Claud. Let me know the point,

Isab. Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,
Lelt thou a fev'rous life should'st entertain,
And fix or seven Winters more respect
Than a perpetual Honour. Dar’ft thou die ?
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor Beetle, ? that we tread upon,
In corp'ral sufferance finds a pang as great,
As when a Giant dies.

Claud. Why give you me this shame?
Think you, I can a resolution fetch
From flow'ry tenderness? if I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.
Ijab. There spake my

brother; there

my

father's
grave
Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die :
Thou art too noble to conserve a life
In base appliances. This outward-sainted Deputy,
Whose settled visage and delib'rate word
Nips youth i'th' head; and follies doth emmew,
As faulcon doth the fowl; is yet a devil :
His filth within being cast,' he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

Claud. · The Princely Angelo?
Isab. Oh, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,

The

8

would appear

7 The poor Beetle, &c.] The Mr. Upton reads, Reasoning is, that death is no His poni within being cast be more than every being must suffer, though the dread of it is peculiar A filch as deep as hell. to man, or perhaps, that we are · The PRINCELY Angelo :inconsistent with ourselves when PRINCE 1. Y guards.] The stupid we so much dread that which we Editors miltaking guards for facarelesly inflict on other creatures, tellites, (whereas it here fignifies that feel the pain as acutely as we. lace) altered PRIESTLY, in both

-follies doth emmew.] places, to PRINCELY. Whereas Forces follies to lie in cover with- Shakespear wrote it PRIESTLY, out daring to thew themselves. as appears from the words them

9 His filth within being cast.] selves, To casi a pond, is to emply it 'tis the cunning livery of of mud.

bell,

Tbe

8

The damned'st body to invest and cover
In Princely guards. Dost thou think, Claudio,
If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou might'st be freed?

Claud. Oh, heav'ns! it cannot be.

Isab. Yes, he would giv't thee * for this rank offence,
So to offend him ftill. This night's the time
That I should do what I abhor to name,
Or else thou dy'st to-morrow.

Claud. Thou shalt not do't.

Ifab. Oh, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for

your

deliverance
As frankly as a pin.

Claud. Thanks, dearest Isabel.
Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to morrow.

Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him,
That thus can make him bite the law by th' nose,
When he would force it ? 2 sure, it is no fin;
Or of the deadly seven it is the least.

Isab. Which is the least ?

Člaud. If it were damnable,' he being so wise,
Why would he for the momentary trick
Be perdurably find ? oh Isabel !

Isab. What says my brother ?
Claud. Death's a fearful thing.

Isab.
The damned's body to invest and preceding words of, This out-

ward-fainted Deputy. demand the With Priestly guards. reading I have here reitored. In the first place we see that

WARBURTON. guards here signifies lace, as re The first Folios has, in both ferring to livery, and as having places, prenzie, from which the no sense in the fignification of other folios made princely, and satellites, Now priestly guards every editor may make what he means fanctity, which is the sense required. But princely guards * For, Hanmer. In other edi. means nothing but rich lace, tions, from. which is a sense the passage will

2 When he would force it.] not bear. Angelo, indeed, as Put it in force. WAREURTON. Deputy, might be called the If it were damnable, &c.] princely Angelo : but not in this Shakespear shows his knowledge place, where the immediately of human nature in the conduct

of

+

Cover

can.

3

Isab. And shamed life a hateful.

Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lye in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit +
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribb'd ice ;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown wich restless violence round about
The pendant world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and uncertain thoughts *
Imagine howling ; 'tis too horrible !
The

weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ach, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.

Isab. Alas! alas !

Claud. Sweet fifter, let me live; What sin you do to save a brother's life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far, That it becomes a virtue.

Isab. Oh, you beast ! of Claudio.When Isabella first tells and fo, by death, not only set him of Angelo's proposal he an- free, but expanded too ; which, swers with honest indignation, if true, would make it the less agreeably to his settled principles, sensible of pair. WARBURTON, thou shalt not dot. But the love This reading may pertans of life being permitted to ope- stand, but many attempts have rate, scon furnishes him with so- been made to correct it. The most phistical arguments, he believes plausible is that which fubit:tutes it cannot be very dangerous to the the benigbted spirit, alluding to soul, fince Angelo, who is so wise, the darkness always supposed in will venture it.

the place of future punishment. 4 – delighted spirit.] i, e, the Perhaps we may read the despirit accustomed here to ease and linquent spirit. a word easily delights. This was properly urged changed to delighted by a bad as an aggravation to the sharp- copier, or unkiltul reader. ness of the torments spoken of.

lawless and uncertain The Oxford Editor not appre- thoughts.] Conjecture sent out hending this, alters it to dilated. to wander without any certain As if, because the spirit in the direction, and ranging through body is said to be imprisoned, it all poflibilities of pain. was crowded rogether likewise ;

Oh,

Oh, faithless coward! oh, dishonest wretch !
Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice?
I't not a kind of incest, s to take life
From thine own fifter's shame? what should I think?
Heav'n grant, my mother plaid my father fair !
For such a warped Nip of wilderness
Ne'er iffu'd from his blood. Take my defiance,
Die, perish! might iny only bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed,
I'll

pray a thousand prayers for thy death ; No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabél.

Isab. Oh, fie, fie, fie !
Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade;
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd;
'Tis bell, that thou dy'st quickly.

Claud. Oh hear me, Isabel.

To them, Enter Duke and Provost. Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister ; but one word. Isab. What is your will ?

Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech with you ; the fatisfaction I would require, is likewise your own benefit.

Isab. I have no superfluous leisure ; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will actend you a while.

Duke. [To Claudio afide.) Son, I have over-heard what hath past between you and your Sister. Angelo had never the purpose co corrupt her ; only he hath

s Is't not a kind of incest,-) only as a virgin but as a nun. in Isabella's declamation chere but a trade.] A custom; is fon ething harsh, and some a practice ; an established habit. thing forced and far-fetched. But So we lay of a man much addict. her indignation cannot be thoughi ed to any thing, he makes a trade violent when we consider her not of it. Vol. I,

Y

made

made an assay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures. She, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial, which he is molt glad to receive : I am Confeffor to Angelo, and I know this to be true ; therefore prepare yourself to death. Do not satisfy your resolucion with 'hopes that are fallible ; o to-morrow you must die ; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me ask my lifier pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.

[Exit Claud. Duke. Hold

you

there ; ? farewel. Provost, a word

with you.

Prov. Whai's your Will, father?

Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me a while with the maid: my mind promises with my habit, no lols shall touch her by my company. Prov. In good time.

[Exit Prov. Duke. The hand, that hath made you fair, hath made you good ; the goodness, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness ; but grace, being the foul of your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever fair. The aflault, that Angelo hath made on you,

6 Do not satisfie your resolution to the world, would naturallo with hopes that are fallible;] A elude or weaken the virtue of condemned man, whom his con that refolution, which was raised feffor had brought to bear death only on motives of religion. And with decency and resolution, be- this his confesior had reason to gan anew to entertain hopes of wan him of. The term falfife life. This occasioned the advice is taken from fencing, and tig. in the words above. But how nifies the pretending to aim did these hopes satisfie his refo stroke in order to draw the ad. lution ? or what harm was there, versary off his guard. So Fairif they did? We mult certainly fax. read, Do not FALSIFIE your rl

Now strikes be out, and now solution with hopes that are fal he FALSIFIETH. lible. And then it becomes a

WARSURTON reasonable admonition. For hopes 7. Hold you there.] Continue of life, by drawing him back in. in that resolution, .

fortune