Drest in a little brief authority; Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, 5 Plays such fantastick tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens, Would all themselves laugh mortal. LUCIO. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent; He's coming, I perceive't. PROV. Pray heaven, she win him! ISAB. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:" ally omitted at the press; probably some additional epithet to man; perhaps weak," but man, weak, proud man-" The editor of the second folio, to supply the defect, reads-0, but man, &c. which, like almost all the other emendations of that copy, is the worst and the most improbable that could have been chosen. MALONE. I am content with the emendation of the second folio, which I conceive to have been made on the authority of some manuscript, or corrected copy. STEevens. As make the angels weep;] The notion of angels weeping for the sins of men is rabbinical.-Ob peccatum flentes angelos inducunt Hebræorum magistri.-Grotius ad S. Lucam. 6 who, with our spleens, THEOBALD Would all themselves laugh mortal.] Mr. Theobald says the meaning of this is, that if they were endowed with our spleens and perishable organs, they would laugh themselves out of immortality; or, as we say in common life, laugh themselves dead; which amounts to this, that if they were mortal, they would not be immortal. Shakspeare meant no such nonsense. By spleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, that always inclines it to a spiteful, unseasonable mirth. Had the angels that, says Shakspeare, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a passion which does not deserve that prerogative. The ancients thought, that immoderate laughter was caused by the bigness of the spleen. WARBURTON. "We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:] We mortals, proud and foolish, cannot prevail on our passions to weigh or compare our brother, a being of like nature and like frailty, Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation. LUCIO. Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o' that. ISAB. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Lucio. Art advis'd o' that? more on't. ANG. Why do you put these sayings upon me? ISAB. Because authority, though it err like others, Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself, 8 That skins the vice o' the top: Go to your bosom; Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue ANG. you well. with ourself. We have different names and different judgements for the same faults committed by persons of different condition. JOHNSON. The reading of the old copy, ourself, which Dr. Warburton changed to yourself, is supported by a passage in the fifth Act, 66 If he had so offended, "He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself, MALONE. • That skins the vice o' the top:] Shakspeare is fond of this indelicate metaphor. So, in Hamlet : 9 "It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." that my sense breeds with it.] STEEVENS! Thus all the folios. Some later editor has changed breeds to bleeds, and Dr. Warburton blames poor Theobald for recalling the old word, which yet is certainly right. My sense breeds with her sense, that is, new thoughts are stirring in my mind, new conceptions are hatched in my imagination. So we say, to brood over thought.. JOHNSONY ISAB Gentle my lord, turn back. ANG. I will bethink me :-Come again to-mor row. ISAB. Hark, how I'll bribe you: Good my lord, turn back. ANG. How! bribe me? ISAB. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share with you. LUCIO. You had marr'd all else. ISAB. Not with fond shekels' of the tested gold,2 Sir William D'Avenant's alteration favours the sense of the old reading-breeds, which Mr. Pope had changed to bleeds. She speaks such sense As with my reason breeds such images As she has excellently form'd.- STEEVENS. I rather think the meaning is-She delivers her sentiments with such propriety, force, and elegance, that my sensual desires are inflamed by what she says. Sense has been already used in this play with the same signification: 66 one who never feels "The wanton stings and motions of the sense." The word breeds is used nearly in the same sense in The Tempest: Fair encounter 66 "Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace "On that which breeds between them!" MALONE. The sentence signifies, Isabella does not utter barren words, but speaks such sense as breeds or produces a consequence in Angelo's mind. Truths which generate no conclusion are often termed barren facts. HOLT WHITE. I understand the passage thus:-Her arguments are enforced with so much good sense, as to increase that stock of sense which I already possess. DOUCE. 1 fond shekels-] Fond means very frequently in our author, foolish. It signifies in this place valued or prized by folly. STEEVENS. 2 tested gold,] i. e. attested, or marked with the standard stamp. WARBURTON. VOL. VI. S Or stones, whose rates are either rich, or poor, Am that way going to temptation, [Aside. Rather cupelled, brought to the test, refined. JOHNSON. All gold that is tested is not marked with the standard stamp. The verb has a different sense, and means tried by the cuppel, which is called by the refiners a test. Vide Harris's Lex. Tech. Voce CUPPELL. SIR J. HAWKINS. 3 -preserved souls,] i. e. preserved from the corruption of the world. The metaphor is taken from fruits preserved in sugar. WARBurton. So, in The Amorous War, 1648: "You do not reckon us 'mongst marmalade, I am that way going to temptation, Where prayers cross.] Which way Angelo is going to temptation, we begin to perceive; but how prayers cross that way, or cross each other, at that way, more than any other, I do not understand. Isabella prays that his honour may be safe, meaning only to give him his title: his imagination is caught by the word honour: he feels that his honour is in danger, and therefore, I believe, answers thus: I am that way going to temptation, ANG. [Exeunt Lucio, ISABELLA, and Provost. From thee; even from thy virtue!What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine? The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? Ha!* Not she; nor doth she tempt: but it is I, That lying by the violet, in the sun, 6 That is, I am tempted to lose that honour of which thou implorest the preservation. The temptation under which I labour is that which thou hast unknowingly thwarted with thy prayer. He uses the same mode of language a few lines lower. Isabella, parting, says: Save your honour! Angelo catches the word-Save it! From what? From thee! even from thy virtue!- JOHNSON. The best method of illustrating this passage will be to quote a similar one from The Merchant of Venice, Act III. sc. i: "Sal. I would it might prove the end of his losses ! For the same reason Angelo seems to say Amen to Isabella's prayer; but, to make the expression clear, we should read perhaps-Where prayers are crossed. TYRWHITT. The petition of the Lord's Prayer-" lead us not into temptation"-is here considered as crossing or intercepting the onward way in which Angelo was going; this appointment of his for the morrow's meeting, being a premeditated exposure of himself to temptation, which it was the general object of prayer to thwart. HENLEY. 5 Ha!] This tragedy-Ha! (which clogs the metre) was certainly thrown in by the player editors. STeevens. That lying by the violet, in the sun, &c.] I am not corrupted by her, but my own heart, which excites foul desires |