Adr. Why, man, what is the matter?

Dro. S. I do not know the matter; he is 'rested on

the case.1

Adr. What, is he arrested? tell me, at whose suit. Dro. S. I know not at whose suit he is arrested, well; But he's in3 a suit of buff, which 'rested him, that can

I tell:

Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money in

the desk?

Adr. Go fetch it, sister.-This I wonder at,

4

[Exit Luc. That he, unknown to me, should be in debt:Tell me, was he arrested on a band?5

An account of the local situation of HELL may be found in the Journals of the House of Commons, Vol. X, p. 83, as the Commons passed through it to King William and Queen Mary's Coronation, and gave directions concerning it. In Queen Elizabeth's time, the office of Clerk of the Treasury was situated there, as I find in Sir James Dyer's Reports, fol. 245, A, where mention is made of "one Christopher Hole Secondary del Treasurie, et un auncient attorney and practiser in le office del Clerke del Treasurie al HELL."

This I take to be the Treasury of the Court of Common Pleas, of which Sir James Dyer was Chief Justice, and which is now kept immediately under the Court of Exchequer. The Office of the Tally-Court of the Chamberlain of the Exchequer is still there, and tallies for many centuries back are piled up and preserved in this office. Two or three adjacent apartments have within a few years been converted to hold the Vouchers of the public Accounts, which had become so numerous as to overstock the place in which they were kept at Lincoln's Inn. These, therefore, belong to the Auditors of public Accounts. Other rooms are turned into coal cellars.-There is a pump still standing of excellent water, called HELL Pump: And the place is to this day well known by the name of Hell. Vaillant.

1 — on the case.] An action upon the case, is a general action given for the redress of a wrong done any man without force, and not especially provided for by law. Grey.

Dromio, I believe, is still quibbling. His master's case was touched by the shoulder-clapper. See p. 378: " in a case of leather," &c. Malone.

-

2 But he 's in ] The old copy reads-But is in. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. Malone.

3 That he,] The original copy has-Thus he. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

was he arrested on a band?] Thus the old copy, and I believe rightly: though the modern editors read-bond.-A bond,

Dro. S. Not on a band, but on a stronger thing: A chain, a chain; do you not hear it ring?

Adr. What, the chain?

Dro. S. No, no, the bell: 'tis time, that I were gone. It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one. Adr. The hours come back! that did I never hear. Dro. S. O yes, If any hour meet a sergeant, a' turns back for very fear.

Adr. As if time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason?

Dro. S. Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he 's worth, to season.

Nay, he's a thief too: Have you not heard men say, That time comes stealing on by night and day?

5

If he be in debt, and theft, and a sergeant in the way, Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?

Enter LUCIANA.

Adr. Go, Dromio; there's the money, bear it straight; And bring thy master home immediately.Come, sister; I am press'd down with conceit;6

Conceit, my comfort, and my injury.

[Exeunt.

i. e. an obligatory writing to pay a sum of money, was anciently spelt band. A band is likewise a neckcloth. On this circumstance, I believe, the humour of the passage turns.

Ben Jonson, personifying the instruments of the law, says— 66 Statute, and band, and wax shall go with me."

Again, without personification:

1

"See here your mortgage, statute, band, and wax.” Again, in Histriomastix, 1610:

tye fast your lands

Steevens.

"In statute staple, or these merchant's bands." Band is used in the sense which is couched under the words, "a stronger thing," in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"Sometimes her arms infold him, like a band."

See Minshieu's Dictionary, 1617, in v: "BAND or Obligation." In the same column is found-" A BAND or thong to tie withal." Also-" A BAND for the neck, because it serves to bind about the neck." These sufficiently explain the equivoque. Malone. 5 If he be in debt,] The old edition reads-If I be in debt. Steevens. Mr. Rowe

For the emendation now made I am answerable. reads-If time, &c. but I could not have been confounded by the ear with time, though it might with he. Malone.

6

66

conceit;] i. e. fanciful conception. So, in King Lear: I know not how conceit may rob

"The treasury of life." Steevens.

SCENE III.

The same.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse.

Ant. S. There's not a man I meet, but doth salute me As if I were their well-acquainted friend;

And every one doth call me by my name.
Some tender money to me, some invite me;
Some other give me thanks for kindnesses;
Some offer me commodities to buy:

Even now a tailor call'd me in his shop,

And show'd me silks that he had bought for me,
And, therewithal, took measure of my body.

Sure, these are but imaginary wiles,

And Lapland sorcerers inhabit here.

Enter DROMIO of Syracuse.

Dro. S. Master, here's the gold you sent me for: What, have you got the picture of old Adam new ap parelled?"

7 What, have you got the picture of old Adam new apparelled?] A short word or two must have slipped out here, by some accident in copying, or at the press; otherwise I have no conception of the meaning of the passage. The case is this: Dromio's master had been arrested, and sent his servant home for money to redeem him: he, running back with the money, meets the twin Antipholus, whom he mistakes for his master, and seeing him clear of the officer before the money was come, he cries, in a surprize

What, have you got rid of the picture of old Adam new apparelled?

