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With maids to feem the lapwing 7, and to jeft,
Tongue far from heart,-play with all virgins fo,
I hold you as a thing enfky'd, and fainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal fpirit;
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me.

Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth', 'tis thus: Your brother and his lover have embrac'd':

wards: "Do not believe it :" i. e. Do not fuppofe that I would mock you. MALONE.

7 With maids to seem the lapwing,] The lapwings fly with seeming fright and anxiety far from their nefts, to deceive those who seek their young. HANMER.

See Ray's Proverbs: "The lapwing cries, tongue far from heart." The farther the is from her neft, where her heart is with her young ones, the is the louder, or perhaps all tongue. SMITH.

See the Comedy of Errors, Act IV. Sc. iii. GREY.

Though 'tis my familiar fin

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,

Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins fo, &c.] This pasfage has been pointed in the modern editions thus:

'Tis true:-I would not (though 'tis my familiar fin

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,

Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo:

I hold you &c.

According to this punctuation, Lucio is made to deliver a fentiment directly oppofite to that which the author intended. Though 'tis my common practice to jeft with and to deceive all virgins, I would not fo play with all virgins.

The fenfe, as the text is now regulated, appears to me clear and eafy. 'Tis very true, (fays he) I ought indeed, as you say, to proceed at once to my ftory. Be affured, I would not mock you. Though it is my familiar practice to jest with maidens, and, like the lapwing, to deceive them by my infincere prattle, though, I fay, it is my ordinary and babitual practice to fport in this manner with all virgins, yet I fould never think of treating you fo; for I confider you, in confequence of your having renounced the world, as an immortal fpirit, as one to whom I ought to fpeak with as much fincerity as if I were addressing a faint. MALONE.

9 Fewness and truth,] i. e. in few words, and those true ones. In few, is many times thus ufed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

Your brother and his lover-] i. e. his mistress; lover, in our author's time, being applied to the female as well as the male fex. Thus, one of his poems, containing the lamentation of a deferted maiden, is entitled A Lover's Complaint." MALONE.

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As thofe that feed grow full; as bloffoming time,
That from the feednefs the bare fallow brings
To teeming foyfon, even so her plenteous womb
Expreffeth his full tilth and hufbandry2.

Ifab. Some one with child by him ?-My coufin Juliet ? Lucio. Is the your cousin?

Ifab. Adoptedly; as fchool-maids change their names, By vain though apt affection.

Lucio. She it is.

Ifab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio. This is the point.

The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myfelf being one,
In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By thofe that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo; a man, whofe blood
very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and fast.
He (to give fear to ufe 5 and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions,) hath pick'd out an act,

Is

2

as bloffoming time,

That from the feedness the bare fallow brings

To teeming foyfon; fo ber plenteous womb

Expreffeth bis full tilth and bufbandry.] This fentence, as Dr. Johnfon has obferved, is apparently ungrammatical. I fufpect two half lines have been loft. Perhaps however an imperfect fentence was intended, of which there are many inftances in these plays:-or, as might have been used in the fenfe of like. Teeming foifon is abundant plenty. Tilth is tillage. MALONE.

3 Bore many gentlemen,

In band and tope of action:] To bear in band is a common phrase for to keep in expectation and dependance; but we should read,

-

with bope of action. JOHNSON.

4 And with full line-] With full extent, with the whole length.

JOHNSON.

5 -to give fear to use-] To intimidate use, that is, practices long Countenanced by cuftom. JOHNSON.

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Under

Under whofe heavy fenfe your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrefts him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo: and that's my pith

Of bufinefs 'twixt you and your poor brother.
Ijab. Doth he fo feek his life?

Lucio. Has cenfur'd him

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Already; and, as I hear, the provoft hath
A warrant for his execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor ability's in me

To do him good?

Lucio. Affay the power you have.
Ijab. My power! Alas! I doubt,-

Lucio. Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lofe the good we oft might win,

By fearing to attempt: Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs?

As they themselves would owe them '.

Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.

Lucio. But, fpeedily.

