Shakespeare illustrated by the Lex Scripta

rtushton, .vil] i ,es

strated by
the Lex Scripta

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SHAKESPEAKE ILLUSTRATED

:

Huic versatile ingenium sic pariter ad omnia fuit, nt natum
ad id unum diceres, quodcumque ageret. — LIVY, xxxix. 40.

SHAKESPEARE

ILLUSTRATED BY THE LEX SCEIPTA

BY

WILLIAM LOWES RUSHTON

OF GBAY'S INN, BARRISTTEB-AT-LAW

Corresponding Member of the Berlin Society for the Study of Modern Languages :

Author of 'Shakespeare a Lawyer,' 'Shakespeare's Legal Maxims,'

' Shakespeare Illustrated by Old Authors,' ' Shakespeare's

Testamentary Language,' &c.

And every ttatute coude he plaine by rote— Chaucer

THE FIRST PART

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1870

. >

LONDON1: PEINTED BT

BPOTTISWOODB AND CO., NEW-STEEHT SQUABB
AIH) PABLIAMBHI STBBEI

NOTICE.

MANY of these illustrations were contributed
to the Berlin Society for the Study of
Modern Languages, and afterwards pub-
lished in the 'Archiv fur das Studium der
neueren Sprachen und Literaturen.'

5 ESSEX COURT, TEMPLE :
Michaelmas Term, 1869.

SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED

LEX SCRIPTA.

I THINK I shall be able to illustrate and ex-
plain many obscure passages and words and
expressions of doubtful meaning in the works
of Shakespeare by extracts from ancient
English statutes.

Suf. Lord cardinal, the king's further pleasure is,
Because all those things you have done of late,
By your power legatine, within this kingdom,
Fall into the compass of a prcemunire,
That therefore such a writ be sued against you ;
To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements,
Chattels, and whatsoever, and to be
Out of the king's protection. This is my charge.
Henry VIIL, Act iii. Sc. 2.

In this passage Shakespeare uses the exact
letter of the statute law.

B

2 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

A Praemunire (so called from the words of
the writ Prcemunire facias, or Prcemoneri facias,
signifying the writ and the offence on which
the writ is grounded), is an offence whereby
we shall incur the same punishment which is
inflicted upon those who transgress the 16
Richard II., cap. 5, which ordained and
established : —

Qe si ascun purchace ou pursue, ou face purchacer
ou pursuer en la courte de Rome ou aillours ascuns
tieux translations, processes & sentences de esco-
mengementz, bulles, instrumentz, ou autre chose
queconqe qe touche le Roi nostre Seignur encountre
luy, sa corone & regalie ou son Roialme come devant
est dit, & ceux qe les porte deinz le Roialme ou les
receive ou facent notification ou autre execution
queconqe deinz mesme le Roialme ou dehors, soient
ils lour notairs,procuratours,meintenours,abbettours,
fautours et conseillours mys hors de la protection
nostre dit Seignur le Roy et lours terres et tene-
mentz, biens et chatieux forfaitz au Roi nostre
Seignur, et qils soient attachez par lour corps fils
purront estre trovez et amesnex devaunt le Roy et
son conseil pur y respondre es cases avaunditz ou
qe processe soit fait devers eux par premunire facias
en manere come est ordeigne en autres estatutz des
provisours et autres qui seuent en autry courte
en derogation de la nostre Seignur le Roy. —
16 Richard II., cap. v.

16 RICHARD II. CAP. 5. REDOUBTED LORD. 3

That if any purchase or pursue, cause to be pur-
chased or pursued, in the Court of Rome, or else-
where, by any such translations, processes, and sen-
tences of excommunications, bulls, instruments, or
any other things whatsoever which touch the King
against him, his crown, and his regality, or his realm,
as is aforesaid, and they which bring within the
realm, or them receive, or make thereof notification,
or any other execution whatsoever within the same
realm or without, that they, their notaries, procura-
tors, maintainers, abettors, fautors, and counsellors,
shall be put out of the King's protection, and their
lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeit to
our Lord the King ; and that they be attached by
their bodies, if they may be found, and brought
before the King and his Council, there to answer the
cases aforesaid, or that process be made against
them by prcemunire facias, in manner as it is
ordained in other statutes of provisors, and other
which do sue in any other court in derogation of the
regality of our Lord the King.

Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine

own.
K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am yours,

and all.

Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
As my true service shall deserve your love.

Richard IL, Act iii. Sc. 3.

Bolingbroke calls King Richard II. not only

B 2

4 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

gracious lord but also redoubted lord, and in
the preamble of this statute (Richard II.)
Richard is styled i redoubted lord.1

Item, come les communes du Roialme en cest
present parlement eient monstrez a nostre tres-
redoute Seignur le Hoi grevousement complei-
gnantz, &c.

Item, whereas the Commons of the realm in this
present Parliament have showed to our redoubted
Lord the King, grievously complaining, &c.

Host. My hand, bully ; thou shalt have egress
and regress ; — said I well ? and thy name shall be
Brook. It is a merry knight. Will you go, an-
heires ?

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. 1.

Gadshill. I am joined with no foot-land rakers, no
long staff sixpenny strikers, none of these mad
mustachio, purple-hued malt-worms ; but with
nobility and tranquillity, burgomasters and great
oneyers, such as can hold in, such as will strike
sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and
drink sooner than pray.

1 Henry IV., Act ii. Sc. 1.

c An-heires,' ' oneyers.7 I think these words
are misprints of ' one ears.' Cutting off the
ear was a punishment inflicted long before,
during, and after Shakespeare's time for va-
rious offences. The following are some of the

OXEYERS. AX-IIEIRES. 5

conjectures which have been made by various
commentators : —

An-heires. — Mynheers ; on, here ; on heris ; on
hearts ; on, heroes ; and hear us ; cavaleires ; eh,
sir?

Oneyers. — One-eyers ; oneraries ; moneyers ;
seignors ; owners ; one-eers ; myn-heers ; onyers ;
ones, yes ; wan-dyers.

Marc. Fie, brother, fie ! teach her not thus

to lay
Such violent hands upon her tender life.

Tit. How now ! has sorrow made thee dote

already ?

Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.
What violent hands can she lay on her life ?

Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. 3.

Malcolm. My thanes and kinsmen,

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honour named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny ;
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life.

Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 7.

Forasmuch as of late divers and many outragious
and barbarous behaviours and acts have been used

6 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTKATED.

and committed by divers ungodly and irreligious
persons, by quarrelling, fraying and fighting openly
in churches and churchyards : Therefore it is en-
acted that if any person whatsoever shall, at any
time after the first day of May next coming, by
words only, quarrel, chide or brawl in any church or
churchyard, that then it shall be lawful unto the
Ordinary of the place where the same offence shall
be done and proved by two lawful witnesses, to sus-
pend every person so offending ; that is to say, if he
be a layman, ab ingressu ecclesice, if he be a clerk,
from the ministration of his office, for so long a time
as the said Ordinary shall by his discretion think
meet and convenient, according to the fault.

II. And further it is enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that if any person or persons, after the
said first day of May, shall smite or lay violent
hands upon any other, either in any church or
churchyard, that then, ipso facto, every person so
offending shall be deemed excommunicate, and be
excluded from the fellowship and company of Christ's
congregation.

III. And also it is enacted that if any person,
after the said first day of May shall maliciously
strike any person with any weapon in any church or
churchyard, or after the same first day of May
shall draw any weapon in any church or church-
yard, to the intent to strike another with the same
weapon, that then every person so offending, and
thereof being convicted by verdict of xii. men, or
by his own confession, or by two lawful witnesses,

ONE EARS. NONE EARS. 7

before the justices of assize, justices of oyer and
determiner, or justices of peace in their sessions, by
force of this Act, shall be adjudged by the same
justices before whom such person shall be convicted,
to have one of his ears cut off; and if the person or
persons so offending have none ears, whereby they
should receive such punishment as is before declared,
that then he or they to be marked and burned in the
cheek with an hot iron, having the letter F therein,
whereby he or they may be known and taken for
fray-makers and fighters ; and besides that, every
such person to be and stand ipso facto excommuni-
cated, as is aforesaid. — 5 §• 6 Edward VI., cap. iv.

Cutting off one ear was a punishment in-
flicted upon those who malicious struck any
person in any churchyard; and Gadshill says
he is joined with no sixpenny strikers, &c.
but great oneyers such as can hold in, such as
will strike sooner than speak, &c. and it may
be considered worthy of consideration whether
Shakespeare does not mean by one ears persons
upon whom this punishment, for striking, had
*been inflicted, and who had consequently only
one ear.

The statute itself testifies to the frequency
of this punishment in former tunes, for it
enacts what punishment should be inflicted

8 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

upon those who have none ears; in other
words, what punishment those persons should
receive who, having offended twice before and
lost one ear each time they were punished,
had none ears. One ears and oneyers have
each seven letters, and none ears and an-heires
have each eight letters.

A confirmation of the stat. of 3 Edward I.,
cap. 34, and 2 Richard II., stat. 1, cap. 5, touching
telling of news. Justices of peace in every shire,
city, &c., shall have authority to hear and determine
the said offences, and to put the said two statutes in
execution. If any person shall be convicted or
attainted for speaking maliciously of his own imagi-
nation any false, seditious, and slanderous news,
saying, or tales, of the King or Queen, then he shall
for his first offence be set on the pillory in some
market-place near where the words were spoken,
and have both his ears cut off, unless he pay to the
Queen an hundred pound within one month after
judgment given, and also shall be three months im-
prisoned ; and if he shall speak any such slanderous
and seditious news or tales of the speaking or report
of any other, then he shall be set on the pillory and
have one of his ears cut off, unless he pay an hun-
dred marks to the Queen's use within one month
after, and shall be one month imprisoned : and if he
shall do it by book, rhime, ballad, letter, or writing,
he shall have his right hand stricken off : and if any

ONK EARS.

0

person, being once convicted of any of the offences
aforesaid, do afterward offend, he shall be imprisoned
during his life, and forfeit all his goods and chattels.
— 1 §• 2 Philip and Mary, cap. 3.

A V here divers and sundry malicious and envious
persons, being men of evil and perverse dispositions,
and seduced by the instigation of the devil, and
minding the hurt, undoing, and impoverishment of
divers of the King's true and faithful subjects, as
enemies to the commonwealth of this realm, and as
no true or obedient subjects unto the King's Majesty,
of their malicious and wicked minds, have of late
invented and practised a new damnable kind of vice,
displeasure, and damnifying of the King's true sub-
jects and the commonwealth of this realm, as in
secret burning of frames of timber prepared and
made by the owners thereof, ready to be set up and
edified for houses, cutting out of heads and dams of
pools, motes, stews, and several waters ; cutting off
conduit heads or conduit pipes ; burning of wains
or carts loaden with coals or other goods ; burning
of heaps of wood, cut, felled, and prepared for
making of coals ; cutting out of beasts' tongues ;
cutting off the ears of the King's subjects ; barking
of apple-trees, pear-trees, and other fruit trees ; and
divers other like kinds of miserable offences, to the
great displeasure of Almighty God and of the King's
Majesty, and to the most evil and pernicious example
that hath been seen in this realm.

The fourth section of this statute enacts,
amongst other things : —

10 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

That if any person or persons maliciously, wil-
lingly, or unlawfully cut or cause to be cut off the
ear or ears of any of the King's subjects, otherwise
than by authority of law, chance-medley, sudden
affray, or adventure ; or maliciously, willingly, or
unlawfully bark any apple-trees, pear-trees, or other
fruit-trees of any other person or persons ; that then
every such offender and offenders shall not only lose
and forfeit unto the party grieved treble damages
for such offence or offences, the same to be recovered
by action or trespass to be taken at the common law,
but also shall lose and forfeit to the King's Majesty
and his heirs, for every such offence, x/. sterling in
name of a fine. — 37 Henry VIII. , cap. vii.

The malicious and envious persons described
in this statute not only inflicted pain upon the
King's subjects by cutting their ears off, but
they also gave them an infamous appearance,
for a person with one ear or 4 non-ears ' looked
like a transgressor of the criminal law.

The 5th Elizabeth, cap. xiv., an Act against
forgers of false deeds and writings, enacts that
any person forging a false deed should have
both his ears cut off.

Est enim furtum de re magna et parva, pro mini-
mo tamen latrocinio 12 denariorum et infra, nullus
morti condemnetur ; pro hujusmodi modicis delictis
inventa fuerunt judicialia pilloria, et deformitates

RESTFUL. 11

corporum, ut scissio auricularum. — Fleta, lib. I.,
cap. 38, sec. 10.

Des cinsors des burses, voylons que celuy que la
burse coupa si auter maviese ne eyt feyt, eyt judg-
ment de Pillory ; & silz eyent emble auter chose
meinder de 12. deniers, perdent un oraile, & si le
chose passe 12. deniers eyent judgment de mort. —
Britton, fo. 24 b.

Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring

tongue

Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
In that dead time when once Gloucester's death was

plotted,

I heard you say3 ' Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head ? '

Richard II. , Act iv. Sc. 1.

K. Hen. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the

peace,

Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
With full accord to all our just demands :
Whose tenours and particular effects
You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.

Henry V., Act v. Sc. 2.

Item, the King our Sovereign Lord considereth,
That by the negligence, misdemeaning, favour, and
other inordinate causes of justices of peace in every
shire of this his realm, the laws and ordinances made

12 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

for the politique weal, peace, and good rule of the
same, and for the perfect surety, and restful living
of his subjects of the same, be not duly executed
according to the tenour and effect that they were
made and ordained for ; wherefore his subjects being
grievously hurt, and . out of surety of their bodies
and goods, to his great displeasure, for to him is
nothing more joyous than to know his subjects to
live peaceably under his laws and to increase in
wealth and prosperity, and to avoid such enormities
and injuries, so that his said subjects may live rest-
fully under his peace and laws, to their increase.
He will that it be ordained and enacted by authority
of this said Parliament, that every justice of peace
within every shire of this realm, within the shire
where he is justice of peace, do cause openly and
solemnly to be proclaimed yearly four times a year,
in four principal sessions, the tenor of this procla-
mation to this bill annexed ; and that every justice
of peace being present at any of the said sessions, if
they cause not the said proclamation for to be made
in form abovesaid, shall forfeit unto our Sovereign
Lord at that time xxs. — 4 Henry VII. , cap. 12.

