And let him learn to know, when maidens fue,

Men give like Gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as truly theirs,

As they themselves would owe them.3
Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.
Lucio. But, fpeedily.

Ifab. I will about it strait;

No longer staying, but to give the mother 4

Notice of my affair.

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.

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

ANGELO's HOUSE.

Enter Angelo, Efcalus, a Justice, and Attendants.

WE

ANGELO.

E must not make a fcare-crow of the law; Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch, and not their terror.

Efcal. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

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

4the mother] The abbefs, or priorefs. JOHNSON.

5to fear the birds of prey,] To fear is to affright, to terrify.

So in The Merchant of Venice,

Than fall, and bruife to death. Alas! this gentleman,
Whom I would fave, had a most noble father;
Let but your honour know,' (whom I believe
To be moft ftrait in virtue)

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

Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpofe;
Whether you had not fometime in your life
Err'd in this point, which now you cenfure him,
And pull'd the law upon you.

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

The jury, paffing 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 justice,

That juftice feizes on.

What know the laws,

That thieves do pafs on thieves? "Tis very pregnant,

"Than fall, and bruife to death.-] I fhould rather read, fell, i. e. frike down. So in Timon of Athens,

All, fave thee, I fell with curfes.

WARBURTON.

Fall is the old reading, and the true one. Shakespeare has ufed the fame expreffion in the Comedy of Errors,

"Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck"

STEEVENS.

7 Let but your honour know,-] To know is here to examine, to take cognisance. So in Midjummer-Night's Dream,

Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires; Know of your truth, examine will; your blood. JOHNSON. 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.
The

The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not fee,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not fo extenuate his offence,

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

Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he muft die.
Enter Provoft.

Efcal. Be it, as your wifdom 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 confeffor, let him be prepar'd;

For that's the utmoft of his pilgrimage.-[Exit Prov. Efcal. Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us

all!

? Some rife by fin, and fome by virtue fall:

8 For I have bad

have had faults. JOHNSON.

Some

-] That is, because, by reason that I

9 Some rife, &c.] This line is in the firft folio printed in Italics as a quotation. All the folios read in the next line,

Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none.

JOHNSON. The old reading is perhaps the true one, and may mean, fome run away from danger, and flay to answer none of their faults, whil others are condemned only on account of a fingle frailty. If this be the true reading, it should be printed,

Some run from breaks [i. e. fractures] of ice, &c. Since I wrote this, I have found reason to change my opinion. A brake anciently meant not only a sharp.bit, a fnaffle, but also the inclofure into which farriers put fuch unruly horfes as will not permit themselves to be fhod without confinement. This, in fome places, is called a fmith's brake. In this last fenfe, Ben Jonfon afes the word in his Und rwoods.

"And not think he had eat a stake,
"Or were fet up in a brake."

And,

Some run through brakes of vice, and anfwer none; And fome condemned for a fault alone.

Enter Elbow, Froth, Clown, and Officers.

Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but use their abuses in common houfes, I know no law: bring them away.

Ang. How now, fir! What's your name? and what's the matter?

Elb. If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's conftable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon juftice, fir, 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 precife villains they are, that I am fure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good chriftians ought to have.

Efcal. This comes off well; here's a wife officer. Ang. Go to: What quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why doft thou not fpeak, Elbow? Clown. He cannot, fir; he's out at elbow. Ang. What are you, fir?

And, for the former sense, fee the Silent Woman, act iv. Again, for the latter fenfe, Buffy d'Ambois, by Chapman.

"Or, like a ftrumpet, learn to fet my face

"In an eternal brake."

Again, in The Opportunity, by Shirley, 1640.

"He is fallen into fome brake, fome wench has tied him by "the legs."

I offer thefe quotations, which may prove of ufe to fome more fortunate conjecturer; but am able myself to derive very little from them to fuit the paffage before us. STEEVENS.

9 This comes off well;] This is nimbly spoken; this is volubly uttered. JOHNSON.

Elb.

Elb. He, fir? a tapfter, fir; parcel-bawd'; one that ferves a bad woman; whofe houfe, fir, was, as they fay, pluck'd down in the suburbs; and now she profeffes a hot-house'; which, I think, is a very ill

houfe too.

Efcal. How know you that?

Elbow. My wife, fir, whom I deteft before heaven and your honour,

Efcal. How! thy wife?

Elb. Ay, fir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest

woman;

Efcal. Doft thou deteft her therefore?

Elb. Ifay, fir, I will deteft myfelf alfo, as well as fhe, that this houfe, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty houfe.

Efcal How doft thou know that, conftable?

Elb. Marry, fir, by my wife; who, if he had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accufed in fornication, adultery, and all uncleannefs there. Efcal. By the woman's means?

Elb. Ay, fir, by miftrefs Over-done's means: 3 but as fhe fpit in his face, fo fhe defy'd him.

Clown. Sir, if it pleafe your honour, this is not fo. Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, prove it.

A tapfler, fir; parcel bard;] This we should now exprefs by faying, he is half-tapfter, half-bawd. JOHNSON.

2

The profeffes a hot-boufe ;] A bot-boufe is an English name for a baguio.

Where lately harbour'd many a famous whore,

A purging-bill now fix'd upon the door,

Tells you it it a hot-houfe, fo it may,

And fill be a whore-boufe. Ben. Jonfon. JOHNSON.

3 Ay, fir, by mistress Over-done's means :] Here feems to have been fome mention made of Froth, who was to be accused, and fome words therefore may have been loft, unless the irregularity of the narrative may be better imputed to the ignorance of the conftable. JOHNSON.

Efcal.