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To make a false one.

Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. Ang. Say you so? then I shall poze you quickly. Which had you rather, That the most just law Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,"

The controverted word is found again in the same sense in Macbeth:

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thy undaunted mettle should compose

"Nothing but males."

Again, in K. Richard 11:

66 that bed, that womb,

"That mettle, that self mould that fashion'd thee,
"Made him a man."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

66 Common mother, thou,

"Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
"Teems and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,

"Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,
"Engenders the black toad," &c.

Means is here used for medium, or object, and the sense of the whole is this: 'Tis as easy wickedly to deprive a man born in wedlock of life, as to have unlawful commerce with a maid, in order to give life to an illegitimate child. The thought is simply, that murder is as easy as fornication; and the inference which Angelo would draw, is, that it is as improper to pardon the latter as the former. The words-to make a false one-evidently referring to life, shew that the preceding line is to be understood in a Malone. natural, and not in a metaphorical sense.

6 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.] I would have it considered, whether the train of the discourse does not rather require Isabel to say:

'Tis so set down in earth, but not in heaven.

When she has said this, Then, says Angelo, I shall poze you quickly. Would you, who, for the present purpose, declare your brother's crime to be less in the sight of heaven, than the law has made it; would you commit that crime, light as it is, to save your brother's life? To this she answers, not very plainly in either reading, but more appositely to that which I propose: I had rather give my body than my soul. Johnson.

What you have stated is undoubtedly the divine law: murder and fornication are both forbid by the canon of scripture;-but on earth the latter offence is considered as less heinous than the former. Malone.

So, in King John:

"Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,
"And so doth yours." Steevens.

Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness,
As she that he hath stain'd?

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I had rather give my body than my soul.8

Ang. I talk not of your soul; Our compell❜d sins Stand more for number than accompt.9

Isab.

How say you?

Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I say. Answer to this;

I, now the voice of the recorded law,
Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:
Might there not be a charity in sin,

To save this brother's life?

Isab.

I'll take it as a peril to my soul,

It is no sin at all, but charity.

Please you to do 't,

Ang. Pleas'd you to do 't, at peril of your soul,1

7

or, to redeem him,] The old copy has-and to redeem him. The emendation was made by Sir William D'Avenant.

Malone.

I had rather give my body than my soul.] Isabel, I believe, uses the words, "give my body," in a different sense from that in which they had been employed by Angelo. She means, I think, I had rather die, than forfeit my eternal happiness by the prostitution of my person. Malone.

She may mean-I had rather give up my body to imprisonment, than my soul to perdition. Steevens.

9 Our compell'd sins

Stand more for number than accompt.] Actions to which we are compelled, however numerous, are not imputed to us by heaven as crimes. If you cannot save your brother but by the loss of your chastity, it is not a voluntary but compelled sin, for which you cannot be accountable. Malone.

The old copy reads

"Stand more for number than for accompt."

I have omitted the second for, which had been casually repeated by the compositor. Steevens.

1 Pleas'd you to do 't, at peril &c.] The reasoning is thus: Angelo asks, whether there might not to be a charity in sin to save this brother. Isabella answers, that if Angelo will save him, she will stake her soul that it were charity, not sin. Angelo replies, that if Isabella would save him at the hazard of her soul, it would be not indeed no sin, but a sin to which the charity would be equivalent.

Johnson

Were equal poize of sin and charity.

Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of my suit,
If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer

To have it added to the faults of mine,

And nothing of your, answer.2

Ang. Nay, but hear me: Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant, Or seem so, craftily;3 and that 's not good.

Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better.

Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as these black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder

2 And nothing of your, answer.] I think it should be read, And nothing of yours, answer.

You and whatever is yours, be exempt from penalty. Johnson. And nothing of your answer, means, and make no part of those sins for which you shall be called to answer Steevens.

This passage would be clear, I think, if it were pointed thus: To have it added to the faults of mine,

And nothing of your, answer.

So that the substantive answer may be understood to be joined in construction with mine as well as your. The faults of mine answer are the faults which I am to answer for. Tyrwhitt.

craftily;] The old copy reads—crafty.

Sir William D'Avenant. Malone.

Corrected by

4 Let me be ignorant,] Me is wanting in the original copy. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. Malone. Proclaim an enshield beauty—] An enshield beauty is a shielded beauty, a beauty covered as with a shield. Steevens. as these black masks

Proclaim an enshield beauty &c.

