Enter ISABELLA. Duke. I do constantly believe you:-The time is come, even now. I shall crave your forbearance a little; may be, I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself. Mari. I am always bound to you. Duke. Very well met, and welcome. What is the news from this good deputy? [Exit. Isab. He hath a garden circummur'd with brick, Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd; And to that vineyard is a planched gate,7 That makes his opening with this bigger key: This other doth command a little door, Vhich from the vineyard to the garden leads: There have I made my promise to call on him, Upon the heavy middle of the night. Duke. But shall you on your knowledge find this way? Isab. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon 't; With whispering and most guilty diligence, In action all of precept,9 he did show me The way twice o'er. constantly] Certainly; without fluctuation of mind. "Could so much turn the constitution So, in The Merchant of Venice: "Of any constant man." 6 Steevens. Johnson. circummur'd with brick,] Circummured, walled round. "He caused the doors to be mured and cased up." Fr. Painter's Palace of Pleasure. Johnson. 7 —a planched gate,] i. e. a gate made of boards. Planche, A plancher is a plank. So, in Lyly's Maid's Metamorphosis, 1600: upon the ground doth lie "A hollow plancher." Again, in Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan, 1614: "Yet with his hoofes doth beat and rent "The planched floore, the barres and chaines." Steevens & There have I, &c.] In the old copy the lines stand thus: There have I made my promise upon the Heavy middle of the night, to call upon him. Steevens. The present regulation was made by Mr. Steevens. Malone. Duke. Duke. 'Tis well borne up. I have not yet made known to Mariana A word of this:-What, ho! within! come forth! Re-enter MARIANA. I pray you be acquainted with this maid; Isab. I do desire the like. Duke. Do you persuade yourself that I respect you? Mari. Good friar, I know you do; and have found it. Duke. Take then this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear: I shall attend your leisure; but make haste; Mari. Will 't please you walk aside? [Exeunt MARI. and ISAB. Duke. O place and greatness,3 millions of false eyes1 Are stuck upon thee! volumes of report 9 In action all of precept,] i. e. showing the several turnings of the way, with his hand; which action contained so many precepts, being given for my direction. Warburton. I rather think we should read, In precept of all action, that is, in direction given not by words, but by mute signs. Johnson. 1 I have possess'd him,] I have made him clearly and strongly comprehend. Johnson. To possess had formerly the sense of inform or acquaint. As in Every Man in his Humour, Act I, sc. v, Captain Bobadil says: "Possess no gentleman of our acquaintance with notice of my lodging." Reed. 2 That stays upon me;] So, in Macbeth: "Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure." Steevens. 3 O place and greatness,] It plainly appears that this fine speech belongs to that which concludes the preceding scene between the Duke and Lucio. For they are absolutely foreign to the subject of this, and are the natural reflections arising from that. Besides, the very words, Run with these false and most contrarious quests5 And rack thee in their fancies!Welcome! How agreed? Run with these false and most contrarious quests, evidently refer to Lucio's scandals just preceding; which the Oxford editor, in his usual way, has emended, by altering these to their. But that some time might be given to the two women to confer together, the players, I suppose, took part of the speech, beginning at No might nor greatness, &c. and put it here, without troubling themselves about its pertinency. However, we are obliged to them for not giving us their own impertinency, as they have frequently done in other places. Warburton. I cannot agree that these lines are placed here by the players. The sentiments are common, and such as a prince, given to reflection, must have often present. There was a necessity to fill up the time in which the ladies converse apart, and they must have quick tongues and ready apprehensions, if they understood each other while this speech was uttered. Johnson. 4 millions of false eyes-] That is, Eyes insidious and traiterous. Johnson. So, in Chaucer's Sompnoures Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 7633: "Ther is ful many an eye, and many an ere, "Awaiting on a lord," &c. Steevens. 