Isab. Why, 'her unhappy brother'? let me ask
The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Isabella and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Isab. Woe me! for what?

Lucio. For that which, if myself might be his judge,

He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

Isab. Sir, make me not your story.

Lucio.

It is true. 30
I would not-though 'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart-play with all virgins

SO:

I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis

thus:

Your brother and his lover have embraced: 40 As those that feed grow full,-as blossoming time,

30. “make me not your story”; such is the reading of the original; the me being expletive, as in the well-known passage setting forth the virtues of sack: "It ascends me into the brain," &c. So that the meaning is,-"Make not your tale, invent not your fiction." Malone improved the passage thus: "Sir, mock me not,-your story"; which, surely, renders Lucio's reply, 'tis true, very unapt.-H. N. H.

That from the seedness the bare fallow brings To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb

Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Isab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin Juliet?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their

names

By vain, though apt, affection.
Lucio.

Isab. O, let him marry her.
Lucio.

She it is.

This is the point.

The duke is very strangely gone from hence; 50
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge 60
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He-to give fear to use and liberty,

51. "bore in hand"; "To bear in hand," says Richardson, "is merely to carry along with us, to lead along, as suitors, dependants, expectants, believers." The phrase is not uncommon in old writers. Thus, in 2 Henry IV, Act. i. sc. 2: “A rascally yeaforsooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security!"-H. N. H.

62. That is, to put the restraint of fear upon licentious custom and abused freedom.-H. N. H.

Which have for long run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions-hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigor of the statute,
To make him an example. All hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of busi-

ness

'Twixt you and your poor brother. Isab. Doth he so seek his life?

Lucio.

Has censured him

Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath

A warrant for his execution.

Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me

To do him good?

Lucio.
Isab. My power? Alas, I doubt,-
Lucio.

Assay the power you have.

70

Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo, And let him learn to know, when maidens sue, Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,

All their petitions are as freely theirs

As they themselves would owe them. Isab. I'll see what I can do.

Lucio.

Isab. I will about it straight;

But speedily.

No longer staying but to give the Mother

81

83. As if they themselves owned the petitions, i. e. had the granting of them in their own hands.-C. H. H.

Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:
Commend me to my brother: soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my success.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Isab.

Good sir, adieu.

90

[Exeunt.

89. "my success"; the issue of my suit.-C. H. H.

ACT SECOND

SCENE I

A hall in Angelo's house.

Enter Angelo, Escalus, and a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants, behind.

Ang. We must not make a scarecrow 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.

Aye, but yet
Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,
Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas, this

tleman,

gen

Whom I would save, had a most noble father!
Let but your honor know,

Whom I believe to be most straight in virtue,
That, in the working of your own affections, 10
Had time cohered with place or place with wish-
ing,

Or that the resolute acting of your blood

6. "fall"; that is, throw down; to fall a tree is still used for to fell it.-H. N. H.

To complete the sense of this line for seems to be required,— "which now you censure him for." But Shakespeare frequently uses elliptical expressions.-H. N. H.