My abfolute Pow'r and Place here in Vienna ;
And he fuppofes me travell'd to Poland;
For fo I've ftrew'd it in the common ear,
And fo it is receiv'd: now, pious Sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have ftrict Statutes and most biting Laws, The needful bits and curbs for head ftrong Steeds, Which for thefe nineteen years we have let fleep; 2 Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to ftick it in their Children's fight,
For terror, not to ufe; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: fo our Decrees,

A man of STRICT URE and let flip.] For fourteen I have firm abftinence.

i. e a man of the exacteft conduct, and practifed in the fubdual of his paflions. Ure an old word for ufe, practice, fo enur'd, habitu..ted to. WARBURTON. Str.cture may easily be used for firitnefs; ure is indeed an old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to perfons.

In the copies, The needful Bits and Curbs for headstrong Weeds:] There is no matter of Analogy or Confonance, in the Metaphors here: and, tho' the Copies agree, I do not think, the Author would have talk'd of Bits and Curbs for Weeds. On the other hand, nothing can be more proper, than to compare Perfons of unbridled Licentiousness to head ftrong Steeds: and, in this View, bridling the Paffions has been a Phrafe adopted by our belt Poets. THEOBALD.

2 In former editions, Which for thefe fourteen years we have

made no Scruple to replace nine-
teen. I have alter'd the odd
Phrafe of letting the Laws flip:
for how does it fort with the
Comparison that follows, of a
Lion in his Cave that went not
out to prey? But letting the
Law fleep, adds a particular Pro-
priety to the thing represented,
and accords exactly too with the
Simile. It is the Metaphor too,
that our Author feems fond of
ufing upon this Occafion, in fe-
veral other Paffages of this Play.
The Law hath not been dead,
tho' it bath flept;
-'Tis now awake.

And fo, again,

Awakes me all th' enrolled Pe———but this new Governor nalties;

and for a Name Now puts the drowsy and neg lected A&

Frey on me.

THEOBALD.

Dead

Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks Justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurfe, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It rested in your Grace

T'unloose this ty'd up juftice, when you pleas'd: And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd, Than in lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful.

Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them,
For what I bid them do. For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permiffive pafs,

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office:

Who may in th'ambush of my name strike home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight

To do it flander. 3 And to behold his fway,
I.will, as 'twere a Brother of your Order,

Vifit both prince and people. Therefore, pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and inftruct me
How I may formally in perfon bear,

Like a true Friar. More reafons for this action
At our more leifure fhall I render you;
Only, this one:Lord Angelo is precife;
Stands at a guard 4 with envy; fcarce confeffes
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: hence fhall we fee,

If pow'r change purpofe, what our feemers be. [Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

A NUNNERY,

Enter Ifabella and Francifca.

Ijab. A Nun. Are not thefe large enough?

ND have you Nuns no further privileges?

Ifab. Yes, truly; 1 fpeak not as defiring more;
But rather wifhing a more ftrict restraint
Upon the fifter-hood, the votarifts of Saint Clare.
Lucio. [within.] Hoa! Peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice. Gentle Ifabella,
Turn you the key, and know his business of him;
You may; I may not; you are yet unfworn:
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the prefence of the Priorefs;

Then, if you speak, you must not shew your face;
Or, if you fhew your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; I pray you, anfwer him. [Exit Franc.
jak. Peace and profperity! who is't that calls?

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, (if you be) as thofe cheek-rofes Proclaim you are no lefs; can you so stead me, As bring me to the fight of lfabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair fifter

To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Ijab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask The rather, for I now muft make you know

I am that labelle, and his fifter.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you; Not to be weary with y u, he's in prifon.

Ifab. Wo me! for what?

Lucic. For that, which, if myfelf might be his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks;

He

He hath

got his friend with child.

Ifab. Sir, make me not your story. 5

Lucio. 'Tis true:-I would not (tho' 'tis my familiar fin

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,
Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo.
I hold you as a thing en-fky'd, and fainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal Spirit;
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a Saint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me, Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus, Your brother and his lover having embrac'd, As thofe that feed grow full; as bloffoming time, That from the feednefs the bare fallow brings To teeming foylon, fo her plenteous womb Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry.

Ifab. Some one with child by him?-my cousin Juliet? Ducio. Is fhe your cousin ?

Ifab. Adoptedly, as fchool-maids change their names,

make me not your flory.] Do not, by deceiving me, make me a subject for a tale.

6

tis my familiar fin With maids to feem the lapwing,- The Oxford Editor's note, on this paffage, is in thefe words. The lapwings fly with feeming fright and anxiety far from their nefts, to deceive thofe who feek their young And

do not all other birds do the fame? But what has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover, to whom this bird is compared. It is another quality of the lapwing, that is here alluded to, viz. its perpetually flying fo low and fo near the paffenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is fuddenly gone again. This made is a proverbial expreffion

to fignify a lover's falfhood: and it feems to be a very old one; for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, fays-And lapwings that well conith lie. WARBURTON.

7 as blooming time That from the feedness the bare fallow brings

To teeming foyfon; fo-] As the fentence now ftands it is apparently ungrammatical, I read,

At bloffeming time, &c. That is, As they that feed grow full, so her womb now at blossoming time, at that time through which the feed time proceeds to the harvest, her womb shows what has been doing. Lucia ludicrously calls pregnancy bloffoming time, the time when fruit is promifed, though not yet ripe.

By

By vain, tho' apt, affection.

Lucio. She it is.

Ifab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio. This is the point.

8

The Duke is very ftrangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By thofe that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite diftance
From his true-meant delign. Upon his place,
And with full line 9 of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo; a man whofe blood
Is very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and faft.
He, to give fear to * use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions, hath pickt out an act,
Under whofe heavy fenfe your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrefts him on it;
And follows clofe the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example. All hope's gone,
Unless have the grace by your
you
1 by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo; and that's my pith of business *
'Twixt you and your poor brother.

Ifab. Doth he fo

Seek for his life?

I

Lucio. H'as cenfur'd him already;

And, as I hear, the Provoft hath a warant