Ang. Maiden, no remedy.

Ifab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him;

And neither heav'n, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do't.

Ifab. But can you, if you would?

Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.
Ifab. But might you do't, and do the world no

wrong,

If fo your heart were touch'd with that remorse,
As mine is to him?

Ang. He's fentenc'd; 'tis too late.

Lucio. You are too cold.

fab. Too late? why, no; I, that do fpeak a word, May call it back again: Well believe this, "No ceremony that to Great ones 'longs, "Not the King's crown, nor the deputed fword, "The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, "Become them with one half fo good a grace, "As mercy does: if he had been as you, And you as he, you would have flipt like him; But he, like you, would not have been so stern. Ang. Pray you, be gone.

Ifab. I wou'd to heav'n I had your potency, And you were Ifabel; fhould it then be thus? No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, And what a prisoner.

Lucio. Ay, touch him; there's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but wafte your words.

66

Ifab. Alas! alas!

Why, 3 all the fouls that are, were forfeit once: “And he, that might the 'vantage best have took, "Found out the remedy. How would you be,

3 - all the fouls that WERE,] This is falfe divinity. We fhould read ARE.

"If

If he, which is the top of judgment, fhould "But judge you, as you are? oh, think on that "And mercy then will breathe within your lips, "Like man new made.

Ang. Be you content, fair maid

;

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother.
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him; he dies to-morrow.
Ifab. To-morrow, Oh! that's fudden. Spare him,
fpare him.

He's not prepar'd for death: Even for our kitchins We kill the fowl, of season; fhall we serve heav'n With less respect, than we do minifter

[you :

To our grofs felves? good, good my lord, bethink
Who is it, that hath dy'd for this offence?
There's many have committed it.

Lucio. Ay, well faid.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,

If the first man that did th' edict infringe,

Had anfwer'd for his deed.

Now, 'tis awake;

Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass that fhews what future evils,
Or new, or by remifsnefs new-conceiv'd,
And fo in progrefs to be hatch'd and born,
Are now to have no fucceffive degrees;
(a) But ere they live, to end.

4 And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.] This is a fine thought, and finely expreffed: The meaning is, that mercy will add fuch grace to your perfon, that you will appear as amiable as man come fresh out of the hands of his creator.

5

like a prophet,

Looks in a glafs] This alludes to the fopperies of the Berril, much used at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by.

[(a) But ere they live, Oxford Edit. Vulg. But here they live.]

Ifab. Yet fhew fome pity.

66

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I fhew justice; "For then I pity thofe, I do not know;

"Which a difmifs'd offence would after gaul; And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another. Be fatisfy'd;

Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

Ifab. So you must be the firft, that gives this fen

tence;

And he, that suffers: oh, 'tis excellent

To have a giant's ftrength; but it is tyrannous,
To use it like a giant.

Lucio. That's well faid.

Ifab. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet;
For every pelting, petty, officer

Would use his heav'n for thunder:

'Nothing but thunder: merciful heav'n!

• Thou rather with thy fharp, and fulph'rous, bolt Split'ft the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,

6

Than the foft myrtle: O, but man! proud man, • Dreft in a little brief authority,

'Moft ignorant of what he's most affur'd,

• His glaffy effence, like an angry ape,

Plays fuch fantaftick tricks before high heav'n,

"As makes the angels weep; 7 who, with our fpleens,

• Would all themselves laugh mortal.

Lucio.

6 As makes the angels weep; ] The notion of angels weeping

for the fins of men is rabbinical.

gelos inducunt Hebræorum magiftri.

7 who, with our spleens,

Ob peccatum flentes an-
Grotius ad Lucam.

Would all themselves laugh mortal.] Mr. Theobald fays the meaning of this is, that if they were endowed with our spleens and perishable organs, they would laugh themselves out of immortality: Which amounts to this, that if they were mortal they would not be immortal. Shakespear meant no fuch nonfenfe. By Spleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, that always violently inclines it to a fpiteful, unfeasonable mirth. Had VOL. I.

the

Lucio. Oh, to him, to him, Wench; he will relent; He's coming: I perceive't.

Prov. Pray heav'n, fhe win him!

8

Ifab. We cannot weigh our brother with yourself: Great men may jeft with Saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the lefs, foul prophanation.

Lucio. Thou'rt right, girl; more o' that.

Ifab. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the foldier is flat blafphemy.

Lucio. Art avis'd o' that? more on't.
Ang. Why do you put these fayings upon me?
Ifab. Becaufe authority, tho' it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o' th' top: go to your bofom;
Knock there, and ask your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault; if it confefs

A natural guiltinefs, fuch as is his,

Let it not found a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.

Ang. She fpeaks, and 'tis such sense,

? That my fense bleeds with it. Fare you well. Ifab. Gentle, my lord, turn back.

Ang. I will bethink me; come again to-morrow. Ifab. Hark, how I'll bribe you: good my lord, turn back.

the angels that, fays Shakespear, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a paffion which does not deferve that prerogative. The ancients thought, that immoderate laughter was caused by the bigness of the spleen.

8 We cannot weigh our brother with our felf:] Why could The not? She could not weigh her brother with the Duke indeed, their qualities being fo difproportioned as to aggravate her brother's crimes, and extenuate the Duke's. So that it is plain we fhould read

with your felf.

9 That my fenfe bleeds with it.] The firft Folio reads breeds, which tho' it have no meaning, yet Mr. Theobald adopts, and difcards a very fenfible word, to make room for it.

Ang.

Ang. How? bribe me?

Ifab. Ay, with fuch gifts, that heav'n fhall fhare with you.

Lucio. You had marr'd all elfe.

Ifab. Not with fond fhekles of the tefted gold, Or ftones, whofe rate are either rich, or poor, As fancy values them; but with true prayers, That shall be up at heav'n, and enter there, Ere fun-rife: prayers from 2 preferved souls, From fafting maids, whofe minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.

Ang. Well; come to-morrow.

Lucio. Go to; 'tis well; away.

Ifab. Heav'n keep your Honour fafe!
Ang. Amen:

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

Ifab. At what hour to-morrow

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

Ifab. Save your Honour!

[Exeunt Lucio and Ifabella.

VIII.

SCENE

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? "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,

2

3

tefted gold,] i. e. attested, or marked with the ftandard

preserved fouls,] i. e. preferved from the corruption of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preferved in fugar.

3 virtuous feafon.] i, e. kindly feason. But the fubject here gives the figure a peculiar elegance.

Cc 2

"That