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Enter ISABELLA.

ISAB. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!

PROV. Who's there? come in: the wish deferves a welcome.

DUKE. Dear fir, ere long I'll vifit you again.
CLAUD. Most holy fir, I thank you.

ISAB. My business is a word or two with Claudio. PROV. And very welcome. Look, fignior, here's your fifter.

DUKE. Provost, a word with

PROV.

you.

As many as you please. DUKE. Bring them to speak, where I may be con

ceal'd,

Yet hear them."

[Exeunt DUKE and Provost. CLAUD. Now, fifter, what's the comfort?

Claudio to death, urged to him the certainty of happinefs hereafter, this fpeech would have been introduced with more propriety; but the Friar fays nothing of that fubject, and argues more like a phi lofopher, than a Chriftian divine. M. MASON.

Mr. M. Mafon feems to forget that no actual Friar was the speaker, but the Duke, who might reafonably be fuppofed to have more of the philofopher than the divine in his compofition. STEEVENS. 6 Bring them to fpeak, where I may be conceal'd,

Yet hear them. The firft copy, published by the players, gives the paffage thus:

Bring them to hear me speak, where I may be conceal'd. Perhaps we should read:

Bring me to hear them speak, where I, &c. STEEVENS. The fecond folio authorizes the reading in the text. TYRWHITT. The alterations made in that copy do not deferve the smallest credit. There are undoubted proofs that they were merely arbitrary; and in general they are alfo extremely injudicious. MALONE.

I am of a different opinion, in which I am joined by Dr. Farmer; and confequently prefer the reading of the fecond folio to my own attempt at emendation, though Mr. Malone has done me the honour te adopt it. STEEVENS.

ISAB. Why, as all comforts are; moft good in deed: " Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift embaffador, Where you fhall be an everlasting leiger: Therefore your best appointment & make with speed; To-morrow you set on.

7 as all comforts are; moft good in deed:] If this reading be right, Ifabella muft mean that the brings fomething better than words of comfort, fhe brings an affurance of deeds. This is harfh and conftrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads:

in fpeed. JOHNSON,

The old copy reads:

Why,

As all comforts are: most good, moft good indeede.

I believe the prefent reading, as explained by Dr. Johnfon, is the true one. So, in Macbeth:

"We're yet but young in deed." STEEVENS.

I would point the lines thus:

"Clau. Now, fifter, what's the comfort?

Ifab. Why, as all comforts are, most good. Indeed Lord Angelo," &c.

Indeed is the fame as in truth, or truly, the common beginning of fpeeches in Shakspeare's age. See Charles the Firft's Trial. The King and Bradshaw feldom fay any thing without this preface: Truly, Sir." BLACKSTONE.

8_ an everlasting leiger:

Therefore your best appointment-] Leiger is the fame with refident. Appointment; preparation; act of fitting, or state of being fitted for any thing. So in old books, we have a knight well appointed; that is, well armed and mounted, or fitted at all points. JOHNSON.

The word leiger is thus ufed in The Comedy of Look about You, 1600: "Why do you ftay, Sir?

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Madam, as leiger to folicit for your abfent love." Again, in Leicester's Commonwealth, "a fpecial man of that hafty king, who was his Ledger, or Agent, in London," &c. STEEVENS.

- your best appointment-] The word appointment, on this occafion, fhould feem to comprehend confeffion, communion, and abfolution. "Let him (fay's Efcalus) be furnished with divines, and have all charitable preparation." The King in Hamlet, who was cut off prematurely, and without fuch preparation, is

CLAUD.

Is there no remedy?

ISAB. None, but fuch remedy, as, to fave a head, To cleave a heart in twain.

CLAUD..

But is there any?

ISAB. Yes, brother, you may live;
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,

If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

CLAUD.

Perpetual durance? ISAB. Ay, juft, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's vaftidity you had, To a determin'd scope.3

CLAUD,

ISAB. In fuch a one as Would bark your honour And leave you naked. CLAUD.

