A league below the city; and from thence, Re-enter Provost. Prov. Here is the head; I'll carry it myself. Duke. Convenient is it: Make a fwift return; For I would commune with you of fuch things, That want no ear but yours. Prov. I'll make all speed. Ifah. [within.] Peace, ho, be here! [Exit. Duke. The tongue of Ifabel :-She's come to know, If yet her brother's pardon be come hither: But I will keep her ignorant of her good, To make her heavenly comforts of despair, Enter ISABELLA. Ifab. Ho, by your leave. Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter. Ifab. The better, given me by fo holy a man. Hath yet the deputy fent my brother's pardon? Duke. He hath releas'd him, Ifabel, from the world; His head is off, and fent to Angelo. Ifab. Nay, but it is not fo. Duke. It is no other : Shew your wisdom, daughter, in your clofe patience. Duke. This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot: 9 -weal-balanced form,] Thus the old copy. Mr. Heath thinks that well-balanced is the true reading; and Hanmer was of the fame opinion. STEEVENS. When it is leaft expected.] A better reafon might have been given. It was neceflary to keep Isabella in ignorance, that she might with more keennefs accufe the deputy. JoHNSON, By By every fyllable, a faithful verity: The duke comes home to-morrow;-nay, dry your eyes; One of our convent, and his confeffor, Gives me this inftance: Already he hath carry'd Notice to Efcalus 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; Ifab. I am directed by you. yours, Duke. This letter then to friar Peter give; And shall be abfent. Wend you with this letter: Lucio. Good even! Enter Lucio. Friar, where is the Provost? Duke. Not within, fir. Lucio. O, pretty Ifabella, I am pale at mine heart, to fee thine eyes fo red: thou must be patient: I am fain to dine and fup with water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would fet me to't But they fay the duke will be here to-morrow. By my 2 - your boom-] Your wish; your heart's defire. JOHNSON. 3 I am combined by a facred vow,] I once thought this should be confined, but Shakspeare ufes combine for to bind by a pact or agreement; lo he calls Angelo the combinate husband of Mariana. JOHNSON. 4 Wend you] To wend is to go. STEEVENS. troth, Ifabel, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners 5 had been at home, he had lived. [Exit ISABELLA. Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them. Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke fo well as I do: he's a better woodman than thou takest him for. 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 already, fir, if they be true; if not true, none were enough. Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child. Duke. Did youch a thing? Lucio. Yes, marry, did I but I was fain to forfwear it; they would elfe have marry'd me to the rotten medlar. Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honeft: Reft 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 fhall ftick. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in Angelo's Houfe. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. Efcal. Every letter he hath writ hath difvouch'd other. Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions 5 if the old fantastical duke of dark corners-] This duke who meets his mistrelles in by-places. So, in K. Henry VIII: "There is nothing I have done yet, o' my confcience, Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, the odd fantaftical duke, but old is a common word of aggravation in ludicrous language, as, there was old revelling JOHNSON. be lives not in them.] i. c. his character depends not on them, STEEVENS. 7-woodman,] A woodman feems to have been an attendant or fervant to the officer called Forrefter. See Manhood on the Foreft Laws, tions fhew much like to madness; pray heaven, his wifdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver our authorities there? Efcal. I guess not. Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering, that, if any crave redrefs of injuftice, they fhould exhibit their petitions in the street? Efcal. He fhews his reafon for that: to have a dispatch of complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which hall then have no power to ftand against us. Ang. Well; I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: Betimes i' the morn, I'll call you at your house: Give notice to fuch men of fort and fuit, As are to meet him. Efcal. I fhall, fir: fare you well. Ang. Good night. [Exit. This deed unfhapes me quite, makes me unpregnant', The law against it!-But that her tender fhame Will not proclaim against her maiden lofs, How might the tongue me? Yet reafon dares her ?—no 2: 4to. 1615, p. 46. It is here however used in a wanton fenfe, and was probably, in our author's time, generally fo received. REED. So, in the Merry Wives of Windfor, Falstaff afks his miftreffes,"Am I a woodman? Ha!" STEEVENS. 8 let it be proclaim'd: Betimes i' the morn, &c.] Perhaps it fhould be pointed thus: Betimes i the morn: I'll call you at your boufe. So above: And why should we proclaim it an hour before his entering-? 9-fort and fuit,] Figure and rank. JOHNSON. I 2 MALONE. makes me unpregnant,] In the firft fcene the Duke fays that Efcalus is pregnant, i. e. ready, in the forms of law. Unpregnant therefore, in the inftance before us, is unready, unprepared. STEEV. Yet reafon dares ber? no:] Yet does not reafon challenge or incite ber to accufe me?-no, (answers the fpeaker) for my authority &c. To dare, in this fenfe, is yet a fchool-phrafe: Shakspeare probably learnt it there. He has again ufed the word with the fame fignification (as Mr. Steevens obferves) in K. Henry IV. P. I.: "Unless a brother fhould a brother dare To gentle exercife, &c." MALONE. For For my authority bears off a credent bulk, But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, With ranfom of fuch fhame. 'Would yet he had liv'd! Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not*. [Exit. Fields without the Town. Enter Duke in his own habit, and Friar PETER. Duke. Thefe letters at fit time deliver me. [Giving letters. The Provoft knows our purpose, and our plot. The matter being afoot, keep your inftruction, And hold you ever to our fpecial drift; 6 Though fometimes you do blench from this to that, 3 my authority bears off a credent bulk, That no particular fcandal, &c.] Credent is creditable,inforcing credit, not questionable. The old English writers often confound the active and paffive adjectives. So Shakspeare, and Milton after him, ufe inexpreffive for inexpreffible.-Particularis private, a French fenfe. No scandal from any private mouth can reach a man in my authority. JOHNS. The old copy reads-bears of, in which way off was formerly often fpelt. Bears off Mr. Steevens interprets-carries with it. Perhaps Angelo means, that his authority will ward off or fet afide the weightiest and most probable charge that can be brought against him. MALONE. 4 — que could, and we would not.] Here undoubtedly the act should end, and was ended by the poet; for here is properly a ceffation of action, and a night intervenes, and the place is changed, between the pab es of this fcene, and thofe of the next. The next act beginning with the following fcene, proceeds without any interruption of time or change of place. JOHNSON. Thefe letters-] Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his story without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed. JOHNSON. 6 -you do blench-] To blench is to start off, to fly off. STEEV. |