Chapter III: Part 3

II.iv.125 (59,7) [the glasses where they view themselves; Which are as easily broke, as they make forms] Would it not be better to read, ----take _forms_.

II.iv.128 (59,8) [In profiting by them] In imitating them, in taking them for examples.

II.iv.139 (59,1)

[I have no tongue but one. Gentle my lord,
Let me intreat you, 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.

II.iv.150 (60,3) [Seeming, seeming!] Hypocrisy, hypocrisy; counterfeit virtue.

II.iv.156 (60,4) [My Touch 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.

II.iv.165 (60,5) [die the death] This seems to be a solemn phrase for death inflicted by law. So in _Midsummer Night's Dream_.

_Prepare_ to die the death.

II.iv.178 (61,6) [prompture] Suggestion, temptation, instigation.

III.i.5 (62,8) [Be absolute for death] Be determined to die, without any hope of life. _Horace_,--

--_The hour, which exceeds expectation will be welcome._

III.i.7 (62,9) [I do lose a thing, That none but fools would keep] [W: would reck] 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.

III.i.14 (63,3) [For all the accommodations, that thou bear'st 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. Shakespeare only meant to observe, that a minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by _baseness_, by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill, all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornaments dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine.

III.i.16 (64,4) [the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm] _Worm_ is put for any creeping thing or _serpent_. Shakespeare 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 _Midsummer Night's Dream_ he has the same notion.

--_With_ doubler _tongue
Than thine, O serpent, never adder_ stung.

III.i.17 (64,5)

[Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st; yet grosly fear'st
Thy death which is no more]

Here Dr. Warburton might have found a sentiment worthy of his

animadversion. I cannot without indignation find Shakespeare 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.

III.i.19 (64,6)

[Thou art not thyself,
For thou exist'st on many thousand grains,
That issue out of dust]

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.

III.i.24 (64,7) [strange effects] For _effects_ read _affects_; that is, _affections_, _passions_ of mind, or disorders of body variously _affected_. So in _Othello_, _The young_ affects.

III.i.32 (65,9)

[Thou hast nor youth, nor age;
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 for succeeding time, and miss the gratifications that are before us; when we are old, we amuse the languor of age with the recollection 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.

III.i.34 (65,1)

[for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld]

[W: for pall'd, thy blazed youth Becomes assuaged] Here again I think Dr. Warburton totally mistaken. Shakespeare declares that man has _neither youth nor age_; for in _youth_, which is the _happiest_ time, or 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_.--

I 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 authour wrote,

--_for all thy_ blasted _youth
Becomes as aged_--

III.i.37 (66,2) [Thou has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty To make thy riches pleasant] [W: nor bounty] 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 it elegant and ingenious, is not such as that an opportunity of inserting it should be purchased by declaring ignorance of what every one knows, by confessing insensibility to what every one feels.

III.i.40 (66,3) [more thousand deaths] For this sir T. Hammer reads, ----_ a thousand deaths_:---- The meaning is not only _a thousand deaths_, but _a thousand deaths_ besides what have been mentioned.

III.i.55 (67,5) [Why, as all comforts are; most good in Deed] If this reading be right, Isabella must mean that she brings something better than _words_ of comfort, she brings an assurance of _deeds_. This is harsh and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Thomas Hammer reads,--_in_ speed.

III.i.59 (68,6) [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.

III.i.68 (68,8)

[Tho' all the world's vastidity you had,
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.

III.i.79 (69,9)

[And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great,
As when a giant dies]

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 ourselves, when we so much dread that which we carelessly inflict on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we.

III.i.91 (69,1) [follies doth emmew] Forces follies to lie in cover without daring to show themselves.

III.1.93 (69,3) [His filth 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_.

III.1.94 (70,4)
[_Claud_. The princely Angelo?
_Isab_. Oh, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'st body to invest and cover
In princely guards!]

[W: priestly guards] The first folio has, in both places, _prenzie_,

from which the other folios made _princely_, and every editor may make what he can.

III.i.113 (71,7)

[If it were damnable, he being so wise,
Why would he for the momentary trick
Be perdurably fin'd?]

Shakespeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. When Isabella 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.

III.i.121 (71,8) [delighted spirit] 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_ is proposed by Thirlby in his manuscript.(1773)

III.i.127 (72,9) [lawless and incertain thoughts] Conjecture sent out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through all possibilities of pain.

III.i.139 (73,2) [Is't not a kind of incest, to take life From thine own sister's shame?] 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.

