ABHOR. Sir, it is a mystery.

CLO. Proof.

Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief:

Clo. If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough: jo every true man's apparel fits your thief. Thus it ftood in all the editions till Mr. Theobald's, and was, methinks, not very difficult to be underflood. The plain and humorous feufe of the fpeech is this. Every true man's apparel, which the thief robs him of, fits the thief. Why? Because, if it be too little for the thief, the true man thinks it big enough: i. c. a purchase too good for him. So that this fits the thief in the opinion of the true man. But if it be too big for the thief, yet the thief thinks it litle enough: i. c. of value little enough. So that this fits the thief in his own opinion. Where we fee, that the pleasantry of the joke confifls in the equivocal sense of big enough, and little enough. Yet Mr. Theobald fays, he can fee no fenfe in all this, and therefore alters the whole thus:

Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief. Clown. If it be too little for your true man, your thief thinks it big enough: if it be too big for your true man, your thief thinks it little enough.

--

And for his alteration gives this extraordinary reason. I am fatif fed the poet intended a regular fyllogifm; and I fubmit it to judgement, whether my regulation has not restored that wit and humour which was quite loft in the depravation. But the place is corrupt, though Mr. Theobald could not find it out. Let us confider it a little. The Hangman calls his trade a mystery: the Clown cannot conceive it. The Hangman undertakes to prove it in these words, Every true man's apparel, &c. but this proves the thief's trade a mystery, not the hangman's. Hence it appears, that the fpeech, in which the Hangman proved his trade a mystery, is loft. The very words it is impoffible to retrieve, but one may eafily understand what medium he employed in proving it without doubt, the very fame the Clown employed to prove the thief's trade a mystery; namely, that all forts of clothes fitted the hang21an. The Clown, on hearing this argument, replied, I suppose, to this effed: Why, by the fame kind of reasoning, I can prove the thief's trade too to be a myflery. The other. afks how, and the Clown goes on as above, Every true man's apparel fits your thief; if it be too little, &c. The jocular conclufion from the whole, being an infinuation that thief and hangman were rogues alike. This conje&ure gives a fpirit and integrity to the dialogue, which, in its prefent mangled condition, is altogether wanting; and fhews why the argument of every true man's apparel, kc. was in all

ABHOR. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: '

editions given to the Clown, to whom indeed it belongs; and likewife that the prefent reading of that argument is the true. WARBURTON.

If Dr. Warburton had attended to the argument by which the Bawd proves his own profeffion to be a mystery, he would not have been driven to take refuge in the groundless fuppofition, part of the dialogue had been loft or dropped.

that

The argument of the Hangman is exadly fimilar to that of the Bawd. As the latter puts in his claim to the whores, as members of his occupation, and, in virtue of their painting, would enroll his own fraternity in the myfiery of painters; fo the former equally lays claim to the thieves, as members of his occupation, and, in their right, endeavours to rank his brethren, the hangmen, under the mystery of fitters of apparel, or tailors. The reading of the old editions is therefore undoubtedly right; except that the laft fpeech, which makes part of the Hangman's argument, is, by miflake, as the reader's own fagacity will readily perceive, given to the Clown or Bawd. I fuppofe, therefore the poet gave us the whole thus: Abhor. Sir, it is a mystery.

Clown. Proof.

Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be too little far your thief, your true man thinks it big enough: if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough; fo every true man's apparel fits your thief.

I muft do Dr. Warburton the juftice to acknowledge, that he hath rightly apprehended, and explained the force of the Hangman's argument. HEATH.

There can be no doubt but the word Clown, prefixed to the last fentence, If it be too little, &c. fhould be ftruck out. It makes part of Abhorfon's argument, who has undertaken to prove that hanging was a myftery, and convinces the Clown of it by this very fpeech. M. MASON.

Every true man's apparel fits your thief:] So, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578, the Hangman fays:

"Here is nyne and twenty futes of apparell for my fhare. True man, in the language of ancient times, is always placed in oppofition to thief.

So, in Churchyard's Warning to Wanderers abroade, 1593:

"The priuy thiefe that fleales away our wealth,

Is fore afraid a true man's fteps to fee. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens feems to be mistaken in his affertion that true man in ancient times was always placed in oppofition to thief. At least in the book of Genefis, there is one inftance to the contrary, ch. xlii. v. 11:- "We are all one man's fons: we are all true meng thy fervants are no pies." HENLEY.

