Chapter LVIII: Act II

SC. 1. "Err'd in this point which now you censure him _for_."

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"What's open made
To justice, that justice seizes. What know the laws?"

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"Some run from brakes of ice and answer none,
And some _are_ condemn'd for a fault alone."

We have a similar sentiment in Cymb. v. 1. As _of ice_ and _of vice_ are pronounced exactly alike, we may safely assume the latter to be the true reading. The whole difficulty then lies in 'brakes.' A brake was certainly, as we are told, a frame to confine restless or vicious horses in when shoeing; but when it is added that it is also an instrument of torture, I become somewhat dubious. At any rate no one would say a rack or a gibbet of vice; so why a brake of vice? I incline then, but with hesitation, to think that we should read _wreaks o' vice_. We have "wreak the love" (R. and J. iii. 5); "wreak our wrongs." (Tit. And. iv. 3.) I put the ambiguous _o'_, because _wreak_ takes _on_ rather than _of_ after it.

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"I thought by the readiness in the office, you had," etc.

For 'by the,' the usual correction (which I have followed) is 'by _your_.' Mr. Collier thinks 'by _this_' might be better; for _this_ and _your_ were used promiscuously. Either might easily be confounded with _the_. (See Introd. p. 68.)

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SC. 2. "But you might do it, and do the world no wrong."

This apparently necessary transposition was made by S. Walker. The folio reads "But might you."

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"May call it _back_ again. Well, believe this."

Here _back_ is the proper addition made in the 2nd folio.

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"Becomes them not with half so fair a grace
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have slipped like him,
But he, like you, would not have been so stern."

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"Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once."

As the first 'were' may have been caused by the second, I would, like Warburton, read for it _are_. In "We cannot cross the cause why we were born" (L. L. L. iv. 3), the folio reads '_are_ born.'

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"If the first that did th' edict infringe."

So it stands in the folio, and Pope was, it may be, right in reading 'If the first _man_,' but we might also read, and perhaps better, as I have done, 'the edict did.'

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"Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd."

For 'now' I felt inclined to read _new_, with Pope, but I prefer 'now _born_,' and so I have printed it. (See on All's Well, ii. 3.)

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"Are now to have no successive degrees
But here they live to end."

We should for 'here' either read _where_, or better, with Hanmer, _ere_.

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"Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder!
Merciful Heaven!"

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"Than the soft _yielding_ myrtle; but man, proud man!"

"That soft and _yielding_ mind should not be in him."
Lyly, Campaspe, ii. 2.

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"Most ignorant of what he's most assured _of_."

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"Not with fond sickles of the tested gold."

In all the English versions of the Scriptures anterior to the Authorized one, _sicle_ is the word, from _siclus_ of the Vulgate, by which the Hebrew _shekel_ is rendered. Shakespeare therefore knew nothing of this last, and must of course have written _sickle_. Yet all editors, the Cambridge and myself included, have adopted Pope's correction, _shekel_, for which all are highly to blame. The word 'tested' proves that Gen. xxiii. 16 was in the poet's mind.

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"Would all themselves laugh mortal."

It would be simpler and better to read: "Would laugh themselves all mortal."

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"For I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.--At what hour to-morrow shall I
Attend your lordship?--At any time fore noon."

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"_Heaven_ save your honour!--From thee, even from thy virtue."

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SC. 3. "Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report."

Editors follow Warburton in reading _flames_ for 'flaws'; but as _flaw_ is defect, weakness, the text may be right. _Flaw_ is also gust, blast of wind, which also might make some sense here. We should, then, perhaps read 'flaw.'

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"Showing we would not spare Heaven, as we love it,
But as we stand in fear...."

For 'spare' Collier's folio reads _serve_.

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"_Jul. May_ grace go with you! _Duke. Benedicite_!"

So Ritson properly arranges. It is evident that the names and _May_, which I and Steevens have added, were effaced in the MS. In Twelfth Night (i. 5) we have a similar effacement of names of speakers. In the following line 'love' should be _law_, a change made by Hanmer.

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SC. 4. "Is like a good thing, being often read,
Grown sear'd and tedious."

The folio has '_f_ear'd'; the correction is Warburton's. It is a most unusual use of 'sear'd' in the sense of dry; _sear_ would seem less strange. So Heath also thought.

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"To thy false seeming.--Blood thou art blood _still_!--
Let us write 'Good Angel' on the Devil's horn,
'Tis not the Devil's crest.... How now! Who's there?"

Pope read '_but_ blood'; Malone '_still_ blood.'

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"As to put metal in restricted means."

It might be better to read, with Malone, _moulds_ instead of 'means.'