III.i.149 (74,4) [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_.

III.i.176 (75,6) [Hold you there] Continue in that resolution.

III.i.255 (77,l) [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 advantage_.

III.i.266 (77,2) [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 investments of authority_.

III.ii.6 (78,4) [since, of two usuries] Sir Thomas Hammer corrected this with less pomp [than Warburton], then _since of two_ usurers _the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed, by order of law, a furr'd gown_, &c. His punctuation is right, but the alteration, small as it is, appears more than was wanted. Usury may be need by an easy licence for the _professors of usury_.

III.ii.14 (79,5) [father] This word should be expunged.

III.ii.40 (80,7) [That we were all, as some would seem to be, Free from all faults, as faults from seeming free!]

Sir T. Hammer 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,

_O that all were, as all would seem to be.
Free from all faults_, or _from_ false seeming _free_.

So in this play,

_O place, 0 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 seeming free;

that men were 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_.

III.ii.42 (81,8) [His neck will come to your waist] 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 gemant suis,
Variata terga funibus_.

III.ii.51 (81,1) [what say'st thou to this tune, matter and method? Is't not drown'd i' the last rain?] [W: It's not down i' the last reign] Dr. Warburton's emendation is ingenious, but I know not whether the sense may not be restored with less change. Let us consider it. Lucio, a prating fop, meets his old friend going to prison, and pours out upon him his impertinent 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' th' 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 _drowned in the last rain_, and therefore cannot speak.

III.ii.52 (82,2) [what say'st thou, trot?] _Trot_, or as it is now often pronounced, honest _trout_, is a familiar address to a man among the provincial vulgar. (1773)

III.ii.54 (82,3) [Which is the way?] _What is the_ mode _now_?

III.ii.59 (82,4) [in the tub] The method of cure for veneral complaints is grosly celled the _powdering tub_.

III.ii.89 (83,6) [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_. (1773)

III.ii.135 (85,9) [clack-dish] The beggars, two or three centuries ago, used to proclaim their wont by a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked to shew that their vessel was empty. This appears in a passage quoted on another occasion by Dr. Gray, (see 1765, I,331,9 and the note in the 1765 Appendix)

III.ii.144 (86,1) [The greater file of the subject] The larger list, the greater number.

III.ii.193 (87,5) [He's now past it] Sir Thomas Hammer, _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. (see 1765, I,333,5)

III.ii.277 (90,9)

[Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand, and virtue go]

These lines I cannot understand, 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 Shakespeare'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 innocence, and to act with virtue_.

III.ii.294 (91,5)

[So disguise shall, by the disguis'd
Pay with falshood false exacting]

So _disguise_ shall by means of a person _disguised_, return an _injurious demand_ with a _counterfeit person_.

IY.i.13 (93,4) [My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe] Though the musick soothed my sorrows, it had no tendency to produce light merriment.

IV.i.21 (93,5) [constantly] Certainly; without fluctuation of mind.

IV.i.28 (93,6) [circummur'd with brick] _Circummured_, walled round. _He caused the doors to be_ mured _and cased up_.

Painter's Palace of Pleasure.

IV.i.40 (94,7) [In action all of precept] I rather think we should read,

_In precept all of action_,--

that is, _in direction given not by words, but by mute signs_.

IV.i.44 (94,8) [I have possess'd him] I have made him clearly and strongly comprehend.

IV.i.60 (95,9) [O place and greatness] [It plainly appears, that _this_ fine speech belongs to _that_ which concludes the preceding scene, between the Duke and Lucio.... 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. Warburton.] I cannot agree that these lines are placed here by the players. The sentiments are common, and such as a prince, given to reflection, must have often present. There was a necessity to fill up the time in which the ladies converse apart, and they must have quick tongues and ready apprehensions, if they understood each other while this speech was uttered.

IV.i.60 (95,1) [false eyes] That is, Eyes insidious and traiterous.

IV.i.62 (95,2) [contrarious quests] Different reports, _running counter_ to each other.

IV.i.76 (96,4) [for yet our tithe's to sow] [W: tilth] The reader is here attacked with a pretty 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 _sow_? I believe _tythe_ is right, and that the expression is proverbial, in which _tithe_ is taken, by an easy metonymy, for _harvest_.

IV.ii.69 (100,7) [ As fast lock'd up in sleep, as guiltless labour When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones ] Stiffly. These two lines afford a very pleasing image.

