Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

no noife in the streets; for, for the watch to babble and talk, is most tolerable and not to be endur❜d.

2 Watch. We will rather fleep than talk; we know what belongs to a watch.

Dogb. Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet watchman; for I cannot fee how fleeping fhould offend only have a care that your bills be not ftolen. 5 Well, you are to call at all the ale-houses, and bid them that are drunk get them to bed.

2 Watch. How if they will not?

Dogb. Why then let them alone till they are fober if they make you not then the better answer, you may fay, they are not the men you took them for.

2 Watch. Well, fir.

Dogb. If you meet a thief, you may fufpect him by virtue of your office to be no true man; and, for fuch kind of men, the less you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for your honefty.

2 Watch. If we know him to be a thief, fhall we not lay hands on him?

Dogb. Truly, by your office you may; but, I think, they that touch pitch will be defil'd: the most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to

5 bills be not ftolen :] A bill is ftill carried by the watchmen at Litchfield. It was the old weapon of the English infantry, which, fays Temple, gave the most ghastly and deplorable wounds. It may be called fecuris falcata. JOHNSON.

Thefe weapons are mentioned in Glapthorne's Wit in a ConЯable, 1639.

-Well faid, neighbours;

"You're chatting wifely o'er your bills and lanthorns,
"As becomes watchmen of difcretion."

Again, the fame play,

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

let him fhew himself what he is, and steal out of your company.

Verg. You have always been call'd a merciful man, partner.

Dogb. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will; much more a man who hath any honefty in him.

Verg. If you hear a child cry in the night, you muft call to the nurse, and bid her still it."

2 Watch. How if the nurse be asleep, and will not hear us?

Dogb. Why then, depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying: for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes, will never answer a calf when he bleats.

Verg. 'Tis very true.

If you hear a child cry, &c.] It is not impoffible but that part of this scene was intended as a burlesque on The Statutes of the Streets, imprinted by Wolfe, in 1595. Among thefe I find the following.

22." No man fhall blow any horne in the night, within this cittie, or whiftle after the houre of nyne of the clock in the night, under paine of imprisonment."

23. No man fhall ufe to goe with vifoures, or disguised by night, under like pain of imprisonment."

24." Made that night-walkers, and evifdroppers, like punish*ment."

25. "No hammar-man, as a smith, a pewterer, a founder, and "all artificers making great found, fhall not worke after the houre of nyne at the night, &c."

30." No man fhall, after the houre of nyne at night, keepe any *rale, whereby any fuch fuddaine out-cry be made in the 86 fill of the night, as making any affray, or beating his wyfe "or fervant, or finging, or revyling in his houfe, to the dif turbaunce of his neighbours, under payne of iii s. iiii d. " &c. &c."

Ben Jonfon, however, appears to have ridiculed this fcene in the Induction to his Bartholomew Fair.

"And then a substantial watch to have ftole in upon 'em, and "taken them away with mistaking words, as the fashion is in the ftage-practice." STEEVENS.

Dogb,

Dogb. This is the end of the charge. You, conftable, are to prefent the prince's own perfon; if you meet the prince in the night, you may stay him.

Verg. Nay, by'rlady, that, I think, he cannot.

Dogb. Five fhillings to one on't, with any man that knows the ftatues, he may ftay him: marry, not without the prince be willing: for, indeed, the watch ought to offend no man; and it is an offence to ftay a man against his will.

Verg. By'rlady, I think, it be fo

Dogb. Ha, ha, ha! Well, mafters, good night: an there be any matter of weight chances, call up me: keep your fellow's counfels and your own, and good night. Come, neighbour.

2 Watch. Well, mafters, we hear our charge: let us go fit here upon the church-bench till two, and then all to bed.

Dogb. One word more, honeft neighbours. I pray you, watch about fignior Leonato's door; for the wedding being there to-morrow, there is a great coil to-night: Adieu, be vigilant, I beseech you.

[Exeunt Dogberry aad Verges.

Enter Borachio and Conrade.

