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, 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 * Ifab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die : 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; 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, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed fword, 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; 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, Again, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632: "The perfect image of a wretched creature, 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, Ang. Be you content, fair maid; It is the law, not I, condemns your brother: 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? 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, • 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 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, 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; 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, Lucio. That's well faid. Ifab. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, 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; 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: STEEVENS. Split'ft |