Such as moves men; befide, fhe hath profperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well the can perfuade.

Lucio, I pray, the may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which elfe would ftand under grievous impofition ;' as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be forry fhould be thus foolishly loft at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her. Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio. Lucio. Within two hours,

Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE IV.

A Monaftery.

Enter DUKE, and Friar Thomas.

[Exeunt.

Duke. No; holy father; throw away that thought; Believe not that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete bofom: why I defire thee

Το

of these interpretations is fufficiently strained; but such distortion of words is not uncommon in our author. For the fake of an easier fente we may read:

in ber youth

There is a pow'r, and speechlefs dialect,

Such as moves men;

Or thus:

There is a prompt and speechlefs dialect. JOHNSON.

Prone, perhaps, may stand for bumble, as a prone pofture is a posture of fupplication. Sir W. D'Avenant, in his alteration of the play changes prone to feet. I mention fome of his variations, to fhew that what appear difficulties to us, were difficulties to him, who, living nearer the time of Shakspeare, might be supposed to have understood his language more intimately. STEEVENS.

Prone, I believe, is ufed here for prompt, fignificant, expressive (though fpeechless), as in our author's Rape of Lucrece it means ardent, beadstrong, rufhing forward to its object:

"O that prone luft should stain fo pure a bed!"

7 I once thought it fhould be inquifition, but the prefent reading is probably right. The crime would be under grievous penalties impofed.

JOHNSON.

8 Tick-tack is a game at tables. "Jouer au tric-trac," isufed in French, in a wanton fenfe. MALONE.

? Think not that a breast compleatly armed can be pierced by the dart of love, that comes fluttering without force. JOHNSON.

To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpose
More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri.

May your grace fpeak of it?
Duke. My holy fir, none better knows than you
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd ;
And held in idle price to haunt affemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witlefs bravery 3 keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

(A man of ftricture, and firm abftinence,)s
My abfolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he fuppofes me travell'd to Poland;
For fo I have ftrew'd it in the common ear,
And fo it is receiv'd: Now, pious fir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have ftrict ftatutes, and most biting laws, (The needful bits and curbs for head-ftrong fteeds,)" Which for these fourteen years we have let fleep;

Even

2 i. e. a life of retirement, a life remote, or removed, from the bustle of the world. STEEVENS.

3 Bravery, in the prefent inftance, fignifies forty dress. STEEVENS. 4 i. e. dwells, refides. In this fenfe it is still used at Cambridge, where the ftudents and fellows, referring to their collegiate apartments, always fay they keep, i. e. refide there. REED.

5 Stricture makes no sense in this place. We should read:

A man of strict ure and firm abftinence.

i. e. a man of the exacteft conduct, and practifed in the fubdual of his paffions. Ure is an old word for ufe, practise: fo enur’d, habituated to. WARBURTON.

Stricture may eafily be used for strictness ; ure is indeed an old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to perfons. JOHNSON. • In the copies,

The needful bits and curbs for bead-ftrong weeds. There is no manner of analogy or confonance in the metaphors here: and, though the copies agree, I do not think the author would have talked of bits and curbs for weeds. On the other hand, nothing can be more proper, than to compare perfons of unbridled licentioufnefs to headstrong freeds: and, in this view, bridling the paffions has been a phrase adopted by our best poets. THEOBALD.

7 For fourteen I have made no fcruple to replace nineteen. The reafon will be obvious to him who recollects what the Duke [Claudio] has faid in foregoing scene. I have altered the odd phrase of letting the laws flip :”

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 ftick it in their children's fight,
For terror, not to ufe; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: fo our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks juftice by the nofe;

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

Fri.

It refted in your grace

To unloofe this tied-up juftice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke.

