In action all of precept,' he did show me DUKE. DUKE. 'Tis well borne up. I have not yet made known to Mariana A word of this:-What, ho! within! come forth! Re-enter MARIANA. I pray you, be acquainted with this maid; ISAB. I do defire the like. DUKE. Do you perfuade yourself that I respect you? MARI. Good friar, I know you do; and have found it. 3 In action all of precept,] i. e. fhewing the feveral turnings of the way with his hand; which action contained fo many precepts, being given for my direction. WARBURTON, I rather think we should read, In precept of all action, that is, in direction given not by words, but by mute figns. JOHNSON. 4- I have poffefs'd him,] I have made him clearly and ftrongly comprehend. JOHNSON. To poffefs had formerly the fenfe of inform or acquaint. As in Every Man in his Humour, A&t I. fc. v. Captain Bobadil fays: "Poffefs no gentleman of our acquaintance with notice of my lodging." REED. 5 That stays upon me;] So, in Macbeth: Worthy Macbeth, we ftay upon your leifure." STEEVENS. DUKE. Take then this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear: I shall attend your leifure; but make haste; MARI. Will't please you walk afide? [Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA. DUKE. O place and greatness," millions of falfe eyes1 Are stuck upon thee! volumes of report 6 O place and greatnefs,] It plainly appears that this fine fpeech belongs to that which concludes the preceding fcene between the Duke and Lucio. For they are abfolutely foreign to the subject of this, and are the natural reflections arifing from that. Befides, the very words, Run with thefe falfe and moft contrarious quefts, evidently refer to Lucio's fcandals juft preceding; which the Oxford editor, in his ufual way, has emended, by altering these to their. But that fome time might be given to the two women to confer together, the players, I fuppofe, took part of the fpeech, beginning at No might nor greatness, &c. and put it here, without troubling themselves about its pertinency. However, we are obliged to them for not giving us their own impertinency, as they have frequently done in other places. WARBURTON. I cannot agree that these lines are placed here by the players. The fentiments are common, and fuch as a prince, given to reflection, must have often prefent. There was a neceffity to fill up the time in which the ladies converse apart, and they must have quick tongues and ready apprehenfions, if they understood each other while this fpeech was uttered. JOHNSON. 7 millions of falfe eyes-] That is, Eyes infidious and traiterous. JOHNSON. So, in Chaucer's Sompnoures Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 7633: 8 66 Ther is ful many an eye, and many an ere, · contrarious quefts] Different reports, running counter to each other. JOHNSON. So, in Othello t "The fenate has fent out three feveral quests." Upon thy doings! thousand 'fcapes of wit" Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA. ISAB. She'll take the enterprize upon her, father, you advise it. If DUKE. It is not my confent, Little have you to say, But my intreaty too. ISAB. When you depart from him, but, foft and low, MARI. Fear me not. DUKE. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all: He is your husband on a pre-contract : In our author's K. Richard III. is a paffage in fome degree fimilar to the foregoing: My confcience hath a thousand several tongues, STEEVENS. I incline to think that quefts here means inquifitions, in which fenfe the word was used in Shakspeare's time. See Minthieu's Dict. in v. Cole in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders "A queft," by examen, inquifitio." MALONE. Falfe and contrarious quefts in this place rather mean lying and contradictory messengers, with whom run volumes of report. An explanation, which the line quoted by Mr. Steevens will ferve to confirm. RITSON. 7fcapes of wit-] i. e. fallies, irregularities. So, in King John, Act III. fc. iv: "No 'fcape of nature, no diftemper'd day." STEEVENS. 8 And rack thee in their fancies!] Though rack, in the prefent inftance, may fignify torture or mangle, it might alfo mean confufe; as the rack, i. e. fleeting cloud, renders the object behind it obfcure, and of undetermined form. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "That which was now a horfe, even with a thought, To bring you thus together, 'tis no fin; [Exeunt. 9 Doth flourish the deceit.] A metaphor taken from embroidery, where a coarse ground is filled up, and covered with figures of rich materials and elegant workmanship. WARBURTON. So, in our author's Twelfth Flourish is ornament in general. Night: empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the devil.” STEEVENS. Dr. Warburton's illuftration of the metaphor feems to be inaccurate. The paffage from another of Shakspeare's plays, quoted by Mr. Steevens, fuggefts to us the true one. The term-flourish, alludes to the flowers impreffed on the wafte printed paper and old books, with which trunks are commonly lined. HENLEY. When it is proved that the practice alluded to, was as ancient as the time of Shakspeare, Mr. Henley's explanation may be admitted. STEEVENS. 2 for yet our tithe's to forw.] As before, the blundering editors have made a prince of the priestly Angelo, fo here they have made a priest of the prince. We fhould read tilth, i. e. our tillage is yet to make. The grain from which we expect our harvest, is not yet put into the ground. WARBURTON. The reader is here attacked with a petty fophifm. We should read tilth, i. e. our tillage is to make. and who has ever faid that his tillage was to fow? I believe tythe But in the text it is to forw; is right, and that the expreffion is proverbial, in which tythe is taken, by an easy metonymy, for harveft. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton did not do justice to his own conjecture; and no wonder, therefore, that Dr. Johnson has not.-Tilth is provincially ufed for land till'd, prepared for fowing. Shakspeare, however, has applied it before in its ufual acceptation. FARMER. Dr. Warburton's conjecture may be fupported by many inftances in Markham's English Husbandman, 1635: "After the beginning of March you fhall begin to fowe your barley upon that ground which the year before did lye fallow, and is commonly called your tilth or fallow field." In p. 74 of this book, a corruption, like our author's, occurs. "As before, I faid beginne to fallow your tithe field:" which is undoubtedly mifprinted for tilth field. TOLLET. VOL. IV. Y SCENE II. A Room in the Prifon. Enter Provoft and Clown. PROV. Come hither, firrah: Can you cut off a man's head? CLO. If the man be a bachelor, fir, I can: but if he be a married man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head. PROV. Come, fir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine: Here is in our prifon a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper if you will take it on you to affift him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping; for you have been a notorious bawd. CLO. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd, time out of mind; but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive fome inftruction from my fellow partner. Tilth is ufed for crop, or harveft, by Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 93. b: "To fowe cockill with the corne, "So that the tilth is nigh forlorne, "Which Chrift few firft his owne honde." Shakspeare ufes the word tilth in a former fcene of this play; and, (as Dr. Farmer has obferved,) in its common acceptation: her plenteous womb "Expreffeth its full tilth and husbandry." Again, in The Tempeft: "bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none." but my quotation from Gower fhows that, to fow tilth, was a phrafe once in use. STEEVENS. This conjecture appears to me extremely probable. MALONE. 2 -an unpitied whipping ;] i, e. an unmerciful one. STEEVENS. |