DUKE. Know you this woman? Sirrah, no more. LUCIO. Carnally, she says. DUKE. LUCIO. Enough, my lord. ANG. My lord, I must confess, I know this wo man; And, five years since, there was some speech of marriage Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off, I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, MARI. Noble prince, As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath, As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue, I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly intrigue. So, in Skialethia, or A Shadow of Truth, in certain Epigrams and Satyres, 1593: 66 'Who, coming from the Curtain, sneaketh in "To some old garden noted house for sin." Again, in The London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605: "Sweet lady, if you have any friend, or garden-house, where you may employ a poor gentleman as your friend, I am yours to command in all secret service." MALONE. See also an extract from Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 4to. 1597, p. 57; quoted in vol. v. of Dodsley's Old Plays, edit. 1780, p. 74. REED. 3 her promised PROPORTIONS Came short of COMPOSITION;] Her fortune, which was promised proportionate to mine, fell short of the composition, that is, contract or bargain. JOHNSON. 5 Let me in safety raise me from my knees; A marble monument ! ANG. I did but smile till now; Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice; 4 But instruments of some more mightier member, That sets them on: Let me have way, my lord, To find this practice out. DUKE. Ay, with my heart; And punish them unto your height of pleasure. Thou foolish friar; and thou pernicious woman, Compact with her that's gone! think'st thou, thy oaths, Though they would swear down each particular saint 5 Were testimonies against his worth and credit, That's seal'd in approbation?-You, lord Escalus, 4 These poor INFORMAL Women-] Informal signifies out of their senses. In The Comedy of Errors, we meet with these lines : I will not let him stir, 66 "Till I have used the approved means I have, "With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers, "To make of him a formal man again." Formal, in this passage, evidently signifies in his senses. The lines are spoken of Antipholis of Syracuse, who is behaving like a madman. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra : "Thou should'st come like a fury crown'd with snakes, 66 Not like a formal man." STEEVENS. 5 Though they would swear down each particular saint,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I. Sc. III.: "Though you in swearing shake the throned gods." STEEVENS. 6 That's seal'd in APPROBATION?] When any thing subject to counterfeits is tried by the proper officers and approved, a stamp or seal is put upon it, as among us on plate, weights, and measures. So the Duke says, that Angelo's faith has been tried, approved, and seal'd in testimony of that approbation, and, like other things so sealed, is no more to be called in question. JOHNSON. Sit with my cousin : lend him your kind pains F. PETER. Would he were here, my lord; for he, indeed, Hath set the women on to this complaint: DUKE. Go, do it instantly. [Exit Procost. And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth", Do with your injuries as seems you best, In any chastisement: I for a while Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have well Determined upon these slanderers. ESCAL. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-[Exit Duke.] Signior Lucio, did not you say, you knew that Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person? LUCIO. Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing, but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the duke. ESCAL. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a notable fellow. LUCIO. As any in Vienna, on my word. ESCAL. Call that same Isabel here once again; [To an Attendant.] I would speak with her: Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall see how I'll handle her. 7 Lucio. Not better than he, by her own report. ESCAL. Say you? Lucro. Marry, sir, think, if you handled her ---- to hear this matter forth,] To hear it to the end; to search it to the bottom. JOHNSON, privately, she would sooner confess; perchance, publickly she'll be ashamed. Re-enter Officers, with ISABELLA; the Duke, in the Friar's habit, and Provost. ESCAL. I will go darkly to work with her. LUCIO. That's the way; for women are light at midnight ". 8 ESCAL. Come on, mistress: [TO ISABELLA.] here's a gentlewoman denies all that you have said. LUCIO. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with the provost. ESCAL. In very good time:-speak not you to him, till we call upon you. LUCIO. Mum. ESCAL. Come, sir: Did you set these women on to slander lord Angelo? they have confess'd you did. DUKE. "Tis false. ESCAL. How! know you where you are? DUKE. Respect to your great place! and let the devil Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne : 8 ―are LIGHT at midnight.] This is one of the words on which Shakspeare chiefly delights to quibble. Thus, Portia, in The Merchant of Venice, Act V. Sc. I.: "Let me give light, but let me not be light." STEEVENS. 9 Respect to your great place! and let the devil, &c.] I suspect that a line preceding this has been lost. MALONE. I suspect no omission. Great place has reference to the preceding question-" know you where you are?" Shakspeare was a reader of Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny; and in the fifth book and eighth chapter, might have met with his next idea: "The Augylæ do no worship to any but to the devils beneath." Tyrants, in our ancient romances, have frequently the same object of adoration. Thus, in The Sowdon of Babyloyne, p. 60: VOL. IX. Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak. ESCAL. The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak : Look, you speak justly. DUKE. Boldly, at least:-But, O, poor souls, Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? Good night to your redress. Then is your cause gone too. Is the duke gone? The duke's unjust, Thus to retort your manifest appeal', LUCIO. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. ESCAL. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar! Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women To accuse this worthy man; but, in foul mouth, And in the witness of his proper ear, To call him villain ? And then to glance from him to the duke himself; But we will know this purpose.-What! unjust? "Then came the bishop Cramadas, "And kneled bifore the Sowdon, "And charged him by the hye name Sathanas, – to retort your manifest APPEAL,] To refer back to Angelo the cause in which you appealed from Angelo to the Duke. JOHNSON. 2 THIS purpose:] The old copy has-his purpose. The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I believe the passage has been corrected in the wrong place; and would read: "We'll touze him joint by joint "But we will know his purpose." MALONE. I see no necessity for altering the old reading. Escalus says to the supposed Friar, "We'll touze you joint by joint," and addresses the close of the sentence not to him, but the by-standers. BOSWELL. |