The plays of William Shakespeare; in twenty-one volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators, to which are added notes

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VOLUME THE SIXTH.

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THE

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WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

VOLUME THE SIXTH.

CONTAIMNC

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
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PR

-). r-i A" ' -o

c / o o

MUCH ADO
ABOUT NOTHING *

VOL. VI.

* MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.] The story is taken from
Ariosto, Orl. Fur. B. V. POPE.

It is true, as Mr. Pope has observed, that somewhat resembling
the story of this play is to be found in the fifth Book of the
Orlando Furioso. In Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. II. c. iv. as re-
mote an original may be traced. A novel, however, of Belle-
forest, copied from another of Bandello, seems to have furnished
Shakspeare with his fable, as it approaches nearer in all its par-
ticulars to the play before us, than any other performance known
to be extant. I have seen so many versions from this once
popular collection, that I entertain no doubt but that a great
majority of the tales it comprehends have made their appearance
in an English dress. Of that particular story which I have just
mentioned, viz. the 18th history of the third volume, no transla-
tion has hitherto been met with.

This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Aug. 23, 1600.

STEEVENS.

Ariosto is continually quoted for the fable of Much Ado about
Nothing; but I suspect our poet to have been satisfied with the
Geneura of Turberville. " The tale ( says Harington ) is a pretie
comical matter, and hath bin written in English verse some few
years past, learnedly and with good grace, by M. George Tur-
bervil." Ariosto, fol, 15Q1, p. .Jp. FARMER.

I suppose this comedy to have been written in 1600, in which
year it was printed. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of
Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. I\ [ATONE.

B 2

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Don Pedro, Prince o/~Arragon.

Don John, his bastard Irrother.

Claudio, a young lord of Florence, favourite to Don

Pedro.
Benedick, a young lord of Padua, favourite likewise

of Don Pedro.

Leonato, governor of Messina.
Antonio, his brother.
Balthazar, servant to Don Pedro.

Borachio, 7^/7 ^ r\ r t.

Conrade, $ followers of Don John.

Verge*?7' two foolish °fficers-
A Sexton.
A Friar.
A Boy.

Hero, daughter to Leonato.
Beatrice, niece to Leonato.

TT , ? 1 ' > gentlewomen attending on Hero.

Messengers, Watch, and Attendants.
SCENE, Messina.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Before Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, HERO,1 BEATRICE, and others, with
a Messenger.

LEON. I learn in this letter, that Don Pedro of
Arragon comes this night to Messina.

MESS. He is very near by this ; he was not three
leagues off when I left him.

LEON. How many gentlemen have you lost in
this action ?

1 Innogcn, (the mother of Hero,) in the old quarto that I have
seen of this play, printed in 1 oo, is mentioned to enter in two
several scenes. The succeeding editions have all continued her
name in the Dramatis Personce. But I have ventured to ex-
punge it ; there being no mention of her through the play, no
one speech addressed to her, nor one syllable spoken by her.
Neither is there any one passage, from which we have any rea-
son to determine that Hero's mother was living. It seems as if
the poet had in his first plan designed such a character : which,
on a survey of it, he found would be superfluous ; and therefore
he left it out. THEOBALD.

The name of Hero's mother occurs also in the first folio :
" Enter Leonato governor of Messina, Innogen his wife," &c.

STEEVENS.

6 MUCH ADO ACT z.

MESS. But few of any sort,2 and none of name.

LEON. A victory is twice itself, when the achiever
brings home full numbers. I find here, that Don
Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young
Florentine, called Claudio.

MESS. Much deserved on his part, and equally
remembered by Don Pedro : He hath borne him-
self beyond the promise of his age ; doing, in the
figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion : he hath, in-
deed, better bettered expectation, than you must
expect of me to tell you how.

LEON. He hath an uncle here in Messina will
be very much glad of it.

MESS. I have already delivered him letters, and
there appears much joy in him ; even so much,
that joy could not show itself modest enough, with-
out a badge of bitterness.3

9 — — of any sort,3 Sort is rank, distinction. So, in Chap-
man's version of the ItJth Book of Homer's Odyssey:
" A ship, and in her many a man of sort."

I incline, however, to Mr. M. Mason's easier explanation. Of
any sort, says he, means of any kind whatsoever. There were
but fev> killed of any kind, and none of rank. STEEVENS.

3 — — joy could not shoia itself modest enough, icithout a
badge of bitterness.] This is judiciously expressed. Of all the
transports of joy, that which is attended with tears is least
offensive ; because, carrying with it this mark of pain, it allays
the envy that usually attends another's happiness. This he finely
calls a modest joy, such a one as did not insult the observer by
an indication of happiness unmixed with pain. WARBURTON.

A somewhat similar expression occurs in Chapman's version
of the 10th Book of the Odyssey:

" our eyes wore

" The same wet badge of weak humanity."
This is an idea which Shakspeare seems to have been delighted
to introduce. It occurs again in Macbeth:

— my plenteous joys,

" Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
" In drops of sorrow." STEEVENS.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 7

LEON. Did he break out into tears ?
MESS. In great measure.4

LEON. A kind overflow of kindness : There are
no faces truer5 than those that are so washed.
How much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy
at weeping ?

BEAT. I pray you, is signior Montanto returned6
from the wars, or no ?

MESS. I know none of that name, lady j there
was none such in the army of any sort.7

LEON. What is he that you ask for, niece ?

HERO. My cousin means signior Benedick of
Padua.

MESS. O, he is returned ; and as pleasant as ever
he was.

A badge being the distinguishing mark worn in our author's
time by the servants of noblemen, &c. on the sleeve of their
liveries, with his usual licence he employs the word to signify a
mark or token in general. So, in Macbeth :

" Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood."

MALONE.
4 In great measure.] i. e. in abundance. STEEVEVS.

5 no faces truer — ] That is, none honester, none more

sincere. JOHNSON.

6 -is signior Montanto returned — ] Montante,in Spanish,

is a huge two-handed sivord, [a title] given, with much humour,
to one [whom] the speaker would represent as a boaster or bra-
vado. WARBURTON.

Montanto was one of the ancient terms of the fencing-school.
So, in Every Man in his Humour : " — your punto, your reverso,
your stoccata, your imbrocata, your passada, your montanto" &c.
Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor:

" thy reverse, thy distance, thy montdnt,"

STEEVENS.

7 there ivas none such in the army of any sort.] Not

meaning there was none such of any order or degree whatever,
but that there was none such of any quality above the common.

WARBURTON.

s MUCH ADO ACT i.

BEAT. He set up his bills here in Messina,8 and
challenged Cupid at the flight :9 and my uncle's

8 He set up his bills &c.] So, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out
of his Humour, Shift says :

" This is rare, I have set up my bills without discovery."
Again, in Sivetnam Arraigned, 1 620:

" I have bought foils already, set up Mis,
" Hung up my two-hand sword," &c.
Again, in Nash's Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 15p6:

" setting up bills, like a bearward or fencer, what fights

we shall have, and what weapons she will meet me at."

The following account of one of these challenges, taken from
an ancient MS. of which further mention is made in a note on
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I. sc. i. may not be unac-
ceptable to the inquisitive reader. " Item a challenge playde
before the King's majestie ( Edward VI. ) at Westminster, by three
maisters, Willyam Pascall, Robert Greene, and W. Browne, at
seven kynde of weapons. That is to say, the axe, the pike, the
rapier and target, the rapier and cloke, and with two swords,
agaynst all alyens and strangers being borne without the King's
dominions, of what countrie so ever he or they were, geving them
warninge by theyr Mils set up by the three maisters, the space
of eight weeks before the sayd challenge was playde ; and it was
holden four severall Sundayes one after another." It appears
from the same work, that all challenges " to any maister within
the realme of Englande being an Englishe man," were against
the statutes of the " Noble Science of Defence."

Beatrice means, that Benedick published a general challenge,
like a prize-fighter. STEEVENS.

9 challenged Cupid at the flight :] Flight (as Mr. Douce

observes to me) does not here mean an arrow, but a sort of
shooting called roving, or shooting at long lengths. The arrows
used at this sport are called flight-arrows ; as were those used
in battle for great distances. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's
Bonduca;

" — — not the quick rack swifter ;

" The virgin from the hated ravisher

" Not half so fearful : not a flight drawn home,

" A round stone from a sling, — ."
Again, in A Woman kill'd ivith Kindness, 1617:

" We have tied our geldings to a tree, two flight-shot off,"
Again, in Middleton's Game of Chess :

" Who, as they say, discharg'd it like a flight."

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 9

fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid,
and challenged him at the bird-bolt.1 — I pray you,
how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars ?

Again, in The Entertainment at Causome House, &c. l6l3 :

" it being from the park about two flight-shots in

length."
Again, in The Civil Wars of Daniel, B. VIII. st. 15 :

" and assign'd

" The archers their^zgfa-shafts to shoot away ;
" Which th' adverse side (with sleet and dimness blind,
" Mistaken in the distance of the way,)
" Answer with their sheaf-arrows, that came short
" Of their intended aim, and did no hurt."
Holinshed makes the same distinction in his account of the
same occurrence, and adds, that these flights were provided on
purpose. Again, in Holinshed, p. 649 : " He caused the sol-
diers to shoot their Jlights towards the lord Audlies company."

Mr. Toilet observes, that the length of a Jlight-shot seems
ascertained by a passage in Leland' s Itinerary, 1769, Vol. IV.
p. 44 : " The passage into it at ful se is a flite-shot over, as
much as the Tamise is above the bridge." It were easy to know
the length of London-bridge, and Stowe's Survey may inform
the curious reader whether the river has been narrowed by
embanking since the days of Leland.

Mr. Douce, however, observes, that as the length of the shot
depended on the strength and skill of the archer, nothing can
with certainty be determined by the passage quoted from Leland.

STEEVENS.

The flight was an arrow of a particular kind : In the Harleian
Catalogue of MSS. Vol. I. n. 69, is " a challenge of the lady
Maiee's servants to all comers, to be performed at Greenwiche —
to shoot standart arrow, or flight." I find the title-page of an
old pamphlet still more explicit — " A new post — a marke ex-
ceeding necessary for all men's arrows : whether the great
man's flight, the gallant's rover, the wise man's pricke-shaft,
the poor man's but-shaft, or the fool's bird-bolt" FARMER.

1 at the bird-bolt.] The bird-bolt is a short thick arrow-
without a point, and spreading at the extremity so much, as to
leave a flat surface, about the breadth of a shilling. Such are
to this day in use to kill rooks with, and are shot from a cross-
bow. So, in Marston's What you will, } 607 •

" ignorance should shoot

" His gross-knobb'd bird ioft— *"

10 MUCH ADO ACT r.

But how many hath he killed ? for, indeed, I pro-
mised to eat all of his killing.2

LEON. Faith, niece, you tax signior Benedick
too much ; but he'll be meet with you,3 I doubt it
not.

MESS. He hath done good service, lady, in these
wars.

BEAT. You had musty victual, and he hath holp
to eat it : he is a very valiant trencher-man, he
hath an excellent stomach.

MESS. And a good soldier too, lady.

BEAT. And a good soldier to a lady; — But
what is he to a lord ?

Again, in Love in a Maze, 1632 :

" Cupid,

" Pox of his bird-bolt ! Venus,

" Speak to thy boy to fetch his arrow back,

" Or strike her with a sharp one /" STEEVENS.

The meaning of the whole is — Benedick, from a vain con-
ceit of his influence over women, challenged Cupid at roving
(a particular kind of archery, in which y??V/tf-arrows are used).
In other words, he challenged him to shoot at hearts. The
fool, to ridicule this piece of vanity, in his turn challenged
Benedick to shoot at crows with the cross-bow and bird-bolt ;
an inferior kind of archery used by fools, who, for obvious
reasons, were not permitted to shoot with pointed arrows :
Whence the proverb — " A fool's bolt is soon shot." DOUCE.

* I promised to eat all of his killing.'] So in King Henry V :
" Ram. He longs to eat the English.
" Con. I think, he will eat all he kills." STF.EVEXS.

3 he'll lie meet with you,] This is a very common ex-
pression in the midland counties, and signifies, he'll be your
match, he'll be even with you.

So, in TEXNOFAMTA, by B. Holiday, 1618 :

" Go meet her, or else she'll be meet with me."
Chapman has nearly the same phrase in his version of the
22d Iliad :

" when —

" Paris and Phoebus meet with thee — ." STEEVENS

sc.i. ABOUT NOTHING. 11

MESS. A lord to a lord, a man to a man ; stuffed
with all honourable virtues.4

BEAT. It is so, indeed; he is no less than a
stuffed man : but for the stuffing, — Well, we are
all mortal.5

LEON. You must not, sir, mistake my niece :
there is a kind of merry war betwixt signior Bene-
dick and her : they never meet, but there is a skir-
mish of wit between them.

BEAT. Alas, he gets nothing by that. In our
last conflict, four of his five wits 6 went halting otf,

* stuffed with all honourable virtues.'} Stuffed, in this

first instance, has no ridiculous meaning. Mr. Edwards ob-
serves, that Mede, in his Discourses on Scripture, speaking of
Adam, says, " — he whom God hud stujfed with so many ex-
cellent qualities." Edwards's MS.

Again, in The Winter's Tale :

" whom you know

" Of stuff'd sufficiency."

Un homme bien etoffe, signifies, in French, a man in good
circumstances." STEEVENS.

5 he is no less than a stuffed man : but for the stuffing, —

Well, ive are all mortal.'] Mr. Theobald plumed himsell' much
on the pointing of this passage ; which, by the way. he might
learn from D' Avenant : but he says not a word, nor any one
else that I know of, about the reason of this abruption. The
truth is, Beatrice starts an idea at tha words stiiffed man ; and
prudently checks herself in the pursuit of it. A stuffed man
was one of the many cant phrases for a cuckold. In Lyly's
Midas, we have an inventory of Motto's moveables : " Item,
says Petulus, one paire of homes in the bride-chamber on the
bed's head. — The beast's head, observes Licio ; for Motto is
stuff d in the head, and these are among unmoveable goods"

FARMER.

6 four of his Jive wits — ] In our author's time wit was

the general term for intellectual powers. So, Davies on the Soul :

" Wit, seeking truth, from cause to cause ascends,
" And never rests till it the first attain ;

" Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends,
" But never stays till it the last do gain."

12 MUCH ADO ACT i.

and now is the whole man governed with one : so
that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm,
let him bear it for a difference between himself and
his horse ; 7 for it is all the wealth that he hath left,
to be known a reasonable creature. — Who is his
companion now? He hath every month a new
sworn brother.*

MESS. Is it possible ?

BEAT. Very easily possible : he wears his faith9

And, in another part:

" But if a phrenzy do possess the brain,

" It so disturbs and blots the forms of things,
" As fantasy proves altogether vain,

" And to the wit no true relation brings.
" Then doth the wit, admitting all for true,

" Build fond conclusions on those idle grounds — ."
The wits seem to have been reckoned five, by analogy to the
five senses, or the five inlets of ideas. JOHNSON.

7 if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him

bear it for a difference §c.~\ Such a one has •wit enough to keep
himself warm, is a proverbial expression.
So, in Heyvvood's Epigram,1; on Proverbs :

" Wit kept by warmth"

" Thou art wise inough, if thou keepe thee warme,
" But the least colde that cumth, kilth thy wit by harme."
Again, in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1O38: " You are
the wise woman, are you ? and have wit to keepe yourself warm
enough, I warrant you." Again, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben
Jonson : " — your whole self cannot but be perfectly wise ; for
your hands have wit enough to keep themselves warm."

To bear any thing for a difference, is a term in heraldry.
So, in Hamlet, Ophelia says :

" you may wear your rue with a difference"

STEEVENS,

* sworn brother.] i. e. one with whom he hath sworn

(as was anciently the custom among adventurers) to share for-
tunes. See Mr. Whalley's note on — " we'll be all three sworn-
brothers to France," in King Henry V. Act II. sc. i. STEEVENS.

1 he wears his faith—] Not religious profession, but

profession of * friendship ; for the speaker gives it as the reason of

x. I. ABOUT NOTHING. 13

but as the fashion of his hat, it ever changes with
the next block.1

MESS. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your
books.2

her asking, u/ho ivas noiu his companion ? that he had every
month a neiu sworn brother. WARBURTON.

1 with the next block.] A block is the mould on which

a hat is formed. So, in Decker's Satiromastix :

" Of what fashion is this knight s wit? of what block?"

See a note on King Lear, Act IV. sc. vi.

The old writers sometimes use the word block, for the hat
itself. STEEVENS.

* the gentleman is not in your books.] This is a phrase

used, I believe, by more than understand it. To be in one's
books is to be in one's codicils or will, to be among friends set
doixn'for legacies. JOHNSON.

I rather think that the books alluded to, are memorandum-
books, like the visiting books of the present age. So, in
Decker's Honest Whore, Part II. ifiyo:

" I am sure her name was in my table-book once."

Or, perhaps the allusion is to matriculation at the University.
So, in Aristippus, or The Jovial Philosopher, 1630:

" You must be matriculated, and have your name recorded
in Albo Academic"

Again : " What have you enrolled him in albo? Have you
fully admitted him into the society ? — to be a member of the
body academic ?"

Again : " And if I be not entred, and have my name admitted
into some of their books, let," &c.

And yet I think the following passage in The Maid's Revenge,
by Shirley, 103p, will sufficiently support my first supposition:

" Pox of your compliment, you were best not write ia her
table-books.'*

It appears to have been anciently the custom to chronicle the
small beer of every occurrence, whether literary or domestic,
in table-books.

So, in the play last quoted :

" Devolve itself! — that word is not in my table-books"
Hamlet likewise has, — " my tables," &c.

Again, in The Whore of Babylon, 1607 :
Campeius ! — Babylon

" His name hath in her tables."

14, MUCH ADO ACT i.

BEAT. No : an he were, I would burn my study.
But, I pray you, who is his companion ? Is there
no young squarer 3 now, that will make a voyage
with him to the devil ?

Again, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540:

«' We weyl haunse thee, or set thy name into ourjeloivship
loke, with clappynge of handes," &c.

I know not exactly to what custom this last quoted passage
refers, unless to the album ; for just after, the same expression
occurs again : that " — from henceforthe thou may'st have a
place worthy for thee in our whyte : from hence thou may'st
have thy name written in our boke."

It should seem from the following passage in The Taming of
a Shrew, that this phrase might have originated from the
Herald's Office :

" A herald, Kate ! oh, put me in thy books /"
After all, the following note in one of the Harleian MSS.
No. 847, may be the best illustration :

*' W. C. to Henry Fraclsham, Gent, the owner of this book:
" Some write their fantasies in verse
" In theire bookes where they friendshippe shewe,
" Wherein oft tymes they doe rehearse
" The great good will that they do owe," &c.

STEEVENS.

This phrase has not been exactly interpreted. To be in a
man's books, originally meant to be in the list of his retainers.
Sir John Mandeville tells us, " alle the mynstrelles that comen
before the great Chan ben witholden with him, as of his hous-
hold, and entred hi his bookes, as for his own men." FARMER.

A servant and a lover were in Cupid's Vocabulary, synony-
mous. Hence perhaps the phrase — to be in a person's books —
was applied equally to the lover and the menial attendant.

MALONE.

There is a MS. of Lord Burleigh's, in the Marquis of Lans-
downe's library, wherein, among manv other household con-
cerns, he has entered the names of all his servants, &c. DOUCE.

3 y°ung squarer — ] A squarer I take to be a cholerick,

quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakspi-are uses the word
to square. So, in A Midsummer- Night's Dream, it is said of
Oberon and Titania, that they never meet but they square. So
the sense may be, Is there no hot-blooded youth that will keep
him company 'through all his mad pranks ? JOHNSON.

ac. z. ABOUT NOTHING. 15

MESS. He is most in the company of the right
noble Claudio.

BEAT. O Lord ! he will hang upon him like a
disease : he is sooner caught than the pestilence,
and the taker runs presently mad. God help the
noble Claudio ! if he have caught the Benedick, it
will cost him a thousand pound ere he be cured.

MESS. I will hold friends with you, lady.
BEAT. Do, good friend.
LEON. You will never run mad, niece.
BEAT. No, not till a hot January.
MESS. Don Pedro is approached.

Enter Don PEDRO, attended by BALTHAZAR and
others, Don JOHN, CLAUDIO, and BENEDICK.

D. PEDRO. Good signior Leonato, ydu are come
to meet your trouble : the fashion of the world is
to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

LEON. Never came trouble to my^ouse in the
likeness of your grace : for trouble being gone,
comfort should remain ; but, when you depart
from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his
leave.

D. PEDRO. You embrace your charge 4 too will-
ingly.— I think, this is your daughter.

LEON. Her mother hath many times told me so.

4 your charge — ] That is, your burden, your incum-

brance. JOHNSON.

Charge does not mean, as Dr. Johnson explains it, lurdent
incumbrance, but " the person committed to your care." So it
:>s used in the relationship between guardian and ward. DOUCE.

16 MUCH ADO ACT i.

BENE. Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked
her ?

LEON. Signior Benedick, no ; for then were you
a child.

D. PEDRO. You have it full, Benedick : we may
guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly,
the lady fathers herself: 5 — Be happy, lady ! for you
are like an honourable father.

BENE. If signior Leonato be her father, she
would not have his head on her shoulders, for all
Messina, as like him as she is.

BEAT. I wonder, that you will still be talking,
signior Benedick ; no body marks you.

BENE. What, my dear lady Disdain ! are you
yet living ?

BEAT. Is it possible, disdain should die, while
she hath such meet food to feed it, as signior Be-
nedick ? 6 Courtesy itself must convert to disdain,
if you come in her presence.

BENE. Then is courtesy a turn-coat : — But it is
certain, I am loved of all ladies, only you ex-
cepted : and I would I could find in my heart that
I had not a hard heart ; for, truly, I love none.

BEAT. A dear happiness to women ; they would
else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I
thank God, and my cold blood, I am of your hu-

-fathers herself i] This phrase is common in Dorset-

shire: " Jackjathers himself;" i. e. is like his father.

STEEVENS.

6 Is it possible, disdain should die, ivhile she hath such meet
food to feed it, as signior Benedick ?] A kindred thought oc-
curs in Coriolanus, Act II. sc. i :

" Our very priests must become mockers, if they encounter
such ridiculous subjects as you are." STEEVENS.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 17

mour for that ; I had rather hear my dog bark at a
crow, than a man swear he loves me.

BENE. God keep your ladyship still in that
mind ! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a
predestinate scratched face.

BEAT. Scratching could not make it worge, an
'twere such a face as yours were.

BENE. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.

BEAT. A bird of my tongue, is better than a
beast of yours.

BENE. I would, my horse had the speed of your
tongue ; and so good a continuer : But keep your
way o* God's name ; I have done.

BEAT. You always end with a jade's trick j I
know you of old.

D. PEDRO. This is the sum of all: Leonato, —
signior Claudio, and signer Benedick, — my dear
friend Leonato, hath invited you all. I tell him,
we shall stay here at the least a month ; and he
heartily prays, some occasion may detain us longer :
I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from
his heart.

LEON. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be
forsworn. — Let me bid you welcome, my lord : be-
ing reconciled to the prince your brother, I owe
you all duty.

D. JOHN. I thank you : 7 1 am not of many words,
but I thank you.

LEON. Please it your grace lead on ?

7 / thank you .-] The poet has judiciously marked the
gloominess of Don John's character, by making him averse to
the common forms of civility. SIR J. HAWKINS.

VOL. VI. C

18 MUCH ADO ACT i.

D. PEDRO. Your hand, Leonato ; we will go to-

gether.

\_Exeunt all but BENEDICK and CLAUDIO.

CLAUD. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter
of signior Leonato ?

BENE. I noted her not ; but I looked on her.
CLAUD. Is she not a modest young lady?

BENE. Do you question me, as an honest man
should do, for my simple true judgment ; or would
you have me speak after my custom, as being a
professed tyrant to their sex ?

CLAUD. No, I pray thee, speak in sober judg-
ment.

BENE. Why, i'faith, methinks she is too low
for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and
too little for a great praise : only this commenda-
tion I can afford her ; that were she other than she
is, she were unhandsome ; and being no other but
as she is, I do not like her.

CLAUD. Thou thinkest, I am in sport; I pray
thee, tell me truly how thou likest her.

BENE. Would you buy her, that you inquire
after her ?

CLAUD. Can the world buy such a jewel ?

BENE. Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak
you this with a sad brow r or do you play the flout-
ing Jack ; 8 to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder,

— thejlouting Jack ;~J Jack, in our author's time, I know
not why, was a term of contempt. So, in King Henry IV. P. I.
Act III:

" the prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup."

Again, in The Taming of the Shrew :

" - - rascal fidler,

" And twangling Jack, with twenty such vile terms," &c.

so. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 19

and Vulcan a rare carpenter ? 9 Come, in what key
shall a man take you, to go in the song ? l

CLAUD. In mine eye, she is the sweetest lady
that ever I looked on.

BENE. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see

See in Minsheu's DICT. 1617 : " A Jack sauce, or saucie
Jack" See also Chaucer's Cant. Tales, ver. 14,816, and the
note, edit. Tyrwhitt. MALONE.

9 to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, &c.] I know

not whether I conceive the jest here intended. Claudio hints
his love of Hero. Benedick asks, whether he is serious, or
whether he only means to jest, and to tell them that Cupid
is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter. A man
praising a pretty lady in jest, may show the quick sight of Cupid,
but what hits it to do with the carpentry of Vulcan ? Perhaps
the thought lies no deeper than this, Do you mean to tell us as
new "what we all know already? JOHNSON.

I believe no more is meant by those ludicrous expressions than
this. — Do you mean, says Benedick, to amuse us with impro-
bable stories ?

An ingenious correspondent, whose signature is R. W. explains
the passage in the same sense, but more amply. " Do you mean
to tell us that love is not blind, and that fire will not consume
what is combustible?" for both these propositions are implied in
making Cupid a good hare-finder, and Vulcan (the God of fire)
a good carpenter. In other words, would you convince me,
whose opinion on this head is 'well known, that you can be in
love without being blind, and can play with the flame of beauty
without being scorched'? STEEVENS.

I explain the passage thus : Do you scoff and mock in telling
its that Cupid, who is blind, is a good hare-finder, which requires
a quick eye-sight ; and that Vulcan, a blacksmith, is a rare car-
penter? ToLLET.

After such attempts at decent illustration, I am afraid that
he who wishes to know why Cupid is a good hare-finder, must
discover it by the assistance of many quibbling allusions of the
same sort, about hair and hoar, in Mercutio's song in the second
Act of Romeo and Jidiet. COLLINS.

to go in the song ?] i. e. to join with you in your song

-to strike in with you in the song. STEEVENS.

20 MUCH ADO ACT i.

no such matter : there's her cousin, an she were
not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in
beauty, as the first of May doth the last of De-
cember. But I hope, you have no intent to turn
husband ; have you ?

CLAUD. I would scarce trust myself, though I had
sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.

BENE. Is it come to this, i'faith ? Hath not the
world one man, but he will wear his cap with sus-
picion?2 Shall I never see a bachelor of three-
score again ? Go to, i'faith ; an thou wilt needs
thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it,
and sigh away Sundays.3 Look, Don Pedro is re-
turned to seek you.

* wear his cap tuith suspicion?] That is, subject his

head to the disquiet of jealousy. JOHNSON.

In Painter's Palace of Pleasure, p. 233, we have the following
passage : *' All they that tueare homes be pardoned to weare
their cappes upon their heads." HENDERSON.

In our author's time none but the inferior classes wore caps,
and such persons were termed in contempt flat-caps. All gen-
tlemen wore hats. Perhaps therefore the meaning is, — Is there
not one man in the world prudent enough to keep out of that
.state where he must live in apprehension that his night-cap will
be worn occasionally by another ? So, in Othello :

" For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too/' MA LONE.

If this remark on the disuse of caps among people of higher
rank be accurate, Sir Christopher Hatton, and other worthies
of the court of Elizabeth, have been injuriously treated ; for
the painters of their time exhibit several of them with caps on
their heads. — It should be remembered that there was a mate-
rial distinction between the plain statute-cap* of citizens, and
the ornamented ones worn by gentlemen. STEEVENS.

3 sigh away Sundays."] A proverbial expression to signify

that a man has no rest at all ; when Sunday, a day formerly of
ease and diversion, was passed so uncomfortably. WAUBURTON.

I cannot find this proverbial expression in any ancient book
whatever. I am apt to believe that the learned commentator

ac. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 21

Re-enter Don PEDRO.

D. PEDRO. What secret hath held you here,
that you followed not to Leonato's ?

BENE. I would, your grace would constrain me
to tell.

D. PEDRO. I charge thee on thy allegiance.

BENE. You hear, Count Claudio : I can be secret
as a dumb man, I would have you think so ; but
on my allegiance, — mark you this, on my allegi-
ance : — He is in love. With who ? — now that is
your grace's part. — Mark, how short his answer
is : — With Hero, Leonato's short daughter.

CLAUD. If this were so, so were it uttered.4

has mistaken the drift of it, and that it most probably alludes to
the strict manner in which the Sabbath was observed by the
Puritans, who usually spent that day in sighs and gruntings, and
other hypocritical marks of devotion. STEEVENS.

4 Claud. If this ivere so, so ivere it uttered.'] This and the
three next speeches I do not well understand ; there seems
something omitted relating to Hero's consent, or to Claudio's
marriage, else I know not what Claudio can wish not to be
otherwise. The copies all read alike. Perhaps it may be better
thus:

Claud. If this tvere so, so "were it.

Bene. Uttered like the old tale, &c.

Claudio gives a sullen answer, if it is so, so it is. Still there
seems something omitted which Claudio and Pedro concur in
wishing. JOHNSON.

Claudio, evading at first a confession of his passion, says, if
I had really confided such a secret to him, yet he would have
blabbed it in this manner. In his next speech, he thinks proper
to avow his love ; and when Benedick says, God forbid it should
be so, i. e. God forbid he should even wish to marry her, —
Claudio replies, God forbid I should not wish it. STEEVENS.

22 MUCH ADO ACT*

BENE. Like the old talc, my lord : it is not so,
nor 'twas not so ; but, indeed, God forbid it should
be so.

CLAUD. If my passion change not shortly, God
forbid it should be otherwise.

D. PEDRO. Amen, if you love her ; for the lady
is very well worthy.

CLAUD. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord.

D. PEDRO. By my troth, I speak my thought.

CLAUD. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.

BENE. And, by my two faiths and troths, my
lord, I spoke mine.5

CLAUD. That I love her, I feel.

D. PEDRO. That she is worthy, I know.

BENE. That I neither feel how she should be
loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the
opinion that fire cannot melt out of me ; I will die
in it at the stake.

D. PEDRO. Thou wast ever an obstinate here-
tick in the despite of beauty.

CLAUD. And never could maintain his part, but
in the force of his will.6

BENE. That a woman conceived me, I thank
her ; that she brought me up, I likewise give her
most humble thanks : but that I will have a recheat

— 7 spoke nrine.~\ Thus the quarto, IGOO. The folio
reads — " I speak mine." But the former is right. Benedick
means, that he xpoke his mind when he said — " God forbid it
should be so ;" i. c. that Claudio should be in love, and marry
in consequence of his passion. STEEVENS.

0 Iml in ike force of his icilL~\ Alluding to the definition

of a heretick in the schools. WAKBURTON".

xc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 23

winded in my forehead,7 or hang my bugle in an
invisible baldrick,8 all women shall pardon me:
Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust
any, I will do myself the right to trust none j and

7 but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead.']

That is, / will "wear a horn on my forehead which the huntsman
may blow. A recheate is the sound by which dogs are called
back. Shakspeare had no mercy upon the poor cuckold, his
horn is an inexhaustible subject of merriment. JOHNSON.

So, in The Return from Parnassus : " When you blow the
death of your fox in the field or covert, then you must sound
three notes, with three winds ; and recheat, mark you, sir, upon
the same three winds."

" Now, sir, when you come to your stately gate, as you
sounded the recheat before, so now you must sound the relief
three times."

Again, in The Book of Huntynge, &c. b. 1. no date : " Blow
the whole rechate with three wyndes, the first wynde one longe
and six shorte. The second wynde two shorte and one longe.
The thred wynde one longe and two shorte."

Among Bagford's Collections relative to Typography, in the
British Museum, 1044, II. C. is an engraved half sheet, contain-
ing the ancient Hunting Notes of England, &c. Among these,
I find, Single, Double, and Treble Recheat st Running Recheat,
Warbling Recheat, another Recheat with the tongue very hard,
another smoother Recheat, and another warbling Recheat. The
musical notes are affixed to them all. STEEVENS.

A recheate is a particular lesson upon the horn, to call dogs
back from the scent : from the old French word recet, which was
used in the same sense as retraite. HAMMER.

8 hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick,'] Bugle, i. e.

bugle-horn, hunting-horn. The meaning seems to be — or that
I should be compelled to carry a horn on my forehead where
there is nothing visible to support it. So, in John Alday's
translation of Pierre Boisteau's Theatrum Mundi, &c. bl. 1. no
date : " Beholde the hazard wherin thou art (sayth William de
la Perriere) that thy round head become not forked, which were
a fearful sight if it were visible and apparent."

It is still said of the mercenary cuckold, that he carries his
horns in his pockets. STEEVENS.

Baldrick.'] " A belt, from the old French word baudrier, a
piece of dressed leather girdle, or belt, made of such leather; and
that comes from the word baudroyer, to dress leather, curry or
make belts. Monsieur Menage says, this comes from the Italian

2* MUCH ADO ACT i.

the fine is, (for the which I may go the finer,) I
will live a bachelor.

D. PEDRO. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale
with love.

BENE. With anger, with sickness, or with hun-
ger, my lord ; not with love : prove, that ever I
lose more blood with love, than I will get again
with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-
maker's pen, and hang me up at the door of a
brothel-house, for the sign of blind Cupid.

D. PEDRO. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this
faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.9

BENE. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat,1

baldringus, and that from the Latin balteus, from whence the
Baltick sea has its name, because it goes round as a belt. This
word baudrier among the French sometimes signified a girdle, in
which people used to put their money. See Rabelais, III. 37.
Menag. Orig. Franc. Somn. Diet. Sax. Nicot. Diet." Fortescue
Aland's note on Fortescue, on the Difference between an absolute
and limited Monarchy, 8vo. 1724, p. 52. REED.

9 notable argument.] An eminent subject for satire.

JOHNSON.

1 in a bottle like a cat,~\ As to the cat and bottle, I can

procure no better information than the following :

In some counties in England, a cat was formerly closed up
with a quantity of soot in a wooden bottle, (such as that in which
shepherds carry their liquor,) and was suspended on a line. He
who beat out the bottom as he ran under it, and was nimble
enough to escape its contents, was regarded as the hero of this
inhuman diversion.

Again, in Warren, or ike Peace is broken, bl. 1 : " — arrowes
flew faster than they did at a catte in a basket, when Prince
Arthur, or the Duke of Shordich, strucke up the drumme in the
field."

In a Poem, however, called Cornu-copice, or Pasqnil's Night-
cap, or an Antidote to (he I lead-ache, l0'23, p. 48, the following
passage occurs :

" Fairer than any stake in Greys-inn-field, &c.
" Guarded with gunners, bill-men, and a rout
" Of bow-men bold, which at a cat do shoot"

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 25

and shoot at me ; and he that hits me, let him be
clapped on the shoulder, and called Adam.2

D. PEDRO. Well, as time shall try :
In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke?

Again, ibid:

" Nor. at the top a cat-a-mount Avasfram'd,
" Or some vvilde beast that ne'er before was tam'd ;
" Made at the charges of some archer stout,
" To have his name canoniz'd in the clout."
The foregoing quotations may serve to throw some light on
Benedick's allusion. They prove, however, that it was the
custom to shoot at factitious as well as real cats. STEEVENS.

This practice is still kept up at Kelso, in Scotland, where it
is called — Cat-in-barreL See a description of the whole cere-
mony in a little account of the town of Kelso, published in 1789,
by one Ebenezer Lazarus, a silly Methodist, who has interlarded
his book with scraps of pious and other poetry. Speaking of
this sport, he says :

" The cat in the barrel exhibits such a farce,

" That he who can relish it is worse than an ass."

DOUCE.

* and he that hits me, let him, be clapped on the shoulder,

and called Adam.] But why should he therefore be called
Adam? Perhaps, by a quotation or two we may be able to
trace the poet's allusion here. In Law-Tricks, or, Who would
have thought it, (a comedy written by John Day, and printed
in 1608,) I find this speech: " Adam Bell, a substantial out-
law, and a passing good archer, yet no tobacconist." By this it
appears, that Adam Bell at that time of day was of reputation
for his skill at the bow. I find him again mentioned in a bur-
lesque poem of Sir William D' Avenant's, called The long Vaca-
tion in London. THEOBALD.

Adam Bel, Clym of the Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudesle,
were, says Dr. Percy, three noted outlaws, whose skill in archery
rendered them formerly as famous in the North of England, as
Robin Hood and his fellows were'in the midland counties. Their
place of residence was in the forest of Englewood, not far from
Carlisle. At what time they lived does not appear. The author
of the common ballads on The Pedigree, Education, and Mar-
riage of Robin Flood, makes them contemporary with Robin
Hood's father, in order to give him the honour of beating them.
See Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 143, where
the ballad on these celebrated outlaws is preserved. STEEVENS.

3 In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.] This line is from

26 MUCH ADO ACT i.

BENE. The savage bull may ; but if ever the
sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off'the bull's horns,
and set them in my forehead : and let me be vilely
painted ; and in such great letters as they write,
Here is good horse to hire, let them signify under
my sign, — Here you may see Benedick the married
man.

CLAUD. If this should ever happen, thou would'st
be horn-mad.

D. PEDRO. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his
quiver in Venice,4 thou wilt quake for this shortly.

BENE. I look for an earthquake too then.

D. PEDRO. Well, you will temporize with the
hours. In the mean time, good signior Benedick,
repair to Leonato's ; commend me to him, and tell
him, I will not fail him at supper ; for, indeed, he
hath made great preparation.

BENE. I have almost matter enough in me for
such an embassage ; and so I commit you —

CLAUD. To the tuition of God : From my house,
(if I had it,)-

D. PEDRO. The sixth of July : Your loving
friend, Benedick.

BENE. Nay, mock not, mock not : The body
of your discourse is sometime guarded with frag-

The Spanish Tragedy, or Hicronymo, £c. and occurs also, with a
slight variation, in Watson's Sonnets, 4to. bl. 1. printed in 1581.
See note on the last edition of Dodsley's Old Play*, Vol. XII.
p. 38/. STEEVENS.

The Spanish Tragedy was printed and acted before 15Q3.

M ALONE.

It may be proved that The Spanish Tragedy had at least been
written before 15^2. STEEVENS.

— if Cupid have nol spent all his quiver in Venice,] All
modern writers agree in representing Venice in the same light as
the ancients did Cyprus. And it is this character of the people
that is here alluded to. WARBURTON.

SC.-T. ABOUT NOTHING. 27

ments,5 and the guards are but slightly basted on
neither : ere you flout old ends any further,6 exa-
mine your conscience ; and so I leave you.

\_Exit BENEDICK.

& guarded "with fragments,] Guards were ornamental

lace or borders. So, in The Merchant of Venice :

" • give him a livery

" More guarded than his fellows."
Again, in Henry IV. Part I:

" velvet guards, and Sunday citizens." STEEVENS.

6 - ere you- flout old ends &;c.~\ Before you endeavour to

distinguish yourself any more by antiquated allusions, examine
whether you can fairly claim them for your own. This, I think,
is the meaning ; or it may be understood in another sense,
examine, if your sarcasms do not touch yourself. JOHNSON.

The ridicule here is to the formal conclusions of Epistles dedi-
catory and Letters. Barnaby Googe thus ends his dedication to
the first edition of Palingenius, 12mo. 1560: " And thus com-
mittyng your Ladiship with all yours to the tuicion of the moste
merciful! God, I ende. From Staple Inne at London, the eighte
and twenty of March." The practice had however become
obsolete in Shakspeare's time. In A Posts with a Packet of mad
Letters, by Nicholas Breton, 4to. 160", I find a letter ending
in this manner, entitled, " A letter to laugh at after the old
fashion of love to a Maide." REED.

Dr. Johnson's latter explanation is, I believe, the true one.
By old ends the speaker may mean the conclusion of letters
commonly used in Shakspeare's time : " From my house this
sixth of July," &c. So, in the conclusion of a letter which our
author supposes Lucrece to write :

" So I commend me from our house in grief;

" My woes are tedious, though my words are brief."

See The Rape of Lucrece, p. 547, edit. 1780, and the note
there.

Old ends, however, may refer to the quotation that D. Pedro
had made from The Spanish Tragedy : " Ere you attack me on
the subject of love, with fragments of old plays, examine whe-
ther you are )rourself free from its power." So, King Richard :
" With odd old ends, stol'n forth of holy writ."

This kind of conclusion to letters was not obsolete in our
author's time, as has been suggested. Michael Drayton concludes
one of his letters to Drummond of Hawthornden, in 1619, thus:

28 MUCH ADO ACT i.

CLAUD. My liege, your highness now may do me
good.

D. PEDRO. My love is thine to teach ; teach it

but how,

And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn
Any hard lesson that may do thee good.

CLAUD. Hath Leonato any son, my lord ?

D. PEDRO. No child but Hero, she's his only heir :
Dost thou affect her, Claudio ?

CLAUD. O my lord,

When you went onward on this ended action,
I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye,
That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love :
But now I am return'd, and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant, in their rooms
Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
Saying, I lik'd her ere I went to wars.

D. PEDRO. Thou wilt be like a lover presently,
And tire the hearer with a book of words :
If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it;
And I will break with her, and with her father,
And thou shalt have her : Was't not to this end,
That thou began'st to twist so fine a story ?

CLAUD. How sweetly do you minister to love.
That know love's grief by his complexion !

" And so wishing you all happiness, / commend you to God's
tuition, and rest your assured friend." So also Lord Salisbury
concludes a letter to Sir Ralph Winwood, April /th, l6l():
" And so I commit you to God's protection."

Winwood's Memorial,1;, III. 147. MALONE.

The practice might have become obsolete to the general though
retained by certain individuals. An old fashion has sometimes a
few solitary adherents, after it has been discarded from common
use. REED.

sc. /. ABOUT NOTHING. 29

But lest my liking might too sudden seem,
I would have salv'd it with a longer treatise.

D. PEDRO. What need the bridge much broader

than the flood ?

The fairest grant is the necessity :7
Look, what will serve, is fit : 'tis once, thoulov'st;8
And I will fit thee with the remedy.
I know, we shall have revelling to-night ;
I will assume thy part in some disguise,
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio ;
And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart,
And take her hearing prisoner with the force
And strong encounter of my amorous tale :
Then, after, to her father will I break ;
And, the conclusion is, she shall be thine :
In practice let us put it presently. \_Exeunt.

7 The fairest grant is the necessity „•] i. e. no one can have a
better reason for granting a request than the necessity of its being
granted. WARBUKTON.

Mr. Hayley with great acuteness proposes to read :
" The fairest <*rant is to necessity ; i. e. necessitas quod cogit
defendit." STEEVENS.

These words cannot imply the sense that Warburton contends
for ; but if we suppose that grant means concession, the sense is
obvious ; and that is no uncommon acceptation of that word.

M. MASON.

6 'tis once, thou lov'st ;] This phrase, with concomitant

obscurity, appears in other dramas of our author, viz. The Merry
Wives of Windsor, and King Henry VIII. In The Comedy of
Errors, .it stands as follows :

" Once this — Your long experience of her wisdom," &c.

Balthasar is speaking to the Ephesian Antipholis.

Once may therefore mean " once for all," — " 'tis enough to
say at once." STEEVENS.

Once has here, I believe, the force of — once for all. So, in
Coriolanus : " Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not
fo deny him." MAT,O\H.

30 MUCH ADO ACT i>

SCENE II.

A Room in Leonato's House.
Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

LEON. How now, brother ? Where is my cousin,
your son ? Hath he provided this musick ?

ANT. He is very busy about it. But, brother,
I can tell you strange news9 that you yet dreamed
not of.

LEON. Are they good ?

ANT. As the event stamps them ; but they have
a good cover, they show well outward. The prince
and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached
alley1 in my orchard, were thus much overheard by
a man of mine : The prince discovered to Claudio,
that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant
to acknowledge it this night in a dance ; and, if
he found her accordant, he meant to take the pre-
sent time by the top, and instantly break with you
of it.

LEON. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you
this ?

ANT. A good sharp fellow : I will send for him,
and question him yourself.

9 strange news — ] Thus the quarto, l6'OO. The folio

omits the epithet, which indeed is of little value. STEEVENS.

— a thick-pleached alley — ] Thick-pleached is thickly
interwoven. 80 afterwards, Act III. sc. i :

" bid her steal into the jrfeachcd bower."

Again, in King Henry V :

" her hedges even-pleach' d — ." STEEVENS.

sc. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 31

LEON. No, no ; we will hold it as a dream, till
it appear itself: — but I will acquaint my daughter
withal, that she may be the better prepared for an
answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you, and
tell her of it. [Several persons cross the stage.~\
Cousins, you know2 what you have to do. — O, I
cry you mercy, friend; you go with me, and I will
use your skill : — Good cousins, have a care this
busy time. \_Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Another Room in Leonato's House.
Enter Don JOHN and CONRADE.

CON. What the goujere,3 my lord! why are you
thus out of measure sad ?

D. JOHN. There is no measure in the occasion
that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without
limit.

CON. You should hear reason.

D. JOHN. And when I have heard it, what bless-
ing bringeth it ?

* Cousins, you know — ] — and afterwards, — good cousins.]
Cousins were anciently enrolled among the dependants, if not
the domesticks, of great families, such as that of Leonato. —
Petruchio-, while intent on the subjection of Katharine, calls out,
in terms imperative, for his cousin Ferdinand. STEEVENS.

3 What the goujere,] i. e. morbiis Gallicus. The old copy
corruptly reads, " good-year." The same expression occurs
again in King Lear, Act V. sc. iii :

" The goujeres shall devour them, flesh and fell."

See note on this passage. STEEVENS.

32 MUCH ADO ACT i.

CON. If not a present remedy, yet a patient suf-
ferance.

D. JOHN. I wonder, that thou being (as thou
say'st thou art) born under Saturn, goest about to
apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief.
I cannot hide what I am :4 I must be sad when I
have cause, and smile at no man's jests ; eat when
I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure ;
sleep when I am drowsy, and tend to no man's
business ; laugh when I am merry, and claw no
man in his humour.5

CON. Yea, but you must not make the full show
of this, till you may do it without controlment.
You have of late stood out against your brother,
and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace ; where
it is impossible you should take true root, but by
the fair weather that you make yourself: it is need-
ful that you frame the season for your own harvest.

-* I cannot hide tvhat I am :] This is one of our author's
natural touches. An envious and unsocial mind, too proud to
give pleasure, and too sullen to receive it, always endeavours to
hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the
plainness of simple honesty, or the dignity of haughty inde-
pendence. JOHNSON.

— claw no man in his humour.'] To dam is to flatter. So,
the pope's clam-backs, in Bishop Jewel, are the pope's flatterers.
The sense is the same in the proverb, Midus mulum scabit.

JOHNSON.

So, in Albion s England, 159/, p. 125 :

" The overweening of thy wits does make thy foes to

smile,
" Thy friends to weepe, and claw-backs thee with

soothings to beguile."

Again, in Wylson on Usury, 157 1, p. 141 : " — therefore I will
elawc him, and saye well might he fare, and godds blessing have
he too. For the more he speaketh, the better it itcheth, and
maketh better for me." REED.

sc. in. ABOUT NOTHING. ss

D. JOHN. I had rather be a canker in a hedge,
than a rose in his grace;0 and it better fits my
blood to be disdained of all, than to fashion a car-
riage to rob love from any : in this, though I can-
not be said to be a flattering honest man* it must
not be denied that I am a plain-dealing villain. I
am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a
clog j therefore I have decreed not to sing in my

6 / had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace ;~\
A canker is the canker-rose, dog-rose, cynosbatns, or hip. The
sense is, I would rather live in obscurity the wild life of nature,
than owe dignity or estimation to my brother. He still continues,
his wish of gloomy independence. But what is the meaning of
the expression, a rose in hi? grace? If he was a rose of himself,
his brother's grace o? jhvour could not degrade him. I once;
read thus : / had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his
garden ; that is, I had rather be what nature makes me, how-
ever mean, than owe any exaltation or improvement to my bro-
ther's kindness or cultivation. But a less change will be suffici-
ent : I think it should be read, I had rather be a canker in a hedge,
than a rose by his grace. JOHNSON.

The canker is a term often substituted for the canker-rose.
Hey wood, in his Love's Mistress, 1030",- calls it the " canker-
flower."

Again, in Shakspeare's 54th Sonnet :

" The canker blooms have full as deep a die
" As the perfumed tincture of the rose.'1'

I think no change is necessary. The sense is, — I had rather be
a neglected dog-rose in a hedge, than a garden-flower of th6
same species, if it profited by his culture. STEEVKNS.

The. latter words are intended as an answer to what Conrade
has just said — " he hath ta'en you newly into his grace, wheer
it is impossible you should take true root," &c. In Macbeth- \VP
have a kindred expression :

" Welcome hither :

" I have begun to plant thee, and will labour

" To make thee full of growing,"
Again, in King Henry VI. P. Ill:

" Til plant Plantagenet, root him up who dares.'*

MALOXE.

VOL. VT. f)

34 MUCH ADO ACTI.

cage : If I had my mouth, I would bite ; if I had
my liberty, I would do my liking : in the mean
time, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter
me.

CON. Can you make no use of your discontent ?

D. JOHN. I make all use of it, for I use it only/
Who comes here ? What news, Borachio ?

Enter BORACHIO.

BORA. I came yonder from a great supper ; the
prince, your brother, is royally entertained by Leo-
nato ; and I can give you intelligence of an hir
tended marriage.

D. JOHN. Will it serve for any model to build
mischief on ? What is he for a fool, that betroths
himself to unquietness ?

BORA. Marry, it is your brother's right hand.
D. JOHN. Who ? the most exquisite Claudio ?
BORA. Even he.

D. JOHN. A proper squire ! And who, and who ?
which way looks he ?

BORA. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir
of Leonato.

D. JOHN. A very forward March-chick ! How
came you to this ?

BORA. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was
smoking a musty room,8 comes me the prince and

-for I use it only.] i. e. for I make nothing else my

counsellor. STEEVENS.

smoking a musty rmm^\ The neglect of cleanliness

among our ancestors, rendered such precautions too often neces-

sc. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 35

Claudio, hand in hand, in sad conference :9 I whipt
me behind the arras ; and there heard it agreed
upon, that the prince should woo Hero for him-
self, and having obtained her, give her to count
C) audio.

D. JOHN. Come, come, let us thither ; this may
prove food to my displeasure : that young start-up
hath all the glory of my overthrow ; if I can cross
him any way, I bless myself every way : You are
both sure,1 and will assist me ?

CON. To the death, my lord.

D. JOHN. Let us to the great supper ; their cheer
is the greater, that I am subdued: * Would the cook
were of my mind ! — Shall we go prove what's to
be done ?

BORA. We'll wait upon your lordship. \_Exeunt

sary. In the Harieian Collection of MSS. No. 6850, fol. go, in
the British Museum, is a paper of directions drawn up by Sir
John Puckering's Steward, relative to Suffolk Place before Queen
Elizabeth's visit to it in 15<)4. The 15th article is — " The
siuetynynge of the house in all places by any means." Again,
in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 26' 1 : " — the
smoake of juniper is in great request with us at Oxford, to sweeten
our chambers." See also King Henry IV. P. II. Act V. sc. iv.

STEEVENS.

9 — : — in sad conference :] Sad in this, as in future instances;
signifies serious. So, in The Winter'' s Tale: " My father, and
the gentlemen, are in sad talk." STEEVENS.

both sure,] i. e. to be depended on. So, in Macbeth.

" Thou sure and firm-set earth — ." STEEVENS.

36 MUCH ADO ACT n.

ACT II. SCENE I.

A Hall in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, and

others.

LEON. Was not count John here at supper ?
ANT. I saw him not.

BEAT. How tartly that gentleman looks ! I
never can see him, but I am heart-burned an hour
after.2

HERO. He is of a very melancholy disposition.

BEAT. He were an excellent man, that were
made just in the mid-way between him and Bene-
dick : the one is too like an image, and says
nothing ; and the other, too like my lady's eldest
son, evermore tattling.

LEON. Then half signior Benedick's tongue in
count John's mouth, and half count John's melan-
choly in signior Benedick's face, —

BEAT. With a good leg, and a good foot, uncle,
and money enough in his purse, such a man would
win any woman in the world, — if he could gtt her
good will.

LEON. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get
thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.

ANT. In faith, she is too curst.

heart-burned an hour after .] The pain commonly called

the heart-burn, proceeds from an acid humour in the stomach,
and is therefore properly enough imputed to tart looks.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 37

BEAT. Too curst is more than curst: I shall
lessen God's sending that way : for it is^said, God
sends a curst cow short horns ; but to a cow too
curst he sends none.

LEON. So, by being too curst, God will send you
no horns.

BEAT. Just, if he send me no husband ; for the
which blessing, I am at him upon my knees every
morning and evening : Lord ! I could not endure
a husband with a beard on his face ; I had rather
lie in the woollen.3

LEON. You may light upon a husband, that hath
no beard.

BEAT. What should I do with him ? dress him
in my apparel, and make him my waiting gentle-
woman ? He that hath a beard, is more than a
youth ; and he that hath no beard, is less than a
man : and he that is more than a youth, is not for
me ; and he that is less than a man, I am not for
him : Therefore I will even take sixpence in ear-
nest of the bear-herd, and lead his apes into hell.

LEON. Well then, go you into hell ? 4

BEAT. No ; but to the gate ; and there will the
devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on
his head, and say, Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get

3 in the woollen.] I suppose she means — between blan-
kets, without sheets. STEEVENS.

4 Well' then, £c.] Of the two next speeches Dr. Warburton
says, All this impious nonsense thrown to the bottom, is the
players', and foisted in luithout rhyme or reason. He therefore
puts them in the margin. They do not deserve indeed so ho-
nourable a place ; yet I am afraid they are too much in the man-
ner of our author, who is sometimes trying to purchase merri-
ment at too dear a rate. JOHNSON.

I have restored the lines omitted. STEEVEXS.

3d MUCH ADO ACT IT.

you to heaven; here's no place for you maids: so
deliver I Up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for
the heavens ; he shows me where the bachelors sit,
and there live we as merry as the day is long.

ANT. Well, niece, [To HERO.] I trust, you wilf
be ruled by your father.

BEAT. Yes, faith ; it is my cousin's duty to niake
courtesy, arid say, Father, as it please you : — but yet
for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow,
or else make another courtesy, and say, Father, as
it please me.

• LEON. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day
fitted with a husband.

BEAT. Not till God make men of some other
metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman
to be over-mastered with a piece of valiant dust ?
to make an account of her life to a clod of way-
ward marl ? No, uncle, I'll none : Adam's sons are
my brethren ; and truly, I hold it a sin to match
in my kindred.

LEON. Daughter, remember, what I told you : if
the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know
your answer.

BEAT. The fault will be in the musick, cousin, if
you be not woo'd in good time : if the prince be
too important,' tell him, there is measure in every
thing,'1 and so dance out the answer. For hear me,

if the jn'iiice be too important,] Important here, and in

many other places, is importunate. JOHNSON.

So, in King Lear, Act IV. sc. iv :
" --- great France
" My mourning, and important tears hath pitied."

STEEVENS.

— there is measure in every fhing,'] A measure in old
language, beside its ordinary meaning, signified also a dance.

MALONE.

sc*. /. ABOUT NOTHING. 39

Hero; Wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a
Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace : the first
suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as
fantastical ; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a
measure full of state and ancientry; and then comes
repentance, and, with his bad legs, falls into the
cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his
grave.

LEON. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.

BEAT. I have a good eye, uncle ; I can see a?
church by day-light.

LEON. The revellers are entering ; brother, make
good room.

Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BAL-
THAZAR;' Don JOHN, BORACHIO, MARGARET,
URSULA, and others, masked.

D. PEDRO. Lady, will you walk about with your
friend ? 8

So, in King Richard II:

" My legs can keep no measure in delight,

" When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief."

STEEVENS.

7 Balthazar ;] The quarto and folio add — or dumb John.

STEEVENS.

Here is another proof that when the first copies of our au-
thor's plays were prepared for the press, the transcript was made
put by the ear. If the MS. had lain before the transcriber, it
is very unlikely that he should have mistaken Don for dumb :
but, by nn inarticulate speaker, or inattentive hearer, they might
easily be confounded. MALONE.

Don John's taciturnity has been already noticed. It seems
therefore not improbable that the author himself might have oc-
casionally applied the epithet dumb to him. REED.

8 •" your friend ?] Friend, in our author's time, was the
p ommon term for a lover. So also in French and Italian,

MALONE.

40 MUCH ADO ACT n.

HERO. So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and
say nothing, I am yours for the walk ; and, espe-
cially, when I walk away.

D. PEDRO. With me in your company?

HERO. I may say so, when I please.

D. PEDRO. And when please you to say so ?

HERO. When I like your favour ; for God de-
fend,0 the lute should be like the case ! l

D. PEDRO. My visor is Philemon's roof; within
the house is Jove.2

Mr. Malone might have added, that this term was equally
applicable to both sexes ; for, in Measure for Measure, Lucio
tells Isabella that her brother had " got his friend with child."

STEEVENS.

9 for God defend,'] i. e. forbid. So in the ancient MS.

Romance of the Sowdon of Babyloyne, p. 38:
" But saide, damesel, thou arte woode ;
" Thy fadir did us alle defende
" Both mete and drinke, and other goode
" That no man shulde them thider sende."

See Othello, Act I. sc. iii. STEEVENS.

1 the lute fjiould be like the case !] i. e. that your face

should be as homely and coarse as your mask. THEOBALD.

8 My visor is Philemon'ls roof ; 'within the house is Jove.]
The first folio has — Love ; the quarto, IfiOO — /ore ; so that here
Mr. Theobald might have found the very reading which, in the
following note, he represents as a conjecture of his own.

STEEVENS.

'Tis plain, the poet alludes to the story of Baucis and Phile-
mon from Ovid : and this old couple, as the Roman poet de-
scribes it, lived in a thatch'd cottage:

" stipulis <fy catina tecta palustri."

But why, mil hin //•/.<; house is love? Though this old pair lived
in a cottage, this cottage received two straggling Gods, (Jupiter
and Mercury) under its roof. So, Don Pedro is a prince ; and
though his visor is but ordinary, he would insinuate to Hero,
that he has something godlike within : alluding either to his
dignity, or the qualities of his mind and person. By these cii;-
cumstances, I am sure, the thought is mended : as, I think ve-

vc. I. ABOUT NOTHING. 41

HflRQ. Why, then your visor should be thatch'd.

D. PEDRO. Speak low, if you speak love.

\_Takes her aside.

BENE. Well, I would you did like me.

MARG. So would not I, for your own sake j for
I have many ill qualities.

BENE. Which is one ?

MARG. I say my prayers aloud.

BENE. I love you the better ; the hearers may
cry, Amen.

MARG. God match me with a good dancer J.
BALTH. Amen.

MARG. And God keep him out of my sight, when
the dance is done ! — Answer, clerk.

BALTH. No more words ; the clerk is answered.

URS. I know you well enough ; you are signior
Antonio.

ANT. At a word, I am not.
URS. I know you by the waggling of your head.
ANT. To tell you true, I counterfeit him.
URS. You could never do him so ill-well,3 unless

rily, the text is too, by the addition of a single letter — tvithin the
house is Jove, Nor is this emendation a little confirmed by
another passage in our author, in which he plainly alludes to the
same story. As you like it :

" Jaques. O, knowledge ill inhabited, 'worse than Jove in a
thatched house /" THEOBALD.

The line of Ovid above quoted is thus translated by Golding,
1587:

" The roofe thereof was thatched all with straw and
fennish reede." MALONE.

' You could never do him so ill-well,] A similar phrase occurs
in The Merchant of Venice:

42 MUCH ABO ACT IT.

you were the very man : Here's his dry hand4 up
and down ; you are he, you are he.

ANT. At a word, I am not.

URS. Come, come; do you think I do not know
you by your excellent wit ? Can virtue hide itself?
Go to, mum, you are he : graces will appear, and
there's an end.

BEAT. Will you not tell me who told you so ?
BENE. No, you shall pardon me.
BEAT. Nor will you not tell me who you are ?
BENE. Not now.

BEAT. That I was disdainful, — and that I had my
ood wit out of the Hundred merry Tales f —
l, this was signior Benedick that said so.

" He hath a better bad habit of frowning, than the Count
Palatine." STEEVENS.

4 his dry hand — ] A dry hand was anciently regarded

as the sign of a cold constitution. To this, Maria, in Twelfth-
Night, alludes, Act I. sc. iii. STEEVENS.

3 Hundred merry Tales ;] The book, to which Shak-

speare alludes, might be an old translation of Les cent Nouvelles
Nouvelles. The original was published at Paris, in the black
letter, before the year 15OO, and is said to have been written by
some of the royal family of France. Ames mentions a transla-
tion of it prior to the time of Shakspeare.

In The London Chaunticleres, 1659, this work, among others,
is cried for sale by a ballad-man : " The Seven Wise Men of
Gotham; a Hundred merry Talcs; Scoggiri's Jests," &c.

Again, in The Nice Valour, &c. by Beaumont and Fletcher:

" the Almanacs,

" The Hundred Novels, and the Books of Cookery."

Of this collection there are frequent entries in the register of
the Stationers' Company. The first I met with was in Jan.
1581. STEEVENS.

This book was certainly printed before the year 15/5, and in
tnuch repute, as appears from the mention of it in Laneham's
Letter concerning the entertainment at Kenelworth-Castle,

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 43

BENE. What's he ?

BEAT. I am sure, you know him well enough.

BENE. Not I, believe me.

BEAT. Did he never make you laugh ?

BENE. I pray you, what is he ?

BEAT. Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull
fool ; only his gift is in devising impossible slan-
ders :6 none but libertines delight in him; and the
commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy ;7

Again, in The English Courtier and the Cuntrey Gentleman,

bl. 1. 1586, sig. H 4: " wee want not also pleasant mad

headed knaves that bee properly learned and well reade in
diverse pleasant bookes and good authors. As Sir Guy of War-
wicke, the Foure Sonnes of Aymon, the Ship of Fooles, the
Budget of Demandes, the Hundredth merry Tales, the Booke
of Ryddles, and many other excellent writers both witty and
pleasaunt." It has been suggested to me that there is no other
reason than the word hundred to suppose this book a translation
of the Cent Nouvdles Notivelles. I have now but little doubt
that Boccace's Decameron was the book here alluded to. It
contains just one hundred Novels. So, in Guazzo's Civile Con-
versation, 1586, p. i58: " we do but give them occasion

to turne over the Hundred Novelles of Boccace, and to write
amorous and lascivious letters." REED.

0 his gift is in devising impossible slanders:'] We should

read impassible, i. e. slanders so ill invented, that they will pass
upon no body. WARBURTON.

Impossible slanders are, I suppose, such slanders as, from their
absurdity and impossibility, bring their own confutation with
them. JOHNSON.

Johnson's explanation appears to be right. Ford says, in The
Merry Wives of Windsor, that he shall search for Falstaff in
" impossible places." The word impossible is also used in a
similar sense in Jonson's Sejanus, where Silius accuses Afer of—
" Malicious and manifold applying,
" Foul wresting, and impossible construction."

M. MASON.

7 — — Ins villainy ;] By which she means his malice and im-

44 MUCH ADO ACT n.

for he both plcaseth men, and angers them, and
then they laugh at him, and beat him : I am sure,
lie is in the fleet ; I would he had boarded me.

BENE. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him
what you say.

BEAT. Do, do : he'll but break a comparison or
two on me ; which, peradventure, not marked, or
not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy ; and
then there's a partridge' wing saved, for the fool
will eat no supper that night. [Mustek within.'}
We must follow the leaders.

BENE. In every good thing.

BEAT. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave
them at the next turning.

\_Dance. Then exeunt all but Don JOHN,
BORACHIO, and CLAUDIO.

D. JOHN. Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero,
and hath withdrawn her father to break with .him
about it : The ladies follow her, and but one visor
remains.

BORA. And that is Claudio : I know him by his
bearing. 8

D. JOHN. Are not you signior Benedick ?
CLAUD. You know me well ; I am he.

D. JOHN. Signior, you are very near my brother
in his love : he is enamoured on Hero ; I pray you,
dissuade him from her, she is no equal for his

piety. By his impious jests, she insinuates, lie pleased liber-
tines; and by his devising slanders of them, he angered them.

WARBURTON.

his bearing.] i. e. his carriage, his demeanor. So, in

Measure Jbr Measure:

" How I may formally in person bear me." STEEVENS.

ac. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 45

birth : you may do the part of an honest man
in it.

CLAUD. How know you he loves her ?
D. JOHN. I heard him swear his affection.

BORA. So did I too j and he swore he would
marry her to-night.

D. JOHN. Come, let us to the banquet.

\_Exeunt Don JOHN and BORACHIO.

CLAUD. Thus answer I in name of Benedick,
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. — •
'Tis certain so ; — the prince wooes for himself.
Friendship is constant in all other things,
Save in the office and affairs of love :
Therefore,9 all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no agent : for beauty is a witch,
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.1

9 Therefore, &c.] Let which is found in the next line, is
understood here. MALONE.

1 beauty is a witch,

Against "whose charms Jaith melteth into blood.] i. e. as wax
when opposed to the fire kindled by a witch, no longer preserves
the figure of the person whom it was designed to represent, but
flows into a shapeless lump ; so fidelity, when confronted with
beauty, dissolves into our ruling passion, and is lost there like a
drop of water in the sea.

That blood signifies (as Mr. Malone has also observed) amorous
heat, will appear from the following passage in All's well that
ends well, Act III. sc. vii:

" "Now his important blood will nought deny
" That she'll deaiand."

Again, in Chapman's version of the third Iliad, Helen, speak-
i'ng of Agamemnon, says :

" And one that was my brother in law, when I contain'd

my blood,
" And was move worthy: — " STEEVENS.

46 MUCH ADO ACT n.

This is an accident of hourly proof,

Which I mistrusted not: Farewell therefore, Hero !

Re-enter BENEDICK.

BENE. Count Claudio ?

CLAUD. Yea, the same.

BENE. Come, will you go with me ?

CLAUD. Whither?

BENE. Even to the next willow, about your own
business, count. What fashion will you wear the
garland of? About your neck, like an usurer's
chain ?2 or under your arm, like a lieutenant's
scarf? You must wear it one way, for the prince
hath got your Hero.

CLAUD. I wish him joy of her.

BENE. Why, that's spoken like an honest drover;

a usurer's chain?] Chains of gold, of considerable value,

were in our author's time, usually worn by wealthy citizens,
and others, in the same manner as they now are, on publick
occasions, by the Aldermen of London. See The Puritan, or
ihe Widow of Watling- Street, Act III. sc. iii. Albumazar, Act I.
sc. vii. and other pieces. REED.

Usury seems about this time to have been a common topic of
invective. I have three or four dialogues, pasquils, and dis-
courses on the subject, printed before the year l6GO. From every
one ofthe.se it appears, that the merchants were the chief usurers
of the age. STEEVENS.

So, in The Choice of Change, containing the triplicilie of
Divinilie, Phito.wp/n'e, and Poeirie, by S. It. Gent. 4to. ]5pS:
" Three sortes of people, in respect of use in necessitie, may be
accounted good : — Mcrchantes, for they may play the usurers,
instead of the Jc-wes." Again, ibid: ''There is a scarcitie of
.Towes, because Christians make an occupation ofusurie."

MALONE.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 47

so they sell bullocks. But did you think, the
prince would have served you thus ?

CLAUD. I pray you, leave me.

BENE. Ho ! now you strike like the blind man ;
'twas the boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat
the post.

CLAUD. If it will not be, I'll leave you. [_E.rzY.

BENE. Alas, poor hurt fowl! Now will he creep

into sedges. But, that my lady Beatrice should

know me, and not know me ! The prince's fool ! —
Ha ! it may be, I go under that title, because I am
merry.— Yea; but so; I am apt to do myself wrong:
I am not so reputed : it is the base, the bitter dis-
position of Beatrice, that puts the world into her
person,3 and so gives me out. Well, I'll be revenged
as I may.

Re-enter Don PEDRO, HERO, and LEONATO.

D. PEDRO. Now, signior, where's the count;
Did you see him ?

BENE. Troth, my lord, I have played the part of
lady Fame. I found him here as melancholy as a
lodge in a warren ;4 I told him, and, I think, I told

it is the base, the fritter disposition of Beatrice, that

puts the world into her person,] That is, It is the disposition of
Beatrice, who takes upon her to personate the "world, and there-
Jbre represents the world as saying ivhat she only says herself.

The old copies read — base, though bitter: but I do not under-
stand how base and bitter are inconsistent, or why what is bitter
should not be base. I believe, we may safely read, — It is the
base, the bitter disposition. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, though I once
thought it unnecessary. SfEEVENS.

4 — • — as melancholy as a lodge in a warren;] A parallel
thought occurs in the first chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet,

84 MUCH ADO ACT it.

him true, that your grace had got the gctod will of
this young lady;5 and I offered him my company
to a willow tree, either to make him a garland, as
being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being
worthy to be whipped.

D. PEDRO. To be whipped ! What's his fault ?

BENE. The flat transgression of a school-boy ;
who, being overjoy'd with rinding a bird's nest,
shows it his companion, and he steals it.

D. PEDRO. Wilt thou make a trust a transgres-
sion ? The transgression is in the stealer.

BENE. Yet it had not been amiss, the rod had
beerl made, and the garland too; for the garland
he might have worn himself; and the rod he
might have bestow'd on you, who, as I take it, have
stol'n his bird's nest.

D. PEDRO. I will but teach them to sing, and
restore them to the owner.

BEXE. If their singing answer your saying, by
my faith, you say honestly.

describing the desolation of Judah, says: "The daughter of
Zion is left as a cottage In a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of
cucumbers,'' &c. I am informed, that near Aleppo, these lonely
buildings are still made use of, it being necessary, that the fields
where water-melons, cucumbers, &c. are raised, should be regu-
larly watched. I learn from Tho. Newton's Ihrball io tlic Bible,
8vo. 1587, that " so soone as the cucumbers, &c. be gathered,
these lodges are abandoned of the watchmen and keepers, and
no more frequented." From these forsaken buildings, it should
seem, the prophet takes his comparison. STKF.VF.XS.

6 of ihis young lad// ;] Benedick speaks of Hero as if

she were on the stage. Perhaps, both she and Leonato were
meant to make their entrance with Don Pedro. When Beatrice
enters, she is spoken of as coining in with only Claudio.

STEEVENS.

1 have regulated the entries accordingly. MALONE.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 49

D. PEDRO. The lady Beatrice hath a'quarrel to
you ; the gentleman, that danced with her, told
her, she is much wronged by you.

BENE. O, she misused me past the endurance of
a block ; an oak, but with one green leaf on it,
would have answered her; my very visor began to
assume life, and scold6 with her: She told me, not
thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince's
jester ; that I was duller than a great thaw ; hud-
dling jest upon jest, with such impossible convey-
ance,7 upon me, that I stood like a man at a mark,

fi my visor began to assume life, and scold — ] ' 'Tis

whimsical, that a similar thought should have been found in the
tenth Thebaid of Statius, v. 658 :

" ipsa insanire vidctur

" Sphynx galeae custos — .'* STEEVENS.

•such impossible conveyance,'] Dr. Warburton reads

impassable: Sir Thomas Hanmer impetuous, and Dr. Johnson
importable, which, says he, is used by Spenser, in a sense very
congruous to this passage, for insupportable, or not to be sus-
tained. Also by the last translators of the Apocrypha ; and
therefore such a word as Shakspeare may be supposed to have
written. REED.

Importable is very often used by Lidgate, in his Prologue to
the translation of The Tragedies gathered by Ilion Bochas, &c.
as well as by Holinshed.

Impossible may be licentiously used for unaccountable. Bea-

impossMe
Again, in The Roman Actor, by Massinger:

" to lose

" Ourselves, by building on impossible hopes."

STEEVENS.

Impossible may have been what Shakspeare wrote, and be
used in the senpe of incredible or inconceivable, both here and
in the beginning of the scene, where Beatrice speaks of impos-
iiUc slanders. M. MASON.

I believe the meaning is — icith a rapidity equal to that of
jugglers, who appear to perform impossibilities. We have the

VOL. VI. E

50 MUCH ADO

with a whole army shooting at me : She speaks
poniards,8 and every word stabs: if her breath were
as terrible as her terminations, there were no living
near her, she would infect to the north star. I
would not marry her, though she were endowed
with all that Adam had left him before he trans-
gressed: she would have made Hercules have turned
spit; yea, and have cleft his club to make the tire
too. Come, talk not of her ; you shall rind her
the infernal Ate in good apparel.'1 I would to G od,
some scholar would conjure her ; l for, certainly,
while she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell,
as in a sanctuary ; and people sin upon purpose, be-
cause they would go thither ; so, indeed, all disquiet,
horror, and perturbation follow her.

same epithet again in Twelfth-Night: " There is no Christian
can ever believe such impossible passages of grossness." So Ford
says, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: — " I will examine />«•
possible places." Again, in Julius Cccsar:

" Now bid me run,

" And I will strive with things impossible,

" And get the better of them."

Conveyance was the common term in our author's time for
sleight of hand. MALONE.

8 She speaks poniards,] So, in Hamlet:

" I'll speak daggers to her — ." STEEVEXS.

— the infernal Ate* in good apparel.'] This is a pleasant
allusion to the custom of ancient poets and painters, who
represent the Furies in rags. WARBURTON.

At e is not one of the Furies, but the Goddess of Revenge, or
Discord. STL EVENS.

— some scholar -would conjure her ;~| As Shakspeare
always attributes to his exorcists the power of raising spirits, he-
gives his conjurer, in this plucc, the power of laying them.

M. MA sox.

fc. /. ABOUT NOTHING. 51

Re-enter CLAUDIO and BEATRICE.

D. PEDRO. Look, here she comes.

BENE. Will your grace command me any service
to the world's end? I will go on the slightest errand
now to the Antipodes, that you can devise to send
me on ; I will fetch you a toothpicker now from
the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of
Prester John's foot ; fetch you a hair off the great
Cham's beard ;2 do you any embassage to the Pig-
mies, rather than hold three words' conference with
this harpy : You have no employment for me ?

D. PEDRO. None, but to desire your good com-
pany.

BENE. O God, sir, here's a dish I love not ; I
cannot endure my lady Tongue.3 \_Eait.

8 bring you the length of Prester John's foot; fetch you

ft hair off" the great Cham's beard ;~\ i. e. I will undertake the
hardest task, rather than have any conversation with lady Bea-
trice. Alluding to the difficulty of access to either of those
monarchs, but more particularly to the former.

So, Cartwright, in his comedy called The Siege, or Love's
Convert, 1(351 :

" bid me take the Parthian king by the beard; or draw

an eye-tooth from the jaw royal of the Persian monarch."

Such an achievement, however, Iluon of Bourdeaux was
sent to perform, and performed it. See chap. 46, edit. 1(501:
" — he opened his mouth, and tooke out his f'oure great teeth,
and then cut off his beard, and tooke thereof as much as
pleased him." STEEVEXS.

" Thou must goe to the citie of Babylon to the Admiral
Gaudisse, to bring me thy hand full of the heare of his beard,
and foure of his greatest teeth. Alas, my lord, (quoth the
Barrens,) we see well you desire greatly his death, when you
charge him with such a message." Huon of Bourdeaux, ch. 17.

BOWLE.

— my lady Tongue.] Thus the quarto, 1600. The folio
reads — this lady Tongue. STEEVENS.

