Sir T. Hammer reads,
Free from all faults, as from faults seeming free.
In the interpretation of Dr. Warburton, the sense is trifling, and the expression harsh. To wish that men were as free from faults, as faults are free from comeliness [instead of void of comeliness] is a very poor conceit. I once thought it should be read,
O that all were, as all would seem to be. Free from all faults, or from false seeming free.
So in this play,
O place, 0 power—how dost thou Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls To thy false seeming.
But now I believe that a less alteration will serve the turn.
Free from all faults, or _faults from seeming free;
that men were really good, or that their faults were known_, that men were free from faults, or faults from hypocrisy. So Isabella calls Angelo's hypocrisy, seeming, seeming.
III.ii.42 (81,8) [His neck will come to your waist] That is, his neck will be tied, like your waist, with a rope. The friars of the Franciscan order, perhaps of all others, wear a hempen cord for a girdle. Thus Buchanan,