successfully pursued by Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens, in supporting the Author's text, by illustrations from contemporary writers. But, while I acknowleged his propriety, I cannot avoid saying, that such scrupulous principles have occasioned many errors to remain undiscovered; for, had a larger field been opened, the eye of discrimination could have wandered more at large; and Commentators, instead of giving several pages of forced elucidations on a single word, as is frequently the case, would, by consulting sound and context, have discovered truth; which, being in most cases sufficiently clear, required but little additional light from the torch of a Commentator.

In the present passage, which is very dark indeed, Doctor Warburton has omitted the word-To. The old copy reads: "To draw with," &c. and Mr. Malone, deviating from the plan so successfully pursued by Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens, has changed the word Making to Mocking; and for which, he observes, that he is accountable. But, however judicious this alteration may have appeared, I expect it must give way to the original reading.

The old mode of spelling making, was makeing. Let the word Make be detached from makeing, and instead of the terminating g, place an s before in, and you have the words-Make sin. Thus then we should read:

How may likeness made in crimes,

Make sin practice on the times,

To draw with idle spiders' strings

Most pond'rous and substantial things!

Meaning, He who has the semblance of virtue, with a corrupt heart, is so perfect in hypocrisy, that his sinful practices are veiled from discrimination, and which he often makes the source of riches, honour, and influence. In HENRY V. we meet a similar idea:

"When devils do their blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows."

ACT IV.

SCENE II.-page 352.

DUKE. That spirit's possess'd with haste,

That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes.

Judge Blackstone says, "unsisting may signify never at rest, always opening." Mr. Rowe reads, unresisting: Sir T. Hanmer, unresting. In my opinion, the author wrote, unlisting postern; meaning, that which hears not, though it produces the noise.

On my first reading of this passage, I had not observed Mr. M. Mason's proposed emendation. I am happy to find, that my idea of the original word corresponds with a gentleman's, whose critical judgment so eminently illustrates the works of our great Bard.

SCENE II.-page 357.

DUKE. Shave the head, and tie the beard, &c.

Surely scrupulous delicacy should give way to just propriety. Mr. Simson is certainly correct: no doubt our Author wrote "die the beard." This reading is justified by a passage in the third scene of this Act:

"A man of Claudio's years: his beard and head just of his colour. Moreover, if the age of Claudio be considered, his beard could not have attained a sufficient length for tying.

CLOWN.

SCENE II.-page 364.

all great doers in our trade, and are now for the Lord's sake.

Those debauchees, who were all great doers in his trade, were well fleeced in the brothels; and being now in

prison, will become the prey of lawyers. I am confident our Author wrote:

And are now for the law's sake.

ANGELO.

SCENE IV.-page 375.

But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me? Yet reason dares her?—No:

This blunder belongs to the transcriber, and which has given vast labour to my predecessors. We should read:

Yet treason dares her?--No:

For my authority bears a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather.

Thus, the internal accuser awakens his apprehensive fears;-"Isabella is deflowered, and that by me,-I enforced the laws against her brother for an offence similar to that which I have committed; and were it not for making known her maiden loss, how strongly would her elocution plead against me?" Here, Angelo conceives himself secure; but recollecting the sacred promise he had made to Isabella, and which he basely violated, by causing her brother to be executed; the treason of this nefarious act strikes terror to his soul; and, for a moment he beholds himself arraigned, and charged with the double offence, even in the Duke's presence. "Treason," says he, "will dare her:" i. e. will actuate, will impel her to seek revenge: but recollecting his authority in the state; his character for austerity; his great credit with the Duke; and, his activity in enforcing the laws, confidence is renewed in his bosom, and he, emphatically, defies even the charge of this vile treason: “No!” says he, "for my authority bears a credent bulk," &c. and thus depending on his reputed virtues and rigid principles, he fondly lulls apprehension, and thinks, that

the cries of real injuries, seeking for redress, would appear in the eyes of the Duke as a base calumniation of his character.

It is scarcely necessary to say, that the t in yet being sounded rather emphatically, the t in treason was lost to the ear of the transcriber.

DUKE.

ACT V.

SCENE I.-page 402.

laws, for all faults;

But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,

As much in mock as mark.

This is as ludicrous a blunder as any in our Author's plays; and various have been the attempts to force its elucidation: nay, forgery, it is said, was adopted by Mr. Kenrick, to give a list of the supposed forfeits which barber-surgeons exacted from those customers that deviated from their established rules!

On the absurd idea that such a custom ever prevailed, either on the Continent or in England, I shall be silent; and, being satisfied that the passage is grossly corrupt, I hasten to restore the original reading.

This error, like numbers of the same class, originates from mistake of sound: instead of forceps, the very sagacious transcriber gave the more familiar word-forfeits. The passage corrected affords a new figure.

laws, for all faults;

But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forceps in a barber's shop,

As much in mock as mark.

The exasperated Duke considers his laws as mocked by the people; and that they afford as much food for

E

merriment, as loungers in a barber's shop, derive, by playing tricks on each other with the forceps, which is exposed as a mark of the barber's profession. Thus the forceps in a barber-surgeon's shop, became the mock of idlers, though exhibited as a mark of surgical knowledge; and, in like manner, the Duke's laws had become the mock of the dissolute, though they were the mark of legislative wisdom.

One use of the forceps, and which might have been food for mirth, was, their application in extracting a bone, when lodged in the throat of any person: and gay idle loungers in a barber's shop, no doubt, found amusement in pointing the forceps to the mouth of a companion, while under the operation of shaving: the position for shaving, and that, when seated to have a bone extracted from the throat, being precisely the same.

Then, again: The forceps used by an accouchcur, would, to the dissolute, afford similar cause for idle mirth.