upon with the gods, will be strong with us for giving over. near the Globe playhoufe, from which the annexed cut has been made. We have here the hatch exactly delineated. The man with the pole-ax was called the Ruffian. MALONE. The precept from Cupid's Whirligig, and the passage in Pericles to which it refers, were originally applied by me to the illustration of the term Pict-hatch in The Merry Wives of Windfor. See Vol. V. p. 81, n. 4. A hatch is a half-door, usually placed within a street-door, admitting people into the entry of a house, but preventing their access to its lower apartments, or its stair-cafe. Thus, says the Syracusan Dromio in The Comedy of Errors, to the Dromio of BAWD. Come, other forts offend as well as we.5 Ephefus: "Either get thee from the door, or fit down at the hatch." When the top of a hatch was guarded by a row of pointed iron spikes, no person could reach over, and undo its fastening, which was always within-fide, and near its bottom. This domeftick portcullis perhaps was necessary to our ancient brothels. Secured within such a barrier, Mrs. Overdone could parley with her customers; refuse admittance to the shabby visitor, bargain with the rich gallant, defy the beadle, or keep the conftable at bay. From having been therefore her usual defence, the hatch at last became an unequivocal denotement of her trade; for though the hatch with a flat top was a constant attendant on butteries in great families, colleges, &c. the hatch with spikes on it was peculiar to our early houses of amorous entertainment.-Nay, as I am afssured by Mr. Walsh, (a native of Ireland, and one of the compositors engaged on the present edition of Shakspeare,) the entries to the Royal, Halifax, and Dublin bagnios in the city of Dublin, still derive convenience or security from hatches, the Spikes of which are unfurmountable. This long explanation (to many readers unnecessary) is imputable to the preceding wooden cut, from the repetition of which I might have excused myself. As it is possible, however, that I may stand in the predicament of poor Sancho, who could not difcern the enchanted castles that were so distinctly visible to his master's opticks, I have left our picture of an ancient brothel where I found it. It certainly exhibits a house, a lofty door, a wicket with a grate in it, a row of garden-rails, and a drawbridge, As for hatch-let my readers try if they can find one. I must suppose, that my ingenious fellow-labourer, on future confideration, will class his hatch with the air-drawn dagger, and join with me in Macbeth's exclamation-" There's no fuch thing." Let me add, that if the Ruffian (as here represented) was an ostensible appendage to brothels, they must have been regulated on very uncommon principles; for instead of holding out allurements, they must have exhibited terrors. Surely, the Ruffian could never have appeared nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderat, till his prefence became necessary to extort the wages of prostitution, or fecure some other advantage to his employer. The representation prefixed to Holland's Leaguer, has, there PAND. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse. Neither is our profession any trade; it's no calling:-but here comes Boult. Enter the Pirates, and BOULT, dragging in BOULT. Come your ways. [To MARINA.]-My masters, you say she's a virgin? 1 PIRATE. O, fir, we doubt it not. BOULT. Master, I have gone thorough for this piece, you fee: if you like her, so; if not, I have lost my earnest. BAWD. Boult, has she any qualities? BOULT. She has a good face, speaks well, and has excellent good clothes; there's no further neceffity of qualities can make her be refused. BAWD. What's her price, Boult ? BOULT. I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces, 7 fore, in my opinion, no more authenticity to boast of, than the contemporary wooden cuts illustrative of the Siege of Troy. STEEVENS. $ Come, other forts offend as well as we.] From her husband's answer, I suspect the poet wrote Other trades &C. MALONE. Malone suspects that we should read-other trades, but that is unnecessary; the word forts has the same sense, and means profeffions or conditions of life. So, Macbeth says: "I have won "Golden opinion of all forts of people." M. MASON. - I have gone thorough-] i. e. I have bid a high price for her, gone far in my attempt to purchase her. STEEVENS. 6 I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.] This speech should seem to fuit the Pirate, However, it may belong PAND. Well, follow me, my masters; you shall have your money presently. Wife, take her in; instruct her what she has to do, that the may not be raw in her entertainment.8 [Exeunt Pander and Pirates. BAWD. Boult, take you the marks of her; the colour of her hair, complexion, height, age, with warrant of her virginity; and cry, He that will give most, shall have her first. Such a maidenhead were no cheap thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done as I command you. BOULT. Performance shall follow. [Exit BOULT. MAR. Alack, that Leonine was so slack, so flow! (He should have struck, not spoke;) or that these pirates, (Not enough barbarous,) had not overboard Thrown me, to seek my mother ! to Boult. I cannot get them to bate me one doit of a thousand pieces. MALONE. 8 Un - that The may not be raw in her entertainment.] ripe, unskilful. So, in Hamlet : "-and yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sail." MALONE. و -age,] So, the quarto, 1619. The first copy has-her age. MALONE, I - and cry, He that will give most, shall have her first.] The prices of first and secondary prostitution are exactly settled in the old profe romance already quoted : "Go thou, and make a crye through the citye that of all men that shall enhabyte with her carnally, the fyrst shall gyve me a pounde of golde, and after that echone a peny of golde." STEEVENS. 2 -or that these pirates (Not enough barbarous,) had not over-board (Not enough barbarous,) had not o'erboard thrown me, I suspect the second not was inadvertently repeated by the compofitor. Marina, I think, means to say, Alas, how unlucky BAWD. Why lament you, pretty one? MAR. That I am pretty. BAWD. Come, the gods have done their part in you. MAR. I accuse them not. BAWD. You are lit into my hands, where you are like to live.3 MAR. The more my fault, To 'scape his hands, where I was like to die. BAWD. Yes, indeed, shall you, and taste gentlemen of all fashions. You shall fare well; you shall have the difference of all complexions. What! do you stop your ears ? it was, that Leonine was so slack in his office; or, he having omitted to kill me, how fortunate would it have been for me, if those pirates had thrown me into the fea to seek my mother. We should recur to the old copies, and read : MALONE. Not enough barbarous, had not overboard, &c. which is clearly right;-for Marina is not expreffing what the wished that Leonine and the Pirates had done, but repining at what they had omitted to do. She laments that Leonine had not struck, instead of speaking, and that the Pirates had not thrown her overboard. M. MASON. The original reading may stand, though with some harshness of conftruction. Alas, how unfortunate it was, that Leonine was so merciful to me, or that these pirates had not thrown me into the sea to seek my mother. If the second not was intended by the author, he should rather have written-did not o'er-board throw me, &c. MALONE. 3 You are lit into my hands, where you are like to live.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra : - Be of good cheer; " You have fallen into a princely hand; fear nothing." MALONE. |