* Finding yourself defir'd of fuch a person, Ifab. As much for my poor brother, as myself; That longing I've been feek for, ere I'd yield Ang. Then muft your brother die. 8 Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence, That you have flander'd fo? Ifab. Ignominy in ransom, and free pardon, Are of two houfes; lawful mercy, fure, Is nothing kin to foul redemption. Ang. You feem'd of late to make the law a tyrant, And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother A merriment, than a vice. Ifab. Oh pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what we I fomething do excufe the thing I hate, For his advantage that I dearly love. Ang. We are all frail. Ifab. Elfe let my brother die. The old editions read all building law from which the Editors have made all holding; yet M-. Theobald has binding in one of his copies. A brother dy d at once ] Per hans we should read, [mean; Better it were a brother dy`d for once, Than that a fifter, by redeeming If not a feodary, but only he, Ifab. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themselves; And credulous to falfe prints. 3 Ang. I think it well; And from this teftimony of your own fex, Gentle my lord, Ifab. I have no tongue but one. 9 If not a foedary, but only he, &c.] his is fo obfcure, but the allufion fo fine, that it deferves to be explain'd. A feedary was one, that in the times of vaffalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and fervice: which tenures were call'd feuda amongst the Goths. Now, fays Angelo, we are all "frail; yes, replies Isabella; if "all mankind were not feoda"ries, who owe what they are "to this tenure of imbecillity, "and who fucceed each other by the fame enure, as well "as my brother, I would give "him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original fin, to a feodary, who owes fuit and fervice to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. *To owe is in this place, to own, to hold, to have poffeffion. -Glaffes Which are as easy broke, as they make forms,] Would it not be better to read, take forms? 2 In profiting by them.] In imitating them, in taking them for examples. 4 3 And credulous to falfe prints.] i. e. take any imprettion. WARB. Speak the FORMER language] We should read FORMAL, which he here ufes for plain, direct. WARBURTON. Ifabella anfwers to this circumlocutory courtship, that he has but one tongue, the does not understand this new phrafe, and defires him to talk his former language, that is, to talk as he talked before. Ang. Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you. Ifab. My brother did love Juliet; And you tell me, that he fhall die for it. Ang. He fhall not, Ifabel, if you give me love, Ifab, I know, your virtue hath a licence in't, s Which feems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others. Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words exprefs my purpose. Ifab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, And most pernicious purpose !-feeming, feeming!-6 I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't: Sign me a prefent pardon for my brother, Or, with an out-ftretch'd throat, I'll tell the world Ang. Who will believe thee, fabel? My unfoil'd name, th' auftereness of my life, That you fhall ftifle in your own report, 5 I know your virtue bath a licence in't,] Alluding to the licences given by Miniflers to their Spies, to go into all fufpected companies and join in the language of Malecontents, WARBURTON. 6feeming, feeming!Hypocrify, hypocrify; counterfeit virtue. 7 My vouch against you,] The calling his denial of her charge, his vouch, has fomething fine. Vouch is the teftimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he infinuates his authority was fo great, that his denial would have the fame credit that a vouch or teftimony has in ordinary cafes. WARBURTON. I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouch againft means no more than de-. nial. Or Or else he must not only die the death, 3 [Exit. Ifab. To whom should I complain? did I tell this, Who would believe me? O moft perilous mouths, That bear in them one and the felf fame tongue, Either of condemnation or approof; Bidding the law make curtefy to their will; of the blood, Yet hath he in him fuch a mind of honour, That had he twenty heads to tender down On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up; To fuch abhorr'd pollution. Then, Ifabel, live chafte; and, brother die; I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request; And fit his mind to death, for his foul's Reft. [Exit. 8 die the death.] This feems to be a folemn phrafe for death inflicted by law. So in Midfummer Night's Dream. Prepare to die the death. 9 prompture Suggef tion, temptation, in tigation. ACT X 4 À CT III. SCENE I. S The Prifon. Enter Duke, Claudio, and Provost. DUKE. O, then you've hope of pardon from lord Angelo? Claud. The miserable have no other medicine, But only Hope: I've hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. Duke. Be abfolute for death: 9 or death or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life, If I do lofe thee, I do lofe a thing, That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art Servile to all the fkiey influences 2 That do this habitation, where thou keep'ft, 9 Be abfolute for death.] Ee determined to die, without any hope of life. Horace. -The hour which exceeds expecta tion will be welcome. That none but fools would keep.] But this reading is not on y contrary to all Senfe and Reafon; but to the Drift of this moral Difcourfe. The Duke, in his affum'd Character of a Friar, is endeavouring to inftil into the condemn'd Prifoner a Refignation of Mind to his Sentence; but the Senfe of the Lines, in this Reading, is a direct Perfuafive to Suicide: I make no Doubt, but the Poet wrote, That none but fools would reck. i. e, care for, be anxious about, regret the lofs of, So in the |