of the same fault, however frequently repeat

ed.

STEEVENS.

P. 130, 1. 22 -- 25

Has he affections in him, etc.] Is he actuated by passions that impel him tostrans ress the law, at the very moment that he is enforcing it against others? [1 find, he is.]· Su rely then, since this is so general a propensity, since the judge is as criminal as the whom he condemns, it is no sin, or at least a venial one. MALONE. Sure it is no sing

P. 130, 1. 24. 25.

Or of the deadly seven it is the least.] It may be useful to know which they are; the reader is therefore presented with the following catalogue of them, viz Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Covetousness, Gluttony, and Lechery. To recapi tulate the punishments hereafter for these sins, might have too powerful an effect upon the weak nerves of the present generation; but whoever is desirous of being particularly acquainted with them may find information in some of the old monkish systems of divinity, and especially in a curious book entitled Le Kalendrier des Ber giers, 1500. folio, of which there is an English translation DOUCED

3 P130, 37 29. If it were damnable, etc.] Shakspeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. When Isabella first tells him of Angelo's proposal, he answers, with honest, indiguation, agreeably to his settled principles,

Thou shalt not do't.

But the love of life being permitted to operate soon furnishes him with sophistical arguments; le believes it cannot be very dangerous to the

soul, since Angelo, who is so wise, will veňture it. JOHNSON.

STEEVENS

P. 131, first 1. the delighted spirit i e. ther spirit accustomed here to ease and delights. This was properly urged as an aggravation to the sharpness of the torments spoken of. The Oxford editor not apprehending this, alters it to dilated As if, because the spirit in the body is said to be 'imprisoned, it was crowded together likewise; a and so by death not only set free, but expanded too; which, if true, would make it the less sen sible of pain. WARBURTON.

This reading may perhaps stand, but many Late in tempts have been made to correct it. The most › plausible is that which substitutes

the benighted spirit, ·

alluding to the darkness always supposed in the di place of future punishment.

Perhaps we may read:

the delinquent spirit,

a word easily changed to delighted by a bad copier, or unskilful reader. Deliquent is sed by Thirbly in his manuscript. JOHNSON.

I think with Dr. Warburtou, that by the delighted spirit is meant, the soul once accustomed to delight, which of course must render the suf ferings, afterwards described, less tolerable. Thus our author calls youth, blessed, in a former scene, before he proceeds to show its wants and its inconveniencies. STEEVENs.

P. 131, 1. 68. or to be worse than worst Of those, that lawless and incertain

*

thoughts

Imagine howling! —] Conjecture sent

out to wander without any certain direction, and ranging through possibilities of pain.

ཝཱ

JOHNSON.

P. 131, 1. 1 — 12. Most certainly the idea of the,,spirit bathing in fiery floods," or of residing ,,in thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice," is not original to our poet; but I am not sure that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil. The monks also had their hot and their cold hell; 1 ,,the fyrste is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," says an old homily: ,,The seconde is passyng cold, that yf a greate hylle of fyre were cast theriu, it shold torne to yce." One of their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakspeare, gives us a dialogue between a bishop and a soul tormented in a piece of ice which was brought to cure a brenning heate in his foot; take care, that you do not interpret this thes gout, for I remember Menage quotes a canon upón us:

"Si quis dixerit episcopum podagra laborare, anathema sit."

Another tells us of the soul of a monk fastened to a rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and purge of its enormities. Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into, poetick fiction, as you may see in a pocm, ,,where the lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of hell," among the many miscella neous ones, subjoined to the works of Surrey of which you will soon have a beautiful edition from the able hand of my friend Dr. Percy. Nay, a very learned and inquisitive brother - antiquary hath observed to me, on the authority of Blefke nius, that this was the ancient opinion of the in

Habitants of Iceland) who were certainly "wery little read either in the poet or philosophertos FARMER

delatatus, in The Shepherd's Calendar, zis se résenteds to have seen these particular modes of withsient in the infernal regions: L*** *#3, Secondly, * I have seen in hell a foud frozen

ce, wherein the envious men and women were pianged unto the navel, and then suddainly came over them a right cold and great wind that grieved and painted them right sore, etc

1

STEEVENS. **Pi*igr, l. 21. 22. Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

From thine own sister's shame }ľa Isabella's declamationt here is something harsh, and something forced and far-fetched. But her indignation cannot be thought violent, when wę êon sider 'her' hot only as a virgin, but as a num.pos 9 6 agoHNSON. P. 131, 195. Wilderness is i Hereo vused for wildness, the state of being disorderly.

500 12 og blch I STEEVINS. P. 131, 1. 26. Defiance is refusal STEEVENSİS 50P¥13ì‚ül. ^33. Thy sin's or accidentak, sbist a Meer vserade ] A custom; a practice; tan established habit. So we may Of a mai much addicted to any things he mukedTa trade of it. JOHNSON.

kolplan zehnjat 211 Donnie satisfy jourɛ refblution with hopes that are fallibles] A condemned mah po whống this confessor had brought to Sear AGRUMIE Tecency and resofision, begann lanew pointértani, “lopos of Kifejonphis occasioned the advice hkvörês abávaunut krow. diɖralle Aspes misfy his resolution? or what harm was Ilakere,

there, if they did? We must certainly read, Do not falsify your resolution with hopes that are fallible. And then it becomes a reasonable admonition. For hopes of life, by drawing him back into the world, would naturally elude or, weaken the virtue of that resolution which was raised only on motives of religion. And this his con

fessor had reason to warn him of. The ter falsify is taken from fencing, and signifies the pretending to aim a stroke, in order to draw the adversary off his guard. So, Fairfax:

,,Now strikes he out, and now he falsifieth." WARBURTON.

The sense is this:

Do not rest with satisfaction on hopes that are fallible, There is no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the meaning is, Do not satisfy or consent yourself with that kind of resolution, which acquires strength from a latent hope that it will. not be put to the test; a hope, that in your gase, if you rely upon it, will deceive you.

1

MALONE. emp. 132, 1. 27. Hold you there:] Continue in that resolution.

R133, first 1. heure, so be it,

JOHNSON.

In good time.] i, e. à la bonne very well.

STEEVENS.

..P. 135, 1. 20. he made trial of you only, -] That is, he will say he made trial of you only.

M. MASON. P. 134, l. 13. Combinate is betrothed, settled by contract.

STEEVENS...

P. 134, 1. 19. bestowed her on her own la *mentation,] i. e. left her to her sorrows. Malone. Rather, as our author expresses himself in King Henry V. gave her up" to them.

19 VOL. II.