Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners: / with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.

by Francis Douce

Scene 2. Page 240.

Isab.. Merciful heaven!
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the soft myrtle.

There is much affinity between the above lines and these in Persius, sat. ii.:

"Ignovisse putas, quia, cum tonat, ocyus ilex
Sulfure discutitur sacro, quam tuque domusque?"

But although there were two or three editions of that author published in England in the reign of Elizabeth, he does not appear to have been then translated.

Scene 2. Page 243.

Isab. ... prayers from preserved souls,
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.

Here is no metaphor from preserved fruits, as Warburton fancifully conceives. Preserved is used in its common and obvious acceptation. Isabella alludes to the prayers of her fellow nuns in addition to her own.

Scene 2. Page 246.

Ang. O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook!