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1 GENT. Heaven grant ut its peace, but not the king of Hungary's!

2 GENT. Amen.

Lucro. Thou concludeft like the fanctimonious pirate, that went to fea with the ten commandments, but fcraped one out of the table.

2 GENT. Thou fhalt not fteal?

LUCIO. Ay, that he razed.

1 GENT. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the reft from their functions; they put forth to fteal: There's not a foldier. of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relifh the petition well that prays for peace. 2 GENT. I never heard any foldier diflike it. LUCIO. I believe thee; for, I think, thou never waft where grace was faid.

2 GENT. NO? a dozen times at least.

1 GENT. What? in metre??

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LUCIO. In any proportion, or in any language. 1 GENT. I think, or in any religion.

LUCIO. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, defpite of all controverfy:? As for example; Thou thyfelf art a wicked villain, defpite of all grace,

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in metre? In the primers there are metrical graces, fuch as, I suppose, were used in Shakspeare's time. JOHNSON.

8 In any proportion, &c.] Proportion fignifies meafure; and refers to the quellion, What? in metre? WARBURTON.

This fpeech is improperly given to Lucio. It clearly belongs to the Second Gentleman, who had heard grace 66 a dozen times at leaft. RITSON.

9 Grace is grace, despite of all controversy:] Satirically infinuating, that the controverfies about grace were fo intricate and endless, that the difputants unfettled every thing but this, that grace was grace; which, however, in fpite of controverfy, till remained certain. WARBURTON.

- 1 GENT. Well, there went but a pair of fheers between us. "

LUCIO. I grant; as there may between the lifts and the velvet: Thou art the lift.

1 GENT. And thou the velvet: thou art goodvelvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a lift of an English kerfey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet, 3 Do I fpeak feelingly now?

I am in doubt whether Shak fpeare's thoughts reached fo far into ecclefiaftical difputes.. Every commentator is warped a little by the tract of his own profeffion. The queftion is, whether the fecond gentleman has ever heard grace. The first gentleman limits the queftion to grace in metre. Lucio enlarges it to grace in any form or language. The first gentleman, to go beyond him, fays, or in any religion, which Lucio allows, because the nature of things is unalterable; grace is as immutably grace, as his merry antagonist is a wicked villain. Difference in religion cannot make a grace not to be grace, a prayer not to be holy; as nothing can make a villain not to be a villain. This feems to be the meaning, fuch as it is. JOHNSON.

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there went but a pair of heers between us. ] We are both of the fame piece. JOHNSON.

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So, in The Maid of the Mill, by Beaumont and Fletcher : "There went but a pair of fheers and a bodkin, between them. STEEVENS.

The fame expreffion is likewise found in Marfton's Malcontent, 1604: There goes but a pair of sheers betwixt an emperor and the fon of a bagpiper; only the dying, dreffing, preffing, and gloffing, makes the difference. MALONE.

3 pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet.] The jeft about the pile of a French velvet, alludes to the lofs of hair in the French disease, a very frequent topick of our author's jocularity. Lucio finding that the gentleman understands the diftemper fo well, and mentions it fo feelingly, promifes to remember to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him. It was the opinion of Shakspeare's time, that the cup of an infected perfon was contagious. JOHNson.

The jeft lies between the fimilar found of the words pill'd and pil'd. This I have elsewhere explained, under a paffage in Henry VIII.

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Lucio. I think thou doft; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy fpeech: I will, out of thine own confeffion, learn to begin thy health; but, whilft I live, forget to drink after thee.

1 GENT. I think, I have done myself wrong; have I not?

2 GENT. Yes, that thou haft; whether thou art tainted, or free.

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LUCIO. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes! I have purchased as many diseases under her roof, as come to

2 GENT. To what, I pray?

1 GENT. Judge.

2 GENT. To three thoufand dollars a year.
1 GENT. Ay, and more.

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LUCIO. A French crown more.

Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes!] In the old copy this fpeech and the next but one, are attributed to Lucio. The prefent regulation was fuggefted by Mr. Pope. What Lucio fays afterwards, A French crown more," proves that it is right. He. would not utter a farcasm against himself. MALONE.

To three thousand dollars a-year.] A quible intended between dollars and dolours. HANMER.

The fame jeft occurred before in The Tempeft. JOHNSON.

6 A French crown more.] Lucio means here not the piece of money fo called, but that venereal fcab, which among the furgeons is ftyled coróna Veneris. To this, I think, our author likewife makes Quince allude in A Midfummer Night's Dream:

"Some of your French crowns have no hair at all; and then you will play bare-faced."

For where thefe eruptions are, the fkull is carious, and the party becomes bald. THEOBALD.

So, in The Return from Parnaffus, 1606:

I may chance indeed to give the world a bloody nofe; but it fhall hardly give me a crack'd crown, though it gives other poets French crowns."

VOL. VI.

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

LUCIO. Nay, not as one would fay, healthy; but fo found, as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee.

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Enter Bawd.

1 GENT. How now? Which of your hips has the moft profound fciatica ?

BAWD. Well, well; there's one yonder arrested, and carry'd to prifon, was worth five thoufand of you all.

I GENT. Who's that, I pray thee?

BAWD. Marry, fir, that's Claudio, fignior Claudio. 1 GENT. Claudio to prifon! 'tis not fo.

BAWD. Nay, but I know, 'tis fo: I saw him arrefted; faw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head's to be chopped 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 promised to meet me two hours fince; and he was ever precife in promife-keeping.

Again, in the Dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, 1598: never metft with any requital, except it were fome few

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French crownes, pil'd fiiers crownes," &c. STEEVENS.

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thy bones are hollow;] So Timon, addreffing himself to Phrynia and Timandra:

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In hollow bones of man." STEEVENS.

2 GENT. Befides, you know, it draws fomething 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.

[Exeunt LUCIO, and Gentlemen. BAWD. Thus, what with the war, what with the fweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am cuftom-fhrunk. How now? what's the news with you?

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Enter Clown.

CLO. Yonder man is carried to prifon.
BAWD. Well; what has he done?
CLO. A woman. 8

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what with the fweat,] This may allude to the fweating fickness of which the memory was very fresh in the time of Shakfpeare but more probably to the method of cure then used for the difeafes contracted in brothels. JOHNSON.

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So, in the comedy of Doctor Dodypoll 1600:

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“ You are very moift, fir: did you sweat all this, I pray? "You have not the difeafe, I hope. SIEEVENS.

what has he done?

CLO. A woman.] The ancient meaning of the verb to do, (though now obfolute) may be guess'd at from the following paffages:

Chiron. Thou haft undone our mother. « Aaron. Villain, I've done thy mother." Titus Andronicus. Again, in Ovid's Elegies, tranflated by Marlowe, printed at Middlebourg, no date:

The ftrumpet with the ftranger will not do,
Before the room is clear, and door put to."

Again, in The Maid's Tragedy, A& II. Evadne, while undreffing, fays,

I am foon undone.

Dula answers, "And as foon done."

Hence the name of Over-done, which Shakspeare has appropriated to his bawd. COLLINS.

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