Beat. Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

Bene. Think you in your soul, the count Claudio hath wrong'd Hero?

Beat. Yea, as sure as I have a thought, or a soul.

Bene. Enough, I am engaged, I will challenge him; I will kiss your hand, and so leave you: By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account: As you hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin: I must say, she is dead; and so, farewel. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.3

A Prison.

Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Sexton, in gowns; and the Watch, with CONRADE and BORACHIO. Dogb. Is our whole dissembly appear'd?

3 Scene II.] The persons throughout this scene, have been strangely confounded in the modern editions. The first error has been the introduction of a Town-Clerk, who is, indeed, mentioned in the stage-direction, prefixed to this scene in the old editions, (Enter the Constables, Borachio, and the Towne-Clerke, in gownes) but no where else; nor is there a single speech ascribed to him in those editions. The part which he might reasonably have been expected to take upon this occasion, is performed by the Sexton; who assists at, or rather directs, the examinations; sets them down in writing, and reports them to Leonato. It is probable, therefore, I think, that the Sexton has been styled the TownClerk, in the stage-direction above-mentioned, from his doing the duty of such an officer. But the editors, having brought both Sexton and Town-Clerk upon the stage, were unwilling, as it seems, that the latter should be a mute personage; and therefore they have put into his mouth almost all the absurdities which the poet certainly intended for his ignorant constable. To rectify this confusion, little more is necessary than to go back to the old editions, remembering that the names of Kempe and Cowley, two celebrated actors of the time, are put in this scene, for the names of the persons represented; viz. Kempe for Dogberry, and Cowley for Verges. Tyrwhitt.

I have followed Mr. Tyrwhitt's regulation, which is undoubtedly just; but have left Mr. Theobald's notes as I found them. Steevens.

4 in gowns;] It appears from The Black Book, 4to. 1604, that this was the dress of a constable in our author's time: "—when they mist their constable, and sawe the black gowne of his office lye full in a puddle

Verg. O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton!5
Sexton. Which be the malefactors?

Dogb. Marry, that am I and my partner.

Verg. Nay, that's certain; we have the exhibition to examine.

Sexton. But which are the offenders that are to be examined? let them come before master constable.

Dogb. Yea, marry, let them come before me.-What is your name, friend?

Bora. Borachio.

Dogb. Pray write down-Borachio.—Yours, sirrah? Con. I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade. Dogb. Write down-master gentleman Conrade. Masters, do you serve God?

Con. Bora. Yea, sir, we hope.

Dogb. Write down-that they hope they serve God: -and write God first; for God defend but God should go before such villains!6-Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer you for yourselves?

The Sexton (as Mr. Tyrwhitt observed) is styled in this stagedirection, in the old copies, the Town-Clerk, "probably from his doing the duty of such an officer." But this error has only happened here; for throughout the scene itself he is described by his proper title. By mistake also in the quarto, and the folio, which appears to have been printed from it, the name of Kempe (an actor in our author's theatre) throughout this scene is prefixed to the speeches of Dogberry, and that of Cowley to those of Verges, except in two or three instances, where either Constable or Andrew are substituted for Kempe. Malone.

5 O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton!] Perhaps a ridicule was here aimed at The Spanish Tragedy:

"Hieron. What, are you ready?

"Balth. Bring a chaire and a cushion for the king." Malone. 6 Con. Bora. Yea, sir, we hope.

Dogb. Write down-that they hope they serve God:-and write God first; for God defend but God should go before such villains!] This short passage, which is truly humorous and in character, I have added from the old quarto. Besides, it supplies a defect: for without it, the Town-Clerk asks a question of the prisoners, and goes on without staying for any answer to it. Theobald.

The omission of this passage since the edition of 1600, may be accounted for from the stat. 3 Jac. I, c. 21, the sacred name being jestingly used four times in one line. Blackstone.

Con. Marry, sir, we say we are none.

Dogb. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you; but I will go about with him.-Come you hither, sirrah; a word in your ear, sir; I say to you, it is thought you are false knaves.

Bora. Sir, I say to you, we are none.

Dogb. Well, stand aside.-'Fore God, they are both in a tale: Have you writ down-that they are none? Sexton. Master constable, you go not the way to examine; you must call forth the watch that are their ac

cusers.

Dogb. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way: Let the watch come forth:-Masters, I charge you, in the prince's name, accuse these men.

1 Watch. This man said, sir, that Don John, the prince's brother, was a villain.

-Why this

Dogb. Write down-prince John a villain:is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother-villain.

7'Fore God, they are both in a tale:] This is an admirable stroke of humour: Dogberry says of the prisoners that they are false knaves; and from that denial of the charge, which one in his wits could not but be supposed to make, he infers a communion of counsels, and records it in the examination as an evidence of their guilt. Sir J. Hawkins.