IV.ii.83 (101,1) [Even with the stroke] _Stroke_ is here put for the _stroke_ of a pen or a line.

IV.ii.86 (101,2) [To qualify] To temper, to moderate, as we say wine is _qualified_ with water.

IV.ii.86 (101,3) [Were he meal'd] Were he sprinkled; were he defiled, A figure of the same kind our authour uses in _Macbeth_, _The_ blood-bolter'd _Banquo._

IV.ii.91 (101,4) [that spirit's possess'd with haste, That wounds the unresisting postern with these strokes] The line is irregular, and the _unresisting postern_ so strange an expression, that want of measure, and want of sense, might justly raise suspicion of an errour, yet none of the later editors seem to have supposed the place faulty, except sir Tho. Hammer, who reads,

_the_ unresting _postern_.

The three folio's have it,

_unsisting postern_,

out of which Mr. Rowe made _unresisting_, and the rest followed him. Sir Thomas Hammer seems to have supposed _unresisting_ the word in the copies, from which he plausibly enough extracted _unresting_, but be 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_.

IV.ii.103 (103,6) [_Duke_. This is his lordship's man.
_Prov_. And here comes Claudio's pardon]

[Tyrwhitt suggested that the names of the speakers were misplaced] When, immediately after the Duke had hinted his expectation of a pardon, the Provost sees the Messenger, he supposes the Duke to to have _known something_, and changes his mind. Either reading may serve equally well. (1773)

IV.ii.153 (104,7) [desperately mortal] This expression is obscure. Sir Thomas Hammer 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 _desperately mortal_ may mean a man likely to die in a _desperate_ state, without reflection or repentance. (see 1765, I,348,7)

IV.ii.187 (106,8) [and tie the beard] 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. (1773)

IV.iii.4 (107,2) [First, here's young master Rash] This enumeration of the inhabitants of the prison affords a very striking view of the practices predominant in Shakespeare's age. Besides those whose follies are 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.

IV.iii.17 (108,4) [master Forthlight] Should not _Forthlight_ be _Forthright_, alluding to the line in which the thrust is made? (1773)

IV.iii.21 (108,6) [in 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 for puritanism, and that this might be the common cant of the prisons. In Donne's time, every prisoner was brought to jail by suretiship.

IV.iii.68 (110,7) [After him, fellows] Here was a line given to the Duke, which belongs to the Provost. The Provost, while the Duke is lamenting the obduracy of the prisoner, cries out,

_After him, fellows_, &c.

and, when they are gone out, turns again to the Duke.

IV.iii.72 (110,8) [to transport him] To remove him from one world to another. The French _trepas_ affords a kindred sense.

IV.iii.115 (112,1)
[I will keep her ignorant of her good,
To make her heavenly comforts of despair,
When least it is 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.

IV.iii.139 (113,2) [your bosom] Your wish; your heart's desire.

IV.iii.149 (113,3) [I am combined by a sacred vow] I once thought this should be _confined_, but Shakespeare uses _combine_ for to _bind by a pact or agreement_, so he calls Angelo the _combinate_ husband of Mariana.

IV.iii.163 (113,4) [if the old fantastical duke] Sir Thomas Hammer reads, _the_ odd _fantastical duke_, but _old_ is a common word of aggravation in ludicrous language, as, _there was_ old _revelling_.

IV.iii.170 (114,5) [woodman] That is, _huntsman_, here taken for a _hunter of girls_.

IV.iv.19 (115,6) [sort and suit] Figure and rank.

IV.iv.27 (115,7) [Yet reason dares her No] Mr. Theobald reads,

--_Yet reason dares her_ note.

Sir Thomas Hammer,

--_Yet reason dares her: No._

Mr. Upton,

--_Yet reason dares her--No_,

which he explains thus: _Yet_, says Angelo, _reason will give her courage_--_No_, that is, _it will not_. I am afraid _dare_ has no such signification. I have nothing to offer worth insertion.

IV.iv.28 (116,8)

[For my authority bears a credent bulk;
That no particular scandal once can touch]

_Credent_ is _creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable_. The old English writers often confound the active and passive adjectives. So Shakespeare, and Milton after him, use _inexpressive_ from inexpressible.

_Particular_ is _private_, a French sense. No scandal from any _private_ mouth can reach a man in my authority.

IV.iv.36 (116,9) [Nothing goes right; we would, and we 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, proceeds without any interruption of time or change of place.

IV.v.1 (117,1) [_Duke_. These letters at fit time deliver me] Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his story without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed.