K 2

52 MUCH' ADO ACT it.

D. PEDRO. Come, lady, come j you have lost the
heart of signior Benedick.

BEAT. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me a while ;
and I gave him use for it,4 a double heart for his
single one : marry, once before, he won it of me
with false dice, therefore your grace may well say,
I have lost it.

D. PEDRO. You have put him down, lady, you
have put him down.

BEAT. So I would not he should do me, my lord,
lest I should prove the mother of fools. I have
brought count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek,

D. PEDRO. Why, how now, count ? wherefore
are you sad ?

CLAUD. Not sad, my lord.
D. PEDRO. How then ? Sick ?
CLAUD. Neither, my lord.

BEAT. The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor
merry, nor well : but civil, count ; civil as an
orange,5 and something of that jealous com-
plexion.6

D. PEDRO. I'faith, lady, I think your blazon to
be true ; though, I'll be sworn, if he be so, his
conceit is false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in
thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with
her father, and his good wrill obtained : name the
day of marriage, and God give thee joy !

4 / gave him use for it,"] Use, in our author's time,

meant interest of money. MALONE.

5 civil as an orange,'] This conceit occurs likewise in

Nashe's Four Letters confuted, 15p2: " For the order of my
life, it is as civil as an orange.'" STEEVENS.

6 of that jealous complexion.'] Thus the quarto, l6CO;

the folio reads, of a jealous complexion. STEEVJENS.

xc.i. ABOUT NOTHING. S3

LEON. Count, take of me my daughter, and with
her my fortunes: his grace hath made the match,
and all grace say Amen to it !

. BEAT. Speak, count, 'tis your cue.

CLAUD. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I
were but little happy, if I could say how much. —
Lady, as you are mine, I am yours : I give away
myself for you, and dote upon the exchange.

BEAT. Speak, cousin ; or, if you cannot, stop
his mouth with a kiss, and let him not speak,
neither.

D. PEDRO. In faith, lady, you have a merry
heart.

BEAT. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool,7 it
keeps on the windy side of care: — My cousin tells
him in his ear, that he is in her heart,

CLAUD. And so she doth, cousin.

BEAT. Good lord, for alliance!8 — Thus goes
every one to the world but I, and I am sun-burned j9

7 poor fool,'] This was formerly an expression of ten-
derness. See King Lear, last scene : " And my poor fool is
hang'd." M ALONE.

8 Good lord, for alliance!] Claudio has just called Beatrice
cousin. I suppose, therefore, the meaning is, — Good lord, here
have I got a new kinsman by marriage. MALOXE.

I cannot understand these words, unless they imply a wish for
the speaker's alliance with a husband. STEEVENS.

9 Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sun-
burned ;] What is it, to go to the taorld? perhaps, to enter by
marriage into a settled state ; but why is the unmarried lady
sun-burnt? I believe we should read, — Thus goes every one to
the wood but I, and I am mn-burnt. Thus does every one but
J find a shelter, and 1 am left exposed to wind and sun. The
nearest ivay to the wood, i.s a phrase for the readiest means to

54 MUCH ADO ACT n.

I may sit in a corner, and cry, heigh ho ! for a
husband.

D. PEDRO. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

BEAT. I would rather have one of your father's
getting: Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you?
Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could
come by them.

D. PEDRO. Will you have me, lady ?

BEAT. No, my lord, unless I might have another
for working days ; your grace is too costly to wear
every day: — But, I beseech your grace, pardon me;
I was born to speak all mirth, and no matter.

D. PEDRO. Your silence most offends me, and to
be merry best becomes you ; for, out of question,
you were born in a merry hour.

BEAT. No, sure, my lord, my mother cry'd; but
then there was a star danced, and under that was I
born. — Cousins, God give you joy!

LEON. Niece, will you look to those things I told
you of?

BEAT. I cry you mercy, uncle. — By your grace's
pardon. [Exit BEATRICE.

D. PEDRO. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady.
LEOX. There's little of the melancholy element

any end. It is said of a woman, who accepts a worse match
than those which she had refused, that she has passed through
the wood, and at last taken a crooked stick. But conjectural
criticism has always something to abate its confidence. Shak-
speare, in All's well that ends well, uses the phrase, to go to the
ivorlcl, for marriage. So that my emendation depends only on
the opposition of wood to sun-burnt. JOHNSON.

I am sun-burnt may mean, I have lost my beauty, and am
consequently no longer such an object as can tempt a man to
marry. STEEVENS.

sc. I. ABOUT NOTHING. 55

in her,1 my lord : she is never sad, but when she
sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my
daughter say, she hath often dreamed of unhappi-
ness,2 and waked herself with laughing.

D. PEDRO. She cannot endure to hear tell of a
husband.

LEON. O, by no means; she mocks all her wooers
out of suit.

D. PEDRO. She were an excellent wife for Bene-
dick.

LEON. O lord, my lord, if they were but a week
married, they wx>uld talk themselves mad.

D. PEDRO. Count Claudio, when mean you to go
to church ?

CLAUD. To-morrow, my lord : Time goes on
crutches, till love have all his rites.

LEON. Not till Monday, my dear son, which is
hence a just seven-night; and a time too brief too,
to have all things answer my mind.

D. PEDRO. Come, you shake the head at so long
a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time

1 There's little of the melancholy element in her,] " Docs
not our life consist of the four elements*" says Sir Toby, in
Twelfth- Night. So, also in King Henry V: " He is pure air
and fire, and the dull elements of earth and tauter never appear
in him." MALONE.

— she hath often dreamed of unhappiness,] So all the

editions ; but Mr. Theobald alters it to, an happiness, having
no conception that unhappiness meant any thing but misfortune,
and that, he thinks, she could not laugh at. He had never
heard that it signified a wild, wanton, unlucky trick. Thus
Beaumont and Fletcher, in their comedy of The Maid of the
Mill:

" My dreams are like my thoughts, honest and innocent:

" Yours are unhappy." WAKBUKTON.

56 MUCH ADO ACT n.

shall not go dully by us ; I will, in the interim, un-
dertake one of Hercules' labours ; which is, to
bring signior Benedick and the lady Beatrice into a
mountain of affection, the one with the other.3 I

into a mountain of affection, the one tvith the other.]

A mountain of affection luith one another, is a strange expression,
yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally
written to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mooting cf affec-
tion ; to bring them not to any more mootings of contention,
but to a mooting or conversation of love. This reading is con-
firmed by the preposition tvith ; a mountain with each other, or
affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with
each other is proper and regular. JOHNSOX.

Uncommon as the word proposed by Dr. Johnson may appear,
it is used in several of the old plays. So, in Glapthorne's Wit
in a Constable, 1&3Q:

" one who never

" Had mooted in the hall, or seen the revels

" Kept in the house at Christmas."
Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1 606 :

" It is a plain case, whereon 1 mooted in our temple."
Again :

" at a mooting in our temple." Ibid.

And yet, all that I believe is meant by a mountain of affection
is, a great deal of affection.

In one of Stanyhurst's poems is the following phrase to denote
a large quantity of love :

" Lumps of love promist, nothing perform'd," &c.
Again, in The Rencgado, by Massinger :

" — — 'tis but parting with

" A mountain of vexation."

Thus, also in King Henry VIII. we find " a sea of glory." In
Hamlet, " a sea of troubles." Again, in Howel's History of
Venice : " though they see mountains of miseries heaped on
one's back." Again, in Bacon's History of King Henry VII :
" Perkin sought to corrupt the servants to the lieutenant of the
tower by mountains of promises." Again, in The Comedy of
'Errors : " — the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage
of me." Little can be inferred from the present offence against
grammar ; an offence which may not strictly be imputable to
Shakspeare, but rather to the negligence or ignorance of his
transcribers or printers. STEEVENS.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 51.

would fain have it a match ; and I doubt not but
to fashion it, if you three will but minister such
assistance as I shall give you direction.

LEON. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me
ten nights' watchings.

CLAUD. And I, my lord.

D. PEDRO. And you too, gentle Hero?

HERO. I will do any modest office, my lord, to
help my cousin to a good husband.

D. PEDRO. And Benedick is not the unhope-
fullest husband that I know: thus far can I praise
him ; he is of a noble strain,4 of approved valour,
and confirmed honesty. I will teach you how to
humour your cousin, that she shall fall in love with
Benedick : — and I, with your two helps, will so
practice on Benedick, that, in despite of his quick
wit and his queasy stomach,5 he shall fall in love
with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no

Shakspeare has many phrases equally harsh. He who would
hazard such expressions as a storm of 'fortune, a vale of years,
and a tempest of provocation, would not scruple to write a
mountain of affection. M ALONE.

4 a noble strain,] i. e. descent, lineage. So, in The

Fairy Queen, B. IV. c. viii. s. 33 :

" Sprung from the auncient stocke of prince's straine."

Again, B. V. c. ix. s. 32 :

" Sate goodly temperaunce in garments clene,

" And sacred reverence yborn of heavenly strene"

It was used in the same sense by Shadwell, in his Virtuoso,

Act I : " Gentlemen care not upon what strain they get their

cons." REED.

Again, in King Lear, Act V. sc. iii :

" Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain."

STE EVENS.

* queasy stomach,] i. e. squeamish. So, in Aitlony and

Cleopatra :

" Who queasy with his insolence already — ." S ricia F,N«.

JS MUCH ADO ACT n.

longer an archer ; his glory shall be ours, for we
are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will
tell you my drift. \_ExeunL

SCENE II.

\
Another Room in Leonato's House.

Enter Don JOHN and BORACHIO.

D. JOHN. It is so ; the count Claudio shall marry
the daughter of Leonato.

BORA. Yea, my lord : but I can cross it.

D. JOHN. Any bar, any cross, any impediment
"will be medicinable to me : I am sick in displeasure
to him ; and whatsoever comes athwart his affec-
tion, ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou
cross this marriage ?

BORA. Not honestly, my lord ; but so covertly
that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

D. JOHN. Show me briefly how.

BORA. I think, I told your lordship, a year since,
how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the
waiting-gentlewoman to Hero.

D. JOHN. I remember.

BORA. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the
night, appoint her to look out at her lady's cham-
ber-window.

D. JOHN. What life is in that, to be the death
of this marriage ?

BORA. The poison of that lies in you to temper.
Go you to the prince your brother; spare not to

sc. n. ABOUT NOTHING. 59

tell him, that he hath wronged his honour in mar-
rying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do
you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such
a one as Hero.

D. JOHN. What proof shall I make of that ?

BORA. Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex
Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato : Look
you for any other issue ?

D. JOHN. Only to despite them, I will endeavour
any thing.

6J3osA. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw

6 Bora. Go then,Jind me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and
the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero

loves me ; offer them instances ; 'which shall bear no less

likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window ; hear me.
call Margaret, Hero ; hear Margaret term me Claudio ; and
bring them to see this, the very night before the intended
'wedding:'] Thus the whole stream of the editions from the
first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a short
account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have
made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The
business stands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince,
is, by his intercessions with her father, to be married to fair
Hero ; Don John, natural brother of the prince, and a hater
of Claudio, is in his spleen zealous to disappoint the match.
Borachio, a rascally dependant on Don John, offers his assistance,
and engages to break off the marriage by this stratagem. " Tell
the prince and Claudio (says he) that Hero is in love with me ;
they won't believe it : offer them proofs, as, that they shall see
me converse with her in her chamber-window. I am in the
good graces of her waiting-woman, Margaret ; and I'll prevail
with Margaret, at a dead hour of night, to personate her mistress
Hero ; do you then bring the Prince and Claudio to overhear
our discourse ; and they shall have the torment to hear me ad-
dress Margaret by the name of Hero, and her say sweet things
to me by the name of Claudio." — This is the substance of
Borachio's device to make Hero suspected of disloyalty ; and to
break off her match with Claudio. But, in the name of com-
mon sense, could it displease Claudio, to hear his mistress making
use of his name tenderly ? If he saw another man with her.

60 MUCH ADO ACT n.

Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone : tell them,
that you know that Hero loves me : intend a kind of
zeal7 both to the prince and Claudio, as — in love of
your brother's honour who hath made this match;
and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be
cozened with the semblance of a maid, — that you
have discovered thus. They will scarcely believe
this without trial: offer them instances; which shall

and heard her call him Claudio, he might reasonably think her
betrayed, but not have the same reason to accuse her of disloy-
alty. Besides, how could her naming CJaudio, make the Prince
and Claudio delieve that she loved Borachio, as he desires Don
John to insinuate to them that she did ? The circumstances
'^weighed, there is no doubt but the passage ought to be reformed,
as 1 have settled in the text — hear me call Margaret, Hero;
hear Margaret term me, Borachio. THEOBALD.

Though I have followed Mr. Theobald's direction, I am not
convinced that this change of names is absolutely necessary.
Claudio would naturally resent the circumstance of hearing
another called by his own name ; because, in that case, baseness
of treachery would appear to be aggravated by wantonness of
insult ; and, at the same time, he would imagine the person so
distinguished to be Borachio, because Don John was previously
to have informed both him and Don Pedro, that Borachio was
the favoured lover. STEEVENS.

We should surely read Borachio instead of Claudio. There
could be no reason why Margaret should call him Claudio;
and that would ill agree with what Borachio says in tbe last
Act, where he declares that Margaret knew not what she did
when she spoke to him. M. MASON.

Claudio would naturally be enraged to find his mistress, Hero,
(for such he would imagine Margaret to be,) address Borachio,
or any other man, by his name, as he might suppose tbat she
called him by the name of Claudio in consequence of a secret
agreement between them, as a cover, in case she were over-
heard ; and he would know, without a possibility of error, that
it was not Claudio, with whom, in fact, she conversed.

MALONE.

intend a kind of zeal — ] i. e. pretend. So, in King

Jlic/iarrl III:

" Intending deep suspicion." STEEVENS.

jsc. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 61

bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her
chamber-window ; hear me call Margaret, Hero j
hear Margaret term me Borachio; and bring them
to see this, the very night before the intended wed-
ding : for, in the mean time, I will so fashion the
matter, that Hero shall be absent ; and there shall
appear such seeming truth of Hero's disloyalty, that
jealousy shall be call'd assurance, and all the pre-
paration overthrown.

D. JOHN. Grow this to what adverse issue it can,
I will put it in practice: Be cunning in the work-
ing this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.

BORA. Be you constant in the accusation, and
my cunning shall not shame me.

D. JOHN. I will presently go learn their day of
marriage. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Leonato's Garden.

JLnter BENEDICK and a Boy.

BENE. Boy, —
BOY. Signior.

BENE. In my chamber-window lies a book; bring
it hither to me in the orchard.8

BOY. I am here already, sir.

BENE. I know that; — but I would have thee

* in the orchard.] Gardens were anciently called or-

f hards. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

" The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb."

«- STEEVENS.

62 MUCH ADO ACT n,

hence, and here again. [Exit Boy.] — I do much
wonder, that one man, seeing how much another
man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to
love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow fol-
lies in others, become the argument of his own
scorn, by falling in love : And such a man is
Claudio. I have known, when there was no mu-
sick with him but the drum and fife ; and now had
he rather hear the tabor and the pipe : I have
known, when he would have walked ten mile afoot,
to see a good armour ; and now will he lie ten
nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet.9
He was wont to speak plain, and to the purpose,
like an honest man, and a soldier j and now is he

* • carving the fashion of a new doublet."] This folly, so
conspicuous in the gallants of former ages, is laughed at by
all our comic writers. So, in Greene's Farewell to Folly, \Q\7-
" We are almost as fantastic as the English gentleman that is
painted naked, with a pair of sheers in his hand, as not being
resolved after what fashion to have his coat cut." STEEVENS.

The English gentleman in the above extract alludes to a plate
in Borde's Introduction of Knowledge. In Barnaby Kiche's
Faults and nothing but Faults, <Jto. 1005, p. 6, we have the
following account of a Faahionmonger : " — here comes first
the Fashionmonger that spends his time in the contemplation of
sutes. Alas ! good gentleman, there is something amisse with
him. I perceive it by his sad and heavie countenance : for my
life his tailer and he are at some square about the making of
his new sute ; he hath cut it after the old stampe of some stale
fashion that is at the least of a whole fortnight's standing/'

HEED.

The English gentleman is represented [by Borde] naked, with
a pair of tailor's sheers in one hand, and a piece of cloth on his
arm, with the following verses:

" I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here,
" Musing in my mynde what ray men t I shall were,
" For now I will ware this, and now I will were that,
" Now I will were I cannot tell what,1' £c.
See Camden's Remainest lt>H, p. 17. MALONE.

so. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 63

turn'd orthographer ; l his words are a very fantasti-
cal banquet, just so many strange dishes. May I be
so converted, and see with these eyes? I cannot tell;
I think not : I will not be sworn, but love may trans-
form me to an oyster ; but I'll take my oath on it,
till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never
make me such a fool. One woman is fair ; yet I
am well : another is wise ; yet I am well : another
virtuous ; yet I am well : but till all graces be in
one woman, one woman shall not come in my
grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain ; wise, or
I'll none ; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her; fair,
or I'll never look on her ; mild, or come not near
me ; noble, or not I for an angel ; of good dis-
course, an excellent musician, and her hair shall be
of what colour it please God.2 Ha! the prince
and monsieur Love ! I will hide me in the arbour.

[ Withdraws.

1 orthographer ;] The old copies read — orthography,

Corrected by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS.

8 and her hair shall be of what colour it please God.]

Perhaps Benedick alludes to a, fashion, very common in the time
of Shakspeare, that of dying the hair.

Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 15Q5, speaking of the
attires of women's heads, says : " If any have haire of her owne
naturall growing, which is not faire ynough, then will they die
it in divers colours." STEEVEXS.

The practice of dying the hair was one of those fashions so
frequent before and in Queen Elizabeth's time, as to be thought
worthy of particular animadversion from the pulpit. In the
Homily against excess of apparel, b. 1. 1547, after mentioning
the common excuses of some nice and vain women for painting
their faces, dying their hair, &c. the preacher breaks out into
the following invective : " Who can paynt her face, and curie
her heere, and chaunge it into an unnaturall coloure, but
therein doth worke . reprofe to her Maker who made her ? a*
thoughe she coulde make herselfe more comelye than God hath
appoynted the measure of her beautie. What do these women
but go about to retburme that which God hath made ? not

64 MUCH ADO ACT n.

Enter Don PEDRO, LEONATO, and CLAUDIO.

D. PEDRO. Come, shall we hear this musick ?

CLAUD. Yea, my good lord : — How still the

evening is,
As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony !

D. PEDRO. See you where Benedick hath hid
himself?

CLAUD. O, very well, my lord: the musick ended,
We'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth.3

knowyng that all thynges naturall is the wovke of God : and
thynges disguysed and unnatural be the workes of the devyll,"
&c. REED.

Or he may allude to the fashion of wearing fake hair, " of
whatever colour it pleased God." So, in a subsequent scene:
" I like the new tire within, if the hair were a thought
browner." Fines Moryson, describing the dress of the ladies
of Shakspeare's time, says : " Gentlewomen virgins weare

fownes close to the body, and aprons of fine linnen, and go
areheaded, with their hair curiously knotted, and raised at the
forehead, but many (against the cold, as they say,) weare caps
of hair that is not their oww." See The Two Gentlemen of
Verona. MALONE.

The practice of colouring the hair in Shakspeare's time,
receives considerable illustration from Maria Magdalene her
Life and Repentance, 156'7> where Infidelitie (the Vice) recom-
mends her to a goldsmith to die her hair yellow with some pre-
paration, when it should fade ; and Carnal Concupiscence tells
her likewise that there was " other geare besides goldsmith's
water," for the purpose. DOUCE.

3 Pedro. See you "where Benedick hath hid himself?
Claudio. O, very well, my lord : the musick ended,
We'll Jit the kid-fox with a penny-worth."] i. e. we will be
even with the fox now discovered. So the word kid, or kiddc,
signifies in Chaucer:

" The soothfastness that now is hid,

" Without coverture shall be kid,

" When I undoen have this dreming."

Romaunt of' the Rose, 21/1 » *c-

sc. in. ABOUT NOTHING. 6.5

Enter BALTHAZAR, with musick.4

D. PEDRO. Come, Balthazar, we'll hear that
song again.5

BALTH. O good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander musick any more than once.

D. PEDRO. It is the witness still of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection : —
I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.

BALTH. Because you talk of wooing, I will sing :
Since many a wooer doth commence his suit

" Perceiv'd or shew'd.

" He kidde anon his bone was not broken."

Troilus and Cressida, Lib. I. 205.
" With that anon sterte out daungere,
" Out of the place where he was hidde ;
" His malice in his cheere was kidde."

Romaimt of the Rose, 2130. GREY.

It is not impossible but that Shakspeare chose on this occasion
to employ an antiquated word ; and yet if any future editor
should choose to read — hid fox, he may observe that Hamlet
has said — " Hide fox and all after." STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton reads as Mr. Steevens proposes. MA LONE.

A kid-fox seems to be no more than a young fox or cub. In
As you like it, we have the expression of — " two dog-apes."

RITSON.

4 toith musick.'] I am not sure that this stage-direction

(taken from the quarto, l60O,) is proper. Balthazar might have
been designed at once for a vocal and an instrumental performer.
Shakspeare's orchestra was hardly numerous ; and the first folio,
instead of Balthazar, only gives us Jacke Wilson, the name of
the actor who represented him. STEEVENS.

5 Come, Balthazar, well hear that song again.'] Balthazar,
the musician and servant to Don Pedro, was perhaps thus named
from the celebrated Baltazarini, called De Beaujoyeux, an Italian
performer on the violin, who was in the highest fame and favour
at the court of Henry II. of France, 15//. BUBNEY.

VOL. VI.

66 MUCH ADO ACT n.

To her he thinks not worthy ; yet he wooes ;
Yet will he swear, he loves.

D. PEDRO. Nay, pray thee, come :

Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.

BALTH. Note this before my notes,

There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.

D. PEDRO. Why these are very crotchets that

he speaks :
Note, notes, forsooth, and noting ! 6 [Mustek.

BENE. Now, Divine air! now is his soul ra-
vished ! — Is it not strange, that sheeps' guts should
hale souls out of men's bodies ? — Well, a horn for
my money, when all's done.

BALTHAZAR sings.

I.

BALTH. Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,'

Men were deceive?^ ever ;
One foot in sea, and one on-shore ;
To one thing constant never :
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blitli and bonny ;
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into, Hey nonny, nonny.

0 and noting !] The old copies — nothing. The correc-
tion was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

7 Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,']

" Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more."

Milton's Lycidas. STEEVENSI

sc. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 67

II.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo
Of dumps so dull and heavy ;

The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer Jirst was leavy.
Then sigh not so, &c.

D. PEDRO. By my troth, a good song.
BALTH. And an ill singer, my lord.

D. PEDRO. Ha ? no ; no, faith ; thou singest well
enough for a shift.

BENE. [ Aside. ] An he had been a dog, that
should have howled thus, they would have hanged
him : and, I pray God, his bad voice bode no mis-
chief! I had as lief have heard the night-raven,8
come what plague could have come after it.

D. PEDRO. Yea, marry; [_To CLAUDIO.] — Dost
thou hear, Balthazar ? I pray thee, get us some
excellent musick ; for to-morrow night we would
have it at the lady Hero's chamber-window.

BALTH. The best I can, my lord.

D. PEDRO. Do so : farewell. [Exeunt BALTHA-
ZAR and musick.~] Come hither, Leonato : What
was it you told me of to-day ? that your niece
Beatrice was in love with signior Benedick ?

8 1 pray God, his bad voice bode no mischief! / had

as lief have heard the night-raven,] i. e. the owl ; v
So, in King Henry VI. P. III. sc. vi :

" The night-crow cried, aboding lucUcss fime."

Thus also, Milton, in L' Allegro :

" And the night -raven sings." DOUCE.

68 MUCH ADO ACT n.

CLAUD. O, ay : — Stalk on, stalk on ; the fowl
sits.9 \_Aslde to PEDRO.] I did never think that
lady would have loved any man.

LEON. No, nor I neither ; but most wonderful,
that she should so dote on signior Benedick, whom
she hath in all outward behaviours seemed ever to
abhor.

BENE. Is't possible ? Sits the wind in that
corner ? [Aside.

LEON. By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what
to think of it ; but that she loves him with an

9 Stalk on, stalk on; the Jotxl sits.~\ This is an allusion to
the stalking-horse; a horse either real or factitious, by which
the fowler anciently sheltered himself from the sight of the
game.

So, in The Honest Lawyer, \QlQ:

" Lye there, thou happy warranted case
" Of any villain. Thou hast been my sloJ king-horse
" Now these ten months."
Again, in the 25th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion:

" One underneath his horse to get a shoot doth stalk.''*
Again, in his Muses' Elysium:

" Then underneath my horse, I stalk my game to strike."

STEEVENS.

Again, in New Shred* of the Old Snare, by John Gee, quarto,
p. 23 : " Methinks I behold the cunning fowler, such as I have
knowne in the fenne countries and els- where, that doe shoot at
woodcockes, snipes, and wilde fowle, by sneaking behind a
painted cloth which they carrey before them, having pictured in
it the shape of a horse ; which while the silly fowle gazeth on,
it is knockt down with hale shot, and so put in the fowler's
budget." REED.

A stalking'bull, with a cloth thrown over him, was sometimes
used for deceiving the game ; as may be seen from a very elegant
cut in Loniceri Venatus et Ancupium. Francofurti, 1582, 4to.
and from a print by F. Valcggio, with the motto —

" Vestc boi-es operil, dum sturnosj'allil edaccs."

DOUCE.

sc. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 69

enraged affection, — it is past the infinite of
thought.1

D. PEDRO. May be, she doth but counterfeit.

CLAUD. 'Faith, like enough.

LEON. O God ! counterfeit ! There never was

1 but that she loves him with an enraged affection, — it

is past the infinite of thought.] It is impossible to make sense
and grammar of this speech. And the r.a on is, that the two
beginnings of two different sentences are jumbled together and
made one. For — but that she loves him with an enraged affec-
tion, is only part of a sentence, which should conclude thus, —
is most certain. But a new idea striking the speaker, he leaves
his sentence unfinished, and turns to another, — It is past the
infinite of thought, — which is likewise left unfinished ; for it
should conclude thus — to say how great that affection is. Those
broken disjointed sentences are usual in conversation. However,
there is one word wrong, which yet perplexes the sense ; and
that is infinite. Human thought cannot surely be called infinite
with any kind of figurative propriety. I suppose the true reading
was definite. This makes the passage intelligible. It is past the
definite of thought, — i. e. it cannot be defined or conceived how
great that affection is. Shakspeare uses the word again in the
same sense in Cymbeline :

" For ideots, in this case of favour, would

" Be wisely definite — ."
i. e. could tell how to pronounce or determine in the case.

WARBURTON.

Here are difficulties raised only to show how easily they can
be removed. The plain sense is, / know not what to think
otherwise, but that she loves him with an enraged affection :
It (this affection) is past the infinite of thought. Here are no
abrupt stops, or imperfect sentences. Infinite may well enough
stand ; it is used by more careful writers for indefinite : and the
speaker only means, that thought, though in itself unbounded,
cannot reach or estimate the degree of her passion. JOHNSON.

The meaning, I think, is, — but with what an enraged affection
she loves him, it is beyond the power of thought to conceive.

MALONE.

Shakspeare has a similar expression in King John :
" Beyond the infinite and boundless reach
" Of mercy — ." STEEVEXS.

70 MUCH ADO ACT u.

counterfeit of passion came so near the life of pas-
sion, as she discovers it.

D. PEDRO. Why, what effects of passion shows
she?

CLAUD. Bait the hook well ; this fish will bite.

[Aside.

LEON. What effects, my lord ! She will sit you, —
You heard my daughter tell you how.

CLAUD. She did, indeed.

D. PEDRO. How, how, I pray you ? You amaze
me : I would have thought her spirit had been in-
vincible against all assaults of affection.

LEON. I would have sworn it had, my lord ;
especially against Benedick.

BENE. \_Aside.~] I should think this a gull, but
that the white-bearded fellow speaks it : knavery
cannot, sure, hide itself in such reverence.

CLAUD. He hath ta'en the infection j hold it up.

[Aside.

D. PEDRO. Hath she made her affection known
to Benedick ?

LEON. No ; and swears she never will : that's
her torment.

CLAUD. 'Tis true, indeed; so your daughter says:
Shall /, says she, that have so oft encountered him
'with scorn, write to him that I love him ?

LEON. This says she now when she is beginning
to write to him : for she'll be tip twenty times a
night ; and there will she sit in her smock, till she
have writ a sheet of paper : 2 — my daughter tells
us all.

1 This say? site now when she is beginning to 'write to him:
for she'll be up ttvcnti/ tin/cx a night ; find there mill she sit in

se. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 71

CLAUD. Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I re-
member a pretty jest your daughter told us of.

LEON. O ! — When she had writ it, and was
reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice
between the sheet ? —

CLAUD. That.

LEON. O ! she tore the letter into a thousand

her smock, till she have writ a sheet of paper:] Shakspeare has
more than once availed himself of such incidents as occurred to
him from history, &c. to compliment the princes before whom
his pieces were performed. A striking instance of flattery to
James occurs in Macbeth ; perhaps the passage here quoted was
not less grateful to Elizabeth, as it apparently alludes to an
extraordinary trait in one of the letters pretended to have been
written by the hated Mary to Bothwell :

" I am nakit, and ganging to sleep, and zit I cease not to
scribble all this paper, in so meikle as rest is thairof." That ist
I am naked, and going to sleep, and yet I cease not to scribble
to the end of my paper, much as there remains of it unwritten
on. HENLEY.

Mr. Henley's observation must fall to the ground ; the word
in every edition of Mary's letter which Shakspeare could possibly
have seen, being irkit y not nakit. The French version (as Mr.
Whitaker observes in his Vindication of this unfortunate Prin-
cess, 2d edit. Vol. I. p. 522, £c.) " we know to talk egregious
nonsense at times. — It even mistakes irkit for nakit ; strips the
delicate Queen in the month of January, and at the hour of
midnight ; and keeps her in this situation * toule nue,' without
even the cover of a smock upon her, writing a long letter to her
lover." Irkit, Scotch, is likewise rendered " nudatae," by the
Latin translator.

" I am irkit" means, I am vexed, uneasy. So, in Sir Philip
Sidney's Astrophel and Stella :

" And is even irkt that so sweete comedie

" By such unsuted speech should hindred be."
Again, in As you like it :

" And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools," &c.
Again, in King Henry VI:

" It irks his heart he cannot be reveng'd." STEEVENS.

72 MUCH ADO ACT n.

half-pence ;3 railed at herself, that she should be so
immodest to write to one that she knew would
flout her : / measure him, says she, by my own
spirit ; for I should flout him, if he writ to me; yea,
though I love him, I should.

CLAUD. Then down upon her knees she falls,
weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays,
curses ; — O sweet Benedick! God give me patience!

LEON. She doth indeed ; my daughter says so :
and the ecstasy4 hath so much overborne her, that
my daughter is sometime afraid she will do a despe-
rate outrage to herself; It is very true.

D. PEDRO. It were good, that Benedick knew
of it by some other, if she will not discover it.

CLAUD. To what end ? He would but make a
sport of it, and torment the poor lady worse.

D. PEDRO. An he should, it were an alms to

3 0! she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence ;] i. e. into
a thousand pieces of the same bigness. So, in As you like it:

" they were all like one another •, as halfpence are."

THEOBALD.

A farthing, and perhaps a halfpenny, was used to signify any
small particle or division. So, in the character of the Prioress
•in Chaucer :

" That in hirre cuppe was noferthing sene

" Of grese, vvhan she dronken hadde hire draught."

Prol. to the Cant. Tales, Tynvhitt's edit. v. 135.

STEEVENS.

See Mortimer? ados, by Michael Drayton, 4to. 15Q6:
" She now begins to write unto her lover, —
" Then turning buck to read what she had writ,
" She teyrs the paper, and condemns her wit."

MALONE.

and the ecstasy--] i e. alienation of mind. So, in

The Tempctt, Act III. sc. :ii : " Hinder them from what this
ecstasy may now provoke them to." STEEVENS.

x. JIL ABOUT NOTHING. 73

hang him: She's an excellent sweet lady; and, out
of all suspicion, she is virtuous.

CLAUD. And she is exceeding wise.

D. PEDRO. In every thing, but in loving Bene-
dick.

LEON. O my lord, wisdom and blood5 combating
in so tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that
blood hath the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have
just cause, being her uncle and her guardian.

D. PEDRO. I would, she had bestowed this dotage
on me; I would have daff'd6 all other respects, and
made her half myself: I pray you, tell Benedick of
it, and hear what he will say.

LEON. Were it good, think you ?

CLAUD. Hero thinks surely, she will die : for she
says, she will die if he love her not ; and she will
die ere she makes her love known ; and she will
die if he woo her, rather than she will 'bate one
breath of her accustomed crossness.

D. PEDRO. She doth well : if she should make
tender of her love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it;
for the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible
spirit.7

5 and blood — ] I suppose blood, in this instance, to

mean nature, or disposition. So, in The Yorkshire Tragedy:

" For 'tis our blood to love what we're forbidden."
See p. 45, n. 1. STEEVENS.

Blood is here, as in many other places, used by our author in
the sense of passion, or rather temperament of body. MALONE.

6 have daff'd — ] To daff is the same as to doff, to do

off, to put aside. So, in Macbeth :

" to doff their dire distresses." STEEVENS.

7 contemptible spirit, .] That is, a temper inclined to

scorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our
author uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is

74 MUCH ADO ACT n.

CLAUD. He is a very proper man.8

D. PEDRO. He hath, indeed, a good outward
happiness.

CLAUD. 'Fore God, and in my mind, very wise.

D. PEDRO. He doth, indeed, show some sparks
that are like wit.

LEON. And I take him to be valiant.

D. PEDRO. As Hector, I assure you : and in the
managing of quarrels you may say he is wise ; for
either he avoids them with great discretion, or un-
dertakes them with a most christian-like fear.

LEON. If he do fear God, he must necessarily
keep peace ; if he break the peace, he ought to
enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling.

D. PEDRO. And so will he do ; for the man doth
fear God, howsoever it seems not in him, by some
large jests he will make. Well, I am sorry for your
niece : Shall we go see Benedick, and tell him of
her love ?

CLAUD. Never tell him, my lord; let her wear it
out with good counsel.

therefore no need of changing the word with Sir Thomas Han-
mer to contemptuous. JOIINSOX.

In the argument to Darius, a tragedy, by Lord Sterline, 1603,
it is said, that Darius wrote to Alexander " in a proud and con-
temptible manner." In this place contemptible certainly means
contemptuous.

Again, Drayton, in the 24th Song of his Polyoltion, speaking
in praise of a hermit, says, that he —

" The mad tumultuous world contemptibly forsook,
" And to his quiet cell by Crowland him betook."

STEEVENS.

8 a very proper man.] i. e. a very handsome one. So,

hi Othello:

*' This Ludovico is a proper man.'' STEEVENS.

sc. m. ABOUT NOTHING. 75

LEON. Nay, that's impossible ; she may wear
her heart out first.

D. PEDRO. Well, we'll hear further of it by your
daughter ; let it cool the while. I love Benedick
well ; and I could wish he would modestly examine
himself, to see how much he is unworthy so good
a lady.9

LEON. My lord, will you walk ? dinner is ready.

CLAUD. If he do not dote on her upon this, I
will never trust my expectation. \_Aside.

D. PEDRO. Let there be the same net spread for
her ; and that must your daughter and her gentle-
woman carry. The sport will be, when they hold
one an opinion of another's dotage, and no such
matter ; that's the scene that I would see, which
will be merely a dumb show. Let us send her to
call him in to dinner. \_Aside.

\_Exeunt Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO.

BENEDICK advances from the Arbour.

BENE. This can be no trick: The conference was
sadly borne.1 — They have the truth of this from
Hero. They seem to pity the lady ; it seems, her
affections have their full bent.2 Love me ! why, it

9 unworthy so good a ladyj] Thus the quarto, 1600.

The first folio unnecessarily reads — " unworthy to have so good
a lady." STEEVENS.

1 > was sadly borne.~\ i. e. was seriously carried on.

STEEVENS.

s have their full bent.] Metaphor from the exercise of

the bow. So, in Hamlet :

" And here give up ourselves in they//// bent,
" To lay our service freely at your feet."
The first folio reads — " the full bent." I have followed the
quarto, l6oO. STEEVENS.

^78 MUCH ADO ACT n.

must be requited. I hear how I am censured:
they say, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive
the love come from her ; they say too, that she will
rather die than give any sign of affection. — I did
never think to marry : — I must not seem proud: —
Happy are they that hear their detractions, and
can put them to mending. They say, the lady is
fair ; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witness : and
virtuous ; — 'tis so, I cannot reprove it ; and wise,
but for loving me : — By my troth, it is no addition
to her wit ; — nor no great argument of her folly,
for I will be horribly in love with her. — I may
chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit
broken on me, because I have railed so long against
marriage : But doth not the appetite alter ? A man
loves the meat in his youth, that he cannot endure
in his age : Shall quips, and sentences, and these
paper bullets of the brain, awe a man from the
career of his humour ? No : The world must be
peopled. When I said, I would die a bachelor, I
did not think I should live till I were married. —
Here comes Beatrice : By this day, she's a fair
lady : I do spy some marks of love in her.

Enter BEATRICE.

BEAT. Against my will, I am sent to bid you
come in to dinner.

BENE. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.

BEAT. I took no more pains for those thanks,
than you take pains to thank me ; if it had been
painful, I would not have come.

BENE. You take pleasure in the message ?
BEAT. Yea, just so much as you may take upon

ACT in. ABOUT NOTHING. 77

a knife's point, and choke a daw withal: — You
have no stomach, signior ; fare you well. \_Exit.

BENE. Ha ! Against my mil I am sent to bid
you come to dinner — there's a double meaning in
that. / took no more pains for those thanks, than
you took pains to thank me — that's as much as to
say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as
thanks : — If I do not take pity of her, I am a vil-
lain ; if I do not love her, I am a Jew : I will go
get her picture. [Exif.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Leonato's Garden.

Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA.

HERO. Good Margaret, run thee into the par-
lour ;

There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
Proposing with the Prince and Claudio :3
Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Ursula
Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
Is all of her ; say, that thou overheard'st us ;
And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where honey-suckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter ; — like favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it : — there will she
hide her,

3 Proposing with the Prince and Claudio:] Proposing is
conversing, from the French word — propos, discourse, talk.

STEEVENS.

78 MUCH ADO ACTIII-

To listen our propose :4 This is thy office,
Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.

MARG. I'll make her come, I warrant you, pre-
sently. [Exit.

HERO. Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
As we do trace this alley up and down,
Our talk must only be of Benedick :
When I do name him, let it be thy part
To praise him more than ever man did merit :
My talk to thee must be, how Benedick
Is sick in love with Beatrice : Of this matter
Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,
That only wounds by hearsay. Now begin ;

Enter BEATRICE, behind.

For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.

URS. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait :
So angle we for Beatrice ; who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture :
Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

4 our propose :] Thus the quarto. The folio reads —

our jnirposc. Propose is right. See the preceding note.

STEEVENS.

Purpose, however, may be equally right. It depends only on
the manner of accenting the word, which, in Shakspeare's time,
was often used in the same sense as propose. Thus, in Knox's
History of the Reformation in Scotland, p. J'l: " — with him six
persons ; and getting entrie, held purpose with the porter."
Again, p. 54: " After supper he held comfortable purpose of
(rod's chosen children." HEED.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 79

HERO. Then go we near her, that her ear lose

nothing
Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it. —

[They advance to the bower.
No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful ;
I know, her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggards of the rock.5

URS. But are you sure,

That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely ?

HERO. So says the prince, and my new-trothed
lord.

URS. And did they bid you tell her of it, ma-
dam ?

HERO. They did intreat me to acquaint her of it:
But I persuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick,
To wish him6 wrestle with affection,
And never to let Beatrice know of it.

URS. Why did you so ? Doth not the gentleman

3 As haggards of the rock.'] Turberville, in his book of Fal-
conry, 1575, tells us, that «' the haggard doth come from foreign
parts a stranger and a passenger ;" and Latham, who wrote after
him, says, that, " she keeps in subjection the most part of all
the fowl that fly, insomuch, that the tassel gentle, her natural
and chiefest companion, dares not come near that coast where
she useth, nor sit by the place where she standeth. Such is the
greatness of her spirit, she will not admit of any society, until
such a time as nature worketh," &c. So, in The tragical History
of Didaco and Violcnta, 15/6:

" Perchaunce she's not of haggard's kind,

if Nor heart so hard to bend," &c. STEEVENS.

6 To wish him — ] i. e. recommend or desire. So, in The
Honest Whore, 1604 :

" Go iioish the surgeon to have great respect," &c.
Again, in The Hog hath lost his Pearl, 1014 : " But lady mine
that shall be, your father hath icislid me to appoint the day with
you." REED.

80 MUCH ADO ACT m.

Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed,7
As ever Beatrice shall couch upon ?

HERO. O God of love ! I know, he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man :
But nature never fram'd a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice :
Disdain and- scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising 8 what they look on ; and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her
All matter else seems weak :9 she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

URS. Sure, I think so ;

And therefore, certainly, it were not good
She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.

HERO. Why, you speak truth : I never yet saw

man,

How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would spell him backward :l if fair-faced,

7 - 05 full, #c.] So, in Othello :

" What a. full fortune doth the thick-lips owe ?" &c.
Mr. M. Mason very justly observes, that what Ursula means
to say is, " that he is as deserving of complete happiness in the
marriage state, as Beatrice herself." STKEVENS.

8 Misprising — ] Despising, contemning. JOHNSON.

To misprise is to undervalue, or take in a wrong light. So, in
Troilus and Cressida:

" -- a great deal misprising

" The knight oppos'd." STEEVENS.

9 - that to her

All matter else seems weak :] So, in Lore's Labour's Lost :
" - to your huge store
" Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor "

STEEVENS.

1 - spell him backward :] Alluding to the practice of
witches in uttering prayers.

SC..L ABOUT NOTHING. 81

She'd swear, the gentleman should be her sister j
If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick,
Made a foul blot:2 if tall, a lance ill-headed;

The following passages containing a similar train of thought,
are from Lyly's Anatomy of IV it, 1531 :

" If oiie be hard in conceiving, they pronounce him a dowltet
if given to study, they proclaim him a dunce : if merry, a
jester: if sad, a saint: if full of words, a sot: if without
speech, a cypher : if one argue with him boldly, then is he
impudent: if coldly, an innocent: if there be reasdning of
divinitie, they cry, Quce supra nos, nildladnos: if of huma-
nite, scntentias loquitur carnifex."

Again, p. 4-1, b: " if he be cleanly, they [women]

term him proude : if meene in apparel, a sloven : if tall, a-
lungis : if short, a dwarf: if bold, blunt: if shamefast, a cow-
arde," &c. P. 55: " If she be well set, then call her a bosse:
if slender, a hasill twig: if nut brown, black as a coal: if
well colour'd, a painted wall : if she be pleasant, then is she
tvanton: if sullen, a clowne: if honest, then is she coye."

STEEVENS.

* If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick,
Made afoul blot:~\ The antick was a buffoon character in.
the old English farces, with a blacked face, and a patch-work
habit. What I would observe from hence is, that the name of
antick or antique, given to this character, shows that the people
had some traditional ideas of its being borrowed from the ancient
mimes, who are thus described by Apuleius; " mimi centunculo^
Juliginejaciem obducti." WARBURTOX.

I believe what is here said of the old English farces, is said at
random. Dr. Warburton was thinking, I imagine, of the
modern Harlequin. I have met with no proof that the face of
the antick or Vice of the old English comedy was blackened.
By the word black in the text, is only meant, as I conceive,
swarthy,, or dark brown. MALOXE.

A black man means a man with a dark or thick beard, not a
swarthy or dark-brown complexion, as Mr. Malone conceives.

DOUCE.

.r When Hero says, that — " nature dr diving of an ar.lick, made
a foul blot,'" she only alludes to a drop of ink that may casually
i'all out of a pen, and spoil a grotesque drawing. STEEVENS,

VOL. vi. a-

£2 MUCH ADO ACT nr.

If low, an agate very vilely cut:3

3 If lotv, an agate very vilely cut .•] But why an agate, if
low? For what likeness between a little man and an agate?
The ancients, indeed, used this stone to cut upon ; but very
exquisitely. I make no question but the poet wrote;

an aglet very vilely cut:

An aglet was a tag of those points, formerly so much in fashion.
These tags were either of gold, silver, or brass, according to the
quality of the wearer ; and were commonly in the shape of
little images ; or at least had a head cut at the extremity. The
French call them, aiguillettes^ Mezeray, speaking of Henry the
Third's sorrow for the death of the princess of Conti, says,
" — portant meme sur les aiguillettes dcs petites tetes dc mart"
And as a tall man is before compared to a lance ill-headed ; so,*
by the same figure^ a little man is very aptly liken'd to an aglet
ill-cut. WARBURTON.

The old reading is, I believe, the true one. Vilely cut may
not only mean aukwardly cut by a tool into shape, but gro-
tesquely veined by nature as it grew. To this circumstance, I
suppose, Dray ton alludes in his Muses'1 Elizium :

" With th' agate, very oft that is
" Cut strangely in the quarry;

*< As nature meant to show in this

" HovV' she herself can vary."

Pliny mentions that the shapes of various beings are to be dis-
covered in agates ; and Mr. Addison has very elegantly com-
pared Shakspeare, who was born with all the seeds of poetry,
to the agate in the ring of Pyrrhus, which, as Pliny tells uSj
had the figure of Apollo and the nine Muses in the veins of it*
produced by the spontaneous hand of nature, without any help
from art. STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton reads aglet, which was adopted, I think, too
hastily by the subsequent editors. I see no reason for departing
from the old copy. Shakspeare's comparisons scarcely ever an-
swer completely on both sides. Dr. Warbmton asks, " \\hat
likeness is there between a little man and an agate'?"' No
other titan that both are small. Our author has himself, in
another place, compared a very little man to an agate, " Thou
whorson mandrake, (says Falstaft to his page,] thou art fitter
to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was n«.'ver
so niati'd with an agate till now." Hero means no more than
this : " If a man be low, Beatrice will say that he is as diminu*
tive and unhappily formed as au ill-cut agate."

ae. T. ABOUT NOTHING. S3

If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;4
If silent, why, a block moved with none.
So turns she every man the wrong side out ;
And never gives to truth and virtue, that
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.

URS. Sure, sure, such carping is not commend*
able.

HERO. No : not to be so odd,5 and from all

fashions,

As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable :
But who dare tell her so ? If I should speak>
She'd mock me into airj O, she would laugh me

It appears both from the passage just quoted^ and from one of
Sir John Harrington's epigrams, 4to. 1018, that agates were com*
monly worn in Shakspeare's time :

THE AUTHOR TO A DAUGHTER NINE YEARS OLD,

" Though pride in damsels is a hateful vice,
" Yet could I like a noble-minded girl,

tl That would demand me things of costly price,

" Rich velvet bowns, pendents, and chains of pearly

" Cark'nets of agat<:t cut with rare device^' &c.

These lines, at the same time that they add support to the old
reading, shew, I think, that the words, " vilely cut,'* are to be
understood in their usual sense, when applied to precious stones,
viz; awkwardly wrought by a tool, and not, as Mr. Steevens
supposes, grotesquely veined by nature. MALONE.

4 a vane blown with all wind^ ;] This comparison might

have been borrowed from an ancient black-letter ballad, entitled
A Comparison of the 7,ife oj Man:

" I may compare a man againe,

" Even like unto a tuirting vane,

" That changeth even as doth the wind;

" Indeed so is man's fickle mind." STEEVENS.

* No: not to he so odd, &c.] I should read — nor to be so
pdd, &c. M. MASON,

*fi MUCH ADO ACT ilil-

Out of myself, press me to death with xvit.c
Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly :
It were a better death than die with mocks;
Which is as bad as die with tickling.7

URSi Yet tell her of it; hear what she will say.

HERO. No ; rather I will go to Benedick,
And counsel him to fight against his passion i
And, truly, 1*11 devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with: One doth not know,
How much an ill word may empoison liking.

URS. O, do not do your cousin such a wrong. %
She cannot be so much without true judgment,
(Having so swift and excellent a wit,8
As she is priz'd to have,) as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as senior Benedick.

O O

HERO. He is the only man of Italy,
Always excepted my dear Claudio.

URS. I pray you, be not angry with me, madam j
Speaking my fancy j signior Benedick,

0 - press me to death — ] The allusion is to an ancient
punishment of our law, called peine fort et durc, which was
formerly inflicted on those persons, who, being indicted, refused'
to plead. In consequence of their silence, they were pressed to
death by an heavy weight laid upon their stomach. This punish-
ment the good sense and humanity of the legislature have within,
few years abolished. MALONE.

7 Which if as bad as die with tickling.] The author meant
that tickling should be pronounced as a trisyllable; ticketing;
So, in Spenser, I*. II. canto xii :

" - a strange kind of harmony;

" Which Crayon's senses softly ticketed J* &c. MALONE<

no swift and excellent a wil,~] Swift means readyi

, in As you like it, Act V. sc. iv:

" lie is very swift and sententious.-*' STEEVENS,

sc. I. ABOUT NOTHING. 85

For shape, for bearing, argument,9 and valour,
Goes foremost in report through Italy.

HERO. Indeed, he hath an excellent good name-.

URS. His excellence did earn it, ere he had it. —
When are you married, madam ?

HERO. Why, every day ; — to-morrow : Come,

go in;

I'll show thee some attires ; and have thy counsel,
Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.

URS. She's lim'd1 1 warrant you; we have caught
her, madam.

HERO. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps :
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps,

\_Exeunt HERO and URSULA.

BEATRICE advances.

is in mine ears?2 Can this be true?
Standlcondemn'd for pride andscorn so much?
Contempt, farewell ! and maiden pride, adieu !
No glory lives behind the back of such.

0 - argument, ~\ This word seems here to signify discourse,
wr, the powers of reasoning. JOHNSON.

Argument, in the present instance, certainly means conr-ersa?-
tion. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: " It would be argument
for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever."

STEEVENS.

1 She's lim'd — ] She is ensnared and entangled as a sparrow
with birdlime. JOHNSON.

So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

" Which sweet conceits are lim'd with sly deceits."
The folio reads — She's ta'en. STEEVENS.

2 What fire is in mine ears?'] Alluding to a proverbial saying
.of the common people, that their ears burn, when others are
talking of them. WARBURTON.

3G MUCH ABO ACTOI*

And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee;

Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand;*
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee

To bind our loves up in a holy band :
For others say, thou dost deserve ; and I
Believe it better than reportingly. [Exit.

The opinion from whence this proverbial saying is derived, is
of great antiquity, being thus mentioned by Pliny: " Moreover
is not this an opinion generally received, That when our ears do
glow and tingle, some there be that in our absence doe talke of
us?" Philemon Holland's translation, B. XXVIII. p. 2y/, and
Brown's Vulgar Errors. REED.

Thus, in The Caslell of Courtesie, ivhereunto is adioyncd
The Holde of Humilitie, fyc. fyc. By James Yates Seruingmant
4tg« 1582, p. 73:

" Of the burnmg of the eares"
" That I doe credite giue

" vnto the saying old,
" Which is, ivhen as the cares doe burnet

" some thing on thee is told.''''

Chapman has transplanted this vulgarism into his version of the
22d Iliad:

" Now burnes my ominous eare

** With "whispering, Hector's selfe conceit hath cast
away his host." STEEVENS.

3 Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand;"] This image is
taken from falconry. She had been charged with being as wild
as hnggar Is of the rock ; she therefore says, that ixild as her
Jieart is, she will tame it to the hand. JOHNSON.

sc. n. ABOUT NOTHING. «7

SCENE II.

A Room in Leonato's House.

Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and
LEONATO.

D. PEDRO. I do but stay till your marriage be
consummate, and then I go toward Arragon.

CLAUD. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll
vouchsafe me.

D. PEDRO. Nay, that would be as great a soil in
the new gloss of your marriage, as to show a child
his new coat, and forbid him to wear it.4 I will
only be bold with Benedick for his company; for,
from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,
he is all mirth ; he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's
bow-string, and the little hangman dare not shoot
fit him :5 he hath a heart as sound as a bell, and

4 as to shozv a child his new coat} and Jbrbid him to ivear

it.~\ So, in Romeo and Juliet :

" As is the night before some festival,

" To an impatient child, that hath new robes,

" And may not wear them." STEEVENS.

3 the little hangman dare not shoot at him :~\ This

character of Cupid came from the Arcadia of Sir Philip

" Millions of yeares this old drivel! Cupid lives ;

While still more wretch, more wicked he doth prove:

" Till now at length that Jove him office gives,

(At Juno's suite, who much did Argus love,)

" In this our world a hangman for to be

*' Of a}l those fooles that will have all they see."

B. II. ch. xiv. FARMEK.

88 MUCH ADO ACT in.

his tongue is the clapper; for what his heart thinks,
his tongue speaks.6

BENE. Gallants, I am not as I have been.
LEON. So say I ; methinksj you are sadder.
CLAUD. I hope, he he in love.

Z>. PEDRO. Hang him, truant ; there's no true
drop of blood in him, to be truly touch'd with
love: if he be sad, he wants money.

BENE. I have the tooth-ach.

D. PEDRO. Draw it.

BENE. Hang it !

CLAUD. You must hang it first, and draw it after-
Wards.

D. PEDRO. What ? sigh for the tooth-ach ?
LEON. Where is but a humour, or a worm ?

BENE. Well, Every one can master a grief,7 but
he that has it.

CLAUD. Yet say I, he is in love.

D. PEDRO. There is no appearance of fancy in
him, unless it be a fancy that he hath to strange dis-
guises;8 as, to be a Dutch-man to-day; a French-
man to-morrow; or in the shape of two countries

6 ax a bell) and his tongue is ike clapper \ &c.] A covert

allusion to the old proverb :

" As the fool thinkcth

" So the bell clinketh." STEEVENS.

7 can master a grief,'] The old copies read corruptly —

cannot. '1 he correction was made by M r. Pope. MALONE.

* There in no appearance of fancy S)-c.~\ Here is a play upon
the \vord fancy, which Shakspeare uses for love a.s well as for
humour, caprice, or affectation. JOHNSON.

sc. n. ABOUT NOTHING. 89

at once,9 as, a German from the waist downward^
all slops ; l and a Spaniard from the hip upward,
jio doublet : 2 Unless he have a fancy to this
foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no fool for
fancy, as you would have it appear he is.3

CLAUD. If he be not in love with some woman ?

9 or in the shape of two countries at once, &c.] So, hi

The Seven deadly Sinnes of London, by Tho. Decker, 1606",
4to. bl. 1 : <« For an Englishman's sute is like a traitor's bodie
that hath been hanged, drawne, and quartered, and is set up
in severall places : his codpiece is in Denmarke ; the collor of
his dublet a.nd the belly, in France : the wing and narrow
sleeve, in Italy: the short waste hangs ouer a Dutch botcher's
stall in Utrich : his huge sloppes speaks Spanish : Polonia gives
him the bootes, £c. — and thus we mocke euerie nation, for
keeping one fashion, yetsteale patches from euerie one of them,
to peece out our pride ; and are now laughing-stocks to them,
because their cut so scurvily becomes us." S TEE YENS.

1 all slops ;] Slops are large loose breeches, or troivsers,

worn only by sailors at present. They are mentioned by Jonson,
in his Alchymist :

" six great slops

" Bigger than three Dutch hoys."
Again, in Ram- Alley I or Merry Tricks, iQl 1 :

" three pounds in gold

" These slops contain." STEEVENS.

Hence evidently the term slop-seller, for the venders of ready
made clothes. NICHOLS.

8 a Spaniard from the hip up'ixard, no doullet .•] There

can be no doubt but we should read, all doublet, which cor-
responds with the actual dress of the old Spaniards. As the
passage how stands, it is a negative description, which is in truth
no description at all. M. MASON.

no doublet :~\ or, in other words, all cloak. The words —

*' Or in the shape of two countries," &c. to " no doublet," were
omitted in the folio, probably to avoid giving any offence to the
Spaniards, with whom James became a friend in 1604.

MALONE.'

3 have it appear he z'.s.] Thus the quarto, l60Q. The

folio, 1623, reads — " have it to appear," &c. STJEEVEKS.

90 MUCH ADO ACTIII*

there is no believing old signs : he brushes his hat
o'mornings ; What should that bode ?

D. PEDRO. Hath any man seen him at the bar*
ber's ?

CLAUD. No, but the barber's man hath been
seen with him ; and the old ornament of his cheek
hath already stuffed tennis-balls.4

LEON. Indeed, he looks younger than he did,
by the loss of a beard.

D. PEDRO. Nay, he rubs himself with civet :
Can you smell him out by that ?

CLAUD. That's as much as to say, The sweet
youth's in love.

D. PEDRO. The greatest note of it is his melan-
choly,

CLAUD. And when was he wont to wash his face?

D. PEDRO. Yea, or to paint himself? for the
which, I hear what they say of him.

CLAUD. Nay, but his jesting spirit; which is now
crept into a lutestring,5 and now governed by stops.

* and the old ornament of liis check hath already stuffed

tennis-balls.] So, in A ivonderful, strange, and miraculous
astrological Prognostication for this Year of our Lord, 15Q1,
written by Nashe, in ridicule of Richard Harvey : " — they
may sell their haire by the pound, to stuff e tcnnice balles."

STEEVENS.

Again, in Ram- Alley, or Merry Tricks, lOll :
" Thy beard shall serve to stuff those balls by which I get me
heat at ten ice."

Again, in The Gentle Craft, l600:

" He'll shave it off, and stuffe tcnice balls with it."

HENDERSON.

* crept into a lutestring,] Zouosongs in our author's
time were generally sung to the musick of the lute. So, in
King Henry I V.P.I:

*' as melancholy as an old lion, or a lover's lute."

MA LONE.

sc. n. ABOUT NOTHING. 91

D. PEDRO. Indeed, that tells a heavy tale
him : Conclude, conclude, he is in love.

CLAUD. Nay, but I know who loves him.

D. PEDRO. That would I know too ; I warrant,
one that knows him not.

CLAUD. Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in de-
spite of all, dies for him,

D. PEDRO. She shall be buried with her face
upwards.6

0 She shall be buried with her face upwards."] Thus the
whole set of editions: but what is there any way particular in
this ? Are not all men and women buried so ? Sure, the poet
means, in opposition to the general rule, and by way of dis-
tinction, with her heels upwards, or face downwards. I have
chosen the first reading, because I find it the expression in
vogue in our author's time. THEOBALD.

This emendation, which appears to me very specious, is re-
jected by Dr. Warburton. The meaning seems to be, that she
who acted upon principles contrary to others, should be buried
with the same contrariety. JOHNSON.

Mr. Theobald quite mistakes the scope of the poet, who pre-
pares the reader to expect somewhat uncommon or extraordi-
nary ; and the humour consists in the disappointment of that
expectation, as at the end of lago's poetry in Othello :
" She was a wight, (if ever such wight were) —
" To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." HEATH.

Theobald's conjecture may, however, be supported by a pas-
sage in The Wild Goose Chase of Beaumont and Fletcher :

love cannot starve me ;

" For if I die o' th' first fit, I am unhappy,
" And worthy to be buried with my heels upwards."
Dr. Johns.on's explanation may likewise be countenanced by
a passage in an old black letter book, without date, intitled,
A merye Jest of a Man that was called HOWLEGLAS, &c.
" How Howleglas was buried." — " Thus as Howleglas was
deade, then they brought him to be buryed. And as they
would have put the coffyn into the pytte with 1 1 cordes, the
corde at the fete brake, so that the fote of the coffyn fell into
the botome of the pyt, and the coffyn stood bolt upryght in
the middes of the grave. Then desired the people that stode

92 MUCH ADO ACT UK

BENE. Yet is this no charm for the tooth-ach. —
Old signior, walk aside with me ; I have studied
eight or nine wise words to speak to you, which
these hobby-horses must not hear.

\_Excunt BENEDICK and LEONATO*

about the grave that tyme, to let the cqffyn to stand bolt up-
ryght. For in his lyfe tynie he was a very marvelous man,
&c. and shall be buryed as marvailously ; and in this maner they
left Howleglass" &c.

That this book was once popular, may be inferred from Ben
Jonson's frequent allusions to it in his Poetaster :

" What do you laugh, Oivleglas?"
Again, in The Fortunate Isles, a masque :

" What do you think of Oivlglas,

" Instead of him ?"

And again, in The Sad Shepherd. This history was originally
written in Dutch. The hero is there called Uyle-xpegel. Under
this title he is likewise introduced by Ben Jonson in his Alchy-
mist, and the masque and pastoral already quoted. Menage
speaks of Ulespeigle as a man famous for trompcries ingenieuses ;
adds that his Life was translated into French, and quotes the
title-page of it. I have another copy published A Troyes, in
1/14, the title of which differs from that set down by Menage.

The passage indeed may mean only — She shall be buried m
her lover's arms. So, in The Winter's Tale:

" Flo. What? like a corse?

" Per. No, like a bank for love to lie and play on;

" Not like a corse : or if, — not to be buried,

" But quick and in my arms.''

On the whole, however, I prefer Mr. Theobald's conjecture to
my own explanation. STEKVENS.

This last is, I believe, the true interpretation. Our author
often quotes Lilly's Grammar ; and here perhaps he remem-
bered a phrase that occurs in that book, p. 5y, and is thus
interpreted: " Tu cubas supinus, thou liest in be.d with thy
face upwards" Heels and. face never could have been con-
founded by either the eye or the ear.

Besides ; Don Pedro is evidently playing on the word dies
in Claudio's speech, which Ciaudio uses metaphorically, and of
which Don Pedro avails himself to introduce an allusion to that;
consummation which he supposes Beatrice was dying for.

MALONE.

sc'.-it.'- ABOUT NOTHING. 93

D. PEDRO. For my life, to break with him aboufc
Beatrice.

CLAUD. JTis even so : Hero and Margaret have
by this played their parts with Beatrice ; and then
the two bears will not bite one another, when they
meet.

Enter Don JOHN.

JD. JOHN. My lord and brother, God save you,
D. PEDRO. Good den, brother.

D. JOHN. If your leisure served, I would speak
with you.

D. PEDRO. In private ?

D. JOHN. If it please you ; — yet count Claudio
may hear j for what I would speak of, concerns
hjm.

D. PEDRO. What's the matter ?

D-. JOHN. Means your lordship to be married
to-morrow ? [To CLAUDIO*

•D. PEDRO. You know, he does.

D. JOHN. I kno^7 not that, when he knows
what I know.

CLAUD. If there be any impediment, I pray you,
discover it.

Z>. JOHN. You may think, I love you not • let
that appear hereafter, and aim better at me by
that I now will manifest : For my brother, I think,
he holds you well ; and in dearness of heart hath
holp to effect your ensuing marriage : surely, suit
ill spent, and labour ill bestowed !

D. PEDRO. Why, what's the matter ?

D. Jony. I came hither to tell you ; and, cii>:

9* MUCH ADO ACTIII,

cumstances shortened, (for she hath been too long
a talking of,) the lady is disloyal*

CLAUD. Who? Hero?

D. JOHN, Even she; Leonato's Hero, your Hero,
every man's Hero*7

CLAUD. Disloyal?

D. JOHN. The word is too good to paint out her
wickedness ; I could say, she were worse ; think
you of a worse title, and I will fit her to it. Won-
der not till further warrant : go but with me to-
night, you shall see her chamber-window entered ;
even the night before her wedding-day : if you
love her then, to-morrow wed her ; but it would
better fit your honour to change your mind,

CLAUD. May this be so ?

D. PEDRO. I will not think it.

D. JOHN. If you dare not trust that you see,
confess not that you know : if you will follow me,
I will show you enough ; and when you have seen
more, and heard more, proceed accordingly.

CLAUD. If I see any thing to-night why I should
not marry her to-morrow ; in the congregations
where I should wed, there will I shame her.

D. PEDRO. And, as I wooed for thee to obtain
her, I will join with thee to disgrace her,

D. JOHN. I will disparage her no farther, till
you are my witnesses : bear it coldly but till mid^
night, and let the issue show itself.

D. PEDRO. O day untowardly turned !

7 Lsonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero.~\ Dryden

has transplanted this sarcasm into his All for Love :

" Your Cleopatra ; Dolabella's Cleopatra ; every man's Cleo-
patra." STKEVENS.

$c. in. ABOUT NOTHING, 95

CLAUD. O mischief strangely thwarting !

D. JOHN. O plague right well prevented !
So will you say, when you have seen the sequel.

[Exeunt*

SCENE III.

A Street.
Enter DOGBERRY and VERGES,® with the Watch,

DOGB. Are you good men and true ?

VERG. Yea, or else it were pity but they should
suffer salvation, body and soul.

DOGB. Nay, that were a punishment too good
for them, if they should have any allegiance in
them, being chosen for the prince's watch.

VERG. Well, give them their charge,0 neighbour
Dogberry.

DOGB. First, who think you the most desartless
man to be constable ?

1 WATCH. Hugh Oatcake, sir, or George Sea-
coal ; for they can write and read.

DOGB. Come hither, neighbour Seacoal : God
hath blessed you with a good name : to be a well*

8 Dogberry and Verges,] The first of these worthies

had his name from the Dog-berry, i. e. the female cornel, a
shrub that grows in the hedges in every county of England.

Verges is only the provincial pronunciation of Verjuice.

STEEVENS.

9 Well, give them their charge,] To charge his fellows, seems
to have been a regular part of the duty of the constable of the
watch. So, in A New Trick to cheat the Devil, It33 9: " My
watch is set — charge given — and all at peace/' Again, in The
Insatiate Countess, by Marsion, 1613: " Come on, my hearts;
«• e are the city's security — I'll give you your charge"

MALONE,

96 MUCH ADO

ACT III.

favoured man is the gift of fortune ; but to write
and read comes by nature.

2 WATCH. Both which, master constable,- *

DOGB. You have ; I knew it would be your an-
swer. Well, for your favour, sir, why, give God
thanks, and make no boast of it ; and for your
writing and reading, let that appear when there is
no need of such vanity. You are thought here to
be the most senseless and fit man for the constable
of the watch ; therefore bear you the lantern :
This is your charge ; You shall comprehend all
vagrorn men ; you are to bid any man stand j in
the prince's name.

2 WATCH. How if he will not stand ?

DOGB. Why then, take no note of him, but let
him go ; and presently call the rest of the watch
together^ and thank God you are rid of a knave.

VERG. If he will not stand when he is bidden,
he is none of the prince's subjects.

DOGB. True, and they are to meddle with none
but the prince's subjects : — You shall also make no
noise in the streets ; for, for the watch to babble
and talk, is most tolerable and not to be endured.

2 WATCH. We will rather sleep than talk ; we
know what belongs to a watch.

DOGB. Why, you speak like an ancient and most
quiet watchman ; for I cannot sec how sleeping
should offend : only, have a care that your bills be
not stolen : ' — Well, you are to call at all the ale-

1 bills le not stolen:"] A bill is still carried by the

watchmen at Lichfield. It was the old weapon of English
infantry, which, says Temple, gave ike most ghastly ami
deplorable wounds. It may be called securisfalcala.

JOHNSON.

SC. III.

ABOUT NOTHING.

houses, and bid those that are drunk 2 get them to
bed.

About Shakspeare's time halberds were the weapons borne by
the watchmen, as appears from Blount's Voyage to the Levant :
" — certaine Janizaries, who with great staves guard each street,
as our night watchmen with holberds in London." REED.

The weapons to. which the care of Dogberry extends, are
mentioned in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 163Q:
• Well said, neighbours ;

Again,

You're chatting wisely o'er your bills and lanthorns,
As becomes watchmen of discretion."
in Arden ofFeversham, 15Q2:

the watch

Are coming tow'rd our house with glaives and bills."
The following representation of a ivatchman, with his bill on
his shoulder, is copied from the title-page to Decker's 0 pe
0, &c;4to. 1612:

STEEVENS.

VOL. VI«

98 MUCH ADO ACT m.

2 WATCH. How if they will not ?

DOGS. Why then, let them alone till they are
sober ; if they make you not then the better an-
swer, you may say, they are not the men you took
them for.

2 WATCH. Well, sir.

DOGB. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him ,
by virtue of your office, to be no true man : and,
for such kind of men, the less you meddle or make
with them, why, the more is for your honesty.

2 WATCH. If we know him to be a thief, shall
we not lay hands on him ?

DOGS. Truly, by your office, you may ; but, I
think, they that touch pitch will be defiled : the
most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief,
is, to let him show himself what he is, and steal
out of your company.

VERG. You have been always called a merciful
man, partner.

DOGS. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my
will ; much more a man who hath any honesty in
him.

VERG. If you hear a child cry in the night, you
must call to the nurse, and bid her still it.0

— bid those that are drunk — ~] Thus the quarto, l60().
The folio, 1O23, reads — " bid them that," &c. STEEVENS.

* If you hear a child cry &c.] It is not impossible but that
part of this scene was intended as a burlesque on The Statutes qj
the Streets, imprinted by Wolfe, in 1595. Among these I find
the following :

22. " No man shall blowe any home in the night, within this
citie, or whistle after the houre of nyne of the eloek in the night,
under paine of imprisonment.

23. " No man shall use to go with visoures, or disguised by
night, under like paine of imprisonment.

sc.m. ABOUT NOTHING. 99

2 WATCH. How if the nurse be asleep, and will
not hear us ?

DOGS. Why then, depart in peace, and let the
child wake her with crying : for the ewe that will
not hear her lamb when it baes, will never answer
a calf when he bleats.

VERG. 'Tis very true.

DOGS. This is the end of the charge. You,
constable, are to present the prince's own person ;
if you meet the prince in the night, you may stay
him.

VERG. Nay by'r lady, that, I think, he cannot.

DOGS. Five shillings to one on't, with any man
that knows the statues,4 he may stay him : marry,

24. " Made that night-walkers, and evisdrpppers, like punish-
ment.

25. " No hammer-man, as a smith, a pewterer, a founder,
and all artificers making great sound, shall not worke after the
houre of nyne at night, &c.

30. " No man shall, after the houre of nyne at night, keepe
any rule, whereby any such suddaine outcry be made in the still
of the night, as making any affray, or beating his wyfe, or ser-
vant, or singing, or revyling in his house, to the disturbaunce of
his neighbours, under payne of iiis. iiiid." &c. &c.

Ben Jonson, however, appears to have ridiculed this scene in
the Induction to his Bartholomew-Fair :

" And then a substantial watch to have stole in upon 'em,
and taken them away with mistaking words, as the fashion is iu
the stage practice." STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens observes, and I believe justly, that Ben Jonson
intended to ridicule this scene in his Induction to Bartholomew-
Fair ; yet in his Tale of a Tub, he makes his wise men of
Finsbury speak just in the same style, and blunder in the same
manner, without any such intention. M. MASON.

4 the statues,] Thus the folio, 1 623. The quarto, 1600,

reads — *' the statutes." But whether the blunder was designed
by the poet, or created by the printer, must be left to the con-
sideration of our readers- .STEEVENS.

100 MUCH ADO ACT in.

not without the prince be willing : for, indeed, the
watch ought to offend no man ; and it is an offence
to stay a man against his will.

VERG. By'r lady, I think, it be so.

DOGS. Ha, ha, ha ! Well, masters, good night :
an there be any matter of weight chances, call up
me : keep your fellows' counsels and your own,5
and good night. — Come, neighbour.

2 WATCH. Well, masters, we hear our charge :
let us go sit here upon the church-bench till two,
and then all to-bed.

DOGB. One word more, honest neighbours : I

pray you, watch about signior Leonato's door ; for

the wedding being there to-morrow, there is a great

coil to-night : Adieu, be vigitant, I beseech you.

[Exeunt DOGBERRY and VERGES.

Enter BORACHIO and COXRADE.

BORA. What ! Conrade, —

WATCH. Peace, stir not. [Aside.

BORA. Conrade, I say !

CON. Here, man, I am at thy elbow.

BORA. Mass, and my elbow itched ; I thought,
there would a scab follow.

CON. I will owe thee an answer for that ; and
now forward with thy tale.

BORA. Stand thee close then under this pent-

* keep your JeUolas* counsels and your own,'] This iV

part of the oath of a grand juryman ; and is one of many proofs
of Shakspeare's having been very conversant, at some period of
has life, with legal proceedings and courts of justice. MAI.ONK-

*t'. in. ABOUT NOTHING. 101

house, for it drizzles rain ; and I will, like a true
drunkard,6 utter all to thee.

WATCH. \_Aside.~] Some treason, masters ; yet
stand close.

BORA. Therefore know, I have earned of Don
John a thousand ducats.

CON. Is it possible that any villainy should be
so dear ?

BORA. Thou should' st rather ask, if it were pos-
sible any villainy should be so rich ; 7 for when
rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones
may make what price they will.

CON. I wonder at it.

BORA. That shows, thou art unconfirmed : 8
Thou knowest, that the fashion of a doublet, or a
hat, or a cloak, is nothing to a man.

CON. Yes, it is apparel.

BORA. I mean, the fashion.

CON. Yes, the fashion is the fashion.

BORA. Tush ! I may as well say, the fool's the
fool. But see'st thou not what a deformed thief
this fashion is ?

WATCH. I know that Deformed ; he has been a

6 like a true drunkard,] I suppose, it was on this ac-
count that Shakspeare called him Borachio, from Boraccho,
Spanish, a drunkard: or Borracha, a leathern receptacle for
wine. STEEVENS.

7 • any villainy should be so rich;] The sense absolutely
requires us to read, villain. WARBURTON.

The old reading may stand. STEEVENS.

8 thou art unconfirmed;] i. e. unpractised in the ways

of the world. WARBURTON.

102 MUCH ADO ACT in.

vile thief this seven year ; he goes up and down
like a gentleman : I remember his name.

BORA. Didst thou not hear somebody ?
Coy. No ; 'twas the vane on the house.

BORA. Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed
thief this fashion is? how giddily he turns about all
the hot bloods, between fourteen and five and
thirty ? sometime, fashioning them like* Pharaoh's
soldiers in the reechy painting ; 9 sometime, like
god Bel's priests 1 in the old church window ; some-
time, like the shaven Hercules2 in the smirched3

9 reechy painting ;] Is painting discoloured by smoke.

So, in Hans Beer Pot's Invisible Comedy, l6l8 :

" he look'd so recchily,

" Like bacon hanging on the chimney's roof."
From Recan, Anglo-Saxon, to rcek,fumare. STEEVENS.

1 like god BeV s priests — ] Alluding to some aukward

representation of the story of Bel and the Dragon, as related in
the Apocrypha. STEEVENS.

2 sometime, like the fhavcn Hercules &c.] By the shaven

Hercules is meant Sampson, the usual subject of old tapestry.
In this ridicule on the fashion, the poet has not unartfully given
a stroke at the barbarous workmanship of the common tapestry
hangings, then so much in use. The same kind of raillery
Cervantes has employed on the like occasion, when he brings
his knight and 'squire to an inn, where they found the story of
Dido and Ericas represented in bad tapestry. On Sancho's
seeing the tears fall from the eyes of the forsaken queen as big
as walnuts, he hopes that when their achievements became the
general subject for these sorts of works, that fortune will send
them a better artist. — What authorised the poet to give this
name to Sampson was the folly of certain Christian mythologies,
who pretend that the Grecian Hercules was the Jewish Sampson.
The retenue of our author is to be commended : The sober audi-
ence of that time would have been offended with the mention
of a venerable name on so light an occasion. Shakspeare is
indeed sometimes licentious in these matters : But to do him
justice, he generally seems to have a sense of religion, and to
be under its influence. What Pedro says of Benedick, in this

sc.m. ABOUT NOTHING. io»

worm-eaten tapestry, where his cod-piece seems as
massy as his club ?

CON. All this I see ; and see, that the fashion
wears out more apparel than the man: But art not
thou thyself giddy with the fashion too, that thou
hast shifted out of thy tale into telling me of the
fashion ?