Bora. What! Conrade,

Watch. Peace, ftir not.

[Afide.

Bora. Conrade, I fay!

Conr. Here, man, I am at thy elbow.

Bora. Mafs, and my elbow itch'd; I thought there would a fcab follow?

Conr. I will owe thee an answer for that; and now forward with thy tale.

Bora. Stand thee clofe then under this pent-house, for it drizzles rain; and I will, like a true drunkard, utter all to thee.

Watch. [Afide.] Some treafon, mafters; yet ftand clofe.

Bora.

Bora. Therefore know, I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.

Conr. Is it poffible that any villainy fhould be fo dear?

Bora. Thou fhould't rather afk, if it were poffible 7 any villainy fhould be fo rich: for when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will.

Conr. I wonder at it.

8

Bora. That fhews, thou art unconfirm'd: Thou knoweft, that the fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak, is nothing to a man.

Conr. Yes, it is apparel.

Bora. I mean, the fashion.

Conr. Yes, the fashion is the fashion.

Bora. Tuh! I may as well fay, the fool's the fool. But fee'st thou not, what a deformed thief this fashion is?

Watch. I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief these seven years; he goes up and down like a gentleman I remember his name.

Bora. Didft thou not hear fome body?

Conr. No; 'twas the vane on the houfe.

Bora. Seeft thou not, I fay, what a deformed thief this fafhion is? how giddily he turns about all the hot bloods, between fourteen and five and thirty? fometimes, fashioning them like Pharaoh's foldiers in the reechy painting; fometimes, like the God Bel's priests in the old church window; 9 fometimes, like the fhaven Hercules in the fmirch'd worm-eaten

ta

7 any villainy should be fa rich :] The fenfe abfolutely requires us to read, villain. WARBURTON.

thou art unconfirmed :] i.e. unpractifed in the ways of the world. WARBURTON.

9 fometimes, like the fhaven Herrules, &c.] By the baven Hercules is meant Samfon, the usual subject of old tapestry. In this ridicule on the fashion, the poet has not unartfully given a roke at the

barba

I

tapestry, where his cod-piece feems as maffy as his club.

Conr. All this I fee; and fee, that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man: But art not thou thyself giddy with the fashion too, that thou haft fhifted out of thy tale into telling me of the fashion?

Bora. Not fo neither: but know, that I have tonight wooed Margaret, the lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the name of Hero; fhe leans me out at her miftrefs's chamber-window, bids me a thousand times good night-I tell this tale vilely:-I should firft tell thee, how the prince, Claudio, and my mafter, planted and placed, and poffeffed by my mafter Don John, faw afar off in the orchard this amiable

encounter,

barbarous workmanship of the common tapestry hangings, then fo much in use. The fame kind of raillery Cervantes has employed on the like occafion, when he brings his knight and 'fquire to an inn, where they found the ftory of Dido and Æneas reprefented in bad tapestry. On Sancho's feeing the tears fall from the eyes of the forfaken queen as big as walnuts, he hopes that when their atchievements became the general subject for these fort of works, that fortune will fend them a better artift.What authorifed the poet to give this name to Samfon was the folly of certain Chriftian mythologifts, who pretend that the Grecian Hercules was the Jewish Samfon. The retenue of our author is to be commended: The fober audience of that time would have been offended with the mention of a venerable name on fo light an occafion. Shakespeare is indeed fometimes licentious in thefe matters: But to do him juftice, he generally feems to have a fenfe of religion, and to be under its influence. What Pedro fays of Benedick, in this comedy, may be well enough applied to him. The man doth fear God, however it feems not to be in him by fome large jefts he will make.

WARBURTON.

I believe that Shakespeare knew nothing of thefe chriftian mythologists, and by the haven Hercules meant only Hercules when fhaved to make him look like a woman, while he remained in the fervice of Omphale, his Lydian mittrefs. Had the haven Hercules been meant to reprefent Samfon, he would probably have been equipped with a jaw-bone inftead of a club. STEEVENS.

Conr

« PředchozíPokračovat »