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Bard. But what's his offence?

Clown. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river 5. Bard. What, is there a maid with child by him? Clown. No; but there's a woman with maid by him : You have not heard of the proclamation, have you? Bawd. What proclamation, man? 6

Clown. All houfes in the fuburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.

Bawd. And what fhall become of thofe in the city? Clown. They fhall stand for feed: they had gone down too, but that a wife burgher put in for them.

Bawd. But fhall all our houses of refort in the fuburbs be pull'd down??

Clown. To the ground, miftrefs.

Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth! What shall become of me?

"Chiron. Thou haft undone our mother.

"Aaron. Villain, I've done thy mother." Titus Andronicus. Again, in Ovid's Elegies, tranflated by Marlowe, printed at Middlebourg, no date:

"The ftrumpet with the stranger will not do,
"Before the room is clear, and door put to."

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Hence the name of Over-done, which Shakspeare has appropriated to his bawd COLLINS.

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in a peculiar river.] i. e. a river belonging to an individual; not publick property. MALONE.

All boufes in the fuburbs-] This is furely too general an expreffion, unlefs we fuppofe that all the houses in the fuburbs were bawdy-boufes. It appears too, from what the bawd fays below, "But fhall all our houses of refort in the fuburbs be pulled down?" that the clown had been particular in his defcription of the houfes which were to be pulled down. I am therefore inclined to believe that we should read here, all bawdyboufes, or all boufes of refort in the fuburbs. TYRWHITT.

7 But fall all our boufes of refort in the fuburbs be pull'd down?] This will be understood from the Scotch law of James's time, concerning buires (whores): "that comoun women be put at the utmost endes of townes, queire leaft pernil of fire is." Hence Urfula the pig-woman, in Bartholomew-Fair: I, I, gamefters, mock a plain, plump, foft wench of the fuburbs, do!" FARMER.

See Martial, where fummaeniana, and fuburbana are applied to proftitutes. STEEVENS.

The licenced houfes of refort at Vienna are at this time all in the fuburbs, under the permiffion of the Committee of Chastity. S. W.

Clown.

Clown. Come; fear not you: good counfellors lack no clients though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapfter ftill. Courage; there will be pity taken on you; you that have worn your eyes almost out in the fervice, you will be confidered.

Bad. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfler? Let's withdraw.

Clown. Here comes fignior Claudio, led by the provost to prison: and there's madam Juliet.

SCENE III.
The fame..

[Exeunt.

Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers LUCIO and two Gentlemen,

;

Claud. Fellow, why doft thou fhew me thus to the world?

Bear me to prifon, where I am committed.
Prov. I do it not in evil difpofition,
But from lord Angelo by fpecial charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, authority,

Make us pay down for our offence by weight.

The words of heaven ;-on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis just 3.

Thus can the demi-god, authority,

Make us pay down for our offence by weight.

The words of heaven ;-on whom it will, it will;

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Lucio.

On whom it will not, fo; yet fill 'tis juft.] The demi-god, Authority, makes us pay the full penalty of our offence, and its decrees are as little to be queftioned as the words of heaven, which pronounces its pleasure thus ;- I punish and remit punishment according to my own uncontroulable will; and yet who can fay, what doft thou? -Make us pay down for our offence by weight, is a fine expreflion to fignify paying the full penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not fo by tale, on account of the practice of diminishing the fpecies. WARBURTON. I fufpect that a line is loft. fouNSON.

It may be read, the sword of heaven.

Thus can the demi-god, Authority,

Make us pay down for our offence, by weight;
The word of beaven ;-on suhom &c.

Authority is then poetically called the sword of heaven, which will spare

ог

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this reftraint ?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As furfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue
(Like rats that ravin 9 down their proper bane,)
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could fpeak fo wifely under an arrest, I would fend for certain of my creditors: And yet, to fay the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio?

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Claud. What, but to fpeak of would offend again.
Lucio. What is it? murder?

Claud. No.

or punish, as it is commanded. The alteration is flight, being made only by taking a fingle letter from the end of the word, and placing it at the beginning.

This very ingenious and elegant emendation was fuggefted to me by the rev. Dr. Roberts, of Eaton; and it may be countenanced by the following paffage in the Cobler's Prophecy, 1594:

In brief they are the fwords of beaven to punish."

