Than beauty could difplayed.-But mark me; Ifab. So. Ang. And his offence is fo, as it appears Ang. Admit no other way to fave his life, (As I fubfcribe not that', nor any other, But in the lofs of queftion +) that you, his fifter, Find Thefe Masks muft mean, I think, the Mafks of the audience however improperly a compliment to them is put into the mouth of Angelo. As Shakespeare would hardly have been guilty of fuch an indecorum to flatter a common audience, I think this paffage affords ground for fuppofing that the play was written to be acted at court. Some ftrokes of particular flattery to the king I have already pointed out; and there are feveral other general reflections, in the character of the duke especially, which feem calculated for the royal ear. TYRWHITT. Sir W. Davenant reads- —as a black mask; but I am afraid Mr. Tyrwhitt is too well fupported in his first supposition, by a passage at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet: "Thefe happy masks that kifs fair ladies' brows, STEEVENS. 2 Accountant to the law upon that pain.] Pain is here for penalty, bunishment. JOHNSON. 3 (As I fubfcribe not that,-] To fubfcribe means, to agree to Milton ufes the word in the fame fenfe. So in Marlow's Luft's Dominion, 16-: Subfcribe to his defires." STEEVENS. 4 But in the lofs of queftion)] The lofs of question I do not well understand, and should rather read, But in the tofs of question. In the agitation, in the difcuffion of the question. To tofs an ar gument is a common phrafe. JOHNSON. But in the lofs of question. This expreffion I believe means, but in idle fuppofition, or converfation that tends to nothing, which may therefore, in our author's language, be call'd the lofs of queftion." Thus in Coriolanus. act III. fc. 1: "The which fhall turn you to no other harm, Queftion, in Shakespeare, often bears this meaning. So in his VOL. II. F "And Finding yourself defir'd of fuch a perfon, Of the all-binding law; and that there were Ifab. As much for my poor brother, as myself: That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield Ang. Then muft your brother die. "And after fupper, long he queftioned "With modest Lucrece, &c.' STEEVENS. The following paffages add strength to Dr. Johnson's conjec ture: "I could tofs woe for woe until to-morrow, "But then we'd wake the wolf with bleating forrow." Acolaftus his Afterwit, 1606. "Whether it were a queftion mov'd by chance "Or fpitefully of purpose (I being there "And your own countryman) I cannot tell; "Had bandied both the king and you, as pleas'd Noble Spanish Soldier, by Rowley, 1634. MALONE, Of the all-binding law; -all-building law, from which the editors have made all-holding; yet Mr. Theobald has binding in one of his copies. JOHNSON. -a brother died at once,] Perhaps we should read: Better it were, a brother died for once Than that a fifter, by redeeming him, Should die for ever. JOHNSON. Ang. Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence. That you have flander'd fo? Ifab. Ignominy in ranfom, and free pardon, Are of two houfes : lawful mercy Is nothing kin to foul redemption. Ang. You feem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother A merriment than a vice. Ifab. O pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we fpeak not what we mean: I fomething do excufe the thing I hate, Ifab. Elfe let my brother die, Ijab. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themselves; Which are as eafy broke as they make forms 9. : Women If not a feodary, but only he, &c.] This is fo obfcure, but the allufion fo fine, that it deferves to be explained. A feodary was one that in the times of vaffalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service which tenures were called feuda amongst the Goths. Now, fays Angelo, "we are all frail; yes, replies Ifabella; if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecility, and who fucceed each other by the fame tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original fin, to a feodary, who owes fuit and service to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. WARBURTON. Shakespeare has the fame allufion in Cymbeline: 66 -fenfelefs bauble, "Art thou a feodarie for this act ?". Again, in the prologue to Maríton's Sophonisba, 1606: The old copy reads-thy weakness. STEEVENS. 8 Owe, and fucceed] To owe is, in this place, to own, to bold, to have poffeffion. JOHNSON. 9 glaffes Which are as eafy broke as they make form:.] Would Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar Ang. I think it well: And from this teftimony of your own fex, That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none; Ifab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Ifab. My brother did love Juliet ; And you tell me, that he fhall die for it. Ang. He fhall not, Ifabel, if you give me love. Ifab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't 4, Which feems a little fouler than it is ', To pluck on others. Would it not be better to read, Ang. take forms. JOHNSON. In imitating them, in taking * In profiting by them. them for examples. JOHNSON. 2 And credulous to falfe prints.] i. e. take any impreffion. 3 WARBURTON. -Speak the former language.] We should read formal, which he here ufes for plain, direct. WARBURTON. Ifabella anfwers to his circumlocutory courtship, that the has but one tongue, fhe does not understand this new phrafe, and defires him to talk his former language, that is, to talk as he talked before. JOHNSON. + I know your virtue bath a licence in't,] Alluding to the licences given by minifters to their fpies, to go into all fufpected companies, and join in the language of malecontents. WARBURTON. Which feems a little fouler, &c.] So in Promos and Cassandra: "Caf. Renowned lord, you use this speech (I hope) your thrall 66 to trye, "If otherwife, my brother's life fo deare I will not bye.” “Pro. Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words exprefs my purpose. Ifab. Ha! little honour to be much believed, And moft pernicious purpofe!-Seeming, feem6 ing '! I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't: Or, with an out-ftretch'd throat, I'll tell the world Ang. Who will believe thee, Ifabel? My unfoil'd name, the auftereness of my life, That you fhall ftifle in your own report, That "Pro. Fair dame, my outward looks my inward thoughts be "wray, "If you mistrust, to fearch my harte, would God you had a "kaye." STEEVENS. 6 Seeming, feeming!-] Hypocrify, hypocrify; counterfeit virtue. JOHNSON. 7 My vouch against you, The calling his denial of her charge his vouch, has fomething fine. Vouch is the testimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he infinuates his authority was fo great, that his denial would have the fame credit that a vouch or teftimony has in ordinary cafes. WARBURTON. I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouch againft means no more than denial. JOHNSON. 8 That you fhall fifle in your own report, A metaphor from a lamp or candle extinguished in its own grease. 9 and prolixious blushes.] The word prolixious is not peculiar to Shakespeare. I find it in Mofes his Birth and Miracles, by Drayton : "Moft part by water, more prolixious was, &c." Again, in the Dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is Up. 1598: -rarifier of prolixious rough barbarism, &c." F 3 66 Again, |