1 Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error; I am found.

Lucio. Nay, not as one would say healthy; but fo found, as things that are hollow; thy bones are hollow; impiety hath made a feaft of thee.

1 Gent. How now,

profound fciatica ?

Enter Bawd.

which of your hips has the most

Bard. Well, well; there's one yonder arrefted, and carry'd to prison, was worth five thousand of you all. 1 Gent. Who's that, I pr'ythee?

Bawd. Marry, Sir, that's Claudio; Signior Claudio. 1 Gent. Claudio to prifon? 'tis not fo.

Bawd. Nay, but I know, 'tis fo; I saw him arrested; faw him carry'd away; and, which is more, within these three days his head is to be chopt off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it fo: art thou fure of this?

Bawd. I am too fure of it; and it is for getting madam Julietta with child.

Lucio. Believe me, this may be; he promis'd to meet me two hours fince, and he was ever precife in promife-keeping.

2 Gent. Befides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to fuch a purpose.

1 Gent. But most of all agreeing with the proclamation.

Lucio. Away, let's go learn the truth of it.

[Exe.

ftil'd corona veneris. To this, I think our Author likewise makes Quince allude in Midsummer-Night's Dream.

Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will

play bare-faced.

As Ben Johnson does likewife in Cynthia's Revels.

Afot. I, Sir, I'll affure you, 'tis a beaver. It coft me eight

crowns but this morning.

Amo. After your French account?

Afet. Yes, Sir.

Cri. And fo near his head? —Befhrew me, dangerous.

For where these eruptions are, the skull is carious, and the party

becomes bald.

Manet

Manent Bawd.

Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the fweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am cuftom-shrunk. How now? what's the news with you?

Enter Clown.

Clown. Yonder man is carry'd to prifon.
Bawd. Well; what has he done ?

Clown. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

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

Clown. All houfes in the fuburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.

Bawd. And what shall become of thofe in the city? Clown. They fhall ftand for feed; they had gone down too, but that a wife burgher put in for them.

Bard. But fhall all our houfes of refort in the fuburbs be pull'd down?

Clown. To the ground, miftrefs.

Bard. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the common wealth; what fhall become of me?

Clown. Come, fear not you; good counfellors lack no clients; though you change your place, you need not change your trade: I'll be your tapfter ftill. Courage, there will be pity taken on you; you that have worn your eyes almost out in the fervice, you will be confidered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapfter? let's withdraw.

Clown. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the Provoft to prison; and there's madam Juliet.

[Exe. Bawd and Clown.

VOL. I.

P

Enter

Enter Provoft, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers. Lucio and two Gentlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why doft thou fhow me thus to th' world?

Bear me to prifon, where I am committed.
Prov. I do it not in evil difpofition,
But from Lord Angelo by fpecial charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight
The words of heav'n; on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, fo; yet ftill 'tis juft.

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

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty; As furfeit is the father of much faft,

So every scope by the immod'rate ufe

Turns to restraint: our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their

proper bane, A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could speak fo wifely under an arrest, I would fend for certain of my creditors; and yet, to fay 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 fpeak of, would offend again. Lucio. What is't murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Letchery?

Claud. Call it fo.

Prov. Away, Sir, you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend:-Lucio, a word with you.

Lucio. A hundred; if they'll do you any good: is letcherey fo look'd after ?

Claud. Thus ftands it with me; upon a true contract I got poffeffion of Julietta's bed,

my wife; ;

(You know the Lady,) fhe is fait
Save that we do the denunciation lack
Of outward order. This we came not to,

Only

Only for propagation of a dower

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 moft mutual entertainment,

With character too grofs, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even fo.

And the new deputy now for the Duke,
(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 feat, that it may know
He can command, lets it strait feel the spur;
Whether the tyranny be in his place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I ftagger in:)-but this new governor
Awakes me all th' enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscower'd armour, hung by th' wall
So long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone round, (4)
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

Freshly on me; 'tis, furely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is; and thy head ftands fo tickle on thy fhoulders, that a milk-maid, if fhe be in love, may figh it off. Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.

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

Acquaint her with the danger of my state,

Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends

(4) So long, that nineteen Zodiacks have gone round.] The Duke, in the Scene immediately following, says,

Which for these fourteen years we have let flip.

The Author could not fo difagree with himself, in fo narrow a com pafs. The numbers must have been wrote in figures, and fo miftaken: for which reason, 'tis neceffary to make the two accounts correspond,

To the ftrict deputy; bid herself affay him;
I have great hope in that; for in her youth
There is a prone and speechlefs dialect,

Such as moves men! befide, fhe hath profp'rous art
When the will play with reafon and difcourfe,
And well she can perfuade.

Lucio. I pray, the may; as well for the encouragement of the like, which elfe would ftand under grievous impofition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be forry fhould be thus foolishly loft 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.

Duke.

N

SCENE, a Monaftery.

Enter Duke, and Friar Thomas.

[Exeunt.

O; holy father, throw away that thought;
Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love
Can pierce a compleat bofom: why I defire thee
To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpose

More grave, and wrinkled, than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri. May your Grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy Sir, none better knows than you,
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo

(A man of ftricture and firm abstinence) (5)

My

(5) A man of stricture.] Mr. Warburton obferves, that frittura, from which this word fhould feem to be form'd, fignified, among the Latines, the park which flies from red-hot iron when ftruck; whence, in English, it has been metaphorically taken for a bright firoke in an Author; nor has it, fays he, any other fignification. And he very reasonably queftions, whether it had that in Shakespeare's time. As fo remote a fignification could have no place in the text here, he fufpects that two words must have ignorantly been jumbled into one, and that our Author wrote:

A man