Lucio. You had marr'd all else.

Ifab. Not with fond fhekels 3 of the tefted gold,
Or ftones, whofe rates are either rich, or poor,
As fancy values them: but with true prayers,
That fhall be up at heaven, and enter there,
Ere fun-rife; prayers from preferved fouls",
From faiting maids, whofe minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.

Ang. Well: come to me to-morrow.
Lucio. Go to; 'tis well; away.

Ifab. Heaven keep your honour fafe!
Ang. Amen:

For I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross 7.

[Afide to Ifabel.

[Afide. Ijab.

3 fond bekels] Fond means very frequently in our author foolish. It fignifies in this place valued or prized by folly. STEEVENS.

4-tested gold,] cuppelled, brought to the teft, refined. JOHNSON. The cuppell is called by the refiners a teft. Vide Harris's Lex. Tech. Voce CUPPELL. Sir J. HAWKINS.

bofe rates-] The old copy has-rate. This neceffary emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

6-preferved fouls,] i. e. preferved from the corruption of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preferved in fugar. WARBURTON. 7 Amen:

For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers crofs.] Which way Angelo is going to temptation, we begin to perceive; but how prayers crojs that way, or crois each other, at that way, more than any other, I do not understand.

Ifabella prays that his bonour may be fafe, meaning only to give him his title: his imagination is caught by the word bonour: he feels that his honour is in danger, and therefore, I believe, anfwers thus:

I am that way going to temptation,
Which your prayers crojs.

That is, I am tempted to lofe that honour of which thou imploreft the prefervation. The temptation under which I labour is that which thou haft unknowingly thwarted with thy prayer. He ufes the fame mode of language a few lines lower. Itabella, parting, fays: Save your bonour! Angelo catches the word-Save it! from what?

From thee; even from thy virtue! JOHNSON. The best method of illuftrating this paffage will be to quote a fimilar one from the Merchant of Venice. A& III. fc. i.

"Sal. I would it might prove the end of his leffes'

"Sela. Let me fay Amen betimes, left the devil cross thy prayer.” For the fame reafon Angelo feems to fay Amen to Ifabella's prayer;

but,

Ifab. At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend your lordship?
Ang. At any time 'fore noon.

Ijab. Save your honour!

[Exeunt Lucio, ISABELLA, and Provost.

Ang. From thee; even from thy virtue !

What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine?
The tempter, or the tempted, who fins moft? Ha!
Not fhe; nor doth fhe tempt: but it is I,
That lying by the violet, in the fun,
Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous feafon. Can it be,
That modefty may more betray our sense

Than woman's lightnefs? Having wafte ground enough,
Shall we defire to raze the fanctuary,

but, to make the expreffion clear, we fhould read perhaps Where prayers are croffed. TYRWHITT.

I believe, the meaning isMay Heaven grant your prayer! May my honour be preserved! for I find I am going into that way or road of temptation, where prayers only can thwart the temptation, and prevent it from overcoming me.

To cross is ufed in the fame fenfe in Timon of Athens: "The devil knew not what he did, when he made man politick: he crossed himself by it." Again, in the play before us : "I may make my cale as Claudio's, to cross this in the leaft."

Or, perhaps, the speaker means,-I am going into the road of temptation, into which we daily pray that we may not be led. Our Lord's prayer may have been here in Shakspeare's thoughts. MALONE.

That lying by the violet, in the fun, &c.] I am not corrupted by her, but by my own heart, which excites foul defires under the fame benign influences that exalt her purity, as the carrion grows putrid by thofe beams which increase the fragrance of the violet. JOHNSON. Can it be,

That modefty may more betray our fenfe

Than woman's lightness ?] So, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578:. "I do proteft her modeft wordes hath wrought in me a maze, "Though the be faire, fhe is not deackt with garith fhewes for gaze. "Hir bewtie lures, her lookes cut off fond fuits with chaft difdain. "O God, I feele a fodaine change, that doth my freedome chayne. "What didst thou fay? fie, Premos, fie, &c." STEEVENS. Senfe has in this paffage the fame fignification as in that above that my fenfe breeds with it." MALONE.

And

And pitch our evils there ? O, fie, fie, fie!
What doft thou? or what art thou, Angelo?
Doft thou defire her foully, for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live:
Thieves for their robbery have authority,

When judges fteal themfelves. What? do I love her,
That I defire to hear her speak again,

And feaft upon her eyes? What is't I dream on ?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a faint,
With faints doft bait thy hook! Moft dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on

To fin in loving virtue: never could the ftrumpet,
With all her double vigour, art, and nature,
Once ftir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite-Ever, till now,

When men were fond, I fmil'd, and wonder'd how 2.

SCENE III.

A Room in a Prifon.

Enter Duke, habited like a Friar, and Provost.

