Remaining in the coffer of her friends; From whom we thought it meet to hide our love, Claud. Unhappily, even so. And the new deputy now for the Duke, A horse whereon the governor doth ride, Or in his eminence that fills it up, I stagger in: - But this new governor Awakes me all the enrolled penalties, 7 Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall 8 'tis surely for a name. Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the Duke, and appeal to him. Odyssey: "To try if we alone may propagate to victory our bold encounters." So also in Dryden's Virgil: "Afric and India shall his power obey; He shall extend his propagated sway Beyond the solar year, without the starry way." In this case the meaning would be, that the lovers put off their marriage with a view to continue the prospect, to keep up the chance, of a dower, until time should favourably dispose the wills of those upon whom the lady's fortune was dependent. 7 Zodiacs, yearly circles. 8 Tickle, for ticklish. H. Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found. Acquaint her with the danger of my state; ous art When she will play with reason and discourse, Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack."1 I'll to her. Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio. Claud. Come, officer; away. SCENE IV. A Monastery. Enter DUKE and Friar THOMAS. Duke. No, holy father; throw thought: 9 That is, enter on her novitiate or probation. [Exeunt. away that 10 Prone seems to be here used in the sense of apt. Cotgrave says, "Prone, ready, nimble, quick, easily moving." And elsewhere we meet with the phrases, "so prone and fit," and prone or apt." So that the meaning appears to be, "There is an apt and silent eloquence in her looks, such as moves men." H. 11 Tick-tack, from the French tric-trac, and sometimes spelt trick-track in English, was a game played with tables, something like backgammon. Of course the word is here used in a wanton sense. H. Believe not that the dribbling' dart of love Can pierce a complete bosom: Why I desire thee Fri. May your grace speak of it? Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd; And held in idle price to haunt assemblies, Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.* I have deliver'd to lord Angelo (A man of stricture and firm abstinence) My absolute power and place here in Vienna, 1 " Dribble," says Richardson, " is a diminutive of drih," from drip, and means to do any thing by drips or drops. The sense of dribbling, therefore, is trifling, ineffective. Thus in Holland's Livy: "Howbeit, there passed some dribbling skirmishes between the rearward of the Carthaginians and the vaunt-couriers of the Romans." So also in Milton's Apology for Smectymnus : 66 For small temptations allure but dribbling offenders!" And in Brome's Songs: "And out of all 's ill-gotten store He gives a dribbling to the poor." Respecting the use of the term in archery, which Steevens thought could not be satisfactorily explained, Aschanı says of one who, having learned to shoot well, neglects to practise with the bow,"He shall become, of a fayre archer, a starke squyrter and dribber." In the next line, "a complete bosom " is a bosom com pletely armed. H. 2 That is, dwells. So, in 1 Henry IV. Act i. sc. 3, Hotspur says, -"'Twas where the madcap duke, his uncle, kept." This use of the word, though now rare in England, is so common in America as to be called an Americanism. - Bravery is fine, showy dress. H. Duke. We have strict statutes and most biting laws, (The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds,3) Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave, That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers, Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children's sight, For terror, not to use; in time the rod 4 Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead, And liberty plucks justice by the nose; The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Fri. It rested in your grace To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd; And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd, Than in lord Angelo. Duke. I do fear, too dreadful : Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope, "Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them For what I bid them do: for we bid this be done, When evil deeds have their permissive pass, And not the punishment. father, Therefore, indeed, my I have on Angelo impos'd the office; 3 The original here has weeds, which Mr. Collier retains, saying that "weed is a term still commonly applied to an ill-conditioned horse." But this wants confirmation; otherwise the change were hardly to be allowed. In the next line, instead of let sleep, the original has let slip, which Knight retains, notwithstanding its jarring with the context. While sleep seems required by the course of the metaphor, it is no less justified by what is said in another place: "The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept." H. 4 This word, not in the original, but required alike by the sense and by the verse, was suggested by Davenant, and inserted by Pope, and has since been universally received. H. Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home, And yet my nature never in the fight, 5 To do in slander: And to behold his sway, I will, as 'twere a brother of your order, Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee, Like a true friar. More reasons for this action Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see, SCENE V. A Nunnery. Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA. [Exeunt. Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges ? Fran. Are not these large enough? Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more; But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare. Fran. It is a man's voice: Gentle Isabella, 5 This is the reading of the original. The passage is usually printed thus: "And yet my nature never in the sight To do it slander." The words ambush and strike home show the image of a fight to have been in the Poet's mind. As the text stands, the speaker's purpose apparently is to avoid any open contest with crime, where his action would expose him to slander; not to let his person be seen in the fight, where he would have to work, to do, in the face of detraction and censure. 6 That is, stands on his defence against envy. H. H. |