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1 GENT. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.

LUCIO. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: thou art the list.

1 GENT. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou'rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

LUCIO. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will out of

a There went but a pair of shears between us.] An early proverbial saying to the effect, that there was little difference between them; they were both of a piece. "The thanksgiving to which the same speaker refers just before as distasteful to every soldier, because it prays for peace, appears to have been overlooked by all the commentators. It is found in ancient rituals. in the very words of the text, "Heaven grant us its peace." And in a collection of devotions, entitied Preces Private, VOL. II.

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thine own confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee.

1 GENT. I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?

2 GENT. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.

LUCIO. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes !

1 GENT. I have purchased as many diseases under her roof, as come to

2 GENT. To what, I pray?

published and established by the authority of Queen Elizabeth in 1564, the title directs that "the Acts of Thanksgiving in Eating shall always be concluded by these short prayers."-" Deus servet Ecclesiam-Regem vel Reginam custodiat-Consiliarios ejus regat-Populum universum tueatur-et Pacem nobis donet perpetuam. Amen."

b I have purchased, &c.] This, in the old copies, forms part of Lucio's speech, though it obviously belongs to the first Gentleman o o

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1 GENT. How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica ?

MRS. OV. Well, well; there's one yonder arrested and carried to prison, was worth five thousand of you all.

2 GENT. Who's that, I pray thee? MRS. Ov. Marry, sir, that's Claudio; signior Claudio.

1 GENT. Claudio to prison! 't is not so. MRS. Ov. Nay, but I know, 'tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head to be chopped off.

LUCIO. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art thou sure of this?

MRS. OV. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting madam Julietta with child.

LUCIO. Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

2 GENT. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose.

1 GENT. But, most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.

LUCIO. Away! let's go learn the truth of it. [Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen. MRS. OV. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk.

Enter POMPEY.(1)

How now! what's the news with you? POм. Yonder man is carried to prison. MRS. Ov. Well; what has he done? POм. A woman.

MRS. OV. But what's his offence?

a To three thousand dollars a year.] The same sorry play on "dollar" and dolour occurs in "The Tempest," Act II. Sc. 1, and in King Lear," Act II. Sc. 4.

b All houses in the suburbs, &c.] Some critics would read, "All bawdy-houses," &c., needlessly; for "suburb houses," like "suburb wenches," were all "in an ill name."

c Enter Provost, &c.] This is marked in the folio as a new scene, but wrongly, as there is no change of locality. In the same text, too, Lucio and the two Gentlemen are set down as if entering

Poм. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. MRS. OV. What, is there a maid with child by him?

POм. No; but there's a woman with maid by him : : you have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

MRS. OV. What proclamation, man?

b

POм. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

MRS. OV. And what shall become of those in the city?

POм. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. MRS. OV. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?

POм. To the ground, mistress.

MRS. OV. Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth! What shall become of me?

POм. Come; fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients: though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

MRS. OV. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? let's withdraw.

POм. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet.

[Exeunt..

Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers."

CLAUD. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.
PROV. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from lord Angelo by special charge.

CLAUD. Thus can the demi-god Authority Make us pay down for our offence by weight.The sword of heaven;d on whom it will, it will On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.

Re-enter LUCIO and Gentlemen.

LUCIO. Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?

CLAUD. From too much liberty, my Lucio,

liberty:

with the Provost, &c.; but this was only in accordance with the old stage practice of indicating at the beginning of a scene all the characters required to take part in it.

d The sword of heaven;] The old text reads, "The words of heaven;" but Claudio is apparently contrasting the capriciousness of earthly punishments with the ever just award of Heaven. This ingenious and easy alteration was suggested by Dr. Roberts, of Eton.

As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil, and when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality* of imprisonment. What's thy offence, Claudio?

CLAUD. What but to speak of would offend again.

LUCIO. What, is 't murder?

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Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends,

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love
Till time had made them for us.(2) But it chances,
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment
With character too gross is writ on Juliet.
LUCIO. With child, perhaps?
CLAUD.

Unhappily, even so. And the new deputy now for the duke,Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness, Or whether that the body public be A horse whereon the governor doth ride, Who, newly in the seat, that it may know He can command, lets it straight feel the spur; Whether the tyranny be in his place, Or in his eminence that fills it up, I stagger in ;-but this new governor Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the

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There is a prone and speechless dialect, &c.]

The word prone, in the sixteenth century, bore more than one

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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,

meaning, which it has now lost. In its primitive sense it signifies bending forward, and metaphorically-to be much inclined to certain actions or passions; but in the "Lucrece," as Malone observes, Shakespeare uses it as equivalent to ardent, headstrong, &c.:

"O that prone lust should stain so pure a bed!" and again in "Cymbeline,"-"I never saw any one so prone," &c. In the lines we are now considering, however, the poet has obviously intended it to imply a power of bending or inclining another by the exertion of a strong yet silent personal influence.

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keeps."

I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

A man of stricture and firm abstinence-
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd. Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me why I do this?
FRI. T. Gladly, my lord.

[laws,-

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DUKE. We have strict statutes and most biting The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds,-* 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 threat'ning twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children's sight For terror, not to use, in time the rod Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd; so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead, And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

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The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Goes all decorum.

FRI. T.

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 't was 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. Therefore, indeed, my
father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office;
Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,
And yet my nature never in the fight,

To do in slander. And to behold his sway,
I will, as 't were a brother of your order,
Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear

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SCENE IV.-A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

[Exeunt.

ISAB. And have you nuns no farther 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. LUCIO. [Without.] Ho! peace be in this place! ISAB. Who's that which calls?

FRAN. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella, Turn you the key, and know his business of him; You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn. When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men, But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;

(*) Old text, Moe,

a Sir, make me not your story.] Davenant in his play, "A Law against Lovers," reads here scorne for story, and Mr. Collier's annotator adopts the same alteration. We retain the old lection,

Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [Exit. ISAB. Peace and prosperity! Who is 't that calls?

Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be,-as those cheek

roses

Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me,
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio?

ISAB. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask;
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella and his sister.

LUCIO. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you.

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.
ISAB. Woe me! for what?

LUCIO. For that which, if myself might be his judge,

He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

ISAB. Sir, make me not your story.a
LUCIO. 'Tis true. I would not-though 'tis my
familiar sin

not for the reason assigned by Steevens, that make me, according to a common mode of phraseology in the poet's day, might mean, "invent not your story," but because story may without much licence be used to signify jest or laughing-stock.

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