embroidery, where a coarse ground is filled up and covered with figures of rich materials and elegant workmanship. WARB. L. 21. for yet our tythe's to fow.] As before the blundering editors have made a prince of the priestly Angelo; fo here they have made a priest of the prince. tiltb, i. e. our tillage is yet to make. which we expect our harveft, is not yet put into the ground. THEOE. WARB. & CAP. We fhould read The grain, from Ibid.] The reader here is tempted with a petty fophifm. We should read tilth, i. e. our tillage is to make. But in the text it is to fow; and who has ever faid that bis tillage was to for? I believe tithe is right, and that the expreffion is proverbial, in which tithe is taken, by an easy metonymy, for the barveft. JOHNS. L. 299. 1. 20. difcredit our mistery.] I think it just worth while to obferve, that the word mifery, when ufed to fignify a trade or manual profeffion, fhould be spelt with an i, and not a y; because it comes not from the Greek Mushpia, but from the French, Meftier. WARB. P. 300.1. 1.what mystery there should be in banging, if I fhould 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.] This is a very notable paffage, as it ftands in all the editions; but, I dare fay, is notably corrupted. What! does the Clown afk proof, how the hangman's trade is a mystery; and, fo foon as ever Abhorfon advances his thefis to prove it, the Clown takes the argument out of his mouth, and perverts the very tenor of it? I am fatisfied, the poet intended a regular fyl logifm; and I fubmit it to judgment, whether the following regulation does not restore the wit and humour: Clown. Proof. Abborf. 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; fo, &c. THEOB.* man. Ibid.] As it ftood in all the editions till Mr. Theobald's, the paffage was methinks not very difficult to be understood. The plain and humorous fenfe of the fpeech is this, Every true man's apparel which the thief robs him of, fits the thief. Why? becaufe if it be two 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 But if it be too big for the thief, yet the thief thinks it little enough; i. e. 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 sense of big enough. Yet Mr. Theobald fays, he can fee no fenfe in all this, and alters the whole. But 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 miftery, not the hangman's. Hence it appears that the fpeech, in which the Hangman prov'd 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 miftery; namely, that all forts of cloaths fitted the bangman. The Clown, on hearing this argument, replied, I fuppofe, to this effect; "Why by the fame kind of reafoning, I can prove the thief's trade too to be a mystery." 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 hangman were rogues alike. This conjecture gives a fpirit and integrity to the dialouge, which, in its present 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 likewise that the prefent reading of that argument is the true. The loft speeches came in at the place marked by the afterisks. WARB. : Ibid.] If Mr. Warburton had attended to the argument by which the Bawd proves his own profeffion to be a mistery, he would not have been driven to take refuge in the groundless fuppofition," that part of the dialogue had been lost or dropped." The argument of the hangman is exactly fimilar to that of the bawd. As the latter puts in his claim to the whores, as members of his occupation, and in virtue of their painting, would enroll his own fraternity in the miftery of painters; fo the former equally lays claim to the thieves, as members of his occupation, and, in their right, endeavours to rank his brethren, the hangmen, under the mistery of fitters of apparel, or taylors. The reading of the old editions is therefore undoubtedly right; except that the last speech, which makes part of the hangman's argument, is by mistake, as the reader's own fagacity will readily perceive, given to the Clown or Bawd. I fuppofe, therefore, the poet gave us the whole thus: Whor. Sir, it is a mistery. "Clown. Proof "Whor. 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." I must do Mr. Warburton the juffice to acknowledge, that he hath rightly apprehended, and explained the force of the hangman's argument. REVIS. & CAP.* L. 20. You shall find me yare.] i. e. dextrous in the office; a word very frequent in our author's writings. THEOB. P. 301. 1. 