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My abfolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he fuppofes me travell'd to Poland;
For fo I have ftrew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: Now, pious fir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
FRI. Gladly, my lord.

DUKE. We have flrict ftatutes, and moft biting

laws.

(The needful bits and curbs for head-frong fteeds,)

Which for thefe fourteen years we have let fleep; 7

6 The needful bits and curbs for head-frong fteeds,] In the copies,

The needful bits and curbs for head-frong weeds. There is no manner of analogy or confonance in the metaphors here and, though the copies agree, I 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 perfons of unbridled licentioufnefs to head-ftrong feeds: and, in this view, bridling the paffions has been a phrase adopted by our best poets.

THEOBALD.

7 Which for thefe fourteen years we have let fleep;] Thus the old copy which also reads,

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we have let flip." STEEVENS.

For fourteen I have made no fcruple to replace nineteen. The reason will be obvious to him who recollects what the Duke [Claudio] has faid in a foregoing fcene. I have altered the odd phrafe of u letting the laws flip" for how does it fort with the comparison that follows, of a lion in his cave that went not out to prey? But letting the laws fleep, adds a particular propriety to the thing reprefented, and accords exactly too with the fimile. It is the metaphor too, that our author feems fond of using upon this occafion, in several other paffages of this play :

The law hath not been dead, though it hath lept;
'Tis now awake.

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Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch, Only to flick it in their children's fight,

For terror, not to use; in time the rod

8

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: fo our de

crees,

Dead to infliction, to themfelves are dead;
And liberty plucks juflice by the nose;

The baby beats the nurse,

Goes all decorum.

FRI.

and quite athwart

It rested in your grace

To unloofe this tied-up juftice, when you pleas'd:

The latter emendation may derive fupport from a passage in Hamlet:

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If flip be the true reading, (which, however, I do not believe,) the fenfe may be, which for these fourteen years we have fuffered to pass unnoticed, unobferved; for fo the fame phrafe is used in Twelfth Night: :-Let him let this matter flip, and I'll give him my horfe, grey Capulet.

"

Mr. Theobald altered fourteen to nineteen, to make the Duke's account correfpond with a fpeech of Claudio's in a former fcene, but without neceffity. 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 mifplaced. If any correction is really neceffary, it fhould have been made where Claudio, in a foregoing fcene, fays nineteen years. I am difpofed to take the Duke's

words. WHALLEY.

8 Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd:] Becomes was added by Mr. Pope, to reftore fenfe to the paffage, fome fuch word having been left out. STEEVENS.

9 The baby beats the nurse, ] This allufion was borrowed from an ancient print, entitled The World turn'd upfide down, where an infant is thus employed. STEEVENS.

And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd, Than in lord Angelo.

DUKE.

I do fear, too dreadful: Sith 'twas my fault to give the people fcope, 'Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them, For what I bid them do: For we bid this be done, When evil deeds have their permiffive pass,

And not the punishment. Therefore. indeed, my father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office;

Who may, in the ambufh of my name, ftrike home,
And yet my nature never in the fight,

To do it flander: And to behold his sway,
I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the.habit, and inftruct me

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Sir Thomas Hanmer has very well corrected it thus:

To do it flander:

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Yet perhaps less alteration might have produced the true reading:

And yet my nature never, in the fight,

So doing flandered:

And yet my nature never fuffer flander, by doing any open ads of feverity. JOHNSON.

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Hanmer's emendation is fupported by a paffage in King Henry IV. P. I:

"Do me no flander, Douglas, I dare fight."

STEEVENS.

Fight feems to be countenanced by the words ambush and strike. Sight was introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

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Like a true friar. More reafons for this action,
At our more leifure fhall I render you;
Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precife;
Stands at a guard with envy; fcarce confeffes
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than ftone: Hence fhall we fee,
If power change purpose, what our feemers be.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

A Nunnery.

V.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

ISAB. And have you nuns no further privileges? FRAN. Are not these large enough?

ISAB. Yes, truly: I fpeak not as defiring more; But rather wifhing a more ftrict restraint Upon the fifter-hood, the votarifts of faint Clare. LUCIO. Ho! Peace be in this place! [ Within] ISAB. Who's that which calls?

Perhaps the word which I have inferted in the text, had dropped out while the sheet was at prefs. A fimilar phrase occurs in The Tempest:

fome good inftruction give

"How I may bear me here. "

Sir W. D'Avenant reads, in his alteration of the play:

I may in perfon a true friar feem.

The fenfe of the paffage (as Mr. Henley obferves) is may demean myself, so as to support the character I have affumed.

4 Slands at a guard-] Stands on terms of defiance.

How I

STEEVENS,

JOHNSON.

This rather means, to fland cautiously on his defence, than on

terms of defiance. M. MASON.

VOL. VI.

D

FRAN. It is a man's voice: Gentle Ifabella, Turn you the key, and know his bufinefs of him; You may, I may not; you are yet unfworn: When you have vow'd, you must not fpeak with

men,

But in the prefence of the priorefs:

Then, if you speak, you must not fhow your face; Or, if you fhow your face, you must not speak. He calls again; I pray you, answer him.

Exit FRANCISCA. ISAB. Peace and profperity! Who is't that calls?

Enter LUCIO.

LUCIO. Hail, virgin, if you be; as thofe checkrofes

Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me,
As bring me to the fight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio?

ISAB. Why her unhappy brother? let me afk;
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Ifabella, and his fifter.

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 judge,

He fhould receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

For that, which, if myself might be his judge,] Perhaps thefe words were transposed at the prefs. The sense seems to require That, for which, &c. MALONE.

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