Can be but brief; for I have made him know, Duke. 'Tis well born up. I have not yet made known to Mariana I pray you, be acquainted with this maid; Ifab. I do defire the like. Duke. Do you perfuade yourself that I respect you? Mari. Good Friar, I know you do; and I have found it. Duke. Take then this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear: I shall attend your leifure; but make hafte Mari. Wilt please you walk afide? [Exeunt Mar. and Ifab. Duke. O place and greatnefs! millions of falfe eyes • Are stuck upon thee: volumes of report 30 place and greatness! &c.] It plainly appears that this fine fpeech belongs to that which concludes the preceding Scene, between the Duke and Lucio. For they are abfolutely foreign to the fubject of this, and are the natural reflections arifing from that. Befides, the very words, Run with THESE falfe and most contrarious quefts, evidently refer to Lucio's fcandals just preced. ing: which the Oxford Editor, in his ufual way, has emended, by altering thefe to their. But that fome time might be given to the two women to confer together, the players, I fuppofe, took part of the fpeech, beginning at No might nor greatness, &c. and put it here, without troubling themselves about its pertinency. However, we are obliged to them for not giving us their own, impertinency, as they have frequently done in other places. Ee 3 • Run Run with thefe falfe and moft contrarious quests • Make thee the father of their idle dreams, And rack thee in their fancies! welcome; how agreed? SCENE IV. Re-enter Mariana, and Ifabel. Ifab. She'll take the enterprize upon her, father, If you advife it. Duke. 'Tis not my confent, But my intreaty too. Ifab. Little have you to say, When you depart from him, but foft and low, - Mari. Fear me not. Duke. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all: He is your husband on a pre-contract; To bring you thus together, 'tis no fin; [Exeunt. 4 Doth flourish the deceit.] A metaphor taken from embroidory, where a coarfe ground is filled up and covered with figures of rich materials and elegant workmanship. 5 - for yet our TYTHE's to fow] As before, the blundering Editors had made a prince of the priefly Angelo, fo here they have made a priest of the prince. We should read TILTH, i. e. our tillage is yet to make. The grain, from which we expect our harveft, is not yet put into the ground. ་་་ SCENE SCENE Changes to the Prifon. Enter Provoft and Clown. V. Prov. man's head? OME hither, firrah: can you cut off a .i Clown. If the man be a batchelor, Sir, I can: but if he be a marry'd man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head. Prov. Come, Sir, leave me your fnatches, and yield me a direct answer. To morrow morning are to die Claudio and Bernardine: here is in our prifon a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper; if you will take it on you to affift him, it fhall redeem you from your gyves: if not, you fhall have your full time of imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping; for you have been a notorious bawd. Clown. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd, time out of mind, but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman: I would be glad to receive fome inftruction from my fellow-partner. Prov. What hoa, Abborfon! where's Abborfon, there? Enter Abhorfon. Abbor. Do you call, Sir? Prov. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to morrow in your execution; if you think it meet, compound with him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if not, ufe him for the prefent, and difmifs him. He cannot plead his eftimation with you, he hath been a bawd. Abbor. A bawd, Sir? fie upon him, he will dif credit our mistery. Prov. Go to, Sir, you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale. [Exit. Clown. Pray, Sir, by your good favour; (for, furely, Sir, a good favour you have, but that you have a hanging look ;) do you call, Sir, your occupation a mistery? Abbor. Ay, Sir; a mistery. Clown. Painting, Sir, I have heard say, is a mistery; and your whores, Sir, being members of my occupation, ufing painting, do prove my occupation a mistery: but what mistery there fhould be in hanging, if I fhould be hang'd, I cannot imagine. **** Clown. Sir, it is a mistery. Abbor. Proof. Clown. Every true man's apparel fits your thief. If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough. If it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough; fo every true man's apparel fits your thief. Re-enter 6 difcredit our myftery.] I think it juft worth while to obferve, that the word mystery, when used to fignify a trade or manual profeffion, fhould be fpelt with an i, and not a y; because it comes not from the Greek Mucha, but from the French, Mefier. 7 what mystery there should be in hanging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine. Abhor. Sir, it is a mystery. Clown. Proof. Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief. Clown. If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough: if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough: fo every true man's apparel fits your thief] Thus it ftood in all the editions till Mr. Theobald's, and was methinks not very difficult to be understood. The plain and humourous fenfe of the fpeech is this, Every true man's apparel which the thief robbs him of, fits the thief. Why? becaufe if it be too little for the thief, the true man thinks it big enough : i. e. a purchase too good for him. So that this fits the thief in the opinion of the true man. But if it be too big for the thief, yet the Re-enter Provost Prov. Are you agreed? Clown. Sir, I will ferve him: for I do find, your hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftner ask forgiveness. Prov. You, firrah, provide your block and your ax to morrow, four o' clock. Abbor. Come on, bawd, I will inftruct thee in my trade; follow. thief thinks it little enough; i. . of value little enough. So that this fits the thief in his own opinion. Where we fee that the pleafantry of the joke confifts in the equivocal fenfe of big enough and little enough. Yet Mr. Theobald fays, he can see no fenfe in all this, and therefore alters the whole thus, Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief. Clown. If it be too little for your true man, your thief thinks it big enough: if it be too big for your true man, your thief thinks it little enough. And for his alteration gives this extraordinary reason. I am fatisfied the poet intended a regular fyllogifm; and I fubmit it to judg ment, whether my regulation has not refor'd that wit and bumour which was quite loft in the depravationBut the place is corrupt, tho' Mr. Theobald could not find it out. Let us confider it a little. The Hangman calls his trade a mistery: the Clown cannot conceive it. The Hangman undertakes to prove it in these words, Every true man's apparel, &c. but this proves the thief's trade a mistery, not the bangman's. Hence it appears that the fpeech, in which the hangman proved his trade a mistery, is loft. The very words it is impoffible to retrieve, but one may eafily understand what medium he employed in proving it: without doubt the very fame the clown employed to prove the thief's trade a mistery; namely, that all fort of clothes fitted the hangman. The Clown, on hearing this argument, replied, I fuppofe, to this effect; Why, by the fame kind of reasoning, 1 can prove the thief's trade too to be a miftery. The other asks how, and the Clown goes on as above, Every true man's apparel fits your thief; if it be too little, &c. The jocular conclufion from the whole being an infinuation that thief and bangman were rogues alike. This conjecture gives a fpirit and integrity to the dialogue, which, in its prefent mangled condition, is altogether wanting: and fhews why the argument of every true man's apparel, &c. was in all the editions given to the Clown, to whom indeed it belongs; and likewife that the prefent reading of that argument is the true. The loft fpeeches came in at the place marked by the afterisks. Clown. |