The words of heaven;-on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis just.

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As furfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate ufe

Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and, when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could fpeak fo wifely under an arrest, I would fend for certain of my creditors: And yet, to fay the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment. What's thy offence, Claudio?

Claud. What, but to speak of, would offend again. Lucio. What is it, murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Letchery?

Claud. Call it fo.

Prov. Away, fir; you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend:-Lucio, a word

with you.

Lucio. A hundred, if they'll do you any good.Is letchery fo look'd after?

זי

Claud. Thus ftands it with me: Upon a true con

tract,

got poffeffion of Julietta's bed;

You know the lady; fhe is faft my wife,

Save that we do the denunciation lack

"I got poffefion of Julietta's bed, &c.] This fpeech is furely. too indelicate to be spoken concerning Juliet, before her face, for the appears to be brought in with the reft, tho' fhe has nothing to fay. The Clown points her out as they enter; and yet, from Claudio's telling Lucio, that he knows the lady, &c. one would think he was not meant to have made her perfonal appearance on the fcene. STEEVENS.

VOL. II.

C

Of

Of outward order. This we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chancés,
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,
With character too grofs, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even fo.

And the new deputy now for the duke,
(Whether it be the fault, and glimpse, of newness ;*
Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the feat, that it may know
He can command, let's it ftraight feel the spur:
Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I ftagger in :)-But this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unfcour'd armour, hung by the wall,

So long that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,'
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me :-'Tis, furely, for a name.

8 the fault and glimpse of newness ;] Fault and glimpfe have fo little relation to each other, that both can scarcely be right: we may read flash for fault: or, perhaps we may read,

Whether it be the fault or glimpfe

That is, whether it be the feeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. Yet the fame fenfe follows in the next fines. JOHNSON.

So long that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,] The duke in the fcene immediately following fays,

Which for thefe fourteen years we have let flip.

The author could not fo difagree with himself. "Tis neceffary to make the two accounts correfpond. THEOBALD.

Lucio.

Lucio. I warrant, it is: And thy head ftands fo tickle' on thy fhoulders, that a milk-maid, if fhe be in love, may figh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

Claud. I have done fo,

but he's not to be found.

I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind fervice:
This day my fifter fhould the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation:

Acquaint her with the danger of

my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that fhe make friends
To the strict deputy; bid herself afsay him;
I have great hope in that: for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,

fo tickle] i. e. ticklish. This word is frequently ufed by our old dramatic authors. So in The true Tragedy of Marius and Scilla,

Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612,

-upon as tickle a pin as the needle of a dial."

Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1610,

"Now stands our fortune on a tickle point."

Again, Byron's Tragedy,

-all his fways

"And tickle aptness to exceed his bounds." STEEVENS. 2-prone and speechless dialect,] I can fcarcely tell what fignification to give to the word prone. Its primitive and tranflated fenfes are well known. The authour may, by a prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as those actions feem to which we are prone. Either of thefe interpretations are fufficiently ftrained; but fuch distortion of words is not uncommon in our authour. For the fake of an cafier sense, we may read,

There is a prompt and speechless diale&. JOHNSON. Prone, perhaps, may ftand for bumble, as a prone pofture is a pofture of fupplication. STEEVENS.

C 2

Such

Such as moves men; befide, fhe hath profperous art
When the will play with reafon and difcourie,
And well he can perfuade.

Lucio. I pray, he may as well for the encouragement of the like, which elfe would ftand under grievpus impofition; } as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be forry should be thus foolishly loft at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours,-

Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Enter Duke and Friar Thomas.

Duke. No, holy father,- -Throw away that thought;

Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a compleat bofom: why I defire thee
To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpose

More grave, and wrinkled, than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri. May your grace fpeak of it?

Duke. My holy fir, none better knows than you, How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt affemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witlefs bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

3 under grievous impofition:] I once thought it fhould be inquifition, but the prefent reading is probably right. The crime would be under grievous penalties impofed. JOHNSON.

4 Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a compleat bofm:

-]

Think not that a breaft compleatly armed can be pierced by the dart of love that comes fluttering without force. JOHNSON.

(A

(A man of stricture and firm abftinence')
My abfolute power and place here in Vienna;
And he fuppofes me travell'd to Poland;
For fo I have ftrew'd it in the common ear,
And fo it is receiv'd: Now, pious fir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have ftrict ftatutes, and most biting laws,

The needful bits and curbs for head-ftrong fteeds," Which for thefe nineteen years we have let fleep ;7

Even

A man of stricture and firm abftinence,] Stricture makes no sense in this place. We should read,

A man of ftrict ure and firm abftinence,

i. e. a man of the exacleft conduct, and practifed in the fubdual of his paffions. Ure an old word for ufe, practice: fo enur'd, habituated to. WARBURTON.

Stridure may eafily be ufed for Arianefs; ure is indeed an old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to perfons.

JOHNSON.

The needful bits and curbs for head-ftrong feeds,] In the copies,

The needful bits and curbs for head-firong weeds. There is no matter of analogy or confonance in the metaphors here: and, though the copies agree, I do not think, the author would have talked of bits and curbs for weeds. On the other hand, nothing can be more proper, than to compare perfons of unbridled licentiousness to head-ftrong feeds: and, in this view, bridling the paffions has been a phrase adopted by our beft poets. THEOBALD.

7

Which for thefe nineteen years we have let fleep ;] In former editions,

Which for thefe fourteen years we have let flip. For fourteen I have made no fcruple to replace nineteen. I have altered the odd phrafe of letting the laws flip: for how does it fort with the comparison that follows, of a lion in his cave that went not out to prey? But letting the laws fleep, adds a particular propriety to the thing reprefented, and accords exactly too with the fimile. It is the metaphor too, that our author feems fond of afing upon this occafion, in feveral other paffages of this play.

The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath slept ;

'Tis now awake.