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Tongue far from heart,-play with all virgins fo:
I hold you as a thing ensky'd, and fainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit ;
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me.

Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus : Your brother and his lover 9 have embrac'd:

As thofe that feed grow full; as bloffoming time,*
That from the feedness the bare fallow brings

Το

wings fly, with feeming fright and anxiety, far from their nefts, to deceive thofe who feek their young. And do not all other birds do the fame? But what has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover, to whom this bird is compared? It is another quality of the lapwing that is here alluded to, viz. its perpetually flying fo low and fo near the paffenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is fuddenly gone again. This made it a proverbial expreffion to fignify a lover's falfhood: and it feems to be a very old one; for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, fays:

And lapwings that well conith lie." WARBURTON.

The modern editors have not taken in the whole fimilitude here: they have taken notice of the lightness of a fpark's behaviour to his mistress, and compared it to the lapwing's hovering and fluttering as it flies. But the chief, of which no notice is taken, is,————————— and to jeft." (See Ray's Proverbs) The lapwing cries, tongue far from heart." i. e. moft fartheft from the neft, i. e. She is, as Shakspeare has it here,-Tongue far from heart. "The farther the is from her neft, where her heart is with her young ones, fhe is the louder, or perhaps all tongue." SMITH. 8 i. e. in few words, and those true ones. In few, is many times thus ufed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

9 i. e. his mistress; lover, in our author's time, being applied to the female as well as the male fex. MALONE.

2 As the fentence now stands, it is apparently ungrammatical. I read, At blooming time, &c.

That is, As they that feed grow full, fo her womb now at bloffoming time, at that time through which the feed time proceeds to the barveft, her womb fhows what has been doing. Lucio ludicrously calls pregnancy blooming time, the time when fruit is promised, though not yet ripe. JOHNSON. Instead of that, we may read--doth; and, instead of brings, bring. Foizon is plenty. Teeming foizon, is abundant produce. STEEVENS.

The paffage feems to me to require no amendment; and the meaning of it is this: "As bloffoming time proves the good tillage of the farmer, fo the fertility of her womb expreffes Claudio's full tilth and husbandry." By blooming time is meant, the time when the ears of corn are formed.

M. MASON.

To teeming foifon; even fo her plenteous womb
Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry.

Ifab. Some one with child by him?-My coufin Juliet ? Lucio. Is the your coufin?

Ifab. Adoptedly; as fchool-maids change their names, By vain though apt affection.

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Ifab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio.
This is the point.
The duke is very ftrangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myfelf being one,
In hand, and hope of action : 3 but we do learn
By thofe that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite diftance
From his true meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs lord Angelɔ; a`man, whose blood
Is very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the fenfe;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and fast.
He (to give fear to ufe 5 and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions,) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whofe heavy fenfe your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrefts him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo; and that's my pith

Of bufinefs 7 'twixt you and your poor brother.

U 3

Lab.

3 To bear in band is a common phrase for to keep in expectation and dependance; but we should read:

with hope of action. JOHNSON.

4 With full extent, with the whole length. JOHNSON.

5 To intimidate fe, that is, practices long countenanced by cuftom.

JOHNSON. That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So, when

fhe makes her fuit, the provoft fays:

"Heaven give thee moving graces!" JOHNSON. 7 The inmost part, the main of my meffage. JOHNSON.

Has cenfur'd him ⋅

Ifab. Doth he fo feek his life?

Lucio.

Already; and, as I hear, the provoft hath

A warrant for his execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor ability's in me To do him good?

Lucio.

Affay the power you have.
Ifab. My power! Alas! I doubt,-
Lucio.
And make us lofe the good we oft might win,

Our doubts are traitors,

By fearing to attempt: Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs 9

As they themselves would owe them.2

Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.

Lucio.

But, speedily.
Ifab. I will about it ftraight;

No longer staying but to give the mother 3
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you;
Commend me to my brother: foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my fuccefs.
Lucio. I take my leave of
fab.

you.

