AND OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 259 



extinguishes all spontaneity, and exchanges the natural out-pour- 

 ing of love and delight for the niggardly use of a compelled virtue. 

 Such is Angelo ; 



" who scarce confesses 

 That his blood flows, or that his appetite 

 Is more to bread than stone.'* 



Claudio, condemned to death by Angelo, on his way to prison 

 meets his friend Lucio : — 



" Lucio. — Why, how now, Claudio ? whence 

 conies this restraint ? 



Claudio — From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty. 

 As surfeit is the father of much fast, 

 So every scope, by the immoderate use, 

 Turns to restraint." 



This is the sum of all hygeanic codes, and few there are but can 

 offer a personal illustration. Lucio happily replies — 



" If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, 

 I would send for certain of my creditors." 



At the request of Claudio, Lucio seeks his sister, Isabella, and 

 requires her to ask her brother's life of Angelo. To the entreaties 

 of Lucio she replies— 



" My power ! Alas ! I doubt ! 



Lucio Our doubts are traitors, 



And make us lose the good we oft might win, 

 By fearing to attempt." 



A thousand persons might express an idea that, from its preva- 

 lence, has grown into a proverb ; but none other than genius could 

 invest it with such a powerful apparition. When our doubts stand 

 before us as a personal foe, we wrestle with and overcome them ; but 

 when we consider our fears as a part of ourselves, we excuse the 

 timidity, for a man cannot quarrel with himself. 



Reading the eloquent arguments of Isabella before Angelo, we 

 are struck with the pliability of her reasoning, assailing Angelo at 

 first with generalities, next rising to the pathetic — the passionate ; 

 bursting forth at last with an indignant spirit, she flashes her scorn 

 and contempt upon him, but, withal, displaying the deep affections 

 of her heart, toned down by the sensibilities of the sex. 



