[For my authority bears a credent bulk;
That no particular scandal once can touch]
_Credent_ is _creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable_. The
old English writers often confound the active and passive adjectives.
So Shakespeare, and Milton after him, use _inexpressive_
from inexpressible.
_Particular_ is _private_, a French sense. No scandal from any
_private_ mouth can reach a man in my authority.
IV.iv.36 (116,9) [Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not]
Here undoubtedly the act should end, and was ended by the poet;
for here is properly a cessation of action, and a night intervenes,
and the place is changed, between the passages of this
scene, and those of the next. The next act beginning with the
following scene, proceeds without any interruption of time or
change of place.
IV.v.1 (117,1) [_Duke_. These letters at fit time deliver me]
Peter never delivers the letters, but tells his story without any
credentials. The poet forgot the plot which he had formed.
IV.vi.4 (118,2) [He says, to vail full purpose] [T: t'availful]
[Warburton had explained "full" as "beneficial."] _To vail full_
purpose, may, with very little force on the words, mean, _to hide_
_the whole extent of our design_, and therefore the reading may
stand; yet I cannot but think Mr. Theobald's alteration either
lucky or ingenious. To interpret words with such laxity, as to
make _full_ the sane with _beneficial_, is to put an end, at once,
to all necessity of emendation, for any word may then stand in
the place of another.
IV.vi.9 (118,3) [_Enter Peter_] This play has two Friars, either of
whom might singly have served. I should therefore imagine, that
Friar Thomas, in the first act, might be changed, without any
harm, to Friar Peter; for why should the Duke unnecessarily
trust two in an affair which required only one. The none of
Friar Thomas is never mentioned in the dialogue, and therefore
seems arbitrarily placed at the head of the scene.
IV.vi.14 (119,4) [Have bent the gates] Have taken possession of the
gates, (rev. 1778, II,134,4)
V.i.20 (120,5) [vail your regard] That is, withdraw your thoughts
from higher things, let your notice descend upon a wronged
woman. To _vail_, is to lower.
V.i.45 (121,6) [truth is truth To the end of reckoning] That is,
truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of encrease can be
so much what it is, as _truth_ is _truth_. There may be a _strange_
thing, and a thing _more strange_, but if a proposition be _true_,
there can be none _more true_.
V.i.54 (121,7) [as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute] _As shy_; as
reserved, as abstracted: _as just_; as nice, as exact: _as absolute_;
as complete in all the round of duty.
V.i.56 (121,8) [In all his dressings] In all his semblance of virtue,
in all his habiliments of office.
V.i.64 (122,1) [do not banish reason For inequality] Let not the
high quality of my adversary prejudice you against me.
V.i.104 (124,4) [Oh, that it were as like, as it is true!] [Warburton had
explained "like" as "seemly."] _Like_ I have never found
for _seemly_.
V.i.107 (124,8) [In hateful practice] _Practice_ was used by the old
writers for any unlawful or insidious stratagem. So again,
_This must needs be_ practice:
and again,
_Let me have way to find this_ practice _out_.
V.i.145 (125,6) [nor a temporary medler] It is hard to know what
is meant by a _temporary_ medler. In its usual sense, as opposed
to _perpetual_, it cannot be used here. It may stand for _temporal_:
the sense will then be, _I know him for a holy man, one that meddles not
with_ secular _affairs_. It may mean _temporising_: I know
him to be a holy man, one who would not_ temporise, _or take the
opportunity of your absence to defame you_. Or we may read,
_Not scurvy, nor a_ tamperer and _medler_:
not one who would bare _tampered_ with this woman to make her a
false evidence against your deputy.
V.i.160 (126,8) [So vulgarly and personally accus'd] Meaning either
so _grosly_, with such _indecency_ of invective, or by so _mean_ and
inadequate witnesses.
V.i.205 (128,2) [This is a strange abuse] _Abuse_ stands in this place
for _deception_, or _puzzle_. So in _Macbeth_,
_This strange and self_ abuse,
means, _this strange_ deception _of himself_.
V.i.219 (129,3) [her promised proportions Came short of composition]
Her fortune, which was promised _proportionate_ to mine, fell short
of the _composition_, that is, contract or bargain.
V.i.236 (129,4) [These poor informal women] I once believed _informal_
had no other or deeper signification than _informing, accusing_.
The _scope_ of justice, is the full extent; but think, upon farther
enquiry, that _informal_ signifies _incompetent, not qualified to
give testimony_. Of this use there are precedents to be found,
though I cannot now recover them.
V.i.245 (130,5) [That's seal'd in approbation?] Then any thing subject
to counterfeits is tried by the proper officers and approved,
a stamp or _seal_ is put upon it, as among us on plate, weights,
and measures. So the Duke says, that Angela's faith has been
tried, _approved_, and _seal'd_ in testimony of that _approbation_, and,
like other things so _sealed_, is no more to be called in question.
V.i.255 (131,6) [to hear this matter forth] To hear it to the end;
to search it to the bottom.
V.i.303 (132,4) [to retort your manifest appeal] To _refer back_ to
Angelo and the cause in which you _appealed_ from Angelo to the
Duke.
V.i.317 (133,5) [his subject I am not, Nor here provincial] Nor here
_accountable_. The meaning seems to be, I am not one of his natural
subjects, nor of any dependent province.
V.i.323 (133,6) [the forfeits in a barber's shop] [Warburton had explained
that a list of forfeitures were posted in barber shops to
warn patrons to keep their hands off the barber's surgical instruments.]
This explanation may serve till a better is discovered.
But whoever has seen the instruments of a chirurgeon, knows that
they may be very easily kept out of improper hands in a very
small box, or in his pocket.
