worn your eyes almoft out in the fervice, you will be confidered. Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfter? Let's withdraw. Clown. Here comes fignior Claudio, led by the provoft to prison and there's, madam Juliet. [Exeunt Bawd and Clozen. SCENE III. Enter Provoft, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers; Lucio and two Gentlemen. Claud. Fellow, why doft thou fhow me thus to the Bear me to prifon, where I am committed. Claud. Thus can the demi-god, authority', 3 Thus can the demi-god, authority, On Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight.The words of heaven; -on whom, it will, it will; On whom it will not, fo: yet ftill 'tis juft.] The wrong pointing of the fecond line hath made the paffage unintelligible. There ought to be a full ftop at weight. And the fenfe of the whole is this: The demi-god, Authority, makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be queftioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleafure thus, -I punish and remit punishment according to my own uncontroulable will; and yet who can fay, what doft thou?-Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight, is a fine expreffion to fignify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not fo by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the fpecies. WARBURTON. I fufpect that a line is loft. JOHNSON.. It may be read, the fword of heaven. Thus can the demi-god authority, Make us pay down for our offence, by weight- Authority is then poetically called the word of heaven, which will fpare or punish as it is commanded. The alteration is flight, be VOL. II. C ing On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis juft. Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint? Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As furfeit is the father of much faft, So every fcope by the immoderate ufe Lucio ing made only by taking a single letter from the end of the word, and placing it at the beginning. A This very ingenious and elegant emendation was fuggested to me by the rev. Dr. Roberts, of Eton; and it may be countenanced by the following paffage in the Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: "In brief they are the fawords of heaven to punish." Sir W. Davenant, who incorporated this play of Shakspeare with Much ado about Nothing, and formed out of them a Tragicomedy called The Law againft Lovers, omits the two laft lines of this fpeech; I fuppofe, on account of their feeming obfcu rity. STEEVENS. The very ingenious emendation propofed by Dr. Roberts, is yet more strongly fupported by another paffage in the play before us, where this phrafe occurs, (act III fc. last): ΜΑΣΟΝΣ. "He who the fword of heaven will bear, "Should be as holy, as fevere" Notwithstanding Dr. Roberts's ingenious conjecture, the text is certainly right. Authority, being abfolute in Angelo, is finely ftiled by Claudio, the demi-god. To his uncontroulable power, the poet applies a paffage from St. Paul to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15, 18. which he properly ftyles, the words of heaven: for he faith to Mofes, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, &c. And again: Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, &c. HENLEY. It should be remembered however that the poet is here fpeaking not of mercy but punishment MALONE. Like rats that ravin down their proper bane] To ravin was formerly used for eagerly or voraciously devouring any thing: fo in Wilfon's Epittle to the Earl of Leicefter, prefixed to his Dif courfe upon Ufurve, 1572, "For thefe bee the greedie cormoraunte "woltes indeede that ravyn up both beafte and man." EDITOR. Ravine is an ancient word for prey. So in Noah's Flood, by Drayton: 66 as well of ravine as that chew the cud." STEEVENS. when we drink we die.] So in Revenge for Honour, hy Chapman : -like Lucio. If I could fpeak fo wifely under an arreft, I would fend for certain of my creditors: And yet, to fay the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio? Claud. What, but to fpeak of, would offend again. Lucio. What is it? murder? Claud. No. Lucio. Lechery? Claud. Call it fo Prov. Away, fir; you must go. Claud. One word, good friend :-Lucio, a word with you Lucio. A hundred, if they'll do you any good.Is lechery fo look'd after? Claud. Thus ftands it with me,-Upon a true contract, I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed; You know the lady; fhe is faft my wife, Remaining in the coffer of her friends; From whom we thought it meet to hide our love, 'Till time had made them for us. But it chances, The stealth of our moft mutual entertainment, With character too grofs, is writ on Juliet. "-like poifon'd rats, which when they've swallow'd "The pleafing bane, reft not until they drink, "And can reft then much lefs, until they burft." STEEVENS. 6 I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed, &c.] This fpeech is furely too indelicate to be fpoken concerning Juliet, before her face, for the appears to be brought in with the reft, tho' fhe has no thing to fay. The Clown points her out as they enter; and yet, from Claudio's telling Lucio, that he knows the lady, &c. one would think she was not meant to have made her perfonal appearance on the fcene. STEEVENS. "The little feeming impropriety there is, will be entirely re"moved by fuppofing that when Claudio ftops to fpeak to Lucio, "the provost's officers depart with Julietta." REMARKS. C 2 Lucio. Lucio. With child, perhaps? Cland. Unhappily, even fo. And the new deputy now for the duke,- A horfe whercon the governor doth ride, Or in his eminence that fills it up, I ftagger in : But this new governor 8 Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall, 7-the fault and glimpse of newness;] Fault and glimpfe have fo little relation to each other, that both can scarcely be right: we may read flash for fault: or, perhaps we may read, Whether it be the fault or glimpfe That is, whether it be the feeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. Yet the fame fenfe follows in the next lines. JOHNSON. Fault, I apprehend, does not refer to any enormous act done by the deputy, but to newness. The fault and glimpfe is the fame as the faulty glimpfe. And the meaning feems to be whether it be the fault of newness, a fault arifing from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority, of which the new governour has yet had only a glimpfe; has yet only taken a bafty farvey. Shakspeare has many fimilar expreffions. MALONE. 8 -But this new governour Awakes me all the enrolled penalties Which have, like unfcour'd armour, hung by the wall, So long Now puts the drow fy and neglected act Freshly on me. Lord Strafford, in the conclufion of his Defence in the Houfe of Lords, had, perhaps, thefe lines in his thoughts: "It is now full two hundred and forty years fince any man was touched for this alledged crime, to this height, before myfelf. Let us reft contented with that which our fathers have left us, and not awake thofe fleeping lions, to our own destruction, by raking up a few mufty records, that have lain fo many ages by th walls, quite forgotten and neglected. MALONE. 9 like unfcour'd armour.] So in Troilus and Crefida: Sa round', So long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head ftands fo tickle on thy fhoulders, that a milk-maid, if the be in love, may figh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him. Claud. I have done fo, but he's not to be found. Acquaint her with the danger of my state; Such So long that nineteen zodiacks bave gone round,] The duke in the fcene immediately following fays, Which for thefe fourteen years we have let flip. THEOBALD.. fo tickle. i. e. ticklish. This word is frequently used by our old dramatic authors. So in The true Tragedy of Marius and Scilla, 1594: lords of Afia "Have ftood on tickle terms." Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: 3 66 upon as tickle a pin as the needle of a dial." STEEVENS. her approbation.] i.e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So again, in this play: "I, in probation of a fifterhood." Again, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608; MALONE. prone and peechless dialect,] I can fcarcely tell what fignification to give to the word prone. Its primitive and tranflated fenses are well known. The authour may, by a prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as thofe actions feem to which we are prone. Either C 3 of |