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"_Ha!_ say you so, then I shall pose you quickly."

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"Now took your brother's life or to redeem him."

Here 'or' is a correction by Davenant and Rowe of _and_ of the folio.

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"'_T_were equal poise of sin and charity."

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"If that be sin I'll make it my morn-prayer."

As Shakespeare has used 'morn' elsewhere but once in a compound, it were better, as the metre requires, to read 'morn_ing_', as Hanmer also read.

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"Or seem so, crafty; and that is not good."

Editors read 'craft_ily_'; we might also read 'seem_ing_.' "Or seeming so in skill" (Winter's Tale, ii. 1); but no change is necessary. The folio has 'that's'; hence the reading of the editors, the Cambridge included.

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"Proclaim an enshield beauty."

The word 'enshield' occurs nowhere else. It is of course, as Steevens says, enshielded, covered with a shield. To this there is no very great objection; but as elsewhere (Cor. iv. 6) the poet has 'inshell'd,' _i.e._ covered with a shell, it might be better to read so here also, as I find Tyrwhitt has done.

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"Than beauty could display'd.--But mark me _now_."

So I think we should read, and not 'displayed' and with the metric accent on 'me.' Perhaps also for 'beauty' we should read _itself_.

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"But in the loss of question."

There is no need, with Johnson and others, to change 'loss'; it is quite correct. (See Index _s. v._ 'Lose.')

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"_No._ Ignomy in ransom and free pardon
Are of two houses. Lawful mercy is
Nothing _a_kin to foul redemption."

Sense and metre alike demand the negative, which had evidently been effaced. Steevens also read '_a_kin.'

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"Else let my brother die.--
If not a fedary but only he,
Owe and succeed thy weakness."

"A very obscure passage," says Mr. Dyce, "in which Rowe printed '_by_ weakness,' and Malone proposes '_this_ weakness.' (On 'fedary' see Richardson's Dictionary, _sub_ Federal.)" And this is all this noted critic has to say! For my part I do not regard this passage as by any means past cure, and I think that Warburton came very near the true sense. The main point is to ascertain the exact meaning of _fedary_. "_Federy_ and _federary_," says Richardson, "in Shakespeare are the same word differently written (having no connexion whatever with _Feud_ or _Feudatory_), and signify a colleague, associate, or _confederate_;" and he refers to Minshew, _s. v._ Feodarie. Now Minshew's words are "Feodarie _alias_ Feudaris _alias_ Feudatrie, Feudelarius, is an office authorized by the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries by letters patent, and under the seal of that office," etc. Cotgrave has "A feodarie, _feudal_, _feodal_, _feudataire_;" in both of which places I think the "connexion with _Feud_ and _feudatory_" is very apparent; and the last convinces me that a _fedary_ or _feodary_ was a vassal, a liegeman; and that, I have no doubt, is its sense in this place? and in Cymb. iii. 2, where it again occurs, as I shall there show. I do not think Richardson was at all justified in making, as he seems to do, _fedary_ a different word from _feodary_. There was also _feodar_ a vassal, "For seventeen kings were Carthage _feodars_." (Marston. Sophon. Prol.) It must strike every one of taste with surprise that Shakespeare should have written such a leonine verse as

"If not a fedary, but only he."

And further, whether 'fedary' be vassal or confederate, the person should be mentioned to whom he stood in that relation. In the former sense--the only true one--that person must be either Heaven or the Duke, which was omitted by the printer. I am in favour of the former, both for metre-sake and because we have elsewhere, "The rest of your _fees_, O Gods! the senators of Athens" (Tim. iii. 5); and "God's _vassals_ drop and die" (Hen. V. iii. 2). I read thus:--

"We are all frail.--_Isab._ Else let my brother die.--
If not a fedary of _Heaven_, but only he,
Owe and succeed this weakness.... _Ang._ Nay, women are frail too."

Isabella replies at once, fully assenting to Angelo's observation. After a brief pause, she is proceeding to reason on the subject, when he interrupts her. We may observe that 'owe' and 'succeed' are legal terms, which here form a hysteron-proteron, like some other common phrases. Perhaps, indeed, we might transpose them; for Isabella is speaking quite calmly and composedly. The change of 'thy' to _this_ is perfectly legitimate; and _to_ may have been omitted or effaced after 'succeed.'

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"Who would believe me? Oh! _these_ perilous mouths!"

The same addition was proposed by Mr. Seymour.

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"To such abhorr'd pollution _as this_."

Though this addition is not absolutely necessary, it gives such force to the sentiment that I willingly believe it may have come from the poet's pen.