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(Either now, or by remiffness new-conceiv'd,
And fo in progrefs to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no fucceffive degrees,
But, where they live, to end. 7

ISAB.

Yet fhow fome pity.

ANG. I fhow it most of all, when I fhow juftice; For then I pity those I do not know,

red in it. Among other tricks of aftrologers, the difcovery of past or future events was fuppofed to be the confequence of looking into it. See Aubrey's Mifcellanies, p. 165. edit. 1721. REED.

6 Either now,] Thus the old copy. Modern editors read

Or new

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STEEVENS.

--

7 But, where they live, to end. ] The old copy reads But, here they live, to end. Sir Thomas Hanmer fubftituted ere for here; but where was, I am perfuaded, the author's word.

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"WHERE he was to begin, and give away

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The benefit of our levies, &c.

Again, in Julius Cæfar:

"And WHERE I did begin, there shall I end."

The prophecy is not, that future evils fhould end, ere, or before they are born; or, in other words, that there fhould be no more evil in the world (as Sir T. Hanmer by his alteration feems to have understood it;) but, that they fhould end WHERE they began i. e. with the criminal; who being punished for his firft offence, could not proceed by fucceffive degrees in wickedness, nor excite others, by his impunity, to vice. So, in the next speech:

« And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to a&t another.

It is more likely that a letter fhould have been omitted at the prefs, than that one should have been added.

The fame miftake has happened in The Merchant of Venice, folio, 1623, p. 173, col. 2: - ha, ha, here in Genoa. "

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-inftead of

Dr. Johnson applauds Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation. fer that of Mr. Malone. STEEVENS.

8 fhow fome pity.

Ang. I fhow it most of all, when I show juftice ;

I pre

For then I pity thofe I do not know,] This was one of Hale's memorials. When I find myself swayed to mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy likewife due to the country. JOHNSON.

VOL. VI.

F

Which a difmis'd offence would after gall;
And do him right, that, anfwering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be fatisfied;

Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

ISAB. So you must be the first, that gives this fentence;

And he, that fuffers: O, it is excellent

To have a giant's ftrength; but it is tyrannous,
To ufe it like a giant, s

LUCIO.

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That's well faid.

ISAB. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting, petty officer,

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Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.

Merciful heaven!

Thou rather, with thy fharp and fulphurous bolt,
Split'ft the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the foft myrtle; -, but man, proud man!'

To ufe it like a giant. ] Isabella alludes to the favage conduct of giants in ancient romances.

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STEEVENS.

This word I meet with in Mother Bombie, 1594:

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will not fhrink the city for a pelting jade. STEEVENS. gnarled oak,] Gnarre is the old English word for a knot in wood. So, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602:

"Till by degrees the tough and gnarly trunk

Be riv'd in funder.

Again, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 1979:

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"With knotty knarry barrein trees old. STEEVENS.

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3 Than the foft myrtle; O, but man, proud man!] The defedive metre of this line fhews that fome word was accidentally omitted at the prefs; probably fome additional epithet to man; perhaps I weak,- but man, weak, proud man The editor of the fecond folio, to fupply the defect, reads-0, but man, &c. which, like almost all the other emendations of that copy, is the worst and the most improbable that could have been chosen. MALONE.

I am content with the emendation of the fecoud folio, which I conceive to have been made on the authority of fome manufcript, or corre&ed copy. STEEVENS,

Dreft in a little brief authority;

Moft ignorant of what he's most affur'd,
His glaffy effence, like an angry ape,

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Plays fuch fantastick tricks before high heaven,
As niake the angels weep; who, with our fpleens,
Would all themfelves laugh mortal. '

LUCIO. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent; He's coming; I perceive't.

PROV.

Pray heaven fhe win him! ISAB. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jeft with faints: 'tis wit in them; But, in the lefs, foul profanation.,

Lucio. Thou'rt in the right; girl; more o' that.

4 As make the angels weep] The notion of angels weeping for the fins of men is rabbinical. Ob peccatum flentes angelos inducunt Hebræorum magiftri Grotius ad S. Lucam. THEOBALD.

