Again, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611:

"Some fourteen bawds, he kept her in the suburbs."

See Martial, where summaniana and suburbana are applied to prostitutes. STEEVENS.

All houses in the suburbs.] This is surely too general in express on, unless we suppose that all the houses in the suburbs were bawdy-houses. It appears too, from what the bawd says below, "But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?" that the Clown had been particular in his description of the houses which were to be pulled down. I am therefore inclined to believe that we should read here, all bawdy-houses, or all houses of resort in the suburbs.

TYRWHITT.

The licensed houses of resort at Vienna are at this time all in the suburbs, under the permission of the Committee of Chastity. S. W.

207. Thus can the demi-god, authority,

Make us pay down for our offence by weight.The words of heaven;-on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.] The wrong pointing of the second line hath made the passage unintelligible. There ought to be a full stop at weight. And the sense of the whole is this: The demi-god, Authority, makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus-I punish and remit punishment according to my own uncontralable will; and yet who can say, what dost thou ?

Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight, is a fine expression to signify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not so by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the species.

I suspect that a line is lost.

It may be read, the sword of heaven.
Thus can the demi-god authority,

WARBURTON.

JOHNSON,

Make us pay down for our offence, by weight-
The sword of heaven :—on whom, &c.

Authority is then poetically called the sword of heaven, which will spare or punish as it is commanded. The alteration is slight, being made only by taking a single letter from the end of the word, and placing it at the beginning.

This very ingenious and elegant emendation was suggested to me by the Rev. Dr. Roberts, of Eton; and it may be countenanced by the following passage in the Cobler's Prophecy, 1594:

"In brief they are the swords of heaven to

punish."

Sir W. Davenant, who incorporated this play of Shakspere with Much Ado about Nothing, and formed out of them a tragi-comedy called The Law against Lovers, omits the two last lines of this speech; I suppose, on account of their seeming obscurity.

STEEVENS.

The very ingenious emendation proposed by Dr. Roberts, is yet more strongly supported by another

passage

passage in the play before us, where this phrase occurs, act iii. sc. last:

"He who the sword of heaven will bear,

MALONE.

"Should be as holy, as severe. Notwithstanding Dr. Roberts's ingenious conjecture, the text is certainly right. Authority, being absolute in Angelo, is finely styled by Claudio, the demi-god. To his uncontrolable power, the poet applies a passage from St. Paul to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15, 18, which he properly styles, the words of heaven: For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, &c. And again: Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, &c. HENLEY. It should be remembered, however, that the poet is here speaking not of mercy but punishment.

MALONE.

Mr. Malone might have spared himself this remark, had he recollected that the words of St Paul immediately following, and to which the &c. referred, are-" and whom he will he hardeneth." See also the preceding verse. HENLEY.

217. (Like rats that ravin down their proper bane)] To ravin signifies to swallow voraciously Mr. Reed citeş for this use of the word, Wilson's Epistle to the Earl of Leicester, prefixed to his Discourse upon Usurye, 1572, "For these bee the greedie cormoraunte wolfes indeede that ravyn up both beaste and man."

218.

REED.

—when we drink, we die.] So, in Revenge for Honour, by Chapman :

"-like poison'd rats, which when they've swallow'd

"The pleasing bane, rest not until they drink, "And can rest then much less, until they burst.' STEEVENS.

234. 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, by supposing that when Claudio stops to speak to Lucio, the provost's officers depart with Julietta. REMARKS.

247. —the fault and glimpse of newness ;] 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 only taken a hasty survey. MALONE. -But this new governor

254.

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall,

So long

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

Freshly on me.] Lord Strafford, in the con

clusion

clusion of his Defence in the House of Lords, had, perhaps, these lines in his thoughts:

"It is now full two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this alleged 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. -like unscour'd armour,

256. and Cressida:

-] So, in Troilus

"Like rusty mail in monumental mockery.”

STEEVENS.

round,]

257. So long, that nineteen zodiacks have, gone The Duke in the scene immediately following says, Which for these nineteen years we have let sleep.

THEOBALD. 262. --so tickle.] . e. ticklish. This word is frequently used by our old dramatick authors. So, in The true Tragedy of Marius and Scilla, 1594:

"Have stood on tickle terms."

Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: upon as tickle a pin as the needle of a STEEVENS.

dial."

268. -her approbation :] i. e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So, again, in this play:

"I, in probation of a sisterhood.",

Again, in the Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608:

"Madam,