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1 WATCH. This man faid, fir, that Don John, the prince's brother, was a villain.

DOGB. Write down-prince John a villain:— Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother

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DOGB. Pray thee, fellow, peace; I do not like thy look, I promise thee.

SEXTON. What heard you him fay else?

2 WATCH. Marry, that he had received a thoufand ducats of Don John, for accufing the lady Hero wrongfully.

DOGB. Flat burglary, as ever was committed.
VERG. Yea, by the mafs, that it is.

SEXTON. What elfe, fellow?

1 WATCH.And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to difgrace Hero before the whole affembly, and not marry her.

DOGB. O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlafting redemption for this.

SEXTON. What elfe?

2 WATCH. This is all.

The word

all concur in reading Yea, marry, that's the efteft way, &c. A letter happened to flip out at prefs in the first edition; and 'twas too hard a task for the fubfequent editors to put it in, or guefs at the word under this accidental depravation. There is no doubt but the author wrote, as I have restored the text Yea, marry, that's the defieft way, is e. the readiest, most commodious way. is pure Saxon. DEAFLICE, debite, congrue, duely, fitly, GEDÆTHE, opportune, commode, fitly, conveniently, feafonably, in good time, commodiously. Vide Spelman's Saxon Gloff. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald might have recollected Macbeth:

"Thyfelf and office deftly fhow."

the word deftly in

Shakspeare, I fuppofe, defigned Dogberry to corrupt this word as well as many others. STEEVENS.

SEXTON. And this is more, maflers, than you can deny. Prince John is this morning fecretly ftolen. away; Hero was in this manner accufed, in this very manner refufed, and upon the grief of this, fuddenly died -Mafter conftable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato's; I will go before, and fhow him their examination.

DOGB. Come, let them be opinion'd.
VERG. Let them be in band.

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[Exit.

STEEVENS.

But why

Mr. Theobald gives thefe words to Conrade, and fays the Sexton fhould be fo pert upon his brother officers, there seems no reason from any fuperior qualification in him; or any fufpicion he shows of knowing their ignorance. This is ftrange. The Sexton throughout thows as good fenfe in their examination 'as any judge upon the bench could do. And as to his fufpicion of their ignorance, he tells the Town-Clerk, That he goes not the way to examine. nefs of his name hindered our editor from seeing the goodness of his fenfe. But this Sexton was an ecclefiaftic of one of the inferior orders called the facriftan, and not a brother officer, as the editor calls him. I fuppofe the book from whence the poet took his subject, was fome old English novel tranflated from the Italian, where the

The mean

word fagriftano was rendered fexton. As in Fairfax's Godfrey of Boulogne:

"When Phœbus next unclos'd his wakeful eye, Up rofe the Sexton of that place prophane." The paffage then in question is to be read thus: Sexton Let them be in hand.

Con. Off, coxcomb!

[Exit.

The Sexton favs, it was

Dogberry would have them pinion'd.
fufficient if they were kept in fafe cuftody, and then goes out.
When one of the watchmen comes up to bind them, Conrade fays,
Off, coxcomb as he fays afterwards to the conftable, Away! you
are an ass. But the editor adds, The old quarto gave me the first
umbrage for placing it to Conrade. What these words mean I don't
know: but I fufpect the old quarto divides the paffage as I have
done. WARBURTON.

Theobald has fairly given the reading of the quarto.

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DOGB. God's my life! where's the fexton? let him write down-the prince's officer, coxcomb.Come, bind them: Thou naughty varlet!

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CON. Away! you are an ass, you are an ass. DOGB. Doft thou not fuípect my place? Doft thou not fufpect my years?-Othat he were here to write

Dr. Warburton's affertion, as to the dignity of a fexton or facriftan, may be fupported by the following paflage in Stanyhuift's Verfion of the fourth Book of the Aneid, where he calls the Maffylian priestess: in foil Maffyla begotten,

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"Sexton of Hefperides finagog." STEEVENS.

Let them be in hand. ] I had conjectured that these words should be given to Verges, and read thus Let them bind their hands. I am ftill of opinion that the paffage belongs to Verges; but, for the true reading of it, I should wish to adopt a much neater emenda- . tion, which has fince been fuggefted to me in conversation by Mr. Steevens Let them be in band. Shakspeare, as he observed to

me, commonly ufes band for bond. TYRWHITT.

It is plain that they were bound from a fubfequent fpeech of Pedro: "Whom have you offended, mafters, that you are thus bound to your answer?" STEEVENS.

---

Off, coxcomb!] The old copies read - of, and these words make a part of the laft fpeech, Let them be in the hands of coxcomb.” The prefent regulation was made by Dr. Warburton, and has been adopted by the fubfequent editors. Off was formerly fpelt of. In the early editions of thefe plays a broken fentence (like that before Let them be in the hands) is almost always corrupted by being tacked, through the ignorance of the transcriber or printer, to the fubfequent words. So, in Coriolanus, inftead of

us,

"You fhames of Rome! you herd of Boils and plagues "Plaifter you o'er!"

we have in the folio, 1623, and the fubfequent copies,

"You fhames of Rome, you! Herd of boils and plagues," &c.

See alfo Meafure for Meafure.

Perhaps, however, we should read and regulate the paffage thus : Ver. Let them be in the hands of [the law, he might have intended to say. ]

Con. Coxcomb! MALONE.

There is nothing in the old quarto different in this fcene from the common copies, except that the names of two actors, Kempe and Cowley, are placed at the beginning of the fpeeches, instead of the proper words. JOHNSON.

me down-an afs!-but, mafters, remember, that I am an afs; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an afs:-No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as fhall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wife fellow; and, which is more, an officer; and, which is more, a houfholder; and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Meffina; and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had loffes; and one that hath two gowns, and every thing handfome about him:-Bring him. away. O, that I had been writ down-an afs!

[Exeunt.

A C T V. SCENE I.

Before LEONATO's Houfe.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

ANT. If you go on thus, you will kill yourself; And 'tis not wifdom, thus to fecond grief

Against yourself.

LEON.

I pray thee, ceafe thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless

As water in a fieve: give not me counsel;
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,

But such a one whose wrongs do fuit with mine.
Bring me a father, that fo lov'd his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,
And bid him speak of patience;

And bid him fpeak of patience; ] Read

-

"And bid him fpeak to me of patience." RITSON.

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every ftrain for strain;

As thus for thus, and fuch a grief for fuch,
In every lineament, branch, fhape, and form:
If fuch a one will fimile, and stroke his beard;
Cry-forrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan;'

9 Cry - forrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan; ] The quarto 1600 and folio 1623, read

"And forrow, wagge, cry hem," &c.

Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope

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"I can

But I am perfuaded that Dr. Johnson's explanation as well as arrangement of the original words, is appofite and just : not (fays he) but think the true meaning nearer than it is imagined. If fuch a one will fmile, and ftroke his beard, And, forrow, wag! cry; hem, when he should groan, &c.

Range the

That is, If he will fmile, and cry, forrow be gone! and hem inftead of groaning.' The order in which and and cry are placed, is harsh, and this harfhnefs made the fenfe miftaken. words in the common order, and my reading will be free from all difficulty.

"

If fuch a one will fmile, and ftroke his beard, Cry, forrow, wag! and hem when he should groan Thus far Dr. Johnson; and in my opinion he has left fucceeding criticks nothing to do refpecting the paffage before us. however, claim the honour of fupporting his opinion.

To cry

Let me,

Care away! was once an expreffion of triumph. So, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: "I may now fay, Care awaye!"

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