Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, &c. Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but ufe their abuses in common houfes, I know no law: bring them away. U 5 Ang. this last sense, Ben Jonfon ufes the word in his Underwoods. And, for the former fenfe, fee The Silent Woman, A& IV. I likewife find from Holinfhed, p. 670, that the brake was an engine of torture. "The faid Hawkins was caft into the Tower, and at length brought to the brake, called the Duke of Excefter's daughter, by means of which pain he fhewed many things," &c. "When the Dukes of Exeter and Suffolk (fays Blackstone, in his Commentaries, Vol. IV. chap. xxv. p. 320, 321) and other minifters of Hen. VI. had laid a design to introduce the civil law into this kingdom as the rule of government, for a beginning thereof they erected a rack for torture, which was called in derifion the Duke of Exeter's Daughter, and still remains in the Tower of London, where it was occafionally ufed as an engine of state, not of law, more than once in the reign of Queea Elizabeth." See Coke's Inftit. 35. Barrington, 69, 385. and Fuller's Worthies, p 317. A part of this horrid engine still remains in the Tower, and the following is the figure of it: It confifts of a strong iron frame about fix feet long, with three rollers of wood within it. The middle one of thefe, which has iron teeth at each end, is governed by two ftops of iron, and was, probably, that part of the machine which fufpended the powers of the reft, when the unhappy fufferer was fufficiently trained by the cords, &c. to begin confeffion. I cannot conclude this account of it without confeffing my obligation to Sir Charles Frederick, who politely condefcended to direct my enquiries, while Ang. How now, fir! What's your name? and what's the matter? Elb. If it pleafe your honour, I am the poor duke's conftable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, fir, and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors · Ang. Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors? Elb. If it pleafe your honour, I know not well what they are but precife villains they are, that I am fure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good chriftians ought to have. Efcal. This comes off well ;4 here's a wife officer. Ang. Go to: What quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why doft thou not speak, Elbow ? 5 Clo. He cannot, fir; he's out at elbow. are you, fir? Elb. while his high command rendered every part of the Tower acceffible to my researches. I have fince obferved that, in Fox's Martyrs, edit. 1596, p. 1843, there is a representation of the fame kind. It should not, however, be diffembled, that yet a plainer meaning may be deduced from the fame wordą. By brakes of vice may be meant a collection, a number, a thicket of vices. STEEVENS. The words-anfwer none (that is, make no confeffion of guilt) evidently fhew that brake of vice here means the engine of torture. The fame mode of question is again referred to in A& V; "To the rack with him: we'll touze you joint by joint, The name of brake of vice, appears to have been given this machine, from its resemblance to that used to fùbdue vicious borfes. HENLEY. 4 This is nimbly fpoken; this is volubly uttered. JOHNSON. The fame phrafe is employed in Timon of Athens, and elsewhere; but in the prefent inftance it is used ironically. The meaning of it, when feriously applied to fpeech, is-This is well delivered, this ftory is well told. STEEVENS. 5 Says Angelo to the conftable. "He cannot, fir, (quoth the Clown,) he's out at elbow." I know not whether this quibble be generally underftood; he is out at the word elbow, and out at the elbow of his coat. The Conftable, in his account of mafter Froth and the Clown, has a ftroke at the Puritans, who were very zealous against the ftage about this time: Precife villains they are, that I am fure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good Chriftians ought to have." FARMER. Elb. He fir? a tapfter, fir; parcel-bawd; one that ferves a bad woman; whofe houfe, fir, was, as they fay, pluck'd down in the fuburbs; and now the profeffes a hot-house," which, I think, is a very ill houfe too. Efcal. How know you that? Elb. My wife, fir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour, Efcal. How! thy wife? Elb. Ay, fir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman; Efcal. Doft thou deteft her therefore? Elb. I fay, fir, I will deteft myself alfo, as well as fhe, that this houfe, if it be not a bawd's houfe, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty houfe. Efcal. How doft thou know that, conftable? Elb. Marry, fir, by my wife; who, if fhe had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accufed in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there. Ejcal. By the woman's means? Elb. Ay, fir, by miftrefs Overdone's means: 9 but as she fpit in his face, fo fhe defy'd him. Clo. