Ifab. O juft, but severe law!

I had a brother then.-Heaven keep your honour!

[retiring.

Lucio. Give't not o'er fo: to him again, intreat him;

Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;

You are too cold: if you should need a pin,

You could not with more tame a tongue defire it:

To him, I fay.

Ifab. Must he needs die?

Ang. Maiden, no remedy.

Ifab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do't.

Ifab. But can you, if you would?

Ang, Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.

Ifab. But might you do't, and do the world no wrong,

If fo your heart were touch'd with that remorfe

As mine is to him?

Ang. He's fentenc'd; 'tis too late.

Lucio. You are too cold.

[To Ifab.

Ijab. Too late? why, no; I, that do fpeak a word, May call it back again : Well believe this ",

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed fword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half fo good a grace,
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have flipt like him;
But he, like you, would not have been fo ftern.
Ang. Pray you, be gone.

Ifab. I would to heaven I had your potency,
And you were Ifabel! fhould it then be thus ?
No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,
And what a prifoner.

5

Lucio. Ay, touch him: there's the vein.

[Afide.

with that remorfe,] Remorfe in this place, as in many others, See Othello, A&t. III. STEEVENS.

is pity May call it back again :] The word back was inferted by the editor of the fecond folio, for the fake of the metre. MALONE. 7 Well believe this,] Be thoroughly affured of this.

THEOBALD.

D 3

Ang

Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And y you but waste your words.

Ifab. Alas! alas!

Why, all the fouls that were, were forfeit once;
And he that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy: How would you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made 9.

Ang. Be you content, fair maid;

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:
Were he my kinfman, brother, or my fon,

It should be thus with him ;-he muft die to-morrow.
Ifab. To-morrow? O, that's fudden! Spare him, spare
him n;

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens
We kill the fowl of feafon; fhall we ferve heaven
With lefs refpect than we do minifter

To our grofs felves? Good, good my lord, bethink you:
Who is it that hath died for this offence?

There's many have committed it.

Lucio. Ay, well faid.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath flept: Thofe many had not dared to do that evil,

If the first man that did the edict infringe',

Had anfwer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,

Looks in a glafs, that shews what future evils,

8

are.

Either

all the fouls that were,] This is falfe divinity. We should read, WARBURTON.

9 And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.] You will then appear as tender-hearted and merciful as the firft man was in his days of innocence, immediately after his creation. MALONE.

I rather think the meaning is, You will then change the feverity of your prefent charaƐier. In familiar fpcech, You will be quite another man. JOHNSON.

1 If the first man, &c.] The word man has been fupplied by the modern editors. I would rather read, If he, the first, &c. TYRWHITT. Man was introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

a

and, like a prophet,

Locks in a glafs] ́See Macbeth, Act IV. fc. i. STEEVENS.

(Either now, or by remiffness new-conceiv'd,
And fo in progrefs to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no fucceffive degrees,
But, where they live, to end 3.

Ijab. Yet, fhew fome pity.

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I fhew juftice; For then I pity those I do not know 4,

Which a difmifs'd offence would after gall;

And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be fatisfied;

Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

Ijab. So you must be the first, that gives this fentence; And he that fuffers: O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous,
To ufe it like a giant.

Lucio. That's well faid.

Ifab. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,

For

This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, much ufed at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. WARBURTON.

The beril, which is a kind of chryftal, hath a weak tincture of red in it. Among other tricks of aftrologers, the difcovering of paft or future events was fuppofed to be the confequence of looking into it. See Aubrey's Mifcellanies, p. 165, edit. 1721. REED.

3 But, where they live, to end.] The old copy reads-But, bere they live, to end. Sir Thomas Hanmer fubftituted ere for here; but where was, I am perfuaded, the author's word.

The prophecy is not, that future evils fhould end, ere, or before, they are born; or, in other words, that there fhould be no more evil in the world (as Sir T. Hanmer by his alteration feems to have understood it); but, that they should end WHERE they began, i. e. with the criminal; who being punished for his first offence, could not proceed by fucceffive degrees in wickedness, nor excite others, by his impunity, to vice. So, in the next fpeech:

"And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,

"Lives not to act another."

