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ale-houses, and bid thofe that are drunk ❝ to bed.

get them

About Shakspeare's time halberds were the weapons borne by the watchmen, as appears from Blount's Voyage to the Levant: "— certaine Janizaries, who with great ftaves guard each ftreet, as our night watchmen with holberds in London."

REED.

The weapons to which the care of Dogberry extends, are mentioned in Glapthorne's Wit in a Conftable, 1639:

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Well faid, neighbours ;

"You're chatting wifely o'er your bills and lanthorns,
"As becomes watchmen of difcretion."

Again, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592:

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the watch

"Are coming tow'rd our houfe with glaives and bills." The following reprefentation of a watchman, with his bill on his fhoulder, is copied from the title-page to Decker's 0 per fe 0, 4to. 1612.

&c.

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6- bid thofe that are drunk-] Thus the quarto, 1600.

The folio, 1623. reads "bid them that," &c. STEEVENS,

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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 anfwer, you may say, they are not the men you took them for.

2 WATCH. Well, fir.

DOGB. If you meet a thief, you may fufpect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man: and, for fuch kind of men, the lefs you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for your honefty.

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 moft peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is, and steal 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 must call to the nurse, and bid her still it. 7

7 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 thefe I find the following:

22. No man fhall blowe any horne in the night, within this citie, or whiftle 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.

24.

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Made that night-walkers, and evisdroppers, like punishment. 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.

VOL. VI.

X

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 flay 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, 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, mafters, good night: an there be any matter of weight chances, call up

30. "No man fhåll, 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 iii s. iiiid." &c. &c.

Ben Jonfon, however, appears to have ridiculed this fcene 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 stage practice." STEEVENS.

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

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reads

the ftatues,] Thus the folio, 1623. The quarto, 1600, "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.

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me: keep your fellows' counfels and your own, 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, honeft 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 befeech you., [Exeunt DOGBERRY and VERGES.

Enter BORACHIO and CONRADE.

BORA. What! Conrade.

WATCH. Peace, ftir not.

[Afide.

BORA. Conrade, I fay!

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

BORA. Mafs, and my elbow itch'd; 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 close then under this penthouse, for it drizzles rain; and I will, like a true drunkard, utter all to thee.

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

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

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

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

STEEVENS.

CON. Is it poffible that any villainyfhould be fo dear? BORA. Thou should'st rather ask, if it were poffible any villainy should 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.

2

BORA. That fhows, thou art unconfirm'd: Thou knoweft, 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 fafhion.

CON. Yes, the fafhion 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 fafhion is?

WATCH. I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this feven 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

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any villainy Should be fo rich; ] The fenfe absolutely requires us to read, villain.

2

WARBURTON.

The old reading may fland. STEEVENS.

the world.

thou art unconfirm'd:] i. e. unpra&tifed in the ways of

WARBURTON.

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

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he look'd fo reechily,

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

STEEVENS.

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