2 WATCH. How if they will not?

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

2 WATCH. Well, fir.

DOGB. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man: and, for fuch 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 fhow himself what he is, and fteal 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 honefty in him.

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

2

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

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

.22. "No man fhall 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 fhall ufe to go with vifoures, or disguised by night, under like paine of imprisonment.

2 WATCH. How if the nurse be afleep, 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 baes, will never answer a calf when he bleats.

VERG. "Tis very true.

DOGB. This is the end of the charge. You, conftable, are to prefent the prince's own perfon; if you meet the prince in the night, you may ftay

him.

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

DOGB. Five fhillings to one on't, with any man that knows the ftatues, he may ftay him: marry,

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

ment.

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

30. "No man fhall, after the houre of nyne at night, keepe any rule, whereby any fuch fuddaine outcry be made in the ftill of the night, as making any affray, or beating his wyfe, or fervant, or finging, or revyling in his houfe, to the difturbaunce of his neighbours, under payne of iiis. iiiid." &c. &c.

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

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

Mr. Steevens obferves, and I believe juftly, that Ben Jonfon intended to ridicule this fcene in his Induction to BartholomewFair; yet in his Tale of a Tub, he makes his wife men of Finsbury fpeak juft in the fame ftyle, and blunder in the fame manner, without any such intention. M. MASON.

4 the ftatues,] Thus the folio, 1623. The quarto, 1600, reads" the ftatutes." But whether the blunder was defigned by the poet, or created by the printer, must be left to the confideration of our readers. STEEvens.

.

not without the prince be willing: for, indeed, the watch ought to offend no man; and it is an offence to stay a man against his will.

VERG. By'r lady, I think, it be so.

DOGB. Ha, ha, ha! Well, masters, good night : an there be any matter of weight chances, call up me: keep your fellows' counfels and your own,5 and good night.-Come, neighbour.

2 WATCH. Well, masters, we hear our charge: let us go fit here upon the church-bench till two, and then all to-bed.

DOGB. One word more, honest neighbours: I pray you, watch about fignior Leonato's door; for the wedding being there to-morrow, there is a great coil to-night: Adieu, be vigitant, I beseech you.

. [Exeunt DOGBERRY and VERGES.

Enter BORACHIO and CONRADE.

BORA. What! Conrade,

WATCH. Peace, ftir not.

BORA. Conrade, I fay!

CON. Here, man, I am at thy elbow.

[Afide.

BORA. Mafs, and my elbow itched; I thought, there would a fcab follow.

CON. I will owe thee an answer for that; and now forward with thy tale.

BORA. Stand thee clofe then under this pent

keep your fellows' counfels and your own,] This is part of the oath of a grand juryman; and is one of many proofs of Shakspeare's having been very converfant, at fome period of his life, with legal proceedings and courts of juftice. MALONE.

houfe, for it drizzles rain; and I will, like a true drunkard, utter all to thee.

WATCH. [Afide.] Some treafon, masters; yet ftand close.

BORA. Therefore know, I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.

CON. Is it poffible that any villainy should be fo dear?

BORA. Thou fhould'ft rather afk, if it were poffible any villainy fhould be fo rich; for when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will.

CON. I wonder at it.

8

BORA. That fhows, thou art unconfirmed: Thou knowest, that the fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak, is nothing to a man.

CON. Yes, it is apparel.

BORA. I mean, the fashion.

CON. Yes, the fashion is the fashion.

BORA. Tufh! I may as well fay, the fool's the fool. But fee'ft thou not what a deformed thief this fashion is?

6

WATCH. I know that Deformed; he has been a

like a true drunkard,] I fuppofe, it was on this account that Shakspeare called him Borachio, from Boraccho, Spanish, a drunkard; or Borracha, a leathern receptacle for wine.

STEEVENS.

7any villainy Should be fo rich;] The fenfe absolutely

requires us to read, villain. WARBURTON.

The old reading may stand. STEEVENS.

8

thou art unconfirmed:] i. e. unpractised in the ways

of the world. WARBURton.

vile thief this seven year; he goes up and down like a gentleman: I remember his name.

BORA. Didft thou not hear fomebody?

CON. No; 'twas the vane on the house.

BORA. Seeft thou not, I fay, what a deformed thief this fashion is? how giddily he turns about all the hot bloods, between fourteen and five and thirty? fometime, fafhioning them like Pharaoh's foldiers in the reechy painting; fometime, like god Bel's priests' in the old church window; fometime, like the fhayen Hercules in the fmirched 3

ก

·reechy painting;] Is painting difcoloured by fmoke. So, in Hans Beer Pot's Invifible Comedy, 1618:

he look'd fo reechily,

"Like bacon hanging on the chimney's roof." From Recan, Anglo-Saxon, to reek, fumare. STEEvens.

I

like god Bel's priests-] Alluding to fome aukward representation of the ftory of Bel and the Dragon, as related in the Apocrypha. STEEVENS.

2fometime, like the fhaven Hercules &c.] By the Shaven Hercules is meant Sampfon, the ufual fubject of old tapestry. In this ridicule on the fashion, the poet has not unartfully given a ftroke at the barbarous workmanship of the common tapestry hangings, then fo much in ufe. The fame kind of raillery Cervantes has employed on the like occafion, when he brings his knight and 'fquire to an inn, where they found the ftory of Dido and Æneas represented in bad tapeftry. On Sancho's feeing the tears fall from the eyes of the forfaken queen as big as walnuts, he hopes that when their atchievements became the general fubject for thefe forts of works, that fortune will fend them a better artist:-What authorised the poet to give this name to Sampfon was the folly of certain Chriftian mythologists, who pretend that the Grecian Hercules was the Jewish Sampfon. The retenue of our author is be commended: The fober audience of that time would have been offended with the mention of a venerable name on fo light an occafion. Shakspeare is indeed fometimes licentious in thefe matters: But to do him juftice, he generally seems to have a fenfe of religion, and to be under its influence. What Pedro fays of Benedick, in this