A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die 2. LUCIO. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.What's thy offence, Claudio? 3 CLAUD. What, but to speak of would offend again. LUCIO. What is it? murder? CLAUD. No. LUCIO. Lechery? CLAUD. Call it so. PROV. Away, sir; you must go. CLAUD. One word, good friend :-Lucio, a word with you. [Takes him aside. LUCIO. A hundred, if they'll do you any good.— Is lechery so look'd after? CLAUD. Thus stands it with me :-Upon a true contract, I got possession of Julietta's bed'; Ravin is an ancient word for prey. So, in Noah's Flood, by Drayton : "As well of ravine, as that chew the cud." STEEVENS. 2 - when we DRINK, we die.] So, in Revenge for Honour, by Chapman : 66 'Like poison'd rats, which when they've swallowed STEEVENS. 3-as the MORALITY -] The old copy has mortality. It was corrected by Sir William D'Avenant. MALONE. 4 I got possession of Julietta's bed; &c.] This speech is surely too indelicate to be spoken concerning Juliet, before her face; for she appears to be brought in with the rest, though she has nothing to say. The Clown points her out as they enter; and yet, from Claudio's telling Lucio, that he knows the lady, &c. one would think she was not meant to have made her personal appearance on the scene. STEEVENS. The little seeming impropriety there is, will be entirely removed, You know the lady; she is fast my wife, Remaining in the coffer of her friends 5; From whom we thought it meet to hide our love, Till time had made them for us. But it chances, The stealth of our most mutual entertainment, With character too gross, is writ on Juliet. CLAUD. Unhappily, even so. And the new deputy now for the duke,— by supposing that when Claudio stops to speak to Lucio, the Provost's officers depart with Julietta. RITSON. Claudio may be supposed to speak to Lucio apart. MALONE. this we came not to, 5 Only for PROPAGATION of a dower Remaining in the coffer of her friends;] This singular mode of expression certainly demands some elucidation. The sense appears to be this: "We did not think it proper publickly to celebrate our marriage; for this reason, that there might be no hindrance to the payment of Julietta's portion, which was then in the hands of her friends; from whom, therefore, we judged it expedient to conceal our love till we had gained their favour." Propagation being here used to signify payment, must have its root in the Italian word pagare. Edinburgh Magazine for November, 1786. I suppose the speaker means-for the sake of getting such a dower as her friends might hereafter bestow on her, when time had reconciled them to her clandestine marriage. The verb-to propagate, is, however, as obscurely employed by Chapman, in his version of the sixteenth book of Homer's Odyssey: to try if we, 66 "Alone, may propagate to victory Again, in the fourth Iliad, by the same translator, 4to. 1598: 66 I doubt not but this night "Even to the fleete to propagate the Greeks' unturned flight." STEEVENS Perhaps we should read-only for prorogation. MALONE. -the FAULT and GLIMPSE of newness;] Fault and glimpse 6 -- Or whether that the body public be A horse whercon the governor doth ride, Or in his eminence that fills it up, I stagger in:-But this new governor Which have, like unscour'd armour 7, hung by the wall So long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone round, And none of them been worn; and, for a name, Now puts the drowsy and neglected act Freshly on me :-'tis surely, for a name. have so little relation to each other, that both can scarcely be right we may read flash for fault; or, perhaps, we may read, "Whether it be the fault or glimpse That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. Yet the same sense follows in the next lines. JOHNSON. Fault, I apprehend, does not refer to any enormous act done by the deputy, (as Dr. Johnson seems to have thought,) but to newness. The fault and glimpse is the same as the faulty glimpse. And the meaning seems to be-"Whether it be the fault of newness, a fault arising from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority, of which the new governor has yet had only a glimpse,-has yet taken only a hasty survey; or whether," &c. Shakspeare has many similar expressions. MALONE. 7 - like UNSCOUR'D ARMOUR,] So, in Troilus and Cressida :. “Like rusty mail in monumental mockery." STEEVENS. 8 So long, that NINETEEN Zodiacks have gone round,] The Duke, in the scene immediately following, says: 9 "Which for these fourteen years we have let slip." THEOBALD. But this new governor AWAKES me all the ENROLLED PENALTIES, Which have, like unscour'd armour, HUNG BY THE WALL Now puts the DROWSY AND NEGLECTED act Freshly on me :] Lord Strafford, in the conclusion of his Defence in the House of Lords, had, perhaps, these lines in his thoughts: LUCIO. I warrant, it is and thy head stands so tickle1 on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him. CLAUD. I have done so, but he's not to be found. Acquaint her with the danger of my state; It is now full two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this alledged crime, to this height, before myself.Let us rest contented with that which our fathers have left us ; and not awake those sleeping lions, to our own destruction, by raking up a few musty records, that have lain so many ages by the walls, quite forgotten and neglected." MALONE. - so tickle] i. e. ticklish. This word is frequently used by our old dramatic authors. So, in The True Tragedy of Marius "Have stood on tickle terms." Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: 2 66 upon as tickle a pin as the needle of a dial.” STEEVENS. - her APPROBATION] i. e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So again, in this play: 66 I, in probation of a sisterhood." Again, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608: "Madam, for a twelvemonth's approbation, 3 "We mean to make the trial of our child." MALONE. PRONE and speechless dialect,] I can scarcely tell what signification to give to the word prone. Its primitive and translated senses are well known. The author may, by a prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as those actions seem to which we are prone. Either of these interpretations is sufficiently strained; but such distortion of words is not uncommon in our author. For the sake of an easier sense, we may read: 66 in her youth "There is a pow'r, and speechless dialect, Such as moves men; beside, she hath prosperous art LUCIO. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack". I'll to her. CLAUD. I thank you, good friend Lucio. CLAUD. Come, officer, away. Or thus: [Exeunt. JOHNSON. "There is a prompt and speechless dialect." Prone, perhaps, may stand for humble, as a prone posture is a posture of supplication. So, in The Opportunity, by Shirley, 1640: "You have prostrate language." The same thought occurs in The Winter's Tale : "The silence often of pure innocence Sir W. D'Avenant, in his alteration of the play, changes prone to sweet: I mention some of his variations, to shew that what appear difficulties to us, were difficulties to him, who, living nearer the time of Shakspeare, might be supposed to have understood his language more intimately. STEEVENS. Prone, I believe, is used here for prompt, significant, expressive, (though speechless,) as in our author's Rape of Lucrece it means ardent, head-strong, rushing forward to its object: "O that prone lust should stain so pure a bed!" Again, in Cymbeline: "Unless a man would marry a gallows, and beget young gibbets, I never saw any one so prone." MALONE. 4 Under grievouS IMPOSITION;] I once thought it should be inquisition, but the present reading is probably right. "The crime would be under grievous penalties imposed." JOHNSON. - lost at a game of TICK-TACK.] Tick-tack is a game at tables. "Jouer au tric-trac," is used in French in a wanton sense. MALONE. 5 The same phrase, in Lucio's sportive sense, occurs in Lusty Juventus. STEEVENS |