Isab. Why,as all comforts are;nost good in deed :? Lord Angelo , having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift embaffador, Where you shall be an everlasting leiger: Therefore your best appointment make with speed; To-morrow

you

set on

true one.

7 - as all comforts are; most good in deed :) If this reading be right, Ifabella must mean that the brings something better than words of comfort, she brings an assurance of deeds. This is barsh and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads :

in Speed. JOHNSON. The old copy reads :

Why, As all comforts are : most good, most good indeede. I believe the present reading, as explained by Dr. Johnson, is the

So , in Macbeth : - We're yet but young in deed." STEEVENS. I would point the lines thus: 4: Clau. Now, fifter, what's the comfort?

Isab. Why, as all comforts are, most good. Indeed Lord Angelo, " &c.

Indeed is the same as in truth, or truly, the common beginuing of speeches, in Shakspeare's age. See Charles the First's Trial. The King and Bradshaw seidom say any thing without this preface : Truly , Sir

BLACKSTONE. an everlasting leiger : Therefore your best appointment-) Leiger is the same with resident. Appointment ; preparation ; act of titting, or state of being fitted for any thing. So in old books, we have a knight well appointed ; that is, well armed and mouuted, or fitted at all, points. JOHNSON. The word leiger is thus used in The Comedy of Look about You, 1600:

Why do you stay, Sir?-

« Madam , as leiger to folicit for your absent love." Again, in Leicester's Commonwe and th , - a special man of that hasty king, who was his Ledger, or Agent, in London," &c. STEVENS,

your best appointment - ] The word appoiniment, on this occasion, should seem to conprehend confession, communion, and absolution. Let him (says Escalus) be furnished with dia vines, and have all charitable preparation. The King in Hamlet, who was cut off prematurely, and without such preparation, is

CLAUD.

Is there no remedy?
ISAB. None, but such remedy, as, to save a head,
To cleave a heart in twain.
CLAUD.

But is there any?
ISAB. Yes, brother, you may live;
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But setter you till death.
CLAUD.

Perpetual durance?
ISAB. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a re iraint,
Though all the world's vaftidity * you had,
To a determin'd scope. }
CLAUD.

But in what nature? Isab. In such a one as ( you consenting toʻt) Would bark your honour * from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked. CLAUD

Let me know the point. ISAB. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quakė, Lest thou a feverous lite should'st entertain, And fix or feven winters more respect Than a perpetual honour. Dar’st thou die? The sense of death is most in apprehension;

said to be dis-appointed. Appointment, however, may be more fimply explained by the following passage in the Antipodes, 1038 :

your lodging
66 Is decently appointed. i. e. prepared, furnished.

STEEVENS. 2 Though all the world's vastidity --) The old copy

reads Through all, &c. Corređed by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 13

a restraintTO a determind jcope.] A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can neither be fupprefled nor escaped. JOHNSON.

4 Would bark your honour -- A metaphor from stripping trees. of their bark. Douce.

And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal fufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.'
CLAUD.

Why give you me this shame?
Think you I can a resolution fetch
From flowery tenderness? If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.“
Isab. There (pake my

brother;

there

my

father's grave Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die: Thou art too noble to conserve a life In base appliances. This outward - fainted de

puty, Whose settled visage and deliberate word Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew, ?.

the poor beetle, &c.] The reasoning is, that death is no more than every being must suffer, though the dread of it is peculiar to mar; or perhaps, that we are inconsistent with ourselves, when we so much dread that which we carelessly inflid on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we. JOHNSON.

The meaning is-fear is the principal sensation in death, which has no pain ; and the giant when he dies feels no greater pain than the beetle.—This paffage, however, from its arrangement, is liable to an opposite conftru&ion, but which would totally destroy the illustration of the sentiment. Douce. 6 I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms. ] So, in the first part of Jeronimo , or The Spanish Tragedy, 1605 :

night
“ That yawning Beldam, with her jetty skin,
'Tis The I hug as mine effeminate bride."

