Stands without blemish :-next, it imports no reason,
That with fuch vehemency he should purfue
Faults proper to himself: if he had fo offended,
He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself,
And not have cut him off: Some one hath fet you on;
Confefs the truth, and fay by whofe advice
Thou cam'ft here to complain.

Ifab. And is this all?

Then, oh, you bleffed minifters above,
Keep me in patience; and, with ripen'd time,
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up

In countenance !-Heaven fhield your grace from

woe,

As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!

Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone :-An officerTo prifon with her ;-Shall we thus permit A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall

On him fo near us? This needs must be a practice.
Who knew of your intent, and coming hither?

Ifab. One that I would were here, friar Lodowick,
Duke. A ghoftly father, belike: Who knows that
Lodowick ?

Lucio. My lord, I know him; 'tis a medling friar;
I do not like the man had he been lay, my lord,
For certain words he spake against your grace
In your retirement, I had fwing'd him foundly.
Duke. Words against me? this' a good friar be-
like!

And to fet on this wretched woman here
Against our fubftitute !-Let this friar be found.
Lucio. But yefternight, my lord, fhe and that
friar

2

• In countenance!-] i. e. in partial favour. WARBURTON. -practice.] Practice in Shakespeare, very often means Shameful artifice, unjustifiable ftratagem. So in K, Lear: This is practice, Glofter."

66

Again, in K. John:

"It is the fhameful work of Hubert's hand,
"The practice and the purpose of the king." STEEVENS.

I saw them at the prifon : a fawcy friar,
A very fcurvy fellow.

Peter. Bleffed be your royal grace !

I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
Your royal ear abus'd: Firft, hath this woman
Moft wrongfully accus'd your fubftitute;
Who is as free from touch or foil with her,
As fhe from one ungot.

Duke. We did believe no lefs.

Know you that friar Lodowick, which she speaks of? Peter. I know him for a man divine and holy; Not scurvy, nor a temporary medler',

As he's reported by this gentleman;

And, on my truft, a man that never yet

Did, as he vouches, mifreport your grace.

Lucio. My lord, most villainously; believe it. Peter. Well, he in time may come to clear himself; But at this inftant he is fick, my lord,

Of a strange fever: Upon his mere request,
(Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
Intended 'gainst lord Angelo) came I hither,
To fpeak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
Is true, and false; and what he with his oath,
And all probation, will make up full clear,
Whenever he's convented. Firft, for this woman;
(To

3 -nor a temporary medler,] It is hard to know what is meant by a temporary medler. In its ufual fenfe, as oppofed to perpetual, it cannot be used here. It may stand for temporal: the fenfe will then be, I know him for a holy man, one that meddles not with fe cular affairs. It may mean temporifing: I know him to be a holy man, one who would not temporife, or take the opportunity of your abfence to defame you. Or we may read :

Not fcurvy, nor a tamperer and medler: not one who would have tampered with this woman to make her a false evidence against your deputy. JOHNSON.

Hamlet:

-his mere requeft,] i.e. his abfolute request. Thus in

66

-things rank and grofs in nature

"Poffefs it merely." STEEVENS.

s Whenever he's conven'd- ] The firft folio reads, convented,

and

(To justify this worthy nobleman,

6

So vulgarly and perfonally accus'd)

Her fhall you hear difproved to her eyes,
Till fhe herself confess it.

Duke. Good friar, let's hear it.

Do you not fmile at this, lord Angelo ?—
O heaven! the vanity of wretched fools!-
Give us fome feats.-Come, coufin Angelo7;

and this is right: for to convene fignifies to affemble; but convent, to cite, or fummons. Yet, because convented hurts the measure, the Oxford editor fticks to conven'd, though it be nonfenfe, and fignifies, Whenever he is affembled together. But thus it will be, when the author is thinking of one thing and his critic of another. The poet was attentive to his sense, and the editor quite throughout his performance, to nothing but the measure; which Shakefpeare having entirely neglected, like all the dramatic writers of that age, he has fpruced him up with all the exactness of a modern measurer of fyllables. This being here taken notice of once for all, fhall, for the future, be forgot, as if it had never been. WARBURTON.