BORA. Not so neither : but know, that I have
to-night wooed Margaret, the lady Hero's gentle-
woman, by the name of Hero; she leans me out at
her mistress' chamber-window, bids me a thousand
times good night, — I tell this tale vilely: — I should
first tell thee, how the Prince, Claudio, and my
master, planted, and placed, and possessed by my
master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this
amiable encounter.

CON. And thought they, Margaret was Hero?

BORA. Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio;
but the devil my master knew she was Margaret ;
and partly by his oaths, which first possessed them,
partly by the dark night, which did deceive them,

comedy, may be well enough applied to him : The man doth
Jear God, however it seems not to be in him by some large jests
he tvill make. WARBURTON.

I believe that Shakspeare knew nothing of these Christian
mythologists, and by the shaven Hercules meant only Hercules
tvhen shaved to make him look like a woman, while he remained
in the service of Omphale, his Lydian mistress. Had the shaved
Hercules been meant to represent Sampson, he would probably
have been equipped with a jam bone instead of a club.

STEEVENS.

3 smirched — ] Smirched is soiled, obscured. So, in

As yon like it, Act I. sc. iii:

" And with a kind of umber smirch my face."

STEEVENS.

104 MUCH ADO ACT in.

but chiefly by my villainy, which did confirm any
slander that Don John had made, away went Claiu
dio enraged ; swore he would meet her as he was
appointed, next morning at the temple, and there,
befpre the whole congregation, shame her with what
he saw over-night, and send her home again without
a husband.

1 WATCH. We charge you in the prince's name,
stand.

2 WATCH. Call up the right master constable :
We have here recovered the most dangerous piece
of lechery that ever was known in the common-
wealth.

1 WATCH. And one Deformed is one of them ;
I know him, he wears a lock.4

CON. Masters, masters.5

2 WATCH. You'll be made bring Deformed forth,
I warrant you.

COA-. Masters, —

4 "wears a lock.] So, in The Return from Parnassus,

1606:

*' He whose thin fire dwells in a smoky roofe,
" Must take tobacco, and must wear a lock."

See Dr. Warburton's note, Act V. sc. i. STEEVENS.

s Con. Masters, masters, &c.] In former copies :

Con. Masters.

2 Watch. You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant
you.

Con. Masters never speak, tve charge you, let us obey you to go
ivith us.

The regulation which I have made in this last speech, though
against the authority of all the printed copies, I flatter myself,
carries its proof witih it. Conrade and Borachio are not de-
signed to talk absurd nonsense. It is evident, therefore, that
Conrade is attempting his own justification ; but is interrupted
in it by the impertinence of the men in office. THEOBALD.

sc. iv. ABOUT NOTHING. 105

I WATCH. Never speak j we charge you, let us
obey you to go with us.

BORA. We are like to prove a goodly commodity,
being taken up of these men's bills.6

CON. A commodity in question,7 I warrant you.
Come, we'll obey you. \_Exeunt.

SCENE IV,

A Room in Leonato's House.
Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA.

HERO. Good Ursula, wake my cousin Beatrice,
and desire her to rise.

URS. I will, lady.

HERO. And bid her come hither.

URS. Well. [Exit URSULA.

0 a goodly commodity, being taken up of these men's

bills.] Here is a cluster of conceits. Commodity was formerly
as now, the usual term for an article of merchandise. To take
up, besides its common meaning, (to apprehend,] was the phrase
for obtaining goods on credit. " If a man is thorough with them
in honest taking up, (says Falstaff,) then they must stand upon
security." Bill was the term both for a single bond, and a
halberd.

We have the same conceit in King Henry VI. P. II : " My
lord, When shall we go to Cheapside, and take up commodities
upon our bills?" MALONE.

7 A commodity in question,] i. e. a commodity subject g to
judicial trial or examination. Thus Hooker : " Whosoever be
found guilty, the communion book hath deserved least to be
called in question for this fault." STEEVENS.

106 MUCH ADO ACT ~mr

MARG. Troth, I think, your other rabato8 were
better.

HERO. No, pray thee, gpod Meg, I'll wear this.

MARG. By my troth, it's not so good; and I war-
rant, your cousin will say so.

HERO. My cousin's a fool, and thou art another;
I'll wear none but this.

MARG. I like the new tire within excellently, if
the hair were a thought browner:9 and your gown's

* rabato — ] An ornament for the neck, a collar -band or

kind of ruff. Fr. Rabat. Menage saith it comes from rabattre,
to put back, because it was at first nothing but the collar of the
shirt or shift turn'd back towards the shoulders. T. HAWKINS.

This article of dress is frequently mentioned by our ancient
comic writers.

So, in the comedy of Latv Tricks, &c. 1608 :
" Broke broad jests upon her narrow heel,
" Pok'd her rabatoes, and survey'd her .steel."
Again, in Decker's Guls Hornbook, \ 609 : " Your stiff-necked
rebatoes (that have more arches for pride to row under, than
can stand under five London-bridges) durst not then," &c.

Again, in Decker's Untrussing the Humourous Poet: " What
a miserable thing it is to be a noble bride ! There's such delays
in rising, in fitting gowns, in pinning rebatoes, in poaking," &c.

The first and last of these passages will likewise serve for an
additional explanation of the polcing-sticks of steel, mentioned by
Autolycus in The Winter's Tale. STEEVENS.

' if the hair iverc a thought broivner:~\ i. e. the false

hair attached to the cap ; for we learn from Stubbes's Anatomic
of Abuses, 1595, p. 40, that ladies were " not simplie content
with their own haire, but did buy up other haire either of
horses, mares, or any other strange beasts, dying it of what
collour they list themselves." STEEVENS.

a thought browner .-] i. e. a degree, a little, or as would

now be said, a shade browner. Thus, in Shirley's Honoria and
Mammon, 1659 :

" Col. They have city faces.

" Squ. And are a thought too handsome to be Serjeants."

sc. ir. ABOUT NOTHING. 107

a most rare fashion, i'faith. I saw the duchess of
Milan's gown, that they praise so.

HERO. O, that exceeds, they say.

MARG. By my troth it's but a night-gown in
respect of yours : Cloth of gold, and cuts, and
laced with silver ; set with pearls, down sleeves,
side-sleeves,1 and skirts round, underborne with a

Again, in Guzman de Alfarache, fol. 1628, P. II. B. II. ch. v:

" — — that I should lessen it a thought in the waist, for that
it sits now well before." REED.

1 side-sleeves,'] Side-sleeves, I believe, mean long ones.

So, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, l6l7 : " As great selfe-love
lurketh in a szofc-gowne, as in a short armour." Again, in Lane-
ham's Account of Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenel-
worth- Castle, 15/5, the minstrel's " gown had side-sleeves down
to the mid-leg." Clement Paston (See Paston Letters, Vol. I.
p. 145, 2d edit.) had " a short blue gown that was made of a
side-gown," i. e. of a long one. Again, in The last Voyage of
Captaine Frobisher, by Dionyse Settle, 12mo. bl.l. 15/7 : " They
make their apparel with hoodes and tailes, &c. The men have
them not so syde as the women."

Such long sleeves, within my memory, were worn by children,
and were called hanging-sleeves ; a term which is preserved in a
line, I think, of Dryden :

" And miss in hanging-sleeves now shakes the dice."

Side or syde in the North of England, and in Scotland, is used
for long when applied to the garment, and the word has the same
signification in the Anglo-Saxon and Danish. Vide Glossary to
Gawine Douglas's Virgil. See also A. Wyntown's Cronykil,
B. IX. ch. viii. v. 120:

" And for the hete tuk on syd gwnys."

To remove an appearance of tautology, as doivn-sleeves may
seem synonymous with side-sleeves, a comma must be taken out,
and the passage printed thus — " Set with pearls down sleeves,
or down tti sleeves." The second paragraph of this note is
copied from the Edinburgh Magazine, for Nov. ] 786'.

STEEVENS.

/SzWe-sleeves were certainly long-sleeves, as will appear from
the following instances. Stowe's Chronicle, p. 327, tempore
Hen. IV : " This time was used exceeding pride in garments.

108 MUCH ADO ACT in.

blueish tinsel : but for a fine, quaint, graceful, and
excellent fashion, yours is worth ten on't.

HERO. God g ive me ioy to wear it, for my heart

!• t. I

is exceeding heavy !

MARG. 'Twill be heavier soon, by the weight of
a man.2

HERO. Fye upon thee ! art not ashamed ?

MARG. Of what, lady ? of speaking honourably ?
Is not marriage honourable in a beggar ? Is not
your lord honourable without marriage ? I think,
you would have me say, saving your reverence, —
a husband: an bad thinking do not wrest true speak-
ing, I'll offend no body : Is there any harm in —
the heavier for a husband? None, I think, an it be
the right husband, and the right wife ; otherwise
'tis light, and not heavy : Ask my lady Beatrice
else, here she comes.

gownes with deepe and broad sleeves commonly called poke
sleeves, the servants ware them as well as their masters, which
might well have been called the receptacles of the devil, for
what they stole they hid in their sleeves, whereof some hung
downe to the feete, and at least to the knees, full of cuts and
jagges, whereupon were made these verses : [i. e. by Tho.
Hoccleve.]

" Now hath this land little neede of broomes,

" To sweepe away the filth out of the streete,
" Sen side-sleeves of pennilesse groomes

" Will it up licke be it drie or weete."

Again, in Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry : " Theyr cotes
be so syde that they be fayne to tucke them up whan they ride,
as women do theyr kyrtels when they go to the market," &c.

REED.

' Twill be heavier soon, by the weight of a man.~\ So, in
Troilus and Cressida :

" the heavier for a whore." STEEVENS.

5T.

ABOUT NOTHING.

109

Enter BEATRICE.

HERO. Good morrow, coz.
BEAT. Good morrow, sweet Hero.

HERO. Why, how now ! do you speak in the sick
tune ?

BEAT. I am out of all other tune, methinks.

MARG. Clap us into — Light o' love;3 that goes
without a burden j do you sing it, and I'll dance it.

Light o'love ;] This tune is alluded to in Fletcher's

Two Noble Kinsmen. The gaoler's daughter, speaking of a
horse, says :

" He gallops to the tune of Light o'/oue."
It is mentioned again in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

" Best sing to the tune of Light o'/ove."

And in The Noble Gentleman of Beaumont and Fletcher.
Again, in A gorgious Gallery of gallant Inventions, &c. 4to.
15/8 : " The lover exhorteth his lady to be constant to the
tune of —

" Attend go play thee—

" Not Light of love, lady," &c. STEEVENS.

This is the name of an old dance tune which has occurred al-
ready in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. I have lately recovered
it from an ancient MS. and it is as follows :

^r

4^-fr-f^tffH -• I ±OT

grHtnt^W
, . !__) |

=F ! ! -II- ^'Tr r i* .1 r'n*^; 7^3

^fe

?

r^^1

Sm J. HAWKINS*

1.10 MUCH ADO ACT in.

BEAT. Yea, Light o' love, with your heels !—
then if your husband have stables enough, you'll
see he shall lack no barns.4

MARG. O illegitimate construction ! I scorn that
with my heels.

BEAT. 'Tis almost five o'clock, cousin ; 'tis time
you were ready. By my troth I am exceeding ill:—
hey ho !

MARG. For a hawk, a horse, or a husband ? 5
BEAT. For the letter that begins them all, H.6

MARG. Well, an you be not turned Turk,7 there's
no more sailing by the star.

no barns.] A quibble between barns, repositories of

eorn, and bairns, the old word for children. JOHNSON.

So, in The Winter's Tale :

" Mercy on us, a barn ! a very pretty barn /"

STEEVENS.

* — hey ho !

Marg. For a hawk, a horse, or a husband ?] " Heigh ho for
a Husband, or the willing Maid's Wants made known," is the
title of an old ballad in the Pepysian Collection, in Magdalen
College, Cambridge. MALONE.

6 For the letter that begins them all, H.] This is a poor
jest, somewhat obscured, and not worth the trouble of elu-
cidation.

Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries, hey ho; Beatrice
answers, for an //, that is for an ache, or pain. JOHNSON.

HeywoOjd, among his Epigrams, published in 1506, has om*
on the letter H:

" H is worht among letters in the cross-row ;

" For if thou find him either in thine elbow,

" In thine arm, or leg, in any degree ;

" In thine head, or teeth, or toe, or knee ;

u Into what place soever H may pike him,

" Wherever thou find ache, thou shalt not like him."

STEEVENS.

7 turnd Turk,'] i.e. taken captive by love, and turned

a renegado to his religion. WARBURTON,

sc. iv. ABOUT NOTHING. Ill

BEAT. What means the fool, trow ?8

MARG. Nothing I ; but God send every one their
heart's desire !

HERO. These gloves the count sent me, they are
an excellent perfume.

BEAT. I am stuffed, cousin, I cannot smell.

MARG. A maid, and stuffed ! there's goodly
catching of cold.

BEAT. O, God help me ! God help me ! how
long have you profess'd apprehension ?

MARG. Ever since you left it : doth not my wit-
become me rarely ?

BEAT. It is not seen enough, you should wear it
in your cap. — By my troth, I am sick.

MARG. Get you some of this distilled Carduus
Benedictus,9 and lay it to your heart ; it is the only
thing for a qualm,

This interpretation is somewhat far-fetched, yet, perhaps, it is
right. JOHNSON.

Hamlet uses the same expression, and talks of his fort une\
turning Turk. To turn Turk, was a common phrase for a
change of condition or opinion. So, in The Honest Whore, by
Decker, 1616:

" If you turn Turk again," &c. STEEVRNS.

8 What means the fool, trow ?] This obsolete exclamation of
enquiry, is corrupted from I trow, or trow you, and occurs again
in The Merry Wives of Windsor: " Who's there, trow?" To
Iroiu is to imagine, to conceive. So, in Romeo and Juliet, the
Nurse says: " 'Twas no need, I trow, to bid me trudge."

STEEVENS.

;1 Carduus Benedictus,'] " Carduus Benedictus, or blessed

thistle, (says Cogan, in his Haven of Health, 1595,) so worthily
named for the singular virtues that it hath." — " This herbe may
worthily be called Benedictus, or Omnimorbia, that is, a salve for
every sore, not knowen to physitians of old time, but lately re-
vealed by the speciall providence of Almighty God.1' STEEVENS.

112 MUCH ADO ACT in.

HERO. There thou prick'st her with a thistle.

BEAT. Benedictus ! why Benedictus ? you have
some moral * in this Benedictus.

MARG. Moral? no, by my troth, I have .no
moral meaning ; I meant, plain holy-thistle. You
may think, perchance, that I think you are in love :
nay, by'r lady, I am not such a fool to think what
I list ; nor I list not to think what I can ; nor, in-
deed, I cannot think, if I would think my heart
out of thinking, that yoii are in love, or that you
will be in love, or that you can be in love : yet
Benedick was such another, and now is he become
a man : he swore he would never marry ; and yet
now, in despite of his heart, he eats his meat with-
out grudging :2 and how you may be converted, I

some moral — ] That is, some secret meaning, like the

moral of a fable. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson's explanation is certainly the true one, though it
lias been doubted. In The Rape ofLucrece our author uses the
verb to moralize in the same sense :

" Nor could she moralize his wanton sight."
L e. investigate the latent meaning of his looks.

Again, in The Taming of the Shrew: " — and has left me
here behind, to expound the meaning or moral of his signs and
tokens." MALONE.

Moralizations (for so they were called) are subjoined to many
of our ancient Tales, reducing them into Christian or moral
lessons. See the Gcstu Romanorum, &c. STEEVENS.

— he eats his meat faithmit grudging :] I do not see
fiow this is a proof of Benedick's change of mind. It would
afford more proof of amorousness to say, he eats not his meat
without grudging; but it is impossible to fix the meaning of
proverbial expressions : perhaps, to eat meat without grudging,
was the same as, to do as others do, and the meaning is, he is con-
tent to live by eating like oilier mortals, and "will be content, not-
withstanding his boasts, like other mortals, to have a wife.

JOHNSON.

sc. v. ABOUT NOTHING. 113

know not ; but methinks, you look with your eyes
as other women do.3

BEAT. What pace is this that thy tongue keeps ?
MARG. Not a false gallop.

Re-enter URSULA.

URS. Madam, withdraw ; the prince, the count,
signior Benedick, Don John, and all the gallants
of the town, are come to fetch you to church.

HERO. Help to dress me, good coz, good Meg,
good Ursula. \_Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Another Room in Leonato's House.
Enter LEONATO, with DOGBERRY and VERGES.

LEON. What would you with me, honest neigh-
bour ?

DOGB. Marry, sir, I would have some confidence
with you, that decerns you nearly.

LEON. Brief, I pray you ; for you see, 'tis a busy
time with me.

Johnson considers this passage too literally. The meaning of
it is, that . Benedick is in love, and takes kindly to it.

M. MASON.

The meaning, I think, is, " and yet now, in spite of his re-
solution to the contrary, he feeds on love, and likes his food."

MALONE.

3 you look "with your eyes as other women do.] i. e. you

direct your eyes towards the same object ; viz. a husband.

STEEVENS.

VOL. VI.

114 MUCH ADO ACT m.

DOGS. Marry, this it is, sir.
VERG. Yes, in truth it is, sir.
LEON. What is it, my good friends ?

DOGB. Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off
the matter : an old man, sir, and his wits are not
so blunt, as, God help, I would desire they were ;
but, in faith, honest, as the skin between his
brows.4

VERG. Yes, I thank God, I am as honest as any
man living, that is an old man, and no honester
than I.5

DOGS. Comparisons are odorous : palabras,6
neighbour Verges.

4 honest, as the sJcin between his brows.] This is a pro-
verbial expression. STEEVENS.

So, in Gammer Gurton's Needle, 1575 :

" I am as true, I would thou knew, as skin betwene thy
brows"

Again, in Cartwright's Ordinary, Act V. sc. ii :

" I am as honest as the skin that is between thy brows."

REED.

* / am as honest as any man living, that is an old man,
and no honester than /.] There is much humour, and extreme
good sense, under the covering of this blundering expression.
It is a sly insinuation, that length of years, and the being much
hacknied in the ivays of men, as Shakspeare expresses it, take off
the gloss of virtue, and bring much defilement on the manners.
For, as a great wit [Swift] says, Youth is the season of virtue:
corruptions grow with years, and I believe the oldest rogue in
England is the greatest. WARBURTON.

Much of this is true ; but I believe Shakspeare did not intend
to bestow all this reflection on the speaker. JOHNSON.

6 palabras,~\ So, in The Taming of the Shrew, the Tinker

says, pocas pallabras, i. e. few words. A scrap of Spanish, which
might once have been current among the vulgar, and had ap-
peared, as Mr. Henley observes, in The Spanish Tragedy:
" Pocas pattabras, milde as the lambe." STEEVENS.

sc. r. ABOUT NOTHING. 115

LEON. Neighbours, you are tedious.

DOGS. It pleases your worship to say so, but we
are the poor duke's officers ; 7 but, truly, for mine
own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could
find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.

LEON. All thy tediousness on me ! ha !

DOGS. Yea, and 'twere a thousand times more
than 'tis : for I hear as good exclamation on your
worship, as of any man in the city ; and though I
be but a poor man, I am glad to hear it.

VERG. And so am I.

LEON. I would fain know what you have to say.

VERG. Marry, sir, our watch to-night, excepting
your worship's presence, have ta'en a couple of as
arrant knaves as any in Messina.

DOGB. A good old man, sir ; he will be talking ;
as they say, When the age is in, the wit is out ;
God help us ! it is a world to see ! H — Well said,

7 we are the poor duke's officers;'] This stroke of plea-
santry (arising from a transposition of the epithet — poor,) has
already occurred in Measure for Measure, Act II. sc. i. where
Elbow says : " If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's
constable." STEEVENS.

8 it is a world to see /] i. e. it is wonderful to see. So,

in All for Money, an old morality, 1594 : " It is a world to see
how greedy they be of money." The same phrase often occurs,
with the same meaning, in Holinshed. STEEVENS.

Again, in a letter from the Earl of Worcester to the Earl of
Salisbury, l6oy : " While this tragedee was acting yt was a
world to heare the reports heare."

Lodge's Illustrations, Vol. III. p. 380. REED.

Rather, it is worth seeing. Barret, in his Alvearie, 1580,
explains " It is a world to heare," by it is a thing worthie the
hearing. Audire est operae pretium. Horat.

i 2

116 MUCH ADO ACT m.

i'faith, neighbour Verges : — well, God's a good
man ;9 an two men ride of a horse, one must ride
behind : ' — An honest soul, i'faith, sir ; by my troth
he is, as ever broke bread : but, God is to be wor-
shipped : All men are not alike ; alas good neigh-
bour !

LEON. Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short
of you.

DOGS. Gifts, that God gives.
LEON. I must leave you.

DOGS. One word, sir : our watch, sir, have, in-
deed, comprehended two aspicious persons, and we
would have them this morning examined before
your worship.

LEON. Take their examination yourself, and

And in The Myrrour of good Manners compyled in Latyn ly
Domynike Mancyn and translate into Englyshe by Alexander
Bercley prest. Imprynted by Rychard Pynson, bl. 1. no date, the
line " Est operce pretium doctos spectare colonos" — is rendered
" A world it is to se wyse tyllers of the grounde."

HOLT WHITE.

9 well, God's a good man ;] So, in the old Morality or

Interlude of Lusty Juventus :

" He wyl say, that God is a good Man,

" He can make him no better, and say the best he can."
Again, in A mery Geste of Robin Hoode, bl. 1. no date:

" For God is hold a righteous man,

" And so is his dame," &c.

Again, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1032, p. 6/0:
" God is a good man, and will doe no harme," &c. STEEVENS.

1 an two men ride &c.~\ This is not out of place, or with-
out meaning. Dogberry, in his vanity of superior parts, apolo-
gizing for his neighbour, observes, that of tivo men on an horse,
one must ride behind. The jirst place of rank or understanding
can belong but to one, and that happy one ought not to despise
his iufcriour. JOHNSON.

sc. v. ABOUT NOTHING. 117

bring it me ; I am now in great haste, as it may
appear unto you.

DOGS. It shall be suffigance.

LEON. Drink some wine ere you go : fare you
well.

Enter a Messenger.

MESS. My lord, they stay for you to give your
daughter to her husband.

LEON. I will wait upon them ; I am ready.

[Exeunt LEONATO and Messenger.

DOGS. Go, good partner, go, get you to Francis
Seacoal, bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the
gaol ; we are now to examination these men.

VERG. And we must do it wisely.

DOGS. We will spare for no wit, I warrant you ;
here's that [Touching his forehead.'] shall drive
some of them to a non com:2 only get the learned
writer to set down our excommunication, and meet
me at the gaol. [Exeunt.

2 to a non com :] i. e. to a non compos mentis; put them

out of their wits : — or, perhaps, he confounds the term with non-
nlus. MALONE.

118 MUCH ADO ACT ir-

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The Inside of a Church.

Enter Don PEDRO, Don JOHN, LEONATO, Friar,
CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, and BEATRICE,

LEON. Corne, friar Francis, be brief; only to the
plain form of marriage, and you shall recount their
particular duties afterwards.

FRIAR. You come hither, my lord, to marry this
lady?

CLAUD. No.

LEON. To be married to her, friar ; you come
to marry her.

FRIAR. Lady, you come hither to be married to
this count?

HERO. I do.

FRIAR. If either of you know any inward impe-
diment3 why you should not be conjoined, I charge
you, on your souls, to utter it.

CLAUD. Know you any, Hero?
HERO. None, my lord.
FRIAR. Know you any, count ?
LEON. I dare make his answer, none.

3 If either of you know any inward impediment, &c.] This is
borrowed from our Marriage Ceremony, which (with a few slight
changc-s in phraseology) is the same as was used in the time of
Shakspeare. DOUCJE.

x. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 1 1 9

CLAUD. O, what men dare do! what men may do!
what men daily do ! not knowing what they do !

BENE. How now! Interjections? Why, then
some be of laughing,4 as, ha! ha! he!

CLAUD. Stand thee by, friar : — Father, by your

leave ;

Will you with free and unconstrained soul
Give me this maid, your daughter ?

LEON. As freely, son, as God did give her me.

CLAUD. And what have I to give you back, whose

worth
May counterpoise this rich and precious gift.

D. PEDRO. Nothing, unless you render her again.

CLAUD. Sweet prince, you learn me noble thank-
fulness.—

There, Leonato, take her back again ;
Give not this rotten orange to your friend ;
She's but the sign and semblance of her honour: —
Behold, how like a maid she blushes here :
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal !
Comes not that blood, as modest evidence,
To witness simple virtue ? Would you not swear,
All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows ? But she is none :
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed :5
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.

4 some be of laughing,] This is a quotation from the

Accidence. JOHNSON.

4 luxurious bed:"] That is, lascivious. Luxury is the

confessor's term for unlawful pleasures of the sex. JOHNSON.

Thus Pistol, in King Henry V. calls Fluellen a —

" damned and luxurious mountain goat."

STEEVKNS.

120 MUCH ADO ACT iv.

LEON. What do you mean, my lord ?

CLAUD. Not to be married,

Not knit my soul6 to an approved wanton.

LEON. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof7
Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth,
And made defeat of her virginity,

CLAUD. I know what you would say ; If I have

known her,

You'll say, she did embrace me as a husband,
And so extenuate the 'forehand sin :
No, Leonato,

I never tempted her with word too large ;8
But, as a brother to his sister, show'd
Bashful sincerity, and comely love.

HERO. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you ?

CLAUD. Out on thy seeming!9 I will write

against it:1
You seem to me as Dian in her orb ;

Again, in The Life and Death of Edward II. p. J2Q:

" Luxurious Queene, this is thy foule desire." REED.

6 Not knit my soul &c.] The old copies read, injuriously to
metre, — Not to knit, &c. I suspect, however, that our author
wrote — Nor knit, &c. STEEVENS.

7 Dear my lord, if you. in your own proof- — 1 In your otw?

r '? -c - , • i n rrt

proof may signify in your own trial oj her. 1 YRWHITT.

Dear like door, Jire, hour, and many similar words, is here
used as a dissyllable. MALONE.

8 fvord too large ;] So he uses large jests in this play,

for licentious, not restrained within due bounds. JOHNSON.

9 thy seeming /] The old copies have thec . The emen-
dation is Mr. Pope's. In the next line Shakspeare probably
wrote — seemed. MALONE.

1 I will write against it :] So, in Cymbeline, Posthumus

speaking of women, says :

" I'll 'write against them,

" Detest them, curse them." STEEVENS.

so. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 121

As chaste as is the bud2 ere it be blown ;
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pamper'd animals
That rage in savage sensuality.

HERO. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so
wide ?3

LEON. Sweet prince, why speak not you ?

D. PEDRO. What should I speak ?

I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about
To link my dear friend to a common stale.

LEON. Are these things spoken? or do I but
dream ?4

D. JOHN. Sir, they are spoken, and these things
are true.

BENE. This looks not like a nuptial.

HERO. True, O God !

CLAUD. Leonato, stand I here?
Is this the prince ? Is this the prince's brother ?
Is this face Hero's ? Are our eyes our own ?

LEON. All this is so ; But what of this, my lord ?

CLAUD. Let me but move one question to your
daughter ;

chaste as is the bud — ] Before the air has tasted its

sweetness. JOHNSON.

3 that he doth speak so wide ?] i. e. so remotely from

the present business. So, in Troilus and Cressida : " No, no ;
no such matter, you are wide." Again, in The Merry Wives
of Windsor : " 1 never heard a man of his place, gravity, and
learning, so wide of his own respect." STEEVENS.

4 Are these things spoken ? or do I but dream ?"] So, in Mac-
beth :

" Were such things here, as we do speak about ?
" Or have we," &c. STEEPENS.

1 22 MUCH ADO ACT iv.

And, by that fatherly and kindly power 5
That you have in her, bid her answer truly.

LEON. I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.

HERO. O God defend me ! how am I beset ! —
What kind of catechizing call you this ?

CLAUD. To make you answer truly to your name.

HERO. Is it not Hero ? Who can blot that name
With any just reproach ?

CLAUD. Marry, that can Hero ;

Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.
What man was he talk'd with you yesternight
Out at your window, betwixt twelve and one ?
ISow, ir you are a maid, answer to this.

HERO. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my
lord.

D. PEDRO. Why, then are you no maiden. —

Leonalo,

I am sorry you must hear ; Upon mine honour,
Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window ;
Who hath, indeed, most like a liberal villain,6

kindly poiuer — ] That is, natural poiver. Kind is

nature. JOHNSON.

Thus, in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrciv :

" This do, and do it kindly, gentle sirs."
i. e. naturally. STEEVF.NS.

6 liberal villain,] Liberal here, as in many places of

these plays, means frank beyond honesty, or decency. Free oj
tongue. Dr. Warburton unnecessarily reads, illiberal.

JOHNSON.

So, in The Fair Maid of Bristow, 1605 :

" Hut Vallinger, most like a liberal villain,
" Did give her scandalous ignoble terms."

so. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 123

Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.

D. JOHN. Fye, fye ! they are

Not to be nam'd, my lord, not to be spoke of;
There is not chastity enough in language,
Without offence, to utter them : Thus, pretty lady,
I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

CLAUD. O Hero ! what a Hero hadst thou been,0
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts, and counsels of thy heart!
But, fare thee well, most foul, most fair ! farewell,
Thou pure impiety, and impious purity !
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eye-lids shall conjecture7 hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious.8

LEON. Hath no man's dagger here a point for
me?9 [HERO swoons.

Again, in The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher :
" And give allowance to your liberal jests
" Upon his person." STEEVENS.

This sense of the word liberal is not peculiar to Shakspeare.
John Taylor, in his Suite concerning Players, complains of the
" many aspersions very liberally, unmannerly, and ingratefully
bestowed upon him." FARMER.

6 ivhat a Hero hadst thou been,"] I am afraid here is in-
tended a poor conceit upon the word Hero. JOHNSON.

7 conjecture — ] Conjecture is here used for suspicion.

MA LONE.

* And never shall it more be gracious.] i. e. lovely, attractive.

MALONE.

So, in King John :

" There was not such a gracious creature born."

STEEVENS.

9 Hath no man's dagger here a point for mef] So, in Venice
Preserved:

124 MUCH ADO ACT jr.

BEAT. Why, how now, cousin ? wherefore sink
you down ?

D. JOHN. Come, let us go : these things, come

thus to light,
Smother her spirits up.

\_Exeunt Don PEDRO, Don JOHN, and
CLAUDIO.

BENE. How doth the lady ?

BEAT. Dead, I think ; — help, uncle ; —

Hero ! why, Hero! — Uncle! — Signior Benedick! —
friar !

LEON. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand !
Death is the fairest cover for her shame,
That may be wish'd for.

BEAT. How now, cousin Hero ?

FRIAR. Have comfort, lady.
LEON. Dost thou look up ? J

FRIAR. Yea ; Wherefore should she not ?

LEON. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly

thing

Cry shame upon her ? Could she here deny
The story that is printed in her blood ? 2 —
Do not live, Hero ; do not ope thine eyes :
For did I think thou would'st not quickly die,
Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,
Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one ?

" A thousand daggers, all in honest hands !
" And have not 1 a friend to stick one here ?"

STEEVEN?.

1 Dost thou look itp?] The metre is here imperfect. Perhaps
our author wrote — Dost thou still look up? STEEVENS.

* The story that is printed in her blood?] That is, the slory
"which her blushes discover to be true.* JOHNSON.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. I2<r

Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ? 3
O, one too much by thee ! Why had I one ?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes ?
Why had I not, with charitable hand,
Took up a beggar's issue at my gates ;
Who smirched thus,4 and mired with infamy,
I might have said, No part of it is mine,
This shame derives itself from unknown loins ?
But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd,

3 Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ?] Frame is con-
trivance, order, disposition of things. So, in The Death of Robert
Earl of Huntington, l60.i :

" And therefore seek to set each thing in frame"
Again, in Holinshed's Chronicle, p. 555: " — there was no
man that studied to bring the unrulie to frame."
Again, in Daniel's Verses on Montaigne :

" extracts of men,

" Though in a troubledyhzme confus'dly set."
Again, in this play :

" Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies." STEEVENS.

It seems to me, that by frugal nature" 's frame, Leonato
alludes to the particular formation of himself, or of Hero's
mother, rather than to the universal system of things. Frame
means hereframing, as it does where Benedick says of John,
that —

" His spirits toil in frame of villainies."
Thus Richard says of Prince Edward, that he was —

" Framed in the prodigality of nature."
And, in All's ivell that ends txell, the King says to Bertram :

" Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,

" Hath well composed thee."

But Leonato, dissatisfied with his own frame, was wont to com-
plain of thefrugality of nature. M. MASON.

The meaning, I think, is, — Grieved I at nature's being so
frugal as to hsweframed for me only one child ? MALONE.

* Who smirched thus, &c.] Thus the quarto, l6OO. The
folio reads — " smeared." To smirch is to daub, to sully. So,
in King Henry V:

** Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch 'd." &c.

STEEVEXS,

126 MUCH ADO ACT iv.

And mine that I was proud on ; 5 mine so much,
That I myself was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her j why, she — O, she is fallen
Into a pit of ink ! that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again ; c
And salt too little, which may season give
To her foul tainted flesh ! 7

BENE. Sir, sir, be patient :

For my part, I am so attir'd in wonder,
I know not what to say.

BEAT. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied !
BENE. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?

BEAT. No, truly, not; although, until last night,
I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.

LEON. Confirm'd, confirmed ! O, that is stronger
made,

5 But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine Iprais'd,

And mine that I was proud on ;] The sense requires that
we should read, as in these three places. The reasoning of the
speaker stands thus — Had this been my adopted child, her shame
"would not hare rebounded on me. But this child was mine, as
mine I loved her, praised her, was proud of 'her : consequently, as
I claimed the glory, I must needs be subject to the shame, &c.

WARBURTON.

Even of this small alteration there is no need. The speaker
utters his emotion abruptly. But mine, and mine that / lov'd,
&c. by an ellipsis frequent, perhaps too frequent, both in verse
and prose. JOHNSON.

0 the "wide sea

Hath drops too few to wash her clean again ;] The same
thought is repeated in Macbeth:

" Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
" Clean from my hand ?" STEEVENS.

7 which may season give

To her fold tainted Jles7i!~\ The same metaphor from the
kitchen occurs in Twelfth- Night:

" all this to, season

" A brother's dead love." STEEVENS.

sc.i. ABOUT NOTHING. 127

Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron !
Would the two princes lie ? and Claudio lie ?
Who lov'd her so, that, speaking of her foulness,
Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her j let her die.

FRIAR. Hear me a little ;
For I have only been silent so long,
And given way unto this course of fortune,
By noting of the lady : I have mark'd
A thousand blushing apparitions start
Into her face ; a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness bear away those blushes ;
And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire,
To burn the errors 8 that these princes hold
Against her maiden truth : — Call me a fool ;
Trust not my reading, nor my observations,
Which with experimental seal doth warrant
The tenour of my book ; 9 trust not my age,
My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
Under some biting error.

LEON. Friar, it cannot be :

Thou seest, that all the grace that she hath left,
Is, that she will not add to her damnation
A sin of perjury ; she not denies it :
Why seek'st thou tljen to cover with excuse
That which appears in proper nakedness ?

FRIAR. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of? l

8 To burn the errors — ] The same idea occurs in Romeo and
Juliet:

" Transparent hereticks be burnt for liars." STEEVENS.

' o/'rwybook ;] i. e. of what I have read. MALONE.

1 Friar. luhat man is he you are accus'd qf?~\ The Friar

had just before boasted his great skill in fishing out the truth.
And, indeed, he appears by this question to be no fool. He
was by, all the while at the accusation, and heard no name

128 MUCH ADO ACT iv.

HERO. They know, that do accuse me ; I know

none :

If I know more of any man alive,
Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,
Let all my sins lack mercy ! — O my father,
Prove you that any man with me conversed
At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight
Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,
Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death.

FRIAR. There is some strange misprision in the
princes.

BENE. Two of them have the very bent of ho-
nour ; 2

And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
The practice of it lives in John the bastard,
Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies.

LEON. I know not ; If they speak but truth of

her,

These hands shall tear her ; if they wrong her ho-
nour,
The proudest of them shall well hear of it.

mentioned. Why then should he ask her what man she was
accused of? But in this lay the subtil ty of his examination.
For, had Hero been guilty, it was very probable that in that
hurry and confusion of spirits, into which the terrible insult of
her lover had thrown her, she would never have observed that
the man's name was not mentioned ; and so, on this question,
have betrayed herself by naming the person she was conscious
of an affair with. The Friar observed this, and so concluded,
that were she guilty^ she would probably fall into the trap he
laid for her. — 1 only take notice of this to show how admirably
well Shakspeare knew how to sustain his characters.

WARBURTON.

* bent of honour ,-] Bent is used by our author for the

utmost degree of any passion, or mental quality. In this play
before, Benedick says of Beatrice, her affection has its full bent.
The expression is derived from archery ; the bow has its bent,
when it is drawn as far as it can be. JOHNSON.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 129

Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,
Nor age so eat up my invention,
Nor fortune made such havock of my means,
Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,
But they shall find, awak'd in such a kind,
Both strength of limb, and policy of mind,
Ability in means, and choice of friends,
To quit me of them throughly.

FRIAR. Pause a while,

And let my counsel sway you in this case.
Your daughter here the princes left for deadj^
Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
And publish it, that she is dead indeed :
Maintain a mourning ostentation;4
And on your family's old monument
Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites
That appertain unto a burial.

LEON. What shall become of this ? What will
this do ?

FRIAR. Marry, this, well carried, shall on her

behalf

Change slander to remorse; that is some good:
But not for that, dream I on this strange course,
But on this travail look for greater birth.

3 Your daughter here the princes left for dead ;] In former
copies —

Your daughter here the princess (left for dead;)
But how comes Hero to start up a princess here ? We have no
intimation of her father being a prince ; and this is the first and
only time she is complimented with this dignity. The remotion
of a single letter, and of the parenthesis, will bring her to her
own rank, and the place to its true meaning:

Your daughter he, < the princes lejt for dead;
i. e. Don Pedro, prince ot Arragon ; and his bastard brother,
who is likewise called a prince. THEOBALD.

4 ostentation;] Show, appearance. JOHNSON.

VOL. VI. K

130 MUCH ADO ACT ir.

She dying, as it must be so maintained,

Upon the instant that she was accus'd,

Shall be lamented, pitied and excus'd,

Of every hearer : For it so falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth,

Whiles we enjoy it ; but being lack'd and lost,

Why, then we rack the value;5 then we find

The virtue, that possession would not show us

Whiles it was ours: — So will it fare with Claudio:

When he shall hear she died upon his words,6

The idea of her life shall sweetly creep

Into his study of imagination ;

And every lovely organ of her life

Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,

More moving-delicate, and full of life,

Into the eye and prospect of his soul,

Than when she liv'd indeed: — then shall he mourn,

(If ever love had interest in his liver,7)

And wish he had not so accused her ;

No, though he thought his accusation true.

Let this be so, and doubt not but success

Will fashion the event in better shape

Than I can lay it down in likelihood.

But if all aim but this be levell'd false,

4 tve rack the value ;] i. c. we exaggerate the value.

The allusion is to rack-rents. The same kind of thought occurs
in Antony and Cleopatra:

" What our contempts do often hurl from us,

" We \vish it ours again." STF.EVENS.

— died upon his words,] i. e. died by them. So, in
A Midsummer Night's Dream:

" To die upon the hand I love so well." STEEVENS.

7 (If ever love had interest in his liver,)] The liver, in con-
formity to ancient supposition, is frequently mentioned by Shak-
.speare as the seat of love. Thus Pistol represents Falstaff as
loving Mrs. Ford — " with liver burning hot." STKEVEXS.

K. i. ABOUT NOTHING. isi

The supposition of the lady's death

Will quench the wonder of her infamy :

And, if it sort not well, you may conceal her

(As best befits her wounded reputation,)

In some reclusive and religious life,

Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries.

BENE. Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you :
And though, you know, my inwardness8 and love
Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,
Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this
As secretly, and justly, as your soul
Should with your body.

LEON, Being that I flow in grief,

The smallest twine may lead me.9

FRIAR. JTis well consented ; presently away;
For to strange sores strangely they strain the

cure. —
Come, lady, die to live : this wedding day,

Perhaps, is but prolong'dj have patience, and
endure.

[Exeunt Friar, HERO, and LEONATO.

BENE. Lady Beatrice,' have you wept all this
while ?

8 my inwardness — ~| i. e. intimacy. Thus Lucio, in

Measure for Measure, speaking of the Duke, says — " I was an
inward of his." Again, in King Richard III:

" Who is most inward with the noble duke ?"

STEEVENS.

9 The smallest twine may lead me.'] This is one of our au-
thor's observations upon lire. Men overpowered with distress,
eagerly listen to the first offers of relief, close with every scheme,
and believe every promise. He that has no longer any confi-
dence in himself, is glad to repose his trust in any other that will
undertake to guide him. JOHNSON.

1 Lady Beatrice, &c.] The poet, in my opinion, has shown
* great deal of address in this scene. Beatrice here engages her

K 2

132 MUCH ADO ACT ir,

BEAT. Yea, and I will weep a while longer.

BENE. I will not desire that.

BEAT. You have no reason, I do it freely.

BENE. Surely, I do believe your fair cousin is
wrong'd.

BEAT. Ah, how much might the man deserve of
me, that would right her !

BENE. Is there any way to show such friendship?
BEAT. A very even way, but no such friend.
BENE. May a man do it ?
BEAT. It is a man's office, but not yours.

BENE. I do love nothing in the world so well as
you; Is not that strange ?

BEAT. As strange as the thing I know not : It
were as possible for me to say, I loved nothing so
well as you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not;
I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing : — I am sorry
for my cousin.

BENE. By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.
BEAT. Do not swear by it, and eat it.

BENE. I will swear by it, that you love me; and
I will make him eat it, that says, I love not you.

lover to revenge the injury done her cousin Hero : and without
this very natural incident, considering the character of Beatrice,
and that the story of her passion for Benedick was all a fable,
she could never have been easily or naturally brought to confess
she loved him, notwithstanding all the foregoing preparation.
And yet, on this confession, in this very place, depended the
whole success of the plot upon her and Benedick. For had she
not owned her love here, they must have soon found out the
trick, and then the design of bringing them together had been
defeated ; and she would never have owned a passion she had
been only tricked into, had not her desire of revenging her
cousin's wrong made her drop her capricious humour at once.

WARBUKTON,

K. 7. ABOUT NOTHING. 133

. Will you not eat your word ?

BENE. With no sauce that can be devised to it :
I protest, I love thee.

BEAT. Why then, God forgive me !
BENE. What offence, sweet Beatrice ?

BEAT. You have staid me in a happy hour 5 I
was about to protest, I loved you.

BENE. And do it with all thy heart.

BEAT. I love you with so much of my heart,
that none is left to protest.

BENE. Come, bid me do any thing for thee.
BEAT. Kill Claudio.
BENE. Ha ! not for the wide world.
BEAT. You kill me to deny it : Farewell.
BENE. Tarry, sweet Beatrice.
BEAT. I am gone, though I am here ; 2 — There
is no love in you : — Nay, I pray you, let me go.

BENE. Beatrice, —
BEAT. In faith, I will go.
BENE, We'll be friends first.

BEAT. You dare easier be friends with me, than
fight with mine enemy.

1 I am gone, though I am here ;] i. e. I am out of your
mind already, though I remain here in person before you.

STEEVENS.

I cannot approve of Steevens's explanation of these words,
and believe Beatrice means to say, " I am gone," that is, " I
am lost to you, though I am here." In this sense Benedick
takes them, and desires to be friends with her. M. MASON.

Or, perhaps, my affection is withdrawn from you, though I
am yet here. M ALONE.

13* MUCH ADO ACT iv.

E. Is Claudio thine enemy ?

BEAT. Is he not approved in the height a villain,3
that hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kins-
woman ? — O, that I were a man ! — What ! bear
her in hand4 until they come to take hands ; and
then with publick accusation, uncovered slander,
unmitigated rancour, — O God, that I were a man !
I would eat his heart in the market-place.5

BENE. Hear me, Beatrice ; —

BEAT. Talk with a man out at a window ? — a
proper saying !

BENE. Nay but, Beatrice ; —

BEAT. Sweet Hero ! — she is wronged, she is
slandered, she is undone.

BENE. Beat —

BEAT. Princes, and counties! 6 Surely, a princely

* •" '" in the height a villain,'] So, in King Henry VIII:

" He's a traitor to the height."
lt Inprcecipiti vitiuni stetit.'' Juv. I. 140. STEEVENS.

* - bear her in hand — ] i. e. delude her by fair promises.
So, in Macbeth:

" How you were borne in hand, how cross'd," &c.

STEEVENS.

1 I would eat his heart in the market-place.'] A sentiment as
savage is imputed to Achilles by Chapman, in his version of the
22d Iliad:

" Hunger for slaughter, and a hate that eates thy heart,

to fate

" Thy foe's hearth

With equal fjrocity, Hecuba, speaking of Achilles, in the
24th Iliad, expresses a wish to employ her teeth on his liver.

STEEVENS.

8 - and counties !] County was the ancient general term
for a nobleman. See a note on the County Paris in Romeo and

Juliet. STEEVENS.

sc. T. ABOUT NOTHING. 135

testimony, a goodly count-confect;7 a sweet gal-
lant, surely! O that I were a man for his sake ! or
that I had any friend would be a man for my sake!
But manhood is melted into courtesies,8 valour
into compliment, and men are only turned into
tongue, and trim ones too : 9 he is now as valiant
as Hercules, that only tells a lie, and swears it : —
I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will
die a woman with grieving.

BENE. Tarry, good Beatrice : By this hand, I
love thee.

BEAT. Use it for my love some other way than
swearing by it.

BENE. Think you in your soul the count
Claudio hath wronged Hero ?

BEAT. Yea, as sure as I have a thought, or a soul.

BENE. Enough, I am engaged, I will challenge
him; I will kiss your hand, and so leave you : By
this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account :
As you hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort
your cousin : I must say, she is dead ; and so,
farewell. \_Exeunt.

7 a goodly count-confect ;] i. e. a specious nobleman

made out of sugar. STEEVENS.

9 into courtesies,] i. e. into ceremonious obeisance, like

the courtesies dropped by women. Thus, in Othello :

" Very good ; well kiss'd ! an excellent courtesy /"
Again, in King Richard III :

" Duck with French nods, and apish courtesy"

STEEVENS.

9 and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones

too :] Mr. Heath would read tongues, but he mistakes the con-
struction of the sentence, which is — not only men but trim ones,
are turned into tongue, i. e. not only common, but clever men,
&c. STEEVENS.

133 MUCH ADO

SCENE II.1
A Prison.

Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Sexton, in gowns ,z
and the Watch, with CONRADE and BORACHIO.

DOGS. Is our whole dissembly appeared ?

1 Scene //.] The persons, throughout this scene, have been
strangely confounded in the modern editions. The first error
has been the introduction of a Town-Clerk, who is, indeed, men-
tioned in the stage-direction, prefixed to this scene in the old
editions, (Enter the Constables, Borachio, and the Towne-
Clerke, in gowncs, ) but no where else ; nor is there a single
speech ascribed to him in those editions. The part, which he
might reasonably have been expected to take upon this occasion,
is performed by the Sexton ; who assists at, or rather directs, the
examinations ; sets them down in writing, and reports them to
Leonato. It is probable, therefore, I think, that the Sexton has
been styled the Town-Clerk, in the stage-direction above-men-
tioned, from his doing the duty of such an officer. But the
editors, having brought both Sexton and Town-Clerk upon the
stage, were unwilling, as it seems, that the latter should be a
mute personage ; and therefore they have put into his mouth
almost all the absurdities which the poet certainly intended for
his ignorant constable. To rectify this confusion, little more is
necessary than to go back to the old editions, remembering that
the names of Kempe and Cowley, two celebrated actors of the
time, are put in this scene, for the names of the persons repre-
sented ; viz. Kempc for Dogberry, and Cowley for Verges.

TYRWHITT.

I have followed Mr. Tyrwhitt's regulation, which is undoubt-
edly just ; but have left Mr. Theobald's notes as I found them.

STEEVENS.

* in gowns;] It appears from The Black Book, 4to.

1604, that this was the dress of a constable in our author's
time: " — when they mist their constable, and sawe the black
gowne of his office lye full in a puddle1 ."

The Sexton (as Mr. Tyrwhitt observed) is styled in this stage-
direction, in the old copies, the Town-Clerk, " probably from

sc. n. ABOUT NOTHING. 137

VERG. O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton ! 3
SEXTON. Which be the malefactors ?
DOGS. Many, that am I and my partner.

VERG. Nay, that's certain ; we have the exhibi-
tion to examine.4

SEXTON. But which are the offenders that are
to be examined? let them come before master
constable.

DOGB. Yea, marry, let them come before me. — -
What is your name, friend ?

BORA. Borachio.

DOGB. Pray write down — Borachio. Yours,

sirrah ?

CON. I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is
Conrade.

DOGS. Writedown — master gentleman Conrade.
— Masters, do you serve God ?

CON. BORA. Yea, sir, we hope.

his doing the duty of such an officer." But this error has only
happened here ; for throughout the scene itself he is described
by his proper title. By mistake also in the quarto, and the folio,
which appears to have been printed from it, the name of
Kempe (an actor in our author's theatre) throughout this scene
is prefixed to the speeches of Dogberry, and that of Cowley to
those of Verges, except in two or three instances, where either
Constable or Andrew are substituted for Kempe. MALONE.

3 0, a stool and a cushion for the sexton!] Perhaps a ridi-
cule was here aimed at The Spanish Tragedy:
"' Hieron. What, are you ready ?
" Balth. Bring a chaire and a cushion for the king."

MALONE.

* toe have the exhibition to examine.] Blunder for

examination to exhibit. See p. 1 1(3 : " Take their examination
yourself, and bring it me" STEEVENS.

138 MUCH ADO ACT iv.

DOGB. Write down — that they hope they serve
God : — and write God first ; for God defend but
God should go before such villains ! 5 — Masters, it
is proved already that you are little better than
false knaves ; and it will go near to be thought
so shortly. How answer you for yourselves ?

CON. Marry, sir, we say we are none.

DOGB. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you ;
but I will go about with him. — Come you hither,
sirrah ; a word in your ear, sir ; I say to you, it is
thought you are false knaves.

BORA. Sir, I say to you, we are none.

DOGB. Well, stand aside. — 'Fore God, they are
both in a tale : 6 Have you writ down — that they
are none ?

5 Con. Bora. Yea, sir, "we hope.

Dogb. Write down — that they hope they serve God: — and
•write Godjirst ; for God defend but God should go before such
villains!] This short passage, which is truly humorous and in
character, I have added from the old quarto. Besides, it sup-
plies a defect : for without it, the Town-Clerk asks a question
of the prisoners, and goes on without staying for any answer to
it. THEOBALD.

The omission of this passage since the edition of 1000, may be
accounted for from the stat. 3 Jac. I. c. 21, the sacred name
being jestingly used four times in one line. BLACKSTONE.

6 'Fore God, tfiey are both in a talc .•] This is an admirable
stroke of humour ; Dogberry says of the prisoners that they are
false knaves ; and from that denial of the charge, which one in
his wits could not be supposed to make, he infers a communion
of counsels, and records it in the examination as an evidence of
their guilt. SIR J. HAWKINS.

If the learned annotator will amend his comment by omitting
the word guilt, and inserting the word innocence, it will (except
<is to the supposed inference of a communication of counsels,
which should likewise be omitted or corrected,) be a just and
pertinent remark. HITSON.

sc\ n. ABOUT NOTHING.

SEXTON. Master constable, you go not the way
to examine ; you must call forth the watch that
are their accusers.

DOGS. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way : 7 —
Let the watch come forth : — Masters, I charge
you, in the prince's name, accuse these men.

1 WATCH. This man said, sir, that Don John,
the prince's brother, was a villain.

DOGS. Write down — prince John a villain : —
Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother
— villain.

BORA. Master constable, —

DOGS. Pray thee, fellow, peace ; I do not like
thy look, I promise thee.

SEXTON. What heard you him say else ?

2 WATCH. Marry, that he had received a thou-
sand ducats of Don John, for accusing the lady
Hero wrongfully.

7 Yea, marry, that's the eftest may :~\ Our modern editors,
who were at a loss to make out the corrupted reading of the old
copies, read easiest. The quarto, in 100O, and the first and
second editions in folio, all concur in reading — Yen, marry,
that's the eftest "way,, &c. A letter happened to slip out at press
in the first edition ; and 'twas too hard a task for the subsequent
editors to put it in, or guess at the word under this accidental
depravation. There is no doubt but the author wrote, as I
have restored the text — Yea, marry, that's the deftest way, i. e.
the readiest, most commodious way. The word is pure Saxon.
Deaplice, debite, congrue, duely, fitly, Debtthe, opportune,
commode, fitly, conveniently, seasonably, in good time, com-
modiously. Vide Spelman's Saxon Gloss. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald might have recollected the word deftly in
Macbeth :

" Thyself and office deftly show."

Shakspeare, I suppose, designed Dogberry to corrupt this word
as well as many others. STEEVENS.

140 MUCH ADO ACTir.

DOGS. Flat burglary, as ever was committed.
VERG. Yea, by the mass, that it is.
SEXTON. What else, fellow ?

1 WATCH. And that count Claudio did mean,
upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole
assembly, and not marry her.

DOGB. O villain ! thou wilt be condemned into
everlasting redemption for this.

SEXTON. What else ?

2 WATCH. This is all.

SEXTON. And this is more, masters, than you can
deny. Prince John is this morning secretly stolen
away ; Hero was in this manner accused, in this
very manner refused, and upon the grief of this,
suddenly died. — Master constable, let these men
be bound, and brought to Leonato's ; I will go
before, and show him their examination. \_Exit.

DOGB. Come, let them be opinioned.
VERG. Let them be in band.
CON. Off, coxcomb ! 8

8 Verg. Let them be in band.
Con. Off] coxcomb .'] The old copies read,

" Let them be in the hands of coxcomb." STEEVENS.

Mr. Theobald gives these words to Conrade, and says — But
tuhy the Sexton should be so pert upon his brother officers, there
seems no reason from any superior qualiji 'cations in him ; or any
suspicion he shows of knowing their ignorance. This is strange.
The Sexton throughout shows as good sense in their examina-
tion as any judge upon the bench could do. And as to his
suspicion of their ignorance, he tells the Town-Clerk, That he
goes not the way to examine. The meanness of his name hin-
dered our editor from seeing the goodness of his sense. But
this Sexton was an ecclesiastic of one of the inferior orders
called the sacristan, and not a brother officer, as the editor calls
him. I suppose the book from whence the poet took his sub-

sc. ii. ABOUT NOTHING. 141

DOGB. God's my life ! where's the sexton ? let

ject, was some old English novel translated from the Italian,
where the word sagristano was rendered sexton. As in Fairfax's
Godfrey of Boulogne :

" When Phcebus next unclos'd his wakeful eye,

" Up rose the Sexton of that place prophane."
The passage then in question is to be read thus :

Sexton. Let them be in hand. [Exit.

Con. Off, coxcomb !

Dogberry would have them pinioned. The Sexton says, it was
sufficient if they were kept in safe custody, and then goes out.
When one of the watchmen comes up to bind them, Conrade
says, Off, coxcomb ! as he says afterwards to the constable,
Aivay ! you are an ass. — But the editor adds, The old quarto
gave me the first umbrage for placing it to Conrade. What these
words mean I don't know : but I suspect the old quarto divides
the passage as I have done. WARBURTON.

Theobald has fairly given the reading of the quarto.
Dr. Warburton's assertion, as to the dignity of a sexton or
sacristan, may be supported by the following passage in Stany-
hurst's version of the fourth Book of the JEneid, where he call*
the Massylian priestess:

" in soil Massyla begotten,

" Sexten of Hesperides sinagog." STEEVENS.

Let them be in hand."] I had conjectured that these words
should be given to Verges, and read thus — Let them bind their
hands. I am still of opinion that the passage belongs to Verges;
but, for the true reading of it, I should wish to adopt a much
neater emendation, which has since been suggested to me in
conversation by Mr. Steevens — Let them be in band. Shak-
speare, as he observed to me, commonly uses band for bond.

TYRWHITT.

So, in King Henry VI. P. Ill :

" And die in bands for this unmanly deed !"

It is plain that they were bound from a subsequent speech of
Pedro : •" Whom have you offended, masters, that you are thus
bound to your answer ?" STEEVENS.

Off, coxcomb /] The old copies read — of, and these words
make a part of the last speech, " Let them be in the hands of
coxcomb."" The present regulation was made by Dr. Warburton,
and has been adopted by the subsequent editors. Off\vas for-
merly spelt of. In the early editions of these plays a broken
sentence (like that before us, — Let them le in the hands — ) is

142 MUCH ADO Acrir.

him write down — the prince's officer, coxcomb. —
Come, bind them : Thou naughty varlet !

CON. Away ! you are an ass, you are an ass.

DOGS. Dost thou not suspect my place ? Dost
thou not suspect my years ? — O that he were here
to write me down — an ass ! — but, masters, remem-
ber, that I am, an ass ; though it be not written
down, yet forget not that I am an ass : — No, thou
villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved
upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow ;
and, which is more, an officer ; and, which is more,
a housholder ; and, which is more, as pretty a piece
of flesh as any is in Messina ; and one that knows
the law, go to ; and a rich fellow enough, go to ;
and a fellow that hath had losses ; and one that
hath two gowns, and every thing handsome about
him : — Bring him away. O, that I had been writ
down— an ass ! [Exeunt,

almost always corrupted by being tacked, through the ignorance
of the transcriber or printer, to the subsequent words. So, in
Coriolanus, instead of —

" You shades of Rome ! you herd of — Boils and plagues
" Plaster you o'er!"
we have in the folio, l623, and the subsequent copies —

" You shames of Rome, you ! Herd of boils and

plagues," &c.
See also Measure for Measure.

Perhaps, however, we should read and regulate the passage
thus:

Ver. Let them be in the hands of— [the law, he might have

intended to sayJ\
Con. Coxcomb .' M ALONE.

There is nothing in the old quarto different in this scene from
the common copies, except that the names of two actors, Kempe
and Cowley, are placed at the beginning of the speeches, instead
of the proper words. JOHNSON.

ACTY. ABOUT NOTHING. 143

ACT V. SCENE I.

Before Leonato's House.
Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

ANT. If you go on thus, you will kill yourself 5
And 'tis not wisdom, thus to second grief
Against yourself.

LEON. I pray thee, cease thy counsel,

Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a sieve : give not me counsel ;
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,
But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.
Bring me a father, that so lov'd his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelmed like mine,
And bid him speak of patience ; 9
Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every strain for strain ;
As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
In every lineament, branch, shape, and form :
If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard ;
Cry — sorrow, wag ! and hem, when he should
groan ; l

9 And bid him speak of patience ;] Read —

" And bid him speak to me of patience." RITSON.

1 Cry — sorrow, wag ! and hem, when he should groan ;] The
quarto, 1'600, and folio, ]623, read —

" And sorrow, wagge, cry hem," &c.
Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope —

" And hallow, wag," &c.
Mr. Theobald—

" And sorrow wage," &c.
Sir Tho. Hanmer and Dr. Warbuvton —

" And sorrow waive," &c.

144 MUCH ADO ACT y.

Patch grief with proverbs ; make misfortune drunk

Mr. Tyrwhitt —

" And sorrow gftggc," &c.
Mr. Heath and Mr. T. Warton —

" And sorrowing cry hem," &c.
I had inadvertently offered —
" And, sorry wag !" &c.
Mr. Ritson —

" And sorrow "waggery," &e.
Mr. Malone —

" In sorrow wag," &c.

But I am persuaded that Dr. Johnson's explanation as well
as arrangement of the original words, is apposite and just : I
cannot (says he) but think the true meaning nearer than it is
imagined.

If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard.
And, sorrow, wag! cry ; hem, when he should groan, &c.
That is, ' If he will smile, and cry sorrow be gone ! and hem
instead of groaning.' The order in which and and cry are
placed, is harsh, and this harshness made the sense mistaken.
Range the words in the common order, and my reading will be
free from all difficulty.

If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard,
Cry, sorrow, wag ! and hem when he should groan — ."
Thus far Dr. Johnson ; and in my opinion he has left succeed-
ing criticks nothing to do respecting the passage before us. Let
me, however, claim the honour of supporting his opinion.

To cry — Care away! was once an expression of triumph.
So, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540 :

" I may now say, Care awaye!"

Again, ibidem: " Now grievous sorrowe and care away /"

Again, at the conclusion of Barnaby Googe's third Eglog :
" Som chestnuts have I there in store,
" With cheese and pleasaunt whaye ;
" God sends me vittayles for my nede,

" And I synge Care awaye /"

Again, as Dr. Farmer observes to me, in George Withers's
Philarete, 1(J22:

" Why should we grieve or pine at that ?
" Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat.1'

Sorrow go by! is also (as I am assured) a common exclama-
tion of hilarity even at this time, in Scotland. Sorrow wag!
might have been just such another. The verb, to wag, is
several times used by our author in the sense of to got or
pack off.

sc. /. ABOUT NOTHING. 145

With candle-wasters j2 bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.
But there is no such man: For, brother, men
Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ach with air, and agony with words:

The Prince, in The First Part of King Henry IV. Actll. sc. iv,
says — " They cry hem! and bid you play it off." And Mr. M.
Mason observes that this expression also occurs in As you like it,
where Rosalind says — " These burs are in my heart;" and Celia
replies — " Hem them away." The foregoing examples sufficiently
prove the exclamation hem, to have been of a comic turn.

S TEE YENS.

• - make misfortune drunk

With candle-wasters ;] This may mean, either wash away
his sorrow among those who sit up all night to drink, and in that
sense may be styled roasters of candles ; or overpower his mis-
fortunes by swallowing flap-dragons in glass, which are described
by Falstaff as made of candles'1 ends. STEEVENS.

This is a very difficult passage, and hath not, I think, been
satisfactorily cleared up. The explanation I shall offer, will give,
I believe, as little satisfaction ; but I will, however, venture it.
Candle-wasters is a term of contempt for scholars: thus Jonson,
in Cynthia's Revels, Act III., sc. ii : " — spoiled by a whoreson
book-worm, a candle-waster." In The Antiquary, Act III. is
a like term of ridicule : " He should more catch your delicate
court-ear, than all your head-scratchers, thumb-biters, lamp-
masters of them all." The sense then, which I would assign to
Shakspeare, is this : " If such a one will patch grief with pro-
verbs, — case or cover the icounds of his grief with proverbial
sayings;— make misfortune drunk with candle-wasters, — stitpify
•misfortune, or render himself insensible to the strokes of it, by
the conversation or lucubrations of scholars ; the production of
the lamp, bid not Jittedto human nature" Patch, in the sense
of mending a defect or breach, occurs in Hamlet, Act V. sc. i:
" O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
" Should, patch a wall, to expel the winter's flaw."

VOL. VI.

146 MUCH ADO ACT v,

No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience

To those that wring under the load of sorrow;

But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,

To be so moral, when he shall endure

The like himself: therefore give me no counsel:

My griefs cry louder than advertisement.3

ANT. Therein do men from children nothing
differ.

LEON. I pray thee, peace : I will be flesh and

blood ;

For there was never yet philosopher,
That could endure the tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the style of gods,4
And made a pish at chance and sufferance.*

ANT. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself;
Make those, that do offend you, suffer too.

3 than advertisement.] That is, than admonition, than

moral instruction. JOHNSON.

* However they have writ the style of gods,] This alludes to
the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wise men. Sapieng
ille cum Diis, ex part, vivit. Senec. Ep. 59. Jupiter quo
antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus est. Sapiens nihilo se
minoris cestimat. — Deus non vincit ssupientemfelicitate. Ep. 73.

WARBURTON.

Shakspeare might have used this expression, without any
acquaintance with the hyperboles of stoicism. By the style of
gods, he meant an exalted language ; such as we may suppose
would be written by beings superior to human calamities, and
therefore regarding them with neglect and coldness.

Beaumont and Fletcher have the same expression in the first
of their Four Plays in One:

" Athens doth make women philosophers,

" And sure their children chat the talk of gods."

STEEVENS.

* And made a pish at chance and sufferance.] Alludes to their
famous apathy. WARBURTON.

The old copies read— -push. Corrected by Mr. Pope.

MALONE.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 147

LEON. There thou speak'st reason : nay, I will

do so:

My soul doth tell me, Hero is belied ;
And that shall Claudio know, so shall the prince,
And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

ANT. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily.

D. PEDRO. Good den, good den.

CLAUD. Good day to both of you.

LEON. Hear you, my lords, —

D. PEDRO. We have some haste, Leonato.

LEON. Some haste, my lord! — well, fare you well,

my lord : —
Are you so hasty now ? — well, all is one.

D. PEDRO. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good
old man.

ANT. If he could right himself with quarreling,
Some of us would lie low.

CLAUD. Who wrongs him ?

LEON. Marry,

Thou, thou 6 dost wrong me ; thou dissembler,

thou : —

Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword,
I fear thee not.

CLAUD. Marry, beshrew my hand,

If it should give your age such cause of fear :
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.

LEON. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jest at
me :

* Thou, thou — ] I have repeated the word — thou, for the
,»ake of measure, STERVENS.

L 2

148 MUCH ADO ACTV.

I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool ;

As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,

Were I not old : Know, Claudio, to thy head,

Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me,

That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by ;

And, with grey hairs, and bruise of many days,

Do challenge thee to trial of a man.

I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child ;

Thy slander hath gone through and through her

heart,

And she lyes buried with her ancestors :
O ! in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of her's, fram'd by thy villainy.

CLAUD. My villainy !

LEON. Thine, Claudio ; thine I say.

D. PEDRO. You say not right, old man.

LEON. My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare ;
Despite his nice fence,7 and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of lustyhood.

CLAUD. Away, I will not have to do with you.

LEON. Canst thou so daffme?8 Thou hast kill'd

my child ;
If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

7 Despite his nice fence,] i. e. defence, or skill in the science
of fencing, or defence. DOUCE.

6 Canst thou so daff me?'} This is a country word, Mr. Pope
tells us, signifying, daunt. It may be so ; but that is not the
exposition here : To daff and daff are synonymous terms, that
mean to put off: which is the very sense required here, and
what Leonato would reply, upon Claudio's saying, he would
have nothing to do with him. THEOBALD.

Theobald has well interpreted the word. Shakspeare uses it
more than once. Thus, ia King Henry IV. P. I :

K. /. ABOUT NOTHING. 149

ANT. He shall kill two of us, and men indeed:*
But that's no matter ; let him kill one first; —
Win me and wear me, — let him answer me, —
Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me:1
Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;2
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

LEON. Brother, —

ANT. Content yourself: God knows, I lov'd my

niece ;

And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains ;
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,

" The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales,

" And his comrades, that dajf'd the world aside."
Again, in the comedy before us :

" I would have dajf^d all other respects," &c.
Again, in The Lover's Complaint:

" There my white stole of chastity I dqjfd."
It is, perhaps, of Scottish origin, as I find it in Ane vcrie
excellent and delectabill Treatise intitulit PHILOTUS, &c. Edin-
burgh, 1003 :

" Their doffing does us so undo." STEEVENS.

9 Ant. He shall kill two of us, &c.~] This brother Antony is
the truest picture imaginable of human nature. He had assumed
the character of a sage to comfort his brother, overwhelmed with
grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour ; and had
severely reproved him for not commanding his passion better on
so trying an occasion. Yet, immediately after this, no sooner
does he begin to suspect that his age and valour are slighted,
but he falls into the most intemperate fit of rage himself; and
all he can do or say is not of power to pacify him. This is
copying nature with a penetration and exactness of judgment
peculiar to Shakspeare. As to the expression, too, of his passion,
nothing can be more highly painted. WARBURTON.

1 come, boy, follow me „•] Here the old copies destroy

the measure by reading —

" come, sir boy, come, follow me :"

I have omitted the unnecessary words. STEEVENS.

* — — foining fence ;] Foining is a term in fencing, and
means thrusting. DOUCB.

150 MUCH ADO ACT V.

As I dare take a serpent by the tongue:
Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops ! —

LEON. Brother Antony,—

ANT. Hold you content ; What, man ! I know

them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling,3 out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and slander,
Go antickly, and show outward hideousness,4
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
And this is all.

LEON. But, brother Antony, —

ANT. Come, 'tis no matter ;

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

D. PEDRO. Gentlemen both, we will not wake
your patience.5

* ScambHng,~\ i. e. scrambling. The word is more than once
used by Shakspeare. See Dr. Percy's note on the first speech of
the play of King Henry V. and likewise the Scots proverb,—
" It is well ken'd your father's son was never a scamblcr."
A scambler, in its literal sense, is one who goes about among
his friends to get a dinner, by the Irish called a coshercr.

STEEVENS.

4 shou outward hideousness,] i. e. what in King Henry V.

Act III. sc. vi. is called —

" a horrid suit of the camp.*' STEEVENS.

• ive "will not wake your patience."] This conveys a sen-
timent that the speaker would by no means have implied, — That
the patience of the two old men was not exercised, but asleep,
which upbraids them for insensibility under their wrong. Shak-
speare must have wrote :

ice will not wrack —

i. e. destroy your patience by tantalizing you. WARBURTON.

This emendation is very specious, and perhaps is right ; yef
the present reading may admit a congruous meaning with k^Y-
difficulty than many other of Shakspeare's expressions.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 151

My heart is sorry for your daughter's death ;
But, on my honour, she was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.

LEON. My lord, my lord,—
D. PEDRO. I will not hear you.

LEON. No ?

Brother, away :6 — I will be heard ; —

ANT. And shall,

Or some of us will smart for it.

\_Exeunt LEONATO and ANTONIO.

Enter BENEDICK.

D. PEDRO. See, see ; here comes the man we
went to seek.

CLAUD. Now, signior! what news!
BENE. Good day, my lord.

The old men have been both very angry and outrageous ; the
Prince tells them that he and Claudio will not wake their
patience; will not any longer force them to endure the presence
of those whom, though they look on them as enemies, they
cannot resist. JOHNSON.

Wake, I believe, is the original word. The ferocity of wild
beasts is overcome by not suffering them to sleep. We mil not
wake your patience, therefore means, we will forbear any further
provocation. HENLEY.

The same phrase occurs in Othello :

" Thou hadst been better have been born a dog,
" Than answer my ivak'd wrath." STEEVENS.

6 Brother, away: — ] The old copies, without regard to metre,
read —

" Come, brother, away,*' &c.
I have omitted the useless and redundant word— come.

STEEVENS.

152 MUCH ADO ACT r.

D. PEDRO. Welcome, signior : You are almost
come to part almost7 a fray.

CLAUD. We had like to have had our two noses
snapped off with two old men without teeth.

D. PEDRO. Leonato and his brother: What
think'st thou ? Had we fought, I doubt, we should
have been too young for them.

BENE. In a false quarrel there is no true valour.
I came to seek you both.

CLAUD. We have been up and down to seek thee ;
for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain
have it beaten away : Wilt thou use thy wit ?

BENE. It is in my scabbard ; Shall I draw it ?
D. PEDRO. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side ?

CLAUD. Never any did so, though very many
have been beside their wit. — I will bid thee draw,
as we do the minstrels ; 8 draw, to pleasure us.

D. PEDRO. As I am an honest man, he looks
pale : — Art thou sick, or angry ?

CLAUD. What ! courage, man ! What though
care killed a cat,9 thou hast mettle enough in thee
to kill care.

7 to part almost — ] This second almost appears like a

casual insertion of the compositor. As the sense is complete
without it, I wish the omission of it had been licensed by either
of the ancient copies. STEEVENS.

8 / ivill bid thee draw, as ive do the minstrels ;] An allusion
perhaps to the itinerant sivord-dancers. In what low estimation
minstrels were held in the reign of Elizabeth, may be seen from
Stat. Eliz. 89, c. iv. and the term was probably used to denote
any sort of vagabonds who amused the people at particular
seasons. DOUCE.

9 What though care killed a cat,] This is a proverbial expres-
sion. See Ray's Proverbs. DOUCE.

This proverb is recognized by Cob the water bearer, in Every
Man in his Humour, Act I. sc. iv.

sc.i. ABOUT NOTHING. 153

BENE. Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career,
an you charge it against me : — I pray you, choose
another subject.

CLAUD. Nay, then give him another staff; this
last was broke cross.1

D. PEDRO. By this light, he changes more and
more ; I think, he be angry indeed.

CLAUD. If he be, he knows how to turn his

girdle.2

BENE. Shall I speak a word in your ear ?
CLAUD. God bless me from a challenge !

1 Nay, then give him another staff; &c.] An allusion to
tilting. See note, As you like it, Act III. sc. iv. WARBURTON.

* to turn his girdle.] We have a proverbial speech, If

he be angry, let him turn the buckle of his girdle. But I do not
know its original or meaning. JOHNSON.

A corresponding expression is to this day used in Ireland — Jf
lie be angry, let him tie up his brogues. Neither proverb, I be-
lieve, has any other meaning than this : If he is in a bad humour,
let him employ himself till he is in a better,

Dr. Farmer furnishes me with an instance of this proverbial
expression as used by Claudio, from WiniKood's Memorials, fol.
edit. 1725, Vol. I. p. 453. See letter from Wimvood to Cecyll,
from Paris, 1602, about an affront he received there from an
Englishman : " I said what I spake was not to make him angry.
He replied, if I were angry, / might turn the buckle of my
girdle behind me." So likewise, Cowley On the Government of
Oliver Cromwell: " The next month he swears by the living
God, that he will turn them out of doors, and he does so in his
princely way of threatening, bidding them turne the buckles of
their girdles behind them." STEEVENS.

Again, in Knavery in all Trades, or the Coffee- House, 1664,
sign. E : " Nay, if the gentleman be angry, let him turn the
buckles oj 'his girdle behind him." REED.

Large belts were worn with the buckle before, but for wrest-
ling the buckle was turned behind, to give the adversary a fairer
grasp at the girdle. To turn the buckle behind, therefore, was
a challenge. HOLT WHITE.

154 MUCH ADO ACT r.

BENE. You are a villain ; — I jest not : — I will
make it good how you dare, with what you dare,
and when you dare : — Do me right,3 or I will pro-
test your cowardice. You have killed a sweet lady,
and her death shall fall heavy on you : Let me hear
from you.

CLAUD. Well, I will meet you, so I may have
good cheer.

D. PEDRO. What, a feast ? a feast ?

CLAUD. Ffaith, I thank him ; he hath bid4 me
to a calf's-head and a capon ; the which if I do
not carve most curiously, say, my knife's naught. —
Shall I not find a woodcock too ?5

BENE. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily.

D. PEDRO. I'll tell thee how Beatrice praised thy
wit the other day : I said, thou hadst a fine wit ;
True, says she, a fine little one: No, said I, a great
tvit ; Right, says she, a great gross one : Nay, said
I, a good 'wit; Just, said she, it hurts no body : Nai/9
said I, the gentleman is wise; Certain, said she,

* Do me right,"] This phrase occurs in Justice Silence's song
in King Henry IV. P. II. Act V. sc. iii. and was the usual form
of challenge to pledge a bumper toast in a bumper. See note
on the foregoing passage. STEEVENS.

4 bid— ] i. e. invited. So, in Titus Andronicus, Act I.

sc. ii :

" I am not bid to wait upon this bride." REED.

* Shall I not find a woodcock too? ] A woodcock, being sup-
posed to have no brains, was a proverbial term for a foolish
fellow. See The London Prodigal, 1605, and other comedies.

MALONE.

A woodcock, means one caught in a springe ; alluding to the
plot against Benedick. So, in Hamlet, sc. ult.

" Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, Osrick."
Again, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV. sc. iii. Biron says—

" four woodcocks in a dish." DOUCE.

