Let him be whipt and hang'd. Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore. Your highness said even now, I made you a Duke: good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold. Duke. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. Remit thy other forfeits.-Take him to prison; 515 Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging. Duke. Slandering a prince deserves it. 521 [Exeunt Officers with Lucio. She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue. Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness: What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know. 519 executed] execute Hanmer. 522 [Exeunt...Lucio] Dyce. 523 She] Her Hanmer. 527, 532 Johnson conjectures: Ang. The offence pardons itself. Duke. gratulate. Dear Isabel,... 525 530 535 [Exeunt. 527 gratulate] gratulating Keightley conj. 537 that's] FF3F4 that F1. [Exeunt.] Rowe. Curtain drawn. Collier, ed. 2 (Collier MS.). om. Ff. NOTES. NOTE I. I. 1. 7-10. The suggestion that a line has been lost in this place came first from Theobald. It is scarcely necessary to say that there is no mark of omission in the Folios. Malone supposes that a similar omission has been made II. 4. 123. The compositor's eye (he says) may have glanced from 'succeed' to 'weakness' in a subsequent hemistich. In order to relieve the plethoric foot-note we set down in this place some conjectures for which we are indebted to Mr Halliwell's note on the passage. (3) But that your sufficiency, as your worth, be able... The reading assigned in the foot-note to Steevens is found in a note to the Editions of 1773, 1778, 1785, 1793. He afterwards changed his VOL. I. 28 mind. In Reed's Variorum edition of 1803 the passage as given at the head of Steevens's note stands thus: and But that sufficiency, as worth is able, And let them work. The following corrections are proposed, apparently by Steevens: But that sufficiency to your worth is abled, Seymour would read, But to your sufficiency your worth be added. Leo proposes: Exceeds the lists of all, advice can give you; And let them work. Brae (N. and Q. 1st S. v. 410) reads Then no more remains, But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able referring 'that' to 'the commission which the Duke holds in his hand, and which he is in the act of presenting to Escalus.' 1. 2. 15. NOTE II. Hanmer's reading is recommended by the fact that in the old forms of 'graces' used in many colleges, and, as we are informed, at the Inns of Court, the prayer for peace comes always after, and never before, meat. But as the mistake may easily have been made by Shakespeare, or else deliberately put into the mouth of the 'First Gentleman,' we have not altered the text. I. 2. 22-26. NOTE III. In the remainder of this scene Hanmer and other Editors have made capricious changes in the distribution of the dialogue. It is impossible to discern any difference of character in the three speakers, or to introduce logical sequence into their buffoonery. NOTE IV. I. 2. 110. We retain here the stage direction of the Folio, ‘Enter ...Juliet, &c.,' for the preceding line makes it evident that she was on the stage. On the other hand, line 140 shows that she was not within hearing, nor near Claudio while he spoke. We may suppose that she was following at a distance behind, in her anxiety for the fate of her lover. She appears again as a mute personage at the end of the play. NOTE V. I. 2. 115, 116. Johnson says, 'I suspect that a line is lost.' NOTE VI. 1. 4. 70. To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of business. We have left this line as it is printed in the Folios. There is a line of similar length and rhythm in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 2. 16, 'But here comes Thurio: now must we to her window.' NOTE VII. [II. 2. 149. There can be no doubt that the word which Shakespeare wrote, however it may have been spelt, was pronounced 'sickles.' So he would hear it read in Church from the Bishops' Bible, where it is spelt 'sicles.' To avoid confusion I have adopted the spelling of the Bishops' Bible. The Hebraic form 'shekels' was introduced in the Geneva Bible of 1560 and adopted by King James's Translators. W. A. W.] II. 2. 155-159. NOTE VIII. The printing in the Folios gives no help towards the metrical arrangement of these and other broken lines. In the present case we might read: Or, considering the first two lines as prose, we might read the last [as 'Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe! Amen: for I Am that way going to temptation Where prayers cross.' NOTE IX. 11. 4. 9. 'fear'd.' Mr Collier mentions that in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the First Folio the reading is 'sear'd.' The cross of the 'f' has been erased on the inside (see Ingleby's Complete View &c. p. 24). NOTE X. II. 4. 94. 'all-building.' 'Mr Theobald has binding in one of his copies.' Johnson. NOTE XI. II. 4. 103. "That longing have been sick for.' Delius says in his note on this passage, 'Das I vor have lässt sich nach Shaksperischer Licenz leicht suppliren.' The second person singular of the governing pronoun is frequently. omitted by Shakespeare in familiar questions, but, as to the first and third persons, his usage rarely differs from the modern. If the text be genuine, we have an instance in this play of the omission of the third person singular 1. 4. 72, 'Has censured him.' See also the early Quarto of the Merry Wives of Windsor, Sc. XIV. 1. 40: 'Ile cloath my daughter, and aduertise Slender To know her by that signe, and steale her thence, NOTE XII. II. 4. 111-113. Mr Sidney Walker adopts Steevens' emendation, and affirms that among all the metrical licenses used by Shakespeare, the omission of the final syllable of the line is not one. But if the reading of the first Folio be allowed to stand, we can find many instances of lines which want the final syllable. The line immediately preceding may be so scanned: 'Ignomy in ransom and free pardon.' |