Re-enter Provoft, BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO, and JULIET. DUKE. Which is that Barnardine? PROV. This, my lord. DUKE. There was a friar told me of this man:Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul, That apprehends no further than this world, And fquar'ft thy life according. Thou'rt con demn'd; 4 But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all; For better times to come :- -Friar, advise him; I leave him to your hand.-What muffled fellow's that? PROV. This is another prifoner, that I fav'd, That fhould have died when Claudio loft his head; As like almoft to Claudio, as himself. [Unmuffles CLAUDIO. DUKE. If he be like your brother, [To ISABELLA.] for his fake Is he pardon'd; And, for your lovely fake, 4 for thofe earthly faults,] Thy faults, fo far as they are punishable on earth, fo far as they are cognisable by temporal power, I forgive. JOHNSON. 5 - perceives he's fafe;] It is fomewhat ftrange that Isabel is not made to exprefs either gratitude, wonder, or joy, at the fight of her brother. JOHNSON. 6 your evil quits you well:] Quits you, recompenfes, requites you. JOHNSON. Look that you love your wife; her worth, worth yours.&_ I find an apt remiffion in myself: And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon; You, firrah, [To LUCIO.] that knew me for a fool, a coward, One all of luxury," an ass, a madman; LUCIO. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick: If you will hang me for it, you may, "Look, that you love your wife;] So, in Promos, &c. 8 "Be loving to good Caffandra, thy wife." STEEVENS. her worth, worth yours.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, Her worth works yours. This reading is adopted by Dr. Warburton, but for what reason? How does her worth work Angelo's worth? it has only contributed to work his pardon. The words are, as they are too frequently, an affected gingle; but the fenfe is plain. Her worth, worth yours; that is, her value is equal to your value, the match is not unworthy of you. JOHNSON. 9 - here's one in place I cannot pardon;] The Duke only means to frighten Lucio, whofe final fentence is to marry the woman whom he had wronged, on which all his other punishments are remitted. STEEVENS. One all of luxury,] Luxury means incontinence. So, in King Lear: "To't, luxury, pellmell, for I lack foldiers." STEEVENS. 3 according to the trick:] To my cuftom, my habitual practice. JOHNSON. Lucio'does not fay my trick, but the trick; nor does he mean to excufe himself by faying that he fpoke according to his ufual practice, for that would be an aggravation to his guilt, but according to the trick and practice of the times. It was probably then the practice, as it is at this day, for the diffipated and profligate, to ridicule and flander perfons in high ftation, or of fuperior virtue. M. MASON. According to the trick, is, according to the fashion of thoughtless youth. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: " yet I have a trick of but I had rather it would please you, I might be whip'd. DUKE. Whip'd first, fir, and hang'd after.Proclaim it, provoft, round about the city; If any woman's wrong'd by this lewd fellow, (As I have heard him fwear himself, there's one Whom he begot with child,) let her appear, And he fhall marry her: the nuptial finish'd, Let him be whip'd and hang'd. LUCIO. I beseech your highnefs, do not marry me to a whore! Your highness faid even now, I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompence me, in making me a cuckold. DUKE. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. Thy flanders I forgive; and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits :-Take him to prison: And see our pleasure herein executed. Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is preffing to death, whipping, and hanging. DUKE. Sland'ring a prince deserves it.— She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.Joy to you, Mariana!-love her, Angelo; I have confefs'd her, and I know her virtue.— the old rage." Again, in a collection of epigrams, entitled Wit's Bedlam, printed about the year 1615: Carnus calls lechery a trick of youth; "So he grows old; but this trick hurts his growth." MALONE. thy other forfeits:] Thy other punishments.. JOHNSON. 66 - to To forfeit anciently fignified to commit a carnal offence. So, in The Hiftory of Helyas, Knight of the Swanne, b. 1. no date: affirme by an untrue knight, that the noble queen Beatrice had forfayted with a dogge.' Again, in the 12th Pageant of the Coventry Collection of Mysteries, the Virgin Mary tells Joseph : "I dede nevyr forfete with man I wys." MS. Cott. Vefp. D. viii. STEEVENS, Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodnefs: 5 There's more behind, that is more gratulate."— 5 Thanks, good friend Efcalus, for thy much goodness:] I have always thought that there is great confufion in this concluding fpeech. If my criticism would not be cenfured as too licentious, I fhould regulate it thus: Thanks, good friend Efcalus, for thy much goodness, We shall employ thee in a worthier place.. Ang. The offence pardons itself. Duke. There's more behind That is more gratulate. Dear Ifabel, I have a motion, &c. JOHNSON. that is more gratulate.] i. e. to be more rejoiced in; meaning, I fuppofe, that there is another world, where he will find yet greater reafon to rejoice in confequence of his upright miniftry. Efcalus is reprefented as an ancient nobleman, who, in conjunction with Angelo, had reached the higheft office of the ftate. He therefore could not be fufficiently rewarded here; but is neceffarily referred to a future and more exalted recompenfe. STEEVENS. I cannot approve of Steevens's explanation of this paffage, which is very far-fetched indeed. The Duke gives Efcalus thanks for his much goodness, but tells him that he had fome other reward in ftore for him, more acceptable than thanks; which agrees with what he said before, in the beginning of this act we hear "Such goodness of your juftice, that our foul Fore-running more requital." M. MASON. Heywood alfo in his Apology for Actors, 1612, ufes to gratulate, in the fenfe of to reward. "I could not chufe but gratulate your honeft endeavours with this remembrance." MALONE. Mr. M. Mafon's explanation may be right; but he forgets that the fpeech he brings in fupport of it, was delivered before the denouement of the fcene, and was, at that moment, as much addreffed to Angelo as to Efcalus; and for Angelo the Duke had cer The head of Ragozine for Claudio's; tainly no reward or honours, in store.-Befides, I cannot but regard the word-requital as an interpolation, because it deftroys the meafure, without improvement of the fenfe. "Fore-running more," therefore, would only fignify-preceding further thanks. STEEVENS. 7 I cannot help taking notice with how much judgement Shakfpeare has given turns to this ftory from what he found it in Cynthio Giraldi's novel. In the firft place, the brother is there actually executed, and the governour fends his head in a bravado to the fifter, after he had debauched her on promife of marriage: a circumftance of too much horror and villainy for the stage. And, in the next place, the fifter afterwards is, to folder up her difgrace, married to the governour, and begs his life of the emperour, though he had unjustly been the death of her brother. Both which abfurdities the poet has avoided by the epifode of Mariana, a creature purely of his own invention. The Duke's remaining incognito at home to fupervife the conduct of his deputy, is also entirely our author's fiction. This story was attempted for the scene before our author was fourteen years old, by one George Whetstone, in Two Comical Difcourfes, as they are called, containing the right excellent and famous hiftory of Promos and Caffandra, printed with the black letter, 1578. The author going that year with Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Norimbega, left them with his friends to publish. THEOBALD. The novel of Cynthio Giraldi, from which Shakspeare is fupposed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in Shakespeare illuftrated, elegantly tranflated, with remarks which will affift the enquirer to difcover how much abfurdity Shakspeare has admitted or avoided. I cannot but fufpect that fome other had new-modelled the novel of Cynthio, or written a ftory which in fome particulars refembled it, and that Cynthio was not the author whom Shakspeare immediately followed. The Emperor in Cynthio is named Maximine; the Duke, in Shakspeare's enumeration of the perfons of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very flight remark; but fince |