In this I will be partial: be you judge

Of your own cause. Is this the witness, friar?

[Ifabella is carried off, guarded.

Enter Mariana veil'd.

First let her fhew her face; and, after, speak.
Mari. Pardon, my lord; I will not fhew my face,
Until my husband bid me.

Duke. What, are you marry'd?

Mari. No, my lord.

Duke. Are you a maid?

Mari. No, my lord.

Duke. A widow then?

Mari. Neither, my lord.

Duke. Why, are you nothing then?

Neither maid, widow, nor wife.

Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk: for many of them

Are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

Duke. Silence that fellow: I would, he had fome cause

To prattle for himself,

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Mari. My lord, I do confefs, I ne'er was marry'd; And, I confefs, befides, I am no maid;

-Come, coufin Angelo,

In this I'll be impartial; be you judge

Of your own cause.

Surely this Duke had odd notions of impartiality; to commit the decifion of a caufe to the perfon accufed. He talks much more rationally in the character of the Friar.

-The duke's unjust,

Thus to retort your manifeft appeal;

And put your trial in the villain's mouth,

Whom here you come t' accuse.—

I think, there needs no stronger authority to convince, that the poet must have wrote, as I have corrected,

In this I will be partial;

THEOBALD.

I have known my husband; yet my husband knows

пог,

That ever he knew me.

Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord; it can be no better.

Duke. For the benefit of filence, would thou wert fo too.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Duke. This is no witnefs for lord Angelo.
Mari. Now I come to't, my lord:

She, that accuses him of fornication,

In felf fame manner doth accufe my husband;
And charges him, my lord, with fuch a time,
When I'll depofe I had him in mine arms,
With all the effect of love.

Ang. Charges fhe more than me?

Mari. Not that I know.

Duke. No? you fay your husband. [To Mariana. Mari. Why, juft, my lord, and that is Angelo; Who thinks, he knows, that he ne'er knew my body; But knows, he thinks, that he knows Ifabel's.

Ang. This is a ftrange abuse.-Let's fee thy face.
Mari. My hufband bids me; now I will unmask.
[Unveiling.

This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
Which, once thou fwor'ft, was worth the looking on:
This is the hand, which, with a vow'd contract,
Was faft belock'd in thine: this is the body,

That took away the match from Ifabel,

And did fupply thee, at thy garden-house,
In her imagin'd perfon.

Duke. Know you this woman?

2 This is a frange abuse

deception, or puzzle. So in Macbeth,

This firange and self abuse,

] Abuse stands in this place for

means, this ftrange deception of himself. JOHNSON.

Lucio.

Lucio. Carnally, the fays.

Duke. Sirrah, no more,

Lucio. Enough, my lord.

Ang. My lord, I must confefs, I know this woman; And, five years fince, there was some speech of mar. riage

Betwixt myself and her: which was broke off,
Partly, for that her promised proportions
Came fhort of compofition; but, in chief,
For that her reputation was disvalu'd
In levity fince which time, of five

years,

I never spake with her, faw her, nor heard from her, Upon my faith and honour,

Mari. Noble prince,

As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath,

As there is fenfe in truth, and truth in virtue,

I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly

As words could make up vows: and, my good lord, But Tuesday night laft gone, in his garden-house, He knew me as a wife. As this is true,

Let me in fafety raise me from my knees;

Or elfe for ever be confixed here,

A marble monument!

Ang. I did but fmile 'till now.

Now, good my lord, give me the scope of juftice; My patience here is touch'd: I do perceive,

* These poor informal women are no more

Came fhort of composition;——】

But

Her fortune, which was promifed proportionate to mine, fell fhort of the compofition, that is, contract or bargain. JOHNSON,

Thefe poor informal women- -] i. e. women who have ill concerted their story. Formal fignifies frequently, in our authour, a thing put into form or method: fo informal, out of method, ill concerted. How easy is it to fay, that Shakespeare might better have wrote informing, i. e. accufing. But he who (as the Oxford

editor)

But inftruments of fome more mightier member,
That fets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.

Duke. Ay, with my heart;

And punish them unto your height of pleasure. Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, Compact with her that's gone! think'ft thou, thy oaths,

Tho' they would fwear down each particular faint, Were teftimonies 'gainst his worth and credit, That's feal'd in approbation? 5

You, lord Efcalus,

Sit with my coufin; lend him your kind pains
To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd.-
There is another friar, that fet them on;

Let him be sent for.

editor) thinks he did write fo, knows nothing of the character of his ftile. WARBURTON.

I once believed informal had no other or deeper fignification than informing, accufing. The scope of juftice, is the full extent; but think, upon farther enquiry, that informal fignifies incompetent, not qualified to give teftimony. Of this ufe there are precedents to be found, though I cannot now recover them. JOHNSON.

Informal fignifies out of their fenfes. In the Comedy of Errors, we meet with these lines:

"Till I have us'd the approved means I have,

"With whole fome fyrups, drugs, and holy prayers, "To make of him a formal man again."

Formal, in this paffage, evidently fignifies in his fenfes. The dines are spoken of Antipholis of Syracufe, who is behaving like a madman. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra,

"Thou shouldst come like a fury crown'd with snakes, "Not like a formal man." STEEVENS.

5 That's feal'd in approbation ?] When any thing fubject to counterfeits is tried by the proper officers and approved, a ftamp or feal is put upon it, as among us on plate, weights, and measures. So the Duke fays, that Angelo's faith has been tried, approved, and feal'd in teftimony of that approbation, and, like other things fo fealed, is no more to be called in queftion. JOHNSON.

Peter.

Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, in

deed,

Hath fet the women on to this complaint.

Your provost knows the place where he abides;
And he may fetch him.

Duke. Go, do it instantly;

And you, my noble and well-warranted coufin,
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,"
Do with your injuries, as seems you best,
In any chastisement: I for a while

Will leave you; ftir not you, till you have well
Determined upon these flanderers.

[Exit. Efcal. My lord, we'll do it throughly. Signior Lucio, did not you fay, you knew that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?

Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum: honeft in nothing, but in his cloaths; and one that hath spoke moft villainous fpeeches of the duke.

Efcal. We fhall intreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him: We fhall find this friar a notable fellow.

Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word.

Efcal. Call that fame Ifabel here once again; I would speak with her: pray you, my lord, give me leave to queftion; you fhall fee how I'll handle her. Lucio. Not better than he, by her own report. Efcal. Say you?

Lucio. Marry, fir, I think, if you handled her pri vately, the fhould fooner confefs; perchance, publickly fhe'll be afham'd.

Enter Duke in the Friar's habit, and Provaft. Ifabella is brought in.

Efcal. I will go darkly to work with her.

to hear this matter forth,] To hear it to the end; to fearch it to the bottom. JOHNSON.

K. 2

Lucis,