The duke is very strangely gone from hence; 2. Governs lord Angelo; A man whofe blood Is very fnow-broth; one who never feels 4 Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother. Bore many gentlemen In hand and hope of action; To bear in band is a common phrafe for to keep in expectation and dependance, but we fhould read, with hope of action. JOHNSON. with full line-] With full extent, with the whole length. JOHNSON. 3 give fear to use-] To intimidate use, that is, practices long countenanced by cuftom. JOHNSON. 4 Unless you have the grace] That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So when the makes her fuit, the provost fays: Heaven give thee moving graces. JOHNSON. -pith Of bufinefs -] The inmost part, the main of my meffage. JOHNSON. 6 Lucio. Has cenfur'd him Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath Ifab. Alas! what poor ability's in me Lucio. Affay the power you have. And make us lose the good we oft might win, As they themselves would owe them 7. Ifab. I will about it strait; No longer staying but to give the mother ❝ -cenfur'd him,-] i. e. fentenced him. So in Othello: 7 "to you, lord governor, "Remains the cenfure of this hellish villain." STEEVENS. would owe them.] To owe fignifies in this place, as in many others, to poffefs, to have. So in Othello: 8 -that sweet fleep That thou ow'dft yesterday- STEEVENS. -the mother] The abbefs, or priorefs. JOHNSON. ACT ACT II. SCENE I. Angelo's Houfe. Enter Angelo, Efcalus, a Justice, Provost, and Attendants'. Ang. We must not make a fcare-crow of the law; Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, I And let it keep one fhape, till custom make it Efcal. Ay, but yet Let us be keen, and rather cut a little, Than fall, and bruise to death: Alas! this gentleman, Whom I would fave, had a moft noble father. Let but your honour know 3, (whom I believe • Provoft.] A provoft is generally the executioner of an army. So in the Famous Hiftory of Tho. Stukely, 1605: Bl. L. "Provoft, lay irons upon him and take him to your charge." Again, in the Virgin Martyr by Maffenger: "Thy provoft to fee execution done "On these bafe Chriftians in Cæfarea." STEEVENS. to fear the birds of prey,] To fear is to affright, to terrify. So in The Merchant of Venice: -this afpect of mine "Hath fear'd the valiant." STEEVENS. 2 Than fall, and bruife to death.-] I fhould rather read, fell, i. e. ftrike down. So in Timon of Athens: "All, fave thee, I fell with curfes." WARBURton. Shakespeare has Fall is the old reading, and the true one. ufed the fame verb active in the Comedy of Errors: "as eafy may'st thou fall "A drop of water. i. e. let fall. So in As You like it: "Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck." STEEVENS. 3 Let but your honour know,-] To know is here to examine, tơ take cognifance. So in Midfummer-Night's Dream : "Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires; JOHNSON. To To be most strait in virtue) That, in the working of your own affections, Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose, Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Efcalus, The jury, paffing on the prifoner's life, May, in the fworn twelve, have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try: What's open made to justice, That justice feizes. What know the laws, That thieves do pafs on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant, For I have had fuch faults; but rather tell me, Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, Ang. Where is the provoft? Prov. Here, if it like your honour. + Err'd in this point which now you cenfure him,] Some word seems to be wanting to make this line fenfe. Perhaps, we should read: Err'd in this point which now you cenfure him for, STEEVENS. 'Tis very pregnant,] 'Tis plain that we must act with bad as with good; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages, that lie in our way, and what we do not fee we cannot note. JOHNSON. 6 For I have bad-] That is, becaufe, by reafon that I have had faults. JOHNSON. VOL. II. D Be Be executed by nine to-morrow morning: 7 Some rife by fin, and some by virtue fall: . Some run from brakes of vice, and anfwer none; And fome condemned for a fault alone. Enter 7 Some rife, &c.] This line is in the firft folio printed in Italics as a quotation. All the folios read in the next line : Some run from brakes of ice, and anfer none. JOHNSON. The old reading is perhaps the true one, and may mean, fome run away from danger, and ftay to answer none of their faults whilft others are condemned only on account of a fingle frailty. If this be true reading, it should be printed: Some run from breaks [i, e. fractures] of ice, &c. Since I wrote this, I have found reafon to change my opinion. A brake anciently meant not only a sharp bit, a fnaffle, but also the engine with which farriers confined the legs of fuch unruly horses as would not otherwise submit themselves to be fhod, or to have a cruel operation performed on them. This, in fome places, is ftill called a fmith's brake. In this last sense, Ben Jonfon ufes the word in his Underwoods: "And not think he had eat a ftake, "Or were fet up in a brake." And, for the former fenfe, fee the Silent Woman, a& IV. Again, for the latter fenfe, Bully de Ambois, by Chapman : “Or, like a strumpet, learn to fet my face "In an eternal brake.' Again, in The Opportunity, by Shirley, 1640: "He is fallen into fome brake, fome wench has tied him "by the legs." Again, in Holland's Leaguer, 1633: 66 her I'll make "A ftale, to catch this courtier in a brake.' I offer thefe quotations, which may prove of ufe to fome more fortunate conjecturer; but am able myfelf to derive very little from them to fuit the paffage before us. I likewife find from Holinfhed, p. 670, that the brake was an engine of torture. "The faid Hawkins was caft into the Tower, and at length brought to the brake, called the Duke of Excefter's daughter, by meanes of which pain he fhewed many things,' &c. |