Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the common-wealth; what fhall become of me?

Clown. Come, fear not you; good counsellors lack no clients; though you change your place, you need not change your trade: I'll be your tapfter ftill. Courage, there will be pity taken on you; you that have worn your eyes almoft out in the fervice, you will be confidered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfter? let's withdraw.

Clown. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the Provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt Bawd and Clown.

SCENE VI.

Enter Provoft, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers. Lucio and two Gentlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why doft thou fhow me thus to th world?

Bear me to prifon, where I am committed.
Prov. I do it not in evil difpofition,

But from lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the Demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight. The words of heav'n; on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis juft.

3 Thus can the Demi-god, Authority,

Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight

The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will;

Lucio

On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis juft. ] The wrong pointing of the second line hath made the paffage unintelligible. There ought to be a full ftop at weight. And the fenfe of the whole is this: The Demi-god, Authority, makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be queftioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus, Ipunif and remit punishment according to my own uncontrolable will; and

yet

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty; As furfeit is the father of much fast,

So ev'ry scope by the immod'rate ufe
Turns to reftraint: our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could fpeak fo wifely under an arreft, I would fend for certain of my creditors; and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment: what's thy offence, Claudio?

Claud. What, but to speak of, would offend again. Lucio. What is't, murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Letchery?

Claud, Call it fo.

Prov. Away, Sir, you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend:Lucio, a word with you.

Lucio. A hundred; if they'll do you any good: is letchery fo look'd after?

Claud. Thus ftands it with me; upon a true contract I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed,

(You know the lady,) she is fast

my wife; Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order. This we came not to,

Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,

'Till time had made them for us.

yet who can say what doft thou.

But it chances,

Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight, is a fine expreffion, to fignify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not so by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the fpecies.

The

The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,
With character too grofs, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even fo.

And the new deputy now for the Duke,

(Whether it be the fault, and glimpse, of newness;
Or whether that the body publick be

A horse whereon the Governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the feat, that it may

know

He can command, lets it ftraight feel the fpur;
Whether the tyranny be in his Place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I ftagger in:) but this new Governor
Awakes me all th' enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unfcour'd armour, hung by th' wall
So long, that nineteen Zodiacks have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowfie and neglected Act
Freshly in me; 'tis furely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is; and thy head ftands fo tickle on thy fhoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may figh it off. Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.

Claud. I have done fo, but he's not to be found.
I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind fervice:
This day my Sifter should the Cloister enter,
And there receive her Approbation.
Acquaint her with the danger of my state,
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the ftrict Deputy; bid her felf affay him;
I have great hope in that; for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,

Such as moves men! befide, fhe hath profp❜rous art

4moft mutual-] i. e. moft intimate. The phrafe is extremely elegant on this occafion; yet difliked by the Oxford Editor, who trikes out most.

When

When she will play with reason and difcourfe,
And well fhe can perfuade.

Lucio. I pray, the may; as well for the encouragement of the like, which elfe would ftand under grievous impofition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be forry fhould be thus foolishly loft at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours,

Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE

[Exeunt

VII.

A MONASTERY.

Enter Duke, and Friar Thomas.

Duke. N Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love
O; holy father, throw away that thought;
Can pierce a compleat bofom: why I defire thee
To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpose

More grave, and wrinkled, than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri. May your Grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy Sir, none better knows than you,
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt Affemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

" (A man of strict ure and firm abftinence)
My abfolute Pow'r and Place here in Vienna;
And he supposes me travell❜d to Poland;
For fo I've ftrew'd it in the common ear,

5 A man of STRICTURE and firm abftinençe] ftri&ure makes no fenfe in this place. We fhould read,

A man of STRICT URE and firm abftinence.

i. e. a man of the exacteft conduct, and practifed in the fubdual of his paffions. Ure an old word for ufe, practice, fo enur'd, habituated to.

And

And so it is receiv'd: now, pious Sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have ftrict Statutes and moft biting Laws, ❝ (The needful bits and curbs for head-ftrong Steeds,) Which for these nineteen years 7 we have let fleep; Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to ftick it in their children's fight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: fo our Decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And Liberty plucks Juftice by the nofe;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It refted in your Grace

T'unloose this ty'd up juftice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful.

Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them,
For what I bid them do. For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permiffive pass,

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office :

Who may in th' ambush of my name ftrike home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight

To do in flander: And to behold his sway,

6. The needful bits and curbs for headftrong WEEDS,] Common fenfe, and the integrity of the metaphor, fhews that Shakespear wrote headftrong STEEDS.

7 - We have let SLIP;

Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,]

The fimilitude fhews that Shakespear wrote, we have let SLEEP.

I will,