Crime might lie better hid. And, should the change
Take from the horror due to a foul deed, 10
Pursuit and evidence so far must fail,
And, guilt escaping, passion then might plead
In angry spirits for her old free range,
And the “wild justice of revenge”[205] prevail.
[204] “In the eighth sonnet the doctrine, which would strive to measure out the punishments awarded by the law in proportion to the degrees of moral turpitude, is disavowed.” (Sir Henry Taylor.)—Ed.
[205] See Bacon’s Essay Of Revenge, beginning, “Revenge is a sort of wild justice.”—Ed.