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 155

a wise gentleman :G Nay, said I, he hath the
tongues ; That I believe, said she, for he swore a
thing to me on Monday night, 'which he forswore on
Tuesday morning ; there's a double tongue ; there's
two tongues. Thus did she, an hour together,
trans-shape thy particular virtues ; yet, at last, she
concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest
man in Italy.

CLAUD. For the which she wept heartily, and
said, she cared not.

D. PEDRO. Yea, that she did ; but yet, for all
that, an if she did not hate him deadly, she would
love him dearly : the old man's daughter told us
all.

CLAUD. All, all ; and moreover, God saw him
when he was hid in the garden.

D. PEDRO. But when shall we set the savage
bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head ?

CLAUD. Yea, and text underneath. Here dwells
Benedick the married man ?

BENE. Fare you well, boy ; you know my mind ;
I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour :
you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which,
God be thanked, hurt not. — My lord, for your
many courtesies I thank you : I must discontinue
your company : your brother, the bastard, is fled
from Messina : you have, among you, killed a sweet

6 a wise gentleman .-] This jest depending on the collo-
quial use of words is now obscure ; perhaps we should read —
a 'wise gentleman, or a man wise enough to be a coivard. Per-
haps wise gentleman was in that age used ironically, and always
stood for silly Jelloiv. JOHNSON.

We still ludicrously call a man deficient in understanding—
ft wise-acre. STEEVENS.

156 MUCH ADO ACT v.

and innocent lady : For my lord Lack -beard, there,
he and I shall meet ; and till then, peace be with
him. \_Exit BENEDICK.

D. PEDRO. He is in earnest.

CLAUD. In most profound earnest ; and, I'll
warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.

D. PEDRO. And hath challenged thee ?
CLAUD. Most sincerely.

D. PEDRO. What a pretty thing man is, when
he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his
wit!7

7 What a pretty thing Man is, ivhen he goes in his doublet
find hose, and leaves off" his ivit /] It was esteemed a mark of
levity and want of becoming gravity, at that time, to go in the
doublet and hose, and leave off the cloak, to which this well-
turned expression alludes. The thought is, that love makes a
man as ridiculous, and exposes him as naked as being in the
doublet and hose without a cloak. WARBURTON.

I doubt much concerning this interpretation, yet am by no
means confident that my own is right. I believe, however, these
words refer to what Don Pedro had said just before — " And
hath challenged thee ?" — and that the meaning is, What a pretty
thing a man is, when he is silly enough to throw off his cloak,
and go in his doublet and hose, to Jight for a woman ? In
The Merry Wives of Windsor, when Sir Hugh is going to en-
gage with Dr. Caius, he walks about in his doublet and hose :
" Page. And youthful still in your doublet and hose, this raw
rheumatick day !" — " There is reasons and causes for it," says
Sir Hugh, alluding to the duel he was going to fight. — I am
aware that there was a particular species of single combat called
rapier and cloak ; but I suppose, nevertheless, that when the
small sword came into common use, the cloak was generally
laid aside in duels, as tending to embarrass the combatants.

MALONE.

Perhaps the whole meaning of the passage is this : — What an
inconsistent fool is man, when he covers his body with clothes,
and at the same time divests himself of his understanding !

STEEVENS".

sc. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 157

Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and the Watch, with
CONRADE and BORACHIO.

CLAUD. He is then a giant to an ape : but then,
is an ape a doctor to such a man.

D. PEDRO. But, soft you, let be ; 8 pluck up, my
heart, and be sad ! 9 Did he not say, my brother
was fled ?

DOGS. Come, you, sir ; if justice cannot tame
you, she shall ne'er weigh more reasons in her
balance : l nay, an you be a cursing hypocrite once,
you must be looked to.

8 But, soft you, let be ;] The quarto and first folio read cor-
ruptly— let me be, which the editor of the second folio, in order
to obtain some sense, converted to — let me see. I was once idle
enough to suppose that copy was of some authority; but a
minute examination of it has shewn me that all the alterations
made in it were merely arbitrary, and generally very injudicious.
Let be were without doubt the author's words. The same ex-
pression occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV. sc. iv :

" What's this for? Ah, let be, let be." MALONE.

If let be, is the true reading, it must mean, let things remain
as they are. I have heard the phrase used by Dr. Johnson him-
self. Mr. Henley observes, that the same expression occurs in
St. Matt, xxvii. 4Q. — I have since met with it in an ancient me-
trical romance, MS. entitled the Sotadon ofBabyloyne &c. :
" Speke we now of sir Laban,
" And let Charles and Gy be." STEEVENS.

So, in Henry VIII. Act I. sc. i :

" and they were ratified,

" As he cried, Thus, let be."

Again, in The Winter's Tale, Act V. sc. iii. Leontes says, " Let
be, let be.1' REED.

9 pluck tip, my heart, and be sad /] i. e. rouse thyself,

my heart, and be prepared for serious consequences !

STEEVENS.

1 ne'er weigh more reasons in her balance .•] A quibble

between reasons and raisons.

158 MUCH ADO ACT v.

JD. PEDRO. How now, two of my brother's meii
bound ! Borachio, one !

CLAUD. Hearken after their offence, my lord !

D. PEDRO. Officers, what offence have these
men done ?

DOGB. Marry, sir, they have committed false re-
port ; moreover, they have spoken untruths ; se-
condarily, they are slanders ; sixth and lastly, they
have belied a lady ; thirdly, they have verified unjust
things : and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.

D. PEDRO. First, I ask thee what they have
done ; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence ;
sixth and lastly, why they are committed ; and,
to conclude, what you lay to their charge.

CLAUD. Rightly reasoned, and in his own divi-
sion ; and, by my troth, there's one meaning well
suited.2

D. PEDRO. Whom have you offended, masters,
that you are thus bound to your answer ? this
learned constable is too cunning to be understood :
What's your offence ?

BORA. Sweet prince, let me go no further to
mine answer ; do you hear me, and let this count
kill me. I have deceived even your very eyes : what
yourwisdoms could not discover, these shallowfools
have brought to light ; who, in the night, over-
heard me confessing to this man, how Don John
your brother incensed me to slander3 the lady

* ••• one meaning "well suited.] That is, one meaning is
put into many different dresses ; the Prince having asked the
same question in four modes of speech. JOHNSON.

3 incensed me to slander &c.] That is, incited me. The

word is used in the same sense in Richard III. and Henry VIII.

M. MA sox.
See Mbosheu's Diet, in v. MALONF,

ac. i. ABOUT NOTHING. 159

Hero ; how you were brought into the orchard,
and saw me court Margaret in Hero's garments ;
how you disgraced her, when you should marry
her ; my villainy they have upon record ; which I
had rather seal with my death, than repeat over to
my shame : the lady is dead upon mine and my
master's false accusation ; and, briefly, I desire
nothing but the reward of a villain.

D. PEDRO. Runs not this speech like iron
through your blood ?

CLAUD. I have drunk poison, whiles he utter'd it.

D. PEDRO. But did my brother set thee on to
this ?

BORA. Yea, and paid me richly for the practice;
of it.

D. PEDRO. He is compos'd and fram'd of trea-
chery : —
And fled he is upon this villainy.

CLAUD. Sweet Hero ! now thy image doth ap-
pear
In the rare semblance that I loved it first.

DOGS. Come, bring away the plaintiffs ; by this
time our Sexton hath reformed signior Leonato of
the matter : And masters, do not forget to specify,
when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass.

VERG. Here, here comes master signior Leonato,
and the Sexton too.

Re-enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, with the
Sexton.

LEON. Which is the villain ? Let me see his eyes;
That when I note another man like him,
I may avoid him : Which of these, is he ?

160 MUCH ADO ACT v.

BORA. If you would know your wronger look on
me.

LEON. Art thou the slave, that with thy breath

hast kill'd
Mine innocent child ?

BORA. Yea, even I alone.

LEON. No, not so, villain ; thou bely'st thyself \
Here stand a pair of honourable men,
A third is fled, that had a hand in it : —
I thank you, princes, for my daughter's death ;
Record it with your high and worthy deeds ;
'Twas bravely done, if you bethink you of it.

CLAUD. I know not how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak : Choose your revenge yourself;
Impose me to what penance 4 your invention
Can lay upon my sin : yet sinn'd I not,
But in mistaking.

D. PEDRO. By my soul, nor I ;

And yet, to satisfy this good old man,
I would bend under any heavy weight
That he'll enjoin me to.

LEON. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live,
That were impossible ; but, I pray you both,
Possess the people 5 in Messina here

4 Impose me to tvhat penance — ] i. e. command me to un-
dergo whatever penance, &c. A task or exercise prescribed
by way of punishment for a fault committed at the Universities,
is yet called (as Mr. Steevens has observed in a former note) an
imposition. MALONE.

4 Possess the people £c."j To possess, in ancient language,
signifies, to inform, to make acquainted with. So, in The Mer-
chant of Venice :

" Is he yet possessed how much you would?"
Again, ibid :

" I have posse.ys'd your grace of what I purpose."

STEEVENS.

SC.I. ABOUT NOTHING. 161

How innocent she died : and, if your love

Can labour aught in sad invention,

Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb,

And sing it to her bones ; sing it to-night :— -

To-morrow morning come you to my house ;

And since you could not be my son-in-law,

Be yet my nephew : my brother hath a daughter,

Almost the copy of my child that's dead,

And she alone is heir to both of us ;6

Give her the right you should have given her cousin,

And so dies my revenge.

CLAUD. O, noble sir,

Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me !
I do embrace your offer ; and dispose
For henceforth of poor Claudio.

LEON. To-morrow then I will expect your com-
ing;

To-night I take my leave. — This naughty man
Shall face to face be brought to Margaret,
Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong,7
Hir'd to it by your brother.

6 And she alone is heir to botk of us ;~\ Shakspeare seems to
have forgot what he had made Leonato say, in the fifth scene of
the first Act to Antonio: " How now, brother; where is my
cousin your son ? hath he provided the musick ?" ANONYMOUS.

7 Who, I believe, "was pack'd in all this urong,'] i. e. com-
bined ; an accomplice. So, in Lord Bacon's Works, Vol. IV.
p. 269, edit. 1740 : " If the issue shall be this, that whatever shall
be done for him, shall be thought done for a number of persons
that shall be laboured and packed — ." MALONE.

So, in King Lear :

" snuffs and packing/; of the dukes." STEEVENS.

Again, in Melvill's Memoirs, p. 90: " — he was a special in-
strument of helping my Lord of Murray and Secretary Liding-
ton to pack up the first friendship betwixt the two queens," &c.

REED.

VOL. VI. M

162 MUCH ADO ACT r.

BORA. No, by my soul, she was not ;

Nor knew not what she did, when she spoke to me ;
But always hath been just and virtuous,
In any thing that I do know by her.

DOGB. Moreover, sir, (which, indeed, is not un-
der white and black,) this plaintiff here, the of-
fender, did call me ass : I beseech you, let it be
remembered in his punishment: And also, the watch
heard them talk of one Deformed : they say, he
wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it j8

8 he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it ;]

There could not be a pleasanter ridicule on the fashion, than the
constable's descant on his own blunder. They heard the con-
spirators satirize the fashion ; whom they took to be a man
surnamed Deformed. This the constable applies with exquisite
humour to the courtiers, in a description of one of the most fan-
tastical fashions of that time, the men's wearing rings in their
ears, and indulging a favourite lock of hair, which was brought
before, and tied with ribbons, and called a love-lock. Against
this fashion William Prynne wrote his treatise, called, The Un-
lovelyness of Love-Locks. To this fantastick mode Fletcher
alludes in his Cupid's Revenge : " This morning I brought him
a new perriwig with a lock at it — And yonder's a fellow come
has bored a hole in his ear." And again, in his Woman-Hater :
" If I could endure an ear with a hole in it, or a platted lock"
&c. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton, I believe, has here (as he frequently does)
refined a little too much. There is no allusion, I conceive, to
the fashion of wearing rings in the ears (a fashion which our
author himself followed). The pleasantry seems to consist in
Dogberry's supposing that the lock which DEFORMED wore, must
have a key to it.

Fynes Moryson, in a very particular account that he has given
of the dress of Lord Montjoy, (the rival, and afterwards the
friend, of Robert, Earl of Essex,) says, that his hair was " thinne
on the head, where he wore it short, except a lock under his lejt
eare, which he nourished the time of this warre, [the Irish War,
in \LQ'.),'\ and being woven up, hid it in his neck under his
ruffe." ITINERARY, P. II. p. 45. When he was not on service,
he probably wore it in a different fashion. The portrait of Sir

sc. /. ABOUT NOTHING. 163

and borrows money in God's name ; 9 the which
he hath used so long, and never paid, that now
men grow hard-hearted, and will lend nothing for
God's sake : Prayyou, examine him upon that point.

LEON. I thank thee for thy care and honest
pains.

DOGS. Your worship speaks like a most thank-
ful and reverend youth ; and I praise God for you.
LEON. There's for thy pains.
DOGB. God save the foundation ! l

LEON. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and
I thank thee.

DOGB. I leave an arrant knave with your wor-
ship ; which, I beseech your worship, to correct
yourself, for the example of others. God keep
your worship ; I wish your worship well ; God re-
store you to health : I humbly give you leave to
depart ; and if a merry meeting may be wished,
God prohibit it. — Come, neighbour.

{Exeunt DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Watch.

Edward Sackville, Earl of Dorset, painted by Vandyck, (novr
at Knowle, ) exhibits this lock with a large knotted ribband at
the end of it. It hangs under the ear on the left side, and
reaches as low as where the star is now worn by the knights of
the garter

The same fashion is alluded to in an epigram already quoted :
" Or what he doth with such a horse-tail-/oc&," &c.

MALONE

9 and borrows money in God's name ;] i. e. is a common

beggar. This alludes, with too much levity, to the 1 7th verse
of the xixth chapter of Proverbs. : " He that giveth to the poor,
lendeth unto the Lord.'1 STEEVENS.

1 God save the foundation !] Such was the customary phrase
employed by those who received alms at the gates of religious
houses. Dogberry, however, in the present instance, might have
designed to say — " God save the founder!" STEEVENS.

M 2

164, MUCH ADO ACT v.

LEON. Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell.

ANT. Farewell, my lords ; we look for you to-
morrow.

D. PEDRO. We will not fail.

CLAUD. To-night I'll mourn with Hero.

[Exeunt Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

LEON. Bring you these fellows on ; we'll talk

with Margaret,

How her acquaintance grew with this lewd fellow.2

[_Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Leonato's Garden.
Enter BENEDICK and MARGARET, meeting.

BENE. Pray thee, sweet mistress Margaret, de-
serve well at my hands, by helping me to the
speech of Beatrice.

MAEG. Will you then write me a sonnet in praise
of my beauty ?

BENE. In so high a style, Margaret, that no man
living shall come over it j for, in most comely
truth, thou deservest it.

* lewd /e//otu.] Lewd, in this, and several other instances,

has not its common meaning, but merely signifies — ignorant.
So, in King Richard III. Act I. sc. Hi :

" But you must trouble him with lewd complaints."
Again, in the ancient metrical romance of the Sowdon oj
Babyloyne, MS:

" That witnessith both lerned and lewde."
Again, ibid:

" He spared neither letvde ner clerkc." STEEVENS,

sc. ii. ABOUT NOTHING. 165

MARG. To have no man come over me ? why,
shall I always keep below stairs ? 3

BENE. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's
mouth, it catches.

MARG. And your's as blunt as the fencer's foils,
which hit, but hurt not.

BENE. A most manly wit, Margaret, it will not
hurt a woman ; and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice :
I give thee the bucklers.4

3 To have no man come over me? why, shall I always keep
below stairs ?] I suppose, every reader will find the meaning.

JOHNSON.

Lest he should not, the following instance from Sir Aston

Cockayne's Poems is at his service :

" But to prove rather he was not beguil'd,

" Her he o'er-came, for he got her with child."

And another, more apposite, from Marston's Insatiate Countess,

1613:

" Alas ! when we are once o'the falling hand,
" A man may easily come over us." COLLINS.

Mr. Theobald, to procure an obvious sense, would read —
above stairs. But there is danger in any attempt to reform a
joke two hundred years old.

The sense, however, for which Mr. Theobald contends, may
be restored by supposing the loss of a word ; and that our author
wrote — " Why, shall I always keep men below stairs ?" i. e. never
suffer them to come up into my bed-chamber, for the purposes of
love. STEEVENS.

4 / give thee the bucklers.] I suppose that to give the

bucklers is, to yield, or to lay by all thoughts of defence, so cly-
peum abjicere. The rest deserves no comment. JOHNSON.

Greene, in his Second Part of Coney-Catching, 15Q2, uses the
same expression : " At this his master laught, and was glad, for
further advantage, to yield the bucklers to his prentise."

Again, in A Woman never vex'd, a comedy by Rowley, 1632:
*' — into whose hands she thrusts the weapons first, let him take
up the bucklers."

Again, in Decker's Satiromastix : " Charge one of them to
take up the bucklers against that hair-monger Horace."

166 MUCH ADO ACT r.

MARG. Give us the swords, we have bucklers of
our own.

BENE. If you use them, Margaret, you must put
in the pikes with a vice ; and they are dangerous
weapons for maids.

MARG. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who,
I think, hath legs. \_Exit MARGARET.

BENE. And therefore will come.

The god of love, [Singing.]

That sits above.
And knows me, and knows me,
How pitiful I deserve, —

I mean, in singing ; but in loving, — Leander the
good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of pan.
dars, and a whole book full of these quondam ear-
Again, in Chapman's May-Dan, 161 1 :

" And now I lay the bucklers at your feet."
Again, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1 609 :

*' if you lay down the bucklers, you lose the vic-
tory."

Again, in P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History,
B. X. ch. xxi : " — it goeth against his stomach (the cock's) to
yeeld the gantlet and give the bucklers.'" STEEVENS.

4 The god of love, &c.] This was the beginning of an old
song, by W. E. (William Elderton) a puritanical parody of
•which, by one W. Birch, under the title of The Complaint of
a Sinner, &fc. Imprinted at London, by Alexander Lacy, for
Richard Applorvo, is still extant. The words in this moralised
copy are as follows :

" The god of love, that sits above,

" Doth know us, doth knoiu us,

" How sinful that we be."" RITSON.

In Bacchus' Bountie, &c. 4to. bl. 1. 1593, is a song, begin-
ning—

" The gods of love .

" Which raigne above." STEEVEKS.

sc. ii. ABOUT NOTHING. 167

pet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the
even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so
truly turned over and over as my poor self, in love :
Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme ; I have tried ;
I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, an inno-
cent rhyme ; for scorn, horn, a hard rhyme ; for
school, fool, a babbling rhyme ; very ominous end-
ings : No, I was not born under a rhyming planet,
nor I cannot woo in festival terms.6 —

Enter BEATRICE.

Sweet Beatrice, would' st thou come when I called
thee ?

BEAT. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
BENE. O, stay but till then !

BEAT. Then, is spoken ; fare you well now : —
and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came for,7
which is, with knowing what hath passed between
you and Claudio.

BENE. Only foul words ; and thereupon I will
kiss thee.

BEAT. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul
wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome ;
therefore I will depart unkissed.

BENE. Thou hast frighted the word out of his
right sense, so forcible is thy wit : But, I must tell

6 in festival terras.] i. e. in splendid phraseology, such

as differs from common language, as holidays from common
days. Thus, Hotspur, in King Henry IV. P. I:

" With many holiday and lady terms.1' STEEVENS,

7 taith that I came for,] For, which is wanting in the

old copy, was inserted by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

168 MUCH ADO ACT F

thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge ; 8
and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will
subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now,
tell me, for which of my bad parts didst thou first
fall in love with me ?

BEAT. For them all together ; which maintained
so politick a state of evil, that they will not admit
any good part to intermingle with them. But for
which of my good parts did you first suffer love for
me ?

BENE. Suffer love; a good epithet! I do suffer
love, indeed, for I love thee against my will.

BEAT. In spite of your heart, I think ; alas !
poor heart ! If you spite it for my sake, I \vill spite
it for yours ; for I will never love that which my
friend hates.

BENE. Thou and I are too wise to \voo peaceably.

BEAT. It appears not in this confession: there's
not one wise man among twenty, that will praise
himself.

BENE. An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that
lived in the time of good neighbours: 9 if a man do
not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he
shall live no longer in monument, than the bell
rings, and the widow weeps.

BEAT. And how long is that, think you ?
BENE. Question ? — Why, an hour in clamour,
and a quarter in rheum i1 Therefore it is most ex-

8 undergoes my challenge ;] i. e. is subject to it. So,

in Cymbeline, Act III. sc. v: " — undergo those employments,
wherein I should have cause to use thee." STEEVENS.

9 in the time of good neighbours .-] i. e. when men were

not envious, but every one gave another his due. The reply is
extremely humorous. W ARBURTOX.

ac. n. ABOUT NOTHING. 169

pedient for the wise, (if Don Worm, his conscience,
find no impediment to the contrary,) to be the
trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself: So
much for praising myself, (who, I myself will bear
witness, is praise-worthy,) and now tell me, How
doth your cousin ?

BEAT. Very ill.

BENE. And how do you ?

BEAT. Very ill too.

BENE. Serve God, love me, and mend : there
will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste.

Enter URSULA.

URS. Madam, you must come to your uncle ;
yonder's old coil at home :2 it is proved, my lady
Hero hath been falsely accused, the Prince and
Claudio mightily abused ; and Don John is the au-
thor of all, who is fled and gone : will you come
presently ?

BEAT. Will you go hear this news, signior ?

BENE. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap,
and be buried in thy eyes ; and, moreover, I will
go with thee to thy uncle's. \_Exeunt.

1 Question? — Why, an hour &c.] i.e. What a question's
there, or what a foolish question do you ask ? But the Oxford
editor, not understanding this phrase, contracted into a single
word, ( of which we have many instances in English, ) has fairly
struck it out. WARBURTON.

The phrase occurs frequently in Shakspeare, and means no
more than — you ask a question, or that is the question. RITSON.

* old coil at homc:^ So, in King Henry IV. P. II, Act

II. sc. iv : " By the mass, here will be old Utis." See note on
this passage. Old, (I know not why,) was anciently a common
augmentative in familiar language.

Coil is bustle, stir. So, in King John:

" I am not worth this coil that's made for me." STEEVENS.

170 MUCH ADO Acrr.

SCENE III.

The Inside of a Church.

Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with
musick and tapers.

CLAUD. Is this the monument of Leonato?
ATTEN. It is, my lord.
CLAUD. [Reads from a scroll.^

Done to death3 by slanderous tongues

Was the Hero that here lies :
Death, in guerdon4 of her wrongs

Gives her fame which never dies:
So the life, that died with shame,
Lives in death with glorious fame.

Hang thou there upon the tomb, {^affixing it.
Praising her when I am dumb. —

Now, musick, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.

3 Done to death — ] This obsolete phrase occurs frequently
in our ancient writers. Thus, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion,
165/:

"His mother's hand shall stop thy breath,

" Thinking her own son is done to death." MALONE.

Again, in the Argument to Chapman's version of the twenty-
second Iliad:

" Hector (in Chi) to death is done
" By povvre of Peleus angry sonne."

To do to death is merely an old translation of the French
phrase — Faire mourir. STEEVENS.

4 in guerdon — ] Guerdon is reward, remuneration.

See Costard's use of this word in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IIIf
sc. i. The verb, to guerdon, occurs both in King Henry VI.
P. II. and in King Henry VIII. STEEVENS.

ac. ///. ABOUT NOTHING. 171

SONG.

Pardon, Goddess of the night,
Those that slew thy virgin knight;'"

* Those that slew thy virgin knight ;] Knight, in its original
signification, means follower, or pupil, and in this sense may be
feminine. Helena, in All's well that ends well, uses knight in the
same signification. JOHNSON.

Virgin knight is virgin hero. In the times of chivalry, a
virgin knight was one who had as yet atchieved no adventure.
Hero had as yet atchieved no matrimonial one. It may be
added, that a virgin knight wore no device on his shield, having
no right to any till he had deserved it.

So, in The History of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield,
&c. 15p9 :

" Then as thou seem'st in thy attire a virgin knight to be,

" Take thou this shield likewise of white," &c.
It appears, however, from several passages in Spenser's Fairy
Queen, B. I. c. vii. that an ideal order of this name was supposed,
as a compliment to Queen Elizabeth's virginity :

** Of doughtie knights whom faery land did raise

" That noble order hight of maidenhed,"
Again, B. II. c. ii :

" Order ofmaidenhed the most renown'd."
Again, B. II. c. ix :

" And numbred be mongst knights of maidenhed"
On the books of the Stationers' Company in the year 15p4, is
entered, " Pheander the mayden knight." STEEVENS.

I do not believe that any allusion was here intended to Hero's
having yet atchieved " no matrimonial adventure." Diana's
knight or Virgin knight, was the common poetical appellation of
virgins, in Shakspeare's time.

So, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, 1634 :

" O sacred, shadowy, cold and constant queen,

" ; who to \hyjemale knights

" Allow'st no more blood than will make-a blush,

" Which is their order's robe, — ."
Again, more appositely, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III. c. xii :

" Soon as that virgin knight he saw in place,

" His wicked bookes in hast he overthrew." MALONE.

This last instance will by no means apply ; for the virgin
knight is the maiden Britomart, who appeared in the accoutre-

172 MUCH ADO ACTV.

For the which, with so?2^s of woe,
Hound about her tomb they go.
Midnight, assist our moan;
Help us to sigh and groan,

Heavily, heavily:

Graves, yawn, and yield your dead,
Till death be uttered*
Heavily, heavily.

CLAUD. Now, unto thy bones good night !
Yearly will I do this rite.

D. PEDRO. Good morrow, masters ; put your

torches out :
The wolves have prey'd ; and look, the gentle

day,
Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about

Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey :
Thanks to you all, and leave us ; fare you well.

CLAUD. Good morrow, masters ; each his several
way.

D. PEDRO. Come, let us hence, and put on other

weeds ;
And then to Leonato's we will go.

CLAUD. And, Hymen, now with luckier issue

speed's,

Than this, for whom we rendered up this woe ! 7

[Exeunt.

ments of a knight, and from that circumstance was so denomi-
nated. STEEVENS.

6 Till death be uttered,'} I do not profess to understand this
line, which to me appears both defective in sense and metre. I
Suppose two words have been omitted, which perhaps were —

Till songs of death be uttered, &c.
So, in King Richard III :

" Out on you, owls ! nothing but songs of death ?"

STEEVENS.

sc. iv. ABOUT NOTHING. 173

SCENE IV.

A Room in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE,
URSULA, Friar, and HERO.

FRIAR. Did I not tell you she was innocent ?

LEON. So are the prince and Claudio, who ac-

cus'd her,

Upon the error that you heard debated :
But Margaret was in some fault for this ;
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.

ANT. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.

BENE. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.

LEON. Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all,
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves ;
And, when I send for you, come hither mask'd:
The prince and Claudio promised by this hour

7 And, Hymen, noiv tvith luckier issue speed's,

Than this, for whom vie rendered up this ivoe/"] The old
copy has — speeds. STEEVENS.

Claudio could not know, without being a prophet, that this
new proposed match should have any luckier event than that
designed with Hero. Certainly, therefore, this should be a wish
in Claudio ; and, to this end, the poet might have wrote, speed's ;
i. e. speed us : and so it becomes a prayer to Hymen.

THIRLBY.

The contraction introduced is so extremely harsh, that I doubt
whether it was intended by the author. However I have fol-
lowed former editors in adopting it. MALONE.

174 MUCH ADO

To visit me : — You know your office, brother ;
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio. \_Exeunt Ladies.

ANT. Which I will do with confirmed counte-
nance.

BENE. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
FRIAR. To do what, signior ?

BENE. To bind me, or undo me, one of them. —
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.

LEON. That eye my daughter lent her j JTis most
true.

BENE. And I do with an eye of love requite her.

LEON. The sight whereof, I think, you had from

me,

From Claudio, and the prince ; But what's your
will ?

BENE. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical :
But, for my will, my will is, your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd
In the estate of honourable marriage ;8 —
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.

LEON. My heart is with your liking.

FRIAR. And my help.

Here comes the prince, and Claudio.

8 In the estate of honourable marriage ;] Marriage, in this
instance, is used as a trisyllable. So, in The Taming of the
Shrew, Act III. sc. ii :

" 'Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage"

STEEVENS.

sc. iv. ABOUT NOTHING. 175

Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants.

D. PEDRO. Good morrow to this fair assembly.

LEON. Good morrow, prince ; good morrow,

Claudio ;

We here attend you ; Are you yet determin'd
To-day to marry with my brother's daughter ?

CLAUD. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.

LEON. Call her forth, brother, here's the friar
ready. [Exit ANTONIO.

D. PEDRO. Good morrow, Benedick : Why,

what's the matter,

That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness ?

CLAUD. I think, he thinks upon the savage

bull:9—

Tush, fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with gold,
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee j *
As once Europa did at lusty Jove,
When he would play the noble beast in love.

BENE. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low ;
And some such strange bull leap'd your father's

cow,

And got a calf in that same noble feat,
Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.

9 the savage bull :] Still alluding to the passage quoted

in a former scene from Kyd's Hieronymo. STEEVENS.

1 And 'all Europa shall &c.] I have no doubt but that our
author wrote —

And all our Europe, &c.
So, in King Richard II:

" As were our England in reversion his." STEEVENS.

176 MUCH ADO ACT v.

Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked.

CLAUD. For this I owe you : here come other

reckonings.
Which is the lady I must seize upon ?

ANT. This same is she,2 and I do give you her.

CLAUD. Why, then she's mine : Sweet, let me
see your face.

LEON. No, that you shall not, till you take her

hand
Before this friar, and swear to marry her.

CLAUD. Give me your hand before this holy

friar ;
I am your husband, if you like of me.

HERO. And when I lived, I was your other wife :

[ Unmasking.
And when you loved, you were my other husband.

CLAUD. Another Hero?

HERO. Nothing certainer :

One Hero died defil'd ; but I do live,
And, surely as I live, I am a maid.

D. PEDRO. The former Hero ! Hero that is dead!

LEON. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander
lived.

FRIAR. All this amazement can I qualify ;
When, after that the holy rites are ended,
I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death :

1 Ant. This same &c.] This speech is in the old copies
given to Leonato. Mr. Theobald first assigned it to the right
owner. Leonato has in a former part of this scene told Antonio,
that lie " must be father to his brother's daughter, and give her
to young Claudio." MALONE.

sc.iv. ABOUT NOTHING. 177

Mean time, let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.

BENE. Soft and fair, friar. — Which is Beatrice?

BEAT. I answer to that name ; [ Unmasking']
What is your will ?

BENE. Do not you love me ?

BEAT. No, no more than reason.3

BENE. Why, then your uncle, and the prince,

and Claudio,
Have been deceived ; for they swore you did.4

BEAT. Do not you love me ?

BENE. No, no more than reason.5

BEAT. Why, then my cousin, Margaret, and

Ursula,
Are much deceived ; for they did swear, you did.

BENE. They swore that you were almost sick for
me.

BEAT. They swore that you were well-nigh dead
for me.

BENE. 'Tis no such matter: — Then, you do not.
love me ?

3 No, no more than reason.] The old copies, injuriously to
metre, read — Why, no, Sfc. It should seem that the com-
positor's eye had caught here the unnecessary adverb from the
following speech. STEEVENS.

4 for they swore yon did."] For, which both the sense

and metre require, was inserted by Sir Thomas Hanrner. So,
below :

" Are much deceiv'd ; for they did swear you did." •

MALONE.

5 No, no more than reason.'] Here again the metre, in the
old copies, is overloaded by reading — Troth, no, no more, 8$c.

STEEVENS.

VOL. VI. N

178 MUCH ADO ACT r.

BEAT. No, truly, but in friendly recompense.

LEON. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the
gentleman.

CLAUD. And I'll be sworn upon't, that he loves

her;

For here's a paper, written in his hand,
A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashion'd to Beatrice.

HERO. And here's another,

Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.

BENE. A miracle ! here's our own hands against
our hearts ! — Come, I will have thee ; but, by this
light, I take thee for pity.

BEAT. I would not deny you ; — but, by this
good day, I yield upon great persuasion ; 6 and,
partly, to save your life, for I was told you were
in a consumption.

BENE. Peace, I will stop your mouth.7 —

\_Kissing her.

u / would not deny you ; &c.] Mr. Theobald says, is not
this mock-reasoning? She ivould not deny him, but that she
yields upon great persuasion. In changing the negative, I
make no doubt but I have retrieved the poet's humour: and so
changes not into yet. But is not this a mock-critic? who could
not see that the plain obvious sense of the common reading was
this, I cannot find in my heart to deny you, but for all that
I yield, after having stood out great persuasions to submission.
He had said — / take thee for pity, she replies — / ivould not
deny thee, i. e. I take thee for pity too: but as I live, I am won
to this compliance by importunity of friends. Mr. Theobald,
by altering not to yet, makes it supposed that he had been
importunate, and that she had often denied, which was not the
case. WARBURTON.

7 Bene. Peace, I ivill stop your mouth. [Kissing her.] In
former copies :

Leon Peace, I mil stop your mouth.

sc. iv. ABOUT NOTHING. 179

D. PEDRO. How dost thou, Benedick the mar-
ried man ?

BENE. I'll tell thee what, prince ; a college of
wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour :
Dost thou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram ?
No: if a man will be beaten wdth brains, he shall
wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since
I do propose to marry, I will think nothing to any
purpose that the world can say against it ; and
therefore never flout at me for what I have said
against it ; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my
conclusion. — For thy part, Claudio, I did think to
have beaten thee; but in that8 thou art like to be
my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin.

CLAUD. I had well hoped, thou wouldst have de-
nied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out
of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer ;
which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin
do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

BENE. Come, come, we are friends : — let's have
a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten
our own hearts, and our wives' heels.

LEON. We'll have dancing afterwards.

What can Leonato mean by this? " Nay, pray, peace, niece*
don't keep up this obstinacy of professions, for I have proofs to
stop your mouth." The ingenious Dr. Thirlby agreed with me,
that this ought to be given to Benedick, who, upon saying it,
kisses Beatrice; and this being done before the whole company,
how natural is the reply which the prince makes upon it?

How dost thou, Benedick, the married man ?
Besides, this mode of speech, preparatory to a salute, is familiar
to our poet in common with other stage-writers. THEOBALD.

9 in that — ] i.e. because. So, Hooker: " Things are

preached not in that they are taught, but in that they are pub-
lished." STEEYENS.

x 2

180 MUCH ADO ACTV.

BENE. First, o* my word; therefore, play, mu-

sick. —

Prince, thou art sad ; get thee a wife, get thee a
wife : there is no staff more reverend than one
tipped with horn.9

9 no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.] This

passage may admit of some explanation that I am unable to fur-
nish. By accident I lost several instances I had collected for the
purpose of throwing light on it. The following, however, may
assist the future commentator.

MS. Sloan, 1691.

" THAT A FELLON MAY WAGE BATTAILE, WITH THE ORDER
THEREOF.

" by order of the lawe both the parties must at their

owne charge be armed withoute any yron or long armoure, and
theire heades bare, and bare-handed and bare-footed, every one
of them having a baston horned at ech ende, of one length,'* &c.

Again, in Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1615, p. (}6(): " his

baston a slajfe of an elle long, made taper-wise, tipt uith home,
&c. was borne after him." This instrument is also mentioned
in the Sompnoure's Tale of Chaucer:

" His felaw had a stqf tipped ivilh horn.'''' STEEVEXS.

Again, Britton, Pleas of the Crorvn, c. xxvii. f. 18: " Next
let them go to combat armed without iron and without linnen
armour, their heads uncovered and their hands naked, and on
foot, with two bastons tipped with horn of equal length, and
each of them a target of four corners, without any other armour,
whereby any of them may annoy the other ; and if either of
them have any other weapon concealed about him, and there-
with annoy his adversary, let it be done as shall be mentioned
amongst combats in a plea of land." REED.

Mr. Steevens's explanation is undoubtedly the true one. The
allusion is certainly to the ancient trial by ivager of battcl, in
suits both criminal and civil. The quotation above given recites
the form in the former case, — viz. an appeal of felony. The
practice was nearly similar in civil cases, upon issue joined in a
writ of right. Of the last trial of this kind in England, (which
was in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth,) our author

sc. IT. ABOUT NOTHING. 181

Enter a Messenger.

MESS. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in

flight,
And brought with armed men back to Messina.

*&'

BENF.. Think not on him till to-morrow ; I'll
devise thee brave punishments for him. — Strike up,
pipers. \_Dance.

\_Exeunt.

might have read a particular account in Stowe's Annales. Henry
Nailor, muster of defence, was champion for the demandants,
Simon Low and John Kyme; and George Thorne for the tenant,
( or defendant, ) Thomas Paramoure. The combat was appointed
to be fought in Tuthill-fields, and the Judges of the Common
Pleas and Serjeants at Law attended. But a compromise was
entered into between the parties, the evening before the ap-
pointed day, and they only went througli the forms, for the
greater security of the tenant. Among other ceremonies Stowe
mentions, that " the gauntlet that was cast down by George
Thorne was borne before the sayd Nailor, in his passage through
London, upon a sword's point, and his baston (a staff of an ell
long, made taper-wise, tipt ivith horn,) with his shield of hard
leather, was borne after him," £c. See also Minsheu's DICT.
l6l/, m v- Combat; from which it appears that Naylor on this
occasion was introduced to the Judges, with " three solemn con-
gees," by a very reverend person, " Sir Jerome Bowes, ambas-
sador from Queen Elizabeth into Russia, who carried a red baston
of an ell long, tipped with horne." — In a very ancient law-book
entitled Britton, the manner in which the combatants are to be
armed is particularly mentioned. 'J he quotation from the Sloanian
MS. is a translation from thence. By a ridiculous mistake the
words, " sauns loge arme," are rendered in the modern trans-
lation of that book, printed a few years ago, " without linnen
armour ;" and " a mains nues and pies" [bare-handed and bare-
footed] is translated, " and their hands naked, and on foot -."

MALONE.

This play may be justly said to contain two of the most
sprightly characters that Shakspeare ever drew. The wit, the

182 MUCH ADO, &c.

humourist, the gentleman, and the soldier, are combined in
Benedick. It is to be lamented, indeed, that the first and most
splendid of these distinctions, is disgraced by unnecessary pro-
faneness ; for the goodness of his heart is hardly sufficient to
atone for the licence of his tongue. The too sarcastic levity,
which flashes out in the conversation of Beatrice, may be ex-
cused on account of the steadiness and friendship so apparent in
her behaviour, when she urges her lover to risque his life by a
challenge to Claudio. In the conduct of the fable, however,
there is an imperfection similar to that which Dr. Johnson has
pointed out in The Merry Wives of Windsor: — the second con-
trivance is less ingenious than the first : — or, to speak more
plainly, the same incident is become stale by repetition. I wish
some other method had been found to entrap Beatrice, than
that very one which before had been successfully practised on
Benedick.

Much Ado about Nothing, (as I understand from one of Mr.
Vertue's MSS.) formerly passed under the title of Benedick and
Beatrix. Heming the player received, on the 20th of May,
lf)13, the sum of forty pounds, and twenty pounds more as his
Majesty's gratuity, for exhibiting six plays at Hampton Court,
among which was this comedy. STEEVENS.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.*

* MEASURE FOR MEASURE.] The story is taken from
Cinthio's Novels, Decad. 8, Novel 5. POPE.

We are sent to Cinthio for the plot of Measure for Measure,
and Shakspeare's judgment hath been attacked for some devia-
tions from him in the conduct of it, when probably all he knew
of the matter was from Madam Isabella, in The Heptameron of
Whetstone, Lond. 4to. 1582. — She reports, in the fourth dayes
Exercise, the rare Historic of Promos and Cassandra, A marginal
note informs us, that Whetstone was the author of the Comedie
on that subject ; which likewise had probably fallen into the
hands of Shakspeare. FARMER.

There is perhaps not one of Shakspeare's plays more darkened
than this by the peculiarities of its author, and the unskilfulness
of its editors, by distortions of phrase, or negligence of trans-
cription. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson's remark is so just respecting the corruptions of
this play, that I shall not attempt much reformation in its metre,
which is too often rough, redundant, and irregular. Additions
and omissions (however trifling) cannot be made without con-
stant notice of them ; and such notices, in the present instance,
would so frequently occur, as to become equally tiresome to the
commentator and the reader.

Shakspeare took the fable of this play from the Promos and
Cassandra of George Whetstone, published in 15/8. See
Theobald's note at the end.

A hint, like a seed, is more or less prolific, according to the
qualities of the soil on which it is thrown. This story, which
in the hands of Whetstone produced little more than barren
insipidity, under the culture of Shakspcare became fertile of
entertainment. The curious reader will find that the old play
of Promos and. Cassandra exhibits an almost complete embryo
of Measure for Measure ; yet the hints on which it is formed
are so slight, that it is nearly as impossible to detect them, as it
is to point out in the acorn the future ramifications of the oak.

Whetstone opens his play thus :

ACT i. — SCENE i.

•' Promos, Mayor, Shirife, Sworde Bearer : one with a bunche
of keyes: Phallax, Promos Man.

" You officers which now in Julio staye,
" Know you your leadge, the King of Hungarie,
" Sent me to Promos, to joyne with you in sway:
" That styll we may to Justice have an eye.

" And now to show my rule and power at lardge,
" Attentivelie his letters patents heave :
" Phallax, reade out my Soveraines chardge.
Phal. " As you commaunde I wyll : give heedef'ul eare.

Phallax rcadeth the Kinges Letters Patients, which
must bejayre written in parchment, with some great
counter/eat zeale.

1 Loe, here you see what is our Soveraignes wyl,
* Loe, heare his wish, that right, not might, beare swaye :
' Loe, heare his care, to weede from good the yll,
' To scoorge the wights, good lawes that disobay.
' Such zeale he beares, unto the common weale,
' (How so he byds, the ignoraunt to save)
' As he commaundes, the lewde doo rigor feele, &c.
&c. &c.

Pro.

Pro. " Both swoorde and keies, unto my princes use,
" I do receyve, and gladlie take my chardge.
" It resteth now, for to reforme abuse,
" We poynt a tyme of councell more at lardge,
" To treate of which, a whyle we wyll depart.
Al. speake. " To worke your wyll, we yeelde a willing hart.

Exeunt"

The reader will find the argument of G. Whetstone's Promos
and Cassandra, at the end of this play. It is too bulky to be
inserted here. See likewise the piece itself among Six old Plays
on which Shakspeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft,
Charing Cross. STEEVENS.

Measure for Measure was, I believe, written in 1003. See
An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare' s Plays, Vol. II.

MALONE.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Vincentio, duke of Vienna.

Angelo, lord deputy in the duke's absence.

Escalus, an ancient lord, joined with Angelo in the

deputation.

Claudio, a young gentleman.
Lucio, afantastick.
Two other like gentlemen.
Varrius,* a gentleman, servant to the duke.
Provost.
Thomas,
Peter,
A Justice.
Elbow, a simple constable.
Froth, a foolish gentleman.
Clown, servant to Mrs. Over-done,
Abhorson, an executioner.
Barnardine, a dissolute prisoner.

Isabella, sister to Claudio.
Mariana, betrothed to Angelo.
Juliet, beloved by Claudio.
Francisca, a nun.
Mistress Over-done, a bawd.

Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, Officers, and other
Attendants.

SCENE, Vienna.

* Varrius might be omitted, for he is only once spoken to,
and says nothing. JOHNSON.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An Apartment in the Duke's Palace.
Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants.

DUKE. Escalus, —
ESCAL. My lord.

DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know,1 that your own science,
Exceeds, in that, the lists2 of all advice

1 Since I am put to knoiv,] may mean, / am compelled to ac-
knowledge.

So, in King Henry VI. P. II. sc. i :

" had I first been put to speak my mind."

Again, in Dray ton's Legend of Pierce Gaveston :

" My limbs were put to travel day and night."

STEEVENS.

* lists — ] Bounds, limits. JOHNSON.

So, in Othello :

" Confine yourself within a patient list."
Again, in Hamlet :

" The ocean, over-peering of his list,—." STEEVENS.

188 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

My strength can give you : Then no more remains
But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work.3 The nature of our people,

3 Then no more remains,

But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work.] To the integrity of this reading Mr.
Theobald objects, and says, What was E.scalus to put to his
sufficiency? why, his science : But his science and sufficiency were,
but one and the same thing. On what then does the relative them
depend? He will have it, therefore, that a line has been acci-
dentally dropped, which he attempts to restore thus :
But that to your sufficiency you add
Due diligence, as your worth is able, &c.

Nodum in scirpo qucerit. And all for want of knowing, that
by sufficiency is meant authority, the power delegated by the
Duke to Escalus. The plain meaning of the word being this :
Put your skill in governing (says the Duke) to the power which
I give you to exercise it, and let them work together.

WARBURTON.

Sir Thomas Hanmer having caught from Mr. Theobald a hint
that a line was lost, endeavours to supply it thus :

Then no more remains,

But that to your sufficiency you join

A will to serve us, as your worth is able.

He has, by this bold conjecture, undoubtedly obtained a mean-
ing, but, perhaps, not even in his own opinion, the meaning of
Shakspeare.

That the passage is more or less corrupt, I believe every
reader will agree with the editors. I am not convinced that a
.line is lost, as Mr. Theobald conjectures, nor that the change of
but to put, which Dr. Warburton has admitted after some other
editor, [Rowe,] will amend the fault. There was probably
some original obscurity in the expression, which gave occasion
to mistake in repetition or transcription. I therefore suspect
that the author wrote thus :

i Then no more remains,

But that to your sufficiencies your worth is abled,

And let them work.

Then nothing remains more than to tell you, that your virtue is
now invested with power equal to your knowledge and wisdom.
Let therefore your knowledge and your virtue now work toge-
ther. It may easily be conceived how sufficiencies was, by an

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 189
Our city's institutions, and the terms4

inarticulate speaker, or inattentive hearer, confounded with suf-
ficiency as, and how abled, a word very unusual, was changed
into able. For abled, however, an authority is not wanting.
Lear uses it in the same sense, or nearly the same, with^ the
Duke. As for sufficiencies, D. Hamilton, in his dying speech,
prays that Charles II. may exceed both the virtues and sufficien-
cies of his father. JOHNSOX.

Then no more remains,

But that sufficiency, as worth is able,

And let them work.] Then no more remains to say, but
that your political skill is on a par with your private integrity,
and let these joint qualifications exert themselves in the public
service.

But that sufficiency to your worth is abled,
i. e. a power equal to your deserts.

The uncommon redundancy, as well as obscurity, of this
verse, may be considered as evidence of its corruption. Take
away the second and third words, and the sense joins well
enough with what went before. Then (says the Duke) no more
remains to say,

But your sufficiency as your worth is able,

And let them work.

i. e. Your skill in government is, in ability to serve me, equal
to the integrity of your heart, and let them co-operate in your
future ministry.

The versification requires that either something should be
added, or something retrenched. The latter is the easier, as
well as the safer task. I join in the belief, however, that a line
is lost ; and whoever is acquainted with the inaccuracy of the
folio, (for of this play there is no other old edition,) will find
my opinion justified. STEEVENS.

Some words seem to be lost here, the sense of which, perhaps,
may be thus supplied :

• Then no more remains,
But that to your sufficiency you put
A .zeal as willing as your worth is able,
And let them work. TYRWHITT.

A phrase similar to that which Mr. Tyrwhitt would supply,
occurs in Chapman's version of the sixth Iliad :

" enough will is not put

" To thv abilitie." STEKVENS.

190 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

For common justice, you are as pregnant in,5

I agree with Warburton in thinking that by sufficiency the
Duke means authority, or power ; and, if that be admitted,
a very slight alteration indeed will restore this passage — the
changing the word is into be. It will then run thus, and be
clearly intelligible :

Then no more remains,

But that your sufficiency, as your worth, be able.

And let them work.

That is, you are thoroughly acquainted with your duty, so that
nothing more is necessary to be done, but to invest you with
power equal to your abilities. M. MASON.

Then no more remains,

But that to your sufficiency * * as your worth is able.

And let them work.

I have not the smallest doubt that the compositor's eye glanced
from the middle of the second of these lines to that under it in
the MS. and that by this means two half lines have been omitted.
The very same error may be found in Macbeth, edit. 1632 :

" which, being taught, return,

" To plague the ingredients of our poison1 d chalice

" To our own lips.
instead of —

" which, being taught, return,

" To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice

" Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice," £c.
Again, in Much Ado about Nothing, edit. 1623, p. 103 :

" And I will break with her. Was't not to this end," &c.
instead of —

" And I will break with her, and with her father,

" And thou shall have her. Was't not to this end," &c.
The following passage, in King Henry IV. P. I. which is
constructed in a manner somewhat similar to the present when
corrected, appears to me to strengthen the supposition that two
half lines have been lost :

" Send danger from the east unto the west,

" So honour cross it from the north to south,

" And let them grapple.'1

Sufficiency is skill in government ; ability to execute his office.
And let them work, a figurative expression ; Let them ferment.

MALONE.

— the terms — ] Terms mean the technical language of
the courts. An old book called Les Tennes de la Ley, (written

ac. /. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 191

As art and practice hath enriched any

That we remember : There is our commission,

From which we would not have you warp. — Call

hither,
I say, bid come before us Angelo. —

\_Exit an Attendant.

What figure of us think you he will bear ?
For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply ; 6

in Henry the Eighth's time,) was in Shakspeare's days, and is
no\v, the accidence of young students in the law.

BLACKSTONE.

* „ the terms

For common justice, you are as pregnant in,"] The later
editions all give it, without authority —

the terms

Of justice, —

and Dr. Warburton makes terms signify bounds or limits. I
rather think the Duke meant to say, that Escalus was pregnant,
that is ready and knowing in all the forms of the law, and,
among other things, in the terms or times set apart for its admi-
nistration. JOHNSON.

The word pregnant is used with this signification in Ram-
Alley, or Merry Tricks, l6ll, where a lawyer is represented
reading :

" In tricessimo primo Alberti Magni —
" 'Tis very cleare — the place is very pregnant"
i. e. very expressive, ready, or very big with apposite meaning.
Again,

" the proof is most pregnant." STEEVENS.

8 For you must know, ive have with special soul

Elected him our absence to supply ;~\ By the words with
special soul elected him, I believe, the poet meant no more' than
that he was the immediate choice of his heart.

A similar expression occurs in Troilus and Cressida :

" with private soul,

" Did in great llion thus translate him to me/*
Again, more appositely, in The Tempest :

" for several virtues

" Have I lik'd several women, never any

" With sojiillsoul, but some defect," &c. STEEVEN*.

192 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Lent him our terror, drest him with our love ;
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power : What think you of it ?

ESCAL. If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is lord Angelo.

Enter ANGELO.

DUKE. Look, where he comes.

ANG. Always obedient to your grace's will,
I come to know your pleasure.

DUKE. Angelo,

There is a kind of character in thy life,
That, to the observer,7 doth thy history

Steevens has hit upon the true explanation of the passage ;
and might have found a further confirmation of it in Troilux
and Cressida, where, speaking of himself, Troilus says :

" ne'er did young man fancy

*' With so eternal, and sojijc'd a soul."
To do a thing with all one's soul, is a common expression.

M. MASON.

toe have with special soul — ] This seems to be only

a translation of the usual formal words inserted in all royal
grants: — " De gratia nostra special!, et ex mero motu — ."

MALONE.

7 There is a kind of character in thy life.

That, to the observer, £c.] Either this introduction has
more solemnity than meaning, or it has a meaning which I can-
not discover. What is there peculiar in this, that a man's life
informs the observer of his history ? Might it be supposed that
Shakspeare wrote this ?

There is a kind of character in thy look.

History may be taken in a more diffuse and licentious mean-
ing, for future occurrences, or the part of life yet to come. If
this sense be received, the passage is clear and proper.

JOHNSON.

Shakspeare must, I believe, be answerable for the unneces-

ac. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 193

Fully unfold: Thyself and thy belongings8
Are not thine own so proper,9 as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee.1
Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do ;
Not light them for themselves : for if our virtues5
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely
touch'd.

sary pomp of this introduction. He has the same thought in
Henry IV. P. II. which affords some comment on this passage
before us :

" There is a history in all men's lives,

" Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd :

" The which observ'd, a man may prophecy

" With a near aim, of the main chance of things

" As yet not come to life," &c. STEEVENS.

On considering this passage, I am induced to think that the
words character and history have been misplaced, and that it
was originally written thus :

There is a kind of history in thy life,
That to the observer doth thy character
Fully unfold.

This transposition seems to be justified by the passage quoted
by Steevens from The Second Part of Henry IV. M. MASON.

8 thy belongings — ] i. e. endowments. MALONE.

9 Are not thine oiun so proper,] i. e. are not so much thy own
property. STEEVENS.

1 them on thee.~] The old copy reads — they on thee.

The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS.

* for if our virtues &c.]

" Paulum sepultce distat inertice

" Celata virtus.'" Hor. THEOBALD,

Again, in Massinger's Maid of Honour:
" Virtue, if not in action, is a vice,
" And, when we move not forward, we go backward."
Thus, in the Latin adage — Non progredi est regredi.

STEEVENS,

VOL. VI. O

1 94 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT /.

But to fine issues :3 nor nature never lends4

The smallest scruple of her excellence,

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines

Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.5 But I do bend my speech

To one that can my part in him advertise ;G

3 tojinc issues:] To great consequences ; for high pur-
poses. JOHNSON.

4 nor nature never lends — ] Two negatives, not em-
ployed to make an affirmative, are common in our author.

So, in Julius Ccesar:

" There is no harm intended to your person,
" Nor to no Roman else." STEEVEXS.

3 she determines

Herself //ae glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.] i. e. She (Nature) requires and allots
to herself the same advantages that creditors usually enjoy, —
thanks for the endowments she has bestowed, and extraordinary
exertions in those whom she hath thus favoured, by way of
interest for what she has lent.

Use, in the phraseology of our author's age, signified interest
of money. MA LONE.

6 I do bend my speech

To one that can my part in him advertise;] This is obscure*
The meaning is, I direct my speech to one who is able to teach
me how to govern; my part in him, signifying my office, which
I have delegated to him. My part in him advertise; i. e. who
knows what appertains to the character of a deputy or viceroy.
Can advertise my part in him; that is, his representation of my
person. But all these quaintnesses of expression the Oxford
editor seems sworn to extirpate ; that is, to take away one of
Shakspeare's characteristic marks ; which, if not one of the
comehest, is yet one of the strongest. So he alters this to —

To one that can, in my part me advertise,

A better expression, indeed, but, for all that, none of Shak-
speare's. WARBUHTON.

I know not whether we may not better read —

One that can, my part to him advertise,

One that can inform himself of that which it would be other-
wise my part to tell him. JOHNSON.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 195

Hold therefore, Angelo ;7

In our remove, be thou at full ourself ;

Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart : Old Escalus,

Though first in question,8 is thy secondary :

Take thy commission.

ANG. Now, good my lord,

Let there be some more test made of my metal,
Before so noble and so great a figure
Be stamp'd upon it.

DUKE. No more evasion :

To advertise is used in this sense, and with Shakspeare's
accentuation, by Chapman, in his version of the eleventh Book
of the Odyssey:

" Or, of my father, if thy royal ear

** Hath been advertised — ." STEEVENS.

I believe, the meaning is — I am talking to one who is him-
self already sufficiently conversant with the nature and duties of
my office ; — of that office, which I have now delegated to him.
So, in Timon of Athens:

" It is our part, and promise to the Athenians,
" To speak with Timon." MALONE.

7 Hold therefore, Angela;"] That is, continue to be Angelo;
hold as thou art. JOHNSON.

I believe that — Hold therefore, Angelo, are the words which
the Duke utters on tendering his commission to him. He con-
cludes with — Take thy commission. STEEVENS.

If a full point be put after therefore, the Duke may be under-
stood to speak of himself. Hold therefore, i. e. Let me there-
fore hold, or stop. And the sense of the whole passage may be
this. — The Duke, who has begun an exhortation to Angelo,
checks himself thus : " But I am speaking to one, that can in
him [in or by himself] apprehend my part [all that I have to
say]; I will therefore say no more [on that subject]." He then
merely signifies to Angelo his appointment. TYRWHITT.

' first in question,'] That is, first called for ; first appointed.

JOHNSOX,

o 2

196 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice9
Proceeded to you ; therefore take your honours.
Our haste from hence is of so quick condition,
That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestioned
Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,
As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us ; and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare you well ;
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commissions.

ANG. Yet, give leave, my lord.

That we may bring you something on the way.4

DUKE. My haste may not admit it ;
Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
With any scruple : your scope is as mine own j2
So to enforce, or qualify the laws,
As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand ;
I'll privily away : I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes :3

9 We have ivith a leaven'd and prepared choice — ~j Leaven1 d
choice is one of Shakspeare's harsh metaphors. His train of
ideas seems to be this : / have proceeded to you icith choice
mature, concocted, fermented, leavened. When bread is lea-
vened it is left to ferment : a leavened choice is, therefore, a
choice not hasty, but considerate ; not declared as soon as it fell
into the imagination, but suffered to work long in the mind.
Thus explained, it suits better with prepared than levelled.

JOHNSON.

1 bring you something on the ivay.'] i. e. accompany you.

So, in A Woman kiWd uith Kindness, by Heywood, l6'17;
** She went very lovingly to brinv him on hia way to horse."
And the same mode of expression is to be found in almost every
writer of the times. REED.

2 your scope is as mine oivn ,•] That is, your amplitude

of power. JOHNSON.

3 to stage me to their ei/es:~\ So, in one of Queen

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 197

Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause, and aves vehement ;
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion,
That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.

ANG. The heavens give safety to your purposes!

ESCAL. Lead forth, and bring you back in hap-
piness.

DUKE. I thank you : Fare you well. [Exit.

ESCAL. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you ; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place :
A power I have ; but of what strength and nature
I am not yet instructed.

ANG. JTis so with me : — Let us withdraw to-
gether,

And we may soon our satisfaction have
Touching that point.

ESCAL. I'll wait upon your honour.

\_Exeunt.

Elizabeth's speeches to parliament, 1586: " We princes, I tel
you, are set on stages, in the sight and viewe of all the world,'*
<Src. See The Copy of a Letter to the Right Honourable the
Earle ofLcycester, &c. 4to. 1586. STEEVENS.

198 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT I.

SCENE II.

A Street.
Enter Lucio and two Gentlemen.

Lucio. If the duke, with the other dukes, come
not to composition with the king of Hungary, why,
then all the dukes fall upon the king.

1 GENT. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the
king of Hungary's !

2 GENT. Amen.

Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious
pirate, that went to sea with the ten command-
ments, but scraped one out of the table.

2 GENT. Thou shalt not steal ?
Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

1 GENT. Why, 'twas a commandment to com--
mand the captain and all the rest from their func-
tions; they put forth to steal : There's not a soldier
of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat,
doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

2 GENT. I never heard any soldier dislike it.

Lucio. I believe thee ; for, I think, thou never
wast where grace was said.

2 GENT. No ? a dozen times at least.
1 GENT. What ? in metre ?4

* in metre?] In the primers there are metrical graces,

such as, I suppose, were used in Shakspeare's time. JOHNSON.

sc. IT. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 199

Lucio. In any proportion,5 or in any language.
1 GENT. I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, despite
of all controversy :(i As for example ; Thou thyself
art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

1 GENT. Well, there went but a pair of sheers
between us.7

4 In any proportion, &c.] Proportion signifies measure j and
refers to the question, What? in metre? WARBURTON.

This speech is improperly given to Lucio. It clearly belongs
to the second Gentleman, who had heard grace " a dozen times
at least." RITSON.

6 Grace is grace, despite of all controversy:] Satirically in-
sinuating, that the controversies about grace were so intricate
and endless, that the disputants unsettled every thing but this,
that grace was grace; which, however, in spite of controversy,
still remained certain. WARBURTON.

I am in doubt whether Shakspeare's thoughts reached so far
into ecclesiastical disputes. Every commentator is warped a little
by the tract of his own profession. The question is, whether
the second gentleman has ever heard grace. The first gentleman
limits :the question to grace in metre. Lucio enlarges it to grace
in any form or language. The first gentleman, to go beyond
him, says, or in any religion, which Lucio allows, because the
nature of things is unalterable ; grace is as immutably grace, as
his merry antagonist is a ivicked villain. Difference in religion
cannot make a grace not to be grace, a prayer not to be holy ;
as nothing can make a villainjiot to be a villain. This seems to
be the meaning, such as it is. JOHNSON.

7 there ivent but a pair of sheers between us.~] We are

both of the same piece. JOHNSON.

So, in The Maid of the Mill, by Beaumont and Fletcher :
" There went but a pair of sheers and a bodkin between
them." STEEVENS.

The same expression is likewise found in Marston's Malcon-
tent, 1604: " There goes but a pair of sheers bewixt an emperor
and the son of a bagpiper ; only the dj'ing, dressing, pressing,
and glossing, makes the difference." MALONE.

200 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT.I*.

Lucio. \ grant ; as there may between the lists
and the velvet : Thou art the list.

1 GENT. And thou the velvet : thou art good
velvet ; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee:
I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be

fil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet.8 Do
speak feelingly now ?

Lucio. I think thou dost ; and, indeed, with
most painful feeling of thy speech : I will, out of
thine own confession, learn to begin thy health ;
but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee.

1 GENT. I think, I have done myself wrong ;
have I not ?

2 GENT. Yes, that thou hast ; whether thou art
tainted, or free.

Lucio. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation
comes!9 I have purchased as many diseases under
her roof, as come to —

9 pil'd, as thou art pird,for a French velvet,] The jest

about the pile of a French velvet, alludes to the loss of hair in
the French disease, a very frequent topick of our author's jocu-
larity. Lucio finding that the gentleman understands the dis-
temper so well, and mentions it so feelingly, promises to re-
member to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him.
It was the opinion of Shakspeare's time, that the cup of an
infected person was contagious. JOHNSON.

The jest lies between the similar sound of the words pilPd
and pil d. This I have elsewhere explained, under a passage in
Henry VIII:

" Pill'd priest thou liest.'* STEEVENS.

9 Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes. /] In the
old copy, this speech, and the next but one, are attributed to
Lucio. The present regulation was suggested by Mr. Pope.
What Lucio says afterwards, " A French crown more,5' proves
that it is right. He would not utter a sarcasm against himself.

M ALONE.

sc. n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 201

2 GENT. To what, I pray ?

1 GENT. Judge.

2 GENT. To three thousand dollars a-year.1
1 GENT. Ay, and more.

Lucio. A French crown more.2

1 GENT. Thou art always figuring diseases in
me : but thou art full of error ; I am sound.

Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but
so sound, as things that are hollow : thy bones are
hollow;3 impiety has made a feast of thee.

1 To three thousand dollars a-year.'] A quibble intended
between dollars and dolours, HAN.MER.

The same jest occurred before in The Tempest. JOHNSON.

1 A French crown more."] Lucio means here not the piece of
money so called, but that venereal scab, which among the sur-
geons is styled corona Veneris. To this, I think, our author
likewise makes Quince allude in A Midsummer-Night's Dream:
" Some of your French crowns have no hair at all ; and then
you will play bare-faced.'' For where these eruptions are, the
skull is carious, and the party becomes bald. THEOBALD.

So, in The Return from Parnassus, iGoS:

" I may chance indeed to give the world a bloody nose ; but
it shall hardly give me a crack'd crown, though it gives other
poets French crowns.1'

Again, in the Dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is upt
15Q8:

" never metst with any requital, except it were some

few French crownes, pil'd friers crownes," &c. STEEVENS.

3 thy bones are hollow ;] So Timon, addressing himself

to Phrynia and Timandra :

" Consumptions sow

" In holloiv bones of man." STJEEVENS.

202 MEASURE FOR ME AStJRE. ACT

Enter Bawd.

1 GENT. How now? Which of your hips has
the most profound sciatica ?

BAWD. Well, well ; there's one yonder arrested,
and carried to prison, was worth five thousand of
you all.

1 GENT. Who's that, I pray thee ?

BAWD. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, signior Claudio.

1 GENT. Claudio to prison ! 'tis not so.

BAWD. Nay, but I know, 'tis so : I saw him ar-
rested ; saw him carried away; and, which is more,
within these three days his head's to be chopped
off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not
have it so : Art thou sure of this ?

BAWD. I am too sure of it : and it is for getting
madam Julietta with child.

Lucio. Believe me, this may be : he promised to
meet me two hours since ; and he wTas ever precise
In promise-keeping.

2 GENT. Besides, you know, it draws something
near to the speech we had to such a purpose.

1 GENT. But most of all, agreeing with the pro-
clamation.

Lucio. Away; let's go learn the truth of it.

[_Exeimt Lucio and Gentlemen.

BAWD. Thus, what with the war, what with the
sweat,4 what with the gallows, and what with po-

4 ichat with the sweat,] This may allude to the sweating

-sickness, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 203

verty, I am custom-shrunk. How now? what's
the news with you ?

Enter Clown.

CLO. Yonder man is carried to prison.

BAWD. Well ; what has he done ?

CLO. A woman.5

BAWD. But what's his offence ?

CLO. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.6

BAWD. What, is there a maid with child by
him ?

Shakspeare: [see Dr. Freind's History of Phi/sick, Vol. II. p. 335,3
but more probably to the method of cure then used for the
diseases contracted in brothels. JOHNSON.

So, in the comedy of Doctor Dodypoll, l6CO:

" You are very moist, sir: did you sweat all this, I pray?
" You have not the disease, I hope." STEEVENS.

* what has he done ?

Clo. A woman.] The ancient meaning of the verb to do,
(though now obsolete,) may be guess'd at from the following
passages :

" Chiron. Thou hast undone our mother.
" Aaron. Villain, I've done thy mother."

Titus Andronicus.

Again, in Ovid's Elegies, translated by Marlowe, printed at
Middlebourg, no date :

" The strumpet with the stranger will not do,
" Before the room is clear, an,d door put to."
Again, in The Maid's Tragedy, Act II. Evadne, while undress-
ing, says,—

" I am soon undone.
Dida answers, " And as soon done."

Hence the name of Over-done, which Shakspeare has appro-
priated to his bawd. COLLINS.

6 in a peculiar river."] i. e. a river belonging to an indi-
vidual ; not public property. MALONE.

204 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i<

CLO. No ; but there's a woman with maid by
him : You have not heard of the proclamation,
have you ?

BAWD. What proclamation, man ?

CLO. All houses in the suburbs7 of Vienna must
be pluck'd down.

BAWD. And what shall become of those in the

city?

CLO. They shall stand for seed : they had gone
down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them.

BAWD. But shall all our houses of resort in the
suburbs be pull'd down ?8

7 All houses in the suburbs — ] This is surely too general an
expression, unless we suppose, that all the houses in the suburbs
were bawdy-houses. It appears too, from what the Bawd says
below, " But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be
pulled down ?" that the Clown had been particular in his de-
scription of the houses which were to be pulled down. I am
therefore inclined to believe that we should read here, all
bawdy-houses, or all houses of resort in the suburbs.

TYRWHITT.

* But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pull'd
down?] This will be understood from the Scotch law of James's
time, concerning huires (whores): "that comoun women be
put at the utmost endes of townes, queire least perril of fire is."
Hence Ursula the pig-woman, in Bartholomew-Fair: " I, I,
gamesters, mock a plain, plump, soft wench of the suburbs, do !"

FARMER,

So, in The Malcontent, 1604, when Altofront dismisses the
various characters at the end of the play to different destinations,
he says to Macquerelle the bawd:

" thou unto the suburbs.'1''

Again, in Ram- Alley, or Merry Tricks, l6ll:

" Some fourteen bawds ; he kept her in the suburbs."
See Martial, where summamiana and suburbana are applied
to prostitutes. STEEVENS.

The licenced houses of resort at Vienna are at this time all in
•the suburbs, under the permission of the Committee of Chastity.

S.W.

sc. m. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 205

CLO. To the ground, mistress.

BAWD. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the
commonwealth ! What shall become of me ?

CLO. Come; fear not you: good counsellors
lack no clients : though you change your place,
you need not change your trade ; I'll be your
tapster still. Courage ; there will be pity taken
on you : you that have worn your eyes almost out
in the service, you will be considered.

BAWD. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster?
Let's withdraw.

CLO. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the
provost to prison ; and there's madam Juliet.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IIL

The same.

Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers 5
Lucio, and two Gentlemen.

CLAUD. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to

the world ?
Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

PROF. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from lord Angelo by special charge.

CLAUD. Thus can the demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down for our offence by weight. —
The wrords of heaven ; — on whom it will, it will j
On whom it will not, so ; yet still 'tis just.9

** Thus can the demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down for our offence by tveight. —
The words of heaven; — on tvhom it "will, it nill;
On "wham it tvill not, so; yet still 'tis just.] The sense of

206 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r,

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio ? whence comes
this restraint ?

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
questioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleasure
thus, — / punish and remit punishment according to my own
uncontrollable will; and yet who can say, what dost thou? — •
Make us pay down for our offence by weight, is a fine expression
to signify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from
paying money by weight, which is always exact ; not so by tale,
on account of the practice of diminishing the species.

WARBURTON.

I suspect that a line is lost. JOHNSON.

It mav be read, — The sword of heaven.
Thus can the demi-godt Authority,.
Make us pay down for our offence, by weight ; —
The sword of heaven: — on whom, &c.

Authority is then poetically called the sword of heaven, which
will spare or punish, as it is commanded. The alteration is
slight, being made only by taking a single letter from the end
of the word, and placing it at the beginning.

This very ingenious and elegant emendation was suggested to
me by the Rev. Dr. Roberts, Provost of Eton ; and it may be
countenanced by the following passage in The Cooler's Prophecy,

" In brief, they are the swords of heaven to punish.'*
Sir W. D' Avenant, who incorporated this play of Shakspeare
with Much Ado about Nothing, and formed out of them a tragi-
comedy called The Law against Lovers, omits the two last lines
of this speech; I suppose, on account of their seeming obscurity.

STEEVENS.

The very ingenious emendation proposed by Dr. Roberts, is
yet more strongly supported by another passage in the play be-
fore us, where this phrase occurs, (Act III. sc. last):

" He who the aword of heaven will bear,

" Should be as holy, as severe."
Yet I believe the old copy is right. MA LONE.

Notwithstanding Dr. Robertas ingenious conjecture, the text
is certainly right. Authority, being absolute in Angelo, is finely
.stiled by Claudio, the demi-god. To this uncontroulable power,
the poet applies a passage from St. Paul to the Romans, ch. ix.
v. 15, 18, which he properly styles, the words of heaven: " for
he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,"

sc. m. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 207

CLAUD. From too much liberty, my Lucio, li-
berty :

As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint : Our natures do pursue,
(Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,)1
A thirsty evil ; and when we drink, we die.2

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest,
I would send for certain of my creditors : And yet,
to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of
freedom, as the morality3 of imprisonment. —
What's thy offence, Claudio ?

&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
speaking not of mercy, but punishment. MALONE.

Mr. Malone might have spared himself this remark, had he
recollected that the words of St. Paul immediately following,
and to which the S$c. referred, are — " and whom he will he
hardeneth." See also the preceding verse. HENLEY.

1 (Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,}'] To ravin
was formerly used for eagerly or voraciously devouring any thing.
So, in Wilson's Epistle to the Earl of Leicester, prefixed to his
Discourse upon Usury e, 15/2: " For these bee the greedie cor-
moraunte wolfes indeed, that ravyn up both beaste and man."

REED.

Again, in the Dedication to Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,
edit. 1632, p. 43 :

" • ravenest like a beare," &c.

Ravin is an ancient word for prey. So, in Noah's Flood, by"
Drayton :

" As well of ravine, as that chew the cud.*' STEEVENS.

8 when we drink, we die.] So, in Revenge for Honour f

by Chapman:

" Like poison'd rats, which when they've swallowed
" The pleasing bane, rest not until they drink;
" And can rest then much less, until they burst."

STEEVENS.

3 as the morality — ] The old copy has mortality. It

was corrected by Sir William D'Avenant. MALONE.

208 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

CLAUD. What, but to speak of would offend
again.

Lucio. What is it? murder?

CLAUD. No.

Lucio. Lechery?

CLAUD. Call it so.

PROF. Away, sir ; you must go.

CLAUD. One word, good friend : — Lucio, a word
with you. \Takes him aside.

Lucio. A hundred, if they'll do you any good. —
Is lechery so look'd after ?

CLAUD. Thus stands it with me : — Upon a true

contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed ;4
You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the denunciation lack
Of outward order : this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends ;5

* I got possession of Juliette? s bed; £c.] This speech is surely
too indelicate to be spoken concerning Juliet, before her face ;
for she appears to be brought in with the rest, though she has
pothing to say. 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 personal
appearance on the scene. STEEVENS.

The little seeming impropriety there is, will be entirely re-
moved, by supposing that when Claudio stops to speak to Lucio,
$he Provost's officers depart with Julietta. RITSON.

Claudio may be supposed to speak to Lucio apart. MALONE*

* this "we came not to,

Only for propagation of a doiver

Remaining in the coffer of her friends ;~\ This singular mode
of expression certainly demands some elucidation. The sense
appears to be this : We did not think it proper publickly to cele-
brate our marriage; for this reason, that there might be no

sc. in. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 209

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chances,
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,
With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.

Lucio. With child, perhaps ?

CLAUD. Unhappily, even so.
And the new deputy now for the duke, —
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness j 6

hindrance to the payment of Julietta" s portion, which was then
in the hands of her friends ; from whom, therefore, we judged
it expedient to conceal our love till we had gained their favour."
Propagation being here used to signify payment, must have its
root in the Italian word pagare. Edinburgh Magazine for
November, 1786.

I suppose the speaker means — for the sake of getting such a
dower as her friends might hereafter bestow on her, when time
had reconciled them to her clandestine marriage.

The verb — to propagate, is, however, as obscurely employed
by Chapman, in his version of the sixteenth Book of Homer's
Odyssey :

' to try if we,

' Alone, may propagate to victory

' Our bold encounters — ,"
Again, n the fourth Iliad, by the same translator, 4to. 15Q8 :

' 1 doubt not but this night

' Even to the fleete to propagate the Greeks' unturned

flight." STEEVENS.
Perhaps we should read — only for prorogation. MALONE.

— the fault and glimpse of newness ;] Fault and glimpse
have so little relation to each other, that both can scarcely be
right: we may read fash for fault ; or, perhaps, we may read,

Whether it be the fault or glimpse —

That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or
die glare of new authority. Yet the same sense follows in the
next lines. JOHNSON.

Fault, I apprehend, does not refer to any enormous act done
by the deputy, (as Dr. Johnson seems to have thought,) but to
newness. The fault and glimpse is the same as the faulty glimpse.
And the meaning seems to be — Whether it be the fault of new-
ness, a fault arising from the mind being dazzled by a novel

VOL. VI. P

210 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,

Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

He can command, lets it straight feel the spur :

Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I stagger in :— But this new governor

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'd armour,7 hung by the

wall

So long, that riineteen zodiacks have gone round,*
And none of them been worn ; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me : 9 — 'tis surely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is : and thy head stands so

authority, of which the new governor has yet had only a glimpse,
— has yet taken only a hasty survey ; or "whether, &c. Shakspeare
has many similar expressions. MA LONE.

7 like unscour'd armour,] So, in Troilus ami Cressida .'

" Like rusty mail in monumental mockery."

STEEVENS,

' 80 long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,] Thft"
Duke, in the scene immediately following, says:

" Which for these fourteen years vie have let slip"

THEOBALD.

But this neiv governor

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall

So long,

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

Freshly on me .•] Lord Strafforfl, in the conclusion of hiJ
Defence in the House of Lords, had, perhaps, these lines in 1m
thoughts :

" It is now full two hundred and forty years since any man
•was touched for this alledged crime, to this height, before my-
self. Let us rest contented with that which our fathers have

left us ; and not awake those sleeping lions, to our own destruc-
tion, by raking up a feiv musty records, that have lain so -n
<ro£,y by the icatlt,, tybite forgotten and neglected."

sc.m. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 211

tickle1 on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she
be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke,
and appeal to him.

