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DUKE. Blifs and goodness on you!
ESCAL. Of whence are you?

DUKE. Not of this country, though my chance is

now

To use it for my time: I am a brother
Of gracious order, late come from the fee,
In fpecial business from his holiness.

ESCAL. What news abroad i' the world?

DUKE. None, but that there is fo great a fever on goodness, that the diffolution of it muft cure it: novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to be conftant in any undertaking. There is fcarce truth enough alive, to make focieties fecure: but fecurity enough, to make fellowships accurs'd: much upon this riddle runs the wifdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every

from the fee,] The folio reads:
from the fea. JOHNSON.

The emendation, which is undoutedly right, was made by Mr. Theobald. In Hall's Chronicle, fèa is often written for fee.

MALONE.

There is fcarce truth enough alive, to make focieties fecure; buł fecurity enough, to make fellowships accurs'd:] The fpeaker here alludes to thofe legal fecurities into which "fellowship leads men to enter for each other. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: "He would not take his bond and yours; he liked not the fecurity.” Falstaff in the fame scene, plays, like the Duke, on the fame word: "I had as lief they fhould put ratfbane in my mouth, as offer to ftop it with fecurity. I look'd he fhould have fent me two and twenty yards of fattin, and he fends me fecurity. Well, he may

fleep in fecurity," &c.

MALONE.

The fenfe is, "There fcarcely exifts fufficient honefty in the world to make focial life fecure; but there are occafions enough where a man may be drawn in to become furety, which will make him pay dearly for his friendships. In excufe of this quibble, Shakspeare may plead high authority. "He that hateth furetifhip is fure." Prov. xi. 15.

HOLT WHITE.

day's news. was the duke?

I pray you, fir, of what difpofition

ESCAL. One, that, above all other firifes, contended efpecially to know himself.

DUKE. What pleasure was he given to?

ESCAL. Rather rejoicing to fee another merry, than merry at any thing which profeis'd to make him rejoice a gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove profperous; and let me defire to know how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand, that you have lent him vifitation.

DUKE. He profeffes to have received no finifter measure from his judge, but moft willingly humbles himfelf to the determination ofjuftice: yet had he framed to himself, by the inftruction of his frailty, many deceiving promifes of life; which I, by my good leifure, have difcredited to him, and now is he refolved to die.

6

ESCAL. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prifoner the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor gentleman, to the extremeft fhore of my modefty; but my brother juftice have I found fo fevere, that he hath forced me to tell him, he is indeed-juftice."

DUKE. If his own life answer the ftraitnefs of his proceeding, it fhall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he hath fentenced himself.

ESCAL. I am going to vifit the prifoner Fare you well.'

refolved -] i. c. fatisfied. So, in Middleton's More Diffemblers befides Women, A& I. fc. iii:

"The bleffing of perfection to your thoughts lady; For I'm refolved they are good ones, REED, I he is indeed juftice.] Summum jus, fumma injuria. STEEVENS

DUKE. Peace be with you!

[Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost.

He, who the fword of heaven will bear,

Should be as holy as fevere;

Pattern in himfelf to know,

Grace to fland, and virtue go;

Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand, and virtue go;]

These lines I cannot under

stand, but believe that they fhould be read thus:

Patterning himself to know,

In grace to stand, in virtue go.

To pattern is to work after a pattern, and, perhaps, in Shakspeare's licentious diction, fimply to work. The fenfe is, he that bears the

fword of heaven fhould be holy as well as fevere; one that after good examples labours to know himself, to live with innocence, and to a&t with virtue. JOHNSON.

He

This paffage is very obfcure, nor can be cleared without a more licentious paraphrafe than any reader may be willing to allow. that bears the ford of heaven fhould be not less holy than fevere: fhould be able to difcover in himself a pattern of fuch grace as can void temptation, together with fuch virtue as dares venture abroad into the world without danger of feduction. STEEVENS.

Grace to stand, and virtue go;] This laft line is not intelligible as it flands; but a very light alteration, the addition of the word in, at the beginning of it, which may refer to virtue as well as to grace, will render the fenfe of it clear. "Pattern in himself to know, is to feel in his own breaft that virtue which he makes others practife. M. MASON.

