BENE. First, o' my word; therefore, play, mu sick. Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.o 9 -no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.] This passage may admit of some explanation that I am unable to furnish: By accident I lost several instances I had collected for the purpose of throwing light on it. The following, however, may assist the future commentator. MS. Sloan, 1691. "THAT A FELLON MAY WAGE BATTAILE, WITH THE ORDER THEREOF. by order of the lawe both the parties must at their owne charge be armed withoute any yron or long armoure, and theire heades bare, and bare-handed and bare-footed, every one of them having a baston horned at ech ende, of one length," &c. Again, in Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1615, p. 669: ". his baston a staffe of an elle long, made taper-wise, tipt with horne, &c. was borne after him.” This instrument is also mentioned in the Sompnoure's Tale of Chaucer: "His felaw had a staf tipped with horn." STEEvens. Again, Britton, Pleas of the Crown, c. xxvii. f. 18: “Next let them go to combat armed without iron and without linnen armour, their heads uncovered and their hands naked, and on foot, with two bastons tipped with horn of equal length, and each of them a target of four corners, without any other armour, whereby any of them may annoy the other; and if either of them have any other weapon concealed about him, and therewith annoy his adversary, let it be done as shall be mentioned amongst combats in a plea of land." REED. Mr. Steevens's explanation is undoubtedly the true one. The allusion is certainly to the ancient trial by wager of battel, in suits both criminal and civil. The quotation above given recites the form in the former case,-viz. an appeal of felony. The practice was nearly similar in civil cases, upon issue joined in a writ of right. Of the last trial of this kind in England, (which was in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth,) our author. Enter a Messenger. MESS. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, And brought with armed men back to Messina. BENE. Think not on him till to-morrow; I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.-Strike up, pipers. [Dance. [Exeunt. might have read a particular account in Stowe's Annales. Henry Nailor, master of defence, was champion for the demandants, Simon Low and John Kyme; and George Thorne for the tenant, (or defendant,) Thomas Paramoure. The combat was appointed to be fought in Tuthill-fields, and the Judges of the Common Pleas and Serjeants at Law attended. But a compromise was entered into between the parties, the evening before the appointed day, and they only went through the forms, for the greater security of the tenant. Among other ceremonies Stowe mentions, that "the gauntlet that was cast down by George Thorne was borne before the sayd Nailor, in his passage through London, upon a sword's point, and his baston (a staff of an ell long, made taper-wise, tipt with horn,) with his shield of hard leather, was borne after him," &c. See also Minsheu's DICT. 1617, in v. Combat; from which it appears that Naylor on this occasion was introduced to the Judges, with "three solemn congees," by a very reverend person, "Sir Jerome Bowes, ambassador from Queen Elizabeth into Russia, who carried a red baston of an ell long, tipped with horne."-In a very ancient law-book entitled Britton, the manner in which the combatants are to be armed is particularly mentioned. The quotation from the Sloanian MS. is a translation from thence. By a ridiculous mistake the words, "sauns loge arme," are rendered in the modern translation of that book, printed a few years ago, "without linnen armour;" and "a mains nues and pies" [bare-handed and barefooted] is translated," and their hands naked, and on foot." MALONE. This play may be justly said to contain two of the most sprightly characters that Shakspeare ever drew. The wit, the humourist, the gentleman, and the soldier, are combined in Benedick. It is to be lamented, indeed, that the first and most splendid of these distinctions, is disgraced by unnecessary profaneness; for the goodness of his heart is hardly sufficient to atone for the licence of his tongue. The too sarcastic levity, which flashes out in the conversation of Beatrice, may be excused on account of the steadiness and friendship so apparent in her behaviour, when she urges her lover to risque his life by a challenge to Claudio. In the conduct of the fable, however, there is an imperfection similar to that which Dr. Johnson has pointed out in The Merry Wives of Windsor:-the second contrivance is less ingenious than the first:-or, to speak more plainly, the same incident is become stale by repetition. I wish some other method had been found to entrap Beatrice, than that very one which before had been successfully practised on Benedick. Much Ado about Nothing, (as I understand from one of Mr. Vertue's MSS.) formerly passed under the title of Benedick and Beatrix. Heming the player received, on the 20th of May, 1613, the sum of forty pounds, and twenty pounds more as his Majesty's gratuity, for exhibiting six plays at Hampton Court, among which was this comedy. STEEVENS. The story is taken from * MEASURE FOR MEASURE.] Cinthio's Novels, Decad. 8, Novel 5. We are sent to Cinthio for the plot of Measure for Measure, and Shakspeare's judgment hath been attacked for some deviations from him in the conduct of it, when probably all he knew of the matter was from Madam Isabella, in The Heptameron of Whetstone, Lond. 4to. 1582.-She reports, in the fourth dayes Exercise, the rare Historie of Promos and Cassandra. A marginal note informs us, that Whetstone was the author of the Comedie on that subject; which likewise had probably fallen into the hands of Shakspeare. FARMER. There is perhaps not one of Shakspeare's plays more darkened than this by the peculiarities of its author, and the unskilfulness of its editors, by distortions of phrase, or negligence of transcription. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's remark is so just respecting the corruptions of this play, that I shall not attempt much reformation in its metre, which is too often rough, redundant, and irregular. Additions and omissions (however trifling) cannot be made without constant notice of them; and such notices, in the present instance, would so frequently occur, as to become equally tiresome to the commentator and the reader. Shakspeare took the fable of this play from the Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, published in 1578. Theobald's note at the end. See A hint, like a seed, is more or less prolific, according to the qualities of the soil on which it is thrown. This story, which in the hands of Whetstone produced little more than barren "insipidity, under the culture of Shakspeare became fertile of entertainment. The curious reader will find that the old play of Promos and Cassandra exhibits an almost complete embryo of Measure for Measure; yet the hints on which it is formed are so slight, that it is nearly as impossible to detect them, as it is to point out in the acorn the future ramifications of the oak, Whetstone opens his play thus: ACT I. SCENE I, "Promos, Mayor, Shirife, Sworde Bearer: one with a bunche of keyes: Phallax, Promos Man. ❝ You officers which now in Julio staye, "Know you your leadge, the King of Hungarie, "Sent me to Promos, to joyne with you in sway: "That styll we may to Justice have an eye, |