CLAUD. Yes. Has he affections in him, That thus can make him bite the law by the nofe, When he would force it? Sure it is no fin; Or of the deadly feven it is the leaf. ISAB. Which is the leaft? 6 CLAUD. If it were damnable, he, being fo wife, Why, would be for the momentary trick Be perdurably fin'd?-O Ifabel! 4 Has he affe&ions, &c.] Is he actuated by paffions that impel him to tranfgrefs the law, at the very moment that he is enforcing it against others? I find, he is. Surely then, fince this is fo general a propenfity, fince the judge is as criminal as he whom he condemns, it is no fin, or at least a venial one. So, in the next A&t: A deflower'd maid, And by an eminent body that enforc'd, The law againft it.' Force is again used for enforce in King Henry VIII: "If you will now unite in your complainis, And force them with a conftancy. Again, in Coriolanus: Why force you this?" MALONE. 6 Or of the deadly feven, &c.] It may be useful to know which they are; the reader is therefore prefented with the following catalogue of them, viz. Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Covetousness, Gluttony, and Lechery. To recapitulate the punishments hereafter for thefe fins, might have too powerful an effect upon the weak nerves of the prefent generation; but whoever is defirous of being particularly acquainted with them, may find information in fome of the old monkifh fyftems of divinity, and especially in a curious book entitled Le Kalendrier des Bergiers, 1500, folio, of which there is an English tranflation.' DOUCE. If it were damnable, &c.] Shakspeare fhows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. When Ifabella firft tells him of Angelo's propofal, he anfwers, with honeft indignation, agreeably to his fettled principles, Thou halt not do't. But the love of life being permitted to operate, foon furnishes him with fophiftical arguments; he believes it cannot be very dangerous to the foul, fince Angelo, who is fo wife, will venture it. JOHNSON. Be perdurably fin'd?] Perdurably is laftingly. So, in Othello: ·cables of perdurable toughness. STEEVENS. 66 ISAB. What fays my brother? Death is a fearful thing. ISAB. And fhamed life a hateful. CLAUD. Ay, but to die,and go we know not where; To lie in cold obftruction, and to rot; This fenfible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit' To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with reftlefs violence round about The pendant world; or to be worse than worst 9 -delighted fpirit-] i. c. the fpirit accuftomed here to eafe and delights. This was properly urged as an aggravation to the harpness of the torments spoken of. The Oxford editor not apprehending this, alters it to dilated. As if, because the fpirit in the body is faid to be imprifoned, it was crowded together likewife; and fo by death not only fet free, but expanded too; which, if true, would make it the lefs fenfible of pain. WARBURTON. This reading may perhaps ftand, but many attempts have been made to corred it. The most plaufible is that which fubftitutes the benighted fpirit, alluding to the darkness always fuppofed in the place of future punishment. Perhaps we may read : the delinquent spirit. or unfkilful a word eally changed to delighted by a bad copier, JOHNSON. I think with Dr. Warburton, that by the delighted spirit is meant, the foul once accustomed to delight, which of courfe muft render the fufferings, afterwards defcribed, lefs tolerable. Thus our author calls youth, bleffed, in a former scene, before he proceeds to how its wants and its inconveniencies. Mr. Ritson has furnished me with a paffage which I leave to those who can use it for the illuftration of the foregoing epithet. Sir Thomas Herbert, fpeaking of the death of Mirza, fon to Shah Abbas, fays that he gave a period to his miferies in this world, by supping a delighted cup of extreame poyson.” Travels, 1634, P. 104. STELVENS. Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts * The wearieft and moft loathed worldly life, To what we fear of death.* 2 ·lawless and incertain thoughts-]. Conjecture fent out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through poffi bilities of pain. JOHNSON. 3 penury,] The old copy has perjury. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 4' To what we fear of death.] Moft certainly the idea of the fpirit bathing in fiery floods," or of refiding' "in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice, is not original to our poet; but I am not fure that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil. The monks alfo had their hot and their cold hell; « the fyrfte is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," fays an old homily: :- The feconde is paffying cold, that yf a greate hylle of fyre were caft therin, it fhold torne to yce." One of their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakspeare, gives us a dialogue between a bishop and a foul tormented in a piece of ice which was brought to cure a brenning heate in his foot; take care, that vou do not interpret this the gout, for I remember Menage quotes a canon upon us : Si quis dixerit epifcopum podagrâ laborare, anathema fit." Another tells us of the foul of a monk fafteued to a rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and purge of its enormities. Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into poetick fiction, as you may fee in a poem, where the lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of hell," among the many miscellaneous ones fubjoined to the works of Surrey of which you will foon have a beautiful edition from the able hand of my friend Dr. Percy. Nay, a very learned and inquifitive brother - antiquary hath obferved to me, on the authority of Blefkenius, that this was the aucient opinion of the inhabitants of Iceland, who were certainly very little read either in the poet or philosopher. : FARMER. Lazarus, in The Shepherd's Calendar, is reprefented to have seen thefe particular modes of punishment in the infernal regions: « Secondly, I have seen in hell a floud frozen as ice, wherein the envious men and women were plunged unto the navel, and then fuddainly came over them a right cold and great wind that grieved and pained them right fore, &c. STEEVENS. ISAB. Alas! alas! CLAUD. Sweet fifter, let me live: What fin you do to fave a brother's life, i That it becomes a virtue. , you beaft! ISAB. vice? From thine own fifter's fhame? What fhould I think? Heaven fhield, my mother play'd my father fair! Ne'er iffu'd from his blood. Take my defiance:" CLAUD. Nay, hear me, Ifabel. ISAB. O, fic, fie, fie! Ist not a kind of inceft,] In Ifabella's declamation there is fomething harsh, and fomething forced and far-fetched. But her indignation cannot be thought violent, when we confider her not only as a virgin, but as a nun. JOHNSON. 6 a warped flip of wilderness-] Wilderness is here used for wildness, the ftate of being diforderly. So, in The Maid's Tragedy: And throws an unknown wilderness about me." Again, in Old Fortunatus, 1600: "But I in wilderness totter'd out my youth." The word, in this fenfe, is now obfolete, though employed by Milton: 7 "The paths, and bowers, doubt not, but our joint hands Will keep from wilderness with cafe." STEEVENS. Take my defiance:] Defiance is refufal, So, in Rome I do defy thy commiferation." STEEVENS. VOL. VI. I Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade: Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: "Tis beft that thou dieft quickly. CLAUD. [Going. O hear me, Ifabella. Re-enter DUKE. DUKE. Vouchfafe a word, young fifter, but one word. ISAB. What is your will?. DUKE. Might you difpenfe with your leifure, I would by and by have some speech with you: the fatisfaction I would require, is likewife your own benefit. ISAB. I have no fuperfluous leifure; my flay muft be ftolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while. DUKE. [TO CLAUDIO, afide.] Son, I have overheard what hath paft between you and your fifter. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an affay of her virtue, to practise his judgement with the difpofition of natures: fhe, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is moft glad to receive: I am confeffor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death: Do not fatisfy your refolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you muft die; go to your knees, and make ready. 8 but a trade: ] A cuftom; a practice; an established habit. So we fay of a man much addicted to any thing, he makes a trade of it. JOHNSON. • Do not fatisfy your refolution with hopes that are fallible:] A condemned man, whom his confeffor had brought to bear death with decency and refolution, began anew to entertain hopes of life. This occafioned the advice in the words above. But how did |