Than that a fifter, by redeeming him,

Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence, Which you have flander'd fo?

Ifab. Ignominy in ranfom, and free pardon, Are of two houfes: lawful mercy, fure,

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

Ang. You feem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother A merriment, than a vice.

Ifab. O pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what we

mean;

I fomething do excufe the thing I hate,
For his advantage that I dearly love.
Ang. We are all frail.

Ifab. Elfe let my brother die,

If not a feodary, but only he,'

Qwe, and fucceed by weakness.

Ang. Nay, women are frail too.

Ifab. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themfelves;

If not a feodary, but only be, &c.] This is fo obfcure, but the allufion fo fine, that it deferves to be explained. A feedary was one that in the times of vaffallage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and fervice: which tenures were called feuda amongst the Goths. Now, fays Angelo," we are all "frail; yes, replies Ifabella; if all mankind were not feodaries, "who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecillity, and who "fucceed each other by the fame tenure, as well as my brother, I "would give him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original fin, to a feodary, who owes fuit and fervice to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. WARBURTON. Shakespeare has the fame allufion in Cymbeline.

-fenfelefs bauble,

"Art thou a feodarie for this a&t?" STEEVENS. Owe, and fuccred] To owe is, in this place, to own, to eld, to have poffeffion. JOHNSON,

Which are as eafy broke, as they make forms." Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar, In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail, For we are as foft as our complexions are,

And credulous to falfe prints.

Ang. I think it well:

And from this teftimony of your own fex,
(Since, I fuppofe, we are made to be no ftronger,
Than faults may shake our frames) let me be bold.
I do arreft your words: Be that you are,

That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none:
If you be one (as you are well exprefs'd
By all external warrants) fhew it now,
By putting on the deftin'd livery.
Ifab. I have no tongue but one.

Gentle my lord, Let me intreat you, fpeak the former language,' Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you,

Ifab. My brother did love Juliet;

And you tell me, that he fhall die for it.

Ang. He fhall not, Ifabel, if you give me love,
Ijab. I know your virtue hath a licence in't,*

7

-glasses

Which are as eafy broke, as they make forms.]

Would it not be better to read,

take forms.

8 In profiting by them. them for examples. JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

-] In imitating them, in taking

And credulous to falfe prints.] i. e. take any impreffion.

WARBURTON.

-Speak the former language.] We fhould read formal, which he here uses for plain, direct. WARBURTON.

Ifabella anfwers to his circumlocutory courtship, that he has but one tongue, she does not understand this new phrafe, and defires him to talk his former language, that is, to talk as he talked before. JOHNSON.

2 I know your virtue bath a licence in't,] Alluding to the licences given by minifters to their fpies, to go into all fufpected compapies, and join in the language of malecontents. WARBURTON.

Which feems a little fouler than it is,

To pluck on others.

Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose.

Ifab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, And moft pernicious purpofe !-Seeming, feeming!3

I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a prefent pardon for my brother,

Or, with an out-stretch'd throat, I'll tell the world
Aloud, what man thou art.

Ang. Who will believe thee, Ifabel?

My unfoil'd name, the auftereness of my life,

4

* My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,
Will fo your accufation over-weigh,

That you fhall ftifle in your own report,
And smell of calumny. I have begun ;
And now I give my fenfual race the rein,
Fit thy confent to my fharp appetite,
Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they fue for: redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;

Or else he must not only die the death,'

But thy unkindness fhall his death draw out

3

Seeming, feeming !—] Hypocrify, hypocrify; counter

feit virtue. JOHNSON.

4 My vouch against you,

-] The calling his denial of her

charge his vouch, has fomething fine. Vouch is the teftimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he infinuates his authority was fo great, that his denial would have the fame credit that a vouch or teftimony has in ordinary cafes. WARBURTON. I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouch against means no more than denial. JOHNSON.

-die the death,] This feems to be a folemn phrafe for death inflicted by law. So in Midjammer Night's Dream.

Prepare to die the death. JOHNSON.

It is a phrafe taken from fcripture, as is obferved in a note on the Midfummer-Night's Dream. STEEVENS.

Το

To lingering fufferance. Anfwer me to-morrow;
Or, by the affection that now guides me moft,
I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,

Say what you can; my false o'erweighs your true.
[Exit.
Ifab. To whom fhould I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O most perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-fame tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof!

Bidding the law make courtly to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow, as it draws! I'll to my brother..
Tho' he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him fuch a mind of honour,
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his fifter fhould her body stoop
To fuch abhorr'd pollution.

Then, Ifabel, live chafte; and, brother, die;
More than our brother is our chastity.

I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request ;

And fit his mind to death, for his foul's reft. [Exit.

7

prompture] Suggeftion, temptation, infligation.

JOHNSON.

-fuch a mind of bonour,] This, in Shakespeare's language may mean, fuch an honourable mind, as he ufes elfewhere mind of love, for loving mind. STEEVENS.

ACT

SCENE I.

THE

PRISON.

ACT III.

then

Enter Duke, Claudio, and Provoft.

DUKE.

you hope of pardon from lord Angelo ? Claud. The miferable have no other medicine, But only hope:

8

either death, or life,

I have hope to live, and am prepar❜d to die.
Duke. Be abfolute for death;
Shall thereby be the fweeter.

life;

If I do lofe thee, I do lofe a thing,

Reason thus with

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,

8 Be abfolute for death; any hope of life. Horace,

-] Be determined to die, without

-The hour, which exce:ds expectation will be welcome.

JOHNSON. Bat this reading is

That none but foo's would keep not only contrary to all fenfe and reafon; but to the drift of this moral difcourfe. The duke, in his affumed character of a friar, is endeavouring to inftil into the condemned prifoner a refignation of mind to his fentence; but the fenfe of the lines in this reading, is a direct perfuafive to fuicide: I make no doubt, but the poet wrote,

That none but fools would reck:

i. e. care for, be anxious about, regret the lofs of. So in the tragedy of Tancred and Gijmunda, act iv. fc. 3.

Not that he recks this life

And Shakespeare, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona,

Recking as litle what betidith me

WARBURTON.

The meaning feems plainly this, that nore but fools would with to keep life; or, non but fools would keep it, if choice were allowed. A fenfe, which whether true or not, is certainly innocent.

JOHNSON.
Ser-