Lucio. I fear you not. Duke. O you hope the duke will return no more, or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm: you'll forswear this again. Lucio. I'll be hang'd first friar. But no more of this. die to-morrow, or no? thou art deceived in me, Canst thou tell, if Claudio Duke. Why should he die, sir? Lucio. Why? for filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would, the duke, we talk of, were return'd again: this ungenitur'd agent will unpeople the province with continency; sparrows must not build in his house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answer'd; he would never bring them to light would he were return'd! Marry, this Claudio is condemn'd for untrussing. Farewell, good friar; I pr'ythee, pray for me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on Fridays. He's now past it'; yet, and I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown bread and garlic: say, that I said so. Farewell. [Exit. Duke. No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape: back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong, Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? Enter ESCALUS, Provost, Bawd, and Officers. Escal. Go away with her to prison! 7 too unhurtful an OPPOSITE.] i. e. Adversary or opponent. * — eat MUTTON on FRIDAYS.] This figure is taken from the fasting required on Fridays, and from the word mutton being applied to flesh, both human and bestial. Mutton and laced mutton were the commonest terms applied to prostitutes in Shakespeare's time. • He's now past it ;] Monck Mason could not understand this passage as restored from the old copies. Lucio says, in reference to the Duke's years, that "he's now past it," yet that, notwithstanding, he would " mouth with a beggar." Sir Thos. Hanmer read, “He's not past it," which is the very reverse of what was intended. Bawd. Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is accounted a merciful man: good my lord. Escal. Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in the same kind? This would make mercy swear, and play the tyrant. Prov. A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please your honour. Bawd. My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me. Mistress Kate Keep-down was with child by him in the duke's time: he promised her marriage; his child is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob. I have kept it myself, and see how he goes about to abuse me! Escal. That fellow is a fellow of much licence:-let him be called before us.-Away with her to prison! Go to; no more words. [Exeunt Bawd and Officers.] Provost, my brother Angelo will not be alter'd; Claudio must die to-morrow. Let him be furnished with divines, and have all charitable preparation if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him. Prov. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advised him for the entertainment of death. Escal. Good even, good father. Duke. Bliss and goodness on you. Escal. Of whence are you? Duke. Not of this country, though my chance is now To use it for my time: I am a brother Of gracious order, late come from the See, Escal. What news abroad i' the world? Duke. None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it: novelty is only in request; and as it is as dangerous' to be aged 1 — and as it is as dangerous, &c.] Hitherto "as" has been omitted in all the modern editions, the commentators having been misled by the period, mistakenly inserted by the old printer after the word "undertaking," although the sense clearly runs on, and is not concluded until the word "accurs'd." Thus has a decided error been repeated for two centuries. in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking, there is scarce truth enough alive to make societies secure, but security enough to make fellowships accurs'd 2. Much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke? Escal. One that, above all other strifes, contended especially to know himself. Duke. What pleasure was he given to? Escal. Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any thing which profess'd to make him rejoice: a gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous, and let me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand, that you have lent him visitation. Duke. He professes to have received no sinister measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of justice; yet had he framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many deceiving promises of life, which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is he resolved to die. Escal. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother justice have I found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him, he is indeed-justice. Duke. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself. Escal. I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well. 2 - to make fellowships accurs'd.] "The sense is (says Holt White) there scarcely exists sufficient honesty in the world to make social life secure ; but there are occasions enough where a man may be drawn in to become surety, which will make him pay dearly for his friendships." VOL. II. F Duke. Peace be with you! [Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost. He, who the sword of heaven will bear, 3 Should be as holy as severe; [Exit. 3 Grace to stand, and virtue go ;] Coleridge, in his "Literary Remains," II. 124, observes upon this passage, "Worse metre, indeed, but better English would be: "Grace to stand, virtue to go." Monck Mason proposed to read,— "In grace to stand, and virtue go;" but we had better leave the text as we find it in such cases. : 4 Most pond'rous and substantial things!] The passage ending with this line is very difficult it is possible that the author's brevity rendered it obscure originally, and that it has since been made worse by corruption. "Likeness" has been construed comeliness, but "likeness made in crimes" may refer to the resemblance in vicious inclination between Angelo and Claudio. Steevens gave up the four lines as quite unintelligible, and the other commentators have not extracted much meaning out of them. We have printed the old text, as at least as good as any of the proposed emendations: the sense seems to be, "how may persons of similar criminality, by making practice on the times, draw to themselves, as it were with spiders' webs, the ponderous and substantial benefits of the world." ACT IV. SCENE I. A Room at the moated Grange. MARIANA discovered sitting: a Boy singing. SONG. Take, O! take those lips away 5, bring again, Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, seal'd in vain. Mari. Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away: Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often still'd my brawling discontent. Enter DUKE. I cry you mercy, sir; and well could wish [Exit Boy. 5 Take, O! take those lips away,] The earliest authority for assigning this song to Shakespeare (excepting that one stanza of it is found here) is the spurious edition of his Poems printed in 1640. It is inserted entire in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Bloody Brother," A. v. sc. 2, and there the second stanza runs as follows: "Hide, oh, hide those hills of snow, Which thy frozen bosom bears, But first set my poor heart free, Bound in those icy chains by thee." It may be doubted whether either stanza was the authorship of Shakespeare, as it certainly was the frequent custom of dramatists of that day to insert songs in their plays which were not of their own writing; but, on the other hand, we have no proof that such was the usual practice of Shakespeare; coupling the two circumstances that one stanza of the song is found in "Measure for Measure," and that the whole was imputed to Shakespeare in 1640, his claim may perhaps be admitted, until better evidence is adduced to deprive him of it. |