Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

I should not think it strange; for 'tis. a phyfick,
That's bitter to fweet end.

Mari. I would, friar Peter

Ifab.

O, peace; the friar is comé.

Enter Friar PETER.2

F. Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, Where you may have such vantage on the duke,

He fhall not pafs you: Twice have the trumpets founded; The generous and gravest citizens

Have hent the gates, 4 and very near upon

The duke is ent❜ring; therefore hence, away.

[blocks in formation]

[Exeunt.

MARIANA (veil'd) ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance, Enter at oppofite doors, DUKE, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO. ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens.

Duke. My very worthy coufin, fairly met:Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to fee

you.

Ang. and Efcal. Happy return be to your royal grace! Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. We have made enquiry of you; and we hear Such goodness of your juftice, that our foul Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, Fore-running more requital.

Ang.

You make my bonds ftill greater. Duke. O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it,

Το

2 This play has two friars, either of whom might fingly have ferved. 1 fhould therefore imagine, that Friar Thomas, in the first act, might be changed, without any harm, to Friar Peter; for why should the Duke unneceffarily trust two in an affair which required only one? The name of Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore seems arbitrarily placed at the head of the fcene. JOHNSON.

3 i. e. the most noble, &c, Generous is here used in itsLatin fenfe. Virgo generofa et nobilis." Cicero. STEEVENS.

!

4 Have feized or taken poffeffion of the gates. JOHNSON.

To lock it in the wards of covert bofom,
When it deferves with characters of brafs
A forted refidence, 'gainst the tooth of time,
And razure of oblivion: Give me your hand,
And let the subject see, to make them know
That outward courtefies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within.-Come, Efcalus;
You must walk by us on our other hand ;-
And good fupporters are you.

PETER and ISABELLA come forward.

F. Peter. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel be. fore him.

Ifab. Juftice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard 5
Upon a wrong'd, I'd fain have faid, a maid!
O worthy prince, difhonour not your eye

By throwing it on any other object,

Till you have heard me in my true complaint,

And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!

Duke. Relate your wrongs: In what? By whom? Pe brief:

Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice;

Reveal yourself to him.

Ifab.

O, worthy duke,

You bid me feek redemption of the devil:

Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak

Muft either punish me, not being believ'd,

Or wring redrefs from you: hear me, O, hear me, here.
Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:

She hath been a fuitor to me for her brother,

Cut off by course of justice.

[ocr errors]

By courfe of juftice!

Ang. And fhe will speak most bitterly, and strange. Ifab. Moft ftrange, but yet moft truly, will I fpeak: That Angelo's forfworn; is it not strange?

That Angelo's a murderer; is't not strange?

That Angelo is an adulterous thief,

An

5 That is, withdraw your thoughts from higher things, let your nɔtice defcend upon a wronged woman. To vail is to lower. JOHNSON.

An hypocrite, a virgin-violater;

Nay, it is ten times ftrange.

Is it not strange, and strange?

Duke.

Ifab. It is not truer he is Angelo,
That this is all as true as it is ftrange:
Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
To the end of the reckoning,

Duke.

Away with her :-Poor foul,

She speaks this in the infirmity of fenfe.

Ifab. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ❜ft
There is another comfort than this world,
That thou neglect me not, with that opinion

That I am touch'd with madness: make not impoffible,
That which but feems unlike: 'tis not impoffible,
But one, the wicked'ft caitiff on the ground,
May feem as fhy, as grave, as juft, as abfolute, 6
As Angelo; even fo may Angelo,

In all his dreffings, characts, titles, forms,
Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince,
If he be lefs, he's nothing; but he's more,
Had I more name for badnefs.

Duke.

By mine honesty,
If fhe be mad, (as I believe no other,)
Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
Such a dependency of thing on thing,

As e'er I heard in madness.

Ifab.

5 That is, truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of encrease can be fo much what it is, as truth is truth. There may be a ftrange thing, and a thing more frange, but if a propofition be true, there can be none more true. JOHNSON.

As fhy; as referved, as abstracted: as juft; as nice, as exact: as abfolute; as complete all in the round of duty. JOHNSON.

