That refpites me a life, whofe very comfort Is ftill a dying horror! Prov 'Tis pity of him. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO'S Houfe Enter ANGELO. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and pray ́ And in my heart, the ftrong and fwelling evil 8 Grown fear'd and tedious; 7 yea, my gravity, X 3 To difficulty, and can fcarcely be confidered as an alteration, the trace of the letters in the words law and love being fo nearly alike. The law affected the life of the man only, not that of the woman; and this is the injury that Juliet complains of, as the wished to die with him. M. MASON. 6 Nothing can be either plainer or exacter than this expreffion. [Dr. Warburton means-intention, a word fubftituted by himself.] But the old blundering folio having it, invention, this was enough for Mr. Theobald to prefer authority to fenfe. WARBURTON. Intention (if it be the true reading) has, in this inftance more than its common meaning, and fignifies eagerness of defire. STERVENS. I believe it means attention only, a fenfe in which the word is frequently afed by Shakspeare and the other writers of his time. Angelo fays, he thinks and prays to several subjects; that Heaven has his prayers, but his thoughts are fixed on Ifabel. M. MASON. K 7 We should read feared, i. e. old. So, Shakspeare ufes in the fear, to fignify old age. WARBURTON. I think fear'd may stand. What we go to with reluctance may be faid to be fear'd. JOHNSON. 8 Boot is profit, advantage, gain. STEEVENS. 9 For outfide; garb; external fhew. JOHNSON I might not invention be put here for fame or imagination? W.. 2 To thy falfe feeming? Blood, thou still art blood : Enter 2 Here Shakspeare judiciously distinguishes the different operations of high place upon different minds. Fools are frighted, and wife men are allured. Thofe who cannot judge but by the eye, are easily awed by plendour; thofe who confider men as well as conditions, are eafily per fuaded to love the appearance of virtue dignified with power. JOHNSON. 3 i. e. Let the most wicked thing have but a virtuous pretence, and it thall pass for innocent. This was his conclufion from his preceding words : O form! How often doft thou with thy cafe, thy habit, To thy falfe feeming? But the Oxford editor makes him conclude juft counter to his own pre. mifes; by altering it to, Is't not the devil's creft? So that, according to this alteration, the reasoning ftands thus :s:-Falfe feeming, wrenches awe from fools, and deceives the wife. Therefore, Let us but write good angel on the devil's born, (i, e. give him the appearance of an angel;) and what then? Is't not the devil's creft? (i. e. he shall be efteemed a devil.) WARBURTON. I am still inclined to the opinion of the Oxford editor. Angelo, reflecting on the difference between his feeming character, and his real difpofi. tion, obferves, that he could change his gravity for a plume. He then digreffes into an apostrophe, O dignity, how doft thou impose upon the world! then returning to himself, Blood (fays he) thou art but blood, however con cealed 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; is't not or rather-'Tis yet the devil's creft. It may however be understood, according to Dr. Warburton's explana tion. O place, how doft thou impofe upon the world by falfe appearances! fo much, that if we write good angel on the devil's born, 'tis not taken any longer to be the devil's creft. In this fenfe, Blood, thou art but blood! is an interjected exclamation. JoHNSON. A Hebrew proverb feems to favour Dr. Johnson's reading: -"Tis yet the devil's creft." "A nettle standing among myrtles, doth notwithstanding retain the name of a nettle." STEEVENS. This paffage, as it ftands, appears to me to be right, and Angelo's eafoning to be this: "O place! O form! though you wrench awe from rools, and tie even wifer fouls to your false feeming, yet you make no altertion in the minds or conftitutions of those who poffefs, or affume you.➡ Thou gh Why does my blood thus mufter to my heart; And difpoffeffing all my other parts Of neceffary fitnefs? So play the foolish throngs with one that fwoons; By which he should revive: and even fo X 4 Crowd Though we should write good angel on the devil's horn, it will not change his nature, fo as to give him a right to wear that creft." It is well known that the creft was formerly chofen either as emblematical of fume quality confpicuous in the perfon who bore it, or as alluding to fome remarkable incident of his life; and on this circumstance depends the juftness of the prefent allufion. M. MASON. It should be remembered, that the devil is ufually reprefented with borns and cloven feet. The old copy appears to me to require no altera. tion. MALONE. 