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Would all themselves laugh mortal.] Mr. Theobald fays the meaning of this is, that if they were endowed with our Spleens and perishable organs, they would laugh themselves out of immortality; or, as we say in common life, laugh themselves dead; which amounts to this, that if they were mortal, they would not be immortal. Shakspeare meant no fuch nonsense. By Spleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, that always inclines it to a fpiteful, unfeasonable mirth. Had the angels that, fays Shakspeare, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a paffion which does not deferve that prerogative. The ancients thought, that immoderate laughter was caufed by the bigness of the spleen. WARBURTON.

6 We cannot weigh our brother with ourself :] We mortals, proud and foolish, cannot prevaik on our paffions to weigh or compare our brother, a being of like nature and like frailty, with ourJelf. We have different names and different judgements for the fame faults committed by perfons of different condition.

JOHNSON. The reading of the old copy, ourself, which Dr. Warburton changed to yourself, is fupported by a paffage in the fifth A&t ;

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If he had fo offended,

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ISAB. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the foldier is flat blafphemy.

LUCIO. Art advis'd o' that? more on't.

ANG. Why do you put these sayings upon me ? ISAB. Because authority, though it err like others, Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That ĺkins the vice o' the top: "Go to your bofom:
Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confess
A natural guiltinefs, fuch as is his,

Let it not found a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.

ANG.
She fpeaks, and 'tis
Such fenfe, that my fenfe breeds with it. "

7- Fare

you well.

6 That skins the vice o' the top:] Shakspeare is fond of this indelicate metaphor. So, in Hamlet:

7

It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." STEEVENS. that my fenfe breeds with it.] Thus all the folios. Some later editor has changed breeds to bleeds, and Dr. Warburton blames poor Theobald for recalling the old word, which yet is certainly right. My fenfe breeds with her fenfe, that is, new thoughts are ftirring in my mind, new conceptions are hatched in my imagination. So we say, to brood over thought. JOHNSON.

Sir William D'Avenant's alteration favours the fenfe of the old reading breeds, which Mr. Pope had changed to bleeds.

She fpeaks fuch fenfe

As with my reafon breeds fuch images

A fhe has excellently form'd.

I rather think the meaning is,

STEEVENS.

- She delivers her fentiments with

fuch propriety, force, and elegance, that my fenfual defires are inflamed by what the fays. Senfe has been already used in this play with the fame fignification:

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"The wanton ftings and motions of the fenfe."

The word breeds is used nearly in the fame sense in The Tempest:

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"Of two moft rare affections! Heavens rain grace

On that which breeds between them!" MALONE.

ISAB. Gentle my lord, turn back..

ANG. I will bethink me: - Come again to-mor

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ISAB. Ay, with fuch gifts, that heaven shall share

with you.

LUCIO. You had marr'd all elfe.

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ISAB. Not with fond fhekels of the tefted gold, Or ftones, whose rates are either rich, or poor, As fancy values them: but with true prayers, That fhall be up at heaven, and enter there, Ere fun-rife; prayers from preserved souls,*

The fentence fignifies, Isabella does not utter barren words, but fpeaks fuch fenfe as breeds or produces a 'confequence in Angelo's mind. Thus truths which generate no conclufion are often termed barren facts. HOLT WHITE.

I understand the paffage thus : — - Her arguments are enforced with fo much good fense, as to increafe that flock of fense which I already poffefs. DOUCE.

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fond Shekels] Fond means very frequently in our author, foolish. It fignifics in this place valued or prized by folly.

STEEVENS.

9 tefted gold,] i. e. attefted, or marked with the standard ftamp. WARBURTON.

Rather cuppelled, brought to the teft, refined. JOHNSON..

All gold that is tefted is not marked with the ftandard ftamp. The verb has a different fenfe, and means tried by the cuppel, which is called by the refiners a teft. Vide Harris's Lex. Tech. Voce CUPPell. SIR J. HAWKINS.

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preferved fouls,] i. c. preferved from the corruption of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preferved in fugar. WARBURTON.

So, in The Amorous War, 1648:

"You do not reckon us 'mongft marmalade,

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