4 Restful/ full of rest, easily.

Mess. My lord, a prize, a prize ! here's the Lord
Say, which sold the towns in France ; he that made
us pay one and twenty fifteens, and one shilling to
the pound, the last subsidy.

2 Henry VI., Act iv. Sc. 7.

York. I never read but England's kings have had

FIFTEENTH. TASK. 13

Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives ;
And our King Henry gives away his own,
To match with her that brings no vantages.

Glou. A proper jest, and never heard before,
That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth
For costs and charges in transporting her !

2 Henry VI., Act i. Sc. 1.

Pro hac autem donatione et concessione libertatum
istarum, et aliarum libertatum contentarum in charta
nostra de libertatibus forestae, archiepiscopi, abbates
priores, comites, barones, milites, liberi tenentes,
et omnes de regno nostro dederunt nobis guinto-
decimam partem omnium mobilium suorum. — Magna
Charta, 9 Henry III.

Hot. Then to the point.

In short time after, he deposed the king ;
Soon after that, deprived him of his life ;
And in the neck of that, tasked the whole estate.
1 Henry IV., Act iv. Sc. 3.

Coke, in his exposition of this chapter,
says : —

For this gift and graunt by the King, of the
liberties contained in this great charter, and of
others contained in the King's charter of liberties of
the forest, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors,
earles, barons, knights, free- holders, and other the
King's subjects, citizens and burgesses (assembled in
Parliament) gave unto the King one fifteenth ; which
proveth, that as the fifteenth was graunted by Par-

14 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

liament, so was this great charter also graunted by
authority of the same ; but since this time the man-
ner of the fifteenth is altered ; for now the fifteenth,
which is also called the Task, is not originally set
upon the polles, as at this time it was, but now the
fifteenth is certainly rated upon every towne.—
2 Inst. 77.

K. Hen. I have not been desirous of their

wealth,

Nor much oppress'd them with great subsidies,
Nor forward of revenge, though they much err'd.
3 Henry VI., Act iv. Sc. 8.

Nor. Arm, arm, my lord ; the foe vaunts in the
field.

K. Rich. Come, bustle, bustle; caparison my

horse.

Call up Lord Stanley, bid him bring his power :
I will lead forth my soldiers to the plain,
And thus my battle shall be ordered :
My foreward shall be drawn out all in length,
Consisting equally of horse and foot ;
Our archers shall be placed in the midst :
John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of Surrey,
Shall have the leading of this foot and horse.
They thus directed, we will follow
In the main battle, whose puissance on either side
Shall be well winged with our chiefest horse.

Richard III., Act v. Sc. 3.

Subsidie (says Coke) is derived of the verb susi-
diari, which signifieth to be ready to help at need,

FOREWARD. 15

unde subsidium, which signifieth aide and help at
need, so properly called, when souldiers were ready
to help the foreward of the battel : and aptly was
the word so derived, as well because that which we
call now subsidia, subsidies, were anciently called
auxilia, aides, granted by Act of Parliament upon
need and necessity : as also, for that originally and
principally they were granted for the defence of the
realm, and the safe keeping of the seas, &c. Com-
munia pericula requirunt communia auxilia. This
word subsidia is common, as well to the English as
to the French. Concerning subsidies, hear what a
stranger truly writeth. Reges Angliae nihil tale,
nisi convocatis prius ordinibus, et assentiente populo,
Buscipiunt. Qua3 consuetudo valde rnihi laudanda
videtur; interveniente enim populi voluntate et
assensu, crescit robur et potentia regum, et major
est ipsorum authoritas, et feliciores progressus. Sub-
sidies taken in their generall sense for parliamentary
aides are divided into perpetuall and temporary :
perpetuall into three parts, viz. into custuma antiqua,
sive magna, custuma nova sive parva, and into cus-
tome of broad cloth. Temporary, whereof there are
three kindes, viz.: 1. Of tonnage and poundage of
ancient time granted for a year or yeares incertainly,
and of latter times for life. 2. A subsidie after the
rate of 4s. in the pound for lauds, and 2s. 8d.
for goods, and 3s. for an aide called a fifteenth. —
4 Inst. 29.

•

The word foreward is evidently used by

16 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

King Richard to signify the van-guard of his
arm}7", and in that sense it is used by Coke.

K. Hen. I have not been desirous of their

wealth,

Nor much oppress'd them with great subsidies,
No? forward of revenge, though they much err'd.
3 Henry VL, Act iv. Sc. 8.

And although the adjective forward used in
this passage by Henry VI. is spelt without the
4 e,' it may perhaps be worthy of notice that
it here follows the word subsidy, which Coke
says ' signifieth aid and help at need, so pro-
perly called, when soldiers were ready to help
the fore ward of the battle.7

Scar. The greater cantle of the world is lost
With very ignorance ; we have kissed away
Kingdoms and provinces.

Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. 8.

Hot. Methinks my moiety, north from Burton

here,

In quantity equals not one of yours :
See how this river comes me cranking in,
And cuts me from the best of all my land
A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.

1 Henry IV., Act iii. Sc. 1.

First Car. What, ostler ! come away and be
hanged ! come away.

CANTLE. RAZE. 17

Sec. Car. I have a gammon of bacon and two
razes of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing-
cross. — 1 Henry IV., Act ii. Sc. 1.

Tolnetum ad molendinum secundum communem
consuetudinem regni et secundum fortitudinem
cursus aque capiatur vel ad vicesimum granum vel
ad vicesimum quarterium grani. Et mensura per
quam tolnetum debet capi sit concordans mensure
Domini Regis et capiatur tolnetum per rasum et
nichil cum cumulo seu cantello. Et si furnarii in-
veniunt molendinariis necessaria sua nichil capiatur
preter debitum tolnetum. Et si aliter fecerint
graviter puniatur. — Temporibus Henrici III., Ed-
wardique I. et II.

The toll of a mill shall be taken according to the
custom of the land, and according to the strength of
the watercourse, either to the twentieth or four-and-
twentieth corn. And the measure whereby the toll
must be taken shall be agreeable to the King's
measure, and toll shall be taken by the rase, and
not by the heap or cantel. And in case that the
farmers find the millers their necessaries, they shall
take nothing besides their due toll ; and if they do
otherwise they shall be grievously punished.

Standardum busselli galonis et ulne et sign a
quibus mensure sunt signande sint sub custodia
majoris et ballivorum et sex legalium de villa jura-
torum coram quibus omnes mensure signentur.
Nullum genus bladi vendatur per cumulum seu can-

C

18 SHAKESPEAEE ILLUSTRATED.

tellum preter avenam, braseura seu farinam. — Tempo-
ribus Henrici III., Edwardique I. et II. cap. ix.

The standard bushels and ells shall be in the
custody of the mayor and bailiffs, and of six lawful
persons of the same town being sworn, before whom
all measures shall be sealed. No manner of grain
shall be sold by the heap or cantel, except it be oats,
malt and meal.

Cowell says cantel seems to signify the same
with what we now call lump, as to buy by
measure or by the lump. It signifies also a
piece of anything, as a cantel of bread, cheese,
and the like (Interpr.).

Ease raseria seems to have been a measure of corn
now disused. Debentur ei annuatim decem et octo
raseria avenae, et sex raseriae hordei, &c. (Cowell,
Spelman.) Rasus alleorum, a rase of onions, thus
computed in Fleta, lib. 2, cap. 12, s. 12 : ' Easus
alleorum continet xx. nones, et qualibet nones xxv.
capita.'

Lear. Of all these bounds even from this line to

this,

With shadowy forests and with champains ricWd,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady : to thine and Albany's issue
Be this perpetual. -Act 1. Sc. 1.

•
To the King our Sovereign Lord, praieth unto

your Highness your true subjects and Commons in
this present Parliament assembled, That where in

RICIIED. FRANK ELECTION. 19

time passed this your realm of England hath greatly
been encreased and riched by the mean of true
making and draping, and also of true dying of
woollen cloth, whereby a great substance of the
people of your said realm have been set on work and
not fallen to idlenesse, as dailly nowe they doo, but
thereby truly gotten ther levying. — 1 Richard III.,
cap. viii.

King. Go, call before me all the lords in court.
Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side ;
And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense
Thou hast repeal'd, a second time receive
The confirmation of my promised gift,
Which but attends thy naming.

Enter three or four Lords.

Fair maid, send forth thine eye : this youthful parcel
Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,
O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice
I have to use: thy frank election make ;
Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.
Airs Well that Ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 3.

Et pur ceo que elections doient estre frankes, cy
defend le roy sur la greeve forfeiture, que nul haute
home, ne auter, per poyar des armes, ne per malice
ou menaces, ne disturbe de faire franke election. —
3 Edward I. (Westminster the First), cap. v.

And because elections ought to be free, the King
commandeth upon great/ forfeiture that no man by
force of arms, nor by malice, or menacing, shall dis-
turb any to make free election. — 2 List. 168.
c 2

20 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

The reader will perceive that the King says
to Helena, 4 Thy frank election make,' and
according to this chapter of Westminster the
First, — elections doient estre frankes,' also
'mil haute home, &c., ne disturbe de faire
franke election,' — and the King uses the verb
'make,' which is the English of 4 faire.7

First Lord. "Wrong not yourself, then, noble

Helicane ;

But if the prince do live, let us salute him,
Or know what ground 's made happy by his breath.
If in the world he live, we'll seek him out ;
If in his grave he rest, well find him there ;
And be resolved he lives to govern us,
Or dead, give 's cause to mourn his funeral,
And leave us to OUT free election.

Pericles, Act ii. Sc. 4.

( There were,' says Coke, f two mischiefs before
the making of this statute: 1. For that elections
were not duly made ; 2. That elections were not
freely made ; and both these against the ancient
maxim of the law, Fiant electiones rite et libere sine
interruptione aliqua ; and again, Electio libera est ;
for before this Act in the regular reign of Henry
III. the electors had neither their free, nor their due
elections, for sometimes by force, sometimes by
menaces, and sometimes by malice, the electors were
framed, and wrought to make election of men un-
worthy, or not eligible, so far as their election was
neither due nor free : this Act rehearseth the old

FREE ELECTION. FUSTIAN RASCAL. 21

rule of the common law (for that elections ought to
be free), wherein both the said points are included :
1 st, it must be a due election ; and 2nd, it must be
a free election. — 2 Inst. 169.

Doll. For God's sake thrust him down stairs :
I cannot endure such a fustian rascal.

2 Henry IV., Act iv. Sc. 4.

Curt. Come, you are so full of cony-catching !

Gru. Why, therefore fire ; for I have caught
extreme cold. Where's the cook ? is supper ready,
the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept ;
the serving-men in their new fustian, their white
stockings, and every officer his wedding garment on ?
Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the
carpets laid, and every thing in order ?

Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 1.

Prayen the commons in this present Parliament
assembled, that whereas fustians brought from the
parts beyond the sea unshorn into this realm, have
been and should be most profitable cloth for doublets
and for other wearing clothes, greatly used among
the common people of this realm, and longest have
endured of anything that have come into the same
realm from the said parts to that intent, for that the
cause hath been that such fustians afore this time
have been truly wrought and shorn with the broad
shear, and with no other instruments or other deceit-
ful mean occupied upon the same ; now so it is, that
divers persons by subtil and undue sleights and
means, have deceivably imagined and contrived in-
struments of iron, with which irons, in the most

22 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

highest and secret places of their houses, they strike
and draw the said iron of the said fustians unshorn ;
by means whereof they pluck off both the nap and
cotton of the same fustians, and break commonly
both the ground and threads in sunder, and after
by crafty sleeking they make the same fustians to
appear to the common people fine, whole, and sound ;
and also they raise up the cotton of such fustians,
and then take a light candle and set it in the fustian
burning, which sindgeth and burneth away the
cotton of the same fustian from the one end to the
other, down to the hard threads, instead of shearing,
and after that put them in colour, and so subtilly
dress them, that their false work cannot be espied,
without it be by workmen shearers of such fustians
or by the wearers of the same ; and so by such sub-
tilities, whereas fustians made in doublets, or put to
any other use, were wont and might endure the
space of two years and more, will not endure
now whole by the space of four months scarcely, to
the great hurt of the poor commons and serving-
men of this realm, to the great damage, loss, and
deceit of the king's true subjects, buyers and
wearers of such fustian. For remedy whereof, be it
enacted, ordained, and established, that no such iron
or instruments, nor any other untrue, subtil, mean,
or sleight be from henceforth used upon any fustian
within this realm, but only by the broad shears, upon
forfeiture of xxs. to be levied for every default of
every such person or persons hereafter offending and
using any such deceivably instruments or sleights,

FUSTIAX. 23

as is aforesaid ; the one half of the forfeitures to be
to the King our Sovereign Lord, and the other half
to him or them that will sue for the same forfeitures
by action of debt, bill, plaint, or information in any
of the King's Courts of Record, where the same may
be determined after the course of the common law,
and that the defendant in such behalf in no wise be
admitted to urge his law, nor that any protection or
essoin be in the same allowable. And over this, be
it ordained by the said authority, that the mayor
and wardens of shearmen of the city of London for
the time being have authority to enter and search
the workmanship of all manner persons occupying
the broad shear, as well fustians as cloth ; and the
execution of this present Act to be as well of deni-
zens as of foreigners and strangers. — 1 1 Henry V1L,
cap. xxvii.

