ISAB. Tis fet down fo in heaven, but not in earth. 8 ANG. Say you fo? then I fhall poze you quickly.

(in which our author having already illuftrated the fentiment he has attributed to Angelo by an allufion to coining, would not give the fame image a fecond time,) but by a fimilar expreffion in Timon: thy father, that poor rag,

Muft be thy fubject; who in fpite put stuff

"To fome fhe-beggar, and compounded thee,
"Poor rogue hereditary."

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

"As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to,
"Before her troth-plight.

The controverted word is found again in the fame fenfe in Macbeth: thy undaunted mettle fhould compofe

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"Nothing but males. "

Again, in K. Richard II:

"That mettle, that felf mould that fashion'd thee,
"Made him a man.

Again, in Timon of Athens:

Common mother, thou,

"Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
"Teems and feeds all; whofe felf-fame mettle,

"Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,

Means is here used for medium, or object, and the sense of the whole is this: 'Tis as eafy wickedly to deprive a man born in wedlock of life, as to have unlawful commerce with a maid, in order to give life to an illegitimate child. The thought is fimply, that murder is as easy as fornication; and the inference which Angelo would dṛaw, is, that it is as improper to pardon the latter as the former. The words to make a falfe one-evidently referring to life, fhew that the preceding line is to be understood in a natural, and not in a metaphorical, fenfe. MALONE.

8 'Tis fet down fo in heaven, but not in earth.] I would have it confidered, whether the train of the difcourfe does not rather require Ifabel to fay:

'Tis fo fet down in earth, but not in heaven.

When fhe has faid this,' Then, fays Angelo, I shall poze you quickly. Would you, who, for the prefent purpose, declare your brother's crime to be lefs in the fight of heaven, than the law has made it ; would you commit that crime, light as it is, to fave your brother's life? To this he answers, not very plainly in either reading, but more appofitely to that which I propose: I had rather give my body than my foul.

JOHNSON.

Which had you rather, That the most just law Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,* Give up your body to fuch fweet uncleanness, As fhe that he hath ftain'd?

ISAB.

Sir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my foul?? ANG. I talk not of your foul; Our compell'd fins Stand more for number than accompt."

ISAB.

How fay you?

ANG. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I fay. Anfwer to this;

I, now the voice of the recorded law,

Pronounce a fentence on your brother's life:

What you have ftated is undoubtedly the divine law: murder and fornication are both forbid by the canon of fcripture; but on earth the latter offence is confidered as lefs heinous than the former.

So, in King John:

8

"Some fins do bear their privilege on earth,
"And fo doth yours."

STEEVENS.

MALONE.

or, to redeem him,] The old copy has-and to redeem him. The emendation was made by Sir William D'Avenant. MALONE.

9 I had rather give my body than my foul.] Ifabel, I believe, ufe: the words, "give my body, in a different fenfe from that in which they had been employed by Angelo. She means, I think, I had rather die, than forfeit my eternal happiness by the prostitution of my perfan. Malone.

She may mean I had rather give up my body to imprisonment, than my Tout to berdition. STEEVENS.

Sta

Our compell'd fins

more for number than accompt. ] Adions to which we are compelled. however numerous, are not imputed to us by heaven as cimes. If you cannot fave your brother but by the lofs of your chastity, it is not a voluntary but compelled fin, for which you Cannot be accountable. MALONE.

The old copy reads

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Stand more for number than for accompt.

I have omitted the fecond for, which had been cafually repeated by the compofitor. STEEVENS.

I'll take it as a peril to my foul,
It is not fin at all, but charity.

ANG. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your foul,3 Were equal poize of fin and charity.

ISAB. That I do beg his life, if it be fin, Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of my fuit, If that be fin, I'll make it my morn prayer

To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your, anfwer. 4

ANG.

Nay, but hear me :

Your fenfe purfucs not mine: either you are ignorant, Or feem fo, craftily; and that's not good.

6

ISAB. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But gracioufly to know I am no better.

3 Pleas'd you to do't, at peril, &c.] Angelo afks, whether there might not be a brother. Ifabella anfwers, that if Angelo

The reafoning is thus: charity in fin to fave this will fave him, he will

take her foul that it were charity, not fin. Angelo replies, that if Ifabella would fave him at the hazard of her foul, it would be not indeed no fin, but a fin to which the charity would be equivalent. JOHNSON. 4 And nothing of your, anfwer, ] I think it fhould be read, And nothing of yours, anfwer.

