upon with the gods, will be ftrong with us for giving

over.

near the Globe playhoufe, from which the annexed cut has been made. We have here the hatch exactly delineated. The man with the pole-ax was called the Ruffian. MALONE.

The precept from Cupid's Whirligig, and the paffage in Pericles to which it refers, were originally applied by me to the illuftration of the term Pict-hatch in The Merry Wives of Windfor. See Vol. V. p. 81, n. 4.

A hatch is a half-door, ufually placed within a street-door, admitting people into the entry of a houfe, but preventing their accefs to its lower apartments, or its ftair-cafe. Thus, fays the Syracufan Dromio in The Comedy of Errors, to the Dromio of

BAWD. Come, other forts offend as well as we.5

Ephefus : "Either get thee from the door, or fit down at the

hatch."

When the top of a hatch was guarded by a row of pointed iron spikes, no perfon could reach over, and undo its fastening, which was always within-fide, and near its bottom.

This domeftick portcullis perhaps was neceffary to our ancient brothels. Secured within fuch a barrier, Mrs. Overdone could parley with her customers; refuse admittance to the fhabby vifitor, bargain with the rich gallant, defy the beadle, or keep the constable at bay.

From having been therefore her usual defence, the hatch at laft became an unequivocal denotement of her trade; for though the hatch with a flat top was a conftant attendant on butteries in great families, colleges, &c. the hatch with Spikes on it was peculiar to our early houfes of amorous entertainment.-Nay, as I am affured by Mr. Walsh, (a native of Ireland, and one of the compofitors engaged on the present edition of Shakspeare,) the entries to the Royal, Halifax, and Dublin bagnios in the city of Dublin, ftill derive convenience or fecurity from hatches, the Spikes of which are unfurmountable.

This long explanation (to many readers unneceffary) is imputable to the preceding wooden cut, from the repetition of which I might have excufed myself. As it is poffible, however, that I may ftand in the predicament of poor Sancho, who could not difcern the enchanted caftles that were fo diftin&ly visible to his mafter's opticks, I have left our picture of an ancient brothel where I found it. It certainly exhibits a house, a lofty door, a wicket with a grate in it, a row of garden-rails, and a drawbridge, As for hatch-let my readers try if they can find one.

I muft fuppofe, that my ingenious fellow-labourer, on future confideration, will clafs his hatch with the air-drawn dagger, and join with me in Macbeth's exclamation-" There's no fuch thing."

Let me add, that if the Ruffian (as here represented) was an oftenfible appendage to brothels, they must have been regulated on very uncommon principles; for instead of holding out allurements, they must have exhibited terrors. Surely, the Ruffian could never have appeared nifi dignus vindice nodus inciderat, till his prefence became neceffary to extort the wages of proftitution, or fecure fome other advantage to his employer.

The representation prefixed to Holland's Leaguer, has, there

PAND. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse. Neither is our profeffion any trade; . it's no calling-but here comes Boult.

Enter the Pirates, and BOULT, dragging in
MARINA.

BOULT. Come your ways. [To MARINA.]-My mafters, you say the's a virgin?

1 PIRATE. O, fir, we doubt it not.

BOULT. Mafter, I have gone thorough for this piece, you fee: if you like her, fo; if not, I have loft my earnest.

BAWD. Boult, has the any qualities?

BOULT. She has a good face, fpeaks well, and has excellent good clothes; there's no further neceffity of qualities can make her be refused.

BAWD. What's her price, Boult?

BOULT. I cannot be bated one doit of a thoufand pieces,"

fore, in my opinion, no more authenticity to boaft of, than the contemporary wooden cuts illustrative of the Siege of Troy.

STEEVENS.

5 Come, other forts offend as well as we.] From her husband's anfwer, I fufpe&t the poet wrote-Other trades &c. MALONE. Malone fufpects that we should read-other trades, but that is unneceffary; the word forts has the fame fense, and means profeffions or conditions of life. So, Macbeth fays;

"I have won

"Golden opinion of all forts of people." M. MASON. 6 - I have gone thorough] i. e. I have bid a high price for her, gone far in my attempt to purchase her. STEEVENS.

I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.] This fpeech fhould feem to fuit the Pirate, However, it may belong

PAND. Well, follow me, my mafters; you shall have your money prefently. Wife, take her in; inftruct her what the has to do, that she may not be raw in her entertainment.8

[Exeunt Pander and Pirates.

BAWD. Boult, take you the marks of her; the colour of her hair, complexion, height, age, with warrant of her virginity; and cry, He that will give moft, fhall have her first. Such a maidenhead were no cheap thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done as I command you.

BOULT. Performance fhall follow. [Exit BOULT. MAR. Alack, that Leonine was fo flack, fo flow! (He should have struck, not fpoke ;) or that these pirates,

(Not enough barbarous,) had not overboard Thrown me, to seek my mother !2

to Boult. I cannot get them to bate me one doit of a thousand pieces. MALONE.

8.

that he may not be raw in her entertainment.] Unripe, unfkilful. So, in Hamlet: "—and yet but raw neither, in refpect of his quick fail." MALONE.

و

-age,] So, the quarto, 1619. The firft copy has-her age. MALONE.

I

and cry, He that will give moft, shall have her first.] The prices of firft and fecondary proftitution are exactly fettled in the old profe romance already quoted: "Go thou, and make a crye through the citye that of all men that shall enhabyte with her carnally, the fyrft fhall gyve me a pounde of golde, and after that echone a peny of golde." STEEVENS.

2

or that thefe pirates

(Not enough barbarous,) had not over-board
Thrown me, to feek my mother!] Old copy:

(Not enough barbarous,) had not o'erboard thrown me,
For to feek &c. STEEVENS.

I fufpect the fecond not was inadvertently repeated by the compofitor. Marina, I think, means to fay, Alas, how unlucky

BAWD. Why lament you, pretty one?

MAR. That I am pretty.

BAWD. Come, the gods have done their part in

you.

MAR. I accuse them not.

BAWD. You are lit into my hands, where you are like to live.3

MAR. The more my fault,

To 'scape his hands, where I was like to die.
BAWD. Ay, and you fhall live in pleasure.
MAR. NO.

BAWD. Yes, indeed, fhall you, and tafte gentlemen of all fashions. You fhall fare well; you fhall have the difference of all complexions. What! do you ftop your ears?

it was, that Leonine was fo flack in his office; or, he having omitted to kill me, how fortunate would it have been for me, if those pirates had thrown me into the fea to seek my mother. MALONE.

We should recur to the old copies, and read:

Not enough barbarous, had not overboard, &c. which is clearly right;-for Marina is not expreffing what the wifhed that Leonine and the Pirates had done, but repining at what they had omitted to do. She laments that Leonine had not ftruck, instead of speaking, and that the Pirates had not thrown her overboard. M. MASON.

The original reading may ftand, though with fome harshness of conftruction. Alas, how unfortunate it was, that Leonine was fo merciful to me, or that these pirates had not thrown me into the sea to seek my mother.

If the fecond not was intended by the author, he should rather have written-did not o'er-board throw me, &c. MALONE.

3 You are lit into my hands, where you are like to live.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

Be of good cheer;

"You have fallen into a princely hand; fear nothing."

MALONE