may stand. What we go to with reluctance may be said to be
_fear'd_.
II.iv.13 (51,7) [case] For outside; garb; external shew.
II.iv.14 (51,8) [Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls To
thy false seeming?] Here Shakespeare judiciously distinguishes
the different operations of high place upon different minds.
Fools are frighted, and wise men are allured. Those who cannot
judge but by the eye, are easily awed by splendour; those who
consider men as well as conditions, are easily persuaded to love
the appearance of virtue dignified with power.
II.iv.16 (51,9) [Let's write good angel on the devil's horn; 'Tis
not the devil's crest] [Hammer: Is't not the devil's crest] I am
still inclined to the opinion of the Oxford editor. Angelo,
reflecting on the difference between his seeming character, and
his real disposition, observes, that he _could change his gravity
for a plume_. He then digresses into an apostrophe, _O dignity,
how dost thou impose upon the world_! then returning to himself,
_Blood_, says he, _thou art but blood_, however concealed with
appearances and decorations. Title and character do not alter
nature, which is still corrupt, however dignified.
_Let's write good angel on the devil's horn_;
_Is't not_?--or rather--_'Tis yet the devil's crest_.
It may however be understood, according to Dr. Warburton's
explanation. O place, how dost thou impose upon the world by
false appearances! so much, that if we _write good angel on the
devil's horn, 'tis not_ taken any longer to be _the devil's crest_.
In this sense,
_Blood, thou art but blood._!
is an interjected exclamation. (1773)
II.iv.27 (53,1) [The gen'ral subjects to a well-wish'd king] So the
later editions: but the old copies read,
_The_ general subject _to a well-wish'd king_.
The _general subject_ seems a harsh expression, but _general
subjects_ has no sense at all; and _general_ was, in our authour's
time, a word for _people_, so that the _general_ is the _people_, or
_multitude, subject_ to a king. So in _Hamlet_: _The play pleased
not the_ million; _'twas caviare to the_ general.
II.iv.47 (54,3) [Falsely to take away a life true made] _Falsely_ is
the same with _dishonestly, illegally_: so _false_, in the next
lines, is _illegal, illegitimate_.
II.iv.48 (54,4) [As to put metal in restrained means] In forbidden
moulds. I suspect _means_ not to be the right word, but I cannot
find another.
II.iv.50 (55,5) ['Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth] I
would have it considered, whether the train of the discourse
does not rather require Isabel to say,
_'Tis so set down in_ earth, _but not in_ heaven.
When she has said this, _Then_, says Angelo, _I shall poze you
quickly_. Would you, who, for the present purpose, declare your
brother's crime to be less in the sight of heaven, than the law
has made it; would you commit that crime, light as it is, to
save your brother's life? To this she answers, not very plainly
in either reading, but more appositely to that which I
propose:
_I had rather give my body, than my soul_. (1773)