ANG. Yea. ISAB. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve, Longer, or shorter, he may be so fitted, That his foul ficken not. ANG. Ha! Fie, thefe filthy vices! It were as good Their fawcy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image, 4 that hath from nature ftolen A man already made,] i. e. that hath killed a man. MALONE. 5 Their fawcy fweetness, that do coin heaven's image In ftamps that are forbid :] We meet with nearly the fame words in King Edward III. a tragedy, 1596, certainly prior to this play: And will your facred felf "Commit high treafon 'gainst the king of heaven, "To ftamp his image in forbidden metal ?" Thefe lines are fpoken by the countefs of Salisbury, whofe (chaftity like Ifabel's) was affailed by her fovereign. Their farvey fweetness Dr. Warburton interprets, their fawcy indulgence of their appetite. Perhaps it means nearly the fame as what is afterwards called fweet uncleannefs. MALONE. Sweetness, in the prefent înftance has, I believe, the fame fenfe as-lickerifbnefs. STEEVENS. 6 Falfely to take away a life true made,] Falfely is the fame with difhoneftly, illegally: fo falfe, in the next line but one, is illegal, illegitimate. JOHNSON. 7 mettle in refrained means,] In forbidden moulds. I fufpect means not to be the right word, but I cannot find another. I fhould fuppofe that our author wrote, in reftrained mints, JOHNSON. as the allufion may be ftill to coining. Sir W. D'Avenant omits the paffage. STEEVENS. Mettle, the reading of the old copy, which was changed to metal by Mr. Theobald, (who has been followed by the fubfequent editors,) is fupported not only by the general purport of the paffage, ISAB. 'Tis fet down fo in heaven, but not in earth. (in which our author having already illuftrated the fentiment he has "Muft be thy fubject; who in fpite put ftuff Again, in The Winter's Tale: "As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to, The controverted word is found again in the fame sense in Macbeth: 66 thy undaunted mettle fhould compofe Nothing but males.” Again, in K. Richard II: 66 that bed, that womb, "That mettle, that felf mould that fashion'd thee, Again, in Timon of Athens: Common mother, thou, "Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breaft, 66 Engenders the black toad," &c. Means is here used for medium, or object, and the fenfe of the whole is this: 'Tis as easy 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 eafy as fornication; and the inference which Angelo would draw, 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 discourse does not rather require Ifabel to say: 'Tis fa fet down in earth, but not in heaven. When the has faid this, Then, fays Angelo, I ball poze you quickly. Would you, who, for the prefent purpofe, declare your brother's crime to be less 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 fhe anfwers, 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 sweet 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. Answer to this ;I, now the voice of the recorded law, Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life: What you have ftated is undoubtedly the divine law: murder and fornication are both forbid by the canon of Scripture;-but on earth the latter offence is confidered as lefs heinous than the former. MALONE. So, in King John: 8 "Some fins do bear their privilege on earth, 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, ufes the words, give my body," in a different fense from that in which they had been employed by Angelo. She means, I think, I bad rather die, than forfeit my eternal happiness by the proftitution of my perfen. MALONE. She may mean-I had rather give up my body to imprisonment, than my foul to perdition. STEEVENS. 2 Our compell'd fins Stand more for number than accompt.] Actions to which we are compelled, however numerous, are not imputed to us by heaven as crimes. 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 "Stand more for number than for accompt." I have omitted the fecond for, which had been cafually repeated by the compofitor. STEEVENS. Might there not be a charity in fin, To fave this brother's life? ISAB. Please you to do't, I'll take it as a peril to my foul, It is no 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 suit, If that be fin, I'll make it my morn prayer To have it added to the faults of mine, And nothing of your, answer.4 ANG. Nay, but hear me: Your fense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant, Or feem fo, craftily; and that's not good. ISAB. Let me be ignorant," and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better. 3 Pleas'd you to do't, at peril, &c.] The reafoning is thus: Angelo afks, whether there might not be a charity in fin to fave this brother. Ifabella answers, that if Angelo will fave him, he will flake 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. And nothing of your, anfwer.] I think it should be read, And nothing of yours, answer. You, and whatever is yours, be exempt from penalty. JOHNSON. And nothing of your answer, means, and make no part of thofe fins for which you shall be called to answer. STEEVENS. This paffage would be clear, I think, if it were pointed thus: So that the fubftantive answer may be understood to be joined in The faults of mine answer 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. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. ANG. Thus wifdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as thefe black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty" ten times louder 6 Proclaim an enfhield beauty-] An enfield beauty is a shielded beauty, a beauty covered or protected as with a shield. STEEVENS. - as these black masks Proclaim an enfhield beauty, &c. This fhould be written en-fbell'd, or in-fhell'd, as it is in Coriolanus, A& IV. fc. vi: "Thrufts forth his horns again into the world "That were in-fhell'd when Marcius ftood for Rome." Thefe Masks muft mean, I think, the Mafks of the audience; 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 fuppofing 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. TYRWHITT. I do not think fo well of the conjecture in the latter part of this note, as I did fome years ago; and therefore I should 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 mask in ber band. My notion at prefent is, that the phrafe thefe black masks fignifies nothing more than black masks; according to an old idiom of our language, by which the demonftrative 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. fc. iii: 66 and, but for these vile guns, "He would himself have been a foldier." With refpect to the former part of this note, though Mr. Ritfon has told us that " enfield is CERTAINLY put by contraction for enfhielded," I have no objection to leaving my conjecture in its place, till fome authority is produced for fuch an ufage of enfield or enfhielded. TYRWHITT. There are inftances of a fimilar contraction or elifion, in our author's plays. Thus, bloat for bloated, ballaft for ballafted, and waft for wafted, with many others. RITSON. Sir William D'Avenant reads—as a black mask; but I am afraid |