Where you shall be an everlasting leiger." Claud. Is there no remedy? Ifab. None, but fuch remedy, as, to fave a head, To cleave a heart in twain. Claud. But is there any? Ifab. Yes, brother, you may live : If you'll implore it, that will free your life, Claud. Perpetual durance? Ifab. Ay, juft, perpetual durance; a restraint, Tho' all the world's vaftidity you had, To a determin'd fcope. Claud. But in what nature? Ifab. In fuch a one, as you, confenting to't, Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked. Claud. Let me know the point. Ifab. Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio: and I quake, and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, -in fpeed. JOHNSON. -an everlafting leiger, Therefore your best appointment Leiger is the fame with refident. Appointment; preparation; act of fitting, or ftate of being fitted for any thing. So in old books, we have a knight well appointed; that is, well armed and mounted or fitted at all points. JOHN ON. 7-your beft appointment-] The word appointment, on this occafion comprehends confeflion, communion, and abfolution. The King in Hamlet, who was cut off prematurely, and without fuch preparation, is faid to be difappointed. STEEVENS. 8 ——a reftraint▬ To a determin'd jcope.] A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can neither be fuppreffed nor efcaped. JOHNSON. Left thou a feverous life fhould'st entertain, Claud. Why give you me this shame ? And hug it in mine arms. Ifab. There fpake my brother; there my father's grave Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou muft die: In base appliances. This outward-fainted deputy, The poor beetle, &c ] The reafoning is, that death is no more than every being must suffer, though the dread of it is peculiar to man; or perhaps, that we are inconfiftent with ourselves, when we fo much dread that which we carelefly inflict on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we. JOHNSON. -follies doth emmew,] Forces follies to lie in cover without daring to show themselves. JOHNSON. 2 As faulcon doth the fowl;-] In whofe prefence the follies of youth are afraid to fhew themselves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it. STEEVENS. 3 His filth within being caft,-] To caft a pond is to empty it of mud. Mr. Upton reads, His pond within being caft, he would appear A filth as deep as hell. JOHNSON. F 3 Claud. Claud. The princely Angelo? Ifab. Oh, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, Thou might't be freed? Claud. Oh, heavens! it cannot be. Ifab. Yes, he would give it thee for this rank of. fence, So to offend him ftill. This night's the time Or else thou dy't to morrow. 4 The princely Angelo ? -princely guards!-] The ftupid editors, miftaking guards for fatellites, (whereas it here fignifies lace) altered priefly, in both places, to princely. Whereas Shakespeare wrote it priftly, as appears from the words them felves, -'tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'ft body to invest and cover In the first place we fee that guards here fignifies lace, as referring to livery, and as having no fenfe in the fignification of fatellites. Now prieftly guards means fanctity, which is the fenfe required. But princely guards means nothing but rich lace, which is a fenfe the paffage will not bear. Angelo, indeed, as dputy, might be called the princely Angelo: but not in this place, where the im mediately preceding words of, This outward-fainted deputy, demand the reading I have here reftored. WARBURTON. The first folio has, in both places, prenzie, from which the other folios made princely, and every editor may make what he can. JOHNSON. Princely guards mean no more than the ornaments of royalty, which Angelo is fuppofed to affume during the abfence of the duke. The ftupidity of the firft editors is fometimes not more in jurious to Shakespeare, than the ingenuity of thofe who fucceeded them. STEEVENS. 5 -for this rank offence,] Far, Hanmer. In other editions, from. JOHNSON. Claud. Claud. Thou fhalt not do't. Ifab. Oh, were it but my life, I'd throw it down for your deliverance Claud. Thanks, dearest Ifabel. lab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow. Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him, That thus can make him bite the law by the nofe? When he would force it," fure it is no fin; Or of the deadly feven it is the leaft. Ifab. Which is the leaft? Claud. If it were damnable,' he being fo wife, Ifab. What fays my brother? Claud. Death is a fearful thing. Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lye in cold obftruction, and to rot; This fenfible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted fpirit 7 When he would force it,--] Put it in force. WARBURTON. Το "If it were damnable, &c.] Shakespeare fhows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. When Ifabella first tells him of Angelo's propofal, he anfwers, with honeft indignation, agreeably to his fettled principles, Thou shalt not do't. But the love of life being permitted to operate, foon furnishes him with fophiftical arguments, he believes it cannot be very dangerous to the foul, fince Angelo, who is fo wife, will venture it. JOHNSON. -delighted fpirit] i. e. the spirit accustomed here to eafe and delights. This was properly urged as an aggravation to the fharpness of the torments fpoken of. The Oxford editor not apprehending this, alters it to dilated. As if, becaufe the fpirit in the body is faid to be imprisoned, it was crowded together likewife; and fo by death not only fet free, but expanded too; which, if true, would make it the lefs fenfible of pain. WARBURTON. This reading may perhaps fland, but many attempts have been made F 4 To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide To what we fear of death. Ifab. made to correct it. The moft plaufible is that which fubftitutes, -the benighted fpirit, alluding to the darkness always fuppofed in the place of future punishment. Perhaps we may read, -the delinquent fpirit, a word eafily changed to delighted by a bad copier, or unskilful reader. Delinquent is propofed by Thirlby in his manufcript. JOHNSON. -lawless and incertain thoughts.] Conjecture fent out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through all poffibilities of pain. JOHNSON. To what we fear of death.] Moft certainly the idea of the fpirit bathing in fiery floods," or of refiding" in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice," is not original to our poet; which is the whole that is wanted for the argument: but I am not sure that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil. The monks alfo had their hot and their cold hell," the fyrite is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," fays an old homily :-"The feconde is paffying colde, that yf a greate hylle of fyre were caft therin, it fhold torne to yce." One of their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakespeare, gives us a dialogue between a bishop and a foul tormented in a picce of ice which was brought to cure a benning heate in his foot: take care, that you do not interpret this the gout, for I remember Menage quotes a canon upon us, "Si quis dixerit epifcopum podagrá laborare, anathema fit.” Another tells us of the foul of a monk fastened to a rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and purge of its enor |