This should be written en-shell'd, or in-shell'd, as it is in Coriolanus, Act IV, sc. vi:

"Thrusts forth his horns again into the world

"That were in-shell'd when Marcius stood for Rome." These Masks must mean, I think, the Masks of the audience; however improperly a compliment to them is put into the mouth of Angelo. As Shakspeare would hardly have been guilty of such an indecorum to flatter a common audience, I think this passage affords ground for supposing that the play was written to be acted at court. Some strokes of particular flattery to the King I have already pointed out; and there are several other general reflections, in the character of the Duke especially, which seem calculated for the royal ear. Tyrwhitt.

Than beauty could displayed.—But mark me;
To be received plain, I 'll speak more gross:
Your brother is to die.

Isab. So.

Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears
Accountant to the law upon that pain.
Isab. True.

Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, (As I subscribe not that, nor any other,

But in the loss of question,) that you, his sister,

I do not think so well of the conjecture in the latter part of this note, as I did some years ago; and therefore I should wish to withdraw it. Not that I am inclined to adopt the idea of Mr. Ritson, as I see no ground for supposing that Isabella bad any mask in her hand. My notion at present is, that the phrase these black masks signifies nothing more than black masks; according to an old idiom of our language, by which the demonstrative pronoun is put for the prepositive article. See the Glossary to Chaucer, edit. 1775; This, Thise. Shakspeare seems to have used the same idiom not only in the passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Romeo and Juliet, but also in King Henry IV, Part I, Act I, sc. iii:

66 and, but for these vile guns,

"He would himself have been a soldier."

With respect to the former part of this note, though Mr. Ritson has told us that "enshield is CERTAINLY put by contraction for enshielded," I have no objection to leaving my conjecture in its place, till some authority is produced for such an usage of enshield or enshielded. Tyrwhitt.

There are instances of a similar contraction or elision, in our author's plays. Thus, bloat for bloated, ballast for ballasted, and waft for wafted, with many others.

Ritson.

Sir William D'Avenant reads- —as a black mask; but I am afraid Mr Tyrwhitt is too well supported in his first supposition, by a passage at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet;

"These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair."

66

Steevens.

6 Accountant to the law upon that pain.] Pain is here for penalty, punishment. Johnson.

As I subscribe not that,] To subscribe means, to agree to Milton uses the word in the same sense.

So also, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion, 1661:

"Subscribe to his desires." Steevens.

8 But in the loss of question,] The loss of question I do not well understand, and should rather read:

But in the toss of question.

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Finding yourself desir'd of such a person,
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-binding law;9 and that there were
No earthly mean to save him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else let him suffer;1
What would you do?

Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself:
That is, Were I under the terms of death,

The impression of keen whips I 'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing I have been sick for, e'er I 'd yield
My body up to shame.

In the agitation, in the discussion of the question. To toss an argument is a common phrase. Johnson.

This expression, I believe, means, but in idle supposition, or conversation that tends to nothing, which may therefore, in our author's language, be called the loss of question. Thus, in Coriolanus, Act III, sc. i:

"The which shall turn you to no other harm,
"Than so much loss of time."

Question, in Shakspeare, often bears this meaning. So in his
Tarquin and Lucrece :

"And after supper, long he questioned

"With modest Lucrece, &c. Steevens.

Question is used here, as in many other places, for conversation.

19 Of the all-binding law;] The old editions read:

all building law. Johnson.

The emendation is Theobald's Steevens.

1

Malone.

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or else let him suffer;] The old copy reads- or else to let him," &c. Steevens.

or

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads more grammaticallyelse let him suffer." But our author is frequently inaccurate in the construction of his sentences. I have therefore adhered to the old copy. You must be under the necessity [to let, &c.] must be understood.

So, in Holinshed's History of Scotland, p. 150: "asleep they were so fast, that a man might have removed the chamber over them, sooner than to have awaked them out of their drunken sleep." Malone.

The old copy reads supposed, not suppos'd. The second to in the line might therefore be the compositor's accidental repetition of the first. Being unnecessary to sense, and injurious to measure, I have omitted it. The pa of Holinshed will furnish examples of every blunder to which printed works are liable. Steevens.

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