་ Enter Servant. How now, who's there? Serv. One Ifabel, a fifter, defires access to you. [Solus.] Oh heavens! Why does my blood thus mufter to my heart, And difpoffeffing all my other parts So play the foolish throngs with one that fwoons; By which he fhould revive; and even fo But the Oxford editor makes him conclude juft counter to his own premises; by altering it to, Is't not the devil's creft? So that, according to this alteration, the reafoning ftands thus.Falfe feeming wrenches awe from fools, and deceives the wife. Therefore, Let us but write good angel on the devil's born, (i. e. give him the appearance of an angel;) and what then? Is't not the devil's creft? (i. e. he shall be esteemed a devil.) WARBURTON. I am fill inclined to the opinion of the Oxford editor. Angelo, reflecting on the difference between his feeming character, and his real difpofition, obferves, that he could change his gravity for a plume. He then digreffes into an apostrophe, O dignity, how doft thou impofe upon the world! then returning to himself, Blood, fays he, thou art but blood, however concealed with appearances and decorations. Title and character do not alter nature, which is still corrupt, however dignified. Let's write good angel on the devil's born ; Is't not ?-or rather-'Tis yet the devil's creft. It may however be understood, according to Dr. Warburton's explanation. O place, how doft thou impofe upon the world by falle appearances! fo much, that if we write good angel on the devil's born, 'tis not taken any longer to be the devil's creft. In this fenfe, Blood, thou art but blood! is an interjected exclamation. JOHNSON. The The general fubject to a well-wish'd king' 1 The gen'ral subjects to a well-wish'd king] So the later editions: but the old copies read, The general fubject to a well-wish'd king. The general fubject feems a harsh expreffion, but general fubjects has no fenfe at all; and general was, in our authour's time, a word for people, fo that the general is the people, or multitude, fubject to a king. So in Hamlet: The play pleafed not the million; 'twas caviare to the general. JOHNSON. The poet might have written, The gentle fubje&s Thefe words have more than once been printed for each other. Gentle would bear, in this place, its common fignification. STEEVENS. So the Duke had before [act i. fcene 2.] expreffed his dislike of popular applause. "I'll privily away. I love the people, "But do not like to ftage me to their eyes. I cannot help thinking that Shakespeare, in these two paffages intended to flatter that unkingly weaknefs of James the first, which made him fo impatient of the crowds that flocked to fee him, efpecially upon his first coming, that, as fome of our hiftorians fay, he reftrained them by a proclamation. Sir Symonds D'Ewes, in his Memoirs of his own Life*, has a remarkable paffage with regard to this humour of James. After taking notice, that the king going to parliament, on the 30th of January, 1620-1,"fpake "lovingly to the people, and faid God blefs ye, God bless ye;" he adds these words," contrary to his former hafty and paffionate "cuftom, which often, in his fudden diftemper, would bid a pox "or a plague on fuch as flocked to fee him." Obfervations and Conjectures, &c. printed at Oxford, 1766. • A manufcript in the British Mufeum. Enter Ifabella. How now, fair maid? Ifab. I am come to know your pleasure. Ang. That you might know it, would much better please me, Than to demand what 'tis, Your brother cannot live. Ifab. Even fo?-Heaven keep your honour! [Going, Ang. Yet may he live a while; and, it may be, As long as you or I : yet he muft die. Ifab. Under your fentence? Ang. Yea. Ifab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve, Longer, or fhorter, he may be fo fitted, That his foul ficken not. Ang. Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good Their fawcy fweetnefs, that do coin heaven's image Το 2 'tis all as eafy,] Eafy is here put for light or trifling. 'Tis, fays he, as light or trifling a crime to do fo, as fo, &c. Which the Oxford editor not apprehending, has altered it to juft; for 'tis much eafier to conceive what Shakespeare fhould fay, than what he does fay. So just before, the poet faid, with his usual licence, their fawcy fweetness, for jawcy indulgence of the appetite. And this, forfooth, muft be changed to Jawcy lewdness, though the epithet confines us, as it were, to the poet's word. WARBURTON. 3 Falfely to take away a life true made,] Falfely is the fame with difbenefly, illegally: fo faife, in the next lines, is illegal, illegitimate. JOHNSON. 4 -in reftrained means] In forbidden moulds. I fufpect means not to be the right word, but I cannot find another. JOHNSON. To make a falfe one. Ifab. 'Tis fet down fo in heaven, but not in earth.s Ang. And fay you fo? then I fhall poze you quickly. Which had you rather, That the most just law Ifab. Sir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my foul. Ang. I talk not of your foul: Our compell'd fins Stand more for number than accompt. Ifab. How fay you? Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I fay. Anfwer to this:I, now the voice of the recorded law, Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life: Might there not be a charity in fin, To fave this brother's life? Ifab. Please you to do't, I'll take it as a peril to my foul, It is no fin at all, but charity. I should fufpect that the author wrote, -in refrained mints, as the allufion is to coining. STEEVENS, 5 'Tis fo fet down in braven, but not in earth.] I would have it confidered, whether the train of the difcourfe does not rather require Ifabel to fay, 'Tis fo fet down in earth, but not in heaven. When she has faid this, Then, fays Angelo, I shall poze you quickly. Would you, who, for the prefent purpofe, declare your brother's crime to be lefs in the fight of heaven, than the law has made it ; would you commit that crime, light as it is, to fave your brother's life? To this the answers, not very plainly in either reading, but more appofitely to that which I propofe: I bad rather give my body, than my foul. JOHNSON. Ang. Pleas'd you to do't at peril of your foul," Were equal poize of fin and charity. Ifab. That I do beg his life, if it be fin, Heaven, let me bear it! you, granting of my fuit, If that be fin, I'll make it my morn prayer To have it added to the faults of mine, And nothing of your answer.7 Ang. Nay, but hear me: Your fenfe purfues not mine: either you are ignorant; Or feem fo, craftily; and that's not good. Ifab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better. Ang. Thus wifdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as these black masks $ Proclaim an enfhield beauty ten times louder, Than beauty could difplayed.-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll fpeak more grofs: Your brother is to die. Ifab. So. Ang. And his offence is fo, as it appears Ang. Admit no other way to fave his life, • Pleas'd you to do't on peril, &c.] The reasoning is thus: Apgelo afks, whether there might not be a charity in fin to fave this brother. Ifabella anfwers, that if Angelo will fave him, he will fake her foul that it were charity, not fin. Angelo replies, that if Ifabella would fave him at the hazard of ber foul, it would be not in deed no fin, but a finto which the charity would be equivalent. JOHNSON. "And nothing of your answer.] I think it should be read, And nothing of yours answer. You, and whatever is yours, be exempt from penalty. JOHNSON. And nothing of your answer, means, and make no part of those which you shall be called to answer for. STEEVENS. 8 Proclaim an enthield beauty- -] An enfield beauty means, a beauty covered as with a shield. STEEVENS. 9 Accountant to the law upon that pain.] Pain is here for penalty, uhment. JOHNSON. (A$ |