It is more likely that a letter fhould have been omitted at the prefs, than that one should have been added.

The fame mistake has happened in the Merchant of Venice, Folio, 1623, p. 173. col. 2: ha, ha, bere in Genoa."-instead of where? in Genoa?" MALONE.

I fhew it most of all, when I fhew juftice;

For then I pity those I do not know,] This was one of Hale's memo

D 4

rial.

For every pelting, petty officer,

Would ufe his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.-
Merciful heaven!

Thou rather, with thy fharp and fulphurous bolt,
Split'ft the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the foft myrtle ;-But man, proud man?!
Dreft in a little brief authority;

Moft ignorant of what he's most affur'd,
His glaffy effence,-like an angry ape,

Plays fuch fantaftick tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who, with our fpleens,
Would all themielves laugh mortal 9.

Lucio. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent;
He's coming; I perceive't.

Prov. Pray heaven the win him!

Ifab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself1: Great men may jeft with faints: 'tis wit in them; But, in the lefs, foul profanation.

Lucio. Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o' that.

Ijab.

rials. When I find my felf fwayed to mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy likewije due to the country. JOHNSON.

5

peltingi.e. paltry. STEEVENS.

6 gnarled oak,] Gnarre is the old English word for a knot in wood.

STEEVENS.

7 Than the foft myrtle-But man, proud man!] The defective metre of this line fhews that fome word was accidentally omitted at the prefs; probably fome additional epithet to man; perhaps weak; but man, weak, proud man—.” The editor of the fecond folio, to fupply the defect, reads but man, &c. which, like almoft all the other emendations of that cory, is the worst and the most improbable that could have been chofen. MALONE.

8 As make the angels weep;] The notion of angels weeping for the fins of men is rabbinical.-Ob peccatum fientes angelos inducunt Hebraorum magiftri. Grotiùs ad S. Lucam.

9—— who, with our spleens,

THEOBALD.

Would all themselves laugh mortal.] i. e. who, if they were endued with the organs of man,- with our pleens, would laugh themfelves out of immortality; or, as we fay in common life, laugh themselves dead. THEOBALD.

The ancients thought that immoderate laughter was caufed by the bigness of the spleen. WARBURTON

We cannot weigh our brother with ourfeli:] We mortals, proud and foolish, cannot prevail on our paflions to weigh or compare our brother,

a being

Ifab. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the foldier is flat blafphemy.

Lucio. Art avis'd o' that? more on't.

Ang. Why do you put thefe fayings upon me?
Ijab. Becaufe authority, though it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That fkins the vice o' the top: Go to your bofom;
Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confefs

A natural guiltinefs, fuch as is his,

Let it not found a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.

Ang. She fpeaks, and 'tis

Such fenfe, that my fenfe breeds with it 2.-Fare you well. Ijab. Gentle my lord, turn back.

Ang. I will bethink me :-Come again to-morrow. Ijab. Hark, how I'll bribe you: Good, my lord, turn back.

Ang. How! bribe me?

Ijab. Ay, with fuch gifts, that heaven fhall fhare with

you.

a being of like nature and like frailty, with ourself. We have different names and different judgments for the fame faults committed by perfons of different condition. JOHNSON.

The reading of the old copy, ourself, which Dr. Warburton changed to yourself, is fupported by a paffage in the fifth act: If he had fo offended,

2

66

"He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself,

"And not have cut him off." MALONE.

- that my fenfe breeds with it.] That is, new thoughts are stirring in my mind, new conceptions are batched in ray imagination. So we fay to brood over thought. JOHNSON.

Sir W. Davenant's alteration favours the fenfe of the old reading [breeds, which Mr. Pope changed to bleeds]:

She speaks fuck fenfe

As with my reafon breeds fuch images

As he has excellently form'd. STEEVENS.

I rather think the meaning is,-She delivers her fentiments with fuch propriety, force, and elegance, that my fenfual defires are inflamed by what the fays. Senfe has been already ufed in this play with the fame Agnification:

"one who never feels

"The wanton flings and motions of the fenfe." MALONE.