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“Pattern in himself to know," is, to experience in his own bosom an original principle of action, which, inftead of being borrowed or copied from others, might ferve as a pattern to them. Our author,

in The Winter's Tale, has again ufed the fame kind of imagery:

"By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out

The purity of his.

In The Comedy of Errors he ufes an expreffion equally hardy and licentious:

"And will have no attorney but myself;"

which is an abfolute catachrefis; an attorney importing precisely a perfon appointed to act for another. In Every Woman in her Humour, 1609, we find the fame expreflion:

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More nor lefs to others paying,
Than by felf-offences weighing.
Shame to him, whose cruel ftriking
Kills for faults of his own liking!
Twice treble fhame on Angelo,
To weed my vice, and let his grow!?
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward fide!*
How may likeness, made in crimes,
Making practice on the times,
Draw with idle fpiders' ftrings

Moft pond'rous and fubftantial things!"

To weed my vice, and let his grow!] i. c. to weed faults out of my dukedom, and yet indulge himself in his own private vices. So, in The Contention betwyxte Churchyard and Camell, &c. 1560: "For Cato doth affyrme

"Ther is no greater fhame, "Than to reprove a vyce

"And your felves do the fame.

STEEVENS.

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My, does not, I apprehend, relate to the Duke in particular, who had not been guilty of any vice, but to any indefinite perfon. The meaning feems to be To destroy by extirpation as it is expreffed in another place) a fault that I have committed, and to lufer nis own vices to grow to a rank and luxuriant height. The speaker, for the fake of argument, puts himself in the care of an offending perfon. MALONE.

The Duke is plainly fpeaking in his own perfon. here terms 46 my vice,

What he

may be explained from his converfation in A& I. fc. iv. with Friar Thomas, and efpecially the following line: 'twas my fault to give the people fcope.

66

The vice of Angelo requires no explanation. HENLEY.

2 Though angel on the outward fide!] Here we fee what induced our author to give the outward-fainted deputy, the name of Angelo.

3 How may likeness, made in crimes,

Making prastice on the times,

Draw with idle Spiders' ftrings.

MALONE.

Moft pond'rous and fubflantial things!] The old copy reads To draw with,

" &c.

STEEVENS.

Thus all the editions read corruptly; and fo have made an obscure paffage in itself, quite unintelligible. Shakfpeare wrote it thus:

Craft against vice I must apply:
With Angelo to-night fhall lie

How may that likeness, made in crimes,
Making practice on the times,

Draw

The fenfe is this. How much wickednefs may a man hide within, though he appear angel without. How may that likeness made in crimes i, e. by hypocrify; [a pretty paradoxical expreffion, an angel made in crimes by impofing upon the world [thus emphatically expreffed, making practice on the times] draw with its false and feeble pretences [finely called spiders' ftrings] the most pondrous and fubftantial matters of the world, as riches, honour, power, reputation, &c. WARBURTON.

Likeness may mean feemlinefs, fair appearance, as we say, a likely

man.

The Revifal reads thus:

How may fuch likeness trade in crimes,
Making practice on the times,

To draw with idle fpider's ftrings

Moft pond'rous and fubftantial things.

Meaning by pond'rous and fubftantiai things, pleafure and wealth.

STEEVENS.

The old copy reads Making practice, &c. which renders the paffage ungrammatical, and unintelligible. For the emendation now made, mocking] I am answerable. A line in Macbeth may add fome fupport to it:

66 Away, and mock the time with faireft fhow,"

There is no onc more convinced of the general propriety of adhering to old readings. I have ftrenuoufly followed the course which was pointed out and fuccefsfully pursued by Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens, that of elucidating and fupporting our author's genuine text by illuftrations drawn from the writings of his contemporaries. But in fome cafes alteration is a matter not of choice, but neceffity; and furely the present is one of them. Dr. Warburton, to obtain fome fenfe, omitted the word To in the third line; in which he was followed by all the fubfequent editors. But omiffion, in my apprehenfion, is of all the modes of emendation, the most exceptionable. In the paffage before us, it is clear from the context, that fome verb muft have ftood in either the firft or second of these lines. Some years ago I conje&tured that, instead of made, we ought to read wade, which was used in our author's time in the sense of to proceed. But having fince had occafion to obferve how often the words mock and make have been confounded in these plays, I am now perfuaded that the fingle error in the

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