Is't not drown'd i' the laft rain? ha? what fay'ft thou, trot? is the world as it was, man? Which is the way is it fad and few words? or how? the trick of it? Duke. Still thus and thus! ftill worfe! Lucio. How doth my dear morfel, thy mistress? procures fhe ftill? ha? Clown. Troth, fir, fhe hath eaten up all her beef, and fhe is herfelf in the tub.4 Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be fo. Ever your fresh whore, and your powder'd bawd: an unfhunn'd confequence; it must be fo. Art going to prifon, Pompey? Clown. Yes, faith, fir. Lucio. Why, 'tis not amifs, Pompey: farewell: go; fay, I fent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? or how?s Elb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd. Lucio. Well, then imprison him: if imprisonment 2 what fay ft thou, trot ] It should be read, I think, what fay'st thou to't the word trot being feldom, if ever, ufed to a man. Old trot, or trat, fignifies a decrepid old woman, or an old drab. In this fenfe it is ufed by Gawin Douglafs, Virg. Æn. b. iv. "Out on the old trat, aged dame or wyffe." Dr. GRAY. Trot, or as it is now often pronounced, honeft trout, is a familiar addrefs to a man among the provincial vulgar. JOHNSON. 3 Which is the way? What is the mode now? JOHNSON. 4 in the tub.] The method of cure for venereal complaints is grofly called the powdering tub. JOHNSON. 5 go; fay, I fent thee, thither. For debt, Pompey? or bow?] It fhould be pointed thus, Go, fay I fent thee thither for debt, Pompey; or how. e. to hide the ignominy of thy cafe, fay, I fent thee to prison for debt, or whatever other pretence thou fanciest better, The other humourously replies, For being a bawd, for being a baud, i. e. the true caufe is the most honourable. This is in character. WARBURTON. I do not perceive any neceffity for the alteration. Lucio firft offers him the use of his name to hide the ignominy of his cafe; and then very naturally defires to be informed of the true reason why he was ordered into confinement. STEEVENS. be be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right. Bawd is he, doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawd born. Farewell, good Pompey: Commend me to the prifon, Pompey: You will turn good hufband now, Pompey; you will keep the house. Clown. I hope, fir, your good worship will be my bail. Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will pray, Pompey, to encrease your bondage: if you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the more. Adieu, trufty Pompey. Bless you, friar. Duke. And you. Lucio. Does Bridget paint ftill, Pompey? ha? What news Clown. You will not bail me then, fir? Lucio. Then, Pompey? nor now. abroad, friar? what news? Elb. Come your ways, fir, come. 6 [Exeunt Elbow, Clown, and Officers. What news, friar, of the duke? Duke. I know none: Can you tell me of any ? Lucio. Some fay, he is with the emperor of Ruffia; other fome, he is in Rome: but where is he, think you? Duke. I know not where: but wherefoever, I wish him well. Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him to fteal from the state, and ufurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his abfence; he puts tranfgreffion to't. Duke. He does well in't. 'Go,-to kennel, Pompey,-go.] It should be remembered, that Pompey is the common name of a dog, to which allufion is made in the mention of a kennel. JOHNSON. Lucio. A little more lenity to letchery would do no harm in him: fomething too crabbed that way, friar. Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it. Lucio. Yes, in good footh, the vice is of a great kindred; it is well ally'd: but it is impoffible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They fay, this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after the downright way of creation: Is it true, think you? Duke. How fhould he be made then? Lucio. Some report, a fea-maid spawn'd him : Some, that he was got between two stock-fifhes :But it is certain, that when he makes water, his urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true: and he is a motion ungenerative, that's infallible. 8 Duke. You are pleasant, fir; and speak apace. Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a cod-piece, to take away the life of a man? Would the duke, that is abfent, have 1 It is too general a vice] The occafion of the obfervation was Lucio's faying, that it ought to be treated with a little more lenity; and his answer to it is,-The vice is of great kindred. Nothing can be more abfurd than all this. From the occafion, and the answer, therefore, it appears, that Shakespeare wrote, It is too gentle a vice, which fignifying both indulgent and well bred, Lucio humouroufly takes it in the latter sense. WARBURTON. It is too general a vice. Yes, replies Lucio, the vice is of great kindred, it is well ally'd, &c. As much as to fay, Yes, truly, it is general; for the greateft men have it as well as we little folks. A little lower he taxes the Duke perfonally with it. EDWARDS. $ and he is a motion ungenerative, that's infallible.] In the former editions and be is a motion generative; that's infallible. This may be fenfe; and Lucio, perhaps, may mean, that tho' Angelo have the organs of generation, yet that he makes no more use of them, than if he were an inanimate puppet. But I rather think our author wrote,—and he is a motion ungenerative, because Lucio again in this very fcene fays,this ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with continency. THEOBALD. done done this? ere he would have hang'd a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nurfing a thousand. He had fome feeling of the fport; he knew the fervice, and that inftructed him to mercy. Duke. I never heard the abfent duke much detected for women; he was not inclin'd that way. Lucio. Oh, fir, you are deceiv'd, Duke. 'Tis not poflible. Lucio. Who, not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his ufe was, to put a ducket in her clackdish. The duke had crotchets in him. be drunk too; that let me inform you. Duke. You do him wrong, furely. He would Lucie. Sir, I was an inward of his. A fhy fellow was the duke; and, I believe, I know the caufe of his withdrawing. Duke. What, pr'ythee, might be the cause? clack-difb.] The beggars, two or three centuries ago, ufed to proclaim their want by a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked to fhew that their veffel was empty. This appears in a paffage quoted on another occafion by Dr. Gray. Dr. Gray's affertion may be fupported by the following paffage in an old comedy, called The Family of Love, 1608 : "Can you think I get my living by a bell and a clack-dish ?" "By a bell and a clack-difb? how's that?" "Why, by begging, fir, &c." Again, in Henderfon's Supplement to Chaucer's Troilus and "Thus fhalt thou go begging from hous to hous, And by a stage direction in the 2d Part of K. Edrv. IV. 1619: There is likewise an old proverb to be found in Ray's Collection, which alludes to the fame cuftom: "He claps his difh at a wrong man's door." G 3 STEEVENS. Lucio. Lucio. No--pardon :-'tis a fecret must be lock'd within the teeth and the lips. But this I can let you understand.-The greater file of the subject' held the duke to be wife. Duke. Wife? why no queftion but he was. Lucio. A very fuperficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow. Duke. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking the very ftream of his life, and the bufinefs he hath helmed, muft, upon a warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but teftimonied in his own bringings forth, and he fhall appear, to the envious, a fcholar, a ftatefman and a foldier, Therefore, you speak unfkilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darken'd in your malice. Lucio. Sir, I know him, and I love him. Duke. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love. Lucio. Come, fir, I know what I know. Duke. I can hardly believe that, fince you know not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return, (as our prayers are he may) let me defire you to make your answer before him. If it be honeft you have fpoke, you have courage to maintain it. I am bound to call upon you; and, I pray you, your name? Lucio. Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke. Dnke. He fhall know you better, fir, if I may live to report you. Lucio. I fear you not. Duke. Oh, you hope, the duke will return no more; or you imagine me too unhurtful an oppofite. But, The greater file of the fubje&] The larger lift, the greater number. JOHNSON. 3 the business he hath helmed,] The difficulties he hath fieer'd through. A metaphor from navigation. STEEVENS, 2 in: |