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Ang.

Then must your brother die.

Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way:

Better it were, a brother died at once,2
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence That you have slander'd so?

Isab. Ignomy in ransom,3 and free pardon, Are of two houses: lawful mercy is

Nothing akin to foul redemption.

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather prov'a the sliding of your brother

A merriment than a vice.

Isab. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,

To have what we 'd have, we speak not what we mean: I something do excuse the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.

Ang. We are all frail.

Isab.

Else let my brother die,

If not a feodary, but only he,5

2 a brother died at once,] Perhaps we should read: Better it were, a brother died for once, &c. Johnson.

3 Ignomy in ransom,] So the word ignominy was formerly written. Thus in Troilus and Cressida, Act V, sc. iii:

"Hence, brother lacquey! ignomy and shame," &c.

Reed.

Sir William D'Avenant's alteration of these lines may prove a reasonably good comment on them :

"Ignoble ransom no proportion bears
"To pardon freely given." Malone.

The second folio reads

ignominy; but whichsover reading we take, the line will be inharmonious, if not defective. Steevens

4 Nothing akin-] The old copy reads-kin. For this trivial emendation I am answerable. Steevens.

:

5 If not a feodary, but only be, &c.] This is so obscure, but the allusion so fine, that it deserves to be explained. A feodary was one that in the times of vassalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service which tenures were called feuda amongst the Goths. "Now, (says Angelo) we are all frail;"-"Yes, (replies Isabella) if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecility, and who succeed each other by the same tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up." The comparing

Owe, and succeed by weakness.7

Ang.
Nay, women are frail too.
Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves;

mankind, lying under the weight of original sin, to a feodary, who owes suit and service to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. Warburton.

Shakspeare has the same allusion in Cymbeline:

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senseless bauble,

"Art thou a feodarie for this act?"

Again, in the prologue to Marston's Sophonisba, 1606:

"For seventeen kings were Carthage feodars."

Mr. M. Mason censures me for not perceiving that feodary signifies an accomplice. Of this I was fully aware, as it up. ports the sense contended for by Warburton, and seemingly acquiesced in by Dr. Johnson.-Every vassal was an accomplice with his lord; i. e. was subject to be executor of the mischief he did not contrive, and was obliged to follow in every bad cause which his superior led. Steevens.

I have shewn in a note on Cymbeline, that feodary was used by Shakspeare in the sense of an associate, and such undoubted. ly is its signification here. Dr. Warburton's note therefore is certainly wrong, and ought to be expunged.

After having ascertained the true meaning of this word, I must own, that the remaining part of the passage before us is extremely difficult. I would, however, restore the original reading thy, and the meaning should seem to be this :-We are all frail, says Angelo. Yes, replies Isabella; if he has not one associate in his crime, if no other person own and follow the same criminal courses which you are now pursuing, let my brother suffer death.

I think it, however, extremely probable that something is omitted. It is observable, that the line "Owe, and succeed thy weakness," does not, together with the subsequent line,"Nay, women are frail too,"-make a perfect verse: from which it may be conjectured that the compositor's eye glanced from the word succeed to weakness in a subsequent hemistich, and that by this oversight the passage is become unintelligible.

Malone. 6 Owe,] To owe is, in this place, to own, to hold, to have possession. Johrson.

7 by weakness.] The old copy reads-thy weakness.

Steevens.

The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. I am by no means satisfied with it. Thy is much more likely to have been printed by mistake for this, than the word which has been substituted. Yet this weakness and by weakness are equally to be understood. Sir W. D'Avenant omitted the passage in his Law against Lovers, probably on account of its difficulty. Malone.

Which are as easy broke as they make forms. Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; For we are soft as our complexions are,

And credulous to false prints.1

Ang.

I think it well;

And from this testimony of your own sex,

(Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger Than faults may shake our frames,) let me be bold;— I do arrest your words; Be that you are,

That is, a woman; if you be more, you 're none;
If you be one, (as you are well express'd
By all external warrants,) show it now,

By putting on the destin❜d livery.

Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me intreat you speak the former language.2

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-glasses

Which are as easy broke as they make forms.] Would it

not be better to read?

take forms. Johnson.