Sir W. Davenant, who incorporated this play of Shakspeare with Much ado about Nothing, and formed out of them a Tragi-comedy called The Law against Lovers, omits the two laft lines of this fpeech; I fuppofe, on account of their feeming obfcurity. STEEVENS.

The very ingenious emendation propofed by Dr. Roberts is yet more Atrongly fupported by another pallage in the play before us, where this phrafe occurs [act III. fc. laft]:

"He who the fword of heaven will bear,

"Should be as holy as fevere :"

yet I believe the old copy is right. MALONE.

Notwithstanding Dr. Roberts's ingenious conjecture, the text is certainly right. Authority being abfolute in Angelo, is finely filed by Claudio, the demi-god. To his uncontroulable power, the poet applies a paffage from St. Paul to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15, 18, which he properly ftiles, the words of beaven: for he faith to Mofes, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, &c. And again: Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, &c. HENLEY.

9 Like rats that ravin &c.] To ravin was formerly used for eagerly or voraciously devouring any thing. REED.

Ravin is an ancient word for prey. STEEVENS.

1- as the morality-] The old copy has mortality. It was corrected by Sir William Davenant. MALONE.

Lucio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it fo.

Prov. Away, fir; you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend :-Lucio, a word with

you.

[Takes him afide. Lucio. A hundred, if they'll do you any good. Is lechery fo look'd after?

Cland. Thus ftands it with me:-Upon a true contrá&t, I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed2;

You know the lady; fhe is faft my wife,

Save that we do the denunciation lack
Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower 3

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chances,
The ftealth of our most mutual entertainment,
With character too grofs, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even fo.

And the new deputy now for the duke,—
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness;
Or whether that the body publick be

2 I got possession of Julietta's bed, &c.] This speech is furely too inde licate to be spoken concerning Juliet, before her face, for the appears to be brought in with the reft, though she has nothing to fay. The Clown points her out as they enter; and yet from Claudio's telling Lucio, that be knows the lady, &c. one would think she was not meant to have made her perfonal appearance on the scene. STEEVENS.

Claudio may be fuppofed to fpeak to Lucio apart. MALONE.

3 Only for propagation of a dower-] The meaning of the speaker is fufficiently clear, yet this term appears a very ftrange one. Sir William Davenant feems alfo to have thought fo; for he reads

"Only for the affurance of a dowry."

Perhaps we thould read-only for prorogation. MALONE.

4 Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness;] Fault, I apprehend, does not refer to any enormous act done by the deputy, (as Dr. Johnfon feems to have thought) but to newness. The fault and glimpfe is the fame as the faulty glimpfe. And the meaning feems to be-Whether it be the fault of newness, a fault arifing from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority, of which the new governour bas yet had only a glimpfe,-bas yet taken only a hafty survey; or whether &c. Shakspeare has many fimilar expreffions. MALONE.

A horse.

A horfe whereon the governor doth ride,

may know
He can command, let's it ftraight feel the fpur:
Whether the tyranny be in his place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,

Who, newly in the feat, that it

I ftagger in But this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unfcour'd armour 5, hung by the wall,
So long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

6

Freshly on me :-'tis, furely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head ftands fo tickle 7 on thy fhoulders, that a milk-maid, if the be in love, may figh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him. Claud. I have done fo, but he is not to be found. I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind fervice: This day my fifter fhould the cloifter enter, And there receive her approbation : Acquaint her with the danger of my state;

5

6

like unfcour'd armour,] So, in Troilus and Creffida:
"Like rusty mail in monumental mockery." STEEVENS,
But this new governor

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which bave, like unfcour'd armour, hung by the wall,
So long

Now puts the drowsy and neglected a

Frefly on me:] Lord Strafford, in the conclufion of his Defence in the Houfe of Lords, had, perhaps, thefe lines in his thoughts:

"It is now full two hundred and forty years fince any man was touched for this alledged crime, to this height, before myself.-Let us reft contented with that which our fathers have left us; and not awake those fleeping lions, to our own deftruction, by raking up a few mufty records, that have lain fo many ages by the walls, quite forgotten and negle Bed."

MALONE.

7-fo tickle] i. e. ticklish. This word is frequently ufed by our old dramatick authors.

STEEVENS.

8ber approbation :] i. e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So again, in this play:

"I, in probation of a fifterhood",

Again, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608:

"Madam, for a twelvemonth's approbation,

"We mean to make the trial of our child." MALONE.

Implore

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