The general fubject to a well-wish'd king'
Quit their own part, and in obfequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
Muft needs appear offence.

* The gen❜ral subjeɛs to a well-wish'd king] So the later editions: but the old copies read,

The general fubject to a well-wish'd king.

The general fubje& seems a harsh expreffion, but general fubjects has no fenfe at all; and general was, in our authour's time, a word for people, fo that the general is the people, or multitude, fubject to a king. So in Hamlet: The play pleafed not the million; 'twas caviare to the general. JOHNSON.

The poet might have written,

The gentle fubjects

These words have more than once been printed for each other. Gentle would bear, in this place, its common fignification.

STEEVENS. So the Duke had before [act i. fcene z.] expreffed his diflike of popular applause.

"I'll privily away. I love the people,

"But do not like to ftage me to their eyes.
Though it do well, I do not relish well
"Their loud applause and ave's vehement:
"Nor do I think the man of safe difcretion,
"That does affe&t it..

I cannot help thinking that Shakespeare, in these two paffages intended to flatter that unkingly weakness of James the firit, which made him fo impatient of the crowds that flocked to fee him, efpecially upon his firft coming, that, as fome of our historians fay, he reftrained them by a proclamation, Sir Symonds D'Ewes, in his Memoirs of his own Life*, has a remarkable paffage with regard to this humour of James. After taking notice, that the king going to parliament, on the 30th of January, 1620-1," spake "lovingly to the people, and faid. God bless ye, God bless ye;" he adds these words," contrary to his former hafty and paffionate "cuftom, which often, in his fudden diftemper, would bid a pox "or a plague on such as flocked to see him."

Obfervations and Conjectures, &c. printed at Oxford, 1766.

• A manuscript in the British Museum,

Enter Isabella.

How now, fair maid?

Ifab. I am come to know your pleasure. Ang. That you might know it, would much better please me,

Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot

live.

Ifab. Even fo?-Heaven keep your honour!

[Going, Ang. Yet may he live a while; and, it may be, As long as you or I : yet he muft die. Ifab. Under your sentence?

Ang. Yea.

Ifab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve, Longer, or fhorter, he may be fo fitted,

That his foul ficken not.

Ang. Ha! fie, thefe filthy vices! It were as good To pardon him, that hath from nature ftol'n

A man already made, as to remit

Their fawcy fweetness, that do coin heaven's image
In ftamps that are forbid: 'tis all as eafy,"
Falfely to take away a life true made,'

As to put metal in reftrained means,+

2

Το

'tis all as eafy,] Eafy is here put for light or trifling. 'Tis, fays he, as light or trifling a crime to do fo, as fo, &c. Which the Oxford editor not apprehending, has altered it to juft; for 'tis much easier to conceive what Shakespeare fhould fay, than what he does fay. So just before, the poet faid, with his ufual licence, their fawcy fweetness, for fawcy indulgence of the appetite. And this, forfooth, must be changed to sawcy lewdness, though the epithet confines us, as it were, to the poet's word.

WARBURTON.

3 Falfely to take away a life true made,] Falfely is the fame with difbeneftly, illegally: fo falfe, in the next lines, is illegal, illegitimate. JOHNSON. -in refrained means] In forbidden moulds. I fufpe& means not to be the right word, but I cannot find another.

JOHNSON.
I should

To make a falfe one.

Ifab. 'Tis fet down fo in heaven, but not in earth. Ang. And fay you fo? then I shall poze you quickly.

Which had you rather, That the most just law
Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,
Give up your body to fuch fweet uncleanness,
As fhe, that he hath ftain'd?

Ifab. Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my foul.

Ang. I talk not of your foul: Our compell'd fins Stand more for number than accompt.

Ifab. How fay you?

Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I fay. Anfwer to this:I, now the voice of the recorded law, Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life: Might there not be a charity in fin, To fave this brother's life? Ifab. Please you to do't, I'll take it as a peril to my foul, It is no fin at all, but charity.

I should fufpect that the author wrote, -in reftrained mints,

as the allufion is to coining. STEEVENS.

5 'Tis so set down in heaven, but not in earth.] I would have it confidered, whether the train of the discourse does not rather require Ifabel to fay,

'Tis fo fet down in earth, but not in heaven.

When she has faid this, Then, fays Angelo, I shall poze you quickly. Would you, who, for the prefent purpofe, declare your brother's crime to be lefs in the fight of heaven, than the law has made it; would you commit that crime, light as it is, to fave your brother's life? To this she answers, not very plainly in either reading, but more appofitely to that which I propofe:

I had rather give my body, than my foul. JOHNSON.

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't at peril of your soul, Were equal poize of fin and charity.

Ifab. That I do beg his life, if it be fin, Heaven, let me bear it! you, granting of my fuit, If that be fin, I'll make it my morn prayer To have it added to the faults of mine, And nothing of your answer."

Ang. Nay, but hear me:

Your fenfe purfues not mine: either you are ignorant; Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good.

Ifab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better.

Ang. Thus wifdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as thefe black masks 'Proclaim an enfhield beauty ten times louder, Than beauty could difplayed.-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more grofs; Your brother is to die.

Ifab. So.

Ang. And his offence is fo, as it appears
Accountant to the law upon that pain.
Ifab. True.

Ang. Admit no other way to fave his life,

Pleas'd you to do't on peril, &c.] The reafoning is thus: Angelo afks, whether there might not be a charity in fin to fave this brother. Ifabella answers, that if Angelo will fave him, he will fake her foul that it were charity, not fin. Angelo replies, that if Ifabella would fave him at the hazard of her foul, it would be not indeed no fin, but a fin to which the charity would be equivalent.

JOHNSON. And nothing of your answer.] I think it should be read,

And nothing of yours answer.

You, and whatever is yours, be exempt from penalty. JOHNSON. And nothing of your answer, means, and make no part of those which you fhall be called to answer for. STEEVENS.

8 Proclaim an enfhield beauty] An enfield beauty means, a beauty covered as with a field. STEEVENS,

• Accountant to the law upon that pain,] Pain is here for penalty, punishment. JOHNSON,

(As

2

(As I subscribe not that,' nor any other,
But in the lofs of question,) that you, his fifter,
Finding yourself defir'd of fuch a perfon,
Whofe credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-binding law; and that there were
No earthly mean to fave him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this fuppofed, or elfe let him fuffer;
What would you do?

3

lfab. As much for my poor brother, as myself:
That is, were I under the terms of death,
The impreffion of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing I have been fick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

Ang. Then muft your brother die.
Ifab. And 'twere the cheaper way:
Better it were, a brother dy'd at once,+

(As I fubfcribe net that,-] To fubfcribe means, to agree to. Milton ufes the word in the fame fenfe.

STEEVENS,

2 But in the lofs of question,)] The loss of question I do not well understand, and thould rather read,

But in the tofs of question.

In the agitation, in the difcuffion of the queftion. To tofs an argument is a common phrafe. JOHNSON.

But by loss of queftion. This expreffion I believe means, but in idle Suppofition, or converfation that tends to nothing, which may therefore, in our author's language, be call'd the lofs of question. Ques tion, in Shakespeare, often bears this meaning. STEEVENS.

3 Of the all-binding law ;

-all-building law,

]The old editions read,

from which the editors have made all-bolding; yet Mr. Theobald has binding in one of his copies. JOHNSON.

-a brother died at once,] Perhaps we should read,

Better it were, a brother died for once,

Than that a fifter, by redeeming him,

Should die for ever.

JOHNSON.