4 The later editions have-" subjects;" but the old copies read: The general fubject to a well-wijh'd king.- The general subject seems a harsh expreffion, but general subjects has no fenfe at all, and general was, in our author's time, a word for people; fa that the general is the people, or multitude, fubject to a king. So, in Hamlet: "The play pleafed not the million 'twas caviare to the general." JOHNSON. I cannot help thinking that Shakspeare, in these two paffages, intended to flatter the unkingly weakness of James the Firft, which made him fo impatient of the crowds that flocked to see him, especially upon his first coming, that, as fome of our hiftorians fay, he restrained them by a proclamation. Sir Symonds D'Ewes, in his Memoirs of his own Life, has a remarkable paffage with regard to this humour of James. After taking notice, that the King going to parliament, on the 30th of January, 1620-1, "fpake lovingly to the people, and faid, God bless ye, God bless ye;" he adds these words, contrary to his former hafty and paffionate cuftom, which often, in his fudden diftemper, would bid a pox or a plague on fuch as flocked to fee him." TYR WHITT. Crowd to his prefence, where their untaught loveoffence. Muft needs appear Enter ISABELLA. I am come to know your pleasure. Ang. That you might know it, would much better please me, Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live. Ifab. Even fo?-Heaven keep your honour! Ang. Yea. Ifab. When, I befeech you? that in his reprieve, Longer, or fhorter, he may be fo fitted, That his foul ficken not. [Retiring Ang. Ha! Fie thefe filthy vices! It were as good. To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen A man already made,' as to remit Their fawey fweetnefs, that do coin heaven's image, As to put mettle in reftrained means, To make a falfe one. Ijab. 'Tis fet down fo in heaven, but not in earth.9 5 i. e. that hath killed a man. MALONE. Ange Their fawcy fweetness Dr. Warburton interprets, their farvey indulgence of their appetite. Perhaps it means nearly the fame as what is afterwards called fweet uncleanness. MALONE. Savectiefs, in the prefent instance has, I believe, the fame fenfe aslickerinefs. STEEVENS. Falfely is the fame with difpereftly, illegally: so falfe, in the next line but one, is illegal, illegitimate. JOHNSON. 3 In forbidden moulds. I fufpe&t means not to be the right word, but I cannot find another. JOHNSON. I fhould fuppofe that our author wrote,. -in reftrained mints, as the allufion may be still to coining. Sir W. D'Avenant omits the paffage. STEEVENS. 9 I would have it confidered, whether the train of the difcourfe does not rather require Isabel to say : Ang. Say you fo? then I fhall poze you quickly. I had rather give my body than my foul.2 Ang. I talk not of your foul; Our compell'd fins Stand more for number than accompt.3 Inb. How fay you?? Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speakAgainst the thing I fay. Anfwer to this ; I, now the voice of the recorded law, Pronounce a fentence on your brother's life : To fave this brother's life? Iab. Please you to do't, I'll take it as a peril to my foul, It is no fin at all, but charity.. Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your foul, Were equal poize of fin and charity. X 5, Ijab. 'Tis fo fet down in earth, but not in heaven.. When he has faid this, Then, fays Angelo,-I shall poze you quickly. Would you, who, for the prefent purpofe, declare your brother's crime to be lefs in the fight of heaven, than the law has made it; would you. commit that crime, light as it is, to fave your brother's life? To this the anfwers, not very plainly in either reading, but more appofitely to that which I propofe : I bad rather give my body than my foul. JOHNSON What you have ftated is undoubtedly the divine law: murder and fornication are both forbid by the canon of fcripture;-but on earth the latter offence is confidered as lefs heinous than the former. MALONE. 2 Ifabel, I believe, ufes the words, give my body," in a different: fenfe from that in which they had been employed by Angelo. She means, I think, I had rather di, toan forfeit my eternal happiness by the proft tution of my perfon. MALONE. She may mean-1 had rather give up my body to imprisonment, than my foul to perdition. STEEVENS 3 Actions to which we are compelled, however numerous, are not imputed to us by heaven as crimes. If you cannot fave your brother but by the lofs of your chastity, it is not a voluntary but compelled fin, for which you cannot be accountable. MALONE. 4- The reasoning is thus: Angelo asks, whether there might not be a charity, |