and extracting it clutch'd? What reply? Ha? What say'st thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is 't not drown'd i' the last rain?4 Ha? What say'st thou, trot?5 Is the world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words? Or how? The trick of it? "Laz. Are all these women? Imp. No, no, they are half men, and half women. "Laz. You apprehend too fast. I mean by women, wives; for wives are no maids, nor are maids women." Mulier in Latin had precisely the same meaning. Malone. A pick-lock had just been found upon the Clown, and therefore without great offence to his morals, it may be presumed that he was likewise a pick-pocket; in which case Pygmalion's images, &c. may mean new-coined money with the Queen's image upon it. Douce. 4 What says't thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i' the last rain?] Lucio, a prating fop, meets his old friend going to prison, and pours out upon him his impertinent interrogatories, to which, when the poor fellow makes no answer, he adds, What reply? ha? what says't thou to this? tune, matter, and method,-is't not? drown'di' the last rain? ba? what says't thou, trot? &c. It is a common phrase used in low raillery of a man crest-fallen and dejected, that he looks like a drown'd puppy. Lucio, therefore, asks him, whether he was drown'd in the last rain, and therefore cannot speak. Johnson. He rather asks him whether his answer was not drown'd in the last rain, for Pompey returns no answer to any of his questions: or, perhaps, he means to compare Pompey's miserable appearance to a drown'd mouse. So, in K. Henry VI, Part I, Act I, sc. ii: "Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice." Steevens. 5 -what says't thou, trot?] It should be read, I think, what say'st thou to 't? the word trot being seldom, if ever, used to a man. Old trot, or trat signifies a decrepid old woman, or an old drab. In this sense it is used by Gawin Douglass, Virg. Æn. B. IV › "Out on the old trat, aged dame or wyffe." Grey. So, in Wily Beguiled, 1613: “ Thou toothless old trot thou,” Again, in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638: "What can this witch, this wizard, or old trot." Trot, however, sometimes signifies a bawd. So, in Churchyard's Tragicall Discourse of a dolorous Gextlewoman, 1593: "Awaie old trots, that sets young flesh to sale." Pompey, it should be remembered, is of this profession. Steevens. Trot, or as it is now often pronounced, honest trout, is a familiar address to a man among the provincial vulgar. Johnson, 6 Which is the way?] What is the mode now? Johnson. Duke. Still thus, and thus! still worse! Lucio. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still? Ha? Clo. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub.7 Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be so: Ever your fresh whore, and your powder'd bawd: An unshunn'd consequence; it must be so: Art going to prison, Pompey? Clo. Yes, faith, sir. Lucio. Why 'tis not amiss, Pompey: Farewel: Go; say, I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? Or how ?? Elb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd Lucio. Well, then imprison him: If imprisonment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: Bawd is he, doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawd-born. Farewel, good Pompey: Commend me to the prison, Pompey: 7 in the tub.] The method of cure for venereal complaints is grossly called the powdering tub Johnson. It was so called from the method of cure. 66 8 See the notes on the tub-fast and the diet”—in Timon, Act IV. Steevens. say I sent thee thither.] Shakspeare seems here to allude to the words used by Gloster, in K. Henry VI, P. III, Act V, sc vi: "Down, down to hell; and say—I sent thee thither " Reed. 9 -Go; say, I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? or how?] It should be pointed thus: Go, say I sent thee thither for debt, Pompey; or bow-- i. e. to hide the ignominy of thy case, say, I sent thee to prison for debt, or whatever other pretence thou fanciest better. The other humorously replies, For being a bawd, for being a bawd. i. e. the true cause is the most honourable. This is in character. Warburton. I do not perceive any necessity for the alteration. Lucio first offers him the use of his name to hide the seeming ignominy of his case; and then very naturally desires to be informed of the true reason why he was ordered into confinement. Steevens. Warburton has taken some pains to amend this passage, which does not require it: and Lucio's subsequent reply to Elbow, shows that his amendment cannot be right. When Lucio advises Pompey to say he sent him to prison, and in his next speech desires him to commend him to the prison, he speaks as one who had some interest there, and was well known to the keepers. M. Mason. You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house.1 Clo. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail. Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage: if you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the more: Adieu, trusty Pompey.-Bless you, friar. Duke. And you. Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey? Ha? Elb. Come your ways, sir; come. What news [Exeunt ELB. Clo. and Officers. What news, friar, of the duke? Duke. I know none: Can you tell me of any? Lucio. Some say, he is with the emperor of Russia; other some, he is in Rome: But where is he, think you? Duke. I know not where: But wheresoever, I wish him well. Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him, to steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression to 't. Duke. He does well in 't. Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him: something too crabbed that way, friar. Duke. It is too general a vice,5 and severity must cure it. 1 You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house.] Alluding to the etymology of the word husband. 2 Malone. Steevens. it is not the wear.] i. e. it is not the fashion. 3 Then, Pompey? nor now. ] The meaning I think is: I will neither bail thee then, nor now. So again, in this play: "More, nor less to others paying." Malone. 4 Go,-to kennel, Pompey, go:] It should be remembered, that Pompey is the common name of a dog, to which allusion is made in the mention of a kennel. Johnson. Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred: it is well ally'd: but it is impossible to extirp 'it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They say, this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after the downright way of creation: Is it true, think you? Duke. How should he be made then? Lucio. Some report, a sea-maid spawn'd himSome, that he was begot between two stock-fishes:But it is certain, that when he makes water, his urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true: and he is a motion ungenerative, that 's infallible. Duke. You are pleasant, sir; and speak apace. Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a cod-piece, to take away the life of a man? Would the duke, that is absent, have done this? Ere he would have hang'd a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: He had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy. Duke. I never heard the absent duke much detected for women; he was not inclined that way. 5 It is too general a vice,] Yes, replies Lucio, the vice is of great kindred; it is well ally'd: &c. As much as to say, Yes, truly, it is general; for the greatest men have it as well as we little folks A little lower he taxes the Duke personally with it. Edwards. 6 and he is a motion ungenerative, that's infallible.] In the former editions:-and he is a motion generative; that's infallible. This may be sense; and Lucio, perhaps, may mean, that though Angelo have the organs of generation, yet that he makes no more use of them, than if he were an inanimate puppet. But I rather think our author wrote,-and he is a motion ungenerative, because Lucio again in this very scene says,—this ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with continency. Theobald. A motion generative certainly means a puppet of the masculine gender; a thing that appears to have those powers of which it is not in reality possessed. Steevens. A motion ungenerative is a moving or animated body without the power of generation. Ritson 7 much detected for women;] This appears so like the language of Dogberry, that at first, I thought the passage corrupt, and wished to read suspected. But perhaps detected had anciently the same meaning. So in an old collection of Tales, entitled Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1595: ". An officer whose Lucio. O, sir, you are deceived. Lucio. Who? not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use was, to put a ducat in her clackdish: the duke had crotchets in him: He would be drunk too; that let me inform you. Duke. You do him wrong, surely. Lucio. Sir, I was an inward of his : A shy fellow daughter was detected of dishonestie, and generally so reported."―That detected is there used for suspected, and not in the present sense of the word, appears, I think, from the words that follow-and so generally reported, which seem to relate not to a known but suspected fact. Malone. In the Statute 3d Edward First, c. 15, the words gentz rettez de felonie are rendered persons detected of felony, that is, as I conceive, suspected. Reed. Again, in Rich's Adventures of Simonides, 1584, 4to: “ all Rome, detected of inconstancie." Henderson. Detected, however, may mean, notoriously charged, or guilty. So, in North's translation of Plutarch: " he only of all other kings in his time was most detected with this vice of leacherie." Again, in Howe's Abridgment of Stowe's Chronicle, 1618, p. 363: "In the month of February divers traiterous persons were apprehended, and detected of most wicked conspiracie against his majestie:-the 7th of Sept. certain of them wicked subjects were indicted," &c. Malone. 8 clack-dish:] The beggars, two or three centuries ago, used to proclaim their want by a wooden-dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked, to show that their vessel was empty. This appears from a passage quoted on another occasion by Dr. Grey. Dr. Grey's assertion may be supported by the following passage in an old comedy, called The Family of Love, 1608. "Can you think I get my living by a bell and a clack-dish ?” By a bell and a clack-dish? how's that?" "Why, by begging, sir," &c Again, in Henderson's Supplement to Chaucer's Troilus and "Thus shalt thou go a begging from hous to hous, And by a stage direction in the Second Part of K. Edward IV, 1619: "Enter Mrs. Blague very poorly, begging with her basket and a clap-dish." There is likewise an old proverb to be found in Ray's Collection, which alludes to the same custom : "He claps his dish at a wrong man's door." Steevens. |