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P. 93, last but one 1. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down. This is surely too general an expression, unless we suppose, that' all the houses in the suburbs were bawdy - hou ses. It appears too, from what the bawd says below,,,But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?“ that the Clown had been particular in his description of the hou ses which were to be pulled down. I am therefore inclined to believe that we should read here, all bawdy-houses, or ail houses of resort in the suburbs.

TYRWHITT.

P. 94, J. 6. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs he pull'd' down? This will be : understood from the Scotch law of Jame's time, concerning huires (whores): that comonn wo¬ men be put at the utmost endes of townės, queire least perril of fire is." Hence Ursula the pigwoman, in Bartholemew - Fair:" 1, 1, gamesters, mock a plain, plump, soft wench of the suburbs, do!" FARMER.

See Martial, where summoeniana and subur bana are applied to prostitutes. STEEVENS.

The licenced houses of resort at Vienna are at this time all in the suburbs, under the permission of the Committee or Chastity. S. W.

P. 94, I. 30 -33. The sense of the whole is this: The demi-god Authority makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus, I punish and remit punishment according to my own uncontrolable will; and get who can say, what dost thou? Make us pay down for our offence by weight, is a fine expression to signify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is

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taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not so by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the species.

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WARBURTON,

I suspect that a line is lost. JOHNSON.
It may be read', The sword of heaven.
Thus can the demi-god Authority,

Make us pay down for our offence, by
weight;

The sword of heaven: on whom, etc. Authority is then poetically called the sword of heaven, which will spare or punish, as it is Commanded. The alteration is slight, being made only by taking a single letter from the end of the word, and placing it at the beginning. This very ingenious and elegant emendation was suggested to me by the Reverend Dr. Roberts, Provost of Eaton. STEEVENS.

Notwithstanding Dr. Robert's ingenious conjecture, the text is certainly right. Authority, being absolute in Angelo, is finely styled by Claudio, the demi-god. To this uncontroulable power, the poet applies a passage from St. Paul to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15, 18, which he properly styles, the words of heaven:,,for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," etc. And again,,Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy," etc. HENLEY.

It should be remembered, however, that the poet is here speaking not of mercy, but punishment. MALONE.

Mr. Malone might have spared himself this remark, had he recollected that the words of St. Paul immediately following, and to which the etc.. referred, are „and whom he will he hardeneth. See also the preceding verse. HENLEY.

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P. 95, 1. 7. To ravin was formerly used for eagerly or voraciously devouring any thing: so in Wilson's Epistle to the Earl of Leicester, prefixed to a Discourse upon Usurye, 1572: „For these bee the greedie cormoraunte wolfes indeed, that ravyn up both beaste and man." REED.

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Ravin is an ancient word for prey. STEEVENS. P. 95, 1. 27. I got possession of Julietta's bed, etc.] This speech is surely too indelicate to be spoken concerning Juliet, before her face; for she appears to be brought in with the rest, though she has nothing to say. The Clown points her out as they enter; and yet, from Claudio's telling Lucio, that he knows the lady, etc. one would think she was not meant to have made her personal appearance on the scene. STREVENS.

The little seeming impropriety there is, will bẹ entirely removed, by supposing that when Claudio stops to speak to Lucio, the Provost's officers depart with Julietta. RITSON.

Claudio may be supposed to speak to Lucio apart. MALONE.

P. 95, 1. 28

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32. she is fast my wife, Save that we do the denunciation lack Of outward order: this we, came not to, Only for propagation of a dower.

Remaining in the coffer of her friends: This singular mode of expression certainly demands some elucidation. The sense appears to be this: ,,We did not think it proper publickly to cele brate our marriage; for this reason, that there might be no hindrance to the payment of Julictia's portion which was then in the hands of her friends; from whom, therefore, we judged it expedient to conceal our love till we had gained their favour." Propagation being here

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used to signify payment,

must have its root in

the Italian word pagare. Edinburgh Magazine for November, 1786.

I suppose the speaker means

for the sake of

getting such a dower as her friends might hereaf ter bestow on her, when time had reconciled them to her clandestine marriage. STEEVENS. Perhaps we should read

only for prorogation." MALONE.

P. 96, 1. 4.. Fault and glimpse have so little relation to each other, that both can scarcely be right: we may read flash for fault: or, perhaps, we may read,

Whether it be the fault or glimpse

That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. Yet the same sense follows in the next lines. JOHNSON.

newness.

The

as the faulty

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Whether

Fault, I apprehend, does not refer to any enormous act done by the deputy, (as Dr. Johnsou seems to have thought,) but to fault and glimpse is the same glimpse. And the meaning seems to be it be the fault of newness, a fault arising from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority, of which the new governor has yet had only a glimpse, has yet taken only a hasty survey;' or whether, etc. Shakspeare has many similar expressions. MALONE.

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P. 96, 1. 15. that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,] The Duke, in the scene immediately fellowing, says Which for these fourteen years we have let slip. THEOBALD. i. e. ticklish. This by our old `dramatic

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P. 96, 1. 20. — tickle word is frequently used STEEVENS.

authors.

P. 96, 1. 27. And there receive her approbation; i. e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So again, in this play:

,,1, in probation of a sisterhood."

MALONE.

P. 96, 1. 32. I can scarcely tell what signification to give to the word prone. Its primitive and translated senses are well known. The author may, by a prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as those actions seem to which we are prone. Either of these interpretations is sufficiently strained; but such distortion of words is not uncommon in our author. For the sake of an easier sense we may read:

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in her youth

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There is a pow'r, and speechless dialect.
Such as moves men;

Or thus:

There is a prompt and speechless dialect.

JOHNSON. Prone, perhaps, may stand for humble, as a prone posture is a posture of supplication. Sir W. D'Avenant, in his alteration of the play changes prone to sweet, I mention some of his variations, to shew that what appear difficulties to us, were difficulties to him, who, living nearer the time of Shakspeare, might be supposed to have understood his language more intimately.

STERVENS.

Prone, I believe, is used here for prompt, significant, expressive (though speechless), as in our author's Hape of Lucrece it means ardent, headstrong, rushing forward to its object:

„O that prone lust should stain so pure

a bed!"

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