Prov. Go to, fir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the fcale. [Exit. Clo. Pray, fir, by your good favour, (for, furely, fir, a good favour you have, but that you have a hanging look,) do you call, fir, your occupation a mystery? 8 Abbor. Ay, fir; a mystery. Clo. 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 fhould be in hanging, if I fhould be hang'd, I cannot imagine.9 8 Favour is countenance. STEEVENS. Abbor. 9 what mystery, &c.] Though I have adopted an emendation independent of the following note, the omiffion of it would have been unwarrantable. STEEVENS. what mistery there should be in hanging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine. Abhor. Sir, it is a mistery. Clo. Proof. Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: Clo. 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 ftood 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 fubmit it to judgement, whether my regulation has not reftored that wit and humour which was quite left in the depravation. But the place is corrupt, though Mr. Theobald could not find it out. Let us confider it a little. The Hangman calls his trade a miftery: 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 hangman's. Hence it appears, that the speech, in which the Hangman proved his trade a mistery, is loft. The Abbor. Sir, it is a mystery. Clo. Proof. 2 Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: If it be Z 2 too very 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, on hearing this argument, replied, I fuppofe, to this effect: Why, by the fame kind of reafoning, I can prove the thief's trade too to be a miftery. 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 infinua. tion that thief and hangman were rogues alike. This conjecture gives a (pirit and integrity to the dialogue, which, in its prefent mangled condition, is altogether wanting; and fhews why the argument of every true man's apparel, &c. was in all editions given to the Clown, to whom indeed it be longs; and likewise that the prefent reading of that argument is the true. WARBURTON. If 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 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 mystery 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 mystery of fitters of apparel, or tailors. 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 mystery. 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 too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough; fo every true man's apparel fits your thief. I muft do Dr. Warburton the juftice to acknowledge, that he hath rightly apprehended, and explained the force of the Hangman's argument. НЕАТИ. There can be no doubt but the word Clown, prefixed to the last sentence, If it be too little, &c. fhould be struck out. It makes part of Abhorfon's argument, who has undertaken to prove that hinging was a myftery, and convinces the Clown of it by this very fpeech. M. MASON. 2 True man, in the language of ancient times, is always placed in oppofition to thief. STREVENS. Mr. Steevens 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? Clo. Sir, I will ferve him; for I do find, your hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftner ask forgiveness. Prov. You, firrah, provide your block and your axe, tomorrow four o'clock. Abbor. Come on, bawd; I will inftruct thee in my trade; follow. Clo. 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.4 Prov. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio: [Exeunt Clown and ABHORSON, One has my pity; not a jot the other, Being a murderer, though he were my brother. Enter CLAUDIO. Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death: He will not wake. Prov. Who can do good on him? Well, Mr. Steevens feems to be mistaken in his affertion that true man in ancient times was always placed in oppofition to thief. At leaft in the book of Genefis, there is one inftance to the contrary, ch. xlii. v. 11:— "We are all one man's fons: we are all true men; thy fervants are no Spies." HENLEY. 4 3 i. e. handy, nimble in the execution of my office. STEEVENS. -a good turn.] i. e. a turn off the ladder. He quibbles on the phrafe according to its common acceptation. FARMER. 5 Stiffly. These two lines afford a very pleasing image. JOHNSON. Well, go, prepare yourself. But hark, what noise ? [Knocking within. Heaven give your fpirits comfort! [Exit CLAUDIO.] By and by : I hope it is fome pardon, or reprieve, For the most gentle Claudio.-Welcome, father. Enter DUKE. Duke. The best and wholfomeft fpirits of the night Envelop 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. There's fome in hope. Prov. What comfort is for Claudio,? Duke. 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; That in himfelf, which he fpurs on his power To qualify in others: were he meal'd 9 With that which he corrects, then were he tyrannous ; [Knocking within.-Provost goes out This is a gentle provoft: Seldom, when The fteeled goaler is the friend of men. How now? What noife? That fpirit's poffefs'd with haste, That wounds the unfifting postern with these strokes. 2 Z 3 6 Perhaps he will then. SIR J. HAWKINS. Provoft The Duke expe&ts Ifabella and Mariana. A little afterward he says: Now are they come." RITSON. 66 7 Stroke is here put for the ftroke of a pen or a line. JOHNSON, 9 Were he fprinkled; were he defiled. JOHNSON. BLACKSTONE. 2 The line is irregular, and the old reading, unrefifting posters, fo strange an Provost returns, Speaking to one at the door. Prov. There he must stay, until the officer Arife to let him in; he is call'd up. Duke. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet, But he muft die to-morrow? Prov. None, fir, none. Duke. As near the dawning, Provoft, as it is, You fhall hear more ere morning. Prov. Happily, You fomething know; yet, I believe, there comes Lord Angelo. hath to the publick ear Profefs'd the contrary. Enter a Meffenger. Duke. This is his lordship's man. Prov. And here comes Claudio's pardon. 4 Meff. an expreffion, that want of meafure, and want of fenfe, might juftly raise fufpicion of an error; yet none of the latter editors feem to have supposed the place faulty, except Sir Thomas Hanmer, who reads: The three folios have it, -unfifting postern out of which Mr. Rowe made unrefifting, and the reft followed him. Sir Thomas Hanmer feems to have fuppofed unrefifting the word in the copies, from which he plaufibly enough extracted unrefting; but he grounded his emendation on the very fyllable that wants authority. What can be made of unfifting I know not; the best that occurs to me is unfeeling. Unfifting may fignify never at reft," always opening. I should think we might fafely read: -unlift ning poftern, or unfhifting poftern. The measure requires it, and the sense remains uninjured. JOHNSON. BLACKSTONE. Mr. M. Mafon would read unlifting, which means unregarding. I have, however, inferted Sir William Blackstone's emendation in the text. STEEVENS. 3 i. e. feat of juftice. Siege, French. STEEVENS. The Provoft has juft declared a fixed opinion that the execution will |