L. 26. First in queftion] That is, firit called for; first appointed. JOHNS. P. 241.1. 4. We have with leaven'd and prepared choice] Leaven'd has no fenfe in this place: we fhould read levell'a choice. The allufion is to archery, when a man has fixed upon his object, after taking good aim. WARB.

Ibid.] No emendation is neceffary. Leaven'd choice is one of Shakespeare's harsh metaphors. His train of ideas feems to be this. I have proceeded to you with choice mature, concocted, fermented, leavened. When bread is leavened, it is left to ferment: a leavened choice is therefore a choice not hafty, but confiderate, not declared as foon as it fell into the imagination, but fuffered to work long in the mind. Thus explained it fuits better with prepared than levelled,

UPTON & JOHNS. L. 18. Your scope is as mine orun] That is, your amplitude of power. JOHNS.

P. 242. 1. 27.] 1 Gent. What? in meeter?

Lucio. Not in any profeffion, or in any language, I think, or in any religion.

2 Gent. And why not? grace is grace despight of all controversy.

Lucio. As for example, thou thyself art a wretched villain, defpight of all grace.

2 Gent. Well, &c.

HANMER.* Ibid.] In the primers, there are metrical graces, fuch as I fuppofe, were used in Shakespeare's time.

JOHNS. Ibid. In any proportion, &c.] The Oxford Editor gives us the dialogue of his own inferted above: and all for the want of knowing the meaning of the word proportion, which fignifies measure and refers to the question, What, in meeter ? WARB.*

P. 243. 1. 3. Defpight of all controverfie] Satirically infinuating that the controverfies about grace were fo intricate and endless, that the difputants unfettled every thing but this, that grace was grace; which, however, in fpight of controverfy, ftill remained certain. WARB.*

Ibid.] I am in doubt whether Shakespeare's thoughts reached fo far into ecclefiaftical di putes. Every commenta

tor is warped a little by the tract of his own profeffion. The queftion is, whether the fecond gentleman has ever heard grace. The first gentleman limits the question to Grace in meeter. Lucio enlarges it to grace in any form or language. The first gentleman, to go beyond him, fays, or in any religion, which Lucio allows, because the nature of things is unalterable; Grace is as immutably Grace, as his merry antagonist is a wicked villain. Difference of religion cannot make a Grace not to be a Grace, a prayer not to be holy; as nothing can make a villain not to be a villain. This feems to be the meaning, fuch as it is. JOHNS. L. 6.] There went but a pair of fheers between us] We are both of the fame piece.

JOHNS. L. II. Piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet] The jeft about the pile of a French velvet, alludes to the lofs of hair in the French disease, a very frequent topick of our author's jocularity. Lucio finding that the gentleman understands the diftemper fo well, and mentions it fo feelingly, promises, to remember to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him. It was the opinion of Shakespeare's time, that the cup of an infected perfon was contagious. JOHNS. L. 25. A quibble intended between dollars and dolours. The fame jeft occurred in the Tempeft. HAN. & JOHNS. L. 27. A French crown more] Lucio means here not the piece of money fo called, but that Venereal fcab which among the furgeons is ftiled Corona Veneris. To this, I think, our author makes Quince allude in the Midfummer-Night's Dream. "Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced." For where these eruptions are, the fkull is carious, and the party becomes bald.

THEOB.

P. 244. 1. 22. What with the fweat.] This may allude to the fweating fickn fs, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shakespeare: but more probably to the method of cure then used for the diseases contracted in brothels.

JOHNS.

P. 245. 1. 12. They shall stand for feed] Seneca in his mock Apotheofis of Claudius, ridiculing him for having extended the rights of Roman citizens so immoderately, makes Clotho fay, "Ego mehercule, pufillum temporis adjicere illi vole

bam, dum hos pauculos, qui fuperfunt, civitate donaret: conftituerat enim omnes Græcos, Gallos, Hifpanos, Britannos, togatos videre. Sed quoniam placet aliquos perigrinos in femen relinqui, et tu ita jubes fieri, fiat.

