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DUKE. Take then this your companion by the

hand,

Who hath a flory ready for your ear:

I fhall attend your leisure; but make hafte;
The vaporous night approaches.

MARI.

Will't please you walk afide? [Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA. DUKE. O place and greatnefs, millions of falfe

eyes?

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Are ftuck upon thee! volumes of report Run with thefe falfe and moft contrarious quefts

60 place and greatness,] It plainly appears that this fine speech belongs to that which concludes the preceding fcene between the Duke and Lucio. For they are abfolutely foreign to the subjec of this, and are the natural reflections arising from that. Befides, the very words,

Run with thefe falfe and most contrarious quests,

evidently refer to Lucio's fcandals juft preceding; which the Oxford editor, in his ufual way, has emended, by altering these to their. But that fome time might be given to the two women to confer together, the players, I fuppofe, took part of the fpeech, beginning at No might nor greatnefs, &c. and put it here, without troubling themselves about its pertinency. However, we are obliged to them for not giving us their own impertinency, as they have frequently done in other places. WARBURTON.

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I cannot agree that thefe lines are placed here by the players. The fentiments are common, and fuch as a prince, given to reflection, must have often present. There was a neceffity to fill up the time in which the ladies converfe apart, and they must have quick tongues and ready apprehenfions, if they understood each other while this fpeech was uttered. JOHNSON.

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7 - millions of falfe eyes ] That is, Eyes infidious and

traiterous. JOHNSON.

So, in Chaucer's Sompnoures Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 7633: "Ther is ful many an eye, and many an ere,

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Awaiting on a lord," &c. STEEVENS.

contrarious quefts-] Different reports, running counter to each other. JOHNSON.

So, in Othello:

"The fenate has fent out three feveral quefs."

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VOL. VI.

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Upon thy doings! thoufand 'fcapes of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dream,

And rack thee in their fancies! -Welcome! How

agreed?

Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA.

ISAB. She'll take the enterprize upon her, father, If you advife it.

DUKE.

It is not my confent,

But my intreaty too.

ISAB.

Little have you to fay,

When you depart from him, but, foft and low,
Remember now my brother.

MARI.

Fear me not.

DUKE. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all: He is your hufband on a pre-contract:

In our author's K. Richard III. is a paffage in fome degree fimilar to the foregoing:

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My confcience hath a thousand several tongues,

"And every tongue brings in a feveral tale,

"And every tale condemns "- STEEVENS.

I incline to think that quests here means inquifitions, in which fenfe the word was used in Shakspeare's time. See Minfhieu's Dic. in v. Cole in his Latin Didionary, 1679, renders, "A queft," by "examen, inquifitio.

MALONE.

Falfe and contrarious quefts in this place rather mean lying and contradictory meffengers, with whom run volumes of report. An explanation, which the line quoted by Mr. Steevens will ferve to confirm. RITSON.

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'fcapes of wit] i. e. fallies, irregularities. So, in King John, A& III. fc. iv:.

"No fcape of nature, no diftemper'd day." STEEVENS. And rack thee in their fancies!] Though rack, in the prefent inftance, may fignify torture or mangle, it might also mean confufe ; as the rack, i. e. fleeting cloud, renders the object behind it obfcure, and of undetermined form. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"That which was now a horfe, even with a thought,
The rack diflimns, and makes it indiftin&,

As water is in water." STEEVENS.

To bring you thus together, 'tis no fin;
Sith that the juflice of your title to him
Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go;
Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to fow. *

[Exeunt.

9 Doth flourish the deceit.] A metaphor taken from embroidery, where a coarse ground is filled up, and covered with figures of rich materials and elegant workmanship. WARBURTON.

Flourish is ornament in general. So, in our author's Twelfth Night:

empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the devil."

Dr. Warburton's illuftration of the metaphor feems to be inaccurate. The paffage from another of Shakspeare's plays, quoted by Mr. Steevens, fuggefts to us the true one.

