allow'd by order of law a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb-fkins too, to fignify, that craft, being richer than innocency, ftands for the facing. Elb. Come your way, fir :-Blefs you, good father friar. Duke. And you, good brother' father: What of fence hath this man made you, fir? Elb. Marry, fir, he hath offended the law; and, fir, we take him to be a thief too, fir; for we have found upon him, fir, a ftrange pick-lock, which we have fent to the deputy. Duke. Fie, firrah; a bawd, a wicked bawd! That is thy means to live: Do thou but think Canft but the alteration, fmall as it is, appears more than was wanted, Ufury may be used by an easy licence for the professors of ufury. 6 JOHNSON, father:] This word should be expunged. JOHNSON, If father be retained, we may read : Duke. And you, good brother. Elb. Father Duke. What offence, &c. STEEVENS. I am neither for expunging the word father, nor for feparating it from its prefent connexions. In return to Elbow's blundering addrefs of good father friar, i. e. good father brother, the duke humorously calls him, in his own ftyle, good brother father, This would appear still clearer in French. Dicu vous beniffe, mon pere frere.-Et vous auffi, mon frere pere. There is no doubt that our friar is a corruption of the French frere. TYRWHITT, 7 I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.] The old editions have, I drink, I eat away myfelf, and live. This is one very excellent inftance of the fagacity of our editors, and it were to be wifhed heartily, that they would have obliged us with their phyfical folution, how a man can eat away himfelf, and live. Mr. Bifhop gave me that most certain emendation, which I have fubftituted in the room of the former foolish read Canft thou believe thy living is a life, So ftinkingly depending? Go, mend, go, mend. Clown. Indeed, it does stink in fome fort, fir; but yet, fir, I would prove Duke. Nay, if the devil hath given thee proofs for fin, Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prifon, officer; Elb. He must before the deputy, fir; he has given him warning: the deputy cannot abide a whore-mafter: if he be a whore-monger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. Duke, That we were all, as fome would feem to be, Free from all faults, as faults from feeming free! Enter ing; by the help whereof, we have this eafy fense: that the clown fed himself, and put cloaths on his back, by exercising the vile trade of a bawd. THEOBALD. 8 That we were all, as fome would feem to be, Free from all faults, as faults from feeming free!] i.e. as faults are deftitute of all comeliness or feeming. The firft of these lines refers to the deputy's fanctified hypocrify; the fecond to the clown's beaftly occupation. But the latter part is thus ill expreffed for the fake of the rhime. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer reads, Free from all faults, as from faults feeming free. In the interpretation of Dr. Warburton, the sense is trifling, and the expreffion harth. To wifh that men were as free from faults, as faults are free from comeliness [instead of void of comeliness] is a very poor conceit. I once thought it should be read: O that all were, as all would feem to be, Free from all faults, or from false seeming free. So in this play: O place, O power-how doft thou Wrench are from fools, and tie the wifer fouls But now I believe that a lefs alteration will serve the turn: Free from all faults, or faults from seeming free ; that men were really good, or that their faults were known, that men were free from faults, or faults from hypocrify. So Ifabella calls Angelo's hypocrify, feeming, feeming. JOHNSON. I think we fhould read with Hanmer: Free from all faults, as from faults feening free. Enter Lucio. Elb. His neck will come to your waift, a cord, fir. Clown. Ifpy comfort; I cry, bail: here's a gentleman, and a friend of mine. Lucio. How now, noble Pompey? what, at the heels of Cæfar? art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pigmalion's images, newly made woman', to be had now, for putting the hand in the i. e. I wish we were all as good as we appear to be; a fentiment very naturally prompted by his reflection on the behaviour of Angelo. Hanmer has only tranfpofed a word to produce a convenient fenfe. STEEVENS. 9 His neck will come to your waift, a cord, fir.-] That is, his neck will be tied, like your waist, with a rope. The friars of the Francifcan order, perhaps of all others, wear a hempen cord for a girdle. Thus Buchanan : "Fac gemant fuis, JOHNSON. Pigmalion's images, newly made woman,] i. e. come out cured from a falivation. WARBURTON. Surely this expreffion is fuch as may authorise a more delicate explanation. By Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, I believe, Shakespeare meant no more than-Have you no women now to recommend to your customers, as fresh and untouched as Pygmalion's ftatue was, at the moment when it became flesh and blood? The paffage may, however, contain fome allufion to a pamphlet printed in 1598, called-The Metamorphofis of Pygmalion's Image, and certain Satires. I have never feen it, but