IV.vi.4 (118,2) [He says, to vail full purpose] [T: t'availful] [Warburton had explained "full" as "beneficial."] _To vail full_ purpose, may, with very little force on the words, mean, _to hide_ _the whole extent of our design_, and therefore the reading may stand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theobald's alteration either lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with such laxity, as to make _full_ the sane 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.

IV.vi.9 (118,3) [_Enter Peter_] This play 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 unnecessarily trust two in an affair which required only one. The none of Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore seems arbitrarily placed at the head of the scene.

IV.vi.14 (119,4) [Have bent the gates] Have taken possession of the gates, (rev. 1778, II,134,4)

V.i.20 (120,5) [vail your regard] That is, withdraw your thoughts from higher things, let your notice descend upon a wronged woman. To _vail_, is to lower.

V.i.45 (121,6) [truth is truth To the end of reckoning] That is, truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of encrease 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_.

V.i.54 (121,7) [as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute] _As shy_; as reserved, as abstracted: _as just_; as nice, as exact: _as absolute_; as complete in all the round of duty.

V.i.56 (121,8) [In all his dressings] In all his semblance of virtue, in all his habiliments of office.

V.i.64 (122,1) [do not banish reason For inequality] Let not the high quality of my adversary prejudice you against me.

V.i.104 (124,4) [Oh, that it were as like, as it is true!] [Warburton had explained "like" as "seemly."] _Like_ I have never found for _seemly_.

V.i.107 (124,8) [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_.

V.i.145 (125,6) [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 know 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 bare _tampered_ with this woman to make her a false evidence against your deputy.

V.i.160 (126,8) [So vulgarly and personally accus'd] Meaning either so _grosly_, with such _indecency_ of invective, or by so _mean_ and inadequate witnesses.

V.i.205 (128,2) [This is a strange abuse] _Abuse_ stands in this place for _deception_, or _puzzle_. So in _Macbeth_,

_This strange and self_ abuse,

means, _this strange_ deception _of himself_.

V.i.219 (129,3) [her promised proportions Came short of composition] Her fortune, which was promised _proportionate_ to mine, fell short of the _composition_, that is, contract or bargain.

V.i.236 (129,4) [These poor informal women] I once believed _informal_ had no other or deeper signification than _informing, accusing_. The _scope_ of justice, is the full extent; but think, upon farther enquiry, that _informal_ signifies _incompetent, not qualified to give testimony_. Of this use there are precedents to be found, though I cannot now recover them.

V.i.245 (130,5) [That's seal'd in approbation?] Then 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 measures. So the Duke says, that Angela's faith has been tried, _approved_, and _seal'd_ in testimony of that _approbation_, and, like other things so _sealed_, is no more to be called in question.

V.i.255 (131,6) [to hear this matter forth] To hear it to the end; to search it to the bottom.

V.i.303 (132,4) [to retort your manifest appeal] To _refer back_ to Angelo and the cause in which you _appealed_ from Angelo to the Duke.

V.i.317 (133,5) [his subject I am not, Nor here provincial] Nor here _accountable_. The meaning seems to be, I am not one of his natural subjects, nor of any dependent province.

V.i.323 (133,6) [the forfeits in a barber's shop] [Warburton had explained that a list of forfeitures were posted in barber shops to warn patrons to keep their hands off the barber's surgical instruments.] 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.

V.i.336 (134,7) [And was the duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?] So again afterwards,

_You, sirrah, that know me for a fool, a_ coward,
_One of all luxury_--

But Lucio had not, in the former conversation, mentioned _cowardice_ among the faults of the duke.--Such failures of memory are incident to writers more diligent than this poet.

V.i.359 (135,8) [show your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour' Will't not off?] This is intended to be the common language of vulgar indignation. Our phrase on such occasions is simply; _show 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, _show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged--an' how? wilt not off_? In the midland counties, upon any unexpected obstruction or resistance, it is common to exclaim _an' how_?

V.i.388 (136,9) [Advertising, and holy] Attentive and faithful.

V.i.393 (136,l) [be you as free to us] Be as _generous_ to us, pardon us as we have pardoned you.

V.i.401 (136,2) [That brain'd my purpose] We now use in conversation a like phrase. _This it was that knocked my design on the head_. Dr. Warburton reads,

--baned _my purpose_.

V.i.413 (137,3) [even from his proper tongue] Even from Angelo's _own tongue_. So above.