If it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough: fo every true man's apparel fits your thief.

Re-enter Provoft.

PROV. Are you agreed?

CLO. Sir, I will ferve him; for I do find, your hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftner ask forgiveness. "

PROV. You, firrah, provide your block and your axe, to-morrow four o'clock.

ABHOR. Come on, bawd; I will inftruct thee in my trade; follow.

CLO. I do defire to learn, fir; and, I hope, if you have occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare for, truly fir, for your kindness, I : 7 owe you a good turn.

8

PROV. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:

[Exeunt Clown and ABHORSON.

One has my pity; not a jot the other,

Being a murderer, though he were my brother.

Enter CLAUDIO.

Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:

6

---

-afk forgiveness] So, in As you like it:

66 - The common executioner,

"Whofe heart the accuftom'd fight of death makes hard, "Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck,

But firft begs pardon." STEEVENS.

7-yare:] i. e. handy, nimble in the execution of my office. So, in Twelfth Night: " difmount thy tuck, be yare in thy

preparation." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:
"His fhips are yare, yours heavy. STEEVENs.
a good turn. ] i. e. a turn off the ladder.
the phrafe according to its common acceptation. FARMER.

He quibbles on

'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to morrow Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine? CLAUD. As faft lock'd up in fleep, as guiltlefs la

bour

When it lies flarkly in the traveller's bones:
He will not wake.

Who can do good on him?

PROV. Well, go, prepare yourfelf. But hark, what noife?

[ Knocking within. Heaven give your spirits comfort! [Exit CLAUDIO.] by and by:

I hope it is fome pardon, or reprieve,

For the most gentle Claudio.Welcome, father.

Enter DUKE.

DUKE. The best and wholesomest spirits of the

night

Envelop you, good Provoft! Who call'd here of late? PROV. None, fince the curfew rung.

DUKE.

Not Ifabel?

farkly-] Stiffly. These two lines afford a very pleafing

image. JOHNSON.

So, in The Legend of Lord Haftings, 1575:

"Leaft ftarke with reft they finew'd waxe and hoare."

STEEVENS.

2 They will then,] Perhaps -She will then. SIR J. HAWKINS. The Duke expe&s Isabella and Mariana. A little afterward he Lays:

1

3

DUKE. Not fo, not fo; his life is parallel'd Even with the flroke and line of his great juftice; He doth with holy abftinence fubdue

That in himself, which he fpurs on his power
To qualify in others: were he meal'd'

With that which he corrects, then were he tyran

nous;

But this being fo,‘he's juft. —Now are they come-
[Knocking within.-Provoft goes out.

This is a gentle provoft: Seldom, when
The feeled gaoler is the friend of men.-

How now? What noife? That fpirit's poffefs'd with hafle,

Thatwounds the unfifling postern with these strokes."

3 Even with the flroke-] Stroke is here put for the firoke of a pen or a line. JOHNSON.

To qualify] To temper, to moderate, as we fay wine is qualified with water. JOHNSON.

Thus before in this play:

"So to enforce, or qualify the laws.”.

Again, in Othello:

I have drank but one cup to-night, and that was craftily qualified too. STEEVENS.

were he meal'd.

Were he fprinkled; were he defiled.

A figure of the fame kind our author ufes in Macbeth:

"The blood-bolter'd Banquo." JOHNSON.

More appofitely, in the Philofophers Satires, by Robert Anton:
As if their perriwigs to death they gave,
To meale them in fome gaftly dead man's grave.'

Mealed is mingled, compounded; from the French mefler.

STEEVENS.

BLACKSTONE.

"

But this being fo,] The tenor of the argument feems to require-But this not being fo, Perhaps, however, the author meant only to fay-But, his life being paralleled, &c. he's just.

7 That Spirit's poffefs'd with hafte,

MALONE.

That wounds the unfifting poflern with thefe frakes.] The line is irregular, and the old reading, unrefifting poftern, fo ftrange an expreffion, that want of meafure, and want of fense, might juftly raise