P. 246. 1. 4. Thus can the Demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down for our offence, by weight

WARB.*

The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will;

On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis juft.] The wrong pointing of the fecond line hath made this paffage unintelligible. There ought to be a full stop at weight. And the fenfe of the whole is this: "The Demi-god, Authority, makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be queftioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus,-I punish and remit punishment according to my uncontroulable will; and yet who can fay what doft thou."- -Make us pay down for our offence, by weight, is a fine expreffion, to signify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not fo by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the fpecies. WARB. Ibid.] I fufpect that a line is loft. P. 247. 1. 6. most mutual- -] i. e. moft intimate. The phrafe is extremely elegant on this occafion; yet difliked by the Oxford Editor, who ftrikes out most. WARB. the fault and glimpse of newness] Fault and glimpfe have fo little relation to each other, that both can fcarcely be right; we may read flash for fault. JOHNS. L. 21. So long that nineteen zodiacks have gone round] The Duke in the fcene immediately following, fays,

L. II.

JOHNS.

*

Tis necef

Which for these fourteen years we have let flip. The author could not fo di fagree with himself. fary to make the two accounts correspond.

THEOB.

P. 248. 1. 4.prone and speechlefs dialect] I can scarcely tell what fignification to give to the word prone. Its primitive and tranflated fenfes are well known. The author may,

by a prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as thofe actions feem to which we are prone. Either of these interpretations is fufficiently ftrained; but fuch distortion of words is not

uncommon in our author. For the fake of an easier fenfe

we may read,

Or thus,

In her youth

There is a pow'r, and speechlefs dialect,
Such as moves men.

There is a prompt and speechless dialect.

JOHNS.

L. 9.under grievous impofition.] I once thought it should be inquifition, but the present reading is probably right. The erime would be under grievous penalties impofed. L. 16. Believe not that the dribbling dart of love Can pierce a compleat bofom.·

JOHNS.

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

JOHNS. L. 27. A man of STRICTURE and firm abftinence.] Stricture makes no fenfe in this place. We fhould read,

A man of STRICT URE and firm abftinence.

i. e. a man of the exacteft conduct, and practifed in the fubdual of his paffions. Ure an old word for use, practice, so enur'd, habituated to. WARB.

Ibid] Stricture may eafily be used for firictness; ure is indeed an old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to perfons. THEOB. and JOHNS.

P. 249. L. 8. In the copies, the needful bits and curbs for headstrong WEEDS] Common fenfe, and the integrity of the metaphor, fhews that Shakespear wrote headstrong STEEDS. THEOB.

L. 9. In former editions, Which for thefe fourteen years we have let flip,] For fourteen I have made no fcruple to replace nineteen. I have altered the odd Phrafe of letting the laws flip to the laws fleep, which adds a particular propriety to the thing reprefented, and accords exactly too with the fimile. It is the metaphor too, that our author feems fond of ufing upon this occafion, in feveral paffages of this play.

The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath flept;
'Tis now awake.

THEOB.

Ibid] Read, fourteen years we have let fleep. CAPELL. P. 250. L. 1. The text ftood, So do in flander] Sir Tho mas Hanmer has very well corrected it thus,

To do it flander.

JOHNS.

L. 9. Stands at a guard] Stands on terms of defiance.

JOHNS. L. 23. When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men, But in the prefence of the Priorefs;

Then, if you fpeak, you must not fhew your face;

Or, if you fhew your face, you must not speak.] This is a very artful preparation for the effects that Ifabel's folicitation had on Angelo in the following Scene, as it fhews the mischiefs of beauty to be fo great, that the Religious had laid down rules and regulations to prevent its inordinate influence, which leffens our furprife at Angelo's weakness.

WAR.* P. 251. L. 15. -make me not your flory] Do not, by deceiving me, make me a fubject for a tale. 'tis my familiar fin

L. 16.

JOHNS.

"The

With maids to feem the lapsing,] The Oxford Editor's note, on this paffage, is in these words. lapwings fly with feeming fright and anxiety far from their nefts, to deceive those who feek their young." And do not all other birds do the fame? 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 fo near the paffenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is fuddenly gone again. This made it a proverbial expreffion to fignify a lover's folfhood: and it feems to be a very old one; for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, fays" And lapwings that well conith lie. WARBUR.*

L. 16. Lucio..

'tis my familiar fin, With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft; Tongue far from beart · -] The modern editors have not taken in the whole fimilitude here: they have taken notice of the lightness of a spark's behaviour to his mistress, and compared it to the lapwing's hovering and fluttering flying. But the chief, of which no notice is taken," is, and to jeft. (See Ray's Proverbs) "The lapwing cries, Tongue far from heart," moft, fartheft from the neft, i. e. She is, as Shakespeare has it here,

Tongue far from heart.

"The farther fhe is from her neft, where her heart is with