The preamble of 39th Elizabeth, cap. xiii.,
which was passed when Shakespeare was about
thirty -three years old, recites, that amongst her
Majesty's people the wearing of fustians had
lately grown to more use than ever it was
before : —

Whereas by an Act made in the eleventh year
of King Henry the Seventh, the mayor and war-
dens of shearmen of the city of London for the
time being, should have authority to enter and
search the workmanship of all manner of persons
occupying the broad shear, as well fustians as cloth

24 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

and the execution of the said Act for using any
instruments of iron, or other untrue subtil mean or
slight in dressing the same : Since which time, for
that the Lord Mayor of London cannot conveni-
ently go in his own person to make the said search,
by reason of his other weighty occasions, divers
have resisted the wardens of the shear-men going
abroad in offering to make search according to the
said law ; and for want of due and daily search in
that behalf, divers have of late days put in use the
iron instruments, and other sleights forbidden by
the recited Act, to the great deceit of her Majesty's
people, amongst whom the wearing of fustians is
lately grown to more use, as may seem, than ever it
was before time. — 39 Elizabeth, cap. xiii.

Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph.

Fang. A rescue ! a rescue !

Host. Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou
wo't, wo't thou ? thou wo't, wo't ta ? do, do, thou
rogue ! do, thou hemp-seed !

Fal. Away, you scullion ! you rampallian ! you
fustilarian f I'll tickle your catastrophe.

2 Henry IV.9 Act ii. Sc. \.

The reader may be of opinion, after reading
these statutes, that the word c fustilarian ' in
this passage means one who wears fustian, or,
in other words, to use the language of the
preamble of the 11 Henry VII., cap. xxviii.,
one of the common people or serving men.

FUSTILARIAN. 25

Mai. [reads']

I may command where I adore ;

But silence, like a Lucrece knife,
With bloodless stroke my heart doth gore :

M, O, A, I, doth sway my life.
Fab. A fustian riddle !

Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 5.

Cas. I will rather sue to be despised than to
deceive so good a commander with so slight, so
drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk ? and
speak parrot ? and squabble ? swagger ? swear ?
and discourse fustian with one's own shadow ? O
thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name
to be known by, let us call thee devil !

Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3.

The word fustian, as it is here used by
Fabian and Cassio, seems to signify something
common or of inferior quality.

Ther. E'en so ; a great deal of your wit, too, lies
in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall
have a great catch, if he knock out either of your
brains : a' were as good crack a fusty nut with no
kernel.

Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2.

Hamlet. Sure, he that made us with such large

discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason
To fust in us unused. Act iv. Sc. 4.

26 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

And although the adjective 'fusty,' used by
Thersites, evidenly signifies ' mouldy,' and the
verb ' fust/ used by Hamlet, signifies also
4 to get mouldy from want of use :'

Ulysses. Sometime, great Agamemnon,

Thy topless deputation he puts on,
And, like a strutting player, whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage, —
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming
He acts thy greatness in : and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a-mending ; with terms unsquared,
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause.
Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3.

Yet it may be considered probably that
Ulysses uses the adjective ' fusty ' as descrip-
tive of the wretched imitation; or, to use the
words of Cassio, the 'fustian discourse' of
Patroclus.

Host. Come, I'll drink no proofs nor no bullets :
I'll drink no more than will do me good, for no man's
pleasure, I.

Pist. Then to you, Mistress Dorothy ; I will
charge you.

•

LACK LIXEX. MOULDY ROGUE. FUSTY PLEBEIAN. 27

Dol. Charge me ! I scorn you, scurvy companion.
What ! you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen
mute ! Away, you mouldy rogue, away ! I am
meat for your master.

2 Henry IV., Act ii. Sc. 4.

The adjective i mouldy ' in this passage may
be used in a double sense. Doll calls Pistol
' a poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen
mate/ and also a 4 mouldy rogue.' Those who
were poor lacked linen, and wore fustian, a
material of inferior quality, much worn by the
common people and serving men : the words
mouldy and fusty are synonymous terms: a
mouldy rogue may, therefore, suggest the idea
of a fusty rogue, or one who wore fustian;
and Cominius, in ' Coriolanus/ speaks of ' fusty
plebeians ' : —

Com. If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's

work,

Thou'ldst not believe thy deeds : but I'll report it
Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles,
Where great patricians shall attend and shrug,
I' the end admire, where ladies shall be frighted,
And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the dull

tribunes,
That, with the/wsfy plebeians, hate thine honours,

28 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Shall say against their hearts ( We thank the gods
Our Rome hath such a soldier.'
Yet earnest thou to a morsel of this feast,
Having fully dined before.

Act i. Sc. 9.

Besides, Doll says afterwards, in the same
scene, referring to Pistol, 1 1 cannot endure
such a fustian rascal/

Sebas. There's something in't

That's deceivable.

Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 3.

Baling. I shall not need transport my words by

you;
Here comes his grace in person.

My noble uncle ! \_Kneels.
York. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy

knee,
Whose duty is deceivable and false.

Richard II., Act ii. Sc. 3.

The Queen's most excellent Majesty, with the
advice of her Highness' Lords spiritual and tem-
poral, and the Commons in this present Parliament
assembled, weighing and considering the good and
godly purposes of divers and sundry statutes hereto-
fore made and ordained for the true making and
working of woollen cloth, to be frustrated and
deluded by straining, stretching, want of weight,

DECEIVABLE. DECEITFUL. 29

flocks, sollace, chalk, flour, deceitful things, subtil
sleights, and untruths, so as the same clothes be put
in water are found to shrink, be rewey, pursey,
squally, cockling, bandy, light, and notably faulty,
to the great dislike of foreign princes, and to the
hindrance and loss of the buyer and wearer : for re-
dress thereof, is pleased and willeth it to be enacted,
and by the authority of this present Parliament it is
enacted, that from and after the Feast of the Purifi-
cation of the Blessed Virgin Mary next ensuing, no
person or persons shall put any hair, flocks, thrums,
or yarn made of lamb's wool, or other deceivable
thing or things, into or upon any broad woollen
cloth, half-cloth, kersie, dozen penistone or cotton,
Taunton cloth, Bridgwater, Dunster cotton, upon
pain to forfeit every such cloth, half-cloth, kersie,
frize, dozen penistone and cotton, and other woollen
cloth, of what nature, kind, or name soever, where-
unto or whereupon any such hair be so put, any
law, statute, dispensation, allegation, or toleration,
to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding,
and upon pain that every person and persons which
shall buy, gather, or procure any hair, flocks,
thrums, yarn of lamb's wool, or other deceivable
thing or things whatsoever, for that intent and pur-
pose, to forfeit the same hair, flocks, thrums, yarn
of lamb's wool, and other deceivable thing and things
whatsoever. — 43 Elizabeth) cap. x.

In the ancient statutes the words ' deceiv-
able ' and ' deceitful ' are synonymes : for

30 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

example, the 43rd Elizabeth, cap. x., speaks
first of deceitful things as subtil sleights and
untruths; and afterwards, referring to the
same c subtel sleights and untruths,' speaks of
them as deceivable things.

Ros. My lord, you once did love me.
Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.
Hamlet) Act iii. Sc. 2.

D. Pedro. What, a feast, a feast ?

Claud. I' faith, I thank him ; he hath bid me to
a calfs head and a capon; the which if I do not
carve most curiously, say my knife's naught. Shall
I not find a woodcock too ?

Much Ado about Nothing, Act v. Sc. 1.

Canterbury. Hugh Capet also, who usurped the

crown

Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
To find his title with some shows of truth,
Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare.
Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 3.

To the King and Sovereign Lord, and to the
noble lords spiritual and temporal and commons in
this present Parliament assembled, humbly and la-
mentably shewn and complain unto your most
abundant grace, your humble subjects the pewterers

PICKERS AND STEALERS. 31

and brasiers of your cities of London and York, and
of all other places of this your realm, That whereas
many simple and evil-disposed persons of this your
realm of England, using the said crafts, daily go
about this your realm, from village, from town, and
from house to house, as well in woods and forests
and in other places, to buy pewter and brass ; and
that knowing thieves and other pickers that steal as
well pewter and brass belonging to your Highness
and under your mark, and to the lords spiritual and
temporal, as to other your subjects of this your
realm, bring such stolen vessels unto them in such
hid places, or into corners of cities and towns, and
there sell much part of it to strangers, which carry
it over the sea by stealth. And also the said per-
sons so going about, and divers other using the said
crafts, use to make new vessels, and mix good metal
and bad together, and make it naught, and sell them
for good stuff, where indeed the stuff and metal
thereof is not worth the fourth that it is sold for, to
the great hurt, deceit, and loss of your subjects.
Also divers persons using the said crafts, have de-
ceivable and untrue beams and scales, that one of
them would stand even with twelve pound weight at
one end against a quarter of a pound at the other
end, to the singular advantage of themselves, and to
the great deceit and loss of your subjects, buyers
and sellers with them. For reformation of the pre-
mises, it would please your Highness, of your most
abundant grace, with the advice of the lords spi-
ritual and temporal, and the commons in this pre-

I

32 SHAKESPEAEE ILLUSTRATED.

sent Parliament assembled, and by authority of the
same, to enact and establish that no person or per-
sons using the said crafts of pewterers and brasiers,
from henceforth shall sell or change any pewter or
brass, new or old, at any place or places within your
realm, but only in open fairs or markets, or in their
own dwelling-houses, but if they be desired by the
said buyers of such ware, upon pain of forfeiture to
our Sovereign Lord the King for every such de-
fault—X. li. 19 Henry VII. cap. vi.

Nurse. There's no trust,

No faith, no honesty in men ; all perjured,
All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.

Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 2.

Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant ?

Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him : be
not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you
what it means.

Oph. You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark
the play.

Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2.

Cym. My tears that fall,

Prove holy water on thee ! Imogen,
Thy mother's dead.

Imo. I'm sorry for't, my lord.

Cym. O, she was naught ; and long of her it was
That we meet here so strangely : but her son
Is gone, we know not how nor where.

Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 5.

CONVERSATION. 33

The word naught, in the 19th Henry VII.,
cap. 6, evidently means ' bad/ or worthless, if
we consider the context in the preamble, which
recites ' that persons used to make new vessels,
and mix good metal and bad together, and
make it naught, and sell them for good stuff,
where indeed the stuff and metal thereof is
not worth the fourth part/ — and in this sense
it is sometimes used by Shakespeare, as it
seems to be by Claudio, Canterbury, the
Nurse, Ophelia, and Cymbeline.

Gower. The good in conversation)
To whom I give my benison,
Is still at Tarsus, where each man
Thinks all is writ he speken can.

Pericles, Act ii.

Men. I think the policy of that purpose made
more in the marriage than in the love of the parties.

Eno. I think so too. But you shall find, the
band that seems to tie their friendship together will
be the very strangler of their amity : Octavia is of
a holy, cold, and still conversation.

Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. 6.

The word conversation in these passages
signifies conduct or behaviour, and in this sense
it is used in some of the ancient statutes.
D

34 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Albeit that sithen the beginning of this present
Parliament, good and honourable ordinances and
statutes have been made and established for elections,
presentations, consecrations, and investing of arch-
bishops and bishops of this realm, and in all other
the King's dominions, with all ceremonies appertain-
ing unto the same, as by sundry statutes thereof
made more at large is specified ; yet, nevertheless,
no provision hitherto hath been made for suffragans,
which have been accustomed to be had within this
realm, for the more speedy administration of the
sacraments, and other good, wholesome and devout
things and laudable ceremonies, to the increase of
God's honour, and for the commodity of good and
devout people. Be it therefore enacted by authority
of this present Parliament, that every archbishop
and bishop of this realm, and of Wales, and else-
where within the King's dominions, being disposed
to have any suffragan, shall and may at their liber-
ties name and elect, that is to say, every of them for
their peculiar diocese, two honest and discreet spiri-
tual persons, being learned and of good conversation,
&c.— 26 Henry VI1L, cap. 14.

Where there hath been a very godly order set
forth by the authority of Parliament, for common
prayer and administration of the sacraments to be
used in the mother tongue within the Church of
England, agreeable to the word of God and the
primitive Church, very comfortable to all good
people desiring to live in Christian conversation and
most profitable to the estate of this realm, upon the

ENDEAVOUR THEMSELVES. LET. 35

•which the mercy, favour, and blessing of Almighty
God is in no wise so readily and plenteously poured
as by common prayer, due using of the sacraments,
and often preaching of the Gospel, with the devo-
tion of the hearers; and yet this notwithstanding
a great number of people in divers parts of this
realm, following their own sensuality, and living
either without knowledge or due fear of God, do
wilfully and damnably before Almighty God abstain
and refuse to come to their parish churches and
other places where common prayer, administration
of the sacraments, and preaching of the word of
God, is used upon Sundays and other days ordained
to be holydays.

II. For reformation hereof, be it enacted that from
and after the feast of All Saints next coming all
and every person and persons inhabiting within this
realm, or any other the King's Majesty's dominions,
shall diligently and faithfully (having no lawful or
reasonable excuse to be absent) endeavour themselves
to resort to their parish church or chapel accus-
tomed ; or upon reasonable let thereof, to some
usual place where common prayer and such service
of God shall be used in such time of let, upon every
Sunday and other days ordained and used to be kept
as holydays ; and then and there to abide orderly
and soberly during the time of common prayer,
preachings, and other service of God there to be
used and ministered ; upon pain of punishment by
the censures of the Church. — 5 §• 6 Edward VI.,
cap. i.

D 2

I

36 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Rom. With love's light wings did I o'er-perch

these walls ;

For stony limits cannot hold love out,
And what love can do that dares love attempt ;
Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me.

Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 2.

Burgundy. Which to reduce into our former

favour

You are assembled: and my speech entreats
That I may know the let, why gentle Peace
Should not expel these inconveniences
And bless us with her former qualities.

Henry V.9 Act v. Sc. 2.

Mai. They have here propertied me ; keep me
in darkness, send ministers to me, asses, and do all
they can to face me out of my wits.