it is mentioned by Ames, p. 568; and whatever its fubject might be, we learn from an order figned by the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, that this book was manded to be burnt. The order is inferted at the end of the fecond volume of the entries belonging to the Stationers' Company. STEEVENS. com Is there none of Pygmalion's images newly made woman, to be had now?" If Marston's Metamorphofis of Pigmalion's Image be alluded to, I believe it must be in the argument. "The maide (by the power of Venus) was metamorphofed into a living svo man. FARMER. There may, however, be an allufion to a paffage in Lylly's Woman in the Mocne, 1597. The inhabitants of Utopia petition Nature pocket and extracting it clutch'd? what reply? ha? what say'ft thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i' the laft rain? ha? what fay'ft thou, trot? is the world as it was, man? Which is the way? is it fad, and few words? or how? the trick of it? Nature for females, that they may, like other beings, propagate their fpecies. Nature grants their request, and "they draw the curtins from before Nature's fhop, where ftands an image clad, and fome unclad, and they bring forth the cloathed image, &c. STEEVENS. 2 what fay'ft thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'di' the laft rain?] This nonfense should be thus corrected, It's not down i' the last reign, i. e. these are severities unknown to the old duke's time. And this is to the purpofe. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton's emendation is ingenious, but I know not whether the sense may not be restored with lefs change. Let us confider it. Lucio, a prating fop, meets his old friend going to prifon, and pours out upon him his impertinent interrogatories, to which, when the poor fellow makes no answer, he adds, What reply? ha? what Jay ft thou to this? tune, matter, and method,— is't not? drown'di' th' laft rain? ha? what fay'ft thou, trot? &c. It is a common phrase used in low raillery of a man creft-fallen and dejected, that he looks like a drown'd puppy. Lucio, therefore, asks him, whether he was drown'd in the last rain, and therefore cannot speak. JOHNSON. He rather asks him whether his anfwer was not drown'd in the laft rain, for Pompey returns no answer to any of his questions : or, perhaps, he means to compare Pompey's miferable appearance to a drown'd moufe. So in K. Henry VI. p. I. fc. ii : "Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice." STEEVENS. 3 what fayft thou, trot ?] It fhould be read, I think, what say'ft thou to't? the word trot being feldom, if ever, ufed to a man. Old trot, or trat, fignifies a decrepid old woman, or an old drab In this fenfe it is ufed by Gawin Douglas, Virg. Æn. b. iv : "Out on the old trat, aged dame or wyffe." GRAY. So in Wily Beguiled, 1613: Thou toothlefs old trot thou." Again, in Mucedorus, 1668: "But if the old trot "Should come for her pot." Again, in the Wife Woman of Hogsden, 1638: "What can this witch, this wizard, or old trot." STEEVENS. Trot, or as it is now often pronounced, honeft trout, is a familiar addrefs to a man among the provincial vulgar. JOHNSON. 4 Which is the way?] What is the mode now? JOHNSON. Duke. Duke. Still thus, and thus ftill worse! Lucio. How doth my dear morfel, thy mistress? procures fhe ftill? ha? Clown. Troth, fir, fhe hath eaten up all her beef, and the is herself in the tub 5. Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be fo: ever your fresh whore, and your pow der'd bawd: an unfhunn'd confequence; it must be fo: Art going to prifon, Pompey ? Clown. Yes, faith, fir. Lucio. Why 'tis not amifs, Pompey: farewell: go; fay, I fent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? or how? Elb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd. Lucio. Well, then imprison him: if imprisonment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: Bawd is he, doubtlefs, and of antiquity too; bawd-born. Farewell, good Pompey: Commend me to the prifon, Pompey: You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house. Clown. I hope, fir, your good worship will be my bail. Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will pray, Pompey, to encrease your s in the tub.] The method of cure for venereal complaints iš grofly called the powdering tub. JOHNSON. It was fo called from the method of cure. See the notes on -the tub-faft and the diet”—in Timon, act IV. STEEVENS. 6 go; fay, I fent thee, thither. For debt, Pompey? or how?] It fhould be pointed thus, Go, Jay I fent thee thither for debt, Pompey; or how-i. e. to hide the ignominy of thy cafe, fay, I fent thee to prison for debt, or whatever other pretence thou fanciest better. The other humorously replies, For being a bawd, for being a bawd, i. e. the true caufe is the most honourable. This is in character. WARBURTON. I do not perceive any neceffity for the alteration. Lucio first offers him the use of his name to hide the feeming ignominy of his cafe; and then very naturally defires to be informed of the true reason why he was ordered into confinement. STEEVENS. it is not the wear.] i. e. it is not the fashion. STEEVENS. bondage; |