As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house,
And tell him where I stay: give the like notice,
To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,

And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;
But send me Flavius first.

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; I would say the truth; but to accuse him so, That is your part: yet I'm advis'd to do it ; He says, to veil full purpose ".

"I know my course." STEEVENS.

9 He says, to VEIL full purpose.] Mr. Theobald alters it to"He says, t'availful purpose."

because he has no idea of the common reading. A good reason! Yet the common reading is right. Full is used for beneficial; and the meaning is-" He says, it is to hide a beneficial purpose, that must not yet be revealed." WARBURTON.

To veil full purpose, may, with very little force on the words, mean, "to hide the whole extent of our design," and therefore the reading may stand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theobald's alte

MARI.

Be rul'd by him.

ISAB. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventure
He speak against me on the adverse side,
I should not think it strange for 'tis a physick,
That's bitter to sweet end.

MARI. I would, friar Peter-
ISAB.

O, peace; the friar is come.

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

ration either lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with such laxity, as to make full the same with beneficial, is to put an end, at once, to all necessity of emendation, for any word may then stand in the place of another. JOHNSON.

I think Theobald's explanation right, but his amendment unnecessary. We need only read vailful as one word. Shakspeare, who so frequently uses cite for excite, bate for abate, force for enforce, and many other abbreviations of a similar nature, may well be supposed to use vailful for availful. M. MASON.

If Dr. Johnson's explanation be right, (as I think it is,) the word should be written-veil, as it is now printed in the text. That vail was the old spelling of veil, appears from a line in The Merchant of Venice, folio, 1623:

"Vailing an Indian beauty―."

for which, in the modern editions, veiling has been rightly substituted. MALONE.

Enter Friar PETER.] This play has two friars, either of whom might singly have served. I should therefore imagine, that Friar Thomas, in the first Act, might be changed, without any harm, to Friar Peter; for why should the Duke unnecessarily trust two in an affair which required only one? The name of Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore seems arbitrarily placed at the head of the scene. JOHNSON. 2 The GENEROUS, &c.] i. e. the most noble, &c. Generous is here used in its Latin sense. Virgo generosa et nobilis." Cicero. Shakspeare uses it again in Othello:

Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The duke is ent ring; therefore hence, away.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

A publick Place near the City Gate.

MARIANA, (veil'd,) ISABELLA, aud PETER, at a distance. Enter at opposite 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. ANG. and ESCAL. Happy return be to your royal grace!

DUKE. Many and hearty thankings to you both,

3 Have HENT the gates,] Have seized or taken possession of the gates. JOHNSON.

So, in Sir A. Gorges' translation of the 4th Book of Lucan:

66

did prevent

"His foes, ere they the hills had hent."

Again, in T. Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "Lament thee, Roman land,

"The king is from thee hent."

Again, in the black-letter romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date :

"But with the childe homeward gan ryde

"That fro the gryffon was hent."

Again, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date:

Again :

66

Some by the arms hent good Guy," &c.

"And some by the bridle him hent."

Spenser often uses the word hend for to seize or take, and overhend for to overtake. STEEVENS.

"Hent, henten, hende," (says Junius, in his Etymologicon,) "Chaucero est, capere, assequi, prehendere, arripere, ab A. S. hendan." MALONE.

We have made inquiry of you; and we hear
Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
Forerunning more requital.

ANG.

You make my bonds still greater. DUKE. O, 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
That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within.-Come, Escalus;
You must walk by us on our other hand ;-
And good supporters are you.

PETER and ISABELLA come forward.

F. PETER. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him.

ISAB. Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard
Upon a wrong'd, I'd fain have said, a maid!
O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
By throwing it on any other object,

Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
And given me, justice, justice, justice, justice!

4

VAIL your regard-]

4

That is, withdraw your thoughts from higher things, let your notice descend upon a wronged woman. To vail is to lower.

JOHNSON.

This is one of the few expressions which might have been borrowed from the old play of Promos and Cassandra, 1578:

So, in Stanyhurst's translation of the 4th book of Virgil's Æneid : Phrygio liceat servire marito.

"Let Dido vail her heart to bed-fellow Trojan.”

"Seek for thy noble father in the dust." HENLEY.

DUKE, Relate your wrongs: In what? By whom?

Be brief:

Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice;

Reveal yourself to him.

ISAB.

O, 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,

Or wring redress from you: hear me, O, hear me, here.

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.

By course of justice!

ANG. And she will speak most bitterly, and

strange.

ISAB. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I

speak:

That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange?
That Angelo's a murderer; is't not strange ?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,

An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;

Is it not strange, and strange?

DUKE.

Nay, ten times strange,

ISAB. It is not truer he is Angelo,
Than this is all as true as it is strange :

Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
To the end of reckoning 5.

DUKE.

Away with her :-Poor soul,

She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.

ISAB. O prince, I cónjure thee, as thou believ'st

To the end of reckoning.] That is, truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of increase can be so much what it is, as truth is truth. There may be a strange thing, and a thing more strange, but if a proposition be true, there can be none more true. JOHNSON,