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And put your trial in the villain's mouth,
Which here you come to accufe.

LUCIO. This is the rafcal; this is he I spoke of.
ESCAL. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd
friar!

Is't not enough, thou haft fuborn'd these women To accufe this worthy man; but, in foul mouth, And in the witnefs of his proper ear,

To call him villain?

And then to glance from him to the duke himself; To tax him with injuftice? -Take him hence; To the rack with him: We'll touze you joint by

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But we will know this purpose: -What! unjust? DUKE. Be not so hot; the duke

Dare no more ftretch this finger of mine, than he Dare rack his own; his fubject am I not,

Nor here provincial: My bufinefs in this flate

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to retort your manifeft appeal,] To refer back to Angelo the caule in which you appealed from Angelo to the Duke.

8

JOHNSON.

this purpose:] The old copy has his purpose. The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I believe the paffage has been corrected in the wrong place; and would read:

We'll touze him joint by joint,

The meaning

But we will know his purpose. MALONE. Nor here provincial:] Nor here accountable. feems to be, I am not one of his natural fubjects, nor of any dependent province. JOHNSON.

The different orders of monks have a chief, who is called the General of the order; and they have alfo fuperiors, fubordinate to the general, in the feveral provinces through which the order may be difperfed. The Friar therefore means to fay, that the Duke dares not touch a finger of his, for he could not punifh him by his own authority, as he was not his fubje&, nor through that of the fuperior, as he was not of that province. M. MASON.

1

Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,

Where I have feen corruption boil and bubble,
Till it o'er-run the ftew; 2 laws, for all faults;
But faults fo countenanc'd, that the ftrong ftatutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,

As much in mock as mark.

boil and bubble,

Till it o'er-run the few:] I fear that, in the prefent inftance, our author's metaphor is from the kitchen.

"Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble."

3 Stand like the forfeits in a barber's Shop,] at all times, the refort of idle people:

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So, in Macbeth:
STEEVENS.

1

Barbers' fhops were,

Tonftrina erat quædam: hic folebamus, ferè "Plerumque eam opperiri"

which Donatus calls apta fedes otiofis. Formerly with us, the better fort of people went to the barber's fhop to be trimmed; who then practifed the under parts of furgery: fo that he had occafion for numerous inftruments, which lay there ready for use; and the idle people, with whom his fhop was generally crowded, would be perpetually handling and mifufing them. To remedy which, I fuppofe there was placed up against the wall a table of forfeitures, adapted to every offence of this kind; which, it is not likely, would long preferve its authority. WARBURTON.

This explanation may ferve till a better is difcovered. But whoever has feen the inftruments of a chirurgeon, knows that they may be very cafily kept out of improper hands in a very small box, or in his pocket. JOHNSON.

It was formerly part of a barber's occupation to pick the teeth and ears. So, in the old play of Herod and Antipater, 1622, Tryphon the barber, enters with a cafe of inftruments, to each of which he addreffes himself separately:

"Toothpick, dear toothpick; earpick, both of you

Have been her fweet companions!

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&c.

I have converfed with feveral people who had repeatedly read the lift of forfeits alluded to by Shakspeare, but have failed in my endeavours to procure a copy of it. The metrical one, published by the late Dr. Kenrick, was a forgery. STEEVENS.

I believe Dr. Warburton's explanation in the main to be right, only that instead of chirurgical inftruments, the barber's prohibited implements were principally his razots; his whole flock of which, from the number and impatience of his cuftomers on a Saturday night or a market morning, being neceffarily laid out for ufe, were

:

ESCAL. Slander to the ftate! Away with him to prifon.

ANG. What can you vouch against him, fignior

Lucio?

Is this the man, that you did tell us of?

LUCIO. 'Tis he, my lord.

Come hither, goodman bald-pate: Do you know me?

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DUKE. I remember you, fir, by the found of your voice I met you at the prifon, in the abfence of the duke.

LUCIO. O, did you fo? And do you remember what you faid of the duke?

DUKE. Moft notedly, fir.

LUCIO. Do you fo, fir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward, 3 as you then reported him to be?

