Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

Enter Clown.

Clo. Yonder man is carried to prison.

Bawd. Well: what has he done?

Clo. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

Clo. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Bawd. What! is there a maid with child by him? Clo. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: You have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

Bawd. What proclamation, man?

Clo. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.

Bawd. And what shall become of those in the city?

Clo. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. Bawd. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pull'd down? 6

Clo. To the ground, mistress.

Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth! What shall become of me?

Clo. Come, fear not you; good counsellors lack no clients though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

In one of the Scotch Laws of James it is ordered, "that common women be put at the utmost endes of townes, queire least peril of fire is."— It is remarkable that the licensed houses of resort at Vienna are at this time all in the suburbs, under the per mission of the Committee of Chastity.

Clo. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet.

SCENE III. The Same.

[Exeunt.

Enter Provost,' CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers, LUCIO, and two Gentlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison where I am cominitted.
Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority,

Make us pay down for our offence by weight. The words of Heaven; -on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.'

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin' down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.*

1 Provost was anciently used for principal or president of any establishment. Here it means jailer.

H.

2 Authority, being absolute in Angelo, is finely styled by Claudio the demigod, whose decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of Heaven. The poet alludes to a passage in St. Paul's Epist. to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15-18: "I will have mercy on whom I will have inercy."

To rarin is to devour voraciously.

from the same original.

Ravenous is still in use

4 So, in Chapman's Revenge for Honour :

"Like poison'd rats, which, when they 've swallowed

The pleasing bane, rest not until they drink,

And can rest then much less, until they burst"

H

Enter Clown.

Clo. Yonder man is carried to prison.

Bawd. Well: what has he done?

Clo. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

Clo. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Bawd. What is there a maid with child by him? Clo. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: You have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

Bawd. What proclamation, man?

Clo. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.

Bawd. And what shall become of those in the city?

Clo. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. Bawd. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pull'd down? 6

Clo. To the ground, mistress.

Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth! What shall become of me?

Clo. Come, fear not you; good counsellors lack no clients though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

In one of the Scotch Laws of James it is ordered, "that common women be put at the utmost endes of townes, queire least peril of fire is."— It is remarkable that the licensed houses of resort at Vienna are at this time all in the suburbs, under the per mission of the Committee of Chastity.

Clo. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet.

SCENE III. The Same.

[Exeunt.

Enter Provost,' CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers, LUCIO, and two Gentlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison where I am committed.
Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down for our offence by weight. The words of Heaven; - on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.'

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As surfeit is the father of much fast, So every scope by the immoderate use Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue, Like rats that ravin' down their proper bane, A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.'

Provost was anciently used for principal or president of any establishment. Here it means jailer.

H.

Authority, being absolute in Angelo, is finely styled by Claudio the demigod, whose decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of Heaven. The poet alludes to a passage in St. Paul's Epist. to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15-18: “I will have mercy on whom I will have inercy."

3 To rarin is to devour voraciously.

from the same original.

Ravenous is still in use

4 So, in Chapman's Revenge for Honour :

"Like poison'd rats, which, when they 've swallowed

The pleasing bane, rest not until they drink,

And can rest then much less, until they burst"

H

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment. thy offence, Claudio?

What's

Claud. What but to speak of would offend again. Lucio. What is it? murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it so.

Prov. Away, sir: you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend : — - Lucio, a word with you. [Takes him aside. Lucio. A hundred, if they'll do you any good.

Is lechery so look'd after ?

Claud. Thus stands it with me:- Upon a true contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed:

You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the denunciation" lack
Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower

6

To denounce was sometimes used in the sense of to publish, proclaim, or announce, a thing. Thus in Holinshed and others we have the phrase, "denouncing of war." So, also, in Raleigh's History of the World: "But Gracchus's soldiers, which were all, in a manner, the late armed slaves, had received from their general a peremptory denunciation, that, this day, or never, they must purchase their liberty, bringing every man, for price therect an enemy's head."

H.

A very singular and obscure use of propagation. The word, Bowever, is derived from the Greek mayw, nyvvμi, to fix; and Richardson says, that "in the methods of propagating trees described by Pliny, one is, when the twigs or branches are fixed in the earth; these branches, when rooted, are severed from the parent stock, and thus the tree multiplied." So that the sense of propagation in the text may be the fixing or securing of a dower. Or the word may be used in the more common sense of to continue, to prolong, or extend the duration of; as in Chapman's

« НазадПродовжити »