quainted with tapsters; they will draw you master Froth, and you will hang them: Get you gone, and let me hear no more of you. Froth. I thank your worship: For mine ow part, I never come into any room in a taphouse, 5 but I am drawn in. Escal. Well; no more of it, master Froth:Farewell.--Come you hither to me, master tap-| ster; what's your name, master tapster? Clown. Pompey. Escal. What else? Clown. Bum, sir. Escal. I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had continued in it some tune: You say, seven years together? Elb. And a half, sir. Escal. Alas! it hath been great pains to you they do you wrong to put you so oft upon't: Are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it? Elb. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they are chosen, they are glad to chuse me for Othem; I do it for some piece of money, and go through with all. Escal. Truth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you: so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the great. Pompey, you are partly a 15 bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being tapster; Are you not? Come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you. Clown. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live. 20 Escal. How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade? Clown. If the law will allow it, sir. Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pompey;25 nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna. Clown. Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the youth in the city? E cal. No, Pompey. Clown. Truly sir, in my poor opinion, they 30 will to't then: If your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds. Escal. There are pretty orders beginning, can tell you: it is but heading and hanging. Clown. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten years together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. If this law hold in Vienna ten years, I'll rent the fairest house in it, after three-pence a bay: If you live to see 40 this come to pass, say, Pompey told you so. Escal. Thank you, good Pompey; and in requital of your prophecy, hark you,-I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever, no, not for dwelling where you 45 do; if I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Cæsar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt: so, for this time, Pompey, fare you well. Clown. I thank your worship for your good coun-50 sel; but I shall follow it, as the resh and fortune] shall better determine. Whip me! No, no; let carman whip his jade; The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade. [Ex it. Escal. Come hither to me, master Elbow; come 55 hither, master constable. Howlong have you been in this place of constable? Elb. Seven year and a half, sir. Enter Procost and a Servant. Serr. He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight: I'll tell him of you. Prov. Pray you, do. [Exit Servant.] I'll know All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he Enter Angelo. Ang. Now, what's the matter, provost? Frov. Lest I might be too rash: Ang. Go to; let that be mine: Prot. I crave your honour's pardon.- Ang. Dispose of her To some more fitting place; and that with speed. Re-enter Servant. Sere. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd, Desires access to you. Draw includes here a variety of senses. As it refers to the tapster, it means, to drain, to empty; as it refers to hang, it implies to be conveyed to execution on a hurdle. In Froth's answer, it imports the same as to bring along by some motive or power. Dr. Johnson says, a bay of building is, in many parts of England, a common term, for the space between the main beams of the roof; so that a barn crossed twice with beams is a barn of three bays. In Staffordshire, it is applied to the two open spaces of a barn on each side the threshing-floor. Arg. Ang. Hath he a sister? Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,| And to be shortly of a sister-lood, If not already. Would not have been so stern. Ang. Pray you, be gone. Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel! should it then be thus? Ang. Well, let her be admitted. [Exit Servant. 5 No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, See you, the fornicatress be remov'd; Let her have needful, but not lavish means; There shall be order for it. Enter Lucio and Isabella. Prov. Save your honour! Ang. Stay yet a while.—[To Isab.] You are welcome: What's your will? Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour, Please but your honour hear me. Ang. Well; what's your suit? Isab. There is a vice that most I do abhor, And most desire should meet the blow of justice: For which I would not plead, but that I must; For which I must not plead, but that I am At war, 'twixt will, and will not. Ang. Well; the matter? Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother. Prov. Heaven give thee moving graces! Ang. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it! Why, every fault's condemn'd, ere it be done: Mine were the very cypher of a function, To find the faults, whose fine stands in record, And let go by the actor. Isab. O just, but severe law! I had a brother then.-Heaven keep your honour! Lucio. [To Isab.] Give not o'er so: to him again, intreat him; Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown; Isub. Must he needs die? 10 And what a prisoner. Lucio. [dside. Ay, touch him: there's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forteit of the law, And you but waste your words. Isub. Alas! alas! Why, all the souls that were2, were forfeit once: And IIe that might the 'vantage best have took, Found out the remedy: How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgment, should 15 But judge you, as you are? O, 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. 20 Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, [row. It should be thus with him:-he must die to-inorIsub. To-morrow? Oh, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him; He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens 25 We kill the fowl, of season; shall we serve heaven With less respect than we do minister [you: To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink Who is it that hath died for this offence? There's many have committed it. Lucio. Ay, well said. 30 [slept: Ang. The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, If the first man, that did the edict infringe, Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake; 35 Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet, Looks in a glass that shews what future evils, (Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd, And so in progress to be hatch'd and born) Are now to have no successive degrees, But, ere they live, to end. [him, 40 Isub. Yes; I do think that you might pardon And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do 't. Isab. But can you, if you would? Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. Isab. But might you do 't, and do the world no wrong, If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse Ang. He is sentenc'd; 'tis too late. [To Isabel. Isab. Yet shew some pity. Ang. I shew it most of all, when I shew justice; For then I pity those I do not know, Which a dismiss'd offence would alter gall; 45 And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another, Be satisfy'd; 50 Your brother dies to-morrow; be content. Isab. So you must be the first, that gives this senAnd he, that suffers: Oh, it is excell nt [tence; To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous, To use it like a giant. Lucio. That's well said. Isab. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, 55 For every pelting', petty officer [thunder.Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but Merciful heaven! If he had been as you, and you as he, Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak, l'han the soft myrtle: O, but man! proud man, That is, pity. Perhaps we ought to read are. 'Meaning, perfect as the first man was, when he came from the hands of his Creator. 4 * This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, a ball of crystal much used at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. Paltry, That is, knotted. (Drest in a little brief authority; Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, Lucio. Oh, to him, to him, wench; he will relent: He's coming; I perceive't. Prov. Pray heaven she win him! Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation. Lucio. Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o' that. Isab. That in the captain's but a cholerick word,| Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. 5 10 15 Lucio. Art advis'd o' that? more on't. Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Ang. [Aside.] She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. [To Isab. Fare you well. [row. 25 Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. Ang. Well; come to me to-morrow. For I'am that way going to temptation, [Aside. Isab. At what hour to-morrow Shall I attend your lordship? Isab. Save your honour! [Ex. Lucio and Isab. 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 sins most? Ha, Not she; nor doth she tempt; but it is 1, That lying by the violet in the s sun, Do as the carrion does, not as the flower, That modesty may more betray our sense [nough, And pitch our evils there? Oh, fie, fie, fie! And feast upon her eyes? what is 't I dream on? When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd Enter Duke, habited like a Friar, and Provost. Duke. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd Proc. I would do more than that, if more were Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine, 40Who falling in the flaws of her own youth, 145 50 Hath blister'd her report: She is with child; And he that got it, sentenc'd: a young man More fit to do another such offence, Than die for this. Duke. When must be die? Proc. As I do think, to-morrow, I have provided for you; stay a while, [To Juliet And you shall be conducted. Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry? And try your penitence, if it be sound, 55 Julict. Pil'gladly learn. Fond 4 That Dr. Warburton supposes, that Shakspeare meant by spleen, that peculiar turn of the human mind, which always inclines it to a spiteful, unseasonable mirth; that had the angels that, they would laugh themselves out or their immortality, by indulging a passion which does not deserve that prerogative, The ancients thought, that immoderate laughter was caused by the bigness of the spleen. here means, valued or prized by folly. That is, cupelled, brought to the test, refined. is, preserved from the corruption of the world. Dr. Johnson thinks, that, instead of where we should read, which your prayers cross. The meaning of the passage will then be, The temptation under which, I labour is that which thou hast unknowingly thwarted with thy prayer. Perhaps it were better to djiames. That is, has distigured her fame or reputation. read 10 6 Duke. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think 30 [words; and pray [image [earth. Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in Isab. Sir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my soul. [sins To several subjects: heaven hath my empty Enter Sercant. How now, who's there? [speak Isab. Please you to do't, Serv. One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you. 50 It is no sin at all, but charity. Ang. Teach her the way. [Solus.] Ohheavens! Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, Making both it unable for itself, And dispossessing all my other parts Of necessary fitness? That is, repent not on this account. Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul, Were equal poize of sin and charity. Isab. That I'do beg his life, if it be sin, Heaven, let me bear it! You granting of my suit, 55 If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer Intention here signifies eagerness of desire. The old folio, however, reads invention, by which the poet might mean imagination. 3 Profit, advantage. 4 Case is here put for outside, or external shew. The meaning is, Let the most wicked thing have but a virtuous pretence, and it shall pass for innocent. Thus if we write good angel on the devil's horn, 'tis not taken any longer to be the devil's crest. "This phrase of the general, means the people or multitude subject to a king, &c. That is, saucy indulgence of the appetite. The sense of this passage is simply, that murder is as easy as fornication, and it is as improper to pardon the latter as the former. Το To have it added to the faults of mine, Ang. Nay, but hear me; Isub. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as these black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder Than beauty could displayed.-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more gross: Your brother is to die. Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, 20 By putting on the destin'd livery. Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, No earthly mean to save him, but that either 25 And you tell me, that he shall die for it. You must lay down the treasures of your body Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself: Ang. Then must your brother die. Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence Isab. Ignominy in ransom, and free pardon, 30 Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, Isab. Ha! little honour to be much believ❜d, And most pernicious purpose!-Seeming, seeming 10! 35I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for’t: Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel? 40 My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life, [rant ; Isab. O pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, we mean: I something do excuse the thing I hate, 50 Or else he must not only die the death, 5 2 Meaning, the faults of mine answer are the faults which I am to answer for. That is, a beauty covered as with a shield. These masks probably mean, the masks of the audience. Puin here means penalty, punishment. To subscribe, here signifies, to agree to. Dr. Warburton observes, this passage is so obscure, but the allusion so fine, that it deserves to be explained. A feodary was one who in the times of vassalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service: which tenures were call'd feuda amongst the Goths. Now, says Angelo, "we are all frail." "Yes", replies Isabella; "if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecility, and who succeed each other by the same tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original sin, to a feodury, who owes suit and service to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. Το awe, in this place, signiles to own, to have possession. Perhaps we should read, take forms• That is, in imitating them. That is, take any impres gion. That is, Hypocrisy, hypocrisy. "Fouch is the testimony one man bears for another. 6 Or, |