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Prov. Left I might be too rafh: Under your good correction, I have seen, When, after execution, judgment hath Repented o'er his doom.

Ang. Go to; let that be mine:

Do you your office, or give up your place,
And you shall well be spar'd.

Prov. I crave your honour's pardon.

What shall be done, fir, with the groaning Juliet? She's very near her hour.

Ang. Difpofe of her

To fome more fitting place; and that with speed.

[Re-enter Servant.]

Serv. Here is the fifter of the man condemn'd, Defires access to you.

Ang. Hath he a fifter?

Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, And to be fhortly of a fifter-hood,

If not already.

Ang. Well, let her be admitted.

See you, the fornicatrefs be remov'd;

[Exit Servant.

Let her have needful, but not lavish means;

There shall be order for it.

Enter Lucio and Ifabella.

Prov. Save your honour!

Ang. Stay yet a while '.-[To Ifab.] You are welcome: What's your will?

Ifab. I am a woeful fuitor to your honour, Please but your honour hear me.

Ang. Well; what's your fuit?

Ifab. There is a vice, that most I do abhor, And most defire fhould meet the blow of juftice; For which I would not plead, but that I muft;

Stay yet awhile.

] It is not clear why the provoft is

bidden to stay, nor when he goes out. JOHNSON.

For

For which I must not plead, but that I am *
At war, 'twixt will, and will not.
Ang. Well; the matter?

Ifab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die :
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.

Prov. Heaven give thee moving graces!

Ang. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it! Why, every fault's condemn'd, ere it be done : Mine were the very cypher of a function, To find the faults, 3 whofe fine ftands in record, And let go by the actor.

Ifab. O juft, but severe law!

I had a brother then.-Heaven keep your honour! Lucio. [To Ifab.] Give't not o'er fo: to him again, intreat him;

Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;
You are too cold: if you fhould need a pin,
You could not with more tame a tongue defire it:
To him I fay.

Ifab. Muft he needs die?

Ang. Maiden, no remedy.

Ifab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,

And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do't.

Ifab. But can you, if you would?

Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. Ifab. But might you do't, and do the world no

wrong,

2 For which I must not plead, but that I am

At war, 'twixt will, and will not.]

This is obfcure; perhaps it may be mended by reading

For which, I must now plead; but yet I am

At war, 'twixt will, and will not.

Yet and ye are almoft undistinguishable in a manufcript. Yet no alteration is neceffary, fince the fpeech is not unintelligible as it now ftands. JOHNSON.

3 To find the faults.] The old copy reads-To fine, &c.

STEEVENS.

If so your heart were touch'd with that remorfe

As mine is to him?

Ang. He's fentenc'd; 'tis too late.

Lucio. You are too cold.

[To Ifabel.

Ifabel. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word,
May call it back again: Well believe this,
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed fword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half fo good a grace,
As mercy does.

If he had been as you, and you as he,

You would have flipt, like him; but he, like you, Would not have been fo ftern.

Ang. Pray you, be gone.

Ifab. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Ifabel! fhould it then be thus? No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, And what a prisoner.

Lucio. [Afide.] Ay, touch him there's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words.

Ifab. Alas! alas !

Why, all the fouls that were, were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage beft have took,
Found out the remedy: How would you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, fhould
But judge you, as you are? Oh, think on that,

4-touch'd with that remorfe.] Remorfe in this place, as in many others, is pity.

So in the 5th act of this play:

"My fifterly remorfe confutes my honour,
"And I did yield to him."

Again, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632:

"The perfect image of a wretched creature,
"His fpeeches beg remorse."

See Othello, act. III. STEEVÉNS.

5

all the fouls that were,

fhould read, are. WARBURTON.

-] This is falfe divinity. We

And

And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made ".

Ang. Be you content, fair maid;

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:
Were he my kinfman, brother, or my fon,

It should be thus with him ;-he muft die to-morrow. Ifab. To-morrow? Oh, that's fudden! Spare him, fpare him;

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl, of feafon; fhall we ferve heaven With less refpect than we do minifter

To our grofs felves? Good, good my lord, bethink you:

Who is it that hath died for this offence?
There's many have committed it.

Lucio. Ay, well faid.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath flept: Thofe many had not dar'd to do that evil,

If the first man, that did the edict infringe 7,
Had anfwer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,

• And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.]

This is a fine thought, and finely expreffed. The meaning is, that mercy will add fuch a grace to your perfon, that you will ap pear as amiable as a man come fresh out of the hands of his Creator. WARBURTON.

I rather think the meaning is, You will then change the feverity of your prefent character. In familiar fpeech, You would be quite another man. JOHNSON.

"If the first man, &c.] The word man has been supplied by the modern editors. I would rather read,

8

If he, the firft, &c.

Like a prophet,

Looks in a glafs

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This alludes to the fopperies of the berril, much used at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. WARBURTON.

See Macbeth, act IV.

So again in Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

"How long have I beheld the devil in chryftal ?”

STEEVENS.

Looks

Looks in a glass that fhews what future evils,
(Either now; or by remiffness new-conceiv'd,
And fo in progrefs to be hatch'd and born)
Are now to have no fucceffive degrees,
But, ere they live, to end':

Ifab. Yet fhew fome pity 2.

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I fhew justice ; For then I pity thofe I do not know,

Which a difmifs'd offence would after gall;
And do him right, that, anfwering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be fatisfy'd;

Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

Ifab. So you must be the firft, that gives this fen

tence;

And he, that suffers: Oh, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous,
To use it like a giant.

Lucio. That's well faid.

Ifab. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting 3, petty officer,

Would ufe his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.

Merciful heaven!

Thou rather with thy fharp and fulphurous bolt

9 Either now— -] Thus the old copy. Modern Editors read -Or new- STEEVENS.

But ere, they live, to end.] This is very fagaciously substituted by fir Thomas Hanmer, for,

2

But here they live

-fhew fome pity.

JOHNSON.

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I fhew juftice;
For then I pity thofe I do not know,]

This was one of Hale's memorials. When I find myself fwayed to mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy likewife due to the coun◄ try. JOHNSON.

3

pelting]-i. e. paltry.

This word I meet with in Mother Bombie, 1594:
will not fhrink the city for a pelting jade."

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STEEVENS.

Split'ft

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