er Gent. I have purchas'd as many difeafes under her roof, as come to

2 Gent. To what I pray?

1 Gent. Judge.

5

2 Gent. To three thousand dollars a year. 1 Gent. Ay, and more.

Lucio. A French crown more.

r Gent. Thou art always figuring difeafes in me; but thou art full of error; I am found.

Lucio. Nay, not as one would fay healthy; but fo found, as things that are hollow; thy bones are hollow; impiety hath made a feaft of thee.

SCENE

Enter Bawd.

IV.

1 Gent. How now,

which of your hips has the most

there's one yonder arrefted,

profound sciatica? Bawd. Well, well;

and carry'd to prifon, was worth five thousand of

you all.

I Gent. Who's that, I pr'ythee?

13.07 Bawd. Marry, Sir, that's Claudio; Signior Claudio. 1 Gent. Claudio to prifon? 'tis not fo.

Bawd. Nay, but I know, 'tis fo; I faw him arrefted; faw him carry'd away; and, which is more, within these three days his head is to be chopt off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it fo: art thou fure of this?

Bawd. I am too fure of it; and it is for getting madam Julietta with child.

Lucio. Believe me, this may be; he promised to meet me two hours fince, and he was ever precife in promife-keeping.

2 Gent. Befides, you know, it draws fomething near to the fpeech we had to fuch a purpose.

1 Gent.

Gent. But most of all agreeing with the Procla

mation.

Lucio. Away, let's go learn the truth of it.

Manet Bawd.

[Exit.

Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the fweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am cuftom-fhrunk. How now? what's the news with you?

Clown. Yonder man is carry'd to prifon.
Bawd. Well; what has he done?

Clown. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

Clown. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Bawd. 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?

Clown. All houses in the fuburbs of Vienna muft 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, mistress.

2 They hall ftand for feed; ] Seneca, in his mock Apotheofis of Claudius, ridiculing him for having extended the rights of Roman citizens fo immoderately, makes Clothe fay, Ego mebercule, pufillam temporis adjicere illi volebam, dum hos pauculos, qui fuperfunt, civitate donaret: conflituerat enim omnes Græcos, Gallos, Hifpanos, Britannos. togatos videre. Sed quoniam placer aliquos peregrinos IN SEMEN RELINQUI, et tu ita jubes fur. fiat.

Bawd

Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the common-wealth; what fhall become of me?

Clown. Come, fear not you; good counsellors 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 service, you will be confidered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfter? let's withdraw.

Clown. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the Provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt Bawd and Clown.

SCENE VI.

Enter Provoft, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers. Lucio and two Gentlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why doft thou show me thus to th 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. 3 Thus can the Demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight. The words of heav'n; on whom it will, it will On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis juft..

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;

;

Lucio.

On whom it will not, fo; yet still 'tis juft.] The wrong pointing of the second line hath made the paffage unintelligible. There ought to be a full ftop at weight. And the fenfe of the whole is this: 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, Ipunif and remit punishment according to my own uncontrolable will; and

yet

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

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

So ev'ry scope by the immod'rate use

Turns to restraint: our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin 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?

Claud. What, but to fpeak of, would offend again. Lucio. What is't, murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio, Letchery?

Claud. Call it fo.

Prov. Away, Sir, you must go.

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

Lucio. A hundred; if they'll do you any good: is letchery fo look'd after?

Claud. Thus ftands it with me; upon a true contract

I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed,

(You know the lady,) she is fast my wife;

Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order. This we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends

;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love, 'Till time had made them for us.

yet who can say what doft thou.

But it chances,

Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight, is a fine expreffion, 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 species.

The

The stealth 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 glimpfe, of newness
Or whether that the body publick be

A horse whereon the Governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the feat, that it may know
He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;
Whether the tyranny be in his Place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I ftagger in: ) but this new Governor
Awakes me all th' enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unfcour'd armour, hung by th' wall
So long, that nineteen Zodiacks have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowfie and neglected Act
Freshly in me; 'tis furely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is; and thy head stands fo tickle on thy fhoulders, that a milk-maid, if fhe be in love, may figh it off. Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.

Claud. I have done fo, but he's not to be found.
I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind fervice:
This day my Sifter fhould the Cloifter enter,
And there receive her Approbation.
Acquaint her with the danger of my state,
Implore her, in my voice, that fhe make friends
To the ftrict Deputy; bid her felf affay him;
I have great hope in that; for in her youth
There is a prone and fpeechlefs dialect,

Such as moves men! befide, fhe hath profp❜rous art

4. moft mutual—] i, e. moft intimate. The phrafe is extremely elegant on this occafion; yet difliked by the Oxford Editor, who itrikes out most.

When