To the ftrict deputy; bid herself affay him;
I have great hope in that; for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,

Such as moves men! befide, the hath profp'rous art
When the will play with reafon and discourse,
And well he can perfuade.

Lucio. I pray, he may; as well for the encouragement of the like, which elfe would ftand under grievous impofition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be forry fhould be thus foolishly loft at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours,

Claud. Come, officer, away.

Duke.

N

SCENE, a Monaftery.

Enter Duke, and Friar Thomas.

[Exeunt.

O; holy father, throw away that thought; Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love Can pierce a compleat bofom: why I defire thee To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpofe

More grave, and wrinkled, than the aims and ends. Of burning youth.

Fri. May your Grace fpeak 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 affemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo

(A man of stricture and firm abftinence) (5)

My

the

(5) A man of stricture.] Mr. Warburton obferves, that fri&ura, from which this word fhould feem to be form'd, fignified, among Latines, the fpark which flies from red-hot iron when ftruck; whence, in English, it has been metaphorically taken for a bright ftroke in an Author; nor has it, fays he, any other fignification. And he very reasonably questions, whether it had that in Shakespeare's time. As fo remote a fignification could have no place in the text here, he fufpects that two words muft have ignorantly been jumbled into one, and that our Author wrote:

A man

My abfolute pow'r and place here in Vienna;
And he fuppofes me travell'd to Poland;
For fo I've ftrew'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. Gladly, my Lord.

Duke. We have ftrict statutes and most biting laws, (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong fteeds,) (6) Which for thefe nineteen years we have let fleep; (7)

Even

A man of ftrict ure and firm abftinence, i. e. a man of a fevere habit of life. Ure, 'tis certain, was a word ufed in CHAUCER's time for chance, destiny, fortune; (when deriv'd from beur;) and alfo for habit, cuftom; (when contracted from the ufura of the Latines ;) whence we have form'd our compound adjective, enured, habituated to. Though I have not difturb'd the text, the conjecture was too ingenious to be pass'd over in filence. But as it is most frequent with our Author as well to coin words, as to form their terminations ad libitum; he may have adopted ftri&ture here to fignify strictness; as afterwards, in this very Play, he has introduced prompture, the ufage of which word I no where elfe remember in our tongue; neither have we promptura or prompture, from the Latin or French, that I know of.

(6) The needful bits and curbs for beadstrong weeds :] There is no manner of analogy, or confonance, in the metaphors here: and, tho the copies agree, I do not think, the Author would have talked of bits and curbs for weeds. On the other hand, nothing can be more proper, than to compare perfons of unbridled licentioufnefs to headftrong feeds: and, in this view, bridling the passions has been a phrase adopted by our best poets.

So, Horace, Lib. iv. Od. 15.
& Ordinem

Rect m evaganti frena licentia
Injecit, emovitque culpas,

Et veteres revocavit artes.

So, in his Epistles, Lib. 1. Ep. 2.

animum rege, qui, nifi paret,

Imperat, hunc frenis, bunc tu compefce catena. And fo the elegant Phædrus, Lib. 1. Fab. 2. Procax libertas civitatem mifcuit,

Frenumque folvit priftinum licentiâ.

But inftances were endless both from the poets, and profe-writers. (7) Which for these fourteen years we bave let lip ] For fourteen I have made no fcruple to replace nineteen. The reafon will be obvious to the reader, who fhall look back to the 4th note upon this play. I have, I hope, upon as good authority, alter'd the odd phrase of letting the laws flip: for, fuppofing the expreffion might be justified,

P 3

yet

Even like an o'er-grown 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 flick it in their children's fight,
For terror, not to ufe; in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: fo our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks juftice by the nofe;

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

Fri. It refted in your Grace

T'unloote this ty'd-up juftice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'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 ftrike, and gall them, For what I bid them do. For we bid this be done, When evil deeds have their permiffive pafs,

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office:

Who may in th' ambush of my name ftrike home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight
So do in flander: And to behold his way,
I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,
Vifit both prince and people; therefore, pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and inflruct me

yet how does it fort with the comparison, that follows, of a lion in his cave that went not out to prey? But letting the laws fleep, as I have restored to the text, adds a particular propriety to the thing represented, and accords exactly too with the fimile. It is the metaphor too, that our Author feems fond of using upon this occafion, in feveral other pages of this Play.

The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath flapt:
Tis now arvake.

And fo, again,

but this new governour

Awakes me all th' enrolled penalties ;.

and for a name

How I may formally in perfon bear,

Like a true Fiar. More reafons for this action
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one-Lord Angelo is precife;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confeffes
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than ftone: hence hall we fee,
If pow'r change purpose, what our seemers be. [Ext

SCENE, a Nunnery.

Enter Ifabella and Francifca.

AND have

Kab. A

ND have you nuns no farther privileges
Nun. Are not thefe large enough?
Ifab. Yes, truly; I fpeak not, as defiring more;
But rather wishing a more ftrict reftraint

Upon the fifter-hood, the votarifts of Saint Clare.
Lucio. [Within.] Hoa! Peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice: gentle Isabella,
Turn you the key, and know his bufinefs of him ;
You may; I may not; you are yet unfworn:

When you have vow'd, you must not fpeak with men,,
But in the prefence of the priorefs;

Then, if you fpeak, you must not fhew your face;
Or, if you fhew your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; I pray you, anfwer him. [Exit Franc..
Ifab. Peace and profperity! who is't that calls?

-Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, (if you be) as thofe cheek-rofess Proclaim you are no lefs; can you fo ftead me, As bring me to the fight of Ifabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair fifter

To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Ijab. Why her unhappy brother?, let me afk. The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Ifabella, and his fifter.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you Not to be weary with you, he's in prifon.

D

R 4

Vab

Ifab. Woe me! for what?

Lucio. For that, which, if myfelf might be his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks; He hath got his friend with child.

lab. Sir, make me not your ftory.

Lucio. Tis true:-I would not (tho' 'tis my familiar fin With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft, Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo. I hold you as a thing en-ky'd, and fainted; By your renouncement, an immortal spirit; And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

Ijab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness, and truth, 'tis thus; Your brother and his lover having embrac'd, As thofe that feed grow full, as bloffoming time That from the feednefs the bare fallow brings To teeming foyfon; fo her plenteous womb Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry.

Ifab. Some one with child by him?-my coufin Juliet? Luria. Is me your coufin à

Ijab. Adoptedly, as fchool-maids change their names, By vain, tho' apt, affection.

Lucio. She it is.

Ifab. O, let him marry
Lucio. This is the point.

her.

The Duke is very ftrangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myfelt being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By thofe that know the very nerves of ftate,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

Governs Lord Angelo; a man whofe blood

Is

very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftrings and motions of the fenfe ;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, fludy and fast.
He, (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law,