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not fo. Elb. Prove it before thefe varlets here, thou honourable man, prove it. Efcal. Do you hear how he mifplaces? 2 [To ANGELO. Clo. Sir, the came in great with child; and longing (faving your honour's reverence,) for ftew'd prunes; fir, we had but two in the house, which at that very diftant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a difh of fome three-pence; your honours U 6 • This we should now exprefs by faying, be is half-tapfter, half-bawd. JOHNSON. 7 A bot-boufe is an English name for a bagnio. JOHNSON. 8 He defigned to fay proteft. Mrs. Quickly makes the fame blunder in The Merry Wives of Windjor, Act I. fc. iv. But, I deteft, an honeft maid," &c. STEEVENS. 9 Here feems to have been fome mention made of Froth, who was to be accused, and fome words therefore may have been loft, unless the irregularity of the narrative may be better imputed to the ignorance of the conftable. JOHNSON. 2 Stewed prunes were to be found in every brothel. STERVENS. honours have feen fuch difhes; they are not China difhes, but very good dishes. Efcal. Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, fir. Clo. No, indeed, fir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right but, to the point: As I fay, this mistress Elbow, being, as I fay, with child, and being great belly'd, and longing, as I faid, for prunes and having but two in the difh, as I faid, mafter Froth here, this very man, having eaten the reft, as I faid, and, as I fay, paying for them very honestly;for, as you know, master Froth, I could not give you three pence again. Froth. No, indeed, Clo. Very well: you being then, if you be remember'd, cracking the ftones of the forefaid prunes. Froth. Ay, fo I did, indeed. Clo. Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remember'd, that fuch a one, and fuch a one, were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you; Froth. All this is true. Clo. Why, very well then. Efcal. Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpofe.— What was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what was done to her. Clo. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet. Efcal. No, fir, nor I mean it not. Člo. Sir, but you fhall come to it, by your honour's leave : And, I befeech you, look into mafter Froth here, fir; a man of fourfcore pound a year; whose father died at Hallowmas. -Was't not at Hallowmas, mafter Froth? Froth. All-hollond eve. Clo. Why, very well; I hope here be truths: He, fir, fitting, as I fay, in a lower chair,4 fir;-'twas in the Bunch of 3 A China dish, in the age of Shakspeare, muft have been fuch an uncommon thing, that the Clown's exemption of it, as no utenfil in a common brothel, is a ftriking circumftance in his abfurd and tautological depofition. STEEVENS. Every houfe had formerly, among its other furniture, what was called-a low chair, defigned for the ease of fick people, and, occafionally, occupied by lazy ones. Of thefe conveniencies I have feen many, though, perhaps, at prefent they are wholly difufed. STEEVENS. of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a delight to fit: Have you not; Froth. I have fo; because it is an open room, and good for winter. Clo. Why, very well then ;-I hope here be truths. Efcal. I think no lefs: Good morrow to your lordship. [Exit ANGELO. Now, fir, come on: What was done to Elbow's wife, once more? Clo. Once, fir? there was nothing done to her once. Elb. I beseech you, fir, ask him what this man did to my wife. Clo. I beseech your honour, ask me. Ejcal. Well, fir; What did this gentleman to her? Clo. I befeech you, fir, look in this gentleman's face :— Good mafter Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpofe: Doth your honour mark his face? Efcal. Ay, fir, very well. Clo. Nay, I befeech you, mark it well. Clo. Doth your honour fee any harm in his face? Cl. I'll be fuppofed 5 upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him: Good then; if his face be the worst thing about him, how could mafter Froth do the conftable's wite any harm? I would know that your honour. Efcal. He's in the right: Conftable what fay you to it? Elb. First, an it like you, the house is a refpected house ; next, this is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected woman. Clo. By this hand, fir, his wife is a more refpected perfon than any of us all. Elb. Varlet, thou lieft; thou lieft, wicked varlet: the time is yet to come, that he was ever refpected with man, woman, or child. 5 He means depofed. MALONE. Clo. |