke, in the fcene immediately following, fays: Which for thefe fourteen years we have let flip. THEOBALD. 4 i. e. ticklish. This word is frequently used by our old dramatic authors. STEEVENS. 5 i. e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So again, in this play: "I, in probation of a fisterhood." MALONE. 6 I can fcarcely tell what fignification to give to the word Its prone primitive and tranflated fenfes are well known. The author may, by prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as thofe actions feem to which we are prone. Either |