For so I have ventured to supply, by conjecture. But why is the officer called old Adam new apparelled? The allusion is to Adam, in his state of innocence, going naked; and immediately after the fall, being clothed in a frock of skins. Thus he was new apparelled: and, in like manner, the Sergeants of the Counter were formerly clad in buff, or calf's skin, as the author humourously a little lower calls it. Theobald.

The explanation is very good, but the text does not require to be amended. Johnson.

These jests on Adam's dress are common among our old wri So, in King Edward III, 1599:

ters.

"The register of all varieties

"Since leathern Adam, to this younger hour."

Again, in Philip Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 8vo. 1583: "Did the Lorde clothe our first parents in leather, as not hauing any thyng more precious to attire them withall." &c. Steevens.

Ant. S. What gold is this? What Adam dost thou

mean?

Dro. S. Not that Adam, that kept the paradise, but that Adam, that keeps the prison: he that goes in the calf's-skin that was killed for the prodigal; he that came behind you, sir, like an evil angel, and bid you forsake your liberty.

Ant. S. I understand thee not.

Dro. S. No? why, 'tis a plain case: he that went like a base-viol, in a case of leather; the man, sir, that, when gentlemen are tired, gives them a fob, and 'rests them; he, sir, that takes pity on decayed men, and gives them suits of durance; he that sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace, than a morris-pike.9

8 - he that sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace, than a morris-pike.] Sets up his rest, is a phrase taken from military exercise. When gunpowder was first invented, its force was very weak compared to that in present use.

This necessa

rily required fire-arms to be of an extraordinary length. As the artists improved the strength of their powder, the soldiers proportionably shortened their arms and artillery; so that the cannon, which Froissart tells us was once fifty feet long, was contracted to less than ten. This proportion likewise held in their muskets; so that, till the middle of the last century, the musketeers always supported their pieces, when they gave fire, with a rest stuck before them into the ground, which they called setting up their rest, and is here alluded to. There is another quibbling allusion too to the serjeant's office of arresting. But what most wants animadversion is the morris-pike, which is without meaning, impertinent to the sense, and false in the allusion: no pike being used amongst the dancers so called, or at least not famed for much execution. In a word, Shakspeare wrote

a Maurice-pike.

i. e. a pik man of Prince Maurice's army. He was the greatest general of that age, and the conductor of the Low-country wars against Spain, under whom all the English gentry and nobility were bred to the service. Hence the pikes of his army became famous for their military exploits. Warburton.

This conjecture is very ingenious, yet the commentator talks unnecessarily of the rest of a musket, by which he makes the hero of the speech set up the rest of a musket to do exploits with a pike. The rest of a pike was a common term, and signified, I believe, the manner in which it was fixed to receive the rush of the ene. my. A morris-pike was a pike used in a morris or a military dance, and with which great exploits were done, that is, great feats of dexterity were shown. There is no need of change. Johnson.

The mention of morris-pikes is frequent among our old writers. So, in Heywood's King Edward IV, 1626:

Ant. S. What! thou mean'st an officer?

Dro. S. Ay, sir, the sergeant of the band; he, that brings any man to answer it, that breaks his band; one that thinks a man always going to bed, and says, God give you good rest!

Ant. S. Well, sir, there rest in your foolery. Is there any ship puts forth to-night? may we be gone?

Dro. S. Why, sir, I brought you word an hour since, that the bark Expedition put forth to-night; and then were you hindered by the sergeant, to tarry for the hoy, Delay: Here are the angels that you sent for, to deliver you.

Ant. S. The fellow is distract, and so am I; And here we wander in illusions;

Some blessed power deliver us from hence!

Enter a Courtezan.

Cour. Well met, well met, master Antipholus.
I see, sir, you have found the goldsmith now:
Is that the chain, you promis'd me to-day?

Ant. S. Satan, avoid! I charge thee tempt me not!
Dro. S. Master, is this mistress Satan?

Ant. S. It is the devil.

Dro. S. Nay, she is worse, she is the devil's dam; and here she comes in the habit of a light wench; and thereof comes, that the wenches say, God damn me, that's as much as to say, God make me a light wench. It

"Of the French were beaten down
"Morris-pikes and bowmen," &c.

Again, in Holinshed, p. 816: “— they entered the gallies again with morris pikes and fought," &c. Steevens.

There is, I believe, no authority for Dr. Johnson's assertion, that the Morris-Pike was used in the Morris-dance. Swords were sometimes used upon that occasion. It certainly means the Moorish-pike, which was very common in the 16th century. See Grose's History of the English Army, Vol. I, p. 135. Douce.

The phrase-he that sets up his rest, in this instance, signifies, only, I believe, "he that trusts"—is confident in his expectation. Thus, Bacon: "Sea-fights have been final to the war, but this is, when Princes set up their REST upon the battle." Again, Clarendon: "they therefore resolved to set up their REST upon that stake, and to go through with it, or perish." This figure of speech is certainly derived from the REST which Dr. Warburton has described, as that was the only kind of rest which was ever set up. Henley.