Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he's a better woodman3 than thou takest him for. Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well. Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke. Duke. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true; if not true, none were enough. Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child. Duke. Did you such a thing? Lucio. Yes, marry, did I: but was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar. Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest: Rest you well. Lucio. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end: If bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it: Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr, I shall stick. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO'S House. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. 2 he lives not in them.] i. e. his character depends not on them. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: 3 "The practice of it lives in John the bastard." Steevens. woodman -] A woodman seems to have been an attendant or servant to the Officer called Forrester. See Manwood on the Forest Laws, 4to. 1615, p. 46. It is here, however, used in a wanton sense, and was, probably, in our author's time, generally so received. In like manner, in The Chances, Act I, sc. ix, the Landlady says: Well, well, son John, "I see you are a woodman, and can choose So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff asks his mistresses: 66 His Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. actions show much like to madness: pray heaven, his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver our authorities there? Escal. I guess not. Ang. And why should we1 proclaim it an hour before his entering, that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street? Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a despatch of complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us. Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: Betimes i' the morn, I 'll call you at your house:5 Give notice to such men of sort and suit,6 As are to meet him. Escal. I shall, sir: fare you well. [Exit. Ang. Good night. This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid! And by an eminent body, that enforc'd 4 Ang. And why should we, &c.] It is the conscious guilt of Angelo that prompts this question. The reply of Escalus is such as arises from an undisturbed mind, that only considers the mysterious conduct of the Duke in a political point of view. 5 let it be proclaim'd: Steevens. Betimes i' the morn, &c.] Perhaps it should be pointed thus: let it be proclaim'd Betimes i' the morn: I'll call you at your house. So above: "And why should we proclaim it an hour before his entering?" Malone. 6 — sort and suit,] Figure and rank. Johnson. Not so, as I imagine, in this passage. In the feudal times all vassals were bound to hold suit and service to their over-lord; that is, to be ready at all times to attend and serve him, either when summoned to his courts, or to his standard in war. Such men of sort and suit as are to meet him, I presume, means the Duke's vassals or tenants in capite.--Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. Steevens. 7 makes me unpregnant,] In the first scene the Duke says that Escalus is pregnant, i. e. ready in the forms of law. Unpregnant therefore, in the instance before us, is unready, unprepared. Steevens._ The law against it! But that her tender shame How might she tongue me? Yet reason dares her? 8 read: -no:8 -Yet reason dares her?-no:] The old folio impressions Yet reason dares her No. And this is right. The meaning is, the circumstances of our case are such, that she will never venture to contradict me; dares her to reply No to me, whatever I say. Warburton. Mr. Theobald reads. Yet reason dares her note. Yet reason dares her-No. which he explains thus: Were it not for her maiden modesty, how might the lady proclaim my guilt? Yet (you'll say) she has reason on her side, and that will make her dare to do it. I think not, for my authority is of such weight, &c. I am afraid dare has no such signification. I have nothing to offer worth insertion. Johnson. To dare has two significations; to terrify, as in The Maid's Tragedy: those mad mischiefs "Would dare a woman." In King Henry IV, P. I, it means to challenge, or call forth: "Unless a brother should a brother dare Or perhaps, with only a slight transposition: • yet no reason dares her, &c. The meaning will then be,-Yet reason does not challenge, call forth, or incite her to appear against me, for my authority is above the reach of her accusation. Steevens. Yet reason dares her No.] Dr. Warburton is evidently right with respect to this reading, though wrong in his application. The expression is a provincial one, and very intelligible : But that her tender shame Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, How might she tongue me? Yet reason dares her No. That is, reason dares her to do it, as by this means she would not only publish her" maiden loss," but also as she would certainly suffer from the imposing credit of his station and power, which would repel with disgrace any attack on his reputation: For my authority bears a credent bulk, That no particular scandal once can touch, Henley. For my authority bears a credent bulk, That no particular scandal once can touch, But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, With ransom of such shame. liv'd! 'Would yet he had Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.1 [Exit. We think Mr. Henley rightly understands this passage, but has not sufficiently explained himself. Reason, or reflection, we conceive, personified by Shakspeare, and represented as daring or overawing Isabella, and crying No to her, whenever she finds herself prompted to "tongue" Angelo. Dare is often met with in this sense in Shakspeare. Beaumont and Fletcher have used the word No in a similar way in The Chances, Act III, sc. iv: "I wear a sword to satisfy the world no." Again, in A Wife for a Month, Act IV; "I'm sure he did not, for I charged him no." Monthly Review. Yet reason dares her? no:] Yet does not reason challenge or incite her to accuse me?-no, (answers the speaker) for my authority, &c. To dare, in this sense, is yet a school-phrase: Shakspeare probably learnt it there. He has again used the word in King Henry VI, Part II: "What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him?” Malone. 9 my authority bears a credent bulk, That no particular scandal, &c.] Credent is creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable. The old English writer, often confound the active and passive adjectives. So Shakspeare, and Milton after him, use inexpressive for inexpressible. Particular is private, a French sense. No scandal from any private mouth can reach a man in my authority. Johnson. The old copy reads "bears of a credent bulk." If of be any thing more than a blunder, it must mean-bears off, i. e. carries with it. As this monosyllable, however, does not improve our author's sense, and clogs his metre, I have omitted it. Steevens. Perhaps Angelo means, that his authority will ward off or set aside the weightiest and most probable charge that can be brought against him. Malone. 1 we would, and we would not.] Here undoubtedly the act should end, and was ended by the poet; for here is properly a SCENE V. Fields without the Town. Enter DUKE in his own habit, and Friar PETER. Duke. These letters2 at fit time deliver me. [Giving letters. Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,3 And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate; F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. Enter VARRIUS. [Exit Friar. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste: Come, we will walk: There 's other of our friends Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. cessation of action, and a night intervenes, and the place is changed, between the passages of this scene, and those of the next. The next act beginning with the following scene, proceeds without any interruption of time or change of place. Johnson. 2 These letters-] Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his story without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed. Johnson. The first clause of this remark is undoubtedly just; but respecting the second I wish our readers to recollect that all the plays of Shakspeare, before they reached the press, had passed through a dangerous medium, and probably experienced the injudicious curtailments to which too many dramatic pieces are still exposed, from the ignorance, caprice, and presumption of transcribers, players, and managers. Steevens. 3 you do blench from this to that,] To blench is to start off, to fly off. So, in Hamlet: 66 if he but blench, "I know my course." Steevens. |