5 contrarious quests-] Different reports, running counter to each other. Johnson. So, in Othello: "The senate has sent out three several quests.” In our author's K. Richard III, is a passage in some degree similar to the foregoing: 66 My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, "And every tale condemns" Steevens. I incline to think that quests here means inquisitions, in which sense the word was used in Shakspeare's time. See Minshieu's Dict. in v. Cole in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders “A quest," by "examin inquisitio." Malone. False and contrarious quests in this place rather mean lying and contradictory messengers, with whom run volumes of report. An explanation, which the line quoted by Mr. Steevens will serve to confirm. Ritson. 6 'scapes of wit-] i. e. sallies, irregularities. King John, Act III, sc. iv: So, in "No 'scape of nature, no distemper'd day." Steevens. 7 And rack thee in their fancies!] Though rack, in the present instance, may signify torture or mangle, it might also mean confuse; as the rack, i. e. fleeting cloud, renders the object behind Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA. Isab. She'll take the enterprize upon her, father, If you advise it. It is not my consent, Duke. But my intreaty too. Isab. Little have you to say, When you depart from him, but, soft and low, Mari. Fear me not. Duke. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all: [Exeunt. it obscure, and of undetermined form. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "That which was now a horse, even with a thought, 8 Doth flourish the deceit.] A metaphor taken from embroidery, where a coarse ground is filled up, and covered with figures of rich materials and elegant workmanship. Warburton. Flourish is ornament in general. So, in our author's Twelfth Night: 66 empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the devil." Steevens. Dr. Warburton's illustration of the metaphor seems to be inaccurate. The passage from another of Shakspeare's plays, quoted by Mr. Steevens, suggests to us the true one. The term-flourish, alludes to the flowers impressed on the waste printed paper and old books, with which trunks are commonly lined. Henley. When it is proved that the practice alluded to, was as ancient as the time of Shakspeare, Mr. Henley's explanation may be admitted. Steevens. 9 -for yet our tithe 's to sow.] As before, the blundering editors have made a prince of the priestly Angelo, so here they have made a priest of the prince. We should read tilth, our tillage is yet to make. The grain from which we expect our harvest, is not yet put into the ground. Warburton. e. The reader is here attacked with a petty sophism. We should read tilth, i. e our tillage is to make. But in the text it is to sow; and who has ever said that his tillage was to sow; I believe tythe is right, and that the expression is proverbial, in which tythe is taken, by an easy metonymy, for barvest. Johnson. SCENE II. A Room in the Prison. Enter Provost and Clown. Prov. Come hither, sirrah: Can you cut off a man's head? Clo. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can: but if he be a married man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head. 'Prov. Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine: Here is in our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping;' for you have been a notorious bawd. Dr. Warburton did not do justice to his own conjecture; and no wonder, therefore, that Dr. Johnson has not.-Tilth is provincially used for land till'd, prepared for sowing. Shakspeare, however, has applied it before in its usual acceptation. Farmer. Dr. Warburton's conjecture may be supported by many instances in Markham's English Husbandman, 1635: “ After the beginning of March you shall begin to sowe your barley upon that ground which the year before did lye fallow, and is commonly called your tilth or fallow field." In p. 74 of this book, a corruption, like our author's, occurs. "As before, I said beginne to fallow your tithe field :" which is undoubtedly misprinted for tilth field. Tollet. Tilth is used for crop, or harvest, by Gower, De Confessione Amantis, Lib. V, fol. 93, b: "To sowe cockill with the corne, "So that the tilth is nigh forlorne, "Which Christ sew first his owne honde." Shakspeare uses the word tilth in a former scene of this play; and, (as Dr. Farmer has observed) in its common acceptation; her plenteous womb 66 Expresseth its full tilth and husbandry." Again, in The Tempest: 66 bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none." but my quotation from Gower shows that, to sow tilth, was a phrase once in use. Steevens. This conjecture appears to me extremely probable. Malone. 1 an unpitied whipping ;] i. c. an unmerciful one. Steevens. |