CLAUD. O mischief strangely thwarting!

D. JOHN. O plague right well prevented! So will you say, when you have seen the sequel. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A Street.

8

Enter DOGBERRY and VERGES, with the Watch.

DOGB. Are you good men and true?

VERG. Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer salvation, body and soul.

DOGB. Nay, that were a punishment too good for them, if they should have any allegiance in them, being chosen for the prince's watch,

VERG. Well, give them their charge, neighbour Dogberry.

DOGB. First, who think you the most desartless man to be constable?

1 WATCH. Hugh Oatcake, sir, or George Seacoal; for they can write and read.

DOGB. Come hither, neighbour Seacoal: God hath blessed you with a good name: to be a well

8

Dogberry and Verges,] The first of these worthies had his name from the Dog-berry, i. e. the female cornel, a shrub that grows in the hedges in every county of England. Verges is only the provincial pronunciation of Verjuice.

STEEVENS.

66

Well, give them their charge,] To charge his fellows, seems to have been a regular part of the duty of the constable of the watch. So, in A New Trick to cheat the Devil, 1639: “ My watch is set-charge given-and all at peace." Again, in The Insatiate Countess, by Marston, 1613: "Come on, my hearts; we are the city's security-I'll give you your charge."

MALONE.

favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.

2 WATCH. Both which, master constable,→→→ DOGB. You have; I knew it would be your answer. Well, for your favour, sir, why, give God thanks, and make no boast of it; and for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lantern: This is your charge; You shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in the prince's name.

2 WATCH. How if he will not stand?

DOGB. Why then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave.

VERG. If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the prince's subjects.

DOGB. True, and they are to meddle with none but the prince's subjects :-You shall also make no noise in the streets; for, for the watch to babble and talk, is most tolerable and not to be endured.

2 WATCH. We will rather sleep than talk; we know what belongs to a watch.

DOGB. Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet watchman; for I cannot see how sleeping should offend: only, have a care that your bills be not stolen: 'Well, you are to call at all the ale

1

bills be not stolen ] A bill is still carried by the watchmen at Lichfield. It was the old weapon of English infantry, which, says Temple, gave the most ghastly and deplorable wounds. It may be called securis falcata.

JOHNSON.

houses, and bid those that are drunk2 get them to bed.

About Shakspeare's time halberds were the weapons borne by the watchmen, as appears from Blount's Voyage to the Levant: certaine Janizaries, who with great staves guard each street, as our night watchmen with holberds in London." REED.

The weapons to which the care of Dogberry extends, are mentioned in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 1639: Well said, neighbours;

"You're chatting wisely o'er your bills and lanthorns, "As becomes watchmen of discretion."

Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592:

"Are coming tow'rd our house with glaives and bills." The following representation of a watchman, with his bill on his shoulder, is copied from the title-page to Decker's O per se O; &c. 4to. 1612:

2 WATCH. How if they will not?

DOGB. Why then, let them alone till they are sober; if they make you not then the better answer, you may say, they are not the men you took them for.

2 WATCH. Well, sir.

DOGB. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man: and, for such kind of men, the less you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for your honesty.

2 WATCH. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on him?

DOGB. Truly, by your office, you may; but, I think, they that touch pitch will be defiled: the most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is, and steal out of your company.

VERG. You have been always called a merciful. man, partner.

DOGB. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will; much more a man who hath any honesty in him.

VERG. If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the nurse, and bid her still it.3

2

3

bid those that are drunk-] Thus the quarto, 1600 The folio, 1623, reads—“" bid them that," &c. STEEVENS.

2

If you hear a child cry &c.] It is not impossible but that part of this scene was intended as a burlesque on The Statutes of the Streets, imprinted by Wolfe, in 1595, Among these I find the following:

22. "No man shall blowe any horne in the night, within this citie, or whistle after the houre of nyne of the clock in the night, under paine of imprisonment.

23. No man shall use to go with visoures, or disguised by night, under like paine of imprisonment.

2 WATCH. How if the nurse be asleep, and will not hear us?

DOGB. Why then, depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying: for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it bacs, will never answer a calf when he bleats.

VERG. 'Tis very true.

DOGB. This is the end of the charge. You, constable, are to present the prince's own person; if you meet the prince in the night, you may stay

him.

VERG. Nay by'r lady, that, I think, he cannot.

DOGB. Five shillings to one on't, with any man that knows the statues, he may stay him: marry,

24. "Made that night-walkers, and evisdroppers, like punish

ment.

25. "No hammer-man, as a smith, a pewterer, a founder, and all artificers making great sound, shall not worke after the houre of nyne at night, &c.

30. "No man shall, after the houre of nyne at night, keepe any rule, whereby any such suddaine outcry be made in the still of the night, as making any affray, or beating his wyfe, or servant, or singing, or revyling in his house, to the disturbaunce of his neighbours, under payne of iiis, iiiid." &c. &c.

Ben Jonson, however, appears to have ridiculed this scene in the Induction to his Bartholomew-Fair:

"And then a substantial watch to have stole in upon 'em, and taken them away with mistaking words, as the fashion is in the stage practice." STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens observes, and I believe justly, that Ben Jonson intended to ridicule this scene in his Induction to BartholomewFair; yet in his Tale of a Tub, he makes his wise men of Finsbury speak just in the same style, and blunder in the same manner, without any such intention. M. MASON.

4

the statues,] Thus the folio, 1623. The quarto, 1600, reads "the statutes." But whether the blunder was designed by the poet, or created by the printer, must be left to the consideration of our readers. STEEVENS.