V.i.336 (134,7) [And was the duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a
coward, as you then reported him to be?] So again afterwards,
_You, sirrah, that know me for a fool, a_ coward,
_One of all luxury_--
But Lucio had not, in the former conversation, mentioned _cowardice_
among the faults of the duke.--Such failures of memory are
incident to writers more diligent than this poet.
V.i.359 (135,8) [show your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an
hour' Will't not off?] This is intended to be the common language
of vulgar indignation. Our phrase on such occasions is
simply; _show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged_. The words
_an hour_ have no particular use here, nor are authorised by custom.
I suppose it was written thus, _show your sheep-biting face,
and be hanged--an' how? wilt not off_? In the midland counties,
upon any unexpected obstruction or resistance, it is common to
exclaim _an' how_?
V.i.388 (136,9) [Advertising, and holy] Attentive and faithful.
V.i.393 (136,l) [be you as free to us] Be as _generous_ to us, pardon
us as we have pardoned you.
V.i.401 (136,2) [That brain'd my purpose] We now use in conversation
a like phrase. _This it was that knocked my design on the head_.
Dr. Warburton reads,
--baned _my purpose_.
V.i.413 (137,3) [even from his proper tongue] Even from Angelo's
_own tongue_. So above.
_In the witness of his_ proper _ear
To call him villain._
V.i.438 (138,5) [Against all sense you do importune her] The meaning
required is, against all reason and natural affection; Shakespeare,
therefore, judiciously uses a single word that implies both;
_sense_ signifying both reason and affection.
V.i.452 (139,6) ['Till he did look on me] The duke has justly observed
that Isabel is _importuned against all sense_ to solicit for
Angelo, yet here _against all sense_ she solicits for him. Her
argument is extraordinary.
_A due sincerity govern'd his deeds,
'Till he did look on me; since it is so.
Let him not die._
That Angelo had committed all the crimes charged against him,
as far as he could commit them, is evident. The only _intent_
which _his_ act did not overtake, was the defilement of Isabel. Of
this Angelo was only intentionally guilty.
Angela's crimes were such, as must sufficiently justify punishment,
whether its end be to secure the innocent from wrong, or
to deter guilt by example; and I believe every reader feels some
indignation when he finds him spared. From what extenuation of
his crime, can Isabel, who yet supposes her brother dead, form
any plea in his favour. _Since he was good 'till he looked on me,
let him not die_. I am afraid our varlet poet intended to inculcate,
that women think ill of nothing that raises the credit of
their beauty, and are ready, however virtuous, to pardon any act
which they think incited by their own charms.
V.i.488 (140,7) [But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all]
Thy faults, so far as they are punishable on earth, so far as
they are cognisable by temporal power, I forgive.
V.i.499 (141,8) [By this, lord Angelo perceives he's safe] It is
somewhat strange, that Isabel is not made to express either
gratitude, wonder or joy at the sight of her brother.
V.i.501 (141,9) [your evil quits you well] _Quits you_, recompenses,
requites you.
V.i.502 (141,1) [Look, that you love your wife; her worth, worth
yours] Sir T. Hammer reads,
_Her worth_ works _yours_.
This reading is adopted by Dr. Warburton, but for what reason?
How does her _worth work Angelo's worth_? it has only contributed
to _work_ his pardon. The words are, as they are too frequently,
an affected gingle, but the sense is plain. _Her worth, worth
yours_; that is, her value is equal to your value, the match is
not unworthy of you.
V.i.504 (141,2) [And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon] After
the pardon of two murderers, Lucio might be treated by the good
duke with less harshness; but perhaps the poet intended to show,
what is too often seen, _that men easily forgive wrongs which are
not committed against themselves_.
V.i.509 (142,3) [according to the trick] To my custom, my habitual
practice.
V.i.526 (142,4) [thy other forfeits] Thy other punishments.
V.i.534 (142,5) [Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness]
I have always thought that there is great confusion in this concluding
speech. If my criticism would not be censured as too
licentious, I should regulate it thus,
_Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness.
Thanks. Provost, for thy care and secrecy;
We shall employ thee in a worthier place.
Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
The head of Ragozine for Claudio's.
_Ang_. _Th' offence pardons itself_.
_Duke_, _There's more behind
That is more gratulate. Dear Isabel,
I have a motion_,&c,
V.i.545 (143,6) General Observation The novel of Cynthio Giraldi,
from which Shakespeare is supposed to have borrowed this fable,
may be read in _Shakespeare illustrated_, elegantly translated,
with remarks which will assist the enquirer to discover how much
absurdity Shakespeare has admitted or avoided.
I cannot but suspect that some other had new-modelled the
novel of Cynthio, or written a story which in some particulars
resembled it, and that Cynthio was not the authour whom Shakespeare
immediately followed. The emperour in Cynthio is named
Maximine; the duke, in Shakespeare's enumeration of the persons
of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very slight
remark; but since the duke has no name in the play, nor is ever
mentioned but by his title, why should he be called Vincentio
among the _persons_, but because the name was copied from the
story, and placed superfluously at the head of the list by the
mere habit of transcription? It is therefore likely that there
was then a story of Vincentio duke of Vienna, different from
that of Maximine emperour of the Romans.
Of this play the light or comick part is very natural and
pleasing, but the grave scenes, if a few passages be excepted,
have more labour than elegance. The plot is rather intricate
than artful. The time of the action is indefinite; some time,
we know not how much, must have elapsed between the recess of
the duke and the imprisonment of Claudio; for he must have
learned the story of Mariana in his disguise, or he delegated
his power to a man already known to be corrupted. The unities
of action and place are sufficiently preserved.