6

(Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, where they live, to end. ?
ISAB.

Yet show some pity. Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice; For then I pity those I do not know,

red in it. Among other tricks of astrologers, the discovery of past or future events was fupposed to be the consequence of looking into it. See Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 165. edit. 1721. REED. 6 Either now, ]

Thus the old

copy. .

Modern editors read Or new STEEVENS.

7 But, where they live, to end. ] The old copy reads But, here they live, to end. Sir Thomas Hanmer substituted cre for here; but where was, I am persuaded, the author's word. So, in Coriolanus, Ad V. sc. v:

but there to end,
Where he was to begin, and give away

• The benefit of our levies, &c. Again, in Julius Cafar:

" And WHERE I did begin, there shall I end." The prophecy is not, that future evils should end, ere, or before they are born; or, in other words, that there should be no more evil in the world (as Sir T. Hanmer by his alteration seems to have understood it;) but, that they should end WHERE they began i. c. with the criminal; who being punished for his first offence, could not proceed by successive 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,

i Lives not to a&t another. It is more likely that a letter should have been omitted at the press, than that one should have been added.

T! same miftake has happened in The Merchant of Venice, folio, 1623, p. 173, col. 2: - ha, ha, here in Genoa," - instead of " where? in Genoa ?" MALONE.

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

show some pity.
Ang. I fhow it most of all, when I show justice ;

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

VOL. VI.

I preso

8

Which a dismis'd offence would after gall;
And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.
Isab. So you must b¢ the first, that gives this

fentence;
And he, that suffers : 0, it is excellent
lo have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous,
To use it like a giant.
Lucio.

That's well said.
ISAB. Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting, ' petty officer,
Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but

thunder.
Merciful heaven!
Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Splitst the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the soft myrtle; -,

but man, proud man! 3 To use it like a giant. ] Isabella alludes to the savage condu&t of giants in ancient romances. STEEVENS.

pelting, ) i, e. paltry.
This word I meet with in Mother Bombie, 1594:

will not shrink 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

6. Be riv'd in sunder.
Again, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 1979 :

“ With knotty knarty barrein trees old. STEEVENS.
3 Than the soft myrtle; 0, but man, proud man!) The defedive
metre of this line Mews that some word was accidentally omitted

at the press; probably some additional cpithet to man; perhaps | weak,

s but man, weak, proud man The editor of the second folio, to supply the defed, 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.

lam content with the emendation of the second folio, which I conceive to have been made on the authority of some manuscript> or corre&cd copy.

STEEVENS,

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2

Dreft in a little brief authority;
Most ignorant of what he's most assur’d,
His glaffy effence, - like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastick tricks before high heaven,
As niake the angels weep ; * who, with our fpleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.

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

·Pray heaven she win him !
Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: 6
Great men may jest with faints : ’tis wit in them;
But, in the less, foul profanation.

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

5

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

who, with our spleens, Would all themselves laugh mortal.] Mr. Theobald says 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 such nonsense. By Spleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, that always inclines it to a fpiteful, unseasonable mirth. Had the angels that, says Shakspeare, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality , by indulging a passion which does not deserve that prerogative. The ancients thought', that immoderate laughter was caused by the bigness of the spleen. WARBURTON.

6 We cannot weigh our brother with ourself :) We mortals, proud and foolish, cannot prevaillon our pallions to weigh or compare our brother, 2 being of like nature and like fruilty, with ourself. We have different names and different judgements for the same faults committed by persons of different condition.

JOHNSON, The reading of the old copy, ourself, which Dr. Warburton changed to yourself , is supported by a passage in the fifth Ad :)

if he had lo offended,
3. He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself;
16 And not have cut him off." MALONE.

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

LUCIO. Art advis'do 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 skins the vice o’the top: - Go to your bosom:
Knock there; and'alk your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confess
A natural guiltiness, such as is his,
Let it not Cound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.
ANG.

She speaks, and 'tis
Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. Fare

you well.

7

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

It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." STEEVENS.

that my sense 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 sense breeds with her fenfe, that is, new thoughts are stirring 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 sense of the old reading - breeds, which Mr. Pope had changed to blesds.

She fpeaks such sense
As with my reason breeds such images

A she has excellently formd. -- STEEVENS.
I rather think the meaning is, -- She delivers her fentiments with
such propriety, force, and elegance, that my sensual desires are
inflamed by what she says. Senfe has been already used in this play
with the same fignification:

one who never feels
- The wanton stings and motions of the sense."
The word breeds is used nearly in the same sense in The Tempest:

Fair encounter
5. Of two most rare affe&ions ! Heavens rain grace
16 On that which breeds between them !" MALONE,

ISAB. Gentle my lord, turn back.,
ANG. I will bethink me: Come again to-mor-

row.

ISAB. Hark, how I'll bribe you: Good my lord,

turn back.. ANG. How! bribe me? ISAB. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share

with you.

LUCIO. You had marr'd all else.

ISAB. Not with fond shekels 8 of the tested gold,
Or stones, whose rates are either rich, or poor,
As fancy values them: but with true prayers,
That shall be up at heaven, and enter there,
Ere sun-rise; prayers from preserved souls, *

8

9

The sentence fignifies, Isabella does not utter barren words, but speaks such sense as breeds or produces a consequence in Angelo's mind. Thus truths which generate no conclusion are often termed barren fa&ts. HOLT WHITE.

I understand the passage thus : - Her arguments are enforced with so much good sense, as to increase that stock of sense which I already poffefs. Douçe.

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

STEEVENS. tested gold,] i. c. attested, or marked with the standard stamp. WARBURTON.

Rather cuppelled, brought to the test, refined. JOHNSON..
All gold that is tested is not marked with the standard stamp.
The verb has a different sense, and means tried by the cuppel,
which is called by the refiners a teft. Vide Harris's Lex. Tech.
Voce CUPPELL.

Sir J. HAWKINS.

preserved souls,] i. c. preserved from the corruption of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preserved in sugar. WARBURTON, So, in The Amorous War, 1648:

• You do not reckon us.'mongst marmalade,

Quinces and apricots? or take us for « Ladies preserved?" STEEVENS.

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