_In the witness of his_ proper _ear
To call him villain._

V.i.438 (138,5) [Against all sense you do importune her] The meaning required is, against all reason and natural affection; Shakespeare, therefore, judiciously uses a single word that implies both; _sense_ signifying both reason and affection.

V.i.452 (139,6) ['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 govern'd 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 _intent_ which _his_ act did not overtake, was the defilement of Isabel. Of this Angelo was only intentionally guilty.

Angela's crimes were such, as must sufficiently justify punishment, 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 of his crime, can Isabel, who yet supposes her brother dead, form any plea in his favour. _Since he was good 'till he looked on me, let him not die_. I am afraid our varlet poet intended to inculcate, that women think ill of nothing that raises the credit of their beauty, and are ready, however virtuous, to pardon any act which they think incited by their own charms.

V.i.488 (140,7) [But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all] Thy faults, so far as they are punishable on earth, so far as they are cognisable by temporal power, I forgive.

V.i.499 (141,8) [By this, lord Angelo perceives he's safe] It is somewhat strange, that Isabel is not made to express either gratitude, wonder or joy at the sight of her brother.

V.i.501 (141,9) [your evil quits you well] _Quits you_, recompenses, requites you.

V.i.502 (141,1) [Look, that you love your wife; her worth, worth yours] Sir T. Hammer reads,

_Her worth_ works _yours_.

This reading is adopted by Dr. Warburton, but for what reason? How does her _worth work Angelo's worth_? it has only contributed to _work_ his pardon. The words are, as they are too frequently, an affected gingle, but the sense is plain. _Her worth, worth yours_; that is, her value is equal to your value, the match is not unworthy of you.

V.i.504 (141,2) [And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon] After the pardon of two murderers, Lucio might be treated by the good duke with less harshness; but perhaps the poet intended to show, what is too often seen, _that men easily forgive wrongs which are not committed against themselves_.

V.i.509 (142,3) [according to the trick] To my custom, my habitual practice.

V.i.526 (142,4) [thy other forfeits] Thy other punishments.

V.i.534 (142,5) [Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness] I have always thought that there is great confusion in this concluding speech. If my criticism would not be censured as too licentious, I should regulate it thus,

_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, Angelo, that brought you home
The head of Ragozine for Claudio's.
_Ang_. _Th' offence pardons itself_.
_Duke_, _There's more behind
That is more gratulate. Dear Isabel,
I have a motion_,&c,

V.i.545 (143,6) General Observation The novel of Cynthio Giraldi, from which Shakespeare is supposed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in _Shakespeare illustrated_, elegantly translated, with remarks which will assist the enquirer to discover how much absurdity Shakespeare has admitted or avoided. I cannot but suspect that some other had new-modelled the novel of Cynthio, or written a story which in some particulars resembled it, and that Cynthio was not the authour whom Shakespeare immediately followed. The emperour in Cynthio is named Maximine; the duke, in Shakespeare's enumeration of the persons 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 Vincentio among the _persons_, but because the name was copied from the story, and placed superfluously at the head of the list by the mere habit of transcription? It is therefore likely that there was then a story of Vincentio duke of Vienna, different from that of Maximine emperour of the Romans.

Of this play the light or comick part is very natural and pleasing, 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 learned 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.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

I.ii.96 (155,3) [o'er-raught] That is, _over-reached_.

I.ii.98 (156,5)

[As, nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye, Dark-working sorcerers, that change the mind, Soul-killing witches, that deform the body]

[W: Drug-working] The learned commentator has endeavoured with much earnestness to recommend his alteration; but, if I may judge of other apprehensions by my own, without great success. This interpretation of _soul-killing_ is forced and harsh. Sir T. Hammer reads _soul-selling_, agreeable enough to the common opinion, but without such improvement as may justify the change. Perhaps the epithets have only been misplaced, and the lines should be read thus,

Soul-killing _sorcerers, that change the mind_;
Dark-working _witches that deform the body_.

This change seems to remove all difficulties.

By _soul-killing_ I understand destroying the rational faculties by such means as make men fancy themselves beasts.

I.ii.102 (157,6) [liberties of sin] Sir T. Hammer reads, _libertines_, which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but persons, seems right.

II.i.30 (158,8) [How if your husband start some other where?] I cannot but think, that our authour wrote,

--_start some other_ hare?

So in _Much ado about Nothing_, Cupid is said to be _a good hare-finder_. II.i.32 (159,9) [tho' she pause] To _pause_ is to rest, to be in quiet.

