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Enter Clown.

Clo. Yonder man is carried to prison.

Bawd. Well: what has he done?

Clo. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

Clo. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Bawd. What! is there a maid with child by him ? Clo. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: You have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

Bawd. What proclamation, man?

Clo. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.

Bawd. And what shall become of those in the city?

Clo. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. Bawd. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pull'd down? 6

Clo. To the ground, mistress.

Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth! What shall become of me?

Clo. Come, fear not you; good counsellors lack no clients though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

In one of the Scotch Laws of James it is ordered, "that common women be put at the utmost endes of townes, queire least peril of fire is."— It is remarkable that the licensed houses of re sort at Vienna are at this time all in the suburbs, under the per m.ssion of the Committee of Chastity.

Clo. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet.

SCENE III. The Same.

[Exeunt.

Enter Provost,' CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers, LUCIO, and two Gentlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to

the world?

Bear me to prison where I am committed.
Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down for our offence by weight.
The words of Heaven;

on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.2

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin' down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.1

Provost was anciently used for principal or president of any establishment. Here it means jailer.

II.

2 Authority, being absolute in Angelo, is finely styled by Clau dio the demigod, whose decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of Heaven. The poet alludes to a passage in St. Paul's Epist. to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15-18: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy."

3 To ravin is to devour voraciously. Ravenous is still in use from the same original.

4 So, in Chapman's Revenge for Honour :

"Like poison'd rats, which, when they 've swallowed
The pleasing bane, rest not until they drink,

And can rest then much less, until they burst"

H

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment. — What's thy offence, Claudio?

Claud. What but to speak of would offend again. Lucio. What is it? murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it so.

Prov. Away, sir: you must go.
Claud. One word, good friend :

with you.

Lucio, a word [Takes him aside.

Lucio. A hundred, if they'll do you any good.

Is lechery so look'd after?

Claud. Thus stands it with me: - Upon a true contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed:

You know the lady; she is fast my wife,

5

Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower

6

5 To denounce was sometimes used in the sense of to publish, proclaim, or announce, a thing. Thus in Holinshed and others we have the phrase, “denouncing of war." So, also, in Raleigh's History of the World: "But Gracchus's soldiers, which were all, in a manner, the late armed slaves, had received from their general a peremptory denunciation, that, this day, or never, they must purchase their liberty, bringing every man, for price thereof, an enemy's head."

H.

6 A very singular and obscure use of propagation. The word, Bowever, is derived from the Greek aуw, пnyvvμɩ, to fix; and Richardson says, that "in the methods of propagating trees described by Pliny, one is, when the twigs or branches are fixed in the earth; these branches, when rooted, are severed from the parent stock, and thus the tree multiplied." So that the sense of propagation in the text may be the fixing or securing of a dower. Or the word may be used in the more cominon sense of to continue, to prolong, or extend the duration of; as in Chapman's

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chances,
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment
With character too gross is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the Duke,

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Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness;
Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the seat, that it may know
He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;
Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I stagger in: - But this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

7

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall
So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me : — 'tis surely for a name.

8

Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.

Odyssey: "To try if we alone may propagate to victory our bold encounters." So also in Dryden's Virgil:

"Afric and India shall his power obey;

He shall extend his propagated sway

Beyond the solar year, without the starry way."

In this case the meaning would be, that the lovers put off their marriage with a view to continue the prospect, to keep up the chance, of a dower, until time should favourably dispose the wills

of those upon whom the lady's fortune was dependent.

Zodiacs, yearly circles.

8 Tickle, for ticklish.

H.

Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found. I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service: This day my sister should the cloister enter, And there receive her approbation :

9

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him:
I have great hope in that; for in her youth
.There is a prone
10 and speechless dialect,
Such as moves men: besides, she hath prosper.

ous art

When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encour◄ agement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack." I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.

Lucio. Within two hours.

Claud. Come, officer; away.

SCENE IV. A Monastery.

Enter DUKE and Friar THOMAS.

[Exeunt.

Duke. No, holy father;

throw away that

thought:

That is, enter on her novitiae or probation.

10 Prone seems to be here used in the sense of apt. Cotgrave says,- Prone, ready, nimble, quick, easily moving." And elsewhere we meet with the phrases, "so prone and fit," and prone or apt." So that the meaning appears to be, 66 There is an

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apt and silent eloquence in her looks, such as moves men." H. 11 Tick-tack, from the French tric-trac, and sometimes spelt trick-track in English, was a game played with tables, something like backgammon. Of course the word is here used in a wantor

fense.

H.

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