ANG. Be you content, fair maid; It is the law, not I, condemns your brother: Were he my kinfman, brother, or my fon, It fhould be thus with him;-he muft die to-morrow. ISAB. To-morrow? O, that's fudden! Spare him, fpare him;

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of feafon; fhall we ferve heaven With lefs refpect than we do minister

To our grofs felves? Good, good my lord, bethink

you:

Who is it that hath died for this offence?

There's many have committed it.

LUCIO.

Ay, well faid.

ANG. The law hath not been dead, though it hath

flept: 3

Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man that did the edict infringe,+
Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass,' that shows what future evils,

of feafon ;] i. e. when it is in feafon. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: buck; and of the feafon too it fhall

"

appear." STEEVENS.

3 The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept :] Dormiunt aliquando leges, moriuntur nunquam, is a maxim in our law. HOLTWHITE. If the firft man, &c.] The word man has been fupplied by the modern editors. I would rather read—

If he, the firft, &c. TYRWHITT.

Man was introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

like a prophet,

Looks in a glass,] This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, much ufed at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. WARBURTON.

See Macbeth, A& IV. fc. i.

So again, in Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

"How long have I beheld the devil in chryftal?" STEEVENS. The beril, which is a kind of crystal, hath a weak tincture of

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."

ISAB.

Yet fhow fome pity.

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

red in it. Among other tricks of aftrologers, the discovery of paft 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- 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.

So, in Coriolanus, Á& V. sc. v :

but there to end,

"WHERE he was to begin, and give away
"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 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 feems to have understood it ;) but, that they fhould end WHERE they began i. e. with the criminal; who being punished for his first offence, could not proceed by fucceffive degrees in wickednefs, nor excite others, by his impunity, to vice. So, in the next fpeech:

And do him right, that, anfwering one foul wrong, "Lives not to act another."

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

The fame mistake 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. Johnfon applauds Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation. I prefer that of Mr. Malone. STEEVENS.

8fbow some pity.

Ang. I bow it most of all, when I show justice ;

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

Which a difmifs'd offence would after gall;
And do him right, that, answering 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 use it like a giant.

LUCIO.

That's well faid.

ISAB. Could great men thunder

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

Would ufe 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;-O, but man, proud man!'

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

9 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 weed. 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: "With knotty knarry barrein trees old." STEEVENS.

3 Than the foft myrtle ;-0, but man, proud man!] The defective metre of this line fhews that fome word was accidentally omitted at the prefs; probably fome additional epithet to man; perhaps 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 worft and the most improbable that could have been chofen. MALONE.

I am content with the emendation of the fecond folio, which I conceive to have been made on the authority of fome manufcript, or corrected copy. STEEVENS,

Dreft in a little brief authority;

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

Plays fuch fantastick tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
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:" 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.

S who, with our Spleens,

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 fay in common life, laugh themselves dead; which amounts to this, that if they were mortal, they would not be immortal. Shakspeare meant no fuch nonfenfe. 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 deserve 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 prevail 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, ourfelf, which Dr. Warburton changed to yourself, is fupported by a paffage in the fifth Act: -If he had fo offended,

"He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself
"And not have cut him off."

VOL. IV.

R

MALONE.

ISA B. 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. Becaufe 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 afk your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confefs
A natural guiltinefs, such 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.".

you well.

-Fare

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

"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 fay, 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
As he has excellently form'd.

STEEVENS.

I rather think the meaning is,-She delivers her fentiments with fuch propriety, force, and elegance, that my fenfual defires are inflamed by what fhe fays. Senfe has been already ufed in this play. with the fame fignification :

"The wanton ftings and motions of the fenfe."

The word breeds is ufed nearly in the fame fenfe in The Tempeft :

Fair encounter

"Of two moft rare affections! Heavens rain grace

"On that which breeds between them!" MALONE.