Escal. 'Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a tapster: Are you not? come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you. Clo. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow, that would live. Escal. How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of the trade Pompey? is it a lawful trade? Clo. If the law would allow it, sir. Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna. Clo. Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the youth in the city? Escal. No, Pompey. Clo. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to 't then: If your worship will take orders for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds. Escal. There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you: it is, but heading and hanging. Clo. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. If this law hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in it after three pence a bay : If you live to see this come to pass, say, Pompey told you so. 7 · greatest thing about you;] Greene, in one of his pieces, mentions the "great bumme of Paris." Again, in Tyro's Roaring Megge, 1598: "Tyro's round breeches have a cliffe behind." In consequence of a diligent inspection of ancient pictures and prints, it may be pronounced that the ridiculous fashion of wearing large breeches stuffed out behind appeared in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, then declined, and re-commenced at the beginning of that of James the First. Steevens. 8 take order -] i. e. take measures. So, in Othello: "Honest Iago hath ta'en order for 't." Steevens I'll rent the fairest house in it, after three pence a bay:] A bay of building is, in many parts of England, a common term, of which the best conception that ever I could obtain, is, that it is the space between the main beams of the roof; so that a barn crossed twice with beams is a barn of three bays. Johnson. Escal. Thank you, good Pompey: and, in requital of your prophecy, hark you,-I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever, no, not for dwelling were you do; if I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Cæsar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt: so for this time, Pompey, fare you well. Clo. I thank your worship for your good counsel; but I shall follow it, as the flesh and fortune shall better determine. Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade; The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade. [Exit. Escal. Come hither to me, master Elbow; come hither, master constable. How long have you been in this place of constable? Elb. Seven year and a half, sir. Escal. I thought, by your readiness1 in the office, you had continued in it some time: You say, seven years together? Elb. And a half, sir. Escal. Alas! it hath been great pains to you! They do you wrong to put you so oft upon 't: Are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it? Elb. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them; I do it for some piece of money, and go through with all. Escal. Look you, bring me in the names of some six or seven, the most sufficient of your parish. Elb. To your worship's house, sir? 66 that by the yearly birth "The large bay'd barn doth fill,” &c. [Exit ELB. I forgot to take down the title of the work from which this instance it adopted. Again, in Hall's Virgidemiarum, Lib. IV: "Hi rent in faire respondence must arise, "To double trebles of his one yeares price; "Of one bayes breadth, God wot, a silly cote "Whose thatched spars are furr'd with sluttish soote." Steevens. 11 by your readiness -] Old copy-the readiness Corrected by Mr. Pope. In the MSS. of our author's age, ye. and yr. (for so they were frequently written) were easily confounded. - Malone. What 's o'clock, think you? Just. Eleven, sir. Escal. I pray you, home to dinner with me. Just. I humbly thank you. Escal. It grieves me for the death of Claudio; But there's no remedy. Just. Lord Angelo is severe. Escal. It is but needful: Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; But yet, Poor Claudio!-There's no remedy. Come, sir. SCENE II. Another Room in the same. [Exeunt. Enter Provost, and a Servant. Serv. He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight. I'll tell him of you. Prov. Pray you, do. [Exit Serv.] I'll know All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he Ang. Enter ANGELO. Now, what's the matter, provost? Prov. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow? Ang. Did I not tell thee, yea? hadst thou not order? Why dost thou ask again? Prov. Lest I might be too rash; Under your good correction, 1 have seen, Go to; let that be mine: Ang. Prov. I crave your honour's pardon :→→→ What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet? She's very near her hour. Ang. Dispose of her To some more fitter place; and that with speed. Re-enter Servant. Serv. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd, Desires access to you. Ang. Hath he a sister? Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, And to be shortly of a sisterhood, If not already. Arg. Well, let her be admitted. [Exit Serv. See you, the fornicatress be remov'd; Let her have needful, but not lavish, means; There shall be order for it. Enter Lucio and ISABELLA. Prov. Save your honour!2 [Offering to retire. Ang. Stay a little while.3 [to ISAB.] You are welcome: What's your will? Isab. I am a woful suitor to your honour, Please but your honour hear me. Ang. Well; what's your suit? Isab. There is a vice, that most I do abhor, At war, 'twixt will, and will not.4 2 Save your honour!] Your honour, which is so often repeated in this scene, was in our author's time the usual mode of address to a lord. It had become antiquated after the Restoration; for Sir William D'Avenant in his alteration of this play has substituted your excellence in the room of it. Malone. 3 Stay a little while.] It is not clear why the Provost is bidden to stay, nor when he goes out. Johnson. The entrance of Lucio and Isabella should not, perhaps, be made till after Angelo's speech to the Provost, who had only announced a lady, and seems to be detained as a witness to the purity of the deputy's conversation with her. His exit may be fixed with that of Lucio and Isabella. He cannot remain longer, and there is no reason to think he departs before. Ritson. Stay a little while, is said by Angelo, in answer to the words, "Save your bonour," which denoted the Provost's intention to depart Isabella uses the same words to Angelo, when she goes out, near the conclusion of this scene. So also, when she offers to retire, on finding her suit ineffectual: "Heaven keep your honour!" Malone. 4 For which I must not plead, but that I am At war, 'twixt will, and will not.] This is obscure; perhaps it may be mended by reading: Ang. Well; the matter? Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother.5 Prov. Heaven give thee moving graces! To find the faults, whose fine stands in record, Isab. [Retiring. Lucio. [to ISAB.] Give 't not o'er so: to him again, intreat him; Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown; You are too cold: if you should need a pin, You could not with more taine a tongue desire it: Isab. Must he needs die? For which I must now plead; but yet I am At war, 'twixt will, and will not. Yet and yt are almost undistinguishable in an ancient manuscript. Yet no alteration is necessary, since the speech is not unintelligible as it now stands. Johnson. For which I must not plead, but that I am At war, 'twixt will, and will not.] i. e. for which I must not plead, but that there is a conflict in my breast betwixt my affection for my brother, which induces me to plead for him, and my regard to virtue, which forbids me to intercede for one guilty of such a crime; and I find the former more powerful than the latter. Malone. 5 let it be his fault, And not my brother.] i. e. let his fault be condemned, or extirpated, but let not my brother himself suffer. Malone. 6 To find the faults,] The old copy reads—To fine, &c. Steevens. To fine means, I think, to pronounce the fine or sentence of the law, appointed for certain crimes. Mr. Theobald, without necessity, reads find. The repetition is much in our author's manner. Malone. Theobald's emendation may be justified by a passage in King Lear: "All's not offence that indiscretion finds, |