Clo. Advise you what you say ; the minister is
here. Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the heavens
restore ! endeavour thyself to sleep, and leave thy
vain bibble babble.

Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2.

'Let,' a noun in these passages and this
statute. 'Endeavour themselves/ a common
expression in the old Acts.

Kent. Good King, that must approve the common

saw,

Thou out of heaven's benediction comest
To the warm sun !

BEACON. 37

Approach thou beacon to this under globe,
That by thy comfortable beams I may
Peruse this letter !

Lear, Act ii. Sc. 2.

Hector. There is no lady of more softer bowels,
More spongy to suck in the sense of fear,
More ready to cry out ' Who knows what follows ? '
Than Hector is : the wound of peace is surety,
Surety secure ; but modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.

Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2.

Enter LA PUCELLE on the top, thrusting out a
torch burning.

Puc. Behold, this is the happy wedding torch
That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen,
But burning fatal to the Talbotites I [Exit.

Bast. See, noble Charles, the beacon of our

friend ;
The burning torch in yonder turret stands.

Char. Now shine it like a comet of revenge,
A prophet to the fall of all our foes !

1 Henry VI., Act iii. Sc. 2.

Per. Lord governor, for so we hear you are,
Let not our ships and number of our men
Be like a beacon fired to amaze your eyes.

Pericles, Act L Sc. 4.

38 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Beacon. This word (says Coke), is derived of the
Saxon word beacon, i. speculum, unde speculantur
adventus hostium, and is often called signum specu-
latum, and bechan in the Saxon language is signum
dare, and we use the word to beckon to at this day.
Before the reign of Edward III. there were but
stacks of wood set upon high places, which were
fired when the comming of enemies were descried ;
but in his reign pitch boxes, as now they be, were
instead of those stacks of wood set up, and this pro-
perly is a beacon. Light-houses, ignes speculatorii,
seu monitorii, seu lumen maritimum, seu pharus,
unde versus,

Lumina noctivaga3 tollit pharus aemula lunae.
These light-houses are properly to direct seafaring
men in the night when they cannot see marks, and
these are also signa speculator ia.

Sea-marks, as steeples, churches, castles, trees,
and such like, for direction of seafaring men in the
day time, and these are called signa marina or specu-
latoria, or signa nautis.

So as you may divide specula or signa specula-
toria or signa nautis into three branches, viz. into
beacons, light-houses, and sea-marks. At the com-
mon law none but the King only could erect any of
these three, which ever was done by the King's
commission under the great seal ; as taking few ex-
amples for many.

De signis super montes per ignem faciend '
De signis super montes faciend.'

SIGNA SPECULATORIA. 39

Kex assignavit Henricum Epu' Norwic' et Williel-
mum comitem Suff. et alios, &c. (inter alia), ad
signa speculatoria super montes in com' Norf.
ponend. Et similes commissiones in aliis comitati-
bus. — 4 Coke cap. xxv.

Falstaff. The second property of your excellent
sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, be-
fore cold and settled, left the liver white and pale,
which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice ;
but the sherris warms it and makes it course from
the inwards to the parts extreme : it illumineth the
face, which as a beacon gives warning to all the rest
of this little kingdom, man, to arm ; and then the
vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me
all to their captain, the heart, who, great and puffed
up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage ; and
this valour comes of sherris.

2 Henry IV., Act iv. Sc. 3.

Biron. A wighty wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes ;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard :
And I to sigh for her ! to watch for her !
To pray for her !

Love's Labour Lost, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Coke says that beacons were fired when the
coming of enemies was descried, and Falstaff
says that ' Sherris illumineth the face, which,

40 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of
this little kingdom, man, to arm.' And Biron
may, in this line,

With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes,

refer to the pitch which was used in Shake-
speare's time for beacons.

Kent. Sir, I do know you ;
And dare, upon the warrant of my note,
Commend a dear thing to you. There is division,
Although as yet the face of it be cover'd
With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall;
Who have — as who have not, that their great stars
Throned and set high ? — servants, who seem no less,
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state.

Lear, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Corn. Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund,
keep you our sister company : the revenges we are
bound to take upon your traitorous father are not
fit for your beholding. Advise the duke, where
you are going, to a most festinate preparation ; we
are bound to the like. Our posts shall be swift and
intelligent betwixt us.

Lear, Act iii. Sc. 7.

I think the word speculation used by Kent
in this passage is the signa speculatoria Coke

SPECULATIONS. INTELLIGENCER. 41

speaks of, which was set upon high places to
direct seafaring men in the night, when they
could not see. And although the servants
described as spies and speculations were not
throned and set on high, yet those, whose
great stars had throned them and set them
on high, had servants who were to France spies
and speculations intelligent of the state.

Queen Margaret. Richard yet lives, hell's black
intelligencer.

Richard III., Act iv. Sc. 4.

Lancaster. Who hath not heard it spoken
How deep you were within the books of God ?
To us the speaker in his parliament ;
To us the imagined voice of God himself;
The very opener and intelligencer
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven
And our dull workings.

2 Henry IV., Act iii. Sc. 2.

For the better discovery and avoiding such trai-
terous and most dangerous conspiracies and attempts
as are daily devised and practised against our most
gracious Sovereign Lady the Queen's Majesty, and
the happy estate of this common weal, by sundry
wicked and seditious persons, who terming them-
selves Catholics, and being indeed spies and intelli-
gencers, not only for Her Majesty's foreign enemies,

42 SHAKESPEAEE ILLUSTRATED.

but also for rebellious and traiterous subjects born
within Her Highness' realms and dominions, and
biding their most detestable and develish purposes
under a false pretext of religion and conscience, do
secretly wander and shift from place to place within
this realm, to corrupt and seduce Her Majesty's
subjects, and to stir them to sedition and rebellion. —
35 Elizabeth, cap. 2.

CXVI.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove :

O, no ! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken ;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be
taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come ;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnettt

Coriolanus. The god of soldiers,
With the consent of supreme Jove, inform
Thy thoughts with nobleness; that thou mayest

prove
To shame unvulnerable, and stick i' the wars

MARK. SEA-MARK. 43

Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw,
And saving those that eye thee I

Act v. Sc. 3.

The word sea-mark, used by Coriolanus, sig-
nifies something set up near the sea for the
direction of seafaring men, and in this sense
it is used in the 8 Elizabeth, cap. xiii., which
recites and enacts as follows : —

Per. Sir, my gracious lord,
To chide at your extremes it not becomes me :
O, pardon, that I name them ! Your high self,
The gracious mark o' the land, you have obscured
With a swain's wearing, and me, poor lowly maid,
Most goddess-like prank'd up : but that our feasts
In every mess have folly and the feeders
Digest it with a custom, I should blush
To see you so attired, sworn, I think,
To show myself a glass.

Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 4.

Whereas the master, wardens and assistants of
the Trinity House of Deptford-Strond, being a com-
pany of the chiefest and most expert masters and
governors of ships, incorporate with themselves,
charged with the conduction of the Queen's
Majesty's Navy Royal, are bound to foresee the
good increase and maintenance of ships, and of all
kind of men traded and brought up by water craft,
most meet for her Majesty's marine service. And

44 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

forasmuch as by destroying and taking away of cer-
tain steeples, woods and other marks, standing upon
the main shores, adjoining to the sea coasts of this
realm of England and Wales, being as beacons and
marks of ancient time accustomed for seafaring men,
to save and keep them and the ships in their charge
from sundry dangers thereto incident : divers ships
with their merchandizes, in sailing from foreign
parts towards this realm of England and Wales, and
especially to the river and port of Thames, have by
the lack of such marks of late years been miscarried,
perished, and lost in the sea, to the great detriment
and hurt of the common weal, and the perishing of
no small number of people.

II. For remedy wherein to be had, be it enacted,
established, and ordained by the Queen's most excel-
lent Majesty, by the consents of the Lords Spiritual
and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Par-
liament assembled, and by the authority of the same,
that the aforesaid masters, wardens, and assistants
of the Trinity House at Deptford-Strond aforesaid,
being a company incorporated as before, shall and
may lawfully, by virtue of this Act, from time to time
hereafter, at their wills and pleasures, and at their
costs, make, erect, and set up such and so many
beacons, marks, and signs for the sea, in such place
or places of the sea shores, and uplands near the sea
coasts or forelands of the sea, only for sea-marks, as
to them shall seem most meet, needful, and requi-
site, whereby the dangers may be avoided and

BEACONS. MARKS. SIC .vs. 45

escaped, and ships the better come to their ports
without peril.

III. And that all such beacons, marks, and signs,
so to be by them or their assigns erected, made, and
set up, at the costs and charges of the said master,
wardens, and assistants, shall and may be continued,
renewed, and maintained from time to time, at the
costs and charges of the said master, wardens, and
assistants; anything to the contrary hereof notwith-
standing.

IV. And be it further ordained and enacted by
the authority aforesaid, that no steeples, trees, or
other things now standing as beacons or marks for
the sea, whereof to the owner or occupier of the
place where the same doth grow or stand, before the
first day of March next coming notice shall be given
by the Queen's Majesty's Letters under her signet,
shall at any time hereafter be taken down, felled, or
otherwise cut down, upon pain that every person
by whose procurement or consent such offence shall
be committed shall forfeit the sum of one hundred
pounds, whereof the one moiety to the Queen's
Majesty, and the other moiety to be to the master,
wardens, and assistants of the said Trinity-house.
And if the said person or persons so offending be not
of the value of one hundred pounds, then the same
person and persons to be deemed convict of outlawry
ipso facto, to all constructions and purposes.

46 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Othello. Be not afraid, though you do see me

weapon }d :

Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

Act v. Sc. 2.

But I think that Othello uses the word sea-
mark to signify an end or termination, for as
the butt of which he speaks is the mark at
which the arrow stops, or ought to stop, so
the sea-mark is the mark which the sea makes
on the shore, the point beyond which no ship
can sail; and in this sense it is used in the 7
James I. cap. xvii., which enacts that ' it shall
and may be lawful to and for all persons what-
soever resiarit and dwelling within the counties
of Devon and Cornwall, to fetch and take the
sea-sand at all places under the full sea-mark,
where the same is or shall be cast by the sea,
for the bettering of their land, and for the in-
crease of corn and tillage, at their wills and
pleasures/

"Weaponed ; this word is used in the preamble
of the 39 Elizabeth, cap. xvii.

Whereas divers lewd and licentious persons, con-
temning both laws, magistrates, and religion, have

WEAPONED. SUFFICIENT IIOXEST WITNESSES. 47

of late days wandered up and down in all parts of
this realm, under the name of soldiers and mariners,
abusing the title of that honourable profession to
countenance their wicked behaviours, and do con-
tinually assemble themselves weaponed in the high-
ways and elsewhere, in troops, to the great terror
and astonishment of her Majesty's true subjects, the
impeachment of her laws, and the disturbance of
the peace and tranquillity of this realm : and whereas
many heinous outrages, robberies, and horrible mur-
ders are daily committed by these dissolute persons ;
and unless some speedy remedy be had, many da-
mages are like by these means to ensue and grow
towards the commonwealth. — 39 Elizabeth, cap.
xvii.

Biondello. Take the priest, clerk, and some suffi-
cient honest witnesses.

The Taming of the tihrew, Act iv. Sc. 4.

If any party at any time hereafter, for any matter
or cause before rehearsed, limited, or appointed by
this Act, to be sued or determined in the King's
Ecclesiastical Court, or before the ecclesiastical judge,
do sue for any prohibition in any of the King's courts
where prohibitions before this time have been used
to be granted, that then in every such case the same
party, before any prohibition shall be granted to him
or them, shall bring and deliver to the hands of
some of the justices or judges of the same court
where such party demandeth the prohibition, the
very true copy of the libel depending in the eccle-

I

48 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

•

siastical court, and concerning the matter wherefore
the party demandeth the prohibition, subscribed or
marked with the hand of the same party ; and under
the copy of the said libel shall be written the sug-
gestion whereof the party so demandeth the said
prohibition; and in case the said suggestion, by
two honest and sufficient witnesses at the least, be
not proved true in the court where the said pro-
hibition shall be granted, within six months next
following after the said prohibition shall be so
granted and awarded, that then the party that is
letted or hindered of his or their suit in the ecclesi-
astical court by such prohibition, shall, upon his or
their request and suit, without delay, have a consul-
tation in the same case in the court where the said
prohibition was granted. — 2 §• 3 Edward VI., cap.
xiii. sec. 14.

In their most humble and dutiful wise shewen and
beseechen your Highness, your true and faithful
subjects, the clothiers, merchants, and chapmen of
your county of Devon, and of the counties adjoin-
ing, that where in the month of January, in the four
and thirtieth year of your Majesty's most happy
reign, as well as the humble suit and petition of
sundry of your said subjects, as upon certificate of
divers justices in your Highness said county of
Devon, and upon complaint of the States of Holland,
it pleased your Highness, with the advice of your
most honourable Privy Council, by your Highness pro-
clamation for the reformation of the insufficiencies

DEVONSHIRE KERSIES, OR DOZENS. 49

in the clothes called Devonshire kersies, or
dozens (a commodity heretofore in great request,
price, and estimation, both amongst your natural
subjects and in foreign nations and countries), but of
late marvelously (and not without occasion) dis-
credited by the inventions and new devices of the
weavers, tuckers, and artificers, to command that
the laws before that time made, and standing in
force not repealed, for and concerning the premises,
should be duly accomplished in all things ; and that
every officer should diligently perform his office ac-
cordingly ; and that the weight of the said kersies,
or dozens, being raw, and wrought with clean stuff,
without any deceitful addition, should weigh fifteen
pounds, and contain in the market at least fifteen
and sixteen yards in length, and that the same
should be sewantly woven throughout of like sorted
yarn, forbidding all other deceits in weaving, and
all diminishing and unreasonable drawing, stretch-
ing, and other deceits in tuckers ; and that each
weaver should weave his shop-mark in each dozen,
and a purrel in each end thereof ; and that officers
should be appointed in market towns to view,
weigh, and try the same kersies, whether they
were in length, weight, or goodness, according to
the rate and proportion set forth in the same pro-
clamation : the same proclamation to endure till the
first day of this present Parliament, as by the same
more at large may appear. Now, Most Gracious
Sovereign, forasmuch by the proclamation, great
order and better making of the said clothes for

I

50 SHAKESPEAEE ILLUSTRATED.

weight and length thereof hath ensued, and to the
end that hereafter further discovery and restraint of
all abuses and deceits contrary to former laws and
statutes of this realm may be provided for, to the
reviving of the reputation of so good, profitable, and
necessary commodity, it may please your Majesty,
with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and the whole commonalty assembled in this present
Parliament, and by the authority of the same, that
it may be enacted and established as followeth, that
is to say — ( That from and after the first day of July
now next coming, each kersie called Devonshire
kersie, or dozen, which shall be made and woven with-
in the said county of Devon, or any other county
next adjoining thereunto, being raw, unsecured, un-
tucked, and unwet, as it cometh from the weaver's
beam, and being made of clean and perfect stuff,
that is, to wit, of wool, shorn, cleansed, and thoroughly
washed or scoured after the shearing, and before
the weaving, without any fraud, deceit, policy, or de-
vice, or any stuff thereunto deceitfully or unlawfully
added in the working or after the working thereof
for increase of the weight, shall weigh in the market
fifteen pounds or upwards.' — 35 Elizabeth, cap. x.

