And well she can perfuade.

Lucio. I pray, the may, as well for the encouragement of the like, which elfe would stand under grievous impofition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be forry should be thus foolishly loft at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.

Lucio. Within two hours,
Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE

[Exeunt.

VII.

1

Duke.

A MONASTERY.

Enter Duke, and Friar Thomas.

N

O; holy father--Throw away that thought--
Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love

* Can pierce a compleat bosom; why I defire thee
To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpose
More grave, and wrinkled, than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri. May your Grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy Sir, none better knows than you,
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;
And held in idle price to haunt Affemblies,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

A man of stricture and firm abstinence 9

7

- under grieucus impofition.) I once thought it should be in quisition, but the present reading is probably right. The crime would be under grievous penalties imposed.

Think not that a breaft com leatly armed can be pierced by the dart of love that comes fluttering without force.

My absolute Pow'r and Place here in Vienna;
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I've strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: now, pious Sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict Statutes and most biting Laws,
The needful bits and curbs for head-strong Steeds,
Which for these nineteen years we have let sleep; 2
Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,
That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their Children's fight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: so our Decrees,

A man of STRICT URE and firm abstinence.

teen.

let flip, For fourteen I have made no Scruple to replace nineI have alter'd the odd Phrase of letting the Laws flip: for how does it fort with the Comparison that follows, of a Lion in his Cave that went not out to prey? But letting the Laws fleep, adds a particular Propriety to the thing represented, and accords exactly too with the Simile. It is the Metaphor too, that our Author seems fond of using upon this Occafion, in se veral other Passages of this Play. The Law bath not been dead, tho' it hath slept;

i. e. a man of the exactest con-
duct, and practised in the fub-
dual of his paffions. Ure an old
word for use, practice, so enur'd,
habituated to. WARBURTON.
Stricture may easily be used for
ftriliness; ure is indeed an old
word, but, I think, always ap-
plied to things, never to perfons.
In the copies, The needful
Bits and Curbs for headit ong
Weeds:) There is no matter
of Analogy or Confonance, in
the Metaphors here: and, tho
the Copies agree, I do not think,
the Author would have talk'd of
Bits and Curbs for Weeds. On
the other hand, nothing can be And so, again,
more proper, than to compare
Persons of unbridled Licentiousness
to head strong Seeds: and, in this
View, bridling the Paffions has
been a Phrafe adopted by our
best Poets.
THEOBALD.

'Tis now awake.

but this new Governor

Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And Liberty plucks Justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It rested in your Grace

T' unloose this ty'd up justice, when you pleas'd :
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful.
Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them,
For what I bid them do. For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,
And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office:
Who may in th' ambush of my name strike home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight
To do it slander. 3 And to behold his sway,
I will, as 'twere a Brother of your Order,
Visit both prince and people. Therefore, pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear,
Like a true Friar. More reasons for this action
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard + with envy; scarce confeffes
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we fee,
If pow'r change purpose, what our seemers be. [Exeunt.

4

Ijab. A

SCENE VIII.

A NUNNERY.

Enter Isabella and Francisca.

ND have you Nuns no further privileges?
Nun. Are not these large enough?

Isab. Yes, truly; I speak not as defiring more;
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the fifter-hood, the votarists of Saint Clare.
Lucio. [within.] Hoa! Peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that, which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice. Gentle Ifabella,
Turn you the key, and know his business of him;
You may; I may not; you are yet unsworn :
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the prefence of the Prioress;
Then, if you fpeak, you must not shew your face;
Or, if you shew your face, you must not fpeak.
He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [Exit Franc.
Ifab. Peace and profperity! who is't that calls ?

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, (if you be) as those cheek-roses
Proclaim you are no less; can you so stead me,
As bring me to the fight of Ijabella,
A novice of this place, and the fair fifter
To her unhappy brother Claudio ?

Ifab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Ifabella, and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you;

Not to be weary with you, he's in prifon.

Ifab. Wo me! for what?

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge,

He should receive his punishment in thanks;

He

He hath got his friend with child.

Ifab. Sir, make me not your story.s

Lucio. 'Tis true :-I would not (tho' 'tis my familiar

fin

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,
Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo.
I hold you as a thing en-sky'd, and fainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal Spirit;
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a Saint.

Isab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me.
Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus.

Your brother and his lover having embrac'd,
As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time 7
That from the feedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foyson, so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

5

Ifab. Someone with child by him? - my cousin Juliet?
Lucio. Is the your coufin?

Ifab. Adoptedly, as school-maids change their names,

- make me not your story.) Do not, by deceiving me, make me a fubject for a tale.

6

-'tis my familiar fin With maids to fem the lopwing,-] The Oxford Editor's note, on this paffage, is in these words. The lapwings fly with seeming fright and anxiety far from their nests, to deceve those who seek their young. And do not all other birds do the same? But what has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover, to whom this bird is compared. It is another quality of the lapwing, that is here alluded to, viz. its perpetually flying fo low and so near the passenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is fuddenly gone again. This made it a proverbial expreffion

to fignify a lover's falfhood: and
it seems to be a very old one;
for Chaucer, in his Plowman's
Tale, fays
well couth lie.

7

And aw ngs that
WARBURTON.

-as b'offoming time
That from the se dness the bare
fal ow brings

To teeming forfn; fo-] As the sentence now stands it is apparently ungrammatical, I read,

At bloff ming time, &c. That is, As they that feed grow full, to her womb now at bloffoming time, at that time through wh co the feed time proceeds to the harvest, her womb shows what has been doing. Lucio ludicroufly calls pregnancy bl fjoming time, the time when fruit is promifed, though not yet ripe.

By