DUKE. You muft, fir, change perfons with me, ere you make that my report: you, indeed, fpoke fo of him; and much more, much worfe.

LUCIO. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nofe, for thy fpeeches?

DUKE. I proteft, I love the duke, as I love myself.

expofed to the idle fingers of the bye-ftanders, in waiting for fucceffion to the chair.

Thefe forfeits were as much in mock as mark, both because the barber had no authority of himself to enforce them, and alfo as they were of a ludicrous nature. I perfedly remember to have feen them in Devonshire (printed like King Charles's Rules,) though I cannot recolled their contents. HENLEY,

and a coward,] So again, afterwards:

You, firrah, that know me for a fool, a coward,
One all of luxury

But Lucio had not, in the former converfation, mentioned cowardice
among the faults of the Duke. Such failures of memory are
incident to writers more diligent than this poet. JOHNSON.

-

ANG. Hark! how the villain would clofe now, after his treasonable abuses.

ESCAL. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal:

Away with him to prifon :- Where is the provoft? -Away with him to prifon; lay bolts enough upon him: let him fpeak no more: - Away with those giglots too, and with the other confederate companion. [The Provoft lays hands on the DUKE.

4

DUKE. Stay, fir; ftay a while.

ANG. What! refifts he? Help him, Lucio. LUCIO. Come, fir; come, fir; come fir; foh, fir: Why, you bald-pated, lying rafcal! you must be hooded, muft you? Show your knave's vifage, with a pox to you! fhow your fheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour! Will't not off?

[Pulls off the friar's hood, and difcovers the DUKE.

thofe giglots too,] A giglot is a wanton wench. So, in

K. Henry VI. P. I:

young Talbot was not born

"To be the pillage of a giglot wench. " STEEVENS. Show your Sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour! Will't not off?] This is intended to be the common language of vulgar indignation. Our phrafe on fuch occafions is fimply: how your Sheep-biting face and be hanged. The words an hour have no particular ufe here, nor are authorised by cuftom. I fuppofe it was written thus: Show your Sheep-biting face, and be hanged an how ? will't not off? In the midland counties, upon any unexpected obftru&tion or refiflance, it is common to exclaim en' how?

JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon's alteration is wrong. In The Alchemist we meet with a man that has been firangled an hour.

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What, Piper, ho! be hang'd a-while, is a line of an old madrigal. FARMER.

A fimilar expreffion is found in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair, 1614:

"Leave the bottle behind you, and be curft a-while."

MALONE.

Dr. Johnfon is much too pofitive in afferting that the words an hour have no particular ufe here, nor are authorised by custom,

DUKE. Thou art the first knave, that e'er made a duke.

First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three.—Sneak not away, fir; [To Lucio.] for the friar and

you

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Muft have a word anon: lay hold on him. · LUCIO. This may prove worse than hanging. DUKE. What you have spoke, 1 pardon; fit you

down.

[To ESCALUS. We'll borrow place of him :- Sir, by your leave:

[To ANGALO. Haft thou or word, or wit, or impudence, That yet can do thee office? If thou haft, ' Rely upon it till my tale be heard,

And hold no longer out.

ANG.

O my dread lord,

I fhould be guiltier than my guiltinefs,

To think I can be undifcernable,

When I perceive, your grace, like power divine,
Hath look'd upon my paffes: Then, good prince,
No longer feffion hold upon my fhame,
But let my trial be mine own confeffion;
Immediate fentence then, and fequent death,
Is all the grace I beg..

as Dr. Farmer has well proved. The poet evidently refers to the ancicut mode of punishing by colliftrigium, or the original pillory, made like that part of the pillory at prefent which receives the neck, only it was placed horizontally, fo that the culprit hung suspended in it by his chin, and the back of his head. A diftin&t account of it may be found, if I mistake not, in Mr. Barrington's Obfervations on the Statutes. HENLEY.

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can do thee office?] i. e. do thee fervice.

STEEVENS.

my paffes:] i. e. what has paft in my adminiftration. "Not fo: (fays the Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786.) Passes means here artful devices, deceitful contrivances. Tours de paffe-paffe, in French, are tricks of jugglery." STEEVENS.

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