"I will discharge it either in your straw-colour'd "beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple in "grain, &c." Again, in the old comedy of Ram Alley, 1611. "What colour'd beard comes next by the window? "A black man's, I think. "I think, a red; for that is most in fashion." STEEVENS. A beard tied would give a very new air to that face, which had never been seen but with the beard loose, long, and squalid. JOHNSON. 54 First, here's young master Rash; &c.] This enumeration of the inhabitants of the prison affords a very striking view of the practices predominant in Shakspeare's age. Besides those whose follies are common to all times, we have four fighting men and a traveller. It is not unlikely that the originals of the pictures were then known. JOHNSON. 55 brown paper and old ginger,] Thus the old copy. The modern editors read, brown pepper. The following passage in Michaelmas Term, Com. 1607, will justify the original reading. "I know some gentlemen in town have been glad, and are glad at this time, to take up com"modities in hawk's-hoods and brown paper." STEEVENS. 56 for the Lord's sake.] i. e. to beg for the rest of their lives. WARBURTON. 57 The under generation,] So sir Thomas Hanmer, with true judgement. It was in all the former editions: To yonder y' under and yonder were confounded. JOHNSON. 58 the old fantastical duke-] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, the odd fantastical duke; but old is a commou word of aggravation in ludicrous language, as, there was old revelling. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. 59 woodman―] i. e. huntsman, here taken for a hunter of girls. 60 -we would, and we would not.] Here undoubtedly the act should end, and was ended by the poet; for here is properly a cessation of action, and a night intervenes, and the place is changed, between the passages of this scene, and those of the next. The next act beginning with the following scene, proceeds without any interruption of time or change of place. JOHNSON. 61 Enter Friar PETER.] This play has two Friars, either of whom might singly have served. I should therefore imagine, that Friar Thomas, in the first act, might be changed, without any harm, to Friar Peter; for why should the Duke unnecessarily 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 scene. 62-characts,] i. e. characters. JOHNSON. TYRWHIT. 3 How he refell'd me,] To refel is to refute. 65 -her promised proportions WARBURTON. Came short of composition;] Her fortune, which was promised proportionate to mine, fell short of the com position:-i. e. contract or bargain. JOHNSON. 66 informal women-] informal signifies out of their senses. STEEVENS. 67 like the forfeits in a barber's shop,] Barbers' shops were, at all times, the resort of idle people: Tonstrina erat quædam: hic solebamus ferè Plerumque eam opperiri which Donatus calls apta sedes otiosis. Formerly with us, the better sort of people went to the barber's shop to be trimmed; who then practised the under parts of surgery: so that he had occasion for numerous instruments, which lay there ready for use; and the idle people, with whom his shop was generally crowded, would be perpetually handling and misusing them. To remedy which, I suppose there was placed up against the wall a table of forfeitures, adapted to every offence of this kind; which it is not likely would long preserve its authority. WARBURTON. 6 That brain'd my purpose:] We now use in conversation a like phrase, This it was that knocked my design on the head. JOHNSON. 69 Till he did look on me ;] The duke has justly observed that Isabel is importuned against all sense to solicit for Angelo, yet here against all sense she solicits for him. Her argument is extraordinary : A due sincerity govern'd his deeds Till he did look on me: since it is so, That Angelo had committed all the crimes charged against him, as far as he could commit them, is evident. The only intent which his act did not overtake, was the defilement of Isabel. Of this Angelo was only intentionally guilty. Angelo's crimes were such, as must sufficiently justify punishment, whether its end be to secure the innocent from wrong, or to deter guilt by example; and I believe every reader feels some indignation when he finds him spared. From what extenuation of his crime, can Isabel, who yet supposes her brother dead, form any plea in his favour? Since he was good till he looked on me, let him not die. I am afraid our varlet poet intended to inculcate, that women think ill of nothing that raises the credit of their beauty, and are ready, however virtuous, to pardon any act which they think incited by their own charms. JOHNSON. 70 -perceives he's safe;] As Dr. Johnson well observes, it is strange that Isabel is not made to express either gratitude, wonder, or joy, at the sight of her brother. END OF VOLUME II. |