CLAUD. I have done so, but he's not to be found.
I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service :
This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation : 2
Acquaint her with the danger of my state ;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy ; bid herself assay him ;
I have great hope in that : for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,3

1 so tickle — ] i. e. ticklish. This word is frequently

used by our old dramatic authors. So, in The true Tragedy of
Murius and Sci.Ha, 15p4:

" lords of Asia

" Have Stood on tickle terms."
.Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, l6l2:

" upon as tickle a pin as the needle of a dial."

STEEVE&S.

* her approbation :] i. e. enter on her probation, or

noviciate. So again, in this play :

" I, in probation of a sisterhood."
Again, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 160S :

" Madam, for a twelvemonth's approbation,

" We mean to make the trial of our child." M ALONE.

* prone and speechless dialect,'] I can scarcely tell what

signification to give to the word prone. Its primitive and trans-
lated senses are well known. The author may, by a prone dia-
lect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect
natural and unforced, as those actions seem to which we are
prw>.e. Father of these interpretations is sufficiently strained ,-
hut such distortion of words is not uncommon in our author.
For the sake of an easier sense, we may read:

in lie)- youth

There is a povv'r, and speechless dialect,
Such as moves men ;
Or thus:

'.I 'here it a prompt and speechless dialect,

p 2

212 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Such as moves men; beside, she hath prosperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encou-
ragement of the like, which else would stand under
grievous imposition ; 4 as for the enjoying of thy
life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly
lost at a game of tick-tack.5 I'll to her.

CLAUD^ I thank you, good friend Lucio.

Lucio. Within two hours,

CLAUD. Come, officer, away. [Exeunt.

Prone, perhaps, may stand for humble, as a prone posture is
a posture of supplication.

So, in The Opportunity, by Shirley, 1640:

" You have prostrate language."
The same thought occurs in The Winter'1 s Tale :

" The silence often of pure innocence

" Persuades, when speaking fails."

. Sir W. D' Avenant, in his alteration of the play, changes prone
to street. I mention some of his variations, to shew that what
appear difficulties to us, were difficulties to him, who, living
nearer the fcime of Shakspeare, might be supposed to have under-
stood his language more intimately. STEEVENS.

Prone, I believe, is used here for prompt, significant, expres-
sive, (though speechless,) as in our author's Rape of Lucrece it
means ardent, head-strong, rushing forward to its object :

" O that prone lust should stain so pure a bed !"
Again, in CijmbcUne : " Unless a man would marry a gallows.
and beget young gibbets, I never saw any one so prone.'"

MALOXE.

4 - under grievous imposition ;] I once thought it should
he inquisition, but the present reading is probably right. Tht
crime would be under grievous penalties imposed. JOHNSON.

- la.--;, at a game of tick-tack.] Tick-tack is a game at
tables. " Joiicr au tric-trac," is used in Trench, in a wanton
sense. MALONK.

The same phrase, in Lucio's sportive setfse, occur1- in
irccHttfs. STKKVEXS-.

sc. iv, MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 213

SCENE IV.

A Monastery.
Enter DUKE and Friar Thomas.

DUKE. No ; holy father ; throw away that

thought ;

Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
Can pierce a complete bosom : 6 why I desire thee
To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose
More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

FRI. May your grace speak of it ?

DUKE. My holy sir, none better knows than you
How I have ever lov'd the life reinov'd j 7

6 Believe not that the. dribbling dart of love .

Can pierce a complete bosom .•] Think not that a breast
completely armed can be pierced by the dart of love, that comes
fluttering without force. JOHNSON.

A dribbcr, in archery, was a term of contempt which perhaps
cannot be satisfactorily explained. Ascham, in his Toxophilus,
edit. 1589, p. 32, observes: " — if he give it over, and not use
to shoote truly, &c. he shall become of a fayre archer a starke
squirter and dribber."

In the second stanza of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, the same
term is applied to the dart of Cupid :

" Not at first sight, nor yet with dribbed shot,
" Love gave the wound," &c. STEKVKNS.

7 the life remov'd ;] i. e. a life of retirement, a life remote,

or removed, from the bustle of the world.

So, in the Prologue to Milton's Masque at Ludloiv Castle :
I mean the MS. copy in the Library of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge :

" 1 was not sent to court your wonder

" With distant worlds, and strange removed climes."

STEEVENS.

214 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,
Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery8 keeps.*
I have delivered to lord Angelo
(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence,)1
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travelled to Poland ;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is received : Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this ?

FRI. Gladly, my lord.

DUKE. We have strict statutes, and most biting
laws,

* ivitlcss bravery — ] Bravery, in the present instance,

signifies showy dress. So, in The Taming of a Skretv :

" With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery."

STEEVENS.

9 keeps."] i. e. dwells, resides. In this sense it is still

used at Cambridge, where the students and fellows, referring
to their collegiate apartments, always say they keep, i. e. reside
there. REED.

1 (A man of stricture, andjtrm abstinence,}] Stricture makes
no sense in this place. We should read —

A man ofstvict ure andjirm abstinence.

\. e. a man of the cxactest conduct, and practised in the subdual
of his passions. Ure is an old word for use, practice : so cnur'd,
habituated to. WARBURTON.

Stricture may easily be used for strictness ; ure. is indeed an
old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to
persons. JOHNSON.

Sir W. D'Avenant, in his alteration of this play, reads —
strictness. Ure is sometimes applied to persons, as well as to
things. So, in the old interlude of Tom Tyler and his Wife,
1661 :

" So shall I be sure
" To keep him in ure.''*

The same word occurs in Promos and Cassandra, 1578 :
" The crafty man oft puts these wrongs in ure'*

STEEVENS.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 215

(The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds,)2
Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep ; 3

* ( The needful bits and curbsybr head-strong steeds,)] In the
copies —

The needful bits and curbsjfor head-strong vveeds.
There is no mariner of analogy or consonauce in the metaphors
here ; and, though the copies agree, I do not think the author
would have talked of bits and curbs for weeds. On the other
hand, nothing can he more proper, than to compare persons of
unbridled licentiousness to head-strong steeds ; and, in this view,
bridling the passions has been a phrase adopted by our best poets.

THEOBALD.

3 Which for these fourteen years ice have let sleep ;] Thus
the old copy ; which also reads —

" we have let slip" STEEVENS.

For fourteen I have made no scruple to replace nineteen. The
reason will be obvious to him who recollects what the Duke
[Claudio] has said in a foregoing scene*. I have altered the odd
phrase of " letting the laws slip:" for how does it sort with the
comparison that follows, of a lion in his cave that went not out
to prey ? But letting the laws deep, adds a particular propriety
to the thing represented, and accords exactly too with the simile.
It is the metaphor too, that our author seems fond of using upon
this occasion, in several other passages of this play :

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept ;

' Tis now awake.

And, so again :

— but this new governor

Awakes me oil the enrolled penalties ;
• and for a name,

N OIK puts the drowsy and neglected act

v pu
shly

Freshly on me. THEOBALD.

The latter emendation may derive its support from a passage
in Hamlet:

" How stand I then,

" That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,

" Excitements of my reason and my blood,

" And let all sleep?"

If slip be the true reading, (which, however, I do not be-
lieve,) the sense may be, — which for these fourteen years we
have suffered to pass unnoticed, unobserved; for SQ the same
phrase is used in Twelfth- Night: — " Let him let this matter
slip, and I'll give him my horse, grey Capulet."

216 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey : Now, as fond fathers

Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,

Only to stick it in their children's sight,

For terror, not to use ; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd : 4 so our de-

crees,

Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead ;
And liberty plucks justice by the nose ;
The baby beats the nurse,5 and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

FRI. It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd :
And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

DUKE. I do fear, too dreadful :

Sith 6 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them
For what I bid them do : For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,

Mr. Theobald altered fourteen to nineteen, to make the Duke's
account correspond with a speech of Claudio's in a former scene,
but without necessity. Claudia would naturally represent the
period during which the law had not been put in practice greater
than it really was. MALONE.

Theobald's correction is misplaced. If any correction is really
necessary, it should have been made where Claudio, in a fore-

S)ing scene, says nineteen years. I am disposed to take the
uke's words. WIIALLEY.

4 Becomes more mock'd, than jear'd:~\ Becomes was added
by Mr. Pope, to restore sense to the passage, some such word
having been left out. STEEVENS.

5 The baby beats the nurse,"] This allusion was borrowed from
an ancient print, entitled The World turn'd upside down, where
an infant is thus employed. STEEVENS.

Jj Sith — ] i. e. since. STEEVENS.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 217

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my

father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office ;
Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home.
And yet my nature never in the sight,
To do it slander :7 And to behold his sway,
I will, as 'twere a brother, of your order,
Visit both prince and people : therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear8 me

7 To do it slander .-] The text stood ;

So do in slander :

Sir Thomas Hanmer has very well corrected it thus :

To do it slander:

Yet, perhaps, less alteration might have produced the true
reading :

And yet my nature never, in the sighi,

So doing slandered :

And yet my nature never suffer slander, by doing any open act*
of severity. JOHNSON.

The old text stood,

in thejlght

To do in slander :-

Hanmer's emendation is supported by a passage in K. Henry IV.
P.I:

" Do me no slander, Douglas, I dare fight." STEEVENS.

Fight seems to be countenanced by the words ambush and
strike. Sight was introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

8 in person bear — ] Mr. Pope reads —

my person bear.

Perhaps the word which I have inserted in the text, had
dropped out while the sheet was at press. A similar phrase oc-
curs in The Tempest:

" some good instruction give

" How I may bear me here."
Sir W. D'Avenant reads, in his alteration of the play :

/ may in person a true friar seem.

The sense of the passage (as Mr. Henley observes) is — Hole
I may demean myself, so as to support ihe character I have as-
sumed. STEEVENS.

218 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action,

At our more leisure shall I render you ;

Only, this one : — Lord Angelo is precise ;

Stands at a guard9 with envy ; scarce confesses

That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone : Hence shall we see,

If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

\_Exeunt.

SCENE V.

A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

ISAS. And have you nuns no further privileges ?

FRAN. Are not these large enough ?

ISAS. Yes, truly : I speak not as desiring more ;
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sister-hood, the votarists of saint Clare.

Lucio. Ho! Peace be in this place! \WithinJ\
ISAB. Who's that which calls ?

FRAN. It is a man's voice : Gentle Isabella,
Turn you the key, and know his business of him j
You may, I may not ; you are yet unsworn :
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with

men,

But in the presence of the prioress:
Then, if you speak, you must not show your face ;

IJ Stands at a guard — ] Stands on terms of defiance.

JOHNSON.

Tliis rather means, to stand cautiously on his defence, than on
terms of defiance. M.

jsc. v. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 219

Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.
Pie calls again ; I pray you, answer him.

[Exit FIIANCISCA.

ISAB. Peace and prosperity ! Who is't that calls ?

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be ; as those cheek-
roses

Proclaim you are no less ! Can you so stead me,
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
A novice of this place, and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio ?

ISAB. Why her unhappy brother ? let me ask ;
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella, and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly

greets you :
Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

ISAB. Woe me ! For what ?

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his

judge,1

He should receive his punishment in thanks :
He hath got his friend with child,

ISAB. Sir, make me not your story,2

1 For that, which, if myself might le his judge,'] Perhaps these
words were transposed at the press. The sense seems to require
— That, for which, &c. MALONE.

v make me not your story.'} Do not, by deceiving me,

make me a subject for a tale. JOHNSON.

Perhaps only, Do not divert yourself with me, as you •uxnild
'icith a story, do not make me the subject of your drama. Bene-
dick talks of becoming — the argument of his own scorn.

220 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Lucio. It is true.

I would not 3 — though 'tis my familiar sin

So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream :
" If you have any pity, &c.
" You would not make me such an argument."

Sir W. D'Avenant reads — scorn instead of story.

After all, the irregular phrase [me, &c.] that, perhaps, ob-
scures this passage, occurs frequently in our author, and par-
ticularly in the next scene, where Escalus says : " Come me to
what was done to her." — " Make me not your story," may
therefore signify — invent not your story on purpose to deceive me,
" It is true" in Lucio's reply, means — What I have already told
you, is true. STEEVENS.

Mr. Ritson explains this passage, " do not make a, jest of me."

REED.

I have no doubt that we ought to read, (as I have printed,)
Sir, mock me not : — your story.
So, in Macbeth :

" Thou com'st to use thy tongue : — thy story quickly."
In King Lear we have —

" Pray, do not mock me."

I beseech you, Sir, (says Isabel) do not play upon my fears ;
reserve this idle talk for some other occasion ; — proceed at once
to your tale. Lucio's subsequent words, [" 'Tis true," — i. e.
you are right; I thank you for remembering me ;] which, as
the text has been hitherto printed, had no meaning, are then
pertinent and clear. Mr. Pope was so sensible of the impossi-
bility of reconciling them to what preceded in the old copy, that
he fairly omitted them.

What Isabella says afterwards fully supports this emendation :

" You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me."
I have observed that almost every passage in our author, in
which there is either a broken speech, or a sudden transition
without a connecting particle, has been corrupted by the care-
lessness of either the transcriber or compositor See a note on
Love's Labour's Lost, Act II. sc. i :

" A man of — sovereign, peerless, he's esteem'd."
And another on Coriolanus, Act I. sc. iv :

" You shames of Rome ! you herd of — Boils and plagues

" Plaster you o'er!" MALONE.

3 / "would not — ] i. e. Be assured, I would not mock you.

w. r. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 221

With maids to seem the lapwing,4 and to jest,
Tongue far from heart, — play with all virgins so:5

So afterwards: " Do not believe it:" i. e. Do not suppose that
I would mock you. MALONE.

I ani satisfied with the sense afforded by the old punctuation.

SXEEVENS.

• 'tis my familiar sin

With maids to seem the lapwing,] The Oxford editor's note
on this passage is in these words : The lapwings fly, with seeming
fright and anxiety, far from their nests, to deceive those who seek
their young. And do not all other birds do the same ? But what
has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover, to whom this
bird is compared ? It is another quality of the lapwing that is
here alluded to, viz. its perpetual flying so low and so near the
passenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is suddenly gone
again. This made it a proverbial expression to signify a lover's
falshood ; and it seems to be a very old one : for Chaucer, in his
Plowman's Tale, says :

" And lapwings that well conith lie." WARBURTON.

The modern editors have not taken in the whole similitude
here ; they have taken notice of the lightness of a spark's beha-
viour to his mistress, and compared it to the lapwing's hovering
and fluttering as it flies. But the chief, of which no notice is
taken is, — " — and to jest" [See Ray's Proverbs.'] " The lap-
wing cries, tongue far from heart ;" i. e. most farthest from the
nest ; i. e. She is, as Shakspeare has it here, — Tongue far from
heart. " The farther she is from her nest, where her heart is
with her young ones, she is the louder, or, perhaps, all tongue."

SMITH.

Shakspeare has an expression of the like kind in his Comedy
<>/ Errors :

" Adr. Far from her nest the lapwing cries away ;
" My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse."
We meet with the same thought in Lyly's Campaspe, 158-i, from
whence Shakspeare might borrow it :

" Alex. • you resemble the lapwing, who crieth most

where her nest is not, and so, to lead me from espying your love
tor Campaspe, you cry Timoclea." GREY.

' / would not — 1 hough 'tis my familiar sin
IVith maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue Jar from heart, — play with all virgins so: &c.J
Tins passage has been pointed in the modern editions thus;

222 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT I.

I hold you as a thing ensky'd, and sainted ;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit ;
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,
As with a saint.

ISAS. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking
me.

LUCJO. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth,1"

'tis thus :
Your brother and his lover7 have embraced :

'77.? true .' — / would not (though "'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart] play with all virgins so :
I hold you, &c.

According to this punctuation, Lucio is made to deliver at
sentiment directly opposite to that which the author intended.
Though 'tis my common practice to jest with and to deceive all
virgins, I would not ,vo play with all virgins.

The sense, as I have regulated my text, appears to me clear
and easy. 'Tis very true, (says he,) I ought indeed, as you say,
to proceed at once to my story. Be assured, I would not mock
i/on. Though it is my familiar practice to jest with maidens,
and. like the lapwing, to deceive them by my insincere prattle,
though, I say, it is my ordinary and habitual practice to sport
in this manner with all virgins, yel: I should never think of treat-
ing y<>u so; for I consider vou, in consequence of your having
renounced the world, as an immortal spirit, as one to whom1 I
ought to speak with as much sincerity as if 1 were addressing a
saint. MALONE.

Mr. M alone complains of a contradiction which I cannot find
in the speech of Lucio. He has not s.iid that it is his practice
to jest with and deceive all virgins. " Though (says he) it is
my practice with in,i'ds to seem the lapwing, I would not play
with all virgins so ;" meaning tnat she herself is the exception
to his usual practice. Though he has treated other women with
levity, he is serious in Ms address to her. STEEVKNS.

r> Fewness and truth, &c,J i. c. in few words, and tlioie
true ones. In yva, is many times ihus used by Shakspeare.

STE EVENS.

' Your brother a;id /?/,< lover—-] i. e. iiis mistress; lover, in
4>uv author's time, being applied to the lemule as well as the

sc. r. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 223

As those that feed grow full ; as blossoming time,8
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison ; even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

ISAB. Some one with child by him ? — My eousin
Juliet ?

male sex. Thus, one of hie poems, containing the lamentation
of a deserted maiden, is entitled, " A Lover's Complaint."

So, in Tarleton's Newss out of Purgatory, bl. 1. no date:
" — he spide the fetch, and perceived that all this while this was
Jus lover's husband, to whom he had revealed these escapes."

MA LONE;

* as blossoming time',

Thatjrom the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison ; even so — ] As the sentence now stands',
it is apparently ungrammatical. I read —

At blossoming time, &c.

That is, As they that feed grow full, so her womb now at blos^
doming time, at that time through which the seed time proceeds
to the harvest, her womb shows what has been doing. Lucio
ludicrously calls pregnancy blossoming time, the time when fruit
is promised, though not yet ripe. JOHNSON.

Instead of that, we may read — doth ; and, instead of brings*
firing. Foizon is plenty. So, in The Tempest:

" nature should bring forth,

" Of its own kind, allfuizon," &c.
Teeming foizon, is abundant produce. STEEVENS.

The passage seems to me to require no amendment ; and the
meaning of it is this : " As blossoming time proves the good
tillage of the farmer, so the fertility of her womb expresses
Clauuio's full tilth and husbandry." By blossoming time is
Incant, the time when the ears of corn are formed.

IvI. MASON,

This sentence, as Dr. Johnson has observed, is apparently un-
grammatical. I suspect two half lines have been lost. Perhaps
however an imperfect sentence was intended, of which there are
many instances in these plays : — or, as might have been used in

?he sense of like. Tilth is tillage.
,-, . i , -, 0 to

c<o, m our author s 3d bonnet:

•' For who is she so fair, whose unear'd womb

" Disdains the tiUagr of thy husbandry?" MALONE.

224 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Lucio. Is she your cousin ?

ISAB. Adoptedly ; as school-maids change their

names,
By vain though apt affection.

Lucio. She it is.

ISAB. O, let him marry her !

Lucio. This is the point.

The duke is very strangely gone from hence ;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action :9 but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line l of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo ; a man, whose blood
Is very snow-broth ; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense ;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He (to give fear to use2 and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions,) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit : he arrests him on it ;

9 Bore many gentlemen,

In hand, and hope of 'action :~\ To bear in hand is a common
phrase for to keep in expectation and dependance; but we should
read :

with hope of action. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth :

" How you were borne in hand," £c. STEEVENS.

» _ _ mith full line — ] With full extent, with the whole
length. JOHNSON.

to give Jear to use — ] To intimidate use, that is, prac-
tices long countenanced by custom. JOHNSON.

sc. v. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 225

And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example : all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace3 by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo : And that's my pith
Of business 4 'twixt you and your poor brother.

ISAB. Doth he so seek his life ?

Lucio. Has censur'd him 5

Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath
A warrant for his execution.

ISAB. Alas ! what poor ability's in me
To do him good ?

Lucio. Assay the power you have.

ISAB. My power ! Alas ! I doubt, —

3 Unless you have, the grace — ] That is, the acceptableness,
the power of gaining favour. So, when she makes her suit, the
Provost says :

" Heaven give thee moving graces /" JOHNSON.

4 my pith

Of business — ] The inmost part, the main of my message.

JOHNSON.

So, in Hamlet :

" And enterprizes of great pith and moment."

STEEVENS.

•' Has censur'd him — ] i. e. sentenced him. So, in Othello:

" to you, lord governor,

" Remains the censure of this hellish villain."

STEEVENS.

We should read, I think, He has censured him, &c. In the
MSS. of our author's time, and frequently in the printed copy
of these plays, he has, when intended to be contracted, is written
— h'as. • Hence probably the mistake here.
So, in Othello, 4 to. 1022:

" And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
" H'as done my office."

Again, in All's ivell that ends -well, p. 247, folio, 1623, we find
H'as twice, for He has. See also Twelfth- Night, p. 258, edit.
1623 : " — h'as been told so," for " he has been told so."

MALONE.

VOL. VI. Q

<J26 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT i.

Lucio. Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt : Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods ; but when they weep and

kneel,

All their petitions are as freely theirs °
As they themselves would owe them.7

ISAB. I'll see what I can do.

Lucio. But, speedily.

ISAB. I will about it straight ;
No longer staying but to give the mother8
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you :
Commend me to my brother : soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my success.

Lucio. I take my leave of you.

ISAB. Good sir, adieu.

\_Exeunt.

* All their petitions are as freely theirs — ] All their requests
are as freely granted to them, are granted in as full and bene-
ficial a manner, as they themselves could wish. The editor of
the second folio arbitrarily reads — as truly theirs; which has
been followed in all the subsequent copies. M ALONE.

7 would owe them.~\ To owe, signifies in this place, as

in many others, to possess, to have. STEEVENS.

* -the mother — ] The abbess, or prioress. JOHNSON.

ACT n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 227

ACT II. SCENE I.

A Hall in Angelo's House.

Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Provost,9
Officers, and other Attendants.

ANG. We must not make a scare-crow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,1
And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch, and not their terror.

ESCAL. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,
Than fall, and bruise to death : 2 Alas ! this gen-
tleman,

0 Provost,"] A Provost martial, Minshieu explains, " Prevost
des mareschaux : Praefectus rerum capitalium, Praetor rerum
capitalium." REED.

A provost is generally the executioner of an army. So, in
The famous History of Thomas StuJiely, ]605, bl. 1 :

" Provost, lay irons upon him, and take him to your

charge."

Again, in The Virgin Martyr, by Massinger :
" Thy provost, to see execution done
" On these base Christians in Caesarea." STEEVENS.

A prison for military offenders is at this day, in some places,
called the Prevot. MALONE.

The Provost here, is not a military officer, but a kind of
sheriff or gaoler, so called in foreign countries. DOUCE.

1 to fear the birds of 'prey ',] To fear is to affright, to

terrify. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

" — — This aspect of mine

" Hathfear'd the valiant." STEEVENS.

2 Than fall, and bruise to death :] I should rather read fell,
i. e. strike down. So, in Tirnon of Athens :

Q2

228 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT u.

Whom I would save, had a most noble father.
Let but your honour know,3
(Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,)
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time cohered with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood
Could have attained the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Err'd in this point which now you censure him,4
And pull'd the law upon you.

ANG. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,
The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,

" All save thee,

" I Jell with curses." WARBUUTOX.

Fall is the old reading, and the true one. Shakspeare has
used the same verb active in The Comedy of Errors :

" as easy may'st thoujall

" A drop of water, — ."
i. e. let fall. So, in As you like it :

" the executioner

" Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck."

STEEVENS.

Than fall, and bruise to death .-] i. e. fall the axe ; or rather,
let the criminal fall, £c. MALONE.

3 Let but your honour know,] To knoia is here to examine,
to take cognisance. So, in A Midsummer- Night's Dream :

" Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires ;
" Knoiv of your youth, examine well your blood."

Jo HNS OK.

4 Err'd in this point which now yon censure him,] Some
word seems to be wanting to make this line sense. Perhaps,
we should read :

Err'd in this point which now you censure him for.

STEEVENS.

The sense undoubtedly requires, " — which now you censure
himyor," but the text certainly appears as the poet left it.
I have elsewhere shewn that he frequently uses these elliptical
expressions. MALONE.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 229

May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two
Guiltier than him they try : What's open made to

justice,

That justice seizes.5 What know the laws,
That thieves do pass on thieves ? 6 JTis very preg-
nant,7

The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
Because we see it ; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence,
For I have had 8 such faults ; but rather tell me,
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.

ESCAL. Be it as your wisdom will.

ANG. Where is the provost ?

PROF. Here, if it like your honour.

a That justice seizes.'] For the sake of metre, I think we
should read, — seizes on ; or, perhaps, we should regulate the
passage thus :

Guiltier than him they try : What's open made

To justice, justice seizes. What know, &c. STEEVENS.

0 What knoiv the laws,

That thieves do pass on thieves?] How can the admini-
strators of the laws take cognizance of what I have just men-
tioned ? How can they know, whether the jurymen, who decide
on the life or death of thieves, be themselves as criminal as those
whom they try ? To pass on is a forensick term. MALONE.

So, in King Lear, Act III. sc. vii :

" Though well we may not pass upon his life."
See my note on this passage. STEEVENS.

7 'Tis very pregnant,"] 'Tis plain that we must act with bad
as with good ; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages
that lie in our way, and what we do riot see we cannot note.

JoHNSONj

8 For I have had — ] That is, because, by reason that I have
had such faults. JOHNSON.

230 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

ANG. See that Claudio

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning :
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepar'd ;
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

[Exit Provost.

ESCAL. Well, heaven forgive him ! and forgive

us all !

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall :
Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none ;
And some condemned for a fault alone.9

9 Some rise &c.~\ This line is in the first folio printed in
Italics as a quotation. All the folios read in the next line :
Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none.

JOHNSON.

The old reading is, perhaps, the true one, and may mean,
some run away from danger •, and stay to answer none of their
faults, whilst others are condemned only on account of a single
frailty.

If this be the true reading, it should be printed:

Some run from breaks [i. e. fractures] of ice, &c.
Since I suggested this, I have found reason to change my opi-
nion. A brake anciently meant not only a sharp bit, a snaffle, but
also the engine with which farriers confined the legs of such
unruly horses as would not otherwise submit themselves to be
shod, or to have a cruel operation performed on them. This,
in some places, is still called a smith's brake. In this last sense,
Ben Jonson uses the word in his Underwoods:
" And not think he had eat a stake,
" Or were set up in a brake."

And, for the former sense, see The Silent Woman, Act IV.
Again, for the latter sense, Bussy D'Ambois, by Chapman :
" Or, like a strumpet, learn to set my face
" In an eternal brake.1"
Again, in The Opportunity, by Shirley, 1(5-10 :

" He is fallen into some brake, some wench has tied him by
the legs."

Again, in Holland's Leaguer, 1033 :

" lur I'll make

" A stale, to catch this courtier in a brake.'"
I offer these quotations, which may prove of use to some more
fortunate conjecture)- ; but am able myself to derive very little
from them to suit the passage before us.

sc. I. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 231

Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, fyc.

ELS. Come, bring them away: if these be good
people in a common-weal, that do nothing but use

I likewise find from Holinshed, p. 670, that the brake was
an engine of torture. " The said Hawkins was cast into the
Tower, and at length brought to the brake, called the Duke of
Excester's daughter, by means of which pain he shewed many
things," &c.

" When the Dukes of Exeter and Suffolk, (says Blackstone,
in his Commentaries, Vol. IV. chap. xxv. p. 320, 321,) and
other ministers of Henry VI. had laid a design to introduce the
civil law into this kingdom as the rule of government, for a
beginning thereof they erected a rack for torture ; which was
called in derision the Duke of Exeter's Daughter, and still re-
mains in the Tower of London, where it was occasionally used
as an engine of state, not of law, more than once in the reign
of Queen Elizabeth." See Coke's Imtit. 35, Earrington, tig,
385, and Fuller's Worthies, p. 317-

A part of this horrid engine still remains in the Tower, and
the following is the figure of it :

It consists of a strong iron frame about six feet long, with three
rollers of wood within it. The middle on ; of these, which has
iron teeth at each end, is governed by two stops of iron, and
was, probably, that part of the machine which suspended the
powers of the rest, when the unhappy sufferer was sufficiently

232 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

their abuses in common houses, I know no law ;
bring them away.

strained by the cords, &c. to begin confession. I cannot con-
clude this account of it without confessing my obligation to
Sir Charles Frederick, who politely condescended to direct my
enquiries, while his high command rendered every part of the
Tower accessible to my researches.

I have since observed that, in Fox's Martyrs, edit. 15Q6,
p. 1843, there is a representation of the same kind. To this
also, Skelton, in his Why come ye not to Court, seems to allude :

" And with a cole rake

" Bruise them on a brake"

If Shakspeare alluded to this engine, the sense of the contested
passage will be: Some run more than oner, from engines of pu-
nishment, and answer no interrogatories; while some are con-
demned to suffer for a single trespass.

It should not, however, be dissembled, that yet a plainer
meaning may be deduced from the same words. By brakes of
vice may be meant a collection, a number, a thicket of vices.
The same image occurs in Daniel's Civil Wars, B. IV :

" Rushing into the thickest woods of spears,

" And brakes of swords," £c.

That a brake meant a bush, may be known from Drayton's
poem on Moses and his Miracles :

" Where God unto the Hebrew spake,

" Appearing from the burning brake "
Again, in The Mooncalf of the same author :

" He brings into a brake of briars and thorn,

" And so entangles."

Mr. Toilet is of opinion that, by brake* of vice, Shakspeare
means only the thorni/ paths of vice.

So, in Ben Jonson's Undenvood*, Whalley's edit. Vol. VI.
p. 367:

" Look at the false and cunning man, &c. —

" Crush'd in the snakey brakes that he had past."

STEEVEXS.

The words — ansiccr none, (that is, mnkc no confession of
<?.i<i/t,) evidently shew that brake of vice here means the engine
of torture. The same mode of question is again referred to in
Act V :

" To the rude with him: we'll touze you joint by joint,
" But we will know this purpose."
The name of brake of vice, appears to have been given this

sc. T. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 233

ANG. How now, sir ! What's your name ? and
what's the matter ?

ELS. If it please your honour, I am the poor
duke's constable, and my name is Elbow ; I do
lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before
your good honour two notorious benefactors.

ANG. Benefactors ? Well ; what benefactors are
they ? are they not malefactors ?

ELS. If it please your honour, I know not well
what they are : but precise villains they are, that I
am sure of; and void of all profanation in ih&
world, that good Christians ought to have.

ESCAL. This comes off well ; l here's a wise
officer.

ANG. Go to : What quality are they of? Elbow
is your name ? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow ? 2

machine from its resemblance to that used to subdue vicious

horses; to which Daniel thus refers :

" Lyke as the brake within the rider's hande

" Doth straine the horse nye wood with grief of paine,

" Not us'd before to come in such a band," &c.

HENLEY.

I am not satisfied with either the old or present reading of
this very difficult passage ; yet have nothing better to propose.
The modern reading, vice, was introduced by Mr. Rowe. In
King Henry VIII. we have —

" 'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
" That virtue must go through." MAJ.ONE.

1 This comes offtvcll ;~] This is nimbly spoken ; this is volubly
uttered. JOHNSON.

The same phrase is employed in Timon of Athens, and else-
where ; but in the present instance it is used ironically. The
meaning of it, when seriously applied to speech, is* — This is well
delivered, this story is well told. STEEVENS.

* Why dost thou not speak, Elbow ?] Says Angelo to the
constable. " He cannot, sir, (quoth the Clown,) he's out at
t'/t'ou-." I know not. whether this quibble be generally under-

234 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

CLO. He cannot, sir ; he's out at elbow.
ANG. What are you, sir ?

ELS. He, sir ? a tapster, sir ; parcel-bawd ; 3 one
that serves a bad woman ; whose house, sir, was,
as they say, pluck'd down in the suburbs ; and
now she professes a hot-house,4 which, I think, is
a very ill house too.

ESCAL. How know you that ?

ELB. My wife, sir, whom I detest 5 before heaven
and your honour, —

ESCAL. How ! thy wife ?

ELB. Ay, sir ; whom, I thank heaven, is an
honest woman, —

stood: he is out at the word elbow, and out at the elbow of his
coat. The Constable, in his account of master Froth and the
Clown, has a stroke at the Puritans, who were very zealous
against the stage about this time : " Precise villains they are,
that I am sure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that
good Christians ought to have." FARMER.

3 - a tapster, sir ; parcel-baivd ;] This we should now
express by saying, he is half tapster, half-bawd. JOHNSON.

Thus, in King Henry IF. P. II:

ilt oblet." STEEVENS.

she professes a hot-house,] A hot-house is an English

name for a bagnio. So, Ben Jonson

" Where lately harbour'd many a famous whore,
" A purging bill now fix'd upon the door,
" Tells you it is a hoi-house: so it may,
" And still be a whore-house." JOHNSON.

Again, in Goulart's Admirable Histories, &c. iCJO/ : " — hear-
ing that they were together in a hot-house at an old woman's
that dwelt by him." STEEVENS.

* - whom I detest - — ] lie designed to say protest. Mrs.
Quickly makes the same blunder in The Merry Wives of Windsor,
Act I. sc. iv : " But, I detest, an honest maid," &c. STEEVKN.S.

I think that Elbow, in both instances, uses detest for altex! ;
that is, to call witness. M. MASON.

sc. I. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 235

ESCAL. Dost thou detest her therefore ?

ELS. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as wel]
as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house,
it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.

ESCAL. How dost thou know that, constable ?

ELB. Marry, sir, by my wife ; who, if she had
been a woman cardinally given, might have been
accused in fornication, adultery, and all un cleanli-
ness there.

ESCAL. By the woman's means ?

ELS. Ay, sir, by mistress Overdone's means : 6
but as she spit in his face, so she defied him.

CLO. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.

ELS. Prove it before these varlets here, thou
honourable man, prove it.

ESCAL. Do you hear how he misplaces ?

[To ANGELO.

CLO. Sir, she came in great with child ; and
longing (saving your honour's reverence,) for
stew'd prunes ; 7 sir, we had but two in the house,
which at that very distant time stood, as it were,

6 Ay, sir, by mistress Overdone* s means:] Here seems to
have been some mention made of Froth, who was to be accused,
and some words therefore may have been lost, unless the irre-
gularity of the narrative may be better imputed to the igno-
rance of the constable. JOHNSON.

7 steui'd prunes ;~\ Stewed prunes were to be found in

every brothel.

So, in Maroccus Exstaticus, or Bankes's Bay Horse in a
Trance, ISQj: " With this stocke of wenches will this trustie
Roger and his Bettrice set up, forsooth, with their pamphlet
pots and stewed prunes, &c. in a sinful saucer,'" &c.

See a note on the 3d scene of the 3d Act of The First Part
of King Henry IF. In the old copy prunes are spelt, according
to vulgar pronunciation, preiotjns. STEEVENS.

236 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three-pence ; your
honours have seen such dishes ; they are not China
dishes,8 but very good dishes.

ESCAL. Go to, go to ; no matter for the dish, sir.

CLO. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin ; you are
therein in the right : but, to the point : As I say,
this mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child,
and being great belly'd, and longing, as I said, for
prunes ; and having but two in the dish, as I said,
master Froth here, this very man, having eaten
the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them
very honestly ; — for, as you know, master Froth,
I could not give you three pence again.

FROTH. No, indeed.

CLO. Very well: you being then, if you be re-
member'd, cracking the stones of the foresaid
prunes.

FROTH. Ay, so I did, indeed.

CLO. Why, very well : I telling you then, if
you be remember'd, that such a one, and such a
one, were past cure of the thing you wot of, un-
less they kept very good diet, as I told you.

FROTH. All this is true.
CLO. Why, very well then.

ESCAL. Come, you are a tedious fool : to the
purpose. — What was done to Elbow's wife, that he-
hath cause to complain of? Come me to what was
done to her.

8 not China dishes,'] A China dish, in the age of Shak-

speare, must have been such an uncommon thing, that the
Clown's exemption of it, as no utensil in a common brothel, is
a striking circumstance in his absurd and tautological deposition.

STEEVENS.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 237

CLO. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
ESCAL. No, sir, nor I mean it not.

CLO. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your
honour's leave : And, I beseech you, look into
master Froth here, sir; a man of fourscore pound
a year ; whose father died at Hallowmas : — Was't
not at Hallowmas, master Froth ?

FROTH. AlUiollond eve.

CLO. Why, very well ; I hope here be truths :
He, sir, sitting, as I say, in a lower chair,9 sir ; —
'twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you
have a delight to sit : Have you not ?

FROTH. I have so ; because it is an open room,
and good for winter.

CLO. Why, very well then ; — I hope here be
truths.

ANG. This will last out a night in Russia,
When nights are longest there : I'll take my leave.,
And leave you to the hearing of the cause ;
Hoping, you'll find good cause to whip them all.

ESCAL. I think no less : Good morrow to your
lordship. \_Exit ANGELO.

Now, sir, come on : What was done to Elbow's
wife, once more ?

CLO. Once, sir ? there was nothing done to her
once.

ELB. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man
did to my wife.

9 — — in a lower chair,] Every house had formerly, among
its other furniture, what was called — a lotv chair, designed for
the ease of sick people, and, occasionally, occupied by lazy ones.
Of these conveniencies I have seen many, though, perhaps, at
present they are wholly disused. STEEVENS.

238 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

CLO. I beseech your honour, ask me.

ESCAL. Well, sir : What did this gentleman to
her ?

CLO. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's
face : — Good master Froth, look upon his honour ;
'tis for a good purpose : Doth your honour mark
his face ?

ESCAL. Ay, sir, very well.

CLO. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.

ESCAL. Well, I do so.

CLO. Doth your honour see any harm in his face ?

ESCAL. Why, no.

CLO. I'll be supposed ' upon a book, his face is
the worst thing about him : Good then ; if his
face be the worst thing about him, how could
master Froth do the constable's wife any harm ?
I would know that of your honour.

ESCAL. He's in the right : Constable, what say
you to it ?

ELB. First, an it like you, the house is a re-
spected house ; next, this is a respected fellow ;
and his mistress is a respected woman.

CLO. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more re-
spected person than any of us all.

ELB. Varlet, thou liest ; thou liest, wicked var-
let : the time is yet to come, that she was ever
respected with man, woman, or child.

CLO. Sir, she was respected with him before he
married with her.

1 I'll be supposed — ] He means deposed. MA LONE.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 239

ESCAL. Which is the wiser here ? Justice, or
Iniquity ? 2 — Is this true ?

ELS. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou
wicked Hannibal ! 3 1 respected with her, before
I was married to her ? If ever I was respected
with her, or she with me, let not your worship
think me the poor duke's officer : — Prove this,
thou wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action
of battery on thee.

ESCAL. If he took you a box o* ear, you might
have your action of slander too.

ELS. Marry, I thank your good worship for it :
What is't your worship's pleasure I should do with
this wicked caitiff?

ESCAL. Truly, officer, because he hath some of-
fences in him, that thou wouldst discover if thou
couldst, let him continue in his courses, till thou
know'st what they are.

ELS. Marry, I thank your worship for it : —
Thou seest, thou wicked varlet now, what's come

* Justice, or Iniquity?] These were, I suppose, two per-
sonages well known to the audience by their frequent appear-
ance in the old moralities. The words, therefore, at that time
produced a combination of ideas, which they have now lost.

JOHNSON,

Justice, or Iniquity?] i. e. The Constable or the Fool. Esca-
lus calls the latter, Iniquity, in allusion to the old Vice, a fami-
liar character in the ancient moralities and dumb-shews. Justice
may have a similar allusion, which I am unable to explain.
Iniquitie is one of the personages in the " worthy interlude of
Kynge Darius,*'' 4to. bl. 1. no date. And in The First Part of
King Henri/ IV. Prince Henry calls Falstaff, — " that reverend
Vice, that grey Iniquity." RITSOX.

3 ., . .- Hannibal!] Mistaken by the Constable for Cannibal,

JOHNSON.

240 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

upon thee ; thou art to continue now, thou varlet ;
tliou art to continue.4

ESCAL. Where were you born, friend ?

[To FROTH.

FROTH. Here in Vienna, sir.

ESCAL. Are you of fourscore pounds a year ?

FROTH. Yes, and't please you, sir.

ESCAL. So. — What trade are you of, sir ?

[To the Clown.

CLO. A tapster ; a poor widow's tapster.
ESCAL. Your mistress's name ?
CLO. Mistress Over-done.

ESCAL. Hath she had any more than one hus-
band ?

CLO. Nine, sir ; Over-done by the last.

ESCAL. Nine ! — Come hither to me, master Froth.
Master Froth, I would not have you acquainted
with tapsters ; they will draw you,5 master Froth,
and you will hang them : Get you gone, and let
me hear no more of you.

FROTH. I thank your worship : For mine own
part, I never come into any room in a taphouse,
but I am drawn in.

4 thou art to continue.] Perhaps Elbow, misinterpreting

the language of Escalus, supposes the Clown is to continue in
confinement; at least, he conceives some severe punishment or
other to be implied by the word — continue. STEEVENS.

' • they will draw you,"] Draw has here a cluster of

senses. As it refers to the tapster, it signifies to drain, to empty ;
as it is related to hang, it means to be conveyed to execution on
a hurdle. In Froth's answer, it is the same as to bring along bi/
some motive or power. JOHNSON.

as. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 241

ESCAL. Well ; no more of it, master Froth r
farewell. [Exit FROTH.] — Come you hither to me,
master tapster j what's your name, master tapster I

CLO. Pompey.6

ESCAL. What else ?

CLO. Bum, sir.

ESCAL. 'Troth, and your bum is the greatest
thing about you j 7 so that, in the beastliest sense,

0 Pompey."] His mistress, in a preceding scene, calls him
Thomas. KITSON.

7 greatest thing about you;] Greene, in one of hie

pieces, mentions the "great bumme of Paris."
Again, in Tyro's Roaring Megge, 15Q8:

" Tyro's round breeches have a cliffe behind."

STEEVENS..

Harrison, in his Description of Britain, prefixed to HolinshedV
Chronicle, condemns the excess of apparel amongst his country-
men, and thus proceeds : " Neither can we be more justly bur-
dened with any reproche than inordinate behaviour in apparell,
for which most nations deride us ; as also for that we- men doe
seeme to bestowe most cost upon our arses, and much more than
upon all the rest of our bodies, as women do likewise upon their
heads and shoulders." Should any curious reader wish for more
information upon this subject, he is referred to Strutt's Man-
ners and Customs of the English, Vol. III. p. 86. DOUCE.

But perhaps an ancient MS. ballad, entitled, A lamentable
Complaint of the poor Country Men againste great Hose, for
the Losse of there Cattelles Tailes, Mus. Brit. MS. Harl. 367,
may throw further light on the subject. This ballad consists of
41 stanzas. From these the following are selected :

5. " For proude and paynted parragenns,

?' And monstrous breched beares,
" This realme almost hath cleane distroy'd,
" Which I reporte with teares.

9. " And chefely those of cache degree

" Who monstrous hose delyght,
" As monsters fell, have done to us
" Most grevus hurte and spyte.-— —

YOL, VI.. R

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

you are Pompey the great. Pompey, you are partly
a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being

11. "As now of late in lesser thinges

" To furnyshe forthe theare pryde,
" With woole, with flaxe, with hare also,
" To make theare brychcs ivyde.

12. " What hurte and damage doth ensew

" And fall upon the poore,
" For want of woll and flax of late,
" Which monnstrus hose devore.

1 4. " But heare hath so possessed of late

" The bryche of every knave,
" That none one beast nor horse can tell
" Which waye his tale to saufe.

23. " And that with speede to take awaye

" Great bryches as the cause
" Of all this hurte, or ealse to make

" Some sharpe and houlsome lawes,

39. *' So that in fyne the charytie

" Whiche Chrysten men shoulde save,
" By dyvers wayes is blemyshed,
" To boulster breaches brave.

40. " But now for that noe remedye

" As yet cann wel be founde,
" I wolde that suche as weare this heare
" Weare well and trewly bounde,

41. " With every heare a louse to have,

" To stuffe their breychcs oute ;
" And then I trust they wolde not weare
** Nor beare suche baggs about.
" Finis."

See also, in the Pcrsones Tale of Chaucer: — " and eke the
buttokkes of hem behinde, that faren as it were the hinder part
of a she ape in the ful of the mone/'

In consequence of a diligent inspection of ancient pictures
and prints, it may be pronounced that this ridiculous fashion
appeared in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, then
declined, and recommenced at the beginning of that of James
the First. STEEVENS.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 243

a tapster. Are you not ? come, tell me true ; it
shall be the better for you.

CLO. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow, that would
live.

ESCAL. How would you live, Pompey ? by being
a bawd ? What do you think of the trade, Pompey I
is it a lawful trade ?

CLO. If the law would allow it, sir.

ESCAL. But the law will not allow it, Pompey j
nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna.

CLO. Does your worship mean to geld and spay
all the youth in the city ?

ESCAL. No, Pompey.

CLO. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will
to't then : If your worship will take order 8 for
the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear
the bawds.

ESCAL. There are pretty orders beginning, I
can tell you : It is but heading and hanging.

CLO. If you head and hang all that offend that
way but for ten year together, you'll be glad to
give out a commission for more heads. If this law
hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house
in it, after three pence a bay : 9 If you live to see
this come to pass, say, Pompey told you so,

* take order — ] i. e. take measures. So, in Othello:

" Honest lago hath to? en order for't." STEEVENS.

•Til rent the fairest house in it, after three pence a

bay:] A bay of building is, in many parts of England, a com-
mon term, of which the best conception that ever I could obtain
is, that it is the space between the main beams of the roof; so
that a barn crossed twice with beams is a barn of three bays.

JOHNSON

R

244 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

ESCAL. Thank you, good Pompey : and, in re-
quital of your prophecy, hark you, — I advise you,
let me not find you before me again upon any
complaint whatsoever, no, not for dwelling where
you do ; if I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your
tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar to you ; in plain
dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt : so for
this time, Pompey, fare you well.

CLO. I thank your worship for your good coun-
sel; but I shall follow it, as the flesh and fortune
shall better determine.

"Whip me ? No, no ^ let carman whip his jade ;
The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade.

[Exit.

ESCAL. Come hither to me, master Elbow ; come
hither, master Constable. How long have you
been in this place of constable ?

ELS. Seven year and a half, sir.

ESCAL. I thought, by your readiness1 in the
office, you had continued in it some time : You;
say, seven years together ?

ELD. And a half, sir.

" that by the yearly birth

" The large-bay'd barn doth fill," &c.

I forgot to take down the title of the work from which this
instance is adopted. Again, in Hall's Virgidemiarum, Lib. IV.
" His rent in f'aire respondence must arise,
** To double trebles of his one yeares price ;
" Of one baycs breadth, God wot, a silly cote
" Whose thatched spars are furr'd with sluttish soote."

STEEVENS.

1 -» by your readiness — ] Old copy — the readiness. Cor-
rected by Mr. Pope. In the MSS. of our author's age, yf. and
y<. (for so they were frequently written) were easily confounded.

MALONK.

so. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 245

ESCAL. Alas ! it hath been great pains to you !
They do you wrong to put you so oft upon't : Are
there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it ?

ELS. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters :
as they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for
them ; I do it for some piece of money, and go
through with all.

ESCAL. Look you, bring me in the names of
some six or seven, the most sufficient of your
parish.

ELS. To your worship's house, sir ?
EscAL. To my house : Fare you well. [Exit
ELBOW.] What's o'clock, think you ?

JUST. Eleven, sir.

ESCAL. I pray you home to dinner with me.

JUST. I humbly thank you.

ESCAL. It grieves me for the death of Claudio ;
But there's no remedy.

JUST. Lord Angelo is severe.

ESCAL. It is but needful :

Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so ;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe :
But yet, — Poor Claudio ! — There's no remedy.
Come, sir.

246 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

SCENE II.

Another Room in the same.

Enter Provost and a Servant.

SERF. He's hearing of a cause j he will come

straight.
I'll tell him of you.

PROV. Pray you, do. [Exit Servant.] I'll know
His pleasure ; may be, he will relent : Alas,
He hath but as offended in a dream !
All sects, all ages smack of this vice ; and he
To die for it ! —

Enter ANGELO.

ANG. Now, what's the matter, provost?

PROV. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-mor-
row ?

ANG. Did I not tell thee, yea ? hadst thou not

order ?
Why dost thou ask again ?

PROV. Lest I might be too rash :

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, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
She's very near her hour.

ST. //. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 247

ANG. Dispose of her

To some more fitter place ; and that with speed,

He-enter Servant.

SERI'. Here is the sister of the man condemned,
Desires access to you.

ANG. Hath he a sister ?

PROF. Ay, my good lord ; a very virtuous maid,
And to be shortly of a sisterhood,
If not already.

ANG. Well, let her be admitted.

\JEocit Servant.

See you, the fornicatress be remov'd ;
Let her have needful, but not lavish, means ;
There shall be order for it.

Enter LIJCIO and ISABELLA.

PROV. Save your honour ! 2 [Offering to retire.

• ANG. Stay a little while.3 — [To ISAB.] You are
welcome : What's your will ?

* Save your honour !] Your honour, which is so often repeated
in this scene,, was in our author's time the usual mode of address
to a lord. It had become antiquated after the Restoration ; for
Sir William D'Avenant, in his alteration of this. play, has sub-
stituted your excellence in the room of it. MALONE.

3 Stay a little while.] It is not clear why the Provost is bid-
den to stay, nor when he goes out. JOHNSON.

The entrance of Lucio and Isabella should not, perhaps, be
made till after Angelo's speech to the Provost, who had only
announced a lady, and seems to be detained as a witness to the
purity of the deputy's conversation with her. His exit may he
fixed with that of Lucio and Isabella. He cannot remain longer,
and there is no reason to think he departs before. RITSON.

248 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

ISAB. I am a woeful suitor to your honour,
Please but your honour hear me.

ANG. Well ; what's your suit ?

ISAB. There is a vice, that most I do abhor,
And most desire should meet the blow of justice ;
For which I would not plead, but that I must ;
For which I must not plead, but that I am
At war, 'twixt will, and will not.4

ANG. Well ; the matter?

ISAB. I have a brother is condemned to die :
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.5

PROV. Heaven give thee moving graces !

Stay a little while, is said by Angelo, in answer to the words,
" Save your honour ;'' which denoted the Provost's intention to
depart. Isabella uses the same words to Angelo, when she goes
out, near the conclusion of this scene. So also, when she offers
to retire, on finding her suit ineffectual ; " Heaven keep your
honour!" MALONE.

4 For 'which I must nty plead, but that I am

At war, 'twixt will, and will not.] This is obscure ; per-
haps it may be mended by reading :

For which I must now plead ; but yet / am
At war, 'twixt will, and will not.

Yet and^ are almost undistinguishable in an ancient manuscript.
Yet no alteration is necessary, since the speech is not unintelli-
gible as it now stands. JOHNSON.

For which I must not plead, but that I am

At war, 'twixt will, and will not.] i. e. for which I must not
plead, but that there is a conflict in my breast betwixt my affec-
tion for my brother, which induces me to plead for him, and my
regard to virtue, which forbids me to intercede for one guilty of
such a crime ; and I find the former more powerful than the
latter. MALONE.

— let it be his fault,

And not my brother,'} i. e. let his fault be condemned, or
extirpated, but let not my brother himself suffer. MALONE.

•so. u. MEASURE FOR MEASURE, 249

ANG. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it !
Why, every fault's condemri'd, ere it be done :
Mine were the very cipher of a function,
To find the faults,6 whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor.

ISAB. O just, but severe law !

I had a brother then. — Heaven keep your honour !

[Retiring.

Lucio. \_To ISAB.] Give't not o'er so : to him

again, intreat him ;

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

ISAB. Must he needs die ?

ANG. Maiden, no remedy.

ISAB. Yes ; I do think that you might pardon

him,
And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy.

ANG. I will not do't.

ISAB. But can you, if you would ?

ANG. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.

ISAB. But might you do't, and do the world no
wrong,

6 To find the faults t~\ The old copy reads — To fine, &c.

STEEVENS.

T-oJlne means, I think, to pronounce thejine or sentence of
the law, appointed for certain crimes. Mr. Theobald, without
necessity, reads find. The repetition is much in our author's
manner. MALONE.

Theobald's emendation may be justified by a passage in King
Lear :

" All's not offence that indiscretion finds,
" And dotage terms so." STEKVENS.

250 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT IT.

If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse7
As mine is to him ?

ANG. He's sentenced ; 'tis too late.

Lucio. You are too cold. [To ISABELLA.

ISAS. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word,
May call it back again : 8 Well believe this,9
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace,
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have slipt like him ;
But he, like you, would not have been so stern.

ANG. Pray you, begone.

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

Lucio. Ay, touch him : there's the vein. \_Aside.

7 touch1 'd 'with that remorse — ] Remorse, in this place,

as in many others, signifies pity.

So, in the fifth Act of tins play :

** My sisterly remorse confutes my honour,

" And I did yield to him."
Again, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632:

" The perfect image of a wretched creature,

*' His speeches beg remorse"
See Othello, Act III. STEEVENS.

8 May call it back again :] The word back was inserted by
the editor of the second folio, for the sake of the metre.

MALONE.

Surely, it is added for the sake of sense as well as metre.

STEEVENS.

» Well believe this.] Be thoroughly assured of this.

THEOBALD.

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 251

ANG. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but waste your words.

ISAB. Alas ! alas !

Why, all the souls that were,1 were forfeit once ;
And He that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy : How would you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are ? O, think on that ;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.2

ANG. Be you content, fair maid ;

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother :
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
Itshouldbethuswith him ; — he must die to-morrow.

1 all the souls that were,] This is false divinity. We

should read — are. WARBURTON.

1 fear, the player, in this instance, is a better divine than the
prelate. The souls that WERE, evidently refer to Adam and
Eve, whose transgression rendered them obnoxious to the pe-
nalty of annihilation, but for the remedy which the Author of
their being most graciously provided. The learned Bishop, how-
ever, is more successful in his next explanation. HENLEY.

2 And mercy then mil breathe "within your lips,

Like man new made.] This is a fine thought, and finely
expressed. The meaning is, that mercy will add such a grace
to your person, that you will appear 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 seve-
rity of your present character. In familiar speech, You would
be quite another man. JOHNSON.

And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.] You will then appear as tender-hearted
and merciful as the first man was in his days of innocence, im-
mediately after his creation. MALONE.

I incline to a different interpretation : And you, Angela, will
breathe new life into Claudio, as the Creator animated Adam,
by " breathing into his nostrils the breath of life."

HOLT WHITE.

252 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n*

ISAB. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him,

spare him :

He's not prepar'd for death ! Even for our kitchens
We kill the fowl of season ; :j shall we serve heaven
With less respect than we do minister
To our gross selves ? Good, good my lord, bethink

you :

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

Lucio. Ay, well said.

ANG. The law hath not been dead, though it

hath slept : 4

Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man that did the edict infringe,5
Had answer'd for his deed : now, 'tis awake ;
Takes note of what is done ; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass,0 that shows what future evils,

3 of season ;~\ i.e. when it is in season. So, in The

Merry Wives of Windsor: " — buck; and of the season too it
shall appear." STEEVENS.

* The laid hath not been dead, though it hath slept :~] Dor~
miunt aliqunndo leges, moriuntur nunquam, is a maxim in our
law. HOLT WHITE.

3 If tlie first man &c.] The word man has been supplied by
the modern editors. I would rather read —
If he, the first, &c. TYKWHITT.

Man was introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

€ like a prophet,

Looks in a glass,'] This alludes to the fopperies of the beril,
much used at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict
by. WARBURTON.

See Macbeth, Act IV. sc. i.

So again, in Vittoria Corombona, l6l2:

" How long have I beheld the devil in chrystal?"

STEEVENS.

The beril, which is a kind of crystal, hath a weak tincture of
red in it. Among other tricks of astrologers, the discover}' of

gc. n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

(Either now,7 or by remissness new-conceiv'da
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)-
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.8

ISAR. Yet show some pity.

ANG. I show it most of all, when I show justice ;
For then I pity those I do not know,9

past or future events was supposed to be the consequence of
looking into it. See Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. \Q5, edit. 1721.

REED.

7 (Either now,"] Thus the old copy. Modern editors read —
Or new — STEEVENS.

8 But, where they live, to end.] The old copy reads — But,
here they live, to end. Sir Thomas Hanraer substituted ere for
here ; but inhere was, I am persuaded, the author's word.

So, in Coriolanus, Act V. sc. v :

" but there to end,

" WHERE he was to begin, and give away
" The benefit of our levies," &c.
Again, in Julius Caesar :

" And WHERE I did begin, there shall lend"
The prophecy is not, that future evils should end, ere, or be-
fore they are born ; or, in other words, that there should be no
more evil in the world (as Sir T. Hanmer by his alteration seems
to have understood it); but, that they should end WHERE they
began, i. e. with the criminal ; who, being punished for his first
offence, could not proceed by successive degrees in wickedness^,
nor excite others, by his impunity, to vice. So, in the nexf
speech :

" And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
" Lives not to act another"

It is more likely that a letter should have been omitted at thr
press, than that one should have been added.

The same mistake has happened in The Merchant of Venice*,
folio, 1^23, p. 173, col. 2 : — " ha, ha, here in Genoa," — instead
of — "-where? in Genoa ?' MALONE.

Dr. Johnson applauds Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation,
I prefer that of Mr. iMalone. STEEVENS.

9 show some pity.

Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice ;

For then I pity those I do not know-,} This was one of

254 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

Which a dismissed offence would after gall ;
And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied ;
Your brother dies to-morrow ; be content.

ISAB. So you must be the first, that gives this

sentence ;

And he, that suffers : O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength ; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.1

Lucio. That's well said.

ISAB. Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting,2 petty officer,
Would use his heaven for thunder ; nothing but

thunder.

Merciful heaven !

Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,3
Than the soft myrtle ; — O, but man, proud man ! *

Hale's memorials. When I find myself sivayed to mercy, let me
remember, that there is a mercy likewise due to the country.

JOHNSON.

1 To use it like a giant.] Isabella alludes to the savage con-
duct o? giants in ancient romances. STEEVENS.

* pelting,] i. e. paltry.

This word I meet with in Mother Bomhie, 15Q4:

" will not shrink the city for a, pelting jade."

STEEVENS.

3 gnarled oak,"] Gnarre is the old English word for a

inot in tuood.

So, in Antonio's Revenge, 1 602 :

" Till by degrees the tough and gnarly trunk
" He riv'd in sunder."

Again, in Chaucer's Knight's Talc, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 1P79:
" With knotty knarry barrein trees old." STEEVENS.

4 Than the soft myrtle; — 0, but man, proud manf] The de-
fective metre of this line shews that some word was accident*

sc.ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 255

Drest in a little brief authority ;

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,

His glassy essence, — like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastick tricks before high heaven,

As make the angels weep ; 5 who, with our spleens.

Would all themselves laugh mortal.6

Lucio. O, to him, to him, wench : he will relent;
He's coming, I perceive't.

PROV. Pray heaven, she win him !

Is AS. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:'

ally omitted at the press ; probably some additional epithet to
man ; perhaps weak, — " but man, weak, proud man — ." The
editor of the second folio, to supply the defect, reads — O, but
man, &c. which, like almost all the other emendations of that
copy, is the worst and the most improbable that could have been
chosen. MALONE.

I am content with the emendation of the second folio, which
I conceive to have been made on the authority of some manu-
script, or corrected copy. STEEVENS.

5 As make the angels weep;'] The notion of angels weeping
for the sins of men is rabbinical. — Ob peccatum Jlentes angelos
inducunt Hebr&orum magistri. — Grotius ad S. Lucam.

THEOBALD.

0 who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.'] Mr. Theobald says
the meaning of this is, that if they were endowed with our
spleens and perishable organs, they would laugh themselves out
of immortality; or, as we say in common life, laugh them-
selves dead ; which amounts to this, that if they were mortal,
they would not be immortal. Shakspeare meant no such non-
sense. By spleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human
mind, that always inclines it to a spiteful, unseasonable mirth.
Had the angels that, says Shakspeare, they would laugh them-
selves out of their immortality, by indulging a passion which
does not deserve that prerogative. The ancients thought, that
immoderate laughter was caused by the bigness of the spleen.

WARBURTON.

7 We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:] We mortals,
proud and foolish, cannot prevail on our passions to weigh or
compare our brother, a being of like nature and like frailtyv

256 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

Great men may jest with saints : 'tis wit in them ;
But, in the less, foul profanation.

Lucio. Thou'rt in the right, girl ; more o' that.

ISAB. That in the captain's but a cholerick word,
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

Lucio. Art advis'd o' that? more on't.

ANG. Why do you put these sayings upon me ?

ISAB.. Because authority, though it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,
That skins the vice o' the top : 8 Go to your bosom ;
Knock there ; and ask your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault : if it confess
A natural guiltiness, such as is his,
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.

ANG* She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.9 Fare

you well.

•with ourself. We have different names and different judge-
ments for the same faults committed by persons of different
condition. JOHNSON.

The reading of the old copy, ourself, which Dr. Warburton
changed to yourself, is supported by a passage in the fifth Act:

" If he had so offended,

" He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself,
*' And not have cut him off." MALONE.

• That skins the vice o' the top :] Shakspeare is fond of thifr
indelicate metaphor. So, in Hamlet :

" It will but skin and film the ulcerous place."

STEEVENS.

9 that my sense breeds with it.~\ Thus all the folios.

Some later editor has changed breeds to bleeds, and Dr. War-
burton blames poor Theobald for recalling the old word, which
yet is certainly right. My sense breeds with her sense, that is^
new thoughts are stirring in my mind, new conceptions are
batched in my imagination. So we say, to brood over thought*

JOHNSON..

so. IT. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 25?

ISAB. Gentle my lord, turn back.

ANG. I will bethink me : — Come again to-mor-
row.

ISAB, Hark, how I'll bribe you: Good my lord,
turn back.

ANG. How ! bribe me ?

ISAB. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share
with you.

Lucio. You had marr'd all else.

ISAB. Not with fond shekels1 of the tested gold,2

Sir William D'Avenant's alteration favours the sense of the
old reading — breeds, which Mr. Pope had changed to bleeds.

She speaks such sense

As "with my reason breeds such images

As she has excellently formed. — STEEVENS.

I rather think the meaning is — She delivers her sentiments
with such propriety, force, and elegance, that my sensual desires
are inflamed by what she says. Sense has been already used in
this play with the same signification :

" one who never feels

" The wanton stings and motions of the sense"
The word breeds is used nearly in the same sense in The Tempest:

" Fair encounter

" Of two most rare affections ! Heavens rain grace

" On that which breeds between them !" MALONE.

The sentence signifies, Isabella does not utter barren words,
but speaks such sense as breeds or produces a consequence in
Angelo's mind. Truths which generate no conclusion are often
termed barren facts. HOLT WHITE.

I understand the passage thus: — Her arguments are enforced
with so much good sense, as to increase that stock of sense which
I already possess. DOUCE.

1 fond shekels — ] Fond means very frequently in our

author, foolish. It signifies in this place valued or prized by
jolly. STEEVENS.

2 tested gold,} \. e. attested, or marked with the standard

stamp. WAR BURTON.

VOL. VI. S

258 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT IT.

Or stones, whose rates are either rich, or poor,
As fancy values them : but with true prayers,
That shall be up at heaven, and enter there,
Ere sun-rise ; prayers from preserved souls,3
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.

ANG. Well : come to me

To-morrow.

Lucio. Go to ; it is well ; away.

[Aside to ISABEL.

ISAB. Heaven keep your honour safe !

ANG. Amen : for I

Am that way going to temptation, \_Aslde.

Where prayers cross.4

Rather cupelled, brought to the test, refined. JOHNSON.

All gold that is tested is not marked with the standard stamp.
The verb has a different sense, and means tried by the cuppel,
which is called by the refiners a test. Vide Harris's Lex. Tech.
Voce CUPPELL. SIR J. HAWKINS.

3 preserved souls,~\ i. e. preserved from the corruption

of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preserved m
sugar. WARBURTON.

So, in The Amorous War, 1(548:

" You do not reckon us 'mongst marmalade,
" Quinces and apricots ? or take us for
** Ladies preserved1?" STEEVENS.

* / am that ivay going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.] Which way Angelo is going to
temptation, we begin to perceive ; but how prayers cross that
way, or cross each other, at that way, more than any other, 1
do not understand.

Isabella prays that his honour may be safe, meaning only to
give him his title : his imagination is caught by the word
honour: he feels that his honour is in danger, and therefore, I
believe, answers thus :

/ am that way going to temptation,
Which your prayers cross.

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 259

ISAB. At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend your lordship ?

ANG. At any time 'fore noon.

ISAB. Save your honour !

\_Exeunt Lucio, ISABELLA, and Provost.

ANG. From thee ; even from thy virtue ! —

What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine?
The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most ? Ha !a
Not she ; nor doth she tempt : but it is I,
That lying by the violet, in the sun,6

That is, I am tempted to lose that honour of which thou im-
plorest the preservation. The temptation under which I labour
is that which thou hast unknowingly thivarted with thy prayer.
He uses the same mode of language a few lines lower. Isabella,
parting, says:

Save your honour !
Angelo catches the word — Save it! From 'what?

From thee! even from thy virtue! — JOHNSON.

The best method of illustrating this passage will be to quote a
similar one from The Merchant of Venice, Act III. sc. i :

" Sal. I would it might prove the end of his losses !

" Sola. " Let me say Amen betimes, lest the devil cross

thy prayer.'1''

For the same reason Angelo seems to say Amen to Isabella's
prayer ; but, to make the expression clear, we should read per-
haps— Where prayers are crossed. TYRWHITT.

The petition of the Lord's Prayer — " lead us not into tempta-
tion"— is here considered as crossing or intercepting the onward
way in which Angelo was going ; this appointment of his for
the morrow's meeting, being a premeditated exposure of him-
self to temptation, which it was the general object of prayer to
thwart. HENLEY.

4 Ha /]' This tragedy — Ha! (which clogs the metre) was
certainly thrown in by the player editors. STEEVENS.

6 it is I,

That lying by the violet, in the sun, &c.] I am not cor-
rupted by her, but my own heart, which excites foul desires

S 2

260 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be,
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness ? 7 Having waste ground

enough,

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And pitch our evils there?8 O, fy, fy, fy!

under the same benign influences that exalt her purity, as the
carrion grows putrid by those beams which increase the fra-
grance of the violet. JOHNSON.

7 Can it Ic,

That modesty may more betray our sense
Than ivoman's lightness ?] So, in Promos and Cassandra,
1578:

" I do protest her modest wordes hath wrought in me a

maze,
'* Though she be faire, she is not deackt with garish

shewes for gaze.
" Hir bewtie lures, her lookes cut off fond suits with

ciiast disdain.

" O God, I feele a sodaine change, that doth my free-
dome chayne.
" What didst thou say ? fie, Promos fie," &c. STEEVENS.

Sense has in this passage the same signification as in that above
" — that my sense breeds with it." MA LONE.

* And pitch our evils there?] So, in King Henry VIII:
" Nor build their evils on the graves of great men."
Neither of these passages appears to contain a very elegant allu-
sion.

Evils, in the present instarre, undoubtedly stand for foricff.
Dr. Farmer assures me he has seen the word evil used in this
sense by our ancient writers; and it appears from Harrington's
Metamorphosis of Ajax, &c. that privies were originally so ill-
contrived, even in royal palaces, as to deserve the title of evils
or nuisances. STEEVENS.

One of Sir John Berkenhead's queries confirms the foregoing
observation :

" Whether, ever since the House of Commons has bees
locked up, the speaker's chair has not been a close-stool?"

sc. IT. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 261

What dost thou ? or what art thou, Angelo ?
Dost thou desire her foully, for those things
That make her good ? O, let her brother live :
Thieves for their robbery have authority,
When judges steal themselves. What? do I love

her,

That I desire to hear her speak again,
And feast upon her eyes ? What is't I dream on ?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook ! Most dangerou
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art, and nature,
Once stir my temper ; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite ; — Ever, till now,
When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder' d how.9

" Whether it is not seasonable to stop the nose of my evil?'1
Two CENTURIES OF PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, 8vo. no date.

MALONE.

No language could more forcibly express the aggravated profli-
gacy of Angelo's passion, which the purity of Isabella but
served the more to inflame. — The desecration of edifices devoted
to religion, by converting them to the most abject purposes of
nature, was an eastern method of expressing contempt. See
2 Kings, x. 27. HENLEY.

A Brahman is forbid to drop his faeces even on " the ruins of
a temple." See Sir W. Jones's translation of Institutes of the
Hindu Law, or the Ordinances of Menu, London edit. p. Q5.

S TEE YENS.

9 / smil'd, and ivonder'd hotu.'] As a day must now

intervene between this conference of Isabella with Angelo, and
the next, the Act might more properly end here ; and here, in
my opinion, it was ended by the poet. JOHNSON.

262 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

SCENE III.

A Room in a Prison.
Enter Duke, habited like a Friar , and Provost.

DUKE. Hail to you, provost! so, I think you are.

PROF. I am the provost : What's your will, good

friar ?
DUKE. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd

order,

I come to visit the afflicted spirits
Here in the prison:1 do me the common right
To let me see them ; and to make me know
The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
To them accordingly.

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 flames of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report :2 She is with child ;

1 I come to visit the afflicted spirits

Here in the prison :] This is a scriptural expression, very
suitable to the grave character which the Duke assumes. " By
which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison"
1 Pet. iii. 19. WHALLEY.

* Who Jailing in the flames of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report:'] The old copy reads— -flaws.

STEEVENS.

ac. m. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 263

And he that gqj it, sentenced : a young man
More fit to do another such offence,
Than die for this.

DUKE. When must he die ?

PROV. As I do think, to-morrow. —
I have provided for you ; stay a while, [To JULIET.
And you shall be conducted.

Who doth not see that the integrity of the metaphor requires
we should read :

flames of her oivn youth ? WAKBURTON.

Who does not see that, upon such principles, there is no end
of correction ? JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson did not know, nor perhaps Dr. Warburton
either, that Sir William D'Avenant reads Jlames instead ofjiaivs,
in his Law against Lovers, a play almost literally taken from
Measure for Measure, and Much. Ado about Nothing. FARMER.

Shakspeare has fanning youth in Hamlet; and Greene, in
his Never too late, l6ld, says — " he measured the flames of
youth by his own dead cinders." Blister'd her report, is disfl-
gur'd her fame. Blister seems to have reference to the flames
mentioned in the preceding line. A similar use of this word
occurs in Hamlet:

" takes the rose

" From the fair forehead of an innocent love,

" And sets a blister there." STEEVENS.

In support of this emendation, it should be remembered, that
flakes (for so it was anciently spelled) im& flames differ only by
a letter that is very frequently mistaken at the press. The same
mistake is found in Macbeth, Act II. sc. i. edit. 162.3:

" my steps, which may they walk," —

instead of — which way. Again, in this play of Measure for
Measure, Act V. sc. i. edit. 10'23 : — "give we your hand;"
instead of me. — In a former scene of the play before us we
meet with " burning youth." Again, in All's u-ell that ends vjell:

" Yet, in his idlejire,

" To buy his will, it would not seem too dear."
To fall IN (not into) was the language of the time. So, in
Cymbeline:

" almost spent with hunger

" I am fallen in offence." MALONE.

264 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACTII>

DUKE* Repent you, fair one, of the sin you
carry ?

JULIET. I do; and bear the shame most patiently.

DUKE. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your

conscience,

And try your penitence, if it be sound,
Or hollowly put on.

JULIET. 1*11 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 sin of heavier kind than
his.

JULIET. I do confess it, and repent it, father.
DUKE. 'Tis meet so, daughter: But lest you do

repent,3
As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, —

3 But lest you do repent,'] Thus the old copy. The

modern editors, led by Mr. Pope, read :

" — — But repent you not,"

But lest you do repent is only a kind of negative imperative —
Ne te pceniteat, — and means, repent not on this account.

STEEVENS.

I think that a line at least is wanting after the first of the
Duke's speech. It would be presumptuous to attempt to replace
the words ; but the sense, I am persuaded, is easily recoverable
out of Juliet's answer. I suppose his advice, in substance, to
have been nearly this : " Take care, lest you repent [not so
much of your fault, as it is an evil,] as that the sin hath brought
you to this shame" Accordingly, Juliet's answer is explicit to
this point :

I do repent me, as it is an evil,

And take the shame with joy. TYRWIIITT.

sc. ///. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 265

Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not

heaven ;

Showing, we'd not spare heaven,4 as we love it,
But as we stand in fear, —

JULIET. I do repent me, as it is an evil ;
And take the shame with joy.

DUKE. There rest.5

Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him. —
Grace go with you! Benedicite/6 \_Exit.

JULIET. Must die to-morrow ! O, injurious love,7

4 Showing, ive'd not spare heaven,] The modern editors
had changed this word into seek. STEEVENS.

Showing, we'd not spare heaven,'] i. e. spare to offend heaven.

MALONE.

5 There rest.] Keep yourself in this temper. JOHNSON.

6 Grace go ivith you! Benedicite!] The former part of this
line evidently belongs to Juliet. Benedicite is the Duke's reply.

RITSON.

This regulation is undoubtedly proper : but I suppose Shak-
speare to have written —

Juliet. May grace go luith you!

Duke. Benedicite ! STEEVENS.

7 0, injurious love,~] Her execution was respited on

account of her pregnancy, the effects of her love ; therefore she
calls it injurious ; not that it brought her to shame, but that it
hindered her freeing herself from it. Is not this all very na-
tural ? yet the Oxford editor changes it to injurious laiv.

JOHNSON.

I know not what circumstance in this play can authorise a
supposition that Juliet was respited on account of her pregnancy ;
as her life was in no danger from the law, the seventy of which
was exerted only on the seducer. I suppose she means that a
parent's love for the child she bears is injurious, because it
makes her careful of her life in her present shameful condition.

Mr. Toilet explains the passage thus : " O, love, that is inju-
rious in expediting Claudio's death, and that respites me a life,
which is a burthen to me worse than death !" STEEVENS.

266 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror !

PKOF. 'Tis pity of him. [Exeunt,

SCENE IV.

A Room in Angelo's House.
Enter ANGELO.S

ANG. When I would pray and think, I think and

pray

To several subjects : heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my invention,9 hearing not my tongue,

Both Johnson's explanation of this passage, and Steevens's
refutation of it, prove the necessity of Hanmer's amendment,
^vhich removes every difficulty, and can scarcely be considered
as an alteration, the trace of the letters in the words law and
love being so nearly alike. — The law affected the life of the man
only, not that of the woman ; and this is the injury that Juliet
complains of, as she wished to die with him. M. MASON.

8 Enter Angelo.] Promos, in the play already quoted, has
likewise a soliloquy previous to the second appearance of Cas-
sandra. It begins thus :

" Do what I can, no reason cooles desire :
" The more I strive my fond affectes to tame,
" The hotter (oh) I feele a burning fire
" Within my breast, vaine thoughts to forge and frame,"
&c. STEEVENS.

9 Whilst my invention,] Nothing can be either plainer or
exacter than this expression. [Dr.Warburton means — intention,
a word substituted by himself.] But the old blundering folio
having it — invention, this was enough for Mr. Theobald to
prefer authority to sense. WARBUKTON.

Intention (if it be the true reading) has, in this instance, more
than its common meaning, and signifies eagerness of desire.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 267

Anchors on Isabel : l Heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew his name ;
And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception : The state, whereon I studied,
Is like a good thing, being often read,
Grown fear'd and tedious j2 yea, my gravity,
Wherein (let no man hear me) I take pride,
Could I, with boot,3 change for an idle plume,

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor:

" course o'er my exteriors, with such greediness of

intention"

By invention, however, I believe the poet means imagination.

STEEVENS.
So, in our author's 103d Sonnet:

" a face,

" That overgoes my blunt invention quite."
Again, in King Henry V:

" O for a muse of fire, that would ascend

" The brightest heaven of invention /" MALONE.

