Ijab. Which is the leaft? Claud. If it were damnable 4, he, being fo wife, Ijab. What fays my brother? Claud. Death is a fearful thing. Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obftruction, and to rot ; This fenfible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit 7 To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprifon'd in the viewlefs winds, And blown with reflefs violence round about The pendant world; or to be worse than worst others? [I find, he is.] Surely then, fince this is fo general a propenfity, fince the judge is as criminal as he whom he condemns, it is no fin, or at leaf a venial one. So, in the next Act: "A deflower'd maid, "And by an eminent body that enfort'd Force is again ufed for enforce in K. Henry VIII: Again, in Coriolanus: "Why force you this?" MALONE. 4 If it were damnable, &c.] Shakspeare fhows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. When Ifabella firft tells him of Angelo's propofal, he anfwers, with honeft indignation, agreeably to his fettled principles, Thou shalt not do't. But the love of life being permitted to operate, foon furnishes him with fophistical arguments; he believes it cannot be very dangerous to the foul, fince Angelo, who is fo wife, will venture it. JOHNSON. 5 Be perdurably fin'd?] Perdurably is laftingly. STEEVENS. This fenfible warm motion-] Motion for organized body. MALONE. 7-delighted fpirit] i. e. the fpirit accustomed here to eafe and delights. This was properly urged as an aggravation to the fharpness of the torments spoken of. WARBURTON. I think with Dr. Warburton, that by the delighted fpirit is meant, the foul once accuftom'd to delight, which of courfe muft render the fufferings, afterwards defcribed, lefs tolerable. Thus our author calls youth, bleed, in a former fcene, before he proceeds to fhew its wants and its inconveniencies. STEEVENS. Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts To what we fear of death'. Claud. Sweet fifter, let me live : Ifab. O you beast! O faithlefs coward! O dishonest wretch! -lawless and incertain thoughts] Conjecture fent out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through all poffibilities of pain. JOHNSON. Old Copy-thought. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. 9-penury,] The old copy has-perjury. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. • To what we fear of death.] Moft certainly the idea of the "spirit bathing in fiery floods," or of refiding "in thrilling regions of thickribbed ice," is not original to our poet; but I am not fure that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil.-The monks also had their hot and their cold hell; "the fyrfte is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," fays an old homily:-"The feconde is paffying cold, that yf a greate hylle of fyre were caft therin, it fhold torne to yce.” One of their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakspeare, gives us a dialogue between a bishop and a foul tormented in a piece of ice which was brought to cure a brenning beate in his foot.-Another tells us of the foul of a monk faftened to a rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and purge of its enormities. Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into poetick fiction, as you may fee in a poem, "where the lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of hell," among the many mifcellaneous ones fubjoined to the works of Surrey of which you will foon have a beautiful edition from the able hand of my friend Dr. Percy. Nay, a very learned and in.quiative brother-antiquary hath obferved to me, on the authority of Blefkenius, that this was the ancient opinion of the inhabitants of Iceland, who were certainly very little read either in the poet or the philofopher. FARMER. : Lazarus, in the Shepherd's Calendar, is reprefented to have seen these particular modes of punishment in the infernal regions: "Secondly, I have feen in hell a floud frozen as ice, wherein the envious men and women were plunged unto the navel, and then fuddainly came over them a right cold and great wind, that grieved and pained them right fore, &c." STEEVENS. Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice? From thine own fifter's fhame? What fhould I think? Ne'er iffu'd from his blood. Take my defiance 4: Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. Ifab. O fie, fie, fie! Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade : 'Tis beft that thou dieft quickly. Claud. O hear me, Ifabella. Re-enter Duke. [going. Duke. Vouchfafe a word, young fifter, but one word. Ifab. What is your will? Duke. Might you difpenfe with your leifure, I would by and by have fome fpeech with you: the fatisfaction I would require is likewife your own benefit. Ifab. I have no fuperfluous leifure; my stay must be ftolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while. Duke. [to Claudio afide.] Son, I have over-heard what hath paft between you and your filter. Angelo had never the purpofe to corrupt her; only he hath made an affay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the difpofition of 2 Is't not a kind of inceft,-] In Ifabella's declamation there is fomething harsh, and fomething forced and far-fetched. But her indignation cannot be thought violent, when we confider her not only as a virgin, but as a nun. JOHNSON. 