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The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen', myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance.
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

2.

Governs lord Angelo; A man whofe blood

Is

very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and fast.
He (to give fear to 3 ufe and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whofe heavy fenfe your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrefts him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo: and that's my 5 pith

4

Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.
Ifab. Doth he fo feek his life?

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,

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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.

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-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
A warrant for his execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor ability's in me
To do him good?

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Lucio. Affay the power you have.
Ifab. My power! Alas! I doubt,-
Lucio. Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt: Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as truly theirs

As they themselves would owe them 7.
Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.
Lucio. But, fpeedily.

Ifab. I will about it strait;

No longer staying but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you :
Commend me to my brother: foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my fuccefs.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Ifab. Good fir, adieu.

❝ -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

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And let it keep one fhape, till custom make it
Their perch, and not their terror.

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:

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"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:

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-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:

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"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;
"Know of your truth, examine well your blood."

JOHNSON.

To

To be most strait in virtue)

That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wifhing,
Or that the refolute acting of your blood

Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not fometime in your life
Err'd in this point which now you cenfure him 4,
And pull'd the law upon you:

Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Efcalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,

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,
The jewel that we find, we ftoop and take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not fee,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not fo extenuate his offence,

For I have had fuch faults; but rather tell me,
When I that cenfure him do so offend,

Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die,
Efcal. Be it, as your wisdom will.

Ang. Where is the provoft?

Prov. Here, if it like your honour.
Ang. See that Claudio

+ 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:

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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:
Bring him his confeffor, let him be prepar'd;
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage. [Exit Prov.
Efcal. Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us
all!

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.

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