Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,

Till she herself confess it.

Duke.

Good friar, let's hear it.
[ISAB. is carried off, guarded; and MARI. comes
forward.

Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo?
O heaven! the vanity of wretched fools!-
Give us some seats.-Come cousin Angelo;
In this I'll be impartial; be you judge

Of your own cause. Is this the witness, friar?
First, let her show her face; and, after, speak.
Mari. Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face,
Until my husband bid me.

Duke.

Mari. No, my lord.

What, are you married?

Mr. Steevens's interpretation is certainly the true one. So, in The Comedy of Errors, Act III, sc. i:

"A vulgar comment will be made of it;

"And that supposed by the common rout,—
"That may," &c.

Again, in Twelfth Night:

66 for 'tis a vulgar proof,

"That very oft we pity enemies." Malone.

2 Come, cousin Angelo;

In this I'll be impartial; be you judge

Of your own cause.] Surely, says Mr. Theobald, this duke had odd notions of impartiality! He reads therefore,—I will be partial, and all the editors follow him: even Mr. Heath declares the observation unanswerable. But see the uncertainty of criticism! impartial was sometimes used in the sense of partial. In the old play of Swetnam, the Woman Hater, Atlanta cries out, when the judges decree against the women:

"You are impartial, and we do appeal

From you to judges more indifferent."

Farmer.

So, in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 2d Part, 1602:
"There's not a beauty lives,

"Hath that impartial predominance

"O'er my affects, as your enchanting graces."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet, 1597:

Again:

66

Cruel, unjust, impartial destinies !"

this day, this unjust impartial day."

In the language of our author's time im was frequently used as an augmentative or intensive particle. Malone.

3

her face;] The original copy reads-your face. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. Malonė.

Are nothing then :-Neither maid, widow, nor wife?4 Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

Duke. Silence that fellow: I would, he had some

cause

To prattle for himself.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Mari. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married: And, I confess, besides, I am no maid :

I have known my husband; yet my husband knows

not

That ever he knew me.

Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord; it can be no better.

Duke. For the benefit of silence, 'would thou wert so too.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Duke. This is no witness for lord Angelo..
Mari. Now I come to 't, my lord:

She, that accuses him of fornication,

In self-same manner doth accuse my husband;
And charges him, my lord, with such a time,
When I'll depose I had him in mine arms,
With all the effect of love.

Ang.

Mari. Not that I know,

Duke.

Charges she more than me?

No? you say, your husband.

Mari. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, Who thinks, he knows, that he ne'er knew my body,

But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's.

Ang. This is a strange abuse.

Let's see thy face.

4 Neither maid, widow, nor wife?] This is a proverbial phrase, to be found in Ray's Collection. Steevens

5 This is a strange abuse:] Abuse stands in this place for decettion or puzzle. So, in Macbeth:

my strange and self abuse,"

means, this strange deception of myself. Johnson.

Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask.

This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,

[Unveiling.

Which, once thou swor'st, was worth the looking on:
This is the hand, which, with a vow'd contract,

Was fast belock'd in thine: this is the body
That took away the match from Isabel,
And did supply thee at thy garden-house,"
In her imagin'd person.

Duke.

Know you this woman?

Sirrah, no more.

Lucio. Carnally, she says.

Duke.

Lucio. Enough, my lord.

Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this woman; And, five years since, there was some speech of mar

riage

Betwixt myself and her: which was broke off,
Partly, for that her promised proportions
Came short of composition; but, in chief,
For that her reputation was disvalued
In levity; since which time, of five years,

I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
Upon my faith and honour.

Mari.

Noble prince,

As there comes light from heaven, and words from

breath,

As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,

• And did supply thee at thy garden-house,] A garden-house in the time of our author was usually appropriated to purposes of intrigue. So, in SKIALETHIA, or a shadow of truth, in certain Epigrams and Satyres, 1598:

"Who, coming from the CURTAIN, sneaketh in
"To some old garden noted house for sin."

Again, in The London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605: "Sweet lady, if you have any friend, or garden-house, where you may employ a poor gentleman as your friend, I am yours to command in all secret service." Malone.

See also an extract from Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 4to, 1597, p. 57; quoted in Vol. V, of Dodsley's Old Plays, edit. 1780, p. 74. Reed.

7 her promised proportions

Came short of composition;] Her fortune, which was prom-. ised proportionate to mine, fell short of the composition, that is, contract or bargain. Johnson.

I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly

As words could make up vows: and, my good lord, But Tuesday night last gone, in his garden-house, He knew me as a wife: As this is true,

Let me in safety raise me from my knees;

Or else forever be confixed here,

A marble monument!

Ang.

I did but smile till now;

Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice;
My patience here is touch'd: I do perceive,
These poor informal women3 are no more
But instruments of some more mightier member,
That sets them on: Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.

Duke.
Ay, with my heart;
And punish them unto your height of pleasure.—
Thou foolish friar; and thou pernicious woman,
Compact with her that's gone! think'st thou, thy

oaths,

Though they would swear down each particular saint,
Were testimonies against his worth and credit,
That 's sealed in approbation?1-You, lord Escalus,
Sit with my cousin ; lend him your kind pains

These poor informal women-] Informal signifies out of their senses. In The Comedy of Errors, we meet with these lines: I will not let him stir,

"Till I have us'd the approved means I have,

"With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers,
"To make of him a formal man again."

The

Formal, in this passage, evidently signifies in his senses. lines are spoken of Antipholis of Syracuse, who is behaving like a madman. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Thou shouldst come like a fury crown'd with snakes, "Not like a formal man.' Steevens.

9 Though they would swear down each particular saint,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. iii:

"Though you in swearing shake the throned gods."

Steevens.

1 That's seal'd in approbation?] When any thing subject to counterfeits is tried by the proper officers and approved, a stamp or seal is put upon it, as among us on plate, weights, and measures. So the Duke says, that Angelo's faith has been tried, approved, and seal'd in testimony of that approbation, and, like other things so scaled, is no more to be called in question.

Johnson.

To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd.-
There is another friar that set them on;

Let him be sent for.

F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he,

indeed,

Hath set the women on to this complaint:

Your provost knows the place where he abides,
And he may fetch him.

Duke. Go, do it instantly.

[Exit Prov.

And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,2
Do with your injuries as seems you best,
In any chastisement: I for a while

Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have well
Determined upon these slanderers.

Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-[Exit DUKE] Signior Lucio, did not you say, you knew that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?

Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing, but in his clothes: and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the duke.

Escal. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a notable fellow.

Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word.

Escal. Call that same Isabel here once again; [to an attendant,] I would speak with her: Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall see how I'll handle her.

Lucio. Not better than he, by her own report.
Escal. Say you?

Lucio. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would sooner confess; perchance, publicly she 'll be ashamed.

Re-enter Officers, with ISABELLA; the DUKE, in the Friar's habit, and Provost.

Escal. I will go darkly to work with her.

Lucio. That's the way; for women are light at midnight.3

2- to hear this matter forth,] To hear it to the end; to search it to the bottom. Johnson.