It is evident that in Shakespeare's time
Devonshire kersies, or dozens, were in great
estimation, for according to the proclamation
recited in the preamble of this statute, Devon-
shire kersies, or dozens, are said to be a com-

DOZENS. DOWLAS. 51

modity heretofore in great request, price, and
estimation, both amongst Queen Elizabeth's
natural subjects and in foreign nations and
countries : —

Fal Go to, I know you well enough.

Host. No, Sir John ; you do not know me, Sir
John. I know you, Sir John : you owe me money,
Sir John ; and now you pick a quarrel to beguile
me of it : I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.

FaL Dowlas, filthy dowlas : I have given them
away to bakers' wives, and they have made bolters
of them.

Host. Now, as I am a true woman, holland of
eight shillings an ell. You owe money here besides,
Sir John, for your diet and by-drinkings, and money
lent you, four and twenty pound.

1 Henry IV.y Act iii. Sc. 3.

And I think that Shakespeare, in this passage,
plays upon the word dozen, for although the
Hostess may use the word to signify only the
number twelve, yet Falstaff seems to answer
her as if he accepted the word in the sense in
which it is used in this statute; and also to
decry it by calling the dozen ' dowlas, filthy
dowlas/ which was an inferior kind of cloth.
The 28 Henry VIII., cap. iv., which recites
and repeals tbe 21 Henry VIII., cap. xiv.,

£2

I

52 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

concerning dowlas and lockram, enacts that
1 no manner of person, English nor stranger,
denizen nor alien, shall put to sale any whole
piece or half piece of the said linen cloth,
called dowlas and lockrams, unless there be
mention expressed upon every of the said
whole piece or half piece of the said linen
cloth, and called dowlas or lockram, so put to
sale, as is aforesaid, the whole and entire num-
ber of the yards or ells that is contained in
every such whole piece or half piece, upon pain
of forfeiture of the same whole piece or half
piece not containing the number of yards or
ells so mentioned upon every of the said
whole piece or half piece so put to sale as is
aforesaid:' &c.

Bru. All tongues speak of him, and the bleared

sights

Are spectacled to see him : your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry
While she chats him : the kitchen malkin pins
Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck,
Clambering the walls to eye him.

Coriolanus, Act ii. Sc. 1.

From these statutes it is evident that the
Devonshire kersie, or dozen, was made of

LIST. 53

'clean and perfect stuff, that is, of wool, shorn,
cleansed, and thoroughly washed or scoured
after the shearing,' and that it would contrast
advantageously with what Falstaff calls filthy
dowlas. Dowlas and lockram were linen cloth
which was made of flax or hemp, and worn by
the common people ; therefore Brutus says,
4 The kitchen malkin pins her richest lockram
about her reechy neck.'

Bap. Who comes with him ?

Bion. O, sir, his lackey, for all the world capa-
risoned like the horse; with a linen stock on one leg
and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a
red and blue list.

Taming of the Shrew, Act iii. Sc. 2.

First Gent. Well, there went but a pair of
shears between us.

Lucio. I grant ; as there may between the lists
and the velvet. Thou art the list.

First Gent. And thou the velvet : thou art good
velvet ; thou 'rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee :
I had as lief be a list of an English kersey as be
piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet.

Measure for Measure, Act i. Sc. 2.

A portion of the fourth section of the 35
Elizabeth, cap. x., will serve to explain the
meaning of the word 4 list ' in these passages : —

54 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

6 No weaver shall use any diversity in the bigness
or goodness of his yarn in any part of the said
kersies, saving only in the lists, nor use any other
practice in edging or weaving of any of the same
kersies, or dozens, to make the same seem finer near
the edge or lists than in any other part of the same
cloth.'

Biondello says the lackey is gartered with
a red and blue list, and I think that Shake-
speare means that he wore garters which were
made with the edge or lists of woollen cloth,
which are at the present day often of a blue
or red colour, and very generally used, amongst
the poorer classes at least, for making garters.

And. O, be persuaded ! do not count it holy
To hurt by being just : it is as lawful,
For we would give much, to use violent thefts,
And rob in the behalf of charity.

Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 3.

Violent thefts. Eobbery was sometimes
called violent theft by the old law writers.

c Robbery (says Coke) is a felony by the common
law, committed by a violent assault upon the person
of another, by putting him in fear, and taking from
his person his money or other goods of any value
whatsoever.' — 3 Inst, cap. xvi.

VIOLENT THEFTS. 55

The reader will see that Shakespeare uses
the verb 4 rob ' in connection with the words
4 violent theft/ and as Coke says ' the violent
assault (committed in robbery) agreeth with
the indictment, viol-enter etfelonice cepit.1

This is sometimes called violent theft. —
West Simbol, which is felony of two-pence. —
Kitchen, fol. 16, and 22, lib. s., 39. See
Skene de verborum. Signif. Verb. Reif., and
Cromp — Justice of Peace, fol. 30.

s Of this word robbery (says Coke) it is derived de
la Robe, both because in antient times (as sometimes
yet is done) they bereave the true man of some of
his robes or garments, and also for that his money or
other goods are taken from his person — that is, from
or out of some part of his garment or robe about his
person : and is ranked in this place, for that it con-
cerneth not only the goods, but the person of the
owner.' — 3 Inst., cap. xvi.

Gads. Give me thy hand : thou shalt have a
share in our purchase, as I am a true man.

Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a
false thief.— 1 Henry IV., Act ii. Sc. 1.

Dog. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him,
by virtue of your office, to be no true, man ; and, for
such kind of men, the less you meddle or make with
them, why, the more is for your honesty.

Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 3.

56 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Prince. The thieves have bound the true men.
Now could thou and I rob the thieves and go merrily
to London ; it would be argument for a week,
laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.

1 Henry IV., Act ii. Sc. 2.

Clif. Ay, ay, so strives the woodcock with the

gin!

North. So doth the cony struggle in the net.
York. So triumph thieves upon their conquer'd

booty !
So true men yield, with robbers so o'ermatch'd.

3 Henry VI., Act i. Sc. 1.

Fal. Poins ! Now shall we know if Gadshill
have set a match. O, if men were to be saved by
merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him ?
This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried
( Stand ' to a true man.

1 Henry IV., Act. i. Sc. 2.

The words of the indictment be, violenter et
felonice cepit. Hie opus est interprete. For it
must be understood that there is an actual taking
in deed, and a taking in law, and that may be when
a thief receiveth, &c. For example : if thieves rob
a true man, and find but little about him, take it,
this is an actual taking; and by means of death
compel him to swear upon a book to fetch them a
greater sum, which he doth, and deliver it unto them,
which they receive, this is a taking in law by them
and adjudged robbery : for fear made him to take the

MAKING AND MARRING. 57

oath, and the oath and fear continuing, made him
bring the money, which amounteth to a taking in
law : and in this case there need no special indict-
ment, but the general indictment (quod violenter
et felonice cepit) is sufficient; and so it is, if at
the first the true man for fear deliver his purse, £c.,
to the thief. — 3 Inst., c. xvi.

Ant. Now I must

To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness ; who
With half the bulk o' the world played as I pleased,
Making and marring fortunes.

Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. 9.

Most humbly beseecheth the Queen's most ex-
cellent highness, your loving and obedient subjects,
the Commons in this your present Parliament
assembled: that where by reason of divers sundry
licences heretofore granted to divers persons, as well
within the city of London and the suburbs of the
same, as also in divers places within your highness's
realm, for the having, maintaining, and keeping of
houses, gardens, and places for bowling, tennis,
dicing, white and black, making and marring, and
other unlawful games prohibited by the laws and
statutes of this realm, divers and many unlawful
assemblies, conventicles, seditions, and conspiracies
have been daily secretly practised by idle and mis-
ruled persons repairing to such places, of which
robberies and many other misdemeanors have ensued

58 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

to the breach of your Highness's peace ; for remedy
whereof it may please your Highness that it may be
enacted by your Highness, the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parlia-
ment assembled, that, from and after the Feast of
the Birth of our Lord now next coming, every
licence, placard, or grant made to any person or
persons for the having, maintenance, or keeping of
any bowling-allies, dicing-houses, or other unlawful
games prohibited by the laws and statutes of this
realm, shall be from the said feast utterly void and
of none effect. — 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, cap. ix.
Item pur tant qe diverses homicides, murdres,
rapes, roberies & autres felonies, riotes, conventicles
& malefaitz jatarde ount estez faitz en diverses
countees dEngleterre par gentz neez en Irlande
repararitz a la ville de Oxenford & illoeges demur-
ran tz desoutz la jurisdiction del universite dOxen-
ford a grande peure de tout manere poeple demur-
rant la environ come par toute la communalte du
Roialme assemblez en cest parlement fuist grevous-
ment de ces compleint en le mesme le Roy del
assent avaundit & la requeste de mesme la com-
munalte ad ordeinez qe toutz gentz neez en Irland
soient voidez hors de Roialme dedeins le mois
procheine apres le proclamation faite de ceste ordi-
nance sur peine de perdre lour beins & destre empri-
sonez a la voluntee de Roy. — 1 Henry IV., cap. 3.

c Yoidez hors de Roialme,' depart out of the
realm.

VOID. CONVENTICLE. 59

K. Hen. I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald ;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill :
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field ; they do offend our sight.

Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 7.

The verb l void * is used in this passage in
the same sense, signifying 4 to depart out of,
or leave.7 The word is used also in the 2
Henry VI., cap. ix.

Glo. And you, my sovereign lady, with the

rest,

Causeless have laid disgraces on my head
And with your best endeavour have stirr'd up
My liefest liege to be mine enemy :
Ay, all of you have laid your heads together —
Myself had notice of your conventicles —
And all to make away my guiltless life.

2 Henry VL, Act iii. Sc. 1.

The word conventicle is a term often, if not
usually, applied to a meeting of dissenters from
the Established Church, as it is in the 35
Elizabeth, cap. i. ; but in these statutes, and
also in the 2 Henry IV. cap. xv., it has a
different meaning, signifying a secret assembly

60 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

of persons who conspire together to act unlaw-
fully; and it is evidently used in this sense by
Gloster.

K. John. What earthly name to interrogatories
Can task the free breath of a sacred king ?
Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name
So slight, unworthy and ridiculous,
To charge me to answer, as the pope.
Tell him this tale ; and from the mouth of England
Add thus much more, that no Italian priest
Shall tithe or toll in our dominions ;
But as we, under heaven, are supreme head,
So under Him that great supremacy,
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold,
Without the assistance of a mortal hand :
So tell the pope, all reverence set apart
To him and his usurp'd authority.

Act iii. Sc. 1.

Prince Henry. My gracious lord ! my father !
This sleep is sound indeed ; this is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorced
So many English kings. Thy due from me
Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,
Shall, 0 dear father, pay thee plenteously :
My due from thee is this imperial crown,
Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
Derives itself to me.

2 Henry IV., Activ. Sc. 4.

COMPACT. SORTS. Cl

Alas, poor women ! make us but believe,
Being compact of credit, that you love us :

The Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 2.

Duke S. If he, compact of jars, grow musical,
We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.

As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact :

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.

Cant Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion ;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience ; for so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts ;
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor ;
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold,
The civel citizens kneading up the honey,
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,

I

62 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone.

Henry V., Act i. Sc. 2.

Where by divers sundry old authentick histories
and chronicles, it is manifestly declared and ex-
pressed, that this realm of England is an Empire,
and so hath been accepted in the world, governed
by one supreme head and king, having the dignity
and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same ;
unto whom a body politick, compact of all sorts and
degrees of people, divided in terms, and by names
of spiritualty and temporalty, been bounden and
owen to bear, next to God a natural and humble
obedience. — 24 Henry VIII. , cap. 12.

By 25 Henry VIIL, cap. xxi., Elizabeth, cap. i.,
and James, cap. i., the crown of this kingdom is
affirmed to be an imperial crown. — 4 Inst. 343.

The preamble of the 25 Henry VIII. , cap.
xxi., concludes with these words : —

And because that it is now in these days seen,
that the state, dignity, superiority, reputation
and authority of the said imperial crown of this
realm, by the long sufferance of the said unreason-
able and uncharitable usurpations and exactions
practised in the times of your most noble progenitors,
is much and sore decayed and diminished, and the
people of this realm thereby impoverished, and so
or worse be like to continue, if remedy be not there-
fore shortly provided.

MAJESTY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. G3

First Clown. Your water is a sore decayer of
your whoreson dead body.

Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 1.

King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you ;
I your commission will forthwith despatch,
And he to England shall along with you :
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.

Guil. We will ourselves provide :
Most holy and religious fear it is
To keep those many many bodies safe
That live and feed upon your majesty.

Eos. The single and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from noyance ; but much more
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone ; but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it with it : it is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoin'd ; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.

Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 3.

Shakespeare may refer in this passage to

64 SHAKESPEAEE ILLUSTRATED.

the preamble of the 5 and 6 Edward VI., cap.
xi., which runs thus : —

For as much as it is most necessary, both for com-
mon policy and duty of subjects, above all things to
prohibit, restrain and extinct all manner of shame-
ful slanders which might grow, happen or arise to
their Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty, which
when they be heard, seen or understand, cannot
be but edible, and also abhorred of all those sorts
that be true and loving subjects, if in any point they
may, do, or shall touch his Majesty, upon whom de-
pendeth the whole unity and universal weal of this
realm, without providing wherefore too great a
scope of unreasonable liberty should be given to all
cankered and traiterous hearts, and the king's loving
subjects should not declare unto the Sovereign Lord
now being, which unto them hath been and is most
entirely, both beloved and esteemed, their undoubted
sincerity and truth. Be it therefore enacted, &c.

Rosencrantz speaks of that spirit, 'upon
whose weal depend and rest the lives of many; '
and says besides c the cease of majesty dies not
alone.7 And this preamble speaks of ' his
Majesty, upon whom dependeth the whole unity
and universal weal of this realm.' Shakespeare
not only gives the same idea of majesty and
its dependencies which is contained in this
preamble, but he uses the same words with

4 THE SCEPTRE AND THE BALL.'

65

which that idea is expressed. In the folio we
read : —

That spirit, upon whose spirit depend and rest
The lives of many.

In the quarto :—

That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many.

King Henry. Canst thou, when thou command's!

the beggar's knee,

Command the health of it ? No, thou proud dream,
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose ;
I am a king that find thee, and I know
'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced title running 'fore the king,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world,
No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind
Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread.

Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 1.

' As the sceptre (says Selden) is the ornament
of the right hand, so in the left the globe, or mound,

F

66 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

with the cross infixed, in statues and pictures (and
in some coronations) of kings, is a singular ensign
of royal dignity. That which we name a globe or
mound here is also sometimes called an apple, some-
times a ball. And it is observed by learned men
that it was frequent in the State of Rome before
the emperors were Christian, to have, both among
their ensigns in the field and in their monies, the
ball or globe, the beginning whereof Isidore also
refers to Augustus. Pilam (saith he) in signa
constituisse fertur Augustus, propter nationes sibi
in cuncto orbe subjectas ut malus figuram orbis
ostenderet : thus some copies hav© it, and not magis
figuram, &c., as we usually read there. But Lipsius
reads malis out of some MSS., and Theodorus
Dowza, imagine in that of Isidore. However, it
seems that to this purpose pila and malus, or a ball
and apple, are as synonymies, and denote the figure
of the earth as well in the field on a lance as on
their coins ; sometimes in the hand of Victory, some-
times of Fortune or otherwise. But afterwards, when
the holy cross came into estimation, and was received
with such reverence by the emperors into their en-
signs, it was added also to this globe or apple held in
the hands of their pictures or statues— sometimes in
the left, sometimes in the right. In England, almost
all the kings, down from Edward the Confessor in-
clusively to this day, have it in their left hands on
their seals or coins ; and we see the like everywhere
in their statues and pictures that show the form of
their coronations, or preparation for burials. But I

THE GREAT OATH. 67

have at the end of an old MS. orclo coronationis,
the form of a preparation for the burial of a king,
where I have the shape of him in his royal robes,
crowned and holding a sceptre in his right hand, and
with this globe or with the cross in the left. But
the direction that is written with this shape puts it
in the right. But if we might trust to the credit of

O O

that seal attributed to King Arthur, which Leland
says he saw in Westminster Church, we should find
it as ancient in the hands of the kings of this land
almost as of the old emperors. He says King Arthur
in that seal had in his right hand a sceptre, Jleurie de
Us on the top, and in his left hand orbem cruce in-
signitum.' — Titles of Honour, First Part.

And York says : —

York. From Ireland thus comes York to claim

his right,

And pluck the crown from feeble Henry's head :
Ring, bells, aloud ; burn, bonfires, clear and bright,
To entertain great England's lawful king.
Ah ! sancta majestas, who would not buy thee dear ?
Let them obey that know not how to rule ;
This hand was made to handle nought but gold.
I cannot give due action to my words,
Except a sword or sceptre balance it :
A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul,
On which I'll toss the flower-de-luce of France.

2 Henry VI. , Act v. Sc. 1.
F 2

68 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

King. Make thy demand.

Hel. But will you make it even?

King. Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven.
Airs Well That Ends Well, Act. ii. Sc. 1.

King. For all the world

As thou art to this hour was Richard then
When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh,
And even as I was then is Percy now.
Now, by my sceptre and my soul to boot,
He hath more worthy interest to the State
Than thou the shadow of succession.

1 Henry IV., Act iii. Sc. 2.

K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and

ears;

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir,
As he is but my father's brother's son,
Now, by my sceptre's awe, I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul :
He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou :
Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.

Richard II., Act i. Sc. 1.

4 Aristotle says that, in heroic times, some kings
were sworn, others not. But the oath of them that
were sworn was TOV <Tfcr)7rTpov airavda'Tavis, or the
lifting up of the sceptre, which was called, there-
fore, opmov <7/crJTTTpov, or the oath sceptre ; and

'BY MY SCEPTRE.' 69

therefore also doth Homer make Achilles swear by
his sceptre —

Nat jud ToSs

by this sceptre — and called peyav opxov, the great
oath.'— Selden, Titles of Honour, First Part.

Jag. God give you good morrow, master Parson.

Hoi. Master Parson, quasi pers-on. An if one
should be pierced, which is the one ?

Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest
to a hogshead.

Hoi. Piercing a hogshead ! a good lustre of con-
ceit in a tuft of earth ; fire enough for a flint, pearl
enough for a swine : 'tis pretty ; it is well.

Jaq. Good master Parson, be so good as read me
this letter : it was given me by Costard, and sent
me from Don Armado ; I beseech you, read it.

Love's Labour Lost, Act iv. Sc. 2.

' Eodem modo sicut persona alicujus ecclesiae re-
cuperare potest communiam pasturae per breve novae
disseisionas,eodem modo de caetero recuperet successor
super disseisitorem vel ejus heredem per breve, quod
permittat, licet hujusmodi breve prius in cancellaria
non fuerit concessum.' — 13 Edward /., cap. xxiv.

' In like manner as a parson of a church may re-
cover common of pasture by writ of novel disseisin,
likewise from henceforth his successor shall have a

70 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

quod permittat against the disseisor or his heir,
though a like writ were never granted out of the
Chancery before.'

' Parson, persona, in the legal signification, is
taken for the rector of a church parochial, and is
called persona ecclesiae, because he assumeth and
taketh upon him the person of the church, and is
said to be seised injure ecclesia3, and the law had an
excellent end therein, viz. that in his person the
church might sue for and defend her right, and also
be sued by any that had an elder and better right ;
and when the church is full, it is said to be plena et
consulta of such a one parson thereof, that is, full
and provided of a parson, that may vicem seu per-
sonam ejus gerere.' — Co. Litt., 300 b.

6 Or he is called parson as he is bound by virtue
of his office in propria persona servire Deum.' —
Fleta, lib. ix. cap. 18.

Coriolanus. Aufidius, though I cannot make true

wars,
I'll frame convenient peace.

Act v. Sc. 3.

King. Have you perused the letters from the

pope,
The emperor, and the earl of Armagnac ?

Glou. I have, my lord ; and their intent is this :
They humbly sue unto your excellence

6 INDENT WITH FEARS.' 71

To have a godly peace concluded of
Between the realms of England mid France.

King. How doth your grace affect their motion ?
Glou. Well, my good lord ; and as the only

means

To stop effusion of our Christian blood
And stablish quietness on every side.

1 Henry VI. , Act v. Sc. 1.

King. Shall we buy treason? and indent with

fears
When they have lost and forfeited themselves.

1 Henrt/ IV., Act i. Sc. 3.

Belarius. When on my three-foot stool I sit and

tell

The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
Into my story.

Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 3.

* Forasmuch as it is notoriously known that the
King, to his great costs and charges, hath sent his
ambassadors to Charles his adversary of France, to
have had a convenient peace with him, and to have
his right without effusion of Christian blood, which
was refused; wherefore the King, by the grace 'of
God, in whose hands and disposition resteth all vic-
tory, hath determined himself to pass over the sea
into this realm of France, and to reduce possession
thereof by the said grace to him, and to his heirs,
kings of England, according to his rightful title,
whereby he trusteth not only to bring this his realm

72 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

to the ancient fame and honour, but also to enrich,
and set in perfect peace and tranquillity his subjects
of the same, trusting that thereby the more part
of all Christian realms shall be in more perfect peace
and tranquillity, and the better disposed to serve
God : which cannot be done, by all likelihood, with-
out battle, as on the sea as in other places beyond
the sea, wherein Almighty God must be judge, in
whose defence, mercy, and goodness the King putteth
his full trust above all other things ; howbeit many
times, by the inordinate covetise of captains retained
with princes afore this time, great part of the num-
ber of soldiers, for whom such captains have endented
with princes, at time of need have lacked of their
number of soldiers, whereby great jeopardies have
ensued, and irrecuperable damages thereby may en-
sue, if remedy be not therefore foreseen and had.
Be it therefore ordained by the authority of this
present Parliament, that if any captain be retained,
or hereafter shall be, to serve the King on the sea,
or beyond the sea, in feat of war, which hath not
his or their whole and perfect number of men and
soldiers, according as he shall be retained with the
king, or give not them their full wages without
shorting as he shall receive of the King for them,
except for jackets for them that receive land wages,
that is to say, vis. viiie?. for a yeoman, and xiiis. ivd.
for a gentleman, for a whole year, he shall for such
default forfeit to the King all his goods and chattels,
and their bodies to prison.' — 7 Henri/ VII., cap. i.

RUMOUR. 73

Melun. Commend me to one Hubert with your

king :

The love of him, and this respect besides,
For that my grandsire was an Englishman,
Awakes my conscience to confess all this.
In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence
From fortli the noise and rumour of the field,
AYhere I may think the remnant of my thoughts
In peace, and part this body and my soul
With contemplation and devout desires.

King John, Act v. Sc. 4.

For. Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look

well,

For he went sickly forth : and take good note
What Caesar doth, what suitors press to him.
Hark, boy ! what noise is that ?

Luc. I hear none, madam.

Por. Prithee, listen well ;

I heard a bustling rumour like a fray,
And the wind brings it from the Capitol.

Julius CcBsar, Act ii. Sc. 4.

The word rumour in these passages signifies
noise, disturbance, and in this sense it is often
used in the ancient statutes.

Item, coment qa parlement tenuz a Westm' Ian du
regne nostre Seignur le Roi qore est quint pur ceo
qe villeins et autres meffesours tard devaunt leverent
par assemblees et outrageouse nombre en diverses
parties de Roiahne encontre la dignitee nostre

74 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Seignur le Roi et sa corone et les leies de sa terre
defendu fuist par nostre Seignur le Roi estroitment
a touz maners des gentz qe nul delors feroit ou re-
commenceroit tielx riot ou rumour nautres sembla-
bles ; et si nully le ferroit et ceo prove duement
serroit fait de luy come de traitour au Roi et son
Roialme. Nentmeins grevouse pleint fuist fait a
nostre Seignur le Roi en cest present parlement qe
diverses gentz nient eiantz consideration a dit defense
sibien en les countees de Cestre, Lancastre et
aillours en Engleterre ont faitz tielx assemblees en
outrageouse nombre pur accomplir lour malice en-
contre la pees nostre Seignur le Roi sa corone et sa
dignite et les leies de sa terre par quoi nostre Seignur
le Roi en cest present parlement ad defendu a touz
ses lieges sibien Seignurs come autres de quecunqe
estat qils soient qe null face tielx assemblees, riot, ou
rumour encontre la pees en nul manere, et si ascun
tiel assemble soit comenceant a pluis tost qe Viscontz
et autres ministres le Roi poent eut avoir conissance
ove la force du countee et pais ou tiel cas aviegne
mettent destourbance encontre tiel malice ove tout
lour poair et preignent tielx meifesours et les mettent
en prisone tanqe due execution de leie soit fait de
eux et qe touz Seignurs et autres liges du Roialme
soient entendantz et aiiantz de tout lour force et
poair as Viscontz et ministres avauntditz en tiel
cas. — 17 Richard II. 9 cap. viii.

Item, whereas in the Parliament, holden at West-
minster the fifth year of the reign of our Sovereign
Lord the King that now is, — forasmuch as villaines
and other offenders of late have risen by assemblies

DISTURBANCE.

75

and outrageous number in divers parties of the
realm against the King's dignity and his crown, and
the laws of the land, it was strait ly defended by the
King to all manner of people, that none from hence-
forth should make, or begin again such riot or
rumour, nor other like ; and if any man did, and
that duly proved, he should be taken as a traytor to
the King and his realm. Nevertheless, a grievous
complaint was made to our Sovereign Lord the King
in this present Parliament, that diverse people not
having consideration to the said defence, as well in
the counties of Chester, Lancaster, and elsewhere in
England, have made such assemblies in outrageous
manner, to accomplish their malice against the
King's peace, his crown, his dignity, and the laws of
the land. Therefore, our Sovereign Lord the King
in this present Parliament hath defended to all the
liege people, as well lords as other, of whatsoever
estate that they be, that none shall make such assem-
blies, riot or rumour against the peace in no wise ;
and if any such assembly be begun as soon as the
sheriffs and other the King's ministers may thereof
have knowledge, they, with the strength of the
county and country, where such case shall happen,
shall set disturbance against such malice with all
their power, and shall take such offenders, and them
put in prison till due execution of the law be of
them made, and that all lords and other liege people
of the realm shall be attending and aiding with all
their strength and power to the sheriffs and ministers
aforesaid.

