That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand deaths': yet death we fear, That makes these odds all even. CLAUD. I humbly thank you. To sue to live, I find, I seek to die; And, seeking death, find life 2: Let it come on. which may stand without much inconvenience; yet I am willing to persuade my reader, because I have almost persuaded myself, that our author wrote 66 for all thy blasted youth "Becomes as aged-." JOHNSON. The sentiment contained in these lines, which Dr. Johnson has explained with his usual precision, occurs again in the forged letter that Edmund delivers to his father, as written by Edgar; King Lear, Act I. Sc. II.: "This policy, and reverence of age, makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish them." The words above, printed in Italics, support, I think, the reading of the old copy-"blessed youth," and show that any emendation is unnecessary. MALONE. 9 - heat, affection, limb, nor BEAUTY,] But how does beauty make riches pleasant? We should read bounty, which completes the sense, and is this-thou hast neither the pleasure of enjoying riches thyself, for thou wantest vigour; nor of seeing it enjoyed by others, for thou wantest bounty.' Where the making the want of bounty as inseparable from old age as the want of health, is extremely satirical, though not altogether just. WARBURTON. I am inclined to believe, that neither man nor woman will have much difficulty to tell how beauty makes riches pleasant. Surely this emendation, though it is elegant and ingenious, is not such as that an opportunity of inserting it should be purchased by declaring ignorance of what every one knows, by confessing insensibility of what every one feels. JOHNSON. By heat and affection the poet meant to express appetite, and by limb and beauty-strength. EDWARDS. I MORE thousand deaths :] For this Sir T. Hanmer reads: a thousand deaths : —' 66 The meaning is, not only a thousand deaths, but a thousand deaths besides what have been mentioned. JOHNSON. 2 To sue to live, I find, I seek to die ; And, seeking death, find life:] Had the Friar, in reconciling Claudio to death, urged to him the certainty of happiness hereafter, this speech would have been introduced with more propriety; but the Friar says nothing of that subject, and argues more like a philosopher, than a Christian divine. M. MASON. Mr. M. Mason seems to forget that no actual Friar was the Enter ISABella. ISAB. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company! PROV. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome. DUKE. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again 3. ISAB. My business is a word or two with Claudio. PROV. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister. DUKE. Provost, a word with you. PROV. As many as you please. DUKE. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd, Yet hear them *. [Exeunt Duke and Provost. speaker, but the Duke, who might be reasonably supposed to have more of the philosopher than the divine in his composition. STEEVENS. Surely the Duke may be supposed to have as much of the divine in his composition as Claudio; but I cannot think Mr. Mason's censure well founded: Claudio's answer is the inference which the Duke intended should be drawn from his arguments. BOSWELL. 3 Dear SIR, ere long I'll visit you again.] Dear sir, is too courtly a phrase for the Friar, who always addresses Claudio and Isabella by the appellations of son and daughter. I should therefore read-dear son. M. MASON. 4 Bring them to speak, where I may be conceal'd, Yet hear them.] The first copy, published by the players, gives the passage thus: "Bring them to hear me speak, where I may be conceal'd." Perhaps we should read: "Bring me to hear them speak, where I," &c. STEEVENS. The second folio authorizes the reading in the text. TYRWHITT. The alterations made in that copy do not deserve the smallest credit. There are undoubted proofs that they were merely arbitrary; and, in general, they are also extremely injudicious. MALONE. I am of a different opinion, in which I am joined by Dr. Farmer; and, consequently prefer the reading of the second folio to my own attempt at emendation, though Mr. Malone has done me the honour to adopt it. STEEVENS. CLAUD. Now, sister, what's the comfort? ISAB. Why, as all comforts are; most good in deed 5: Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, 6 Therefore your best appointment make with speed; To-morrow you set on. 5 As all comforts are; most good IN DEED:] If this reading be right, Isabella must mean that she brings something better than words of comfort-she brings an assurance of deeds. This is harsh and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: "As all comforts are: most good, most good indeede." I believe the present reading, as explained by Dr. Johnson, is the true one. So, in Macbeth: "We're yet but young in deed." STEEVENS. I would point the lines thus: "Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort? "Isab. Why, as all comforts are, most good. Indeed Lord Angelo," &c. Indeed is the same as in truth, or truly, the common beginning of speeches in Shakspeare's age. See Charles the First's Trial. The King and Bradshaw seldom say any thing without this preface: "Truly, Sir." BLACKSTONE. 6 an everlasting Leiger : Therefore your best APPOINTMENT-] Leiger is the same with resident. Appointment; preparation; act of fitting, or state of being fitted for any thing. So in old books, we have a knight well appointed; that is, well armed and mounted, or fitted at all points. JOHNSON The word leiger is thus used in the comedy of Look About You, 1600: "Why do you stay, Sir? 66 Madam, as leiger to solicit for your absent love." Again, in Leicester's Commonwealth: "a special man of that hasty king, who was his ledger, or agent, in London," &c. 66 STEEVENS. your best appointment" The word appointment, on this occasion, should seem to comprehend confession, communion, and absolution. "Let him (says Escalus) be furnished with di CLAUD. Is there no remedy?" ISAB. None, but such remedy, as, to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain. CLAUD. But is there any? ISAB. Yes, brother, you may live ; There is a devilish mercy in the judge, If you'll implore it, that will free your life, CLAUD. Perpetual durance? ISAB. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity' you had, To a determin'd scope. CLAUD. But in what nature? ISAB. In such a one as (you consenting to't) Would bark your honour" from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked. CLAUD. Let me know the point. ISAB. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain, And six or seven winters more respect Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die? The sense of death is most in apprehension; vines, and have all charitable preparation." The King in Hamlet, who was cut off prematurely, and without such preparation, is said to be dis-appointed. Appointment, however, may be more simply explained by the following passage in The Antipodes, 1638: your lodging 66 "Is decently appointed." i. e. prepared, furnished. STEEVENS. The latter and more simple explanation agrees better with the context, "To-morrow you set on.” BOSWELL. 7 THOUGH all the world's vastidity-] The old copy reads― Through all, &c. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 8 a restraint To a determin'd scope.] A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can neither be suppressed nor escaped. JOHNSON. 9 Would BARK your honour-] A metaphor from stripping trees of their bark. Douce. And the poor beetle, that we tread upon, CLAUD. Why give you me this shame ? Think you I can a resolution fetch From flowery tenderness? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms 2. ISAB. There spake my brother; there my father's grave Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die: In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,- 11 the poor beetle, &c.] The reasoning is, 'that death is no more than every being must suffer, though the dread of it is peculiar to man;' or perhaps, that we are inconsistent with ourselves, when we so much dread that which we carelessly inflict on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we. JOHNSON. The meaning is-fear is the principal sensation in death, which has no pain; and the giant, when he dies, feels no greater pain than the beetle.-This passage, however, from its arrangement, is liable to an opposite construction, but which would totally destroy the illustration of the sentiment. Douce. 2 I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms.] So, in the First Part of Jeronimo, or the Spanish Tragedy, 1605: 66 night "That yawning Beldam, with her jetty skin, ""Tis she I hug as mine, effeminate bride." STEEVENS. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: 3 "A bridegroom in my death; and run into't, "As to a lover's bed." follies doth ENMEW,] MALONE. Forces follies to lie in cover, with out daring to show themselves. JOHNSON. As falcon doth the fowl,] In whose presence the follies of youth are afraid to show themselves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it. So, in The Third Part of King Henry VI. : |