Duke. Hail to you, provoft! fo I think, you are.
Prov. I am the provoft: What's your will, good friar?
Duke. Bound by my charity, and my blefs'd order,

And pitch our evils there?] So, in K. Henry VIII: "Nor build their evils on the graves of great men.' Neither of thefe paffages appear to contain a very elegant allufion. Evils, in the prefent inftance, undoubtedly ftands for foricæ. Dr. Farmer aflures me he has feen the word ufed in this fenfe by our ancient writers; and it appears from Harrington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, &c. that the privies were originally fo il contrived, even in royal palaces, as to deferve the title of wils or nuifances. STEEVENS.

One of Sir John Berkenhead's queries confirms the foregoing obfer

vation :

"Whether, ever fince the Houfe of Commons has been locked up, the fpeaker's chair has not been a clofe-flood?"

"Whether it is not feafonable to ftop the nofe of my evil ?" Two CENTURIES OF PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, Svo. no date. MALONE. 2 Ifmil'd, and wonder'd bow.] As a day muft now intervene between this conference of Ifabella with Angelo, and the next, the act might more properly end here; and here, in my opinion, it was ended by the poet. JOHNSON.

5

I come

I come to vifit the afflicted fpirits

Here in the prison: do me the common right
To let me fee them; and to make me know
The nature of their crimes, that I may minifter
To them accordingly.

Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful.
Enter JULIET.

Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine,
Who falling in the flames of her own youth 3,
Hath blister'd her report: She is with child;
And he that got it, fentenc'd: a young man
More fit to do another fuch offence,
Than die for this.

Duke. When must he die ?

Prov. As I do think, to-morrow.

I have provided for you; ftay a while,

And you fhall be conducted.

[to Juliet.

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the fin you carry?
Juliet. I do; and bear the fhame moft patiently.
Duke. I'll teach you how you fhall arraign your con-
fcience,

And try your penitence, if it be found,

3 Who falling in the flames of her own youth,

Hath blister'd ber report: The old copy has-flares. The correction was made by Dr. Warburton. In fupport of this emendation, it fhould be remembered, that flares (for fo it was anciently spelled) and flames differ only by a letter that is very frequently mistaken at the prels. The fame mistake is found in Macbeth, A&t II. fc. i. edit.1623:

my fteps, which they may walk,"-inftead of which way. Again, in this play of Meafure for Meafure, A&t V. fc. i. edit. 1623: give we your hand;" instead of me.In a former fcene of the play before us we meet with burning youth." MALONE.

Sir W. Davenant reads flames instead of flaws in his Law against. Lovers, a play almost literally taken from Measure for Measure, and Much Ado about Nothing. FARMER.

Shakspeare has flaming youth in Hamlet, and Greene, in his Never soo Late, 1616, lays he measured the flames of youth by his own dead cinders." Blifter'd her report, is disfigured her fame. Blifter feems to have reference to the flames mentioned in the preceding line. A fimilar ufe of this word occurs in Hamlet:

"takes the role

"From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
"And fets a blifter there." STEEVENS.

Or

Or hollowly put on.

Juliet. I'll gladly learn.

Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you ?
Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.
Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act
Was mutually committed?

Juliet. Mutually.

Duke. Then was your fin of heavier kind than his.
Juliet I do confefs it, and repent it, father.

Duke. 'Tis meet fo daughter: But left you do repent 4,
As that the fin hath brought you to this fhame,-
Which forrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven;
Shewing, we would not fpare heaven, as we love it,
But as we ftand in fear,-

Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil;

And take the fhame with joy.

Duke. There reft".

Your partner, as I hear, muft die to-morrow,

And I am going with inftruction to him:

Grace go with you! Benedicite.

Juliet. Muft die to-morrow! O injurious love 7,

[Exit.

That refpites me a life, whofe

very comfort

Is ftill a dying horror!

Prov. 'Tis pity of him.

[Exeunt.

4 But left you do repent,] is only a kind of negative imperativeNe te poeniteat,-and means, repent not on this account. STELVENS. I think that a line at leaft is wanting after the first of the Duke's fpeech. It would be prefumptuous to attempt to replace the words; but the fenfe, I am perfuaded, is eafily recoverable out of Juliet's anfwer. I fuppofe his advice, in fubftance, to have been nearly this. Take care, left you repent [not so much of your fault, as it is an evil,] as that the fin bath brought you to this fame." Accordingly, Juliet's anfwer is explicit to this point:

"I do repent me, as it is an evil,

"And take the fame with joy." TYRWHITT.

5 Shewing, we would not spare heaven,] i. e. fpare to offend heaven. MALONE.

6 There reft.] Keep yourfelf in this temper. JOHNSON. 70 injurious love,] O love, that is injurious in expediting Claudio's death, and that refpites me a life, which is a burthen to me worfe than death! TOLLET.

SCENE