Ang.

Maiden, no remedy. Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do 't.

Isab.

But can you, if you would? Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. Isab. But might you do 't, and do the world no wrong, If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse7 As mine is to him?

Ang.

He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late.

Lucio. You are too cold.

[To ISAB.
Isab. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word,
May call it back again : Well believe this,
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace,
As mercy does. If he had been as you,

And you as he, you would have slipt like him;
But he, like you, would not have been so stern.
Ang. Pray you, begone.

Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency,
And you were Isabel! should it then be thus?
No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,

And what a prisoner:

Lucio. Ay, touch him: there 's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words.

[Aside.

touch'd with that remorse-] Remorse, in this place,

as in many others, signifies pity.

So, in the 5th Act of this play:

"My sisterly remorse confutes my honour,
"And I did vield to him."

Again, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632:

"The perfect image of a wretched creature,

"His speeches beg remorse."

See Othello, Act III. Steevens.

8 May call it back again:] The word back was inserted by the editor of the second folio, for the sake of the metre.

Malone.

Surely, it is added for the sake of sense as well as metre.

Steevens.

9 Well believe this,] Be thoroughly assured of this. Theobald

Alas! Alas!

Isab.
Why, all the souls that were,1 were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy: How would you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are; O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.2

Ang.
Be you content, fair maid;
It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him;-he must die to-morrow. Isab. To-morrow? O, that 's sudden! Spare him, spare him;

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens
We kill the fowl of season;3 shall we serve heaven
With less respect than we do minister

To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you:
Who is it that hath died for this offence?

11 all the souls that were,] This is false divinity. We should read-are. Warburton.

I fear, the player, in this instance, is a better divine than the prelate The souls that WERE, evidently refer to Adam and Eve, whose transgression rendered them obnoxious to the penalty of annihilation, but for the remedy which the author of their being most graciously provided. The learned Bishop, however, is more successful in his next explanation. Henley.

2 And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.] This is a fine thought, and finely expressed. The meaning is, that mercy will add such a grace to your person, that you will appear as amiable as a man come fresh out of the bands of his Creator. Warburton.

I rather think the meaning is, You would then change the severity of your present character. In familiar speech, You will be quite another man. Johnson.

And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.] You will then appear as tender-hearted and merciful as the first man was in his days of innocence, immediately after his creation. Malone.

I incline to a different interpretation:-And you, Angelo, will breathe new life into Claudio, as the Creator animated Adam, by "breathing into his nostrils the breath of life." H. White.

3 of season;] i. e. when it is in season. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: " buck; and of the season too it shall appear." Steevens.

There 's many have committed it.

Lucio.

Ay, well said. Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath

slept :4

Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man that did the edict infringe,5
Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and like a prophet,
Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
(Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no súccessive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.8

4 The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept :] Dormiunt aliquando leges, moriuntur nunquam, is a maxim in our law.

H. White. 3 If the first man, &c.] The word man has been supplied by the modern editors. I would rather read

If be, the first, &c.

Tyrwhitt.

Man was introduced by Mr. Pope. Malone.

6 like a prophet,

Looks in a glass,] This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, much used at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. Warburton.

See Macbeth, Act IV, sc. i.

So, again, in Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

"How long have I beheld the devil in chrystal?" Steevens. The beril, which is a kind of crystal, hath a weak tincture of red in it. Among other tricks of astrologers, the discovery of past or future events was supposed to be the consequence of looking into it. See Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 165, edit. 1721.

Reed.

7 Either now,] Thus the old copy, Modern editors readOr new-. Steevens.

8 But, where they live, to end.] The old copy reads-But, here they live, to end. Sir Thomas Hanmer substituted ere for here; but where was, I am persuaded, the author's word. Su, in Coriolanus, Act V, sc. v:

66 but there to end,

"WHERE he was to begin, and give away

"The benefit of our levies," &c.

Again, in Julius Cæsar:

"And WHERE I did begin, there shall I end."

The prophecy is not, that future evils should end, ere, or before they are born; or, in other words, that there should be no more evil in the world (as Sir T. Hanmer by his alteration seems to have understood it;) but, that they should end WHERE they

Isab.

Yet show some pity.

Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice: For then I pity those I do not know,9

Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;

And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;

Your brother dies to morrow; be content.

Isab. So you must be the first, that gives this sentence;

And he, that suffers: O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous,
To use it like a giant.1

Lucio.

That's well said.

Isab. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,

For every pelting, petty officer,

Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thun

der..

Merciful heaven!

Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,3

began i. e. with the criminal; who being punished for his first
offence, could not proceed by successive degrees in wickedness, nor
excite others, by his impunity, to vice. So, in the next speech:
"And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
"Lives not to act another."

It is more likely that a letter should have been omitted at the press, than that one should have been added.

The same mistake has happened in The Merchant of Venice, folio, 1623, p. 173, col. 2: ha, ha, bere in Genoa."-instead of "where? in Genoa?" Malone.

Dr. Johnson applauds Sir prefer that of Mr. Malone.

show some pity.

Thomas Hanmer's emendation. I
Steevens.

Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice;

For then I pity those I do not know,] This was one of Hale's memorials. When I find myself swayed to mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy likewise due to the country. Johnson.

1 To use it like a giant.] Isabella alludes to the savage conduct of giants in ancient romances. Steevens.

2

- pelting,] i. e. paltry.

This word I meet with in Mother Bombie, 1594:

66

3

- will not shrink the city for a pelting jade."

1

in wood,

"" Steevens.

gnarled oak,] Gnarre is the old English word for a knot

Than the soft myrtle ;0, but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority;

Most ignorant of what he 's most assur'd,
His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,

As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal."

Lucio. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent;
He 's coming; I perceive 't.

Prov.

Pray heaven she win him! Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:7

So, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602:

"Till by degrees the tough and gnarly trunk

"Be riv'd in sunder."

Again, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v, 1979: "With knotty knarry barrein trees old." Steevens.

4 Than the soft myrtle;―0, but man, proud man!] The defective metre of this line shows that some word was accidentally omitted at the press; probably some additional epithet to man; perhaps weak," but man, weak, proud man! " The editor of the second folio, to supply the defect, reads-0, but man, &c. which, like almost all the other emendations of that copy, is the worst and the most improbable that could have been chosen.

Malone.

I am content with the emendation of the second folio, which I conceive to have been made on the authority of some manuscript, or corrected copy. Steevens.

5 As make the angels weep;] The notion of angels weeping for the sins of men is rabbinical.-Ob peccatum flentes angelos inducunt Hebræorum magistri.-Grotius ad S. Lucam. Theobald.

6 who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.] Mr. Theobald says the meaning of this is, that if they were endowed with our spleens and perishable organs, they would laugh themselves out of immortality; or, as we say in common life, laugh themselves dead; which amounts to this, that if they were mortal, they would not be immortal. Shakspeare meant no such nonsense. By spleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, that always inclines it to a spiteful, unseasonable mirth. Had the angels that, says Shakspeare, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a passion which does not deserve that prerogative. The ancients thought, that immoderate laughter was caused by the bigness of the spleen. Warburton.

1 We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:] We mortals, proud and foolish, cannot prevail on our passions to weigh or compare our brother, a being of like nature and like frailty, и h

VOL. III.