Duke. But fhall you on your knowledge find this way? Ijab. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't;

With whispering and moft guilty diligence,

In action all of precept, he did fhew me
The way twice o'er.

Duke. Are there no other tokens

Between you 'greed, concerning her obfervance?
Ifab. No, none, but only a repair i' the dark;
And that I have poffefs'd him, my most stay
Can be but brief: for I have made him know,
I have a fervant comes with me along,
That stays upon me; whofe perfuafion is,
I come about my brother.

Duke, 'Tis well borne up.

I have not yet made known to Mariana

A word of this:-What, ho! within! come forth!
Re-enter MARIANA.

I pray you, be acquainted with this maid;

She comes to do you good.

Ifab. I do defire the like.

Duke. Do you perfuade yourself that I refpect you? Mari. Good friar, I know you do; and have found it. Duke. Take then this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear:

I fhall attend your leifure; but make haste;

The vaporous night approaches.

Mari. Will't please you walk afide?

[Exeunt MARI. and ISAB. Duke. O place and greatnefs, millions of falfe eyes

7 In action all of precept,] i. e. fhewing the feveral turnings of the way with his hand: which action contained so many precepts, being given for my direction. WARBURTON.

I rather think we fhould read, In precept all of action, that is, in direction given not by words, but by mate figns. JOHNSON.

I bave poffefs'd bim,] I have made him clearly and strongly Comprehend. JOHNSON.

9 That stays upon me ;] So, in Macbeth:

I

STEEVENS.

"Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure." -falfe eyes] That is, Eyes infidious and traiterous. JOHNSON.

Are stuck upon thee! volumes of report

2

Run with thefe falfe and most contrarious quefts 2
Upon thy doings! thousand 'fcapes of wit

Make thee the father of their idle dream,'

And rack thee in their fancies !-Welcome! How agreed? Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA.

Ifab. She'll take the enterprize upon her, father, If you advise it.

Duke. It is not my confent,

But my intreaty too.

Ifab. Little have you to say,

When you depart from him, but, foft and low,

Remember now my brother.

Mari. Fear me not.

Duke. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all:
He is your husband on a pre-contract:

To bring you thus together, 'tis no fin;
Sith that the juftice of your title to him
Doth flourish the deceit 3.

Come, let us go;

Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to fow 4. [Exeunt.

2thefe falfe and moft contrarious quefts] Lying and contradictory meffengers. ANONYMOUS.

So, in Orbello:

"The fenate has fent out three feveral quefts." STEEVENS. 3 Doth flourish the deceit.] Flourish is ornament in general. So, in another play of Shakspeare:

*

-empty trunks o'er-flourish'd by the devil." STEEVENS. 4for yet our tithe's to fow. Mr. Theobald reads tilth, which Dr. Farmer obferves is provincially ufed for land till'd, prepared for fowing; and Mr. Steevens has fhewn, that to fow tilth was a phrafe once in ufe. This conjecture appears to me extremely probable. It must however be confeffed that our author has already ufed the word tilth in this play, in its common acceptation, for tillage; which would not fuit here:

fo, her plenteous womb
"Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry."

MALONE.

I believe rytbe is right, and that the expreflion is proverbial, in which tytbe is taken, by an easy metonymy, for karveft. JOHNSON.

SCENE

SCENE II.

A Room in the Prison.

Enter Provoft and Clown.

Prov. Come hither, firrah: Can you cut off a man's ' head?

Clown. If the man be a bachelor, fir, I can: but if he be a marry'd man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head.

Prov. Come, fir, leave me your fnatches, and yield me a direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine: here is in our prifon a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if you will take it on you to affift him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you fhall have your full time of imprifonment, and your deliverance with an unpity'd whipping; for you

have been a notorious bawd.

Clown. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd, time out of mind; but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive fome inftruction from my fellow partner.

Prov. What ho, Abhorfon! Where's Abhorfon, there? Enter ABHORSON.

Abhor. Do you call, fir?

Prov. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in your execution: If you think it meet, compound with him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if not, ufe him for the prefent, and difmits him: He cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a bawd. Abhor. A bawd, fir? Fie upon him, he will discredit our mystery.

Prov. Go to, fir; you weigh equally; a feather will

turn the fcale.

[Exit. Clown. Pray, fir, by your good favour, (for, furely, fir, a good favours you have, but that you have a hanging look,) do you call, fir, your occupation a mystery?

5 - a good favour] Favour is countenance.

STEEVENS.

Abhor.

Abbor. Ay, fir; a mystery.

Clown. Painting, fir, I have heard fay, is a mystery; and your whores, fir, being members of my occupation, ufing painting, do prove my occupation a mystery: but what mystery there should be in hanging, if I fhould be hang'd, I cannot imagine.

Abhor. Sir, it is a mystery.

Clown. Proof.

Abbor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief®: If it

6 Every true man's apparel fits your thief,] So, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578, the Hangman fays:

"Here is nyne and twenty futes of apparell for my share." STEEVENS. A true man, in the language of our author's time, meant an boneft man, and was generally oppofed to a thief. Our jurymen are to this day called "good men and true." The following words" If it be too little, &c." are given in the old copy to the Clown: the train of the argument fhews decifively that they belong to Abhorfon. The prefent arrangement, which is clearly right, was fuggefted by Mr. Theobald.

MALONE.

But

The fenfe of this fpeech is this: Every true man's apparel, which the thief robs him of, fits the thief; becaufe, if it be too 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 man. 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. The pleafantry of the joke confifts in the equivocal sense of big enough, and little enough. WARBURTON.

There is still a further equivoque. The true man's apparel, which way foever it be taken, fitting the thief, the fpeaker confiders him as a fitter of apparel, i. e. a tailor.

This, it must be acknowledged, on the firft view, feems only to prove the thief's trade, not the bangman's, a mystery; which latter was the thing to be proved; but the argument is brought home to the hangman alio, by the following state of it. "If (fays Mr. Heath) Dr. Warburton had attended to the argument by which the bawd proves his own profeffion to be a mystery, he would not have been driven to the groundefs fuppofition, that part of the dialogue had been loft 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 mystery of painters; to 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 mystery of fitters of apparel, or tailors." MALONE.

be

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.

Re-enter Provost.

Prov. Are you agreed?

Clown. Sir, I will ferve him; for I do find, your hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftner afk forgiveness 7.

Prov. You, firrah, provide your block and your axe, to-morrow four o'clock.

Abhor. Come on, bawd; I will inftruct thee in my trade; follow.

Clown. I do defire to learn, fir; and, I hope, if you have occafion to use me for your own turn, you fhall find me yare for, truly fir, for your kindness, I owe you a good turn 9.

Prov. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:

[Exeunt Clown and ABHORSON

The one has my pity; not a jot the other,
Being a murtherer, though he were my brother.

Enter CLAUDIO.

Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:
"Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow
Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?
Claud. As faft lock'd up in fleep, as guiltless labour
When it lies ftarkly' in the traveller's bones:

He will not wake.

Prov. Who can do good on him?

7- ask forgiveness.] So, in As You Like It:

8

9 a

-The common executioner,

"Whose heart the accustom'd fight of death makes hard,
"Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck,

"But first begs pardon." STEEVENS.

-yare:] i. e. handy. STEEVENS.

good turn.] i.e. a turn off the ladder. He quibbles on the phrase

according to its common acceptation. FARMER.

-flarkly] Stiffly. These two lines afford a very pleafing image.