When he would force it? Sure it is no fin; Claud. If it were damnable,7 he, being fo wife, Be perdurably fin'd? O Ifabel! Ifab. What fays my brother? Death is a fearful thing. Ifab. And fhamed life a hateful. Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; A kneaded clod; and the delighted fpirit 5 Is he actuated by paßions that impel him to tranfgrefs the law, at the very moment that he is enforcing it against others? [I find, he is.] Surely then, Since this is fo general a propenfity, fince the judge is as criminal as he whom he condemns, it is no fin, or at least a wenial one. MALONE. It may be useful to know which they are; the reader is therefore pre fented with the following catalogue of them, viz. Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Covetoufnefs, Gluttony, and Lechery. To recapitulate the punishments hereafter for thefe fins, might have too powerful an effect upon the weak nerves of the prefent generation; but whoever is defirous of being particularly acquainted with them, may find information in fome of the old monkish fyftems of divinity, and especially in a curious book entitled Le Kalendrier des Bergiers, 1500. folio, of which there is an English traaf. lation. DouCE. 7 Shakspeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the condu&t of Claudio. When Ifabella firft tells him of Angelo's proposal, he answers, with honeft indignation, agreeably to his fettled principles, Thou shalt not do't. But the love of life being permitted to operate, foon furnishes him with fophiftical arguments; he believes it cannot be very dangerous to the foul fince Angelo, who is fo wife, will venture it. Jon NSON. 8 Perdurably is laftingly. STEVENS. 9 i. e. the spirit accustomed here to ease and delights. This was properly urged as an aggravation to the fharpness of the torments fpoken of, The Oxford editor not apprehending this, alters it to dilated. As if, be caufe the fpirit in the body is faid to be imprifoned, it was crowded together likewife; and fo by death not only fet free, but expanded too; which, if true, would make it the lefs fenfible of pain. WARBURTON. This reading may perhaps stand, but many attempts have been made to correct it. The most plaufible is that which fubftitutes -the benighted fpirit, alluding to the darknese always supposed in the place of future punish. ment. VOL, I, Y Perhaps To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide To what we fear of death.3 Perhaps we may read : the delinquent fpirit, 2 Ijab. a word easily changed to delighted by a bad copier, or unskilful reader. Delinquent is proposed by Thirlby in his manufcript. JOHNSON. I think with Dr. Warburton, that by the delighted spirit is meant, the foul once accustomed to delight, which of course must render the fufferings, afterwards defcribed, lefs tolerable. Thus our author calls youth, blessed, in a former fcene, before he proceeds to show its wants and its inconve niencies. STEEVENS. 2 Conjecture fent out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through poffibilities of pain. JOHNSON. 3 Moft certainly the idea of the fpirit bathing in fiery floods," or of refiding in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice," is not original to our poet; but I am not fure that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil. The monks alfo had their hot and their cold hell; "the fyrfte is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," fays an old homily:" The feconde is paffyng cold, that yf a greate hylle of fyre were caft therin, it fhold torne to yce." One of their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakspeare, gives us a dialogue between a bishop and a foul tormented in a piece of ice which was brought to cure a brenning beate in his foot; take care, that you do not interpret this the gout, for I remember Menage quotes a canon upon us: "Si quis dixerit epifcopum podagrâ laborare, anathema fit." Another tells us of the foul of a monk faftened to a rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and purge of its enormities. Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into poetick fiction, as you may fee in a poem, "where the lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of hell," among the many mifcellaneous ones fubjoined to the works of Surrey of which you will foon have a beautiful edition from the able hand of my friend Dr. Percy. Nay, a very learned and inquifitive brother-antiquary hath obferved to me, on the authority of Blef-. kenius, that this was the ancient opinion of the inhabitants of Iceland, who were certainly very little read either in the poet or philosopher. FARMER. Lazarus fab. Alas! alas! Claud Sweet fifter, let me live: O, you beast! O, faithlefs coward! O, dishonest wretch! Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice? Is't not a kind of incest,4 to take life From thine own fifter's fhame? What fhould I think? Ne'er iffu'd from his blood. Take my defiance : Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. O, fie, fie, fie! Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade: " Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: 'Tis beft that thou dieft quickly. Claud [Going. O hear me, Ifabella. Re-enter DUKE. Duke. Vouchfafe a word, young fifter, but one word. Y 2 Duke Lazarus, in The Shepherd's Calendar, is reprefented to have feen these particular modes of punishment in the infernal regions; "Secondly, I have seen in hell a floud frozen as ice, wherein the ene vious men and women were plunged unto the navel, and then suddainly came over them a right cold and great wind that grieved and pained them right fore," &c. STEEVINS. In Ifabella's declamation there is fomething harsh, and fomething forced and far-fetched. But her indignation cannot be thought violent, when we confider her not only as a virgin, but as a nun. JOHNSON. 5 Wilderness is here used for wildness, the state of being disorderly. STERVENI Defiance is refufal. STIEVENS. 7 A cuftom; a practice; an established habit. So we fay of a man much addicted to any thing, be makes a trade of it. JoHNSON. Duke. Might you difpenfe with your leifure, I would by and by have fome fpeech with you: the fatisfaction I would require, is likewise your own benefit. Ifab. I have no fuperfluous leifure; my ftay must be ftolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while. Duke. [To CLAUDIO, afide.] Son, I have over-heard what hath paft between you and your fifter. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an affay of her virtue, to practice his judgement with the difpofition of natures: fhe, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive: I am confeffor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death: Do not fatisfy your refolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready. 8 Claud. Let me ask my fifter pardon. with life, that I will fue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: 9 Farewell. Re-enter Provost. Provoft, a word with you. I am fo out of love [Exit CLAUDIO. A condemned man, whom his confeffor had brought to bear death with decency and refolution, began anew to entertain hopes of life. This occafioned the advice in the words above. But how did these hopes fatisfy his refolution? or what harm was there, if they did? We muft certainly read, Do not falfify your refolution with hopes that are fallible. And then it becomes a reasonable admonition. For hopes of life, by drawing him back into the world, would naturally elude or weaken the virtue of that refolution which was raised only on motives of religion. And this his confeffor had reafon to warn him of. The term falfify is taken from fencing, and fignifies the pretending to aim a stroke, in order to draw the adversary off his guard. So, Fairfax: "Now ftrikes he out, and now he falfifieth." WARBURTON. The fenfe is this:-Do not reft with fatisfaction on hopes that are fallible. There is no need of alteration. STEEVENS. Perhaps the meaning is, Do not fatisfy or content yourself with that kind of refolution, which acquires ftrength from a latent hope that it will not be put to the teft; a hope, that in your case, if you rely upon it, will deceive you. MALONE. 9 Continue in that refolution. JoHNSON, re a while with the maid; my mind promises with my habit, no lofs fhall touch her by my company. Prov. In good time.2 [Exit Provoft. Duke. The hand that hath made you fair, hath made you good: the goodnefs, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the foul of your complexion, fhould keep the body of it ever fair. The affault, that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I fhould wonder at Angelo. How would you do to content this fubftitute, and to fave your brother? Ifab. I am now going to refolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my fon fhould be unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good Duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government. Duke. 'That fhall not be much amifs: Yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accufation; he made trial of you only. Therefore faften your ear on my advifings; to the love I have in doing good, a remedy prefents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may moft uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no ftain to your own gracious perfon; and much please the abfent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this bufiness. Ijab. Let me hear you speak further; I have fpirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my fpirit. Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard fpeak of Mariana the fifter of Frederick, the great foldier, who mifcarried at fea? Ijab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name. Duke. Her fhould this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the folemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at fea, having in that perifh'd veffel the dowry of his fifter. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there fhe loft a noble and renowned Y 3 brother, 2 i. e. à la bonne beure, so be it, very well. STEEVENS. |