SCENE III. A Prifon. Enter Duke, habited like a Friar, and Provoft. Duke. Hail to you, provost! so, I think, you are. Prov. I am the provoft: What's your will, good friar? Duke. Bound by my charity, and my blefs'd order, I come to vifit the afflicted fpirits Here in the prifon do me the common right Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful. Enter Juliet. Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine, Who falling in the flaws of her own youth, Hath blifter'd her report: Who doth not fee that the integrity of the metaphor requires we fhould read: flames of her own youth? WARBURTON. Who does not fee that, upon fuch principles, there is no end of correction? JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon did not know, nor perhaps Dr. Warburton either, that fir W. Davenant reads flames inftead of flaws in his Law against Lovers, a play almost literally taken from Measure for Meafure, and Much ado about Nothing. FARMER. Shakespeare has flaming youth in Hamlet, and Greene, in his Never too Late, 1616, fays" he measured the flames of youth by his own dead cinders." Blifter'd her report, is disfigured her fame. Blifter feems to have reference to the flames mentioned in the preceding line. A fimilar ufe of this word occurs in Hamlet: takes the rofe "From the fair forehead of an innocent love, VOL. II. E 4 More More fit to do another fuch offence, Duke. When must he die? Prov. As I do think, to-morrow.- I have provided for you; ftay a while, [To Juliet. And you fhall be conducted. ܕ܂ Duke, Repent you, fair one, of the fin you carry And try your penitence, if it be found, Juliet. I'll gladly learn. Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you? Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Was mutually committed? Juliet. Mutually. Duke. Then was your fin of heavier kind than his. Juliet. I do confefs it, and repent it, father. Duke. 'Tis meet fo daughter: But left you do repent9, As that the fin hath brought you to this fhame, 9 But left you do repent,] Thus the old copy. The modern editors, led by Mr. Pope, read: But repent you not. But left you do repent is only a kind of negative imperative— Ne te paeniteat,-and means, repent not on this account. STEEVENS. I think that a line at least is wanting after the first of the Duke's fpeech. It would be prefumptuous to attempt to replace the words; but the fenfe, I am perfuaded, is eafily recoverable out of Juliet's answer. I fuppofe his advice, in fubftance, to have been nearly this. "Take care, left you repent [not so much of your fault, as it is an evil,] as that the fin hath brought you to this Shame." Accordingly, Juliet's anfwer is explicit to this point: "I do repent me, as it is an evil, "And take the Shame with joy." TYRWHITT. Which forrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven; Shewing, we would not fpare heaven ', as we love it, But as we ftand in fear, Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil; And take the fhame with joy. Duke. There reft. Your partner, as I hear, muft die to-morrow, And I am going with inftruction to him: Grace go with you! benedicite: [Exit. Juliet. Muft die to-morrow! Oh, injurious love', That refpites me a life, whofe very comfort is ftill a dying horror! Prov. 'Tis pity of him, [Exeunt SCENE IV. Angelo's Houfe. Enter Angélo. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and pray To feveral fubjects; heaven hath my empty words; 1 Whilft Shewing we'd not fpare heaven,] The modern editors had changed this word into feek. STEEVENS. 3 There reft.] Keep yourself in this temper. JOHNSON. Oh, injurious love,] Her execution was refpited on ac count of her pregnancy, the effects of her love: therefore the calls it injurious; not that it brought her to fhame, but that it hindered her freeing herself from it. Is not this all very natural? yet the Oxford editor changes it to injurious law. JOHNSON. I know not what circumftance in this play can authorize a fuppofition that Juliet was refpited on account of her pregnancy; as her life was in no danger from the law, the feverity of which was exerted only on the feducer. I fuppofe the means that a parent's love for the child the bears is injurious, because it makes her careful of her life in her prefent fhameful condition. Mr. Tollet explains the paffage thus. "Oh, love, that is injurious in expéditing Claudio's death, and that refpites me a life, which is a burthen to me worse than death!" STEEVENS. Enter Angelo.] Promos, in the play already quoted, has like Whilft my intention 5, hearing not my tongue, And in my heart, the ftrong and fwelling evil Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity, for an idle plume 8 wife a foliloquy previous to the fecond appearance of Caffandras It begins thus: "Do what I can, no reafon cooles defire, "The more I ftrive my fond affectes to tame, "Within my breast vaine thoughts to forge and frame, &c.". Whilft my intention, Nothing can be either plainer or exacter than this expreffion. But the old blundering folio having it, invention, this was enough for Mr. Theobald to prefer autho rity to fenfe. WARBURTON. Intention (if it be the true reading) has, in this inftance more than its common meaning. It fignifies eagernefs of defire. So in the Merry Wives: 66 tention.” -courfe o'er my exteriors, with such greediness of in By invention, however, I believe the poet means imagination. STEEVENS. • Grown fear'd and tedious;] We should read feared: i. e. old. So Shakespeare ufes in the fear, to fignify old age. WARBURTON. I think fear'd may stand. What we go to with reluctance may he faid to be fear'd. JOHNSON. 'with boot,] Boot is profit, advantage, gain. So in M. Kuffin's tranflation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "You obtained this at my hands, and I went about it while there was any boot." Again, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599: "Then lift to me: Saint Andrew be my boot, -cafe,- For outfide; garb; external fhew. JOHNSON. 1 Wrench Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wifer fouls • Wrench are from fools, and tie the wifer fouls Enter Here Shakespeare judiciously diftinguishes the different operations of high place upon different minds. Fools are frighted, and wife men are allured. Those who cannot judge but by the eye, are eafily awed by fplendour; those who confider men as well as conditions, are easily perfuaded to love the appearance of virtue dignified with power. JOHNSON, Let's write good angel on the devil's born, 'Tis not the devil's creft.] i.e. Let the most wicked thing have but a virtuous pretence, and it fhall pafs for innocent, This was his conclufion from his prę ceding words: ob form! How often doft thou with thy cafe, thy habit, But the Oxford editor makes him conclude juft counter to his own premises; by altering it to, Is't not the devil's creft? So that, according to this alteration, the reafoning ftands thus.Falfe feeming wrenches awe from fools, and deceives the wife. Therefore, Let us but write good angel on the devil's born, (i. e. give him the appearance of an angel!;) and what then? It not The devil's vreft? (i. e. he shall be esteemed a devil.) WARBURTON. I am still inclined to the opinion of the Oxford editor. Angelo, reflecting on the difference between his feeming character, and his real difpofition, obferves, that he could change his gravity for a plume. He then digreffes into an apostrophe, O dignity, how doft thou impofe upon the world! then returning to himself, Blood, fays he, thou art but blood, however concealed with appearances and decorations. Title and character do not alter nature, which is ftill corrupt, however dignified: Let's write good angel on the devil's horn; Is't not?-or rather - 'Tis yet the devil's creft. It may however be understood, according to Dr. Warburton's explanation. O place, how dost thou impofe upon the world by falfe appearances! fo much, that if we write good angel on the devil's born, 'tis not taken any longer to be the devil's creft. In this fense, Blood |