III. ii. 246.

Grace to stand, and virtue go; that is, To have grace to stand firm, and virtue to go forward."

III. ii. 255–258. How may likeness made in crimes, etc. ; these lines do not readily admit of interpretation, and some corruption has probably crept into the text. Malone suggested "How may hypocrisy wade in crimes;" Hanmer, "That likeness shading crimes," etc. None of the suggestions seem very satisfactory. IV. i. 1-6. This songaway," etc.

"Take, O, take those lips - appears in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bloody Brother, with the addition of the following stanza, assuredly not Shakespeare's, though found in the spurious edition of his poems (1640):

"Hide, O, hide those hills of snow
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears:
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee."

IV. i. 14, 15. Johnson explains these lines thus: Though the music soothed my sorrows, it had no tendency to produce light merriment."

66

IV. ii. 39-42. If it be too little thief; the Folios give this to Clo. (Pompey); Capell first transferred it to Abhorson, and he has been followed by most editors. Cowden Clarke defends the Folio arrangement; among other arguments he maintains that "the speech is much more in character with the clown's snip-snap style of chop-logic than with Abhorson's manner, which is remarkably curt and bluff.”

IV. iv. 5. redeliver. Folio 1, "re-liuer;' Folio 2, "deliuer." Capell first suggested "redeliver."

IV. iv. 24. bears of a credent bulk; so Folios 1, 2, 3. Many emendations have been proposed; Dyce's seems the most plausible, "bears so credent bulk;" credent bulk weight of credit.

=

V. i. 64, 65. do not banish reason, For inequality; that is, because of "improbability," "incongruity," or, according to some, “partiality.”

V. i. 319. a barber's shop. Barbers' shops, according to Nares, "were places of great resort, for passing away time in an idle manner. By way of enforcing some kind of regularity, and perhaps at least as much to promote drinking, certain laws were usually hung up, the transgression of which was to be punished by specific forfeitures. It is not to be wondered that laws of that nature were as often laughed at as obeyed."

V. i. 352. be hanged an hour seems to have been a cant phrase, meaning little more than "be hanged!

V. i. 490.

Give me your hand; that is, "If you give me your hand."

Here Malone says (what Theobald had said long before him), "I have not the smallest doubt that the compositor's eye glanced from the middle of the second of these lines to that under it in the Ms., and that by this means two half lines have been omitted,”—which is more than doubtful.

22.

Of our own power: what think you of it? By humouring this line (that is, by making "power," a dissyllable, and laying an emphasis on "you"), the reader may perhaps persuade himself that Pope's emendation was not required to render it metrical,

32.

Of our own power: say what think you of it?”

they. Usually altered (with Hanmer) to "them." 43. Hold, therefore, Angelo. Dyce adds to this line,

in brackets, the words Tendering his commission, and says: "To my great surprise, Grant White prints

Hold, therefore, Angelo, [our place and power:]'

and, in his note on the passage, treats as ludicrous the idea of the Duke extending a roll of parchment to Angelo, crying “Hold!” But let us hear Gifford, who,

on the words 'Hold thee, drunkard,' in Jonson's Catiline, remarks: That is, take the letter. There is no expression in the English language more common than this, which is to be found in almost every page of our old writers; yet the commentators on Shakespeare, with the exception of Steevens, who speaks doubtfully on the subject, misunderstand it altogether. In Measure for Measure, the Duke, on producing Angelo's commission, says, "Hold, therefore, Angelo," etc. (Jonson's Works, iv. 347)."

61. commissions. Is this right (the Duke addressing both Angelo and Escalus); or ought we to read, with the second folio, "commission”?

SCENE II.-15. before.

29. lists. So the folio.

Hanmer substituted "after."
Dyce reads “list.”

43-45. Lucio. Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes! I have purchased as many diseases under her roof as

"First Gent. I have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to

47. Lucio. So the folio. Dyce has "First Gent." 65. his head to be chopped off. The folio reading. Dyce reads "his head's to be,” etc.

91. All houses. Tyrwhitt would read "All bawdyhouses" (and so Collier's Ms. Corrector), or (as presently after) "All houses of resort."

109. there's Madam Juliet. In the stage-direction which follows, Collier's Ms. Corrector strikes out "JuLIET," and Mr. Halliwell changes it to "Gaoler;" but, whatever the seeming impropriety of her being on the stage during this scene, are not Pompey's words, "there's Madam Juliet," decisive that the author intended her to appear? Ritson would send Juliet off with the Provost's Officers, when Claudio stops to speak to Lucio.

115. offence. "Perhaps plural, offence'.".

Crit. Exam. ii. 249.

Walker's

116. The words of heaven. So the folio. Dyce adopts the conjecture of Roberts, and reads "sword" for "words." So also Staunton.

117. yet still 'tis just. The folio reading. Dyce reads “yet 'tis just still," because "Walker (Crit. Exam. ii. 249) saw that ‹ a rhyme is required here.”

The stage-direction which follows ("Re-enter Lucio,” etc.) is that of the modern editors. The folio makes Lucio and the two Gentlemen enter along with the Provost, Claudio, etc., having in that place "Scena Tertia,” and marking there (as it sometimes does elsewhere at the commencement of a scene) the entrance of all the persons who are successively to take part in the scene. The common acting-copies of Measure for Measure properly make Lucio and his friends re-enter here.

127. the morality. The folio has "the mortality." Corrected by Davenant in his Law against Lovers (a drama formed out of Measure for Measure and Much Ado about Nothing).