9 In profiting by them,] In imitating them, in taking them for examples. Johnson.

If men mar their own creation, by taking women for their example, they cannot be said to profit much by them.-Isabella is deploring the condition of woman-kind, formed so frail and credulous, that men prove the destruction of the whole sex, by taking advantage of their weakness, and using them for their own purposes. She therefore calls upon Heaven to assist them. This, though obscurely expressed, appears to me to be the meaning of this passage. M. Mason.

Dr. Johnson does not seem to have understood this passage. Isabella certainly does not mean to say that men mar their own creation by taking women for examples. Her meaning is, that men debase their nature by taking advantage of such weak pitiful creatures.-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. Steevens.

1 For we are soft as our complexions are,

And credulous to false prints.] i. e. take any impression.

So, in Twelfth Night:

"How easy is it for the proper false

"In women's waxen hearts to set their forms!
"Alas! our frailty is the cause, not we;

Warburton.

2

"For, such as we are made of, such we be."

Malone.

---speak the former language.] Isabella answers to his circumlocutory courtship, that she has but one tongue, she does not understand this new phrase, and desires him to talk his former language, that is, to talk as he talked before. Johnson.

Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you.

Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me, That he shall die for it.

Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Isab. I know, your virtue hath a license in 't,3 Which seems a little fouler than it is,4

To pluck on others.

Ang.

Believe me, on mine honour,

My words express my purpose.

Isab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd,

And most pernicious purpose!-Seeming, seeming!5I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for 't:

Sign me a present pardon for my brother,

Or, with an out-stretch'd throat, I'll tell the world Aloud, what man thou art.

Ang.

Who will believe thee, Isabel? My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life, My vouch against you, and my place i' the state, Will so your accusation over-weigh,

That you shall stifle in your own report,

3 I know your virtue bath a license in 't,] Alluding to the licenses given by ministers to their spies, to go into all suspected companies, and join in the language of malecontents. Warburton.

I suspect Warburton's interpretation to be more ingenious than just. The obvious meaning is-I know your virtue assumes an air of licentiousness which is not natural to you, on purpose to try me.-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. Steevens.

▲ Which seems a little fouler &c.] So, in Promos and Gassandra:

"Cas. Renowned lord, you use this speech (I hope) your thrall to trye,

"If otherwise, my brother's life so deare I will not bye." "Pro. Fair dame, my outward looks my inward thoughts bewray;

"If you mistrust, to search my harte, would God you had a kaye." Steevens. Seeming, seeming] feit virtue. Johnson.

5

Hypocrisy, hypocrisy; counter

6 My vouch against you,] The calling his denial of her charge his couch, has something fine. Vouch is the testimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he insinuates his authority was so great, that his denial would have the same credit that a vouch or testimony has in ordinary cases. Warburton. I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouch against means no more than denial. Johnson. K k

VOL. III.

And smell of calumny.7

I have begun;

And now I give my sensual race the rein:8
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;

Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,9
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;

Or else he must not only die the death,1

But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance: answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him: As for you,

Say what you can, my false o'er-weighs your true.
[Exit.
Isab. To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof!

7 That you shall stifle in your own report,

And smell of calumny.] A metaphor from a lamp or candle extinguished in its own grease. Steevens.

8 And now I give my sensual race the rein:] And now I give my senses the rein, in the race they are now actually running.

9

Heath.

and prolixious blushes,] The word prolixious is not peculiar to Shakspeare. I find it in Moses his birth and Miracles, by Drayton :

"Most part by water, more prolixious was," &c. Again, in the Dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is Up, 1598: rarifier of prolixious rough barbarism," &c. Again, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599:

ing."

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- well known unto them by his prolixious sea-wanderProlixious blushes mean what Milton has elegantly called sweet reluctant delay." Steevens.

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die the death,] This seems to be a solemn phrase for death inflicted by law. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Prepare to die the death." Johnson.

It is a phrase taken from scripture, as is observed in a note on The Midsummer Night's Dream. Steevens.

The phrase is a good phrase, as Shallow says, but I do not conceive it to be either of legal or scriptural origin. Chaucer uses it frequently. See Cant. Tales, ver. 607.

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They were adradde of him, as of the deth."

Ver. 1222, "The deth he feleth thurgh his herte smite."
It seems to have been originally a mistaken translation of the
French La Mort. Tyrwhitt.

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