Provost returns, speaking to one at the door. PROF. There he must stay, until the officer Arise to let him in; he is call'd up. DUKE. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet, But he must die to-morrow? PROV. None, sir, none. DUKE. As near the dawning, Provost, as it is, You shall hear more ere morning. PROV. Happily, You something know; yet, I believe, there comes Lord Angelo hath to the publick ear Enter a Messenger. DUKE. This is his lordship's man.2 tracted unresting; but he grounded his emendation on the very syllable that wants authority. What can be made of unsisting I know not; the best that occurs to me is unfeeling. JOHNSON. Unsisting may signify "never at rest," always opening. I should think we might safely read: BLACKSTONE. unlist'ning postern, or unshifting postern. The measure requires it, and the sense remains uninjured. Mr. M. Mason would read unlisting, which means unregarding. I have, however, inserted Sir William Blackstone's emendation in the text. STEEVENS. 1 siege of justice,] i. e. seat of justice. Siege, French. So, in Othello: 66 I fetch my birth "From men of royal siege." STEEVENS. This is his lordship's man.] The old copy has his lord's man. Corrected by Mr. Pope. In the MS. plays of our author's VOL. VI. A A PROV. And here comes Claudio's pardon.3 MESS. My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further charge, that you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it, it is almost day. PROV. I shall obey him. [Exit Messenger. DUKE. This is his pardon; purchas'd by such sin, For which the pardoner himself is in: [Aside. When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended, That for the fault's love, is the offender friended.Now, sir, what news? time they often wrote Lo. for Lord, and Lord. for Lordship; and these contractions were sometimes improperly followed in the printed copies. MALONE. 3 Enter a Messenger. Duke. This is his lordship's man. Prov. And here comes Claudio's pardon.] The Provost has just declared a fixed opinion that the execution will not be countermanded, and yet, upon the first appearance of the Messenger, he immediately guesses that his errand is to bring Claudio's pardon. It is evident, I think, that the names of the speakers are misplaced. If we suppose the Provost to say: This is his lordship's man, it is very natural for the Duke to subjoin, And here comes Claudio's pardon. The Duke might believe, upon very reasonable grounds, that Angelo had now sent the pardon. It appears that he did so, from what he says to himself, while the Provost is reading the letter: This is his pardon; purchas'd by such sin. TYRWHITT. When, immediately after the Duke had hinted his expectation of a pardon, the Provost sees the Messenger, he supposes the Duke to have known something, and changes his mind. Either reading may serve equally well. JOHNSON. PROV. I told you: Lord Angelo, be-like, thinking me remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted putting on: methinks, strangely; for he hath not used it before. 4 DUKE. Pray you, let's hear. PROV. [Reads.] Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and, in the afternoon, Barnardine: for my better satisfaction, let me have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let this be duly perform'd; with a thought, that more depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril. What say you to this, sir? DUKE. What is that Barnardine, who is to be executed in the afternoon? PROV. A Bohemian born; but here nursed up and bred: one that is a prisoner nine years old." DUKE. How came it, that the absent duke had not either deliver'd him to his liberty, or executed him? I have heard, it was ever his manner to do so. PROV. His friends still wrought reprieves for him: And, indeed, his fact, till now in the government of lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof. 4 ·putting on :] i. e. spur, incitement. So, in Macbeth, Act IV. sc. iii: the powers above "Put on their instruments." STEEVENS. one that is a prisoner nine years old.] i. e. That has been confined these nine years. So, in Hamlet" Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike preparation," &c. MALONE. DUKE. Is it now apparent? PROV. Most manifest, and not denied by himself. DUKE. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How seems he to be touch'd? PROV. A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully, but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal. DUKE. He wants advice. PROV. He will hear none: he hath evermore had the liberty of the prison; give him leave to escape hence, he would not: drunk many times a day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very often awaked him, as if to carry him to execution, and show'd him a seeming warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all. DUKE. More of him anon. There is written in your brow, Provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but 6 desperately mortal.] This expression is obscure. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, mortally desperate. Mortally is in low conversation used in this sense, but I know not whether it was ever written. I am inclined to believe, that desperately mortal means desperately mischievous. Or desperately mortal may mean a man likely to die in a desperate state, without reflection or repentance. JOHNSON. The word is often used by Shakspeare in the sense first affixed to it by Dr. Johnson, which I believe to be the true one. So, in Othello: "And you, ye mortal engines," &c. MALONE. As our author, in The Tempest, seems to have written "harmonious charmingly," instead of "harmoniously charming," he may, in the present instance, have given us "desperately mortal," for "mortally desperate :" i. e. desperate in the extreme. In low provincial language,-mortal sick, mortal bad, mortal poor, is phraseology of frequent occurrence. STEEVENS, in the boldness of my cunning,' I will lay myself in hazard. Claudio, whom here you have a warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath sentenced him: To make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four days respite; for the which you are to do me both a present and a dangerous courtesy. PROV. Pray, sir, in what? DUKE. In the delaying death. PROV. Alack! how may I do it? having the hour limited; and an express command, under penalty, to deliver his head in the view of Angelo? I may. make my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest. DUKE. By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my instructions may be your guide. Let. this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his head borne to Angelo. PROV. Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour. 8 DUKE. O, death's a great disguiser: and you may add to it. Shave the head, and tie the beard; and 7in the boldness of my cunning,] i. e. in confidence of my sagacity. STEEVENS. the favour.] See note 6, p. 346. STEEVENS. and tie the beard;] The Revisal recommends Mr. Simpson's emendation, DIE the beard, but the present reading may stand. Perhaps it was usual to tie up the beard before decollation. Sir T. More is said to have been ludicrously careful about this ornament of his face. It should, however, be remembered, that it was also the custom to die beards. So, in the old comedy of Ram-Alley, 1611: "What colour'd beard comes next by the window? "I think, a red; for that is most in fashion." |