And you as he, you would have flipt like him; But he, like you, would not have been fo ftern. Ang. Pray you, be gone.

Ifab. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Ifabel! fhould it then be thus? No, I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, And what a prisoner.

Lucio. [Afide. Ay, touch him: there's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but wafte your words.

Ifab. Alas! alas!

Why, all the fouls that were, were forfeit once;'
And He, that might the 'vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy. How would you be,
If He, which is the Top of judgment, fhould
But judge you, as you are? Oh, think on that:
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made 2.

Ang. Be you content, fair maid.

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:
Were he my kinfman, brother, or my fon,

It fhould be thus with him:-he muft die to-morrow. Ifab. To-morrow? Oh! that's fudden. Spare him, fpare him.

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl, of feafon; shall we ferve heaven

- all the fouls that were,- -] This is falfe divinity. We fhould read, are. WARBURTON.

2

And mercy then will breath within your lips,
Like man new made.]

This is a fine thought, and finely expreffed. The meaning is, that mercy will add juch a grace to your perfon, that you will appear as amiable as a man come fresh out of the hands of his Creator.

WARBURTON.

I rather think the meaning is, You would then change the feverity of your prejent character. In familiar fpeech, You would be quite another man. JOHNSON.

With

With less refpect than we do minister

To our grofs felves? Good, good my lord, bethink

you:

Who is it, that hath died for this offence?

There's many have committed it.

Lucio. Ay, well said.

[Afide.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath

slept :

Thofe many had not dar'd to do that evil,

If the first man, that did the edict infringe,'
Had anfwer'd for his deed: Now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,+
Looks in a glass that fhews what future evils,
(Or new, or by remiffness new-conceiv'd,
And fo in progrefs to be hatch'd and born)
Are now to have no fucceffive degrees,
But ere they live to end."

Ifab. Yet fhew fome pity."

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I fhew juftice;

3 If the firft man, &c.] The word man has been fupplied by the modern editors. I would rather read,

Looks in a glass

-]

This alludes to the fopperies of the berril, much ufed at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. WARBURTON.

5 But ere they live to end ] This is very fagacioufly fubftituted by fir Thomas Hanmer, for,

But here they live

Perhaps we fhould read,

But where they live, to end.

6

-fhew fome pity.

JOHNSON.

T. T.

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I fher justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,]

This was one of Hale's memorials. When I find myself fwayed to

mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy likewife due to the country. JOHNSON.

For

For then I pity thofe I do not know,

Which a difmifs'd offence would after gall;
And do him right, that, anfwering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be fatisfy'd;

Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

Ifab. So you must be the first, that gives this fen

tence;

And he, that fuffers. Oh, it is excellent

To have a giant's ftrength; but it is tyrannous,
To ufe it like a giant.

Lucio. That's well faid.

Ifab. Could great men thunder

[Afide.

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet;
For every pelting, petty, officer

Would ufe his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.

Merciful heaven!

Thou rather with thy fharp and fulph'rous bolt
Split'ft the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,"
Than the foft myrtle: O, but man! proud man,
Dreft in a little brief authority,

Moft ignorant of what he's most affur'd,
His glaffy effence; like an angry ape,

Plays fuch fantastick tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who, with our fpleens,
Would all themfelves laugh mortal."

Lucio.

~gnarled oak,] Gnarre is the old English word for a knot in wood. STEEVENS.

As makes the angels weep;] The notion of angels weeping for the fins of men is rabbinical Ob peccatum flentes angeles inducunt Hebræorum magiftri.—Grotius ad Lucam. WARBURTON.

9

-who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.]

Mr. Theobald fays the meaning of this is, that if they were endow ed quith our Spleens and perishable organs, they would laugh themselves out of immortality: Which amounts to this, that if they were mortal, they would not be immortal. Shakespeare meant no fuch nonfenfe. By plens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human

6

mind,

Lucio. [Afide.] Oh, to him, to him, wench: he will relent;

He's coming; I perceiv't.

Prov. [To Lucio.] Pray heaven, fhe win him!

Ifab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourfelf: * Great men may jeft with faints: 'tis wit in them But, in the lefs, foul profanation.

;

Lucio. [Afide.] Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o' that.

Ifab. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the foldier is flat blafphemy.

Lucio. [Afide.] Art advis'd o' that? more on't.
Ang. Why do you put thefe fayings upon me?
Ifab. Becaufe authority, tho' it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bofom;
Knock there; and afk your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confefs
A natural guiltinefs, fuch as is his,

mind, that always inclines it to a fpiteful, unfeasonable mirth. Had the angels that, fays Shakespeare, they would laugh themfelves out of their immortality, by indulging a paffion which does not deferve that prerogative. The ancients thought, that immoderate laughter was caufed by the bignefs of the fpleen.

WARBURTON. We cannot weigh our brother with yourself:] In former editions,

We cannot weigh our brother with ourself. Why not? Tho' this fhould be the reading of all the copies, 'tis as plain as light, it is not the author's meaning. Ifabella would

fay, there is fo great a difproportion in quality betwixt lord Angelo and her brother, that their actions can bear no comparison, or equality, together: but her brother's crimes would be aggravated, Angelo's frailties extenuated, from the difference of their degrees and state of life. WARBURTON.

The old reading is right. We mortals proud and foolish cannot prevail on our paffions to weigh or compare our brother, a being of like nature and like frailty, with ourjelf. We have different names and different judgments for the fame faults committed by perfons of different condition. JOHNSON.

Let

Let it not found a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.

Ang. [Afide.] She speaks, and 'tis

Such fenfe, that my fenfe breeds with it.3 [To Ifab.] Fare you well.

Ifab. Gentle, my lord, turn back.

Ang. I will bethink me:-Come again to-morrow. Ijab. Hark, how I'll bribe you: Good my lord, turn back.

Ang. How bribe me?

Ifab. Ay, with fuch gifts, that heaven shall share with you.

Lucio. You had marr'd all elfe. [Afide. Ifab. Not with fond fhekels of the tefted gold,+ Or ftones, whofe rates are either rich, or poor, As fancy values them: but with true prayers, That fhall be up at heaven, and enter there, Ere fun rife; prayers from preferved fouls, From fafting maids, whofe minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.

Ang. Well, come to me to-morrow.

Lucio. Go to; 'tis well; [Afide to Ifabel.] away.
Ifab. Heaven keep your honour fafe!
Ang. Amen:

For I am that way going to temptation,

[Alide.

3 That my fenfe breeds with it. -] Thus all the folios. Some later editor has changed breeds to bleeds, and Dr. Warburton blames poor Mr. Theobald for recalling the old word, which yet is certainly right. My fenfe breeds with her fenf, that is, new thoughts are firring in my mind, new conceptions are batched in my imagination. So we fay to broad over thought. JOHNSON. -tefted gold,] i. e attelled, or marked with the ftandard ftamp. WARBURTON.

Rather cupeiled, brought to the reff, refined. JOHNSON.

-preferved fouls,] i. e. preferved from the corruption of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preferved in fugar. WARBURTON.

Where