76 SIIAKESPEAKE ILLUSTRATED.

SCENE VIII. Southwark.

Alarum and retreat. Enter CADE and all his
rabblement.

Cade. Up Fish Street! down Saint Magnus'
Corner ! kill and knock down ! throw them into
Thames ! \_Sound a par ley. ~\ What noise is this I
hear ? Dare any be so bold to sound retreat or
parley, when I command them kill ?

Enter BUCKINGHAM and old CLIFFORD, attended.

Buck. Ay, here they be that dare and will

disturb thee :

Know, Cade, we come ambassadors from the king
Unto the commons whom thou hast misled ;
And here pronounce free pardon to them all
That will forsake thee and go home in peace.

I think the verb 4 disturb ' in this passage
signifies to hinder, prevent, or oppose, and in
this statute tbe word disturbance evidently
signifies hindrance or opposition. Cade and
his rabblement, who were acting in a riotous
manner, and committing a breach of the peace,
were disturbed or opposed by Buckingham
and Clifford, who came as ambassadors from
the King, and this statute enacts that the
King's ministers shall set disturbance against

DEFEND. 77

rioters and all others offending against the
peace.

Hero. God defend the lute should be like the
case.

Much Ado About Nothing, Act ii. Sc. 1 .

In this and some other ancient statutes, the
verb defend signifies to prohibit or forbid,
and it is used in that sense by Hero.

Edmund. As for the mercy

Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,
The battle done, and they within our power,
Shall never see his pardon ; for my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

Lear, Act v. Sc. 1.

I think Edmund may play upon the word,
using it in its ordinary sense, and also in the
sense in which it is used in several of the
ancient statutes, including 3 Edward I , cap.
xxxiv.; 1 Richard II., cap. IV.; and 2 Richard
II., cap v., signifying to command.

Pur ceo qe plusours ount sovent trove en counte
controveures, dont discorde ou man ere de discord ad
este sovent entre le Roi et son people ou ascuns
hautes homines de son roiahne ; est defendu pur le

78 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

damage qe ad este, et unquore en purreit avenir,
que desere en avant mil ne soit si hardy de dire, ne
de counter nul faux novel, ou controveure, dount
nul discorde, ou desclandre, puisse surdre contre le
Roi et son people, ou les hautes hommes de son
roialme ; et qi le fra, soit pris et detenuz en prisone,
jesques a taunt qil eit trove en Court celuy, dount
le poeple (la parole ?) serra move. — 3 Edward /.,
cap. xxxiv. See also 2 Richard IL, stat. 1, cap. v. ;
12 Richard II. , cap. xi.

Forasmuch as there have been oftentimes found
in the country devisors of tales whereby discord, or
occasion of discord, hath many times arisen between
the King and the people, or great men of this realm ;
for the damage that hath and may thereof ensue, it
is commanded that from henceforth none be so hardy
to tell or publish any false news or tales whereby
discord, or occasion of discord or slander, may grow
between the King and his people, or the great men
of the realm ; and he that doth so shall be taken and
kept in prison until he hath brought him into the
court which was the first author of the tale.

The 2 Kichard II. , cap. v., is merely a repe-
tition of this statute and in the same words.

Mai. She returns this ring to you, sir : you
might have saved me my pains, to have taken it
away yourself. She adds, moreover, that you should
put your lord into a desperate assurance she will
none of him : and one thing more, that you be never

CONTRIVER. 79

so hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to
report your lord's taking of this, llcceive it so.
Tirrlfth Xhjht, Act ii. Sc. 2.

Oliver. I'll tell thee, Charles : it is the stub-
bornest young fellow of France, full of ambition, an
envious emulator of every man's good parts, a secret
and villanous contriver against me, his natural
brother. As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 1.

Coke, in his exposition of the 2 Richard II.,
cap. v., gives this signification of the word
controveurs: 'devisors or inventors of their
own head,' and it is perhaps worthy of con-
sideration whether Oliver does not use the
word in this sense.

Dem. You spend your passion on a misprised

mood :

I am not guilty of Lysander's blood ;
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act iii. Sc. 2.

Obe. What hast thou done ? thou hast mistaken

quite

And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight :
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.
Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act iii. Sc. 1.

80 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Friar. There is some strange misprision in the

princes.

Bene. Two of them have the very bent of honour ;
And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
The practice of it lives in John the bastard,
Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.

Much Ado About Nothing) Act iv. Sc. 1.

The word misprision in these passages sig-
nifies a mistaking, in which sense it is used
in some of the ancient statutes : —

Item, est assentu & establi qe par mesprision du
clerc en quecunque place qe ce soit ne soit proces
anientiz ne discontinues par mesprendre en escrivant
un letre ou un silable tropp ou trop poi ; mes si tot qe
la chose soit aperceu par chalenge du partie ou en
autre manere soit hastivement amende en due forme
sanz doner avantage a partie qe ce chalenge par
cause de tiel mesprision. — 14 Edward IIL, stat. 1,
cap. vi.

Item, it is assented, that by the misprision of a
clerk in any place, wheresoever it be, no process
shall be annulled or discontinued by mistaking in
writing one syllable, or one letter too much or too
little ; but as soon as the thing is perceived, by
challenge of the party, or in other manner, it shall
be hastily amended in due form, without giving ad-
vantage to the party that challengeth the same
because of such misprision.

Item, ordeigne est & establie qe les Justices du

MISPRISION.

81

Roy devaunt queux ascune mesprision ou defaute
soit ou serra trove soit il en ascun recordes & pro-
cesses qore sount ou serrount pendantz devaunt eux
sibien par voie derrour come autrement ou en lez
retournez dicelles faitz ou affairez par viscountz,
coroners, baillifs des fraunchises, ou autres qeconqes
par mesprision des clerks dascuns des ditz Courtz du
Hoi ou par mesprision des viscountz, soutzviscountz,
coroners, lour clercs ou autres officers, clercs, ou
ministres qeconqes en escrivant un lettre ou un
silable trop ou trop pole aient poair demander tielx
defautes & misprisions solonc lour discretion, & par
examination ent par les ditz Justices aprendre ou
lour semblera bosoignable. Purveu qe cest estatut
ne se extende as recordes & processes es parties de
Gales ne as recordes & processes dutlagaries, des
felonies & tresons & les dependantz dicelles. —
8 Henry VI. , cap. xv.

Item, it is ordained and established, that the
king's justices, before whom any misprision or de-
fault is or shall be found, be it in any records and
processes which now be or shall be depending be-
fore them, as well by way of error as otherwise, or
in the returns of the same, made or to be made by
sheriffs, coroners, bailiffs of franchises, or any others,
by misprision of the clerks of any of the said courts
of the king, or by misprision of the sheriffs, under-
sheriffs, coroners, their clerks, or other officers, clerks,
or other ministers whatsoever, in writing one letter
or one syllable too much or too little, shall have
power to amend such defaults and misprisions ac-

G

82 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED

cording to their discretion, and by examination
thereof by the said justices, to be taken where they
shall think needful. Provided that this statute do
not extend to records and processes in the parts of
Wales, nor to the processes and records of out-
lawries of felonies and treasons, and the dependence
thereof.

Achil. 'Tis done like Hector ; but securely done,
A little proudly, and great deal misprizing
The knight opposed.

Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 5.

Countess. This is not well, rash and unbridled

boy,

To fly the favours of so good a king ;
To pluck his indignation on thy head
By the misprising of a maid too virtuous
For the contempt of empire.

All's Well that Ends Well, Act iii. Sc. 2.

Oliver. Yet he's gentle, never schooled and yet
learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchantingly
beloved, and indeed so much in the heart of the
world, and especially of my own people, who best
know him, that I am altogether misprised.

As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 1.

Hero. 0 god of love ! I know he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man :
But Nature never framed a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice ;
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,

MISPRISED.

83

I

j what they look on, and her wit
Values itself so highly that to her
All matter else seems weak : she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

J\ fitch Ado about Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Cel. Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold
for your years. You have seen cruel proof of this
man's strength : if you saw yourself with your eyes
or knew yourself with your judgment, the fear of
your adventure would counsel you to a more equal
enterprise. We pray you, for your own sake, to
embrace your own safety and give over this
attempt.

Ros. Do, young sir ; your reputation shall not
therefore be misprised : we will make it our suit to
the duke that the wrestling might not go forward.
As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 2.

In these passages it evidently signifies con-
tempt or undervaluing.

Misprisio (says Coke) 6 cometh of the word mes,
pris, which properly signifieth neglect or contempt ;
for mes in composition in the French signifieth mal,
as mis doth in the English tongue ; as mischance,
for an ill chance ; and so mesprise is ill apprehended
or known. In legal understanding it signifieth when
one knoweth of any treason or felony and concealeth
it ; this is misprision, so called because the knowledge
of it is an ill knowledge to him, in respect of the
o 2

84 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED,

severe punishment for not revealing of it ; for in
case of misprision of high treason he is to be im-
prisoned during his life, to forfeit all his goods, debts,
and duties for ever, and the profits of his lands
during his life ; and, in case of felony, to be fined
and imprisoned. — 3 Inst., cap. iii.

Misprision is twofold : one is crimen omissionis,
of omission, as in concealment or not discovery of
treason or felony ; another is crimen commissionis,
of commission, as in committing some heynous offence
under the degree of felony. — 3 Inst., cap. Ixv.

Misprision is included in every treason or felony,
and is where any one hath committed treason or
felony the king may order that he shall be indicted
for misprision only. — Wood's Institute, 2 ed. 406.

Oli. Sir, I bade them take away yon.

Clo. Misprision in the highest degree ! Lady, cu-
cullus non facit monachum ; that's as much to say
as I were not motley in my brain. Good madonna,
give me leave to prove you a fool.

Twelfth Night, Act i. Sc. 5.

Coke says, ' compassings or imaginations
against the King by word, without an overt
act, is a high misprision.'' — 3 Institute, cap. Ixv.
But although the clown here speaks of mis-
prision in the highest degree, I think he plays
upon the word, using it also in the sense of
contempt.

85

Ber. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.

I\ht(j. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst
strive to choose.

lid. That you are well restored, my lord, I'm

glad :
Let the rest go.

King. My honour's at the stake ; which to defeat,
I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift;
That dost in vile misprision shackle up
My love and her desert ; that canst not dream,
We, poising us in her defective scale,
Shall weigh thee to the beam ; that wilt not know,
It is in us to plant thine honour where
We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt.
Airs Well that Ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 3.

And the King also probably uses it in a
double sense, signifying wrong or false im-
prisonment, because it is connected with the
adjective c vile ' and the verb ' shackle/ and
also signifying contempt, with which word it
is connected in this passage.

North. Yea, my good lord.

Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
As is delivered to your majesty ;

86 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTKATED.

Either envy, therefore, or misprision
Is guilty of this fault and not my son.

1 Henry IV., Act i. Sc. 2.

I think Northumberland uses the word in
the sense of mistake or neglect.

Kent. Is not this your son, my lord ?

Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge :
I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that
now I am brazed to it.

Lear, Act i. Sc. 1.

Hamlet. Leave ringing of your hands : peace !

sit you down,

And let me wring your heart : for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brazed it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

Act iii. Sc. 4.

Item, pur ceo qe les arrousmyths font plusours
testes de setes & quarelx defectifs nient bien ne
loialment ne deffensablement a grant perill £ desceit
du people et de tout le Roialme, ordeignez est &
establiz qe toutz les testes de setes & quarels
desore enavaunt affairs soient boilles ou brases &
dures a la point dasser, et si ascuns des ditz arrou-
smythes les facent a contrarie qils forsfacent toutes

BRAZED. 87

tielx tcstes & quarels au Roy & soient empri-
sonez & ent facent syn a la volunte du Roy. Et
qe chescun teste des setes & quarels soit seigne
dune signe de celuy qe le fist. Et eient les justices
de la pees en chescun counte dEngleterre & auxi les
mairs, viscountes & baillifs des citees & burghs deinz
mesmes les citiees & burghs polar denquer des toutz
tieux faux fesours de testes & quarels & de les
punir par manere come dessuis est dit.

7 Henry IV., cap. vii.

Item, because the arrow-smiths do make many
faulty heads of arrows and quarels defective, not
well, nor lawful, nor defensible, to the great
jeopardy and deceit of the people, and of the whole
realm ; it is ordained and established, that all the
heads of arrows and quarels after this time to be
made shall be well boiled or brased and hardened at
the point with steel ; and if any of the said smiths do
make the contrary they shall forfeit all such heads
and quarels to the king, and shall be also imprisoned
and make a fine at the king's will ; and that every
arrow-head and quarel be marked with the mark of
him that made the same. And the justices of peace
in every county of England, and also the mayor
and sheriffs, and bailiffs of cities and boroughs, within
the same cities and boroughs, shall have power to
enquire of all such deceitful makers of heads and
quarels^ and to punish them as afore is said.

Malcolm. With this there grows

In my most ill-composed affection such

05 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

A stanchless avarice that, were I king,
I should cut off the nobles for their lands,
Desire his jewels and this other's house :
And my more-having would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more ; that I should forge
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.

Malcolm. What I am truly,

Is thine and my poor country's to command :
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
Already at a point, was setting forth.
Now we'll together : and the chance of goodness
Be like our warranted quarrel \ Why are you
silent ?

Macbeth.