I do fear, too dreadful :. Sith 'twas my fault to give the people fcope, Twould be my tyranny to ftrike, and gall them, For what I bid them do: For we bid this be done, When evil deeds have their permiffive pafs,

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the cffice;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, firike home,
And yet my nature never in the fight,

To do it flander: 2 And to behold his fway,

I wil',

for how does it fort with the comparison that follows, of a lion in his cave that went not out to prey? But letting the laws fleep, adds a particular propriety to the thing reprefented, and accords too exactly with the fimile. it is the metaphor too, that our author feems fond of using upon this occafion, in feveral other parts of this play. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald altered fourteen to nineteen, to make the Duke's account correfpond with a fpeech of Claudio's in a former fcene, but without neceffity. Claudio would naturally reprefent the period during which the law bad not been put in practice, greater than it really was.

MALONE.

Theobald's correction is misplaced. If any correction is really neceffary, it should have been made where Claudio, in a foregoing feene, fays nineteen years. Ian difpofed to take the Duke's words. WHALLEY.

This allufion was borrowed from an ancient print, entitled The World turn'd upfide dorun, where an infant is thus employed. STEEVENS.

9 Sub-] i. e. fince. STEEVENS.

2 To do it flander:] The text ftood: So do in flander :

Sir Thomas Hanmer has very well corrected it thus:

To do it flander:

VOL. I.

U

Yet

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

Vifit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and inftruct me
How I may formally in perfon bear3 me
Like a true friar. More reafons for this action,
At our more leisure fhall I render you;
Only, this one:-Lord Angelo is precife;
Stands at a guard 4 with envy; fcarce confeffes
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than ftone: Hence fhall we fee,
If power change purpose, what our feemers be.

SCENE V.

A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

Ifab. And have you nuns no further privileges?
Fran. Are not these large enough?

Ifab. Yes, truly: I fpeak not as defiring more;
But rather wifhing a more ftrict restraint

Upon the fifter-hood, the votarifts of faint Clare.
Lucio. Ho! Peace be in this place!
Ifab.

[Exeunt.

[Within.]

Who's that which calls?

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

Yet perhaps lefs alteration might have produced the true reading :

And yet my nature never, in the fight,

So doing flandered:

Turn

And yet my nature never suffer flander, by doing any open acts of severity.

JOHNSON.

The old text ftood,

in the fight

To do in flander:

Hanmer's emendation is fupported by a paffage in King Henry IV. P. I: "Do me no flander, Douglas, I dare fight.'

STEEVENS.

Fight feems to be countenanced by the words ambush and strike. Sight was introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

3 The fenfe of the paffage (as Mr. Henly obferves) is-How I may demean myfelf, fo as to fupport the chara&er I bave assumed. STEEVENS. 4 Stands on terms of defiance. JOHNSON.

This rather means, to stand cautiously on his defence, than on terms of defiance. M. MASON.

Turn you
the key, and know his bufinefs of him;
You may, I may not; you are yet unfworn :
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the prefence of the priorefs:

Then, if you fpeak, you must not show your face;
Or, if you fhow your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; I pray you, answer him.

[Exit FRANCISCA. Ifab. Peace and profperity! Who is't that calls?

Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as thofe cheek-rofes
Proclaim you are no lefs! Can you so stead me,
As bring me to the fight of Ifabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair fifter
To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Ifab. Why her unhappy brother? let me afk;
The rather, for I now muft make you know

I am that Ifabella, and his fifter.

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

Ifab. Woe me! for what?

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

He hath got his friend with child.

Ifal. Sir, make me not your ftory,"

Lucio.

It is true.

I would not though 'tis my familia. n.
With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,

U 2

7

Tongue

5 Do not, by deceiving me, make me a fubject for a tale. Jon SON. Perhaps only, Do not divert yourself with me as you would with a story, do not make me the fubject of your drama. Benedick talks of becomingthe argument of his own fcorn. STEEVENS.

Mr. Ritfon explains this paffage," do not make a jeft of me."

REED. 6 i. e. Be affured, I would not mock you. So afterwards: "Do not believe it" i. e. Do not fuppofe that I would mock you. MALONE. I am fatisfied with the fenfe afforded by the old punctuation.

STEEVENS.

The Oxford editor's note on this paffage is in these words: The lap

quings