"What's open made
To justice, that justice seizes. What know the laws?"
"Some run from brakes of ice and answer none,
And some are condemn'd for a fault alone."
We have a similar sentiment in Cymb. v. 1. As of ice and of vice are pronounced exactly alike, we may safely assume the latter to be the true reading. The whole difficulty then lies in 'brakes.' A brake was certainly, as we are told, a frame to confine restless or vicious horses in when shoeing; but when it is added that it is also an instrument of torture, I become somewhat dubious. At any rate no one would say a rack or a gibbet of vice; so why a brake of vice? I incline then, but with hesitation, to think that we should read wreaks o' vice. We have "wreak the love" (R. and J. iii. 5); "wreak our wrongs." (Tit. And. iv. 3.) I put the ambiguous o', because wreak takes on rather than of after it.
"I thought by the readiness in the office, you had," etc.
For 'by the,' the usual correction (which I have followed) is 'by your.' Mr. Collier thinks 'by this' might be better; for this and your were used promiscuously. Either might easily be confounded with the. (See Introd. p. [68].)