II.i.41 (159,1) [fool-begg'd] She seems to mean, by _fool-begg'd patience_, that patience which is so near to _idiotical simplicity_, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a _fool_, and _beg_ the guardianship of your fortune.

II.i.82 (161,3) [Am I so round with you, as you with me] He plays upon the word _round_, which signified _spherical_ applied to himself, and _unrestrained_, or _free in speech_ or _action_, spoken of his mistress. So the king, in _Hamlet_, bids the queen be _round_ with her son.

II.i.100 (161,5) [too unruly deer] The ambiguity of _deer_ and _dear_ is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his poem on the _Ladies Girdle_.

"This was my heav'n's extremest sphere,
"This pale that held my lovely deer."

II.i.101 (161,6) [poor I am but his stale] The word _stale_, in our authour, used as a substantive, means, not something offered to _allure_ or _attract_, but something _vitiated_ with _use_, something of which the best part has been enjoyed and consumed.

II.ii.86 (166,4) [Not a man of those, but he hath the wit to lose his hair] That is, _Those who have more hair than wit_, are easily entrapped by loose women, and suffer the consequences of lewdness, one of which, in the first appearance of the disease in Europe, was the loss of hair.

II.ii.173 (169,6) [Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt] Exempt, separated, parted. The sense is, _If I am doomed to suffer the wrong of separation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already injured_.

II.ii.210 (171,1) [And shrive you] That is, I will _call you to confession_, and make you tell your tricks.

III.i.4 (172,2) [carkanet] seems to have been a necklace or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So Lovelace in his poem,

_The empress spreads her_ carcanets.

III.i.15 (173,3) [Marry, so it doth appear By the wrongs I suffer, and the blows I bear] [T: don't appear] I do not think this emendation necessary. He first says, that his _wrongs_ and _blows_ prove him an _ass_; but immediately, with a correction of his former sentiment, such as may be hourly observed in conversation, he observes that, if he had been an ass, he should, when he was _kicked_, have _kicked_ again.

III.i.101 (177,7) [supposed by the common rout] For _suppose_ I once thought it might be more commodious to substitute _supported_; but there is no need of change: _supposed_ is _founded on supposition_, made by conjecture.

III.i.105 (178,8) [For slander lives upon succession] The line apparently wants two syllables: what they were, cannot now be known. The line may be filled up according to the reader's fancy, as thus:

_For_ lasting _slander lives upon succession_.

III.ii.27 (180,3) ['Tis holy sport to be a little vain] is _light of tongue, not veracious_.

III.ii.64 (181,2) [My sole earth's heaven, and my heaven's claim] When be calls the girl his _only heaven on the earth_, he utters the common cant of lovers. When he calls her _his heaven's claim_, I cannot understand him. Perhaps he means that which he asks of heaven.

III.ii.125 (184,5)

[_S. Ant._ Where France? _S. Dro._ In her forehead; arm'd and reverted, making war against her hair]

[T, from the first Folio: heir] With this correction and explication Dr. Warburton concurs, and sir T. Hammer thinks an equivocation intended, though he retains _hair_ in the text. Yet surely they have all lost the sense by looking beyond it. Our authour, in my opinion, only sports with an allusion, in which he takes too much delight, and means that his mistress had the French disease. The ideas are rather too offensive to be dilated. By a forehead _armed_, he means covered with incrusted eruptions: by reverted, he means having the hair turning backwards. An equivocal word must have senses applicable to both the subjects to which it is applied. Both _forehead_ and _France_ might in some sort make war against their _hair_, but how did the _forehead_ make war against its _heir_? The sense which I have given immediately occurred to me, and will, I believe, arise to every reader who is contented with the meaning that lies before him, without sending out conjecture in search of refinements.

IV.ii.19 (192,9) [sere] that is, _dry_, withered.

IV.ii.22 (192,1) [Stigmatical in making] This is, _marked_ or _stigmatized_ by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious disposition.

IV.ii.35 (193,3) [A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough] [T: A fiend, a fury] There were fairies like _hobgoblins_, pitiless and rough, and described as malevolent and mischievous, (see 1765, III,143,3)

IV.ii.39 (193,5) [A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well] To _run counter_ is to _run backward_, by mistaking the course of the animal pursued; to _draw dry-foot_ is, I believe, to pursue by the _track_ or _prick of the foot_; to _run counter_ and _draw dry-foot well are_, therefore, inconsistent. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word _counter_, which means the _wrong way in_* _the chase._ and a _prison_ in London. The officer that arrested him was a serjeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jest with the scene of action, let our authour answer.

IV.iii.13 (196,9) [what, have you got the picture of old Adam new apparel'd] [T: got rid of the picture] The explanation is very good, but the text does not require to be amended.

IV.iii.27 (`is rest to do more exploits with his mace than a morris pike] [W: a Maurice-pike] This conjecture is very ingenious, yet the commentator talks unnecessarily of the _rest of a musket._ by which he makes the hero of the speech set up the _rest_ of a _musket,_ to do exploits with a _pike._ The rest of a _pike_ was a common term, and signified, I believe, the manner in which it was fixed to receive the rush of the enemy. A _morris-pike_ was a pike used in a morris or a military dance, and with which great _exploits_ were _done,_ that is, great feats of dexterity were shewn. There is no need of change.

IV.iv.78 (202,3) [kitchen-vestal] Her charge being like that of the vestal virgins, to keep the fire burning.

V.1.137 (210,6) [important letters]_Important_ seems to be for _importunate._ (1773)

V.i.298 (216,2) [time's deformed hand Have written strange defeatures in my face] _Defeature_ is the privative of _feature._ The meaning is, time hath cancelled my features.

V.i.406 (220,7) [After so long grief such nativity!] We should surely read. _After so long grief, such_ festivity.

_Nativity_ lying so near, and the termination being the same of both words, the mistake was easy.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

I.i.27 (226,3) [no faces truer] That is, none _honester,_ none _more sincere._

I.i.40 (227,7) [challenged Cupid at the flight] The disuse of the bow makes this passage obscure. Benedick is represented as challenging Cupid at archery. To challenge _at the flight is,_ I believe, to wager who shall shoot the arrow furthest without any particular mark. To _challenge at the bird-bolt,_ seems to mean the same as to challenge at children's archery, with snail arrows such as are discharged at birds. In Twelfth Night Lady Olivia opposes a _bird-bolt_ to a _cannon-bullet,_ the lightest to the heaviest of missive weapons.

I.i.66 (228,9) [four of his five 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._

And in another part,

_But if a phrenzy do possess the brain,
It so disturbs and blots the form 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 reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the five inlets of ideas.

I.i.79 (229,4) [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 down for legacies_.

I.i.82 (230,5) [young squarer] A _squarer_ I take to be a cholerick, quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakespeare uses the word to _square_. So in Midsummer Night's Dream it is said of Oberon and Titalia, 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_?

I.i.103 (231,6) [You embrace your charge] That is your _burthen_, your _incumbrunce_.

I.i.185 (233,7) [to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder] 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 tell them that _Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter_. A man praising a pretty lady in jest, may shew the quick sight of Cupid, but what has 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?_

I.i.200 (234,8) [wear his cap with suspicion?] That is, subject his head to the disquiet of jealousy.

I.i.217 (235,1) [_Claud_. If this were so, so were 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 were 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.

I.i.243 (236,3) [but that I will have a recheate winded in my forehead] That is, _I will wear a horn on my forehead which the huntsman may blow_. A _recheate_ is the sound by which dogs are called back. Shakespeare had no mercy upon the poor cuckold, his _horn_ is an inexhaustible subject of merriment.

1.1.258 (236,4) [notable argument] An eminent subject for satire.

1.1.259 (237,5) [Adam] Adam Bell was a companion of Robin Hood, as may be seen in Robin Hood's Garland; in which, if I do not mistake, are these lines,

_For he brought Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough,
And William of Cloudeslea,
To shoot with this forester for forty marks,
And the forester beat them all three._

(see 1765, III,182,2)

I.i.290 (238,4) [ere you flout old ends any further, examine your conscience] _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._

I.iii.14 (241,6) [I cannot hide what I am] This is one of our authour'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 independence.

I.iii.19 (241,7) [claw no man in his humour] To _claw_ is to flatter. So _the pope's claw-backs_, in bishop Jewel, are the pope's _flatterers_. The sense is the same in the proverb, _Mulus mulum scabit_.

I.iii.28 (242,8) [I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace] A _canker_ is the _canker_ rose, _dog-rose, cynosbatus,_ 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 his grace_? if he was a _rose_ of himself, his brother's _grace_ or _favour_ could not degrade him. I once read thus, _I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his_ garden; that is, I had rather be what nature makes me, however mean, than owe any exaltation or improvement to my brother's kindness or cultivation. But a less change will be sufficient: I think it should be read, _I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose by his grace_.

