VOL. II. MEASURE "We have ftrict ftatutes and fharp penal laws, "Which I have fuffer'd nineteen years to fleep." And he might have fupported the latter by the following MEASURE. paffage in Hamlet : FOR How ftand I then, "That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, 27. For that, which, if myself might be his judge,} These words feem to have been tranfpofed by accident at the prefs. I would read:-That for which MALONE. 31. Has cenfur'd him already.] I would wish to read: Which according to the old fashion was written: 49. But here they live to end.] So the old copy. Is it not probable that the authot wrote: But where they live to end. The prophecy is not, that future evils fhould end ere or before they are born; or in other words, that there should be no more evil in the world; (as Sir T. Hanmer by his alteration feems to have understood it) but, that they should end where they began; i. e. with the criminal, who being punished for his first offence, could not proceed by fucceffive degrees in wickednefs, nor excite others, by his impunity, to vice. So, in the next speech: "And do him right, that anfw'ring this foul wrong, "Lives not to act another." It is more likely that a letter fhould have been omitted at the prefs, than that one fhould have been added. MALONE. Ibid. After Mr. Steevens's note 3.-Again, in The Tws Noble Kinfmen, 1634: "Thou bring'ft fuch pelting fcurvy news continually, "Thou art not worthy life." MALONE. 50. We cannot weigh our brother with our felf:] After Dr. Johnfon's note.-The reading of the old copy is confirmed by a paffage in Act V. "If he had fo offended, "He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself, "And not have cut him off." MALONE. 58. Heaven 58. Whilft my intention] Invention is the reading of VOL. II. both the first and fecond folio. MALONE. Ibid. Heaven is in my mouth,] The old copy reads: Heaven in my mouth, i. e. heaven being in my mouth, I do not fee any need of change. MALONE. 59. -Blood thou art but blood] But has been introduced by fome of the modern editors. It is not in either the firft or fecond folio. MALONE. 62. Note] Add, after the paffage quoted from Timon→→ Again, in The Winter's Tale: "As rank as any flax-wench that puts to, Add, at the end of the note: Means, I fuppofe, is here used for medium or object. Moulds, however, if the paffage be corrupt, (which I do not believe to be the cafe) is a very likely word to have stood here. So, in Coriolanus: "--the honour'd mould "Wherein this trunk was fram'd." Again, in K. Richard II. 66 that bed, that womb "That mettle, that felf-fame mould that fashioned thee, Again, in K. Lear: "Crack Nature's moulds, all germins fpill at once, MALONE. 66. But in the lofs of question.] Add to my note.-So, in Melvil's Memoirs, 1683: "Having tofs'd fome words upon this matter, the being defirous of an honest colour or pretext, appeared the more readily fatisfied in that point.' Question is here ufed, as in many other places, for converfation. MALONE. " 71. That none but fools would keep :] Mr. Steevens's explanation is confirmed by a paffage in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623: "Of what is't fools make fuch vain keeping? "- Their life a general mift of error, "Their death a hideous ftorm of terror." Keeping is there apparently used for account, eftimation. Gorges, 1614: "She takes no keepe of Augurs' skill.”. VOL. I. H Again, MEASURE FOR MEASURE. VOL. II. MEASURE FOR Again, in Gower de Confeffione Amantis, edit. 1554, fol. 188. See the Gloffary to the late edit. of the Canterbury Tales of MEASURE. Chaucer, v kepe. MALONE. -a breath thou art, 72. Servile to all the fkiey influences, That deft this habitation, where thou keep'st, The editors have changed [doft] to [do] without neceffity or authority. The conftruction is not, "the fkiey influences, that do," but, "a breath thou art, that doft &c." If the fecond line be inclofed in a parenthesis, all the difficulty will vanish. PORSON. 77. After Steevens's fecond note.] I would point the lines thus: Claud. Now, fifter, what's the comfort? Ifab. Why, as all comforts are, moft good. Indeed lord Angelo &c. Indeed is the fame as in truth, or truly, the common beginning of fpeeches in Shakspeare's age. See Charles the First's Trial. The king and Bradshaw seldom fay any thing without this preface: "Truly, Sir.” E. 78. Though all the world's vaftidity-] The old copy reads: Through all &c. MALONE. 