REPRESENTED.

FROTH, a foolish Gentleman.

Clown, Servant to Mrs. Over-done.

ESCALUS, an ancient Lord, joined with Angelo in ABHORSON, an Executioner.

11 A choice mature, concocted, fermented; i. e. not 1 Two negatives, not employed to make an affirma.hasty, but considerate."

Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten command-clamation. ments, but scraped one out of the table.

1 Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to com- sweat, what with the gallows, and what with pomand the captain and all the rest from their func-verty, I am custom-shrunk. How now? what's the tions; they put forth to steal: There's not a sol-news with you?

1 Scope is extent of power. 2 Aves are hailings. 3 i. e. measure. 4 We are both of the same piece. 5 Pild, for a French velvet.'-Velvet was esteemed according to the richness of the pile; three-pil'd was 7 In one of the Scotch Laws of James it is ordered, the richest. But pil'd also means bald. The jest al- 'that common women be put at the utmost endes of ludes to the loss of hair in the French disease. Lucio, townes, queire least peril of fire is.'-It is remarkable finding the Gentleman understands the distemper so that the licensed houses of resort at Vienna, are at this well, and mentions it so feelingly, promises to remem-time all in the suburbs, under the permission of the ber to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him. Committee of Chastity.

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.

Bad. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

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, hung by the wall
So long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,

Clo. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the pro-Now puts the drowsy and neglected act vost to prison: and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt.

Freshly on me :-'tis surely, for a name. Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands so SCENE III. The same. Enter Provost, CLAU-tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she DIO, JULIET, and Officers; Lucio and two Gen- be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

tlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to

the world?

Bear me to prison where I am committed.
Prov. 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 words of heaven;-on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.2
Lario. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes
this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty;
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 ravin3 down their proper bane)
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die."
Lacio. 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 morality of imprisonment.-What's
thy offence, Claudio ?

Claud. What, but to speak of, would offend again.
Lucio. What is it? murder?
Claud. No.

Lacio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it so.

Prov. Away, sir; you must go.
Claud. One word, good friend:-Lucio, a word
[Takes him aside.
Lucio. A hundred if they'll do you any good.-
Is lechery so look'd after?

with you.

Claud. Thus stands it with me:-Upon a true

contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed;"

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;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Til 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;
Or whether that the body public be
A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

1 i. e. gaoler.

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:
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 pronel and speechless dialect,
Such as moves men; besides, she hath prosperous

art

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: 12 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 remov'd ;11
And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.14 ·
I have delivered to lord Angelo

(A man of strictures and firm abstinence,)

My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: 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,

(The needful bits and curbs for headstrong steeds,)
Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep;
Even like an o'ergrown 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,

ing such a dower as her friends might heareafter be 2 Authority being absolute in Angelo, is finely styled stow on her, when time had reconciled them to her by Claudio, the demigod, whose decrees are as little to clandestine marriage. The verb is as obscurely used he questioned as the words of heaven. The poet al-by Chapman in the Sixteenth book of the Odyssey: Judes to a passage in St. Paul's Epist. to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15-18: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.'

3 To rarin is to voraciously devour. 4 So, in Chapman's Revenge for Honour: 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.

5 This speech is surely too indelicate to be spoken Concerning Juliet before her face. Claudio may therefore be supposed to speak to Lucio apart.

6 This singular mode of expression has not been satisfactorily explained. The old sense of the word is promoting, inlarging, increasing, spreading. It appears that Claudio would say: for the sake of promot

-to try if we

Alone may propagate to victory

Our bold encounters.'

He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

Isab. Sir, mock me not :-your story,
Lucio. "Tis true, I 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 as a thing ensky'd, and sainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;
And to be talked with in sincerity,

Whom I would save, had a most noble father.
Let but your honour know,"

your

blood

(Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,)
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of
Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Err'd in this point which now you censure him,"
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,
May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two
Guilter than him they try: What's open made to
justice,

That justice seizes. What know the laws,
That thieves do pass on thieves? "Tis very preg-
nant,"

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 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 ?
Prov. Here, if it like your honour.

Ang.
See that Claudio
Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared;
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:11
Some run from brakes12 of vice, and answer none;
And some condemned for a fault alone.

Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, &c. Elb. Come, bring them away; if these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but use

1 i. e. the abbess.

their abuses in common houses, I know no law; bring them away.

Ang. How now? what's the matter?

sir! What's your name? and

Elb. 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?

Elb. 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 the world, that good christians ought to have.

Escal. This comes off well; here's a wise officer.
Ang. Go to: What quality are they of? Elbow
is your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow?
Clo. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.
Ang. What are you, sir?

Elb. He, sir? a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman whose house, sir, was

as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes14 a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too.

Escal. How know you that?

Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before hea ven and your honour,

Escal. How! thy wife?

Elb. Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an ho

nest woman,—

Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore?

Elb. 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 uncleanliness there.

Escal. By the woman's means?

Elb. Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means: but as she spit in his face, so she defied him.

Clo. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. Elb. 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:16 sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruitdish, a dish of some three pence; your honours have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, 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 a dish, as I said, master I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestFroth here, this very man having eaten the rest, as ly;-for, as you know, master Froth, I cou'd not give you three pence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

12 The first folio here reads- Some run from brakes of ice. The correction was made by Rowe. Brakes

2 A kind of sheriff or jailer, so called in foreign coun- most probably here signify thorny perplexities; but a

tries.

3 To fear is to affright.

4 i. e. throw down; to fall a tree is still used for to fill it.

5 i. e. to examine.

6 i. e. suited.

7 To complete the sense of this line for seems to be required:-- which now you censure him for. But Shakspeare frequently uses elliptical expressions. 8 An old forensic term, signifying to pass judgment,

or sentence.

brake was also used to signify a trap or snare. Thus in Skelton's Ellinour Rummin:

"It was a stale to take-the devil in a brake." And in Holland's Leaguer, a Comedy, by Sh. Marmion. -her I'll make

A stale to catch this courtier in a brake.' There can be no allusion to the instrument of torture mentioned by Steevens. A brake seems to have signi fied an engine or instrument in general.

Full of force or conviction, or full of proof in it- seriously applied to speech, is This is well delivered,' 13 i. e. is well told. The meaning of this phrase, when self. So, in Othello, Act ii. Sc. 1, As it is a most preg-this story is well told. But in the present instance it nant and unforc'd position.' is used ironically.

10 i. e. cause I have had such faults.

11 This line is printed in Italics as a quotation in the Arst folio.

14 Professes a hot house, i. e. keeps a bagnio.
15 Detest, for protest, or attest.

16 A favourite dish, anciently common in brothels.