acquaintance with 'The Crown Circuit Companion,' and must have had a full and accurate knowledge of that rather obscure and intricate subject-" Felony and Benefit of Clergy."

Cade's proclamation, which follows, deals with still more recondite heads of jurisprudence. Announcing his policy when he should mount the throne, he says:—

"The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his shoulders unless he pay me tribute: there shall not a maid be married but she shall pay me her maidenhead ere they have it. Men shall hold of me in capite; and we charge and command that their wives be as free as heart can wish, or tongue can tell.”

He thus declares a great forthcoming change in the tenure of land and in the liability to taxation: he is to have a poll-tax like that which had raised the rebellion; but, instead of coming down to the daughters of blacksmiths who had reached the age of fifteen, it was to be confined to the nobility. Then he is to legislate on the mercheta mulierum. According to Blackstone and other high authorities this never had been known in England; although, till the reign of Malcolm III., it certainly appears to have been established in Scotland; but Cade intimates his determination to adopt it,—with this alteration, that instead of conferring the privilege on every lord of a manor, to be exercised within the

manor, he is to assume it exclusively for himself all over the realm, as belonging to his prerogative royal.

He proceeds to announce his intention to abolish tenure in free soccage, and that all men should hold of him in capite, concluding with a licentious jest, that although his subjects should no longer hold in free soccage, "their wives should be as free as heart can wish, or tongue can tell." Strange to say, this phrase, or one almost identically the same, "as free as tongue can speak or heart can think," is feudal, and was known to the ancient law of England. In the tenth year of King Henry VII., that very distinguished judge, Lord Hussey, who was Chief Justice of England during four reigns, in a considered judgment delivered the opinion of the whole Court of King's Bench as to the construction to be put upon the words "as free as tongue can speak or heart can think." See YEAR BOOK, Hil. Term, 10 Hen. VII., fol. 13, pl. 6.

Troilus and Cressida.

In this play the author shows his insatiable desire to illustrate his descriptions of kissing by his recollection of the forms used in executing deeds. When Pandarus

(Act III. Sc. 2) has brought Troilus and Cressida together in the Orchard to gratify their warm inclinations, he advises Troilus to give Cressida "a kiss in fee-farm," which Malone explains to be "a kiss of a duration that has no bounds,—a fee-farm being a grant of lands in fee, that is for ever, reserving a rent certain."

The advice of Pandarus to the lovers being taken, he exclaims

"What! billing again? Here's-In witness the parties interchangeably"

the exact form of the testatum clause in an indenture"In witness whereof the parties interchangeably have hereto set their hands and seals."

To avoid a return to this figure of speech I may here mention other instances in which Shakespeare introduces it. In 'Measure for Measure,' Act IV. Sc. 1

"But my kisses bring again

Seals of love, but seal'd in vain :

and in his poem of Venus and Adonis '—

"Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted,
What bargains may I make, still to be sealing?"

King Lear.

In Act I. Sc. 4 the Fool makes a lengthy rhyming speech, containing a great many trite but useful moral maxims, such as

Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest, &c.,

which the testy old King found rather flat and tire

some.

Lear. This is nothing, fool.

Fool. Then, 'tis like the breath of an unfeed lawyer: you gave me nothing for it.

This seems to show that Shakespeare had frequently been present at trials in courts of justice, and now speaks from his own recollection. There is no trace of such a proverbial saying as "like the breath of an unfeed lawyer,”—while all the world knows the proverb, "Whosoever is his own counsel has a fool for his client."

How unfeed lawyers may have comported themselves in Shakespeare's time I know not; but I am bound to say, in vindication of "my order," that in my time there has been no ground for the Fool's sarcasm upon the bar. The two occasions when "the breath of an unfeed lawyer" attracts notice in this generation are when he

pleads for a party suing in formâ pauperis, or when he defends a person prosecuted by the crown for high treason. It is contrary to etiquette to take a fee in the one case as well as in the other; and on all such occasions counsel, from a regard to their own credit, as well as from conscientious motives, uniformly exert themselves with extraordinary zeal, and put forth all their learning and eloquence.

I confess that there is some foundation for the saying that "a lawyer's opinion which costs nothing is worth nothing;" but this can only apply to opinions given off-hand, in the course of common conversation,—where there is no time for deliberation, where there is a desire to say what will be agreeable, and where no responsibility is incurred.

In Act II. Sc. 1, there is a remarkable example of Shakespeare's use of technical legal phraseology. Edmund, the wicked illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloster, having succeeded in deluding his father into the belief that Edgar, the legitimate son, had attempted to commit parricide, and had been prevented from accomplishing the crime by Edmund's tender solicitude for the Earl's safety, the Earl is thus made to express a determination that he would disinherit Edgar (who was supposed to have fled from justice), and that he would leave all his possessions to Edmund :