Lucio. A French crown more 7. I Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me: but thou art full of error; I am found. Lucio. Nay, not, as one would say, healthy; but fo found, as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee. Enter Bawd. 1 Gent. How now? Which of your hips has the most profound sciatica ? Bawd. Well, well; there's one yonder arrefted, and carry'd to prison, was worth five thousand of all. I Gent. Who's that, I pr'ythee? you Bawd. Marry, fir, that's Claudio, fignior 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 chopp'd 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. 'A French crown more.] Lucio means here not the piece of money fo called, but that venereal fcab, which among the furgeons is ftyled corona Veneris. To this, I think, our author likewife makes Quince allude in Midfummer-Night's Dream. "Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then y will play bare-faced." you For where these eruptions are, the skull is carious, and the party becomes bald. THEOBALD. So in the Return from Parnaffus, 1606: "I may chance indeed to give the world a bloody nofe, but "it fhall hardly give me a crack'd crown, though it gives other poets French crowns. 66 Again in the Dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, 1598; 66 -never metst with any requital, except it were fome few "French crownes, pil'd friers crownes, &c." STEEVENS. 2 Gent. 2 Gent. Befides, you know, it draws fomething near to the speech we had to fuch a purpose. 1 Gent. But moft of all agreeing with the proclamation. Lucio. Away; let's go learn the truth of it. 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? Enter Clown 9. Clown. Yonder man is carry'd to prison. Clown. A woman. what with the fweat,] This may allude to the fweating fickmess, of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shake fpeare: but more probably to the method of cure then used for the diseases contracted in brothels. JOHNSON.. So in the comedy of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600: "You are very moift, fir; did you feat all this, I pray ? "You have not the difeafe, I hope." STEEVENS. Enter Clown.] As this is the first clown who makes his appearance in the plays of our author, it may not be amifs, from a paffage in Tarlton's News out of Purgatory, to point out one of the ancient dreffes appropriated to the character. "I fawe one attired in ruffet, with a button'd cap on his "head, a great bag by his fide, and a strong bat in his hand; fo "artificially attired for a clowne, as I began to call Tarlton's "woonted shape to remembrance." STEEVENS. -What has he done? Clown. A veman.] The ancient meaning of the verb to do, (though now obsolete). may be guefs'd at from the following paffages. "Chiron. Thou haft undone our mother. "Aaron. Villain, I've done thy mother." Titus Andronicus. Again in the Maid's Tragedy, act II. Evadne, while undreffing, fays— "I am foon undone. Dula anfwers," And as foon done.” Hence the name of Over-done, which Shakespeare has appropriated to his bawd. COLLINS. Bawd. 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 must be pluck'd down. Bawd. And what shall become of those in the city? Clown. They fhall ftand 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 suburbs be pull'd down? Clown. To the ground, mistress. Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth! What fhall become of me? -fball all our houses 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 tornes, queire least perril of fire is." Hence Urfula the pig-woman, in Bartholomew-Fair: "I, I, gamesters, "mock a plain, plump, foft wench of the fuburbs, do!" FARMER. So in the Malcontent 1604, when Altofront difmiffes the vari ous characters at the end of the play to different destinations, he fays to Macquerelle the bawd: thou unto the suburbs." Again in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: Again: "Some fourteen bawds, he kept her in the suburbs.” "how liv'd you in the Suburbs And fcap'd fo many fearches ?" See Martial, where fummæniana and suburbana are applied to prostitutes. STEEVENS. All boufes in the fuburbs.] This is furely too general an expreffion, unless we fuppofe that all the houses in the fuburbs were bawdy-houses. It appears too, from what the bad 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 houses which were to be pulled down. I am therefore inclined to believe that we should read here, all bawdy-houses, or all houses of refort in the fuburbs. TYRWHITT, VOL. II. C Clown. 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 fervice, you will be confidered. Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfter? Let's withdraw. Clown. Here comes fignior Claudio, led by the provoft to prison and there's madam Juliet. SCENE Exeunt Bawd and Clown. III. Enter Provoft, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers; Lucio and two Gentlemen. Claud. Fellow, why doft thou fhow me thus to the world? Bear me to prifon, where I am committed, 3 Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight.- on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, fo: yet ftill 'tis juft.] Make The wrong pointing of the fecond line hath made the paffage unintelligible. There ought to be a full stop 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, Ipunish 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 expreffion to fignify paying the ful penalty. The metaphor is taken from paying money by weight, which is always exact; not fo by tale, on account of the pracice of diminishing the fpecies. WARBURTON. I fpect that a line is loft. JOHNSON. It may be read, the fword of heaven. Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make Make us pay down for our offence by weight.- Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint? Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As furfeit is the father of much faft, So every scope by the immoderate ufe Turns to restraint: Our natures do purfue, Lucio. If I could speak fo wifely under an arrest, I would fend for certain of my creditors: And yet, tỏ say 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 it ? murder? Claud. No. Make us pay down for our offence, by weight- Authority is then poetically called the fword of heaven, which will fpare or punish as it is commanded. The alteration is flight, being made only by taking a single letter from the end of the word, and placing it at the beginning. 66 This very ingenious and elegant emendation was fuggested to me by the rev. Dr. Roberts, of Eton; and it may be countenanced by the following paffage in the Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: -In brief they are the fwords of heaven to punish." Sir W. Davenant, who incorporated this play of Shakespeare with Much ado about Nothing, and formed out of them a Tragicomedy called The Law against Lovers, omits the two last lines of this fpeech; I fuppofe, on account of their feeming obfcu-, rity. STEEVENS. 4 Like rats that ravin, &c.] Ravine is an ancient word for prey. So in Noah's Flood, by Drayton : 66 as well of ravine as that chew the cud." STEEVENS. 5 -when we drink we die. So in Revenge for Honour, by Chapman : "-like poifon'd rats, which when they've swallow'd "The pleafing bane, rest not until they drink, "And can reft then much less, until they burit." STEEVENS. |