3-a warped flip of wilderness] Wilderness is here used for wildness, the ftate of being diforderly. The word, in this fenfe, is now obfolete, though employed by Milton: "The paths, and bowers, doubt not, but our joint hands "Will keep from wilderness with eafe." STEEVENS. 4 take my defiance:] Defiance is refufal. So, in Romeo and Julist: "I do defy thy commiferation." STEEVENS. 5-but a trade:] A cuftom; a practice; an established habit. So we fay of a man much addicted to any thing, he makes a trade of it. F 3 JOHNSON. natures: natures: fhe, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial, which he is moft glad to receive: I am confeffor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death: Do not fatisfy your refolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready. Claud. Let me afk my fifter pardon. I am fo out of love with life, that I will fue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there : Farewell. [Exit CLAUDIO. Re-enter Provost. Provoft, a word with you. Prov. What's your will, father? Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone: Leave me a while with the maid; my mind promises with my habit, no lofs fhall touch her by my company. Prev. In good time . [Exit Provoft. Duke. The hand that hath made you fair, hath made you good the goodnefs, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the foul of your complexion, fhould keep the body of it ever fair. The affault, that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I fhould wonder at Angelo: How would you do to content this fubftitute, and to fave your brother? Ifab. I am now going to refolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my fon fhould be unlawfully born. But oh, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government. Duke. That fhall not be much amifs: Yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accufation; he made 6 Do not fatisfy your refolution with hopes that are fallible:] Do not reft with fatisfaction on hopes that are fallible. STEEVENS. Perhaps the meaning is, Do not fatisfy or content yourlelf with that kind of refolution, which acquires ftrength from a latent hope that it will not be put to the teft; a hope, that in your cafe, if you rely upon it, will deceive you. MALONE. 7 Hold you there:] Continue in that refolution. JOHNSON. 8 In good time.] . e. à la bonne Leure, fo be it, very well. STEEVENS. trial of you only. Therefore faften your ear on my advifings; to the love I have in doing good, a remedy prefents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may moft uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no ftain to your own gracious perfon; and much please the abfent duke, if, peradventure, he fhall ever return to have hearing of this business. Ifab. Let me hear you speak further: I have fpirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit. Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard fpeak of Mariana the fifter of Frede rick, the great foldier, who mifcarried at fea? Ifab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name. Duke. Hér fhould this Angelo have marry'd; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the folemnity her brother Frederick was wreck'd at fea, having in that periff'd veffel the dowry of his fifter. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there fhe loft a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and finew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her com binate husband', this well-feeming Angelo. Ijab. Can this be fo? Did Angelo fo leave her? Dake. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of them with his comfort; fwallow'd his vows whole, pretending, in her, difcoveries of difhonour: in few, beftow'd her on her own lamentation2, which yet she wears for his faké ; -by catb,] By inferted by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE -and limit of the folemnity,] So, in King John: "Prefcribes how long the virgin ftate fhall taft, "Gives limits unto holy nuptial rites." i. e. appointed times. MALONE. Iber combinate bufband,] Combinate is betrothed, fettled by con tra. STEEVENS. beflow'd her on her own lamentation,] I once thought that we ought to read-beftow'd on her her own lamentation, but the old copy may be right: and any change, grounded on unufuat phrafeology, is dangerous. In Much ado about Nothing, we find diction as uncommon: "Impofe me to what penance your invention "Can lay upon my fin." Beftow'd her on her own lamentation," is, left her to her forrows. VOL. II. F 4 MALONE. |