To convent is no uncommon word. So in Woman's a Weathercock, 1612:

66

left my looks

"Should tell the company convented there, &c." To convent and to convene are derived from the fame Latin verb, and have exactly the fame meaning. STEEVENS.

So vulgarly-] Meaning either fo grofly, with fuch indecency of invective, or by fo mean and inadequate witneffes. JOHNSON. Vulgarly, I believe, means publickly. The vulgar are the common people. Daniel ufes vulgarly for among the common people: and which pleases vulgarly." STEEVENS. Come, coufin Angelo,

7

66

In this I will be partial ;]

In former editions,

Come, coufin Angelo,

In this I'll be impartial; be you judge

Of your own cause

Surely this Duke had odd notions of impartiality, to commit the decifion of a caufe to the perfon accufed. He talks much more rationally in the character of the Friar:

The duke's unjust,

Thus to retort your manifeft appeal ;

And put your trial in the villain's mouth,
Whom here you come t'accufe.

I think,

In this I will be impartial; be you judge Of your own caufe.-Is this the witnefs, friar? [Ifabella is carried off, guarded.

Enter

I think, there needs no ftronger authority to convince, that the poet must have wrote, as I have corrected,

In this I will be partial;

66

THEOBALD.

Come, Coufin Angelo,

"In this I'll be impartial: be you judge

"Of your own cause."

Surely, fays Mr. Theobald, this duke had odd notions of impartiality!-He reads therefore, "I will be partial," and all the editors follow him: even Mr. Heath declares the obfervation unanfwerable. But fee the uncertainty of criticifm! impartial was fometimes used in the fenfe of partial. In the old play of Swetnam the Woman-hater, Atlanta cries out, when the judges decree against the women :

"You are impartial, and we do appeal "From you to judges more indifferent." So in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 2d Part, 1602: "L -There's not a beauty lives "Hath that impartial predominance

FARMER.

"O'er my affects, as your enchanting graces.' Again, in the firft edit of Romeo and Juliet, 1597: "Cruel, unjust, impartial deftinies !"

Again,

66

this day, this unjust, impartial day." Again, in Montaigne's Effays, tranflated by Florio, 1632: -I am very prodigal of cappings, efpecially in fummer. I wish that fome princes that I know would be more fparing and impartial difpenfers of them, for being fo indiscreetly employed they have no force at all; if they be without regard, then they are without effect."

In fupport of the old reading, and in confirmation of Mr. Farmer's obfervation, it may be remarked, that the writers who were contemporary with Shakespeare, when they would exprefs what we now call impartial, generally use the word unpartial. Thus Marston in the play above quoted:

"I tell you, Lady, had you view'd us both

"With an unpartial eye.'

So Speed, in his Hift. of Great Britain, 1614, fpeaking of the death of queen Elizabeth, fays - "The God of peace called her to a far higher glory by his unpartial meffenger, Death." Again, in Marston's Preface to The Fawne, 1606: And rather to be unpartially beloved of all, than factioufly to be admired of a few." Again, in Heywood's Pleafant Dialogues and Dramas, 1637:

-the

Enter Mariana, veil'd.

་

First, let her fhew her face; and, after, fpeak.
Mari. Pardon, my lord; I will not fhew my face,
Until my husband bid me.

Duke. What, are you marry'd ?

Mari. No, my lord.

Duke. Are you a maid?

Mari. No, my lord.

Duke. A widow then?

Mari. Neither, my lord.

Duke. Why you are nothing then :Neither maid, widow, nor wife?

Lucio. My lord, fhe may be a punk; for many of them

Are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

Duke. Silence that fellow: I would, he had fome cause.

To prattle for himself.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Mari. My lord, I do confefs, I ne'er was marry'd; And, I confefs, befides, I am no maid:

I have known my husband; yet my husband knows

not,

That ever he knew me.

Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord; it can be no

better.

Duke. For the benefit of filence, 'would thou wert fo too.

"Unpartially to shine on all mankind.”

And indeed, I believe, it will be found, that the ancient English privative un, was in our author's time generally used; and that in or im, which modern writers have substituted in its place, was then frequently used as an augmentative or intenfive particle. Thus impartial was used for very partial, and indifferent for very different. See a note on the Taming of a Shrew, act IV. fc. i. MALONE.

Neither maid, widow, nor wife?] This is a proverbial phrase to be found in Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.