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Is banish'd; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.

Friar.

Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;

Act 3 Scene 4.

It strains me past the compass of my wits:
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this county.
Juliet.

Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.
Friar.

Hold, daughter; I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry county Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to stay thyself;
Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That cop'st with death himself to scape from it;
And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.

Helena.

A ring the county wears,

Act 4 Scene 1.

That downward hath succeeded in his house,
From son to son, some four or five descents.

All's Well Act 3 Scene 7.

Of ancient time" says Coke „the Earl was praefectus, seu praepositus comitatus, for so imports the Saxon word, Shirereve, i. the Reve of the Shire, which is as much as to say, praepositus Comitatus, and had the charge and custody of the County." (9. Rep. 49).

Lady Capulet.

The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
The county Paris, at Saint Peter's church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

Archiv f. n. Sprachen. XXXII.

Act 3 Scene 5.

14

Capulet.

Send for the county; go tell him of this;
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Juliet.

I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell;
And gave him what becomed love I might,
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.

Capulet.

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stand up:

Why, I am glad on 't; this is well,
This is as 't should be. Let me see the county;
and fetch him hither.

Ay, marry, go, I say,

Act 4 Scene 2.

Lady Capulet speaks of Paris as the „noble gentleman" and Juliet says she met the youthful lord," and a „countee“ or count," is an earl, in the low French;

Capulet.

Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

Of my child's love: I think, she will be ruled
In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed;

Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love;

And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next →
But, soft; What day is this?

Paris.

Monday, my lord.

Capulet.

Monday? ha ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon,
O' Thursday let it be; o' Thursday, tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl:

Act 3 Scene 4.

and in this passage the Capulets calls Paris „noble earl.“

The Bishops of Durham are titled counts de paleis, or counts palatine, or earls palatine in our books, because in their temporalities, from whence they have their dignity of earl palatine, as title annexed, they have a county palatine. Ed. III. fol. 36. pl. 4. (Selden's Letter to Vincent).

See

,,The title of earl" says Selden, ,,since the time of the Normans, is either local or personal. Local we call that which is denominated from any county or other territory. As earl of Chester, of Arundel, of Kent, and the like. Personal, that which

hath its being in some great office only, as in that of earl marshal. The local title is either in earls palatine that are local, or in them that are not palatine: and first of earls palatine that are local. But we omit here the primary deduction of the name palatine, as it hath relation to a county. It was received here doubtless out of the use of the empire and France, and in the like notions as it had in that use; as also the personal title of palatine, as we find it originally in the laws of the old empire, and have before declared it, was antiently, in England, attributed by some to such earls as had great offices in court. The local earls palatine were of the same nature with those of the Saxon time, that had both their earldoms to their own use, and also, under the king, all regal jurisdiction, or merum et mixtum imperium, insomuch as that the king's writ or ordinary justice did not run there. Such was Etheldred, ealdorman of Mereland under king Alfred, and his son Edward. For although the name of palatine be not found with us in the Saxon times, yet the sense and substance of it was fully in that earldom. For to be earl palatine, or count de palais, or count paleis (as they are sometimes in our law books called) was to have the title of earl, or the seisin of a county or earldom, and regalem potestatem in omnibus, under the king, as Bracton well expresses it, where he speaks of granting pardons to felons. De felone aut probatore nullus prisonam (saith he) habere poterit, nec de eo placitum habere nisi ipse dominus

rex,

cum nullus alius ei possit vitam concedere vel membra. Et haec vera sunt nisi sit aliquis in regno qui regalem habeat potestatem in omnibus, sicut sunt comites poleys (so we must read; for the word civitates inserted here in the print is superfluous, and not Bracton's, as his good copies shew us) salvo dominio domino regi sicut principi, vel si sit aliquis qui de concessione domini regis talem habeat libertatem." (De Corona, lib. 3. cap. 8. s. 4). (Tit. Hon. 2 part).

In Henry II. time, it seems Joannes Sarisburiensis understood the earls of Chester, and some other, that having regal jurisdiction also in the marches of Wales, were stiled palatines, in that passage of his of the increasing power of the Welsh. Speaking of the most corrupt and effeminate manners of the

court of that time; dum hoc faciunt (saith he) milites gloriosi, Nivicollinus indomitus insolescit, inermes Britones intumescunt, ipsosque qui dicuntur palatini comites, et regum sanguine gloriantur, fere ad deditionem compellunt et quasi tributarios faciunt. But the first time that in express words I find the earl of Chester called comes palatinus, is in the memory of the coronation of queen Elianor, the wife to Henry the third; comite Cestriae gladium S. Edwardi (saith Matthew Paris) qui Curtein dicitur, ante regem bajulante, in signum quod comes est palatinus.

Ner.

Then, is there the county Palatine.

Por.

He doth nothing but frown; as who should say. An if you will not have me, choose: he hears merry tales, and smiles not: I fear, he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married to a death's head with a bone in his mouth, than to either of these. defend me from these two?

Ner.

How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon?

Por.

God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.

God

In truth,

I know it is a sin to be a mocker; But, he! why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's; a better bad habit of frowning than the count Palatine: he is every man in no man: if a throstle sing, he falls straight a capering: he will fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands: If he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if he love me to madness, I shall never requite him.

Merchant of Venice Act 1 Scene 2.

Upon like reason, as those of Chester, were the antient earls of Pembroke, palatines, being domini totius comitatus de Pembroch, and holding totum regale infra praecinctum comitatus sui de Pembroch, as the old records say, yet these were not often called so. (Selden Tit. Hon. 2. Part). Hugo de Belesmo (that was earl of Shrewsbury under William the II.) in some records of the time of Edward the first, is called a palatine.

William the Conqueror, first created one Hugh Wolf, a Norman, count palatine of Chester, and gave the earldom to

For the name of

hold, as freely as the king held his crown. palatine, know, that in antient time, under the emperors of declining Rome, the title of count palatine was, but so, that it extended first only to him which had care of the household and imperial revenue; which is now (so saith Wesembech, I affirm it not) as the marshal in other courts; but was also communicated by that honorary attribute of comitiva dignitas, to many others, which had anything proportionate, place or desert, as the code teacheth us. In later times, both in Germany (as you see in the Palsgrave of Rhine) in France, (which the earldom of Champaign shews long time since in the crown; yet keeping a distinct palatine government, as Peter Pithou hath at large published) and in this kingdom such were hereditarily honoured with it, as being near the prince in the court (which they, as we, called the palace) had by their state-carriage gained full opinion of their worth, and ability in government, by delegate power of territories to them committed, and hereafter titled countes de palais, as our law annals call them. (Selden. Notes upon Drayton's Polyolbion).

Olivia.

Run after that same peevish messenger,

The county's man,

Twelfth Night Act 1 Scene 5.

In the first Folio, in this passage we read countes man," instead of county's man."

Conspiracy, conspiratio. Though both in Latin and French it is used for an agreement of men to do anything either good or bad; yet in Common Law it is alway taken in pejorem partem (Cowell Interpr.). The 33. Edward I. Statute 2 is entitled a Denfinition of Conspirators, Conspiratours sount ceux qi se entrelient per serement covenant ou per autre alliaunce qe chescun eidera et sustendra autri emprise de fausement et maliciousement enditer ou faire enditer ou fausement mover plees ou maintenir et auxi ceux qi fount enfauntz deinz age apeller les gentz des felonies per quoi ils sount emprisonez et moultz grevez et ceux qi reteignont gentz a lour robes et a lour fees pur maintenir lour malveis emprises et pur verite esteindre auxibien les pernours come les donours et Seneschalx et Bai

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