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No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.

If he had been as you, and you as he,

You would have slipt like him; but he, like you,
Would not have been so stern.

Ang.
Pray you, begone.
Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency,
And you were Isabel! should it then be thus ?
No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,

And what a prisoner.

Lucio. [Aside.] Ay, touch him; there's the vein.
Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but waste your words.

Alas! alas!

Isab.
Why, all the souls 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, should
But judge you as you are? Oh! think on that,
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.

Ang.

Be you content, fair maid. It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:

Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him. He must die to-morrow.

Isab. To-morrow? Oh, that's sudden! Spare him, spare

him!

He's not prepar❜d for death. Even for our kitchens

We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven

With less respect than we do minister

To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you:
Who is it that hath died for this offence?

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If he, which is the TOP of judgment,] For "top of judgment" the corr. fo. 1632 has "God of judgment," which at first sight may appear more emphatic; but what Isabel means to refer to is the very height and apex of judgment. We apprehend that the performer of the character of the heroine inserted God for "top," when the old annotator saw "Measure for Measure,' and we admit our over-hasty praise in "Notes and Emendations," p. 45. So in "The False One," by Beaumont and Fletcher, A. ii. sc. 1, Pompey is termed "the top of honour;" and it is rather surprising that the Rev. Mr. Dyce should have altogether forgotten this apposite illustration: "Few Notes," p. 24.

There's many have committed it.

Lucio.

[Aside.] Ay, well said.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, If the first one that did th' edict infringe' Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake; Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet, Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils (Either new, or by remissness new-conceiv'd', And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,) Are now to have no successive degrees, But ere they live to end.

Isab.

Yet show some pity.

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

Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall,

And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied:

Your brother dies to-morrow: be content.

Isab. So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
And he that suffers. Oh! it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

Lucio. [Aside.] That's well said.

Isab. Could great men thunder

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

Would use his heaven for thunder;

Nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven!

2

9 If the first ONE that did th' edict infringe] In the old copies a syllable is clearly wanting in this line, and the corr. fo. 1632 gives "one" to supply the deficiency. Pope inserted man, but "one" is clearly preferable, since it is put in opposition to "many," immediately above: Tyrwhitt and Capel recommended "If he the first that did," &c. The folios have neither "one," he, nor man, and Rowe also left the line imperfect.

1 (Either NEW, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,] i. e. Either new evils, evils not before known, or newly engendered: the text in the folios is "Either now," which seems palpably wrong. The last line of this speech, "But here they live to end," is amended in the corr. fo. 1632 to "But ere they live to end," which was Sir T. Hanmer's proposal. We therefore adopt it, although in our first edition, having then no other guide, we adhered to the old copies.

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2 To have a giant's strength; but IT IS tyrannous] The corr. fo. 1632 omits "it is," because surplusage as regards the verse; but we dare take no such liberty with the ancient text, seeing that the poet may have intended "it is tyrannous to balance against "it is excellent" in the preceding line. Shakespeare may purposely have made the line of twelve syllables.

Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the soft myrtle; but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,

His glassy essence, like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.

Lucio. [To ISAB.] Oh! to him, to him, wench. He will relent:

He's coming; I perceive't.

Prov.

[Aside.] Pray heaven, she win him!

Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself3: Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them,

But in the less foul profanation.

Lucio. [To ISAB.] Thou'rt in the right, girl: more o' that. Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word,

Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

Lucio. [Aside.] Art avis'd o' that? more on't.
Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me ?
Isab. Because authority, though it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bosom ;
Knock there, and ask your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confess

A natural guiltiness, such as is his,

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

Ang.

[Aside.] She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. [To her.] Fare you

well.

Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back.

Ang. I will bethink me. Come again to-morrow.

Isab. Hark, how I'll bribe you. Good my lord, turn back. Ang. How! bribe me?

Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share with you. Lucio. [Asule.] You had marr'd all else.

4

Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,

3 WE cannot weigh our brother with OURSELF :] brother with yourself" are the words in the corr. fo. somewhat violent, and not necessary: see also p. 342.

"You cannot weigh our 1632; but the change is

4 Not with fond SHEKELS] Circles, for sickles of the folio, 1623, is the word in

Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor
As fancy values them; but with true prayers,
That shall be up at heaven, and enter there
Ere sun-rise: prayers from preserved souls,
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.

Ang.
Well; come to me to-morrow.
Lucio. [To ISAB.] Go to; 'tis well away!
Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe!
Ang.
[Aside.] Amen;
For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.

Isab.

At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend your lordship?
Ang.

Isab. Save your honour!

Ang.

[Going.

At any time 'fore noon.

[Exeunt LUCIO, ISABELLA, and Provost.

From thee; even from thy virtue !—

What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine?

The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? Ha!
Not she, nor doth she tempt: but it is I,
That lying by the violet in the sun,
Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense,

Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,

And pitch our evils there? Oh, fye, fye, fye!

the corr. fo. 1632, and it has ordinarily been taken that sickles was a misprint for "shekels;" which we retain in our text, principally because we find "shekels" called sickles in other writers of the time. Lodge, in his "Catharos," 1591, has this passage: "Here in Athens the father hath suffred his sonne to bee hanged for

forty sickles." Sir W. Raleigh, in his " History of the World," edit. 1614, p. 491, speaks of "sickles of the sanctuary," but on a previous page (82) he calls the coin "shickles of brasse" and "shickles of yron." It seems probable that sickles not having been understood as "shekels" by the old annotator on the folio, 1632, circles was inserted by him instead of it.

5 For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.] The meaning is not very clear, but it may thus be explained. Isabella prays, "Heaven keep your honour safe;" and Angelo answers, “Amen; for, tempted as I am, I pray for one thing, you for another; you pray heaven to keep my honour safe, I the contrary, and thus our prayers cross. Angelo may intend to say merely, that he is crossing, or contradicting, the prayer which would guard us against temptation.

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6 And pitch our EVILS there?] "Evils" is offals in the corr. fo. 1632; but the meaning is the same, and where such is the case, we are called upon to make

What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?

Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? Oh! let her brother live.
Thieves for their robbery have authority,

When judges steal themselves. What do I love her,
That I desire to hear her speak again,

And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?
Oh cunning enemy! that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook. Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on

To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite.-Ever, till now',

When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

A Room in a Prison.

Enter DUKE, habited like a Friar, and Provost.

Duke. Hail to you, provost; so I think you are.
Prov. I am the provost. What's your will, good friar?
Duke. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd order,

I come to visit the afflicted spirits

Here in the prison: do me the common right

To let me see them, and to make me know

The nature of their crimes, that I may minister

To them accordingly.

Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful.

Enter JULIET.

Look; here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,

Who, falling in the flames of her own youth3,

no change. Offals (used elsewhere) may render the sense rather more clear, but that is no sufficient ground for varying from the received text.

7 Ever, till now,] As this may be one of the cases where the first line of a couplet, though without any apparent reason, is shorter than the corresponding line, we do not insert from youth after "ever," which we find in the corr. fo. 1632. As regards the obvious intention of the poet from youth adds nothing.

8 Who, falling in the FLAMES of her own youth,] The old copies read flawes

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