1. ftarkly.] Stifly. These two lines afford pleafing image. JOHNS a L. 19.] Stroke is here put for the ftroke of a pen or a line. JOHNS. L. 22. To qualify.] To temper, to moderate, as we say wine is qualified by water. JOHNS. Ibid. Were be meal'd.] Were he fprinkled; were he defiled. A figure of the fame kind our author uses in Macbeth, the blood-bolter'd Banquo. L. 27.-That Spirit's poffeft with hafte JOHNS. That wounds the unrefifting postern with bis strokes.] The The line is irrégular, and the unrefifting postern so strain'd an expreffion, that want of measure, and want of fenfe might justly raise fufpicion of an error, yet none of the later editors feem to have fuppofed the place faulty except Sir T. Hanmer, who reads th' xnrefting poftern. The three folios have it unfifting poftern, out of which Mr. Rowe made unrefifting, and the reft followed him. Sir T. Hanmer feems to have fuppofed unrefifting the word in the copies, from which he plaufibly enough extracted unrefting, but he grounded his emendation on the very syllable that wants authority. What can be made of unfifting I know not. I believe that the true word is unliftening, the deaf portal. Ibid.] Unfhifting poftern. JOHNS. CAPELL.* P. 303. 1. 28. defperately mortal.] This expreffion is obfcure. Sir T. Hanmer reads mortally defperate. Mortally is in low converfation used in this fenfe, but I know not whether it was ever written. I am inclined to believe that de fperately mortal means defperately mischievous. JOHNS. P. 304. 1. 27.tie the beard.] This is a corruption; we should read dye the beard, a common practice in our author's time. -Scene 9th the Provost fays, There dy'd this morning-one Ragozine-a man of Claudio's years; his beard and head, juft of one colour. SYMPS.* P. 305. 1. 19. nothing of what is writ.] We fhould readbere writ-the duke pointing to the letter in his hand. WARB. P. 306. 1. 1. First here's young Mr. Rap, &c.] This enumeration of the inhabitants of the prifon affords a very. striking view of the practices predominant in Shakespeare's age. Befides those whofe follies are common to all times, we have four fighting men and a traveller. It is not unlikely that the originals of these pictures were then known. JOHNS. L. 14. in for the Lord's fake.] i. e. to beg for the rest of their lives. WAKB. Ibid.] I rather think this expreffion intended to ridicule the puritans, whofe turbulence and indecency often brought them to prifon, and who confidered themselves as suffering for religion. It is not unlikely that men imprisoned for other crimes, might represent themselves to cafual enquirers, as fuffering for puritanism, and that this might be the common cant of the prifons. In Donne's time every prisoner was brought to jail by furetifhip. JOHNS. P. 308. 1. 1.] Here is a line given to the Duke which be longs to the Provost. The Provoft, while the Duke is lamenting the obduracy of the prisoner, cries out, After bim fellorus, &c. and, when they are gone out, turns again to the Duke. JOHNS. L. 4.] to transport him.] To remove him from one world to another. The French trépas affords a kindred fenfe. JOHNS. L. 27. Toth' under generation] So Sir T. Hanmer with true judgment. It was in all the former editions to yonder : ye under and yonder were confounded. JOHNS. P. 309. 1. 19.] A better reafon might have been given. It was neceffary to keep Isabella in ignorance, that she might with more keenness accufe the deputy. JOHNS. P. 310. 1. 20. your bofom.] Your wifh; your heart's de fire. JOHNS. L. 31. I am combined by a facred vow.] I once thought this fhould be confined, but Shakespeare ufes the word combine for to bind by a pact or agreement, fo he calls Angelo the combinate husband of Mariana. JOHNS. P. 311. 1. 12. If the old, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, the odd fantaftical Duke, but old is a common word in ludicrous language, as, there was old revelling. L. 17. woodman.] That is, buntfman, here taken for a bunter of girls. JOHNS. JOHNS. Јониз. P. 312. 1. 19. -fort or fuit.] Figure and rank. L. 27. yet reafon dares her.] The old folio impreffions read, yet reafon dares her No. And this is right. The meaning is, the circumftances of our cafe are fuch, that fhe will never venture to contradict me: dares be to reply No to me, whatever I fay. WARB. Ibid.] Mr. Theobald reads, yet reafon dares her note. Sir T. Hanmer, yet reafon dares her: No. Mr. Upton, (with whom agree the Revifal and Capell) yet reafon dares ber-No, which he explains thus: " yet, fays Angelo, reafon will give her courage-No, that is, it will not." I am afraid |