4 Give notice to fuch men of fort and suit, * ESCAL. I fhall, fir: fare you well. ANG. Good night. [Exit. This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid! And by an eminent body, that enforc'd The law against it! But that her tender fhame -fort and fuit,] Figure and rank. JOHNSON. Not fo, as I imagine, in this paffage. In the feudal times all vaffals were bound to hold fuit and fervice to their over-lord; that is, to be ready at all times to attend and ferve him, either when fummoned to his courts, or to his ftandard in war. Such men of fort and fuit as are to meet him, I prefume, means the Duke's vaffals or tenants in capite. - Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS. makes me unpregnant,] In the firft fcene the Duke fays that Efcalus is pregnant, i. e. ready in the forms of law. Unpregnanť therefore, in the inftance before us, is unready, unprepared. 6 read: STEEVENS. Yet reafon dares her? no:] The old folio impreffions Yet reafon dares her No. And this is right. The meaning is, the circumftances of our cafe are fuch, that she will never venture to contradi& me; dares her to reply No to me, whatever I fay. WARBURTON. Yet reafon dares her. No. - which he explains thus: Wers it not for her maiden modefty, how might the lady proclaim my guilt? Yet (you'll fay) he has reafon on her fide, and that will make her dare to do it. I think not; for my authority is of fuch weight, &c. I am afraid dare has no fuch fignification. I have nothing to offer worth infertion. JOHNSON. For my authority bears a credent bulk, That no particular scandal once can touch, To dare has two fignifications; to terrify, as in The Maid's Tragedy: those mad mifchiefs "Would dare a woman." In King Henry IV. Part I. it means, to challenge, or call forth: "Unless a brother fhould a brother dare "To gentle exercife," &c. I would therefore read: Yet reafon dares her not, For my authority, &c. Or perhaps, with only a flight tranfpofition: yet no reafon dares her, &c. The meaning will then be,-Yet reafon does not challenge, call forth, or incite her to appear against me, for my authority is above the reach of her accufation. STEEVENS. Yet reafon dares her No.] Dr. Warburton is evidently right with respect to this reading, though wrong in his application. The expreffion is a provincial one, and very intelligible: But that her tender fhame Will not proclaim against her maiden lofs, How might he tongue me? Yet reafon dares her No. That is, reafon dares her to do it, as by this means fhe would not only publish her "maiden lofs, but also as fhe would certainly fuffer from the impofing credit of his station and power, which would repel with disgrace any attack on his reputation : For my authority bears a credent bulk, That no particular fcandal once can touch, We think Mr. Henley rightly understands this passage, but has not fufficiently explained himself. Reason, or reflection, we conceive, perfonified by Shakspeare, and reprefented as daring or overawing Isabella, and crying No to her, whenever she finds herself prompted to "tongue Angelo. Dare is often met with in this fenfe in Shakspeare. Beaumont and Fletcher have used the word No in a fimilar way in The Chances, A& III. fc. iv: "I wear a fword to fatisfy the world no." Again, in A Wife for a Month, A& IV: "I'm fure he did not, for I charg'd him no. MONTHLY REVIEW. Yet reafon dares her? no:] Yet does not reafon challenge or incite her to accufe me?-no, (anfwers the fpeaker) for my authority, &c. To dare, in this fenfe, is yet a school-phrafe : 7 But it confounds the breather. He fhould have liv'd, Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous fenfe, Might, in the times to come, have ta'en revenge, By fo receiving a difhonour'd life, With ranform of fuch fhame. 'Would yet he had liv'd! Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not. [Exit. Shakspeare probably learnt it there. He has again used the word in King Henry VI. Part II: 7 "What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him. my authority bears a credent bulk, MALONE. That no particular fcandal, &c.] Credent is creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable. The old English writers often confound the active and paffive adjectives. So Shakspeare, and Milton after him, ufe inexpreffive for inexpreffible. Particular is private, a French fenfe. No fcandal from any private mouth can reach a man in my authority. JOHNSON. The old copy reads-"bears of a credent bulk. If of be any thing more than a blunder, it muft mean-bears off, i. e. carries with it. As this monofyllable, however, does not improve our author's fenfe, and clogs his metre, I have omitted it. STEEVENS. Perhaps Angelo means, that his authority will ward off or fet afide the weightiest and most probable charge that can be brought against him. MALONE. 8 we would, and we would not. ] Here undoubtedly the a& fhould end, and was ended by the poet; for here is properly a ceffation of action, and a night intervenes, and the place is changed, between the paffages of this scene, and those of the next. The next at beginning with the following scene, proceeds without any interruption of time or change of place. JOHNSON. VOL. VI. N Enter DUKE in his own habit, and Friar PETER. DUKE. These letters at fit time deliver me. [Giving letters. Though fometimes you do blench from this to that, F. PETER. It shall be speeded well. Enter VARRIUS. [Exit Friar. DUKE, I thank thee, Varrius; thou haft made good hafte: 9 Thefe letters-] Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his ftory without any credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed. JOHNSON. The firft claufe of this remark is undoubtedly juft; but, refpecting the fecond, I wish. our readers to recollect that all the plays of Shakspeare, before they reached the prefs, had passed through a dangerous medium, and probably experienced the injudicious curtailments to which too many dramatic pieces are ftill expofed, from the ignorance, caprice, and presumption of tranfcribers, players, and managers. STEEVENS. to fly off. แ you do blench from this to that,] To blench is to ftart off, So, in Hamlet: if he but blench, "I know my course. STEEVENS. 1 Come, we will walk : There's other of our friends, Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Street near the City Gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. ISAB. To fpeak fo indirectly, I am loth; I would say the truth; but to accuse him so, That is your part: yet I'm advis'd to do it; He fays, to veil full purpose. 3 MARI. Be rul'd by him. ISAB. Befides, he tells me, that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, 3 He fays, to veil full purpose.] Mr. Theobald alters it to, He fays, t' availful purpose; because he has no idea of the common reading. A good reason! Yet the common reading is right. Full is ufed for beneficial; and the meaning is, He fays, it is to hide a beneficial purpose, that must not yet be revealed. WARBURTON. To veil full purpose, may, with very little force on the words, mean, to hide the whole extent of our defign, aud therefore the reading may ftand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theobald's alteration either lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with fuch laxity, as to make full the fame with beneficial, is to put an end, at once, to all neceffity of emendation, for any word may then Itand in the place of another. JOHNSON. I think Theobald's explanation right, but his amendment unneceflary. We need only read vailful as one word. Shakspeare, who fo frequently ufes cite for excite, bate for abate, force for enforce, and many other abbreviations of a fimilar nature, may well be fuppofed to ufe vailful for avaiiful. M. MASON. If Dr. Johnson's explanation be right, (as I think it is the word fhould be written-veil, as it is now printed in the text. That vail was the old fpelling of veil, appears from a line in The Merchant of Venice, folio, 1623: 1 Vailing an Indian beauty for which in the modern editions veiling has been rightly fubftis tuted. MALONE. |