Steevens says that intention, in this place, means eagerness of
desire; — but I believe it means attention only, a sense in which
the word is frequently used by Shakspeare and the other writers
of his time. — Angelo says, he thinks and prays to several sub-
jects ; that Heaven has his prayers, but his thoughts are fixed
on Isabel. — So, in Hamlet, the King says :

" My words fly up, my thoughts remain below :
" Words, without thoughts, never to Heaven go."

M. MASON.

1 Anchors on Isabel:'] We have the same singular expression
in Antony and Cleopatra: ,

" There would he anchor his aspect, and die
" With looking on his life." MALONE.

The same phrase occurs again in Cymbeline:

" Posthumus anchors upon Imogen." STEEVENS.

3 Grown fear'd and tedious:'} We should read seared, i. e.
old. So, Shakspeare uses in the sear, to signify old age.

WARBURTON.

I think fear'd may stand. What we go to with reluctance
may be said to be fear'd. JOHNSON.

3 with boot,] Boot is profit, advantage, gain. So, in

M. Kyffin's translation of The Andria of Terence, 1588: " You

268 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

Which the air beats for vain. O place ! O form ! 4

obtained this at my hands, and I went about it while there was
any boot."

Again, in The Pinner ofWakefield, 15QQ:

" Then list to me : Saint Andrew be my loot,

" But I'll raze thy castle to the very ground."

STEEVENS.

* change for an idle plume,

Which the air beats for vain. O place ! O form ! &c.]
There is, I believe, no instance in Shakspeare, or any other
author, of "for vain" being used for " in vain." Besides; has
the air or wind less effect on a feather than on twenty other
things ? or rather, is not the reverse of this the truth ? An
idle plume assuredly is not that " ever-fixed mark," of which
our author speaks elsewhere, " that looks on tempests, and is
never shaken." The old copy has vaine, in which way a vane
or weather-cock was formerly spelt. [See Minshieu's DICT.
1617, in verb. So also, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV. sc. i.
edit. 1623 : "What vaine? what weathercock?"] I would
therefore read — \-ane. I would exchange my gravity, says
Angelo, for an idle feather, which being driven along by the
wind, serves, to the spectator, for a vane or weathercock. So,
in The Winter's Tale:

" I am & feather for each taind that blows."
And in The Merchant of Venice we meet with a kindred thought :

" 1 should be still

" Plucking the grass, to knoin inhere sits the "wind."
The omission of the article is certainly awkward, but not with-
out example. Thus, in King Lear:

" Hot questrists after him met him at gate."
Again, in Coriolanus:

" Go, see him out at gates."
Again, in Titus Andronicus:

" Ascend, fair queen, Pantheon"
Again, in The Winter's Tale:

" 'Pray heartily, he be at palace /"
Again, in Cymbeline :

" Nor tent, to bottom, that."
The author, however, might have written :

an idle plume,

Which the air beats for vane o' the place. — Ojbr/n,

How often dost thou — &c.

The pronoun thou, referring to only one antecedent, appears to
toe strongly to support such a regulation. MALONK.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 260

How often dost thou with thy case,5 thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seeming?6 Blood, thou still art blood:7

I adhere to the old reading. As fair is known to have been
repeatedly used by Shakspeare, Marston, &c. for fairness, vain
might have been employed on the present occasion, instead of
vanity. Pure is also substituted for purity in England's Helicon.

In Chapman's version of the first Iliad, " the clear" is used
for the clearness of the evening :

** When — — twilight hid the clear,
" All soundly on their cables slept — ."

See likewise notes on A Midsummer- Night's Dream, Act I.
sc. i. and The Comedy of Errors, Act II. sc. i. Again, in Love's
Labour's Lost, foul is given, as a substantive, to express foulness.

The air is represented by Angeio as chastising the plume for
being vain. A feather is exhibited by many writers as the
emblem of vanity. Shakspeare himself, in King Henry VIII.
mentions^o^ andfeather, as congenial objects.

That the air beats the plume for its vainness, is a supposition
fanciful enough ; and yet it may be paralleled by an image in
King Edward III. 1599, where flags are made the assailants,
and " cuff the air, and beat the wind," that struggles to kiss
them.

The pronoun thou, referring to the double antecedents place
andyo/vw, ought to be no objection ; for, a little further on, the
Duke says :

" O place and great ness ! millions of false eyes
" Are stuck upon tkee."

We have all heard of Town-bulls, Town-halls, Toivn-clocfcsr
and Toivn-tops ; but the vane o' the place (meaning a thing of
general property, and proverbially distinct from private owner-
ship) is, to me at least, an idea which no example has hitherto
countenanced. I may add, that the plume could be no longer
idle, if it served as an index to the wind; and with whatever
propriety the vane in some petty market-town might be distin-
guished, can we conceive there was only a single weathercock
in so large a city as Vienna, where the scene of this comedy i»
laid? STEEVEXS.

4 case,] For outside ; garb ; external shew. JOHNSON.

0 Wrench atve from fools, and tie the luiser souls

To thy false seeming?] Here Shakspeare judiciously dis-
tinguishes the different operations of high place upon different

270 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT u.

Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,
'Tis not the devil's crest.8

minds. Fools are frighted, and wise men are allured. Those
who cannot judge but by the eye, are easily awed by splendour;
those who consider men as well as conditions, are easily per-
suaded to love the appearance of virtue dignified with power.

JOHNSON.

7 ' • ' • Blood, thou still art blood.'] The old copy reads —
Blood, thou art blood. Mr. Pope, to supply the syllable wanting
to complete the metre, reads — Blood, thou art but blood! But
the word now introduced appears to me to agree better with the
context, and therefore more likely to have been the author's. —
Blood is used here, as in other places, for temperament of body.

MALONE.

8 Let's 'write good angel on the devil's horn,

'Tis not the devil's crest."] i. e. Let the most wicked thing
have but a virtuous pretence, and it shall pass for innocent.
This was his conclusion from his preceding words:

0 form!

How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,

Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls

To thy false seeming?

But the Oxford editor makes him conclude just counter to his
own premises ; by altering it to —

Is't not the devil's crest?

So that, according to this alteration, the reasoning stands thus:
False seeming, wrenches awe from fools, and deceives the wise.
Therefore, Let us but write good angel on the devil's horn,
(i. e. give him the appearance of an angel,) and what then?
Is't not the devil's crest? (i. e. he shall be esteemed a devil.)

WARBURTON.

I am still inclined to the opinion of the Oxford editor. An-
gelo, reflecting on the difference between his seeming character,
and his real disposition, observes, that he could change his gra-
vity for a plume. He then digresses into an apostrophe, O dig-
nity, how dost thou impose upon the world! then returning to
himself, Blood (says he) thou art but blood, however concealed
with appearances and decorations. Title and character do not
alter nature, which is still corrupt, however dignified:
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn;
Is't not? — or rather — 'Tis yet the devil's crest.

It may however be understood, according to Dr. Warburton's
explanation: O place, how dost thou impose upon the world by
false appearances! so much, that if we write good angel on the

ac. ir. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 271

Enter Servant.

How now, who's there ?

SERV. One Isabel, a sister,

Desires access to you.

ANG. Teach her the way. [Exit Serv.

O heavens !
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart;9

devil's horn, 'tis not taken any longer to be the devil's crest.
In this sense. —

Blood, thou art but blood!
is an interjected exclamation. JOHNSON.

A Hebrew proverb seems to favour Dr. Johnson's reading:

" 'Tis yet the devil's crest."

" A nettle standing among myrtles, doth notwithstanding
retain the name of a nettle." STEEVENS.

This passage, as it stands, appears to me to be right, and
Angelo's reasoning to be this: " O place! O form! though you
wrench awe from fools, and tie even wiser souls to your false
seeming, yet you make no alteration in the minds or constitu-
tions of those who possess, or assume you. Though we should
write good angel on the devil's horn, it will not change his
nature, so as to give him a right to wear that crest." It is well
known that the crest was formerly chosen either as emblematical
of some quality conspicuous in the person who bore it, or as
alluding to some remarkable incident of his life ; and on this
circumstance depends the justness of the present allusion.

My explanation of these words is confirmed by a passage in
Lyly's Midas, quoted by Steevens, in his remarks on King John :
" Melancholy! is melancholy a word for a barber's mouth?
Thou shouldst say, heavy, dull, and doltish: melancholy is the
crest of courtiers." M. MASON.

It should be remembered, that the devil is usually represented
with horns and cloven feet. The old copy appears to me to
require no alteration. MALONE.

9 to my heart ;] Of this speech there is no other trace

in Promos and Cassandra, than the following:

" Both hope and dreade at once my harte doth tuch."

STEEVENS,

272 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

Making both it unable for itself,

And dispossessing all the other parts

Of necessary fitness ?

So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons ;

Come all to help him, and so stop the air

By which he should revive : and even so

The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,1

1 The general, subject to a ivell-ivisti 'd king,] The later edi-
tions have — " subjects;" but the old copies read:
The general subject to a icell-iuish'd king. —

The general subject seems a harsh expression, but general
subjects has no sense at all, and general was, in our author's
time, a word for people ; so that the general is the people, or
multitude, subject to a king. So, in Hamlet : " The play pleased
not the million : 'twas caviare to the general" JOHNSON.

Mr. Malone observes, that the use of this phrase, " the ge-
neral," for the people, continued so late as to the time of Lord
Clarendon: "as rather to be consented to, than that the general
should suffer." Hist. B. V. p. 530, 8vo. I therefore adhere to
the old reading, with only a slight change in the punctuation:
The general, subject to a iKeU-iKisli* d king,
Quit, &c.
i. e. the generality who are subjects, &c.

Twice in Hamlet our author uses subject for subjects :

" So nightly toils the subject of the land." Act I. sc. i.
Again, Act I. sc. ii :

" The lists and full proportions, all are made

" Out of his subject."

The general subject however may mean the subjects in general.
So, in As you like it, Act II. sc. vii :

" Wouldst thou disgorge into the general 'world"

STEEVENS.

So the Duke had before (Act I. sc. ii.) expressed his dislike

of popular applause :

" I'll privily away. I love the people,
" But do not like to stage me to their eyes.
" Though it do well, I do not relish well
" Their loud applause and fives vehement:
" Nor do I think ths man of safe discretion,
" That does affecl it."
I cannot help thinking that Sbukppeare, in these two passages,

intended to flatter the unkingly weakness of James the First,

AC. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 273

Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
Must needs appear offence.

Enter ISABELLA.

How now, fair maid ?
ISAB. I am come to know your pleasure,

ANG. That you might know it, would much

better please me,

Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot
live.

ISAB. Even so ? — Heaven keep your honour !

T Retiring )

ANG. Yet may he live a while ; and, it may be?
As long as you, or I : Yet he must die.

ISAB. Under your sentence ?
ANG. Yea.

which made him so impatient of the crowds that flocked to see
him, especially upon his first coming, that, as some of our his-
torians say, he restrained them by a proclamation. Sir Simonds
D'Ewes, in his Memoirs of his own Life,* has a remarkable
passage with regard to this humour of James. After taking no-
tice that the King going to parliament, on the 30th of January,
1620-1, " spake lovingly to the people, and said, God bless ye,
God bless ye ;" he adds these words, " contrary to his former
hasty and passionate custom, which often, in his sudden distem-
per, would bid a pox or a plague on such as flocked to see him."

TYRWHITT.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's apposite remark might find support, if it
needed any, from the following passage in A true Narration of
the Entertainment of his Royall Majestic, from the Time of his
Departure from Edinbrogh, till his receiving in London, &c.
&c. ICOJ : " — he was faine to publish an inhibition against
the inordinate and dayly accesse of peoples comming," &c.

STEEVENS,

* A Manuscript in the British Museum.
VOL. VI. T

274 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

ISAS. When, I beseech you ? that in his reprieve,
Longer, or shorter, he may be so fitted,
That his soul sicken not.

ANG. Ha! Fye, these filthy vices! It were as

good

To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen
A man already made,2 as to remit
Their sawcy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image,
In stamps that are forbid :3 'tis all as easy
Falsely to take away a life true made,4
As to put mettle in restrained means,5
To make a false one.

° that hath from nature stolen

A man already made,] i. e. that hath killed a man.

MA LONE.

3 Their sawcy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image,

In stamps that are forbid :] We meet with nearly the same
words in King Edward III. a tragedy, 15$6, certainly prior to
this play :

" And will your sacred self

" Commit high treason 'gainst the King of Heaven,
" To stamp his image injbrbidden metal?"
These lines are spoken by the Countess of Salisbury, whose
chastity (like Isabel's) was assailed by her sovereign.

Their saivcy sweetness Dr. Warburton interprets, their sawcy
indulgence of their appetite. Perhaps it means nearly the same
as what is afterwards c .lied sweet imcleanness. MALONE.

Sweetness, in the present instance, has, I believe, the same
sense as — lickerishness. STEEVENS.

* Falsely to take away a life true made,"] Falsely is the same
with dishonestly, illegally : so false, in the next line but one, is
illegal, illegitimate. JOHNSON.

* mettle in restrained means,] In forbidden moulds. I

suspect means not to be the right word, but I cannot find another.

JOHNSON.

I should suppose that our author wrote —

in restrained mints,

as the allusion may be still to coining. Sir W. D' Avcnant omits
the passage. STFEVKNS.

so. IF. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 275

ISAB. JTis set down so in heaven, but not in
earth.6

Mettle, the reading of the old copy, which was changed to
metal by Mr. Theobald, (who has been followed by the subse-
quent editors,) is supported not only by the general purport of
the passage, (in which our author having already illustrated the
sentiment he has attributed to Angelo by an allusion to coining,
would not give the same image a second time,) but by a similar
expression in Timon:

" thy father, that poor rag,

" Must be thy subject; who in spite put stiff

" To some she-beggar, and compounded thee,

" Poor rogue hereditary."
Again, in The Winter's Tale :

" As rank as any flax -wench, that puts to,

" Before her troth-plight."

The controverted word is found again in the same sense in.
Macbeth :

" thy undaunted mettle should compose

" Nothing but males."
Again, in King Richard II :

" that bed, that womb,

" That mettle, that self-mould that fashion'd thee,

" Made him a man.''
Again, in Timon of Athens :

" Common mother, thou,

" Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,

" Teems and feeds all ; whose self-same mettle,

" Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,

" Engenders the black toad," &c.

Means is here used for medium, or object ; and the sense of
the whole is this: 'Tis as easy wickedly to deprive a man born
in wedlock of life, as to have unlawful commerce with a maid,
in order to give life to an illegitimate child. The thought is
simply, that murder is as easy as fornication ; and the inference
which Angelo would draw, is, that it is as improper to pardon,
the latter as the former. The words — to make a false one —
evidently referring to life, shew that the preceding line is to be
understood in a natural, and not in a metaphorical, sense.

MALONE,

6 JTis set down so in heaven, but not in earth."] I would have
it considered, whether the train of the discourse does not rather
require Isabel to say :

' Tin so set down in earth, but not in heaven.

T 2

276 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

ANG. Say you so ? then I shall poze you quickly.
Which had you rather, That the most just law
Now took your brother's life ; or, to redeem him,7
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness,
As she that he hath stain'd ?

ISAS. Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my soul.8

ANG. I talk not of your soul ; Our compelled sins
Stand more for number than accompt.9

you
are

When she has said this, Then, says Angelo, I shall poze y
quickly. Would you, who, for the present purpose, decla
your brother's crime to be less in the sight of heaven, than the
law has made it ; would you commit that crime, light as it is,
to save your brother's life ? To this she answers, not very
plainly in either reading, but more appositely to that which I
propose :

/ had rather give my body than my soul. JOHNSON.

What you have stated is undoubtedly the divine law : murder
and fornication are both forbid by the canon of scripture ; — but
on earth the latter offence is considered as less heinous than the
former. MALONE.

So, in King John :

" Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,
" And so doth yours." STEEVENS.

7 or, to redeem him,~\ The old copy has — and to redeem

him. The emendation was made by Sir W. D'Avenant.

MALONE.

8 I had rather give my body than my soul."] Isabel, I believe,
uses the words, " give my body," in a different sense from that
in which they had been employed by Angelo. She means, I
think, I had rather die, than forfeit my eternal happiness by the
prostitution of my person. MALONE.

She may mean — I had rather give up my body to imprisonment,
than my soul to perdition. STEEVENS.

9 Our compcll'd sins

Stand more for number than accompt.] Actions to which
we are compelled, however )inmerous, are not imputed to us by
heaven as crimes. If you cannot save your brother but by the
loss of your chastity, it is not a voluntary but compelled sin, for
which you cannot be account able. MALONE.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 277

ISAB. How say you ?

ANG. Nay, I'll not warrant that ; for I can speak
Against the thing I say. Answer to this j — -
I, now the voice of the recorded law,
Pronounce a sentence on your brothers life :
Might there not be a charity in sin,
To save this brother's life ?

ISAB. Please you to do't,

I'll take it as a peril to my soul,
It is no sin at all, but charity.

ANG. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul,1
Were equal poize of sin and charity.

ISAB. That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
Heaven, let me bear it ! you granting of my suit,
If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of mine:,
And nothing of your, answer.2

The old copy reads —

Stand more for number than for accompt.

I have omitted the seconder, which had been casually repeated
by the compositor. STEEVENS.

1 Pleas'd you to do't, at peril &c."] The reasoning is thus :
Angelo asks, whether there might not be a charity in sin to save
this brother. Isabella answers, that if Angelo 'will save him, she
•will stake her soul that it were charity, not sin. Angelo replies,
that if Isabella would save him at the hazard of her soul, it would
be not indeed no sin, but a sin to which the charity would be
equivalent. JOHNSON.

s And nothing of your, answer."] I think .it should be read —

And nothing of yours, answer.
You, and whatever is yours, be exempt from penalty.

JOHNSON.

And nothing of your answer, means, and make no part of those
sins for which you shall be called to answer. STEEVENS,

This passage would be clear, I think, if it were pointed thus t
To have it added to the faults ofminet
And nothing ofyourt answer-.

278 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

ANG. Nay, but hear me :

Your sense pursues not mine : either you are igno-
rant,
Or seem so, craftily ;3 and that's not good.

ISAB. Let me be ignorant,4 and in nothing good,
But graciously to know I am no better.

ANG. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright,
When it doth tax itself: as these black masks
Proclaim an enshield beauty5 ten times louder

So that the substantive answer may be understood to be joined
in construction with mine as well as your. The faults of mine
answer are the faults which I am to answer for. TYRWHITT.

crafily;~\ The old copy reads — crafty. Corrected by

Sir William D'Avenant. MA LONE.

4 Let me be ignorant,"] Me is wanting in the original copy.
The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio.

MALONE.

* Proclaim an enshield beauty — ] An enshield beauty is a
shielded beauty, a beauty covered or protected as with a shield.

STEEVENS.

as these black masks

Proclaim an enshield beauty, &c.] This should be written
en-sheWd, or in-shelVd> as it is in Coriolanus, Act IV. sc. vi :
" Thrusts forth his horns again'into the world
" That were in-shell'd when Marcius stood for Rome."

These masks must mean, I think, the masks of the audience ;
however improperly a compliment to them is put into the mouth
of Angelo. As Shnkspeare would hardly have been guilty of
such an indecorum to flatter a common audience, I think this
passage affords ground for supposing that the play was written
to be acted at court. Some strokes of particular flattery to the
King I have already pointed out ; and there are several other
general reflections, in the character of the Duke especially,
which seem calculated for the royal ear. TYRWHITT.

I do not think so well of the conjecture in the latter part of
this note, as I did some years ago ; and therefore I should wish
to withdraw it. Not that I am inclined to adopt the idea of
Mr. Ilitson, as I see no ground for supposing that Isabella had
any mask in her hand. My notion at present is, that the phrass

jsc.fr. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 279

Than beauty could displayed. — But mark me ;
To be received plain, I'll speak more gross :
Your brother is to die.

ISAB. So.

ANG. And his offence is so, as it appears
Accountant to the law upon that pain.8

ISAB. True.

ANG. Admit no other way to save his life,
(As I subscribe not that,7 nor any other,

these black masks signifies nothing more than black masks;
according to an old idiom of our language, by which the
demonstrative pronoun is put for the prepositive article. See
the Glossary to Chaucer, edit. 1775: This, Thine. Shakspeare
seems to have used the same idiom not only in the passage
quoted by Mr. Steevens from Romeo and Juliet, but also in King
Henry IF. Part I. Act I. sc. iii:

" and, but for these vile guns,

" He would himself have been a soldier."
With respect to the former part of this note, though Mr.
Ritson has told us that " enshield is CERTAINLY put by contrac-
tion for enshielded," I have no objection to leaving my conjecture
in its place, till some authority is produced for such an usage of
enshield or enshielded. TYRWHITT.

There are instances of a similar contraction or elision, in our
author's plays. Thus, bloat for bloated, ballast for ballasted,
and -waft for wafted, with many others. RITSON.

Sir William D'Avenant reads — as a black mask; but I am
afraid Mr. Tyrwhitt is too well supported in his first supposition,
by a passage at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet:

" These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
** Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair."

STEEVENS.

6 Accountant to the laia upon that pain.] Pain is here for
penalty, punishment, JOHNSON.

7 As I subscribe not that,] To subscribe means, to agree to.
Milton uses the word in the same sense.

So also, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion, 1*561 :
" Sub-scribe to his desires." STEEVENS.

280 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT it.

But in the loss of question,)8 that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desir'd of such a person,
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-binding law ;9 and that there were
No earthly mean to save him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else let him suffer ; l
What would you do ?

8 But in the loss of question,] The loss of question I do not
well understand, and should rather read:

But in the toss of question.

In the agitation, in the discussion of the question. To toss an
argument is a common phrase. JOHNSON.

This expression, I believe, means, but in idle supposition, or
conversation that tends to nothing, which may therefore, in
our author's language, be called the loss of question. Thus> in
Coriolanus, Act III. sc. i :

" The which shall turn you to no other harm,

" Than so much loss of time."

Question, in Shakspeare, often bears this meaning. So, in his
Tarqidn and Lucrrce :

" And after supper, long he questioned

" With modest Lucrece," £c. STEEVENS.

Question is used here, as in many other places, for conversa-
tion. INT A LONE.

9 Of the all-binding law ;] The old editions read:
all-building law. JOHNSON.

The emendation is Theobald's. STEEVENS.

1 or else let him suffer;} The old copy reads — " or else

to let him," &c. STEEVENS.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads more grammatically — " or else let
him suffer." But our author is frequently inaccurate in the con-
struction of his sentences. I have therefore adhered to the old
copy. You must be under the necessity [to let, &c.] must be
understood.

So, in Holinshed's History of Scotland, p. 150: " — asleep
they were so fast, that a man might have removed the chamber
over them, sooner than to have awaked them out 'of their
drunken sleep." MALONE.

sc. m MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 281

ISAB. As much for my poor brother, as myself:
That is, Were I under the terms of death,
The impression of keen whips Pd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed
That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

ANG. Then must your brother die.

ISAB. And 'twere the cheaper way :
Better it were, a brother died at once,2
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

ANG. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
That you have slander'd so ?

ISAB. Ignomy in ransom,3 and free pardon,
Are of two houses : lawful mercy is
Nothing akin4 to foul redemption.

The old copy reads — supposed, not supposV. The second to
in the line might therefore be the compositor's accidental repe-
tition of the first. Being unnecessary to sense, and injurious to
measure, I have omitted it. — The pages of the first edition of
Holinshed will furnish examples of every blunder to which
printed works are liable. STEEVENS.

* a brother died at once,'] Perhaps we should read :

Better it were, a brother died for once, &c. JOHNSON.

3 Ignomy in ransom,'] So the word ignominy was formerly
written. Thus, in Troilus and Cressida, Act V. sc. iii :

" Hence, brother lacquey ! ignomy and shame," &c.

REED.

Sir William D' Avenant's alteration of these lines may prove a
reasonably good comment on them :

".Ignoble ransom no proportion bears
" To pardon freely given." MALONE.

The second folio reads — ignominy; but whichsoever reading
we take, the line will be inharmonious, if not defective.

STEEVENS*

4 Nothing akin — ] The old copy reads— kin. For this trivial
emendation I am answerable. STEEVENS.

282 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n,

ANG. You seem'd of late to make the law a

tyrant ;

And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.

ISAS. O, pardon me, my lord ; it oft falls out,
To have what we'd have, we speak not what we

mean :

I something do excuse the thing I hate,
For his advantage that I dearly love.

ANG. We are all frail.

ISAS. Else let my brother die,

If not a feodary, but only he,5

* If not a feodary, but only he, &c.~] This is so obscure, but
the allusion so fine, that it deserves to be explained. A feodary
was one that in the times of vass;ilage held lands of the chief
lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service : which tenures
were called fcnda amongst the Goths. " Now," says Angelo,
*' we are all frail ;'' — " Yes,'' replies Isabella; " if all mankind
were not Jeodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of
imbecility, and who succeed each other by the same tenure, as
well as my brother, I would give him up." The comparing
mankind, lying under the weight of original sin, to a feodary,
who owes suit and service to his lord, is, I think, not ill
imagined. WARBURTOX.

Shakspeare has the same allusion in Cymheline :

" senseless bauble,

" Art thou afeodarie for this act ?"
Again, in the Prologue to Marston's Sophonisba, 1660:

" For seventeen kings were Carthage focdars"
Mr. M. Mason censures me for not perceiving that feodary
signifies an accomplice. Of this I was fully aware, as it supports
the sense contended for by Warburton, and seemingly acquiesced
in by Dr. Johnson. — Every vassal was an accomplice with hi*
lord ; i. e. was subject to be executor of the mischief he did not
contrive, and was obliged to follow in every bad cause which
his superior led. STEKVENS.

I have shewn in a note on Cymbeline, that feodary was used
by Shakspeare in the sense of an associate, and such undoubtedly
is its signification here. Dr. Warburton's note therefore is cer-
tainly wrong, and ought to be expunged.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 283

Owe,6 and succeed by weakness.7

ANG. Nay, women are frail too.

ISAB. Ay, as the glasses where they view them-
selves ;

"Which are as easy broke as they make forms.8
Women! — Help heaven! men their creation mar
In profiting by them.9 Nay, call us ten times frail j

After having ascertained the true meaning of this word, I
must own, that the remaining part of the passage before us is
extremely difficult. I would, however, restore the original
reading thy, and the meaning should seem to be this : — We are
all frail, says Angelo. Yes, replies Isabella ; if he has not one
associate in his crime, if no other person own and follow the
same criminal courses which you are now pursuing, let my
brother suffer death.

I think it however extremely probable that something is
omitted. It is observable, that the line — " Owe, and succeed
thy weakness," does not, together with the subsequent line,—
" Nay, women are frail too," — make a perfect verse : from
which it may be conjectured that the compositor's eye glanced
from the word succeed to weakness in a subsequent hemistich,
and that by this oversight the passage is become unintelligible.

MALONE.

6 Otee,] To owe is, in this place, to own, to hold, to have
possession. JOHNSON.

7 by •weakness.'] The old copy reads — thy weakness.

STEEVENS.

The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. I am by no means
satisfied with it. Thy is much more likely to have been printed
by mistake for this, than the word which has been substituted.
Yet this weakness and by weakness are equally to be understood.
Sir W. D'Avenant omitted the passage in his Law against
Lovers, probably on account of its difficulty. MALONE.

8 glasses

Which are as easy broke as they make forms.] Would it
not be better to read?

take forms. JOHNSON.

'-' In profiting by them.] In imitating them, in taking them
for examples. JOHNSON.

If men mar their own creation, by taking women for their

284 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints. l

ANG. I think it well :

And from this testimony of your own sex,
(Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames,) let me be

bold ;—

I do arrest your words ; Be that you are,
That is, a woman ; if you be more, you're none ;
If you be one, (as you are well express'd
By all external warrants,) show it now,
By putting on the destin'd livery.

ISAB. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,
Let me intreat you speak the former language.2

example, they cannot be said to profit much by them. Isabella
is deploring the condition of woman-kind, formed so frail and
credulous, that men prove the destruction of the whole sex, by
taking advantage of their weakness, and using them for their
Own purposes. She therefore calls upon Heaven to assist them.
This, though obscurely expressed, appears to me to be the
meaning of this passage. M. MASON.

Dr. Johnson does not seem to have understood this passage.
Isabella certainly does not mean to say that men mar their own
creation by taking women for examples. Her meaning is, that
men debase their nature by taking advantage of such lueak
pitiful creatures. — Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1/86.

STEEVENS.

1 For lae are soft as our complexions arc,
And credulous to false prints.'] i. e. take any impression.

WARBURTON.

So, in Twelfth Night :

" How easy is it for the proper false

" In women's waxen hearts to set their forms!

*' Alas ! our frailty is the cause, not we ;

" For, such as we are made of, such we be." MALONE.

* speak the former language.] Isabella answers to his

circumlocutory courtship, that she has but one tongue, she does

not understand this new phrase, and desires him to talk his

former language, that is, to talk as he talked before. JOHNSON.

x. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 285

ANG. Plainly conceive, I love you.

ISAB. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me,
That he shall die for it.

ANG. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

ISAB. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't,1
Which seems a little fouler than it is,4
To pluck on others.

ANG. Believe me, on mine honour,

My words express my purpose.

ISAB. Ha ! little honour to be much believ'd,
And most pernicious purpose ! — Seeming, seem-
ing !5 —

I will proclaim thee, Angelo ; look for*t :
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or, with an outstretched throat, I'll tell the world
Aloud, what man thou art.

ANG. Who will believe thee, Isabel ?

My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,

8 I knoio, your virtue hath a licence in't,'] Alluding to the
licences given by ministers to their spies, to go into all suspected
companies, and join in the language of malcontents.

WARBURTON.

I suspect Warburton's interpretation to be more ingenious than
just. The obvious meaning is — / know your virtue assumes an
air of licentiouness which is not natural to you, on purpose to
try me. — Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

* Which seems a little fouler &c.] So, in Promos and Cas-
sandra:

" Cos. Renowned lord, you use this speech (I hope) your

thrall to trye,

" If otherwise, my brother's life so deare I will not bye."
" Pro. Fair dame, my outward looks my inward thoughts

bewray ;

" If you mistrust, to search my harte, would God you
had a kaye." STEEVENS.

5 Seeming, seeming /] Hypocrisy, hypocrisy ; counter-
feit virtue. JOHNSON.

286 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT n.

My vouch against you,6 and my place i'the state,

Will so your accusation overweigh,

That you shall stifle in your own report,

And smell of calumny.7 I have begun ;

And now I give my sensual race the rein :8

Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite ;

Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,9

That banish what they sue for ; redeem thy brother

By yielding up thy body to my will ;

Or else he must not only die the death,1

6 My vouch against you,~\ The calling his denial of her
charge his vouch, has something fine. Vouch is the testimony
one man bears for another. So that, by this, he insinuates his
authority was so great, that his denial would have the same
credit that a vouch or testimony has in ordinary cases.

WARBURTON.

I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouch
against means no more than denial. JOHNSON.

7 That you shall stifle in your own report,

And smell of 'calumny •.] A metaphor from a lamp or candle
extinguished in its own grease. STEEVENS.

8 And «oru I give my sensual race the rein:~\ And now I give
my senses the rein, in the race they kre now actually running.

HEATH.

9 and prolixious blushes,~\ The word prolixious is not

peculiar to Shakspeare. I find it in Moses his Birth and Miracles,
by Drayton :

" Most part by water, move prolixious was," £c.
Again, in the Dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, 1598:

" rarifier tf prolixious rough barbarism," &c.

Again, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 15.00:

" well known unto them by his prolixious sea-
wandering."
Prolixious blushes mean what Milton has elegantly called —

" sweet reluctant delay" STEEVENS.

1 die the death,'] This seems to be a solemn phrase for

death inflicted by law. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream :
" Prepare to die the death." JOHNSON.

It is a phrase taken from scripture, as is observed in a note on

A Midsummet •• Night's Dream. STEEVENS.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 237

But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance : answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him : As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

[Exit.

ISAB. To whom shall I complain ? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me ? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof!
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will ;
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws ! I'll to my brother :
Though he hath fallen by prompture2 of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,3
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.
Then Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die :
More than our brother is our chastity.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.

[Exit,

The phrase is a good phrase, as Shallow says, but I do not
conceive it to be either of legal or scriptural origin. Chaucer
uses it frequently. See Canterbury Tales, ver. 6'07 :

" They were adradde of him, as of the deth." ver. 1222.
" The deth he feleth thurgh his herte smite." It seems to have
been originally a mistaken translation of the French La Mort.

TYRWHITT,

* prompture — ] Suggestion, temptation, instigation.

JOHNSON,

3 such a mind of honour,] This, in Shakspeare's lan-
guage, may mean, such an honourable mind, as he uses " mind
of love,1' in The Merchant of Venice, for loving mind. Thus
also, in Philaster:

li I had thought, thy mind

" Had been ofhonour" STF.FVF.NTS.

288 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

ACT III. SCENE I,

A Room in the Prison.
Enter Duke, CLAUDIO, and Provost.

DUKE. So, then you hope of pardon from lord
Angelo ,?

CLAUD. The miserable have no other medicine,
But only hope :
I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.

DUKE. Be absolute for death ;4 either death, or

life,
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with

life,—

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep :5 a breath tliou art.

4 Be absolute for death :~\ Be determined to die, without any

hope of life. Horace,

'* The hour which exceeds expectation will be welcome."

JOHNSON.

* That none but fools would keep :~\ But this reading is not
only contrary to all sense and reason, but to the drift of this
moral discourse. The Duke, in his assumed character of a
friar, is endeavouring to instil into the condemned prisoner a
resignation of mind to his sentence ; but the sense of the lines
in this reading, is a direct persuasive to suicide: I make no
doubt, but the poet wrote —

That none but fools would reck :

i. e. care for, be anxious about, regret the loss of. So, in the
tragedy of Tancred and Gismund, Act IV. sc. iii :

" — — Not that she recks this life."

And Shakspeare, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

«« Kecking as little what betideth me."

WARBUKTON.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

(Servile to all the skiey influences,)
That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,6
Hourly afflict : merely, thou art death's fool ;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet run'st toward him still : 7 Thou art not
noble ;

The meaning seems plainly this, that none but fools would,
wish to keep life; or, none but fools "would keep it, if choice
were allowed. A sense which, whether true or not, is certainly
innocent. JOHNSON.

Keep, in this place, I believe, may not signify preserve, but

care for. " No lenger for to liven I ne kepe," says ./Eneas, in

Chaucer's Dido, Queen of Carthage; and elsewhere: " That I

kepe not rehearsed be ;" i. e. which I care not to have rehearsed.

Again, in The Knightes Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. ver. 2240 :

" I kepe nought of armes for to yelpe."

Again, in A mery Jeste of a Man called Hoivleglass, bl. 1. no
date : " Then the parson bad him remember that he had a soule
for to kepe, and he preached and teached to him the use of con-
fession," &c.

Again, in Ben Jonson's Volpone :

" Faith I could stifle him rarely with a pillow,
** As well as any woman that should keep him."
i. e. have the care of him. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens's explanation is confirmed by a passage in The
Dutchess of Malfy, by Webster, (1623,) an author who has
frequently imitated Shakspeare, and who perhaps followed him
in the present instance :

" Of what is't fools make such vain keeping ?

" Sin their conception, their birth weeping ;

" Their life a general mist of error ;

** Their death a hideous storm of terror."
See the Glossary to Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit, of The Canterbury
Tales of Chaucer, v. kepe. MALONE.

6 That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,'] Sir T. Han-
mer changed dost to do, without necessity or authority. The con-
struction is not, " the skiey influences that do," but, " a breath
thou art, that dost," &c. If " Servile to all the skiey influences,"
be inclosed in a parenthesis, all the difficulty will vanish.

PORSON,

7 merely, thou art death's fool ;

For him thou labourist by thy flight to shun,

And yet run'st taivard him still ;] In those old forces called

VOL. VI. U

290 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,
Are nilrs'd by baseness : 8 Thou art by no means
valiant;

Moralities, the fool of the piece, in order to show the inevitable
approaches of death, is made to employ all his stratagems tc»
avoid him ; which, as the matter is ordered, bring the fool, at
every turn, into his very jaws. So that the representations ot
these scenes would afford a great deal of good mirth and morals
mixed together. And from such circumstances, in the genius of
our ancestors' publick diversions, I suppose it was, that the old
proverb arose, at being merry and wise. WARBURTON.

Such another expression as death's fool, occurs in The Honest
Lawyer, a comedy, by S. S. 1616 :

" Wilt thou be a, fool of fate? who can

" Prevent the destiny decreed for man ?" STEEVENS.

It is observed by the editor of The Sad Shepherd, 8vo. 1783.
p. 154, that the initial letter of Stow's Survey, contains a repre-
sentation of a struggle between Death and the Fool; the figures
of which were most probably copied from those characters as
formerly exhibited on the stage. REED.

There are no such characters as Death and the Fool? in anj
old Morality now extant. They seem to have existed only in
the dumb Shows. The two figures in the initial letter of Stow's
Survey, 1603, which have been mistaken for these two person-
ages, have no allusion whatever to the stage, being merely one
of the set known by the name of Death's Dance, and actually
copied from the margin of an old Missal. The scene in the
modern pantomime of Harlequin Skeleton, seems to have been
suggested by some playhouse tradition of Death and the Fool.

RITSOX.

See Pericles, Act III. sc. ii. STEEVENS.

* Are nurs'd by baseness :] Dr. Warburton is undoubtedly
mistaken in supposing that by baseness is meant self-love, here
assigned as the motive of all human actions. Shakspeare only
meant to observe, that a minute analysis of life at once destroys
that splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever gran-
deur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by baseness, by
offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All
the delicacies of th'e table may be traced back to the shambles
and the dunghill, all magniiicence of building was hewn from
the quarry, and all the pomp ol ornament dug from among the
damps and darkness of the mine. JOHNSON.

sa I. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 291

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm : 9 Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st ; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more.1 Thou art not thy-

self;2

This is a thought which Shakspeare delights to express.
So, in Antony and Cleopatra :

" - our dungy earth alike

" Feeds man as beast."

Again :

" Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
" The beggar's nurse, and Ccesar's." STEEVENS.

9 -- the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm:] Worm is put for any creeping thing or
serpent. Shakspeare supposes falsely, but according to the vulgar
notion, that a serpent wounds with his tongue, and that his tongue
is forked. He confounds reality and fiction; a serpent's tongue
is soft, but not forked nor hurtful. If it could hurt, it could
not be soft. In A Midsummer-Night's Dream he has the same
notion :

" With doubler tongue

" Than thine, O serpent, never adder stung.'" JOHNSON.

Shakspeare mentions the " adders fork" in Macbeth ; and
might have caught this idea from old tapestries or paintings, in
which the tongues of serpents and dragons always appear barbed
like the point of an arrow. STEEVENS.

1 - Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st ; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more.'] Evidently from the following
passage of Cicero : " Habes somnum imaginem mortis, eamque
quotidie induis, fy dubitas quin scnsus in morte nullus sit, cum
in ejus simulacra videos esse nullum sensum." But the Epicurean
insinuation is, with great judgment, omitted in the imitation.

WAREURTON.

Here Dr. Warburton might have found a sentiment worthy of
his animadversion. I cannot without indignation find Shakspeare
saying, that death is only sleep, lengthening out his exhortation
by a sentence which in the Friar is impious, in the reasoner is
foolish, and in the poet trite and vulgar. JOHNSON.

This was an oversight in Shakspeare ; for in the second scene

U 2

292 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACTIII.

For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust : Happy thou art not :
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get ;
And what thou hast, forget'st : Thou art not cer-
tain;

For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,3
After the moon : If thou art rich, thou art poor ;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,4
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee : Friend hast thou none j
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout, serpigo,* and the rheum,

of the fourth Act, the Provost speaks of the desperate Barnardine,
as one who regards death only as a drunken sleep. STEEVENS.

I apprehend Shakspeare means to say no more, than that the
passage from this life to another is as easy as sleep ; a position in
which there is surely neither folly nor impiety. MALONE.

* Thou art not thyself;"} Thou art perpetually repaired

and renovated by external assistance, thou subsistest upon foreign
matter, and hast no power of producing or continuing thy own
being. JOHNSON.

3 strange effects,] For effects read affects ; that is,

affections, passions of mind, or disorders of body variously
affected* So, in Othello :

" The young affects" JOHNSON.

When I consider the influence of the moon on the human
mind, I am inclined to read with Johnson — affects instead of
effects. — We cannot properly say that the mind " shifts to strange
effects." M. MASON.

4 like an ass, iuhose back with ingots 5ou;s,] This simile

is far more ancient than Shakspeare's play. It occurs in T.
Churchyard's Discourse of Rebellion, &c. 1570:

" Rebellion thus, with paynted vizage brave,

" Leads out poore soules (that knowes not gold from glas)

" Who beares the packe and burthen like the asse."

STEEVENS.
•* serpigo,] The serpigo is a kind of tetter. STEEVENS.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 293

For ending thee no sooner : Thou hast nor youth5

nor age ;

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both : c for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld ;7 and when thou art old, and rich,
Thou hast neither heat,8 affection , limb, nor beauty,9

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both .•] This is exquisitely, imagined. When
we are young, we busy ourselves in forming schemes lor suc-
ceeding time, and miss the gratifications that are before us ;
when we are old, we amuse the languor of age with the recol-
lection of youthful pleasures or performances ; so that our life,
of which no part is filled with the business of the present time,
resembles our dreams after dinner, when the events of the
morning are mingled with the designs of the evening.

JOHNSON.

7 palsied eld;] Eld is generally used for old age, decre-
pitude. It is here put for old people, persons ivorn with years.
So, in Marston's Dutch Courtesan, 1604 :

" Let colder eld their strong objections move."
Again, in our author's Merry Wives of Windsor :

" The superstitious idle-headed eld"
Gower uses it for age as opposed to youth :
" His elde had turned into youth."

De Confessions Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 106. STEEVENS.

8 for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged: and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld ; and when ihou art old, and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, &c.] The drift of this period is to
prove, that neither youth nor age can be said to be really enjoyed,
which, in poetical language, is — We have neither youth nor age.
But how is this made out ? That age is not enjoyed, he proves
by recapitulating the infirmities of it, which deprive that period
of life of all sense of pleasure. To prove that youth is not en-
joyed, he uses these words :

• • for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth Leg the alms
Of palsied eld ;

294 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this,

Out of which, he that can deduce the conclusion, has a better
knack at logick than I have. I suppose the poet wrote—

For pall'd, thy blazed youth

Becomes assuaged ; and doth beg the alms

Of palsied eld;

i. e. when thy youthful appetite becomes palled, as it will be in
the very enjoyment, the blaze of youth is at once assuaged, and
thou immediately contractest the infirmities of old age ; as par-
ticularly the palsy and other nervous disorders, consequent on
the inordinate use of sensual pleasures. This is to the purpose ;
and proves youth is not enjoyed, by shewing the short duration
of it. WARBURTON.

Here again I think Dr. Warburton totally mistaken. Shak-
speare declares that man has neither youth nor age; for in youth,
which is the happiest time, of which might be the happiest, he
commonly wants means to obtain what he could enjoy ; he is
dependent on palsied eld; must beg alms from the coffers of
hoary avarice ; and being very niggardly supplied, becomes as
aged, looks, like an old man, on happiness which is beyond his
reach. And, when he is old and rich, when he has wealth
enough for the purchase of all that formerly excited his desires,
he has no longer the powers of enjoyment :

has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,

To make his riches pleasant. —

1 have explained this passage according to the present reading,
which may stand without much inconvenience ; yet I am willing
to persuade my reader, because I have almost persuaded myself,
that our author wrote —

for all tliy blasted youth

Becomes as aged — . JOHNSON.

The sentiment contained in these lines, which Dr. Johnson
has explained with his usual precision, occurs again in the forged
letter that Edmund delivers to his father, as written by Edgar ;
King Lear, Act I. sc. ii: " This policy, and reverence of age,
makes the world bitter to the best of our times ; keeps our for-
tunes from us till our oldness cannot relish them." The words
above, printed in Italics, support, I think, the reading of the
old copy — " blessed youth," and shew that any emendation is
unnecessary. MALONE.

- heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,] But how does
beauty make riches pleasant? We should read bounty, which

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 295

That bears the name of life ? Yet in this life
Lie hid more thousand deaths : 1 yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

CLAUD. I humbly thank you.

To sue to live, I find, I seek to die ;
And, seeking death, find life : 2 Let it come on.

Enter ISABELLA.

I SAB. What, ho ! Peace here ; grace and good
company !

completes the sense, and is this — thou hast neither the pleasure
of enjoying riches thyself, for thou wantest vigour ; nor of seeing
it enjoyed by othejs, for thou wantest bounty. Where the
making the want of bounty as inseparable from old age as the
want of health, is extremely satirical, though not altogether just.

WARBURTON.

I am inclined to believe, that neither man nor woman will
have much difficulty to tell how beauty makes riches pleasant.
Surely this emendation, though it is elegant and ingenious, is
not such as that an opportunity of inserting it should be pur-
chased by declaring ignorance of what every one knows, by
confessing insensibility of what every one feels. JOHNSON.

By " heat" and " affection" the poet meant to express appe-
tite, and by " limb" and " beauty" strength. EDWARDS.

1 more thousand deaths:"] For this Sir T. Hamner reads:

a thousand deaths :-

The meaning is, not only a thousand deaths, but a thousand
deaths besides what have been mentioned. JOHNSON.

9 To sue to live, IJind, I seek to die ;

And, seeking death, Jind life .•] Had the Friar, in recon-
ciling Claudio to death, urged to him the certainty of happiness
hereafter, -this speech would have been introduced with more
propriety ; but the Friar says nothing of that subject, and argues
more like a philosopher, than a Christian divine. M. MASON.

Mr. M. Mason seems to forget that no actual Friar was the
,-peaker, but the Duke, who might be reasonably supposed to
.Have more of the philosopher than the divine in his composition.

STEBVENS.

•296 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

PROF. Who's there ? come in : the wish deserves
a welcome.

DUKE. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.3

CLAUD. Most holy sir, I thank you.

Is AS. My business is a word or two with Claudio.

PROV. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's
your sister.

DUKE. Provost, a word with you.

PROV. As many as you please*

DUKE. Bring them to speak, where I may be

conceal'd,
Yet hear them.4 [Exeunt Duke and Provost.

CLAUD. Now, sister, what's the comfort?

ISAB. Why, as all comforts are j most good in
deed :5

3 Dear sir, ere Ions I'll visit you again.'] Dear sir, is too
courtly a phrase for the Friar, who always addresses Claudio and
[sabella by the appellations of son and daughter. I should there-
fore read — dear son. M. MASON.

4 Bring them to speak, where I may be conceal'd,

Yet hear them.'] The first copy, published by the players,
gives the passage thus :

Bring them to hear me speak, where I may be conceal'd.
Perhaps we should read :

Bring me to hear them speak, where /, &c. STEEVENS.

The second folio authorizes the reading in the text.

TYRWHITT.

The alterations made in that copy do not deserve the smallest
credit. There are undoubted proofs that they were merely arbi-
trary ; and, in general, they are also extremely injudicious.

MALONE.

I am of a different opinion, in which I am joined by Dr. Far-
mer ; and, consequently, prefer the reading of the second folio
to my own attempt at emendation, though Mr. Malone has done
me the honour to adopt it. STEEVENS.

5 aft all comforts are ; most good in deed :] If this read-
ing be right, Isabella must mean that she brings something

x. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 297

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift embassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger :
Thereforeyourbest appointment6 make with speed;
To-morrow you set on.

better than tuords of comfort — she brings an assurance of deeds.
This is harsh aud constrained, but I know not what better to
offer. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads :
in speed. JOHNSON.

The old copy reads :

As all comforts are : most good, most good indeede.
I believe the present reading, as explained by Dr. Johnson, is
the true one. So, in Macbeth :

" We're yet but young in deed.'9 STEEVENS.

I would point the lines thus :

" Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort ?

" Isab. Why, as all comforts are, most good. Indeed Lord
Angelo," &c.

Indeed is the same as in truth, or truly, the common begin-
ning of speeches in Shakspeare's age. See Charles the First's
Trial. The King and Bradshaw seldom say any thing without
this preface : " Truly, Sir ." BLACKSTONE.

6 an everlasting leiger:

Therefore your best appointment — ] Leiger is the same with
resident. Appointment ; preparation ; act of fitting, or state of
being fitted for any thing. So in old books, we have a knight
well appointed ; that is, well armed and mounted, or fitted at
all points. JOHNSON.

The word leiger is thus used in the comedy of Look about you,
1600:

" Why do you stay, Sir ? —

" Madam, as leiger to solicit for your absent love."
Again, in Leicester's Common-health : "'a special man of that
hasty king, who was his ledger, or agent, in London," &c.

STEEVENS.

your best appointment — ] The word appointment, on

this occasion, should seem to comprehend confession, commu«
nion, and absolution. " Let him (says Escalus) be furnished
with divines, and have all charitable preparation." The King
in Hamlet, who was cut oft' prematurely, and without such

298 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

CLAUD. Is there no remedy?

ISAB. None, but such remedy, as, to save a head,
To cleave a heart in twain.

CLAUD. But is there any ?

ISAB. Yes, brother, you may live ;
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

CLAUD. Perpetual durance ?

ISAB. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint,
Though all the world's vastidity7 you had,
To a determin'd scope.8

CLAUD. But in what nature ?

ISAB. In such a one as (you consenting to't)
Would bark your honour9 from that trunk you bear,
Ai-d leave you naked.

CL4UD. Let me know the point.

ISAB. O, I do fear tliee, Claudio ; and I quake,
Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect

preparation, is said to be dis-appointed. Appointment, how-
ever, may be more simply explained by the following passage
in The Antipodes, 1638:

" your lodging

" Is decently appointed."
i. e. prepared, furnished. STEEVENS.

7 Though all ilie world's vastidity — ] The old copy reads —
Through all, &c, Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE,

8 — — a restraint

To a determin'd scope. ~\ A confinement of your mind to
one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can
neither be suppressed nor escaped. JOHNSON.

9 Would bark ymir honour — ] A metaphor from stripping
trees of their bark. Doucu.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 299

Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die ?
The sense of death is most in apprehension ;
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.1

CLAUD. Why give you me this shame ?

Think you I can a resolution fetch
From flowery tenderness ? If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.2

ISAB. There spake my brother; there my father's

grave

Did utter forth a voice ! Yes, thou must die :
Thou art too noble to conserve a life
In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy, —
Whose settled visage and deliberate word

1 the poor beetle, &c.] The reasoning is, that death is

no more than every being must suffer, though the dread of it is
peculiar to man ; or perhaps, that we are inconsistent with our-
selves, when we so much dread that which we carelessly inflict
on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we.

JOHNSON.

The meaning is — fear is the principal sensation in death,
which has no pain ; and the giant, when he dies, feels no greater
pain than the beetle. — This passage, however, from its arrange-
ment, is liable to an opposite construction, but which would
totally destroy the illustration of the sentiment. DOUCE.

2 / will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms.'] So, in the First Part of Jero-
mmo, or The Spanish Tragedy, 1605:

« night

" That yawning Beldam, with her jetty skin,

" 'Tis she I hug as mine effeminate bride." STEEVENS.

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra :

*' I will be

" A bridegroom in my death ; and run into't,
" As to a lover's bed." MALONE.

SOO MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew,3
As falcon doth the fowl," — is yet a devil ;
His filth within being cast,5 he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

CLAUD. The princely Angelo ?

ISAB. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'st body to invest and cover
In princely guards ! G Dost thou think, Claudio,

3 - follies doth enmew,] Forces follies to lie in cover,
without daring to show themselves. JOHNSON.

4 As falcon doth thefowl,~\ In whose presence the follies of
youth are afraid to show themselves, as the fowl is afraid t«
flutter while the falcon hovers over it.

So, in The Third Part of King Henry VI :
" - not he that loves him best,
" The proudest he that holds up Lancaster,
" Dares stir a wing, if Warwick shakes his bells,"
To enmew is a term in falconry, also used by Beaumont and
Fletcher, in The Knight of Malta :
" -- I have seen him scale,
" As if a falcon had run up a train,
" Clashing his warlike pinions, his steel'd cuirass,
" And, at his pitch, enmeiio the town below him."

5 Hisjilih within being cast,] To cast a pond is to empty it
of mud. Mr. Upton reads :

His pond within being cast, he would appear
A filth as deep as hell. JOHNSON.

6 The princely Angelo ? -

-- princely guards /] The stupid editors, mistaking guards
for satellites, (whereas it here signifies face,) altered priestly, in
'both places, to princely. Whereas Shakspeare wrote it, priestly,
'as appears from the words themselves :

- *'Tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damnedest body to invest and cover

IVith priestly guards. -

In the first place we see that guards here signifies lace, as
referring to livery, and as having no sense in the signification of
satellites. Now priestly guard:- means sanctity, which is the

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. sol

If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou might' st be freed ?

CLAUD. O, heavens ! it cannot be.

sense required. But princely guards means nothing but rich
lace, which is a sense the passage will not bear. Angelo, in-
deed, as deputy, might be called the princely Angelo : but not
in this place, where the immediately preceding words of—

This out-ward-sainted deputy,
demand the reading I have restored. WARBURTON.

The first folio has, in both places, prenzie, from which the
other folios made princely, and every editor may make what he
can. JOHNSON.

Princely is the judicious correction of the second folio.
Princely guards mean no more than the badges of royalty,
(laced or bordered robes, ) which Angelo is supposed to assume
during the absence of the Duke. The stupidity of the first edi-
tors is sometimes not more injurious to Shakspeare, than the in-
genuity of those who succeeded them.

la the old play of Cambyses I meet with the same expression.
Sisamnes is left by Cambyses to distribute justice while he is ab-
sent ; and in a soliloquy says :

" Now may I wear the brodered garde,

11 And lye in downe-bed soft."
Again, the queen of Cambyses says :

" I do forsake these broder'd gardes,

'* And all the facions new." STEEVENS.

A guard, in old language, meant a welt or border of a gar-
ment; "because (says Minshieu) it gards and keeps the gar-
ment from tearing." These borders were sometimes of lace.
So, in The Merchant of Venice :

" Give him a livery

" More guarded than his fellows." MALONE.

Warburton reads — priestly, and, in my opinion, very pro-
perl}'.

The meaning of the speech is, that it is the cunning policy of
the devil, to invest the damnedest bodies in the most sanctified
robes ; that is to say, in priestly guards, which, when applied to
deceitful purposes, she calls the livery of hell. By guards,
Isabella metaphorically means — outward appearances.

M. MASON.

S02 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

ISAB. Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank

offence,7

So to offend him still : This night's the time
That I should do what I abhor to name,
Or else thou diest to-morrow.

CLAUD. Thou shalt not do't.

ISAB. O, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly as a pin.8

CLAUD. Thanks, dear Isabel.

ISAB. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-mor-
row.

CLAUD. Yes. — Has he affections in him,
That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,
When he would force it?9 Sure it is no sin ;

7 from this rank offence,"} I believe means, from the time

of my committing this offence, you might persist in sinning
with safety. The advantages you would derive from my having
such a secret of his in my keeping, would ensure you from fur-
ther harm on account of the same fault, however frequently
repeated. STEEVENS.

8 as a pin.] So, in Hamlet :

" I do not set my life at a pin's fee.*' STEEVENS.

9 Has he affections &c.] Is lie actuated l>y passions thai
impel him to transgress the laiv, at the very moment that he is
enforcing it against others ? [1 find, he is.] Surely then, since
this is so general a propensity, since the judge is as criminal as
he whom he condemns, it is no sin, or at least a venial one. So,
in the next Act :

" A deflower' d maid,

" And by an eminent body that en fore 'd

" The law against it."
Force is again used for enforce in King Henry VIII ;

" If you will now unite in your complaints,

" And force them with a constancy."
Again, in Coriolanus :

' < Why _ force you tli is ? " MA LO N i\

sc.f. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 303

Or of the deadly seven it is the least.1
ISAB. Which is the least ?

CLAUD. If it were damnable,2 he, being so wise,
Why, would he for the momentary trick
Be perdurably fin'd?3 — O Isabel!

ISAB. What says my brother ?

CLAUD. Death is a fearful thing*.

ISAB. And shamed life a hateful.

CLAUD. Ay, but to die, and go we know not
where ; 4

1 Or of the deadly seven Sfc."] It may be useful to know
which they are ; the reader is, therefore, presented with the fol-
lowing catalogue of them, viz. Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth,
Covetousness, Gluttony, and Lechery. To recapitulate the
punishments hereafter for these sins, might have too powerful
an effect upon the weak nerves of the present generation ; but
whoever is desirous of being particularly acquainted with them,
may find information in some of the old monkish systems of
divinity, and especially in a curious book entitled Le Kalendrier
ties Be rgiers, 1500, folio, of which there is an English translation.

DOUCE.

9 If it "were damnable, &c.] Shakspeare shows his know-
ledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. When Isa-
bella first tells him of Angelo's proposal, he answers, with
honest indignation, agreeably to his settled principles —

Thou shalt not do't.

But the love of life being permitted to operate, soon furnishes
him with sophistical arguments; he believes it cannot be very
dangerous to the soul, since Angelo, who is so wise, will venture
it. JOHNSON.

3 Be perdurably Jin'd?] Perdurably is lastingly. So, in
Othello :

" cables of perdurable toughness." STEEVENS.

* and go we know not where ;] Dryden has imparted

this sentiment to his Aureng-Zebe, Act IV. sc i:
" Death in itself is nothing; but we fe^r
" To be we know not what, •<:>:& /bc/:>v -wi wJiere.*'

STEEVEKS.

304 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot ;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit5

To bathe in fieiy floods, or to reside

In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice ;

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,0

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world j or to be worse than worst

5 delighted spirit — ] i. e. the spirit accustomed here to

ease and delights. Ihis was properly urged as an aggravation to
the sharpness of the torments spoken of. The Oxford editor,
not apprehending this, alters it to dilated. As if, because the
spirit in the body is said to be imprisoned, it was crowded toge-
ther likewise ; and so by death not only set free, but expanded
too ; which, if true, would make it the less sensible of pain.

WARBURTON.

This reading may perhaps stand, but many attempts have been
made to correct it. The most plausible is that which substitutes—

the benighted spirit;

alluding to the darkness always supposed in the place of future
punishment.

Perhaps we may read :

— • — the delinquent spirit;

a word easily changed to delighted by a bad copier, or unskilful
reader. Delinquent U proposed by Thirlby in his manuscript.

JOHNSON.

I think with Dr. Warburton, that by the delighted spirit is
meant, the soul once accustomed to delight, which, of course,
must render the sufferings, afterwards described, less tolerable.
Thus our author calls youth, Uesaed, in a former scene, before
he proceeds to show its wants and its inconveniencies.

Mr. Ritson has furnished me with a passage which I leave to
those who can use it for the illustration of the foregoing epithet :
" Sir Thomas Herbert, speaking of the death of Mirza, son to
Shah Abbas, says, that he gave a period to his miseries in this
world, by supping a delighted cup of extreame poyson."

Travels, 1634-, p. 104. STEEVENS.

6 viewless 'winds,'] i. e. unseen, imisible. So, in Mil-
ton's Comus, v. 92 :

'* I naust be viewless now." STJEEVENS.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 305

Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts 7

Imagine howling !— 'tis too horrible !

The weariest and most loathed worldly life,

That age, ach, penury,8 and imprisonment

Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.9

7 lawless and incertain thoughts — ] Conjecture sent out

to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through
possibilities of pain. JOHNSON.

8 penury,] The old copy has — perjury. Corrected by

the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

9 To txhat tuc fear of death .] Most certainly the idea of the
" spirit bathing in fiery floods," or of residing " iu thrilling
regions of thick-ribbed ice," is not original to our poet; but I
am not sure that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil.
The monks also had their hot and their cold hell ; " the fyrste
is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," says an
old homily: — " The seconde is passying cold, that yf a greate
hylle of fyre were cast therin, it shold tome to yce." One of
their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakspeare, gives
us a dialogue between a bishop and a soul tormented in a piece
^f ice, which was brought to cure a brenning heate in his foot ;
take care, that you do not interpret this the gout, for I remem-
ber Menage quotes a canon upon us :

" Hi (juts dixerit episcopum podagra laborare, anathema
sit."

Another tells us of the soul of a monk fastened to a rock,
which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and
purge of its enormities. Indeed this doctrine was before now
introduced into poetick fiction, as you may see in a poem,
" where the lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of
hell," among the many miscellaneous ones subjoined to the
works of Surrey : of which you will soon have a beautiful edi-
tion from the able hand of my friend Dr. Percy. Nay, a very
learned and inquisitive brother-antiquary hath observed to me,
on the authority of Blefkenius, that this was the ancient opinion
of the inhabitants of Iceland, who were certainly very little read
either in the poet or philosopher. FARMER.

Lazarus, in The Shepherd's Calendar, is represented to have
seen these particular modes of punishment in the infernal
regions :

VOL. VI, X

306 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

ISAB. Alas! alas!

CLAUD. Sweet sister, let me live :

What sin you do to save a brother's life,
Nature dispenses with the deed so far,
That it becomes a virtue,

ISAB. O, you beast !

O, faithless coward ! O, dishonest wretch !
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice ?
Is't not a kind of incest,1 to take life
From thine own sister's shame ? What should I

think ?

Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair !
For such a warped slip of wilderness 2
Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance :3
Die ; perish ! might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed :

" Secondly, I have seen in hell a floud frozen as ice, wherein
the envious men and women were plunged unto the navel, and
then suddainly came over them a right cold and great wind that
grieved and pained them right sore," &c. STEEVENS.

1 Is't not a land of incest,'] In Isabella's declamation there is
something harsh, and something forced and far-fetched. But
her indignation cannot be thought violent, when we consider her
not only as a virgin, but as a nun. JOHNSOX.

* — — a luarped slip of wilderness — ] Wilderness is here used
for Uiildnexs, the state of being disorderly. So, in The Maid's
Tragedy :

" And throws an unknown icilderness about me."
Again, in Old Fortunatus, 1600:

" But I in wilderness totter'd out my youth."
The word, in this sense, is now obsolete, though employed by
Milton :

" The paths, and bowers, doubt uot, but our joint hands

" Will keep from wilderness with ease." STEEVENS.

3 Take my defiance :] Defiance is refusal. So, in Romeo and
Juliet :

" I do defy thy commiseration." STEEVENS.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 307

I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

CLAUD. Nay, Hear me, Isabel.

ISM. 0,fye,fye,fye!

Thy sin*s not accidental, but a trade : 4
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd :
*Tis best that thou diest quickly. [Going.

CLAUD. O hear me, Isabella.

Re-enter Duke.

DUKE. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one
word.

ISABI What is your will ?

DUKE. Might you dispense with your leisure, I
would by and by have some speech with you : the
satisfaction I would require, is likewise your own
benefit.

ISAB. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must
be stolen out of other affairs ; but I will attend you
a while.

DUKE. [To CL AUDIO, aside."] Son, I have over-
heard what hath past between you and your sister.
Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her ; only
he hath made an essay of her virtue, to practice his
judgment with the disposition of natures : she, hav-
ing the truth of honour in her, hath made him that
gracious denial which he is most glad to receive : I
am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true;
therefore prepare yourself to death : Do not satisfy

4 but a trade :] A custom ; a practice ; an established

habit. So we say of a man much addicted to any thing — he
makes a trade of it. JOHNSON.

X 2

308 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

your resolution with hopes that are fallible : 5 to*
morrow you must die ; go to your knees, and make
ready.

CLAUD. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so
out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.

DUKE* Hold you there : 6 Farewell.

\_Exit CLAUDIO.

Re-enter Provost.

Provost, a word with you.

PROV. What's your will, father ?

DUKE. That now you are come, you will be
gone : Leave me a while with the maid ; my mind

* Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes thai arc fallible :~\
A condemned man, whom his confessor had brought to bear
death with decency and resolution, began anew to entertain
hopes of life. This occasioned the advice in the words above.
But how did these hopes satisfy his resolution ? or what harm
was there, if they did ? We must certainly read, Do not falsify
your resolution rvith hopes that are fallible. And then it be-
comes a reasonable admonition. For hopes of life, by drawing
him back into the world, would naturally elude or weaken the
virtue of that resolution which was raised only on motives of
religion. And this his confessor had reason to warn him of.
The term falsify is taken from fencing, and signifies the pretend-
ing to aim a stroke, in order to draw the adversary off his guard.
So, Fairfax :

" Now strikes he out, and no\v hefahificth."

WARBURTOX.

The sense is this : — Do not rest with satisfiiction on hopes that,
are fallible. There is no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the meaning is, Do not satisfy or content yourself with
that kind of resolution, which acquires strength from a latent
hope that it will not be put to the test ; a hope that, in your
case, if you rely upon it, will deceive you. MALOXE.

* Hold you there :~\ Continue in that resolution. JOHNSON.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 309

promises with my habit, no loss shall touch her by
my company.

PROF. In good time.7 \_Exit Provost.

DUKE. The hand that hath made you fair, hath
made you good : the goodness, that is cheap in
beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness ; but grace,
being the soul of your complexion, should keep
the body of it ever fair. The assault, that Angelo
hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my
understanding ; and, but that frailty hath examples
for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How
would you do to content this substitute, and to
save your brother?

ISAB. I am now going to resolve him : I had ra-
ther my brother die by the law, than my son should
be unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good
duke deceived in Angelo ! If ever he return, and
I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or
discover his government.

DUKE. That shall not be much amiss : Yet, as
the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusa-
tion ; he made trial of you only.8 — Therefore, fasten
your ear on my advisings ; to the love I have in
doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make
myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do
a poor wronged lady a merited benefit ; redeem
your brother from the angry law ; do no stain to
your own gracious person ; and much please the
absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return
to have hearing of this business.

' In good time.'] i. e. d la bonne heure, so be it, very well.

STEEVENS.

8 --lie made trial of you only.] That is, he 'vcill say he made

trial of you only. M. MASON.

310 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACTIH.

ISAB. Let me hear you speak further ; I have
spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the
truth of my spirit.

DUKE. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fear-
ful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana the
sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscar-
r ied at sea ?

ISAB. I have heard of the lady, and good words
went with her name.

DUKE. Her should this Angelo have married ;
was affianced to her by oath,9 and the nuptial ap-
pointed : between whicli time of the contract, and
limit of the solemnity,1 her brother Frederick was
wrecked at sea, having in that perish'd vessel the
dowry of his sister. But mark, how heavily this
befel to the poor gentlewoman : there she lost a
noble and renowned brother, in his love toward
iier ever most kind and natural ; with him the por-
tion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry ;
with both, her combinate husband,2 this well-
seeming Angelo.

ISAB. Can this be so ? Did Angelo so leave her ?

DUKE. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one
of them with his comfort ; swallowed his vows
iv hole, pretending, in her, discoveries of dishonour:

9 by oath,] By inserted by the editor of the second folio.

MALONK.

1 • and limit of the solemnity,] So, in King John :

fi Prescribes how long the virgin state shall last, —
" Gives limits unto holy nuptial rites."
i. e. appointed times. MA LONE.

s her combinate husband,] Combinate is betrothed, settled

l>i contract. STEEVENS.

sc.r. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 311

in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation,3
which she yet wears for his sake ; and he, a marble
to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not.

ISAB. What a merit were it in death, to take
this poor maid from the world ! What corruption
in this life, that it will let this man live ! — But how
out of this can she avail ?

DUKE. It is a rupture that you may easily heal:
and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but
keeps you from dishonour in doing it.

ISAB. Show me how, good father.

DUKE. This fore-named maid hath yet in her the
continuance of her first affection ; his unjust un-
kindness, that in all reason should have quenched
her love, hath, like an impediment in the current,
made it more violent and unruly. Go you to
Angelo ; answer his requiring with a plausible
obedience ; agree with his demands to the point :
only refer yourself to this advantage,4 — first, that
your stay with him may not be long ; that the time
may have all shadow and silence in it ; and the
place answer to convenience : this being granted
in course, now follows all. We shall advise this
wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in
your place ; if the encounter acknowledge itself

3 — — bestowed her on her oivn lamentation,] I. e. left her to
her sorrows. MA LONE.

Rather, as our author expresses himself in King Henri/ V:
" gave her up" to them. STEEVENS.

4 only refer yourself to this advantage,"] This is scarcely

to be reconciled to any established mode of speech. We may
read, only reserve yourself to, or only reserve to yourself this ad"
vantage. JOHNSON.

Refer yourself tpt merely signifies — have recourse to, betake
this advantage. STEEVSNS.

312 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACTIII.

hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense :
and here, by this, is your brother saved, your ho-
nour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and
the corrupt deputy scaled.5 The maid will I frame,
and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to
carry this as you may, the doubleness of the bene-
fit defends the deceit from reproof. What think
you of it ?

I SAB. The image of it gives me content already ;
and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous per-
fection.

DUKE. It lies much in your holding up : Haste
you speedily to Angelo ; ii for this night he entreat

4 the corrupt deputy scaled.] To scale the deputy, may

be, to reach him, notwithstanding the elevation of his place ;
or it may be, to strip him and discover his nakedness, though
armed and concealed by the investment of authority.

JOHNSON,

To scale, as may be learned from a note to Coriolanus, Act I.
sc. i. most certainly means, to disorder, to disconcert, to put to
Jlight. An army routed is called by Holinshed, an army scaled.
The word sometimes signifies to diffuse or disperse ; at others,
as I suppose in the present instance, to 2)iit into confusion.

STEEVENS.

To scale is certainly to reach (as Dr. Johnson explains it) as
well as to disperse or spread aljroad, and hence its application to
a routed army which is scattered over the Jield. The Duke's
meaning appears to be, either that Angelo would be over-
reached, as a town is by the scalade, or that his true character
would be spread or laid open, so that his vileness would become
evident. Dr. Warburton thinks it is iverg/icd, a meaning which
Dr. Johnson affixes to the word in another place. See Coriolanust
Act I. sc. i.

Scaled, however, may mean — laid open, as a corrupt sore is
by removing the slough that covers it. The allusion is rendered
less disgusting, by more elegant language, in Hamlet:

" It will but skin andjllm the ulcerous place ;

" Whiles rank corruption, mining all within.

" Infects unseen." KITSON.

sc. /. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 313

you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I
will presently to St. Luke's ; there, at the moated
grange,6 resides this dejected Mariana : At that
place call upon me ; and despatch with Angelo,
that it may be quickly.

ISAB. I thank you for this comfort : Fare you
well, good father. [Exeunt severally.

6 the moated grange,] A grange is a solitary farm-

house. So, in Othello :

this is Venice,

" My house is not a grange" STEEVENS.

A grange implies some one particular house immediately infe-
rior in rank to a hall, situated at a small distance from the town
or village from which it takes its name ; as, Hornby Grange,
Blackwell Grange ; and is in the neighbourhood simply called
The Grange. Originally, perhaps, these buildings were the
lord's granary or storehouse, and the residence of his chief bai-
liff. (Grange, from Granagium, Lat.) RITSON.

A grange, in its original signification, meant a farm-house of
a monastery, (from grana gerendo,) from which it was always
at some little distance. One of the monks was usually appointed
to inspect the accounts of the farm. He was called the Prior of
the Grange ; — in barbarous Latin, Grangiarius. Being placed
at .a distance from the monastery, and not connected with any
other buildings, Shakspeare, with his wonted licence, uses it,
both here and in Othello, in the sense of a solitary farm-house.

I have since observed that the word was used in the same
sense by the contemporary writers. So, in Tarleton's Newe$
out of Purgatory, printed about the year 1590 :

" till my return I would have thee stay at our little

graunge house in the country."

In Lincolnshire they at this day call every lone house that is
unconnected with others, a grange. MALONE.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

SCENE II.
The Street before ilie Prison.

Enter Duke, as a Friar; to him ELBOW, Clown,
and Officers.

ELB. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but
that you will needs buy and sell men and women
like beasts, we shall have all the world drink
brown and white bastard.7

DUKE. O, heavens! what stuff is here ?

CLO. 'Twas never merry world, since, of two
usuries,8 the merriest wras put down, and the worser
allow'd by order of law a furr'd gown to keep him

7 - bastard."] A kind of sweet wine, then much in vogue,
from the Italian bastardo. WARBURTON.

See a note on King Henry IV. Part I. Act II. sc. iv.

STEEVENS.

Bastard was raisin wine. See Minshieu's DICT. in v. and
Cole's Latin Diet. 1679. MALONE.

8 - since, of two usuries,] Here a satire on usuiy turns
abruptly to a satire on the person of the usurer, without any
kind of preparation. We may be assured then, that a line or
two, at least, have been lost. The subject of which we may
easily discover was a comparison between the two usurers ; as,
before, between the two usuries. So that, for the future, the
passage should be read with asterisks, thus — by order of law,
* * * a furred gown, &c. WARBURTON.

Sir Thomas Hanmer corrected this with less pomp : then since
of two usurers the merriest was put down, and the worscr al-
lowed, l)y order of law, ajiirr'd gown, &c. His punctuation is
right, but the alteration, small as it is, appears more than was
wanted. Usury may be used by au easy licence for the pro-
fessors of usury. JOHKSON.

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. si*

warm ; and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins too,9 tq
signify, that craft, being richer than innocency,
stands for the facing.

ELS. Come your way, sir : — Bless you, good
father friar.

And you, good brother father : l What
offence hath this man made you, sir ?

ELB. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law ; and,
sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir ; for we
have found upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock/
which we have sent to the deputy.

9 - andfurr'd "with fox and lamb-skins too, &c.] In this
passage the foxes skins are supposed to denote craft, and the
lamb-skins innocence. It is evident, therefore, that we ought
to read, " furred with fox on lamb-skins," instead of " and
lamb-skins ;" for otherwise, craft will not stand for the facing.

M. MASON-.

Fox-skins and lamb-skins were both used as facings to cloth
in Shakspeare's time. See the Statute of Apparel, 24- Henry
VIII. c. 13. \-{QTHCQ fox-furred slave is used as an opprobrious
epithet in Wily Beguiled, 1606, and in other old comedies.
See also Characterismi, or Lenton's Leasures, &c. 1631 : " An
Usurer is an old fox, clad in lamb-skin, who hath pray'd [prey'dj
So long abroad," &c. M.ALONE.

1 - and you, good brother father :] In return to Elbow's,
blundering address of good father friar, i. e. good father bro-
ther, the Duke humorously calls him, in his own style, good
brother father. This would appear still clearer in French.
J)ieu vous benisse, mon pere frere. — Et vous aussi, mon frere
pere. There is no doubt that our friar is a corruption of the
French/rm?. TYRWHITT.

Mr. Tynvhitt's observation is confirmed by a passage in The.
strangest Adventure that ever happened, &c. 4-to. 1601 :

" And I call to mind, that as the reverendfather brotherf
Thomas Sequera, Superiour of Ebora, and mine auncient friendj
came to vi&ite me," &c, STEEVENS.

2 - a strange pick-lock,] As we hear no more of this
charge, it is necessary to prevent honest Pompey from being
takeji for a house-breaker. The locks which he had occasion to

316 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

DUKE. Fye, sirrah ; a bawd, a wicked bawd !
The evil that thou causest to be done,
That is thy means to live : Do thou but think
What 'tis to cram a maw, or clothe a back,
From such a filthy vice : say to thyself, —
From their abominable and beastly touches
I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.3
Canst thou believe thy living is a life,
So stinkingly depending ? Go, mend, go, mend.

CLO. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir ; but
yet, sir, I would prove

DUKE. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs

for sin,

Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer j
Correction and instruction must both work,
Ere this rude beast will profit.

ELB. He must before the deputy, sir ; he has

pick, were by no means common, in this country at least. They
were probably introduced, with other Spanish customs, during
the reign of Philip and Mary ; and were so well known in
Edinburgh, that in one of Sir David Lindsay's plays, repre-
sented to thousands in the open air, such a lock is actually
opened on the stage, RITSON.

In Ben Jonson's Volpone, Corvino threatens to make his wife
wear one of these contrivances :

" Then, here's a lock, which I will hang upon thee."

SXEEVENS.

3 I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.] The old editions
have —

/ drink, I eat away myself, and live.

This is one very excellent instance of the sagacity of our edi-
tors, and it were to be wished heartily, that they would have
obliged us with their physical solution, how a man can eat aixai/
himself, and live. Mr. Bishop gave me that most certain emen-
dation, which I have substituted in the room of the former
foolish reading; by the help whereof, we have this easy sense:
that the Clown fed himself, and put clothes on his bubk, by
exercising the vile trade of a bawd. THEOBALD.

ST. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 317

given him warning : the deputy cannot abide a
whoremaster : if he be a whoremonger, and comes
before him, he were as good go a mile on his
errand.

DUKE. That we were all, as some would seem

to be,
Free from our faults, as faults from seeming, free!4

4 That we were all, as some would seem to be,

Free from our faults, as faults from seeming, free !"] i.e.
as faults are destitute of all comeliness or seeming. The first of
these lines refers to the deputy's sanctified hypocrisy ; the second
to the Clown's beastly occupation. But the latter part is thus
ill expressed for the sake of the rhyme. WARBURTON.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads :

Free from all faults, as from faults seeming free.
In the interpretation of Dr. Warburton, the sense is trifling, and
the expression harsh. To wish that men were as free from
faults, as faults are free from comeliness, [instead of void of
comeliness,] is a very poor conceit. I once thought it should be
read :

0 that all were, as all mould seem to be,

Free from all faults, or from false seemingy><?e.
So in this play:

" O place, O power — how dost thou

" Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls

" To thy false seeming .'"
But now I believe that a less alteration will serve the turn :

Free from all faults, or faults from seemingfree.
That men ivere really good, or that their faults were known,
that men were free from faults, or faults from hypocrisy. So
Isabella calls Angelo's hypocrisy, seeming, seeming. JOHNSON.

I think we should read with Sir T. Hanmer :

Free from all faults, as from faults seemingfree.
i. e. I wish we were all as good as we appear to be ; a sentiment
very naturally prompted by his reflection on the behaviour of
Angelo. Sir T. Hanmer has only transposed a word to produce
a convenient sense. STEEVENS.

Hanmer is right with respect to the meaning of this passage,
but I think his transposition unnecessary. The words, as they
stand, will express the same sense, if pointed thus :

Free from all faults, as, faults from, seemingfree.

318 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACTHI.

Enter Lucio.

ELS. His neck will come to your waist, a cord,
air.5

CLO. I spy comfort ; I cry, bail : Here's a gen-
tleman, and a friend of mine.

Lucio. How now, noble Pompey ? What, at the
heels of Caesar ? Art thou led in triumph ? What,
is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made
woman,6 to be had now, for putting the hand in

Nor is this construction more harsh than that of many other
sentences in the play, which, of all those which Shakspeare has
left us, is the most defective in that respect. M. MASOV.

The original copy has not Free at the beginning of the line.
It was added unnecessarily by the editor of the second folio,
who did not perceive that our, like many words of the same
kind, was used by Shakspeare as a dissyllable. The reading, —
from all faults, which all the modern editors have adopted,
(I think, improperly,) was first introduced in the fourth folio.
Dr. Johnson's conjectural reading, or, appears to me very pro-
bable. The compositor might have caught the word a* from
the preceding line. If as be right, Dr. Warburton's interpreta-
tion is, perhaps, the true one. Would we were all as free from
faults, as faults are free from, or destitute of comeliness, or
seeming. This line is rendered harsh and obscure by the word
Jrce. being dragged from its proper place for the sake of the
rhyme. MALONE.

Till I meet with some decisive instance of the pronoun — our,
used as a dissyllable, I read with the second folio, which I cannot
suspect of capricious alterations. STEEVENS.

5 His neck mill come to your waist, a cord, sir."] That is, his
neck will be tied, like your waist, with a rope. The friars of
the Franciscan order, perhaps of all others, wear a hempen cord
for a girdle. Thus Buchanan :
*' Fac gcmant suis
" Variala tergajimibus" JOIIXSON.

G Pygmalion's images, newly made woman,'] By Pygma-
lion's images, ncivly made woman, I believe Shakspcare meant

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 319

the pocket and extracting it clutch'd? What reply ?
Ha? What say'st thou to this tune, matter, and

no more than — Have you no women now to recommend to your1
customers, as fresh and untouched as Pygmalion's statue was, at
the moment when it became flesh and blood ? The passage
may, however, contain some allusion to a pamphlet printed in
1598, called The Metamorphosis of Pygmalion s Image, and
certain Satires. I have never seen it, but it is mentioned by
Ames, p. 568 ; and whatever its subject might be, we learn
from an order signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishop of London, that this book was commanded to be burnt.
The order is inserted at the end of the second volume of the
entries belonging to the Stationers' Company. STEEVENS.

If Marston's Metamorphosis of Pygmalion' s Image be alluded
to, I believe it must be in the argument. — " The maide (by the
power of Venus) was metamorphosed into a liviag woman.1'

FARMER.

There may, however, be an allusion to a passage in Lyly's
Woman in the Moone, 1597. The inhabitants of Utopia peti-
tion Nature for females, that they may, like other beings, pro-
pagate their species. Nature grants their request; and " they
draw the curtins from before Nature's shop, where stands an
image clad, and some unclad, and they bring forth the cloathed
image," &c. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the meaning is, — Is there no courtezan, who being
newly made woman, i. e. lately debauched, still retains the
appearance of chastity, and looks as cold as a statue, to be
had, &c.

The following passage in Blurt Master Constable, a comedy,
by Middle-ton, 1602, seems to authorize this interpretation:

" Laz. Are all these women ?

" Imp. No, no, they are half men, and half women.

" Laz. You apprehend too fast. I mean by women, wives ;
for wives are no maids, nor 'are maids women."

Mulier in Latin had precisely the same meaning. MALONE.

A pick-lock had just been found upon the Clown, and there-
fore without great offence to his morals, it may be presumed
that he was likewise a pick-pocket ; in which case Pygmalion s
images, &c. may mean new-coined money with the Queen's
image upon it. DOUCE.

320 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

method ? Is't not drown'd i* the last rain ? 7 Ha ?
What say'st thou, trot ? 3 Is the world as it was,
man ? Which is the way ? 9 Is it sad, and few
words ? Or how ? The trick of it ?

7 What say'st thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't
not droivri'd i1 the last rain?] Lucio, a prating fop, meets his
old friend going to prison, and pours out upon him his imperti-
nent interrogatories, to which when the poor fellow makes no
answer, he adds, What reply"? ha? what say'st thou to this?
tune, matter, and method, — is't not? drown' d i' the last rain?
ha ? what say'st thou, trot ? &c. It is a common phrase used
in low raillery of a man crest-fallen and dejected, that he looks
like a drown' 'd puppy. Lucio, therefore, asks him, whether he
was drotun'd in the last rain, and therefore cannot speak.

JOHNSON.

He rather asks him whether his answer was not drown'd in
the last rain, for Pompey returns no ansiver to any of his ques-
tions: or, perhaps, he means to compare Pompey's miserable
appearance to a drown' d mouse. So, in King Henry VI. Part I.
Act I. sc. ii :

" Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice"

STEEVENTS.

8 what say1 st thou, trot?] It should be read, I think,

what say'st thou to't ? the word trot being seldom, if ever, used
to a man.

Old trot, or trat, signifies a decrepid old woman, or an old
rJrab. In this sense it is used by Gawin Douglas, Virg. JEn.
13. IV : '

" Out on the old tral, aged dame or wyffe." GREY.

So, in Wily Beguiled, 1613 : " Thou toothless old trot thou."
Again, in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638:

" What can this witch, this wizard, or old trot.''''
Trot, however, sometimes signifies a bawd. So, in Church-
yard's Tragicall Discourse of a dolorous Gentlewoman, 1593:

" Awaie old trots, that sets young flesh to sale."
Pompey, it should be remembered, is of this profession.

STEEVENS.

Trot, or as it is now often pronounced, honest trout, is a
familiar address to a man among the provincial vulgar.

JOHNSON.

9 Which is the way ?] What is /Ac mode notv? JOHNSON.

sc. //. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. sal

DUKE. Still thus, and thus ! still worse !

Lucio. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress?
Procures she still ? Ha ?

CLO. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef,
and she is herself in the tub.1

Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it
must be so : Ever your fresh whore, and your
powder'd bawd : An unshunn'd consequence ; it
must be so : Art going to prison, Pompey !

CLO. Yes, faith, sir.

Lucio. Why 'tis not amiss, Pompey: Farewell :
Go ; say, I sent thee thither.2 For debt, Pompey ?
Or how ? 3

1 • • in the tub.] The method of cure for venereal com-
plaints is grossly called the powdering tub. JOHNSON.

It was so called from the method of cure. See the notes on

" the tub-fast and the diet — " in Timon, Act IV.

STEEVENS.

* say, I sent thee thither.'] Shakspeare seems here to

allude to the words used by Gloster, in King Henry VI. P. III.
Act V. sc. vi :

" Down, down to hell; and say — / sent thee thither"

REED.

3 Go; say, I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? or

kow?~\ It should be pointed thus: Go, say I sent thee thither
for debt, Pompey ; or how — i. e. to hide the ignominy of thy
case, say, I sent thee to prison for debt, or whatever other pre-
tence thou fanciest better. The other humorously replies, For
being a bawd, for being a bawd, i. e. the true cause is the most
honourable. This is in character. WARBURTON.

I do not perceive any necessity for the alteration. Lucio first
offers him the use of his name to hide the seeming ignominy of
his case ; and then very naturally desires to be informed of the
true reason why he was ordered into confinement. STEEVENS.

Warburton has taken some pains to amend this passage, which
does not require it ; and Lucio's subsequent reply to Elbow, shows
that his amendment cannot be right. When Lucio advisee Pom-

VOL. vi. y

322 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

ELS. For being a bawd, for being a bawd.

Lucio. Well, then imprison him : If imprison-
ment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right :
Bawd is he, doubtless, and of antiquity too j bawd-
born. Farewell, good Pompey : Commend me to
the prison, Pompey : You will turn good husband
now, Pompey ; you will keep the house.4

CLO. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my
bail.

Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is
not the wear.5 I will pray, Pompey, to increase
your bondage : if you take it not patiently, why,
your mettle is the more : Adieu, trusty Pompey.
— Bless you, friar.

DUKE. And you.

Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey ? Ha?

ELB. Come your ways, sir ; come.

CLO. You will not bail me then, sir ?

Lucio. Then, Pompey? nor now.6 — What news
abroad, friar ? What news ?

ELB. Come your ways, sir ; come.

pey to say he sent him to the prison, and in his next speech de-
sires him to commend him to the prison, he speaks as one who
had some interest there, and was well known to the keepers.

M. MASON.

4 You 'will turn good husband now, Pompey ; you ivill

keep the house.] Alluding to the etymology of the word husband.

MALONE.

* it is not the wear.] i. e. it is not the fashion.

STEEVENS.

6 Then, Pompey? nor wott\] The meaning, I think, is: /
ixill neither bail thee then, nor now. So again, in this play ;
*' More, nor less to others paying — ." MALONE.

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 323

Lucio. Go, — to kennel, Pompey, go : 7

[Exeunt ELBOW, Clown, and Officers.
What news, friar, of the duke ?

DUKE. I know none : Can you tell me of any ?

Lucio. Some say, he is with the emperor of
Russia ; other sonie, lie is in Rome : But where is
he, think you ?

DUKE. I know not where : But wheresoever, I
wish him well.

Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him,
to steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he
was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well
in his absence ; he puts transgression to't.

DUKE. He does well in't.

Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would
do no harm in him : something too crabbed that
way, friar.

DUKE. It is too general a vice,8 and severity
must cure it.

Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great
kindred ; it is well aily'd : but it is impossible to
extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be
put down. They say, this Angelo was not made
by man and woman, after the downright way of
creation : Is it true, think you ?

DUKE. How should he be made then ?

7 Go, — to kennel, Pompey, go .-] It should be remembered,
that Pompey is the common name of a dog, to which allusion is
made in the mention of a kennel. JOHNSON.

8 It is too general a vice,] Yes, replies Lucio, the vice is of
great kindred ; it is voett ally* d : &c. As much as to say, Yes,
truly, it is general; for the greatest men have it as well as we
little folks. A little lower he taxes the Duke personally with it.

EDWARDS.
Y 2

£24 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in

Lucio. Some report, a sea-maid spawn'd him : —
Some, that he was begot between two stock-fishes :
— But it is certain, that when he makes water, his
urine is congeal'd ice ; that I know to be true :
and he is a motion ungenerative, that's infallible.'

DUKE. You are pleasant, sir > and speak apace.

Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in
him, for the rebellion of a cod-piece, to take away
the life of a man ? Would the duke, that is absent,
have done this ? Ere he would have hang'd a man
for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have
paid for the nursing a thousand : He had some
feeling of the sport ; he knew the service, and
that instructed him to mercy.

DUKE. I never heard the absent diike much de-
tected for women ; l he was not inclined that way.

9 and he is a motion ungenerative, that's infallible.] In

the former editions : — and he is a motion generative; that's in-
fallible. This may be sense ; and Lucio, perhaps, may mean,
that though Angelo have the organs of generation, yet that he
makes no more use of them, than if he were an inanimate pup-
pet. But I rather think our author wrote,. — and he is a motion
ungenerative, because Lucio again in this very scene says, — this
ungenitured agent -will unpeople the province with continency.

THEOBALD.

A motion generative certainly means a puppet of the masculine
gender^ a thing that appears to have those powers of which it is
not in reality possessed. STEEVENS.

A motion ungenerative is a moving or animated body without
the power of generation. RITSON.

1 much detectedjfor 'women ;] This appears so like the

language of Dogberry, that at first I thought the passage corrupt,
and wished to read suspected. But perhaps detected had anciently
the same meaning. So, in an old collection of tales, entitled,
Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1595 : " An officer whose daughter
was detected of dishonestie, and generally so reported." That
detected is there used for suspected, and not in the present sense
of the word, appears, I think, from the words that follow —

sc. u. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 325

Lucio. O, sir, you are deceived.

DUKE. 'Tis not possible.

Lucio. Who? not the duke? yes, your -beggar
of fifty ; — and his use was, to put a ducat in her
clack-dish:2 the duke had crotchets in him : He
would b.e drunk too ; that let me inform you.

«nd so generally reported, which seem to relate not to a knoiun
but suspected fact. MALONE.

In the Statute 3d Edward First, c. 15, the words gentz rettez
de felonie, are rendered persons detected of felopy, that is, as I
conceive, suspected. REED.

In this sense, perhaps, it is used 'in the infamous publication
entitled A Detection, &c. of Mary Queen of Scots : " But quho
durst accuse the Quene? or (quhilk was in maner mair perilous)
quho durst detect Both well of sic a horrible oflence ?"

Again, in A courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels: fyc.
Translated from the French, fyc. by H. W. .[Henry Wotton,]
Gentleman, 4to. 1588 : " And in truth women are to be detected
of no imperfection, jealousie only excepted." STEEVENS.

Again, in Rich's Adventures of Simonides, 15S4-, 4to: " — all
Rome, detected of inconstancie." HENDERSON.

Detected, however, may mean, notoriously charged, or guilty.
So, in North's translation of Plutarch : " — he only of all other
kings in his time was most detected with this vice of leacherie."

Again, in Howe's Abridgment of Stowe's Chronicle, 1618,
p. 363 : *' In the month of February divers traiterous persons
were apprehended, and detected of most wicked conspiracie
against his Majestic : — the 7th of Sept. certaine of them wicked
subjects were indicted," &c. MALONE.

* • . . clack-dish .-] The beggars, two or three centuries ago,
used to proclaim their want by a wooden dish with a moveabte
cover, which they clacked, to show that their vessel was empty.
This appears from a passage quoted on another occasion by Dr.
Grey.

Dr. Grey's assertion may be supported by the following passage
in an old comedy, called The Family of Love, 1608 :

" Can you think I get my living by a beliand a clack-dish?"

tf By a bell and a clack-disk? how's that?"

" Why, by begging, sir," &c.

526 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

DUKE. You do him wrong, surely.

Lucio. Sir, I was an inward of his : 3 A shy fel-
low was the duke:4 and, I believe, I know the
cause of his withdrawing.

DUKE. What, I pr'ythee, might be the cause ?

Lucio. No, — pardon; — 'tis a secret must be
lock'd within the teeth and the lips: but this I
can let you understand, — The greater rile of the
subject :' held the duke to be wise.

Again, in Henderson's Supplement to Chaucer's Troilus and
Cres'seid :

" Thus shalt thou go a begging from lious to hous,
" With cuppe and clappir like a lazarous."
And by a stage direction in The Second Part of K. Edward IV.
1619:

" Enter Mrs. Blague, very poorly, begging with her basket
and a clap-dish.'"

There is likewise an old proverb to be found in Ray's Collec-
tion, which alludes to the same custom :

" He clafis his dish at a wrong man's door." STEEVENS.

A custom is still kept up in the villages near Oxford, about
Easter, for the poor people and children to go a clacking : they
carry wooden bowls, salt boxes, &c. and make a rattling noise
at the houses of the principal inhabitants, who give them bacon,
eggs, &c. HARRIS.

3 an inward of his .•] Inward is intimate. So, in Daniel's

Hymen K Triumph, 1623:

" You two were wont to be most inward friends."
Again, in Marston's Malcontent, 1604- :

" Come we must be inward, thou and I all one."

STEEVENS.

4 A shy fellow was the duke :~\ The meaning of this

term may be best explained by the following lines in the fifth
Act:

" The wicked'st caitiff on the ground,
" May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute," &c.

MALONE.

5 The greater file of the subject — ] The larger list, the

greater number. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth :

" the valued^/zfc." STEEVENS.

x. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 327

DUKE. Wise ? why, no question but he was.

Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing6
fellow.

DUKE, Either this is envy in you, folly, or mis-
taking ; the very stream of his life, and the business
he hath helmed,7 must, upon a warranted need,
give him a better proclamation. Let him be but
testimonied in his own bringings forth, and he shall
appear to the envious, a scholar, a statesman, and a
soldier: Therefore, you speak unskilfully; OP, if
your knowledge be more, it is much darken' d in
your malice.

Lucio. Sir, I know him, and I love him.

DUKE. Love talks with better knowledge, and
knowledge with dearer love.

Lucio. Come, sir, I know what I know.

DUKE. I can hardly believe that, since you know
not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return,
(as our prayers are he may,) let me desire you to
make your answer before him : If it be honest you
have spoke, you have courage to maintain it : I am
bound to call upon you ; and, I pray you, your
name ?

Lucio. Sir, my name is Lucio ; well known to
the duke.

DUKE. He shall know you better, sir, if I may
live to report you.

Lucio. I fear you not.

DUKE. O, you hope the duke will return no
more j or you imagine me too unhurtful an oppo-

0 unweighing — "j i. e. inconsidarate. So, in The Merry

Wives of Windsor: " What an untveighed behaviour hath this
Flemish drunkard pick'd out of my conversation," &c.

STEEVENS.

7 the business he hath helmed,] The difficulties he hath

steered through. A metaphor from navigation. STEEVENS.

328 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

site.8 But, indeed, I can do you little harm : you'll
forswear this again.

Lucio. I'll be hang'd first : thou art deceived in
me, friar. But no more of this : Canst thou tell,
if Claudio die to-morrow, or no ?

DUKE. Why should he die, sir ?

Lucio. Why? for filling a bottle with a tun-dish.
I would, the duke, we talk of, were return'd again :
this ungenitur'd agent9 will unpeople the province
with continency ; sparrows must not build in his
house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke
yet would have dark deeds darkly answer'd ; he
would never bring them to light : would he were
returned! Marry, this Claudio is condemn'd for
untrussing. Farewell, good friar ; I pr'ythee, pray
for me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat
mutton on Fridays. l He's now past it ; yet,2 and

8 » • opposite,] i. e. opponent, adversary. So, in King Lear:

" thou wast not bound to answer

" An unknown opposite" STEEVENS.

The term was in use in Charles the Second's time. See
The Woman turn'd Bully, p. 38. REED.

9 ungenitur'd agent — ] This word seems to be formed

from genitoirs, a word which occurs in Holland's Pliny, Tom. II.
pp. 321, 56o, 5Sp, and comes from the French genitoires, the
genitals. To L LET.

1 eat mutton on Fridays.'] A wench was called a laced

mutton. THEOBALD.

So also in the famous Satire on Cardinal Wolsey.
See note on King Henry VIII. pp. 84 and 126:
" And namly one that is the chefe,
" Which is not fedd so ofte with rost befe,

" As with rawe motten, so God helpe me."
Again, in Doctor Faustus, 1(X)4, Lechery says :

" I am one that loves an inch of raw mutton better than an
ell of Friday stock-fish." STEEVENS.

See also H. Stephens's Apologie for Herodotus, folio, 1607,
p. 167. " The diuell take all those maried villains who are per-
mitted to eate laced mutton their bellies full." HARRIS.

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 329

I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar,
though she smelt brown bread and garlick:3 say,
that I said so. Farewell. [Exit.

DUKE. No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape ; back-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes : What king so strong,
.Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ?
But who comes here ?

Enter ESCALUS, Provost, Bawd, and Officers.

ESCAL. Go, away with her to prison.

BAWD. Good my lord, be good to me ; your
honour is accounted a merciful man : good my
lord.

ESCAL. Double and treble admonition, and still
forfeit4 in the same kind? This would make mercy
swear, and play the tyrant.5

* He's now past it ; yet,~\ Sir Thomas Hanmer reads — He is
not past it yet. This emendation was received in the former
edition, but seems not necessary. It were to be wished, that
we all explained more, and amended less. JOHNSON.

If Johnson understood the passage as it stands, I wish he had
explained it. To me, Hanmer's amendment appears absolutely
necessary. M. MASON.

I have inserted Mr. M. Mason's remark ; and yet the old
reading is, in my opinion, too intelligible to need explanation.

STEEVENS.

3 - though she smelt brown bread and garlick :] This
was the phraseology of our author's time. In The Merry Wives
of Windsor, Master Fenton is said to " smell April and May,"
not " to smell of," &c. MALONE.

4 — »— forfeit — ] i. e. transgress, offend ; from the French
forfaire. STEEVENS.

*j */

5 mercy swear, and play the tyrant.'] We should read

swerve, i. e. deviate from her nature. The common reading
gives us the idea of a ranting whore. WARBURTON.

330 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

PROV. A bawd of /eleven years continuance, may
it please your honour.

BAWD. My lord, this is one Lucio's information
against me : mistress Kate Keep-down was with
child by him in the duke's time, he promised her
marriage ; his child is a year and a quarter old,
come Philip and Jacob : I have kept it myself; and
see how he goes about to abuse me.

ESCAL. That fellow is a fellow of much licence : —
let him be called before us. — Away with her to
prison : Go to ; no more words. \_Exeunt Bawd and
Officers.] Provost, my brother Angelo will not
be alter'd, Claudio must die to-morrow : let him
be furnished with divines, and have all charitable
preparation : if my brother wrought by my pity, it
should not be so with him.

PROV. So please you, this friar hath been with
him, and advised him for the entertainment of
death.

JEscAL. Good even, good father.
DUKE. Bliss and goodness on you!
ESCAL. Of whence are you ?

There is surely no need of emendation. We say at present,
Such a thing is enough to make a parson swear, i. e. deviate
from a proper respect to decency, and the sanctity of his cha-
racter.

The idea of swearing agrees very well with that of a tyrant
in our ancient mysteries. STEEVENS.

I do not much like mercy swear, the old reading; or mercy
swerve, Dr. Warburton's correction. I believe it should be,
this would make mercy severe. FARM EH.

We still say, to swear like an emperor ; and from some old
book, of which I unfortunately neglected to copy the title, I
have noted — to swear like, a tyrant. To swear like a termagant
is quoted elsewhere. ItiTSox.

sc.ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 331

DUKE. Not of this country, though my chance

is now

To use it for my time : I am a brother
Of gracious order, late come from the see,6
In special business from his holiness, v

ESCAL. What news abroad i* the world ?

DUKE. None, but that there is so great a fever
on goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it:
novelty is only in request ; and it is as dangerous to
be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to
be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce
truth enough alive, to make societies secure ; but
security enough, to make fellowships accurs'd : 7
much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the
world. This news is old enough, yet it is every
day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition
was the duke ?

6 from the see,] The folio reads:

from the sea. JOHNSON.

The emendation, which is undoubtedly right, was made by
Mr. Theobald. In Hall's Chronicle, sea is often written for see.

MALONE.

7 There is scarce truth enough alive, to make societies secure ;
but security enough, to make fellowships accurs'd:'} The speaker
here alludes to those legal securities into which' " fellowship"
leads men to enter for each other. So, in King. Henry IV.
Part II : " He would not take his bond and yours ; he liked not
the security." FalstafF, in the same scene, plays, like the Duke,
on the same word : " I had as lief they should put ratsbane in
my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. I look'd he should
have sent rue two and twenty yards of sattin, — and he sends me
security. Well, he may sleep in security" &c. MALONE.

The sense is, " There scarcely exists sufficient honesty in the
world to make social life secure ; but there are occasions enough
where a man may be drawn in to become surety, which will
make him pay dearly for his friendships." In excuse of this
quibble, Shakspeare may plead high authority: " He that hatetlj.
suretiship 'is sure" Prov. xi. 15. HOLT WHITE.

332 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT m.

ESCAL. One, that, above all other strifes, con-
tended especially to know himself.

DUKE. What pleasure was he given to ?

ESCAL. Rather rejoicing to see another merry,
than merry at any thing which profess'd to make
him rejoice : a gentleman of all temperance. But
leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may
prove prosperous ; and let me desire to know how
you find Claudio prepared. I am made to under-
stand, that you have lent him visitation,

DUKE. He professes to have received no sinister
measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles
himself to the determination of justice : yet had he
framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty,
many deceiving promises of life ; which I, by my
good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is
he resolved 8 to die.

ESCAL. You have paid the heavens your func»
tion, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling.
I have laboured for the poor gentleman, to the ex-
tremest shore of m^ modesty; but my brother jus-
tice have I found so severe, that he hath forced
me to tell him, he is indeed— justice.9

DUKE. If his own life answer the straitness of
his proceeding, it shall become him well ; wherein,
if he chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself.

ESCAL. I am going to visit the prisoner : Fare
you well.

9 resolved — ] i. e. satisfied. So, in Middleton's More

Dissemblers besides Women, Act I. sc. iii :

" The blessing of perfection to your thoughts lady ;
*' For I'm resolved they are good ones." REED.

9 he is indeed — -justice.] Summum jus, summa injuria.

STEEVENS.

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 33S

DUKE. Peace be with you !

[Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost.
He, who the sword of heaven will bear.
Should be as holy as severe ;
Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand, and virtue go j1

1 Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand, and virtue go ;} These lines I cannot under*
stand, but believe that they should be read thus :
Patterning himself to know,
In grace to stand, in virtue go.

To pattern is to work after a pattern, and, perhaps, in Shak-
speare's licentious diction, simply to work. The sense is, he that
bears the sword of heaven should be holy as well as severe ; one
that after good examples labours to know himself, to live with in-
nocence, and to act with virtue. JOHNSON.

This passage is very obscure, nor can be cleared without a
more licentious paraphrase than any reader may be willing to
allow. He that bears the sword of heaven should be not less holy
than severe : should be able to discover in himself a pattern of such
grace as can avoid temptation, together with such virtue as dares
venture abroad into the world without danger of seduction.

STEEVENS.

Grace to stand, and virtue go ;} This last line is not intelli-
gible as it stands ; but a very slight alteration, the addition of
the word in, at the beginning of it, which may refer to virtue
as well as to grace, will render the sense of it clear. " Pattern
in himself to know," is to feel in his own breast that virtue which
he makes others practise. M. MASON.

" Pattern in himself to know," is, to experience in his own
bosom an original principle of action, which, instead of being
borrowed or copied from others, might serve as a pattern to
them. Our author, in The Winter's Tale, has again used the
same kind of imagery :

" By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
'* The purity of his."

In The Comedy of Errors he uses an expression equally hardy
and licentious :

" And will have no attorney but myself;"
which is an absolute catachresis ; an attorney importing precisely
a person appointed to act for another. In Every Woman in her
Humour, 1609, we find the same expression :

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

More nor less to others paying,
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him, whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking !
Twice treble shame on Angelo,
To weed my vice, and let his grow ! 2
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side ! 3
How may likeness,4 made in crimes,
Making practice on the times,

" - he hath but shown

" A pattern in himse[f\ what thou shall find
" In others." MA LONE.

* To iveed my vice, and let his grotv /] i. e. to weed fault?
out of my dukedom, and yet indulge himself in his own private
vices. So, in The Contention bcttvyxtc Churchyeard and Camell,
&c. 1 560 :

" For Cato doth affyrme

" Ther is no greater shame,
" Than to reprove a vyce

" And your selves do the same." STEEVENS.

My, does not, I apprehend, relate to the Duke in particular,
who had not been guilty of any vice, but to an indefinite person.
The meaning seems to be — To destroy uj/ extirpation (as it is
expressed in another place) a fault that I have committed, and
to suffer his own vices to grow to a rank and luxuriant height.
The speaker, for the sake of argument, puts himself in the case
of an offending person. MALONE.

The Duke is plainly speaking in his own person. What he
here terms " my vice," may be explained from his conversation
in Act I. sc. iv. with Friar Thomas, and especially the following
line :

" 'twas my fault to give the people scope."

The vice of Angelo requires no explanation. HENLEY.

3 Though angel on the outward side /] Here we see what in-
duced our author to give the outward-sainted deputy the name
of Angelo. MALONE.

4 likeness,'} i. e. comeliness — appearance ; as we guv " a

likely man.'' STEKVENS.

sc. n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 33<?

Draw with idle spiders' strings

Most pond'rous and substantial things ! 5

* How may likeness, made in crimes,
Making practice on the times,
Draw "with idle spiders' strings,

Most pond'rous and substantial things /] The old copy reads
— " To draiv with" &c. STEEVENS.

Thus all the editions read corruptly ; and so have made an
obscure passage in itself, quite unintelligible. Shakspeare wrote
it thus :

How may that likeness, made in crimes,
Making practice on the times,

Draw

The sense is this. How much wickedness may a man hide
within, though he appear angel without. How may that like-
ness made in crimes, i. e. by hypocrisy, [a pretty paradoxical
expression, an angel made in crimes^] by imposing upon the
world, [thus emphatically expressed, making practice on the
times,'] draw with its false and feeble pretences [finely called
spiders'1 strings^ the most pondrous and substantial matters of
the world, as riches, honour, power, reputation, &c.

WARBURTON.

The Revisal reads thus :

How may such likeness trade in crimes,
Making practice on the times,
To draw with idle spiders1 strings
Most pond'rous and substantial things !

Meaning by pond'rous and substantial things, pleasure and
wealth. STEEVENS.

The old copy reads — Making practice, &c. which renders the
passage ungrammatical, and unintelligible. For the emendation
now made, [mocking,"] I am answerable. A line in Macbeth
may add some support to it :

" Away, and mock the time with fairest show."

There is no one more convinced of the general propriety of
adhering to old readings. I have strenuously followed the course
which was pointed out and successfully pursued by Dr. Farmer
and Mr. Steevens, that of elucidating and supporting our author's
genuine text by illustrations drawn from the writings of his
contemporaries, hut in some cases alteration is a matter not of

336 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT in.

Craft against vice I must apply :
With Angelo to-night shall He

choice, but necessity; and, surely, the present is one of them.
Dr. Warburton, to obtain some sense, omitted the word To in
the third line ; in which he was followed by all the subsequent
editors. But omission, in my apprehension, is of all the modes
of emendation, the most exceptionable. In the passage before
us, it is clear, from the context, that some verb must have stood
in either' the first or second of these lines. Some years ago I
conjectured that, instead of made, we ought to read wade,
which was used in our author's time in the sense of to proceed.
But having since had occasion to observe how often the words
mock and make have been confounded in these plays, I am now
persuaded that the single error in the present passage is, the
word Making having been printed instead of Mocking, a word
of which our author has made very frequent use, and which
exactly suits the context. In this very play we have had make
instead of mock. [See my note on p. 220.] In the hand-writing
of that time, the small c was merely a straight line ; so that if
it happened to be subjoined and written very close to an o, the
two letters might easily be taken for an a. Hence I suppose it
was, that these words have been so often confounded. The
awkwardness of the expression — " Making practice," of which
I have met with no example, may be likewise urged in support
of this emendation.

Likeness is here used for specious or seeming virtue. So, be-
fore : " O seeming, seeming !" The sense then of the passage
is, — How may persons, assuming the likeness or semblance of
virtue, while they are in fact guilty of the grossest crimes, impose
with this counterfeit sanctity upon the world, in order to draw to
themselves by the Jlimsiest pretensions the most solid advantages ;
i. e. pleasure, honour, reputation, &c.

In Much Ado about Nothing we have a similar thought :
" O, what authority and show of truth
*' Can cunning sin cover itself withal !" MALONE.

I cannot admit that make, in the ancient copies of our author,
has been so frequently printed instead of mock; for the passages
in which the one is supposed to have been substituted for the
other are still unsettled. But, be this as it may, I neither
comprehend the drift of the lines before us as they stand in the-
old edition, or with the aid of any changes hitherto attempted :
and must, therefore, bequeath them to the luckier efforts of fu-
ture criticism. STE EVENS.

Jtcrm MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 33T

His old betrothed, but despis'd ;

So disguise shall, by the disguis'd,6

Pay with falshood false exacting,

And perform an old contracting. [Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Room in Mariana's House.

MARIANA discovered sitting; a Boy singing.

SONG.

Take, oh take those lips away?

That so sweetly were forsworn ;
And those eyes, the break of 'day ,

Lights that do mislead the morn :
But my kisses bring again,

bring again,
Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,

seal'd in vain.

By made in crimes, the Duke means, trained in iniquity, and
perfect in it. Thus we say — a made horse ; a made pointer ;
meaning one well trained. M. MASON.

6 So disguise shall, by the disguis'd,] So disguise shall, by
means of a person disguised, return an injurious demand with a
counterfeit person. JOHNSON.

7 Take, oh take &c.] This is part of a little song of Shak-
speare's own writing, consisting of two stanzas, and so extremely
sweet, that the reader won't he displeased to have the other :

VOL. VI. Z

338 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

MARL Break off thy song, and haste thee quick

away ;

Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice
Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.—

[Exit Boy.

Enter Duke.

I cry you mercy, sir ; and well could wish
You had not found me here so musical :

Hide, oh hide those hills of snow,

Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow.

Are of those that April wears.
Butjirst set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee, WARBURTON.

This song is entire in Beaumont's Bloody Brother, and i:
Shakspeare's Poems. The latter stanza is omitted by Mariana,
as not suiting a female character. THEOBALD.

Though Sewell and Gildon have printed this among Shak-
speare's Poems, they have done the same to so many other pieces,
of which the real authors are since known, that their evidence
is not to be depended on. It is not found in Jaggard's edition ot
our author's Sonnets, which was printed during his life-time.

Our poet, however, has introduced one of the same thought-
in his 142d Sonnet:

" not from those lips of thine

" That have prophan'd their scarlet ornaments,
" And seaVdJalse bonds of love, as oft as mine."

STEEVENS.
Again, in his Venus and Adonis :

" Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted,
" What bargains may I make, still to be sealing."

MALONE.

The same image occurs also in the old black-letter translation
of Amadis qfGaule, 4to. p. 171 : " — rather with kisses (which
are counted the scales of love.} they chose to confirm their una-
nimitie, than otherwise to offend a resolved pacience." HEED.

This song is found entire in Shakspeare's Poems, printed in
1640; but that is a book of no authority: yet I believe that
both these stanzas were -written by our author. MALONK.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 339

Let me excuse me, and believe me so, —

My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe.8

DUKE. 'Tisgood : though musick oft hath such

a charm,

To make bad, good, and good provoke to harm.
I pray you, tell me, hath any body inquired for
me here to-day ? much upon this time have I pro-
mis'd here to meet.

MART. You have not been inquired after : I
have sat here all day.

Enter ISABELLA.

DUKE. I do constantly9 believe you : — The time
is come, even now. I shall crave your forbearance
a little ; may be, I will call upon you anon, for
some advantage to yourself.

MARI. I am always bound to you. [Exit,

DUKE. Very well met, and welcome.
What is the news from this good deputy ?

ISAB. He hath a garden circummur'd with brick,1
Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd ;

* My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas' d my uoe.~\ Though
the musick soothed my sorrows, it had no tendency to produce
light merriment. JOHNSON.

9 — — constantly — ] Certainly ; without fluctuation of mind.

JOHNSON,

So, in The Merchant of Venice:

" Could so much turn the constitution
" Of any constant man." STEEVENS.

1 circummur'd ivitk brick^\ Circummured, walled round,

"• Ho caused the doors to be mured and cased up."

Painter's Palace of Pleasure. JOHNSON.

z 2

340 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir,

And to that vineyard is a planched gate,2
That makes his opening with this bigger key :
This other doth command a little door,
Which from the vineyard to the garden leads ;
There have I made my promise to call on him,
Upon the heavy middle of the night.3

DUKE. But shall you on your knowledge find
this way ?

ISAB. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't ;
With whispering and most guilty diligence,
In action all of precept,4 he did show me
The way twice o'er.

DUKE. Are there no other tokens

Between you 'greed, concerning her observance ?

ISAB. No, none, but only a repair i* the dark ;

a planched gate,] f. e. a gate made of boards. Planch e.

French.

A plancher is a plank. So, in Lyly's Maid's Metamorphosif,
1600:

upon the ground doth lie

" A hollow plancher.'"'-

Again, in Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan, 16H :
" Yet with his hoof'es doth beat and rent
" The planched floore, the barres and chaines."

STEEVEN.S.

3 There have I &c.] In the old copy the lines stand thus :

There have I made my promise upon the

Heavy middle of the night, to call upon him. STEEVENS.

The present regulation was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

4 In action all of precept,'] i. e. shewing the several turnings
of the way with his hand ; which action contained so many
precepts, being given for my direction. WAUBUHTON.

I rather think we should read —

In precept of all action,
that is, in direction given not by words, but by mute signs.

JOHNSON

sc.i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 341

And that I have possessed him,5 my most stay
Can be but brief: for I have made him know,
I have a servant comes with me along,
That stays upon me ; 6 whose persuasion is,
I come about my brother.

DUKE. 'Tis well borne up.

I have not yet made known to Mariana
A word of this: — What, ho! within! come forth!

Re-enter MARIANA.

I pray you, be acquainted with this maid;
She comes to do you good.

I SAB. I do desire the like.

DUKE. Do you persuade yourself that I respect
you?

MARL Good friar, I know you do ; and have
found it.

DUKE* Take then this your companion by the

hand,

Who hath a story ready for your ear :
I shall attend your leisure ; but make haste ;
The vaporous night approaches.

MART. WilPt please you walk aside ?

\JLxeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA.

4 / have possess'd him,] I have made him clearly and

strongly comprehend. JOHNSON.

To possess had formerly the sense of inform or acquaint. As
in Every Man in his Humour, Act I. sc. v. Captain Bobadil
says : " Possess no gentleman of our acquaintance with notice
of my lodging." REED.

6 That stays upon me ;] So, in Macleth :

" Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure."

STEEVENS.

a*2 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, ACT ir.

DUKE. O place and greatness,7 millions of false

eyes8

Are stuck upon thee ! volumes of report
Run with these false and most contrarious quests9

7 0 place and greatness,"] It plainly appears that this fine
speech belongs to that which concludes the preceding scene be-
tween the Duke and Lucio : for they are absolutely foreign to
the subject of this, and are the natural reflections arising from
that. Besides, the very words —

Run with these false and most contrarious quests,
evidently refer to Lucio's scandals just preceding ; which the
Oxford editor, in his usual way, has emended, by altering these
to their. But that some time might be given to the two women
to confer together, the players, I suppose, took part of the
speech, beginning at No might nor greatness, &c. and put it
here, without troubling themselves about its pertinency. How-
ever, we are obliged to them for not giving us their own imper-
tinency, as they have frequently done in other places.

WARBURTON.

I cannot agree that these lines are placed here by the players.
The sentiments are common, and such as a prince, given to re-
. flection, must have often present. There was a necessity to fill
up the time in which the ladies converse apart, and the}' must
have quick tongues and ready apprehensions if they understood
each other while this speech was uttered. JOHNSOX.

8 millions of false eyes — ] That is, eyes insidious and

traiterous. JOHNSON.

So, in Chaucer's Sompnoures Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 7633 :
" Ther isful many an eye, and many an ere,
" Awaiting on a lord," &c. STEEVENS.

9 contrarious quests — ] Different reports, running coun-
ter to each other. JOHNSON.

So, in Othello ;

" The senate has sent out three several guests."

In our author's King Richard III. is a passage in some degree
similar to the foregoing :

" My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
" And every tongue brings in a several tale,
" And every tale condemns — /' STEEVENS.

I incline to think that quests here means inquisitions, in which
the word was used in Shakspeare's time. See Minshieu's

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 343

Upon thy doings! thousand 'scapes of wit1
Make thee the father of their idle dream,
And rack thee in their fancies ! 2 — Welcome ! How
agreed ?

Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA.

ISAS. She'll take the enterprize upon her, father,
If you advise it.

DUKE. It is not my consent,

But my intreaty too.

ISAS. Little have you to say,

When you depart from him, but, soft and low,
Remember now my brother.

MARI. Fear me not.

DUKE. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all :
He is your husband on a pre-contract :
To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin ;
Sith that the justice of your title to him

DICT. in v. Cole, in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders " A
guest," by " examen, inquisitio." MALONE.

False and contrarious guests, in this place, rather mean lying
and contradictory messengers, with whom run volumes of report.
An explanation, which the line quoted by Mr. Steevens will
serve to confirm. RITSON.

1 'scapes of wit — -] i.e. sallies, irregularities. So, in

King John, Act III. sc. iv :

** No 'scape of nature, no distemper'd day." STEEVENS.

* And rack thee in their fancies !~\ Though rack, in the pre-
sent instance, may signify torture or mangle, it might also mean
confuse ; as the rack, i. e. fleeting cloud, renders the object be-
hind it obscure, and of undetermined form. So, in Antony and
Cleopatra ;

" That which was now a horse, even with a thought,
" The rack dislirnns, and makes it indistinct,
" As water is in water.'' STEEVENS.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

Doth flourish the deceit.3 Come, let us go ;
Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.4

[Exeunt.

3 Doth flourish the deceit.] A metaphor taken from embroi-
dery, where a coarse ground is filled up, and covered with figures
of rich materials and elegant workmanship. WAUBURTON.

Flourish is ornament in general. So, in our author's Twelfth
Night:

" empty trunks o'erftourish'd by the devil."

STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton's illustration of the metaphor seems to be in-
accurate. The passage from another of Shakspeare's plays,
quoted by Mr. Steevens, suggests to us the true one.

The term— flourish, alludes to the flowers impressed on the
waste printed paper and old books, with which trunks are com-
monly lined. HENLEY.

When it is proved that the practice alluded to, was as ancient
as the time of Shakspeare, Mr. Henley's explanation may be
admitted. STEEVENS.

4 -for yet our tithe's to sotc.] As before, the blundering

editors have made a prince of the priestly Angelo, so here they
have made & priest of the prince. We should read tilth, i. e. our
tillage is yet to make. The grain from which we expect our
harvest, is not yet put into the ground. WARRUHTON

The reader is here attacked with a petty sophism. We should
read tilth, i. e. our tillage is to make. But in the text it is to
sow ; and who has ever said that his tillage was to soiv ? I
believe tythe is r'ght, and that the expression is proverbial, in
which tythe is taken, by an easy metonymy, for harvest.

JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton did not do justice to his own conjecture; and
no wonder, therefore, that Dr. Johnson has not. — Tilth is pro-
vincially used for land till'd, prepared for sowing. Shakspeare,
however, has applied it before in its usual acceptation. FARMER.

Dr. Warburton's conjecture may be supported by many in-
stances in Markham's English Husbandman, 1635: " After the
beginning of March you shall begin to sowe your barley upon
that ground which the year before did lye fallow, and is com-
monly called your tilth or fallow field." In p. 74- of this book,
a corruption, like our author's, occurs : " As before, I said
beginne to fallow your tithe field;" which is undoubtedly mis-
printed for tilth field. TOLLET.

sc. n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 345

SCENE II.

A Room in the Prison.
Enter Provost and Clown.

PROV. Come hither, sirrah : Can you cut off a
man's head ?

CLO. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can : but if
he be a married man, he is his wife's head, and I
can never cut off a woman's head.

PROF. Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and
yield me a direct answer. To-morrow morning are
to die Claudio and Barnardine : Here is in our pri-
son a common executioner, who in his office lacks
a helper : if you will take it on you to assist him, it
shall redeem you from your gyves ; if not, you shall
have your full time of imprisonment, and your de-
liverance with an unpitied whipping ; 5 for you have
been a notorious bawd.

Tilth is used for crop, or harvest, by Gower, DC Confessione
Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 93, b :

" To sowe cockill with the corne,
" So that the tilth is nigh forlorne,
" Which Christ sew first his owne honde."
Shakspeare uses the word tilth in a former scene of this play ;
and, (as Dr. Farmer has observed,) in its common acceptation :

" her plenteous womb

" Expresseth its full tilth and husbandry."
Again, in The Tempest:

" bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none."

But my quotation from Gower shows that, to sow tilth, was a
phrase once in use. STEEVENS.

This conjecture appears to me extremely probable. MALONE.

s an unpitied whipping;"] i. e. an unmerciful one.

STEEVENS,

<546 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT iv.

CLO. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd, time
out of mind ; but yet I will be content to be a law-
ful hangman. I would be glad to receive some
instruction from my fellow partner.

PROF. What ho, Abhorson ! Where's Abhor,
son, there ?

Enter ABHORSON.

ABHOR. Do you call, sir?

PROV. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-
morrow in your execution : If you think it meet,
compound with him by the year, and let him abide
here with you ; if not, use him for the present, and
dismiss him : He cannot plead his estimation with
you ; he hath been a bawd.

ABHOR. A bawd, sir ? Fye upon him, he will
discredit our mystery.

PROV. Goto, sir; you weigh equally; a feather
will turn the scale. [_Exit.

CLO. Pray, sir, by your good favour, (for, surely,
sir, a good favour ° you have, but that you have a
hanging look,) do you call, sir, your occupation a
mystery ?

ABHOR. Ay, sir ; a mystery.

CLO. Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery.;
and your whores, sir, being members of my occu-
pation, using painting, do prove my occupation a

6 a good favour — ] Favour is countenance. So, in

Antony and Cleopatra :

" why so tart a favour,

" To publish such good tidings.'' STEEVENS.

sc.ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 347

mystery: but what mystery there should be in hang-
ing, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine.7

7 what mystery &c.] Though I have adopted an emenda-
tion independent of the following note, the omission of it would
have been unwarrantable. STEEVEXS.

'what mistery there should be in hanging, if I should be

hang'd, I cannot imagine.

Abhor. Sir, it is a mistery.

Clo. Proof.

Abhor. Every true man's apparel jits your thief:

Clo. If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it
big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it
little enough : so every true man's apparel Jits your thief.'] Thus
it stood in all the editions till Mr. Theobald's, and was, methinks,
not very difficult to be understood. The plain and humorous
sense of the speech is this. Every true man's apparel, which
the thief robs him of, fits the thief. Why ? Because, if it be too
little for the thief, the true man thinks it big enough : i. e. a
purchase too good for him. So that this fits the thief in the
opinion of the true man. But if it be too big for the thief, yet
the thief thinks it little enough : i. e. of value little enough. So
that this fits the thief in his own opinion. Where we see, that
the pleasantry of the joke consists in the equivocal sense of big
enough, and little enough. Yet Mr. Theobald says, he can see
no sense in all this, and therefore alters the whole thus :

Abhor. Every true man's apparel Jits your thief.

Clown. If it be too little for your true man, your thief thinks
it big enough : if it be too big for your true man, your thief thinks
it little enough.

And for his alteration gives this extraordinary reason. — / am
satisfied the poet intended a regular syllogism ; and I submit it
to judgment, whether my regulation has not restored that wit
and humour which was quite lost in the depravation. — But the
place is corrupt, though Mr. Theobald could not find it out.
Let us consider it a little. The Hangman calls his trade a mis-
tery: the Clown cannot conceive it. The Hangman undertakes
to prove it in these words, Every true mans apparel, &c. but
this proves the thief's trade a mistery, not the hangman's. Hence
it appears, that the speech, in which the Hangman proved his
trade a mistery, is lost. The very words it is impossible to re-
trieve, but one may easily understand what medium he employed
in proving it : without doubt, the very same the Clown employed
to prove the thief's trade a mistery ; namely, that all sorts of

348 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

ABHOR. Sir, it is a mystery.

clothes Jltted the hangman. The Clown on hearing this argu-
ment, replied, I suppose, to this effect : Why, by the same kind
of reasoning, I can prove the thief's trade too to be a mistery.
The other asks how, and the Clown goes on as above, Every
true man's apparel Jits your thief; if it be too little, &c. The
jocular conclusion from the whole being an insinuation that thief
and hangman were rogues alike. This conjecture gives a spirit
and integrity to the dialogue, which, in its present mangled
condition, is altogether wanting ; and shews why the argument
of every true man's apparel, &c. was in all editions given to the
Clown, to whom indeed it belongs ; and likewise that the pre-
sent reading of that argument is the true. WARBURTON.

If Dr. Warburton had attended to the argument by which the
Bawd proves his own profession to be a mystery, he would not
have been driven to take refuge in the groundless supposition,
" that part of the dialogue had been lost or dropped."

The argument of the Hangman is exactly similar to that of
the Bawd. As the latter puts in his claim to the whores, as
members of his occupation, and, in virtue of their painting,
would enroll his own fraternity in the mystery of painters ; so
the former equally lays claim to the thieves, as members of his
occupation, and, in their right, endeavours to rank his brethren,
the hangmen, under the mystery of fitters of apparel, or tailors.
The reading of the old editions is, therefore, undoubtedly right;
except that the last speech, which makes part of the Hangman's
argument, is, by mistake, as the reader's own sagacity will rea-
dily perceive, given to the Clown or Bawd. I suppose, there-
fore, the poet gave us the whole thus :

Abhor. Sir, it is a mystery.

Clown. Proof.

Abhor. Every true man s apparel Jits your thief: if it be too
little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough : if it
be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough ; so every
true man's apparel Jits your thief.

I must do Dr. Warburton the justice to acknowledge, that he
hath rightly apprehended and explained the force of the Hang-
man's argument. HEATH.

There can be no doubt but the word Clown, prefixed to the
last sentence, If it be too little, £c. should be struck out. It
makes part of Abhorson's argument, who has undertaken to
prove that hanging was a mystery, and convinces the Clown of
it by this very speech. M, MASON.

sc. n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. sw

CLO. Proof.

ABHOR. Every true man's apparel fits your thief:8
If it be too little for your thief, your true man
thinks it big enough ; if it be too big for your thief,
your thief thinks it little enough : so every true
man's apparel fits your thief.

Re-enter Provost.

PROF. Are you agreed ?

CLO. Sir, I will serve him ; for I do find, your
hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd ;
he doth oftner ask forgiveness.9

PROV. You, sirrah, provide your block and your
axe, to-morrow four o'clock.

ABHOR. Come on, bawd ; I will instruct thee in
my trade ; follow.

8 Every true man's apparel Jits your thief i} So, in Promos and
Cassandra, 1578, the Hangman says :

" Here is nyne and twenty sutes of apparell for my

share."

True man, in the language of ancient times, is always placed iu
apposition to thief.

So, in Churchyard's Warning to Wanderers abroade, 1593:
" The priuy thiefe that steales away our wealth,
" Is sore afraid a trice man's steps to see." STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens seems to be mistaken in his assertion that true
man in ancient times was always placed in opposition to thief.
At least in the Book of Genesis, there is one instance to the con-
trary, ch. xlii. v. 11 : " We are all one man's sons: we are all
i rue men ; thy servants are no spies.'1 HENLEY.

* ask forgiveness.] So, in As you like it:

" The common executioner,

" Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hardr
" Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck,
" But first begs pardon." STEF.VEXS.

350 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT iv.

CLO. I do desire to learn, sir ; and, I hope, if you
have occasion to use me for your own turn, you
shall find me yare : 1 for, truly sir, for your kind-
ness, I owe you a good turn.2

PROV. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio :

\JExeunt Clown and ABHORSON.
One has my pity ; not a jot the other,
Being a murderer, though he were my brother.

Enter CLAUDIO.

Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death :
'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow
Thoumustbemade immortal. Where's Barnardine?

CLAUD. As fast.lock'd up in sleep, as guiltless

labour

When it lies starkly 3 in the traveller's bones :
He will not wake.

PROV. Who can do good on him ?

Well, go, prepare yourself. But hark, what noise ?

[Knocking within.

1 yare :~\ i. e. handy, nimble in the execution of my

office. So, in Twelfth-Night : " — dismount thy tuck, be yare
in thy preparation." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:
" His ships are yare, yours heavy," STEEVENS.

— a good turn.] i. e. a turn off the ladder. He quibbles
on the phrase according to its common acceptation. FARMER.

3 starkly — ] Stiffly. These two lines afford a very pleas-
ing image. JOHNSON.

So, in The Legend of Lord Hastings, 1575 :

" Least slarke with rest they nnew'd waxe and hoare."
Again, in an ancient Poem quoted in MS. Harl. 4690 :
" Alle displayedde on the grounde,
" And layne starkly on blode, — ."

Again, Thomas Lupton's Fourth Booke of Notable Thinges : — :
" Synewes cutte, starke, or sprayned in travell." STEEVENS.

sc.n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 35 1

Heaven give your spirits comfort ! \_ExitC~L AUDIO,

By and by : —

I hope it is some pardon, or reprieve,
For the most gentle Claudio.— Welcome, father.

Enter Duke.

DUKE. The best and wholesomest spirits of the

night

Envelop you, good Provost ! Who call'd here of
late ?

PROV. None, since the curfew rung.

DUKE. Not Isabel r

PROV. No.

DUKE. They will then,4 ere't be long.

PROV. What comfort is for Claudio ?

DUKE. There's some in hope.

PROV. It is a bitter deputy.

DUKE. Not so3 not so ; his life is paralleled
Even with the stroke 5 and line of his great justice ;
He doth with holy abstinence subdue
That in himself, which he spurs on his power
To qualify6 in others : were he meal'd7

* They ivill then,']. Perhaps — she will then.

SIR J. HAWKINS.

The Duke expects Isabella and Mariana. A little afterward
he says :

" Now are they come." RITSON.

•* Even -with the stroke — ] Stroke is here put for the stroke of
a pen or a line. JOHNSON.

6 To qualify — ] To temper, to moderate, as we say wine is
qualified with water. JOHNSON.

Thus before in this play :

" So to enforce, or qualify the laws."

352 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

With that which he corrects, then were he tyran-
nous ;

But this being so,8 he's just. — Noware they come. —
[Knocking within. — Provost goes out.
This is a gentle provost : Seldom, when
The steeled gaoler is the friend of men. —
How now ? What noise ? That spirit's possess'd

with haste,

That wounds the unsisting postern with these
strokes.0

Again, in Othello :

" I have drank but one cup to-night, and that was craftily
qualified too." STEEVENS.

7 were he meal'd — ] Were he sprinkled ; were he defiled.

A figure of the same kind our author uses in Macbeth :
" The blood-bolter9 d Banquo." JOHNSON.

More appositely, in The Philosophers Satires, by Robert
Anton :

" As if their pcrriwigs to death they gave,

" To meale them in some gastly dead man's grave."

STEEVENS.

Mealed is mingled, compounded ; from the French mesler.

BLACKSTONE.

8 But this being .90,] The tenor of the argument seems to

require— But this not being so, . Perhaps, however, the

author meant only to say — But, his life being paralleled, &c.he's
just. MALONE.

9 That spirit's possessed with haste,

That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes."] The
line is irregular, and the old reading, unresisting postern, so
strange an expression, that want of measure, and want of sense,
might justly raise suspicion of an error; yet none of the later
editors seem to have supposed the place faulty, except Sir Thomas
Hanmer, who reads :

the unresting postern —

The three folios have it —

unsisting postern —

out of which Mr. Rowe made unresisting, and the rest followed
him. Sir Thomas Hanmer seems to have supposed unresisting
the word in the copies, from which he plausibly enough ex-

jftvz/. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 35$

Provost returns, speaking to one at the door.

PROV. There he must stay, until the officer
Arise to let him in ; he is call'd up.
DUKE. Have you no countermand for Claudio

yet,

But he must die to-morrow?

PROV. None, sir, none.

DUKE. As near the dawning, Provost, as it is,
You shall hear more ere morning.

PROV. Happily,

You something know; yet, I believe, there comes
No countermand; no such example have we:
Besides, upon the very siege of justice,1
Lord Angelo hath to the publick ear
Profess* d the contrary.

Enter a Messenger.
DUKE. This is his lordship's man.2

tracted unresting; but he grounded his emendation on the very
syllable that wants authority. What can be made of unsisting
I know not; the best that occurs to me is unfeeling. JOHNSON.

Unsisting may signify " never at rest," always opening.

BLACKSTONE.

I should think we might safely read:

unlist'ning postern, or unshifting postern.

The measure requires it, and the sense remains uninjured.

Mr. M. Mason would read unlisting, which means unregard-
ing. I have, however, inserted Sir William Blackstone's emen-
dation in the text. STEEVENS.

1 siege of justice,] i.e. seat of justice. Siege, French.

'So, in Othello :

" 1 fetch my birth

" From men of royal siege." STEEVENS.

2 This is his Zon/ship's man.] The old copy has — his lord's
man. Corrected by Mr. Pope. In the MS. plays of our author's

VOL. VF. A A

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT iv.

PROV. And here comes Claudio's pardon.3

MESS. My lord hath sent you this note ; and by
me this further charge, that you swerve not from
the smallest article of it, neither in time, matter,
or other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I
take it, it is almost day.

PROV. I shall obey him. \_Exit Messenger.

DUKE. This is his pardon; purchas'd by such
sin, [Aside.

For which the pardoner himself is in:
Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
When it is borne in high authority:
When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended,
That for the fault's love, is the offender friended.—
Now, sir, what news ?

time they often wrote Lo. for Lord, and Lord, for Lordship ;
and these contractions were sometimes improperly followed in
the printed copies. MALONE.

3 Enter a Messenger.
Duke. This is his lordship's man.

Prov. And here comes Claudia's pardon."] The Provost has
just declared a fixed opinion that the execution will not be
countermanded, and yet, upon the first appearance of the Mes-
senger, he immediately guesses that his errand is to bring
Claudio's pardon. It is evident, I think, that the names of
the speakers are misplaced. If we suppose the Provost to say :

This is his lordship's man,
it is very natural for the Duke to subjoin,

And here comes Claudio' s pardon.

The Duke might believe, upon very reasonable grounds, that
Angelo had now sent the pardon. It appears that he did so,
from what he says to himself, while the Provost is reading the
letter :

This is his pardon; purchas'd by such sin. TYRWHITT.

When, immediately after the Duke had hinted his expectation
of a pardon, the Provost sees the Messenger, he supposes the
Duke to have known something, and changes his mind. Either
reading may serve equally well. JOHNSON.

sc. n. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 353

PROV. I told you : Lord Angelo, be-like, think-
ing me remiss in mine office, awakens me with
this unwonted putting on : 4 methinks, strangely;
for he hath not used it before.

DUKE. Pray you, let's hear.

PROV. [Reads.] Whatsoever you may hear to the
contrary, let Claudio be executed by four of the
clock; and, in the afternoon, Barnardine : for my
better satisfaction, let me have Claudio' s head sent
me by Jive. Let this be duly performed ; with a
thought, that more depends on it than we must yet
deliver. Thus Jail not to do your office, as you will
answer it at your peril.
What say you to this, sir ?

DUKE. What is that Barnardine, who is to be
executed in the afternoon ?

PROV. A Bohemian born ; but here nursed up
and bred : one that is a prisoner nine years old.&

DUKE. How came it, that the absent duke had
not either delivered him to his liberty, or executed
him? I have heard, it was ever his manner to
do so.

PROV. His friends still wrought reprieves for
him : And, indeed, his fact, till now in the govern-
ment of lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful
proof.

* putting on .•] i.e. spur, incitement. So, in Macbeth^

Act IV. sc. iii:

*' the powers above

" Put on their instruments." STEEVENS.

• one that is a prisoner nine years old.~] i. e. That has

been confined these nine years. So, in Hamlet : " Ere we were
two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike preparation," &c.

MALONE,

A A 2

356 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT nr.

DUKE. Is it now apparent ?

PROV. Most manifest, and not denied by himself.

DUKE. Hath he borne himself penitently in
prison ? How seems he to be touch'd ?

PROV. A man that apprehends death no more
dreadfully, but as a drunken sleep ; careless, reck-
less, and fearless of what's past,present, or to come;
insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal.6

DUKE. He wants advice.

PROV. He will hear none : he hath evermore had
the liberty of the prison; give him leave to escape
hence, he would not : drunk many times a day, if
not many days entirely drunk. We have very often
awaked him, as if to carry him to execution, and
show'd him a seeming warrant for it : it hath not
moved him at all.

DUKE. More of him anon. There is written in
your brow, Provost, honesty and constancy : if I
read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but

6 desperately mortal.] This expression is obscure. Sir

Thomas Hanmer reads, mortally desperate. Mortally is in low-
conversation used in this sense, but I know not whether it was
ever written. I am inclined to believe, that desperately mortal
means desperately mischievous. Or desjjeratety mortal may
mean a man likely to die in a desperate state, without reflection
or repentance. JOHNSON.

The word is often used by Shakspeare in the sense first affixed
to it by Dr. Johnson, which I believe to be the true one.
So, in Othello.'

" And you, ye mortal engines," &c. MALONE.

As our author, in The Tempest, seems to have written " har-
monious charmingly," instead of " harmoniously charming," he
may,, in the present instance, have given us " desperately mor-
tal," for " mortally desperate:" i. e. desperate in the extreme.
In low provincial language, — mortal sick, mortal bad, mortal
poor, is phraseology of frequent occurrence. STEEVENS.

sc.ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

in the boldness of my cunning,7 I will lay myself
in hazard. Claudio, whom here you have a warrant
to execute, is no greater forfeit to the law than
Angelo who hath sentenced him : To make you
understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but
four day.*, respite ; for the which you are to do me
both a present and a dangerous courtesy.

PROF. Pray, sir, in what?
DUKE. In the delaying death.

PROF. Alack ! how may I do it? having the hour
limited; and an express command, under penalty,
to deliver his head in the view of Angelo ? I may
make my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the
smallest.

DUKE. By the vow of mine order, I warrant
you, if my instructions may be your guide. Let
this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his
head borne to Angelo.

PROV. Angelo hath seen them both, and will
discover the favour.8

DUKE. O, death's a great disguiser: and you may
add to it. Shave the head, and tie the beard;9 and

7 in the boldness of my cunning,] i. e. in confidence of

my sagacity. STEEVENS.

8 the favour .] See note 6, p. 346. STEEVENS.

9 • and tie the beard ;~\ The Revisal recommends Mr.
Simpson's emendation, DIE the beard, but the present reading
may stand. Perhaps it was usual to tie up the beard before
decollation. Sir T. More is said to have been ludicrously careful
about this ornament of his face. It should, however, be remem-
bered, that it was also the custom to die beards.

, So, in the old comedy of Ram- Alley, 1611 :

" What colour 'd beard comes next by the window ?

" A black man's, I think.

" 1 think, a red ; for that is most in fashion."

358 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT- if.

say, it was the desire of the penitent to be so bared1
before his death: You know, the course is com-
mon.2 If any thing fall to you upon this, more
than thanks and good fortune, by the saint whom
I profess, I will plead against it with my life.

PROV. Pardon me, good father ; it is against my
oath.

DUKE. Were you sworn to the duke, or to the
deputy ?

PROV. To him, and to his substitutes.

Again, in The Silent Woman : " I have fitted my divine and
canonist, dyed their beards and all."

Again, in The Alchemist : " — he had dy'd his beard, and all."

STEEVENS.

A beard tied would give a very new air to that face, which
had never been seen but with the beard loose, long, and squalid.

JOHNSON.

1 to be so bared — ] These words relate to what has just

preceded — shave the head. The modern editions, following the
fourth folio, read — to be so barUd; but the old copy is certainly
right. So, in All's •well that ends well: " I would the cutting of
my garments would serve the turn, or the baring of my beard ;
and to say it was in stratagem." MA.LONE.

* You know, the course is common."] P. Mathieu, in his

Heroyke Life and deplorable Death of Henry the Fourth, of
France, says, that Ravaillac, in the midst of his tortures, lifted
up his head and shook a spark of fire from his beard. " This
unprofitable care, (he adds,) to save it, being noted, afforded
matter to divers to praise the custome in Germany, Svuisserland,
and divers other places, to shave off", and then to burn all the
haire from all parts of the bodies of those who are convicted for
any notorious crimes."

Grimston's Translation, 4'to. 1612, p. 181. REED.

This alludes to a practice frequent amongst Roman Catholicks,
of desiring to receive the tonsure of the Monks before they die.
It cannot allude to the custom which Mr. Reed tells us was
established in some parts of Germany, that of shaving criminals
previous to their execution, as here the penitent is supposed to
be bared at his own request. M. MASON.

sc. ii. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 8,59

DUKE. You will think you have made no of-
fence, if the duke avouch the justice of your
dealing ?

PROV. But what likelihood is in that ?

DUKE. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet
since I see you fearful, that neither my coat, inte-
grity, nor my persuasion, can with ease attempt
you, I will go further than I meant, to pluck all
fears out of you. Look you, sir, here is the hand
and seal of the duke. You know the character, I
doubt not ; and the signet is not strange to you.

PROV. I know them both.

DUKE. The contents of this is the return of the
duke; you shall anon over-read it at your pleasure;
where you shall find, within these two days he will
be here. This is a thing, that Angelo knows not:
for he this very day receives letters of strange te-
nor; perchance, of the duke's death ; perchance,
entering into some monastery; but, by chance,
nothing of what is writ.3 Look, the unfolding
star calls up the shepherd:4 Put not yourself into
amazement, how these things should be: all diffi-
culties are but easy when they are known. Call
your executioner, and off with Barnardine's head:
I will give him a present shrift, and advise him for

s — — nothing of what is writ.] We should read — here ton/;
the Duke pointing to the letter in his hand. WARBURTON.

4 the unfolding star calls up the shepherd:]

" The star, that bids the shepherd fold,
" Now the top of heaven doth hold." Milton's Comus.

STEEVENS.

" So doth the evening star present itself

" Unto the careful shepherd's gladsome eyes,

*' By which unto the fold he leads his flock."

Marston's Insatiate Countesst 1613. M ALONE.

360 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

a better place. Yet you are amazed; but this
shall absolutely resolve you.5 Come away; it is
almost clear dawn. \_Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Another Room in the same.
Enter Clown.

CLO. I am as well acquainted here, as I was in
our house of profession:6 one would think, it were
mistress Overdone's own house, for here be many
of her old customers. First, here's young master
Rash ; 7 he's in for a commodity of brown paper

* this shall absolutely resolve you."] That is, shall en-
tirely convince you. M. MASON.

c in our house o/'profession:] i. e. in my late mistress's

house, which was a professed, a notorious bawdy-house.

MALONE.

7 First, here's young master Rash ; &c.] This enumeration
of the inhabitants of the prison affords a very striking view of
the practices predominant in Shakspeare's age. Besides those
whose follies ate common to all times, we have four fighting
men and a traveller. It is not unlikely that the originals of the
pictures were then known. JOHNSON.

Rash was the name of some kind of stuff. So, in An Apr ill
Shotver, shed in Abundance of Tears, for the Death and incom-
parable Louse, Sfc. of Richard Sacvile, fyc. Earl of Dorset, Sfc.
1624:

" For with the plainest plaine yee saw him goe,

" In ciuill blacke of Rash, of Serge, or so ;

" The liuerie of wise stayednesse — ." STEEVENS.

If this term alludes to the stuff so called, (which was probably
one of the commodities fraudulently issued out by money-
lenders,) there is nevertheless a pun intended. So, in an old
MS. poem, entitled, The Description of Women :
" Their head is made of Rash,
" Their tongues are made of Say." DOUCE.

& m. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 361'

and old ginger,8 ninescore and seventeen pounds;
of which he made five marks, ready money : marry,

All the names here mentioned are character istical. Rash was
a stuff formerly used. So, in A Reply as true as Steele, to a
rusty, railing, ridiculous, lying lAbell, which was lately written
by an impudent unsoder d Ironmonger, and called by the Name
of An Answer to a foolish Pamphlet entitled A Swarme of Sec-
taries and Schismatiques. By John Taylour, 161-1 :

" And with mockado suit, and judgement rash,
" And tongue of saye, thou'lt say all is but trash."

Sericum rasum. See Minshieu's DICT. in v. Bash, and Florio's
Italian Diet. 1598, in v. rascia, rascetta. MALONE.

9 a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, ~\ Thus the

old copy. The modern editors read, brown pepper ; but the
following passage in Michaelmas Term, Com. 1607, will com-
pletely establish the original reading :

" I know some gentlemen in town have been glad, and nre
glad at this time, to take up commodities in hawk's-hoods and
brown paper ."

Again, in A new Trick to cheat the Devil, 1636 :

' to have been so bit already

' With taking up commodities of brown paper,
1 Buttons past fashion, silks, and sattins,
' Babies and children's fiddles, with like trash
' Took up at a dear rate, and sold for trifles."
Again, in Greene's Quip for an upstart Courtier, 1620 :

" For the merchant, he delivered the iron, tin, lead, hops,
sugars, spices, oyls, brown paper, or whatever else, from six
months to six months : which when the poor gentleman came
to sell again, he could not make three score and ten in the hun-
dred besides the usury." Again, in Greene's Defence of Coney-
catching, 1592: " — so that if he borrow an hundred pound,
he shall have forty in silver, and threescore in wares ; as lute-
strings, hobby-horses, or brown paper, or cloath," &c.

Again, in The Spanish Curate of Beaumont and Fletcher :

'* Commodities of pins, brown papers, packthread."
Again, in Gascoigne's Steele Glasse:

'< To teach young men the trade to sell browne paper"
Again, in Hall's Satires, Lib. IV :

" But Nummius eas'd the needy gallant's care,
" With a base bargaine of his blowen ware,
" Of f usted hoppes now lost for lacke of sayle,
*' Or mol'd browne-paper that could nought auaile."

362 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT iv.

then, ginger was not much in request, for the old
women were all dead.9 Then is there here one
master Caper, at the suit of master Three-pile the
mercer, for some four suits of peach-colour'd satin,
which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we
here young Dizy,1 and young master Deep-vow,
and master Copper-spur, and master Starve-lackey
the rapier and dagger-man, and young Drop-heir

Again, in Decker's Seven deadly Sinnes of London, 4 to. bl. I.
1606 : " — and these are usurers, who, for a little money, and
a great deale of trash, (as fire-shouels, browne paper, motley
cloake-bags, &c.) bring yong nouices into a foole s paradice,
till they have sealed the mortgage of their landes," &c.

STEEVENS.

A commodity of brown paper — ] Mr. Steevens supports this
rightly. Fennor asks, in his Comptor's Commonwealth, " sup-
pose the commodities are delivered after Signior Unthrift and
Master Breaker have both sealed the bonds, how must those
hobby-horses, reams of brown paper, Jewes trumpes and babies,
babies and rattles, be solde ?" FARMER.

In a MS. Letter from Sir John Hollis to Lord Burleigh, is the
following passage : " Your Lordship digged into my auncestors
graves, and pulling one up from his 70 yeares reste, pronounced
him an abominable usurer and merchante of browne paper, so
hatefull and contemptible that the players acted him before the
kinge with great applause." And again: " Nevertheles I denye
that any of them were merchantes of browne paper, neither doe
I thinke any other but your Lordship's imagination ever sawe or
hearde any of them playde upon a stage ; and that they were
such usurers I suppose your Lordship will want testimonye."

DOUCE.

9 ginger was not much in request, for the old women

were all dead.] So, in The Merchant of Venice : " I would,
she were as lying a gossip in that, as ever knapt ginger"

STEEVENS.

1 young Dizy,] The old copy has — Dizey. This name,

like the rest, must have been designed to convey some meaning.
It might have been corrupted from Dicey, i. e. one addicted to
dice; or from Dizzy, i. e. giddy, thoughtless. Thus, Milton
styles the people " — the dizzy multitude.'* STEEVENS.

so. m. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 363

that kilPd lusty Pudding, and master Forthright2
the tilter, and brave master Shoe-tie the great tra-
veller,3 and wild Half-can that stabb'd Pots, and, I

* master Forthright — ] The old copy reads — Forth/ight.

Dr. Johnson, however, proposes to read — Forthright, alluding
to the line in which the thrust is made. REED.

Shakspeare uses the \vordforthright in The Tempest:

" Through forthrights and meanders."
Again, in Troilus and Cressida, Act III. sc. iii :

" Or hedge aside from the divcect forthright"

STEEVENS.

' and brave master Shoe-tie the great traveller^] The old

copy reads — Shooty ; but as most of these are compound names,
I suspect that this was originally written as I have printed it.
At this time Shoe-strings were generally worn.
So, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631 :

" I think your wedding shoes have not been oft untied."
Again, in Randolph's Muses' Looking Glass, 1638 :

" Bending his supple hams, kissing his hands,

" Honouring shoe-strings.''
Again, in Marston's 8th Satire :

" Sweet-faced Corinna, daine the riband tie

" Of thy corke-shooe, or els thy slave will die."
As the person described was a traveller, it is not unlikely that he
might be solicitous about the minutiae of dress ; and the epithet
brave, i. e. showy, seems to countenance the supposition.

STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens's supposition is strengthened by Ben Jonson's
Epigram upon English Monsieur, Whalley's edit. Vol. VI.
p. 253 :

" That so much scarf of France, and hat and feather,
** And shoe, and tye, and garter, should corne hither."

TOLLET.

The finery which induced our author to give his traveller the
name of Shoe-tie was used on the stage in his time. " Would
not this, sir, (says Hamlet,) and a forest of feathers, — with two
Provencial roses on my raz'd shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry
of players, sir?" MALONE.

The roses mentioned in the foregoing instance were not the
ligatures of the shoe, but the ornaments above them.

STBEVENS.

364 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT iv.

think, forty more ; all great doers in our trade,*
and are now for the Lord's sake.5

* all great doers in our trade,] The word doers is here

used in a wanton sense. See Mr. Collins's note, Act I. sc. ii.

MALONE.

4 for the Lord's sake.'] i. e. to beg for the rest of their .

lives. WARBURTON.

I rather think this expression intended to ridicule the Puritans,
whose turbulence and indecency often brought them to prison,
and who considered themselves as suffering for religion.

It is not unlikely that men imprisoned for other crimes might
represent themselves to casual enquirers as suffering from puritan-
ism, and that this might be the common cant of the prisons. In
Donne's time, every prisoner was brought to jail by suretiship.

JOHNSON.

Thus, in Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, 1594 : " Baudes, if
they be imprisoned or carried to bridewell for their baudrie,
they give out they suffer for the Church"

The word in (now expunged in consequence of a following
and apposite quotation of Mr. Malone's) had been supplied by
some of the modern editors. The phrase which Dr. Johnson has
justly explained is used in A new Trick to cheat the Devil, 1636:
" — I held it, wife, a deed of charity, and did it for the Lord's
sake." STEEVENS.

I believe Dr. Warburton's explanation is right. It appears
from a poem entitled Paper's Complaint, printed among Davies's
Epigrams, [about the year 1611,] that this was the language in
which prisoners who were confined for debt addressed passengers:

" Good gentle writers,yor the Lord's sake, for the Lord's
sake, .

