SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO'S House. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver Escal. I guess not. Ang. And why should we Proclaim it in an hour before his entering, That if any crave redress of injustice, They should exhibit their petitions In the street? Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, Which shall then have no power to stand against us'. Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: Betimes i' the morn, I'll call you at your house. In most uneven and distracted manner.] This is a complete line, and although not so printed, it seems clear that the author meant this brief interview between two such principal personages to be rhythmical. Some of the lines are rugged and irregular; but it is to be observed of such as that the last word, like many more of the same character, is to be read as four syllables. After the exit of Escalus the old copies give the soliloquy of Angelo as verse, though the lines are there far from regular. The Rev. Mr. Dyce blames us ("Remarks," p. 25) for endeavouring to restore verse, where, we think, verse was originally intended, but where it has been, perhaps irremediably, entangled by the old copyists and printers. He does not deny that some lines run metrically, and those we have printed as, we are confident, they were written on the rest the reader, if he think fit, can exercise his own ingenuity, as indeed Mr. Dyce has done in many places of his Middleton, Webster, Marlowe, Greene, Peele, &c. : he has there frequently "faggoted" mere prose. If it can be shown that the lines we have noted as measured, in this scene, are not so, we shall be content to change them to what Mr. Dyce calls "good prose." It may save him and others some trouble so to treat them, but they are not in fact "good prose," and we only preserve as verse part of what was, in all probability, meant entirely for it. 9 Which shall then have no power to stand against us.] Excepting this line, it seems impossible to make the speech run at all metrically. Give notice to such men of sort and suit, As are to meet him. Escal. : I shall, sir fare you well. This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant', The law against it!-But that her tender shame. Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no 2, That no particular scandal once can touch, But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd! Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not. [Exit. [Exit. SCENE V. Fields without the Town. Enter DUKE, in his own habit, and Friar PETER. Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me. The provost knows our purpose, and our plot. The matter being afoot, keep your instruction, And hold you ever to our special drift, 3 [Giving letters. Though sometimes you do blench from this to that, 1 "Un makes me UNPREGNANT,] Steevens remarks that in the first scene the Duke says that Escalus is "pregnant," i. e. ready in the forms of law. pregnant," therefore, in the instance before us, is unready, unprepared. 2 Yet reason dares her No,] We reprint this sentence precisely as it stands in the folios, which may be said to be sufficiently intelligible, although the construction is somewhat forced. As Mr. W. W. Williams remarks, to print "Yet her reason dares not" is easier and clearer; but we hesitate, especially without authority, to make such changes in the text as to alter the place of "her," and to print "no not. In the next line we adopt the emendation of the corr. fo. 1632, viz. "such" for of, nearly all commentators agreeing that of is a corruption. As to "tongue me," see Dyce's Middleton, i. p. 497. 3 -you do BLENCH] To "blench" is to start from, to fly off. See Vol. iii. p. 27, Vol. iv. pp. 482. 512, &c. As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house', And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate; F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. [Exit Friar. Enter VARRIUS. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste. Come, we will walk: there's other of our friends Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Street near the City Gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. Isab. To speak so indirectly I am loath: Mari. Be rul'd by him. Isab. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventure I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic, Mari. I would, friar Peter- Oh, peace! the friar is come. 4 Go, call at FLAVIUS' house,] Misprinted "Flavia's house" in the old copies : two lines lower "Valentius" has been called Valentinus by modern editors. "Unto," for to is from the corr. fo. 1632: this short scene is nevertheless struck out with a pen in that volume. How its absence was to be supplied we are not informed, and the instructions to Friar Peter seem almost necessary to the intelligi bility of what follows in A. v. 5 He says, to 'VAILFUL purpose.] Such is the emendation in the corr. fo. 1632 for "to vail full purpose " of the old editions: it confirms the change speculatively made by Theobald, and is entirely supported by what Isabella immediately afterwards remarks, VOL. I. " 'tis a physic, That's bitter to sweet end." Ꮓ Enter Friar PETER. F. Peter. Come; I have found you out a stand most fit, Where you may have such vantage on the duke, He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded: The generous and gravest citizens Have hent the gates, and very near upon The duke is ent'ring: therefore hence, away. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. A public Place near the City Gate. MARIANA, (veil'd,) ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. Enter at several doors, DUKE, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens. Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met: Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. We have made inquiry of you; and we hear Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, Ang. You make my bonds still greater. Duke. Oh! your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, When it deserves with characters of brass A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time, And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand', And let the subject see, to make them know • Have HENT the gates,] i. e. Have taken possession of the gates. The word "hent" is derived from the Saxon hentan, to catch or lay hold of: Shakespeare has it again in "The Winter's Tale,"-" And merrily hent the stile-a." Vol. iii. p. 68. Hint (see this Vol. p. 21) has the same etymology, as Horne Tooke justly observed. "Hent" was in use down to the time of Spenser and Shakespeare, but not much afterwards. Give Me your hand,] "Give we your hand," in the first folio, the m and w having been again confounded. That outward courtesies would fain proclaim And good supporters are you. Friar PETER and ISABELLA come forward". F. Peter. Now is your time. Speak loud, and kneel before him. Isab. Justice, oh royal duke! Vail your regard' Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid. Till you have heard me in my true complaint, And given me justice, justice, justice, justice! [Kneeling. Duke. Relate your wrongs: in what? by whom? Be brief. Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice: Reveal yourself to him. Isab. Oh, worthy duke! You bid me seek redemption of the devil. Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak Must either punish me, not being believ'd, [Rising. Or wring redress from you. Hear me, oh, hear me, here! [Kneeling again. Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: She hath been a suitor to me for her brother, Cut off by course of justice. Isab. 8 Friar Peter and Isabella come forward.] The old copies say, "Enter Peter and Isabella;" but they have been standing behind with Mariana, whose time for coming forward has not yet arrived. 9 VAIL your regard] To "vail" is to lower, to abase. See Vol. ii. pp. 268. 525; Vol. iv. p. 591, &c. 1 Rising.] All the stage-directions in this part of the scene are from the margin of the corr. fo. 1632: they are valuable as they show the manner in which the scene was conducted of old. Isabella first knelt to prefer her suit; then rose to accuse Angelo; again knelt to procure audience, and subsequently rose again to protest indignantly against Angelo's "course of justice." 2 most bitterly, and strange.] Both here and in the next line the old corrector of the folio, 1632, alters the adjective to the adverb. As we may doubt whether Shakespeare so wrote, we decline to insert the change. |