The third passage on which I have a remark to offer, is that much tormented one in Act III. Sc. 1., which stands in my first folio thus:
"Cla. The prenzie, Angelo?
Isa. Oh, 'tis the cunning liuerie of hell,
The damnest bodie to inuest, and couer
In prenzie gardes."
I need not say a word about the various suggestions of primzie, priestly, princely, precise, &c., which have appeared from time to time; my business is solely with the original word in the first folio. I have always felt sure that this is none other than the poet's own word, and no error of the printer; for how could it be possible to make a gross mistake in a word which occurs twice within four lines, and one, moreover, so unusual; the printer must surely have been able to decipher the letters from one of the two written specimens. It will be observed that there is a comma after prenzie in the original, indicating that the word is a substantive, not an adjective. Now what is the Italian for a prince? Not only principe, but also prenze; and in like manner we find principessa and prenzessa. I have no doubt that what Shakspeare did write was—
"The prenzie, Angelo?"
while a little lower down he converted the word into an adjective:
"To inuest and couer
In prenzie gardes."