II.i.3 (244,1) [I never can see him, but I am heart-burn'd 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.

II.i.53 (245,3) [Well then, go you into hell] Of the two next speeches Mr. Warburton says, _All this impious nonsense thrown to the bottom is the players, and foisted in without rhyme or reason_. He therefore puts them in the margin. They do not deserve indeed so honourable a place, yet I am afraid they are too much in the manner of our authour, who is sometimes trying to purchase merriment at too dear a rate. (see 1765, III,190,9)

II.i.73 (246,4) [if the prince be too important] _Important_ here, and in many other places, is _importunate_.

II.i.99 (247,6) [My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove] [T: house is love] This amendation, thus impressed with all the power of his eloquence and reason, Theobald found in the quarto edition of 1600, which he professes to have seen; and in the first folio, the _l_ and the _I_ are so much alike, that the printers, perhaps, used the same type for either letter. (1773)

II.i.143 (249,2) [his gift is in devising impossible slanders] [W: impassible] _Impossible_ slanders are, I suppose, such slanders as, from their absurdity and impossibility, bring their own confutation with them.

II.i.195 (251,4) [usurer's chain] I know not whether the _chain_ was, in our authour's time, the common ornament of wealthy citizens, or whether he satirically uses _usurer_ and _alderman_ as synonymous terms.

II.i.214 (252,5) [It is the base, the bitter 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 therefore represents the world as saying what she only says herself_.

_Base, tho bitter_. I do not understand 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.

II.i.253 (253,8) [such impossible conveyance] [W: impassible] I know not what to propose. _Impossible_ seems to have no meaning here, and for _impassible_ I have not found any authority. Spenser uses the word _importable_ in a sense very congruous to this passage, for _insupportable_, or _not to be sustained_.

_Both him charge on either side,
With hideous strokes and_ importable _power,
Which forced him his ground to traverse wide_.

It may be easily imagined, that the transcribers would change a word so unusual, into that word most like it, which they could readily find. It must be however confessed, that _importable_ appears harsh to our ears, and I wish a happier critick may find a better word.

Sir Tho. Hammer reads _impetuous_, which will serve the purpose well enough, but is not likely to have been changed to _impossible_.

_Importable_ was a word not peculiar to Spenser, but used by the last translators of the Apocrypha, and therefore such a word as Shakespeare may be supposed to have written. (1773) II.i.330 (256,2) [Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sun-burn'd] What is it, _to go the world_? perhaps, to enter by marriage into a settled state: but why is the unmarry'd lady _sun-burnt_? I believe we should read, _Thus goes every one to the wood_ but I, and I am sun-burnt_. Thus does every one but I find a shelter, and I am left exposed to wind and _sun. The nearest way to the_ wood, is a phrase for the readiest means to 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. Shakespeare, in All's well that Ends well, uses the phrase, _to go to the world_, for _marriage_. So that my emendation depends only on the opposition of _wood_ to _sun-burnt_.

II.i.380 (258,4) [to bring signior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with another] _A mountain of affection with one another_ is a strange expression, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written, _to bring Benedick into a mooting of affection_; to bring them not to any more _mootings_ of contention, but to a _mooting_ or conversation of love. This reading is confirmed by the preposition _with; a mountain with each other,_ or _affection with each other,_ cannot be used, but _a mooting with each other_ is proper and regular.

II.iii.104 (265,7) [but, that she loves him, with an enraged affection, it is past the infinite of thought] [W: the definite of] Here are difficulties raised only to shew how easily they can be removed. The plain sense is, _I 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.

II.iii.146 (267,8) [O, she tore the letter into a thousand half-pence] [i.e. into a thousand pieces of the same bigness.] This is farther explained by a passage in As you Like it.

--_There were none principal; they were all like one

another as_ half-pence _are_. [Theobald.] How the quotation explains the passage, to which it is applied, I cannot discover.

II.iii.188 (268,9) [contemptible spirit] That is, a temper inclined to scorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our authour uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is therefore no need of changing the word with sir T. Hammer to _contemptuous_.

III.i.52 (273,3) [Misprising] Despising, contemning.

III.i.96 (275,8) [argument] This word seems here to signify _discourse_, or, the _powers_ of reasoning. III.i.104 (275,7) [She's lim'd] She is ensnared and entangled as a sparrow with _birdlime_.