The term flourijn, alludes to the flowers impreffcd on the wafte printed paper and old books, with which trunks are commonly lined. HENLEY.

When it is proved that the pra&ice alluded to, was as ancient as the time of Shakspeare, Mr. Henley's explanation may be admitted STEEVENS.

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for yet our tithe's to fow. As before, the blundering editors have made a prince of the priestly Angelo, fo here they have made a priest of the prince. We should read tilth, i. e. our tillage is yet to make. The grain from which we expect our harvest, is not yet put into the ground. WARBURTON.

The reader is here attacked with a petty fophifm. We should read tilth, i. e. our tillage is to make. But in the text it is to fow; and who has ever faid that his tillage was to fow? I believe tythe is right, and that the expreffion is proverbial, in which tythe is taken, by an easy metonymy, for harvest. JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton did not do justice to his own conjecture; and no wonder, therefore, that Dr. Johnson has not. Tilth is provincially ufed for land till'd, prepared for fowing. Shakspeare, however, has applied it before in its ufual acceptation. FARMER.

Dr. Warburton's conjecture may be fupported by many inftances in Markham's English Hufbandman, 1635: After the beginning of March you thall begin to fowe your barley upon that ground which the year before did, lye fallow, and is commonly called your filth or fallow field.' In p. 74 of this book, a corruption, like our author's, occurs. As before, I faid beginne to fallow your tithe held :" which is undoubtedly mifprinted for tilth field.

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TOLLET.

SCENE II.

A Room in the Prifon.

Enter Provoft and Clown.

PROV. Come hither, firrah: Can you cut off a man's head?

CLO. If the man be a bachelor, fir, I can: but if he be a married man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head.

PROV. Come, fir, leave me your fnatches, and yield me a direct anfwer. To-morrow morning, are to die Claudio and Barnardine: Here is in our prifon a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if you will take it on you to affift him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping; for you have been a notorius bawd.'

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CLO. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd, time out of mind; but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive fome inftruction from my fellow partner.

Tilth is ufed for crop, or harvest, by Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 93. b:

"To fowe cockill with the corne, /

"So that the tilth is nigh forlorne,

"Which Chrift few firft his owne honde."

Shakspeare ufes the word tilth in a former fcene of this play and, (as Dr. Farmer has obferved, ) in its common acceptation: her plenteous womb

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Expreffeth its full tilth and husbandry.

Again, in The Tempest:

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bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none.' but my quotation from Gower fhows that, to fow tilth, was a phrase once in ufe. STEEVENS.

This conjecture appears to me extremely probable. MALONE. an unpitied whipping; ] i. e. an unmerciful one. STEEVINS.

2

PROV. What ho, Abhorfon! Where's Abhorfon,

there?

Enter ABHORSON.

ABHOR. Do you call, fir?

PROV. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you tomorrow in your execution: If you think it meet, compound with him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if not, ufe him for the prefent, and difmifs him: He cannot plead his eftimation with he hath been a bawd. you;

ABHOR. A bawd, fir? Fie upon him, he will difcredit our mystery.

PROV. Go to, fir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale.

[Exit.

CLO. Pray, fir, by your good favour, (for, furely, fir, a good favour' you have, but that you have a hanging look,) do you call, fir, your occupation a myflery?

ABHOR. Ay, fir; a mystery.

CLO. Painting, fir, I have heard fay, is a mystery; and your whores, fir, being members of my occupa tion, ufing painting, do prove my occupation a mystery: but what myftery there fhould be in hanging, if I fhould be hang'd, I cannot imagine."

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a good favour -] Favour is countenance. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

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why fo tart a favour,

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"To publifh fuch good tidings." STEEVENS.

what mystery, &c.] Though I have adopted an emendation independent of the following note, the omiflion of it would have been unwarrantable. STEEVENS.

what mystery there fhould be in hanging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine.

Abhor. Sir, it is a "mystery.

Clo. Proof.

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