thority was so great, that his denial would have the same credit WARBURTON. that a vouch or testimony has in ordinary cases. Line 762. blushes. Line 765. prolixious blushes,] i. e. Reluctant, delaying -die the death,] This seems to be a solemn phrase for death inflicted by law. So in Midsummer-Night's Dream, Line 779. gation. Line 780. Prepare to die the death. JOHNSON. prompture] Suggestion, temptation, insti JOHNSON. such a mind of honour.] This, in Shakspeare's language, may mean, such an honourable mind, as he uses elsewhere mind of love, for loving mind. STEEVENS. ACT III. SCENE I. Line 6. Be absolute for death;] Be determined to die, without any hope of life. Horace. -The hour, which exceeds expectation, will be welcome. JOHNSON. Line 10. That none but fools would keep :] The meaning seems plainly this, that none but fools would wish to keep life; or, none but fools would keep it, if choice were allowed. A sense, which, JOHNSON. whether true or not, is certainly innocent. Line 13. -merely thou art death's fool; And yet runn'st toward him still.] In those old farces called Moralities, the fool of the piece, in order to shew the inevitable approaches of death, is made to employ all his stratagems to avoid him; which, as the matter is ordered, bring the fool, at every turn, into his very jaws. So that the representations of these scenes would afford a great deal of good mirth and morals WARBURTON. mixed together. Line 18. Are nurs'd by baseness:] Shakspeare here meant to observe, that a minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by baseness, by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill, all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornaments dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine. JOHNSON. Of a poor worm.] Worm is put for any creeping thing or serpent. Shakspeare supposes falsely, but according to the vulgar notion, that a serpent wounds with his tongue, and that his tongue is forked. He confounds reality and fiction, a serpent's tongue is soft but not forked nor hurtful. If it could hurt, it could not be soft. In Midsummer-Night's Dream he has the same notion. Line 21. -With doubler tongue Than thine, O serpent, never adder stung. JOHNS. And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st Thy death, which is no more.] I cannot without indignation find Shakspeare saying, that death is only sleep, lengthening out his exhortation by a sentence which in the friar is impious, in the reasoner is foolish, and in the poet trite and vulgar. JOHNSON. Line 23. -Thou art not thyself;] Thou art perpetually repaired and renovated by external assistance, thou subsistest upon foreign matter, and hast no power of producing or continuing thy own being. JOHNSON. Line 28 -strange effects,] For effects read affects; that is, affections, passions of mind, or disorders of body variously affected. So in Othello: The young affects. Line 36. -Thou hast nor youth, nor age; JOHNSON. Dreaming on both:] This is exquisitely imagined. When we are young, we busy ourselves in forming schemes for succeeding times, and miss the gratifications that are before us; when we are old, we amuse the languor of age with the recollection of youthful pleasures or performances; so that our life, of which no part is filled with the business of the present time, resembles our dreams after dinner, when the events of the morning are mingled with the designs of the evening. JOHNSON. Line 39. for all thy blessed youth Of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and rich, Thou hast neither heat, &c.] Shakspeare declares that man has neither youth nor age; for in youth, which is the happiest time, or which might be the happiest, he commonly wants means to obtain what he could enjoy; he is dependent on palsied eld; must beg alms from the coffers of hoary avarice: and being very niggardly supplied, becomes as aged, looks like an old man, on happiness which is beyond his reach. And, when he is old and rich, when he has wealth enough for the purchase of all that formerly excited his desires, he has no longer the powers of enjoyment, -has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, To make his riches pleasant.