8 i. e. fentenced him. STEEVENS.

Good fir, adieu.

[Exeunt.

We should read, I think, He bas cenfured bim, &c. In the Mfs. of our author's time, and frequently in the printed copy of thefe plays, be bas, when intended to be contracted, is written-b'as. Hence probably the mistake here. MALONE.

All their requests are as freely granted to them, are granted in as full and beneficial a manner, as they themselves could with. The edi tor of the fecond folio arbitrarily reads as truly theirs; which has been followed in all the fubfequent copies. MALONE.

2 To owe, fignifies in this place, as in many others, to poffefs, to have. STEEVENS.

3 The abbefs, or priorefs. JOHNSON.

ACT

ACT II. SCENE I.

A Hall in ANGELO'S Houfe.

4

Enter ANGILO, ESCALUS, a Juftice, Provoft, Officers, and other Attendants.

Ang. We muft not make a fcare-crow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,s

And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch, and not their terror.

Efcal.

Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

6

Than fall, and bruife to death: Alas! this gentleman,
Whom I would fave, had a moft noble father.

Let but your honour know,"

(Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,)
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the refolute acting of

your blood

Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Err'd in this point which now you cenfure him,

And pull'd the law upon you.

Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Efcalus,

Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury, paffing on the prifoner's life,

May, in the fworn twelve, have a thief or two

Guiltier than him they try: What's open made to justice,

U
4

That

4 A Provost martial, Mahieu explains, "Prevoft des marefchaux; Præfectus rerum capitalium, Prætor rerum capitalium." REED.

A provoft is generally the executioner of an army. STEEVENS. A prifon for military offenders is at this day, in some places, called the Previt. MALONE.

The Provet here, is not a military officer, but a kind of sheriff or gaoler, fo called in foreign countries. DOUCE.

5 To fear is to

to affright, to terrify. STEEVENS.

6 I fhould rather read fell, i. e. ftrike down. WARBURTON. Fall is the old reading, and the true one. Shakspeare has used the fame verb active in The Comedy of Errors. STEEVENS.

7 To know is here to examine, to take cognisance. JOHNSON.

That juftice feizes. What know the laws,

That thieves do pafs on thieves? 8 'Tis very pregnant,
The jewel that we find, we ftoop and take it,
Becaufe we fee it; but what we do not fee,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not fo extenuate his offence,
For I have had 2 fuch faults; but rather tell me,
When I, that cenfure him, do fo offend,

Let mine own judgement pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he muft die.
Efcal. Be it as your wifdom will.

Aug.

Where is the provoft?

Prov. Here, if it like your honour.

Ang.

See that Claudio

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:
Bring him his confeffor, let him be prepar'd;
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

[Exit Provoft. Efcal. Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all! Some rife by fin, and fome by virtue fall :

Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none;
And fome condemned for a fault alone.3

Enter

8 How can the adminiftrators of the laws take. cognizance of what I have just mentioned? How can they know, whether the jury men whe decide on the life or death of thieves be themselves as criminal as those whom they try? To pafs on is a forenfck term. MALONE.

9 'Tis plain that we must act with bad as with gocd; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages that lie in our way, and what we do not fee we cannot note. JOHNSON.

2 That is, becaufe, by reafon that I have had fuch faults. JOHNSON. 3 Some rife, &c.] This line is in the first folio printed in Italics as a quotation. All the folios read in the next line:

Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none. JOHNSON,

The old reading is, perhaps, the true one, and may mean, fome run away from danger, and stay to answer none of their faults, whilft others are condemned only on account of a fingle frailty.

If this be the true reading, it should be printed:

Some run from breaks [i. e. fractures] of ice, &c.

Since I fuggefted this, I have found reafon to change my opinion. A brake anciently meant not only a sharp bit, a fnaffle, but alfo the engine with which fairiers confined the legs of fuch unruly borfes as would not otherwife fubmit themfelves to be fhod, or to have a cruel operation performed on them. This, in fome places, is ftill called a fmith's brake. In

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