If the learned annotator will amend his comment by omitting the word guilt, and inserting the word innocence, it will (except as to the supposed inference of a communication of counsels, which should likewise be omitted or corrected) be a just and pertinent remark. Ritson.

8 Yea, marry, that's the eftest way:] Our modern editors, who were at a loss to make out the corrupted reading of the old copies, read easiest. The quarto, in 1600, and the first and second editions in folio, all concur in reading-rea, marry, that's the eftest way, &c. A letter happened to slip out at press in the first edition; and 'twas too hard a task for the subsequent editors to put it in, or guess at the word under this accidental deprivation. There is no doubt but the author wrote, as I have restored the text-Yea, marry, that's the deftest way, i. e. the readiest, most commodious way. The word is pure Saxon. Deaplice, debite, congrue, duly, fitly, Ledache, opportune, commode, fitly, conveniently, seasonably, in good time, commodiously. Vide Spelman's Saxon Gloss. Theobald.

Mr. Theobald might have recollected the word deftly in Macbeth:

"Thyself and office deftly show."

Shakspeare, suppose, designed Dogberry to corrupt this word as well as many others. Steevens.

Bora. Master constable,

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

Sexton. What heard you him say else?

2 Watch. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John, for accusing the lady Hero wrongfully. Dogb. Flat burglary, as ever was committed.

Verg. Yea, by the mass, that it is.

Sexton. What else, fellow?

1 Watch. And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her.

Dogb. O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this.

Sexton. What else?

2 Watch. This is all.

Sexton. And this is more, masters, than you can deny. Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the grief of this, suddenly died.-Master constable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato's; I will go before, and show him their examination.

Dogb. Come, let them be opinion'd.
Verg. Let them be in band.

Con. Off, coxcomb!"

9 Verg. Let them be in band.

Con. Off, coxcomb!] The old copies read,

[Exit.

"Let them be in the hands of coxcomb." Steevens. Mr. Theobald gives these words to Conrade, and says—But why the Sexton should be so pert upon his brother officers, there seems no reason from any superior qualifications in him; or any suspicion he shows of knowing their ignorance. This is strange. The Sexton throughout shows as good sense in their examination as any judge upon the bench could do. And as to his suspicion of their ignorance, he tells the Town-Clerk, That he goes not the way to examine. The meanness of his name hindered our editor from seeing the goodness of his sense. But this Sexton was an ecclesiastic of one of the inferior orders called the sacristan, and not a brother officer, as the editor calls him. I suppose the book from whence the poet took his subject, was some old English novel translated from the Italian, where the word sagristano was rendered sexton. As in Fairfax's Godfrey of Boulogne:

"When Phoebus next unclos'd his wakeful eye,
Up rose the Sexton of that place prophane."

Dogb. God's my life! where's the sexton? let him

The passage then in question is to be read thus:

Sexton. Let them be in hand.
Con. Off, coxcomb!

[Exit.

Dogberry would have them pinion'd. The Sexton says, it was sufficient if they were kept in safe custody, and then goes out. When one of the watchmen comes up to bind them, Conrade says, Off, coxcomb! as he says afterwards to the constable, 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 suspect the old quarto divides the passage as I have done. Warburton.

Theobald has fairly given the reading of the quarto.

Dr. Warburton's assertion, as to the dignity of a sexton or sacristan, may be supported by the following passage in Stanyhurst's Version of the fourth Book of the Æneid, where he calls the Massylian priestess:

-in soil Massyla begotten,

"Sexten of Hesperides sinagog." 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 still of opinion that the passage belongs to Verges; but, for the true reading of it, I should wish to adopt a much neater emendation, which has since been suggested to me in conversation by Mr. Steevens-Let them be in band. Shakspeare, as he observed to me, commonly uses band for bond. Tyrwhitt.

It is plain that they were bound from a subsequent speech of Pedro: "Whom have you offended, masters, that you are thus bound to your answer?" Steevens.

Off, coxcomb!] The old copies read-of, and these words make a part of the last speech, "Let them be in the hands of coxcomb." The present regulation was made by Dr. Warburton, and has been adopted by the subsequent editors. Off was formerly spelt of. In the early editions of these plays a broken sentence (like that before us,-Let them be in the hands-) is almost always corrupted by being tacked, through the ignorance of the transcriber or printer, to the subsequent words. So, in Coriolanus, instead of

"You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and plagues "Plaister you o'er!"

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

"You shames of Rome, you! Herd of boils and plagues," &c. See also, Measure for Measure.

Perhaps, however, we should read and regulate the passage 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 scene from the common copies, except that the names of two actors, Kempe