P. 123, 1. 15. Pain is here for penalty, punishment. JOHNSON.

P. 125, I. 18. To subscribe means, to agree to. Milton uses the word in the same sense.

STEEVENS. P. 123, 1.19. The loss of question I do not well understant, and should rather read:

But in the toss of question.

In the agitation, in the discussion of the question. To toss an argument is a common phrase.

This expression, I believe, means, but in idle supposition, or conversation that tends to nothing, which may therefore, in our author's lan guage, be called the loss of question. STEEVENS. Question is used here, as in many other places, for conversation. MALONE.

all-building law. JOHNSON. T The emendation is Theobald's. STEEVENS. P. 123, last 1. Better it were, a brother died at once,] Perhaps

we should read:

པ ་ ་

Better it were, a brother died for once, etc.

JOHNSON! P. 124, 1. 5. Ignomy] So the word ignominy was formerly written. Thus, in Troilas and Cressida, Act V. se. iii.

f

,,lience, brother lacquey! ignomy and 432 shame, etc. REED! The second folio reads- ignominy; but whichsoever reading we take, the line will be inharmonious, if not defective. STEEVENS.

P. 124, 1. 17. If not a féodary, etc.] This is so obscure, but the allusion so fine, tltat it deserves

to be explained. A Feodary was one that in the times of vassalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service: which tenures were called feuda amongst the Goths. Now, says Angelo,,,we are all frail;" ,,Yes, replies Isabella; if all mankind were not fecdaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecility, and who succeed each other by the same tenure, as well as my brother, would give him up.", The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original sin, to a feodary, who awes suit and service to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. WARBURTON.

Mr. M. Mason censures me for not perceiving that feddary signifies an accomplice. Of this I was fully aware, as it supports the sense contended for by Warburton, and seemingly acquies ced in by Dr. Johnson. Every vassal wastan

accomplice with his lord; i. e. was subject to be executor of the mischief he did not contrive, and was obliged to follow in every bad cause which his superior led. STEEVENS.

I have shewn in a note on Cymbeline, that feodary was used by Shakspeare in the sense of an associate, and such undoubtedly is its significa tion here. MALONE.

P. 124, 1. 18. To owe is, in this place, to own, to hold, to have possession, JOHNSON.

P. 124. 1. 22. Which are as easy broke as they make forms.] Would

it not be better to read?

P. 124, 1. 26. In profiting by them.] In imitat ing them, in taking them for examples. JOHNSON. If men mar their own creation, by taking wo men for their example, they cannot be said to

profit much by them. - Isabella is deploring the condition of woman-kind, formed so frail and credulous, that men prove the destruction of the whole sex, by taking advantage of their weakness, and using them for their own purposes. She therefore calls upon Heaven to assist them. This, though obscurely expressed, appears to be the meaning of this passage. M. MASON.

Dr. Johnson does not seem to have understood this passage. Isabella certainly does not mean to say that men mar their own creation by taking women for examples. Her meaning is, that men debase their nature by taking advantage of such weak pitiful creatures. Edinburgh Maga zine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

P. 124, 1. 28. And credulous to false prints.] i. e. take any impression. WARBURTON.

P. 125, 1. 1. 2. Isab. I have no tongue but

one: gentle my Lord,

Let me intreat you speak the former

language.] Isabella answers to his circumlocutory courtship, that she has but one tongue, she does not understand, this new phrase, and desires him to talk his former language, that is, to talk as he he talked before

Which seems a

I JOHNSON. P. 125, L. 7 -9. I know, your virtue hath p licence in't, little fouler than it is, etc] Alluding to the licences given by ministers to their spies, to go into all suspected companies, and join in the language of malcontents. WARBURTON..

I suspect Warburton's interpretation to be more ingenious than just. The obvious meaning is I know your virtue assumes an air of licentious

mess

ness which is not natural to you, on purpose to. try me. wing Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786.

STEEVENS.

P. 125, l. 13. Seeming, seeming!] Hypocrisy, hypocrisy counterfeit virtue. JOHNSON.

P. 126, 1. 21. My vouch against you,] The calling his denial of her charge his vouch, has something fine. Vouch is the testimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he insinuates his authority was so great, that his denial, would have the same credit that a vouch or testimony has in ordinary cases. WARBURTON.

I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouch against means no more than denial.

JOHNSON. P. 125, 1. 23. 24. That you shall stifle in your own report,

And smell of calumny.] A metaphor from a lamp or candle extinguished in its own grease. STEEVENS.

P. 195, 1. 25. And now I give my sensual race the rein:] And now I give my senses the rein, in the race they are now actually running. HEATH.

P. 125, 1. 50. Or else he must not only die the death,] This seems to be a solemn phrase for death inflicted by law. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

,,Prepare to die the death " JOHNSON. It is a phrase taken from scripture, as is obser sved in a note on The Midsummer Night's Dream.

STEEVENS.

The phrase is a good phrase, as Shallow says, but I do not conceive it to be either of legal or "Scriptural origin. Chaucer uses it frequently. See Cant. Tales, ver. 607.

VOL. II.

21

2

„They were adradde of him, as of the deth." ver. 1222.

The deth he feleth thurgh his herte smite." It seems to have been originally a mistaken trans: lation of the French La Mort.

TYRWHITT.

P. 126, 1. 9. by prompture-] Suggestion, temptation, instigation.

JOHNSON.

P. 126, 1. 10. such a mind of honour,] This, in' Shakspeare's language, may mean, such an honourable mind, as he uses,,mind of love," in The Merchant of Venice, for loving mind.

STEEVENS. P. 126, last but one 1. Bé absolute for death;] Be determined to die, without any hope of life. Horace,

,,The hour which exceeds expectation will be welcome."

P. 1272

JOHNSON.

1. 1- -4. Reason thus with life, If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep : —]. This reading is not only contrary to all sense and... reason, but to the drift of this moral discourse. The Duke, in his assumed character of a friar, is endeavouring to instil into the condemned, priso.. ner a resignation of mind to his sentence; but the sense of the lines in this reading, is a direct per suasive to suicide; I make no doubt, but the poet wrote,

That none but fools would reck:

i. e. care for, be anxious about, regret the loss of. So, in the tragedy of Tancred and Gismund, Act IV. sc. iii:

,,Not that she recks this life."

And Shakspeare, in The Two Gentlemen of

Véròna: