Dog. First, who think you the most defartlefs man to be conftable?

1. Watch. Hugh Oatcake, fir, or George Seacoal; for they can write and read.

Dog. Come hither, neighbour Seacoal: God hath bleffed you with a good name: to be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by

nature,

2. Watch. Both which, mafter conftable,

--

Dog. You have; I knew it would be your answer. Well, for your favour, fir, why, give God thanks, and make no boast of it; and for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no need of fuch vanity. You are thought here to be the moft fenfelefs and fit man for the conftable of the watch; therefore bear you the lanthorn: This is your charge; you shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man ftand, in the prince's name.

2. Watch. How if he will not stand?

Dog. Why then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave.

Ver. If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the prince's fubjects.

Dog. True, and they are to meddle with none but the prince's fubjects You fhall alfo make no noife in the treets; for, for the watch to babble and to talk, is most tolerable and not to be endured.

2. Watch. We will rather fleep than talk; we know what belongs to a watch.

Dog. Why, you speak like an ancient and moft quiet watchman; for I cannot fee how sleeping should offend: only, have a care that your bills be not stolen:-Well, you are to call at all the ale-houses, and bid them that are drunk get them to bed.

2. Watch. How if they will not?

2

Dog.

bills be not ftolen :] A bill is ftill carried by the watchmen at Litchfield. It was the old weapon of the English infantry, which, fays Temple, gave the moft gbaftly and deplorable wounds. It may be called fecuris falcata. JOHNSON.

YOL. II.

The

1

Dog. Why then, let them alone till they are fober; if they make you not then the better anfwer, you may say, they are not the men you took them for.

2. Watch. Well, fir,

Dog. If you meet a thief, you may fufpect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man: and, for fuch kind of men, the lefs you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for your honefty.

2. Watch. If we know him to be a thief, fhall we not lay hands on him?

Dog. Truly, by your office you may; but, I think, they that touch pitch will be defiled; the moft peaceable The following are examples of ancient bills.

STEEVENS, way

way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him fhew himfelf what he is, and fteal out of your company.

Ver. You have been always called a merciful man, partner.

Dog. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will; much more a man who hath any honefty in him.

Ver. If you hear a child cry in the night 3, you must call to the nurfe, and bid her still it.

2. Watch. How if the nurfe be afleep, and will not hear us?

Dog. Why then, depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying: for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes, will never answer a calf when he bleats.

Ver. 'Tis very true.

Dog. This is the end of the charge. You, conftable, are to prefent the prince's own perfon; if you meet the prince in the night, you may ftay him.

Ver. Nay, by'r-lady, that, I think, he cannot.

Dog. Five fhillings to one on't, with any man that knows the ftatues, he may ftay him: marry, not without the prince be willing: for, indeed, the watch ought to

3 If you bear a child cry &c.] It is not impoffible but that part of this fcene was intended as a burlefque on The Statutes of the Streets, imprinted by Wolfe, in 1595. Among thefe I find the following:

22. "No man shall blowe any horne in the night, within this cittie, or whistle after the houre of nyne of the clock in the night, under paine of imprisonment.

23. No man fhall ufe to goe with vifoures, or disguised by night, under like paine of imprisonment.

24. "Made that night-walkers, and evifdroppers, like punishment. 25. "No hammar-man, as a fmith, a pewterer, a founder, and all artificers making great found, shall not worke after the houre of nyne at the night, &c.'

30. No man fhall, after the houre of nyne at night, keepe any rule, whereby any fuch fuddaine out-cry be made in the ftill of the night, as making any affray, or beating his wyfe, or fervant, or finging, or revyling in his houfe, to the difturbaunce of his neighbours, under payne of iii s. iiii d. &c. &c."

Ben Jonfon, appears to have ridiculed this fcene in the Induction to his Bartholomew-Faire: "And then a fubftantial watch to have stole in upon 'em, and taken them away with miftaking words, as the fashion is in the fege practice.". STEEVENS. S 2

offend

offend no man; and it is an offence to stay a man against his will.

Ver. By'r-lady, I think, it be fo.

Dog. Ha, ha, ha! Well, mafters, good night; an there be any matter of weight chances, call up me: keep your fellows' counfels and your own, and good night.Come, neighbour,

2. Watch. Well, masters, we hear our charge: let us go fit here upon the church-bench till two, and then all

to bed.

Dog. One word more, honeft neighbours: I pray you, watch about fignior Leonato's door; for the wedding being there to-morrow, there is a great coil to-night: Adieu; be vigitant, I beseech you.

[Exeunt DOGBERRY and VERGES.

Enter BORACHIO and CONRADE.

Bora. What! Conrade,

2. Watch. Peace, ftir not.

Bora. Conrade, I fay!

Con. Here, man, I am at thy elbow.

[Afides

Bora. Mafs, and my elbow itch'd; I thought, there would a fcab follow.

Con. I will owe thee an answer for that; and now forward with thy tale.

Bora. Stand thee close then under this pent-house, for it drizzles rain; and I will, like a true drunkard, utter all to thee.

2. Watch. [afide.] Some treafon, mafters ; yet ftand clofe. Bora. Therefore know, I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.

Con. Is it poffible that any villainy fhould be fo dear? Bora. Thou fhould'ft rather afk, if it were poffible any villainy fhould be fo rich; for when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will.

Con. I wonder at it.

- keep your fellows' counfels and your own,] This is part of the oath of a grand juryman; and is one of many proofs of Shakspeare's having been very converfant, at some period of his life, with legal proceedings and courts of juftice. MALONE,

Bora.

Bora. That fhews, thou art unconfirm'd': Thou 'knowest, that the fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak, is nothing to a man.

Con. Yes, it is apparel.

Bora. I mean, the fashion.

Con. Yes, the fashion is the fashion.

Bora. Tufh! I may as well fay, the fool's the fool. But fee'st thou not, what a deformed thief this fashion is?

1. Watch. I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this seven year; he goes up and down like a gentleman: I remember his name.

Bora. Didft thou not hear fome body?

Con. No; 'twas the vane on the house.

Bora. Seeft thou not, I fay, what a deformed thief this fashion is? how giddily he turns about all the hot bloods, between fourteen and five and thirty? fometime, fashioning them like Pharaoh's foldiers in the reechy painting; fometime, like god Bel's priests in the old church-window: fometime, like the fhaven Hercules in the 7 fmirch'd worm-eaten tapestry, where his cod-piece feems as maffy as his club?

Con. All this I fee; and fee, that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man: But art not thou thyself giddy with the fashion too, that thou haft shifted out of thy tale into telling me of the fafhion?

Bora. Not fo neither: but know, that I have to-night wooed Margaret, the lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the name of Hero; fhe leans me out at her mistress' chamber-window, bids me a thousand times good night,-I tell this tale vilely:-I should firft tell thee, how the prince,

4- unconfirm'd:] i. e. unpractifed in the ways of the world. WARB. 5-reechy painting;] is painting stain'd by smoke; from Recan, Anglo-Saxon, to reek, fumare. STEEVENS.

fometime, like the fhaven Hercules &c.] I believe that Shakfpeare by the fhaven Hercules meant only Hercules when shaved to make bim look like a woman, while he remained in the fervice of Omphale, his Lydian mistress. Had the fhaven Hercules been meant to reprefent Samfon, [as Dr. Warburton fuppofed,] he would probably have been equipped with a jaw-bone instead of a club. STEEVENS.

7-fmircb'd] Smirch'd is foiled, obfcured. So, in As you Like it "And with a kind of umber fmirch my face." STEEVENS.

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