But in what nature?
(you confenting to't)
from that trunk you bear,

Let me know the point.

ISAB. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Left thou a feverous life fhould'ft entertain, And fix or feven winters more refpect Than a perpetual honour. Dar'ft thou die? The fenfe of death is moft in apprehenfion;

faid to be dif-appointed. Appointment, however, may be more fimply explained by the following paffage in The Antipodes, 1638:

- your lodging

"Is decently appointed." i. e. prepared, furnished.

STEEVENS.

2 Though all the world's vaftidity-] The old copy readsThrough all, &c. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

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To a determin'd fcope.] A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can neither be fuppreffed nor efcaped. JOHNSON.

4 Would bark your honour-] A metaphor from ftripping trees of their bark. DOUCE.

And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal fufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.'

CLAUD.

Why give you me this shame?

Think you I can a refolution fetch

From flowery tenderness? If I must die,

I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms."

ISAB. There fpake my brother; there my father's grave

Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die:
Thou art too noble to conserve a life

In base appliances. This outward-fainted deputy,

Whose settled vifage and deliberate word
Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew,?

the poor beetle, &c.] The reafoning is, that death is no more than every being must suffer, though the dread of it is peculiar to man; or perhaps, that we are inconfiftent with ourselves, when we fo much dread that which we carelessly inflict on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we. JOHNSON.

The meaning is-fear is the principal fenfation in death, which has no pain; and the giant when he dies feels no greater pain than the beetle.—This paffage, however, from its arrangement, is liable to an oppofite conftruction, but which would totally destroy the illuftration of the fentiment. DOUCE.

6 I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And bug it in mine arms.] So, in the first part of Jeronimo, or The Spanish Tragedy, 1605:

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night

"That yawning Beldam, with her jetty skin,
""Tis the I bug as mine effeminate bride."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

7

66

I will be

"A bridegroom in my death; and run into 't,
"As to a lover's bed." MALONE.

STEEVENS.

Forces follies to lie in cover, with

- follies doth enmew,] out daring to fhow themfelves. JoHNSON.

As falcon doth the fowl,-is yet a devil;
His filth within being caft," he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

CLAUD

The princely Angelo?

ISAB. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'ft body to inveft and cover

In princely guards! Doft thou think, Claudio,

As falcon doth the fowl,] In whofe prefence the follies of youth are afraid to show themselves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it.

So, in the Third Part of King Henry VI:

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not he that loves him beft,

"The proudeft he that holds up Lancaster,

"Dares ftir a wing, if Warwick shakes his bells."

To enmew is a term in falconry, alfo ufed by Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Knight of Malta:

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I have feen him fcale,

"As if a falcon had run up a train,

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Clafhing his warlike pinions, his steel'd cuirafs,

And, at his pitch, enmew the town below him." STEEVENS. His filth within being caft,] To caft a pond is to empty it of mud. Mr. Upton reads:

His pond within being caft, he would appear

A filth as deep as hell. JOHNSON.

The princely Angelo ?

princely guards!] The ftupid editors, miftaking guards for fatellites, (whereas it here fignifies lace,) altered priestly, in both places, to princely. Whereas Shakspeare wrote it priefly, as appears from the words themfelves:

'Tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damned ft body to invest and cover
With prieftly guards.-

In the first place we fee that guards here fignifies lace, as referring to livery, and as having no fenfe in the fignification of fatellites. Now priefly guards means fanctity, which is the fenfe required. But princely guards means nothing but rich lace, which is a fenfe the paffage will not bear. Angelo, indeed, as deputy, might be called the princely Angelo: but not in this place, where the immediately preceding words of,

Í his out-ward-fainted deputy,

demand the reading I have reftored. WARBURTON.

The firft folio has, in both places, prenzie, from which the other folios made princely, and every editor may make what he can. JOHNSON.

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