PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SCENE, VIENNA.

DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold,

Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know a, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you:

Then, no more remains :

But that, to your sufficiency as your worth, is able;
And let them work . The nature of our people,

Put to know-equivalent to I cannot avoid knowing.

b Lists-limits.

We encounter at the onset one of the obscure passages for which this play is remarkable. The text is usually pointed thus:

- "IES

Our city's institutions, and the terms a

For common justice, you are as pregnant in,

As art and practice hath enriched any

That we remember: There is our commission,

From which we would not have you warp.-Call hither,

I say, bid come before us Angelo.

What figure of us think you he will bear?

For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply;

Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love;

And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: What think you of it?
ESCAL. If any in Vienna be of worth

To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is lord Angelo.

[Exit an Attendant.

It is certainly difficult to extract a clear meaning from this. Steevens proposes to read,

"Then" (says the Duke) "no more remains to say,

But your sufficiency as your worth is able,

And let them work."

In Letourneur's French translation the passage is rendered in this spirit. It is not our purpose to remove obscurities by additions or omissions, and therefore we leave the passage as in the original, excepting a slight alteration in the punctuation. We believe it may be read thus, without much difficulty: "Then, no more remains: (to say on government) But that, (your science) to your sufficiency, (joined to your authority) as your worth (as well as your virtue) is able; (equal to the duty) and let them work (call them into action).

a Terms. Blackstone explains this to mean the technical language of the courts, and adds, "An old book called Les Termes de la Ley' (written in Henry the Eighth's time) was in Shakspere's day, and is now, the accidence of young students in the law."

The commentators have stumbled at this passage. Johnson says, "What is there peculiar in this, that a man's life informs the observer of his history?" Monck Mason would correct the passage as follows:

"There is a kind of history in thy life,

That to the observer doth thy character
Fully unfold."

Surely character has here the original meaning of something engraved or inscribed—thy life is thy habits. Angelo was a man of decorum. The Duke afterwards says, "Lord Angelo is precise.”

a

Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do;

Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd
But to fine issues: nor nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use b. But I do bend my speech

To one that can my part in him advertise ©;

Hold, therefore, Angelo:

In our remove, be thou at full ourself:

Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: Old Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary:
Take thy commission.

■ They. So the original. In modern editions them, as corrected by Hanmer. But as Angelo might waste himself upon his virtues, they might waste themselves on him.

Use-interest of money.

• Alterations have been made and proposed in this passage. Hanmer reads—

"To one that can, in my part me advértise.”

This is to destroy the sense. My part in him is, my part deputed to him, which he can advertise -direct his attention to—without my speech.

Hold. Tyrwhitt supposes that the Duke here checks himself, Hold therefore; and that the word Angelo begins a new sentence. We have little doubt that the word hold is addressed to Angelo; and used technically in the sense of to have and to hold. Hold, therefore, our power, Angelo.

• Douce thus explains this passage:-"I delegate to thy tongue the power of pronouncing sentence of death, and to thy heart the privilege of exercising mercy."

'Leaven'd. As leaven slowly works to impart its quality to bread, so the considerations upon which the Duke made choice of Angelo have gradually fermented in his mind.