LUCIO. Go,-to kennel, Pompey, go':

[Exeunt ELBOW, Clown, and Officers. What news, friar, of the duke?

DUKE. I know none: Can you tell me of any? LUCIO. Some say, he is with the emperor of Russia; other some, he is in Rome: But where is he, think you?

DUKE. I know not where: But wheresoever, I wish him well.

LUCIO. It was a mad fantastical trick of him, to steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression to't.

DUKE. He does well in't.

LUCIO. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him: something too crabbed that way, friar.

DUKE. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.

Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is well ally'd: but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They say, this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after the downright way of creation: Is it true, think you?

DUKE. How should he be made then?

LUCIO. Some report, a sea-maid spawn'd him :Some, that he was begot between two stock-fishes: -But it is certain, that when he makes water, his

7 Go,-to KENNEL, Pompey, go:] It should be remembered, that Pompey is the common name of a dog, to which allusion is made in the mention of a kennel. JOHNSON.

8 It is too general a vice.] "Yes," replies Lucio, "the vice is of a great kindred; it is well ally'd: "&c. As much as to say, Yes, truly, it is general; for the greatest men have it as well as we little folks. A little lower he taxes the Duke personally with it.

EDWARDS.

urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true: and he is a motion ungenerative, that's infallible9.

DUKE. You are pleasant, sir; and speak apace.

LUCIO. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a cod-piece, to take away the life of a man? Would the duke, that is absent, have done this? Ere he would have hang'd a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: He had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.

DUKE. I never heard the absent duke much detected for women'; he was not inclined that way.

9

and he is a motion UNGENERATIVE, that's infallible.] In the former editions :-" and he is a motion generative; that's infallible." This may be sense; and Lucio, perhaps, may mean, that though Angelo have the organs of generation, yet that he makes no more use of them, than if he were an inanimate puppet. But I rather think our author wrote," and he is a motion ungenerative," because Lucio again in this very scene says,"this ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with continency." THEOBALD.

A motion generative certainly means a puppet of the masculine gender; a thing that appears to have those powers of which it is not in reality possessed. STEEvens.

A motion ungenerative is a moving or animated body without the power of generation. RITSon.

1- much DETECTED for women ;] This appears so like the language of Dogberry, that at first I thought the passage corrupt, and wished to read suspected. But perhaps detected had anciently the same meaning. So, in an old collection of tales, entitled, Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1595: "An officer whose daughter was detected of dishonestie, and generally so reported." That detected is there used for suspected, and not in the present sense of the word, appears, I think, from the words that follow-and so generally reported, which seem to relate not to a known but suspected fact.

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Detected, however, may mean, notoriously charged, or guilty. So, in North's translation of Plutarch: he only of all other kings in his time was most detected with this vice of leacherie." Again, in Howe's Abridgment of Stowe's Chronicle, 1618,

LUCIO. O, sir, you are deceived.

DUKE. "Tis not possible.

Lucio. Who? not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use was, to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the duke had crotchets in him: He would be drunk too; that let me inform you.

p. 363: "In the month of February divers traiterous persons were apprehended, and detected of most wicked conspiracie against his majesty:-the 7th of Sept. certaine of them wicked subjects were indicted," &c. MALONE.

In the Statute 3d Edward First, c. 15, the words "gentz rettez de felonie," are rendered "persons detected of felony," that is, as I conceive, suspected. REED.

In this sense, perhaps, it is used in the infamous publication entitled A Detection, &c. of Mary Queen of Scots: "But quho durst accuse the Quene? or (quhilk was in maner mair perilous) quho durst detect Bothwell of sic a horrible offence?

Again, in A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels : &c. Translated from the French, &c. by H. W. [Henry Wotton,] Gentleman, 4to. 1588: "And in truth women are to be detected of no imperfection, jealousie only excepted." STEEVENS. Again, in Rich's Adventures of Simonides, 1584, 4to: “ Rome, detected of inconstancie." HENDERSON.

2

- all

clack-dish] The beggars, two or three centuries ago, used to proclaim their want by a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked, to show that their vessel was empty. This appears from a passage quoted on another occasion by Dr. Grey.

Dr. Grey's assertion may be supported by the following passage in an old comedy, called The Family of Love, 1608 :

"Can you think I get my living by a bell and a clack-dish?" "By a bell and a clack-dish? how's that?"

"Why, by begging, sir," &c.

Again, in Henderson's Supplement to Chaucer's Troilus and Cresseid:

"Thus shalt thou go a begging from hous to hous,
"With cuppe and clappir like a lazarous."

And by a stage direction in The Second Part of King Edward IV. 1619:

"Enter Mrs. Blague, very poorly, begging with her basket and a clap-dish."

There is likewise an old proverb to be found in Ray's Collection, which alludes to the same custom :

"He claps his dish at a wrong man's door." STEEVENS. I will add one other instance, as it describes the fate which befell one of our author's characters, from Turbervile's Songs and Sonets:

DUKE. You do him wrong, surely.

3

LUCIO. Sir, I was an inward of his3: A shy fellow was the duke *: and, I believe, I know the cause of his withdrawing.

DUKE. What, I pr'ythee, might be the cause?

LUCIO. No, pardon;-'tis a secret must be lock'd within the teeth and the lips: but this I can let you understand,―The greater file of the subject held the duke to be wise.

5

DUKE. Wise? why, no question but he was. LUCIO. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing" fellow.

DUKE. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mis

"I naytheless will wish her well,
"And better than to Cressid fell;
"I pray she may have better hap,
"Than beg her bread with dish and clap,

"As she the sielie miser did

"When Troylus by the spittle rid." MALONE.

A custom is still kept up in the villages near Oxford, about Easter, for the poor people and children to go a clacking: they carry wooden bowls, salt boxes, &c. and make a rattling noise at the houses of the principal inhabitants, who give them bacon, eggs, &c. HARRIS.

3 an INWARD of his :] Inward is intimate. So, in Daniel's Hymen's Triumph, 1623:

"You two were wont to be most inward friends." Again, in Marston's Malcontent, 1604:

4

"Come we must be inward, thou and I all one."

STEEVENS.

A SHY fellow was the duke:] The meaning of this term may be best explained by the following lines in the fifth Act: "The wicked'st caitiff on the ground,

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May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute," &c.
MALONE.

The greater FILE of the subject-] The larger list, the greater number. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth:

6

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-the valued file." STEEVENS. unweighing] i. e. inconsiderate. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "What an unweighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard pick'd out of my conversation," &c.

STEEVENS.

taking; the very stream of his life, and the business he hath helmed, must, upon a warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own bringings forth, and he shall appear to the envious, a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier: Therefore, you speak unskilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darken'd in your malice.

LUCIO. Sir, I know him, and I love him.

DUKE. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love.

LUCIO. Come, sir, I know what I know.

DUKE. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return, (as our prayers are he may,) let me desire you to make your answer before him: If it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call upon you; and, I pray you, your

name ?

LUCIO. Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke.

DUKE. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you.

LUCIO. I fear you not.

DUKE. O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm; you'll forswear this again.

LUCIO. I'll be hang'd first: thou art deceived in me, friar. But no more of this: Canst thou tell, if Claudio die to-morrow, or no?

7 — the business he hath HELMED,] The difficulties he hath steer'd through. A metaphor from navigation. STEEVENS. 8-opposite.] i. e. opponent, adversary. So, in King Lear: thou wast not bound to answer

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"An unknown opposite." STEEVENS.

The term was in use in Charles the Second's time. See The Woman turn'd Bully, p. 38. REED.