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"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; "Words without thoughts never to Heaven go.' 267. "The strong and swelling evil.”

As "evils," in the former scene, is well explained by Mr. Steevens and Mr. Henley, to signify Foricæ, will it appear ludicrous to suppose it may have the same sense here? if this be admitted, we should read, instead of" swelling," smelling; the M and the W, by inversion, are often confounded at the press.

'My gravity, wherein I take pride."

Angelo is reflecting on his former vanity, which, in his present state of mind, he despises; he cannot now take pride in "what he could, with boot, change for an idle plume." We should, I am persuaded, read, "I took pride."

269.

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Blood thou art but blood. "Let's write good angel on the devil's horn;

"'Tis not the devil's crest."

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Dr. Warburton's interpretation of this passage appears to be entirely foreign from the sense implied in Angelo's reflection, which I take to be this: Titles and distinctions, though often falsely applied, are not thereby appropriated: and howsoever they may "wrench awe from fools," and obtain respect even from "the wiser souls," they cannot alter the true qualities of things. Blood is still but blood; depravity, although covered with the garb of virtue, is still depravity: it is the difference expressed between association and connexion. Their sentiment a little varied,

and the conclusion resting on the fair side, is introduced in Macbeth:

"Though all things foul should wear the brows

of grace,

"Yet

grace would still seem so."

"Wrench awe from fools, and tie the

wiser souls."

Better, perhaps, "Yea, tie the wiser souls."

276. "Which had you rather that the most just

law

"Now took your brother's life—”

It would, perhaps, be better:

"Which would you rather that the most just law "Now take your brother's life," &c.

277. "Were equal poize of sin and charity."

We should, I think, read—

279.

""Twere equal poise," &c.

Admit no other way to save his life, "(As I subscribe not that, nor any other, "But in the loss of question,) that you, his sister," &c.

This is confused: we should extend the compass of the parenthesis, and instead of the pronoun "that," read "this."

"Admit (no other way to save his life,

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As I subscribe not this, nor any other,

"But in the loss of question,) that you, his sister," &c.

i. e. By ellipsis, there being no other way, &c.

281. "

Ignomy in ransom and free pardon.”

To justify such a departure from established orthography, as to give ignomy for ignominy, some better authority should be produced, than that, by Mr. Reed, from Troilus and Cressida : it seems to have been, in both cases, merely an error of the press. But why should any one contend for an irregularity, which, when granted, will yield no advantage? Ignomy (admitting such a word) is as lame a member of the line, as that whose place it here usurps; unless, indeed, we merely count syllables, without any regard to customary accentuation:

Ignómy in ransom and free pardón."

But the prosody is evidently deranged. I know not whether this would be any desirable amendment:

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The disorder that has taken place in the metre of this play, appears, indeed, incurable.

284.

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We are made to be no stronger, "Than faults may shake our frames." i. e. Than (that) faults may shake, &c. It is a very harsh ellipsis.

287.

"Who would believe me? O perilous mouths."

We might obtain metre by reading

"Who would believe me? O these perilous mouths."

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I do lose a thing,

"Which none but fools wou'd keep."

Keep," I believe, has here an emphatic sense; not a wish to possess, as Dr. Johnson says, nor, as Mr. Steevens, care for, but guard, embrace, hold fast. Dr. Young, in The Brothers, calls life" a dream which ideots hug;" and this I take to be the sense implied here.

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291. "

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Sleep thou provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more."

Dr. Johnson's indignation is unjustly excited here, and Mr. Steevens's remark (that this was an oversight of Shakspeare) misplaced the poet's meaning was no other than that obvious and innocent one recognised by Mr. Malone, and again occurring in the meditation of Hamlet:

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"No more; and, by a sleep, to say, we end "The heart-ach," &c.

999. "The poor beetle, that we tread upon, "In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great

"As when a giant dies."

The sense intended here cannot readily be mistaken:-a pang as great as that which a giant feels in death :-but the construction is embarrassed. Perhaps we might read,

"As doth a giant dying."

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i. e. I suppose, the state of the body when the circulation of the vital fluids is stopped.

305. "The weariest and most loathed worldly

life,

"That ache, age, penury, imprisonment,
"Can lay on nature, were a paradise
"To what we fear of death."

This sentiment, perhaps too natural, and which the force of Dr. Johnson's virtue was not hardy enough to resist, has, by the robuster mind of Milton, been properly ascribed, in Paradise Lost, to the fallen and depraved archangel:

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Who would lose,

"Tho' full of pain, this intellectual being, "Those thoughts that wander thro' eternity, "To perish rather, swallow'd-up and lost "In the wide womb of uncreated night, "Devoid of sense or motion.

311. "

Refer yourself to this advantage."

i. e. Direct your attention to it.

312. ———————“ The corrupt deputy scaled."

Dr. Johnson's explanation of " scaled," by to scale, i. e. (as he says) to reach him, notwithstanding the elevation of his place, will hardly, I fear, be thought satisfactory: if the author had used the metaphor of the scalade, he would at the same time, I think, have applied to the deputy an epithet different from corrupt, and suitable to his image it would have been the towering deputy, the high-plac'd deputy. By the connexion of

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