Ang. Now, good my lord, Let there be some more teft made of my metal, Duke. Come, no more evafion : Ang. Yet give leave, my lord, That we may bring you fomething on the way. & Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do 3 We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice.] Leaven'd has no fenfe in this place: we should read LEVEL'D choice. The allufion is to archery, when a man has fixed upon his object, after taking good aim. WARBURTON. No emendation is neceffary. Leaven'd choice is one of ShakeSpear's harsh metaphors. His train of ideas feem to be this. I have proceeded to you with choice mature, concocted, fermented, leaver'd. When Bread is leaver'd, it is left to ferment: a leaven'd choice is therefore a choice not hafty, but confiderate, not declared as foon as it fell into the imagination, but fuffered to work long in the mind. Thus explained, it fuits better with prepared than levelled. 4-Your scope is as mine ovn.] That is, Your amplitude of power. Nor Nor do I think the man of fafe discretion, nefs! [Exit, Duke. I thank you, fare ye well. Efcal. I fhall defire you, Sir, to give me leave To have free fpeech with you; and it concerns me To look into the bottom of my Place: A pow'r I have, but of what itrength and nature Let us withdraw together, Efcal. I'll wait upon your Honour. [Exeunt. SCENE The Street. Enter Lucio, and two gentlemen. Lucio. F Lucio. TF the Duke, with the other Dukes, come not to compofition with the King of Hungary, why, then all the Dukes fall upon the King. i Gent. Heav'n grant us its peace, but not the King of Hungary's! 2 Gent. Amen. NE III. Lucio. Thou conclud'ft like the fanctimonious Pirate, that went to fea with the ten Commandments, but fcrap'd one out of the Table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal?. Lucio. Ay, that he raz'd. 1 Gent. Why, 'twas a Commandment to command the captain and all the reft from their functions; they put forth to fteal. There's not a foldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relifh the petition well that prays for Peace. 2 Gent. 2 Gent. I never heard any foldier diflike it. Lucio. I believe thee: for, I think, thou never wast where grace was faid. 2 Gent. No? a dozen times at leaft. 1 Gent. What?* in meeter? Lucio. In any proportion, 5 or in any language. 1 Gent. I think, or in any religion. Lucio. Ay, why not? grace is grace, defpite of all controverfy; as for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, defpight of all grace. 1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of fheers be tween us. 7 Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lifts and the velvet. Thou art the lift. 1 Gent. And thou the velvet; thou art good velvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a lift of an Englifh kerfey, as be pil'd, In the primers, there are metrical graces, fuch as, I fup. pofe, were used in Shakespear's time. 5 In any proportion, &c.] The Oxford Editor gives us a dialogue of his own inftead of this: And all for want of knowing the meaning of the word proportion, which fignifies meafure: and refers to the queftion, What, in meeter? WARBURTON. 6 Despite of all controverfie.] Satirically infinuating that the controverfies about grace were fo intricate and endlefs, that the difputants unfettled every thing but this, that grace was grace; which, however, in fpite of controversy, ftill remained certain, WARBURTON. I am in doubt whether ShakeSpear's thoughts reached fo far in10 ecclefiaftical difputes. Every Commentator is warped a little by the tract of his own profeffion. The queftion is whether the fecond Gentleman has ever heard grace. The firft Gentleman limits the question to Grace in meeter. Lucio enlarges it to Grace in any form or language. The firft Gentleman, to go beyond him, fays, or in any religion, which Lucio allows, because the nature of things is unalterable; Grace is as immutably Grace, as his merry antagonist is a wicked villain. Diffe rence of religion cannot make a Grace not to be Grace, a Prayer not to be holy; as nothing can make a villain not to be a villain. This feems to be the meaning, fuch as it is. 7 There went but a pair of fheers between us.] We are both of the fame piece. as Do I speak as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet. Lucio. I think thou doft; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy fpeech: I will, out of thine own confeffion, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee. I Gent. I think, I have done myself wrong, have I not? 2 Gent. Yes, that thou haft, whether thou art -tainted, or free. Lucio. Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes. 1 Gent. I have purchased as many diseases under her roof, as come to 2 Gent. To what I pray ? 1 Gent. Judge. 2 Gent. To three thousand dollars a year. 9 1 Gent. Ay, and more. Lucio. A French crown more. 1 Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error; I am sound. Lucio. Nay, not as one would fay healthy, but so found, as things that are hollow; thy bones are hollow; impiety hath made a feaft of thee. S Piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet.]. The jeft about the pile of a French velvet, alludes to the lofs of hair in the French difeaie, a very frequent topick of our authour's jocularity. Lucio finding that the gentleman understands the diflemper fo well, and mentions it fo feel ingly, promifes, to remember to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him. It was the opinion of Shakespear's time, that the cup of an infected perion was contagious. 9 A quibble intended between dollars and dolours. HANMER. SCENE IV. Enter Bawd, 1 Gent. How now, which of your hips has the most profound fciatica ? Bard. Well, well; there's one yonder arrested, and carry'd to prifon, was worth five thousand of you all. 1 Gent. Who's that, I pr'ythee? Bawd. Marry, Sir, that's Claudio; Signior Claudio, 1 Gent. Claudio to prifon? 'tis not fo. Bawd. Nay, but I know, 'tis fo. I faw him arrested; faw him carry'd away; and, which is more, within these three days his head is to be chopt off. Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it fo. Art thou fure of this? Bawd. I am too fure of it; and it is for getting madam Julietta with child. Lucio. Believe me, this may be. He promised to meet me two hours fince, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping. 2 Gent. Befides, you know, it draws fomething near to the speech we had to fuch a purpose. 1 Gent. But most of all agreeing with the proclama, tion. Lucio. Away, let's go learn the truth of it. [Exe. Manet Bawd. Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the fweat, what with the gallows, and what with pover 2 2 What with the sweat.] This may allude to the Sweating fick nefs, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shake spear: but more probably to the |