And follows close the rigour of the statute, Of business 4 'twixt you and your poor brother. ISAB. Doth he so seek his life?. LUCIO. Has censur'd him Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath ISAB. Alas! what poor ability's in me To do him good? LUCIO. Assay the power you have. ISAB. My power! Alas! I doubt, * Unless you have the grace - That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So, when she makes her suit, the Provost says: 4 " Heaven give thee moving graces!" JOHNSON. my pith Of business-] The inmost part, the main of my message. So, in Hamlet : " And enterprizes of great pith and moment." JOHNSON. STEEVENS. * Has censur'd him-] i. e. sentenced him. So, in Othello: 66 - to you, lord governor, "Remains the censure of this hellish villain." STEEVENS. We should read, I think, He has censured him, &c. In the MSS. of our author's time, and frequently in the printed copy of these plays, he has, when intended to be contracted, is written -h'as. Hence probably the mistake here. So, in Othello, 4to. 1622: " And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets Again, in All's well that ends well, p. 247, folio, 1623, we find H'as twice, for He has. See also Twelfth-Night, p. 258, edit. 1623: "-h'as been told so," for "he has been told so." MALONE. VOL. VI. Q LUCIO. Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, kneel, All their petitions are as freely theirs ISAB. I'll see what I can do. LUCIO. But, speedily. ISAB. I will about it straight; ISAB. Good sir, adieu. [Exeunt. • All their petitions are as freely theirs-) All their requests are as freely granted to them, are granted in as full and beneficial a manner, as they themselves could wish. The editor of the second folio arbitrarily reads-as truly theirs; which has been followed in all the subsequent copies. MALONE. 7 would owe them.] To owe, signifies in this place, as in many others, to possess, to have. STEEVENS. 8 -the mother-] The abbess, or prioress. JOHNSON. ACT II. SCENE I. A Hall in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants. ANG. We must not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,' And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch, and not their terror. ESCAL. Ay, but yet Let us be keen, and rather cut a little, tleman, • Provost,] A Provost martial, Minshieu explains, " Prevost des mareschaux: Præfectus rerum capitalium, Prætor rerum capitalium." REED. A provost is generally the executioner of an army. So, in The famous History of Thomas Stukely, 1605, bl. 1: "Provost, lay irons upon him, and take him to your charge." Again, in The Virgin Martyr, by Massinger: " Thy provost, to see execution done "On these base Christians in Cæsarea." STEEVENS. A prison for military offenders is at this day, in some places, called the Prevot. MALONE. The Provost here, is not a military officer, but a kind of sheriff or gaoler, so called in foreign countries. DOUCE. to fear the birds of prey,] To fear is to affright, to terrify. So, in The Merchant of Venice: This aspéct of mine "Hath fear'd the valiant." STEEVENS. • Than fall, and bruise to death:] I should rather read fell, i. e. strike down. So, in Timon of Athens: 2 4 Whom I would save, had a most noble father. ANG. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, " I fell with curses." WARBURTON. Fall is the old reading, and the true one. Shakspeare has used the same verb active in The Comedy of Errors : 66 as easy may'st thou fall " A drop of water,-." i. e. let fall. So, in As you like it : 66 the executioner " Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck." STEEVENS. Than fall, and bruise to death:] i. e. fall the axe; or rather, let the criminal fall, &c. MALONE. * Let but your honour know, To know is here to examine, to take cognisance. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream : "Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; "Know of your youth, examine well your blood." JOHNSON. * Err'd in this point which now you censure him,] Some word seems to be wanting to make this line sense. Perhaps, we should read : Err'd in this point which now you censure him for. STEEVENS. The sense undoubtedly requires, " - which now you censure him for," but the text certainly appears as the poet left it. I have elsewhere shewn that he frequently uses these elliptical expressions. MALONE. May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try: What's open made to justice, 5 That justice seizes. What know the laws, That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very preg nant, The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it, Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, ESCAL. Be it as your wisdom will. ANG. Where is the provost? PROV. Here, if it like your honour. * That justice seizes.] For the sake of metre, I think we should read,-seizes on; or, perhaps, we should regulate the passage thus: Guiltier than him they try: What's open made To justice, justice seizes. What know, &c. STEEVENS. What know the laws, That thieves do pass on thieves?] How can the administrators of the laws take cognizance of what I have just mentioned? How can they know, whether the jurymen, who decide on the life or death of thieves, be themselves as criminal as those whom they try? To pass on is a forensick term. MALONE. So, in King Lear, Act III. sc. vii : "Though well we may not pass upon his life." See my note on this passage. STEEVENS. 'Tis very pregnant,] 'Tis plain that we must act with bad as with good; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages that lie in our way, and what we do not see we cannot note. JOHNSON. * For I have had-] That is, because, by reason that I have had such faults. JOHNSON. |