1 Gent. What? 7 in metre? 8 Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language. Lucio. Ay, why not? Grace is grace, defpight of all controverfy: As for example, thou thyfelf art a wicked villain, defpight of all grace. 1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of sheers be tween us.' Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lifts and the velvet. Thou art the lift. 1 Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a lift of an English kerfey, as be pil'd, as 7 -in metre?] In the primers, there are metrical graces, fuch as, I fuppofe, were used in Shakespeare's time. JOHNSON. In any proportion, &c.] The Oxford editor gives us a dialogue of his own inftead of this: and all for want of knowing the meaning of the word proportion, which fignifies measure: and refers to the queftion, What? in metre? WARBURTON. despight of all controverfy:] Satirically infinuating that the controverfies about grace were fo intricate and endless, that the difputants unfettled every thing but this, that grace was grace; which, however, in fpite of controverfy, ftill remained certain. WARBURTON. I am in doubt whether Shakespeare's thoughts reached fo far into ecclefiaftical difputes. Every commentator is warped a little by the tract of his own profeffion. The question is, whether the fecond gentleman has ever heard grace. The firft gentleman limits the question to grace in metre. Lucio enlarges it to grace in any form or language. The first gentleman, to go beyond him, fays, or in any religion, which Lucio allows, because the nature of things is unalterable; grace is as immutably grace, as his merry antagonist is a wicked villain. Difference in religion cannot make a grace not to be grace, a prayer not to be holy; as nothing can make a villain not to be a villain. This feems to be the meaning, fuch as it is. JOHNSON. there went but a pair of sheers between us.] We are both of the fame piece. JOHNSON. So in the Maid of the Mill, by Beaumont and Fletcher."There went but a pair of fheers and a bodkin between them." STEEVENS. thou thou art pil'd, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now? Lucio. I think thou doft; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy fpeech: I will, out of thine own confeffion, learn to begin thy health: but, whilft I live, forget to drink after thee. I Gent. I think, I have done myself wrong, have I not? 2 Gent. Yes, that thou haft, whether thou art tainted, or free. Lucio. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes! I have purchas'd as many difeafes under her roof, as come to— 2 2 Gent. To what, I pray? 1 Gent. Judge. 2 Gent. To three thousand dollars a year.3 I Gent. Ay, and more. Lucio. A French crown more.+ 1 Gent. 2 pild, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet.] The jeft about the pile of a French velvet alludes to the lofs of hair in the French difeafe, a very frequent topick of our authour's jocularity. Lucio. finding that the gentleman understands the diflemper fo well, and mentions it fo feelingly, promifes to remember to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him. It was the opinion of Shakefpeare's time, that the cup of an infected perfon was contagious. JOHNSON. The jeft lies between the fimilar found of the words pill'd and pil'd. This I have elfewhere explained, under a paffage in Henry VIII. "Pill'd prieft thou lieft." STEEVENS. To three thousand dollars a year.] A quibble intended between dollars and dolours. HANMER. The fame jeft occured before in the Tempeft. JOHNSON. ↑ A French crown more.] Lucio means here not the piece of money fo called, but that venereal fcab, which among the furgeons is ftiled corona Veneris. To this, I think, our author likewife makes Quince allude in Midfummer-Night's Dream. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced. For 1 Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me : but thou art full of error; I am found. Lucio. Nay, not as one would fay healthy; but fo found, as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety hath ma le a feaft of thee. Enter Bawd. 1 Gent. How now, which of your hips has the most profound sciatica ? Bawd. Well, well; there's one yonder arrested, and carry'd to prison, was worth five thousand of you all. 1 Gent. Who's that, I pr'ythee? Bawd. Marry, fir, that's Claudio, fignior Claudio. 1 Gent. Claudio to prifon? 'tis not fo. Bawd. Nay, but I know, 'tis fo. I faw him arrested; faw him carry'd away; and, which is more, within these three days his head is to be chop'd off. Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it fo. Art thou fure of this? Bawd. I am too fure of it: and it is for getting madam Julietta with child. Lucio. Believe me, this may be. He promised to meet me two hours fince, and he was ever precife in promise-keeping. 2 Gent. Befides, you know, it draws fomething near to the speech we had to fuch a purpose. 1 Gent. But most of all agreeing with the proclamation. Lucio. Away; let's go learn the truth of it. Manet Bawd. [Exeunt. Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the For where these eruptions are, the fkull is carious, and the party becomes bald. THEOBALD. fweat, fweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk. How now, what's the news with you? Enter Clown. Clown. Yonder man is carry'd to prison. Clown. A woman, Bawd. But what's his offence? Clown. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Bawd. What? is there a maid with child by him? Clown. No; but there's a woman with maid by him. You have not heard of the proclamation, have you. Bawd. What proclamation, man? Clown. All houses in the fuburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down. Bawd. And what shall become of those in the city? Clown. They fhall ftand for feed: they had gone down too, but that a wife burgher put in for them. Bawd. But fhall all our houses of refort in the fuburbs be pull'd down? Clown. To the ground, mistress. Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth. What fhall become of me? Clown. Come, fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapfter ftill. Courage; there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almoft out in the fervice, you will be confidered. Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfter? Let's withdraw. 5 what with the fweat,] This may allude to the fweating ficknefs, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shakefpeare: but more probably to the method of cure then used for the diseases contracted in brothels. JOHNSON. I Clown Clown. Here comes fignior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt Bawd and Clown SCENE III. Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers; Lucio and two Gentlemen. Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world? Bear me to prifon, where I am committed. But from lord Angelo by fpecial charge. Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight.• Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight.- The wrong pointing of the fecond line hath made the passage unintelligible. There ought to be a full ftop at weight. And the fenfe of the whole is this: The demi-god, Authority, makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of beaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus,-I pu nifh and remit punishment according to my own uncontroulable will; and yet who can fay, what doft thou?-Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight, is a fine expreffion, to fignify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not fo by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the fpecies. WARBURTON. I fufpect that a line is loft. JOHNSON. It may be read, the fword of heaven. Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down for our offence, by weight- Authority is then poetically called the fword of heaven, which will fpare or punish as it is commanded. The alteration is flight, being made only by taking a fingle letter from the end of the word, and placing it at the beginning. This very ingenious and elegant emendation was fuggefted to me by the Rev. Mr. Roberts, of Eten. STEEVENS. The |