And lack of temper'd judgment afterward. ANG. I am sorry, that such sorrow I procure : Re-enter Provost, BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO, and DUKE. Which is that Barnardine ? PROV. This, my lord. DUKE. There was a friar told me of this man :- But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all ; -Friar, advise him; I leave him to your hand.—What muffled fellow's that? PROV. This is another prisoner, that I sav'd, That should have died when Claudio lost his head; As like almost to Claudio, as himself. [Unmuffles CLAUDIO. DUKE. If he be like your brother, [To ISABELLA.] for his sake Is he pardon'd; And, for your lovely sake, for those EARTHLY FAULTS,] Thy faults, so far as they are punishable on earth, so far as they are cognisable by temporal power, I forgive. JOHNSON. 9-perceives he's safe:] It is somewhat strange that Isabel is not made to express either gratitude, wonder, or joy, at the sight of her brother. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, it should be recollected, wrote for the stage, on which Isabel might express her feelings by action. BosWELL. Methinks, I see a quick'ning in his eye :- 4 And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon 1 ;You, sirrah, [To Lucio.] that knew me for a fool, a coward, 5 One all of luxury 3, an ass, a madman; Wherein have I so deserved of you, that you LUCIO. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick: If you will hang me for it, you may, I - your evil aUITS YOU well:] Quits you, recompenses, requites you. JOHNSON. 2 Look that you love your wife ;] So, in Promos, &c.: "Be loving to good Cassandra, thy wife." STEEVENS. 3 her worth, worth yours.] Sir T. Hanmer reads— "Her worth works yours." This reading is adopted by Dr. Warburton; but for what reason? How does her worth work Angelo's worth? it has only contributed to work his pardon. The words are, as they are too frequently, an affected gingle; but the sense is plain. worth, worth yours;" that is, her value is equal to your value, the match is not unworthy of you. JOHNSON. Her 4 - here's one in place I cannot pardon ;] The Duke only means to frighten Lucio, whose final sentence is to marry the woman whom he had wronged, on which all his other punishments are remitted. STEEVENS. 5 One all of LUXURY,] Luxury means incontinence. So, in King Lear: 6 66 To't, luxury, pellmell, for I lack soldiers." STEEVENS. according to the TRICK:] To my custom, my habitual practice. JOHNSON. Lucio does not say my trick, but the trick; nor does he mean to excuse himself by saying that he spoke according to his usual practice, for that would be an aggravation to his guilt, but according to the trick and practice of the times. It was probably then the practice, as it is at this day, for the dissipated and profligate, to ridicule and slander persons in high station, or of superior virtue. M. MASON. According to the trick, is, according to the fashion of thoughtless youth. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: -yet I have a trick 66 but I had rather it would please you, I might be whipp'd. DUKE. Whipp'd first, sir, and hang'd after.- Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore! Your highness said even now, I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompense me, in making me a cuckold. DUKE. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits :-Take him to prison: LUCIO. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging. DUKE. Sland'ring a prince deserves it. She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.Joy to you, Mariana !-love her, Angelo; I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue.Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness 8: of the old rage." Again, in a collection of Epigrams, entitled Wit's Bedlam, printed about the year 1615: 46 Carnus calls lechery a trick of youth; "So he grows old; but this trick hurts his growth." MALONE. 7thy other FORFEITS:] Thy other punishments. JOHNSON. To forfeit anciently signified to commit a carnal offence. So, in The History of Helyas, Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date : "-to affirme by an untrue knight, that the noble queen Beatrice had forfayted with a dogge." Again, in the 12th Pageant of the Coventry Collection of Mysteries, the Virgin Mary tells Joseph : "I dede nevyr forfete with man I wys." MS. Cott. Vesp. D. viii. STEEVENS. Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:] I There's more behind, that is more gratulate 9. have always thought that there is great confusion in this concluding speech. If my criticism would not be censured as too licentious, I should regulate it thus: "Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness. 66 Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy; "We shall employ thee in a worthier place. "Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home "The head of Ragozine for Claudio's. 66 Ang. The offence pardons itself. "Duke. There's more behind "That is more gratulate. Dear Isabel, JOHNSON. that is more GRATULATE.] i. e. to be more rejoiced in; meaning, I suppose, that there is another world, where he will find yet greater reason to rejoice in consequence of his upright ministry. Escalus is represented as an ancient nobleman, who, in conjunction with Angelo, had reached the highest office of the state. He therefore could not be sufficiently rewarded here; but is necessarily referred to a future and more exalted recompense. STEEVENS. I cannot approve of Steevens's explanation of this passage, which is very far-fetched indeed. The Duke gives Escalus thanks for his much goodness, but tells him that he had some other reward in store for him, more acceptable than thanks; which agrees with what he said before, in the beginning of this Act: "Such goodness of your justice, that our soul Heywood also, in his Apology for Actors, 1612, uses to gratulate, in the sense of to reward: “I could not chuse but gratulate your honest endeavours with this remembrance." MALONE. Mr. M. Mason's explanation may be right; but he forgets that the speech he brings in support of it, was delivered before the denouement of the scene, and was, at that moment, as much addressed to Angelo as to Escalus; and for Angelo the Duke had certainly no reward or honours, in store.-Besides, I cannot but regard the word-requital, as an interpolation, because it destroys the measure, without improvement of the sense. "Forerunning more," therefore, would only signify-preceding further thanks. STEEVENS. Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine :- [Exeunt1. I cannot help taking notice with how much judgment Shakspeare has given turns to this story from what he found it in Giraldi Cinthio's novel. In the first place, the brother is there actually executed, and the governor sends his head in a bravado to the sister, after he had debauched her on promise of marriage: a circumstance of too much horror and villainy for the stage. And, in the next place, the sister afterwards is, to solder up her disgrace, married to the governor, and begs his life of the emperor, though he had unjustly been the death of her brother. Both which ab surdities the poet has avoided by the episode of Mariana, a creature purely of his own invention. The Duke's remaining incognito, at home, to supervise the conduct of his deputy, is also en tirely our author's fiction. This story was attempted for the scene before our author was fourteen years old, by one George Whetstone, in Two Comical Discourses, as they are called, containing the right excellent and famous history of Promos and Cassandra, printed with the black letter, 1578. The author going that year with Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Norimbega, left them with his friends to publish. THEOBALD. The novel of Giraldi Cinthio, from which Shakspeare is supposed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in Shakspeare Illustrated, elegantly translated, with remarks which will assist the enquirer to discover how much absurdity Shakspeare has admitted or avoided. I cannot but suspect that some other had new-modelled the novel of Cinthio, or written a story which in some particulars resembled it, and that Cinthio was not the author whom Shakspeare immediately followed. The Emperor in Cinthio is named Maximine; the Duke, in Shakspeare's enumeration of the persons of the dra ma, is called Vincentio. This appears a very slight remark; but since the Duke has no name in the play, nor is ever mentioned but by his title, why should he be called Vincentio among the persons, but because the name was copied from the story, and placed superfluously at the head of the list by the mere habit of transcription ? VOL. IX. P |