Clown. If the man be a batchelor, 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 anfwer. 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 fhall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied 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 Abhorfon.

Abhor. Do you call, fir?

Prov. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-mor row 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 difmifs him. He cannot plead his eftimation with you, he hath been a bawd.

Abbor. A bawd, fir? fie upon him, he will difcredit our mistery.*

Prov. Go to, fir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the fcale. [Exit. Clown. Pray, fir, by your good favour (for, furely,

difcredit our mystery.] I think it juft worth while to observe, that the word mystery, when used to fignify a trade or manual profeffion, fhould be fpelt with an i, and not a y, because it comes not from the Greek, uchgia, but from the French, meftier.

VOL. II.

H

WARBURTON.

fir,

fir, a good favour you have, but that you have a hanging look) do you call, fir, your occupation a mistery?

Abbor. Ay, fir; a mistery.

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

Abbor.

5 what mystery there should be in banging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine.

Abhor. Sir, it is a mystery.

Clown. Proof.

Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief.

:

Clown. If it 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. Thus it flood in all the editions till Mr. Theobald's, and was, methinks, not very difficult to be understood. The plain and humourous fenfe of the fpeech is this. Every true man's apparel, which the thief robs him of, fits the thief. Why? Because, 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. But 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. Where we fee, that the pleasantry of the joke confifts in the equivocal fenfe of big enough and little enough. Yet Mr. Theobald fays, he can fee no fenfe in all this, and therefore alters the whole thus.

Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief.

Clown. If it be too little for your true man, your thief thinks it big enough if it be too big for your true man, your thief thinks it little enough

And for his alteration gives this extraordinary reafon.-I am fatisfied the poet intended a regular fyllogifm; and I submit it to judgment, whether my regulation has not reftored that wit and humour, which was quite loft in the depravation. But the place is corrupt, tho' Mr. Theobald could not find it out. Let us confider it a little. The Hangman calls his trade a mistery: the Clown cannot conceive it. The Hangman undertakes to prove it in these words, Every true man's apparel, &c. but this proves the thief's trade a mistery, not the bangman's. Hence it appears, that the speech, in which the Hangman proved his trade a mifery, is loft. The very

words

Abhor. Sir, it is a mistery.

Clown. Proof

Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief.

words it is impoffible to retrieve, but one may easily understand what medium he employed in proving it: without doubt, the very fame the Clown employed to prove the thief's trade a mistery; namely, that all forts of clothes fitted the bangman. The Clown, o hearing this a gument, replied, I fuppofe, to this effect: Why, bý the fame kind of reasoning, I can prove the thief's trade too to be a mistery. The other asks how, and the Clown goes on as above, Every true man's apparel fits your thief; if it be too little, &c. The jocular conclufion from the whole, being an infinuation that thief and hangman were rogues alike. This conjecture gives a spirit and integrity to the dialogue, which, in its prefent mangled condition, is altogether wanting: aud fhews why the argument of every true man's apparel, &c. was in all editions given to the Clown, to whom indeed it belongs; and likewife that the prefent reading of that argument is the true. WARBURTON.

Clown. Sir, it is a miftery, &c.] If Dr. Warburton had attended to the argument by which the Bawd proves his own profeffion to be a miftery, he would not have been driven to take refuge in the groundless 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 miftery of painters; fo 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 mistery of fitters of apparel or taylors. The reading of the old editions is therefore undoubtedly right; except that the laft fpeech, which makes part of the Hangman's argument, is, by mistake, as the reader's own fagacity will readily perceive, given to the Clown or Bawd. I fuppofe, therefore, the poet gave us the whole thus:

"Abhor. Sir, it is a miftery.

"Clown. Proof

"Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be too "little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough: if it be "100 big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough; fo every "true man's apparel fits your thief.

I must do Dr. Warburton the justice to acknowledge, that he hath rightly apprehended, and explained the force of the Hangman's argument. REVISAL.

H 2

Clown.

Clown. If it 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.

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

Abhor. Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade. Follow.

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

Prov. Call hither Barnardine, and Claudio:
One has my pity; not a jot the other,

Being a murtherer, tho' he were my brother.
Enter Claudio.

[Exit.

;

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 guiltlefs la-

bour

When it lies ftarkly in the traveller's bones.
He will not wake.

Prov. Who can do good on him?

Well, go, prepare yourself. [Exit Claud. But, hark,

what noife?

[Knock within. Heaven give your fpirits comfort !-By and by ;

7

yare: i. e. handy. So in Antony and Cleopatra:

His fhips are yare, yours heavy."

STEEVENS.

-farkly- - Stiffy. Thefe two lines afford a very pleas ing image. JOHNSON.

I hope

I hope it is fome pardon, or reprieve,

For the most gentle Claudio. Welcome, father.

Enter Duke.

Duke. The best and wholefomeft fpirits of the night Invellop you, good provoft! Who call'd here of late? Prov. None, fince the curfew rung?

Duke. Not Ifabel?

Prov. No.

Duke. They will then, ere't be long.

Prov. What comfort is for Claudio?

Duke. There's fome in hope.

Prov. It is a bitter deputy.

Duke. Not fo, not fo; his life is parallel'd Even with the ftroke and line of his great juftice; He doth with holy abftinence fubdue

That in himself, which he fpurs on his power

To qualify in others. Were he meal'd 3

With that, which he corrects, then were he tyran

nous;

But this being fo, he's juft, Now they are come.

[Knock. Provost goes out. This is a gentle provoft; feldom, when

The fteeled goaler is the friend of men.

How now? what noife? that fpirit's poffefs'd with hafte,+

That wounds the unrefifting postern with thefe ftrokes.

1

Pro

1 Even with the stroke Stroke is here put for the ftroke of

a pen or a line. JOHNSON.

2 To qualify

-] To temper, to moderate, as we fay wine

is qualified with water. JOHNSON.

-Were he meal'd] Were he fprinkled; were he defiled, A figure of the fame kind our authour uies in Macbeth,

The blood-bolter'd Banquo. JOHNSON.

4

-that spirit's poffeft with bafte,

That wounds the unrefifting poftern with thefe firokes.]

The line is irregular, and the unrefifting postern fo strange an ex

H 3

preffion,