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And fometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,

*Tickling the parfon as he lies afleep,
Then dreams he of another Benefice.
Sometimes she driveth o'er a foldier's neck,
And then he dreams of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, "

anonymous cotemporary writer
of the life of Sir William Cecil)
called him [Sir William Cecil]
and after long talk with him, be-
ing much delighted with his an-
fwers, willed his Father to FIND
[i. e. to smell out] A SUIT for
bim. Whereupon be became SUIT-
ER for the reverfion of the Custos
brevium office in the Comman Pleas
Which the King willingly granted,
it being the first SUIT be hat in
bis life. Indeed our Poet has
very rarely turned his fatire
against lawyers and law proceed-
ings; the common topic of later
writers. For, to observe it to
the honour of the English judi-
catures, they preserved the purity
and fimplicity of their first insti-
tution, long after Chicane had
over run all the other laws of
Europe. Philip de Commines gives
us a very frank description of the
horrid abuses that had infected
the courts of justice in France,
fo early as the time of Lewis XI.
Aussi defiroit fort qu' en ce Roy-
aume on vsost d une coustume, d'un
poix, d'une mesure: et que toutes
coustumes fuffent mises en
françoys, en un beau Livre, pour
eviter la cautelle & la pillerie des
advocats: qui est si grande en
ce Royaume, que nulle autre
n' eft semblable, & les nobles d'ice-
Luy la doivent bien couenoftre. At
this time the administration of
the law in Engli nd was conduct-

ces

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ed with great purity and integrity. The reason of this difference I take to be, that, 'till of late, there were few gloffers or commentators on our laws, and those very able, honeft, and concise. While it was the fortune of the other municipal laws of Europe, where the Roman civil law had a supplemental authority, to be, in imitation of that law, overloaded with glofses and commentators. And what corruption this practice occafioned in the administration of the Roman law itself, and to what a miferable condition it reduced public justice, we may fee in a long and fine digression of the historian Ammianus Marcellinus; who has painted, in very lively colours, the different kinds of vermine, which infected their tribunals and courts of law: whereby the state of public juftice became in a short time fo desperately corrupt, that Juftinan was obliged to new-model and digest the enormous body of their laws. WARBURTON.

2 Spanish blades,] A sword is called a Toledo, from the excellence of the Toletan steel. So Grotius,

Enfis Toletanus

Un'a Tazi non eft ano celebranaa mitalio,

Utilis in cives eft ibi lamna fuos.

Of

Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ears, at which he starts and wakes;
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And fleeps again. This is that very Mab,
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
3 And cakes the elf-locks in foul fluttish hairs,
Which, once entangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them, and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.
This is the

Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace;
Thou talk'it of nothing.

Mer. True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing, but vain phantafy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more unconstant than the wind; who wooes
Ev'n now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping fouth.

Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from our

selves;

Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

Rom. I fear, too early; for my mind misgives,
Some confequence, yet hanging in the Stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night's revels; and expire the term
Of a despised life clos'd in my breast,
By fome vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he, that hath the fleerage of my course,
* Direct my fuit! On, lusty Gentlemen.

Ben. Strike, drum.

[They march about the Stage, and Exeunt.

3 And cakes the elf-locks, &c.] This was a common fuperftition; and feems to have had its rise from the horrid disease called the

WARB.

Plica Pulmica. + Direct my fuit!] Guide the siquel of the adventure.

SCENE

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1 Serv.

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W

HERE's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? He shift a trencher! he

scrape a trencher!

2 Serv. When good manners shall lie all in one or two mens' hands, and they unwash'd too, 'tis a foul thing.

I Serv. Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cup-board, look to the plate; good thou, save me a piece of march-pane; and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone, and Nell.-Antony, and Potpan

2 Serv. Ay, boy, ready.

1 Serv. You are look'd for, call'd for, ask'd for, and fought for, in the great chamber.

2 Serv. We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; be brisk a while, and the longer liver take all. [Exeunt.

Enter all the Guests and Ladies, with the maskers.

1 Cap. Welcome, Gentlemen. Ladies, that have

your feet
Unplagu'd with corns, we'll have a bout with you.
Ah me, my mistresses, which of you all
Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty,
I'll fwear, hath corns; am I come near you now?
Welcome, all, Gentlemen; I've seen the day
That I have worn a visor, and could tell

A

A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,
Such as would please. 'Tis gone; 'tis gone; 'tis gone!
5 You're welcome, Gentlemen. Come, musicians, play.
A ball, a ball. Make room. And foot it, girls.

[Musick plays, and they dance.

More light, ye knaves, and turn the tables up;
And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.
Ah, Sirrah, this unlook'd for sport comes well.
Nay, fit; nay, fit, good coufsin Capulet,
For you and I are past our dancing days:
How long is't now since last yourself and I
Were in a mask ?

2 Cap. By'r lady, thirty years.

1 Cap. What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not fo

much;

'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio,

Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,

Some five and twenty years, and then we mask'd.

2 Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more; his son is elder, Sir:

His son is thirty.

1 Cap. Will you tell me that?

His fon was but a ward two years ago.

Rom. What lady's that, which doth enrich the

hand

Of yonder knight?

Serv. I know not, Sir.

Rom. O she doth teach the torches to burn bright;

Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Æthiop's ear :

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

5 You're welcome, Gentlemen.] These two lines, omitted by the modern editors, I have replaced from the folio.

6 good coufin Capulet.) This coufin Capulet is unkle in the paper of invitation, but as Capulet is described as old, cousin is pro

bably the right word in both places. I know not how. Capulet and his lady might agree, their ages were very disproportionate; he has been past masking for thirty years, and her age, as the tells Juliet, is but eight and twenty.

So

F

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So shews a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of Stand,
And, touching hers, make happy my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, fight;
I never saw true beauty 'till this night.

Tyb. This by his voice should be a Montague.
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What! dares the flave
Come hither cover'd with an antick face,
To fleer and scorn at our folemnity ?
Now by the stock and honour of my-kin,
To strike him dead I hold it not a fin.

Cap. Why, how now, kinsman, wherefore storm

you fo?

Tyb. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe:
A villain, that is hither come in spight,
To fcorn at our folemnity this night.
Cap. Young Romeo, is't?

Tyb. 'Tis he, that villain Romeo.

Cap. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone;

He bears him like a portly Gentleman :
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him,
To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth.
I would not for the wealth of all this town,
Here in my house, do him disparagement.
Therefore be patient, take no note of him;
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Shew a fair prefence, and put off these frowns,
An ill-befeeming semblance for a feaft.

Tyb. It fits, when such a villain is a guest.
I'll not endure him.

Cap. He shall be endur'd.

What, goodman boy-I say, he shall. Go to
Am I the mafter here, or you? go to
You'll not endure him? God shall mend my foul.
You'll make a mutiny among my guests?

You will fit cock-a-hoop? You'll be the man ?

Tyb.

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