REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY 



" Imb — Oh, it is excellent 

 To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous 

 To use it like a giant. 



Lucio. — That's well said. 



Jsab Could great men thunder 



As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, 



For every pelting, petty officer 



Would use his heaven for thunder : nothing but thunder. 



Merciful heaven ! 



Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, 



Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak, 



Than the soft myrtle ; — But man, proud man ! 



Drest in a little brief authority ; 



Most ignorant of what he's most assured, 



His glassy essence, — like an angry ape, 



Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, 



As make the angels weep." 



It would be well if reading and learning this speech were made 

 one of our religious duties. Nothing is so fatal to injustice as satire 

 and contempt — write it up in our courts of law, in our halls of jus- 

 tice, in letters of gold by the side of the tables of the Decalogue. 

 As I read, I fancy Isabella with her contracted brow, her eye di- 

 lated, her lip curled, her person, like " an embodied storm." I see 

 Angelo stand reproved even in his thoughts. — Angelo, subdued, re- 

 plies — " Why do you put these sayings upon me ?" The impera- 

 torial dost thou, is exchanged for the submissive do you. — Angelo's 

 soliloquy is a better sermon than all the homilies of the church. 



The fourth scene introduces us again to Isabella and Angelo : 

 the whole scene is miraculously fine ; each line is a text of truth. 

 Isabella's previous reply to Angelo somewhat offends me : that she 

 should scorn the proposal, that she should reproach and threaten 

 the character of Angelo, is natural ; but to avail herself of this very 

 proposed crime to save her brother, on the condition of her silence, 

 is, indeed, " holding a candle to the devil." 



Act the third introduces Claudio in prison visited by the Duke, 

 whose advice to Claudio is admirable ; it is incomparably better 

 than the soliloquy of Cato, though in style so simple and un- 

 adorned. 



" Duke Be absolute for death ; either death or life 



Shall thereby be the sweeter. Keason thus with life : 

 It I do lose thee I do lose a thing 

 That none but fools would keep ; a breath thou art, 

 Servile to all the skiey influences" 



