Only for procuration 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 chances,

The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,

With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even so.

---

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 seat, that it may know
He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;
Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,
I stagger in;--but this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'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 surely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is; and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it Send after the duke, and appeal to him 2.

off.

Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found.

I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service.

This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation:
Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy. Bid herself assay him:
I have great hope in that; for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,

Such as moves men beside, she hath prosperous art,
When she will play with reason and discourse,

And well she can persuade.

Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition,

2 and appeal to him.] This speech may have been originally meant for verse, though not so printed. We do not attempt to divide the lines.

VOL. I.

T

as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack'. I'll to her. Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.

Enter DUKE, and Friar THOMAS.

Duke. No, holy father; throw away that thought:
Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee
To give me secret harbour hath a purpose

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

Fri.

May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you

How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps'.

I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence)

3 a game of TICK-TACK.] "Tick-tack" (in French tric-trac, and sometimes spelt trick-track in English) was a game at tables.

4 Believe not that the DRIBBLING dart of love] Steevens hastily quotes what he calls Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia," meaning his " Astrophel and Stella," respecting the word "dribbling :"

"Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot
Love gave the wound."

But dribbed, as it stands in the ordinary impressions, is not the word wanted. Thomas Nash published a surreptitious edition of " Astrophel and Stella," in 1591, 4to, and there we have the very word employed by Shakespeare:

"Not at the first sight, nor with a dribling shot

Love gave the wound," &c.

This is in the second sonnet, and not in the second stanza, as Steevens misterms it. In the later impressions, as in that of 1598, folio, dribling is altered to dribbed; and it was Nash's word in 1592, when in his "Strange News" he says of G. Harvey, that he "presently after dribbed forth another fooles bolt." Dribbed was in fact a technical word in archery, and it is employed by Ascham in his "Toxophilus," 1545: it is the contrary of point-blank.

5

- AND witless bravery keeps.] "And" is from the folio, 1632.

My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd. Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,
(The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds",)
Which for this fourteen years we have let sleep;
Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: now, as fond fathers,
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch
Only to stick it in their children's sight,
For terror', not to use, in time the rod's
More mock'd, than fear'd: so our most just decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead,
And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri.

It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd;
And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke.

I do fear, too dreadful: Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,

'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them For what I bade them do: for we bid this be done, When evil deeds have their permissive pass,

"Steeds" is weeds in

(The needful bits and curbs to headstrong STEEDS,)] all the folios, but weeds is amended to "steeds" in the corr. fo. 1632. In the next line it properly alters slip of the folios to "sleep ;" and in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (this Vol. p. 132) we have seen the word "sleep" and its mispronunciation slip played upon for the purpose of a joke. Here, of course, the error was unintentional on the part of the old printer, and not only does the simile which immediately follows it correct the blunder, but Angelo himself, in the next act, says that the law "hath slept."

7 For TERROR,] The second folio reads, "for error" but the mistake is remedied by the old corrector, and the whole passage is made to run as in our text, the ordinary lection having been this:

"For terror, not to use, in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees,

Dead to infliction," &c.

Becomes was added by Pope. In Mr. Singer's copy of the second folio rod is altered to " rods," as in our corr. fo. 1632; but it has not the words "most just" before "decrees," necessary for the measure, and which we venture to accept, on the same authority, as having been accidentally omitted in the press.

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office,

Who may, in th' ambush of my name, strike home,

And yet my nature never in the sight,

To draw on slander ., And to behold his sway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me

How I may formally in person bear me'

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action,
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one:-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

Isab. And have you nuns no farther privileges?
Fran. Are not these large enough?

Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more,
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of saint Clare.
Lucio. [Within.] Ho! Peace be in this place!
Isab.

8 And yet my nature never in the SIGHT,

Who's that which calls?

TO DRAW ON slander.] i. e. He should never be seen in the execution of the old law, in order that he might avoid the slander of undue severity. In the folios "sight" was misprinted fight, and "draw on" do in. Sight" was Hanmer's alteration, and adding to it "draw on" as the words appear in the corr. fo. 1632, the whole obscurity of the passage, which has caused much doubt, and dispute, seems removed.

How I may formally in person bear ME] The pronoun "me" is in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632, and is necessary, unless we suppose that the words were originally, as Pope supposed,

"How I may formally my person bear

Like a true friar."

Mr. Singer adopts "me" from our Vol. of "Notes and Emendations," p. 44, or from Malone; but is silent upon the subject, so that it looks, on his part, like an unauthorized interpolation.

Fran. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella,

Turn you the key, and know his business of him:
You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn.

When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;

Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. [LUCIO calls. He calls again: I pray you, answer him.

[Exit FRANCISCA. Isab. Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?

Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be,
be, as those cheek-roses
Proclaim you are no less, can you so stead me,
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister

To her unhappy brother Claudio ?

Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask, The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Isabella, and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you. Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Isab. Woe me! for what?

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks.

He hath got his friend with child.

Isab. Sir, make me not your scorn'.

Lucio. 'Tis true. I would not, though 'tis my familiar sin

Sir, make me not your scORN.] So the corr. fo. 1632, but the word in all the old copies is story, and so it remained until the time of Davenant, who altered storie to "scorn," or scorne, as it was then written and printed with a final e. But although scorn is unquestionably the genuine text, there is a passage in Fletcher's "Lover's Progress," A. ii. sc. I (edit. Dyce, xi. p. 47), where story is used in a very similar manner: Clarangè has been praising Lydian, and Lysander observes, You're a fair story of your friend." How could the Rev. Mr. Dyce consent, in a later part of that play, A. v. sc. 1, to print "prefer" for preserve, clearly the proper word, and pointed out to him even by the editors of 1750? "Prefer" was anciently spelt preferre; and recollecting how often the long & and f were confounded, the mistake was as easy as it is evident. In " Henry VI.,

Part I." (Vol. iii. pp. 686. 689), we retained prefer in our text, because it might be doubted whether the poet did not use that word, and not preserve, recommended by the corr. fo. 1632; but how could any doubt of the kind exist in regard to such a passage as the following?

"The principal means appointed to preserve

Societies and kingdoms."

Mr. Dyce allows prefer to usurp the place of "preserve," just as if societies and kingdoms were to be preferred, not "preserved."