You, and whatever is yours, be exempt from penalty. JOHNSON. And nothing of your answer, means, and make no part of those fins for which you fhall be called to anfwer. STEEVENS.

This paffage would be clear, I think, if it were pointed thus: To have it added to the faults of mine,

And nothing of your, anfwer.

So that the fubitantive anfwer may be understood to be joined in conftru&ion with mine as well as your. The faults of mine anfwer are the faults which I am to answer for. TYRWHITT.

craftily; The old copy reads crafty. Corrected by Sir William D'Avenant. MALONE.

6 Let me be ignorant,] Me is wanting in the original copy. emendation was made by the editor of the fecoud folio.

The

MALONE.

ANG. Thus wifdom wifhes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itfelf: as thefe black masks. Proclaim an enfhield beauty ten times louder

6 Proclaim an enfhield beauty - An enfield beauty is a fhielded beauty, a beauty covered or protected as with a Shield. STEEVENS.

as thefe black malks

Proclaim an enfhield beauty, &c.

This fhould be written en-fhell'd, or in-fhell'd, as it is in Coriolanus, Aa IV. fc. vi:

"Thrufts forth his horns again into the world

"That were in-fhell'd when Marcius ftood for Rome." Thefe Maks muft mean, I think, the Masks of the audiences however improperly a compliment to them is put into the mouth of Angelo. As Shakspeare would hardly have been guilty of fuch an indecorum to flatter a common audience, I think this paffage affords ground for supposing that the play was written to be acted at court. Some ftrokes of particular flattery to the King I have already pointed out; and there are feveral other general reflections, in the character of the Duke especially, which feem calculated for the royal ear.

I do not think fo well of the conje&ture in the latter part of this note, as I did fome years ago; and therefore I fhould wish to withdraw it. Not that I am inclined to adopt the idea of Mr. Ritson, as I fee no ground for fuppofing that Ifabella had any mafk in her hand. My notion at prefent is, that the phrase these black masks fignifies nothing more than black masks; according to an old idiom of our language, by which the demonstrative pronoun is put for the prepofitive article. See the Gloffary to Chaucer, edit. 1775; This, Thife. Shakspeare feems to have used the fame idiom not only in the paffage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Romeo and Juliet, but alfo in King Henry IV. Part I. A&t I. sc. iii :

and, but for thefe vile guns,

"He would himself have been a foldier. "

With refpe&t to the former part of this note, though Mr. Ritson has told us that enfield is CERTAINLY put by contraction før enfhielded," I have no objection to leaving my conjecture in its place, till fome authority is produced for fuch an ufage of enfhield or enfhielded. TYRWHITT.

There are inftances of a fimilar contraction or elifion, in our author's plays. Thus, bloat for bloated, ballast for ballafted, and waft for wafted, with many others. RITSON.

Sir William D'Avenant reads

as a black mask; but I am afraid

Than beauty could difplayed.-But mark me;
To be received plain, I'll speak more grofs:
Your brother is to die.

ISAB. So.

ANG. And his offence is fo, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain.

ISAB. True.

ANG. Admit no other way to fave his life,
(As I fufcribe not that, nor any other,
But in the lofs of queftion,) that you, his fifter,
Finding yourself defir'd of fuch a perfon,

Whofe credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles

Mr. Tyrwhitt is too well supported in his first supposition, by a paffage at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet:

66

¢¢

Thefe happy mafks that kifs fair ladies' brows,

Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair." STEEVENS. 6 Accountant to the law upon that pain. ] Pain is here for penalty, punishment. JOHNSON.

7 As I fubfcribe not that, ] To fubfcribe means, to agree to.

Milton ufes the word in the fame fenfe.

So alfo, in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, 1661:

་་

Subfcribe to his desires.

STEEVENS.

But in the lofs of question,] The loss of question I do not well understand, and should rather read:

But in the tofs of question.

In the agitation, in the difcuffton of the queftion. To tofs an argument is a common phrafe. JOHNSON.

This expreffion, I believe, means, but in idle fuppofition, or converfation that tends to nothing, which may therefore, in our author's language, be called the lofs of question. Thus, in Coriolanus, A& III. fc. i. : "The which fhall turn you to no other harm, "Than fo much lofs of time.

Queftion, in Shakspeare, often bears this meaning. So, in his Tarquin and Lucrece:

"And after fupper, long he questioned

"With modeft Lucrece, &c. STEEVENS,

Question is used here, as in many other places, for converfation.

MALONE.