STEEVENS. Again , in Antony and Cleopatra :

I will be
“ A bridegroom in my death; and run into't,
" As to a lover's bed." MALONE.

- follies doth enmew, ] Forces follies to lie in cover, wilkout dariog to show themselves. Johnson.

7

As falcon doth the fowl_is

yet a

devil:
His filth within being cast,' he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.
CLAUD.

The princely Angelo?
Is AB. 0, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'it body to invest and cover
In princely guards!' Doft thou think, Claudio,

: As falcon doth the fowl,] In whose presence the follies of
youth are afraid to show themselves, as the fowl is afraid to fluiter
while the falcon hovers over it.
So, in the Third Part of King Henry VI:

not hc that loves him best,
- The proudest he that holds up Lancaster,

" Dares ftir a wing, if Warwick Thakes his bells.'
To inmew is a term in falconry, also used by Beaumont and
Fletcher, in The Knight of Malta :

I have seen him fcale,
" As if a falcon had run up a train,

Clashing his warlike pinions, his feel'd cuirass,

« And, at his pitch , enmew the town below him. STEEVENS. 9 His filth within being caft, ] To cast a pond is to empty it of mud Mr. Upton reads :

His pond within being cast, he would appear

A filth as deep as hell. JOHNSON. 2. The princely Angelo?

princely guards! ] The ftupid editors , mistaking guards for satellites, (whereas it here fignifies lace, ) altered priejtly, in both places, to princely. Whereas Shakspeare wrote it briefly, as appears from the words themselves :

'Tis the cunning livery of hell.
The damned's body io invest and cover

With priestly guards.-
In the first place we see that guards here signifies lace, as referring
to livery, and as having no ser in the signification of satellites.
Now priestly guards means fanétity, which is the sense required.
But princely guards means nothing but rich lace, which is a sense
the pallage will not bear. Angelo, indeed, as deputy, might be
called thic princely Angelo : but not in this place, where the ine-
mediately preceding words of,

This out-zvard-sainted deputy ,
demand the reading I have restored. WARBURTON,

The first folio has, in both places, prenzie, from which the other folios
made princely, aud every editor inay make what he can. JOHNSON.

TOT

3

If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou might'st be freed?
CLAUD.

O, heavens! it cannot be. IsaB. Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank

offence,
So to offend him ftill: This night's the time
That I should do what I abhor to name,
Or elle thou diest to-morrow.
CLAUD.

Thou shalt not do't.
Isab. O, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for

your

deliverance
As frankly as a pin.
CLAUD.

Thanks , dear Isabel.
Isab. Be ready, Claudio, foryour death tomorrow.

4

Princely is the judicious correction of the second folio. Princely guards mean no more than the badges of royalty , ( laced or bordered robes,) which Angelo is supposed to assume during the absence of the Duke. The stupidity of the first editors is sometimes not more injurious to Shakspeare, than the ingenuity of those who succeeded them.

In the old play of Cambyses I meet with the fame expreffion. Sifamnes is left by Cambyses to distribute justice while he is absent; and in a soliloquy says:

6. Now may I wear the brodered garde,

And lye in downe-bed soft. Again, the queen of Cambyses says:

on I do forsake these broder'd gardes,

66 Aud all the facions new. STEEVENS. A guard, in old language, meant a welt or border of a garment; " because (says Minshieu) it gards and keeps the garment from tearing." These borders were sometimes of lace. So, in The Merchant of Venice :

Give him a livery
- More guarded than his fellows: " MALONE.
from this rarik offence, ] I believe means,

from the time of my committing this offence, you might persist in finning with safety. The advantages you would derive from my having such a secret of his in my keeping, would ensure you from further harm on account of the same fault, however frequently repeated. STEEVENS,

-as a pin. ] So, in Hamlet :
" I do not let my life at a pin's fec.'

STEEVENS,

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