— Line 45. JOHNSON. -more thousand deaths :] The meaning is not only a thousand deaths, but a thousand deaths besides what have been -mentioned. JOHNSON. Line 65. -as all comforts are; most good in deed:] If this reading be right, Isabella must mean that she brings something .better than words of comfort, she brings an assurance of deeds. This is harsh and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. JOHNSON. Line 68. —an everlasting leiger, Therefore your best appointment-] Leiger is the same with resident. Appointment; preparation; act of fitting, or state of being fitted for any thing. So in old books, we have a knight well appointed; that is, well armed and mounted or fitted at all points. JOHNSON. Line 69. your best appointment-] The word appointment, on this occasion, comprehends confession, communion, and absolution. The King in Hamlet, who was cut off prematurely, and without such preparation, is said to be disappointed. STEEVENS. your mind Line 80. -a restraint, &c.] A confinement of to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can neither be suppressed nor escaped. JOHNSON. Line 93. the poor beetle, &c.] The reasoning is, that death is no more than every being must suffer, though the dread of it is peculiar to man; or perhaps, that we are inconsistent with our selves, when we so much dread that which we carelessly inflict on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we. JOHNSON. Line 107. -follies doth enmew,] Forces follies to lie in cover without daring to show themselves. JOHNSON. Line 108. As falcon doth the fowl;] In whose presence the follies of youth are afraid to shew themselves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it. STEEVENS. Line 109. His filth within being cast,] To cast a pond is to empty it of mud. Mr. Upton reads, His pond within being cast, he would appear A filth as deep as hell. JOHNSON. Line 111. The princely Angelo?] The first folio has, in both places, prenzie, from which the other folios made princely. JOHNSON. Line 114. -princely guards!] Mean no more than the ornaments of royalty, which Angelo is supposed to assume during the absence of the Duke. The stupidity of the first editors is sometimes not more injurious to Shakspeare, than the ingenuity of those who succeeded them. STEEVENS. Line 131. When he would force it?] Put it in force. WARBURTON. 134. If it were damnable, &c.] Shakspeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. When Isabella first tells him of Angelo's proposal, he answers, with honest indignation, agreeably to his settled principles, Thou shalt not do't. But the love of life being permitted to operate, soon furnishes him with sophistical arguments-he believes it cannot be very dangerous to the soul, since Angelo, who is so wise, will venture it. JOHNSON. Line 143. delighted spirit-] i. e. The spirit accustomed here to ease and delights. This was properly urged as an aggravation to the sharpness of the torments spoken of. WARBURTON. Perhaps we may read, -the delinquent spirit, a word easily changed to delighted by a bad copier, or unskilful reader. Delinquent is proposed by Thirlby in his manuscript. JOHNSON. Line 149. -lawless and incertain thoughts.] Conjecture sent out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through all possibilities of pain. JOHNSON. Line 154. To what we fear of death.] Most certainly the idea of the "spirit bathing in fiery floods," or of residing " in thrilling "regions of thick-ribbed ice," is not original to our poet; which is the whole that is wanted for the argument: but I am not sure that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil. The monks also had their hot and their cold hell," the fyrste is fyre that ever "brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," says an old homily:"The seconde is passying colde, that yf a greate hylle of fyre were cast therein, it should torne to yce." FARMER. Line 163. Is't not a kind of incest,] In Isabella's declamation there is something harsh, and something forced and far-fetched. But her indignation cannot be thought violent, when we consider her not only as a virgin, but as a nun. Line 167. warped slip of wilderness JOHNSON. -] Wilderness is here used for wildness, the state of being disorderly. STEEVENS. Line 175. -but a trade:] A custom, a practice; an established habit. So we say of a man much addicted to any thing, he makes a trade of it. JOHNSON. Line 198. Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are fallible:] A condemned man, whom his confessor had brought to bear death with decency and resolution, began anew to entertain hopes of life. This occasioned the advice in the words above. WARBURTON. The sense is this: Do not rest with satisfaction on hopes that are fallible. STEEVENS. Line 203. Hold you there:] Continue in that resolution. 214. husband. Line 281. JOHNSON. -her combinate husband,] i. e. Her betrothed JOHNSON. the corrupt deputy scaled.] To scale the deputy may be, to reach him, notwithstanding the elevation of his place; or |