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Hold therefore, Angelo ;

In our remove, be thou at full ourself;
Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: Old Escalus,
Though firft in queftion 9, is thy fecondary:
Take thy commiffion.

Ang. Now, good my lord,

Let there be fome more teft made of my metal,
Before fo noble and so great a figure

Be ftamp'd upon it.

Duke. No more evafion:

We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice
Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.
Our hafte from hence is of fo quick condition,
That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd
Matters of needful value. We fhall write to you,
As time and our concernings fhall impórtune,
How it goes with us; and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare you well:
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commiffions.

8 Hold therefore, Angelo:] That is, continue to be Angelo; bold as thou art. JOHNSON.

I believe that-Hold therefore Angelo, are the words which the duke utters on tendering his commiffion to him. He concludes with-Take tby commiffion. STEEVENS.

If a full point be put after therefore, the duke may be understood to speak of himself. Hold therefore, i. c. Let me therefore hold, or ftop. And the sense of the whole paffage may be this. The duke, who has begun an exhortation to Angelo, checks himself thus. "But I am fpeaking to one, that can in bim [in, or by himself] apprehend my part (all that I have to fay]: I will therefore fay no more [on that fubject]." He then merely fignifies to Angelo his appointment.

TYRWHITT.

9-first in question,] That is, firft called for; first appointed. JOHNSON. We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice Leaven'd choice is one of Shakspeare's harth metaphors. His train of ideas feems to be this. I bave proceeded to you with choice mature, concocted, fermented, leavened. When bread is leavened it is left to ferment: a leavened choice is therefore a choice not hafty, but confiderate, not declared as foon as it fell into the imagination, but suffered to work long in the mind. JOHNSON.

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Ang. Yet, give leave, my lord,

That we may bring you fomething on the way 2.
Duke. My hafte may not admit it;

Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
With any fcruple: your fcope 3 is as mine own;
So to inforce, or qualify the laws,

As to your
foul feems good. Give me your hand; .
I'll privily away: I love the people,
But do not like to ftage me to their eyes:
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applaufe, and aves vehement;
Nor do I think the man of fafe difcretion,
That does affect it. Once more, fare
you well.
Ang. The heavens give fafety to your purposes!
Efcal. Lead forth, and bring you back in happiness!
Duke. I thank you: Fare you well.

Efcal. I fhall defire you, fir, to give me leave

To have free fpeech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place :

A power I have; but of what ftrength and nature
I am not yet inftructed.

[Exit:

Ang. 'Tis fo with me:-Let us withdraw together, And we may foon our fatisfaction have

Touching that point.

Efcal. I'll wait upon your honour.

SCENE II:

A Street.

Enter Lucio, and two Gentlemen.

[Exeunt.

Lucio. If the duke, with the other dukes, come not to compofition with the king of Hungary, why, then all the dukes fall upon the king.

1 Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the king of Hungary's!

2 Gent. Amen.

2

bring you fomething on the way. i. c. accompany you. The fame mode of expreffion is to be found in almost every writer of the

times.

REED.

3 yr feope] That is, Your amplitude of power. JOHNSON.

Lucio. Thou concludeft like the fanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but fcraped one out of the table.

2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal? Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

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 thankfgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

2 Gent. I never heard any foldier dislike it.

Lucio. I believe thee; for, I think, thou neve

where grace was faid.

2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least.

1 Gent. What? in metre + ?

Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language.

1 Gent. I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, defpight of all controverfy As for example; Thou thyfelf art a wicked villain, defpight of all grace.

:

1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of fheers between us. Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lifts and the velvet: Thou art the lift.

I 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 English kerfey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet". Do I fpeak feelingly now?

4

Lucio.

in metre?] In the primers, there are metrical graces, such as, I fuppofe, were used in Shakspeare's time. JOHNSON.

5 Grace is grace, defpight of all controverly:] The question is, whether the fecond gentleman has ever heard grace. The first gentleman limits the question to grace in metre. Lucio enlarges it to grace in any form or language. The first 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. Difference in religion cannot make a grace not to be grace, a prayer not to be bely; as nothing can make a villain not to be a villain. This feems to be the meaning, fuch as it is. JOHNSON.

6 there went but a pair of sheers between us.] We are both of the fame piece. JOHNSON.

7-pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet.] The jest about the pile of a French velvet alludes to the lofs of hair in the French dif

cafe,

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, whilft I live, forget to drink after thee.

1 Gent. I think, I have done myself wrong; have I not? 2 Gent. Yes, that thou haft; whether thou art tainted or free.

1 Gent. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes! 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.

1 Gent. Ay, and more.

Lucio. A French crown more1.

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 fo fo found, as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee.

Enter Bawd.

1 Gent. How now? Which of your hips has the moft profound sciatica ?

Bawd. Well, well; there's one yonder arrefted, and carry'd to prison, was worth five thousand of you all.

eafe, a very frequent topick of our author's jocularity. Lucio finding that the gentleman understands the diftemper fo well, and mentions it fo feelingly, promifes to remember to drink his bealth, but to forget to drink after bim. It was the opinion of Shakspeare's time, that the cup of an infected perfon was contagious. JOHNSON.

The jeft lies between the fimilar found of the words pill'd and pild. This I have elsewhere explained, under a passage in Henry VIII : “ Pill'd prieft thou lieft." STEEVENS.

8 Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes!] In the old copy this fpeech, and the next but one, are attributed to Lucio. The prefent regulation was fuggefted by Mr. Pope. What Lucio fays afterwards, A French crown more," proves that it is right. He would not utter sarcasm against himself. MALONE.

9 To three thousand dollars a year.] A quibble intended between dollars and dolours. HANMER.

The fame jest occurred before in the Tempeft. JOHNSON.

A French crown more.] Lucio means here not the piece of money fo called, but that venereal fcab, which among the furgeons is ftyled corana Veneris.

THEOBALD.

a Gent.

1 Gent. Who's that, I pr'ythee?

Bawd, Marry, fir, that's Claudio, fignior 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's to be chopp'd 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 promifed to meet me two hours fince; and he was ever precife in promife-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 proclamation. Lucio. Away; let's go learn the truth of it.

[Exeunt LUCIO and gentlemen. Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat 2, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am cuftom-fhrunk. How now? what's the news with you? Enter Clown 3.

Clown. Yonder man is carry'd to prison.

Bawd. Well; what has he done?

Clown. A woman 4.

2

Bawd.

what with the fweat,] This may allude to the fweating fick nefs, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shakspeare: but more probably to the method of cure then ufed for the diseases contracted in brothels. JOHNSON.

3 Enter Clown.] As this is the firft clown who makes his appearance in the plays of our author, it may not be amifs, from a paffage in Tarlton's News out of Purgatory, to point out one of the ancient dresses appropriated to the character: " - I fawe one attired in ruffet, with a

button'd cap on his head, a bag by his fide, and a strong bat in his "hand; fo artificially attired for a clowne, as I began to call Tarl"ton's woonted fhape to remembrance." STEEVENS.

Such perhaps was the dress of the Clown in All's well that ends well and Twelfth Night; Touchstone in As you like it, &c. The prefent clown however (as an anonymous writer has obferved) is only the tapfter of a brothel, and probably was not fo appareled. MALONE. 4- What bas be done?

Clown. Awoman.] The ancient meaning of the verb to do (though now obfolete) may be guefs'd at from the following paffage :

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