图书图片
PDF
ePub

ISAR. Why, as all comforts are;moft good in deed:?
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his fwift embaffador,

Where you fhall be an everlasting leiger:
Therefore your beft appointment make with fpeed;

To-morrow you

7

fet on.

as all comforts are; moft good in deed:] If this reading be right, Ifabella muft mean that the brings fomething better than words of comfort, the brings an affurance of deeds. This is harsh and conftrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads:

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

As all comforts are: most good, moft good indeede.

I believe the prefent reading, as explained by Dr. Johnfon, is the true one. So, in Macbeth:

"We're vet but young in deed."

I would point the lines thus:

Clau. Now, fifter, what's the comfort?

STEEVENS.

« fab. Why, as all comforts are, moft good. Indeed Lord Angelo," &c.

Indeed is the fame as in truth, or truly, the common beginuing of fpeeches, in Shakspeare's age. See Charles the Firf's Trial. The King and Bradshaw feidom fay any thing without this preface: Truly, Sir. BLACKSTONE.

66

8

"

an everlasting leiger:

Therefore your best appointment.

Leiger is the fame with refident. Appointment; preparation; act of fitting, or flate 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.

The word leiger is thus ufed in The Comedy of Look about You, 1600: "Why do you stay, Sir?

Madam, as leiger to folicit for your abfent love." Again, in Leicester's Commonwealth, a fpecial man of that hafty king, who was his Ledger, or Agent, in London," &c. STEEVENS.

your best appointment-] The word appointment, on this occafion, fhould feem to comprehend confeflion, communion, and abfolution. "Let him (fays Efcalus) be furnished with divines, and have all charitable preparation. The King in Hamlet, who was cut off prematurely, and without fuch preparation, is

CLAUD.

Is there no remedy?

ISAB. None, but fuch remedy, as, to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain.

CLAUD.

But is there any?

ISAB. Yes, brother, you may live;
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

CLAUD.

Perpetual durance? ISAB. Ay, juft, perpetual durance; a refraint, Though all the world's vaftidity 2 you had, To a determin'd fcope. 3

CLAUD.

2

But in what nature?

ISAB. In fuch a one as (you confenting to't) Would bark your honour" from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked.

CLAUD

Let me know the point.

ISAB. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Left thou a feverous life fhould'ft entertain,

And fix or feven winters more respect

Than a perpetual honour. Dar'ft thou die?
The fenfe of death is moft in apprehenfion;

faid to be dif-appointed. Appointment, however, may be more fimply explained by the following paffage in The Antipodes,

1638 :

66

your lodging

Is decently appointed. i. e. prepared, furnished.

STEEVENS.

2 Though all the world's validity] The old copy readsThrough all, &c. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 1

[blocks in formation]

Το a determin'd cope.] A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can neither be fuppreffed nor efcaped. JOHNSON.

4 Would bark your honour -] A metaphor from ftripping trees of their bark. DOUCE.

And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal fufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies. '

CLAUD.

Why give you me this shame?

Think you I can a refolution fetch

From flowery tenderness? If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.

6

ISAB. There spake my brother; there

grave

my

father's

Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die :
Thou art too noble to conserve a life

In base appliances. This outward - fainted, de

puty,

Whofe fettled vifage and deliberate word

Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew,

7.

the poor beetle, &c.] The reafoning is, that death is no more than every being muft fuffer, though the dread of it is peculiar to man; or perhaps, that we are inconfiftent with ourselves, when we fo much dread that which we carelessly inflict on other creatures, that feel the pain as acutely as we. JOHNSON.

The meaning is-fear is the principal fenfation in death, which has no pain; and the giant when he dies feels no greater pain than the beetle. This paffage, however, from its arrangement, is liable to an oppofite conftruction, but which would totally deftroy the illuftration of the fentiment. DOUCE.

6 I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms. ] So, in the first part of Jeronimo, or The Spanish Tragedy, 1605:

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

-follies doth enmew,] Forces follies to lie in cover,

"As to a lover's bed."

out daring to fhow themselves. JOHNSON.

with

[ocr errors]

As falcon doth the fowl-is yet a devil:
His filth within being caft, he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

CLAUD.

The princely Angelo? ISAB. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'it body to inveft and cover In princely guards! Doft thou think, Claudio,

As falcon doth the fowl,] In whose presence the follies of youth are afraid to fhow themfelves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it.

So, in the Third Part of King Henry VI:

[ocr errors]

not he that loves him beft,

The proudeft he that holds up Lancafter,

"Dares ftir a wing, if Warwick fhakes his bells.

[ocr errors]

To enmew is a term in falconry, alfo ufed by Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Knight of Malta:

[ocr errors]

66

I have feen him fcale,

As if a falcon had run up a train,

Clashing his warlike pinions, his feel'd cuirafs,

And, at his pitch, enmew the town below him." STEEVENS. 9 His filth within being caft, ] To caft a pond is to empty it of mud Mr. Upton reads:

His pond within being caft, he would appear

A filth as deep as hell. JOHNSON.

2 The princely Angelo?

princely guards!] The ftupid editors, miftaking guards for fatellites, (whereas it here fignifies lace,) altered prieffly, in both places, to princely. Whereas Shakspeare wrote it priefly, as appears from the words themfelves :

'Tis the cunning livery of hell.

The damned' ft body to invest and cover
With prieftly guards.-

In the first place we fee that guards here fignifies lace, as referring to livery, and as having no fenfe in the fignification of fatellites. Now priestly guards means fanctity, which is the fenfe required. But princely guards means nothing but rich lace, which is a sense the paffage will not bear. Angelo, indeed, as deputy, might be called the princely Angelo: but not in this place, where the im mediately preceding words of,

This out-ward-fainted deputy,

demand the reading I have reflored. WARBURTon.

The first folio has, in both places, prenie, from which the other folios made princely, and every editor may make what he can. JOHNSON.

If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou might'ft be freed?

CLAUD.

O, heavens! it cannot be.

ISAB. Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank

offence, 3

So to offend him ftill: This night's the time
That I fhould do what I abhor to name,

Or elfe thou dieft to-morrow.

CLAUD.

Thou shalt not do't.

ISAB. O, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly as a pin.*

CLAUD.

Thanks, dear Ifabel.

ISAB. Be ready, Claudio,for your death to-morrow.

Princely is the judicious correction of the second folio. Princely guards mean no more than the badges of royalty, (laced or bordered robes,) which Angelo is fuppofed to affume during the abfence of the Duke. The ftupidity of the firft editors is fometimes not more injurious to Shakspeare, than the ingenuity of those who fucceeded them.

In the old play of Cambyfes I meet with the fame expreffion. Sifamnes is left by Cambyfes to diftribute juftice while he is abfent; and in a foliloquy fays:

"Now may I wear the brodered garde,

And lve in downe-bed foft.

Again, the queen of Cambyfes fays:

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

A guard, in old language, meant a welt or border of a garment; "because (fays Minfhieu) it gards and keeps the garment from tearing." These borders were fometimes of lace. So, in The Merchant of Venice: Give him a livery

3

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

from this rank offence, ] I believe means, from the time of my committing this offence, you might perlift in finning with fafety. The advantages you would derive from my having fuch a fecret of his in my keeping, would enfure you from further harm on account of the fame fault,however frequently repeated. STEEVENS. as a pin.] So, in Hamlet:

4

"I do not fet my life at a pin's fee."

STEEVENS.

« 上一页继续 »