81. Has he affections in him That thus can make him bite the law by the nofe? Or of the deadly feven it is the leaft.] I was led into a mistake concerning this paffage, and into a hafty cenfure of Dr. Warburton, by the falle pointing of the modern editions, according to which, the word force could not admit of his interpretation. But I am now convinced that he was right, and that thefe lines fhould be pointed thus: -Has he affections in him That thus can make him bite the law by the nofe, Or of the deadly feven it is the leaft. Is he actuated by paffions that impel him to tranfgrefs the law, at the very moment that he is enforcing it against others? [I find, he is.] Surely then [fince this is fo general a propenfity] it is no fin, or at least a venial one. 66 So, in the next act: A deflower'd maid « And "And by an eminent body that enforc'd Force is again used for enforce in K. Henry VIII. Again, in Coriolanus: "Why force you this ?" MALONE. 87. beflow'd her on her own lamentation- -j I believe the words are tranfpofed, and that the author wrote: -beftow'd on her her own lamentation. MALONE. 91. Free from all faults &c] The first and second folio have: MALONE. Free from our faults92. Pygmalion's images &c.] To follow Mr. Steevens's note.-By Pygmalion's images newly made women, I do not underftand, with Mr. Steevens, virgins as fresh as if they came re sently from the hands of Pygmalion. I rather think the meaning is: Is there no courtezan, who being newly made woman, [i. e. lately debauched,] ftill retains the appearance of chastity, and looks as cold as a ftatue, to be had &c. The following paffage in Blurt Mafter Conftable, a comedy, by Middleton, 1602, feems to authorize this interpretation: "Laz. Are all thefe women? "Imp. No, no, they are half men, and half women. "Laz. You apprehend too faft. I mean by women, wives; for wives are no maids, nor are maids women.' Mulier in Latin had precifely the fame meaning. MALONE. 94. You will turn good bufband now, Pompey; you will keep the house.] Alluding to the etymology of the word husband. MALONE. 95. Then Pompey? nor now.] I think there fhould not be a note of interrogation here. The meaning is: I will neither bail thee then, nor now. So again, in this play: MALONE. "More, nor lefs to others paying.' 103. To weed my vice and let his grow!] To follow Mr. Steevens's note .-My vice, for the vices of my dukedom, appears to me very harfh. My, does not, I apprehend, relate to the duke in particular, who had not been guilty of any vice, but to any indefinite perfon.-The meaning feems to be-to destroy by extirpation, (as it is expreffed in another place) a fault that I have committed, and to fuffer his own vices to grow to a rank and luxuriant height. H 2 The VOL. II. MEASURE FOR MEASURE VOL. II. MEASURE FOR The fpeaker, for the fake of argument, puts himself in the cafe of an offending perfon. MALONE. Ibid. Though angel on the outward fide!] Here we see what MEASURE, induced the author to give the outward-fainted deputy the name of Angelo. MALONE. Ibid. How may likeness made in crimes, To draw &c.] Thus this paffage ftands both in the first and second folio. The only corruption, I fufpect, is in the word made, inftead of which, I believe, Shakspeare wrote wade. I here are frequent inftances in thefe plays of the letters m and w being confounded by the printer. In this very play there is great reason to believe that flawes is printed inftead of flames.-So, in Macbeth, we meet : 66 -Thou fure and firm-fet earth," "Hear not my fteps which they may walk." inftead of-which way they walk. Again, in K. John: "Against the wind;" inftead of mind. Again, in K. Henry V. and his fiege is "Come go me in proceffion to the village." The fenfe then of the paffage will be-How may perfons affuming the femblance of virtue, indulge in the groffeft crimes! praclifing on mankind, in order to draw to themselves, by the flimfeft pretenfions, the meft folid advantages. Likeness is here used for fpecious or feeming virtue-So, before: O feeming, feeming!" With refpect to the word now propofed, it is used by Shakspeare nearly in the fenfe required here, in Macbeth: "I am in blood, Stept in fo far, that should I wade no more, Nor farther wade in fuch a cafe as this." MALONE. 104. Take, oh take-] To follow Mr. Steevens's note '. Again, in his Venus and Adonis, 1593: Pure lips, fweet feals on my foft lips imprinted, "What bargains may I make ftill to be fealing." MALONE. 115. To |