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417. censur'd him] i. e. sentenced him.

So, in Othello:

-to you, lord governor,

"Remains the censure of this hellish villain.”

I would wish to read,

"He has censur'd him already ;

STEEVENS.

which, according to the old fashion, was written, H'as censur'd, &c.

430.

to have.

434.

MALONE.

would owe them.] To owe, i. e. to possess,

STEEVENS.

-the mother] The abbess, or prioress.

JOHNSON.

Line 1.

ACT II.

PROVOST] "A Provost-martial" Min

shieu explains "Prevost des mareschaux: Præfectus rerum capitalium, Prætor rerum capitalium." REED. A provost is generally the executioner of an army.

STEEVENS.

2. -to fear the birds of prey.] To fear is to affright, to terrify.

So, in The Merchant of Venice:

"this aspect of mine
"Hath fear'd the valiant."

STEEVENS.

7. Than

7.

Than fall, and bruise to death :] Shakspere has used the same verb active in The Comedy of Errors:

"as easy may'st thou fall

"A drop of water.

i. e. let fall. So, in As You Like It:

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"Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck."

STEEVENS.

9. Let but your honour know,-] To know is here to examine, to take cognizance. So, in Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; "Know of your truth, examine well your blood." JOHNSON. 16. Err'd in this point which now you censure him,] Some word seems to be wanting to make this line sense. Perhaps we should read,

24.

Err'd in this point which now you censure him

for.

STEEVENS.

-'Tis very pregnant,] 'Tis plain that we must act with bad as with good; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages, that lie in our way, and what we do not see we cannot note. JOHNSON. 29. For I have had] That is, because, by reason that I have had faults.

JOHNSON. 41. Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fail:

Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none; And some condemned for a fault alone.] The first line is in the first folio printed in Italicks as a quotation. All the folios read in the next line,

Some

Some run from BRAKE of ice, and answer none.

JOHNSON.

I find from Holinshed, p. 670, that the brake was an engine of torture. "The said Hawkins was cast into the Tower, and at length brought to the brake, called the Duke of Excester's Daughter, by means of which pain he shewed many things," &c.

"When the dukes of Exeter and Suffolk (says Blackstone in his Commentaries, Vol. IV. chap. xxv. p. 320, 321.) and other ministers of Henry VI. had laid a design to introduce the civil law into this kingdom as the rule of government, for a beginning thereof they erected a rack for torture; which was called in derision the Duke of Exeter's Daughter, and still remains in the Tower of London, where it was occasionally used as an engine of state, not of law, more than once in the reign of Queen Elizabeth." See Coke's Instit. 35. Barrington, 69, 385. and Fuller's Worthies, p. 317.

A part of this horrid engine still remains in the Tower, and the following is the figure of it.

It consists of a strong iron frame, about six feet long, with three rollers of wood within it: the middle of these, which has iron teeth at each end, is governed by two stops of iron, and was, probably, that part of the machine which suspended the powers of the rest, when the unhappy sufferer was sufficiently strained by the cords, &c. to begin confession. I cannot conclude this account of it without confessing my obligation to Sir Charles Frederick, who politely condescended to direct my inquiries, while his high command rendered every part of the Tower accessible to my researches.

I have since observed, that in Fox's Martyrs, edit. 1596, p. 1843, there is a representation of the same kind.

If Shakspere alluded to this engine, the sense of the contested passage in Measure for Measure will be: Some run more than once from engines of punishment, and answer no interrogatories; while some are condemned to suffer for a single trespass. STEEVENS.

The words answer none (that is, make no confession of guilt) evidently shew that brake of vice here means the engine of torture. The same mode of question is again referred to in act v. line 336:

"To the rack with him: we'll touze you joint by joint,

"But we will know this purpose."

The name, brake of vice, appears to have been given this machine, from its resemblance to that used to subdue vicious horses; to which Daniel thus refers:

"Lyke

"Lyke as the brake within the rider's hande,
"Doth straine the horse nye wood with grief of
paine,

"Not used before to come in such a band," &c.
HENLEY.

60. This comes off well;] The same phrase is employed in Timon of Athens, and elsewhere; but in the present instance it is used ironically. The meaning of it, when seriously applied to speech, is-This is well delivered, this story is well told. STEEVENS. 62. Why dost thou not speak, Elbow ?] Says Angelo to the constable. "He cannot, sir, quoth the Clown, he's out at elbow." I know not whether this quibble be generally observed: he is out at the word elbow, and out at the elbow of his coat. The Constable, in his account of Master Froth and the Clown, has a stroke at the Puritans, who were very zealous against the stage at this time: "Precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good Christians ought to have."

FARMER.

65. -a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd:-] This we should now express by saying, he is half-tapster, halfbawd.

JOHNSON,

Thus in K. Henry IV. "—a parcel-gilt goblet."

68.

STEEVENS.

-she professes a hot-house, -] A hot-house

is an English name for a bagnio:

"Where lately harbour'd many a famous whore,
"A purging bill now fix'd upon the door,

"Tells

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