fab. As much for my poor brother, as myself;
That is, were I under the terms of death,
Th' impreffion of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,.
And trip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing I've been fick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to fhame.

Ang. Then must your brother die..
Ijab. And 'twere the cheaper way;
Better it were, a brother dy'd at once;
Than that a fifter, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence, That you have flander'd fo

Ijab. An ignominious ranfom, and free pardon, Are of two houfes; lawful mercy, fure,

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

Ang. You feem'd of lace to make the law a tyrant, | And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother

A merriment, than a vice.

Ifab. Oh pardon me, my Lord; it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we ipeak not what we meant. I fomething do excufe the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love..

Ang. We are all frail.

Ifab. Elfe let my brother die, (13)

If not a feodary, but only he,

Owe, and fucceed by weakness!

(13) Elfe t

my

brother d'e,

If not a feodarv, but only he, &c.] This is fo obfeure a pase fage, but fo fine in its application, that it deferves to be explain'd A fealary was.one, that, in the times of vaffalage, held lands of the chief Lord, under the tenure of paying rent and fervice: which tenures were call'd feuda amongst the Gorbs. This being premised, let us come to a. paraphrafe of our Author's words. We are alb frail, fays Angelo; yes, replies Ifabella; if all mankind were not "feodaries, who owe what they have to this tenure of imbecility,.

and who fucceed each other by the fame tenure, as well as my "brother, I would give him up.' And the comparing mankind, (who, according to fome Divines, lie under the weight of original fin,) to a feudary, who owes fuit and fermice to his Lord, is, I think, one of the molt beautiful allufions imaginable.

Mr. Warkurter"..

Ang. Nay, women are frail too.

Ifab. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themselves; Which are as easy broke, as they make forms. Women! help heav'n; men their creation mar, In profiting by them: nay, call us ten times frail; For we are foft as our complexions are, And credulous to falfe prints.

Ang. I think it well;

And from this teftimony of your own fex,
(Since, I fuppofe, we're made to be no ftronger,
Than faults may fhake our frames) let me be bold:
I do arreft your words: be that you are,
That is, a woman; if you're more, you're none.
If you be one, as you are well exprefs'd
By all external warrants, fhew it now,
By putting on the deftin'd livery.

fab. I have no tongue but one; gentle my Lord, Let me intreat you, fpeak the former language. Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you.

Ifab. My brother did love Juliet ;

And you tell me, that he fhall die for it,
Ang. He fhall not, Ifabel, if you give me love.
Ifab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't,
Which feems a little fouler than it is,

To pluck on others.

Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words exprefs my purpose.

Ifab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd,
And most pernicious purpose ! feeming, feeming !-
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a prefent pardon for my brother,
Or, with an out-firech'd throat, I'll tell the world
Aloud, what man thou art.

Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unfoil'd name, th’austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i' th' State,
Will fo your accufation over-weigh,
That you fhall ftifle in your own report,
And fmell of calumny. I have begun;
And now I give my fenfual race the rein.

Fit thy confent to my fharp appetite,

Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,

That banish what they fue for: redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will:

Or elfe he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To ling'ring fufferance. Anfwer me to-morrow;
Or by th' affection that now guides me most,

I'll

prove a tyrant to him. As for you,

Say what you can; my falfe o'erweighs your true.

[Exiti
Ifab. To whom should I complain? did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O most perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the felf-fame tongue,,
Either of condemnation or approof;

Bidding the law make curtfy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,
To follow, as it draws. I'll to my brother.
Tho' he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him fuch a mind of honour,
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up;
Before his fifter fhould her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.

Then, Ifabel, live, chafte; and, brother, die ;.
More than our brother is our chastity.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's requeft;

And fit his mind to death, for his foul's reft.

[Exiti

1

Q.4

AC T

S

A C T
CT III.

SCENE, the Prifon,

Enter Duke, Claudio, and Provost.
DUKE.

O, then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo? Claud. The miferable have no other medicine, But only hope I've hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. Duke. Be abfolute for death: or death, or life, Shall thereby be the fweeter. Reason thus with life; (14) If I do lofe thee, I do lofe a thing,

That none but fools would reck; a breath thou art,
Servile to all the fkiey influences;

That doft this habitation, where thou keep'ft,
Hourly afflict; merely thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'ft by thy flight to fhun,
And yet runn'it tow'rd him ftill. Thou art not noble;
For all th' accommodations, that thou bear'ft,
Are nurs'd by bafenefs: thou'rt by no means valiant;
For thou doft fear the foft and tender fork

(14)

Reafon thus with life;

If I do lofe thec, I do lofe a thing

That none but fols would keep.] But this reading is not only contrary to all fenfe and reafon; but to the drift of this moral D. Murfe. The Duke, in his affum'd character of a Friar, is endea vouring to inftill no the condemn'd. pifoner a refignation of mind. to his fentence; but the fenfe of the lines, in this reading, is a direct perfuafive to fuicide! I make no doubt, but the Poet wrote, That none but, feois would reck.

i. e. care for, be anxious about, regret the lofs of.

Mr. Warburten. And the word is very frequent with our Author. Two Gent. of Verona j Recking as little what betide h me,

As much I wifh all good befortune you.

And Hamlet:

Himfeif the primrofe path of dalliance treads,
And reeks not his own reed.

Et alibi paffim.

a poor worm. Thy best of rest is fleep, And that thou oft provok'ft; yet grofly fear'ft Thy death, which is no more. Thou'rt not thyself;; For thou exift'ft on many a thousand grains, That iffue out of duft. Happy thou art not; For what thou haft not, ftill thou friv't to get; And what thou haft, forgett'ft.. Thou art not certain For thy complexion fhifts to ftrange effects, After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor; For, like an afs, whofe back with ingots bows, Thou bear'ft thy. heavy riches but a journey, And death unloadeth.thee. Friend thou haft none; For thy own bowels, which do call thee fire; The mere effufion of thy proper loins,

Do curfe the Gout, Serpigo, and the Rheum,

For eading thee no fooner. Thou haft nor youth, now age; (15)

But as it were an after-dinner's fleep,

Dreaming on both; for all thy bleffed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

(15) -Thou hast nor youth, nor age; &c.] Mr. Warburton has given me a correction of, and paraphrafe on, this and the fable-quent lines, which fhews fo fine a spirit, that, the' I have not ventur'd to disturb the text, I must not deprive my Readers of it.———— "The drift of this period, your fee, is to prove, that neither youth,, "nor age, is really enjoyed: which, in poetical language is, We have neither youth, nor age." But how is this prov'd? That age is not enjoy'd," he makes appear by recapitulating the infirmities of it, which deprive old age of the fenfe of pleature.. "To prove youth is not enjoy'd, he uses these words; for all thy b'effed youth, becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms of 'pa'fied Eid.. "Out of which, he that can deduce the proof, erit mibi magnus. "Apolie.' Undoubtedly, if we would know how the Author

wrote, we must read.

for, fall'd, thy blazed youth

Becomes affuaged; and doth beg the alms

Of palfied Eld.

"i. e. When thy youthfal appetite becomes pall'd; as it will be, inz the enjoyment; the blaze of youth becomes affuaged, and thou : "immediately contract the infirmities of age; as, particularly,. “the paliv, and other nervous infirmities; the confequence of the enjoyment of fenfual pleasure. This is to the purpofe; and proves. youth is not enjoy'd, by fhewing the fleet ng dulation of it."