" Like Ludgate prisoner, lo, I, begging, make

" My mone."

The meaning, however, may be, to beg or borrow for the rest of
their lives. A passage in Much Ado about Nothing may counte-
nance this interpretation : " he wears a key in his ear, and a lock
hanging to it, and borrows money in God's name, the which he
hath used so long, and never paid, that men grow hard-hearted,
and will lend nothing^cr God's sake."

Mr. Pope reads — and are now in for the Lord's sake. Per-
haps unnecessarily. In King Henri/ IV. P. I. Falstaff says, —
" there's not three of my hundred and fifty left alive ; and they
are for the town's end, — to beg during life." MALONE.

x. in. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 365

Enter ABHORSON.

ABHOR. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.

CLO. Master Barnardine ! you must rise and be
hang'd, master Barnardine !

ABHOR. What, ho, Barnardine !

BARNAR. [ Within."} A pox o' your throats !
Who makes that noise there ? What are you ?

CLO. Your friends, sir ; the hangman : You must
be so good, sir, to rise and be put to death.

BARNAR. [Within.'} Away, you rogue, away; I
am sleepy.

ABHOR. Tell him, he must awake, and that
quickly too.

CLO. Pray, master Barnardine, awake till you are
executed, and sleep afterwards.

ABHOR. Go in to him, and fetch him out.

CLO. He is coming, sir, he is coming ; I hear his
straw rustle.

Enter BARNARDINE.

ABHOR. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah ?
CLO. Very ready, sir.

BARNAR. How now, Abhorson ? what's the news
with you ?

ABHOR. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into
your prayers ;6 for, look you, the warrant's come.

BARNAR. You rogue, I have been drinking all
night, I am not fitted for't.

6 to clap into your prayers;] This cant phrase occurs

also in As you like it : " Shall we clap into't roundly, without
hawking or spitting ?" STEEVENS.

366 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

CLO. O, the better, sir ; for he that drinks all
night, and is hang'd betimes in the morning, may
sleep the sounder all the next day.

Enter Duke.

ABHOR. Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly
father ; Do we jest now, think you ?

DUKE. Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing
how hastily you are to depart, I am come to advise
you, comfort you, and pray with you.

BARNAR. Friar, not I ; I have been drinking
hard all night, and I will have more time to pre-
pare me, or they shall beat out my brains with bil-
lets : I will not consent to die this day, that's cer-
tain.

DUKE. O, sir, you must : and therefore, I be-
seech you,
Look forward on the journey you shall go.

BARNAR. I swear, I will not die to-day for any
man's persuasion.

DUKE. But hear you,

BARNAR. Not a word ; if you have any thing to
say to me, come to my ward 5 for thence will not
I to-day. \Exit.

Enter Provost.

DUKE. Unfit to live, or die ; O, gravel heart ! —
After him, fellows :7 bring him to the block.

[Exeunt ABHORSON and Clown.

7 After him,fellotx>s ,-] Here is a line given to the Duke, which
belongs to the Provost. The Provost, while the Duke is lament-
ing the obduracy of the prisoner, cries out :

After him, fellows, &c.
and when they are gone out, turns again to the Duke. JOH NSONV

sc. in. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 367

PROV. Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner ?

DUKE. A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for

death ;

And, to transport him 8 in the mind he is,
Were damnable.

PROV. Here in the prison, father,

There died this morning of a cruel fever
One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,
A man of Claudio's years ; his beard, and head,
Just of his colour : What if we do omit
This reprobate, till he were well inclined ;
And satisfy the deputy with the visage
Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio ?

DUKE. O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides !
Despatch it presently; the hour draws on
Prefixed by Angelo : See, this be done,
And sent according to command ; whiles I
Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.

PROV. This shall be done, good father, presently.
But Barnardine must die this afternoon :
And how shall we continue Claudio,
To save me from the danger that might come,
If he were known alive ?

DUKE. Let this be done ; — Put them in secret

holds,

Both Barnardine and Claudio : Ere twice
The sun hath made his journal greeting to

I do not see why this line should be taken from the Duke,
and still less why it should be given to the Provost, who, by his
question to the Duke in the next line, appears to be ignorant
of every thing that has passed between him and Barnardine.

TYRWHITT.

* to transport him — ] To remove him from one world

to another. The French trepas affords a kindred sense.

JOHNSON,

368 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

The under generation,9 you shall find
•Your safety manifested.

PROV. I am your free dependant.

DUKE. Quick, despatch,

And send the head to Angelo. [Exit Provost.

9 The under generation,'] So, Sir Thomas Hanmer, with true
judgment. It was in all the former editions :

To yonder

ye under and yonder were confounded. JOHNSON.

The old reading is not yonder, but yond. STEEVENS.

To yond generation,'] Prisons are generally so constructed a?
not to admit the rays of the sun. Hence the Duke here speaks
of its greeting only those without the doors of the jail, to which
he must be supposed to point when he speaks these words. Sir
T. Hanmer, I think, without necessity, reads — To the under
generation, which has been followed by the subsequent editors.
Journal, in the preceding line, is daily. Journalier, French.

MALONE.
Mr. Malone reads :

To yond generation, you shall find •

But surely it is impossible that yond should be the true reading ;
for unless ge-ne-ra-ti-on were sounded as a word of five sylla-
bles, (a practice from which every ear must revolt,) the metre
would be defective. It reminds one too much of Peascod, in
Gay's What d'ye call it :

" The Pilgrim's Progress — eighth-e-di-ti-on,
" Lon-don prin-ted for Ni-cho-las Bod-ding-ton."
By the under generation our poet means the antipodes. So, ia
King Richard II :

" when the searching eye of heaven is hid

" Behind the globe, and lights the lower world"
Again, in Chapman's version of the nineteenth Iliad:

" Gave light to all ; as well to gods, as men of th* under

globe."
Again, in Fletcher's Tivo Noble Kinsmen :

" clap their wings and sing

" To all the under world — ." STEEVENS.

I perfectly agree with Steevens in this reading. The diameter
of the globe may be supposed to make the people, on each side
of it, of a different generation ; but the walls of a prison surely
cannot. M. MASON.

sc. in. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 369

Now will I write letters to Angelo, —

The provost, he shall bear them, — whose contents

Shall witness to him, I am near at home ;

And that, by great injunctions, I am bound

To enter publickly : him I'll desire

To meet me at the consecrated fount,

A league below the city ; and from thence,

By cold gradation and weal-balanced form,1

We shall proceed with Angelo.

Re-enter Provost.

PRtiv. Here is the head ; I'll carry it myself.

DUKE. Convenient is it : Make a swift return ;
For I would commune with you of such things,
That want no ear but yours.

PROF. I'll make all speed.

[Exit.

ISAB. \_Within.~] Peace, ho, be here !
DUKE. The tongue of Isabel : — She's come to

know,

If yet her brother's pardon be come hither :
But I will keep her ignorant of her good,

1 weal-balanced form,"] Thus the old copy. Mr. Heath

thinks that ad7-balanced is the true reading ; and Hanmer was
of the same opinion.

In Milton's Ode on The Nativity, we also meet with the same
compound epithet :

" And the well-balanc'd world on hinges hung."

STEEVENS.

Weal-balanced is a pompous expression, without any mean-
ing. I agree, therefore, with Heath, in reading — ivell- balanced.

M. MASOJJ,

VOL. VI. B B

370 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT iv*-

To make her heavenly comforts of despair,
When it is least expected.2

Enter ISABELLA.

ISAB. Ho, by your leave.

DUKE. Good morning to you, fair and gracious
daughter.

ISAB. The better, given me by so holy a man.
Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon ?

DUKE. He hath releas'd him, Isabel, from the

world ;
His head is off, and sent to Angelo.

ISAB. Nay, but it is not so.

DUKE. It is no other:

IS how your wisdom, daughter, in your closepatience.

ISAB. O, I will to him, and pluck out his eyes.
DUKE. You shall not be admitted to his sight.

ISAB. Unhappy Claudio ! Wretched Isabel !
Injurious world ! Most damned Angelo !

DUKE. This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot :
Forbear it therefore ; give your cause to heaven.
Mark what I say ; which you shall find
By every syllable, a faithful verity :
The duke comes home to-morrow ; — nay, dry your

eyes;

One of our convent, and his confessor,
Gives me this instance : Already he hath carried

4 When it is least expected.] A better reason might have
been given. It was necessary to keep Isabella in ignorance,
that she might with more keenness accuse the deputy.

JOHNSON.

><fc in. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 371

Notice to Escalus and Angelo ;

Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,

There to give up their power. If you can, pace

your wisdom

In that good path that I would wish it go ;
And you shall have your bosom 3 on this wretch,
Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,
And general honour.

I SAB. I am directed by you.

DUKE. This letter then to friar Peter give ;
'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return :
Say, by this token, I desire his company
At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause, and yours,
I'll perfect him withal ; and he shall bring you
Before the duke ; and to the head of Angelo
Accuse him home, and home. For my poor self,
I am combined by a sacred vow,4
And shall be absent. Wend you5 with this letter :
Command these fretting waters from your eyes

3 your bosom — ] Your wish ; your heart's desire.

JOHNSON'.

4 / am combined by a sacred votv,~] I once thought this should
be confined, but Shakspeare uses combine for to bind by a pact or
agreement; so he calls Angelo the combinate husband of Mariana.

JOHNSON.

The verb, to combine, appears to be as irregularly used by
Chapman, in his version of the sixteenth Book of Homer's
Odyssey:

" as thou art mine,

" And as thy veins my own true blood combine.''''

STEEVENS.

5 Wend you — ] To luend is to go. — An obsolete word. So,
in The Comedy of Errors :

" Hopeless and helpless doth ^Egeon ncend"
Again, in Orlando Furio.*o, 1599 :

" To let his daughter wend with us to France."

STEEVSNS,

JB B 2

372 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ir.

With a light heart ; trust not my holy order,
If I pervert your course. — Who's here ?

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Good even!

Friar, where is the provost ?

DUKE. Not within, sir.

Lucio. O, pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine
heart, to see thine eyes so red : thou must be pa-
tient : I am fain to dine and sup with water and
bran ; I dare not for my head rill my belly ; one
fruitful meal would set me to't : But they say the
duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel,
I lov'd thy brother : if the old fantastical duke of
dark corners ° had been at home, he had lived.

\_Evit ISABELLA.

&UKE. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden
to your reports ; but the best is, he lives not in
them.7

Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well
as I do : he's a better woodman 8 than thou takest
him for.

0 — if the old 8fc.~\ Sir Thomas Hanmer reads — the odd

fantastical duke; but old is a common word of aggravation in
ludicrous language, as, there -was old revelling. JOHNSON.

duke of dark corners — ~| This duke who meets his mis-
tresses in by-places. So, in King Henry VIII:

" There is nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience,
" Deserves a corner." MALONE.

7 he lives not in them.'] i. e. his character depends not

on them. So, in Much Ado about Nothing :

" The practice of it lives in John the bastard."

STEEVENS.

ivoodman — ] A woodman seems to have been an at-
tendant or servant to the officer called Forrester. See Man-wood

JK. IIL MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

DUKE. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare
ye well.

Lucio. Nay, tarry ; I'll go along with thee ; I
can tell thee pretty tales of the duke.

DUKE. You have told me too many of him al-
ready, sir, if they be true ; if not true, none were
enough.

Lucio. I was once before him for getting a
wench with child.

DUKE. Did you such a thing ?

Lucio. Yes, marry, did I : but was fain to for-
swear it ; they would else have married me to the
rotten medlar.

DUKE. Sir, your company is fairer than honest:
Rest you well.

Lucio. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the
lane's end : If bawdy talk offend you, we'll have
very little of it : Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr, I
shall stick. [Exeunt.

on the Forest Laws, 4-to. 1615, p. 46. It is here, however, used
in a wanton sense, and was, probably, in our author's time,
generally so received. In like manner in The Chances, Act I.
sc. ix. the Landlady says :

" Well, well, son John,

" I see you are a "woodman, and can choose
" Your deer tho* it be i' th' dark." REED.

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff asks his mis-
tresses :

" Am I a woodman? Ha!" STEEVENS.

374 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACTIT,

SCENE IV.

A Room in Angelo's House.
Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.

ESCAL. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd
other.

ANG. In most uneven and distracted manner.
His actions show much like to madness : pray hea-
ven, his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet
him at the gates, and re-deliver our authorities
there ?

ESCAL. I guess not.

ANG. And why should we3 proclaim it in an
hour before his entering, that, if any crave redress
of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in
the street ?

ESCAL. He shows his reason for that : to have a
despatch of complaints ; and to deliver us from de-
vices hereafter, which shall then have no power to
stand against us.

ANG. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed :
Betimes i* the morn, I'll call you at your house : *

9 Ang. And tuhy should U<P &c.~] It is the conscious guilt of
A^gelo that prompts this question. The reply of Escalus is such
as arises from an undisturbed mind, that only considers the mys-
terious conduct of the Duke in a political point of view.

STEEVENS.

1 let it be proclaimed ;

Betimes i' the morn, &c.~] Perhaps it should be pointe^
thus:

let it be proclaimed

Betimes i' the morn : I'll call you at your house-

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 37-5

Give notice to such men of sort and suit,2
,As are to meet him.

ESCAL. I shall, sir : fare you well.

[Exit.

ANG. Good night. —
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpreg-

nant,3

And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid !
And by an eminent body, that enforc'd
The law against it ! — But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How mio-ht she tongue rne ? Yet reason dares her?

—no : 4

So above :

" And why should we proclaim it an hour before his
entering?" MALONE.

* —• - sort and suit,~] Figure and rank. JOHNSON.

Not so, as I imagine, in this passage. In the feudal times all
vassals were bound to hold suit and service to their over-lord ;
that is, to be ready at all times to attend and serve him, either
when summoned to his courts, or to his standard in war. Such
men of sort and suit as are to meet him, I presume, means the
Duke's vassals or tenants in capile.

Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

3 - makes me unpregnant,] In the first scene the Duke says
that Escalus is pregnant, i. e. ready in the forms of law. Un-
pregnant, therefore, in the instance before us, is unready, unpre-
pared. STEEVENS.

4 - Yet reason dares her ? — no :] The old folio impressions
read :

Yet reason dares her No.

And this is right. The meaning is, the circumstances of our
case are such, that she will never venture to contradict me ; dares
her to reply ATo to me, whatever I say. WAKBURTON.

Mr. Theobald reads :

- Yet reason dares her note.
Sir Thomas Hanmer :

---- Yet reason dares her : No.

376 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT &

For my authority bears a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch.

Mr. Upton :

Yet reason dares her — No.

Which he explains thus : " Were it not for her maiden modesty,
kow might the lady proclaim my guilt? Yet (you'll say) she has
reason on her side, and that will make her dare to do it. I think
not ; for my authority is of such weight, &c. I am afraid dare
has no such signification. I have nothing to offer worth inser-
tion. JOHNSON.

To dare has two significations ; to terrify, as in The Maid's
Tragedy:

" those mad mischiefs

" Would dare a woman."
Again, in Chapman's translation of the eleventh Iliad:

" the wound did dare him sore."

In King Henry IV. Part I. it means, to challenge, or call forth

" Unless a brother should a brother dare

" To gentle exercise," &c.
I would therefore read :

Yet reason dares her not,

For my authority £c.
Or perhaps, with only a slight transposition :

Yet no reason dares her, &c.

The meaning will then be — Yet reason does not challenge, call
forth, or incite her to appear against me, for my authority is above
the reach of her accusation. STEEVENS.

— — — Yet reason dares her No.~\ Dr. Warburton is evidently
right with respect to this reading, though wrong in his applica-
tion. The expression is a provincial one, and very intelligible :

But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How might she tongue me ? Yet reason dares her No.
That is, reason dares her to do it, as by this means she would
not only publish her «' maiden loss," but also as she would cer-
tainly suffer from the imposing credit of his station and power,
which would repel with disgrace any attack on his reputa-
tion:

For my authority bears a credent bulk,
That, no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather. HENLEY.

sc. iv. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 37?

But it confounds the breather.* He should have

liv'd,

Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might, in the times to come, have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life,
With ransome of such shame. 'Would yet he had

liv'd!

We think Mr. Henley rightly understands this passage, but
has not sufficiently explained himself. Reason, or reflection,
we conceive, personified by Shakspeare, and represented as
daring or overawing Isabella, and crying No to her, whenever
she finds herself prompted to " tongue" Angelo. Dare is often
met with in this sense in Shakspeare. Beaumont and Fletcher
have used the word No in a similar way in The Chances,
Act III. sc. iv :

" I wear a sword to satisfy the world no."
Again, in A Wife for a Month, Act IV :

" I'm sure he did not, for I charg'd him no."

MONTHLY REVIEW.

Yet reason dares her? no:] Yet does not reason chal-
lenge or incite her to accuse me? — no, (answers the speaker,)
for my authority, &c. To dare, in this sense, is yet a school-
phrase : Shakspeare probably learnt it there. He has again
used the word in King Henry VI. Part II :

" What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare Mm?"

MALONE.

5 my authority bears a credent bulk,

That no particular scandal &c.] Credent* Is creditable, in-
forcing credit, not questionable. The old English writers often
confound the active and passive adjectives. So Shakspeare,
and Milton after him, use inexpressive for inexpressible.

Particular is private, a French sense. No scandal from any
private mouth can reach a man in my authority. JOHNSON.

The old copy reads — " bears of a credent bulk." If of be
any thing more than a blunder, it must mean — bears off, i. e.
carries "with it. As this monosyllable, however, does not im-
prove our author's sense, and clogs his metre, I have omitted it.

STF.EVEXS.

Perhaps Angelo means, that his authority will ward off or set
aside the weightiest and most probable charge that can be
brought against him. MALONE.

378 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT ivf

Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not6

[Exit,

SCENE V,

Fields without the Town.
Enter Duke in his own habit, and Friar PETER.

DUKE. These letters7 at fit time deliver me.

[Giving letters.

The provost knows our purpose, and our plot.
The matter being afoot, ke°p your instruction,
And hold you ever to our special drift ;
Though sometimes you do blench from this to
that,8

0 "ive ivould, and ixe would not."] Here undoubtedly the

Act should end, and was ended by the poet ; for here is properly
a cessation of action, and a night intervenes, and the place is
changed, between the passages of this scene, and those of the
next. The next Act beginning with the following scene, pro-
ceeds without any interruption of time or change of place.

JOHNSON,

7 These letters — ] Peter never delivers the letters, but tells
his story without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot
which he had formed. JOHNSON.

The first clause of this remark is undoubtedly just ; but, re-
specting the second, I wish our readers to recollect that all the
plays of Shakspeare, before they reached the press, had passed
through a dangerous medium, and probably experienced the
injudicious curtailments to which too many dramatic pieces are
still exposed, from the ignorance, capric", and presumption, of
transcribers, players, and managers. STKEVENS.

* you do blench from this to that,'] To blcn>:h is to start

oft', to fly off. So, in Hamfct :

" if he but 'tlench,

" I know my course." STEKVENS.

,«7. vi. MEASURE ECU MEASURE. 379

As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius* house,
And tell him where I stay : give the like notice.
To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate ;
But send me Flavius first.

F. PETER. It shall be speeded well.

[Exit Friar.

Enter VARRIUS.

DUKE. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made

good haste :

Come, we will walk: There's other of our friends
Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.

\Exeunt,

SCENE VI.

Street near the City Gate.
Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.

ISAB. To speak so indirectly, I am loath ;
I would say the truth ; but to accuse him so,
That is your part : yet I'm advis'd to do it ;
He says, to veil full purpose.9

0 He says, to \e\\full purpose.'] Mr. Theobald alters it to —

Pie says, t'availful purpose.

because he has no idea of the common reading. A good reason!
Yet the common reading is right. Full is used for beneficial;
and the meaning is — He says, it is to hide a beneficial purpose,
that must not yet be revealed. WARJJURTON.

To veil full purpose, may, with very little force on the words,
mean, to hide the ivhole extent of our design, and therefore the.
reading may stand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theob ild's al-
teration either lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with such

380 MEASURE FOjR MEASURE. ACT IF.

MART. Be n4'4 by him.

ISAB. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventure
He speak against me on the adverse side,
I should not think it strange ; for 'tis a physick,
That's bitter to sweet end.

MARL I would, friar Peter—

ISAB. O, peace ; the friar is come.

Enter Friar PETER.1

F. PETER. Come, I have found you out a stand

most fit,

Where you may have such vantage on the duke,
He shall not pass you ; Twice have the trumpets

sounded ;

laxity, as to make full the same with beneficial, is to put an end,
at once, to all necessity of emendation, for any word may then
stand in the place of another. JOHNSON.

I think Theobald's explanation right, but his amendment un-
necessary. We need only read vailfulas one w.ord. Shakspeare,
who so frequently uses cite for excite, bate for abate, force for
enforce, and many other abbreviations of a similar nature, may
well be supposed to use vailful for availful. M. MASON.

If Dr. Johnson's explanation be right, (as J think it is,) the
word should be written — veil, as it is now printed in the text.

That vail was the old spelling of veil, appears from a line in
The Merchant of Venice, folio, 1623 :

" Vailing an Indian beauty — ."

for which, in the modern editions, veiling has been rightly sub-
stituted. MA LONE.

1 Enter Friar Peter.] This pliiy has two friars, either of"
whom might singly have served. I should therefore imagine,
that Friar Thomas, in the first Act, might be changed, without
any harm, to Friar Peter ; for why should the Duke unnecessa-
rily trust two in an affair which required only one ? The name
of Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and there-
fore seems arbitrarily placed at. the head of the scene.

JOHNSON.

sc. vi. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. SSI

The generous 2 and gravest citizens
Have hent the gates,3 and very near upon
The duke is ent'ring ; therefore hence, away.

^Exeunt.

* The generous fyc.~] i. e. the most noble, &c. Generous is
here used in its Latin sense. " Virgo generosa et nobilis." Cicero.
Shakspeare uses it again in Othello :

" the generous islanders

" By you invited — ." STEEVENS.

* Have hent the gates,] Have seized or taken possession of
the gates. JOHNSON.

So, in Sir A. Gorges' translation of the 4th Book ofLucan :

" did prevent

" His foes, ere they the hills had hent."
Again, in T. Hryvvood's Rape ofLucrece, 1630 :

" Lament thee, Roman land,

" The king is from thee hent."

Again, in the black-letter romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys,
no date:

" But with the childe homeward gan ryde

" That fro the grylfon was hent."

Again, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick,
bl. 1. no date :

" Some by the arms hent good Guy/' &c.
Again :

" And some by the bridle him hent."

Spenser often uses the word hend for to seize or take, and over-
hend for to overtake.'1'' STEEVENS.

Hent, henten, hende, (says Junius, in his Etymologicon,)
Chaucero est, capere> assequi, prehendere, ampere* ab A. S~
hendan. MALONE.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT rv

ACT V. SCENE I.

A publick Place near the City Gate.

MARIANA, (ve'iVd^) ISABELLA, and PETER, at a
distance. Enter at opposite doors, Duke, VAR-
RIUS, Lords ; ANGELO, ESCALUS, Lucio, Pro-
vost, Officers, and Citizens.

DUKE. My very worthy cousin, fairly met : —
Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you*

ANG. and ESCAL. Happy return be to your royal
grace !

DUKE. Many and hearty thankings to you both*
We have made inquiry of you ; and we hear
Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
Forerunning more requital.

ANG. You make my bonds still greater,

DUKE. O, your desert speaks loudj and I should

wrong it,

To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,
When it deserves with characters of brass
A forted residence, 'gainst the tooth of time,
And razure of oblivion : Give me your hand,
And let the subject see, to make them know
That outward courtesies would fain pioclann
Favours that keep within. — Come, Escalus ;
You must walk by us on our other hand j—
And good supporters are you.

SG.I.- MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

PETER and ISABELLA come forward.

F. PETER. Now is your time ; speak loud, and
kneel before him.

I SAB. Justice, O royal duke ! Vail your regard 4
Upon a wrong'd, I'd rain have said, a maid !
O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
By throwing it on any other object,
Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
And given me, justice, justice, justice, justice !

DUKE. Relate your wrongs : In what ? By

whom ? Be brief:

Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice ;
Reveal yourself to him.

ISAB. O, worthy duke,

You bid me seek redemption of the devil :
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak
Must either punish me, not being believ'd,
Or wring redress from you : hear me, O, hear me,
here.

ANG. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not
firm :

— Vail your regard — ] That is, withdraw your thoughts
from higher things, let your notice descend upon a wronged
woman. To vail is to lower. JOHNSON.

This is one of the few expressions which might have been
borrowed from the old play of Promos and Cassandra, 1578 :

" vail thou thine ears."

So, in Stanyhurst's translation of the 4th Book of Virgil's JEneid :

" Plirygio liceat servire mnrilo"

"•Let Dido vail her heart to bed-fellow Trojan."

STEEVENS.

Thus also, in Hamlet :

" Do not for ever, with thy vailed fids,

" Seek for thy noble father in the dust." HENLEY.

384 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT V,

She hath been a suitor to me for her brother,
Cut off by course of justice.

ISAB. By course of justice I

ANG. And she will speak most bitterly, and
strangei

ISAB. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I

speak :

That Angelo's forsworn ; is it not strange ?
That Angelo's a murderer ; is't not strange ?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
An hypocrite, a virgin-violator j
Is it not strange, and strange ?

DUKE. Nay, ten times strange,

ISAB. It is not truer he is Angelo,
Than this is all as true as it is strange :
Nay, it is ten times true ; for truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.5

DUKE. Away with her : — Poor soul.

She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.

ISAB. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st
There is another comfort than this world,
That thou neglect me not, with that opinion
That I am touched with madness : make not im-
possible

That which but seems unlike : 'tis not impossible,
But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,

* truth is truth

To the end of reckoning^ That is, truth lias no gradations ;
nothing which admits of increase can be so much what it is, as
truth is truth, There may be a strange thing, and a thing more
strange, but if a proposition be true, there can be none more
true. JOHNSON.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 385

May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute^6
As Angelo ; even so may Angelo,
In all his dressings,7 characts,8 titles, forms,
Be an arch- villain : believe it, royal prince,
If he be less, he's nothing ; but he's more,
Had I more name for badness.

DUKE. By mine honesty,

If she be mad, (as I believe no other,)
Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense^
Such a dependency of thing on thing,
As e'er I heard in madness.9

0 as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute,"] As shy ; as re-
served, as abstracted: as just ; as nice, as exact: as absolute; as
complete in all the round of duty. JOHNSON.

7 In all his dressings, &c.] In all his semblance of virtue, in
all his habiliments of office. JOHNSON.

8 characts,~\ i. e. characters. See Dugdale, Orig. Jurid.

p. 81 : " That he use ne hide, no charme, ne carecte"

TYRWHITT.

So, in Gower, De Cotifessione Amantis, B. I :

" With his carrecte would him enchaunt."
Again, B. V. fol. 103 :

" And read his carecte in the wise."
Again, B. VI. fol. 140:

" Through his carectes and figures."
Again :

" And his carecte as he was taught,

" He rad," &c. STEEVENS.

Charact signifies an inscription. The stat. 1 Edward VI. c. 2,
directed the Seals of office of every bishop to have " certain
characts under the king's arrns^ for the knowledge of the
diocese." Characters are the letters in which the inscription is
written.. Character)/ is the materials of which characters are
composed.

" Fairies use flowers for their charactery."

Merry Wives of Windsor. BLACKSTONF,

" As e'er I heard &c.] I suppose Shakspeare wrote:
As ne'er / heard in madness. MALONE.

VOL. VI, 0 C

386 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

ISAB. O, gracious duke,

Harp not on that ; nor do not banish reason
For inequality : l but let your reason serve
To make the truth appear, where it seems hid ;
And hide the false, seems true.2

DUKE. Many that are not mad,

Have, sure, more lack of reason. — What would you
say?

ISAB. I am the sister of one Claudio,
Condemned upon the act of fornication
To lose his head ; condemn'd by Angelo :
I, in probation of a sisterhood,
Was sent to by my brother : One Lucio
As then the messenger j —

1 do not banish reason

For inequality :] Let not the high quality of my adversary
prejudice you against me. JOHNSON.

Inequality appears to me to mean, in this place, apparent in-
consistency; and to have no reference to the high rank of Angelo,
as Johnson supposes. M. MASON.

1 imagine the meaning rather is — Do not suppose I am mad,
because I speak passionately and unequally. MALONE.

2 And hide the false, seems true.~\ And for ever hide, i. e. plunge
into eternal darkness, the false one, i. e. Angelo, who now seems
honest. Many other words would have expressed our poet's
meaning better than hide ; but he seems to have chosen it merely
for the sake of opposition to the preceding line. Mr. Theobald
unnecessarily reads — Not hide the false, — which has been fol-
lowed by the subsequent editors. MALONE.

I do not profess to understand these words ; nor can I perceive
how the meaning suggested by Mr. Malone is to be deduced
from them. S TEE YENS.

I agree with Theobald in reading —
Not hide the false seems true.

which requires no explanation. I cannot conceive how the
word — hide, can mean to " plunge into eternal darkness," as
Mr. Malone supposes. M. MASON.

$c. t. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 387

Lucio. That's I, an't like your grace :

I came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her
To try her gracious fortune with lord Angelo,
For her poor brother's pardon.

ISAB. That's he, indeed.

DUKE. You were not bid to speak.

Lucio. No, my good lord;

Nor wish'd to hold my peace.

DUKE. I wish you now then j

Pray you, take note of it : and when you have
A business for yourself, pray heaven, you then
Be perfect.

Lucio. I warrant your honour.

DUKE. The warrant's for yourself; take heed
to it.

ISAB. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale.
Lucio. Right.

DUKE. It may be right; but you are in the wrong
To speak before your time. — Proceed.

ISAB. I went

To this pernicious caitiff deputy.

DUKE. That's somewhat madly spoken.

ISAB. Pardon it ;

The phrase is to the matter.

DUKE. Mended again : the matter ; — Proceed.

ISAB. In brief, — to set the needless process by,
How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,
How he refell'd me,3 and how I reply'd ;,

* Hotv he refell'd me,] To rcfel is to refute.
" Refellere et coarguere mendacium."

p-arm.

Cicero pro Li*
gario.

c c 2

388 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

(For this was of much length,) the vile conclusion
I now begin with grief and shame to utter :
He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
To his concupiscible intemperate lust,4
Release my brother ; and, after much debatement,
My sisterly remorse5 confutes mine honour,
And I did yield to him : But the next morn be-
times,

His purpose surfeiting,0 he sends a warrant
For my poor brother's head.

DUKE. This is most likely!

ISAB. O, that it were as like, as it is true ! 7

Ben Jonson uses the word :

" Friends not to re/el you,

" Or any way quell you."

Again, in The Second Part of Robert Earl of Pluntingionr
1601:

" Therefore go on, young Bruce, proceed, re/ell

" The allegation."
Again, in Chapman's version of the ninth Iliad :

" as thou then didst re fell

" My valour," &c.
The modern editors changed the word to repel. STEEVENS.

4 To his concupiscible <Src.] Such is the old reading. The
modern editors unauthoritatively substitute concupiscent.

STEEVENS.

3 My sisterly remorse — ] i. e. pity. So, in King Richard III :
" And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse." STEEVENS.

6 His purpose surfeiting,] Thus the old copy. We might read
forfeiting, but the former word is too much in the manner of
Shakspeare to be rejected. So, in Othello:

" my hopes not surfeited to death." STEEVENS.

' 0, that it uere as like, as it is true .'] Like is not here used
for probable, but for seemly. She catches at the Duke's word,
and turns it into another sense ; of which there are a great
many examples in Shakspeare, and the writers of that time.

WARBURTOK.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. $89

DUKE. By heaven, fond wretch,8 thou know'st

not what thou speak'st ;
Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour,
In hateful practice : 9 First, his integrity
Stands without blemish : — next, it imports no rea-
son,

That with such vehemency he should pursue
Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended,
He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself,
And not have cut him off: Some one hath set you

on ;

Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
Thou cam'st here to complain.

ISAB. And is this all ?

Then, oh, you blessed ministers above,
Keep me in patience ; and, with ripen'd time,
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up

I do not see why like may not stand here for probable, or why
the lady should not wish, that since her tale is true, it may ob-
tain belief. If Dr. Warburton's explication be right, we should
read:

0 ! that it were as likely, as 'tis true !
Likely I have never found for seemly. JOHNSON.

Though I concur in Dr. Johnson's explanation, I cannot help
observing, that likely is used by Shakspeare himself for seemly.
So, in King Henry IV. Part II. 'Act III. sc. ii : " Sir John, they
are your likeliest men." STEEVENS.

The meaning, I think, is : O that it had as much of the ap-
pearance, as it has of the reality, of truth ! MALONE.

8 fond laretch,] Fond wretch is foolish wretch. So, in

Coriolanus, Act IV. sc. I :

** 'li&fond to wail inevitable strokes." STEEVENS.

9 In hateful practice :] Practice was used by the old writers
for any unlawful or insidious stratagem. So again :

" This must needs be practice."
And again :

" Let me have way to find this practice out." JOHNSON.

390 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

In countenance ! * — Heaven shield your grace from

woe,
As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go !

DUKE. I know, you'd fain be gone: — An officer \
To prison with her : — Shall we thus permit
A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall
On him so near us ? This needs must be a practice.2
— Who knew of your intent, and coming hither ?

ISAB. One that I would were here, friar Lodo-
wick.

DUKE. A ghostly father, belike :— Who knows
that Lodowick f

Lucio. My lord, I know him; 'tis a medling

friar ;

I do not like the man : had he been lay, my lord,
For certain words he spake against your grace
In your retirement, I had swing'd him soundly.

DUKE. Words against me ? This' a good friar,

belike !

And to set on this wretched woman here
Against our substitute !— Let this friar be found,

Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that
friar

1 In countenance /] i. e. in partial favour. WARBURTON.

Countenance, in my opinion, does not mean partial favour, as
Warburton supposes, but false appearance., hypocrisy. Isabella
does not mean to accuse the Duke of partiality ; but alludes to
the sanctified demeanour of Angelo, which, as she supposes, pre-
vented the Duke from believing her story. M. MASON.

* practice.'] Practice, in Shakspeare, very often means;

shameful artifice, unjustifiable stratagem. So, in King Lear :

*' This in practice, Gloster."

Again, in King John :

" It is the shameful work of Hubert's hand,
<5 The practice and the purpose of the king.''

STEEVE.N ?•; ,

sc. I. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 391

I saw them at the prison : a sawcy friar,
A very scurvy fellow.

F. PETER. Blessed be your royal grace !

I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
Your royal ear abus'd : First, hath this woman
Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute ;
Who is as free from touch or soil with her,
As she from one ungot.

DUKE. We did believe no less.

Know you that friar Lodowick, that she speaks of?

F. PETER. I know him for a man divine and

holy;

Not scurvy, nor a temporary medler,3
As he's reported by this gentleman ;
And, on my trust, a man that never yet
Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.

Lucio. My lord, most villainously ; believe it.

F. PETER. Well, he in time may come to clear

himself;
But at this instant he is sick, my lord,

* nor a temporary medler,] It is hard to know what is

meant by a temporary medler. In its usual sense, as opposed to
perpetual, it cannot be used here. It may stand for temporal :
the sense will then be, I knoiv him for a holy man, one that
meddles not with secular affairs. It may mean temporising:
I know him to be a holy man, one who would not temporise, or
take the opportunity of your absence to defame you. Or we may
read:

Not scurvy, nor a tamperer and medler :

not one who would have tampered with this woman to make her
a false evidence against your deputy. JOHNSON.

Peter here refers to what Lucio had before affirmed con-
cerning Friar Lodowick. Hence it is evident that the phrase
" temporary medler,'' was intended to signify one who introduced
himself, as often as he could find opportunity, into other men's
concerns. See the context. HENLEY.

S92 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

Of a strange fever : Upon his mere request,4
(Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
Intended 'gainst lord Angelo,) came I hither,
To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
Is true, and false ; and what he with his oath,
And all probation, will make up full clear,
Whensoever he's convented.5 First, for this wo-
man;

(To justify this worthy nobleman,
So vulgarly 6 and personally accus'd,)

his mere request,"] i. e. his absolute request. So, in

Julius Ccesar:

" Some mere friends, same honourable Romans.*'
Again, in Othello:

" The mere perdition of the Turkish fleet." STEEVENS.

5 Whensoever he's convented.] The first folio reads, consented,
and this is right : for to convene signifies to assemble ; but con-
vent, to cite, or summons. Yet because convented hurts the
measure, the Oxford editor sticks to convened, though it be
nonsense, and signifies, Whenever he is assembled together. But
thus it will be, when the author is thinking of one thing, and
his critic of another. The poet was attentive to his sense, and
the editor, quite throughout his performance, to nothing but the
measure; which Shakspeare having entirely neglected, like all
the dramatic writers of that age, he has spruced him up with all
the exactness of a modern measurer of syllables. This being
here taken notice of once for all, shall, for the future, be forgot,
as if it had never been. WARBUBTON.

The foregoing account of the measure of Shakspeare, and his
contemporaries, ought indeed to be forgotten, because it is
untrue.

To convent is no uncommon word. So, in Woman 's a Wea
ihercock, 1612:

" lest my looks

" Should tell the company convented there," &c.
To convent and to convene are derived from the same Latij»
verb, and have exactly the same meaning. Sr EEVENS.

6 So vulgarly — ] Meaning either so grossly, with such inde-
cency of invective, or by so mean and inadequate witnesses.

JOHNSOK,

M. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE, 393

Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
Till she herself confess it.

DUKE. Good friar, let's hear it.

[ISABELLA is carried off', guarded ; and MA-
RIANA comes forward.

Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo ? —
O heaven ! the vanity of wretched fools ! —
Give us some seats. — Come, cousin Angelo ;
In this I'll be impartial ; be you judge
Of your own cause.7 — Is this the witness, friar?

Vulgarly, I believe, means publickly. The vulgar are the
common people. Daniel uses vulgarly for among the common
people :

" and which pleases vulgarly" STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens's interpretation is certainly the true one. So^
in The Comedy of Errors, Act III. sc. i :

" A vulgar comment will be made of it ;

" And that supposed by the common rout, —

" That may," &c.
Again, in Twelfth-Night:

" for 'tis a vulgar proof,

" That very oft we pity enemies.'' MALONE.

7 Come, cousin Angelo ;

In this I'll be impartial ; be you judge

Of your own cause.'] Surely, says Mr. Theobald, this Duke
had odd notions of impartiality ! He reads therefore — I will be
partial, and all the editors follow him : even Mr. Heath de-
clares the observation unanswerable. But see the uncertainty of
criticism ! impartial was sometimes used in the sense of partial.
In the old play of Swetnam, the Woman Hater, Atlanta cnV«.
out, when the judges decree against the women :
" You are impartial, and we do appeal
" From you to judges more indifferent." FARMEP.

So, in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 2d Part, 1G02:
" There's not a beauty lives,
" Hath that impartial predominance
" O'er my affects, as your enchanting graces,"
Again, in Romeo and Juliet, 1597 :

" Cruel, unjust, impartial destinies !"

394 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

First, let her show her face ; 8 and, after, speak.

MARJ. Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face,
Until my husband bid me.

DUKE. What, are you married ?

MARI. No, my lord.

DUKE. Are you a maid ?

MARI. No, my lord.

DUKE. A widow then ?

MARI. Neither, my lord.

DUKE. Why, you

Are nothing then: — Neither maid, widow, nor wife?9

Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk : for many
of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

DUKE. Silence that fellow: I would, he had

some cause
To prattle for himself.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

MARI. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married;
And, I confess, besides, I am no maid :
I have known my husband ; yet my husband

knows not,
That ever he knew me.

Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord ; it can be
no better.

Again :

" this day, this unjust, impartial day."

In the language of our author's time, im was frequently used
as an augmentative or intensive particle. MAJ,ONE.

8 heryacey] The original copy reads — your face. The

emendation was made by the editor of the second folio.

MALONE.

9 Neither maid, widow, nor wife?] This is a proverbial phrase,
ko be found in Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.

&c. i, MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 395

DUKE. For the benefit of silence, 'would thou
wert so too.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

DUKE. This is no witness for lord Angelo.

MARL Now I come to't, my lord :
She, that accuses him of fornication,
In self-same manner doth accuse my husband ;
And charges him, my lord, with such a time,
When I'll depose I had him in mine arms,
With all the effect of love.

ANG. Charges she more than me ?

MART. Not that I know.

DUKE. No ? you say, your husband.

MARL Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
Who thinks, he knows, that he ne'er knew my

body,
But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's.

ANG. This is a strange abuse : * — Let's see thy
face.

MARL My husband bids me ; now I will un-
mask. [ Unveiling.
This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
Which, once thou swor'st, was worth the looking on:
This is the hand, which, with a vow'd contract,
Was fast belock'd in thine : this is the body
That took away the match from Isabel,
And did supply thee at thy garden-house,2
In her imagin'd person.

1 This is a strange abuse :] Abuse stands in this place for
deception or puzzle. So, in Macbeth :

" my strange and self abuse,'"

means, this strange deception of myself. JOHNSON.

8 And did supply thee at thy garden-house,] A garden-house
in the time of our author was usually appropriated to purposes

596 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

DUKE. Know you this woman ?

Lucio. Carnally, she says.
DUKE. Sirrah, no more.

Lucio. Enough, my lord.

ANG. My lord, I must confess, I know this wo-
man ;
And, five years since, there was some speech of

marriage

Betwixt myself and her ; which was broke off,
Partly, for that her promised proportions
Came short of composition ; 3 but, in chief,
For that her reputation was disvalued
In levity: since which time, of five years,
I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
Upon my faith and honour.

MART. Noble prince,

As there comes light from heaven, and words from

breath,

As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,
I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly
As words could make up vows : and, my good lord,

of intrigue. So, in SKIALETHIA, or A Shadow r>f Truth, in
certain Epigrams and Sat y res, 1598:

" Who, coming from the CURTAIN, sneaketh in
" To some old garden noted house for sin."
Again, in The London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605 : " Sweet
lady, if you have any friend, or garden-house, where you may
employ a poor gentleman as your friend, I am yours to com-
mand in all secret service." MA LONE.

See also an extract from Stubbes's Anatomic of Abuses, 4to.
1597, p. 57; quoted in Vol. V. of Dodsley's Old Plays, edit.
1780, p. 74. REED.

3 her promised proportions

Came short of composition ;] Her fortune, which was pro-
mised proportionate to mine, fell short of the composition, that

is, contract or bargain. JOHNSON.

sc. I. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 397

But Tuesday night last gone, in his garden-house,
He knew me as a wife : As this is true
Let me in safety raise me from my knees j
Or else for ever be confixed here,
A marble monument !

ANG. I did but smile till now ;

Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice;
My patience here is touch'd : I do perceive,
These poor informal women4 are no more
But instruments of some more mightier member,
That sets them on : Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.

DUKE. Ay, with my heart ;

And punish them unto your height of pleasure.—
Thou foolish friar ; and thou pernicious woman,
Compact with her that's gone ! think' st thou, thy

oaths,
Though they would swear down each particular

saint,*
Were testimonies against his worth and credit,

4 These poor informal women — ] Itiformal signifies out of
their senses. In The Comedy of Errors, we meet with these
lines :

" 1 will not let him stir,

" Till I have us'd the approved means I have,

" With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers,

" To make of him a formal man again."

Formal, in this passage, evidently signifies in his senses. The
lines are spoken of Antipholis of Syracuse, who is behaving
like a madman. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra :

*f Thou should'st come like a fury crown'd with snakes,

" Not like ^.formal man." STEEVENS.

4 Though they ivoiild swear down each particular saint,"] So,
in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I. sc. iii :

" Though you in swearing shake the throned gods."

SXEEVEN'S-

398 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

That's seal'd in approbation ?6 — You, lord Escalus*
Sit with my cousin ; lend him your kind pains
To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd. —
There is another friar that set them on ;
Let him be sent for.

F. PETER. Would he were here, my lord; for

he* indeed,

Hath set the women on to this complaint :
Your provost knows the place where he abides,
And he may fetch him.

DUKE. Go, do it instantly. — [Exit Provost.
And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,7
Do with your injuries as seems you best,
In any chastisement : I for a while
Will leave you ; but stir not you, till you have well
Determined upon these slanderers,

ESCAL. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly. — [ Exit
Duke.] Signior Lucia, did not you say, you kne\r
that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person ?

Lucio. Cucullus nonfacit monachum: honest in
nothing, but in his clothes ; and one that hath
spoke most villainous speeches of the duke.

ESCAL* We shall entreat you to abide here till

G That's seaVd in approbation ?] When any thing subject to
counterfeits is tried by the proper officers and approved, a stamp
or seal is put upon it, as among us on plate, weights, and mea-
sures. So the Duke says, that Angelo's faith has been tried,
approved, and sealed in testimony of that approbation, and, like
other things so sealed, is no more to be called in question.

JOHNSON.

to hear this matter forth,'] To hear it to the end ; to

search it to the bottom. JOHNSON.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 393

he come, and enforce them against him : we shall
find this friar a notable fellow*

Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word.

ESCAL. Call that same Isabel here once again ;
[To an Attendant.^ I would speak with her : Pray
you, my lord, give me leave to question ; you shall
see how 1*11 handle her.

Lucio. Not better than he, by her own report.
ESCAL. Say you ?

Lucio. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her
privately, she would sooner confess j perchance,
publickly she'll be ashamed.

He-enter Officers, with ISABELLA ; the Duke, in the
Friar's habit, and Provost.

ESCAL. I will go darkly to work with her.

Lucio. That's the way ; for women are light at
midnight.8

ESCAL. Come on, mistress: [To ISABELLA.]
here's a gentlewoman denies all that you have
said.

Lucio* My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke
of; here with the provost.

ESCAL. In very good time : — speak not you to
him, till we call upon you.

Lucio. Mum.

* -are light at midnight.'] This is one of the words on

which Shakspeare chiefly delights to quibble. Thus, Portia, in
The Merchant of Venice, Act V. sc. i :

" Let me give light, but let me not be light."

STEEVENS.

400 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, ACT f,

JEscAL. Come, sir : Did you set these women ori
to slander lord Angelo ? they have confessed you
did.

DUKE. 'Tis false.

ESCAL. How ! know you where you are ?

DUKE. Respect to your great place ! .and let the

devil

Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne : 9 —
Where is the duke ? 'tis he should hear me speak.

ESCAL. The duke's in us ; and we will hear you

speak :
Look, you speak justly.

DUKE. Boldly, at least : — But, O, poor souls,
Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox ?
Good night to your redress. Is the duke gone ?
Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust,
Thus to retort your manifest appeal,1

9 Respect to your great place ! and let the devil &c.] I sus-
pect that a line preceding this has been lost. MALONE.

I suspect no omission. Great place has reference to the pre-
ceding question — " know you "where you are ?"

Shakspeare was a reader of Philemon Holland's translation of
Pliny ; and in the fifth book and eighth chapter, might have
met with his next idea ; " The Augylae do no worship to any
but to the devils beneath."

Tyrants, in our ancient romances, have frequently the same
object of adoration. Thus, in The Soivdon of Babyloyne,
p. 60:

" Then came the bishop Cramadas,

" And knelcd bifore the Sowdon,

" And charged him by the hye name Sathanas,

*' To saven his goddes ychon." STEEVENS.

— to retort your manifest appeal,] To refer back to
Angelo the cause in which you appealed from Angelo to the
Duke. JOHNSON.

sc. I. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 401

And put your trial in the villain's mouth,
Which here you come to accuse.

Lucio. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke
of.

ESCAL. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd

friar !

Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women
To accuse this worthy man ; but, in foul mouth,
And in the witness of his proper ear,
To call him villain ?

And then to glance from him to the duke himself;
To tax him with injustice ? — Take him hence ;
To the rack with him : — We'll touze you joint by

joint,
But we will know this purpose :2 — What ! unjust ?

DUKE. Be not so hot ; the duke
Dare no more stretch this finger of mine, than he
Dare rack his own ; his subject am I not,
Nor here provincial :3 My business in this state
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,

this purpose:"] The old copy has — his purpose.

ndation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I believe the pi

The

emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I believe the passage
has been corrected in the wrong place ; and would read :

We'll touze him joint by joint,

But we will know his purpose. MALONE.

3 Nor here provincial :] Nor here accountable. The meaning
seems to be, I am not one of his natural subjects, nor of any de-
pendent province. JOHNSON.

The different orders of monks have a chief, who is called the
General of the order ; and they have also superiors, subordinate
to the general, in the several provinces through which the order
may be dispersed. The Friar therefore means to say, that the
Duke dares not touch a finger of his, for he could not punish
him by his own authority, as he was not his subject, nor through
that of the superior, as he was not of that province.

M. MASON.

VOL. VI. D D

402 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble,
Till it o'er-run the stew:4 laws, for all faults ;
But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,5
As much in mock as mark.

4 boil and bubble,

Till it o'er-run the stew :] I fear that, in the present in-
stance, our author's metaphor is from the kitchen. So, in
Macbeth :

" Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble." STEEVENS.

3 Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,] Barbers' shops
were, at all times, the resort of idle people :

" Tonstrina erat qu&dam: hie solcbamus Jere

" Plerumque earn opperiri" .

which Donatus calls apta sedes otiosis. Formerly with us, the
better sort of people went to the barber's shop to be trimmed ;
who then practised the under parts of surgery : so that he had
occasion for numerous instruments, which lay there ready for
use ; and the idle people, with whom his shop was generally
crouded, would be perpetually handling and misusing them. To
remedy which, I suppose there was placed up against the wall
a table of forfeitures, adapted to every offence of this kind ;
which, it is not likely, would long preserve its authority.

WARBURTON.

This explanation may serve till a better is discovered. But
whoever has seen the instruments of a chirurgeon, knows that
they may be very easily kept out of improper hands in a very
small box, or in his pocket. JOHNSON.

It was formerly part of a barber's occupation to pick the teeth
and ears. So, in the old play of Herod and Antipater, 1622,
Truphon the barber enters with a case of instruments, to each of
which he addresses himself separately :

" Toothpick, dear toothpick ; earpick, both of you
" Have been her sweet companions ! — " &c.

I have conversed with several people who had repeatedly read
the list of forfeits alluded to by Shakspeare, but have failed in
my endeavours to procure a copy of it. The metrical one, pub-
lished by the late l)r. Kenrick, was a forgery. STEEVENS.

I believe Dr. Warburton's explanation in the main to be
right, only that instead of chirurgical instruments, the barber's
prohibited implements were principally his razors ; his whole

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 403

ESCAL. Slander to the state ! Away with him to
prison.

ANG. What can you vouch against him, signior

Lucio ?
Is this the man that you did tell us of ?

Lucio. 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, good-
man bald-pate : Do you know me ?

DUKE. I remember you, sir, by the sound of
your voice : I met you at the prison, in the ab-
sence of the duke.

Lucio. O, did you so ? And do you remember
what you said of the duke ?

DUKE. Most notedly, sir.

Lucio. Do you so, sir? And was the duke a
fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward,6 as you then
reported him to be ?

DUKE. You must, sir, change persons with me,
ere you make that my report : you, indeed, spoke
so of him ; and much more, much worse.

ttock of which, from the number and impatience of his custom-
ers on a Saturday night or a market morning, being necessarily
laid out for use, were exposed to the idle fingers of the by-
standers, in waiting for succession to the chair.

These forfeits were as much in mock as mark) both because
the barber had no authority of himself to enforce them, and also
as they were of a ludicrous nature. I perfectly remember to
have seen them in Devonshire, (printed like King Charles's
Rules, ) though I cannot recollect the contents. HENLEY.

c — ; — and a coward,] So again, afterwards :

You, sirrah, that know me for a fool, a coward,

" One all of luxury

But Lucio had not, in the former conversation, mentioned
cowardice among the faults of the Duke. Such failures of me-
mory are incident to writers more diligent than this poet.

JOHNSON.

D D 2

404 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

Lucio. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I
pluck thee by the nose, for thy speeches ?

DUKE. I protest, I love the duke, as I love myself.

ANG. Hark ! how the villain would close now,
after his treasonable abuses.

ESCAL. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal: —
Away with him to prison : — Where is the provost ?
— Away with him to prison ; lay bolts enough upon
him : let him speak no more : — Away with those
giglots too,7 and with the other confederate com-
panion. \_The Provost lays hands on the Duke.

DUKE. Stay, sir ; stay a while.

ANG. What ! resists he ? Help him, Lucio.

Lucio. Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir;
Why, you bald-pated, lying rascal ! you must be
hooded, must you ? Show your knave's visage, with
a pox to you ! show your sheep-biting face, and be
hang'd an hour ! Will't not off?8

[Pulls off the Friar's hood, and discovers
the Duke.

7 those giglots too,'] A giglot is a wanton wench. So, in

King Henry VI. P. I :

" y°ung Talbot was not born

" To be the pillage of a giglot wench." STEEVENS.

1 • shota your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour !

WilVt not off?} This is intended to be the common language
of vulgar indignation. Our phrase on such occasions is simply :
shotv your sheep-biting face and be hanged. The words an hour
have no particular use here, nor are authorised by custom. I
suppose it was written thus : shoiayour sheep-biting face, and be
hanged — an hoiv ? wilVt not off? fn the midland counties, upon
any unexpected obstruction or resistance, it is common to ex-
claim any hoiu ? JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson's alteration is wrong. In The Alchemist we meet
with " a man that has been strangled an hour."

sc. r. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 405

DUKE. Thou art the first knave, that e'er made

a duke. —

First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three:

Sneak not away, sir ; [To Lucio.] for the friar and

you
Must have a word anon : — lay hold on him.

Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging.

DUKE. What you have spoke, I pardon ; sit you

down. [To ESCALUS.

We'll borrow place of him : — Sir, by your leave :

[To ANGELO.

Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,
That yet can do thee office ? 9 If thou hast,
Rely upon it till my tale be heard,
And hold no longer out.

ANG. O my dread lord,

I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive, your grace, like power divine,

" What, Piper, ho ! be hang'd a-while," is a line of an old
madrigal. FARMER.

A similar expression is found in Ben Jonson's Bartholomerv
Fair, 1614:

" Leave the bottle behind you, and be curst a-while"

MALONE.

Dr. Johnson is much too positive in asserting " that the words
an hour have no particular use here, nor are authorised by cus-
tom," as Dr. Farmer has well proved. The poet evidently refers
to the ancient mode of punishing by collistrigium, or the original
pillory, made like that part of the pillory at present which re-
ceives the neck, only it was placed horizontally, so that the cul-
prit hung suspended in it by his chin, and the back of his head.
A distinct account of it may be found, if I mistake not, in Mr.
Barrington's Observations on the Statutes. HENLEY.

9 can do thee office ?] i. e. do thee service.

STEEVENS.

406 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

Hath look'd upon my passes :l Then, good prince,
No longer session hold upon my shame,
But let my trial be mine own confession ;
Immediate sentence then, and sequent death,
Is all the grace I beg.

DUKE. Come hither, Mariana : —

Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman ?

ANG. I was, my lord.

DUKE. Go take her hence, and marry her in-
stantly.—

Do you the office, friar ; which consummate,2
Return him here again : — Go with him, Provost.
\JLxeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER,
and Provost.

ESCAL. My lord, I am more amaz'd at his dis-
honour,
Than at the strangeness of it.

DUKE. Come hither, Isabel :

Your friar is now your prince : As I was then
Advertising, and holy 3 to your business,
Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney'd at your service.

ISAB. O, give me pardon,

That I, your vassal, have employed and pain'd
Your unknown sovereignty.

DUKE. You are pardon Jd, Isabel :

1 — — my passes :] i. e. what has past in my administration.
** Not so ; (says the Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786,) Passes
means here artful devices, deceitful contrivances. Tours de passe-
passe, in French, are tricks of jugglery." STEEVENS.

* "which consummate,] i. e. which being consummated.

MALONE.

3 Advertising, and holy — ] Attentive and faithful.

JOHNSON.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 407

And now, dear maid, be yon as free to us.4
Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart ;
And you may marvel, why I obscur'd myself,
Labouring to save his life ; and would not rather
Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power,5
Than let him so be lost : O, most kind maid,
It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came on,
That brain'd my purpose :6 But, peace be with him !
That life is better life, past fearing death,
Than that which lives to fear : make it your com-
fort,
So happy is your brother.

Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Provost.

ISAS. I do, my lord.

DUKE. For this new-married man, approaching

here,

Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd
Your well-defended honour, you must pardon
For Mariana's sake : but as he adjudg'd your

brother,

(Being criminal, in double violation
Of sacred chastity, and of promise-breach,7

4 be you as free to us.~\ Be as generous to us ; pardon us

as we have pardoned you. JOHNSON.

5 Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power,'] That is, a
premature discovery of it. M. MASON.

6 That brain'd my purpose:] We now use in conversation a
like phrase : This it teas that knocked my design on the head. Dr.
Warburton reads :

baned my purpose. JOHNSON.

7 and of promise-breach,] Our author ought to have

written — " in double violation of sacred chastity, and of pro-

408 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

Thereon dependent, for your brother's life,)

T-he very mercy of the law cries out

Most audible, even from his proper tongue,8

An Angela for Claudio, death for death.

Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure ;

Like doth quit like, and Measure stills/or Measure?

Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested ;

Which though thou would'st deny, denies thee

vantage : l

We do condemn thee to the very block
Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like

haste ; —
Away with him.

wise" instead of — promise-breach. Sir T. Hanmer reads — and
in promise-breach ; but change is certainly here improper, Shak-
speare having many similar inaccuracies. Double indeed may
refer to Angelo's conduct to Mariana and Isabel ; yet still some
difficulty will remain : for then he will be said to be " criminal
[instead of guilty] o/'promise-breach." M ALONE.

* even from his proper tongue,] Even from Angelo's own

tongue. So, above :

" In the witness of his proper ear
" To call him villain." JOHNSON.

9 Measure still for Measure.] So, in The Third Part of

King Henry VI:

" Measure for Measure must be answered." STEEVENS.

Shakspeare might have remembered these lines in A Warning
for faire Women, a tragedy, 15gp, (but apparently written some
years before) :

" The trial now remains, as shall conclude

" Measure for Measure, and lost blood for blood."

MALONE.

1 denies thee vantage :] Takes from thee all opportunity,

all expedient of denial. WAKBURTON.

Which though thou 'would'st deny, denies thee vantage :] The
denial of which will avail thee nothing. So, in The Winter's
Tale:

" Which to deny, concerns more than avails."

MALOXE,

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 409

MART. O, my most gracious lord,

I hope you will not mock me with a husband !

DUKE. It is your husband mock'd you with a

husband :

Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
I thought your marriage fit ; else imputation,
For that he knew you, might reproach your life,
And choke your good to come : for his possessions,
Although by confiscation they are ours,2
We do instate and widow you withal,
To buy you a better husband.

MART. O, my dear lord,

I crave no other, nor no better man.

DUKE. Never crave him ; we are definitive.
MARI. Gentle, my liege, — [Kneeling.

DUKE. You do but lose your labour ;

Away with him to death. — Now, sir, [To Lucio.j
to you.

MARI. O, my good lord ! — Sweet Isabel, take

my part ;

Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
I'll lend you, all my life to do you service.

DUKE. Against all sense you do importune her :s

8 Although by confiscation they are ou?-s,~\ This reading was
furnished by the editor of the second folio. The original copy
has confutation, which may be right : by his being confuted, or
proved guilty of the fact which he had denied. This, however,
being rather harsh, I have followed all the modern editors in
adopting the emendation that has been made. MALONE.

I cannot think it even possible that confutation should be the
true reading. But the value of the second folio, it seems, must
on all occasions be disputed. STEEVENS.

3 Against all sense you do importune lier:~\ The meaning
required is, against all reason and natural affection ; Shakspeare,

410 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACTV.

Should she kneel down, in mercy of this fact,
Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break,
And take her hence in horror.

MARL Isabel,

Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me ;
Hold up your hands, say nothing, I'll speak all.
They say, best men are moulded out of faults ;
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad : so may my husband.
O, Isabel ! will you not lend a knee ?

DUKE. He dies for Claudio's death.

ISAB. Most bounteous sir,

[•Kneeling.

Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd,
As if my brother liv'd : I partly think,
A due sincerity govern' d his deeds,
Till he did look on me j 4 since it is so,

therefore, judiciously uses a single word that implies both : sense
signifying both reason and affection. JOHNSON.

The same expression occurs in The Tempest, Act II:
" You cram these words into my ears, against
" The stomach of my sense." STEEVENS.

* Till he did look on me ;~\ The Duke has justly observed,
that Isabel is importuned against all sense to solicit for Angelo,
yet, here against all sense she solicits for him. Her argument is
extraordinary :

A due sincerity governed his deeds
Till he did look on me : since it is so,
Let him not die.

That Angelo had committed all the crimes charged against
him, as far as he could commit them, is evident. The only in-
tent which his act did not overtake, was the defilement of Isabel.
Of this Angelo was only intentionally guilty.

Angelo's crimes were such as must sufficiently justify punish-
ment, whether its end be to secure the innocent from wrong, or
to deter guilt by example ; and I believe every reader feels some
indignation when he finds him spared. From what extenuation

sc.i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 411

Let him not die : My brother had but justice,
In that he did the thing for which he died :
For Angelo,

His act did not o'ertake his bad intent ;5
And must be buried but as an intent
That perish'd by the way :6 thoughts are no sub-
jects ;
Intents but merely thoughts.

MAEI. Merely, my lord.

DUKE. Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say. —
I have bethought me of another fault : —
Provost, how came it, Claudio was beheaded
At an unusual hour ?

PROF. It \vas commanded so.

DUKE. Had you a special warrant for the deed ?

PROV. No, my good lord ; it was by private mes-
sage.

of his crime can Isabel, who yet supposes her brother dead, form
any plea in his favour ? Since he ivas good till he looked on me,
let him not die. I am afraid our varlct poet intended to incul-
cate, that women think ill of nothing that raises the credit of
their beauty, and are ready, however virtuous, to pai'don any
act which they think incited by their own charms. JOHNSON.

It is evident that Isabella condescends to Mariana's importu-
nate solicitation with great reluctance. Bad as her argument
might be, it is the best that the guilt of Angelo would admit.
The sacrifice that she makes of her revenge to her friendship
scarcely merits to be considered m so harsh a light. RITSON.

* His act did not o'ertake his bad intent ;] So, in Macbeth :
. " The flighty purpose never is overtook,
" Unless the deed go with it." STEEVENS.

buried but as an intent

That perish'd by the way :] i. e. like the traveller, who
dies on his journey, is obscurely interred, and thought of no
more :

Ilium expirantem

Obliti ignoto camponim in pulvere linquunt. STEEVEVS.

412 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT v.

DUKE. For which I do discharge you of your

office :
Give up your keys.

PROV. Pardon me, noble lord :

I thought it was a fault, but knew it not ;
Yet did repent me, after more advice :7
For testimony whereof, one in the prison,
That should by private order else have died,
I have reserv'd alive.

DUKE. What's he ?

PROF. His name is Barnardine.

DUKE. I would thou had'st done so by Claudio. —
Go, fetch him hither ; let me look upon him.

\_Exit Provost.

ESCAL. I am sorry, one so learned and so wise
As you, lord Angelo, have still appeared,
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood,
And lack of tempered judgment afterward.

ANG. I am sorry, that such sorrow I procure :
And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart,
That I crave death more willingly than mercy ;
'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.

Re-enter Provost, BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO, and
JULIET.

DUKE. Which is that Barnardine ?

PROV. This, my lord.

DUKE. There was a friar told me of this man : —
Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul,

7 after more advice :~\ i. e. after more mature considera-
tion. So, in Titus Andronicus:

" The Greeks, upon advice, did bury Ajax."

STEEVENS.

sc. /. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 41 3

That apprehends no further than this world,
And squar'st thy life according. Thou'rt con-

demn'd ;

But, for those earthly faults,8 1 quit them all ;
And pray thee, take this mercy to provide

For better times to come : Friar, advise him ;

I leave him to your hand. — What muffled fellow's

that ?

PROV. This is another prisoner, that I sav'd,
That should have died when Claudio lost his head;
As like almost to Claudio, as himself.

\_Unimtffles CLAUDIO.

DUKE. If he be like your brother, [ To ISABELLA.]

for his sake

Is he pardon'd ; And, for your lovely sake,
Give me your hand, and say you will be mine,
He is my brother too : But fitter time for that.
By this, lord Angelo perceives he's safe ;9
Methinks, I see a quick'ning in his eye : —
Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well:1
Look that you love your wife j2 her worth, worth

yours.3 —

* for those earthly faults,] Thy faults, so far as they are

punishable on earth, so far as they are cognisable by temporal
power, I forgive. JOHNSON.

9 perceives he's safe ;] It is somewhat strange that Isabel

is not made to express either gratitude, wonder, or joy, at the
tight of her brother. JOHNSON.

1 your evil quits you "well .-] Quits you, recompenses, re-
quites you. JOHNSON.

* Look that you love your wife ;~\ So, in Promos, &c.

" Be loving to good Cassandra, thy wife." STEEVENS.

* her worth, worth yours.] Sir T. Hanmer reads —

Her worth works yours.

This reading is adopted by Dr. Warburton ; but for what
reason ? How does her worth work Angela's worth ? it has

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

I find an apt remission in myself:

And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon ;4 —

You, sirrah, [To Lucio.] that knew me for a fool,

a coward,

One all of luxury,5 an ass, a madman ;
Wherein have I so deserved of you,
That you extol me thus ?

Lucio. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according
to the trick :° If you will hang me for it, you may,
but I had rather it would please you, I might be
whipp'd.

only contributed to tvork his pardon. The words are, as they
are too frequently, an affected gingle ; but the sense is plain.
Her ivorth, worth yours ; that is, her value is equal to your
value, the match is not unworthy of you. JOHNSON.

4 here's one in place I cannot pardon y] The Duke only

means to frighten Lucio, whose final sentence is to marry the
woman whom he had wronged, on which all his other punish-
ments are remitted. STEEVENS.

6 One all of luxury,] Luxury means incontinence. So, in
King Lear :

" To't, luxury, pellmell, for I lack soldiers."

STEEVENS.

6 according to the trick :] To my custom, my habitual

practice. JOHNSON.

Lucio does not say my trick, but the trick ; nor does he mean
to excuse himself by saying that he spoke according to his usual
practice, for that would be an aggravation to his guilt, but ac-
cording to the trick and practice of the times. It was probably
then the practice, as it is at this day, for the dissipated and pro-
fligate, to ridicule and slander persons in high station, or of su-
perior virtue. M. MASON.

According to the trick, is, according to the fashion of thought-
less youth. So, in Love's Labour's Lost : " — yet I have a trick
of the old rage." Again, in a collection of epigrams, entitled
Wit's Bedlam, printed about the year 1015 :

" Carnus calls lechery a trick of youth;

" So he grows old ; but this trick hurts his growth."

MALONE.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 415

DUKE. Whipp'd first, sir, and hang'd after. —
Proclaim it, provost, round about the city ;
If any woman's wrong'd by this lewd fellow,
(As I have heard him swear himself, there's one
Whom he begot with child,) let her appear,
And he shall marry her : the nuptial finished,
Let him be whipp'd and hang'd.

Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me
to a whore ! Your highness said even now, I made
you a duke ; good my lord, do not recompense
me, in making me a cuckold.

DUKE. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.
Thy slanders I forgive ; and therewithal
Remit thy other forfeits:7 — Take him to prison :
And see our pleasure herein executed.

Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing
to death, whipping, and hanging.

DUKE. Sland'ring a prince deserves it. —
She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. —
Joy to you, Mariana ! — Love her, Angelo ;
I have confessed her, and I know her virtue. —
Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much good-
ness : 8

7 thy other forfeits :] Thy other punishments.

JOHNSON.

To forfeit anciently signified to commit a carnal offence. So,
in The History of Helyas, Knight of the Sivanne, bl. 1. no date:
" — to affirme by an untrue knight, that the noble queen Bea-
trice hadforfayted with a dogge." Again, in the 12th Pageant
of the Coventry Collection of Mysteries, the Virgin Mary tells
Joseph :

" I dede nevyrforfete with man I wys."
MS. Cott. Vesp. D. viii. STEEVENS.

8 Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness .-}
I have always thought that there is great confusion in this con-
cluding speech. If my criticism would not be censured as tof>
licentious, I should regulate it thus :

416 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT r.

There's more behind, that is more gratulate.9
Thanks, Provost, for thy care, and secrecy ;
We shall employ thee in a worthier place : —

Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness,
Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy ;
We shall employ thee in a worthier place.
Forgive him, Angela, that brought you home
The head of ' Ragozine for Claudia's.

Ang. The offence pardons itself.

Duke. There's more behind
That is more gratulate. Dear Isabel,
I have a motion, &c. JOHNSON.

9 • that is more gratulate.] i. e. to be more rejoiced in ;
meaning, I suppose, that there is another world, where he will
find yet greater reason to rejoice in consequence of his upright
ministry. Escalus is represented as an ancient nobleman, who,
in conjunction with Angelo, had reached the highest office of
the state. He therefore could not be sufficiently rewarded here ;
but is necessarily referred to a future and more exalted recom-
pense. STEEVENS.

I cannot approve of Steevens's explanation of this passage,
which is very far-fetched indeed. The Duke gives Escalus
thanks for his much goodness, but tells him that he had some
other reward in store for him, more acceptable than thanks ;
which agrees with what he said before, in the beginning of this
Act:

" we hear

" Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
" Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
" Fore-running more requital." M. MASON.

Hey wood also, in his Apology for Actors, 1612, uses to gratu-
late, in the sense of to reward: " I could not chuse but
gratulate your honest endeavours with this remembrance."

MALONE.

Mr. M. Mason's explanation may be right ; but he forgets
that the speech he brings in support of it, was delivered before
the denouement of the scene, and was, at that moment, as much
addressed to Angelo as to Escalus ; and for Angelo the Duke
had certainly no reward or honours, in store. — Besides, I cannot
but regard the word — requital, as an interpolation, because it
destroys the measure, without improvement of the sense. " Fore-
running more," therefore, would only signify — ^preceding further
thanks. STEEVENS.

sc. i. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 417

Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
The head of Ragozine for Claudio's ;
The offence pardons itself. — Dear Isabel,
I have a motion much imports your good ;
Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,
What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine : —
So> bring us to our palace ; where we'll show
What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.

\_Exeunt.*

1 I cannot help taking notice with how much judgment Shak-
speare has given turns to this story from what he found it in
Giraldi Cinthio's novel. In the first place, the brother is there
actually executed, and the governor sends his head in a bravado
to the sister, after he had debauched her on promise of marriage :
a circumstance of too much horror and villainy for the stage.
And, in the next place, the sister afterwards is, to solder up her
disgrace, married to the governor, and begs his life of the em-
peror, though he had unjustly been the death of her brother.
Both which absurdities the poet has avoided by the episode of
Mariana, a creature purely of his own invention. The Duke's
remaining incognito at home to supervise the conduct of his
deputy, is also entirely our author's fiction.

This story was attempted for the scene before our author was
fourteen years old, by one George Whetstone, in Ttoo Comical
Discourses, as they are called, containing the right excellent and
famous history of Promos and Cassandra, printed with the black
letter, 15/8. The author going that year with Sir Humphrey
Gilbert to Norimbega, left them with his friends to publish.

THEOBALD.

The novel of Giraldi Cinthio, from which Shakspeare is sup-
posed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in Shakspeare
illustrated, elegantly translated, with remarks which will assist
the enquirer to discover how much absurdity Shakspeare ha*
admitted or avoided.

I cannot but suspect that some other /had new-modelled the
novel of Cinthio, or written a story which in some particulars
resembled it, and that Cinthio was not the author whom Shak-
speare immediately followed. The Emperor in Cinthio is named
Maximine ; the Duke, in Shakspeare's enumeration of the per-
sons of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very
slight remark ; but since the Duke has no name in the play,
nor is ever mentioned, but by his title, why should he be called

VOL. VI. EE

418 MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Vincentio among the persons, but because the name was copied
from the story, and placed superfluously at the head of the list
by the meer habit of transcription ? It is therefore likely that
there was then a story of Vincentio Duke of Vienna, different
from that of Maximine Emperor of the Romans.

Of this play, the light or comick part is very natural and pleas-
ing, but the grave scenes, if a few passages be excepted, have
more labour than elegance. The plot is rather intricate than
artful. The time of the action is indefinite ; some time, we know
not how much, must have elapsed between the recess of the
Duke and the imprisonment of Claudio; for he must have learn-
ed the story of Mariana in his disguise, or he delegated his power
to a man already known to be corrupted. The unities of action
and place are sufficiently preserved. JOHNSON.

The Duke probably had learnt the story of Mariana in some
of his former retirements, "having ever loved the life removed."
(Page 213) "And he had a suspicion that Angelo was but a
seemer, (page 218) and therefore he stays to watch him."

BLACKSTONE.

The Fable of Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra,
" The Argument of the whole History"

" In the cyttie of Julio, (sometimes under the dominion of
Corvinus kynge of Plungarie and Bohemia,} there was a law,
that what man so ever committed adultery should lose his head,
and the woman offender should weare some disguised apparel,
during her life, to make her infamously noted. This severe
lawe, by the favour of some mercifull magistrate, became little
regarded, untill the time of lord Promos' auctority ; who con-
victing a young gentleman named Andrugio of incontinency,
condemned both him and his minion to the execution of this
statute. Andrugio had a very virtuous and beautiful gentle-
woman to his sister, named Cassandra : Cassandra, to enlarge
her brother's life, submitted an humble petition to the lord
Promos : Promos regarding her good behaviours, and fantasymg
her great beawtie, was much delighted with the sweete order of
her talke ; and doyng good, that evill might come thereof, Jor
a time he repryved her brother : but wicked man, tourning his
liking into unlawfull lust, he set downe the spoile of her honour,
raunsome for her brother's life : chaste Cassandra, abhorring
both him and his sute, by no persuasion would yeald to this
raunsome. But in fine, wonne by the importunitye cf hir bro-
ther," (pleading fgr life,) upon these conditions she agreed to

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 419

Promos. First, that he should pardon her brother, and after
marry her. Promos, as feareles in promisse, as carelesse in per-
formance,- with sollemne vowe sygned her conditions ; but worse
then any infydell, his will satissfyed, he performed neither the
one nor the other : for to keepe his auctoritye unspotted with
favour, and to prevent Cassandra's clamors, he commaunded
the gayler secretly, to present Cassandra with her brother's
head. The gayler, [touched] with the outcryes of Andrugio,
(abhorryng Promos' lewdenes,) by the providence of God pro-
vided thus for his safety. He presented Cassandra with a felon's
head newlie executed ; who knew it not, being mangled, from
her brother's, (who was set at libertie by the gayler). [She]
was so agreeved at this trecherye, that, at the point to kyl her
self, she spared that stroke, to be avenged of Promos: and
devysing a way, she concluded, to make her fortunes knowne
unto the kinge. She, executing this resolution, was so highly
favoured of the king, that forthwith he hasted to do justice on
Promos: whose judgment was, to marry Cassandra, to repaire
her erased honour , which donne, for his hainous offence, he
should lose his head. This maryage solempnised, Cassandra
tyed in the greatest bondes of affection to her husband, became
an earnest suter for his life : the kinge, tendringe the generall
benefit of the comon weale before her special case, although he
favoured her much, would not graunt her sute. An drugio (dis-
guised amonge the company) sorrowing the griefe of his sister,
bewrayde his safety, and craved pardon. The kinge, to renowne
the vertues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos. The
circumstances of this rare historye, in action livelye foloweth."

Whetstone, however, has not afforded a very correct analysis of
his play, which contains a mixture of comick scenes, between a
Bawd, a Pimp, Felons, &c. together with some serious situations
which are not described. STEEVENS.

One paragraph of the foregoing narrative being strangely con-
fused in the old copy, by some carelessness of the printer, I have
endeavoured to rectify it, by transposing a few words, and add-
ing two others, which are included within crotchets. MALONE,

END OF VOL. VI.

T. OAVISON, Lombard-street,
Whitefriars, London.

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