6 Unless you have the grace-] That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So, when the makes her fuit, the provoft fays: Heaven give thee moving graces! JOHNSON.

7

my pith

Of bufinefs The inmoft part, the main of my meffage. JOHNS. 8 Has cenfur d bim- -] We fhould read, I think, He bas cenfured bim, &c. In the Mis. of our author's time, and frequently in the printed copy of these plays, be bas, when intended to be contracted, is written-b'as. Hence probably the mistake here. MALONE.

cenfur'd him-] 1.e. fentenced hini. So, in Othello:

-to you, lord governor,

"Remains the cenfure of this hellish villain." STEEVENS. 9 All their petitions are as freely theirs] All their requests are as freely granted to them, are granted in as full and beneficial a manner, as they themselves could with. The editor of the second folio arbitrarily reads-as truly theirs; which has been followed in all the fubfequent copies. MALONE.

would owe them.] To owe fignifies in this place, as in many others, to poffefs, to have. STEEVENS.

Ifab. I will about it ftraight;
No longer staying but to give the mother*
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:
Commend me to my brother: foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my fuccefs.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Ifab. Good fir, adieu.

ACT

II.

SCENE I.

A Hall in Angelo's House.

Exeunt.

Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Juftice, Provoft, Officers, and other Attendants.

Ang. We must not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey 3,

And let it keep one fhape, till cuftom make it

Their perch, and not their terror.

Efcal. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruife to death: Alas! this gentleman,

Whom I would fave, had a most noble father.

Let but your honour know 5,

(Whom I believe to be moft ftrait in virtue,)

-the mother] The abbefs, or priorefs. JOHNSON.

2 Proveft,] A provoft is generally the executioner of an army.

STEEVENS. "A Provoft martial" Minfheu explains "Prevoft des Marefchaux : "Præfectus rerum capitalium, prætor rerum capitalium." REED.

A prifon for military offenders is at this day, in fome places, called the Prevêt. MALONE.

3 to fear the birds of prey,] To fear is to affright, to terrify. STEEVENS.

4 Than fall, and bruife to death:] i. e. fall the axe ;-or rather, let the criminal fall, &c. MALONE.

Shakspeare has used the fame verb active in the Comedy of Errors, and As you like it. STEEVENS.

5 Let but your bonour know,] To know is here to examine, to take cognijance. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

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Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires;

"Know of your truth, examine well your blood." JOHNSON.

That,

That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the refolute acting of your blood"

Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not fometime in your life

Err'd in this point which now you cenfure him 7,
And pull'd the law upon you.

Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Efcalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury, paling on the prifoner's life,
May, in the fworn twelve, have a thief or two
Guiltier than him they try: What's open made
To juftice, that juftice feizes. What know the laws,
That thieves do pafs on thieves? Tis very pregnant,
The jewel that we find, we floop and take it,
Because we fee it; but what we do not fee,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not fo extenuate his offence,

For I have had fuch faults, but rather tell me,
When I that cenfure him do so offend,

Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he muft die.
Efcal. Be it as your wifdom will.

Ang. Where is the provoft?

Prov. Here, if it like your honour.

6 of your blood] Old copy-cur blood. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

MALONE.

7-which now you cenfure bim,] Some word feems to be wanting to make this line fenfe. Perhaps, we fhould read-which now you cenfure him for. STEEVENS.

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-What know the laws,

That thieves do país on thieves ?] How can the adminiftrator of the laws take cognizance of what I have just mentioned? How can they know, whether the jurymen who decide on the life or death of thieves be themselves as criminal as thote whom they try? To pass on is a forenfick term. So, in the well-known provifion of MAGNA CHARTA:

nec fuper eum ibimus, nec fuper cum mittemus, nifi per legale judicium parium fuorum, vel per legem terræ." MALONE.

9 'Tis very pregnant,] 'Tis plain that we must act with bad as with good; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages, that lie in our way, and what we do not fee we cannot note. JOHNSON.

For I have had fuch faults,] That is, belaufe, by reason that I

have had fuch faults. JOHNSON.

Ang.

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