Than beauty could difplayed.-But mark me;
To be received plain, I'll speak more grofs:

Your brother is to die.

ISAB. SO.

ANG. And his offence is fo, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain."

ISAB. True.

ANG. Admit no other way to fave his life, (As I fubfcribe not that,' nor any other, But in the lofs of question,) that you, his sister, Finding yourself defir'd of such a person,

8

Whofe credit with the judge, or own great place, Could fetch your brother from the manacles

Mr. Tyrwhitt is too well fupported in his firft fuppofition, by a paffage at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet:

"Thefe happy masks that kifs fair ladies' brows,

Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair." STEEVENS. 6 Accountant to the law upon that pain.] Pain is here for penalty, punishment. JOHNSON.

7 As I fubfcribe not that,] To subscribe means, to agree to Milton ufes the word in the fame fenfe.

So alfo, in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, 1661:

"Subscribe to his defires." STEEVENS.

But in the lofs of question,] The loss of queftion I do not well underftand, and fhould rather read:

But in the tofs of question.

In the agitation, in the difcuffion of the queftion. To tofs an argument is a common phrafe. JOHNSON.

This expreffion, I believe, means, but in idle fuppofition, or converfation that tends to nothing, which may therefore, in our author's language, be called the lofs of question. Thus, in Coriolanus, A&t III. fc. i: "The which fhall turn you to no other harm, "Than fo much loss of time."

Queftion, in Shakspeare, often bears this meaning. So, in his Tarquin and Lucrece:

"And after fupper, long he questioned

"With modeft Lucrece," &c. STEEVENS.

Queftion is used here, as in many other places, for conversation.

MALONE.

Of the all-binding law; and that there were
No earthly mean to fave him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this fuppofed, or elfe let him fuffer;"
What would you do?

ISAB. As much for my poor brother, as myself:
That is, Were I under the terms of death,
The impreffion of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And ftrip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing I have been fick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to fhame.

ANG.

Then must your brother die.

ISAB. And 'twere the cheaper way: Better it were, a brother died at once,' Than that a fifter, by redeeming him, Should die for ever.

ANG. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence That you have flander'd fo?

2

Of the all-binding law;] The old editions read:

-all-building law. JOHNSON.

The emendation is Theobald's. STEEVENS.

or else let him fuffer;] The old copy reads—“ or elfe to let him," &c. STEEVENS.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads more grammatically" or else let him fuffer." But our author is frequently inaccurate in the conftruction of his fentences. I have therefore adhered to the old copy. You must be under the neceffity [to let, &c.] must be understood.

So, in Holinfhed's Hiftory of Scotland, p. 150: "-afleep they were fo faft, that a man might have removed the chamber over them, fooner than to have awaked them out of their drunken sleep." MALONE.

The old copy reads-fuppofed, not fuppos'd. The fecond to in the line might therefore be the compofitor's accidental repetition of the firft. Being unneceffary to fenfe, and injurious to measure, I have omitted it. The pages of Holinfhed will furnish examples of every blunder to which printed works are liable. STEEVENS. -a brother died at once,] Perhaps we should read: Better it were, a brother died for once, &c. JOHNSON.

3

ISAB. Ignomy in ransom,+ and free pardon, Are of two houfes: lawful mercy is Nothing akin to foul redemption.

ANG. You feem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother A merriment than a vice.

ISAB. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we'd have, we fpeak not what we mean: I fomething do excuse the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.

ANG. We are all frail.

ISAB.

Elfe let my brother die,

If not a feodary, but only he,"

4 Ignomy in ranfam,] So the word ignominy was formerly written. Thus, in Troilus and Creffida, A& V. sc. iii :

"Hence, brother lacquey! ignomy and fhame," &c. REED. Sir William D'Avenant's alteration of thefe lines may prove a reafonably good comment on them:

"Ignoble ranfom no proportion bears

"To pardon freely given." MALONE.

The fecond folio reads-ignominy; but whichfoever reading we take, the line will be inharmonious, if not defective. STEEVENS. 5 Nothing akin-] The old copy reads-kin. For this trivial emendation I am answerable. STEEVENS.

