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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 strict statutes, and most biting laws. (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds)3 Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep;✦

3 (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds,)] In the copies.

The needful bits and curbs for head-strong weeds. There is no manner of analogy or consonance in the metaphors here: and, though the copies agree, 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 persons of unbridled licentiousness to head-strong steeds: and, in this view, bridling the passions has been a phrase adopted by our best poets. Theobald..

Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep;] Thus the old copy; which also reads,—

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we have let slip." Steevens.

For fourteen I have made no scruple to replace nineteen. The reason will be obvious to him who recollects what the Duke [Claudio] has said in a foregoing scene. I have altered the odd phrase of "letting the laws slip:" for how does it sort with the comparison that follows, of a lion in his cave that went not out to prey? But letting the laws sleep, adds a particular propriety to the thing represented, and accords exactly too with the simile. It is the metaphor too, that our author seems fond of using upon this occasion, in several other passages of this play:

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept;

'Tis now awake.

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The latter emendation may derive support from a passage in Hamlet:

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"That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
"Excitements of my reason and my blood,
"And let all sleep?"

If slip be the true reading, (which, however, I do not believe) the sense may be,-which for these fourteen years we have suffered to pass unnoticed, unobserved; for so the same phrase is used in Twelfth Night:-" Let him let this matter slip, and I'll give him my horse, grey Capulet."

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 stick it in their children's sight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd:5 so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;

And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

6

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

Fri.

It rested in your grace
To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have seem'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 strike, and gall them,
For what I bid them do: For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,

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

Who may in the ambush of my name, strike home, And yet my nature never in the sight,

To do it slander: And to behold his sway,

Mr. Theobald altered fourteen to nineteen, to make the Duke's account correspond with a speech of Claudio's in a former scene, but without necessity. Claudio would naturally represent the period, during which the law had not been put in practice, greater than it really was. Malone.

Theobald's correction is misplaced. If any correction is really necessary, it should have been made where Claudio, in a foregoing scene, says nineteen years. I am disposed to take the Duke's words. Whalley.

5 Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd:] Becomes was added by Mr. Pope, to restore sense to the passage, some such word having been left out. Steevens.

6 The baby beats the nurse,] This allusion was borrowed from an ancient print, entitled The World turn'd upside down, where an infant is thus employed. Steevens.

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Sir Thomas Hanmer has very well corrected it thus ;

To do it slander:

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me

How I may formally in person bear me
Like a true friar. More reasons for this action,
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one :-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard1 with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

[Exeunt.

Yet perhaps less alteration might have produced the true reading:

And yet my nature never, in the sight,

So doing slandered:

And yet my nature never suffer slander, by doing any openacts of severity. Johnson.

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Hanmer's emendation is supported by a passage in King Henry IV, P. 1:

"Do me no slander, Douglas, I dare fight." Steevens. Fight seems to be countenanced by the words ambush and strike. Sight was introduced by Mr. Pope. Malone.

9 -in person bear -] Mr. Pope reads,

my person bear.

Perhaps the word which I have inserted in the text, had

dropped out while the sheet was at press. A similar phrase Occurs in The Tempest:

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some good instruction give

"How I may bear me here."

Sir W. D'Avenant reads, in his alteration of the play:

I may in person a true friar seem.

The sense of the passage (as Mr. Henley observes) is→ How I may demean myself, so as to support the character Í have assumed. Steevens.

1 Stands at a guard -] Stands on terms of defiance. Johnson. This rather means, to stand cautiously on his defence, than on terms of defiance. M. Mason,

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SCENE V.

A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges?
Fran. Are not these large enough?

Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more;
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sister-hood, the votarists of saint Clare.
Lucio. Ho! Peace be in this place!

Isab.

[Within.

Who's that which calls?
Fran. It is a man's voice: Gentle Isabella,
Turn you the key, and know his business of him;
You may,
I may not; you are yet unsworn:
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;
Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; 1 pray you, answer him. [Exit FRAN.
Isab. Peace and prosperity! Who is 't that calls?
Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-roses
Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me,
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister

To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask;

The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Isabella, and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets

you:

Not to be weary with you, he 's in prison.

Isab. Woe me! For what?

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his
judge,2

He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

2 For that, which, if myself might be his judge,] Perhaps these words were transposed at the press. The sense seems to require-That, for which, &c. Malone.

Isab. Sir, make me not your story.3
Lucio.

It is true

I would not-thought 'tis my familiar sin

3 - make me not your story.] Do not, by deceiving mẹ, make me a subject for a tale. Johnson.

Perhaps only, Do not divert yourself with me, as you would with story, do not make me the subject of your drama. Benedick talks of becoming-the argument of his own scorn.

Sir W. D'Avenant reads-scorn instead of story. After all, the irregular phrase [me, &c.] that, perhaps, obscures this passage, occurs frequently in our author, and particularly in the next scene, where Escalus says: "Come me to what was done to her."- -"Make me not your story," may therefore signify-invent not your story on purpose to deceive me. "It is true," in Lucio's reply, means- -What I have already told you, is true.

Steevens.

Mr. Ritson explains this passage, "do not make a jest of me."

Reed.

I have no doubt that we ought to read (as I have printed) Sir, mock me not:-your story.

So, in Macbeth:

"Thou com'st to use thy tongue:-thy story quickly." In King Lear we have-" Pray, do not mock me.'

I beseech you, Sir, (says Isabel) do not play upon my fears; reserve this idle talk for some other occasion;-proceed at once to your tale. Lucio's subsequent words, [“Tis true,”—i. e you are right; I thank you for reminding me ;] which, as the text has heen hitherto printed, had no meaning, are then pertinent and clear. Mr. Pope was so sensible of the impossibility of reconciling them to what preceded in the old copy, that he fairly omitted them.

What Isabella says afterwards, fully supports this emendation:

"You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me."

I have observed that almost every passage in our author, in which there is either a broken speech, or a sudden transition without a connecting particle, has been corrupted by the carelessness of either the transcriber or compositor. See a note on Love's Labour's Lost, Act II, sc. i:

"A man of sovereign, peerless, he 's esteem'd." And another on Coriolanus, Act I, sc. iv:

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You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and plagues
Plaster you o'er!" Malone.

4 I would not-] i. e. Be assured, I would not mock you. So afterwards: "Do not believe it:" i. e. Do not suppose that I would mock you. Malone.

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I am satisfied with the sense afforded by the old punctuation. Steevens.

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