Malcolm says, i I should forge quarrels un-
just/ and this statute speaks of 'deceitful
makers of heads and quarels;' and he may
use the word in a double sense, because the
verbs * forge ' and ' warrant ' might be applied
to the quarrels mentioned in this statute, or
at least to their heads, which were boiled or
brased, and hardened at the points with steel ;
and the word quarrel may be accepted in the
sense in which it is used in the 1 Richard II.,
cap. iv., which is in these words : —

DEFEND. QUARREL. 89

Item, ordeine est & establi & Ic Roi nostre
Seignour defend estroitement qe nul conseiler, officer
ou servant nautre ovesqe lui nascun autre persone
du Roialme dEngleterre de quel estate ou condition
qils soient nenpriegnent desore ou susteignent ascun
querell par mayntenance en pais ou aillours aur
grevouse peyne, cest assavoir les ditz conseillers &
grantz officers du Hoi sur peyne qe serra ordeigne
par le Roi memes del avys des Seignours de
Roialme & les autres meyndres officers & ser-
vantz le Roi sibien en Lescheqer & en toutes ses
autres Courtes & places come de sa propre meignee
sur peine de perdre lour offices & services &
destre emprisonez & dilloeqes estre reintz a la
volunte le Roi chescun de ceux solonc sez degre,
estat & desert & toutz autres persones parmy le
Roialme sur la dite peyne denprisonement & destre
reintz come les autres desus ditz.

Item, it is ordained and stablished, and the King
our Lord straitly commandeth, That none of his
counsellors, officers, or servants, nor any other per-
son within the Realm of England, of whatsoever
estate or condition they be, shall -from henceforth
take nor sustain any Quarrel by maintenance in the
country, nor elsewhere, upon a grievous pain : that
is to say, the said counsellors and the king's great
officers, upon a pain which shall be ordained by the
king himself, by the advice of the Lords of his
realm ; and other less officers and servants of the
King, as well in the Exchequer, and all his other
courts and places, as of his own meini/, upon pain to

90 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

lose their offices and services, and to be imprisoned,
and then to be ransomed at the king's will, every of
them according to their degree, estate, and desert ;
and all other persons through the realm upon pain
of imprisonment, and to be ransomed as the other
aforesaid.

Item, si home relessa a un auter touts manners de
quarrels ou touts controversies ou debates enter eux,
etc. quaere, a quel matter et a quel effect tiels
parols soy extendent, &c. — Litt., sec. 511.

The meaning of the word quarrel used in
this statute is thus described by Coke :—

This word querela is derived a querendo, unde
etiam querens who is the plaintiff, and quarrels,
controversies, and debates, are synonima and of one
and the same signification. — Edward Altharrfs Case,
8 Rep. 153. And in another part of the same Re-
port, Coke says, as to this word querelas it is to be
known that quarrels extend not only to actions as
well real as personal, as it is held in 9 E. 4. 44. a.,
but also to causes of action and suits, as it is held in
39 H. 6. 9. b. So that by release of all quarrels,
not only actions depending in suit, but causes of
action and suit also are released. — Co. Lift. 292. a.

Old. L. Hearts of most hard temper

Melt and lament for her.

Anne. O, God's will ! much better

She ne'er had known pomp : though 't be temporal,

QUARREL. 91

Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce
It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance panging
As soul and body severing.

Henry VIII., Act ii. Sc. 3.

Shakespeare may play upon the word quar-
rel in this passage, using it in the sense in
which it is used in the 7 Henry IV., cap. vii.,
signifying a dart which was discharged from
a cross-bow, and in the sense in which it is
used in the 1 Richard II., cap. iv., signifying a
dispute or controversy ; he also speaks here of
hearts of most hard temper, and seems to play
upon the word temporal. The word temper
was applicable to heads of quarrels which had
been hardened at the points, as it was to
Othello's 'sword of Spain, the ice-brook's
temper/ Shakespeare also speaks of 'that
quarrel, fortune, divorcing pomp from the
bearer;' and in the same play, Act ii. Sc. 1,
Buckingham says : —

Go with me, like good angels, to my end ;
And, as the long divorce of steel falls on me,
Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice,
And lift my soul to heaven.

Sal. It seems you know not, then, so much'
as we:

92 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

The Cardinal Pandulph is within at rest,
Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin,
And brings from him such offers of our peace
As we with honour and respect may take,
With purpose presently to leave this war.

Bast. He will the rather do it when he sees
Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.

Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already ;
For many carriages he hath dispatch'd
To the sea-side, and puts his cause and quarrel
To the disposing of the cardinal :
With whom yourself, myself and other lords,
If you think meet, this afternoon will post
To consummate this business happily.

King John, Act v. Sc. 7.

Bates. He may show what outward courage he
will : but I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could
wish himself in Thames up to the neck ; and so I
would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so
we were quit here.

K. Hen. By my troth, I will speak my con-
science of the king : I think he would not wish
himself any where but where he is.

Bates. Then I would he were here alone ; so
should he be sure to be ransomed, and a many poor
men's lives saved.

K. Hen. I dare say you love him not so ill, to
wish him here alone, howsoever you speak this to
feel other men's minds : methinks I could not die

MEIXY.

any where so contented as in the king's company ;
his cause being just and his quarrel honourable.

Henry F., Act iv. Sc. 1.

I think the word quarrel is used by Salis-
bury and King Henry in this legal sense, and
the reader will see that they both connect the
word quarrel with the word cause ; and al-
though this word quarrel is generally and fre-
quently used by Shakespeare to signify a brawl
or petty fight, or scuffle : —

Olivia. This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd

upon thee ;

But when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

Fabian. Good madam, hear me speak,

And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,
Which I have wonder'd at.

Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1.

It may sometimes be considered doubtful
in which sense it is used.

Kent. They summon'd up their meiny, straight

took horse,

Commanded me to follow, and attend
The leisure of their answer.

Lear, Act ii. Sc. 4.

94 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

Meiny, menagium ; French, mesnie ; as the
King's meiny; that is, the King's family or
household servants. (Cowell.) This word is
also used in 27 Edward III., cap. viii.

Item, avoms ordeigne & establi, que lez Mairs
& les Counstables de lestaples eient jurisdiction &
conisaunce deinz lez villez ou lestaples serrount &
en lez suburbes dicels gentez & dez toutz maners
choses tochauntes lestaple, & que touts merchants
beignants a lestaple lour servants & meignee en
lestaple soient mesnes per la ley merchant de toutes
choses touchants lestaple, & nemy a la comune ley
de la terre, ne per usage dez Citees, Burghs, nautres
Villes, &c.

Item, we have ordained and established, That the
mayor and constables of the staple shall have juris-
diction and cognisance within the towns where the
staples shall be, of people, and of all manner of
things touching the staples. And that all merchants
coming to the staple, their servants and meiny in
the staple shall be ruled by the law -merchant, of all
things touching the staple, and not by the common
law of the land, nor by usage of cities, boroughs, or
other towns, &c.

Morton. It was your presurmise,

That, in the dole of blows, your son might drop.
2 Henry IV., Act i. Sc. i.

Anne. I mean, Master Slender, what would you
with me ?

DOLE. 95

Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little
or nothing with you. Your father and my uncle
hath made motions : if it be my luck, so ; if not,
happy man be his dole \

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iii. Sc. 4.

King Henri/. If we are mark'd to die, we are

enow

To do our country loss ; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

Henry V.y Act iv. Sc. 3.

Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord : for I submit
My fancy to your eyes : when I consider
What great creation and what dole of honour
Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which late
Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now
The praised of the king ; who, so ennobled,
Is as 'twere born so.

AlPs Well that End's Well, Act ii. Sc. 2.

Forasmuch as within these few years now last
past there hath been levied, perceived and taken by
certain of the officers of the Admiralty, of such mer-
chants and fishermen, as have used and practised the
adventures and journeys into Iceland, Newfound-
land, Ireland and other places commodious for
fishing and the getting of fish, in or upon the seas
or otherwise, by way of merchandise in those parts,
divers great exactions, as sums of money, doles or
shares of fish and such other like things, to the great

96 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

discourgement and hindrance of the same merchants
and fishermen, and to no little damage to the whole
commonweal: and whereof also great complaints
have been made and informations also yearly to the
King's Majesty's most honourable council : For
reformation whereof, and to the intent also that
the said merchants and fishermen may have occasion
the rather to practise and use the same trade of
merchandise and fishing freely without any such
charges or exactions as is before limited, whereby it
is to be thought that more plenty of fish shall come
into this realm, and thereby to have the same at
more reasonable price. Be it therefore enacted that
neither the admiral nor any officer or minister,
officers or ministers of the Admiralty for the time
being, shall in any wise hereafter exact, receive or
take by himself, his servant, deputy, servants or
deputies, of any such merchant or fisherman, any
sum or sums of money, doles or shares of fish, or any
other reward, benefit, or advantage whatsoever it be,
for any licence to pass this realm to the said voyages
or any of them ; nor upon any respect concerning
the said voyages or any of them. — 2 & 3 Edward VL,
cap. vi.

In this statute and in these passages the
word dole signifies a share or portion. Dole
and share are reciprocal terms, and the reader
will see that Bertram uses the expression
4 dole of honour/ and King Henry the expres-

PERCEIVE. 97

sion 'share of honour/ Dole, dola, a Saxon
word, says Cowell, signifying as much as pars
or portio in Latin. ' It hath of old been at-
tributed to a meadow, and still so called, as
dole-meadow — 4 Jac. I., cap. xl. — because di-
vers persons had shares in it.' We still retain
the word to signify a share, as. to deal a dole:
4 he dealt his dole among so many poor people/
that is, he gave every one a share or part.

Vol. How now, sir ? what are you reasoning with
yourself ?

Speed. Nay, I was rhyming : 'tis you that have
the reason.

Val To do what?

Speed. To be a spokesman for Madam .Silvia.

Val. To whom?

Speed. To yourself: why, she wooes you by a
figure.

Val. What figure ?

Speed. By a letter, I should say.

Val. Why, she hath not writ to me ?

Speed. What need she, when she hath made
you write to yourself? Why, do you not perceive
the jest.

Val. No, believe me.

Speed. No believing you, indeed, sir. But did
you perceive her earnest ?

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 1.
II

98 SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.

The preamble of the 32 Henry VIII., cap.
xxii., referring to the 26 Henry VIII., cap.
in., recites : —

That your Majesty, your heirs and successors,
kings of this realm, for more augmentation and
maintenance of the royal estate of your imperial
crown and dignity of supreme head of the Church
of England, should yearly have, take, perceive and
enjoy, united and knit to your imperial crown for
ever, one yearly rent or pension, amounting to the
value of the tenth part of all the revenues, rents,
farms, &c.

In several of the ancient statutes the verb
' perceive ' signifies to receive or take. Speed
seems to use the verb first in its ordinary
sense : ; Do you understand or see with your
mind the jest?' And afterwards in the sense
in which it is used in these statutes : ' Did
you receive or take her earnest ?' And he
may use it in a double sense, as he seems to
use the word earnest. The Latin from which
this word is derived includes, of course, both
senses : percipio, per and capio ; to take pos-
session of, seize, occupy, to get, obtain, receive,
perceive, to observe, &c. The preamble of
the 2 and 3 Edward VI., cap. vi., speaks of

PERCEIVE. 99

divers doles or shares of fish having been per-
ceived or taken; and afterwards the statute
forbids any officer to receive or take any doles
or shares of fish for licence to pass this realm,
&c.

EXD OF THE FIRST PART.

H 2

APPENDIX.

The 'Standard,' London, May 17, 1869.

THE number of books which have been written in
defence, illustration, elucidation, and explanation
of Shakespeare is so great as to form a complete
library; and Mr. W. L. Rushton has now added
to the number in a handy little volume entitled
Shakespeare Illustrated by Old Authors, in which
single passages of the great bard are taken, and
brought side by side with other passages of prose
and verse from English and foreign classics, which
seem to throw light on doubtful or curious words,
phrases, or customs alluded to in the text. Some
of these illustrations are exceedingly apt, and the
scholar and the critic will find among them much
pleasant reading. The second part of his little
book is devoted to an examination of the language
of Shakespeare's last will and testament, and is even
more curious and interesting than the preceding
chapters. Taken as a whole the plan of this little
handbook is well conceived and well executed.
The passages selected by the author from preceding
or contemporaneous writers will throw light on
many an obscure passage, and the light will be of

102 APPENDIX.

a far more genuine kind than that which springs
from the fanciful and ingenious guesses of modern
commentators. f Puttenham's Arte of English
Poesie,' with which Shakespeare was clearly well
acquainted, is a book which to previous critics
seems to have been all but unknown.

The 'Law Magazine and Review,' May, 1869.

MR. RuSHTOisr has proved himself an able legal
commentator of the works of Shakespeare. In ad-
dition to the above little book of comparison he has
contributed largely to illustrate by old authors the
language used by the immortal bard in his plays
and poems. In this way he has satisfactorily
explained many obscure expressions of doubtful
meaning, and has offered explanations and sugges-
tions of his own for the consideration of his readers.
His ( Shakespeare a Lawyer ' and f Shakespeare's
Legal Maxims' unmistakably show that if Shakes-
peare was not at one time connected with the law,
as has been attempted to be shown by some of his
biographers, yet by some unaccountable means he
acquired extensive familiarity with technical legal
phraseology. Shakespeare's plays abound with in-
stances of much more than ordinary knowledge of
law terms for a civilian, and in order to use these
in the way he did, his acquaintance with the written
and unwritten law of his period, combined with a
tolerable display of legal jargon, must have been
remarkable.

APPENDIX. 103

Be this as it may, Mr. Rushton's comments in
the little book we have before us are only directed
to show Shakespeare's general knowledge of the law
relating to real and personal estate, by comparing
testamentary language found in his plays and poems
chiefly with the work of a contemporary author.
Swinburne's f Briefe Treatise of Testaments and
Last Willes,' the text book referred to, was pub-
lished in 1590, when our hero was about twenty-six
years of age, and just about the time when the first
of his plays appeared.

The work of research has been more into
Shakespeare than into the law generally, as most
of the comparisons are to be found in the text book
just mentioned, which it is more than probable,
from the similarity of expressions used, was a
valuable book of reference in Shakespeare's library.

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