And so it is receiv'd: Now, pious sir, Fri. Gladly, my lord. Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws. (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds)3 Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep;✦ 3 (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds,)] In the copies. The needful bits and curbs for head-strong weeds. There is no manner of analogy or consonance in the metaphors here: and, though the copies agree, do not think the author would have talked of bits and curbs for weeds. On the other hand, nothing can be more proper, than to compare persons of unbridled licentiousness to head-strong steeds: and, in this view, bridling the passions has been a phrase adopted by our best poets. Theobald.. Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep;] Thus the old copy; which also reads,— we have let slip." Steevens. For fourteen I have made no scruple to replace nineteen. The reason will be obvious to him who recollects what the Duke [Claudio] has said in a foregoing scene. I have altered the odd phrase of "letting the laws slip:" for how does it sort with the comparison that follows, of a lion in his cave that went not out to prey? But letting the laws sleep, adds a particular propriety to the thing represented, and accords exactly too with the simile. It is the metaphor too, that our author seems fond of using upon this occasion, in several other passages of this play: The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept; 'Tis now awake. The latter emendation may derive support from a passage in Hamlet: "That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, If slip be the true reading, (which, however, I do not believe) the sense may be,-which for these fourteen years we have suffered to pass unnoticed, unobserved; for so the same phrase is used in Twelfth Night:-" Let him let this matter slip, and I'll give him my horse, grey Capulet." Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave, Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd:5 so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead; And liberty plucks justice by the nose; 6 The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Fri. It rested in your grace Duke. I do fear, too dreadful: And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father, Who may in the ambush of my name, strike home, And yet my nature never in the sight, To do it slander: And to behold his sway, Mr. Theobald altered fourteen to nineteen, to make the Duke's account correspond with a speech of Claudio's in a former scene, but without necessity. Claudio would naturally represent the period, during which the law had not been put in practice, greater than it really was. Malone. Theobald's correction is misplaced. If any correction is really necessary, it should have been made where Claudio, in a foregoing scene, says nineteen years. I am disposed to take the Duke's words. Whalley. 5 Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd:] Becomes was added by Mr. Pope, to restore sense to the passage, some such word having been left out. Steevens. 6 The baby beats the nurse,] This allusion was borrowed from an ancient print, entitled The World turn'd upside down, where an infant is thus employed. Steevens. Sir Thomas Hanmer has very well corrected it thus ; To do it slander: I will, as 'twere a brother of your order, Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee, How I may formally in person bear me Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see [Exeunt. Yet perhaps less alteration might have produced the true reading: And yet my nature never, in the sight, So doing slandered: And yet my nature never suffer slander, by doing any openacts of severity. Johnson. Hanmer's emendation is supported by a passage in King Henry IV, P. 1: "Do me no slander, Douglas, I dare fight." Steevens. Fight seems to be countenanced by the words ambush and strike. Sight was introduced by Mr. Pope. Malone. き 9 -in person bear -] Mr. Pope reads, my person bear. Perhaps the word which I have inserted in the text, had dropped out while the sheet was at press. A similar phrase Occurs in The Tempest: 66 some good instruction give "How I may bear me here." Sir W. D'Avenant reads, in his alteration of the play: I may in person a true friar seem. The sense of the passage (as Mr. Henley observes) is→ How I may demean myself, so as to support the character Í have assumed. Steevens. 1 Stands at a guard -] Stands on terms of defiance. Johnson. This rather means, to stand cautiously on his defence, than on terms of defiance. M. Mason, SCENE V. A Nunnery. Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA. Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges? Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more; Isab. [Within. Who's that which calls? Then, if you speak, you must not show your face; Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-roses A novice of this place, and the fair sister To her unhappy brother Claudio? Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask; The rather, for I now must make you know I am that Isabella, and his sister. Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you: Not to be weary with you, he 's in prison. Isab. Woe me! For what? Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his He should receive his punishment in thanks: 2 For that, which, if myself might be his judge,] Perhaps these words were transposed at the press. The sense seems to require-That, for which, &c. Malone. Isab. Sir, make me not your story.3 It is true I would not-thought 'tis my familiar sin 3 - make me not your story.] Do not, by deceiving mẹ, make me a subject for a tale. Johnson. Perhaps only, Do not divert yourself with me, as you would with story, do not make me the subject of your drama. Benedick talks of becoming-the argument of his own scorn. Sir W. D'Avenant reads-scorn instead of story. After all, the irregular phrase [me, &c.] that, perhaps, obscures this passage, occurs frequently in our author, and particularly in the next scene, where Escalus says: "Come me to what was done to her."- -"Make me not your story," may therefore signify-invent not your story on purpose to deceive me. "It is true," in Lucio's reply, means- -What I have already told you, is true. Steevens. Mr. Ritson explains this passage, "do not make a jest of me." Reed. I have no doubt that we ought to read (as I have printed) Sir, mock me not:-your story. So, in Macbeth: "Thou com'st to use thy tongue:-thy story quickly." In King Lear we have-" Pray, do not mock me.' I beseech you, Sir, (says Isabel) do not play upon my fears; reserve this idle talk for some other occasion;-proceed at once to your tale. Lucio's subsequent words, [“Tis true,”—i. e you are right; I thank you for reminding me ;] which, as the text has heen hitherto printed, had no meaning, are then pertinent and clear. Mr. Pope was so sensible of the impossibility of reconciling them to what preceded in the old copy, that he fairly omitted them. What Isabella says afterwards, fully supports this emendation: "You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me." I have observed that almost every passage in our author, in which there is either a broken speech, or a sudden transition without a connecting particle, has been corrupted by the carelessness of either the transcriber or compositor. See a note on Love's Labour's Lost, Act II, sc. i: "A man of sovereign, peerless, he 's esteem'd." And another on Coriolanus, Act I, sc. iv: 66 You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and plagues 4 I would not-] i. e. Be assured, I would not mock you. So afterwards: "Do not believe it:" i. e. Do not suppose that I would mock you. Malone. I am satisfied with the sense afforded by the old punctuation. Steevens. |