But as it were an after-dinner's fleep,

• Dreaming on both; for pall'd, thy blazed youth • Becomes affuaged, and doth beg the alms

• Of palfied Eld; and when thou'rt old and rich, Thou haft neither heat, affection, limb, nor bounty To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this, • That bears the name of life? yet in this life Lye hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear, • That makes thefe odds all even.

Claud. I humbly thank you.

To fue to live, I find, I feek to die;

And, feeking death, find life: let it come on.

Enter Ifabella.

Ifab. What, ho? peace here, grace and good company!

Prov. Who's there? come in: the wifh deferves a welcome.

beg the alms of palfied Eld. Out of which, he that can deduce the conclufion, has a better knack at logic than I have. I fuppofe the Poet wrote,

for palld, thy blazed youth

Becomes affuaged; and doth beg the alms
Of palfied Eld; -

i. e. when thy youthful appetite becomes palled, as it will be in the very enjoyment, the blaze of youth is at once affuaged, and thou immediately contracteft the infirmities of old age; as, particularly, the palfie and other nervous diforders, confequent on the inordinate ufe of fenfual pleasures. This is to the purpose; and proves Youth is not enjoyed by fhewing the fhort duration of it. The words of Cicero, of which this is an imitation, confirm this emendation, Quæ verò atas longa eft? Aut quid omnino homini longum? Nonne modò pueros, modò adolefcentes, in curfu à tergo infequens, nec opinantes affecuta eft fenectus?

6 heat, affection, limb, nor beauty.] But how does beauty make riches pleasant? We fhould read BOUNTY, which com. pleats the fenfe, and is this; Thou haft neither the pleasure of enjoying riches thy felf, for thou wanteft vigour: nor of seeing it enjoyed by others, for thou wanteft bounty. Where the making the want of bounty as infeparable from old age as the want of health, is extremely fatyrical tho' not altogether juft.

Duke.

Duke. Dear Sir, ere long I'll visit you again.
Claud. Moft holy Sir, I thank you.

Ifab. My Bufinefs is a word, or two, with Claudio. Prov. And very welcome. Look, Signior, here's your fifter.

Duke. Provost, a word with you.
Prov. As many as you please.

Duke. Bring them to fpeak where I may be con

ceal'd,

Yet hear them.

S

[Exeunt Duke and Provost.

CENE II.

Claud. Now, fifter, what's the comfort?

Ifab. Why, as all comforts are; most good in Deed :

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heav'n,
Intends for his fwift ambaffador;
you

Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.
Therefore your best appointment make with speed,
To-morrow you fet on.

Claud. Is there no remedy?

Ifab. None, but fuch remedy, as, to fave a head, To cleave a heart in twain.

Claud. But is there any?

Ifab. 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?

Ifab. Ay, juft; perpetual durance; a restraint, Tho' all the world's vaftidity you had,

To a determin'd scope.

Claud. But in what nature?

Ifab. In fuch a one, as you, confenting to't, Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,

And leave you naked.

VOL. I.

Claud. Let me know the point.

Ifab. "Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, "Left thou a fev'rous life fhould'st entertain, "And fix or feven Winters more respect

"Than a perpetual Honour. Dar'ft thou die?
"The fenfe of death is moft in apprehenfion;
"And the poor Beetle, that we tread upon,
"In corp❜ral fufferance finds a pang as great,
"As when a Giant dies.

Claud. Why give you me this fhame?
Think you, I can a refolution fetch
From flow'ry tenderness? if I muft die,
I will encounter darknefs as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.

Ifab. "There spake my brother; there my father's grave

"Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die: Thou art too noble to conferve a life

In base appliances.

This outward-fainted Deputy,
Whofe fettled vifage and delib'rate word

Nips youth i'th' head; and follies doth emmew,
As faulcon doth the fowl; is yet a devil:
His filth within being caft, he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

Claud. 7 The Priestly Angelo?

Ifab. Oh, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'ft body to inveft and cover
In Prieftly guards. Doft thou think, Claudio,

IF

7 The PRINCELY Angelo? PRINCELY guards.] The ftupid Editors mistaking guards for fatellites, (whereas it here fignifies iace) altered PRIESTLY, in both places, to PRINCELY. Where as Shakespear wrote it PRIESTLY, as appears from the words themselves,

'tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damned body to inveft and cover
With PRIESTLY guards.

In the first place we fee that guards here fignifies lace, as referring to livery, and as having no fenfe in the fignification of fatellites.

Now

If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou might't be freed?

Claud. Oh, heavens! it cannot be.

Ifab. Yes, he would (a) give thee for this rank
offence,

So to offend him ftill. This night's the time
That I fhould do what I abhor to name,
Or elfe thou dy't to-morrow.
Claud. Thou shalt not do't.
Ifab. Oh, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly as a pin.

Claud. Thanks, dearest Ifabel.

Ifab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow.
Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him,

8

That thus can make him bite the law by th' nose,
When he would force it? fure, it is no fin;

Or of the deadly feven it is the least.
Ifab. Which is the leaft?

Claud. If it were damnable, he being fo wife,
Why would he for the momentary trick
Be perdurably fin'd? oh Isabel!

Ifab. What fays my brother?
Claud. Death's a fearful thing.
Ifab. And fhamed life a hateful.

Now priefly guards means fanctity, which is the fenfe required. But princely guards means nothing but rich lace, which is a fenfe the paffage will not bear. Angelo, indeed, as Deputy, might be called the princely Angelo: but not in this place, where the imme diately preceding words of, This outward fainted Deputy, demand the reading I have here restored.

8

bite the laws by th' nofe,

When he would force it?]i.e. inforce it. This is but a kind of bear-garden phrafe, taken from the cuftom of driving cattle, and fetting a dog upon them to catch them by the nose, and ftop them when they go aftray.

[(a) give thee for this rank offence, Oxf. Edit-Vulg. give't thee; from this rank offence.]

Claud.

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ;

To lye in cold obftruction, and to rot;
This fenfible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; 9 and the delighted fpirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide
In thrilling regions of thick-ribb'd ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendant world; or to be worse than worst
Of thofe, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling; 'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life, 6 That age, ach, penury, imprisonment

• Can lay on nature, is a paradife
To what we fear of death.
Ifab. Alas! alas!

Claud. Sweet fifter, let me live;
What fin you do to fave a brother's life,
Nature difpenfes with the deed fo far,
That it becomes a virtue.

Ifa. Oh, you beast!

Oh, faithlefs coward! oh, difhoneft wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice?

Is't not a kind of inceft, to take life

From thine own fifter's fhame? what fhould I think? Heav'n grant, my mother plaid my father fair!

9

and the delighted Spirit ] i. e. the spirit accustomed here to ease and delights. This was properly urged as an aggra vation to the fharpnels of the torments fpoken of. The Oxford Editor not apprehending this, alters it to dilated. As if, because the fpirit in the body is faid to be imprifoned, it was crowded toge ther likewife; and fo, by death, not only fet free, but expanded too; which, if true, would make it the lefs fenfible of pain. 1 The wearieft, &c.] See the infamous with of Mecenas, rė corded by Seneca, tor Ep..

Debilem facito manu,
Debilem pede, coxa, &c.
Fita dum fupereft, bene eft, &c.

For