6 If not a feodary, but only he, &c.] This is fo obfcure, but the allufion fo fine, that it deferves to be explained. A feodary was one that in the times of vaffalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and fervice: which tenures were called feuda amongst the Goths. Now, fays Angelo, "we are all frail;"-" Yes, replies Ifabella; if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecility, and who fucceed each other by the fame tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original fin, to a feadary, who owes fuit and fervice to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare has the fame allufion in Cymbeline:

66

fenfelefs bauble,

"Art thou a feodarie for this act?”

Again, in the prologue to Maríton's Sophonisba, 1606:

"For feventeen kings were Carthage feedars,"

Owe, and fucceed by weakness."

ANG.

Nay, women are frail too. ISAB. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themselves; Which are as cafy broke as they make forms.

Mr. M. Mafon cenfures me for not perceiving that feodary fignifies an accomplice. Of this I was fully aware, as it fupports the fenfe contended for by Warburton, and feemingly acquiefced in by Dr. Johnfon.-Every vaffal was an accomplice with his lord; i.c. was fubject to be executor of the mifchief he did not contrive, and was obliged to follow in every bad caufe which his fuperior led. STEEVENS.

I have fhewn in a note on Cymbeline, that feodary was used by Shakspeare in the fenfe of an affociate, and fuch undoubtedly is its fignification here. Dr. Warburton's note therefore is certainly wrong, and ought to be expunged.

After having afcertained the true meaning of this word, I muft own, that the remaining part of the paffage before us is extremely difficult. I would, however, reftore the original reading thy, and the meaning fhould feem to be this:-We are all frail, fays Angelo. Yes, replies Ifabella; if he has not one affociate in his crime, if no other perfon own and follow the fame criminal courses which you are now pursuing, let my brother fuffer death.

I think it, however, extremely probable that fomething is omitted. It is obfervable, that the line"- Owe, and fucceed thy weakness," does not, together with the fubfequent line,-" Nay, women are frail too,-make a perfect verfe: from which it may be conjectured that the compofitor's eye glanced from the word fucceed to weakness in a fubfequent hemiftich, and that by this overfight the paffage is become unintelligible. MALONE.

• Ore,] To owe is, in this place, to own, to hold, to have poffeffion. JOHNSON.

7 by weakness.] The old copy reads-thy weakness.

STEEVENS.

The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. I am by no means fatisfied with it. Thy is much more likely to have been printed by mistake for this, than the word which has been fubftituted. Yet this weaknefs and by weaknefs are equally to be understood. Sir W. D'Avenant omitted the paffage in his Law against Lovers, probably on account of its difficulty. MALONE.

8

-glaffes

Which are as eafy broke as they make forms.] Would it not be better to read?

take forms. JOHNSON.

Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them." Nay, call us ten times frail; For we are soft as our complexions are,

And credulous to falfe prints."

ANG.

I think it well:
And from this teftimony of your own fex,
(Since, I fuppofe, we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may fhake our frames,) let me be bold;-
I do arreft your words; Be that you are,

That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;
If
you be one, (as you are well exprefs'd
By all external warrants,) fhow it now,
By putting on the deftin❜d livery.

ISAB. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me intreat you speak the former language.'

In profiting by them.] In imitating them, in taking them for examples. JOHNSON.

If men mar their own creation, by taking women for their example, they cannot be faid to profit much by them.-Isabella is deploring the condition of woman-kind, formed fo frail and credulous, that men prove the deftruction of the whole fex, by taking advantage of their weakness, and ufing them for their own purpofes. She therefore calls upon Heaven to affift them. This, though obfcurely expreffed, appears to me to be the meaning of this paffage. M. MASON.

Dr. Johnfon does not feem to have understood this paffage. Ifabella certainly does not mean to say that men mar their own creation by taking women for examples. Her meaning is, that men debafe their nature by taking advantage of fuch weak pitiful creatures.-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

2 For we are foft as our complexions are,

And credulous to falje prints.] i. e. take any impreffion.
WARBURTON.

So, in Twelfth Night:

3

"How eafy is it for the proper falfe

"In women's waxen hearts to fet their forms!

"Alas! our frailty is the caufe, not we;

For, fuch as we are made of, fuch we be." MALONE. -Speak the former language.] Ifabella answers to his circumlocutory courtship, that he has but one tongue, fhe does not