ACTIL SCENE I

Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants.
Duke. Escalus,
Escal. My lord.

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know, * that your own science,
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

2. Since I am put to know,] may mean, I am compelled to, 4GTR
• knowledge.
So, in King Henry VI. P. II. sc. i:

had I first been put to speak my mind."
Again, in Drayton's Legend of Pierce Gaveston :
My limbs were put to travel day and night.

STEEVENS.
lists ---] Bounds, limits. JOHNSON.
30, in Othello :

Confine yourself within a patient lift."
Again, in Hamlet:
“ The ocean, over-peering of his lisi,"

STEEVENS,

3

My strength can give you: Then no more remains, But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able, And let them work. * The nature of our people,

4

Then no more remains,
But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,

And let them work.) To the integrity of this reading Mr. Theobald objects, and fays, What was Escalus to put to his sufficiency? why, his science : But his füzenca and fuziciency were but one and the same thing. On what then does the relative them depend? He will have it, therefore, that a line has been accidentally dropp'd, which he atteinpts to reitore thus :

Bit that to your prefficiency you add

Due diligence, as your worth is able, &c. * Nodim in fcirpo quærit. And all for want of knowing, that by fufficiency is meant authority, the power delegated by the duke io Escalus. The plain meaning of įhe word being this: Put your Skill in governing (lays the Duke) to the power which I give you to exercise it, and let them work together. WARBURTON.

Sir Thomas Hanmer having caught from Mr. Theobald a hint that a line was lost, endeavours to supply it thus :

Then no more remains,
But that to your sufficiency you join

A will to serve us, as your worth is able.
He has, by this bold conje&ure, undoubtely obtained a mean-
ing, but, perhaps, not even in his own opinion, the meaning of
Shakipeare.
That the palage is more or less corrupt,

I believe

every reader will agree with the editors. I am not convinced that a line is lost, as Mr. Theobald conje&ures, nor that the change of but to put, which Dr. Warburton has admitted after some other editor, [Rowel will amend the fault. There was probably fome original obscurity in the expreslion, which gave occasion toʻmistake in repetitian or transcription. I therefore suípe& that the author wrote thus :

Then no more remains ,
But that to your fufficiencies your worth is abled,

And let them work.
Then nothing remains
more than to tell you ,

virtue is now inyejied with power equal to your knowledge and wisdom. Let therefore your knowledge and your virtue 110w work together. It may easily be conceived how sufficiencies was, by an inarticulate speaker, or inattentive hearer, confounded with sufficiency as, and how abled, a word very unusual, was changed into able. For abled, however, an authority is not wanting. Let uses it in the same sense, or

that your

Our city's institutions, and the terms s

nearly the same with the Duke. As for sufficiencies, D. Hamilton in his dying speech, prays that Charles II. nay exceed both the virtues and sulliciencies of his father. JOHNSON.

The uncommon redundancy, as well as obscurity , of this verse may be conûdered as evidence of its corruption. Take away the two first words, and the sense joins well enough with what went before. I hen (says the Duke) no more remains to say:

Your suficiency is your worth is able;

And let them work. 1. e. Your skill in government is, in ability to serve me, equal to the integrity of your heart, and let them co-operate in your future minijlry.

The versification requires that either something should be added, or something retrenched. The latter is the easier, as well as the safer task. I join in the belief, however, that a line is lost; and whoever is acquainted with the inaccuracy of the folio, (for of this play there is no other old edition ,) will find my opinion justified.

SIEEVENS, Some words seem to be lost here, the sense of which, perhaps, may be thus fupplied :

then no more remains,
But that to your fufficiency you put
A zeal as willing

as your worth is able,
And let them work.

TYRWHITT.
I agree with Warburton in thinking that by sufficiency the duke
means authoriiy, or power; and, if that be admitied, a very
flight alteration indeed will restore this passage — the clianging the
word is into be. It will then run thus, and be clearly intelli-
gible :

Then no more remains,
But that your sufficiency, as your worth, be able,

And let them work.
That is, you are thoroughly acquainted with your duty, fo that
nothing more is necessary to be done, but to invest you

with

power equal to your abilities. M. Mason.

Then no more remains,
But that to your fufficiency ** as your worth is able,

And let them work.
I have not the smallest doubt that the compositor's eye glanced
froil the middle of the second of these lines to chat under it in
the MS. and that by this means two half lines have been omitted,
The very fame error may be found in Macbeth, edit. 1632 :

A

7

For common.justice, you are as pregnant in,
As art and practice hath enriched any

which, being taught, return,
« To plague the ingredients of our poison'd chalic:

Go To our own lips."
instead of

which, being taught, return,
« To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice

6 Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice, ". &c. Again, in' Much ado about Nothing, edit. 1623, p. 103 :

- And I will break with her. Was't not to this end," &c. instead of

6. And I will break with her, and with her father,

* And thou shalt have her. Was't not to this end," &c.
The following passage, in King Henry IV. P. I. which is con-
ftruded in a manner somewhat similar to the present when corre&ed,
appears to me to strengthen the supposition that two lalf lines have
been loft :

• Send danger from the east unto the west,
6 So honour cross it from the north to south,

. And let them grapple."
Sufficiency is ikill in government; ability to execute his office.
and let them work, a figurative expression ; let them ferment.

MALONE, the terms – ] Terms mean the technical langu of the

An old book called Les Termes de la Ley, ( writien in Henry the Eighth's tima) was in Shakspeare's days, and is now, the accidence of young students in the law. BLACKSTONE.

the terms. For common justice, you are as preguant in,'} The later editions all give it, without authority,

the terms Of justice, and Dr. Warburton makes terms fignify bounds or limits. I rather think the Duke meant to fay, that' Escalns was pregnant, that is ready and knowing in all the forms of the law, and, among other things, in the terms or times sei apart for its administration,

JOHNSON The word pregnant is used with this signification in Ravi-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611, where a lawver is represented readiug:''

In triceffimo primo Alberti Magni

• 'Tis very cleare the place is very fregnant."
i. e. very expressive, ready, or very big with apposite meaning.
Again,

the proof is molt pregnant." STEEVENS.

courts.

6

66

That we remember: There is our commission, From which we would not have you warp. - Call

hither, I say, bid come before us Angelo.

(Exit an Attendant,
What figure of us think you he will bear?
For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply ;
Lent him our terror, dreft him with our love;
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power : What think you of it?

Escal. If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo fuch ample grace and honour,
It is lord Angelo.

Enter ANGELO.

DUKE.

Look, where he comes. Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure:

66

7 For you must know, we have, with special soul

EleEted him our absence, to supply: ] By the words with special soul clected him, I believe, the poet meant no more than that he was the immediate choice of his heart. A fimilar expression occurs in Troilus and Crefsida:

with private Youl,
« Did in great Ilion thus translate him to me.
Again, more appofitely, in the Tempest:

for several virtues
* Have I lik'd several women, never any

• With so full soul, but some defea," &c. STEEVENS. Steevens has hit upon the truc cxplauation of the passage; and might have found a further confirmation of it in Troilus"and Cressida, where, speaking of himself, Troilus says,

ne'er did young man fancy 4 With so eternal, and so fix'd a soul." To do a thing with all one's soul, is a commou expression.

M. MASON.