SCENE V.

Changes to the Fields without the Town.

Enter Duke in his own habit, and Friar Peter.

I

Duke. Thefe letters at fit time deliver me.

[Giving letters.

The Provost knows our purpose and our plot.
The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,
And hold you ever to our fpecial drift;

Tho' fometimes you do blench from this to that,
As caufe doth minifter. Go, call at Flavius' house,"
And tell him, where I ftay: give the like notice
Unto Valentius, Rowland, and to Craffus,
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;
But fend me Flavius firft.

Peter. It shall be speeded well.

Enter Varrius.

[Exit Friar.

Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou haft made good

hafte :

Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends
Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.
[Exeunt

SCENE VI.

Enter Ifabella and Mariana.

Ifab. To fpeak fo indirectly, I am loth:
I would fay the truth; but to accufe him fo,
That is your part: yet I'm advis'd to do it,

Thefe letters- ] Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his ftory without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed. JOHNSON.

He fays, to vail full purpose."

Mari. Be rul'd by him.

Ifab. Befides, he tells me, that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverfe fide,

I fhould not think it ftrange; for 'tis a phyfick,
That's bitter to fweet end.

Mari. I would, friar Peter

Ifab. Oh, peace; the friar is come.

Enter Peter.3

Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,

Where you may have fuch vantage on the duke, He fhall not pafs you. Twice have the trumpets founded:

He fays, to vail full purpose.] Thus the old copies. I don't know, what idea our editors formed to themselves of vailing full purpose; but, I'm perfuaded, the poet meant, as I have restored, viz. to a purpofe that will stand us in ftead, that will profit us. THEOBALD.

He fays, to vail full purpose.] Mr. Theobald alters it to,

He fays, t' availful purpose;

because he has no idea of the common reading. A good reason! Yet the common reading is right. Full is ufed for beneficial; and the meaning is, He fays, it is to hide a beneficial purpose, that must not yet be revealed. WARBURTON.

To vail full purpose, may, with very little force on the words, mean, to hide the whole extent of our defign, and therefore the reading may ftand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theobald's alteration either lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with fuch laxity, as to make full the fame with beneficial, is to put an end, at once, to all neceffity of emendation, for any word may then fland in the place of another. JOHNSON.

3 Enter Peter. This play has two Friars, either of whom might fingly have ferved. I fhould therefore imagine, that Friar Thomas, in the first act, might be changed, without any harm, to Friar Peter; for why fhould the Duke unneceffarily truft two in an affair which required only one. The name of Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore feems arbitrarily placed at the head of the fcene. JOHNSON.

The

The generous and gravest citizens

4

Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The duke is entring; therefore hence, away.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

A publick Place near the City.

Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, Efcalus, Lucio, and Citizens, at feveral doors.

M

DUKE.

very worthy coufin, fairly met :—

Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to fee you.

Ang. and Efcal. Happy return be to your royal grace!

Duke. Many and hearty thanks be to you both. We have made enquiry of you; and we hear Such goodness of your juftice, that our foul Cannot but yield you forth to publick thanks, Fore-running more requital.

Ang. You make my bonds ftill greater.
Duke. Oh, your defert fpeaks loud; and I should
wrong it,

To lock it in the wards of covert bofom,
When it deferves with characters of brass
A forted refidence, 'gainft the tooth of time
And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,
And let the subjects fee, to make them know

* Have bent the gates,-] Have taken poffeffion of the gates.

1 4

JOHNSON.

That

That outward courtefies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within. Come, Efcalus;
You must walk by us on our other hand :-
And good fupporters are you. [As the Duke is going out,
Enter Peter and Isabella,

Peter. Now is your time: fpeak loud, and kneel
before him.

Ifab. Juftice, O royal Duke! vail your regard
Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have faid, a maid!
Oh, worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
By throwing it on any other object,

Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
And given me juftice, juftice, juftice, juftice!
Duke. Relate your wrongs: In what, by whom
be brief:

Here is lord Angelo fhall give you justice;
Reveal yourself to him.

Ifab. Oh, worthy duke,

You bid me feek redemption of the devil:
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak
Muft either punish me, not being believ❜d,

Or wring redress from you: hear me, oh, hear me,

here.

Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm; She hath been a fuitor to me for her brother, Cut off by courfe of justice.

5vail your regard] That is, withdraw your thoughts from higher things, let your notice defcend upon a wronged woman. To vail, is to lower. JOHNSON.

This is one of the few expreffions which might have been borrowed from the old play of Promes and Caffa dra, 1598,

"vail thou thine ears."

So in Stanyhurst's tranflation of the 4th Book of Virgil's Eneid, Phrygio liceat fervire marito.

Let Dido vail her heart to bed-fellow Trojan."

STEEVENS.

Wab.

Ifab. By courfe of justice!

Ang. And fhe will fpeak moft bitterly, and frange.
Ifab. Moft ftrange, but yet moft truly, will I speak,
That Angelo's foriworn; is it not strange?
That Angelo's a murtherer; is't not ftrange?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
An hypocrite, a virgin violater;
Is it not ftrange, and strange?

Duke. Nay, it is ten times ftrange.
lfab. It is not truer he is Angelo,
Than this is all as true as it is ftrange:
Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.

Duke. Away with her: Poor foul,

She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.

Ifab. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st There is another comfort than this world,

That thou neglect me not, with that opinion.

That I am touch'd with madness. Make not impoffible

That, which but seems unlike: 'tis not impoffible,
But one, the wicked'ft caitiff on the ground,

י

May feem as fhy, as grave, as juft, as abfolute,
As Angelo; even fo may Angelo,

In all his dreffings, characts, titles, forms,

-truth is truth

To the end of reckoning.]

That is, truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of encrease can be fo much what it is, as truth is truth. There may be a firange thing, and a thing more frange, but if a propofition be true, there can be none more true. JOHNSON.

7-as fhy, as grave, as juft, as abfolute,] As fby; as referved, as abftracted: as juft; as nice, as exact: as abfolute; as complete in all the round of duty. JOHNSON.

In all bis dreffings, &c.] In all his femblance of virtue, in all bis habiliments of office. JOHNSON.

? characts,--] i. e. characters. See Dugdale, Orig. Jurid. p. 81. That he use ne hide, no charme, ne carece."

T. T.

Be