7 In all his femblance of virtue, in all his habiliments of office.

JOHNSON. 8 -characts,] i. e. characters. See Dugdale, Orig. Jurid. p. 81:— "That he use ne hide, no charme, ne carečte." TYRWHITT.

Charact fignifies an infcription. The ftat. 1 Edward VI. c. 2. directed the feals of office of every bishop to have certain characts under the king's arms, for the knowledge of the diocefe." Characters are the letters in which the infcription is written. Charactery is the materials of which characters are compofed.

"Fairies ufe flowers for their charactery.”

Merry Wives of Windfor. BLACKSTONE,

Ifab.
O, gracious duke,
Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason
For inequality :9 but let your reason serve
To make the truth appear, where it seems hid
And hide the falfe, feems true.2

Duke.
Many that are not mad,
Have, fure, more lack of reafon.-What would you say?
Ifab. I am the fifter of one Claudio,
Condemn'd upon the act of fornication
To lofe his head; condemn'd by Angelo:
I, in probation of a fifterhood,

Was fent to by my brother: One Lucio
As then the messenger ;-

That's I, an't like your grace:

Lucio.
I came to her from Claudio, and defir'd her
To try her gracious fortune with lord Angelo,
For her poor brother's pardon.

Ifab.

Duke. You were not bid to speak.

Lucio.

Nor with'd to hold my peace.

Duke.

That's he, indeed.

No, my good lord;

I wish you now then;

Pray you, take note of it: and when you have
A bufinefs for yourfelf, pray heaven, you then
Be perfect.

Lucio.

I warrant your honour.

9 Let not the high quality of my adverfary prejudice you against me. JOHNSON. Inequality appears to me to mean, in this place, apparent inconfiftency; and to have no reference to the high rank of Angelo, as Johnfon fuppofes. M. MASON.

I imagine the meaning rather is-Do not fuppofe I am mad, becaufe I fpeak paffionately and unequally. MALONE.

2 And for ever bide, i. e. plunge into eternal darknefs, the falfe one, i. e. Angelo, who now feems honeft. Many other words would have expreffed our poet's meaning better than bide; but he feems to have chofen it merely for the fake of oppofition to the preceding line. Mr. Theobald unneceffarily reads-Not hide the falfe,-which has been followed by the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

I do not profefs to understand these words; nor can I perceive how the meaning fuggefted by Mr, Malone is to be deduced from them.

[blocks in formation]

STEEVENS.

Duke

Duke. The warrant's for yourself; take heed to it,
Ifab. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale.
Lucio. Right.

Duke. It may be right; but you are in the wrong
To speak before your time.-Proceed.

Ifab.

To this pernicious caitiff deputy.

Duke. That's fomewhat madly spoken.
Ifab.

The phrafe is to the matter.

I went

Pardon it.

Duke. Mended again: the matter;-Proceed.
Ifab. In brief,-to fet the needlefs process by,
How I perfuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,
How he refell'd me,4 and how I reply'd ;

(For this was of much length,) the vile conclufion
I now begin with grief and fhame to utter:
He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
To his concupifcible intemperate luft,5

Release my brother; and, after much debatement,
My fifterly remorfe confutes mine honour,

And I did yield to him: But the next morn betimes,
His purpofe furfeiting, he fends a warrant

For my poor brother's head.

Duke.

This is most likely! Ifab. O, that it were as like as it is true!8

Duke.

4 To refel is to refute. The modern editors changed the word to repel. STEEVENS.

5 To bis concupifcible, &c.] Such is the old reading. The modern editors unauthoritatively substitute concupifcent. STEEVENS. 6 My fifterly remorse-] i. e. pity. So, in King Richard III; And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse." STEEVENS. 7 Thus the old copy. We might read forfeiting, but the former word is too much in the manner of Shakspeare to be rejected. So, in Othello:

66 my hopes not furfeited to death." STEEVENS.

Like is not here used for probable, but for feemly. She catches at the Duke's word, and turns it into another sense; of which there are a great many examples in Shakspeare, and the writers of that time.

WARBURTON. I do not fee why like may not ftand here for probable, or why the lady fhould not wish, that fince her tale is true, it may obtain belief. If Dr. Warburton's explication be right, we should read:

O! thas

« ZurückWeiter »